Yan surged up the spiraling stairways, the jinn pursuing her like an unbroken shadow. Reaching the grand dining hall, she vaulted over the long tables as her arrows fell like rain—each one flashing like lightning that split the darkness.
The old woman followed at a deliberate pace, as though savoring the chase. With a mocking laugh, she said:
"The great palace of House Ina… will be remembered in history as the stage that bore Yan's final scream."
Yan came to a halt at the throne hall, her breath ragged, a tear of fury glinting in her eyes. She turned toward the old woman, who entered with slow, arrogant steps, a swarm of jinn encircling her.
Drawing back the string of her final arrow, Yan's voice thundered through the chamber: "This palace… is not my grave—it will be yours!"
In that instant, she loosed a radiant arrow that burst against the stone ceiling. Massive rocks crashed down, sealing the passage behind the witch, trapping her and her jinn with Yan inside the throne hall.
The stones fell, the passage sealed, and dust filled the air. Yan wiped the sweat from her brow, gripping her bow as though it were a fragment of her soul. Opposite her stood the old witch amid the smoke, her staff trembling with a crimson glow, a sly smile curling across her wrinkled face.
In a rasping yet powerful voice, she said: "Your bow will not protect you from the shadows… you are merely human."
Yan answered with a sardonic smile, her eyes gleaming: "But my arrows… kill what swords cannot."
The witch's staff struck the ground, unleashing chains of black shadows that lashed toward Yan, coiling around her feet. She leapt lightly, spinning like a dancer, and fired a luminous arrow into the ground. A ring of light erupted, cleaving the shadows in two.
"Insolent girl!" the old woman shrieked.
One of the jinn lunged at Yan—a towering creature with twisted limbs—but she did not retreat. Stepping forward, she drew her bowstring with all her strength and released an arrow that pierced its chest. It burst into black smoke before it could touch her.
The witch herself advanced, raising her hand as green fire ignited in her palm. She hurled it toward Yan, but Yan bent fluidly, the flames passing overhead to ignite the throne behind her.
Yan lifted another arrow—this one tipped with a radiant blue glow—and said coldly: "And this one… is for you."