Far beyond the walls of Gyeongwol, where the mountains curved like the coils of a sleeping beast, a waterfall crashed down into a basin of black stone. Mist rose constantly from its base, obscuring a cavern whose entrance yawned like the mouth of an endless serpent.
This was no natural cave. Its walls were carved with ancient runes, etched with the slithering forms of serpents entwined with human figures, some bowing in worship, others screaming in agony. It was said this place had once been a shrine to an old mountain god, but now it served a darker master.
The Serpent Claw Sect called it home.
Inside, torches burned green with alchemical flame, filling the air with a pungent odor. Disciples in black and jade robes knelt in rows, their bodies rigid, their faces hidden behind carved serpent masks. Their breathing was synchronized, unnaturally so, like the rasp of a single monstrous lung.
At the center of the cavern, upon a throne of bone and scaled hide, sat Baek Horyeong, Lord of the Serpent Claw.
He was a man of middle years, broad-shouldered and tall, his black hair streaked with silver. His face was carved in sharp, cruel lines, but his eyes—slitted like those of a serpent—glowed faintly green, reflecting the torchlight with an inhuman glimmer. His presence filled the cavern, coiled and suffocating, as if he were both man and predator waiting to strike.
A masked assassin knelt before him, head bowed to the floor. The edges of his robe still bore the faint stains of crimson, remnants of his visit to the Crimson Crane Pavilion.
"My lord," the assassin rasped. "The Pavilion has fallen. The survivors were… none."
Baek Horyeong's lips curved in a smile that showed no warmth. "Good. Let them choke on the stench of their dead."
"But…" The assassin hesitated. "The boy lived. The one the shadow favors."
A faint hiss echoed through the cavern. Disciples shifted uneasily, though none dared raise their heads.
"The boy," Horyeong said softly, the words rolling off his tongue like venom. "Choi Hyunjae. He resisted the Blood Veil in the ruins."
The assassin dared to nod. "Yes, my lord. He drew his blade against the wraiths but did not succumb."
Horyeong's smile deepened, though his eyes hardened with interest. "Good. Let him resist. Each act of defiance feeds the hunger. Each step he takes tightens the noose the shadow coils around him. He is already ours. He simply refuses to see it."
He rose from his throne, his presence towering. In his hand he held a staff tipped with a serpent's skull, emerald fire flickering in its empty sockets. The cavern seemed to darken as he lifted it.
"Our sect does not grow through patience alone," he declared, voice echoing like a thousand hisses. "The clans of Gyeongwol rot behind their jade walls, blind to the storm gathering above their heads. While they squabble over titles and silver, we will carve into their hearts. One by one, their sects will bleed. One by one, their disciples will vanish into the Veil."
His words were answered by the synchronized hiss of every masked disciple. The sound was deafening, like a thousand serpents slithering over stone.
At the far side of the cavern, chained in iron that pulsed with sealing runes, wraiths writhed. Their bodies were half-formed, their mouths open in silent screams. Their hollow eyes glowed faintly red, and the chains trembled as if struggling to contain their hunger.
Baek Horyeong approached them, pressing the serpent staff against one of the wraiths. It shrieked, though no sound should have been possible. Emerald light flared as the creature's form twisted, its body unraveling into threads of shadow that flowed into the staff.
The disciples bowed lower, murmuring prayers in a language older than the city itself.
Horyeong turned back to them, his voice dropping to a near whisper, though every ear caught his words.
"The Eclipse is coming. When the shadow swallows the sun, Gyeongwol will kneel."
He raised the staff high, and the cavern thundered with the roar of his disciples.
Meanwhile, back in Gyeongwol, Hyunjae stood over the blood-scrawled words in the Crimson Crane Pavilion. Chosen of Shadow. The phrase echoed in his mind, mingling with the whispers of his blade.
He could not see Baek Horyeong, nor hear his proclamation across the mountains. But in his chest, in the restless stir of his qi, Hyunjae felt it.
A storm was already moving toward him.