kingdom falling | gyuricky

forty three.

Gyuvin wrote back almost immediately, telling Minwoo about everything that had happened, about the Lunar Valley cultivators taking him from his room at the Peak and telling him he was going home but bringing him to the Lost Fortress instead, about how nobody, not even the prison guards, knew what he'd done to land him in here. He handed the letter to Chungho and asked if he could please help him send it out to Meteor Court. It would be a while before he could get a response, so he opened the third volume of The History and Basics of Talisman Craft and got to reading.

Volume III delved much deeper into the theory behind why talismans worked the way they did, floating many highly theoretical ideas and concepts. Gyuvin found himself squinting at the words as he was reading; really, the book shouldn't even be called The History and Basics at all, because none of what it was saying could be considered basic. He tried his best to make sense of what the book was talking about, but it got so complicated towards the end that he was on the verge of giving up. What was this Rainy Day person even saying? Something about the intersection of the world's naturally occurring meridians, and about how using spiritual power to draw strokes in the air or burn strokes into paper was just the most basic form of utilizing talismans' power, and how there were many other elements present in the world that could amplify the spiritual abilities of talismans tenfold, or even hundredfold.

Gyuvin was curious about who this was. It wasn't like there were many high-level cultivators out there who were renowned for their achievements in this field; outside of Meteor Court, there were so few of them he could count them up on one hand. Besides, masters of their craft didn't usually conceal their identities when they published their own writing, so the fact that this author remained nameless complicated things even more.

He gave up on trying to finish the last book. The more he read, the more he felt like Rainy Day was writing gibberish. He conceded that perhaps someone more well-read would understand it better, but as things were, he didn't think he was grasping the concept of whatever the author was saying.

He was starting to get used to the place at this point; he'd wake up and meditate, then eat some breakfast, then he'd read a little and practice his writing, then eat lunch, then he'd exercise or do silly things like trying to combine a smoke and light talisman to create an explosion talisman, then he'd eat dinner and go to bed. Chungho came by to talk to him every now and then, and Jiwoong and Gunwook both visited him once, but none of them had any more information about why they'd imprisoned him or when he was going to be able to leave.

Minwoo's response arrived to him soon, on the day that marked the seventh week of his imprisonment at the Fortress. Chungho delivered the letter to him, telling him that Gunwook was out, otherwise he would have come and delivered it instead.

Gyuvin,

I'm sorry I don't have any better news for you. Sect Leader Baek and I confronted the Coalition's senior panel as soon as I received your letter, but they said that investigations were still ongoing regarding the siege of Sky-Ascending Peak, and that you were detained for security purposes. They refused to say anything more, but I paid a visit to Moonrise Palace earlier this week and spoke to Yookyung about it. I sense that he was protecting someone, because he was reluctant to say too much, but here's what I know.

The inquiry into Hanbin's death yielded conclusive results that the wound was inflicted in two slashes, by a weapon which matched the description of your holy weapon. Kwan Hyunjae managed to identify the spiritual aura of the killing weapon, and it was a match for Yuexi. The Coalition is convinced that the person who killed Hanbin was you. I suspect that the seniors already knew this when they called you in for the interrogation.

Remember the night before the siege, where you left our detention quarters and I asked you where you went? Seungho said your tracking sigil was deactivated during the night. Yookyung didn't say much else, other than that they have, in his words, conclusive evidence linking you to the six murders, and possibly everything else. This is as much as he was willing to tell me. He's already sticking his neck out for you, to be leaking the Coalition's confidential information like this.

My guess is that the Coalition wants you gone. If they present their conclusive evidence at your trial, I can't predict what kind of punishment you'll receive. You have to come clean and tell me what conclusive evidence they could possibly have. This is your last chance, Gyuvin. I wish I could protect you, but there are too many holes in your story. Write back as soon as you can, please. You are the only one who knows the truth. If you did something, admit it and face the consequences of your actions with dignity, and don't write back to me anymore. I will accept your non-answer as a quiet admission of your wrongs, and you will be expelled from Meteor Court. You can't put the sect's honor at stake any more than you already have. It wouldn't be fair to everybody else.

Be brave, Kim Gyuvin. The truth will always prevail.

Jeon Minwoo

Gyuvin put the letter down, and tried to make sense of everything Minwoo had said. That Hanbin had been killed by a holy weapon, he already knew. He hadn't gotten a very good look at Hanbin's wounds that night, and he'd been too frazzled to bother examining the wound when he found the body after the siege ended, but he could vaguely remember that the two slashes were perhaps in similar positions to where a polearm user would strike. Gyuvin had no idea what a weapon's spiritual aura was; he didn't even think he'd ever heard those words put in that order in his life. But Kwan Hyunjae was the cultivation world's most renowned weaponsmaster. He had no reason to lie to the Coalition, and Ahn Yookyung had no reason to lie to Minwoo.

Could it be that Yuexi had really been the weapon that murdered Hanbin?

But a holy weapon could only be summoned by its master, and Yuexi had only one master.

The same dread he'd felt that day he faced the infernal rift, that creeping feeling that there was something he wasn't seeing that was just waiting for the right moment to jump on him, swept over him like the beginning of a rainstorm.