Night had fallen over the residence by the time the small celebration broke up.

Lin Xuan walked the inner corridor with Lin Zhen behind him, the rest of the household already dispersed to their rooms. The dinner had been quiet, intimate, half a dozen plates and three bottles of plum wine. Lian had cried twice. Wei had bowed three times. Lin Kai had eaten in another wing, by his own choice, and nobody had pressed him.

Winning the tournament had meant a great deal. To the sect, it was a step forward after the two years Skyedge had spent watching its mines drain and its disciples leave. Lin Zhen had calculated, privately, that the family had two more years of bleeding before the books would no longer balance. The Crown of Yuncheng had bought them air to breathe.

Across the eastern continent, the news had already begun to travel. Heavenly Sword Pavilion had lost a regional tournament for the first time in seven generations, and to a regional sect at that. The other two great sects of the east, Cloud Veil Palace and Ashvale Hall, would be drafting their amused letters by the end of the week.

Before Lin Xuan reached the stair to his room, his father stopped him.

He pulled him into a full embrace and held it for the count of three. Lin Zhen had never once made him feel like an outsider in any of the rooms of this house. Blood or no blood, he had carried Lin Xuan as a son since the day he had been brought into the residence as a baby.

"Thank you for doing it, son. I am proud of you."

Lin Xuan returned the embrace and held the line of his expression so the words could land properly.

"Thank you, Father. I tried."

Lin Zhen pulled back, gave his shoulder a brief pat, and stepped away. He paused at the corner of the corridor.

"We will leave in a few days. There is no more business for us in this city, and the longer we stay the more letters arrive that I have not asked to receive. Sleep well, Lin Xuan."

"You too, Father."

He climbed the stair two at a time once Lin Zhen was around the corner, and pulled the door of his room shut on the day.

Plain Steel rested against the wall in its diagonal carry. The moon entered the shutter at the angle of a clear cold night. Lin Xuan lowered himself onto the bed, kicked off his boots, and looked at the ceiling for a long breath of nothing.

"Mira."

[ Yes, Xuan? ]

’Shall we see what reward you have been hiding for me?’

[ I think you are going to like this one. ]

The line of the system panel he had been ignoring since the Arena rotated to the front of his vision.

[ ▸ Bonus Hidden Reward: SEALED, pending private inspection ]

A short beat. Mira waited until he had really focused on the line.

[ Unsealed. ] [ You have received: Soul Lamp. ] [ Let me explain how it works, Xuan. It will be useful from this moment, and I think it is the ideal reward for you right now. ]

A weight materialized in his open palm.

He pulled himself upright and held it.

A small oil lamp the size of a closed fist. Bronze that had darkened with age into the tone of an old key. The lid pressed and embossed with a pattern of seven points he had come to recognize on a recent night. A wick of woven white thread. Warm to the touch, the way a stone was warm after it had been left in the sun. No smoke. No fuel he could see.

’...Mira.’

[ Vintage of the Shattered Era. Three preserved in my archive across the continent. Now two. ]

’The era of Yun Hai.’

[ Correct. ]

She held the panel in straight-information mode and walked him through the mechanic without ornament.

[ Light one wick for each living person you have met and recognize in your own head. Each wick lives while that person lives. The color shifts with their state. ]

[ Stable gold flame, the person is well. ]

[ Flickering red, the person is wounded or in grave danger. ]

[ Violet, the person is being moved on by external Qi. Manipulation, possession, curse. ]

[ Wick extinguishes, the person has died. ]

[ Capacity: twenty wicks at one time. To light a new one beyond that, you have to put one out. ]

He turned the lamp slowly in his palm. The bronze was warmer than the rest of his skin.

’This is going to be enormously useful.’

[ I thought you would feel that. ]

’I can place twenty people inside this thing and find out the instant any of them is being moved against. Father in his study. Lian in the kitchen. Wei in the patio. Lin Kai wherever Lin Kai sulks. People I have not met yet that I am going to need to watch.’

[ That is the function, yes. ]

’Useful does not begin to cover it, Mira. This is what one of my father’s old lawyer friends back home would have called career-defining.’

He bit the corner of his cheek to keep the smile in the range a young master kept his smiles in.

’When we are back at Skyedge I am going to crawl through Tier Two of the shop. I have not had time. For now I will meditate and try to sleep before whichever maid is on rotation tomorrow shows up with breakfast.’

[ Try not to lose the lamp before morning. ]

’I will not lose the lamp.’

A breath of quiet.

’And speaking of the system being useful. About the daily check-in rewards. Is there any chance you finally hand me something that is not another recovery pill? They have been recovery pills for while now. I have a small fortress of recovery pills in the inventory at this point.’

[ Excuse me. ]

The panel shifted half a tone toward indignation.

[ Without those recovery pills you would be dead inside and exhausted twice over, Xuan. You cultivate at a pace that takes bodies apart when no pills are propping them up. The pills are why you are walking. The pills are why your meridians do not look like noodles. Show some gratitude. ]

’I show gratitude, Mira. I show enormous gratitude. I was just teasing.’

[ ...You were teasing. ]

’Of course I was teasing. I am extremely grateful for the pills. I am grateful for everything you do. I am grateful for the snacks the system has been picking out for me. I am grateful for the meridian healing salve last month. The system is doing fine work, Mira. I see you.’

A pause.

And the panel, which had been violet at the borders since the day it appeared in his head, shifted color. The violet went softer, dimmed to red, brightened into a warm rose-pink, the pink that an embarrassed maiden in a romance novel was painted in. The border held that color for three full counts before it began to retreat to violet.

Lin Xuan stared at the panel.

’...Mira.’

[ Do not. ]

’The panel is pink.’

[ It is not. ]

’It is. It is pink. Right now. Pink, Mira. Are you blushing?’

[ I am not blushing. The panel had a calibration error. The visual will return to default in three seconds. ]

’The system that has been calibrating itself for six months had a calibration error at the exact moment I told it I was grateful for everything it does?’

[ ...Xuan. ]

’Mira. Are you embarrassed?’

[ Pick up the lamp and start lighting wicks, please. ]

’You are. The all-knowing system in my head is shy when I thank it. I am filing this for retrieval at moments you will not enjoy, for years.’

[ ENOUGH XUAN. Use. The. Lamp. ]

He laughed under his breath, the first real laugh he had let himself have since the morning of the final. He turned the lamp once in his palm and brought it to rest on the small table beside his bed. The bronze caught a thread of moonlight from the shutter and threw a small bright point onto the opposite wall.

He brushed the wick with the tip of his thumb. The wick was warm and silent and waiting.

The first two were going to be obvious. The rest were not.