"What is it?"
"I can't quite say." Xilos chose her words carefully.
"It feels like a faint trace of power in my blood, something drawn to the Life Force."
"I could vaguely feel it when we entered the Inner Zone earlier today. It's growing clearer now, as though something is drawing me in one direction."
"Drawing you?" Shen Yi caught on to her wording. "You're not moving toward it on your own?"
"No." Xilos shook her head.
"It's as if something is calling to it. The pull isn't strong, but it never stops. It's like an invisible thread, with one end tied to my blood and the other to the depths of this Holy Land."
Shen Yi fell silent for a moment.
He recalled the test with the Myriad Hearts Stone. Xilos's affinity had pointed toward an ancient line of inheritance.
He hadn't looked into it then, taking it for another possible path for her flames.
But now that power in her blood was stirring on its own, and pointing toward the depths of the Holy Land...
"Where does it lead?"
"That way." Xilos lifted her chin ever so slightly.
"Somewhere deep inside. Toward the Hidden Light Hall, I think."
Shen Yi's gaze darkened.
The Hidden Light Hall.
Byron had just summoned them there for a private talk, then sent them back.
Now Xilos's blood was pointing that way. Was it a coincidence, or was someone secretly drawing her there?
He asked quietly, "Can you suppress it?"
"Yes," Xilos said. "It's only probing. I don't feel anything else. If I don't follow it, it stays quiet."
"Then suppress it for now," Shen Yi said.
"Until we know where it comes from, don't let it stir too much."
Xilos acknowledged him, then closed her eyes and concentrated, pressing that restless power