“What? You’re saying you didn’t tie that woman up and bring her back?”

Inside a room in Chronos City, a young man heard the report, then bang—he slammed the table and rose. Rage flared like dry grass on fire, veins like coiling snakes twisted his handsome face.

“You didn’t promise me this. We lost that thing. If that madwoman returns, we’re finished—storm-tossed and sunk.”

Opposite him stood Trollop, fresh from a pocket dimension. He held himself like a gentleman carved from ice, a calm surface with depths unfathomed, as if they weren’t even speaking about the same storm.

“Fine, you tell me—what do we do now?” Panic gnawed like rats at his ribs; he’d hidden since Moragus’s rule, waiting to inherit the City Lord’s seat after Moragus fell, and Nana Shi had snatched it like a hawk.

A chance had finally glimmered, and now it slipped away like sand through fingers. How could his heart not pound like war drums?

That madwoman had once beheaded traitors in the palace in front of ministers—no blink, no mercy, just cold steel. He was rebelling now, reaching for the throne; if she learned of it, a hundred lives wouldn’t be enough to feed her blade.

Facing this cliff’s edge, the man before him still called it safe. Was he insane?

“My lord, that’s where you falter. You chose rebellion, so wear a rebel’s skin. Without it, you’ll never see dawn.”

Trollop smiled, his lips curved like a crescent, yet his eyes held no warmth—only night without stars.

“Without that weapon, how do we two raise a revolt?” The youth’s voice bit with frustration. “She’s not like those mainland fools. Dragging her down won’t be easy.”

“That’s why we use sigils,” Trollop said. He lifted his hand, and a web of lines bloomed in his palm, a labyrinth of ink like spider silk catching light.

“Of course, a sigil alone isn’t enough. We need vessels for it.”

He tapped the table, thoughtful. “The soldiers in Chronos City would be… a fine choice, wouldn’t they?”

“You mean… use sigils to control the soldiers?” Sweat beaded at the boy’s temple, glinting like dew. Trollop’s snow-white suit made him look elegant to the point of danger, and that faint smile carried a chill like a devil at your ear.

“Exactly.”

Nana Shi, the only power in Chronos City, was absent. If they could turn the soldiers and spark a revolt, then invite the mainland kingdoms to intervene, even if they failed to seize Chronos City, they’d bleed it dry for a long season.

“But how will you make those soldiers accept sigils?”

Most of Chronos City’s soldiers were men Nana Shi led out under Moragus. Their loyalty ran deep like roots in black soil. Only Nana Shi and her Imperial Order could move them.

He was third or fourth in command here, and it meant nothing.

Trollop had prepared for this with the patience of a spider.

“This is that woman’s Imperial Order. It’s a temporary counterfeit, but it’s ninety-five percent true in likeness. No one will spot it, except the original and a few close women.” Trollop pulled an Amber Talisman from his collar like a conjurer’s trick and tossed it onto the table.

“Well, my lord? Isn’t it time her throne changed hands?”

His voice was a demon’s whisper against a beating heart. The young man’s hand crept toward the talisman like a moth toward flame...

...

At the same time.

In the joint council chamber of the mainland nations, the big shots were in heated debate. How to resist the madwoman in Chronos City next year, and how to push their tech forward—plans rose like smoke beyond a campfire—when the doors flew open. The intruder shoved them wide; anger flared, but the man was already shouting.

“B—bad news! Sirs! Chronos City—big trouble!”

“What nonsense? What big trouble could Chronos City possibly have?” The ruler of the Holy Sun Kingdom, seated left, frowned like thunderheads. “Did that madwoman die again? Is she dragging the whole city into the grave?”

Silence rippled like a chill wind.

You make it sound like she’s died before.

Still, her methods reached the sky, and Chronos City’s steel and science were fierce. It was hard to imagine real trouble there.

“Probably another stunt,” Patriarch Feng said, eyes half-lidded like a cat’s. The woman was too wild. Once, for fun, she sent every soldier in Chronos City on vacation to the western reaches. If their people hadn’t asked why, some kingdoms along the way would’ve thought she came to hand out blankets.

In short, none of the mainland bosses believed trouble brewed there. At worst, she would toss them a puzzle and leave their heads aching for a month.

“N—no, sirs!”

“Chronos City has an internal uprising!”

“What!”

Before his words faded, the big shots slammed the table and rose, faces carved with shock.

“Is that true?”

“True as stone. If you doubt it, ask your agents inside Chronos City. By now, this news should’ve swept the inland like wind.”

He’d barely finished when more messengers burst in, breath like bellows.

“Report! Patriarch Feng! Our agent outside Chronos City says an uprising has begun inside!”

“Report! Pool Lord! Reliable word says someone launched a coup in Chronos City. Yan Xiao, who held temporary power, has been seized!”

“Report! Your Majesty! Internal turmoil in Chronos City. No sign of City Lord Shi!”

One call after another, and the circle of rulers fell silent, thoughts turning like millstones.

“Sirs… this looks… real, doesn’t it?”

The Lord of the Xuan Yang Ancient Pool came back to himself first. “What do we do now?”

A coup in Chronos City was good news, yet not entirely good. If it was real, the mover was someone who could bind Nana Shi. If that person took the seat, and widened their hunger beyond the city’s borders, they might push war upon the mainland.

At least the madwoman wouldn’t strike them first.

Chronos City’s tech dwarfed the past. One aerial fortress alone could pin whole powers in place like insects under glass.

And Chronos City had more than one.

“Envoys from three nations reported the same news. So it’s a change none of us foresaw. But we can’t be sure—it’s still fog. The woman hasn’t shown.”

The Pool Lord paused, then spoke with steady weight. “I propose we watch and hold. No rash moves.”

“What if she’s already dead?” the king of the Holy Sun Kingdom snorted, and the room fell deep-quiet, cold as a well.

If she was dead, how else to explain a coup that bold?

“Let’s send troops to the city’s edge and keep talking,” said the head of the Azure Wind Sanctuary, signaling his men to withdraw.

“Doesn’t this feel strange? First, the Ice Emperor in the Northland vanished, and sigil holders there rioted. Now Nana Shi is missing, and Chronos City erupts. Say they’re unrelated—I don’t buy it.”

“And your plan, Patriarch Feng?”

“We set our lines outside Chronos City and watch. If, as His Majesty said, Nana Shi is dead, then by her habit, she’ll drag someone down with her. Either way, if they tear each other apart, we step in and take the spoils.”

“And if Nana Shi isn’t dead?”

“Heh. If she lives, we pick our moment to suppress the chaos, then squeeze her for tribute. Good business.”

“High-handed. Truly.” Even the Holy Sun King and the Pool Lord nodded. “It’s sound.”

“Only the three of us go? What about the Pan Mountain Empire?”

“Ah… you mean Lord Qi? He got word the Crystal Mountains in the Pan Mountain Empire collapsed. He’s headed back. He may miss this play.”

“How would the Crystal Mountain Range collapse for no reason? Was someone meddling?” The two rulers frowned. “The sigil holders again?”

“That’s unlikely. Our spies say the crystal veins were struck by something. But in the Pan Mountain Empire—those peaks are high and treacherous. What giant could ram them?”

“Another anomaly?”

...”