The Return Undeserved

The frost was late this year.

Xue stood alone at the edge of the courtyard, her arms crossed over her fine robe—white silk lined with sapphire thread, a reflection of her pristine image within the sect. Her silver hair, tied into a long braid, shimmered like snowfall under the waning sunlight.

But her gaze was clouded.

Beneath the proud brow and sharpened tongue lay a discontent she could neither name nor bury.

He had left.

No words.

No warning.

No confrontation—just a silence too wide for her thoughts to cross.

She'd only meant to tease him, back then.

Mock the low-born boy who kept showing up with defiance in his voice and silence in his eyes.

She'd only meant to keep him in his place.

But then… something shifted.

The way he'd spoken back without fear.

The way his eyes never begged—never even blinked.

And the way he had asked her, that one time—

"If even your rules are cages, then what's the point of the crown?"

That question hadn't left her.

Xue walked the quiet stone paths of the inner sect.

Disciples bowed as she passed. Some with fear. Others with envy.

None dared stop her.

She paused at the western wing—the secluded hall of archives.

She'd broken the rules that day.

It was she who had tampered with the roster to give Jin Mu an access slip.

She who had feigned an official request to grant him an extra hour.

She hadn't told anyone.

Not even her cousin in the Elder Hall.

Why?

Why did you disappear…?

Had he found out?

Had he used her and simply vanished?

The thought stirred a heat in her chest—one that looked suspiciously like hurt.

In her private chamber, she paced.

Then sat.

Then stood again.

Nothing settled.

Even during her training, her frost threads frayed mid-technique. Her instructor scowled and whispered, "What's wrong with her lately?"

She wasn't sure.

He wasn't supposed to matter.

And yet…

Every time she passed the garden alcove where they'd argued.

Every time she walked the stone path he used at dusk.

Every time she opened her journal and saw the scribbled symbol he'd once drawn idly on a corner—she hesitated.

That evening, her feet carried her on restless impulse.

She told herself she was just curious.

She didn't care.

She just… needed to make sure.

The dormitory hall was quiet now, the sky outside bleeding indigo and starlight.

Jin Mu's old room was sealed.

Or at least, it was supposed to be.

But the door—

It was slightly ajar.

She stopped in the shadow of the corridor.

Footsteps shuffled within.

Whispers.

A boy's voice.

Shen Yan.

And another voice—female. Younger. Hushed, careful, and unfamiliar.

Xue's brow creased. She moved closer, cloaking herself in a veil of minor spiritual silence.

She recognized the items scattered on the floor.

Jin's old belongings—his brush set, a worn leather book, fragments of a broken seal tag.

Shen was hunched near the bedside drawer, pulling out a few loose papers and slipping them into a cloth bag.

"I thought we already took everything he'd need?" the girl asked.

"He asked for this before he was taken," Shen replied softly. "Before everything happened."

Taken?

Xue's breath caught.

The girl—red-haired, eyes rimmed red with recent grief—held up a strip of broken sigil glass.

"What is this?"

Shen frowned.

"Sequence talisman. Bound to his old signature."

Xue's nails dug into her palm.

What is going on?

They had said Jin left. Disappeared.

No word from him, no explanation.

She had assumed—maybe he'd run.

But now… taken?

Before everything happened?

Her heart pounded.

She stepped back into the darkened hallway before they could see her.

Then turned and vanished down the corridor like frost melting under the sun.

That night, she sat alone in her room, the sigil-lamp flickering low.

She lit a blank talisman, but didn't draw on it.

She stared at the dancing flame.

If Jin had been taken—if they'd lied to her—

Then she would find out why.

Not because she missed him.

Not because she'd secretly watched him walk away from her with his spine unbowed.

No.

Because this sect—her sect—

Had kept her in the dark.

And Xue didn't like being kept in the dark.

Not about him.

Not about anything.