Story
Born in Huating, Mengzhou, she founded the Ten Seals Covenant as its Seal Master to liberate her homeland from the Evil Miasma. Later, by the Sentinel's decree, she served as Intendant of the Ministry of Sentinel Affairs, watching over all of Mengzhou.
[Mengzhou Ministry of Sentinel Affairs - Resonator Archive] ... The art of Frequency-Locking seals a fragment of a target's frequency within a lock. By design, a Covenant demands the subject’s explicit consent, yet should a dying target's consciousness begin to scatter, the bond may be forcibly forged in the moment their will breaks. Securing a frequency grants the wielder access to the subject’s Forte, though diminished in strength. Constrained by physical limits, she can anchor no more than ten frequencies within her body, allowing her to command no more than ten Fortes. ... <i>"So Intendant Suoming can lock in ten different frequencies, and when she opens a Vermillion Lock, she can use part of the locked person's ability?"</i> <i>"Seems so. Reading a century-old file like this is a real headache... No wonder they had us comb through it again."</i> <i>"Say, if Intendant Suoming went to every city's Sentinel and asked for a bit of frequency, wouldn't she be unstoppable?"</i> <i>"Don't be silly. The report says only a sliver of frequency can be locked. For something at the level of a Sentinel, what gets sealed in wouldn't even be enough to wield the corresponding authority."</i> <i>"Okay, a Sentinel is a stretch. But locking the frequencies of some strong Resonators should work fine, right? Why doesn't Intendant Suoming do that?"</i> <i>"I suspect she only calls the frequencies held in her locks these days. For her, the only ones she'd ever forge a Covenant with are those nine..."</i>
Upon meeting the Second Seal, Suoming asked him to forge her a mechanical weapon. The Second Seal first proposed twin blades or a sword, arguing that shaping it as a standard weapon first would allow ten thousand variations to flower from its form. But Suoming simply replied: "An umbrella would be best." The Second Seal mused in silence, and at last understood. Against the Evil Miasma that came howling with wind and rain, Huating needed an umbrella to shield its people from the storm. Thus was born the mechanical umbrella that would one day be known as Nine Shadows. Capable of shifting at will into weapons both long and short, it breaks apart into a rain of fine hidden darts to strike distant foes, or unfolds into an impenetrable shield against ferocious assaults. Its hundred mechanisms and thousand transformations stand ready to answer every hardship.
Casting the Power of Ten usually demands the target's willing consent and constant focus to maintain. Should Suoming's concentration slacken for even a moment, the borrowed Forte dissolves into nothing. Remarkable as the art is, she rarely found occasion to use it. That changed as she bound her heart to the Ten Seals Covenant. With her own hands, she forged ten Vermillion Locks, crafting each from twelve pitch-black columns capped in vermillion red. Nine were cast to match the First through Ninth Seals, and the last one was held in reserve to seal the Evil Miasma itself. Through these locks, she could sustain the power of all nine Seals indefinitely, freed from the old constraints. Yet even as her hands shaped the metal, Suoming harbored a silent hope: that if fate were to tear those nine away from her one day, she would not be the one to let go...
When the Fourth Seal left her family mansion with Suoming, she brought only one heirloom: a hairpin inspired by the intricate design of a Gilded Ball, anchored by a spherical mechanism lock. Once among the prized treasures gifted to her house by Mengzhou's dignitaries, she chose it above all else for one simple reason—she felt the Orb Hairpin suited Suoming's red hair best. From that day on, combing Suoming's hair became the Fourth Seal's "privilege," a habit later shared when the Ninth Seal joined their ranks. In tranquil moments when the Evil Miasma relented, the two would dress her hair while sharing stories of the day's events. Even now, before binding her hair, Suoming places the Vermillion Locks of the Fourth and Ninth Seals upon her dressing table. She speaks to them of all that has transpired, as if they were still by her side, gathering her hair and laughing over the news of the world.