The wind between them smelled of pine resin and frost. The woman in the clearing didn't move closer. Her left wrist, with its line of etched bells, hung loose by her side like a weight she didn't have to lift to be dangerous.
Behind Qin Mo, the torches in the basin were almost at the rim. The ring of light would spill into the forest in moments. He didn't have time to circle wide, didn't have the leverage to disappear without a trail.
"Alive," she said again, voice even. "That's the bargain."
"What's in the bargain for you?" Qin Mo kept his weight on the balls of his feet.
The hood shadowed her mouth, but the tilt of her head suggested amusement. "Balance. You're carrying a shard that tips scales I've been keeping steady. Give it to me, and I'll keep the Sect from sending more hunters down your path."
"And if I don't?"
One bell tapped against another, a whisper of metal on metal. The forest went very still. Even the wind paused.
"You won't hear the next sound," she said.
[Ledger note: hostile potential — unclassified. Threat ceiling unknown. Environmental suppression detected: auditory cues reduced by 74%.]
Qin Mo's palm itched against the hilt. The wolf king's core was still warm against his ribs, the shard's earlier throb gone as if it feared her. That alone told him enough: whatever she was, she wasn't bluffing.
The torches flared brighter as their bearers crested the rim. Voices carried: "Spread—two left, two right—don't let him break line!"
The woman shifted her weight. "Decision time."
Qin Mo stepped forward instead of back. "If you wanted me dead, you'd have done it while I was still bleeding in the pass."
She didn't deny it. "You're not the only piece in play. But pieces can be replaced."
Flame Step fired low—just enough to close the gap in a blur. His left hand caught her wrist before the bells could chime, his right lifting the blade to her throat.
The steel didn't bite. Something invisible caught it, a thin resistance that hummed against the edge like stretched glass.
She looked down at his hand on her wrist, then back up. "You don't know what those do."
"No," Qin Mo said. "But I know if you had full control, you wouldn't have let me touch you."
Her bells swayed. This close, he could see each was inscribed inside and out, the marks flowing into one another as they moved. She flicked her fingers.
Sound exploded between them. Not loud—sharp. Like a blade drawn across the inside of his skull. His grip faltered. The blade slipped an inch from her throat. She twisted, turning inside his guard with a dancer's pivot, and his own momentum carried him past her.
She didn't counterattack. She stepped back three paces, bells stilling.
"Last chance," she said quietly. "They're almost here."
The torches' glow reached the treeline. Shadows stretched toward the clearing. Qin Mo could hear the crunch of boots on frost, the scrape of blades against scabbards.
He slid the blade down to his side. "You want the shard? Help me walk away from this."
A pause. Then one bell rang, soft and deliberate.
The forest answered.
Fog rolled in from every side, not the thin mountain mist he'd crossed before, but a dense, coiling wall that swallowed the torchlight in seconds. The hunters shouted, voices muffled. Someone tripped. Metal clanged in confusion.
"Stay close," she said, and turned toward the far edge of the clearing.
The fog had weight. It clung to his skin, carrying the faint scent of cold iron. The bells on her wrist chimed in patterns, guiding them through without breaking the silence completely.
Behind them, the shouting faded. The fog muffled pursuit.
After what felt like a dozen turns between trees, the mist began to thin. A black rise loomed ahead—a ridge of volcanic rock, split by a narrow chute. She stepped through without slowing, and the air on the other side hit Qin Mo like a plunge into cold water. The forest smells dropped away, replaced by mineral and wet stone.
A cave mouth yawned before them.
She stopped just inside, resting her hand on the rough wall. "You've got until sunrise to decide. Keep the shard and leave, and I'll consider the balance broken. Give it to me, and I'll see you clear of these mountains with your skin intact."
"And if I try to take it from you instead?" Qin Mo asked.
She smiled, just barely visible under the hood. "You won't."
[New quest offered: The Bellkeeper's Bargain — deliver or refuse the shard before dawn. Time remaining: 6 hours 14 minutes.]
Qin Mo didn't answer. The cave's walls seemed to swallow sound whole. He could hear his heartbeat louder than the drip of water somewhere deeper inside.
She turned, her cloak brushing the stone, and vanished into the dark. The bells didn't ring again.
He stood in the entrance until the cold started to bite through the lingering heat in his veins.
Then he stepped inside.