“Lianlian, do you know? At the rainbow’s end lies a dream realm. There, four-season blossoms never wither, like lanterns in soft rain. Even the Other Shore flower, that blooms for a thousand years then fades for a thousand more, opens forever like a crimson star.

There, the aurora walks with people, a silk veil of light over every living soul.”

A familiar voice, like wind through bamboo. Who was it? Who stood behind that mist? Dazed, Xi rubbed her eyes like a child in fog. It was their third day on the run, a rough road of dust and thorn.

The town’s elders had warned them like bells in a storm. Don’t return until the end, or the tide will swallow you. As one of the only fighters, Xi kept watch like a lone hawk over snow.

There was one more fighter. Snow. Xi didn’t know her true strength, just a whisper she’d overheard. Her father had said the girl was a mage, a candle of power burning cold.

Why would a noble mage serve in her house as a maid, like moonlight hiding under a pitcher? The question had gnawed like a rat in a granary. Now it meant nothing, like smoke on water. The stronger Snow was, the brighter their chance to live.

“Sis… I want to sleep.” On the road, Xi heard Xian’s voice drift like reeds in wind. Something was wrong, a haze over her eyes like morning fog. Sleeping while fleeing? That was walking into night.

Teeth tight, Xi reached out and touched Xian’s forehead. Heat struck like fire under paper. “So hot.” Fear surged first, a black wave breaking inside her chest. Then her mind scrambled for rope.

Xian was sick. Xi didn’t know what to do, like standing on thin ice. She turned to ask the others, when Snow ran back pale as frost. “Hide. Demon scouts ahead.” Her words fell like stones in a pond.

No time. Xi gathered Xian into her arms and slipped into shadow, like a deer into brush.

“Sis… I… I’ll sleep a bit…” Xian’s whisper brushed Xi’s ear like moth wings. At that instant, the demons ahead stiffened, like wolves scenting blood. Xi knew she should urge Xian to stay awake, like keeping a lantern lit in wind. If Xian slept, she might never wake again, like a flower sealed in ice.

But she couldn’t speak, or the brush would rustle and the knives would turn. One cry, and everyone would be ash on the road.

Her heart split like dry wood. On one side, her sister’s life, a warm ember in her palms. On the other, the group’s life, a field of wheat in a storm. Fairness said trade one for many, a cold scale in a cold hand.

As a sister, she couldn’t. Blood spoke like thunder.

“Father… Mother… everyone…” Grief surged first, then resolve like a drawn bow. Xi cradled Xian, cast a float spell that lifted her like thistledown, and ran for the open plain like a streak of dusk.

Her sudden dash snapped the demons’ gaze like wire. In the thicket, the others held their breath like stones in moss. They didn’t understand why she ran, or why the wind shifted.

“After her. Move!” Voices cracked like whips.

A knot of scouts peeled away like crows from a branch. Two or three remained, eyes cold as iron. They crept toward the spot Xi had left, knives of caution in their hands. Snow moved then, her body a sliver of shadow. Magic gathered into blades like moonlit ice. The scouts fell without a cry, sleep pulled over them like velvet.

“We move. Xi’s a mage. She’ll live.” Snow’s voice was steady, like a lamp in rain.

She wanted to chase. Duty bit like winter. If she left, no one would guard the unarmed children, a flock without a dog. “Leticia, what are you doing? Get back here!” Snow’s shout cut like a bell.

Leticia was already running, a streak toward Xi like a swallow. Snow took one step, then stopped cold. The main demon force was returning, a black tide rolling over the ridge. She swallowed despair like bitter tea, and led the children away like a shepherd under thunder.

Accidents kept rising like brambles, and Snow’s heart grew tired as wet cloth. She had sensed Xian’s fever, a heat trembling in the air. So she understood Xi’s choice, like two rivers choosing one bed. What she couldn’t understand was Leticia. Blind pursuit would only tangle Xi’s feet, like vines in a path.

But the arrow had flown. She had done what she could, like a wall against rain.

Far off, Xi held Xian close, weaving through trees like wind among reeds. Demons hunted behind her, footfalls like drumbeats on dry earth. She kept calling Xian’s name, the sound a lantern in fog. “Xian, don’t sleep. You promised. I’m taking you to find that big brother.”

“If you sleep, you’ll never see him. You’ll never see Father and Mother, like boats missing each other in night.”

Xian’s lips moved, eyes closed like petals at dusk. “Sis… sis…”

“Xian!” Xi stopped, the world tilting like a ship. She shook Xian, tears burning like salt. Hate surged—not for anyone, but for herself. Why hadn’t she learned healing spells, dew on the blade at dawn? Why was she so weak, like a reed in a flood? If she could tip the war, this day wouldn’t have shattered like glass.

If she had strength enough, the town would not have burned like straw.

Scouts circled her, a ring of shadows under a blood-red sky. They didn’t rush, a wary pack under a strange moon. Maybe her stillness was a trap. Maybe the silence had teeth.

“Tie her up.” The leader’s voice was flat, like a stone dropped in a well. They couldn’t stall in the mire forever.

A scout stepped forward with a rope, reluctant as a man stepping into cold river. The scene felt wrong, like a dream turned sideways. None of them spoke the local tongue. Xi’s cries tore like cloth, and they caught no meaning, only the storm.

He took another step, like a moth to a flame. The sky darkened all at once, like ink poured into water.

Black feathers fell, a rain of night. High above, a pair of shadowed wings flared, proud as a cliff.

“Fallen angel?!” Panic cracked like ice.

“Retreat. Everyone, retreat!” The order barely left his mouth. The feathers hit like arrows from a storm, stitching bodies with a hundred cold needles. In a breath, they lay like broken puppets on black snow.

Only around Xi, a small circle lay clean, a calm pond amid hail.

She lifted her face, eyes clouded like smoke. “An angel…”

Then clarity snapped back like a bowstring. “You’re… Leticia?”

High in the air, Leticia’s cold mask melted like frost at dawn. She folded her black wings, drifted down, and touched earth as lightly as ash. “My lady, are you hurt?” Her voice was soft, a hand to a fevered brow.

The wings vanished like mist. She stood as the girl in Xi’s memory, simple as a cup of water. If not for the feathers strewn like midnight petals.

“Well… then I should go,” Leticia murmured, turning like a shadow. She thought Xi recoiled from what she was, a stain of night on white cloth.

“No…” Xi caught her sleeve, fingers trembling like willow leaves.

“I don’t care what kind of angel you are. Please. Save the town. Save Xian.” Her plea rang like a bell over snow.

Silence fell, heavy as rain. Hope thinned like thread. Leticia’s eyes lowered, and the truth came cold. “I’m sorry. I don’t have that kind of power.” She could borrow her bloodline, shift for a moment into a fallen angel, but it was a candle beside the sun.

She was only a counterfeit angel, a paper wing in a gale.

“No hope?” Despair rose like black water. For the first time, the world felt hollow, an empty shell under a gray sea. Tears ran in twin lines, cool as river paths. Xi stared into the sky, eyes gone wide and distant. “A… rainbow…”

Across the horizon, a rainbow arched like a bridge of jade. For an instant, she saw a vast Azure Bird sweep by, a blue flame over the clouds.

“At the rainbow’s end…” The words tasted like spring. She seized that thread like a climber gripping a root. “I’ll follow the Azure Bird’s trail, to the rainbow’s end.” She hoisted Xian onto her back, her bite deep into her lip like a vow carved in bark. Even a sliver of hope was a star to steer by.

A voice rose in her mind, gentle as warm wind through pines. “There lies the Aurora Goddess’s dwelling. There, life and death don’t bind. Illness and endings are washed away like dust in rain.”

It was a voice she knew, a hearth-song at her ear. Familiar, yet strange, like a face in a dream.

“I’ll go with you.” Leticia lifted her gaze to a blue sky, vast as the sea. Choice sparked in her eyes like flint. Xi wanted to guard her happiness. So did she, a mirror wish under the same sun.

Ancient Memory Town lay quiet as a temple at noon. Demon soldiers around it had thinned to almost none, like scattered crows. Only a few lingered outside the walls, figures on a broken horizon. The rest were gone, swallowed by shadow.

At the shattered center, an old man with white hair stood with a cane, rooted like an ancient pine. He watched the newcomers with eyes like cold stars.

“You truly mean to do this?” His voice was calm, a clear stream over stone. “This place is favored by the Supreme God. Turn back, or thunder will find you.”

“The Supreme God?” a demon in dark armor laughed, iron under night. “Our Demon Emperor is the Supreme God. You’re one of the best among humans. Bow to our emperor. Rule the world with us, like a hawk on the wrist.”

They were few, but each was iron, a commander who held a thousand spears. Many such lords had gathered, a storm of banners, for this small town like a pearl on sand.

“Then there’s nothing more to say.” The old man tossed aside his cane, a branch into wind. Space wavered, and gravity loosened like a knot. Pebbles rose around him, drifting like stars in a black lake.

Wrinkles smoothed on his face like ice under sun. His bent back straightened like a blade from its sheath.

“Our honor won’t be trampled.” A young voice rang from the mayor’s mouth, bright as morning steel. His hair stayed white as frost, but youth lit him like fire in snow.

“Let me—White Soul—see if you dogs of the Demon World have grown.” His confidence stood tall, a mountain under storm.

They met his gaze and felt it like pressure from the sky. He wasn’t meeting them eye to eye. He looked down, a god on a high cliff.

“You… you’re… White Soul…” The name fell among them like thunder over a plain.