On the night of the spring equinox, the lights of the Nanming Lamp-Guarding Shop stayed awake until dawn.
The seven apprentices of the first cohort sat cross-legged in a circle inside the shop, each cradling a Sleeping Lamp unearthed from an ancient site. These lamps had once lain deep within the earth veins of Lampheart Plain. Used by the first generation of Lamp Guarders, their bodies were covered in ancient runes, yet they had not shone for a thousand years. Legend held that they carried the earliest "civilization of lamp language," but with their souls silent and their language lost, they had long since become mere remnants among the ruins.
Tonight was the "Lamp Soul Awakening Ritual."
Xiaoman stood at the center, holding the Silver-Flame Ceramic Lamp, and said softly, "Lamp language isn't something you hear with your ears. You sense it with the flame in your heart. It isn't within the lamp, but in that thread of resonance between the lamp and the person lighting it."
He gently set the silver-flame lamp in the center of the seven Sleeping Lamps, and its halo spread like ripples. The children closed their eyes in concentration, pressing their palms against the lamps and matching their breathing to the wicks. They had practiced Heart-Flame Resonance for over three months, sitting in meditation at midnight every day and speaking with their lamps. Even without light, they persisted in kindling a thread of flame with their thoughts.
Suddenly, the youngest girl, A Ya, trembled slightly. She opened her eyes and whispered, "I... heard it."
Everyone held their breath.
"It's saying... 'Sorry for the wait.'"
In an instant, the wick of the Sleeping Lamp in her hands stirred, and a faint thread of blue light seeped through a crack, like a tender shoot breaking through the