The cheer didn't last.
It faded into a shaky silence as the survivors took in the wreckage. The basin reeked of blood and ash. The glow of the suppression arrays lingered like the afterimage of a nightmare.
Shen Yuan forced himself to stand, leaning on the spear as his side throbbed. Yun Xue moved quickly, scanning the group. "We lost four," she said quietly when she reached him. "Two others are barely hanging on."
"Name them," he said.
She swallowed. "Li Fen, the older man with the limp. The boy we found in the canyon—he tried to draw one of the enforcers off. Qian Mei and her brother… they didn't make it to the wall in time."
Shen Yuan's grip on the spear tightened.
The survivors gathered behind Yun Xue, hollow-eyed and trembling. One child cried softly into his mother's shoulder.
"Bury the dead," Shen Yuan said, voice hard.
A few heads snapped up in surprise, but they moved with quiet obedience. Ash was cleared, stones shifted to form shallow graves. There was no strength for anything more. Yun Xue knelt by each cairn, murmuring words no one could hear.
Shen Yuan stood until the last stone was placed.
[ SURVIVOR COHESION: 73% ]
They didn't look at Shen Yuan as just another Dreg anymore.
They're making you their leader, I warned. Every death, every mistake will be yours to carry.
He ignored me.
Yun Xue approached. "We need shelter," she said. "If the Bone Court regroups—"
"They will," Shen Yuan said.
"Where do we go?"
He looked at the survivors. "East," he said finally. "Away from the anchors. There's a canyon we can hide in for a few days."
The group stirred, gathering their meager belongings. Yun Xue fell in beside Shen Yuan as he led them out of the basin.
"You bought us time," she said quietly.
"I bought us a slower death," he said.
She didn't argue.
The survivors drifted closer to Shen Yuan as they moved. I watched it happen, metrics flashing across my interface.
Morale was higher. Their trust was absolute.
And beacons like that?
Beacons were easy to find.
The canyon floor was uneven and slick with ash. Every step forward felt heavier than the last. Shen Yuan kept his eyes on the jagged ridges ahead, spear planted like a walking staff to steady himself.
Yun Xue whispered to him when the others were out of earshot. "The group is… listening to you now. Some are already calling you 'captain.'"
"I'm not their captain," Shen Yuan said.
"You are," she replied. "Whether you want it or not."
He didn't answer.
The boy walking nearest to him glanced up nervously. "Will… will they come back?"
"Yes," Shen Yuan said.
The child paled.
Yun Xue shot him a look, but Shen Yuan's expression didn't waver. "You need to understand what we're facing," he said. "If you think this is over, you'll hesitate the next time. Hesitation will get you killed."
The boy nodded quickly, clutching the crude spear he'd scavenged from the battlefield.
You're hardening them, I observed. But you're not hard enough yourself. You're still bleeding for them—literally and figuratively.
"I'm not abandoning anyone," Shen Yuan muttered under his breath.
That compassion will destroy you, I said.
He ignored me.
By nightfall, they reached a narrow canyon carved into the side of the ridge. The walls pressed close on either side, giving them cover from the wind and, hopefully, any aerial scouts.
The survivors collapsed around a small fire pit Yun Xue scraped together from scavenged wood. No one spoke much as the meager flames flickered to life.
Shen Yuan sat apart, patching the wound in his side as best he could with the last of their bandages. Every movement sent a spike of pain through his ribs.
Yun Xue knelt beside him, pressing a folded scrap of cloth against the gash. "You should rest. You'll reopen it if you keep moving."
"I can't," he said. "Not yet."
"Then at least eat something."
She pressed a strip of dried meat into his hand. He stared at it for a long moment before giving it back.
"Give it to the others," he said.
Her mouth tightened. "They're looking to you now, Shen Yuan. If you collapse, this entire group will fall apart."
"I'll manage."
Yun Xue didn't argue further, but the way she looked at him told me she wasn't convinced.
Later, when the canyon had fallen silent save for the wind, I stretched my detection threads outward.
[ SCAN: PARTIAL SUCCESS ]
The suppression field was thinner here, but not gone. In the distance, faint pulses of Bone Court activity registered as a scatter of cold blue points on my map.
They're already moving, I said. Veylan's retreat wasn't a defeat—it was the next step in the pattern.
"What pattern?" Shen Yuan asked quietly.
He's tightening the net. Herding you again, but slower this time. He wants you complacent before he closes it.
Shen Yuan's eyes flicked to the sleeping survivors. "Then we move again at dawn."
You need more than movement. You need strength. And right now, the Bone Court has all of it.
He glanced at me. "What are you suggesting?"
The brands.
Shen Yuan's jaw tightened.
You've seen them. Every branded slave is a beacon the Bone Court can track and drain for energy. If we don't find a way to break those brands—and soon—we'll never be free of their reach.
Shen Yuan's hand tightened around the spear. "Breaking them without killing the branded… is that even possible?"
I can figure it out. But we'll need test subjects, data… and time.
Shen Yuan looked at the survivors again. Time was the one thing they didn't have.
[ SURVIVAL PROBABILITY: 36% ]
The number pulsed across my interface as Shen Yuan stood in the cold canyon wind.
It would drop further with every hour they waited.
And the Bone Court was already on the move.