Qian Renxue paused for only a breath before following Bai Jin up the mountain.
Bai Jin draped his coat over her shoulders. He was still wearing the elder's ceremonial robes. The mountain wind swept down the Stone Steps and flipped back his collar. He pressed it down without slowing.
"What did you see?" Qian Renxue asked.
"A trace of something purplish-black."
"Soul Power?"
"Too far away. I could only tell it wasn't staying still."
Nothing looked amiss above the Papal Hall now. The heavy Hall Gate stood quietly shut, light spilling through the tall windows on either side as usual.
But the blue light in Bai Jin's eyes had not faded.
That wisp of energy had appeared for only an instant, leaving the faintest trace along the inside of the Hall Gate. It had retreated quickly, pulling its own traces back with it as it passed through the Soul Power barrier by the entrance.
Whoever was inside was still awake if she could do that.
Qian Renxue did not press him for a judgment. If the Six Eyes could see clearly, Bai Jin would have told her already. "It wasn't staying still" meant he was uncertain too.
Below them, great swathes of Spirit City remained lit. On the first night after the empire's founding, many Soul Masters who had traveled from afar were still awake. Faint voices drifted with the wind to the long staircase, then vanished into the mountain's silence.
Bibi Dong had stood on the dais for a long time that day.
Qian Renxue had been scarcely a dozen paces from her. She had watched her accept seal after seal, rein in nobles testing the new rules, and hand the Northern Front's military banner to Bai Jin. Her Scepter had not wavered once.
If that purplish-black energy had