“What does His Majesty the Ice Emperor have to do with this?” Thousandwise’s voice came out cool as moonlit steel, yet the twitch on her face rippled like a pebble in a pond, and it sharpened Nana Shi’s doubts about the Northland.

“You’re sharp, so I’ll skip the smoke.” Nana leaned on the wall like a shadow clinging to stone, then tipped her chin toward Thousandwise at the window. “I suspect every mark-bearer on the continent was exiled out of the Northland, like seeds blown off a frozen ridge.”

“City Lord Shi, if you have no proof, don’t fling words like knives.” Thousandwise’s tone fell like frost on tile, and Nana felt a thin killing intent drift around her like cold mist. “Loose tongues invite disaster, and you won’t say you didn’t know.”

Silence fell for a few heartbeats, soft as snow on eaves.

Nana pushed off the wall, walked to Thousandwise, and spoke low, her breath like winter smoke. “You don’t have the standing to threaten me.”

Across the whole continent’s Northland, only the Ice Emperor’s voice could press her back, like a blizzard pressing a lone torch.

“You trespassed on my turf and tailed me,” Nana said, a lazy smile cutting like a crescent blade. “Not killing you on the spot is me giving the Ice Emperor face, so don’t go poking the tiger.” She pinched the other woman’s small chin, playful and merciless as a cat with a bird, forcing Thousandwise to meet her gaze.

“My mood’s already bad, like a storm waiting on the horizon. Push me, and I won’t promise to stay gentle.”

Thousandwise stared into the woman’s eyes and saw her reflection waver like a candle in a well, and then she didn’t. Her gaze was deep and unmoored, like a bottomless sinkhole under black ice, one slip and you fall forever.

“What does City Lord Shi want in the Northland?”

After a long beat, chin caught like a trapped swallow, Thousandwise parted her lips and spoke, the words bitter as pine sap.

“Nothing much,” Nana said, satisfaction glinting like a fox’s eye. “I’ll just give your beloved Ice Emperor an answer.” She eased her grip, then turned away, her coat swaying like a dark banner.

“You know I favor marks spreading across the continent, like wildflowers after thaw. So even if the mark-bearers trace back to the Northland, I won’t lift a blade against them.”

“Why should I believe you?” Thousandwise pinned Nana’s back with her stare, each word dropped like a stone into a frozen lake. This was a woman who once dared betray Moragus; a promise from those lips was smoke over water.

“Because you’ve got no other road,” Nana said, her smile tilting wicked as a crescent moon through clouds, that invasive intent rolling off her like storm tide. “Your yes just saves me trouble; your no changes nothing. I’ll still send you back to the Northland in one piece.”

“After all, I do have some history with that one,” she added, eyes narrowing like shutters against bright snow, unreadable as winter clouds.

Thousandwise said nothing, though her willow brows knit like tangled reeds, and her mood darkened like a sky before sleet.

“Seven days.”

At last, Thousandwise named it, voice steady as a taut bowstring. “I’ll hold things for seven days. When time’s up, whatever happens in Chronos City isn’t my concern.”

“But if you slight His Majesty the Ice Emperor, even a breath out of turn, don’t blame me for breaking my word like ice underfoot.”

“Deal.”

Nana flicked her hand, and an Amber Talisman arced through the air like a golden leaf, landing in Thousandwise’s palm.

“This is…”

“My Imperial Writ for Chronos City,” Nana said, words clean as a blade on whetstone. “The bearer can do anything in Chronos City with it, including mobilizing troops.”

“You hand me something this heavy, and you’re not afraid I’ll bite back?” Thousandwise weighed the Amber Talisman, her expression slick as oil on water.

Nana only shrugged, a grin playing lazy as a cat in sunlight. “You can try.”

She wasn’t the sort to step without a second path, and on this front she was cautious as a hunter in deep snow.

“Since the deal stands, we meet in seven days.” Her voice drifted like smoke toward the window. She had already told the System to wait outside the city gate; once she went, they could move at once.

“Wait.”

“What now?” Nana paused with one leg over the sill, glancing back with a fox’s wariness.

“For being so straightforward, City Lord Shi, I owe you a tidbit.” Thousandwise tucked the Imperial Writ away like a knife up a sleeve, rose, brushed dust from her skirt like pollen from silk, and cleared her throat, face set as carved jade. “It’s about the Continental United Nations.”

“Hm?” Nana’s thought flashed like lightning across a night plain. Those old men up to tricks again?

“Say it,” she said, settling to listen, because she had left in a rush and missed the later sessions like a ship missing the tide.

“Here’s how it is,” Thousandwise said, voice low as wind under doors. “The Holy Sun Kingdom, the Mystic Sun Ancient Pool, the Azure Wind Sanctuary, and the Pan Mountain Empire formed a secret alliance. They’re raising troops across the continent to suppress the rise of mark-bearers, and they’ve seeded agents in every corner to sniff out any trace of marks, like rats after grain.”

“Heh.” Nana’s laugh was cold as a knife on glass. “To keep their thrones warm, they’ll use any means under heaven.”

“But if it’s secret, how did the Northland learn?” Her words drifted like smoke over coals, curious and sharp.

“They tried to court us,” Thousandwise said, rolling her eyes like a white arc of moon. “They dreamed of allying with my Emperor, those blind frogs. No mirror at home, fine—at least look into a puddle. Did they not see their own faces and still dared beg for favor?”

Is her tongue always this sharp when the Ice Emperor comes up, like a whip that sings in frost?

Nana didn’t comment; she just tucked the Northland and mark intel away like arrows in a quiver.

“Though His Majesty refused their alliance,” Thousandwise went on, voice steady as sleet, “he didn’t agree to let marks spread either. City Lord Shi, mind your step when you face him. Don’t be like last time and make him start with a snow-burial.”

Before the last word faded like frost breath, Nana had already slipped over the wall with a rustle like a hawk’s wings, leaving the bedroom behind like a cooling hearth.

Whether the Ice Emperor opened above her with a strike beyond rank, that would be tomorrow’s storm and not her umbrella.

“...She’s still the same,” Thousandwise murmured, lips tight as a drawn seam. “Headstrong as wildfire.”

Nana had always held a knife-edge doubt that the Northland truly tied to the marks, like a wolf sniffing a strange trail.

But after she and the System reached the Northland border days later, her mind went blank as whiteout.

Every road into the Northland was sealed like rivers locked under ice.

In the frontline city of Aitishi, she asked around, casting her net like a fisherman in winter light, and learned this: some rumor swept the continent that mark-bearers in the Northland had surged like a sudden thaw, and the Northland was fighting them on its own ground like a storm against sparks.

“Tsk. If that’s true, why don’t the other nations help?” she said, words like stones skipping over dark water. “They’re against marks, aren’t they?”

If the Ice Emperor in the Northland lost to mark-bearers, those vultures would lose a feast and a throne’s shade.

“Ha, you really just came out of a tech-backwater,” said the old hand sharing intel, voice low as a back-alley whisper. “They already planned it. The Ice Emperor is sky-high strong, so even without help, wiping mark-bearers is a matter of time, like snow melting under sun.”

“And if the Northland slips on its own blade and the Ice Emperor gets killed, they’ll rush in like crows to carrion, and it still won’t be late.”

“Yeah, that plan reeks of those few old idiots,” Nana said, smirking like a fox in a henhouse. “They want the clam and the snipe to fight so they can fish in peace. As if that ice-slinging girl is that easy to kill.”

She grumbled as she thought, mind turning like millstones over grain.

“So all routes into the Northland are locked like gates of a fortress,” the System said behind her, voice crisp as a bell in cold air. “Host, how do we go, then? I scanned the whole map. Without nonstandard methods, normal paths won’t get us in.”

“Nonstandard?” Nana lifted a brow, curiosity flickering like a lantern in fog. “What kind of nonstandard?”

“Uhh, like condensing ice and crossing by water,” the System said, offering an example like a kid offering a pebble.

“You think I’m still that ice-slick prodigy from back then, freezing rivers just to stroll?” Nana’s look was dry as sand. “Feels like you’re beating a dead meme.”

“???” the System blinked, confusion floating like dandelion fluff. She’d given an example, and somehow it was a sin?

“Whatever,” it huffed, then brightened like a screen booting up. “This System got a buff. I won’t argue. Ningyi opening interface now.” Panels fluttered in her vision like paper talismans in wind. “Let’s see... instructions for planar teleport in the real world…”

“Cooldown is seven days per use,” she read, voice steady as a metronome. “Destination must be a place you’ve visited. Range can’t exceed ten kilometers.”

Lots of limits, like a river crisscrossed with nets, but at least it flowed.

“I recall a spot not far from here that’s inside the Northland,” Ningyi said, her tone bright as thaw. “We can teleport there and slip past the border scans.”

“I’ll ask first,” Nana said, gaze flat as a frozen lake. “Is your busted teleport going to misplace us again?”

“...No!” the System puffed up like a sparrow in snow. “I’ve been officially strengthened by the Master. I won’t make rookie mistakes again!”

“Sure,” Nana said, side-eye cool as sleet on slate. “You’ve failed me too many times. I don’t feel like trusting.”

“...” the System wilted like grass under frost. “Host, how about you go to the Northland alone? I’ll go home and keep the Master company.”