When the scarred woman said “Radiant Sanctuary,” the mood twisted, cold fog curling around candle light.

Everyone knew how a girl got treated in the Sanctuary; once inside, escape was a swallow snared in silk nets.

For some, death would come easier, like stepping into winter sleep.

As the air grew heavy as storm clouds, Silver Luan readied for a fight, planning to take the scarred woman by force.

The search squads hadn’t closed in yet, so a few fish might slip the net.

But the bandit leader came first, the keystone in the arch.

A Fifth Rank was no pushover; if she fled into the pines, you’d chase smoke and lose her.

“You sure you won’t surrender?”

Cerqin shot Silver Luan a blade-thin look to hold back, then spoke to the silent scarred woman.

“You can’t beat us. Run now, and you might have a thread of chance, but…”

A small vial glinted like dawn dew in Cerqin’s palm; her dagger hand came free, pinching the girl’s chin.

Then, faster than thunder could answer, she poured the liquid into the girl’s mouth.

In the next blink, the girl’s skin flushed crimson and her body went limp, maple burning red.

The potion was Aileaf’s old stock, undiluted; to an ordinary body, it was poison dressed as medicine.

“If you don’t surrender, she’s dead, you know~” Honeyed words with frost beneath.

“You!”

The scarred woman blanched and lunged; Silver Luan cut the wind like a hawk and barred her path, a shield before Cerqin and the crumpled girl.

“Decide. Surrender, and I save her.” Silk-soft voice with steel under it.

The brew burned stamina and magnified the senses, a bell struck till it screams.

In raw form, it drained a Third Rank in under a minute and gnawed at life like frost on a leaf.

Cerqin never meant to let the girl die; no antidote existed, but she could blunt the backlash, calm like moonlight on water.

She just had to use the Love God and pour spring rain warmth back into her.

The hitch: that fix let the drug run its full course, a boat adrift in fog for an hour.

Aileaf’s notes said the subject would drop into a mindless, chaotic state after that span.

Only ten seconds had passed; the girl’s clothes were soaked like rain on lotus, her reddened skin paling, her face growing dire.

The scarred woman saw it all; a Fifth Rank like her couldn’t pierce Silver Luan’s iron pines.

Even if she snatched the girl now, she’d have no cure, empty hands in a storm.

“She can hold maybe thirty more seconds~ Your time’s thin, sand sliding through glass.”

Cerqin spoke as she crouched, hand hovering for the touch; the Love God’s power began to turn, a warm tea current.

The scarred woman deflated, a punctured drum gone silent, and finally let the fight go.

“I… I surrender…”

“That’s the spirit~” A lantern-bright smile.

Cerqin surged the Love God like a river and restored the girl, then looked up at the scarred woman’s dagger stare.

“Then do me a favor with your people outside~” Her voice drifted like wind through bamboo.

“…”

“Silver Luan, you and Kiki at the door, take the prisoners; the net should still hold.”

Silver Luan narrowed his eyes at Cerqin cradling the girl and didn’t move, a held breath heavy as stone.

“What? Don’t you have the binding locks?” Words tapping like knuckles on wood.

Each squad carried binding locks that iced a wearer’s magic, frost sealing a stream.

“And you, Cerqin?” A glance sharp as a pin.

“My hands are full… I’m staying put.” A cat guarding warm coals.

There were still dozens outside; some might bolt instead of bow, deer toward snare lines.

Two or three of us made little difference; let the outer squads cast a wider web across the reeds.

Cerqin watched Silver Luan still rooted and struck flint in her mind, realization sparking.

“Uh… relax. I’m not doing anything to her.” Cotton-soft voice.

“You’d better not.” Warning cold as iron.

“You still don’t trust me?” A question light as smoke.

“Because it’s you, I don’t.” A blade under silk.

“…”

Cerqin went quiet; she had no interest in the girl, wrung out by the brew and living by the Love God’s thin thread, a silk cord over a well.

No interest, and no fun; taste flat as stale tea.

“Can you let her go…” A gravel-rough plea.

The scarred woman stood to the side, life balanced like a leaf on water in Cerqin’s palm.

She didn’t dare twitch; fear crouched like a shadow dog.

“I ordered the hit on the caravan. It wasn’t the young lady. She’s no criminal—enemies hunted her, and she ended a prisoner…” Her words fell like stones into a deep well.

Despair gnawed her, yet an impulse fluttered, a moth chasing a lantern for a turn of fate.

It came from nowhere; she noticed and confusion rippled her face, pond rings in still water.

Begging the Radiant Sanctuary like this should never work, prayers tossed at a locked gate.

“From that tone, your identities aren’t simple~” A crescent-curved smile.

Cerqin smiled, thoughts turning like slow wheels, then spoke to the scarred woman.

“If she’s not a criminal, I can put in a plea; what follows, I won’t promise.” A branch laid across a stream.

“Huh?” A sound light as a sparrow.

“Mm?” A hum under breath.

The scarred woman’s heart stumbled; half-thought words had clicked a latch in the fog.

“Anyway, talk your people outside down~ Do well and earn merit with your guilt.” A red tassel chance dangling.

“Fine.” The answer clipped like a knife.

Silver Luan soon led the scarred woman out of the wooden hut with its roof torn away, shingles like fallen leaves.

Cerqin sat cross-legged, kept contact with the unconscious girl, and stared at a sky pale as washed silk.

She didn’t care much whether the girl had sinned; she’d only joined the Sanctuary recently, but knew insider secrets tucked like blades in sleeves.

Persecuted or hunted ones, once cleared, did receive favor, mercy ladled like warm broth.

They didn’t broadcast it, for many reasons, and the Law Enforcement Hall’s name was thunder-loud across the land.

The Holy Maiden had spoken of nobles and small-state princesses, petals torn by autumn wind, fallen into prisoner-like lives.

The Radiant Sanctuary usually took them in, a lantern in rain.

Some with special status hid names and became ordinary Nuns, bright pearls tucked into clay.

The church in Eastern Sea City had a few such stories, sea wind whispers.

While restoring the girl’s stamina, Cerqin read her body like fingers over silk.

She sat at the Third Rank’s peak, about to touch the Fourth Rank, a bud swelling toward bloom.

The girl was young, her talent bright; in Eastern Sea City, she could be a Nun, and in Northfort, Third Rank meant entry.

While Cerqin’s thoughts wandered, Kiki pushed the door and slipped in, a dusk cat.

She’d watched the camp from the outer shadows, then hid and saw Silver Luan take surrenders, snatching runners one by one.

Maybe it was the Sixth Rank display, or the scarred woman’s words; few ran, and binding chains held moon-cold on wrists.

“Done already?” Surprise flicked like a fan.

“Mm… a lot smoother than I thought.” A boat finding calm water.

Kiki nodded, a sparrow pecking rice.

“And aside from those who left earlier, we suppressed basically everyone.” The camp lay quiet as snow.

Kiki sounded a bit down, a needle pricking silk, and Cerqin’s curiosity stirred.

“Why do you sound not that happy?” Warm tea voice.

“The ones who bullied me are mostly gone…” Grievance clung like damp fog.

“It should be fine. They’ll probably run into other squads, deer into snare lines.”

“I still wanted payback…” An ember glowing under ash.