Beside him, Su Qinglan sat as she always did. She stared at the cave wall; her face was calm and expressionless. She didn't fetch water. She didn't stoke the dying fire. She simply existed in the silence she had created ten years ago.
Han Jue looked at her with hazy, tired eyes.
In his delirium, he imagined a healer walking through the cave entrance...someone who could save him, someone who could take over the burden of protecting this broken woman.
But the entrance remained empty, save for the whistling wind.
He knew his time was up. The darkness was crawling up from his feet, numbing his senses.
"Leader..." Han Jue wheezed, his voice barely a ghost of a sound. "I'm sorry. I can't... I can't keep the promise anymore. I'm too tired."
He reached out a trembling, skeletal hand, trying to touch Su Qinglan's hand one last time. He had spent his entire youth guarding a shadow. He had lost his brothers, his home, and his future just to keep her breathing.
