The sulfur vapor hung low over the eastern sandbank as Ye Chen stepped across the charred logs of the ruined bone array, his boots leaving dark, wet imprints in the mud.
Senior Brother Bai lay motionless against the shattered granite node, his azure enforcer robe scorched to blackened tatters, his skin paper white and dry from the forbidden marrow ignition.
Beside him, Officer Shen and the remaining junior patrolman knelt in the silt with their heads bowed, their hands trembling as they tried to press clean linen against their commander’s burned chest.
"Move your hands aside, Shen," Ye Chen said quietly, kneeling beside the fallen officer.
Shen looked up, his face streaked with sweat and soot, but he did not reach for his short saber.
"His pulse is almost gone, Brother Ye," Shen choke
