"The top floor is above us. The Red Cloud Suite is at the far end, facing the sea," Jiu Jia Yi said, gripping the rope with one hand and wedging a foot into a metal rung.
Lin Yun followed him, both hands clenched around the chain. She wasn't good at climbing, but the unresolved knot in her heart burned so fiercely that she forced herself to forget her fear.
They barely spoke as they climbed. Only their breathing and the faint clink of metal echoed through the shaft. Each rung brought her heartbeat closer to its breaking point; each step toward the Red Cloud Suite drew them nearer to an unseen but all too real whirlpool.
At last, they stopped before a gray-white cabin door. It bore no number, only an old silver emblem shaped like an eye—or perhaps a fish scale.
"We're here," Jiu Jia Yi said quietly.
Lin Yun's heart nearly stopped.
The Short Blade was out of its sheath again, its sharp edge catching a glimmer of light. Jiu Jia Yi tapped the door three times with the hilt. No answer.
He struck it again.
Still nothing.
Jiu Jia Yi's gaze hardened. He drove his foot into the lock.
Bang!
The door flew open, but the room beyond was strangely quiet. There were no lights, only a last ember glowing faintly in the fireplace. The curtains stirred in the wind, and the damp sea air swept inside, carrying an odd, sweet, fishy scent.
The room was elegantly furnished: a red velvet sofa, a solid-wood liquor cabinet, an old painting on the wall... Everything was in order, without the slightest sign of a struggle. It looked like a home whose occupant might return at any moment, not a base for cult rituals.
"No one's here," Lin Yun whispered.
"No." Jiu Jia Yi frowned. An eerie sense of familiarity crept over him, like the chill he had felt when he heard those incantations in the theater. "He's here... He just hasn't shown himself."
"You mean he's hiding?"
"No. He's been waiting for us."
He walked toward the center of the sitting room, then stopped and stared at a sheet of paper spread across the coffee table.
It was a yellowed piece of parchment covered in an intricate totem drawn with painstaking precision. A huge spiral filled its center, surrounded by seven symbols shaped like rifts. At the top, a single sentence stood out:
"The key is among you."
Lin Yun instinctively looked at Jiu Jia Yi.
At that instant, flames suddenly roared up in the fireplace at the far end of the room, and a streak of blue light traced a strange arc across the corner.
A voice sounded from deep inside the room.
It was gentle and low, with an irresistible pull.
"Welcome, my guests. Sorry I'm late."
They spun around. A man in a black suit slowly emerged from the shadows in the corner, moving with easy grace and wearing an almost courteous smile.
His hair was black as ink, but his eyes were the lifeless gray-white of a dead sea, devoid of emotion.
"You're... Bai Mo," Jiu Jia Yi said slowly, his voice cold.
"Yes." The man smiled and dipped his head. "It's a pleasure to see you again, Jiu Jia Yi. And your young companion."
Lin Yun's chest tightened, and her hands curled into fists. "Why did you... kill my brother?"
Bai Mo shook his head and sighed. "I didn't kill him. He... chose his own way out. He simply understood too late that the 'door' wasn't meant for him."
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