Interlude: Motion

  The sun was a bruised smear of orange and violet against the Outland horizon, casting long, jagged shadows across the forest floor. In the center of a clearing, the air hummed with a distorted, heavy pressure.

  Leeseo was trembling. Beads of sweat rolled down her temples, and her breath came in ragged hitches as she stared down a massive, moss-covered boulder. On her wrist, the soft pink bracelet—the only splash of color against her dusty gear—stayed tight as her muscles tensed. The earth beneath the rock groaned, and the stone itself shuddered, grinding into the dirt, but it remained stubbornly anchored to the world.

  "Again," San commanded. He stood a few paces away, his silhouette dark against the dying light, his arms folded tight across his chest. His voice was like flint striking steel. "Wonjung is right behind you. In the time you’ve spent staring at that stone, she’s already shifted it into a toxin-snake. You’re dead, Leeseo. It’s over."

  Leeseo’s lip curled. A low, guttural growl vibrated in her throat—a sound more animal than human. She was pissed, her frustration a physical heat radiating off her skin.

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  Zip.

  The air fractured with a familiar pop of displaced oxygen and a flicker of blue light. Seonho materialized just outside the clearing, adjusting his gear and looking remarkably casual. "I'm back!" he chirped, flashing a lopsided grin. "What’d I miss? Did we catch a break yet?"

  The transformation was instantaneous. The rage vanished from Leeseo’s face, replaced by a radiant, pure joy that seemed to brighten the entire forest. "Seonho!" she squealed, her eyes igniting with a violent, pulsing sapphire glow that bled out into the air. "You're back!"

  As she reached out toward him, the pink bracelet caught the dying light, a small reminder of the girl she used to be even as she unleashed a power that defied nature.

  She stopped when she saw the look on his face. Seonho wasn't smiling anymore. He looked pale, his mouth hanging open in sheer terror. Next to him, San had staggered back, his head craning upward as a massive shadow swallowed the clearing.

  "What?" Leeseo asked, her voice small and confused. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

  She followed their gaze, turning her head slowly toward the horizon behind her. The mountain—the jagged, miles-high peak that had dominated the skyline for days—was no longer on the ground.

  It was hovering.

  Millions of tons of ancient stone and earth hung suspended in the clouds, ripped from its foundations by the sheer, subconscious overflow of her happiness.

  "Leeseo..." San’s voice was a strangled, terrifyingly quiet whisper. "Drop the mountain. Carefully."