Chapter 16: The Empress Lives Still

The shrine atop the old temple hill had crumbled over time, but its essence still hummed through the cracked stones.

Aurora stood beneath the pagoda's collapsed roof, the wind stirring the incense ashes still buried in the soil. She had asked Sebastian to wait below.

This moment belonged to her alone.

She closed her eyes.

Visions flooded back — crimson robes swirling, war drums echoing, a crown sliding from her head as fire devoured the world.

But now she stood, unburned. Whole.

She knelt before the ashes of the old shrine.

"I don't know who I am anymore," she whispered. "Aurora Lin. Lin Qingli. Both? Neither?"

The wind stilled, as if listening.

Then a blossom from the old cherry tree drifted into her lap.

She held it in shaking hands.

"You're both," came a voice.

She turned.

The old gardener stood at the edge of the ruins.

"I knew you'd return," he said. "The phoenix never stays dead."

Aurora bowed her head. "Then let this life be the one where I rise."

She stood tall, brushing the dust from her robe. Around her, the light broke through the mist, casting golden threads over the ruined temple.

And within her chest, the fire no longer burned her alive.

It warmed her — fuel for what was still to come.