Sunlight seeped through gauze like silk, laying a pale river across the room.

Tisinate sat on a pink bed, a lone rose upon winter snow.

This had been that girl’s favorite corner, a warm nest under the eaves.

Now, no dear silhouette graced it, only a hush like empty wings.

And everything seemed to surge toward the worst, a tide pulling dark.

News murmured beyond the walls: rebels had broken the Silverwing Elf line.

They’d reached the Oldtrace Quarter, old bones under new boots.

Rumor said some had slipped into the Elven Royal Palace with crooked intent.

Tisinate’s chest tightened first; then she dressed, armor of silk over storm.

A mirror caught a flawless face, pure as frost on jade.

Scarlet kissed her lips, bright as ripe berries under sun.

Black stockings wrapped her legs, night pooled against pale skin.

She disliked this mature mask, a borrowed moon over her lake.

She wore it because that girl once said she loved it, a wish like incense.

Tisinate took up the long sword, a moonlit heirloom of the royal line.

She would leave the World Tree’s core, ride out and scour the rebels.

Resolve rang like steel through roots, cold and clean.

Then a strange ripple swept the room, wind coursing through deepwood veins.

“Someone breached the World Tree’s core?”

Her grip tightened around the hilt, shock flaring like struck flint.

Such a pulse only rose when someone reached the heartwood.

But that should be impossible, a door sealed by old vows.

Only the World Tree Maiden and the guardian—herself—could stand here.

Unless the one who came was Ailuna, a name like dawn.

Has Ailuna come back?

Urgency broke inside her like spring melt, fast and bright.

A month ago, unknown hands carried Ailuna away, shadows stealing petals.

Since then, the Elven Queen lived with worry, craving that figure like rain.

Yet caution ringed her heart with thorns, quiet and unseen.

She never showed it, but Tisinate stayed a serious girl, straight as a blade.

She realized Ailuna returning now wasn’t good, a star at the wrong hour.

The rebels seemed to know something, cards hidden up their sleeves.

They might use Ailuna as a pawn and raise their banner high.

Even her bond with Ailuna could be twisted, called desecration of the Maiden.

“The Qiu sisters know nothing!”

Teeth met like stones; her fist tightened, thunder caged.

Ailuna’s secret must never spill, a sealed jar under moon.

Yet the tide had slipped past control, ropes wet and loosening.

The Elven Queen threw on a cloak, black as ravens at dusk.

High-heeled boots clicked, a dark rhythm on empty floorboards.

The jeweled sword glittered, cold light washing her face like winter.

If they sent Ailuna back to the core, this was her home ground.

First, rescue Ailuna, a star reclaimed from storm.

Then, silence every witness, leaves fallen and never told.

As resolve hardened like ice, Tisinate stepped to depart.

A green figure flowed before her, a vine uncoiling across the path.

The World Tree Maiden, Breeze, drifted closer, weightless as pollen.

Emerald eyes held no expression, still pools under shade.

Hair curled like tendrils, swaying without warmth, a quiet thicket.

“They’re my friends,” she said, rain on roots, calm and clear.

“I won’t let you hurt them, even for winter’s law.”

“So it is an outsider’s scheme?” Tisinate’s voice was steel over water.

“Stand aside. I don’t wish to be rough with the Maiden.”

“Tisinate,” Breeze said, calm as moss on stone, “stop running headlong.”

“This road won’t save Ailuna, no matter how sharp.”

“You don’t understand.” Fury flared like lightning under bark.

“All of this is what Ailuna asked for, word by word.”

“Even me, the me you see now, was shaped by her wish.”

Breeze’s gaze stayed steady, a quiet spring under mountain.

“But it’s not a memory worth cherishing, not a blossom to keep.”

“So you won’t let me pass?”

“No. Because the you now feels like my hometown’s people.”

“Heavy, and unkind as drought, laws like dry cracks.”

Distantly, Dixue and Yue Liuyi spoke of Ailuna, voices soft as dusk.

A tremor rolled across the sky, drums under a chain of peaks.

Beyond the graveyard’s edge, mountains rose like sleeping beasts.

Green light and off-white radiance braided together, a battle painting clouds.

“This feeling—Tisinate and Breeze!” Dixue’s heart kicked like a startled bird.

“Bad news, Xiao Yue. They’re fighting among the roots!”

“Do we rush to help Breeze?” Yue Liuyi’s eyes flicked like fish.

She looked at Ailuna, limp at the grave’s center, a wilted bloom.

Soul-shapes ringed her, ghost faces crying, glow twisting air like heat.

The scene held the chill of a horror reel, a cold theater.

“Better we stop the fight,” Dixue said, voice a lantern under fog.

“Tisinate is Ailuna’s guardian, a shield carved by old vows.”

“To disperse this resentment, we likely need the Elven Queen’s hand.”

“Tisinate is Ailuna’s guardian?”

“A guardian guards the World Tree,” Dixue answered, threads neat and fine.

“As Elven Queen, Tisinate bears that duty, root to crown.”

Only—her words paused, thoughts shadowed like dusk under leaves.

“Then we try to negotiate?”

“We can try. I doubt she’ll agree, iron over river.”

The green and ivory lights swelled, twin tides colliding under thunder.

Voices carried thin across distance, reeds singing over water.

“Ailuna? Ailuna!?”

“Breeze, don’t allow—”

They chased and clashed, a storm among roots, bark flying.

Ailuna felt the waves and looked at her hands, petals trembling.

Pale pink pupils quivered, fear rising like frost on glass.

“I... I... no... Master? Eh? I...” Words broke like brittle ice.

“Ailuna!” Yue Liuyi ran, heart aching, a bell struck hard.

The gentle, earnest girl she knew now shook like a wind-strung kite.

“Liuyi... don’t hug me.” Ailuna sprang away, clutching her head.

“Ailuna is sinful. Ailuna is ugly. Ailuna... doesn’t deserve your arms.”

Around them, near-solid specters skewed, smoke tugged by a draft.

“You’re not unworthy, Ailuna. You’re—”

“Xiao Yue, right now we can only—”

“Whoa! LittleSnow, what are you doing?”

LittleSnow moved like a white swallow, swift and clean.

She tapped Ailuna smartly on the head, a crisp knock.

The pink-haired girl tipped, then drifted into sleep like a fallen petal.

“Let her sleep,” Dixue murmured, worry cupped like flame.

“Maybe... my earlier guess was wrong, shadows crossed.”

She drew out an iron chain, links dark as storm clouds.

She wrapped Ailuna, metal a quiet river around a reed.

“Hey? LittleSnow, what is that for?”

“The Cataclysm Chain isn’t a shackle to restrain Ailuna.”

“It’s protection,” Dixue said, tone sure as bedrock.

“It drinks any magical ripple, waves swallowed like rain by earth.”

“Resentful spirits count as waves too, salt in the sea.”

“Hm... their bond is far more tangled than we thought, roots knotted.”

Indeed, as the chain settled, drifting wraiths lost their target, bees without blossom.

They stopped pressing close to Ailuna, night pulled back from flame.

“So... Tisinate did this to keep the wraiths off her?”

“Maybe,” Dixue said, gentle as dusk settling on fields.

“We aren’t the ones living it. Hearts aren’t easy maps.”

“The World Tree Maiden and her guardian—always a subtle tie.”

“I see...” Yue Liuyi’s mood dipped, kite in sudden calm.

Maybe the girl who had loved her no longer did, dew gone at noon.

If Ailuna once lost her memories, regaining them meant that innocence was gone.

Why had she come to the core, then? What vow carried her feet?

If Ailuna didn’t need saving, a star content in its own sky.

If Ailuna longed for Tisinate’s strictness, winter sought by winter.

If Ailuna never liked her at all, a mirror without face—

Then just hand Ailuna back to the Elven Queen, a borrowed star returned.

Everything she’d done so far flickered, brittle as ash in wind.

“Xiao Yue, chin up!” Dixue’s voice warmed like tea in hands.

“I could shower you with praise and raise your favor bar.”

“But better I grant your wish first, seed before song.”

“My favor bar? I’m not some romance-game heroine!”

“Heh. Seeing your spark again, I’m relieved, spring under snow.”

Dixue smoothed Yue Liuyi’s hair, a playful smile bright as April.

“LittleSnow...?”

“My offer still stands,” she said, evergreen steady in frost.

“If you like Ailuna and want to protect her, I have ways.”

“Even now, even like this, paths still open like gates.”

Yue Liuyi watched that reliable smile, heart settling like wind over water.

Facing trouble is bearable with someone beside you, lanterns paired.

Even if bandits were endless, even if buried in the New Land.

It’d still feel less cold, a hand in winter.

“Wait...”

The blue-haired girl blinked; an idea sparked like dry grass catching.

The root sits in the Chaos Lands, soil churning under torn flags.

The seed lies in Rainbow Valley, rich as spilled treasure and honey.

Grievances, wealth, disputes—all churned there like eddies in flood.

Without that chaos, fewer would die, fewer sparks snuffed.

Without those deaths, Ailuna wouldn’t be haunted, night unlatched.

If she could rebuild order in those Chaos Lands... could she?

The boy she used to be couldn’t, iron over fear, law by fist.

That path works fast, but one misstep spills blood like rain.

In the illusion, Dongfang Chen took that road and died unburied.

But as a girl—maybe not, willow instead of axe.

If instead she could...

Slowly, Yue Liuyi sketched a plan inside, willow lines over a stream.

If the Elven Capital resolved well, then as a girl, she could...