Hwan quickly assessed the room while the woman handed Jay Yi the infamous elixir in a tumbler. Soon, he would have to step out to call the force; once Tae Kang arrived, he and Jay Yi would have to make their way toward the exit before the soldiers led by the State Tribunal Officer came to make the arrests.

Tae Kang's presence might already indicate to the officers that Hwan could be nearby. He had to get Jay Yi out before they spotted him or Jay Yi. Excluding him and Jay Yi, eleven people were between them and the exit door. It also meant Jay Yi and Hwan would have to subdue the people inside and stop them from escaping from the same exit.

"This will help ensure the child you carry is a little prince, my lady," the bony woman chanted, sounding delighted.

Hwan wanted to throttle her. "And what if it does not?"

"Oh! Then the next one will surely be My Lord. It has never failed."

"Really?" Jay Yi asked. She kept the bowl on the table. Hwan extracted a small bottle from his sleeves and handed it to her.

"Yes, My lady, it has - what are you doing?" the woman asked anxiously as Jay Yi started to fill the bottle with the liquid. "STOP! You cannot do that!"

"Why not?" Hwan asked. He leaned forward. "So tell me, what happens to the children in the womb who do not change their gender after drinking this?"

The woman stared at him, shocked, and then looked across the room for help. Hwan quickly scanned the scene behind him. The five young men were dismounting their instruments. The old Shaman came closer, with his sharp instruments still in his hand.

"Why, nothing happens to them, My Lord. Why do you ask?" The older man asked from behind Hwan, a sinister look crossing his rotund face.

Hwan stood up, raising himself to his full height, standing at least half an arm taller than everyone in the room.

"So you feign innocence about the deaths of those young female children?" Hwan asked coldly.

"What deaths?" The woman asked, sounding genuinely shocked. "We do not cause that!" She stood up, turning to Jay Yi. "Our Spirits are pure! I am afraid we cannot help you any more. It would be best if you left, and you also cannot take the elixir out of here." She extended her hand, asking Jay Yi to hand it back to her.

Jay Yi bunched the bulky head skirt around her neck and shoulders, leaving the edges hanging over her sides and stood up, then gave the woman a dead stare. She turned to Hwan and handed him the bottle, signalling she was ready.

The five men had closed in on them, just as they had expected; each had drawn what looked like katanas.

"We do not want to hurt you, My Lord. Your intention to come here is suspicious. Please leave before something bad happens in this house of holy spirits," The woman tried to sound stern, though the tremor in her voice gave away her nervousness.

Hwan raised an eyebrow and gave an unpleasant laugh.

"Holy spirits? Even as we speak, the men in your garden are being arrested. If you surrender now, I will spare your life."

"Arrested? Why?" The woman squeaked and looked around wildly.

The older Shaman let out a laugh that sounded pure evil. Jay Yi felt the shiver in her spine. He dropped one of his instruments and gripped the other with both hands. "For that, you need to get out of here alive."

The five men surrounded them, and the man pointed the sharp weapon to threaten Hwan.

The subsequent chaos lasted only a few minutes.

Jay Yi whipped out her knife and wrapped her arm around the woman's throat, the blade digging into a point just above the collarbone.

Two of the young men came swinging their katanas at Hwan.

Hwan deftly retrieved the concealed blade from his sleeve – he owed Mun Jeon for that ingenious device - and easily dodged the men, throwing a long leg to kick the portly older man in the gut, who flew backwards with force with a guttural yelp, clutching his midriff in pain, his instrument flying away and landing with a clatter out of reach. The men encircled Hwan, with three of them closing in on him. Hwan quickly sidestepped two, incapacitating one of them as he went and engaged in a macabre dance with the third before bringing him down with a slash across the middle of his torso.

He pilfered the katana from the bleeding man and threw it across, jamming one of the men in his thigh. Hwan finished by slashing across the shoulder of one man and kicking the last one on his chest, the crunch of the bone cracking loud and terrifying.

All five lay bleeding and writhing in pain. The younger women crouched in a corner by the colossal chest, covering their heads with their arms. Hwan's hands were sticky with blood. He wiped it across his tunic in disgust.

Jay Yi pulled the tall woman across the room to the back exit, her dagger digging into the skin with a promise to cut if the woman did not comply.

"No one moves, and she lives," Jay Yi's voice reverberated around the hall.

"Please believe us, we did not kill the children," the woman pleaded pitifully.

Hwan caught the older Shaman by his collar and dragged him like a rag doll behind him, the bloody sword hanging by his side.

Just before he reached the outer door, Hwan paused.

He thrust the man away from him, pointing his sword at his chest, retrieved his tag and shoved it under the nose of the man.

The Shaman's eyes bulged as if he had seen a ghost.

"Your M-Majesty.." he cried in terror.

"I need you to spill everything you know from your gut to save yourself from being torn apart. Trust me, I will happily skin you alive."

"B-believe me, we would not have hurt you; it was all to scare you...pl-please.." the man was rambling now.

A relieved Tae Kang and the shocked faces of Mun Jeon and Ga-ram greeted him from across the courtyard. Hwan acknowledged them with a nod, threw the man to the ground, and signalled to Tae Kang to take him away and start the arrests.

The man lay quaking in fear, gargling incoherent words, as Hwan rushed back inside before the soldiers could pour in. The woman was weeping fearfully under Jay Yi's vice hold. As soon as she saw Hwan, Jay Yi shoved the woman, who fell on the floor on her side, hands outstretched before her, pushed open the exit door and stepped out with Hwan behind her, closing it to Tae Kang's reassuring face and the State Tribunal Officer's barking orders to uniformed figures.

"They are not that badly hurt. I made sure the wounds were superficial," Hwan said wryly, reading Jay Yi's cross expression correctly.

"You were savage with them; they were just boys who play drums," Jay Yi protested.

"Boys who would have killed both of us without remorse," Hwan retorted. "What are you thinking?"

"I don't know....I don't think they meant to kill us; I felt the woman was telling the truth," Jay Yi frowned.

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Hwan and Jay Yi stepped behind a thick fir cluster, increasing their pace, staying out of direct vision from the house. "What do you mean?"

Before she could answer, she noticed a movement to her left, something white and blue moving behind a cluster of tall bushes. She put a finger on her lips to hush Hwan. Drawing her dagger, she crept, Hwan following her.

A figure in white and blue and red jumped out, hand outstretched.

"Don't hurt me, please!"

It was the blind girl.

"Please, don't hurt me," the girl pleaded, hands folded, her eyes unfocused.

Hwan and Jay Yi looked at each other. She was just a child, a blind one at that. She could get hurt if the soldiers caught her hiding in the woods.

"The soldiers might come out to check the area anytime. Bring her with us." Hwan ordered.

Jay Yi caught hold of the child's hand. "We must leave this place right now. Do not be afraid; we will not hurt you. Come with us."

The girl nodded timidly, following Jay Yi.

It was biting cold, and the girl was dressed in flimsy fabric. Jay Yi took off her head skirt and draped it over her shoulders.

"Take her to Manyeodang. They were using her for the charade in some way. She could provide us with valuable information," Hwan suggested.

"What information?" The girl asked anxiously.

"Do not be afraid; no harm will come to you. Once we reach a safe place, tell us everything you know about that place." Hwan was as gentle as possible.

Nodding uncertainly, the girl clutched Jay Yi's hand tighter.

The forest thickened, vines hanging off ancient trees that had stood silently watching time turn its pages, the gnarled limbs and moss-covered trunks impeding the way as they walked. It slowed their pace as Jay Yi had to be careful not to hurt the child.

The girl stumbled. Jay Yi's hand shot out, catching the girl before she could fall. The girl sank down to her hunches.

"I-I think you must leave me here. I cannot walk anymore..." the girl said tearfully.

"It is all right; we will slow down. Do not worry," Hwan said kindly.

"Can I have some water?" the girl asked fretfully.

Sending an alarmed glance at Hwan, Jay Yi hesitated. "Can you walk some more? We will stop a little distance from here."

"They won't let us eat or drink on the day we have rituals. I am very thirsty. Please leave me. I am sure someone will come fetch me."

"I am afraid there is no one left to fetch you."

The girl's hand flew to he mouth in shock.

"We cannot leave you here alone, child," Hwan said worriedly. "Let me carry you."

"No, please. If I can drink some water, I will be all right. There is a creek nearby; you can hear it."

Sighing, Hwan motioned for Jay Yi to lead the girl to the water. "You take her. I will stand guard. If you hear anything unnatural from up here, stay down there until I call for you. If you sense danger, scream. Do you understand?"

Jay Yi nodded. Once Jay Yi led the girl away, the thick foliage seemed to close in on Hwan, the way he always felt without her by his side.

Through the farce today, he had realized what was the one true thing that mattered in his life.

I forgave you a long time ago.

The words kept playing like music in Hwan's ears. His footsteps felt light ever since they had stepped out of that creepy building as if he didn't have any weight. A bit more, and he would fly! He chuckled to himself. Holding her in his arms felt so right. That is where his body, his soul belonged. He always knew what he wanted to do, but everything now fell into place with a surety that had been elusive before.

A light fluff was beginning to fall around him. He extended his palm, welcoming the first snow of the winter. While the cottony bubbles disappeared as they reached his hands, he could still feel their feathery touch, his newfound clarity making his nerve endings tingle with delicious awareness.

His thoughts went to his men. The girl's appearance had deterred his elite bodyguards from joining them, but he was hoping they were close.

.....I felt the woman was telling the truth -

What made Jay Yi say that? Now that he thought about it, something was bothering him at the back of his mind, but he could not put his finger on it. He wished Jay Yi would hurry back with the girl.

Footsepts crunched the dry autumn leaves somewhere nearby. Finally, his elite unit. Sighing in relief, he turned. Five shadowy figures stepped out of the wooded canopy around him, men he had never seen before.

Hwan spied two more, making their way down the way Jay Yi and the girl had gone. Hwan's throat went dry. He knew Jay Yi was equipped to handle them alone and save herself, but she would first try to protect the girl, which could pose a problem.

Where did they come from, and what did they want? While he was not richly dressed, his attire boasted nobility, but they didn't seem like robbers.

Had they come to kill the girl?

Hwan felt a calm come over him as he calculated the men's distance and strength. They all looked young and in good shape. It was impossible to tell how good they were as fighters.

"What do you want?"

The men didn't answer. Instead, they advanced silently.

Then one of them lunged, his sword extended, tearing through the air. Hwan moved to his right, executed a nimble pivot, and seized the man's outstretched arm, violently yanking him closer. The man stumbled, almost falling on Hwan's back. Some brutal pressure on the web of his thumb and forefinger later, the sword was in Hwan's grasp. Turning, he brought it down, the gash sprouting an immediate spray of blood from his assailant's upper arm. The man folded with a howl. Hwan thwacked him on the head, and he slumped.

He saw one of them run to his behind, sword poised to hit. He now faced three in front and one at his back.

Hwan's blade clashed with the man behind him in deft moves, and when he was close enough, Hwan suddenly dropped to the ground and threw a handful of soil at him. The man jerked his head back to avoid the unexpected spray of dirt; his foot caught a vine, and he sprawled on his back with a thud, a jagged stone forcing a tortured cry as he tried to roll away from the pain, his foot getting even more entangled.

Hwan leapt behind a massive tree trunk separating the elevation from the slope, forcing the remaining three to turn towards it. He started weaving in, out and across the trees around it, confusing his assailants.

Finally, one of the men separated from the others. Hwan jumped out from a cluster of sylvan bushes between two trees, bringing his sword down on the hapless man, the blade cleaving the assialant's sword from its hilt. Springing on one foot, Hwan caught his chest with his other, and the man hit a tree, slumping down, motionless.

The other two came at him at the same time. Hwan was ready. He took their blades on his sword. Two vertical sheets of steel clanged with his horizontal one, with Hwan digging his heel as he pushed them off. Years of practice with soldiers heavier than these men had honed his skill, but applying it to a life-and-death situation added an urgency which was always missing during those gruelling physical training sessions. He gave a heave with all his might and threw the men off.

They came again at him. He dodged the one closer to him neatly and snaked his sword with the other before pivoting again to catch the man's whole face with his boot, cracking the nose. Hwan bounced up high and brought his arm down, slashing his sword at the other man and catching his blade, the force throwing the man off balance. Taking a deep breath, Hwan lunged towards the third, now on his feet, pawing the dirt out of his eyes. Wrapping a muscled arm around his throat and using him as a shield, Hwan asked harshly, "What do you want? If you need money, take it and leave."

The last two silently circled him like hyenas, looking for an opening. The motionless one at the tree started coming around. Hwan mentally assessed how long it would take to bring them down. He needed to get to Jay Yi.

A swish of an arrow broke the silence. One of the men went down like a sack of floor.

Hwan's elite bodyguards were here. It was over.

Hwan turned and sped down the slope, followed by three of his men, praying Jay Yi to be all right. He had never prayed so hard.

The path beneath their shoes was rugged, with Jay Yi carefully leading the blind girl through the thickets of shrubs and over the moss-covered rocks. The distant sound of a creek reached their ears. They were on an elevation, and while the slope was not too steep, it was proving difficult because it was slippery, and Jay Yi had to verbally and physically guide the girl through the dangers.

The vines hanging from the trees intertwined with the thicket under their feet, creating unexpected loops, making the climb down the terrain even more treacherous. They had to pick up their skirts to navigate the dense growth.

As Jay Yi turned to help the girl down at a particularly difficult undergrowth, three things struck her all at once.

The girl was wearing sturdy, well-made boots, and Jay Yi could see thick stockings underneath the skirt raised to her knee. The leg was shapely, not at all like that of a child.

The girl raised her foot just high enough to climb over a rock that Jay Yi had not warned her about.

How and when did the girl find her way out of the hall?

Jay Yi suddenly let go of her hand. The girl stumbled but straightened herself just before she could hit a rock.

"How did you get out of the hall? No one left the chamber after the ritual. Which means you got out before that. Why?"

"W-what do you mean?" the girl asked in a small voice.

Jay Yi quickly increased the distance between her and the girl.

"You must have gotten out when we were busy with those stupid rituals. But how did you find your way to the door by yourself without anyone noticing? You are dressed for the cold. You were trying to escape. How did you know you were in danger when you witnessed nothing inside? And," Jay Yi threw the dart in the dark, " you are not blind."

Just then, a painful howl penetrated the eerie calm of the woods around them.

Hwan!

Jay Yi's heart sank. The girl's face turned ugly with contempt. "You are much smarter than I thought!"

Her eyes were now focussed laser sharp on Jay Yi, all pretence gone. Jay Yi released a barrage of profanities. "If anything happens to him, I will tear you apart!" She ran up the slope, her skirts coming underfoot as she unfisted the bunched-up folds in haste, using her hands to grasp onto stones and the vines as she hauled herself over the dense mossy ground cover and slippery rocks.

She managed to ascend some way up before coming to a dead halt. Two men were looking at her from above, their blades glinting in the faint light of the forest.

Jay Yi looked down. The girl had the most evil smile on her face that she had ever seen.

Pure, unadulterated evil.