The air grew colder with each step, and the scent of dust and iron thickened.
Wuyin's fingers tightened slightly around Yujin's. The passage twisted downward like a serpent's spine until it opened into a vast, circular chamber.
Golden threads hung like webbing from the high ceiling. They shimmered with soft light, crisscrossing the air like the strands of a loom unfinished.
At the center stood a dais, and on it… a second robe.
This one was unmarked, its silk dyed black with a faint red undertone. Silver embroidery curled along its hem—silent lotus motifs, coiling vines, and the crescent blade of the Silent Monarch.
Wuyin approached, her breath slow.
It didn't reject her like the first. Instead, it pulsed—acknowledging.
"I think this was meant for the true heir," she said quietly. "But she never came."
Yujin looked around the chamber. "Then why is it still here?"
"…Maybe it waited."
Wuyin reached for it. This time, the silk didn't recoil. It flowed over her hand like water and settled over her shoulders without weight.
Images flashed in her mind:
—A girl laughing beneath a plum tree. —A woman whispering names in the dark. —Blood on snow.
"Her memories," Wuyin breathed. "She left them here."
Yujin stepped beside her, her voice soft. "Then take them. Make them yours."
Wuyin nodded.
As the robe adjusted to her frame, the chamber pulsed once—and then the threads overhead snapped into motion, weaving into a seal above the dais.
A whisper filled the air, too faint to place:
"Not stolen… shared."
Wuyin's eyes widened. It wasn't a rejection. It was a blessing.
They left the chamber in silence, carrying not just cloth, but a vow.
Outside, the stars had begun to rise.
And somewhere in the north, a man stirred from meditation, his breath hitching as if something precious had slipped from his grasp.
Yan Zhaoxing opened his eyes.
"She's touched the final veil."
The elder behind him frowned. "Then it has begun."
Zhaoxing's gaze turned toward the south, and a cold smile curled on his lips.
"She walks the line between stolen fate and earned power," he whispered. "Let's see if she survives it."