Year seventy-one of the Firefolk Era, on the night of the spring equinox.
Beside the Ruin Abyss Well, all was silent. Xiao Li sat quietly beside a blue stone, cradling A Man's empty lantern. It had no flame, yet it was warm. She closed her eyes and concentrated, her heart flame resonating with the earth's veins, as though she could hear countless souls whispering deep within the Nine Provinces—those dead who lingered in the wastelands, lay submerged in the deep sea, or remained trapped in prisons of the heart, still waiting for a lantern, a bridge, a way home.
Suddenly, a faint light shimmered in the well water. It neither boiled nor surged, only rippled gently, as though someone beneath the water had sighed.
Xiao Li opened her eyes and saw a bridge shadow appear above the Ruin Abyss Well.
It was made of light, condensed from longing, woven from the flames of countless heart lanterns. Its span seemed woven of fireflies, its railings carved with Lamp Language, and countless names flowed across its surface—the names of those who had not returned to the Nine Provinces for a thousand years.
Lantern Shadows Form a Bridge, spanning the void, guiding the souls of the dead home.
The bridge shadow began at the Ruin Abyss Well. Northward, it pierced the Northern Border Snowfield, crossed Soulbreak Valley, and reached the place where the missing caravan had last stopped; westward, it passed through the yellow sands of the Western Desert, crossed Forgotten River Ridge, and descended beside the exile's burial place; southward, it traversed the raging waves of the Southern Sea and reached the depths where the fisher girl's mother's boat had sunk; eastward, it crossed the ruins of the Eastern Continent, connecting every forgotten, lonely grave.
It bore no bodily weight, only longing.