It dropped six feet into the drainage culvert that ran parallel to the road, landing nose-first with a crunch of collapsing tal and shattering glass.
Then silence.
"Stop the car," Shuyin commanded.
"Miss Shuyin....." Ting Fei started.
"Stop. The. Car."
Ting Fei glanced at Lu Yuze, who nodded grimly. The sedan pulled to the shoulder two hundred yards past the crash site, engine idling.
"Stay in the car," Lu Yuze ordered Shuyin. "Ting Fei and I will....."
"No," Yu Shou interrupted, already opening her door. "I’ll investigate. It’s my purpose to face threats to the Queen, not yours."
She was out of the car before anyone could argue, moving with that liquid grace back toward the crash site. Ting Fei and Lu Yuze exchanged a glance, then followed, hands moving to concealed weapons.
Shuyin stayed in the back seat, her jade eyes still active, watching through the sedan’s body as the three figures approached the wrecked vehicle.
The car lay crumpled in the culvert, its front end accordioned from the impact, steam rising from the shattered radiator. All the windows had blown out. The roof was partially collapsed.
Yu Shou reached it first, circling the wreck with predatory caution. She leaned down, peering through the driver’s side window, then straightened.
"Empty," she called back, her voice carrying clearly in the pre-dawn quiet. "As she said. No occupants. No bodies."
Ting Fei and Lu Yuze checked anyway, professional paranoia demanding confirmation. Ting Fei pulled out a small flashlight, shining it into the interior.
Empty seats. Deployed airbags. Shattered safety glass everywhere. But no driver. No passengers. No blood. No sign that anyone had ever been inside.
"The steering column," Ting Fei observed, his light focusing on it. "It’s... wrong."
Lu Yuze leaned closer. The steering column looked normal at first glance. But on closer inspection, there were symbols etched into the tal beneath the plastic covering. Symbols that seed to shift and writhe in the flashlight beam, never quite holding still enough to be clearly seen.
"Enchantnt marks," Yu Shou confird, reaching in to touch them. The mont her fingers made contact, the symbols flared bright jade-green, then dissolved into ash that scattered in the morning breeze. "Simple animation spell. Effective but crude. The caster isn’t particularly skilled, probably bought this from soone else rather than creating it themselves."
"Soone tried to kill us with magic," Lu Yuze said flatly.
"Soone tried to kill her," Yu Shou corrected, gesturing back toward the sedan where Shuyin waited. "The Celestial Queen. This was an assassination attempt. The first of many, I suspect."
Ting Fei pulled out his phone. "I’ll call this in. Anonymous tip. Vehicle accident, no casualties."
"Make sure there’s nothing traceable back to us," Lu Yuze ordered. "No security caras that might have caught our plates."
"Already checked, sir. We’re clear."
They made their way back to the sedan, Yu Shou’s jade eyes scanning the surrounding area one last ti, checking for additional threats. When they climbed back in, Shuyin was waiting with her arms crossed, jade eyes finally dimd back to their normal appearance.
"Well?" she demanded.
"Empty, as you said," Lu Yuze confird. "So kind of magical control. Yu Shou says it was an assassination attempt targeted at you specifically."
Shuyin absorbed this with remarkable calm, though her hands clenched briefly in her lap. "So it begins."
"So it begins," Yu Shou agreed. "Those who fear your rise will not wait for your awakening to be complete. They will strike now, while you are still mortal, still vulnerable." Her jade eyes t Shuyin’s. "This is why I was reborn. This is why I am here. To guard you against such threats until you can guard yourself."
"We need to get back to the mansion," Lu Yuze said. "Now. Before anyone else tries sothing."
"Agreed," Ting Fei said, already pulling back onto the road.
As they drove away, Shuyin glanced back at the wrecked car lying in the culvert, steam still rising from its broken form. An empty vehicle controlled by magic was sent to kill her. The first assassination attempt of what would apparently be many.
The war for the Tidal Throne hadn’t just begun in so abstract, cosmic sense.
It had co for her specifically. Personally. Violently.
And sohow, she knew this was only the beginning.
The sedan continued through the pre-dawn streets, the tension inside thick enough to cut. Shuyin’s mind was still processing the assassination attempt, the empty car controlled by magic, the symbols etched into tal. Yu Shou sat beside her in contemplative silence, her jade eyes distant, clearly calculating sothing.
Then, without warning, the guardian shifted in her seat, turning to face Shuyin directly. "We have a problem," she said quietly.
"Another one?" Shuyin asked, exhaustion making her voice flat.
"A critical one." Yu Shou glanced at Lu Yuze in the front seat, then back to Shuyin. "That hunting construct found you because it was tracking your magical signature. Your aura." She gestured at Shuyin, then at herself. "Both of us are radiating power like beacons in the darkness. Anyone with even rudintary magical sensing abilities can detect us from miles away."
Lu Yuze turned in his seat, concern flickering across his features. "You’re saying they can track you? Find you wherever you go?"
"Precisely." Yu Shou’s expression was grim. "Right now, you....." she indicated Shuyin, ".....are broadcasting your presence to every magical entity within a considerable radius. Your rmaid heritage, your awakening celestial power, it all creates a distinctive signature. And I...." she touched her own chest, ".,.am even worse. An ancient guardian spirit freshly manifested in mortal form? I might as well be carrying a torch in a dark room."
Shuyin felt sothing cold settle in her stomach. "So anyone hunting can just... follow the trail?"
"Yes. That hunting construct was crude, likely sent by soone testing your defenses, probing your strength. But others will co. More skilled. More dangerous. And they will all be drawn to your power like moths to fla." Yu Shou paused, her jade eyes serious. "Unless we conceal it."
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