The wind howled across the open cliff edge, ripping at the edges of Lin Wan's wet cloak. Small pebbles danced near her broken cloth shoes, slipping over the brink into the dark, silent abyss below.
She kept her spine pressed tightly against the cold stone wall, her small hands flat against the rock behind her.
"I am not going back," she screamed into the mist, her voice trembling but full of fierce, desperate resolve. "Step back, Cassian! I mean it!"
The dark silhouette inside the thick fog did not stop. It took another step forward, the heavy boots making a soft crunching sound against the loose gravel. But as the figure moved closer, the suffocating, burning weight that usually accompanied the Sovereign did not crush her lungs.
The air did not turn to winter frost and dark ozone. Instead, a strange, gentle warmth began to cut through the freezing mountain air.
The thick white mist parted slowly, like a curtain being pulled away by an invisible hand.
