The sun had just risen over the horizon when the pounding thunder of hooves shook outside the Ling mansion.
"Open the gate!" a soldier shouted, his voice commanding that halted all the servants in their tracks.
When the gate groaned open, a line of black-clad riders came in, their arrival falling like a storm on the derelict courtyard. Their leader was the scarred officer, his eyes as cold as steel.
He climbed down and unrolled a black scroll bearing a silver wolf seal.
"By order of His Highness the Regent—Ling Yue, daughter of the Ling clan, is commanded to present herself before him immediately."
An expectant silence descended. Servants looked at each other in terror, their whispers panicked.
"She's done for—no one comes back whole from the Regent's call."
"Why stir him up in the first place?"
Ling Xue strode ahead, her cheeks white with fear and satisfaction. "You—you got us into this, Ling Yue! If you think the Regent can be deceived with tricks, you'll ruin us all!"
Ling Yue stood unmoving, her simple garments rustling softly in the morning wind. She did not wince under the officer's stare, nor under her sister's venom.
She nodded instead, her voice steady. "Very well. I will go."
Her composure undaunted even the battle-hardened soldiers. Few had nerve enough to face the Regent without shaking. But this girl—gaunt, frail, overlooked—bade farewell as if she had volunteered for the summons herself.
Return to her courtyard, Ling Yue took up a small pouch of medicine she had made the night before. Her hands moved with silent confidence, grinding herbs and binding them with silk. Although her cultivation was not yet as strong as it once was, her medical skills were unmarred.
She tucked the pouch into her sleeve and took a deep breath.
The Regent was not an ordinary man. She had observed the trail of his aura previously, and it was not mortal in nature. To stand before him would be to walk into the jaws of a monster.
Fear did not rise in her, though. Only expectation.
At the gate, the officer waved impatiently. "We depart at once."
Ling Yue mounted the carriage ready for her. The wheels creaked as it moved forward, bearing her down the city streets. People caught glimpses and whispered, nudging toward the veiled woman inside. News of her miracle in the marketplace had spread far and wide already, and now she was being brought before the Regent himself.
The palace drew nearer at each bend—high black walls, wind-whipped banners, the chill of cold majesty that seemed to consume the light about it.
Ling Yue lifted the veil from her face, her gaze contracting a little.
Finally, the wolf had summoned her to his lair.
And she would enter not as prey, but as equal.