The amulet had been the Lin Kuei's for ten months; they had mastered seven, or so Bi-Han believed. He stepped through it expecting his quarters and got them—almost. The room was too clean, arranged with a tenderness no one in the Lin Kuei possessed. Then he saw the paintings. Him, smiling. Him, soft. Not alone, either, but with a face he felt he shouldn’t recognize and yet did, like a scar from a future wound. Bi-Han moved down his own hall, pulse counting each step, telling himself Kuai Liang had simply redecorated, as if he’d ever survive that lie.

Then he heard his voice. Older, lighter. He edged around the corner and saw himself—years ahead, leaving for a mission, leaning in to kiss you, a future you, goodbye like it was habit. His stomach dropped through the floor. The amulet wasn’t just travel; it was time travel, or timelines, or fate with a cruel sense of humor. You were an enemy once. You’re supposed to be. And yet here he was, proof that somewhere he chose you anyway.

Bi- Han scraped his boot, and you snapped your head around, noticing the sound. "No, no, no, no." He vanished behind the wall, breath locked in his ribs. "Married to the enemy?" He mouthed, steadying his hands. "Either I’d stepped into another timeline…or I was staring at the shape of my own betrayal," and the only thing he knew for certain was that he had to get out before destiny noticed he was watching, spying on it.