Lin Yun pressed her fingertips against the slightly raised circular mark at the center of the stone door. It was as cold as iron. The instant she touched it, a jolt seemed to shoot through her, and countless images and whispers flooded her mind.
The voices sounded like ancient incantations and the murmurs from her childhood nightmares. Low, cloying, inescapable—each word seemed to carve a crack deep into her consciousness.
She did not back away.
The door slowly moved.
It made no sound, but a damp, heavy gust rolled out, as though a corpse buried in the sea for a thousand years had climbed from the abyss. An indescribable gloom settled over the entire Red Cloud Suite.
The lights on the walls began to flicker. Several went out entirely.
Zhou Jiajie tightened his grip on his short blade and stepped sharply in front of Lin Yun. "Before you go in," he asked in a low voice, "tell me—do you still know who you are?"
Lin Yun looked at him. There was no confusion in her eyes, only a resolve so fierce it seemed close to breaking.
"I don't know... but I want to find out."
With that, she stepped through the doorway.
Beyond it lay no enclosed room, but a spiral staircase descending into the depths. The stone steps bore the marks of ages of erosion, as if no one had set foot on them for centuries. Light from an unknown source illuminated a few yards ahead; beyond that was absolute darkness.
Bai Mo followed her slowly, saying nothing.
Zhou Jiajie brought up the rear, his gaze fixed on Lin Yun. He could sense a subtle change in her presence, as though something invisible were gradually consuming her.
The staircase seemed endless.
After who knew how long, they could no longer hear the engines or feel the cruise ship's gentle sway. It was as though they had somehow left the ship and entered another, sealed-off space.
Suddenly, Lin Yun stopped.
"Do you hear that?" she asked softly.
"Hear what?" Zhou Jiajie scanned their surroundings.
"That... bell."
Her voice was barely audible, but Bai Mo nodded. "You can hear it because the door has accepted you as its master."
"What bell?" Zhou Jiajie still heard nothing. The absurd staircase had pushed his nerves to the brink.
"It's been ringing in my head since the moment I stepped through the door." Lin Yun turned. A faint blue glow had appeared in her eyes, and her pupils were slightly dilated. "It isn't an ordinary bell. It sounds like... like something calling me."
She suddenly smiled, sending a chill through Zhou Jiajie.
"We're almost there," Bai Mo said.
Sure enough, the stairs finally ended. A bronze-colored door stood before them. Carved into it was an enormous relief of seven hands reaching outward from the center, as if trying to seize the entire world—or struggling not to be dragged into it.
Lin Yun stood before the door, her breathing suddenly quickening.
"What's... in there?"
She had asked Bai Mo, but he did not answer at once. Instead, he spoke with something close to reverence. "The space beyond this door is called the Mirror Realm. It's where consciousness and dreams overlap, at the edge of reality."
"You said I was the key." Clarity had returned to Lin Yun's eyes, and a trace of mockery entered her voice. "Then what are you? The gatekeeper? My guide? Or another lock?"
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