The rise&fall

The forest thinned slightly as morning broke, and damp fog curled between the roots like smoke from a dying fire. Their boots pressed into soft moss and decayed pine needles. It was quiet — too quiet.

Leeyang suddenly stopped.

He brushed aside a few dead leaves and revealed an old stone marker buried in the soil. The symbol of a burning phoenix, now weathered and cracked, stared up at them.

"This is it," he said quietly. "We've just crossed the United Nation of Fire's last border post... we're in the Land of Xi now."

Everyone paused.

Gogjen looked around. "Looks the same. Creepy trees. Mud. Dead air."

"No," Huwue murmured, her voice low. "It's colder. Wetter. Listen — even the birds are gone."

They moved forward, the fog thickening around their ankles like hungry mist. Trees grew taller and more crooked, their bark veined with pale green lines that pulsed faintly.

As they advanced, the silence began to whisper.

Faint voices. Calling names.

"Gogjen..."

"Leeyang..."

"Rangi..."

They stopped again. Rangi drew her dagger slowly.

"That's not normal," she said.

Gogjen spun in a circle. "Okay, either the trees are talking, or I'm finally losing my mind."

"They're remnants," Huwue said. "Echoes from the Saibia Wars. This land was cursed by unfinished xiuzhen."

They pressed forward. At the base of a twisted pine, Gogjen stumbled.

"Whoa—!"

He landed face-first in front of a moss-covered statue — the form of a warrior, cloaked and headless.

Then the statue's eyes opened — glowing faintly blue — just for a second.

No one breathed.

But it didn't move again.

"Okay. Not doing that again," Gogjen whispered, backing away.

Before Rangi could respond, Leeyang raised a hand. "Wait."

Movement. Shadows among the trees. Then—

Arrows.

"Ambush!" Rangi shouted.

Six figures burst from the fog — scouts from the Land of Xi. Their cloaks bore the wave crest, and their weapons were curved shortblades glowing with cold blue light.

They didn't speak. Just attacked.

Leeyang and Gogjen drew their swords — basic steel, worn from travel. They moved together, blocking the first two strikes.

Gogjen grunted. "These guys are fast!"

"I noticed!" Leeyang snapped, parrying a blow that nearly grazed his cheek.

Huwue dodged cleanly, slipping through shadows with silent steps. She pulled two small blades from her sleeves — not enchanted, but sharp and fast. She deflected a scout's spear, then ducked behind a tree, refusing to summon the fire within her veins.

She couldn't.

Not here.

Rangi met the enemy head-on, blades flashing like silver light in the fog. She fought three at once — one with a hammer, one with a pair of clawed gauntlets, one who moved like wind.

"Stay behind me!" she shouted to Gogjen, who had stumbled back.

"I'm trying not to die!"

The scouts fought with trained silence, each blow coordinated — not meant to kill, but to disable and capture.

"They're trying to take us alive," Leeyang growled.

"I'd rather be tired than tied!" Gogjen snapped, swinging again.

As one scout nearly pinned Huwue against a tree, she turned her body sideways, disarmed him with a quick twist, and shoved him into the mud. Her breath shook. She felt the cursed heat rising inside her again.

Not now.

Rangi spun, knocking down one opponent with a kick, then leapt into the air, drawing on her xiuzhen.

"Enough," she whispered.

From the earth, roots burst upward — thick, bark-covered whips of living wood. Vines twisted from the ground, wrapping around the legs of the last two scouts. Before they could react, they were slammed into trees and pinned by the roots — unconscious.

Silence.

The fog hung heavy, stirred only by the slow crackle of bending branches.

Rangi dropped to one knee, panting. Her eyes glowed faintly green for a moment, but dimmed.

Leeyang lowered his blade. "That... was close."

Gogjen wiped sweat from his forehead. "Did we just win?"

Rangi looked up. "No casualties. But they weren't trying to kill us."

Huwue stood silently, blades sheathed, not a scratch on her.

"Check the bodies," Leeyang said.

They moved quickly, tying the unconscious scouts with rope, checking for signs of communication scrolls or badges.

"One, two, three, four... five," Rangi counted.

Her brow furrowed. "Weren't there six?"

They all turned slowly, eyes scanning the fog.

Then Leeyang saw it.

He pointed up.

Above them, hanging from a high tree branch, was a body — upside down, arms limp.

A Land of Xi scout — his chest torn open, a single black mark carved into it.

A crescent fang.

The symbol of the Silent Fang.

The team stared in silence.

The forest around them felt like it was holding its breath.

---

That night, the group set up camp further west, away from the cursed ground. No one spoke much. They barely even looked at each other. Rangi kept watch. Leeyang sat sharpening his blade. Gogjen lay on his back, eyes wide open, not bothering to pretend to sleep.

Huwue lay on the edge of camp, rolled in her blanket.

Eventually, sleep found her.

But peace did not.

---

She stood again in the middle of her childhood village. The sky was gray. Ash rained like snow.

Children stared at her. Adults pointed.

"She's the cursed child..."

"She killed her parents. Burned them alive."

"No fire should live in a girl like that."

Huwue — younger, smaller — stood at the center, barefoot and shaking. Her home was behind her, a blackened husk. The flames had died, but the stench of smoke clung to everything.

A priest threw salt at her feet. A woman screamed and pulled her children away.

"You should've died with them!" someone shouted.

She ran. But everywhere she turned, the fire followed.

Her younger self appeared before her — staring with glowing eyes, face twisted in grief.

"You couldn't stop it," the little version said. "And you won't stop it next time."

Then the flames swallowed everything.

---

Huwue woke with a gasp, drenched in sweat.

The fire was low again. Her hands trembled.

She looked around — no one had woken.

She turned her face to the trees and whispered, barely audible:

"Not yet..."