Dangerous Dirge

⟬ Many suns later... ⟭ 

Jiang Wang Lei's eyes shot open.

It was so quiet that he wondered whether he was alive or dead. 

He got to his feet, his body responsive but his mind still fogged... 

Looking out upon the bay, the nighttime waters deathly still, reluctantly reflecting the dim silver stars in the sky. 

"No..." He whispered... "No no no... this isn't right."

For the first time in the history of the sect... the moon was nowhere to be seen. 

It was an ill omen... 

He worried if he-- or their sect, rather... if they'd done something to displease her? 

What could have been so terrible that she forsake them in their time of need? 

Wang Lei willed his numbed body towards the beach. He bounded over rocks, flipped and ran along the branches of a tall tree and landed amongst his allies.