🪽 Chapter 55: The Fall and Exile
🌍 November 14, 91 BCE — Late Autumn 🍂
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The sun had only just slipped behind the ridgeline when the ambush fell.
Claudia left the temple library with a bundle of scrolls in her arms, thinking of nothing more dangerous than the evening's meal. The cool air smelled of pine resin and distant hearth-smoke. She never noticed the shifting shadows until rough hands seized her, scrolls scattering across the stone like startled doves.
A bone knife pressed against her throat. "Quiet," hissed the woman holding her, breath sour with fear. Five men closed in, their eyes bright with the unnatural vigor of the newly blessed.
Two guards at the shrine steps lay unconscious in the dust, skulls lumped from sap-blows. Claudia's heart pounded, but her face remained calm. So this is their plan. Children playing at wolves.
Harsh whispers snapped through the dusk.
"We take her to the ship now."
"No, wait until dark."
"We've waited long enough!"
Claudia tilted her head, voice soft but steady. "You don't know what you've started."
The woman's grip only tightened. No answer came, only the quick, fearful breathing of conspirators about to leap into the unknown.
And then the shadows deepened.
Nano's voice hissed like static in Junjie's ear. "Host. Claudia is in danger. Move."
Junjie didn't hesitate. He was a blur, the world collapsing into motion. Three strides carried him across the courtyard; in a heartbeat, he wrenched Claudia free as if plucking her from a child's game. He pushed her behind him with infinite gentleness, then unleashed his storm.
Fists, elbows, knees, a whirlwind of bone and muscle. Six attackers struck down in less than three seconds, sprawling like rag dolls across the shrine floor, their borrowed strength no match for trained precision.
Claudia steadied herself, breath quick but unbroken. Junjie's arms wrapped around her, pulling her close. For a heartbeat, she let herself lean into the safety of his embrace.
Then she lifted her lips to his ear and whispered,
"I could have taken them any time. But I wanted my champion to come save me."
He blinked, then chuckled, tension bleeding from his shoulders.
Nano snorted in the back of his skull. "Romantic dramatics. Inefficient, but noted."
Torches flared as villagers came running, their shouts echoing against the stone. When they saw the would-be kidnappers groaning in the dirt, fury blazed hot.
"Hang them!" someone cried.
"Stone them!" another roared.
"They tried to steal our priestess. Kill them all!"
Even Elder Phan, normally the calmest of men, slammed his staff against the stones.
"They are traitors. Worse than enemies, they are false brothers. Their lives are forfeit!"
The mob pressed closer, voices rising like a storm. Claudia stepped forward, lifting her hands. "No."
Her single word cut through the clamor like steel on granite. "We are not a mob. We do not kill in frenzy. If we become that, we are no better than them."
The crowd hesitated. Anger burned in their eyes, but shame crept in too, cooling the fever.
Junjie stood tall beside her. "My wife speaks the truth. They are guilty, but they will face judgment, not slaughter. Justice, not vengeance."
The fire of the mob dimmed to sullen embers. Growls lingered, but the torches lowered.
⚖️ Judgment
The council gathered that night by torchlight, the six prisoners bound before them. Smoke from the braziers curled into the dark like uneasy spirits.
"They sought to seize the Leviathan," Junjie declared, "and laid hands on my wife. They betrayed our trust and abused their blessing. For this, they will be cast out."
One by one, Junjie laid his hands upon the captives. Nano's voice guided him, quiet and sharp.
"Viral payload injected. Three days. Their strength will drain. They'll be harmless. Ordinary."
The prisoners flinched at his touch, but they did not yet understand what had been taken from them.
Then Junjie turned to the gathered people, his voice ringing like a bell across the courtyard.
"They have been stripped of the blessing. What was given has been taken away. In three days, their false strength will be gone, and they will be exiled. This is the justice of the divine."
A hush fell. Murmurs of awe and relief rippled through the crowd, justice, not vengeance; law, not mob fury.
Claudia's gaze swept over them.
"Remember, we are builders of a people, not butchers of traitors."
The crowd bowed their heads. The sentence was sealed.
🏔️ Exile in the Mountains
Three days later, the Leviathan rose against the dawn, carrying Junjie, Claudia, his parents, and two elders to bear witness. Frost silvered the valley below; the air bit like a sharpened blade. The prisoners were weak, trembling as their enhancements withered. The fire that had made them bold was gone.
In a high mountain meadow, the ship settled in mist and silence.
The six were led out in rags, each given a satchel of food and water, ten silver coins, and a staff, nothing more.
Claudia's voice was steady, though sorrow darkened her eyes.
"You had a place among us. You chose betrayal. Now you must walk another path."
Junjie's tone was final.
"You are cast into the wilderness. Head south. You'll find a city in time. But never return here."
They stumbled away, shadows against the newly fallen snow.
One elder whispered,
"The gods judged them. Their blessing stripped away. Truly, they are gone from us."
The Leviathan lifted once more, its vast shadow sweeping across the peaks.
The valley closed around the exiles, and they were never seen again.
🧿 Protective Amulets
The morning after the exile, Junjie led Claudia through the hidden fissure before sunrise.
Inside the Batcave, the black walls pulsed with Nano's quiet glow; this was the place where no villager would ever walk.
Nano's voice slid across the stone like cold water. "Host, the probability of a repeat attack is unacceptable. Protective measures recommended."
Junjie braced his palms on the stone workbench, eyes fixed on the blue holograms blooming in the air.
"Defensive relics?"
"Yes," Nano replied, the projections sharpening into clear shapes.
"Kinetic barrier with stun pulse. Automatic activation on sudden force."
Claudia touched the fading bruise on her throat. "He's right. You travel too often. Your family remains exposed."
Junjie exhaled. "Designs?"
Blue light blossomed on the black surface:
– a silver-bronze bracelet with a subtle eye and sun-rays for Claudia,
– a crescent-moon pendant with a gem eye and faint smile for his mother,
– a delicate silver ring with an amethyst pupil and sun-ray band for his sister,
– a heavy iron signet ring, deeply engraved with an eye in a triangle and sturdy enough to press a wax seal, for his father.
Nano continued, clinical and calm.
"Fabrication time for appearance: seven days. Actual completion: immediate."
Junjie nodded. "Make them now, but we wait a week before presentation. No one must suspect how quickly the gods provide."
Blue motes swirled in the air as Nano's nanobots went to work, weaving metal and gem out of nothing.
Seven days later, Junjie gathered his family in the lamplit hall. He set a small cedar box on the table and opened it to reveal the four gleaming gifts.
"These are amulets of protection," he said, voice steady. "The gods placed their pattern in my dreams. You must wear them always, day and night. Never leave them in a chest or box. Their blessing works only when they remain upon you."
His mother fingered the smiling moon of her pendant, eyes wide. His sister slipped the amethyst-eyed ring over her finger, sunlight glinting from its tiny rays. His father studied the heavy iron signet, the triangle, and eye-catching the lamplight like a silent sentinel. The engraving was deep enough to press a wax seal, a practical family mark for letters and trade, yet the true purpose lay hidden beneath. Without a word, he slid it onto his hand.
Junjie met each gaze in turn. "These are not ornaments. They are shields. Promise me you will keep them close."
His mother looked up from the crescent pendant, worry creasing her brow.
"But Junjie...you give us these blessings, yet you keep nothing for yourself?"
He lifted his left arm so the lamplight caught the broad metal bracer at his wrist, a piece they had all seen countless times. "This serves me," he said with a faint smile. "The gods set my protection in this long ago."
She touched the pendant at her throat and nodded, comforted, never guessing what hidden force pulsed beneath the bracer's plain surface.
One by one, they nodded, accepting the prophet's charge, never guessing the pulse of hidden power waiting beneath the silver and iron.