“Is depletion my inescapable fate?” A voice without a face drifted through the white void like wind crossing new snow.

“Why did I stay back then? Millennia crawled by like frost on glass. The ice sealing this plane thinned by a breath, yet the plane itself is threadbare.”

“This time… do we do as before, ‘me’? Do we fetch a gifted one from outside, like a seed blown in on a cold gust?”

“If not, what else is there? Heh… this is all I can do, like a candle guttering in a gale.”

“When the world breaks, a life not of this plane will punch through an ice dome a thousand winters old and pull the plane from ruin. The only believer in that mad prophecy is me—the one they call a god. How… ironic.”

Silence fell again. Overhead, white bled into ice-blue, like dawn beneath a glacier.

—

Palace of Evernight.

A girl with pink hair to her shoulders reclined on a bed soft as cloud, her gaze cool on an ancient scroll that crackled like dried leaves. She looked sixteen in the face, yet her beauty carried the first blush of a peerless fairy. Her irises were wine-red, catching souls like garnets in snow. Long white legs lay under a snow-silk gown; where the fabric thinned like frost, skin showed like a warm peach at dawn. The dress lifted two generous curves like twin snowdrifts; even without posing, her cleavage drew the eye like a shadowed valley.

She was the Queen of the Blood, a sovereign of a thousand years—Vinoena Qianya.

“Most of that era’s history was burned, huh… Auntie, did you hide this for my safety?” Her heart rose like a stormfront, then steadied like ice. “But I have my own vow to settle… Forgive me, Auntie. I have to do this. Vampires… even if you lie snug in a coffin, I’ll turn you to ash on the wind!”

Riotous mana surged across the royal city like a black tide. The guards at the gates shook like reeds in a gale. None dared run; a single step, and that pressure would crush them like shells underfoot.

—

Royal Palace of the Radiant Empire.

Bai Zhi sat with her knees hugged to her chest, small as a seashell on a chair, her mood a gray sea. Beside her, the maid Hanrui did her best to console the queen.

“Sigh… Hanrui, am I beyond saving? Little Yingxuan hasn’t spoken to me for two days. As her mother… am I really that unlikeable?” Her voice trembled like a string in winter.

“…Your Majesty, I keep saying this. Be more lively with your own kin. You slump like a pile of wet clay, and no one wants to get close.” Hanrui frowned, then softened like spring light.

“What’s the point of ‘lively’? Yingxuan’s off with other girls again. She’s about to go to school. I… I’ll never see her.” The thought stabbed like a cold needle.

Hanrui’s mouth twitched. “You’re exaggerating, Your Majesty. The princess is just going to school. She needs a few personal maids to look after her. And even at school she can write you letters…”

“Right. She’s leaving.” Bai Zhi’s smile tilted like a cracked mask. “From childhood to now, we barely spent any real time together. I… I’m unfit.”

“No. I think the only reason the princess avoids you is your gloom.” Hanrui’s tone warmed like a hearth. “Besides, in talent and politics alike, ministers shower her with praise. That’s thanks to your guidance.”

“I know. They’re itching for me to step down.” Bai Zhi smiled, thin as a blade.

Cold sweat broke over Hanrui like rain. She suddenly feared for the ministers’ health.

“Your Majesty, I don’t think that’s what they meant…”

“No, Hanrui. I’m clear-eyed.” Bai Zhi’s gaze was a quiet lake in winter. “I’ve done cold-blooded things. I had to. I’m this nation’s queen. Some stains only I can take on. Yingxuan, born into peace—I want her to have a bright future. Leave the filth to me, the fiend that crawled back from hell.” She let herself smile, soft as falling ash.

“Your Majesty…”

—

“Icebind, Thousand Blades!”

Over hammered-steel seas, Dreamsound and I started another round of spar—no, sanctioned bullying. Years of grindstone and quiet mending had honed me to a razor. I felt at my peak, like a blade just quenched. I could beat the old me, easy.

Of course, she can’t use Frostwhisper… also can’t open that godlike mode… and she has to be my height… and the arena has to be over the ocean.

Anyway, I feel freakin’ strong.

Come on!

“Ho~ Coming straight at me? Not going back to cook, but moving closer to me?” Her voice flowed like silk over ice.

“Thanks to that idiot Xuanxiao, who used her own body to hammer home our gap, like a cheated-on fool shoving it in your face.”

Xuanxiao, freshly pummeled, flipped her off in silence.

Ha! Who’re you sweet-talking, brat? Everyone knows Sister Xuanxiao loves to play dead. “If I don’t close in, how would I know if I’ve reached your so-called qualifications?”

“Hoho~ Then come a little closer…”

I flew for Dreamsound like a gull skimming waves.

“Take my blade! Blade Flash!”

My sword cut through her afterimage like light through mist. Missed.

“Too slow, far too slow… right now, you’re so weak.” Her words fell like snow, gentle and cold.

“Even without the sea’s blessing—just mana and bodywork—my level’s far above yours, little Shengsheng.”

“Tch… Anything you can do, I can too. So we’re—”

“Are we? Then let’s test the gap.” Dreamsound smiled like a crescent moon. “I do want to know your level, now.”

“You talk big. But didn’t my last cut still hit you?” A small lock of blue hair lay between my fingers like seaweed.

“Isn’t that yours?” Her mouth twitched. “Why do you always push yourself? Be good. Admit defeat, go make dinner, then warm my bed.”

“Not listening, not listening! This is your hair!”

“Then I’ll accept your cute little sulk, and play a bit longer.”

“Frostscar Waltz!”

“Oh? A speed match? Come, then.”

“Gale-Frost…”

[Silent Sea Lullaby] (time slows)

To be continued…

Aaagh—We were supposed to race speed!

“Hmph! I’m furious. That jerk only bullies me. Forces me to cook every day. Eat yourself to death!” Qingsheng Tangxue grumbled in the kitchen, the ladle swirling like a storm.

…

“Ahem… Dream sis, isn’t Little Tangxue’s strength growing too fast?” Xuanxiao asked, worry pricking like needles.

Across from Xuanxiao, Dreamsound lifted her teacup, steam curling like moonlight over water. “It’s fine. Little Shengsheng is about where she was, back then…”

“Back then?”

“Mm. Back then… Compared to the one she used to be, she’s still far behind.”

“…,” Xuanxiao thought, feeling Dreamsound was speaking in riddles, keeping some tide-hidden truth from her.