For a breathless moment, the Libra hangs still. Then it tips —violently, impossibly—toward the left. Toward Leng Ran .
The Imperial City shudders. The Illusion ripples like a pond struck by a stone. Towers melt into ribbons of silk; streets fold into origami swans. And from the horizon, a second Leng Ran rises—a mirror version, walking toward him with the same face, the same scars, but eyes like two black Libras, ever balancing, ever empty. Leng Ran Libra Imperial City Illusions
The Keeper’s laugh is soft as shattering crystal. “Ah. You see? Your name weighs more than your dream. That is rare. That is dangerous.” For a breathless moment, the Libra hangs still
He places that vision into the right scale. The Imperial City shudders
Lian hesitates. He sees himself not as he is, but as he dreams—standing on a bridge of bone-white jade, hand-in-hand with a figure whose face is always turned away. Snow falls upward. A clock ticks backward. In that illusion, he is never lonely. In that illusion, the Imperial City is not a cage but a cradle.
The Keeper smiles. “Good. Now the second weight: your deepest illusion.”
Lian touches his chest. His heart is a small brass scale now, tipping side to side. Tick. Tick. Tick.