Night had fallen over the Celestial Guard Pavilion like a leaden shroud. There was no wind, no song of night birds; even the torches guarding the walls seemed to burn with a timid fire, as if afraid to witness what was about to happen.
Suwei woke with a start. There was no sound in the room, only the steady rhythm of his own breathing. Yet something within him screamed that the calm was merely a disguise, a silence before the breaking. He rose slowly, barefoot, and walked to the window. From there, he saw the vast courtyard of the pavilion, bathed in cold, almost cruel moonlight.
"Something is about to break," he murmured to himself, with a certainty that pressed upon him like an invisible weight.
