Thee five-year anniversary of the Great Closing was supposed to be a day of triumph for Jiangnan, but for Xin, it felt like watching a beautiful machine slowly grind its gears into dust. He stood in the central hub of the Academy, watching a young student try to light a small warming stone. The girl was focused, her brow furrowed, but the stone remained cold and gray. The ambient resonance that had once pulsed through the very air was thinning, leaving behind a world that felt increasingly fragile.
"It’s not working, Master Xin," the girl whispered, her eyes filling with tears. "I can feel the hum, but it’s like it’s behind a thick wall of glass. I can’t reach it anymore."
Xin knelt beside her, his silver-scarred hands feeling like lead. He tried to reach out, to nudge the energy towar
