Chapter 11: Echoes of Flame
The next morning, the dew had barely dried on the leaves when Mei Lin wandered into the old library within the mountain stronghold. The place was layered in dust and silence, but something called to her.
Rows of scrolls lined the walls, glowing faintly with age-old energy. She wasn't sure what she was searching for—until her fingers brushed a cracked, red-lacquered box hidden behind a fallen tapestry.
She opened it.
Inside lay a delicate hairpin—gold and fireglass, shaped like a phoenix mid-flight.
The moment she touched it, the world shifted.
Suddenly, the library disappeared. She stood in a massive hall, dressed in robes of flame, her hair pinned with the very same ornament. Incense burned. Guards knelt. At her side stood a man clad in royal armor with silver eyes that glowed—Fu Gui. No… not him.
A different face.
A different life.
And then—flames, screams, betrayal.
She gasped and stumbled back, the vision shattering like a mirror.
"Mei Lin?" Fu Gui's voice was close now—concerned, urgent. He rushed to her side. "What happened?"
She clutched the phoenix pin, heart thudding. "I saw… something. Someone."
He gently helped her to sit. "What did you see?"
Her voice trembled. "A palace of fire. You were there. But not you. And then… death."
Fu Gui's face darkened with both recognition and dread.
"You've touched the past," he said quietly. "But the question is… whose past? Yours? Or ours?"
She looked up at him, confused. "What do you mean?"
Before he could answer, a gust of wind howled through the cracks in the stone walls. Somewhere in the mountains, something old had stirred.