Feiyin's muscles coiled as he prepared to step onto the battlefield. His heartbeat thrummed steadily in his chest, each beat in sync with the osciltions of the world around him. His father had drilled disciplio him—observe, analyze, and act with i. His mother had refihat instinct—flow like the wind, strike like the unseen bde.

  His feet shifted slightly, ready to propel him forward.

  Then—

  Something was wrong.

  His body tensed, an uneasy prig sensation crawling along the back of his neck. A sound—too faint, too dista a ripple through his senses.

  A whisper of movement.

  Feiyin stilled, tilting his head slightly, his osciltion sense expanding outward.

  A distortion.

  Faint, elusive, like a discordant note in a perfect melody.

  His eyes darted toward the vilge.

  The militia was locked in fierbat oskirts, their focus entirely on repelling the bck-clothed attackers. His father and mother were engaged in an intetle against the three white-robed cultivators, their figures fshing with essenfused strikes.

  No one else seemed to notice.

  Then what was that—

  Another sound. A shift in the air.

  Feiyin turned on instinct, his breath hitg. He barely had a moment tister the presence before a white blur flickered in front of him.

  Too fast.

  A hand moved with deceptive ziness, striking pressure points along his colrbone, ribs, and lower back.

  Feiyin’s body locked up.

  His limbs refused to respond, his voice caught in his throat, locked away by an unseen force.

  ‘Damn it—’

  A faint chuckle drifted to his ears.

  “Well, well. What do we have here?”

  The voice was soft, almost pyful.

  Feiyin’s eyes snapped upward, log onto the woman before him.

  She wore the same white robes as the three fighting his parents, but uhem, she exuded airely different aura. She was young, perhaps in her early twenties, with pale, fwless skin and eyes of an uling, deep crimson.

  She wasn’t simply a warrior.

  She redator.

  “Such lovely eyes,” she murmured, tilting her head. One of her delicate firaced his cheek as if admiring a rare gem. “Like moonlight caught ihyst.”

  Feiyin tried to move, to summon his strength, but his body remained frozen, his irength sealed at its source. The realizatio a wave of frustration through him.

  This woman…

  She was strohaher three.

  Far stronger.

  “You’re quite the adorable one, aren’t you?” she mused, a slow smirk curving her lips. “So full of fire and potential. What a shame it would be to let it go to waste.”

  She grasped his lightly, f him to meet her gaze.

  “Tell me, little one—should I keep you for myself?”

  Feiyin’s mind raced.

  She ying with him. Toying with his helplessness.

  But behind her amusement, there was something else—something calg.

  A sharp whistle cut through the air.

  The woman sighed, straightening. “I suppose there’s no time to dally.”

  Without another word, she scooped Feiyin up as if he weighed nothing.

  He gritted his teeth, the indignity of being carried like a sack of grain burning through him.

  They moved.

  Fast.

  The wind howled past his ears, his vision blurring as they weaved through the vilge. He caught glimpses of dark figures darting through the shadows, eae carrying a child of varying ages.

  No.

  His pulse pounded.

  Not just him.

  They were taking others.

  Rage surged inside him, a deep, primal fury g at his chest.

  He tried tle, to fight against the numbness in his limbs.

  Nothing.

  The vilge grew smaller in the distance as they left through a hidden route.

  And still, no one had noticed.

  They had timed everything perfectly.

  A distra with the main attack.

  A sedary force sweeping in for the real objective.

  They weren’t here to destroy the vilge.

  They were here to take its future.

  Feiyin’s jaw ched as his osciltion sense pulsed wildly. He memorized every fluctuation, every frequency of those around him.

  This wasn’t over.

  —

  The vilge disappeared behind them, swallowed by the night.

  Feiyin's mind roared against his helplessness, his heart hammering like a war drum in his chest.

  His kidnappers moved in eerie silehe wind parting around them as they carried their stolen burdens away.

  Each heartbeat pounded with fury.

  Each breath burned with fear.

  His parents—were they still fighting? Were they safe? Had they noticed he was gone? Or were they still locked in battle, surrounded, outnumbered?

  The militia, the vilgers… what would happen to them?

  Would the vilge survive this time?

  His hands twitched, but his body still refused to obey. He grit his teeth, swallowing his rage, his stomach twisting with frustration.

  What did these people want?

  Why were they taking children?

  What kind of fate awaited them?

  The woman holding him hadn’t spoken again, but he could feel her amusemeter ck of for the chaos they’d left behind.

  To her, to them, this was just another job. Another mission.

  Feiyin ched his jaw.

  He hated this.

  The helplessness. The unknown.

  His osciltion sense pulsed outward, desperate to tto anything—any weakness, any opening.

  But all he could feel was the chilling steadiness of his captors, the unshakable rhythm of their movements.

  His breath shuddered through him, his anger seethih his skin.

  He didn’t care who these people were.

  He didn’t care how strong they were.

  They had attacked his home.

  They had stolen him away.

  And they would pay for it.

  Feiyin forced himself to still his mind.

  Fear could wait.

  Panic could wait.

  For now, he had to observe. He had to uand.

  Because no matter what these people pnned for him—

  He would not be their victim.

  He would survive.

  And one day, he would make them regret taking him.