He headed back to his shared quarters. Ricky wasn’t in the courtyard anymore when he walked in, but he didn’t much want to talk to Ricky anyway. He closed the door behind him and sat down, and tried to think of nothing.
Two days and two nights passed without event. The entire Peak had stopped all functions because the seniors were busy conducting the investigations and the attendants were busy cleaning up the remains of blood and demon dust from the battlegrounds. The disciples were all left with strict instructions not to leave their shared quarters under any circumstances, and that food and water would be delivered when the time came.
Gyuvin spent most of the two days and two nights in his room. He could hear Ricky and Jiwoong talking sometimes, out in the courtyard, but he had no desire to join them. So many things had happened in the past week that made no sense; losing Hanbin felt like the last straw on the camel’s back, like the final thread holding him together had snapped. The fact that everybody, including Ricky, seemed to suspect he had some involvement in the entire situation just made him feel even worse.
He was sitting by the end of his bed on the morning of the third day, staring at nothing in particular, watching the dust motes spin through the air, when the door to his room burst open.
“Kim Gyuvin, follow us.”
There were more than five people standing outside his door, all dressed in the black uniforms of Lunar Valley, flanked by Han Seungho, Lee Eunyoung, and Kwan Hyunjae. Gyuvin stood up, walking slowly towards the door, wondering exactly what was going on. The commotion had brought Ricky and Jiwoong out of their rooms, too; Jiwoong looked surprised to see his own sect’s cultivators, and so many of them at once.
“What’s going on?” Gyuvin asked carefully.
“By order of the Coalition,” one of them answered, brandishing a piece of silver rope. “You are to be sent back to Sunshower City with immediate effect.”
By order of the Coalition?
Without waiting for a reply, he reached out and bound Gyuvin’s hands with the silver rope. Gyuvin could feel his spiritual power deaden almost immediately; this was a Spirit-Binding Cord, something that would disrupt the flow of spiritual energy within a cultivator. While he was bound by it, he was effectively helpless.
“Wait! What did I do? Why are they-“
“You know what you’ve done, Kim Gyuvin.”
Kwan Hyunjae had an insidious smile on his face. Gyuvin had looked him in the eye many times before, but there was something so sinister in his gaze now that Gyuvin almost didn’t dare to say anything more.
“But I-“
“Take him away.”
The Lunar Valley cultivators surrounded him, pushing him out of the courtyard; he caught a final glimpse of Ricky, standing by his door with an unreadable expression, before someone placed a blindfold over his eyes and he was plunged into darkness.
“The blindfold is a safety measure,” someone said from behind him. Gyuvin stumbled a little, unsure of where to put his feet without his sight to direct him, but the Lunar Valley cultivators didn’t slow down. “It is best not to resist. It won’t do anyone any good.”
Gyuvin wanted to ask how he could possibly resist when he was blinded, restrained and deprived of his spiritual power, but he decided it wasn’t a good time to be a smartass. “Why do I have to be blindfolded?” he asked, subdued. “I thought I was going home.”
A soft chuckle sounded from behind him. “You’re not going home, boy. I thought that seemed obvious enough.”
“What? Then where am I g-“
“You’re going to the Lost Fortress,” one of them said. “Coalition’s orders. No more questions or I’ll put a silencing spell on you.”
He was directed into the back of a horsedrawn carriage when they descended to the foot of the Peak, and as the carriage began pulling away from Sky-Ascending Peak, away from Minwoo, the only person who was still on his side, and from Hanbin, the person who had always been on his side, he was overcome with such desperation, a deep sense of loneliness that made him feel hollow on the inside. He no longer had the heart to keep himself composed, and as the carriage trundled down the road towards his certain demise, his tears fell without stopping, until he eventually slipped into exhaustion and lost consciousness entirely.Â
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