Episode 2: 4 Days To Find A King

The Li border was gone by nightfall of Day 1.

By Day 2, the trees turned to stone. By Day 3, the air tasted like iron.

Now it was Day 4. The Graveyard Pass.

Zhanyi rode in front. Black cloak, lightning sword on her back. Haku rode to her left with maps, compass, and a scroll case tied to his saddle. Behind them, two royal guards who hadn’t complained once.

And between Zhanyi and Haku, riding close enough to cover her flank, was *Li Mian*.

She should’ve been at the capital holding the border. She wasn’t.

_“You disobeyed orders,”_ Zhanyi said without looking back.

_“You’d be dead by Day 2 without me,”_ Mian answered. She had her helmet off. The scar on her jaw was white in the cold. _“Besides. Someone has to make sure my assistant doesn’t get us killed.”_

Haku didn’t look up from the compass. But the corner of his mouth moved. _“I’m recording our deaths in real time. It’s called documentation, General.”_

_“I call it annoying,”_ Mian said. Then, softer: _“You good, Haku?”_

_“Cold,”_ he said. _“But good.”_

Zhanyi allowed herself one second to watch them. Ten years. That’s how long Haku and Mian had orbited each other. Bickering. Covering. Mian saving Haku from a blade in Year 3. Haku staying up three nights to stitch Mian’s shoulder in Year 5. Neither of them had said it out loud. They didn’t need to.

_“Focus,”_ Zhanyi said. _“We’re here.”_

The mist rolled down the peaks like water. It killed their torches in one breath. The temperature dropped until breath turned to knives.

_“Dismount,”_ Zhanyi ordered. _“We walk.”_

The mist parted.

A valley. No trees. No sound. Just snow and bone-white stone. And in the center, a throne. Carved from ribs and frost.

On it sat a man.

Black armor. Black hair tied with ice. Skin pale as death. A crown of frost sat crooked on his head. His eyes were grey. Winter grey. He wasn’t breathing. But he was watching.

_Zhang Wei._

Ghost King of the Eastern Domain. Murdered by his brother at 19. Ten years dead.

The two guards dropped to their knees. Haku bowed low, precise. Mian stepped half in front of Zhanyi, hand on her sword.

_“Zhang Wei of the Eastern Domain,”_ Haku said. Voice steady. _“This is Crown Princess Li Zhanyi of Li Kingdom.”_

Zhanyi did not kneel.

She walked through the snow until she was ten feet from the throne.

_“I didn’t cross a graveyard to kneel to a ghost,”_ she said. _“I came to make a deal.”_

Zhang Wei tilted his head. Frost cracked off his crown and fell.

_“A deal,”_ he said. His voice came from under a lake. _“With a dead man.”_

_“With a king,”_ Zhanyi corrected. _“The Li Kingdom requires a king to sit the throne in ten days. I need your name. Your strength. In return, I give you what no living person can.”_

_“And what is that, Princess?”_

_“Revenge.”_

The word hung in the mist.

_“Your brother took your throne and your life,”_ Zhanyi said. _“My Council took my right and called me ‘just a girl.’ We are both problems they think will disappear.”_

Zhang Wei stood. He did not walk. One moment on the throne. The next, in front of her. The air turned to glass. Cold poured off him in waves.

He reached out and touched the hilt of her lightning sword. Sparks jumped and died.

_“You do not fear me.”_

_“I’ve buried men,”_ Zhanyi said. _“Fear is a luxury I lost two years ago.”_

Behind her, Mian shifted. Haku’s hand went to the dagger in his sleeve.

Zhang Wei smiled. Not warm. Like a blade.

_“Say yes, and I am yours, Crown Princess. Say no, and this mist will keep your bones with the rest.”_

Zhanyi did not blink. _“Yes.”_

The world broke.

Bells rang with no rope. The bone throne split down the middle with a crack that shook the valley. The mist exploded outward in a ring and tore trees from the ground.

From the ridge above: shouts. Steel. Torches.

Zhang Wei’s brother’s soldiers. They had followed them through the pass.

_“Incoming,”_ Mian said. She was already between Zhanyi and the ridge. _“Haku, cover the left.”_

_“On it,”_ Haku said. He pulled two short blades from his sleeves. The scholar was gone.

Zhang Wei lifted two fingers. The mist around them sharpened and shot upward like spears. Screams followed.

He turned to Zhanyi. _“Let’s see if the Crown Princess of Li can keep up.”_

Zhanyi drew her sword. Lightning lit the snow white.

_“Watch me.”_

Mian and Haku fell into formation on either side of her without speaking. Ten years of fighting together.

Day 4 of 10. King found.

Now they just had to survive him.

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