Fugue "Tingyun"

Intro The young girl's fragile consciousness drifts in the darkness. An endless night stretches before her, and behind her, the path home feels almost within reach. She steps into a familiar place; there, vibrant lanterns glow, and the voices of old friends beckon her from afar, urging her to return to her trade. A dark fog descends before her, instantly reducing the once-lively marketplace to rotting wood and dead ashes. She steps back again, and the starship's deck appears beneath her feet. She longs to ride the wind upward, but a strange astral body appears in the sky, and the people she once knew are transformed into monsters, swinging swords at each other. She wants to be as blunt as before, but now, facing the monstrous figures before her, not a single sound escapes her lips. "I will have to move forward," she whispers to herself. "But how?" she asks herself. "Raise your hand." A cold voice echoes from afar. She lowers her gaze, traces the scar that pierces her palm. The fan was still in her hand, but she remembered it turning ash-white in the fire. But here it was—whole again in her hand. The black mist surged toward her once more. "Move forward." She raised her hand, and the wound that had punctured her palm began to glow. The light pierced the darkness, but it also illuminated herself. "Move forward." She raised the fan—the fan, once a source of peace, now threatened to burst into flames. The black mist stretched endlessly, but the light grew thicker as she advanced. "Move forward." That cold voice grew clearer. "Don't look back." She ran. "I haven't seen enough of the countless worlds in the starry seas..." Behind her, five feathered tails unfurled, bursting into fiery flames that shed light on the long night that had gripped her. The laboratory. The young girl's fingertips trembled slightly as a crystal-clear drop of light drifted down from the corner of her eye. The distant scientist glanced at the hut, and finally, her expression changed. "Congratulations"