They made camp among the ruins.
It was not a place meant for rest. The stones were too quiet, the air too heavy with memory. Still, night was approaching, and moving blindly through the Borderlands after sunset was a risk none of them were willing to take.
A small fire crackled weakly between broken pillars. Its light barely touched the dark beyond, as if the shadows refused to be seen.
Liuxue sat with her knees drawn close, staring into the flames. The seal on her chest was calm now, but she could feel it listening. Waiting.
Yining crouched nearby, poking the fire with a stick. "If any more masked lunatics show up tonight, I am stabbing first and asking questions later."
"That would not help," the Starborn man said quietly.
"It would make me feel better," Yining shot back.
Liuxue almost smiled. Almost.
The Starborn man stood a short distance away, gaze fixed on the dark horizon. He had not relaxed since the observers vanished. His posture was too alert, too prepared for something to go wrong.
Liuxue rose slowly and walked toward him.
"You said the truth would change everything," she said.
He did not turn. "Yes."
"When?" she asked.
He was silent for a long moment. Then he said, "Tonight."
Her breath caught. "All of it?"
"As much as you can survive hearing," he replied.
That phrasing made her uneasy.
Yining immediately stood. "I am not leaving."
He glanced at her. "Some of it does not concern you."
Yining crossed her arms. "She concerns me."
Liuxue placed a hand on Yining's arm. "It is all right. Stay. If I am going to learn who I was, I do not want to be alone."
The Starborn man nodded once. He moved closer to the fire, its light casting sharp shadows across his face.
"Before I begin," he said, "you need to understand something."
Liuxue met his gaze steadily. "Say it."
"You were not sealed because you were weak," he said. "You were sealed because you were unstoppable."
The words settled heavily in the air.
Yining frowned. "That sounds like a contradiction."
"It was," he replied. "To the heavens."
Liuxue's pulse quickened. "Unstoppable how?"
"You existed outside their system of balance," he said. "Power did not answer to you. It obeyed."
Her seal pulsed faintly, almost in agreement.
"The throne you saw," he continued, "was not granted. It manifested. That alone terrified them."
Liuxue swallowed. "So they destroyed me."
"They tried," he said. "You refused to die."
Yining's breath hitched.
"Your echo is what remains of that refusal," he said. "A will so strong it could not be erased."
Liuxue's hands trembled. "And you?"
He closed his eyes.
"I was tasked with stopping you," he said.
The fire popped sharply.
Liuxue felt something inside her fracture.
"Stopping," she repeated softly.
"Yes."
"How?" she asked.
"By sealing you," he said. "By breaking your power into fragments and anchoring what remained to a mortal life."
Silence crushed down around them.
Yining stared at him in disbelief. "You stole her life."
"I saved the world," he said hoarsely.
Liuxue's chest felt hollow. "Did you ask me?"
"No," he admitted.
Anger rose, slow and devastating.
"Did you think I would forgive you?" Liuxue asked quietly.
He met her eyes, pain naked in his expression. "No."
The honesty hurt more than anything else he could have said.
"Then why stay?" she demanded. "Why protect me now?"
His voice shook. "Because I was wrong."
The words were barely louder than the crackle of fire.
"I thought sealing you would end the destruction," he said. "But all it did was delay it. And condemn you to fear and confusion you never deserved."
Tears burned behind Liuxue's eyes, but she refused to let them fall.
"And now?" she asked.
"Now the heavens are afraid," he said. "Because you chose yourself over their design."
Yining let out a slow breath. "So what is she now?"
The Starborn man looked at Liuxue.
"Now," he said, "you are something they have no precedent for."
Liuxue straightened, spine stiffening with resolve.
"I am not reclaiming a throne," she said. "And I am not letting them erase me again."
He nodded. "That is why they will hunt you."
Her lips curved into a faint, dangerous smile.
"Then they should learn," she said, "that I am done being small."
The seal warmed, responding not with pain, but with strength.
Somewhere far above, beyond realms and rules, something ancient shifted uneasily.
Because for the first time since her fall, Liuxue was no longer running.
She was choosing.