The Lotus courtyard had seen rivers of blood before, but never like this.
The stones still stank of Iron Veil's death. Wolves had scraped rust and poison from the ground, but the stain remained, as if the kennel itself remembered. The kennel did not forgive.
And now, Widow stood where Veil had drowned, her black lips gleaming under the pale torchlight.
"Chains break. Rust rots. Only poison lingers." Her voice slithered across the yard like mist. Behind her, venom-kissed wolves swayed, their veins blackened, their teeth dripping.
From the far wall, Crimson Flame laughed. His wolves howled, fire wreathing their arms until the night itself seemed to burn.
"Poison rots in shadows!" he bellowed. "Fire cleanses! Tonight we burn your kennel to ash, Widow!"
The crowd of wolves shifted uneasily. Some wore poison-marks, some flame-scars, others threads at their throats. The kennel had splintered into factions overnight. And tonight, they had all gathered in one place.
Silk Ghost glided forward from the dark, her steps silent. Silver threads floated like spider silk in the air around her. She smiled faintly, voice soft as cutting silk.
"Both of you chatter too loudly. Fire and poison leave nothing but noise. A wolf only needs silence—and strings."
The wolves nearest her gasped as invisible threads drew tight around their throats. One whimpered before his head lolled sideways, cleanly severed. Blood spattered the stones. Ghost's smile never wavered.
And then there was Reed.
He had not spoken since Veil's fall, but his silence pressed heavier than poison or fire. He leaned against a broken column at the edge of the courtyard, eyes shut, as if bored. But the hush around him was unnatural. No wolf within ten paces dared breathe loudly, lest their sound be swallowed.
* * * * * * * * *
Qiao Han muttered low, his saber across his knees. "Leader. This isn't posturing. They mean to break the kennel tonight."
Wei Lan licked her knives, eyes bright. "Good. Let's see them tear each other apart. I'll carve whoever's left standing."
Shen Yu was scratching in the dirt with his own blood, whispering in singsong madness. "Poison calls fire, fire drowns threads, threads cut silence, silence devours wolves—storm, storm, storm!"
I bled my palm, chains twitching faintly. My wolves circled close, but in truth, none of us belonged here. Widow, Flame, Ghost, Reed—their obsessions were storms. Ours was only blood and will.
We should have fled. But the kennel had no edges anymore. The courtyard was the kennel. And once storms clashed, there would be nowhere to run.
* * * * * * * * *
Then came Jian Yi.
He walked calmly through the factions, his hands folded behind his back, his smile too thin. Wolves turned to listen, as if unable to resist him.
To Widow's wolves, he whispered: "Crimson Flame boasts because he plans to burn her before she drowns him."
To Flame's zealots, he murmured: "Widow killed Veil with her kiss. She will do the same to your captain."
To Ghost's shadows, he leaned close: "Your mistress strangles Flame, but Reed strangles her. Do you not see it?"
And to Reed's wolves—what few remained—he simply said nothing. He looked at them until they flinched. Then he moved on.
The effect was instant. Wolves began to snarl, not at enemies, but at those standing beside them. The crowd twisted like a snake eating its own tail.
And in the silence that followed Jian Yi's circuit, Widow laughed.
* * * * * * * * *
She raised her arms, poison dripping from her sleeves.
"Enough whispers. Enough chains. Tonight, poison drowns all storms."
Mist bled from her fingers, black and thick, swallowing the stones. Wolves coughed, clutching their throats as their lungs filled with venom.
Flame roared with delight.
"Then burn!"
He clapped his hands together, and fire erupted from his chest, a pillar that turned mist into a screaming inferno. Wolves caught in the blast writhed, half-burned, half-poisoned, their skin sloughing away as they fell.
Ghost's threads lashed out next, catching wolves as they tried to flee the mist-fire. They screamed, tangled in webs invisible until they cut flesh, blood spraying across burning fog.
And Reed—
Reed opened his eyes.
The courtyard went silent.
The roar of fire vanished. The hissing of poison stopped. Even the sound of threads slicing flesh was swallowed. Wolves still burned, still drowned, still choked—but no sound escaped. Their screams were locked in their throats.
Wei Lan shivered. "Leader… even the blood is silent."
* * * * * * * * *
I pulled my wolves back, but the storm had no edges. Widow's poison rolled over us. Flame's fire seared the air. Threads snapped close enough to graze flesh. Silence pressed on our chests like an iron cage.
I bled harder, chains whipping into the mist, forcing gaps for my wolves to breathe. Wei Lan darted into them, carving venom wolves as they staggered. Qiao Han stayed tight at my side, his saber flashing against fire-scorched zealots. Shen Yu was laughing and sobbing at once, his whispers lost to Reed's silence though his lips never stopped moving.
Ten breaths. Eleven. Twelve.
Every step was slaughter. Wolves tore each other apart in panic. Poison scorched fire, fire burned threads, threads sliced through silence. The courtyard was no longer stone—it was a storm eating itself alive.
And the captains—
They were no longer speaking.
They were no longer threatening.
They were drowning in each other.
* * * * * * * * *
Widow's mist thickened, her wolves collapsing into pools of black bile.
Flame's fire burned so hot it cracked stone, but it burned his own zealots to ash.
Ghost's threads danced wild, severing allies and foes alike.
Reed's silence pressed deeper, until even Flame's roar flickered in silence.
Wolves begged, but no voice escaped. They clawed at their own throats as they died.
Wei Lan pressed her bloodied face against my shoulder, laughing. "They're killing themselves, leader! They're killing everything!"
Qiao Han grunted, his arm bleeding. "And we're trapped with them."
Shen Yu's eyes rolled white as he scratched words on the stones with his nails. "Storm devours storm devours storm devours storm—wolf drowns wolf drowns wolf—"
Thirteen. Fourteen.
My blood chains rattled louder, drinking every drop they touched.
And still the storm grew.
* * * * * * * * *
The courtyard had no air left.
Widow's mist had swallowed it, Flame's fire had burned it, Ghost's threads had shredded it, and Reed's silence had crushed it. Wolves clawed at their throats as they drowned in storms not their own. Some tore at their comrades, others collapsed to their knees, their eyes bleeding black.
And the captains themselves—
They had ceased to command.
They had ceased to lead.
They had become their obsessions.
* * * * * * * * *
Widow's body convulsed as poison poured endlessly from her mouth and hands, a sea of black bile that drowned even her own wolves. Her lips bled, but she smiled, her obsession burning brighter than her life.
Flame laughed as his skin cracked and fire spilled from him like molten blood. His wolves had long since turned to ash, but he did not stop. "Burn it all! Burn even the ashes!" His voice was eaten by Reed's silence, but his laughter echoed in the bones of those who watched.
Ghost was already half-strangled by her own weaving. Her threads, too many, too wild, recoiled back upon her. They sliced her arms, her shoulders, her face, cutting deeper each time she moved them. Yet her smile grew sharper as blood trickled down her chin.
And Reed—
Reed stood perfectly still in the center of it all. His eyes were open now, but what looked out was not a man's gaze. It was silence itself, swallowing fire, mist, screams, even the beating of hearts.
* * * * * * * * *
"Leader!" Wei Lan was laughing and coughing black blood at once. Her knives had torn through three poisoned wolves, but the mist was eating her lungs. "If they don't stop—"
"They won't," Qiao Han said, teeth clenched, blood dripping from his side. "They can't."
Shen Yu scribbled with his own torn nails, gouging into the stone. "Storm eats storm eats storm eats storm—no wolf survives—no wolf—"
Fifteen breaths. Sixteen.
My chains rattled violently, lashing out in every direction, carving temporary gaps through mist, fire, and threads. Blood sprayed with every motion, mine and not mine.
But my chest was splitting. My veins screamed. My heart thundered too loud for silence to devour.
We were drowning.
* * * * * * * * *
Then Widow screamed—or perhaps she only mouthed it. No sound escaped, but her body arched backward, poison flooding her lungs until her chest burst outward in a spray of black. The mist thickened, eating her corpse from within until nothing but a puddle remained.
Flame stumbled forward through the poison sea, his skin melting from his bones, but still he burned. He roared, mouth pouring fire, until the flames reached his own chest. His ribs cracked, and fire consumed him from the inside out, his body collapsing into a charred husk.
Ghost's threads cut tighter around her as she tried to bind the other storms. But there were too many. They tangled around her limbs, her neck, her torso, slicing deeper with every twitch. In silence, she collapsed in pieces, her smile frozen as her body fell apart in strings of meat.
And Reed—
Reed did not fall.
He simply… disappeared.
One heartbeat he stood in the center of the silence. The next heartbeat, there was only emptiness. No corpse. No trace. The silence remained a while longer, then dissolved like mist.
* * * * * * * * *
The courtyard was death.
Wolves lay in heaps, their throats swollen black, their flesh burned to bone, their bodies strangled by invisible wires. Hundreds. Thousands. None moved.
And yet I still breathed.
Seventeen. Eighteen.
Blood chains rattled violently, but something was different. They were no longer just my chains.
They hissed with venom.
They flickered with embers.
They shimmered faintly like threads.
They pulsed with a silence that was not silence.
Because the blood on the stones was not only blood.
Every captain's death had spilled not just flesh, but obsession. Fragments of Lein storms lingered in the gore, invisible currents of poison, flame, string, and silence. And my blood chains—parasitic, hungry, alive—were drinking them.
At first, I thought it was chance. Instinct. But then I felt it: the pull was not from me. It was from the blood itself.
Blood called to blood.
And my chains were the answer.
* * * * * * * * *
I staggered to my knees, coughing crimson. My veins burned like they were filled with molten glass. My chains lashed the ground in frenzy, spilling links into corpses, dragging back fragments of storms.
Wei Lan stumbled forward, laughing weakly through poison-choked lungs. "Leader—you're eating them—hahaha—you're eating captains!"
Qiao Han's face was pale, but his eyes were steady, even in horror. "If you don't stop it, you'll drown like them."
Shen Yu clawed his own face, whispering too fast to follow, blood dripping from his mouth. "Wolf devours wolf devours storm devours captain devours silence devours blood—"
Nineteen.
My vision blurred. My ears rang with silence. Fire burned through my ribs. Poison tore at my throat. Threads dug into my flesh.
But still, I stood.
Because where the captains drowned in their own storms, my blood chains bound them together.
* * * * * * * * *
By dawn, the Lotus Kennel was no more.
No wolves howled.
No captains roared.
Only corpses remained—corpses, and me.
I stood in the center of the yard, swaying, drenched in poison and blood, my chains faintly rattling in air thick with death. My wolves lay near me, barely breathing but alive. Wei Lan smiled through cracked lips, Qiao Han still gripped his saber though his hand shook, Shen Yu curled on the ground scrawling words into the dirt.
All others were gone.
* * * * * * * * *
I looked at the bodies, then at my hands, trembling and slick with blood that was not mine. My veins still hissed with foreign storms. My heart still thundered with obsessions that weren't mine.
If I did nothing, they would devour me.
If I refined them…
Then I would become more than them.
* * * * * * * * *
"The kennel is dead," I whispered, my voice raw. "But I'm still here. I will not drown like they did. I'll make their storms mine."
My chains rattled once in answer, crimson glinting with flecks of poison, fire, silver, and silence.
And so, in the ruins of wolves, captains, and chains, I bled my vow:
To cultivate.
To bind storms.
To devour skies.