The palace had never felt so alive — or so deadly.
Lanterns swayed gently in the courtyard, casting long, flickering shadows over the cobblestones. The night air was cool, but tension clung to it like smoke.
Yu Lan walked lightly, holding her fan closed at her side, moving toward the small garden behind the Prime Minister's pavilion. She had requested herbs for the sick in the lower districts, and now she collected them herself.
But tonight, the air was heavy. Something prickled at the back of her mind. Not fear. Awareness. A familiar warning that she had learned to trust since her rebirth.
From the shadows, a figure moved with deliberate silence. Cloaked, face obscured. Two steps behind her. Then one. Then suddenly — a glint of steel.
Yu Lan froze mid-step.
Too late.
A blade arced toward her chest.
Before she could react, Bo Li's shadow lunged. Faster than her eyes could follow, his arm caught the blade mid-air. Sparks flew where steel met steel.
"Lady Yu Lan!" Bo Li's voice was sharp, filled with panic he refused to show elsewhere.
Yu Lan's heart skipped. This was no ordinary attack. The timing, the precision — Yu Ya's influence, perhaps, or someone testing her defenses.
The assassin circled. Steel in hand, silent, deadly.
Bo Li stepped in front of her, shield raised instinctively. "Stay behind me!"
Yu Lan's hands moved subtly, almost as if brushing air. The blades that lunged for Bo Li twisted mid-flight. Sparks erupted against invisible resistance.
The assassin froze, wide-eyed. They had not expected resistance. Not like this.
Yu Lan's calm voice cut softly through the tension:"Do you think you can strike when the lotus is awake?"
The assassin staggered backward, then fled into the night, leaving only the sound of hurried footsteps and the fading rustle of cloak.
Bo Li's chest heaved. Sweat dotted his temple, though his posture remained firm. "Lady Yu Lan… what did you—"
She placed a hand lightly on his arm, stopping him. Her eyes glowed faintly in the lantern light — not unnaturally, but with a depth he could not name.
"I…" she said softly, "did not intervene… fully."
Bo Li blinked, still reeling. "You… you deflected the blades. With your hands?"
Yu Lan smiled faintly, a quiet serenity that only made him more unsettled. "No… not with my hands. With focus. Awareness. Balance."
Bo Li's jaw tightened. He wanted answers, but words failed him. The Yu Lan he had always protected — gentle, thoughtful, strategic — now stood before him like someone both human and more than human.
"You must not underestimate them," Yu Lan whispered, her gaze scanning the shadows where the assassin had vanished. "They will strike again. Soon. And closer."
Bo Li drew a deep breath, his hand brushing lightly over the hilt of his sword. Protective instinct surged, hotter and faster than anything Yu Lan could anticipate. "I will not allow them to touch you again. Not ever."
The lanterns flickered as the wind rose, and for a single heartbeat, they stood together — the soldier and the strategist, the shield and the lotus.
Yu Lan's hand touched the ledge of the balcony. She felt the surge of energy within her — subtle, restrained, but undeniable. Every muscle poised, every sense heightened. The hidden power she had learned to control since her rebirth, still mostly dormant, now pulsed quietly at her fingertips.
Bo Li glanced at her, concern etched across his face. "Whatever you are… whatever you can do… promise me you will not risk yourself alone again."
Yu Lan's lips curved into the faintest smile, almost playful. "Only if you promise to stay by my side."
His hand brushed hers — a simple touch, but laden with meaning. The first warmth of something beyond duty, loyalty, and caution.
Outside the courtyard, the palace remained still, but the air had changed.
Yu Ya's plan had failed — for now. But she would strike again.
And Yu Lan… Yu Lan had awakened just enough to make sure that, next time, she would not be caught unprepared.