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"
What happened to you...? "
Park Jin's voice quivered with a rare tremor, laced with concern as he took in the girl's disheveled form. Yet nothing could have prepared him-or anyone in the room-for what followed.
A violent cough tore through her, hand rising instinctively to cover her mouth. But when the fit passed, her palm came away slick and warm. Her breath hitched as she looked down.
Blood.
Crimson stained her trembling hands, dripped from the corner of her lips, and painted her face with a hue far too vivid to be anything but ominous. The metallic scent filled the chamber, thick and heavy.
"Na-ra..." Park Jin's voice rasped, hoarse with disbelief and dread.
The girl raised her eyes, wide and glassy, meeting their gazes with a look so lost it pierced through the silence. Her lips quivered, smeared red like a cursed blossom in bloom.
" Wh-what... What should I do...? "she whispered, staring at her bloodied hands as if they belonged to someone else ──someone cursed.
Master Heo was the first to move. With calm urgency, he retrieved a cloth and knelt beside her, his hands steady as he began wiping the blood from her skin. But even his composure strained beneath the gravity of her condition.
"Steady your breath," he whispered lowly." Tell us everything-clearly, from the beginning."
Her voice shook as she began, tears streaking down her pale cheeks. Word by word, she unraveled the harrowing tale-the abduction, the night cloaked in shadows, and the awakening of the cursed energy.
As she spoke, the two men sat in stunned silence, the weight of her revelations pressing upon their chests like stone. The Firebird-long thought dormant-had risen.
And it's flame had marked her.
"Is that even possible...?" Park Jin's voice was barely a whisper-more to himself than to anyone else-as he stared at the trembling girl before him. His brows were drawn tight, not in confusion, but in denial. He knew what this meant. Knew, with sickening clarity, that this truth would carve a permanent scar into her life.
" That presence I felt in her earlier..." Master Heo's tone was low, grave."It was no illusion. That overwhelming force-it must be the Firebird's energy."
Park Jin's head snapped toward him, disbelief flaring into frustration." Then what of the blood?! She's vomiting blood! You told us there were no internal wounds!"
"There aren't!" the physician shot back, though his voice cracked with strain. "Her organs are untouched. But her core of energy-her life force-is in chaos. She possesses too much energy in a body too fragile to contain it. The vessel cannot withhold the fire... "
