The rain came suddenly, in torrents that swept across the neon glow of the carnival. Children screamed—not out of fear, but excitement—while adults scrambled for cover under flimsy umbrellas and the cotton-candy stalls. But Shi Xia wasn't looking up at the sky or running for shelter.
She was staring at the photograph in her trembling hands.
A boy, tall and proud, with the grin of someone who thought the world too easy for him. Her brother. Her only family.
Shi Dong had vanished three months ago without a word. No calls. No letters. The police wrote him off as "probably traveling," but Xia knew better. He wasn't the type to leave her behind.
And now, here she was—alone, soaked, chasing after a thread of a clue that led to a fortune teller who had muttered, "The stars say he walked through a gate of light."
Madness.
Xia dashed through the puddles, dodging a clown on stilts and the shrieking laughter of other festival-goers. Her sneakers skidded as she slipped on something—something slick and warm, like water alive.
The puddle beneath her shimmered unnaturally, like a mirror holding the moonlight too long.
She gasped.
And then, the world flipped.
The fall was endless.
Her screams echoed into stars that didn't exist in her world. Colors twisted. A humming—high and sharp—pierced her skull, and then, everything went dark.
She awoke to silence.
No sirens. No laughter. Just the sound of wind brushing across stone. Shi Xia blinked, struggling to sit up. She was sprawled on cracked marble, surrounded by pillars carved with runes glowing faint gold. The sky overhead was impossibly wide, washed in lavender clouds. Two moons—two—hung side by side.
"What... where am I?" she breathed.
A thud echoed behind her.
Xia turned, and her breath caught.
Two men stood at opposite ends of a grand courtyard. One, dressed in white, was calm and composed, with long silver hair and eyes like winter frost. His hands glowed with spiritual energy, poised but unhurried. The other was shrouded in black, his armor pulsing with dark light, and flames of midnight-blue flickering at his fingertips.
They were fighting—no, dueling, like immortals from a fantasy novel.
Suddenly, the man in white lunged, his blade forming from light itself. The black-armored figure laughed—a laugh she recognized.
"Shi... Dong?"
He looked up as if hearing her.
That was the last thing she saw before their clash lit up the sky.
When she woke again, it was quiet once more. Her head throbbed. The ground felt soft now—like moss. Her leg screamed when she tried to move.
A cool hand touched her brow.
"Be still," a voice said. Low. Gentle. It carried the weight of command but the tenderness of an older brother.
Her eyes opened slowly.
The man in white robes knelt beside her, concern barely visible on his stoic face. His silver hair draped over one shoulder like woven moonlight.
"I am Hou Chi, High Priest of Yu Hua Sect," he said. "You fell from the sky. Why?"
"I don't know," Xia rasped. "I was looking for... my brother."
Hou Chi's brow twitched. A flicker of recognition.
"Your name?" he asked.
"Shi Xia."
Silence.
Then he did something unexpected. He rose, and with utter certainty declared, "From this day forward, I am your elder brother."
Xia blinked. "What?"
"You must be protected."
And without another word, he summoned a floating jade sword and gently lifted her onto it.
As the wind carried them into the clouds, Shi Xia whispered to herself:
"What the hell have I fallen into?"
To be continued...