Chapter 362 - 361: The Price of Divinity
Location:Imperial City — Seer Tower, Fifth Floor
Date/Time:TC1854.02.26-28
The first night, she said no.
She put Tianlei in his crib — carefully, the way she always did, one hand supporting his head and the other beneath his back, lowering him onto the blanket that the Tower healers had provided and that she’d washed herself because she didn’t trust anyone else to do it gently enough. His golden eyes fluttered closed. His breathing settled into the rhythm of infant sleep — three months of practice making the transition from arms to crib smoother than it had been in the early weeks, when every separation had produced screaming that echoed off the warded walls and made the guards shift uncomfortably at their posts.
She stepped back. Looked at the System — not with her eyes, which would have found nothing visible, but with the inner awareness that the System had cultivated in her since childhood. The space behind her thoughts where its voice lived.
"No," she said.
No?
"He’s my son. I won’t."
The System didn’t argue. This was the first thing that should have frightened her, because the System always argued. It had spent years arguing — persuading, redirecting, reframing, guiding her toward decisions it wanted her to make while letting her believe the decisions were her own. It was the most patient entity she’d ever encountered, and patience in something that powerful was never idle.
It simply said: Let me show you something.
***
The visions began.