In the deepest part of the Hidden Light Hall, that mass of white light was still swelling.
Warm and soft, utterly silent, it illuminated every shadow in the hall.
The veils that had hung there for centuries overlapped layer upon layer. Once so black their edges were invisible, they now revealed the patterns beneath, line after line, like old scars.
Shen Yi stood at the heart of the light.
It spilled out of him, then sank back into him.
The strand of light Enrosis had transferred into him should have settled quietly.
But it refused.
It was swelling.
As though someone had thrown another handful of wood into a furnace of nearly spent ashes.
He stood without moving.
He could not move, either.
His limbs were still his own, but he could not lift them. It was as though the silence in the hall had nailed him in place.
He could hear his own heartbeat.
One beat.
Then another.
Apart from that, there was no other sound in the entire inner hall.
Xilos was the first to pale.
She was closest to Shen Yi.
The moment the light brushed the back of her hand, every hair on her arm stood on end.
"Elder."
She seized Shen Yi's sleeve and pulled him back.
"What is that?"
Enrosis did not look at her.
The figure in plain white stood a dozen paces away, her silver eyes fixed on Shen Yi, as though she feared he would dissolve if she so much as blinked.
She stood perfectly straight, like a flag planted in the ground.
But that flag had already begun to sway in the wind.
"It's for him," she said.
"What is for him?" Xilos's voice tightened.
"Your essence is in there. I can recognize it."
"Good, then."
"How can you