Time rewound.
When two suns rose over the Black Prison and the magic of the entire world shifted violently, at the end of Pedestrian Street in Beta Town on Puji Island, the owner of a small storefront and his pet cat were huddled before a tea table, staring blankly at the clear tea in a bowl.
The owner had not wanted to stare blankly.
He would rather have lounged back in his recliner, eyes half-closed as he dozed.
But the clamor outside rose and fell, shops along the street were being crushed one after another by the black tide, and flames shooting into the sky obscured the sun. All of it severely disrupted Mr. Wu's nap.
Worse still, the Yellow Flower Cat would get up every so often and roar in his ear, demanding that he pull Zheng Qing, who had fallen into the Black Prison, back out before the boy caused even greater trouble.
After several rounds of this, Mr. Wu had had enough.
Left with no choice, he finally forced his eyes open.
Then the man and cat huddled over a tea bowl and began staring blankly.
To pull Zheng Qing back from the Black Prison, they first had to find his trail. For Mr. Wu, who was skilled in divination, this was not particularly difficult. Soon, the clear surface of the tea revealed an adventuring party trudging through darkness.
Mr. Wu raised an arm and extended two withered fingers, intending to dip them into the tea bowl.
"Wait!"
A soft pink cat paw blocked those two fingers. The Yellow Flower Cat looked solemnly at Mr. Wu, its face utterly serious. "It's pitch-black out there. What if you grab the wrong person? Wait a moment..."
It had told Mr. Wu to retrieve someone precisely because it wanted to