Sarina reached into the folds of her cloak with deliberate, slow movements. "Then there's something else I need to show you," she said.
The air in the room tightened again, both Ye Yue and Lanmei shifting closer, watching every motion. But instead of a weapon, Sarina pulled free a scroll bound in black silk, sealed with a faint divine brand—cracked and frayed with age.
She held it out toward Chen.
"I risked everything stealing this. It's a high-order tactical map—one of the original bindings from the Court of Chains' Grand Archive. Not just of battle formations or troop movement... this," her voice dropped, "is a divine tether chart. It shows where the divine courts are linked to the mortal world. Where they draw their power from."
Chen didn't take it at first. He stared at the seal, feeling the heat radiating off it like something alive. "How accurate is it?"
Sarina met his gaze. "It's not just accurate. It's alive. The map updates when the balance shifts. Every time a new god rises or falls, every time a sacred bond forms—this scroll reacts. It's the reason the Chains have stayed ahead of the others."
Lanmei's voice was laced with suspicion. "And you just happened to get your hands on it?"
"I was the one assigned to guard it," Sarina said. "Until I started questioning the Court's orders. Until I realized they weren't protecting creation—they were manipulating it."
Chen took the scroll, unwrapping it slowly.
As the silk unfurled, golden script flared to life across the parchment. Lines of divine essence traced the sky and realms, glowing red where power flowed strongest. He saw pulses where the Flame Court's fires raged. The quiet green flickers of the Verdant Domain. The shadowed trails of the Court of Chains.
And then—
A silver thread surged near the center. Faint, but pulsing. Like a heartbeat.
Ye Yue leaned in. "That's us."
"No," Sarina corrected. "That's you."
Chen's fingers tightened slightly on the scroll.
Lanmei stared. "You've shifted the balance already?"
Ye Yue turned to Chen slowly. "You're not just a disruption anymore. You're a centerpiece."
Sarina nodded. "And the other courts will move fast to extinguish you before that thread spreads. But this map… it gives us options. We can strike before they even realize you've seized momentum."
Chen stared at the glowing threads.
"Then we make our move," he murmured. "We pull the right ones... and unravel the old gods from the inside."