Chapter 15
The Rebirth
Chen Yunfei · 5.6K words · ~23 min read
# Chapter 15: The Rebirth
The river found him before he found it.
He heard it first—a voice lower than wind, older than the ridge where Xue had taken his arm. Chen Yunfei came down through wet stone and cedar knees with his right hand on bark and his left shoulder a sealed storm. Blood gone tacky under black flame's cauterization. Void still a stone behind his sternum where the Manacle's ghost lived. Each step cost a coin he did not have. He paid anyway because stopping was a kind of lying down, and lying down was what the world wanted from him: silent, cooling, key-shaped.