"Oh – oh, I get it now, this is gonna be good," Zhao Yunlan says, and he's not even playing up the confident laughter that escapes him (really his captors' own fault for not being in on the joke), "that's why you're so sure about keeping me here, isn't it, because you've gone and sucked away all the dark energy in the city between the portals closing and that energy siphon? Which Li Qian's not gonna be happy about at all, mind, stealing her lab equipment to misuse it against her mentor, but you've got even bigger problems than that – do you really think the Envoy survived all these years by leaving himself open like that, especially when it's already been used against him before? More importantly, do you think I'd let him?" he finishes in vindicated triumph, and is rewarded by a glimpse of real fear on the surrounding faces before every last light cuts out with an earth-shaking crack, electricity racing along invisible wires to form a portal that sheds crackling light over Shen Wei as he steps through, sparks flickering up the glaive and down his dark cloak.