A flash of moonlight cut through the thick mist and gloom. Silver eyes caught the movement. The whispers surrounded Touying, words indistinct. He felt as if a breath washed over him, cold and sharp. He looked over his shoulder once, but the wind urged him forward, not back.

He followed the coursing moonlight quickly, but his breath grew ragged, rattled in his throat. A cough betrayed him as he picked his way over fallen stonework, twisted roots, and verdant trees.

Paused atop a stone, Touying saw her more clearly. It was Empress Yue. Had all of the Imperial family been plucked from their world to... wherever this was? The question pressed itself forward in his mind once more; had he been the cause?