Scarlet Revoked !!top!! -

Useful. The word clung to her like ash. In the days that followed, Lin Wei learned what “reduced to Grey” truly meant. Her pigments were confiscated—the cinnabar sticks she had ground by hand, the lacquer pots sealed with her personal chop. The other ritualists, her former peers, averted their eyes when she passed in the corridor. Some looked at her with poorly hidden relief. Others, with pity so sharp it felt like a blade.

Lin Wei looked down at the garment she had worn for thirty years. It was not merely red. It was Scarlet —the specific, sacred hue granted only to the empire’s most accomplished ritualists. The dye had been mixed from the first light of dawn striking a phoenix’s crest, fixed with the blood of a willing martyr. Wearing it meant she could command the city’s protective wards, speak the prayers that kept the harvest rains on time, and stand in the Empress’s presence without kneeling. scarlet revoked

The eunuch finally met her eyes. “My lady… you must surrender your robe.” Useful