The courtyard fell unnaturally silent.
No wind.
No birds.
Even the faint hum of the ward stones faded, as if the world itself were holding its breath.
Liuxue stood frozen, her pulse roaring in her ears. The voice echoed again, drifting across the open sky with terrifying clarity.
"Liuxue… come back."
It sounded exactly like her.
Not an imitation.
Not a distortion.
Her voice.
Her cadence.
Even the slight hesitation she always carried when speaking her own name.
Yining's fingers dug painfully into Liuxue's sleeve. "That… that is not possible. Voices do not travel across realms like that."
The Starborn man's gaze never left the northern wall. His jaw was tight, every muscle in his body coiled like a drawn bow.
"It is not traveling," he said quietly. "It is resonating."
Liuxue swallowed. "Resonating with what?"
"With you."
The seal on her chest pulsed faintly in response, a slow, deliberate rhythm that did not feel like pain. It felt like recognition.
Her stomach twisted.
"Is it… me?" she whispered. "Another version?"
The Starborn man hesitated.
That hesitation was answer enough.
Yining shook her head violently. "No. No, that cannot be allowed. That is not how reincarnation works."
The voice came again, closer this time.
"You are lost.
You are incomplete.
You do not belong here."
Liuxue's knees nearly buckled. Each word struck with unbearable weight, as if spoken by someone who knew every doubt she had ever carried.
The Starborn man stepped directly in front of her, cutting off her view of the sky.
"Do not listen," he said firmly. "It cannot take you unless you answer."
"Take me where?" Liuxue asked hoarsely.
"Back."
The word fell like a blade.
Yining's face had gone ashen. "Back… as in before the fall?"
"Yes."
Liuxue's chest tightened. "And if I answer?"
The Starborn man's voice dropped. "Then the seal will complete itself."
Silence stretched painfully.
Liuxue pressed her palm over her chest. The seal was warm beneath her hand, thrumming as if something inside her were waking up.
"And what happens if it completes?"
He looked at her then. Really looked.
"You will remember everything."
Her breath hitched.
"And me?" she whispered. "What happens to me now?"
His lips parted. For a moment, he looked like he might reach for her.
Instead, he clenched his fists.
"The person you are now," he said slowly, "will be overwritten."
Yining gasped. "That is not remembering. That is erasure."
Liuxue felt cold spread through her limbs. "So if I answer that voice…"
"You will return to what you once were," he said. "And the girl called Shen Liuxue will disappear."
The voice rose again, threaded with urgency.
"You are wasting time.
They have weakened you.
You are smaller here."
Liuxue's vision blurred. Smaller. The word struck a deep, aching place in her heart. All her life, she had felt wrong, constrained, like she had been born into a world that could not contain her.
"What if…" she whispered, tears burning her eyes, "what if I was never meant to be this small?"
The Starborn man's breath caught audibly.
Yining shook her head, voice breaking. "Liuxue, you are enough as you are."
Liuxue closed her eyes.
The voice softened, coaxing.
"I can give you your strength back.
Your name.
Your throne."
Throne.
Liuxue's heart skipped violently.
She saw it then. Not a memory, but a sensation. Sitting high above a sea of stars. Power resting easily in her hands. No fear. No hesitation.
No weakness.
Her fingers trembled.
The Starborn man stepped closer, his voice unsteady. "That throne was a cage."
Her eyes snapped open.
He looked at her with an intensity that stole her breath.
"They worshipped you," he said, voice tight, "but they also feared you. And when you refused to be what they wanted, they destroyed you."
Liuxue stared at him. "You were there."
It was not a question.
His gaze dropped. "Yes."
Yining whispered, "You knew her before."
"Yes," he admitted. "Long before this life."
The voice sharpened, frustration bleeding through its calm.
"He lies.
He betrayed you."
Liuxue's breath shook. "Did you?"
The Starborn man closed his eyes.
"I failed you," he said quietly. "And I have been paying for it ever since."
The words hurt more than denial ever could.
The seal flared painfully, reacting to her emotional turmoil.
The voice seized the moment.
"Come back to me.
Let me finish what you began."
The sky darkened. A faint silhouette began to form above the northern wall, shimmering like heat haze.
Yining cried out, "Liuxue, do not answer!"
Liuxue's heart hammered. She felt torn in half, pulled between a past that promised power and a present that felt fragile but real.
She looked at Yining. At the fear and love in her eyes.
Then she looked at the Starborn man. At the grief he carried so carefully, the guilt that shaped every word he spoke to her.
And finally, she lifted her gaze to the sky.
"No," Liuxue said, her voice shaking but clear.
The world seemed to recoil.
"I am not ready to return," she continued. "And I will not abandon the life I am living now."
The voice screamed.
Not in rage.
In shock.
"You dare refuse yourself?"
Liuxue pressed her hand to her chest, grounding herself in the pain, the warmth, the fear.
"I choose who I become," she said.
The seal burned, then steadied.
The silhouette above the wall shattered like glass, fragments of light dissolving into the air.
The voice faded, leaving behind a chilling echo.
"This is not over."
Silence returned.
Liuxue sagged forward, nearly collapsing. The Starborn man caught her instantly, arms wrapping around her shoulders.
She clutched his robe, breathing hard. "I… I chose myself."
His voice trembled against her hair. "You did."
Yining rushed to them, wrapping her arms around Liuxue from the other side, sobbing openly now. "You scared me to death."
Liuxue closed her eyes, letting herself lean into their warmth for just a moment.
But deep inside her chest, beneath the seal's steady rhythm, something else stirred.
Not anger.
Not fear.
Anticipation.
Because when she refused her past, it did not disappear.
It only began to wait.