Within the heart of the Grand Library's vault—a chamber hewn from obsidian and silence—Scar stood with his hands bound behind him. Towering data obelisks flanked a dimly glowing screen, their pulse steady, like relics that had outlasted memory.
Despite the restraints, he held himself with unsettling ease. That crooked grin still lingered, not as defiance, but as something etched into the marrow of him.
"So," he said, eyes drifting between the people—Jinhsi, Sanhua, and Rover—present before him, "you've joined hands against me with Miss Magistrate here."
His voice was low, almost amused. "Heh," A breath of laughter followed, quiet, but sharp enough to scratch the walls.
"It does hurt my feelings, you know," Scar said with a cold chuckle, as if mockingly nursing betrayal. "You're always so… so popular."
Jinhsi and Sanhua stepped in behind Rover, their presence steady, alert. The Magistrate's voice was gentle but full of concern. "Are you all right, Rover?"
He glanced over his shoulder, offering her a quiet nod. "I'm fine."
Scar scoffed, as if the answer were self-evident. "Of course he is. How could I ever have the heart to hurt him?"
He rolled his neck with a casual crack, head tilting slightly as he continued with a twisted softness. "Consider my moment of failure a gift of sincerity, Rover."
Then his gaze flickered, lips curling into that familiar, crooked smirk.
"I trust you haven't forgotten our conversation." His voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper. "Choose me. I'll tell you everything you want."
Rover shook his head. "I already know everything," he said, steady and clear.
Scar's gaze lowered, chin dipping slightly as disappointment settled over him like a layer of dust.
"Heh." A dry, humorless chuckle escaped him. "I see… So she moved before I could. Told you everything, did she?"
His eyes flicked toward Jinhsi, sharp with quiet resentment, still donning that smirk. At the edge of the group, Sanhua's grip tightened around her sword.
Scar's gaze rose again, sweeping across them with that familiar crooked amusement—a smile just sharp enough to wound.
"Then," he drawled, voice suddenly light with mock civility, "as the winners..." His eyes paused on each of them in turn—Rover, Jinhsi, Sanhua. "…Would you be so kind as to tell me how you set me up?"
***
The previous day, Rover had finished deciphering the tokens and returned his attention to the Sundial for one final inspection. He rotated the disks carefully, aligning the symbols until two of them began to glow softly.
The glowing light cast shadows that revealed two more symbols: the Black Tortoise of the North—pointing toward City Hall—and a time marked as the Shichen period of Chou, during the Wei hours of morning.
The puzzle was solved. The place and time were clear—though something still felt incomplete. For that, Rover knew he had to meet the Magistrate herself.
At the precise hour and location, he arrived. Seated beside the railing overlooking the city was Magistrate Jinhsi. She turned as he approached, a calm smile meeting him.
"It's been three days," she said softly.
"We've both made it on time." Jinhsi raised her hand in Jinzhou's formal salute—index and middle fingers extended, the rest curled, palm resting lightly against her chest.
"Allow me to introduce myself properly," she said, eyes briefly closing. "I am Jinhsi. It brings me great joy to see you, Rover."
Rover offered a simple hello with a smile as he extended his hand. Jinhsi accepted it, and he noticed faint, scale-like lines—reminiscent of a dragon—tracing her skin.
"Are you injured?" he asked, concern lacing his voice. Overclocking often left permanent marks.
She exhaled slowly. "…It's nothing to worry about," she said, before explaining that an emergency had forced her to delay their meeting.
She then revealed that Jinzhou's Sentinel, Jué, had been captured by the Fractsidus. With the Sentinel missing, unrest was inevitable—though the public could not yet be told.
Jinhsi confirmed that Scar was behind it. His objectives were layered: abduct Jué, awaken a Threnodian, and recruit Rover. If Rover refused, they would likely eliminate him.
To counter this, she had devised a plan to capture Scar—an effort that would weaken the Fractsidus and buy precious time.
Rover agreed to help, earning a faint smile as Jinhsi exhaled. "Thank you for your trust, Rover," she said, eyes drifting toward the city—where a flicker of worry passed through their pale white sheen.
"The threat Jinzhou faces is worse than it appears," she murmured.
Her words stirred a quiet echo in Rover's mind—Lian's voice from earlier: "It's better not to trust your eyes always."
Though both warnings spoke of unseen dangers, Lian's felt more intimate—less about the world, and more about the self. The contrast unsettled him.
Before he could dwell further, Jinhsi turned the conversation to the tokens.
Rover had already deciphered tokens hinting at Jinzhou's turbulent history and the current meeting. Jinhsi warned that one of the ancient enemies, the Threnodian—dark beings born from humanity's collective fears and resentments—was about to awaken.
Rover's past victory over a Threnodian-related Tacet Discord tied him mysteriously to these events.
Jinhsi spoke of ancient records that told of a legendary hero—gifted with powers like his—who once saved Jinzhou. Yet a mystery clung to this figure: their gender was uncertain, whispered as both "he" and "she".
Rover said nothing at first, but quietly mentioned that something about the Sentinel's statue in the Gorge of Spirits had stirred vague memories.
Jinhsi listened carefully, then nodded. What he described, she confirmed, aligned with fragments she had sensed through Jué—suggesting that those events had indeed taken place.
She admitted it was possible he was the very figure spoken of in legend. But so much remained unknown—his identity, his age, the cause of his memory loss.
When he asked if that meant he was some kind of hero, Jinhsi made it clear: she did not rely on prophecy or miracles. Her duty was to protect her people, with or without him.
Whatever role he chose to play, she would respect it. And once this was over, he would be free to leave Jinzhou—or all of Huanglong—if he wished.
Then, gently, she asked him to keep their conversation between them. Rover agreed without hesitation—and that, was the gist of their morning meeting.
***
Deep within the solemn depths of the Grand Library, where silence clung like dust to every pillar, Magistrate Jinhsi stood facing Scar beneath the shadowed vaults.
Scar's arrest was no longer in question—his crimes in Huanglong were well documented—but he greeted the charge with a smirk, his hands bound, his posture loose and effortless.
Yet when confronted, he mocked the gravity of the moment, claiming he would rather spin tales than answer inquiries. Still, for now, he agreed to speak.
When Rover stepped forward, the mood shifted. The questions grew narrower, less about Scar's actions and more about his intent.
With his usual cryptic bravado, Scar spoke of Jué—the missing Sentinel Oracle Engine—as a threat to Fractsidus. He claimed her power to "correct" futures made her an obstacle to those who wished to write destiny on their own terms.
Fractsidus, Scar said, sought to dismantle a future built on illusion. Their obsession with reviving the Threnodian was part of that grand design. The "true Lament," as Scar called it, was no mere calamity—it was transformation.
Death, yes, but also genesis. Through Reverberations, they intended to birth a new civilization, a lifeform yet to exist.
As Scar's cryptic proclamations mounted, Rover finally demanded the answer that had haunted him since the beginning: "Why were you following me?"
The mockery in Scar's eyes faded slightly. His response was direct. Fractsidus had been watching Rover from the very start. He was not incidental to their plans—he was essential. "One of us," Scar said, with unsettling certainty.
According to him, forces were fighting over Rover's fate, though Rover remained unaware of his own importance. Scar mocked him as naive but assured him that eventually Rover would come to Fractsidus willingly—and if not, they would kill him.
Yet Rover remained unfazed by the threat. Scar's words—half menace, half prophecy—hung in the air but no longer shook him.
His mind drifted to something Lian had once told him: "It's better not to always trust your eyes."
Back then, he hadn't fully understood what she meant. He had thought she warned him about illusions—false images, deceptions, tricks of the world around him.
But now it clicked.
She hadn't been talking only about the world. She had been talking about him.
Not just the lies others might tell, but the lies he might tell himself. The danger wasn't in what he saw—it was in what he believed without question.
His fear, his confusion, his desperate search for answers—they had made him vulnerable. Not weak, but easy to shape. Easy to control. That was what Fractsidus, Jinzhou, and the other factions had all seen.
But Lian hadn't tried to shape him. She hadn't told him what to believe. She had only told him to look deeper. To not trust too easily—not even himself—until he was ready to see clearly.
She was the only one who treated him like someone who could decide for himself. Not a pawn. Not a project. Not a chosen one.
Just... him.
At that moment, Rover understood: He was the only one who could define who he was. The only one who could choose the path he would walk.
That meant he was no one's key—he was his own. And though this realization didn't solve the mysteries that clung to him, nor did it offer clarity. This truth somehow brought more peace than any answer ever had.
So, he decided to hold to Lian's words as his compass in the dark: "It's better not to trust your eyes always."
Rover looked at Scar again. A shift occurring in his eyes. The hesitation in his gaze was gone, replaced by quiet certainty.
No dramatics. Just a calm, knowing smile.
Scar blinked, caught off guard. He sensed 'the change' instantly.
This wasn't the same boy who had walked into the vault searching for truth.
"I'm done with him," Rover said, his voice edged with a faint scoff.
Scar's jaw tightened. A vein twitched at his temple. The tone wasn't loud, but it stung—not defiance, but dismissal. Rover was no longer tangled in uncertainty. He had stepped out of it, and Scar felt the weight immediately.
As Rover stepped aside, Jinhsi took over, her voice ironclad. She named the crimes—Juè's abduction, the Qichi ambush, the Threnodian's revival—each word striking like a gavel.
Scar smirked, but tension rimmed his eyes now. He warned her that Jinzhou was already falling, that the mask would soon break.
But Jinhsi stood her ground, reaffirming her duty to protect both Rover and the people of Jinzhou. Yet she knew the Fractsidus presence was greater still.
She questioned how Scar could have pulled off all this alone. Scar confirmed her suspicion: he was not the only Overseer within Jinzhou. There were more agents of Fractsidus, possibly embedded deep in the city's systems.
Unexpectedly, Scar claimed to have even more information about Jué's disappearance. He tempted Jinhsi with a "secret meant only for her ears," prompting Sanhua to react protectively.
But Jinhsi, curious and composed, stepped forward and allowed Scar to whisper to her. Whatever he said shocked her deeply—her disbelief immediate and visible.
And he wasn't finished. Jué, Scar claimed, had foreseen it all—perhaps even chosen to vanish, knowing what would come. Fractsidus, he said, were not saboteurs. They were catalysts of a truth already unfolding.
Before being taken away, Scar turned to Rover one last time and offered a wager. He brought the topic of the "Black Lambs" again, and of a role Rover was destined to play in reshaping the world.
He manifested a card bearing symbolic significance, and threw it towards Rover. Sanhua tried to block it with ice spikes, but it landed at Rover's feet. Scar laughed maniacally as he was led away to prison.
"Hehehehehe.... AHAHAHAHAHA"
To be continued...
***
A/N: Finally done with this flipping act 😭. I know it was super important, but holy hell—they yap so much! Writing this was frustrating as heck.
I had to sit through a 58-minute YouTube video and scour the fandom just to make sense of all the dialogue. Oh boi, I am so gla—wait… there's more of this madness? Next chapter it is.