The dream arrived without beginning.
Lin Shen stood in a field of snow that fell in complete silence, each white flake drifting as though time itself had slowed. Before him stretched a field of forgotten statues. Their faces were neither peaceful nor mournful. They simply waited. Frost clung to their hair like the weight of countless winters. Ice traced every fold of stone robes until they looked less like sculptures and more like souls trapped beneath an endless season.
The world was colorless. The sky had forgotten the sun. Even the wind seemed afraid to breathe.
He walked between them, his footsteps making no sound. It felt wrong. Dreams always carried echoes, yet this place swallowed every noise before it was born.
Then one statue moved.
Not its body. Its eyes.
They opened with impossible slowness, ancient and heavy, as though waking from a sleep older than kingdoms. Snow continued to settle across its face, but it did not blink.
Its lips parted.
"Kaelen."
