----
The candlelight flickered, casting golden shadows on ancient scrolls spread across the jade table. Lian Yu's breath quickened as she leaned closer, the soft rustle of her robe echoing in the silent chamber.
She had broken several sect rules to access the hidden records beneath the Frostfeather Library. And for what? To confirm a suspicion that should've been impossible.
But now… she was sure.
> "It wasn't just an ancient beast," she whispered, tracing the faded ink of a hand-drawn seal formation. "That's a human seal—no, a prison."
And at the center of that seal, half-erased by time, was a symbol—a mourning flame.
The same mark she had seen pulsing faintly in the sea trench.
Lian shivered.
---
The Mourning Flame hadn't been recorded in detail, only mentioned in whispers between scrolls—some calling it a cursed cultivation, others a "flame that devoured fate." It had been tied to those who walked forbidden paths—devil cultivators, heretics, even rumored fallen gods.
> "No disciple should bear this mark," Lian muttered. "Yet it was there. And that boy—why seal someone so young in the Abyssal Depths?"
Nothing made sense. Not unless...
Unless someone had wanted to bury more than a person.
A truth.
---
She rolled up the scrolls with trembling hands and left the library. Outside, the moon hung high above Frostfeather Peak, bathing the sect in silver glow.
As she walked down the marble steps, she sensed it.
A shift in the wind.
Someone watching.
Lian turned—nothing. But the trees felt still. Too still. Like they were holding their breath.
She quickened her pace and headed for the elder hall.
---
"Elder Yun," she said, bowing as she entered the circular room.
The old man smiled gently, folding his hands before his long sleeves. His beard was flawless. His eyes were tired—but sharp.
> "Child, why trouble yourself so late?"
"I found something. I believe there is... someone sealed beneath the trench. And the markings—"
She stopped. Elder Yun's smile didn't change, but the air in the room grew heavier.
> "And how did you find these things?"
"I dived too far during my meditation training. I touched the formation. It pulsed. It… responded to me."
Yun stood, slowly.
> "Many strange things rest in our oceans. Some older than this continent. Curiosity, dear child, is a virtue—but also a poison."
Lian stepped back. "You knew?"
He didn't answer directly.
> "Some truths are like chains. Once you carry them, they never let go."
Lian's heart pounded. "Is it true that the Frostfeather Sect was once involved in the sealing of ancient cultivators who defied the heavenly mandate?"
> "That's enough." The warmth in his tone vanished. "You are not ready to bear the consequences of that question."
She felt the threat woven in silk. Not a scolding. A warning.
> I was right, she realized.
---
That night, Lian left the elder hall with a head full of fire.
And fear.
She knew now: someone in the sect didn't want the seal disturbed.
And that meant the boy—whoever he was—mattered.
Later, in the quiet of her meditation chamber, she wrote down every detail she could remember. The seal. The mark. The pulse. And one word that had echoed from her spiritual sense at the bottom of the sea:
> "Ash."
She paused.
> Is that his name? Or… what remains of him?
She locked the notes inside her spiritual ring, hidden behind multiple enchantments.
But as she drifted into a troubled sleep, she didn't see the faint shimmer at the edge of her window—an ethereal eye forming for just a second before vanishing into mist.
---
[Back in the Deep]
The sea churned.
Ash's body twitched again. A pulse. A flicker.
The seal shifted with a low hum—reacting to Lian's recognition of his name. As if her acknowledgement gave it permission to respond.
Deep in his slumber, Ash stirred.
> "Ash..."
A girl's voice. Faint. Distant.
He didn't know her name.
But he felt her concern.
And something in him responded—not with memory, but instinct.
> "I'm not done."
A swirl of crimson light ignited inside the formation, coiling briefly before vanishing. Not enough to break the seal.
But enough to awaken another ancient prisoner.
In the neighboring trench, a clawed hand twitched.
And the Mourner smiled wider.
---