The mist danced over the lake's surface as if it were breathing.
Each morning, before the sun peered through the eternal pines of the Jinluan Mountains, Jinhai Suwei would sit before the water. He didn't speak. He didn't move. He simply let the wind caress his face while cicadas awakened in the dense forest.
This place was sacred to him. A sanctuary abandoned by all except nature... and his own dreams.
He knelt on the damp stone, his white robe rippling in the breeze. He closed his eyes.
"Again..." he whispered.
The same dream. Over and over.
A golden dragon rising amidst blue flames, with eyes that pierced through him as if they knew more about him than he knew himself.
Suddenly, the lake stirred. Without wind. Without falling leaves.
The waters parted in gentle waves and at their center... a silhouette emerged among reflections: wings, scales, and fire.
Suwei opened his eyes. And he saw it.
The dragon's reflection.
It wasn't a vision. It was there. Majestic. Motionless. With its gaze fixed on him from the crystalline surface.
A deep voice, distant like an echo from past lives, called to him:
"Suwei... the heart of forgotten fire."
He fell backward, his chest heaving. The lake returned to stillness.
He returned home when the sun had already begun to paint the skies with golden light.
The Jinhai Mansion, once one of the most respected in the empire, now harbored the dignified sadness of a fallen lineage. The walls were covered with moss, and the courtyards, with silence.
The few servants that remained whispered among themselves:
"The young master has returned from the lake... paler than ever."
In the inner garden, an elderly figure waited for him. Lady Wuyin, one of the last guardians of the Jinhai tradition.
She didn't ask. She simply offered him a cup of hot infusion.
"The enchanted lake shows what sleeps in your blood, little crane," she said without looking directly at him. "And your blood... still sings."
Suwei didn't respond. His gaze was fixed on the horizon.
"Do you believe in destiny, Mistress Wuyin?"
"I believe," she replied, "in what cannot be avoided."
That night, Suwei returned to the lake. The air was colder. Stars hung like lanterns in a cloudless sky.
He knelt in the same place.
The reflection appeared again, more vivid. More real.
And this time, it wasn't just the dragon he saw.
A throne. A crown. And a dark silhouette with golden eyes.
The voice whispered again, clearer this time:
"The sleeping fire is searching for you... and you can no longer hide."
Suwei trembled. And in his pupils... something gleamed.
End of Chapter 1.