Lee Tae Yang stared at her, unsure if he'd heard her right.
"The queen?" he repeated, voice low, cautious.
Li Juan nodded slowly, her fingers curling tighter around the hem of her robe, as if grounding herself.
"She was there… at the Valley of Eternal Love in the Tu Mountains," she said, her voice caught between reverence and disbelief. "Wearing that same phoenix robe."
Lee Tae Yang said nothing. He knew better. When Li Juan entered this in-between space—half dream, half memory—words had to wait. Even time held its breath.
"For a moment… I was happy," she continued, her gaze drifting beyond the room. "It felt like I was meeting an old friend after many years. I thought she might feel the same. But something was different. There was something in her eyes…" Her brows pulled together. "Regret? Or fear? I don't know. But it felt like—like she was trying to warn me about something."
