"So," Damon suddenly spoke, cutting through the silence. "Why women only?"

It was a question that had been gnawing at him since his arrival, and now was as good a moment to ask as any.

Ning Xiaoyu was quiet for a moment before answering.

"It wasn’t like this at the beginning," she said. "When everything started, everyone was trying to survive, so it didn’t matter. Male or female, all that mattered was the numbers. Anyone who could fight mattered."

She looked at the water.

"Then there was an incident," she said carefully. "In the early days. Some of the men decided that the rules had changed along with everything else." She paused for a split-second before continuing. "I wasn’t there, I joined the group after it already happened, but I’ve heard that Aria dealt with it... leaving no prisoners."

Damon nodded.

He couldn’t really blame them. He, of all people, knew better than anyone how quickly people changed, he had seen it first-hand in his best friend, whom he had to kill.

Both of them stayed quiet for a little while, letting the words settle before Damon spoke again.

"How many of you are there now?" he asked.

"Just under three hundred." She looked at the water to her left. "By the time I joined, there were roughly a hundred. Most of the people here came from the same place. A university dormitory on the northern edge of the city."

"So how did you meet Aria’s group?"

The girl remained silent for a little while before replying. It wasn’t a pause of someone unwilling to answer, but rather a small moment of reminiscing about a memory. "I was alone, struggling to survive... and then she just found me. I don’t know how she knew where I was, hiding in that abandoned building, but she did."

Damon nodded. "And you followed her." 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"No," A faint smile crossed the girl’s face. "Not immediately. I couldn’t bring myself to trust anyone. I refused and watched them from afar until I realised I could trust her."

"What made you change your mind?" he asked.

Ning Xiaoyu took a moment to think about her answer. "Every group I met before that tried to force me to join, going as far as to follow me until I shook them off. But Aria didn’t. She allowed me to make the choice for myself."

The five-meter distance between them shrank naturally over the course of the conversation. It wasn’t a dramatic change, just something that happened for the ease of conversation, without even realising it.

It was only once the conversation came to a slow, natural end and a moment of silence passed that they realised how close they now were, with Ning Xiaoyu mostly caught off guard by the short distance.

If she extended her slender arm, she could easily reach him now, and despite how steamy the water was, if he looked down, Damon could now see most of her body, which, as she realised it, the girl quickly tried to hide with her arms wrapped around her chest.

Ning Xiaoyu’s moment of fluster lasted only a second before she realised Damon diverted her gaze, and for some reason, she felt a hint of disappointment.

He was strong, stronger than anyone she’s ever met, perhaps even stronger than her leader.

Ever since the arrival of mana, she had been attracted to strength, which is why when she first met Aria, she followed her without hesitation.

Never once did she think that would change, and it hasn’t. She was still completely loyal to her leader, Aria, and had complete trust and belief in her strength.

So why did she feel this sudden draw to the man before her?

She looked at him for a moment longer than she intended to.

He was still looking at the far wall, giving her the space she hadn’t asked for but apparently needed, and something about that small, deliberate courtesy unsettled her in a way she couldn’t immediately place.

The water moved between them as she slowly lowered her arms, the moment of fluster had completely passed, replaced by something quieter and more difficult to name.

"You can look," she said a little timidly.

He turned back toward her. His expression hadn’t changed, the same steady, unhurried quality it always had.

She held his gaze.

Neither of them said anything for a long moment.

The lanterns held their light across the water, and the spring fed the pool quietly beneath them, and the world below the clouds continued existing unbeknownst to that moment.

"We should go," she said finally.

"Yes," he agreed.

For a moment, neither of them moved.

Then with almost unnatural simultaneity, they both turned around and moved back toward their clothes.

They got dressed in silence, only turning around once they were done.

The corridor back to their rooms felt different from the one they’d walked down earlier. It was made of the same stone, the same lanterns and the same quiet citadel settling into its night, and yet something about it felt different.

The walk itself had a different quality to it, something that hadn’t been there on the way down.

Ning Xiaoyu walked a step closer to Damon than she had before, a small but noticeable change.

The journey was completely silent until they reached the corridor outside their rooms, and Ning Xiaoyu came to a halt.

She watched quietly as Damon opened his door. She looked like she wanted to say something, her lips parted, and her hand rose as if about to stop him, but before she could bring herself to make the choice, he had already left.

His door shut with a loud click, her hand dropping slowly to her side.

Unaware of her failed attempt to stop him, Damon moved quickly toward his bed. Exhaustion from the whole day of training was starting to gnaw at him, and so he wanted to get some rest.

Besides, he had a feeling that the next day was not going to be any easier.