Sweet Dumplings and Bitter Pills

Over the next month, Linnea inserted herself into Kai’s life like a stubborn burr.

She knew his schedule. She knew where he liked to meditate (the third floating island, under the willow tree). She knew his internal demons.

She made it her mission to fix the small cracks in his foundation before they became chasms.

One afternoon, she found him by the koi pond, nursing a bruised shoulder from training.

"Here," she said, sitting beside him. She opened a bamboo basket. "Red bean dumplings."

Kai glared at the basket. "I hate sweets."

"No, you don't," Linnea said cheerfully. "You say you hate them because you think they’re childish. But your Qi requires sugar after heavy lightning cultivation. Eat."

Kai hesitated. He looked at the dumpling. It was perfectly shaped, warm, and smelled of nostalgia.

"Did *he* tell you this too?" Kai asked, his voice low.

"He did," Linnea said. "He loved these."

In the future, the Tyrant Kai would sit on his throne of bones and eat these dumplings, crying silently for the innocence he had lost.

Young Kai took a bite. He chewed slowly. It was delicious. It was exactly what he needed.

And he hated it.

He hated that she knew what he needed before he did. He hated that every time she looked at him with that soft, knowing gaze, she wasn't seeing *him*. She was seeing the ghost of this other man. This wandering master.

"Was he strong?" Kai asked abruptly.

"The strongest," Linnea said, smiling at the memory. "He could split the sky with a single breath."

Kai crushed the rest of the dumpling in his fist. "Stronger than me?"

Linnea looked at him. "Different. He had... scars. He had learned through pain. You still have a chance to learn through peace."

"I don't want peace," Kai growled. He stood up, brushing the crumbs from his robes. "I want to be better than him."

He looked down at her. His eyes were burning with a dark intensity.

"I will surpass him, Linnea. I will make you forget him."

He leaned down, his face inches from hers. The air crackled with static electricity.

"Stop talking about him," Kai whispered. "Look at me."

Linnea’s breath hitched. For a second, the two Kais merged—the dangerous man she loved and the arrogant boy she was saving.

"I am looking at you, Kai," she said softly.

Kai held her gaze for a second longer, then turned and walked away. He walked with a new determination. He wasn't training to become an Immortal anymore. He was training to kill a ghost.