He was finishing up the second volume, on the fifth week of his imprisonment at the Fortress, when Chungho came by and peeked through the doorway of his cell. “You’ve got a visitor,” he said. “Come on, wake up.”
Gyuvin jumped up from where he’d been sitting. “We’re allowed visitors in here?”
If they were allowed to have visitors, then why hadn’t-
“Well, you’re not,” Chungho answered, a little conspiratorially. “I’m making an exception for you. Plus, he’s the sect leader’s son, so it’s not like I can turn him away…”
The sect leader’s son?
“Hyung!”
A set of familiar black robes accompanied by a familiar face appeared in the doorway of his cell, and Gyuvin’s eyes lit up in recognition. “Gunwook!”
“Hyung, is everything alright?” he asked immediately, his eyes widening. “We had no idea where you’d gone. The seniors told everyone you were sent home, you know?”
“They never had any intention of sending me home,” Gyuvin answered. “They came for me, two days after the siege at Sky-Ascending Peak. They said the Coalition ordered for me to be taken here.”
Gunwook frowned. “We believed it, at the start. But we knew something was amiss when we asked Minwoo-sunbae if you’d gotten back to Meteor Court safely, and he kept telling us you never arrived at the Court, and he hadn’t heard from you ever since you left.”
“Well that makes sense,” Gyuvin said. “The walls of this place block all communication spells, and I’ve been here for the past five weeks. Is Minwoo-hyung still at the Peak?”
“No, he left a week earlier than the rest of us did,” Gunwook answered. “Me and Jiwoong and the others just got back to the Valley today, since the training camp officially ended a few days ago. But I have a letter for you, from Minwoo-sunbae.”
Gunwook reached into his robes and removed a folded piece of scroll, tied up with a thin cord. “I think the other seniors hid things from him, but he knew they hadn’t sent you home like they said. He had some suspicions about where you’d ended up, but he wasn’t sure either, so he gave a copy of this letter to Zhanghao, Taerae and Matthew too, just in case any of us happened to see you or hear from you at all when we got back home.”
Gyuvin took the letter, setting it down on the table for him to read later. “If nobody knew where I was, then how did you know I was here?”
“It was just a hunch,” Gunwook said, sighing. “Unless they’d taken you somewhere and had you murdered, there’s not many places they could send you that would make you disappear off the face of the earth like that. I came to look for Chungho as soon as I got back, and he told me there’d been someone about my age brought in here a few weeks ago, wearing Meteor Sect’s uniform. I knew it was you, then.”
Gyuvin said nothing, trying to process everything Gunwook had said.
“And, hyung…”
“Hm?”
“I think you’ve already heard, but…” Gunwook shifted awkwardly from one foot to the other, averting his gaze. “Hanbin-hyung is dead. The seniors said he was killed during the siege. I’m sorry.”
Gyuvin nodded. “I know.”
The silence stretched on for a bit longer, before Gunwook spoke up again. “Anyway, if you need anything, you can get Chungho to tell me, and I’ll do it for you. Like if you want to send a letter back to Minwoo-sunbae, or something.”
“Okay.” Gyuvin sat back down onto his bed. “Thanks for figuring out where I was, Gunwook. If you hear anything about when my trial’s gonna be, can you let me know?”
“Of course,” Gunwook answered. “I’ll try to talk to my dad, see if he can get the Coalition to move it forward a little. Anyway, I’ve gotta go now, so I’ll see you again soon.”
Gyuvin loosened the cord and unfolded the letter after Gunwook left. There were two pieces of paper filled with closely-written script, recognizably Minwoo’s handwriting.
Gyuvin,
Let me know if this gets to you, and if you’re safe. The Coalition told me you were sent back to the Court, but Sect Leader Baek said you never made it there. Nobody’s heard from you and the Coalition refuses to say anything else, so this letter is a last resort. Please tell me if you’re alright.
Anyway, I’ve enchanted this letter so you’re the only person who can open it, so I’m assuming if you’re reading this you are in fact safe and well. I looked more into the suppression array while you were gone. The fact that the number of hearts you found corresponded to the amount of dead bodies already draws a connection, but there’s something else that makes it abundantly clear the person who killed the six people was the same person who set up the array. Remember the positions you found the six willows in? I drew the six points out onto a map. As I was surveying the destroyed willows, I realized the roots all formed a strange pattern. I charted those too. The positions of the willows weren’t coincidences, Gyuvin. The roots formed the outer strokes of what looks to be a spirit-binding talisman, that’s likely why the array was so strong. It seems that the person behind it all is very familiar with talisman work.
I think I’ve figured out why things happened the way they did. I know you said the willows had been there for weeks before the siege, but this kind of array would usually take more than six months, maybe even a year to fully develop before it could be used to such an extent as it was used during the siege. So, the person behind it probably killed those six people with Soul Erosion talismans to drain their life force to supplement the array and jumpstart the process, and used the six hearts to strengthen the willows themselves so they could stably support the array without withering. That’s why the enchanted willows tried their best to protect the heart, and why they died immediately when the heart was exposed.
By the way, none of these are permitted uses of cultivation. The only reason it’s not explicitly classified as a forbidden technique is because no one’s ever done anything like this before. Whoever did this appears to be very, very smart, and that’s dangerous.
They released Hanbin’s body, so I’m taking him home with me. I’ll try to wait for you to come back before they start the burial because I know you want to say goodbye, but I can’t promise anything. Come back soon, okay? But other than that, I have some strange and unsettling news. They said the fatal wounds inflicted on Hanbin were from a holy weapon. The two most likely explanations are that he was either killed by someone from the Peak, or by the person who orchestrated the whole setup. I know they know more, but they refuse to tell me anything. I might as well be an outsider at the Peak, Coalition member sect be damned. You were the one who brought his body back from outside the Peak, right? How did you know it was there? I never got to ask you. I wish I knew more, but at the moment this is all I have.
Anyway, I’ll stop here for now. I’ll tell you more when I see you again, so come home, alright? I don’t know where you are, but I hope you’re alive at least. See you soon, Gyuvin.
Jeon Minwoo
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