Chapter 199: A Frozen Heart

The carriage continued deeper into the mountains, carrying Ru Yi farther away from Ashen Fortress with every passing mile. She sat beside the window with the broken pieces of the ring resting in her palm, staring at them until the edges of the metal pressed painful marks into her skin.

She had stopped crying some time ago, but the silence inside her was almost worse than the tears had been. It was as though something essential had been taken from her when the ring broke, leaving behind an empty space that she could not understand how to fill.

General Sheng sat opposite her, watching without saying anything.

He had expected resistance. He had expected questions, perhaps even desperate pleas for him to turn the carriage around and return her to the three princesses. Instead, Ru Yi had barely spoken since leaving the fortress.

Eventually, he broke the silence. "Do you want me to send word to Princess Qingyue that you are still alive?"

Ru Yi’s fingers closed around the broken ring. "That won’t be necessary."

General Sheng raised an eyebrow. "No?"

Ru Yi looked through the window. "I’m sure the last thing she’s worried about is my safety."

"From the drama you displaced, you were in love with her."

Ru Yi’s expression tightened. "I did."

"And you no longer do?"

Ru Yi looked down at the pieces of metal in her hand. "I don’t know." All she knew was that...Qingyue and her sisters let go of her hand first. Like she meant nothing.

That was the truth, and somehow it frightened her more than anger would have.

She remembered Qingyue’s arms around her, her gentle voice, the warmth of her hands against Ru Yi’s cheeks. She remembered being told that she had belonged to the three sisters from the beginning. Those memories had once been precious.

Now they felt like wounds.

General Sheng leaned back. "Then perhaps the ring made the decision for you."

Ru Yi looked at him sharply. "Don’t talk about it."

He studied her for a moment before nodding. "As you wish."

The carriage continued through the mountains until the road disappeared beneath a massive stone archway.

Ru Yi looked outside and saw black walls rising from the mountainside. Unlike Ashen Fortress, this place had been deliberately built to disappear into the landscape. Towers of dark stone rose from the cliffs, connected by narrow bridges, while enormous iron doors stood beneath the archway.

Ru Yi frowned. "Where are we?"

"One of my strongholds."

Her eyebrows furrowed. "You brought me here instead of taking me to the capital."

"The capital is the last place I would take you."

She turned toward him. "Why?" she asked. "I don’t understand what you’re playing at."

"Because there are too many people there who would recognize what you are."

Ru Yi’s stomach tightened. "What am I?"

General Sheng didn’t bother with an answer.

The carriage stopped and a soldier opened the door. Ru Yi stepped outside and the cold mountain air immediately struck her face.

General Sheng led her through the stone entrance and down a long staircase carved directly into the mountain. The deeper they descended, the colder it became. Strange symbols had been carved into the walls, glowing faintly beneath the darkness.

At the bottom stood an enormous chamber.

Ru Yi stopped.

A circular platform occupied the center of the room, surrounded by ancient formations. General Sheng placed the Eclipse relic above a stone pedestal. The moment Ru Yi got close to it, the relic began to glow.

Her shadow stretched across the floor and Ru Yi froze.

The shadow moved before she did. It crawled toward the relic, spreading across the stone like spilled ink.

Sheng’s eyes narrowed. "It really responds to you."

Ru Yi stepped backward. "I didn’t do that."

"I know."

The shadow rose behind her. It reached her shoulders before dissolving again. Ru Yi stared at the relic.

"Does it really control spiritual energy?" she asked.

General Sheng nodded. "Your shadow is not an ordinary spiritual power, Ru Yi."

Ru Yi remembered the words he had spoken earlier.

A weapon.

She shook her head. "So you intend to make me into a weapon that’ll control other people’s spiritual energy?"

Sheng walked toward the relic. "You have spent your entire life fearing something you never understood. You were taught to be weak because you couldn’t normally like others. It’s time for you to step into your true power."

"I didn’t ask for it."

"Neither did the people who were born with great power." He gestured toward the relic. "Your shadow has been dormant because you have spent years suppressing it."

Ru Yi looked at her hands. "Then why is it waking up now?"

Sheng’s answer was quiet. "Because something changed."

Ru Yi immediately thought of the ring and her heart tightened. She looked down at her finger, watching the shadow wrap around it again.

A cold feeling settled over her chest.

General Sheng noticed.

For the first time, she wondered what would happen if she stopped trying to hold herself together. What would happen if she stopped being afraid of what lived inside her?

Her shadow spread again.

This time, she did not stop it. It crawled across the floor and climbed the walls, growing darker and larger until the chamber seemed to disappear beneath it.

General Sheng smiled faintly. "There."

Ru Yi stared at the darkness.

She remembered Qingyue turning away from her.

She remembered Lieyin’s words.

She remembered Yexue crying.

She remembered the ring breaking.

The shadow surged and a formation on the floor cracked. Ru Yi gasped out loud. The darkness immediately withdrew.

General Sheng looked at the broken formation. "You see?"

Ru Yi stared. "What happened?"

"Your emotions strengthen it."

She swallowed.

"So if I’m angry..." she trailed off, watching him with an expectant look.

"It becomes stronger."

"If I’m afraid?"

"Stronger."

Ru Yi’s eyes lowered.

"And if I’m hurt?"

General Sheng gave her a curt nod. "It will heal you just like in Tiancheng." He tilted his head to the side. "There’s no need to worry about how I know."

Ru Yi looked toward the Eclipse Relic again.

For so long, she had believed that her greatest weakness was the fact that she cared too much. She had put everyone else’s safety before her own, trusted people who had every reason to hate her, and allowed herself to become attached to people who could abandon her.

Perhaps she had misunderstood herself. Maybe caring had not made her weak, it had simply given everyone else something they could use against her.

She slowly walked toward the relic.

General Sheng watched her carefully. "What are you thinking?"

Ru Yi stopped before the pedestal. "I want to learn."

"Learn what?"

She looked at her shadow. "How to control it."

Sheng smiled. "That is not what I expected. I thought I’d have to force you to bend to my will."

Ru Yi closed her hand around the broken ring. "I don’t want anyone to control me again." The shadow moved behind her. And this time, it looked almost like it was listening.