My dao to eternity

Old Mu's spells came closer together that autumn than they had at any point since the very first, the tonic's careful balance no longer buying the same wide margins it once had. Li Fan adjusted the formula twice more, watched each adjustment hold for a shorter stretch than the one before it, and understood, with the plain clarity he brought to any difficult prognosis, that he was no longer managing a slow decline. He was accompanying the last stage of one.

He said none of that aloud. Old Mu would have heard it anyway, in the new frequency of Li Fan's visits, the way he no longer waited for a summons before crossing the city each evening.

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