Setting Out
While Qingxue carved a path through the highlands and Yexin slipped like a shadow through the Black Phoenix temples, Yuran led her company east. Her group was smaller: healers, builders, and a handful of Guard whose sparks burned steady but warm rather than sharp. Their mission was not to fight or infiltrate but to find the scattered survivors who still hid among the coastal villages — people who had never seen the city's fire.
Hei Long had stood at the gate when she left, the Origin's glow pulsing faintly in his chest. He said nothing, but the rhythm of his spark stayed with her, a steady tide in her heart as she walked away from the walls.
Villages of Silence
The eastern coast was nothing like the jungle or highlands. Salt wind blew over broken docks and ruined markets. Houses built from driftwood leaned against one another, empty. Glyph-marks older than the Eternals were carved into the sand, half-erased by tide.
