When the thought first crossed her mind, even Jinhsi had found it absurd. How could Fractsidus plunge an entire Civilization into existential crisis just to lure two people out of hiding?
Yet the longer she sat with it, the harder it became to dismiss. The possibility didn't shrink. It grew.
She kept circling back to the interrogation. Scar's obsessive fixation on the two Rovers. Jinzhou, the Threnodian, all of it... none of it seemed to matter to him half as much as they did.
As if everything else was secondary.
And when Jinhsi surveyed the full sweep of Jinzhou's history, a pattern emerged. Every time Civilization faced a crisis of annihilation, someone with strikingly similar traits appeared at the critical moment to pull it back from the brink.
"Perhaps their goal really was that simple. Use Jinzhou's crisis to draw you both out. And perhaps you truly are the mysterious heroes who have appeared throughout Jinzhou's history time and again, who stood beside our Sentinel, our god, and saved this city from ruin."
Her gaze carried a deeper reverence now as she looked at the two of them. Rover, the male one, showed no surprise. He'd known for a while. But the other Rover's expression clouded with something fragile and searching.
She wanted to know what she'd done on this land in another life. What traces she'd left behind. Yet even her companion, the one who "hadn't lost his memories," only knew fragments, simplified versions of events.
The rest...
It seemed her past self had deliberately erased them.
Who am I? What's my purpose? Why were my memories taken? Where... did I come from?
The questions folded in on themselves like a maze with no exit. Lost in the tangle, she reached for the hand beside her without thinking. This much, at least, she could hold onto.
She was lost. But she wasn't alone.
"There isn't much left to work with, but I'll consolidate whatever leads on you both exist in Jinzhou City Hall's archives. I'll also have the Pacification Bureau press Scar harder for any information about you."
Jinhsi's gaze drifted toward the glowing cityscape of Jinzhou.
Following her eyes, the two Rovers looked out at the ten thousand lanterns burning beneath the pale moon, and for a moment, the weight on their shoulders eased.
"Before Fractsidus trapped her, Jué's final message to me was to guide you both to Norfall Barrens to find the Threnodian. She believed you might find answers in Ovathrax."
"The Threnodian." He studied Jinhsi. "You're asking us to help Jinzhou survive this."
It wasn't a question, not quite. If they went looking for the Threnodian and found it, there would be no avoiding a fight.
But Jinhsi shook her head calmly. The young Magistrate's voice carried the same sincerity it always did, quiet and unwavering.
"If you chose to help, I would be more grateful than I could express. But in the face of what's coming, I won't pin my hopes on heroes descending from the sky to save Jinzhou in my place. I only want you to learn about your past. That's what I can offer you, because I'm grateful for everything you've done for this city, both now and before."
For the Rovers who had once walked alongside the Sentinel Jué and pulled Jinzhou from the fire, Jinhsi felt she owed the most honest gratitude she could give, and whatever she could do in return.
She was Jinzhou's Magistrate, after all.
She would never dangle their past as a bargaining chip, never leverage it into demands. If they wanted to leave Huanglong, leave Jinzhou entirely, she would arrange it.
As for the Threnodian crisis...
"The people of Jinzhou are my people. Protecting them is my duty. That isn't bravado. It's faith in Jinzhou's soldiers and in every soul who calls this city home."
A smile broke across her face, bright enough to catch the moonlight.
The road ahead was treacherous, but she wouldn't run. She'd face it alongside everyone in this city, because that was what a Magistrate did.
"Well said." He started clapping, and meant it. "A ruler who guards the gate and dies with her kingdom. That's the kind of strength and conviction this city needs. Jué chose well."
Beside him, the other Rover visibly relaxed, her eyes warm with approval.
They'd both long understood how strange and extraordinary they were.
But carrying an entire Civilization on their backs? That burden was too heavy to accept.
So this... this was right. Jinzhou and its Magistrate weren't treating them as saviors who'd fallen from the heavens. The survival of this Civilization wasn't being stacked entirely on their shoulders.
What came next wasn't about saving Civilization.
It was about joining a Civilization trying to save itself.
"Rovers, you..."
Jinhsi stared. Quick as she was, the realization hit before they'd even said it. These two weren't planning to take the information and leave. They intended to stay in Jinzhou.
To face the coming storm alongside them.
"Leaving was never on the table. Jinzhou is the Civilization she built with Jué in the first place. Our friends live here now. Walking away isn't an option."
"You... what?!"
Her eyes went wide.
Founded Jinzhou alongside the Sentinel?
She'd spent days theorizing about what connection the Rovers had to this city. She'd made bold guesses. But the truth eclipsed every one of them.
The two people standing before her were the origin of her Civilization.
Jinhsi went rigid, spine straightening on instinct. The reverence in her gaze deepened another layer. She opened her mouth to say something, anything, and found no words would come.
A small, helpless regret flickered through her.
I should have brought Changli.
She'd know what to do right now.
But threaded through the shock was a fierce, blazing hope. These two Rovers were staying. She'd already steeled herself to lead Jinzhou through this crisis alone, and she would have. But with them...
The odds had shifted.
She drew several deep breaths, forcing the storm inside her chest to settle, then looked at the pair with open gratitude.
"Then what would you suggest we do?"
She'd prepared for this crisis in every way she knew how.
But if these two could offer even one more idea, one strategy that tipped the scales, one plan that meant fewer of her people would die...
She would seize it without hesitation.
The other Rover turned to her companion. She knew him well enough by now. He'd been thinking about this for days, brow furrowing in quiet concentration when he thought no one was watching.
He nodded. He'd thought about it plenty.
Driving the Threnodian back the way it plays out in the game isn't enough.
I want to end Ovathrax's threat for good.
A Threnodian couldn't be killed.
But it wasn't invincible, either.
And what they needed for that was...
"Reinforcements. Jinzhou needs powerful reinforcements."