Chapter Eleven: Departure

“Happy birthday, Lily!”
The chorus of voices echoed through the first-floor hall, drawing the attention of some children on the second floor, who peered curiously down from the spiral staircase.
“Thank you… thank you, everyone… Oh, thank you all.”
Lily couldn't hold back her tears in the end. She wiped her eyes, genuinely surprised by the children's sudden celebration. Judging by their excitement, they must have planned this together in advance, and there was no doubt Ander was the mastermind behind it all.
Camille, the tallest among them, somehow produced a banner from who-knows-where and raised it above his head. Painted in bright, colorful strokes, it read: “Lily’s 15th Coming-of-Age Ceremony.”
After she finished crying and thanked everyone, Lily pulled Ander aside and whispered her complaint:
“You just wanted to see me cry, didn’t you!”
“Of course not. I just mentioned to everyone that it was your birthday today, and they organized this on their own. I didn’t suggest anything at all.”
Lily shot him a skeptical glance—she wasn’t buying it for a second.
“I’m leaving now. Don’t spend all night playing on the computer by yourself. Boys who stay up late lose their hair and their memory gets worse. Your brother John is a perfect example!”
Lily admonished her little brother, whose warmth always touched her heart.
“Yes, yes!” Ander nodded rapidly, like a pecking chick, making Lily chuckle. She couldn’t tell if he was genuinely listening or just going through the motions.
Tucking a stray lock of hair behind her ear, Lily gave Ander a final reminder to help Sister Hugh manage the orphanage, especially to keep an eye on the more unruly kids. Then she turned and headed for the basement, intent on finding the “weapon” she’d imagined.
Unfortunately, she found nothing suitable in the basement. Even if the object was just a centimeter longer than twenty-five centimeters, it felt awkward to her—and anything shorter simply wouldn’t do.
“Am I turning into some kind of obsessive?” Lily muttered, a little dejected, as she made her way back to the hall.
By then, the rest of the team had nearly finished preparing their supplies and gear. Seeing this, Lily hurried upstairs to change into something lighter and easier to move in: a pair of cuffed utility pants and a sleeveless vest. She also grabbed a jacket, just in case the temperature dropped at night.

Standing before the mirror, Lily tied her hair back and studied her reflection.
Her eyes were still a bit red from crying, but their pale blue depths now sparkled with a youthful vitality, no longer so calm. The faint freckles on her cheeks lent her a fresh, energetic look that suited her age.
Letting out a long breath, Lily quickly descended the stairs, took her backpack from Aiden, and moved to the front of the group. Turning to face them, she spoke:
“Our exploration today has two main goals. First, to find the missing John and his team. Second, to discover if anything has changed within these ‘walls’ that surround us.”
“I believe the supplies Aiden distributed should last us three days, which means our exploration can last no more than that.”
“This will be a hellishly difficult search. According to John’s journal, he sometimes changed his original ‘sweep’ targets unexpectedly, so we may end up exploring in a completely different direction from him.”
“I don’t believe in gods, but I hope some higher power will watch over and bless this mission.”
“We will bring John back—and return safely.”
Drawing a deep breath, Lily concluded in a steady voice, “Let’s go!”
She strode to one side of the orphanage’s double doors and gripped the handle. Aiden hurried to the opposite side and did the same. With a brief exchange of glances, they pushed together, swinging open the doors.
This wasn’t Lily’s first time stepping outside the orphanage, but today was different. She wasn’t just a follower now—she was the leader. It was her responsibility to guide her team through the ever-present, unchanging [Twenty-Four Mist].
Standing in the courtyard, she gazed through the tall, old-fashioned iron gate toward the rolling fog twenty-four meters away—a fog that never seemed to shift or dissipate. Anxiety stirred in her chest, but she couldn’t allow any trace of fear to show. She had to be braver and calmer than anyone else on her team.
She and Aiden pushed open the iron gate together. After stepping out a few paces, Lily couldn’t help but glance back at the cathedral-like St. Lance Orphanage.
To her surprise, Hugh had brought Ariel to the doorway to see them off. When Hugh saw Lily look back, she waved with a bright smile, and Ariel followed suit, waving her tiny hand at Dunn and Sandro.
Lily watched for a couple of seconds, then her demeanor shifted. She turned and said coolly,
“Let’s go.”

Lily led the team east, the direction John’s “sweep” squad had taken that day—the direction she was determined to follow, since she had no way of knowing John’s true destination. All she could do was gamble on this.
When the group had plunged far enough into the mist that the orphanage was out of sight, Stephenson and Sandro—newcomers to the [Twenty-Four Mist]—finally understood the terrifying reality behind the phrase from the [Twenty-Four Mist Treatise]: visibility was only twenty-four meters.
Most of the orphanage children were around ten years old; for them, grasping the true meaning of twenty-four meters was difficult.
To most, it seemed a considerable distance, so even with visibility so limited in the mist, it felt like a broad, open space—nothing to be afraid of.
“I think if I had to walk through this fog alone, I’d go mad in no time,”
was Sandro’s verdict on this “cage.”
Lily nodded in agreement; it was indeed a prison—one that confined both body and spirit.
The restriction of sight weighed on the mind, and that psychological burden would feed back into the body, compounding the effect again and again, until one’s spirit and flesh alike were exhausted—unable to endure even another moment in the mist.
As they pressed on, Stephenson and the others felt a strange mix of emotions at the transformation of bustling Dunlun City’s streets into a deserted, uncanny landscape.
Camille, having joined the orphanage’s original exploration team and gone on a “sweep” with John last month, was already used to this unsettling contrast.
Only Dunn’s expression changed bit by bit, growing ever more grave.