Location:Hidden Valley, Eastern Ranges — Luminari stone ring, inside Isha's privacy ward
Date/Time:Mid Frostforge, 9939 AZI — late afternoon
Realm:Lower Realm
The silence after Jayde's question had weight.
Yinxin felt it settle across the dome — across the six pinned dragons whose threads she held on the Common Path, across the five Panthera in their loose perimeter, across the cold grass and the fading light and the girl standing half a step from her with one hand buried in her shadowbeast's neck-fur and gold-amber eyes that had not blinked.
Alright. What the kriff is going on?
Kriff. Yinxin had heard that word perhaps three times in all the months they'd shared. Each time had meant the same thing: Jayde was far more unsettled than she looked.
The question hung. Yinxin breathed out through the rawness in her throat and began.
"They were not hunting me." She kept her voice level. The hoarseness helped — it stripped everything down to bone. "They were looking for me."
