*flashback to the Queen's past*
***
Seventeen years ago in the temple of the twin moons.
The air was thick with incense and prophesy.
High above the capital, nestled in the cradle of the mountains, stood the temple of the twin moons. Its peak rose like silver horns, and within its stone walls, the elder whispered of omens and forgotten gods. That night both moon appeared in the sky, one full and pale, the other hollow and crimson.
The signs has been building for weeks — the rivers had reversed their flow for a single day, flocks of crows has circled the palace without rest, and a black flower had bloomed overnight on the steps of the temple.
Jingfei stood at the center of the inner sanctum, she was seventeen dressed in plain robes, her hair bound tightly in a warrior's knot. The youngest daughter of a military house, she was known for her sharp mind and sharp tongue, but tonight she was quiet.
The oracle arrived barefoot, her eyes wrapped in gold - dyed silk. She did not walk, she drifted, as though her feet never quiet touch the ground. In her left hand she carried a bowl of ink, in her right, a scroll sealed with red wax.
She did not greet jingfei. She only spoke
"The gate stirs"
Jingfei swallowed
"Where is it?"
" It is not a place, it is a memory. It is a debt the world forgot to pay " The woman replied.
" Then I will remember it. I will pay it "
The oracle smiled, a sad, distant smile.
"Then you will bleed for it child, and so will they"
She handed jingfei the scroll. It was warm.
Jingfei began her journey to the Echoing teeth
The Echoing teeth were mountains older than the empire. Carved by wind and time, they rose like jagged fangs above the cloud. No map marked their feet, no birds few over them.
Jingfei journeyed alone. She refused guards, Refused a guide. She took only her sword, her scroll and a small ratchet of salt and rice.
For three days, she climbed.
She saw no animals only bones.
She dreamed of her mother's voice calling her back.
On the fourth night she heard whispers in the rocks. And on the fifth morning she found it.
A stone further away, carved into a mountain side. No door, no gate only a frame of black stone, humming with breath.
The gates of Echoes.
...
She approached with her sword drawn. The stone beneath her feet pulsed with heat.
Though no sun shine here. As she reached the arch, the world around her rippled — not outward but inward as though being pull into thought .
Then he appeared.
The hollow dreamer.
He did not walk out of the gate, he formed from it. His body was layered with ink and shadow shaped like a man and nothing like one.
His face bore a mask – Smooth, bone– white
With neither eyes nor mouth. But behind it, things moved.
"You are not what I expected," he said. His voice was not a sound, but a feeling. Like cold fingers trailing across her spine.
"Neither are you."
"You came to seal me."
"I came to understand you." she replied
He tilted his head.
"Understand... or delay?"
Jingfei said nothing.
The Hollow Dreamer gestured to the arch.
"The Gate remembers. Every sorrow, every broken vow, every hidden truth. You can't unmake what your ancestors left behind."
"But I can stop it from consuming us." jingfei said
"At a cost."
"What cost?" she asked.
"Your bloodline. Your future. Your children." The hollow dreamer replied
The wind howled through the Teeth. The Gate pulsed once. And jingfei understood.
"Then take it. I give you my name, my right to choose. I give you my silence." jingfei said
She drew her blade and pricked her palm. Let the blood fall on the threshold.
The Gate shuddered.
And closed.
"Very well," the Hollow Dreamer said. "But know this, when the moons cross again, your silence will end. And your daughters will speak what you dared not."He said then vanished into the stone.
And jingfei's scream echoed across the peaks.
***
Years passed.
Peace held, but jingfei never forgot.
She ruled with wisdom. Married a kind man. Hid the scroll beneath the palace.
Then came the eclipse.
The air turned to ice.
She gave birth beneath the moons' crossing. One child came into the world bathed in soft light, her first breath like a song.
The other did not cry. She only opened her eyes—and shadows curled gently toward her.
The midwives froze.
Outside, the garden pond turned black. A single flower bloomed overnight, eight petals, each shaped like a closed eye.
And somewhere far away, in the Echoing Teeth, the Gate pulsed once.
(Years Later)
I see it in them already.
Shū, so bright. So full of joy. She chases light like it's a friend.
Yào, so quiet. So aware. She doesn't look at shadows. She listens to them.
One will open. One will seal. But I don't know which. That is the cruelty of it.
I traded my voice for time. But the time is ending.
I do not regret loving them.
I only regret what the world will do to them... when it learns what they are.
Present day
Queen jingfei woke from her restless sleep.
Outside, the moons crossed again.
And deep beneath the palace, the Gate of Echoes began to remember.