Crimson Reel

Bai Bihan spots trouble in color before anyone else does, and that skill keeps her alive after her school is wiped out. She carries its sword forms, its old grudges, and a small poison gourd hidden in her sleeve, while the court keeps closing in. A staff that should not be there keeps appearing beside Xu Lian's things, and the two women begin trading poems, glances, and quiet warnings. When hired fighters and hidden killers come for her, Bihan has one habit left that still works: she survives by seeing the lie in every shade. The last heir of a dead school is done being easy to erase.