A Wish

I swung my flaming fist at the pressure crushing down on me. White fire met invisible force, and the gravity circle shattered like glass.

"Impossible!" Fang's eyes widened. "No one's ever broken through my Chimu before."

"First time for everything." I cracked my neck. "Been wanting to do this since the bar. Your creepy face is way overdue for a proper beating."

I launched forward, fist blazing. Fang sidestepped, but I expected that. My other hand caught his stomach. He doubled over with a grunt.

"You don't deserve Qing Qing!" Another punch. This one grazing his cheek as he jerked back.

"You know nothing!" Fang caught my wrist. "The sacrifices I've made to keep her safe!"

"Safe?" I laughed. "You call erasing her existence safe?"

"After her sister vanished, she wouldn't stop digging. She kept pushing, kept asking questions that would get her killed. I joined the Corps to protect her!"

"That's not protection." I headbutted him, sending us both staggering. "That's a fucking cage!"

"You could never understand." Blood trickled from Fang's split lip. "Everything I've done for her!"

Gravity circles materialized around me, crushing down from every angle. That bastard Fang actually meant to kill me.

Kill me? Like hell. Qing Qing needed me. And somewhere out there, Inorin was waiting.

A memory flashed. Inorin's grin as she cooked dinner. Qing Qing's laughter during our late-night talk. Their faces blurred together, two people who saw past my rough edges and actually gave a damn.

Blood sprayed from my mouth as I laughed. White flames erupted from both fists, growing larger, hotter. The fire spread up my arms as memories fueled the inferno. Every smile, every moment of acceptance.

"What-" Fang's eyes widened as the flames consumed his gravity circles.

"YOU DON'T GET TO FUCKING TELL ME WHAT IT MEANS TO CARE ABOUT SOMEONE!"

My punch connected with his chest. The impact sent him flying, his body skipping across the floor like a stone on water. One bounce, two bounces, three, until he crashed through a wall.

The floor beneath me groaned. I spun around, searching for Peng, when the walls started moving. Not crumbling. Actually moving.

Holy shit.

Metal beams twisted and interlocked, tiles rippling across surfaces like scales on a living creature. A section of wall peeled away, revealing the ravine far below. Wind whipped through my hair as I stared down the sheer drop.

That's when heavy footsteps echoed behind me. I didn't need to turn around to know who it was.

"You really did a number on Fang." Lung's voice carried that calmness as always. I glanced back to see him standing there, robes untouched by the chaos, that stupid miniature pagoda still in his hand. "Such raw potential. In another timeline, you might have made a powerful Dragon's Eye."

"Shut the fuck up…"

"Though I suppose that was never really on the table. The position was merely convenient for me to keep an eye on you."

My fists clenched. White flames wicked up my arms. "I don't fucking care. Just tell. Where. Is. Qing Qing?"

"Ah, Qing Qing, that little troublemaker." He shifted the pagoda to his other hand, examining it like it held all the answers. "She and her sister are both so selfish, wanting to ascend."

"What?"

"Both sisters desire a wish granted. That's what drives them upward, realm by realm." His jade eye fixed on me. "Surely you've wondered? What awaits at the pinnacle of ascension?"

A wish? My mind raced. Did that mean if I reached the top, I could wish Inorin back?

…Could I wish everything back to normal?

"I harbored such hopes for Qing Qing. I believed she might be different. That she would remain content in her role, serving the greater good rather than chasing personal desires."

"You're full of shit. She just wants her sister back!"

"Precisely my point. Everyone who seeks ascension is fundamentally selfish. They place their individual wishes above the stability of the realms. Above the lives that depend on that stability."

"So fucking what? People want things. That's not a crime!"

"Isn't it?" Lung's fingers traced patterns on the pagoda's surface. "The sister sought power to reshape the Corps. Qing Qing seeks reunion. All personal desires that disrupt the careful balance I've maintained for centuries."

The way he spoke about them. Present tense for both sisters. My eyes narrowed. "You know where they are."

"Of course. One must keep track of all the pieces on the board, especially the troublesome ones who refuse to stay in their assigned positions."

"You son of a-"

"Such language." Lung sighed deeply. "Though I suppose I should expect nothing less from someone raised by that woman. Inorin always did have a colorful vocabulary."

"You bastard. You do know about Inorin!"

"Indeed. Though there's no use in you knowing, given your current... situation."

"What the fuck is that supposed to-"

A deep groan cut through my words. The floor beneath my feet shuddered, metal and stone warping together. Lung stood untouched while the building crumbled around him.

My eyes caught a flash of black and white tumbling past broken pipes.

"Peng!"

The penguin rolled down the tilting floor, bouncing off debris. I lunged after it, white flames propelling me forward as the structure gave way completely.

"PENG!"

My fingers brushed its flipper.

Just a little closer-

But the floor disappeared. Peng and I plummeted in opposite directions, the ravine's endless darkness opening up below.