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Chapter Text

Jin Mu whispered his orders to Naksu as he rang Shaman Choi's divination bells:

“Naksu! You are my last weapon. Rise and eliminate Jin Woo-Tak so that he won't reveal my secrets, Run wild, Naksu, and kill anyone who stands in your way!"

The dark divine energy of the bells spread in the air, traveling from the remote hidden chamber in Cheonbugwan towards their target in the Jang residence. 

Confident that his orders would be carried out by the fearsome assassin he had trained, the Assistant Gwanju slowly put down the bells and waited.

He estimated that, very soon, news of Naksu's return would have the entire capital in turmoil. Only then would he reveal himself to the king and offer a solution to the problem he had created.

Echoes of distant bells rang inside Mu-Deok’s head as her eyes snapped open. 

Her gaze was vacant, unseeing, as she slowly sat up in her sleeping quarters, looking around her as if looking for the origin of the strange sound.

After a long moment of silence, she slid out of bed, leaving the blanket and bed sheets undone.

This late in the night, most of the Jang residence was shrouded in darkness. There were only a few lit braziers outside as the former servant made her way to the main sitting room.

Her silent steps took her across the polished wooden floor, past the table where she had shared too many cups of wine with Maidservant Kim.

A few more steps beyond that table and she reached what she had sought after:

Naksu's sword.

Jang Uk had promised Maidservant Kim that he would get rid of it, but after being distracted by Mu-Deok’s confession he had forgotten about it.

As she approached the deadly weapon, Mu-Deok slowly extended her arm towards it, but stopped just shy of taking a hold of it.

Instead, she hovered her outstretched palm over the sheathed blade. It was as if she was trying to draw it to her with the power of her mind.

If that was her intention, she failed. The white scabbard did not move, nor did any mage energy surge from it. 

Mu-Deok stood there for several minutes, never touching the sword. 

A brief sigh escaped her lips as she slowly lowered her arm. She then turned around and walked away from Naksu's weapon, not looking back at it even once.

She did not return to her bedroom, however. No, she walked deeper inside the residence and reached the young master's sleeping quarters.

As she had done countless times while serving as a maid, she quietly slid inside Jang Uk's bedroom.

Embers were burning low in the room's brazier, but she did not need any light to find her way to the young master.

He was lying on his side, his back facing the door. Judging from the slow and deep breathing gently moving his upper body, he was sound asleep.

Mu-Deok took a few steps towards his silhouette and lowered herself on her knees right next to him.

Once again she stretched her arm and spread her fingers, and she had to lean over Uk to place her palm over his covered chest.

At first she gently patted on the silk of his jeogori, then she meticulously inched her hand through the opening of the garment.

The very moment that her fingertips made contact with Jang Uk's bare skin, she was suddenly pulled over, her arm used against her as leverage to throw her over his body.

By the time her yelp of surprise resonated in the room, Uk in question had already moved fast: even before she landed on her back he had kicked his bedsheets out of the way so he could roll his body above hers. He gripped the wrist of the hand she had on his chest, maintening their skin contact. 

Mu-Deok didn't need to see him to know that he was smiling smugly at her.

“Came to finish what you started?” He asked teasingly, his voice low from slumber.

Earlier, he had been disappointed that his beloved betrothed had fallen asleep right after kissing him. He had known that she had been too drunk to be held responsible for her actions, which had been obvious when she had nearly revealed her true identity to Maidservant Kim. 

But Mu-Deok didn't seem drunk now. 

From Uk's perspective, she had come to him with a very obvious purpose. She had awoken him by trying to remove his clothes, a move even bolder than her kiss. His heart was beating rapidly, threatening to fly out of his chest and right into her open hand.

“You didn't have to sneak in, you know,” he assured before lowering his head to whisper in her ear, “but you should have definitely asked before stripping me like that.”

“S-stripping…y-you? Me?” Mu-Deok stuttered, sounding panicked as she snatched her hand back.

“No, no, Jang Uk! That was not my intention!”

Not believing her for a second, Uk simply chuckled in amusement. He unintentionally tickled the sensitive skin of her upper neck with his breath, making her gasp as goosebumps spread all over her skin.

It was at that very moment that the remnants of sleep fogging Jang Uk's mind abruptly dissipated.

He remained perfectly still, for three reasons:

The first was his natural but embarrassing reaction to being in such a compromising position with the woman he loved, right there in his bed and in the middle of the night.

His physical arousal was immediately doused by the second reason why he couldn't move.

Now that he was fully awake, he belatedly registered that Mu-Deok had said his name differently from all the other times. There was no fondness or annoyance to her enunciation despite the fact that he had clearly meant to rile her up.

Last but not least was the fact that her touch had left a warm spot on his chest. After a few seconds, Uk realized that the warmth was coming from within him!

Yes, there was a faint surge of energy within him. It couldn't be his mage powers, he had exhausted them all to be able to retrieve…oh.

“Jang Uk,” Mu-Deok called his name again, her voice familiar but her tone foreign. 

“Who are you?!” He nearly yelled at her as he squinted his eyes at her face.

His eyesight had adapted to the low lighting by now, and the dying fire next to his bed helped him see what he was looking for.

He searched for the blue mark of Naksu's soul-shifting in Mu-Deok's eyes, and found nothing.

In fact, Mu-Deok’s eyes were completely unmoving. Her pupils hadn't changed at all ever since he had pulled her down. 

Jang Uk finally moved, rolling away from the bed and shooting up to his feet.

“I won't ask you again,” he warned the intruder as he got a hold of Jang Gang's sword.

He couldn't draw it now that he no longer was a mage, but he could still use it as a blunt force weapon.

He would do anything to get Mu-Deok back!

Mu-Deok unhurriedly rose up to a seated position and turned to face him, her eyes still unresponsive.

“I am Mu-Deok,” she answered firmly, calmly, her tone leaving no room for Uk's imagination to run wild.

He didn't have to guess what she meant, not after what Master Lee had told him.

“You are the real Mu-Deok…the priestess?” He voiced his guess.

She proved him right with a simple nod of her head.

Chapter Text

“You are the real Mu-Deok…the priestess?” Jang Uk asked, holding onto the hope that this was just a prank.

His hope was quashed when Mu-Deok nodded.

It was just a simple and brief movement of the head, but it was hard proof that she wasn't his former master and servant.

She had never tilted her head that way.

When Jang Uk had first met Mu-Deok, he had found her terribly clumsy; when he had found out that she was the fearsome Naksu, he had realized that her poor coordination was due to Naksu's muscle memory disagreeing with Mu-Deok's physical abilities.

Over time, Jang Uk had watched his master familiarize herself with her weaker new body. She had moved more fluidly, but still in a way that was unexpected from a simple servant.

Earlier tonight, Jang Uk had watched his very inabriated betrothed move awkwardly again. 

It was all the more obvious now that the Mu-Deok in front of him was the original owner of this body: even with the poor lighting, it was easy for him to see that she moved with ease, using the economical and careful movements of someone comfortable in her own skin.

"Wait, wait!" Jang Uk blurted out, squinting his eyes at his uninvited visitor. 

"How did you find me?" He asked, and saw her silhouette lean her head to the side.

"Where else would you be if not here?" She asked back.

"I mean, how did you get here, inside my room?" He specified as he tip toed closer.

He quietly leaned down and started waving his free hand in front of her. Gently, so as not to disturb the air in front of her face.

He startled when she grabbed his wrist.

"Huuuh?!?" He blurted out before snatching his wrist away.

He pulled so hard against her gentle hold that he stumbled backwards. As soon as he righted himself, he pointed an accusing finger at her.

"Aren't you supposed to be blind?! How could you see my hand moving?"

"The physical world isn't all that there is to see, Jang Uk," the real Mu-Deok in question calmly stated. "You should know that as a trained mage."

Her words made the former mage's heart ache.

"I'm not a mage anymore," he pointed out, trying his best to hide his bitterness.

He didn't regret sacrificing his powers to seal the ice stone, not when the risk of it falling into the wrong hands had felt so high.

And yet, deep down, he wished that he'd had more time to master his hard-earned powers. He had made great progress in so little time, surely he would have improved given a few more years!

He did value the lessons he had learned in the past months. He had learned them mostly from Mu-Deok...or rather from Naksu.

Her dangerous teaching methods had yielded unbelievable results, and he owed her everything: not just the covered experience of training as a mage in Songrim, but the opportunity to reconnect with his friends.

Most importantly, he had met her, someone who accepted him for who he was. They didn't need their powers to enjoy each other's company.

After all the danger and pain they had faced together, he had looked forward to enjoying a peaceful life with her.

That made him resent this sudden turn of events.

"What happened to Naksu?" He asked the priestess. "And how did your soul return to your body?"

"My soul never left my body," Mu-Deok's unexpected answer left him speechless.

With widened eyes, he stared at the shadow of the body in front of him. 

The body of the woman he loved; the body he had watched with great attention many times, and whose proximity he had longed for when it wasn't near him.

The body he had pushed away, drawn closer, spun around, held in his arms...

"You were there the entire time??" Jang Uk exclaimed, mortified.

He felt his face heat up when several memories of private moments with Naksu came to the forefront of his mind.

"W-when we kissed? And when I-I...I...tended to Mu-Deok's wounds in Sejukwon! I undressed her and...I...I mean..."

He trailed off, expecting the priestess to at least thank him for helping heal her body, but she remained silent.

"Why didn't you do anything?" He finally questioned her. "If your soul never left your body, why did you let Naksu take control of it?"

"Cho Yeong didn't take control of my body," Mu-Deok corrected him with a slight shake of her head. "When she was running away from the mages of Songrim,  she touched me, and I felt..."

"You felt what?" Uk prompted her when she trailed off.

She sighed quietly before elaborating:

"I felt that her soul was...troubled. She was powerful yet miserable, lost in her grief and rage. When she used the soul ejector, I felt its dark energy released around me. At first I didn't know that I was sensing the ill-fated Alchemy of Souls unravel in front of me, but when I realized what was happening, I acted quickly. I had to stop her from becoming a soul shifter, otherwise she would never find her way back to the light."

Jang Uk felt his chest swell in gratitude. Had the priestess not intervened that night, he might have never crossed paths with the woman he loved.

"I feared that the men pursuing her would kill her if I simply returned her soul to her body," Mu-Deok went on, "so I did what I thought was the only way to benefit everyone: I kept her with me. I locked her powers so that she wouldn't hurt anyone. But even without her mage powers, she found her way inside Songrim and tried to keep killing mages."

"She failed miserably," Uk commented with a scoff, recalling how he had to pry that puny knife from Mu-Deok's hand.

Another memory suddenly popped in his head: Mu-Deok's hand gripping his wrist tightly...to stop him from floating away during the Alchemy of Souls.

He gasped when realization dawned on him: he had seen the real Mu-Deok before!

"It was you," he whispered as he locked his gaze on the unseeing eyes of the priestess. "You're the one who stopped Gi Joo from taking my body with the Alchemy of Souls. You protected my soul too."

Mu-Deok remained silent, but Jang Uk didn't need her to say anything, he knew he was right

That night, he had been too relieved not to shift bodies with Gi Joo that he hadn't cared to understand how that was possible. But now he knew that someone had watched over him and Naksu, and he felt all the more grateful. 

Convinced that he could trust the woman in front of him, Jang Uk set aside Gang's sword and slowly lowered to his knees to sat in front of Mu-Deok.

"I have so many questions to ask you," he prefaced as he got comfortable, shifting his weight on his heels.

"We do not have much time," her warning made him blurt out his most pressing question first.

"If you had control all this time, then why have you only revealed yourself now?"

Her answer made his blood run cold:

"Because I failed to protect Cho Yeong's soul tonight."

"W-what?! What happened?"

"Uncle made her soul run wild," her answer left Jang Uk both horrified and confused.

Uncle? Wasn't Mu-Deok an orphan? But that wasn't what was important at the moment!

"Naksu's soul has run wild? But...you look fine?" 

She didn't answer right away.

"Mu-Deoka," he called out impatiently.

"That is not my true name."

Jang Uk blinked. Once, twice...

"Excuse me?" He said, convinced that he had heard wrong.

"My name isn't Mu-Deok. Mu-Deok was the late granddaughter of the lady who took care of me in Sari village."

Jang Uk forced himself to stay quiet when he felt the urge to make a snide comment.

There were too many people in the capital who were not who they claimed to be. 

"Alright, alright, your name isn't Mu-Deok," he accepted with a wave of his hand. "That's actually good, it means that I can call Naksu Mu-Deok as usual. What do you mean by your uncle made her soul wild? How could he do that?"

The sound of rustling fabric made Jang Uk glance down.

From this angle, the dying flame of the brazier was directly to Mu-Deok' left, so he was able to see that she was tightly clenching her skirt.

When she spoke again, her usual calm tone carried a hint of anger:

"He used an obscure shamanic spell to take control of her soul. He must have found out that Cho Yeong was in my body. I heard bells...tonight was not the first time I heard them, he tried it a few days ago as well. I believe that he was testing the spell then, and tonight he used the spell with specific instructions: he told her to eliminate my...to eliminate Jin Woo-Tak and kill anyone who stands in her way."

"But you can stop that shamanic spell, right?" Jang Uk questioned, feeling panicked all over again. "You're a powerful priestess! You saved Naksu and me from the Alchemy of Souls!"

"This spell is more complex than the Alchemy of Soul," she argued, "and I don't know anything about sorcery in the first place! I'm not even a trained priestess. I acted on instinct when I stopped you two from shifting souls. This time I can't protect Cho Yeong!"

She placed a hand on her chest and lowered her head before adding:

"All I can do is slow down her petrification, but she's fighting me!"

"What?!" Uk exclaimed, moving closer to place his hands on her shoulders. "She's fighting you...how?"

"The divination spell is pushing her to regain control of her powers. I sealed them away, but I was only able to do it because I was focusing all my powers to maintain the spell. Now that I have to slow down her petrification, my seal is weaker. She is a powerful mage, I cannot fight her control for long..."

"How long?" Jang Uk asked, his hands shaking on the shoulders he had relied on so often.

He felt miserable knowing that Mu-Deok was right there, inside this body, but he couldn't reach her. It was worse than being separated from her when he first joined Songrim!

But he wasn't the same clueless apprentice mage he was months ago. In fact, he had the ultimate power within reach! He just hoped that there was enough time for him to learn how to use the ice stone.

As if she'd guessed his thoughts, not-Mu-Deok shook her head.

"Not long enough for you to master the power of the ice stone."

"Maybe Master Lee can do it?" He proposed next, refusing to give up. "If he takes the ice stone, I will regain my powers, right? And then I can train even faster to use it!"

"No!" The young priestess nearly shouted, shaking her head vigorously. "No one but the one born under the King's Star may wield the power of the ice stone. Look what happened when people ignored this warning!"

"What do we do then!?" Uk shouted as he pulled away from her.

He stood up and started pacing around his dark bedroom. Taking quick and steady breaths to stay focused, he tried his best to think of a solution.

Mu-Deok's life was at stake! All he needed was more time to train as a mage again!

"Hold on," he said, snapping his fingers as an idea came to him.

He turned towards not-Mu-Deok and asked:

"If Mu-Deok stopped fighting you, could you slow down her petrification for long enough? Would I have time to use the ice stone then?"

A beat of silence passed before the priestess replied:

"Yes, I believe so, but she won't stop fighting me because of the divination spell."

"Then we break the spell! It's too complex for you, but is it too complex for the leader of Jinyowon?"

Not-Mu-Deok let out a loud sigh.

"I'm afraid that my mother would never agree to help us."

It took a few seconds for Jang Uk to register the implication of her comment. 

When he did, he found himself taking a step backwards, then another, inching towards the doors.

He felt like running away from this situation, from this reality, for surely this was just a bad dream. Every new fact he learned was more ridiculous than the previous one!

"Y-you...you are the real Jin Bu-Yeon?!"

Chapter Text

After tasking Naksu to eliminate Jin Woo-Tak, Jin Mu decided to further his plan to reclaim the ice stone.

Since the Crown Prince refused to take care of Jang Uk, Jin Mu felt the need to enlist the help of another powerful ally.

With Yeom Soo watching his back, the Assistant Gwanju stepped outside of Cheonbugwan in the dead of the night. He was a wanted man so he used a cloak to hide his face, but still he boldly approached the royal palace.

He had not spent years tolerating Shaman Choi's demands for nothing. Now that she was gone, he had absolute leadership over the secret society they had built in the capital.

One member of the secret group was the captain of the royal guard. Jin Mu did not quite recall the real name of the soul currently living in the captain's body, and truly it didn't matter.

What mattered was that the captain arranged for him to reach the queen's quarters without being stopped or questioned.

Another soul shifter met him at the outer doors of the queen's antechamber. She was much more nervous than the captain, and for just reason:

"Her Majesty has been in a foul mood ever since she returned to the palace," Maidservant Yoh explained. "She has broken all mirrors and even used the shards to disfigure anyone she finds pretty. Not even His Majesty's favorite concubine has been spared!"

She gently touched her smooth pretty face, or rather the face of the young woman whose body she had stolen.

"I know that I am next," she commented, fretful. "Her Majesty has been leering at me lately. I sacrificed so much for this body, and it was all for nothing!"

"Do not worry," Jin Mu told her as he waved at her to slide the door open. "Once I give her what she wants, she will leave your pretty face alone."

He walked past the door with confidence, prepared for the queen's outburst. He wasn't surprised to find that she wasn't asleep.

With a face like that, he definitely wouldn't be able to find peace, let alone rest.

"How dare you show your face!" Seo Ha-Sun hissed when she walked out of her bedchambers, throwing a fan at him even before she stopped moving. "You betrayed me!"

The Assistant Gwanju allowed the queen to vent for nearly an hour. He then pretended to be remorseful for siding with Shaman Choi against her.

"But now I am stuck in that evil woman's body!" She wailed, giving Jin Mu the perfect opportunity to lure her into his trap.

"I would create a soul ejector just for you if I could, Your Majesty. Alas, the Crown Prince denied my request to help me retrieve the ice stone."

"W-what do you mean?" She inquired, her curiosity piqued. "I asked Won about the rumors that he has the ice stone and he told me that he does not. He destroyed that strange barrier everyone talked about, but the ice stone disappeared along with the barrier. Won said that it must have returned to the skies. That's what everyone saw, the ice stone, not him. He wasn't born under the King's Star...but he is the worthy future king of Daeho, my wonderful son. I am his mother, and yet the king treats me like a nuisance!"

Jin Mu took a deep breath, not just to suppress his exasperation at the whining woman, but also to steel his mind before doing something very humiliating:

He threw himself at the queen's feet.

"Forgive me, Your Majesty!" He begged, his head lowered to the floor. "Had I been a better mentor to the Crown Prince, he would not have been so easily manipulated!"

"What are you talking about?!" She exclaimed.

"He didn't destroy that barrier," Jin Mu forced himself to tell the truth. "He lied to everyone because he himself is being lied to. Jang Uk had been manipulating him this entire time! It is Jang Uk who is the one born under the King's Star, the one threatening your son's future!"

"Jang Uk!?"

"Yes, Your Majesty," the Assistant Gwanju confirmed before he shared all the information he knew about Jang Uk's association with Naksu.

"I must focus all my energy on keeping Cho Yeong's soul contained," Jin Bu-Yeon told Jang Uk as she stood up. "Do not disturb me unless strictly necessary."

"Wait, wait!" He objected, stepping between her and the door. "We still need to break the divination spell! If you think that your mother won't help us—"

"I know that she won't help us," Bu-Yeon confirmed, her tone firm with conviction. 

"Then I must find Master Lee!" Uk announced.

He felt rather than saw the young priestess wince.

"Just don't tell him about me," she instructed after a beat of silence. "My mother might already know. I didn't want to tell her, but she was going to kill Cho Yeong..."

"Excuse me!?" Jang Uk exclaimed, aghast. "Why would she do that!?"

"So she could then revive her with the power of the ice stone...or at least that's what she told the Unanimous Assembly."

"Why are you saying it like that? Are you saying that she lied? She couldn't have revived Mu-Deok?"

"She is a great priestess, but she isn't powerful enough to wield the power of the ice stone. She knows that."

Uk gasped in horror.

He used to resent Jin Ho-Gyeong because she had refused to open his gate of energy. Now he despised her! He definitely didn't want her help with anything even if she offered it!

"I'm fine not telling your mother," he told Jin Bu-Yeon. "But we have to tell Master Lee. No one else can help us break the divination spell!"

"You don't have to tell him about me," the blind woman insisted. "It is enough for him to know that my uncle has the means to control soul shifters."

"Right," Uk agreed, and just then the gravity of the situation hit him.

He had believed that Jin Mu had been beaten at his own game and would soon be arrested.

Now Jang Uk realized that he had been terribly wrong: Jin Mu had more cards in his sleeve, and one of those cards involved taking control of Naksu once again!

"I couldn't even protect her," Jang Uk lamented as he pulled on his hair, his vision growing blurry with tears of frustration. "I promised that I would get the ice stone to save her, but I did nothing!"

"That is not true," Bu-Yeon's quiet words surprised him. "You did more than anyone ever did for her."

He wiped his unshed tears with the back of his hand and stared at the young priestess' silhouette.

"What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean, Jang Uk. Cho Yeong told you herself: no one ever risked their lives for her the way you did."

Rather than feel grateful for her words, Uk felt embarrassed.

"I cannot believe that you were eavesdropping on our private conversations!"

Bu-Yeon gaped at him before arguing defensively:

"I wasn't eavesdropping! This is my body!"

"But Mu-Deok didn't know that your soul was still in there!"

"Yes, she did, I told her! It's not my fault that she decided to ignore me!"

Uk froze in shock.

"Huh? You told her...when?"

"When I created the barrier around Jeongjingak—"

"Wait, what!? You're the one who locked us in there?"

"It was to keep the ice stone out of reach of my mother and my uncle! If they had convinced the Unanimous Assembly that it was safe to use the ice stone, Shaman Choi would have created more soul ejectors!"

"But was there no other way to keep the ice stone safe?" Jang Uk questioned. "People died inside that barrier!"

"I didn't want anyone to die, but I had very little choice! I could not take the ice stone myself, so I had to change its state. Doing so took a lot of energy, that's why I couldn't block Cho Yeong's powers. I feared that she would claim the ice stone for herself, so I warned her about what would happen if she did. She claimed that she didn't care about all the people in Jeongjingak, but thankfully she cared about at least one of them."

The young priestess reached out to the former mage, gripping his forearm before telling him:

"She cares about you more than she cares about anything in the world. She spent so many years going through a lot of pain to become a powerful mage, the fearsome Naksu...but she gave up on those powers, and she gave up on the ice stone. She changed from a vengeful and ruthless assassin to a peaceful woman...and it is all thanks to you."

Bu-Yeon let go of Jang Uk, but he surprised her by taking her hand in turn.

"She's the one who changed me," he admitted, his voice trembling with emotions. "Can she hear me?"

"Yes. She's not herself right now, but she can hear you."

Uk nodded his understanding.

"You changed me, Mu-Deoka," he told the woman he loved. "I was so angry at the world, and so desperate to claim the powers that were taken away from me by my own father. When I met you, I thought that I would finally get my revenge on all of those who turned me down. I was so excited to learn from none other than the fearsome Naksu...and I did learn."

He swallowed hard and took a deep breath to fight the tears threatening to spill once again.

"I learned a lesson I didn't ask you to teach me: that no amount of mage power compares to the feeling of finding someone you can trust with every part of you. For years I felt so alone in my grief and anger, but when I met you, when I first looked in your eyes, I felt...I..."

"You felt that you found a kindred spirit," Bu-Yeon finished his sentence, squeezing his fingers in sympathy. "No, you found a soulmate. Love is the greatest power of all."

Jang Uk withdrew his hand from her grip and brought it up to hide his face just as his tears finally rolled down his face.

He wasn't crying because he was sad, no.

He was crying out of anger for Mu-Deok, who had been forced back under Jin Mu's control when she had already suffered so much because of him.

"If she doesn't want to kill him herself, I'll do it," he swore after he sniffed back the last of his tears.

"Jang Uk!" Bu-Yeon admonished him. "Revenge is not the solution."

"Are you kidding me? Getting rid of Jin Mu is the solution to all our problems! He wronged you too! He helped that girl to steal your identity!"

"So-I," the young priestess sighed in disappointment. "I cannot believe that she did this...she even tried to kill me."

"Wait, you know her?" 

"I knew her, and I suspected that sooner or later, her dishonesty would lead her too far away from the light. I just never imagined that she would walk beside my uncle on his path of destruction."

"I hope for her own sake that she's already left the capital," Jang Uk commented in a cold tone. "If she stands in my way..."

"The one born under the King's Star is a protector, not a killer," Bu-Yeon reminded him. "I won't teach you how to use the ice stone if you're not worthy of its powers."

Uk scoffed.

"I don't care about your approval. Master Lee already offered to teach me."

"Master Lee might be a powerful mage, but he has never used the ice stone. He can't teach you fast enough to heal Cho Yeong. I can. The only one who could have taught you faster than me was Gwanju Jang Gang, and even he lost his soul to the darkness."

Jang Uk stiffened upon hearing his father's name. 

"You must stay in the light, Jang Uk," Jin Bu-Yeon warned him. "Do not let the shadows tempt you, or you will doom not just your own soul but all of Daeho to ruin." 

Jang Uk nodded in agreement.

"Promise me," the priestess demanded. "I must have your word that you will make the right decision when the time comes."

"And if I don't do as you say, then what?" He interrogated her, worrying about Mu-Deok.

"I'm not asking you to do as I say, I'm asking you to do what you know is right," Bu-Yeon declared solemnly. "Hurting people isn't right unless you do it to defend yourself or to protect people."

"Alright, yes, you have my word," he agreed with a firm nod of his head.

She nodded back at him then gently pushed him aside.

"Three days," she said as she slid the door open, her back turned to Jang Uk. "If the divination spell isn't broken within three days, then Cho Yeong's soul will be lost forever."

Jang Uk swallowed down the dread coming up his throat. Three days was such a short time, and time was already ticking.

"And if the spell is broken?" Jang Uk asked.

"Then I can slow down her petrification for an entire week."

That was not the answer Uk had expected. 

"Only one week? You said that I would have time to master the power of the ice stone. One week isn't possibly enough to do that!"

Bu-Yeon turned her head towards him, her unseeing eyes not quite locking with his own.

He saw her smile, and for once her facial expression was very similar to that of the Mu-Deok he knew. Only the eyes were different.

"You're a fast learner, Jang Uk," she pointed out. "One week will be enough."

Chapter Text

Last night

Jin Mu nearly regretted revealing Naksu's identity to the queen, as she wished to have Jang Uk arrested right away for harboring the assassin.

It was fortunate that it was the middle of the night; not even the queen was allowed to disturb the king's sleep.

"You must not act rashly, Your Majesty," Jin Mu advised her. "Jang Uk cannot be arrested without proof of his crimes. Remember that he is under Songrim's protection. Even the Crown Prince himself has sided with him—"

"You told me yourself that Won is being manipulated!"

"Yes, which means that he will stop you from having Jang Uk arrested..."

"I am his mother! I am the queen!"

"...unless we reveal Jang Uk's true colors once and for all," the Assistant Gwanju finished his sentence, ignoring her outburst.

He had spent years working with the calculative Shaman Choi's soul occupying the queen's body. It had made him forget how short-sighted and impulsive the true Seo Ha-Sun was.

"If we can prove that Jang-Uk took the ice stone for himself, then we will have your the Crown Prince's support. But not before that."

"Are you sure that the ice stone is under Jang Uk's possession?" Seo Ha-Sun asked, failing to hide her primary interest.

Suppressing a knowing smile, Jin Mu nodded.

"Yes, and once he hears about Naksu's soul going wild he will have no choice but to reveal the ice stone. Only then can we make our move."

"And how long do I have to wait until he uses it?" The queen commented, touching her new face and huffing impatiently before pacing the room.

Jin Mu slowly stood up and patted his sore knees.

He believed it was due time for him to shift his soul into a new body. A younger and stronger one.

For years, he had pushed himself to his limits, physical and mental, just to prove himself to Jang Gang. When Jang Gang had left, Jin Mu had once again pushed his limits, then to prove to himself that they extended further than Naksu's.

With bitterness, he had watched Naksu surpass him in power, but quickly had realized that he could use the Alchemy of Souls to claim a stronger body for himself.

Now that Shaman Choi was gone, he could finally create his own soul ejectors and claim the body he had prepared for nearly a decade.

But in order to do that, he needed the ice stone.

"You should have ordered Naksu to bring you the ice stone!" The queen admonished him with a stomp of her foot. "Why waste precious time on Jin Woo-Tak?"

"Because he is Shaman Choi's dear brother," Jin Mu pointed out. "He will either seek revenge for her death and kill me, or he will reveal all my secrets and have me arrested. I must not allow either scenario to become a reality."

There was another reason why Jin Mu wished for the only surviving Choi to die:

Woo-Tak knew about the divination spell. If he told Ho-Gyeong about it, then she would stand in Mu's way before he could raise his army of soul shifters.

"Jin Woo-Tak should be executed for what he did to me!" Seo Ha-Sun decided. "I will ask the king to arrest him first thing in the morning. There is no need to waste Naksu on him. Send her to take the ice stone from Jang Uk instead! Make use of her before she turns into stone!"

Jin Mu didn't bother telling the queen that he wanted Naksu to turn into stone as soon as possible.

Not only did Naksu know his secrets, but she was a powerful mage, a prodigy gifted beyond the dreams of most mages. That was why Jang Gang had made that outlandish promise to Cho Chung. She was the reason why the Gwanju had started making plans for a future with complete disregard for his diligent assistant. 

Out of everything he had done in the past two decades, Jin Mu only regretted one thing: that he couldn't show Jang Gang what he had done to Cho Chung's precious daughter. 

"Did you hear what I said?" The queen's grating voice made Jin Mu quietly sigh in exasperation.

After he reminded himself that he could easily get rid of her once he claimed his new body, he took a centering breath and responded:

"I will call back Naksu as soon as she has assassinated Jin Woo-Tak," he promised. "It should not take her long since he is wounded. She will return before first light, so there is no need to bother the king...Your Majesty."

With that reassurance, the Assistant Gwanju left the palace and returned to Cheonbugwan.

"Keep an eye out for Naksu," he ordered Yeom Soo. "Take a few mages with you. If Jang Uk doesn't get rid of her first, then attack her."

"Attack Naksu?" The subordinate echoed, skepticism bleeding in his voice.

He was not stupid: he knew that few mages stood a chance in a confrontation against the infamous Naksu. If he attacked her, she would certainly kill him.

"Just tire her out until she turns into stone," Jin Mu clarified his instructions. "It won't take long, not when her powerful soul is stuck in that girl's weak body."

Jin Mu had believed Naksu long gone because he could not imagine her choosing to shift into the body of some peasant girl. His best guess was that Jang Uk had secretly helped her find people to absorb their energy. In exchange, she must have promised to train him into a powerful mage.

"That must be what happened," Jin Mu whispered to himself after dismissing Yeom Soo. "That's why they are inseparable, they need each other. Well, now either of them will kill the other. How ironic!" 

The Assistant Gwanju laughed in satisfaction, then worked on penning invitations to summon all members of his secret group.

He made sure to set a date for their meeting a few weeks from now. He was summoning every single member, after all, and many lived outside the capital. 

Jin Mu was certain that he would claim his new body by the time of the meeting. No one would dare object when he showed them the face of the new Danju.

"Finally, my hard work is coming to fruition," the Assistant Gwanju commented to himself as he sealed the message he had just penned.

He looked around his secret office, appreciative of its shelter but also eager to step out of the shadows around it.

It was time for him to step into the light, and he would not allow anyone to outshine him.

Not even the King's Star.

At dawn

After running for miles all night, Jang Uk could barely stand on his feet.

He could not find Master Lee anywhere. He had searched every corner of the capital, including their fishing spot, but the elusive pupil of Seo Gyeong seemed to have vanished into thin air.

Jang Uk imagined that the old man had gone back to his home in Danhyanggok. It was too far away for the young man to risk leaving the capital. He only had three days to save Mu-Deok!

This means that he had no choice but to turn to the only other person who knew about Naksu.

With one last burst of energy he had, Jang Uk made his way to Jeongjingak and barged inside one specific mage's bedroom.

Thankfully, that mage was already awake and alert, which was why he had his hands poised to grab his twin swords set by the desk opposite the door.

"Uk-a," Seo Yul called, his confusion obvious as he looked his unexpected guest up and down. "Why are you here...dressed just like yesterday?"

Resting his weight against the door, Jang Uk grimaced as he looked down at himself.

In his haste to find Master Lee, he had changed out of his sleeping garments and simply put on the first clothes he could put his hands on.

Yul, on the other hand, had changed from the outfit he had worn during his send away party. 

He was currently wearing his uniform, but there was a colorful hanbok hanging near his desk. The pastel colors of the jeogori were fitting of a wedding.

In his worry for his betrothed, Jang Uk had completely forgotten about the wedding between two of his childhood friends!

"Cho-Yeon," he breathed out as his tired mind managed to find an alternative solution to his problem. "She has been trained to become the new leader of Jinyowon! She should be able to break the spell, right?" 

"What spell?" Yul asked as he stepped closer to the door, leaving his swords behind. "What's going on?"

Jang Uk was about to tell him everything but paused with his lips parted.

He realized that he couldn't tell his friend the truth. Not all of it, at least.

And it was not just because Jin Bu-Yeon had asked him to keep her identity secret. It was because Seo Yul might not help if he learned what happened to Mu-Deok.

Yul had already been conflicted in keeping Naksu's secret. Jang Uk knew that his friend had only kept his mouth shut because Mu-Deok hadn't hurt anybody.

But if Yul learned that Naksu's soul had run wild...

"Protecting the world of these monsters is our duty."

No, Jang Uk couldn't tell the entire truth. He had to protect Mu-Deok at all costs.

"Jin Mu has a way to control soul shifters," he carefully revealed before pushing away from the door. "A divination spell that make soul shifters run wild."

Yul frowned.

"I've never read anything about such a spell, and I've read all the books here. Even the secret ones related to the ice stone. How could the Assistant Gwanju cast such a spell?"

"It's not his spell, he is...he can cast it using bells enchanted by Shaman Choi."

Seo Yul's eyes went wide in shock and understanding.

"So he could use that spell on...to summon Naksu?" He quietly asked, throwing a look beyond Uk's shoulder to make sure that no one was listening to their conversation.

His hands inched to grab his swords again. The idea of dealing with a wayward soul shifter made him want to draw his trusty blades.

Any soul shifter. Once gone wild, that person became a monster...a menace to society, and it should be eliminated.

Yul decided then and there that he couldn't let his emotions stop him from confronting Naksu this time. He must do what was necessary at the first opportunity presenting itself. He must make the difficult decision exactly because he knew that Jang Uk wouldn't.

Jang Uk in question announced:

"I need to find the bells so that someone can break the divination spell. I wanted to ask Master Lee for help, but I can't find him anywhere. Now I'm thinking that maybe Cho-Yeon can do it? I'll ask her!"

He pivoted on his heels, blinking away the dizziness caused by the sudden movement. He was wobbling on his increasingly unsteady feet towards the exit of the dormitory.

Yul stopped him with a firm hand on his shoulder just as he crossed the threshold.

"Uk-a, wait! You can't possibly think of asking Cho-Yeon to get involved in this, on her wedding day of all days?"

"This cannot wait!" Jang Uk pleaded, but he gave himself a moment to rest, using his friend's hold as temporary support for his weight.

He was so tired...

"Why should Cho-Yeon even do this?" Yul inquired, ignoring the fact that he was being used as a prop. "Why are you so worked up? Just tell leader Park and he will resolve this with Lady Jin's help."

A spark of fury gave Uk the strength to stand taller and take a few steps away from Yul.

"I'd rather go to Cheonbugwan myself than ask for Lady Jin's help!" He shouted, no doubt awakening a few mages.

Seo Yul frowned at him.

"Where is Mu-Deok?" He asked, realizing that the young woman wasn't anywhere around.

The oddity made Yul squint his eyes at his childhood friend. Something was definitely amiss.

"And why are you in a such a rush?" He switched to interrogating the former mage, sensing that a bigger problem was afoot.

That's then he noticed another anomaly, hanging down Jang Uk's hand.

"It that the Gwanju's sword?!"

That weapon was supposed to be locked in Leader Park's office! Jang Uk must have stolen it...when?!

"Don't tell me that you planned to leave the capital with it," Yul said, exasperation building inside him.

"Yes, I did, and so what? It's not like anyone is using it!" 

Seo Yul sighed loudly.

It seemed that his friend had reverted to his former self, acting as irrationally as before his gate of energy was open!

"That's not important!" Uk claimed, waving his free hand backward, to indicate outside. "What's important is to get the bells and have Jin Mu arrested before our friends' wedding! How can any of us even celebrate when that evil man is still on the run, huh? He could strike anytime, and I'm certain that he has many other soul shifters working for him!"

Yul pursed his lips in displeasure, knowing that his friend made a good point.

There was a big problem, however.

"You know that Leader Park is under pressure to do everything by the book now," Yul reminded Uk. "The Unanimous Assembly wants him to report everything about his investigation on Jin Mu before planning any raid. He cannot do anything until the meeting next week."

"That's ridiculous!" Uk objected. "Jin Mu has been in league with Shaman Choi for years! Everything involving him should be seized by Songrim first, and then you can conduct an investigation!"

Seo Yul shook his head. It was at times such as this that Jang Uk's lack of training was evident.

It was his knowledge as the heir of the Seo family rather than as a mage of Seongrim that Yul knew one thing for certain: arresting Jin Mu wouldn't be so easy, even if the king himself knew of his crimes.

"Jin Mu could claim that he was manipulated by the Choi siblings," Yul shared his speculation. "He could tell the king that he felt pressured to obey the woman whom he thought was the queen, as well as pressured by his brother-in-law, Jin Woo-Tak!"

"No one would buy that!" Uk responded with a derisive scoff.

Yul snapped at him.

"The Unanimous Assembly would! And do you know why? Do you?!"

"Yul-a," Jang Uk reacted, shocked by his friend's outburst.

"You were born a Jang, Uk-a. Just because you were disowned doesn't mean that you can ignore the unspoken rules followed by all major families in Daeho!"

Jang Uk flinched at the harsh critique, but Seo Yul went on with his lecture.

"One of those unspoken rules dictates that we maintain the balance between the seats of powers in Daeho. We must work towards harmony between the throne, Seongrim, Jinyowon and Cheonbugwan! But that balance was shaken twenty years ago when the Gwanju disappeared!"

Uk looked down at his feet and unconsciously tightened his grip on the sword.

"I'm sorry that you can no longer inherit your father's position, Uk," Yul said with a softer tone. "But now that he's dead, someone must succeed him. Jin Mu tended to the Gwanju's duties for two decades. The Unanimous Assembly ignored his hard work for years because of his illegitimate birth. They refused to acknowledge his worth as the potential next leader of Cheonbugwan...until they were forced to grant him the made up title of Assistant Gwanju. Do you know why?"

Even as exhaustion threaten to overtake Jang Uk, a vivid memory came to the forefront of his mind, and he confidently answered the question:

"Jin Mu managed to be chosen as the Crown Prince's master...ten years ago, wasn't it? I remember how shocked Maidservant Kim was when we heard the news. She said that it was impossible, that General Seo would have never allowed his nephew to be trained by a bas...an illegitimate Jin,  I mean."

"My father didn't allow it," Yul confirmed with a shrug of his shoulders. "I remember how furious he was that his sister would do something so rash as to oppose the Unanimous Assembly's will. Now we know that it wasn't my aunt but rather Shaman Choi who elevated Jin Mu's station. It all makes sense now."

"See? Jin Mu is dangerous!" Jang Uk asserted. "He must be stopped! He tricked the royal family!"

Seo Yul rubbed his temple, exasperated by his friend's hard-headedness.

"Yes, but the royal family cannot so easily dismiss him."

He lowered his voiced before asking his friend: 

"Do you know why my father never attends the Unanimous Assembly?"

Jang Uk perked up, then looked around them, watching for eavesdroppers.

In truth their discretion was unnecessary: no one would dare to report anything that they heard about General Seo Il. 

"Yes, even I know why your father hasn't stepped foot in the capital in twenty five years," Jang Uk confirmed with a solemn nod.

"Then you should understand the king's position," Seo Yul said before grabbing Jang Uk's arm and dragging him back inside.

Uk weakly objected at being delayed on his search for the bells, but his gait was gradually less stable with every step he took.

Halfway across the corridor, Yul decided to switch directions, walking towards Jang Uk's former bedroom instead of his own.

"Are you sure that the bells are in Cheonbugwan?" He asked Uk as he opened the door of the vacant but still furnished room.

The fact that Uk wasn't putting up a fight was proof that he was exhausted.

"Where else would they be?" He said as he allowed Yul to sit him on the bed. "I'd bet you anything that Jin Mu has been hiding there all this time. It's is full of secret rooms and traps, so no one can just barge in there."

"Exactly," Yul commented with a gentle slap on Uk's shoulder.

The slap was gentle, but not weak: it deftly shifted Jang Uk's position on the bed, turning his torso so that his spine was better-aligned with the length of the bed.

"How could you sneak in there, even if you had your mage powers?" Yul challenged as he propped his fists on his hips, scowling at his friend. "You can barely walk! Rest first, then we'll go get your clothes. You can't show up like this at the wedding."

Jang Uk was about to object, but it was at that very moment that his exhaustion returned with a vengeance.

He fainted on the spot, his head landing on a pillow.

Chapter Text

Earlier that morning

"Thank you," Jang Uk whispered as he accepted the cup of tea that Seo Yul offered.

The first thing that Uk had noticed upon waking up was that Yul had grabbed his swords and changed out of his uniform. He was now wearing his colorful hanbok, but it was obvious that he had not been idle while Uk slept: there were several bamboo strip books atop the desk of Uk's former room.

For several minutes, the former mage quietly sipped on the tea, his now rested body regaining even more strength as he rid it of dehydration.

Now that he was no longer rushing everywhere, Jang Uk realized how foolish it had been of him to wander around the city without a clear plan. Had he not been in Songrim when he had collapsed, he would have fainted who knows where without anyone knowing how to find him. He would have been completely useless instead of helping Mu-Deok—both Naksu and Jin Bu-Yeon.

"Better?" Yul asked after Uk took the last sip of tea.

When Uk nodded in confirmation, Yul pulled the desk chair closer to the bed and grabbed one of the books. 

"I found this in the secret section of the library," he shared as he unrolled the old document. "I remembered that it mentions a way to track inanimate objects imbued with spells of sorcery." 

"Really?!" Uk reacted excitedly, and stood up to take a look at the writing describing the process tracking sorcery.

He read the words once, twice, three times...but they made no sense to him. He only understood a few terms like Ryusu and Chisu, but that was it.

He had only studied in Songrim for months, but he found it hard to believe that he couldn't follow a book of magic. He had read plenty of those during the years when he was jumping from one master to another, desperate to find a way to open his gate of energy.

"Am I truly supposed to understand this gibberish?!" He asked Yul after his third failed attempt to understand the words.

"No, it's hard to understand because it's written in an ancient dialect predating the creation of Songrim. I doubt that even Lord Park could read this without a cypher."

"How come you can read it?"

Seo Yul answered the question with a casual shrug of his shoulders. Uk simply nodded back, accepting yet another proof that Yul was a genius.

"Unfortunately even understanding what it says doesn't help," came Yul's comment after he spent several minutes reading the same lines.

"What? How come?"

"Not only is it an ancient dialect, but it's a coded passage. I know that this is talking about enchanting a talisman and tracking sorcery because of the way they're describing the combination of Ryusu and Chisu. However, the instructions are too vague for me to replicate the actual enchantment. Only the author and his disciples would know what to do with so few details. This means that we will have to ask him."

"Him?" Jang Uk echoed, confused. "Who, Lord Park?"

With two quick snaps of his wrist, Seo Yul flipped the book shut and presented it to Jang Uk, tapping his index finger on the first bamboo trip.

The name of the author was faded but still readable.

"Choi...Choi Ji-Yong," Uk read, his eyes widening in shock before they locked with Yul's. "Shaman Choi's ancestor? You think she could have deciphered this?"

"She's dead anyway, so the question is whether or not her brother can decipher it. Jin Woo-Tak is in Sejukwon right now."

Jang Uk made to walk out of the room and go interrogate Cho-Yeon's father, but Seo Yul blocked his way with one of his swords.

The two friends stared at each other for long seconds, neither of them moving.

Seo Yul relaxed first.

"Uk, I know better than anyone how important it is for you to get those divination bells. I have protected Naksu's identity all these months because I know that she isn't the monster she's portrayed to be. Not now, and not then. But if Jin Mu makes her soul run wild..."

Jang Uk did his best to remain stoic even as the  thought of losing Mu-Deok made him sick to his stomach.

"...then she will become a monster, and I will have no choice but to slay her," Yul finished. "I don't want to do that."

"Then help me, Yul!" Uk pleaded, grabbing his friend's forearm. "Help me find those bells! There's no doubt that Jin Woo-Tak knows where they are, they belonged to his sister and they worked together!"

Yul shook his head.

"Even if Jin Woo-Tak knew where the bells were, Jin Mu must have moved them by now. That's why we need the talisman, to track the bells. But because Lord Park suspects that Jin Mu will try to kill Jin Woo-Tak, he asked Master Heo to have half of Sejukwon guards patrol around the infirmary room where Jin Woo-Tak is." 

Jang Uk groaned in exasperation. There was no way that he could sneak in past the guards of Sejukwon by himself.

"You're no longer a mage of Songrim," Yul reminded him, "so you cannot just barge in Sejukwon and demand answers from a prisoner...a man who spent so many years hating your father!"

Jang Uk threw his hands in the air.

"So what? Do you expect me to do nothing after you've told me all that?" 

"No, I expect you to accept my help..."

Before Jang Uk could thank him, Yul lifted a hand to request silence.

"...on the condition that you and Mu-Deok do exactly as I say."

"Mu-Deok?" Uk echoed, worried.

"Yes, Mu-Deok. We need to keep an eye on her until we get the divination bells. I cannot believe that you left her alone after learning that Jin Mu can make her soul run wild at any moment!"

Jang Uk winced internally and prayed that his friend wouldn't find out that his fiancée was already under Jin Mu's control. 

"Go get her while I go to Sejukwon to ask Jin Woo-Tak about the talisman," Yul instructed. "Once I can track the bells, we will go to Cheonbugwan together, but not before we cover our tracks."

"What do you mean cover our tracks?"

"All three of us have to show our faces at the wedding before going to Cheonbugwan, and we must come back before anyone notices our absence. That way we won't get Lord Park in trouble."

"Yes, you're right," Jang Uk agreed before grabbing the Gwanju's sword propped against a wall. "Well, then, I'll go get Mu-Deok while you figure out that talisman with Jin Woo-Tak. How long do you think it will take?"

"I don't know," Yul admitted as he fastened his sword belts. "I will definitely be at the wedding before Dang-Gu and Cho-Yeon arrive. Their processional parade is fairly long."

"Show-offs," Uk commented jokingly, although he was a bit envious.

Since he was no longer entitled to his father's property, he could not organize a grand ceremony for his own marriage.

Mu-Deok had told him that she didn't mind, but he did. At least he had managed to find a wedding dress worthy of her.

That was all thanks to Joo-Wol. The owner of Chwiseonru had also offered to host the wedding reception in one of her finest rooms, but Uk doubted that he and Mu-Deok would ever return to the capital once they left. 

"Jang Uk," Yul called out. "Please, don't do anything reckless. Just bring Mu-Deok to the wedding, nothing else."

"Alright, alright," Uk promised before both friends stepped out of the bedroom and walked outside the dorms.

They exchanged a long look before splitting at the entrance of Jeongjingak.

Since he had regained some strength, Jang Uk decided to run back home.

Despite the early hour, there was already a lot of activity at the Jang residence. Under Maidservant Kim's recommendation, the servants were packing up anything that was not a Jang family heirloom and which they could sell at the market. The funds collected from the sales would serve as compensation to the servants so they would not be destitute while looking for new jobs.

Uk was relieved that Maidservant Kim herself would be taken care of. Lord Park had finally proposed to her, and considering the fact that Cho-Yeon wasn't moving to Dang-Gu's home, Maidservant Kim was entitled to become the new Lady Park.

It would feel odd for Uk to address her differently after all these years, but he was happy for her.

"Young master!" She called out when she spotted him sneaking in. "Where have you been? Your bath water is running cold!"

"Sorry sorry, I'll go now," he promised, but didn't move right away. 

Instead he took a moment to admire the woman who had raised him.

All his life he had resented his father for abandoning him, and had felt sad that he could never know his mother. But that didn't mean that he didn't feel loved. Lord Park had been a stern and somewhat distant father figure, but Maidservant Kim had given him all the maternal love he had needed. 

He quickly wiped away the tears of gratitude that were blurring his vision as he admired her appearance. She always looked elegant, but she looked particularly beautiful today in her luxuriously embroidered hanbok.

"Why are you just standing there?" She chided him and met him halfway to push him towards the baths. "Hurry and take a bath! Your clothes are already set.  I still have to drag that brat out of her room. Go!"

"Alright, don't push me!" Uk responded with a huge smile as he complied with her instructions.

He was already submerged in the tepid water of his bath when his brain belatedly registered that the brat Maidservant Kim had mentioned was Mu-Deok...or rather Jin Bu-Yeon!

He rushed through scrubbing his body before quickly getting out of the water and getting dressed.

He was still drying his hair by the time he could finally make his way to Mu-Deok's bedroom.

His heart skipped a beat when he heard her familiar voice and fake countryside accent:

"I don't wanna go! Don't open the window, Maidservant Kim, it's too bright! Ah, m'eyes!" 

When he rounded the corner, Jang Uk paused and watched Mu-Deok resist Maidservant Kim's pull on her arm. She had her back turned to him, both of her hands gripping onto the door of her room.

She was no longer in the pale pink hanbok Jang Uk had last seen her in. Maidservant Kim seemed to have dolled her up for the wedding: the pearly gray jeogori she had on was definitely new, and her deep blue chima was embroidered with intricate golden patterns. Her braided hair looked slightly damped, so she must have just taken a bath too.

"Why ye'r so rough with me!?" Mu-Deok whined. "My head's still hurtin' from all that drinking' we did last night!"

"Stop pretending, I drank just as much as you and I'm fine, come on! The young master will be ready soon!"

"I don't wanna go!" Mu-Deok repeated, and Uk intervened.

"Ah, Maidservant Kim, a moment please?" 

He took the older woman aside and whispered to her:

"Mu-Deok is a bit jealous, you see, since I was supposed to marry Cho-Yeon at first..."

Maidservant Kim gasped, placing her hand in front of her lips.

"Oh! I never thought of her perspective on that matter. Well, she's the one you chose in the end, she shouldn't feel sad! She should feel honored that you picked her instead of such a fine lady as Jin Cho-Yeon!"

"The problem is that she learned that I proposed to six other women," Uk shared. "And some of them will be at the wedding..."

"I kept telling you to be discreet about this proposal!" Maidservant Kim chided him with two gentle slaps to his shoulder. "You better find a way to cheer up Mu-Deok after the wedding!"

"Yes, I will," he promised with sincerity. "Please head to the wedding without me, I will join you there. I need to make a detour to one of the jewelers, I had matching necklaces made for us instead of getting rings."

"Good idea, yes, that is very original!" Maidservant Kim commented before getting distracted by a heavy vase that Mr. Lee was moving.

Jang Uk rushed to Mu-Deok's bedroom, but stood still for a few seconds before sliding the closed door open.

"Mu-Deok-i?" He quietly called out, finding her sitting cross-legged on the floor next to the folded bedroll and covers.

Her eyes were closed, and she had a slight frown creasing her brow.

"Mu-Deok-i?" He repeated, pushing the door shut before stepping further in the room. "Did Jin Bu-Yeon break the divination spell after all?"

He got his answer when she opened her eyes and stared right through him, her pupils unmoving.

"I told you that I cannot break that spell," Jin Bu-Yeon said in her normal voice.

Uk sighed loudly, disappointed but not surprised. 

"I thought Mu-Deok was back because of your voice," he admitted before dropping on his knees in front of the young priestess, tossing the towel and running his fingers through his damp hair. "You spoke exactly like her."

"She completely made up that accent, did you realize that? No one speaks that way in Sari. At least she was consistent with her ridiculous enunciation, so it was easy to imitate her."##

An ephemeral smile pulled on Uk's lips as he reflected on the all the silly things that the fearsome Naksu had done to hide her identity. His amusement quickly faded away, eclipsed by the sympathy he felt whenever he thought on the dreadful training she had endured to become Jin Mu's obedient assassin. She was so quick to put herself and others into danger, it was scary.

As Naksu's student, Uk hadn't cared much about his safety, he had been too desperate to finally use the powers he had been denied at birth. But as Mu-Deok's betrothed, he was scared witless to lose her and the peaceful life they had decided to experience together. He wished he could just run away with her and never look back.

But Mu-Deok wasn't even there. The woman he was facing wasn't the one he knew and loved.

"I take it that you did not find Master Lee," Jin Bu-Yeon guessed, sounding very calm despite the spiritual warfare she was fighting within her own body.

Jang Uk confirmed her guess before sharing Yul's entire plan to locate the divination bells. 

"I cannot show up at the wedding, my mother will know!" The eldest Jin daughter argued. "And people will notice that I'm blind, how will we explain that?"

"I won't let them get close enough to notice," Uk promised with a dismissive wave of his hand, and grinned mischievously. "Just cling to me and pretend that nothing and no one matters except me. People won't find it odd that you are completely enamored with your handsome future husband!"

An uncomfortable moment of silence settled between the two occupants of the bedroom, and for a second Uk expected Bu-Yeon to roll her eyes at him.

"To think that you are the one born under the King's Star...Daeho's savior," came her response, and it somehow hurt his ego even more than he anticipated.

A few hours later

"Mu-Deok could fall under Jin Mu's control anytime, but she is running errands?" Seo Yul grumbled as he allowed Jang Uk to pull his on his hand, both of them speed-walking across the busy streets of the capital.

Yul was so upset by his friend's lack of seriousness that he had taken a few wrong turns and gotten lost. Thankfully Uk had found him, and now they were holding hands to stick together.

The usually cool-headed mage was perturbed because his hot-headed friend had not stuck to the plan to bring Mu-Deok to the wedding. When he had showed up to Master Heo's mansion* alone, he had explained that Mu-Deok was busy picking up a few things at the artisanal market.

"I couldn't force my current fiancée to attend my former fiancée's wedding, now, could I?" Uk commented lightly. "That would be so insensitive! Anyway, no one will care whether or not she attends since she isn't part of either the groom or bride's party."

"Are you taking this mission seriously or not?" Yul asked behind gritted teeth.

He had done his part: after convincing Jin Woo-Tak to talk to him off-records, he had succeeded in creating the tracking talisman...which ended up involving actual sorcery. Woo-Tak had been the one performing the sorcery part, but as a mage of Songrim Yul felt like a failure for needing sorcery to get rid of sorcery. Yet again, he was compromising his values all for the sake of protecting Naksu.

What worried him the most was that he felt weakened after performing a brief spell of magic. Normally enchanting a talisman wouldn't be tiring, but his stamina was nowhere back to normal. It scared him to think that he would feel even worse without the unidentified medicine that was secretly delivered to him days ago. He had his suspicions on who his mysterious benefactor was, and he knew that he couldn't trust her.

He also knew that he needed to be seen by Master Heo at this point, but he was scared to be examined too closely. There was something fundamentally wrong about him, he could feel it in his flow of energy. He felt tainted, somehow, and if his intuition was right then Master Ho would have to report the truth to Seoho.

Yul shuddered to think what his father would do upon finding out that he was compromised.

"...hear me? Yul-a!"

Jang Uk's voice brought the future leader of the Seo clan out of his worrying thoughts.

He nodded at his friend to show that he was paying attention, and immediately felt watched.

As he slightly turned his head to the left, he perceived furtive movement to the right. He was persuaded that he recognized the gait of what looked like a young woman running away...

"You need to see a healer, Seo Yul," someone said a few feet ahead of him.

He knew that voice, and he knew the woman it belonged to, and yet his mind had trouble accepting what his ears and eyes were telling him.

That was Mu-Deok standing in front him, or rather Naksu...wasn't it?

Chapter Text

"You need to see a healer, Seo Yul."

Jang Uk whipped his head towards Jin Bu-Yeon, who herself was frowning at Seo Yul. Thankfully Yul was still too disoriented to notice her eyes.

Uk quickly reached up with his hand to push Bu-Yeon's head down.

"W-what are you doing?!" She whispered while flailing her hands, trying to slap away his hold on her hair.

"Your eyes!" He hissed back.

"Oh."

She stopped struggling and even stepped closer to Jang Uk, looping her arms around his exactly the way he had instructed earlier. 

"What are you two doing?" Seo Yul asked them, frowning at their odd movements.

"Nothing!" They replied in unison, Bu-Yeon lowering her head to hide her eyes.

"You just said that I need a healer," Yul pointed out, bringing them back on topic.

"Well, yes, that's true!" Uk chimed in, taking half a step forward to partly hide Bu-Yeon's face behind his left shoulder. "You're not fully recovered, that's why you're staying a few more days in Songrim, right? Did Master Heo say anything?"

Yul suddenly looked guilty.

"Ah, umm...not yet," he responded half-heartedly, brushing a hand over his covered chest. "I'm still waiting on Master Heo to examine me. He has been busy supervising the preparations of Dang-Gu's wedding since Lord Park cannot agree on anything with Lady Jin."

Both Jang Uk and Jin Bu-Yeon nodded with sympathy for Master Heo. The Park and Jin in-laws were difficult to work with.

"I feel better already," Seo Yul partially lied. "It's just a question of time before I'm back to normal!"

"No it's not," Bu-Yeon whispered behind Uk, who was now very curious about what she could see about Yul thanks her divine powers.

"Are you sure that you should be coming with us to Cheonbugwan?" Uk asked his friend worryingly.

It was abnormal for a mage to take so long to heal, his powers should have accelerated the healing process.

Seo Yul squinted his eyes at Jang Uk.

"How can you even ask if I'm coming? Are you forgetting that I'm the one who has the enchanted talisman? You don't have powers to activate the tracking spell!" 

Uk felt Bu-Yeon tense up behind him.

"I can use that talisman," she quietly informed him. "I don't need a spell since it is already enchanted to find the bells. All I have to do is follow the energy thread connecting the tracker and the target.

"Really?" Jang Uk whispered back, impressed.

He had often heard that the priestesses of Jinyowon were on an entirely different level from the mages of Songrim. That was the reason why he had originally proposed to Cho-Yeon, hoping that she or her mother would open his gate of energy.

They had refused to do it, but it was not because they couldn't. They had simply decided to respect Jang Gang's will to keep Uk's gate of energy sealed.

"Send Seo Yul away," Bu-Yeon told Uk. "He should get treated, not get into trouble."

Seo Yul in question leaned to the side to look at her past Uk's body.

"What did you just say? I can't hear you."

She ignored his question and turned her head away from him, awkwardly standing behind Jang Uk.

"Mu-Deok," Yul called out, taking a step closer.

Uk took a few steps back to maintain their distance, which obviously made him look suspicious.

"Look, it's So-I!" Bu-Yeon shouted, unfolding her arms from Uk to point at a building with a green tile roof not far away.

When Jang Uk turned around to look at the spot, no one was standing there, but Seo Yul ran towards that direction anyway.

Jang Uk turned again to face Jin Bu-Yeon.

"Wait, is that true or did you just say that to make him go away?"

The young priestess scowled at him.

"Why would I make him go away? He has the talisman we need to find the divination bells! Go and take it from him, then we can be on our way to Cheonbugwan."

It took Uk a few seconds to realize that she was asking him to run after Yul.

"Hurry up!" She prompted him, shooing him away with her hand.

He groaned in annoyance before taking off, bumping into a few people before reaching the building with the green roof.

He wasn't as fast and strong without his mage powers, so the only reason why he managed to catch up with Seo Yul was because the latter had a terrible sense of orientation when he was agitated. 

"I lost her," Yul admitted when he saw Uk approach. "I think that I saw her earlier, too. She is following me."

The two young men looked for So-I together for several more minutes but couldn't find her. All the while Jang Uk tried to sneak a hand around Seo Yul's belt but he couldn't get a hold of the sleeve holding the talisman.

When they finally gave up on So-I, the two friends returned to the spot where they had left Mu-Deok.

She was no longer there.

"Damn it!" Jang Uk cursed out. "Now we've lost both of them!"

"Forget So-I, let's split to find Mu-Deok," Yul instructed. "Then we must go to Cheonbugwan and return to the wedding before the ceremony starts. We've wasted enough time already."

Rather than search aimlessly like Yul, Uk asked people around the market if they had seen a blind girl in a beautiful hanbok. He was directed to a corner of the market saturated with jewelry shops.

He poked his head around the stands looking for Bu-Yeon and was surprised to find her and So-I in the middle of a heated conversation.

"...ruined so many people's lives!" Jin Bu-Yeon was saying when he got within earshot, staying hidden behind a nearby tent.

He noted that Bu-Yeon was using a different dialect. It wasn't the fake one Naksu used. Bu-Yeon's diction was clear but her intonation was very different. Jang Uk guessed that it was the dialect used in the Sari village.

The young priestess' hands were balled into fists and her shoulders looked tense from Jang Uk's view of her back.

"Lying and stealing was already terrible, So-I, but having people killed? And all the while pretending to be me? How could you do that?"

"Why do you care now, huh?" So-I shouted back, using the same accent as Bu-Yeon.

She looked just as furious as Bu-Yeon sounded, and her dirty face was streaked with tears. 

"You pretended not to recognize me last time, and back then it was as if you could actually see. How did you do that? You're blind, but you always recognize people, and now I know that it's because you have divine powers! So why didn't you say anything? Everything that happened is your fault!"

"What?! Don't blame the consequences of your actions on me like you always do!"

"Why not? We both know that I couldn't have pretended to be you if you'd simply gone back to your mother like any normal person would!"

Jang Uk saw that Jin Bu-Yeon flinched.

Part of him wanted to interrupt this conversation before Yul found them, but he was too curious to learn more about the real Mu-Deok's past.

He had planned to go to the Sari village to figure out who she was, but now all he had to do was eavesdrop on this reunion between the two young women.

"I still don't understand why you refused to come back to your cozy life," So-I commented. "When you finally told me that you were from a major family, I got the money for the ferry trip to the capital, but you refused to leave Sari!" 

"Did you truly expect me to use the money that you stole from people who needed it?" Bu-Yeon countered.

So-I cackled like a maniac, then wiped away her tears before taking a menacing step towards her former friend.

Jang Uk forced himself not to move yet. He could tell that So-I was not dangerous on her own. She even looked pitiful in her tattered clothes. Bu-Yeon looked much more dignified and in control.

"You know, I always wondered: did you enjoy living like a peasant?" So-I asked. 

"What?" Bu-Yeon reacted, baffled.

"Me, I hate being poor! I always hated it, but I hate it more now because I know how it feels to be comfortable. I would kill people with my own hands if it could help me live like a rich woman again! So how could you stand it for so many years? What's wrong with you? Do your divine powers make you crazy, or what?"

Jang Uk had started moving as soon as he'd heard So-I say the word 'kill' and now he was close enough to speak up:

"You're the crazy one! After all that you've done, how dare run your mouth like that?"

So-I's eyes went wide when she realized that he had found her. Before she could run away again, however, Jang Uk grabbed her arm.

"Let me go!" She cried out in vain when he pulled both of her arms backwards and locked her wrist with one of his hands.

"She placed a blood parasite in Seo Yul," Jin Bu-Yeon immediately shared the information she had gathered from her former friend before Jang Uk found them.

"W-what!? Why?"

"It was to save his life!" So-I defended herself. "He needed a blood transfusion after the soul shifter hurt him! Jin Woo-Tak used that parasite to give me Cho-Yeon's blood, so I thought—"

"You thought that sorcery could save someone's life, really?" Bu-Yeon yelled at her. "The life of a mage, of all people? That blood parasite is not just feeding on Seo Yul's spiritual energy, it is turning it into dark energy!"

Both So-I and Jang Uk stared at the young priestess, horrified.

After a moment of silence, So-I broke down in tears. 

"I-I didn’t...I didn't know! I w-was just...I was trying to save him!"

"Can't we just remove the parasite?" Uk asked Bu-Yeon.

"As far as I can see, there is a dark energy creature that has latched onto Seo Yul's energy core. Removing it would take a very delicate surgery. I'm not sure. Master Heo will know what to do once he knows what's happening. I cannot believe that Seo Yul is walking right now. If it's a blood parasite, then he must be in a lot of pain."

"I gave him some medicine for his pain!" So-I informed them after she calmed down. "Please let me help, I know who to ask for the cure!"

"Why should we trust you?" Uk asked, bewildered.

"Let me help Seo Yul, please!" So-I insisted.

"Help me with what?" Seo Yul asked behind Jin Bu-Yeon.

Clearly he hadn't heard all of the conversation, and the other three came to a silent agreement not to reveal anything yet.

Yul looked So-I up and down, noting how pitiful and miserable she was.

Although he didn't trust her, he was touched that she wanted to help him. Clearly she wasn't evil, she was capable of showing remorse and even compassion.

So rather than lecture her about everything she had done wrong, Yul decided to give her a chance to do something right.

"Yes, please help us," he requested as he approached her. "Show us a way to get in and out Cheonbugwan without getting caught. There must be a few secret passages, correct?"

So-I indeed knew how to sneak inside Cheonbugwan, but she warned Yul that the secret entrance led directly inside Jin Mu's secret lair.

The good news was that no one guarded that place unless there was a gathering of the secret society of soul shifters. With the exception of Yeom Soo, no mage of Cheonbugwan knew its existence. 

The bad news was that there were magical traps all over the place. Only mages could safely deactivate those traps, otherwise they would trigger a charm on Jin Mu's belt. If it ever happened, the Assistant Gwanju would send mages to patrol outside and arrest intruders before they could leave Cheonbugwan.

"That's why you're coming with us," Yul decided, gesturing with his head to make Jang Uk release her.

Jang Uk loosened his hold but didn't let her go since she was growing agitated.

"Me!? No, no! If I go there Jin Mu will have me killed! I couldn't fool Lady Jin so I'm no use to him anymore!"

"So you will pretend to still be useful to him," Seo Yul instructed as he retrieved his spirit plaque.

This time Jang Uk let her go, and Yul place the plaque in her hand.

"Lie to him that you stole this and that you can help him sneak inside Sejukwon. We know that he wants to silence Jin Woo-Tak."

"And he will silence me next!" So-I guessed.

"Don't worry, as soon as we get the bells we will come for you. You won't even step foot in Songrim."

"He's saying 'we' and 'us' a lot," Jin Bu-Yeon quietly commented to Jang Uk. "Does he truly expect us to do as he says?"

"Well, he's taken the lead on this because he doesn't know that you can use that talisman," Uk explained at the same low volume. 

"I cannot use the talisman because you failed to take it from him," she reprimanded him in turn. "It was a simple task! How could you succeed most of the challenges Cho Yeong assigned you during your training, but fail at this one?" 

"Please don't remind me that you were spying on us all along," Jang Uk pleaded with a whine in his voice. "It makes me uncomfortable to know that you witnessed all my struggles!"

Jin Bu-Yeon knew that it was pointless to remind him that she had all the rights to know what happened around her own body.

She knew that she would have a much more important argument to have with Cho Yeong as soon as the divination spell was broken.

For now, Bu-Yeon calmly followed So-I and Seo Yul along with Jang Uk.

During their walk towards Cheonbugwan, So-I threw several nervous glances at Jin Bu-Yeon, trying to communicate that they needed to talk in private. Bu-Yeon ignored her former friend. She wanted nothing to do with her at this point.

"Please be careful," So-I told Seo Yul specifically when they were close to their destination. "If you get caught, run. Please. Those bells you're talking about, can't your leader confiscate them another time? They're not worth you getting caught in that place."

"We won't get caught," Yul assured her before gently pushing her towards the guarded entrance of Cheonbugwan. "Just buy us some time, alright?"

So-I nodded twice, then set off to meet her former master.

Meanwhile

Jin Mu was pacing back and forth in a corner of the constellation room as he waited for the Crown Prince.

The grace period granted by the pupil to his former master was up. It was now his duty as the king's son to arrest a fugitive.

But Jin Mu wasn't willing to give up his freedom so easily. He still hoped to distract Go Won with something more important.

His plan had been to unleash Naksu in Songrim, but that plan was no longer viable: Yeom Soo had returned at dawn and reported that the assassin was nowhere to be found. She had not gone to Sejukwon at all.

Shaman Choi's divination bells were enchanted so that the spell-caster could establish a spiritual connection with the soul shifter, even after the latter ran wild.

Jin Mu had felt that connection when he had first tested the bells days ago, and then last night when he had given Naksu the order to kill Jin Woo-Tak. But when he had held the bells again this morning, that spiritual connection was gone.

Normally a lost connection meant that the soul shifter had petrified, but Jin Mu couldn't believe that Naksu had perished without leaving a trace. No head had rolled, no one had bled, not a single rumor of her return had circulated in the capital! Something was wrong.

"It must be Jang Uk's doing," Jin Mu said to himself as he slowed down his steps in the vast hall. "He must have used the ice stone to save her soul, somehow."

The sound of footsteps beyond the front doors made the Assistant Gwanju brace for an uncomfortable discussion.

A few seconds later, the doors of the constellation room were opened by two guards.

"Her Majesty the queen and the Crown Prince!" Yeom Soo announced.

Jin Mu had not expected the queen to be in attendance, but he didn't let his surprise show. He merely noted that Seo Ha-Sun showed no reverence to the place she had just entered.

Clearly she didn't understand how essential constellation recorders were to the good ruling of the kingdom.

For centuries, Daeho's leaders had been determined according to the will of the skies.*** Quite a few of the major families had been chosen based on their birth constellation, for the stars foretold their spiritual powers as well as their affinity with the king's constellation.

Over the past two decades, however, Jin Mu and Shaman Choi had defied the will of the skies. And now Jin Mu was on the brink of having his will become the ultimate authority in Daeho.

He watched Go Won with anticipation of his future.

Unlike his mother, the Crown Prince showed proper respect to the constellation room, turning towards well to bow at it. The surface of the water in the well was glinting under the sunlight filtering through the glass ceiling. 

When Go Won pivoted on his heels to face his former master, his features were contorted with anger.

"Is it true that Mu-Deok is Naksu?" He demanded to know, his voice loud and vibrating with emotions.

"I-I wouldn't dare lie about this, Your Highness," Jin Mu answered nervously.

He had never seen his pupil so furious before, and he worried that if he didn't use the right words Go Won would throw him in jail.

To Jin Mu's relief, the younger man calmed down, nodding his head in acknowledgement.

"It all makes sense now," his comment shocked the Assistant Gwanju.

"What do you mean, Your Highness? Did you suspect that Mu-Deok was Naksu?"

"I didn't know who she was, of course not! But I had a hunch that she was was hiding a secret. Also, I found her attachment to Jang Uk ridiculous, all the more because it is clearly reciprocated. Why would the son of the late Gwanju be so loyal to a lowly servant? He's even going to marry her!"

Jin Mu scrutinize the Crown Prince's face and tried to understand the source of his emotional state.

He nearly gasped in shock upon concluding that the Crown Prince was jealous of Jang Uk...not because Jang Uk was the King's Star, but because Jang Uk had Naksu's affection!

"I also realized that Jang Uk and Mu-Deok were keeping a secret from me when we were stuck in the barrier of the ice stone," Go Won kept going, looking slightly agitated. "The soul shifter kept in Sejukwon was on a rampage, and we couldn't fight him since we couldn't use our powers inside that barrier. He killed several mages of Songrim. He nearly killed Seo Yul!"

Seo Ha-Sun gasped in shock, and Jin Mu quietly sighed in relief knowing that he had avoided a catastrophe.

Had Seo Yul unexpectedly perished, his life lantern would have gone out in the Seoho fortress, and General Seo would have immediately come to the capital. Imagining such a scenario made Jin Mu shiver in fear.

"Jang Uk figured out that the only way to stop the soul shifter from killing us all was to trap him in the secret room," Won recounted. "But to do so, he had to lock himself in the secret room too. We all expected him to die there, but it was the soul shifter who died. The wounds inflicted on that soul shifter were clearly made by a powerful mage, I inspected them myself, but Jang Uk couldn't have used his powers. Which means—"

"That it was Naksu who slaughtered him," Jin Mu finished the sentence. "Since she's a soul shifter too, she had access to her powers."

Go Won nodded once again, and growled in anger.

"Those two played me for a fool! I want them arrested, now!"

There were no royal guards around, only mages of Cheonbugwan were waiting at the door. Technically, the mages of Cheonbugwan only took command from the king in rare instances approved by the Unanimous Assembly, so the Crown Prince himself had no authority within these walls.

Jin Mu was more than happy to break protocols, especially if it brought him back in Go Won's good graces.

The Assistant Gwanju discreety wiggled his fingers to signal Yeom Soo to respond to the prince's orders.

"Yes Your Highness, at once!" The loyal subordinate shouted before dispatching the two guards.

"We should expect Songrim to protect Jang Uk, Your Highness," Jin Mu warned the Crown Prince. "Park Jin will hide him, and deny us entry to Songrim until we bring the matter to the Unanimous Assembly next week. But by then Jang Uk is supposed to leave the capital!"

"That's true," Go Wom agreed before turning to his mother. "Would you please advise Father to release a royal decree? No one should leave the capital without royal authorization."

The queen didn't move. Her face had fallen, and she eyed Jin Mu nervously before admitting an embarrassing truth:

"The king will not heed any advice from me. Just this morning, he dismissed my request to have Jin Woo-Tak arrested, saying that he won't interfere with Jinyowon affairs!"

Won sighed quietly in exasperation.

His parents did not get along well, he had noticed that early on as a child. He had often overheard royal servants gossip about the king. That was how he had learned that his father had been pressured by the Unanimous Assembly to marry his mother. Had Go Sun declined a union to the Seo family, the Unanimous Assembly would have chosen another family to hold the throne. 

Won knew that the powerful families of Daeho looked down on his father, who had weak mage powers. Even King Seong had been a mediocre mage, not talented enough to be trained in Cheonbugwan.

The Crown Prince owed his great mage powers from his maternal lineage, so he did not plan on being a meek king like his father. Once he ascended the throne, he planned to make the Unanimous Assembly listen to him rather than listen to them. He would not allow anyone amongst those families of mages to intimidate him since he himself was a powerful mage.

And that was all thanks to Jin Mu. It was one thing to have a great potential, but without a great master Go Won could not have become a great mage.

The Crown Prince could not deny that he owed a lot of who he was today to his former master. That was why he had thought of arresting Jin Mu personally but he also wished to mount a strong defense for Jin Mu during his trial.

Go Won wanted the trial to be fair. He could not let Daeho forget the good deeds that the Assistant Gwanju had done for years, helping the king with the good ruling of the kingdom. Jang Gang's disappearance would have caused all kinds of chaos had Jin Mu not stepped up to tend to the Gwanju's duties. 

But defending Jin Mu was no longer a priority for Go Won. Now, his main concern was to have Filthy Mu-Deok and Jang Uk arrested and separated.

He had felt disgusted by his own jealousy for those two; he couldn't even tell whether he was jealous of Jang Uk or jealous of Mu-Deok. At least now he could use the guise of bringing Naksu to justice as a justification for making them both suffer.

"We will talk to father together," Go Won told his mother.

He then turned to Jin Mu and spoke with a stern voice:

"I will return here shortly. When I do, you must tell me everything you know about Jang Uk and Songrim."

A muscle in Jin Mu's jaw twitched, betraying his intention to continue keeping his cards close to his chest.

"I will not tolerate any more secrets from you, do you hear me?" Go Won threatened him. "If you withhold information from me, then you are no better than Lord Park!"

Jin Mu bowed to the Crown Prince more in an attempt to hide his anger than to show obedience. He could not believe that the boy he had turned into a powerful mage dared to talk him down that way.

"You have my word that I will tell you everything, Your Highness," Jin Mu promised.

Satisfied with the response, Go Won wordlessly invited his mother to follow him back to the royal palace.

"But you won't be able to do anything once you learn the truth," Jin Mu whispered with a smirk as he straightened back up.

He was relieved that he had averted a crisis, but before he could rejoice another problem materialized itself.

"Assistant Gwanju!" A mage called out as he ran past the still open doors of the constellation room.

The young man was visibly out of breath, bending over to rest his hands on his knees.

"I thought I should tell you right away: So-I is asking for an audience. "

"The nerve of that woman," Yeom Soo grumbled as he placed his hand on his sword. "I will get rid of her, my lord."

Jin Mu lifted his hand to stop him.

"Wait. I first want to hear what she has to say. She's not stupid, that's why she's been hiding from us all these weeks. There must be a good reason for her to come here, knowing the fate I reserve to useless pawns."

Yeom Soo had a bad feeling about So-I's return, but he obeyed the Assistant Gwanju without complaining.

The tunnels under Cheonbugwan were dark and indeed full of magical traps, but Seo Yul didn't have to use his powers to deactivate them at all.

Instead, Mu-Deok showed him and Jang Uk where to step to avoid triggering the alarms.

"So you have been here before?" Seo Yul asked as he squinted his eyes at her barely visible back. "Did you come here when you worked for Jin Mu?"

Mu-Deok did not respond, so he believed that she didn't want to talk about her past as Naksu. She had asked him to move on, after all, but he had trouble letting go of their past friendship.

Jang Uk, on the other hand, knew that Naksu had never stepped foot in Cheonbugwan after her father's death. She had told him that Jin Mu kept her away from the capital unless he had an assignment for her. All she recalled about Cheonbugwan came from her childhood memories with her father. 

What Uk also knew that Yul didn't was that Mu-Deok was able to navigate these tunnels comfortably because Jin Bu-Yeon's powers allowed her to see the energy trail of the magical traps. 

After a few minutes of smooth trail, she suddenly stopped. Seo Yul nearly bumped into her.

When he looked up past Mu-Deok's head, he saw a dim torch light ahead.

That torch was moving...towards them.

"Soul shifters," the young priestess warned the mage as she retreated behind him. "Three of them."

"You can tell from this far?" Seo Yul asked, shocked  by her ability to identify other soul shifters.

He wanted to ask her if she could help Songrim uproot all the shoul shifters created by Shaman Choi's soul ejectors, but when he looked back he changed his mind.

He could not even make eye contact with Mu-Deok because Jang Uk had wrapped one arm around her, hiding her face with his hand.

It reminded Yul of the night when he had first met Mu-Deok, unaware that she was the body Naksu had shifted into.

"Can you handle all three of them in your condition?" Uk asked Yul, who was getting annoyed by his concern.

"I'm not completely powerless," the mage pointed out as he unsheathed just one of his swords, anticipating the need to keep his right hand free.

A few seconds later, he regretted his choice of words and glanced apologetically at Jang Uk...who had lost all his powers and therefore was completely powerless.

Seo Yul was about to verbally apologize to his friend when one of the soul shifters drew his attention.

"Hey there!"

It was the one carrying the torch who called out, assuming that the newcomers were soul shifters too.

"Did you already receive the invitation?" He asked, oblivious. "Jin Mu said to come in forty days. We came right away to ask him about the ice stone. You've heard the rumor too, haven't you? About the ice stone and the King's Star appearing—"

The two soul shifters behind him couldn't see well beyond the flame, so they were unprepared to see a blade shining with mage energy materializing in the dark out of nowhere.

Seo Yul's sword swept across the air and cut down the soul shifter holding the torch, making the other two gasp in shock.

The cut down soul shifter's body turned to stone first, giving Seo Yul time to snatch the torch from the petrified hand.

Yul tossed the torch backwards over his shoulder, making Jin Bu-Yeon shriek in fear of getting burned. She stumbled backwards, but Jang Uk moved foward and caught the torch before it hit the ground.

The former mage lifted the fire high overhead to better illuminate the area, just in time to watch Seo Yul draw his second sword. He then crossed the twin weapons in a defensive stance.

"Who are you?" One of the two remaining soul shifters asked in a panic while the other was already reaching for his weapon.

"Can't you tell that he's a mage of Songrim? He's just not wearing his uniform."

"A mage of Songrim, huh? Good!" The other soul shifter commented with a smile as he readied himself for a fight. "I need to feed on someone's energy soon. A mage's energy will last for a while."

"Monsters," Seo Yul commented before launching an assault.

Jang Uk had to shift left and right constantly to keep himself and Bu-Yeon out of the way, and also to be able to admire his friend's exceptional swordmanship.

Most mages carried only one sword not just because it was physically easier to handle the weight of a single blade, but also because it was easier to focus mage energy on a single weapon. 

Even before joining Songrim, Seo Yul had been rigorously trained by his father to comfortably wield twin swords. Once he had mastered Chisu, his combat skills were further elevated. He could deftly alternate the use of his swords to attack, defend, or attack with one sword while at the same time defending himself with the other sword.

Jang Uk paid particular attention to Seo Yul's footwork. He moved with grace even in the confines of the tunnel, his legs adopting the elegance of a dancer whilst his arms showcased the efficiency of a soldier.

The two soul shifters were good fighters themselves. After the element of surprise faded, they managed to keep up with Yul. As the latter adjusted his stance to better defend against their coordinated blows, he had a nagging feeling that he recognized their fighting styles.

His suspicion was confirmed when the opponent who had recognized Yul parried his blade with an energy shield...the signature move of the Han family.

Producing that shield wasn't an easy to feat, which was why everyone had been so shocked that Jang Uk had mastered it just a few days after seeing it for the first time.

All trained mages knew that giving a particular shape to a Chisu shield used up more energy than creating a simple Chisu barrier. The Han family used that particular shape of shield as a point of pride, and that's why Yul was convinced that either the soul shifter or his borrowed body belonged to a Han.

The soul shifter pushed with the shield. Yul briefly lost his balance, but he quickly used his momentum to execute a backflip.

He jumped out of range of his opponents' swords to land right next to Jang Uk and Mu-Deok.

"Step back," he told his friends without taking his eyes off the soul shifters, not noticing the hand moving to unclasp the talisman from the side of his belt.

Once he had enough room to maneuver, he crossed his swords behind his neck and spread his mage energy to the blades.

After completing a full spin, he braced himself to use Chisu. Unleashing the energy-charged gust of wind was normally easy for him, but his current condition made it difficult to contain the blow. The uncontrolled blast was so strong that it chipped off parts of the rock walls.

The two soul shifters were knocked off their feet nevertheless, and Yul took advantage of their defenseless position to end the fight: he switched his grip on his swords, holding them like spears. With a milder surge of Chisu, he threw the twin weapons and they hit the soul shifters right in their chests.

With his hands now free, Yul took the torch from Uk and jogged towards the wounded soul shifters. One of them was barely moving and quickly turning into stone. It was the one who had admitted he needed to feed on someone's energy.

The soul shifter who had used the Han shield was still moving, dragging himself backwards on the ground in the hope to escape. That one wasn't turning to stone yet. Although he was bleeding, only his hands were showing signs of petrification. 

Yul lifted his leg and stomped on that soul shifter's shoulder, immobilizing him so he could wrench his sword out of the man's chest.

"P-please spare me!" The defeated man pleaded, rubbing his trembling hands together in a praying gesture. "A-arrest me if you want! I-I can give you useful information!"

"Like what?" Jang Uk asked several feet away, curious about the invitation that the soul shifter had mentioned earlier.

But Yul didn't show any mercy. He was still bitter over the fact that the soul shifter Master Kang had massacred his comrades in Jeongjingak even after Songrim had saved him from turning into stone. 

With several thrusts of his sword and several blasts of Chisu, Yul gradually weakened the soul shifter and accelerated the petrification. The soul shifter couldn't get a moment of respite to stand up and fight back. After a few minutes of taking the full damage of Seo Yul's attacks, he was on the brink of dying.

"Monsters like you are of no use to Songrim," the mage declared bitterly before dealing the fatal blow.

The only soul shifter he could tolerate was Naksu.

Before retrieving his other sword, Seo Yul turned towards Mu-Deok, and was shocked to see her crouching down next to something very familiar: the talisman Jin Woo-Tak had given Seo Yul.

"What?" Yul reacted in shock, patting his belt and finding out that she had taken the talisman from him.

She had it pinned to the ground with her index and middle fingers.

"I found the bells," she calmly announced before standing up.

Seo Yul frowned in confusion when he had a good look at her eyes. Her pupils didn't move, it was as if she were blind...but to him that was impossible. She moved as if she could clearly see, even in the darkness.

"We have to hurry up," she said as she speed-walked past him. "You triggered one of the traps when you mindlessly attacked that last soul shifter." 

"Sorry," Yul apologized with a sigh, embarrassed for derailing his own plan to sneak in and out of Cheonbugwan undetected. 

"That was a great fight, Yul!" Jang Uk praised him before they both followed Mu-Deok's lead.

She jogged along the tunnels, confidently picking one side whenever a path split in two. She no longer worried about triggerring the magical traps at this point.

At last they reached Jin Mu's lair. It was dark just like the tunnels, but at least there were braziers with green flames illuminating some corners. 

Jang Uk and Seo Yul briefly slowed down when they passed through the large gathering room of the secret society. Bu-Yeon couldn't see it since it was a mundane piece of architecture, but the two young men warily eyed the different levels connected by stairs on all sides.

"This place could host hundreds of people," Seo Yul commented gravely.

"We could have asked that soul shifter about it, don't you think?" Jang Uk gently admonished him. "He was willing to cooperate, why did you kill him?"

"Because it's my duty to protect everyone from his kind!" Yul blurted out. "Soul shifters cannot be trusted to cooperate, not when they have proven to disregard the sanctity of life and the harmony between body and soul!"

Jang didn't know what to say in response to that, so he silently walked away to join Bu-Yeon in what looked like Jin Mu's secret office.

The young priestess was so focused on reaching the bells across the room that she kept bumping into furniture instead of being more careful as she walked. Jang Uk caught up to her and helped her move more comfortably befoe Seo Yul could see her behave like a regular blind woman. 

"Right there," she indicated, pointing at a chest under a desk. "Take the whole thing and let's go!"

When the trio traced their steps back to the gathering room, Jin Mu was waiting for them...along with the Crown Prince.

"How dare you trespass in Cheonbugwan!" Jin Mu shouted at them. "And what did you just steal?"

Jang Uk quickly stood in front of Jin Bu-Yeon, and Go Won glared at him.

"I will only ask you once, Jang Uk," the Crown Prince warned. "Did you know that Mu-Deok is truly Naksu?"

Rather than incriminate himself, Uk decided to remain silent.

"Answer me!" The Crown Prince ordered him, but he kept his mouth shut.

"Your Highness," Yul intervened, taking one step forward. "We broke the rules by trespassing, that is true, but we only did it so we could prevent Jin Mu from using a powerful spell of sorcery. Ask yourself why he has divination bells in his possession?"

"I'm the one asking you questions, here!" Go Won argued with his cousin. "And what about you? Did you know about Naksu?"

Just like Jang Uk, Seo Yul didn't answer the question, but it was clear to the Crown Prince what the answer was.

"I am not Naksu!" Mu-Deok was the one who spoke up. "Why would Your Highness think that? What proof do you have to make such a claim?"

Go Won turned to Jin Mu, who ended up as quiet as Jang Uk and Seo Yul.

He couldn't tell the truth to the Crown Prince without revealing that he had used sorcery, and even worse that was the one who had trained Naksu in the first place.

"I-if it is true that there are divination bells in that chest, well, well..."

"Well, what?!" Go Won prompted him, irritated.

"Then mages of Songrim shouldn't be the ones handling them! Cheonbugwan is better equipped to handle this kind of magic, Your Highness."

The Crown Prince lifted an eyebrow in skepticism before expressing his disagreement:

"No, the mages of Cheonbugwan are not better equipped for this kind of magic. If anyone should handle this, it's Jinyowon. Am I wrong?"

"You are correct, Your Highness!" A woman's voice resonated from the tunnel.

It was Jin Cho-Yeon, who was accompanied by her soon-to-be husband Park Dang-Gu.

The two of them were dressed for their wedding and looked completely out of place in this dark lair.

They had come from Sejukwon, where they had made a detour during their parade to pay their respect to Cho-Yeon's father.

Jin Woo-Tak was the one who had told them of Seo Yul's plan to confiscate the divination bells. Jin Woo-Tak thought that Seo Yul was going to Cheonbugwan all alone and that's why he had told Dang-Gu to rescue his friend.

Worried about Seo Yul's condition, Park Dang-Gu had rushed to help him. Of course his bride had come along since she was particularly angry at her uncle:

"You're the one responsible for my sister's disappearance!" She yelled. "Father told me that you pushed her in the river! How could you do that?"

Everyone turned towards Jin Mu, who felt cornered. Nothing was going according to his plan, which was to pin the Crown Prince against Jang Uk.

"Your cousin and my own niece are clearly part if this plot against the royal family,"  Jin Mu lied blatantly.

Of course the Crown Prince didn't believe him.

"What plot against the royal family? They came here to take these divination bells!"

"They are the Four Seasons! Do you know why everyone calls them that, Your Highness? It's because together their families can control all of Daeho! If they are spring, summer, autumn and winter...then what are you?"

"I am the Crown Prince," Go Won replied flatly. "Who cares about some flowery nicknames?"

"You should care!" Jin Mu shouted. "Can't you see that Songrim has been planning to rebel against the throne? And now I fear that Park Jin even has the support of General Seo."

"Don't you dare bring my father's name into this!" Yul yelled at the Assistant Gwanju, who smirked.

"Are you denying that your father was against the king's decision to name me His Highness' master? General Seo didn't want the Crown Prince to be as powerful as his son! We all know why that is, don't we? The reason why your father refuses to return to the capital..."

"I dare you to finish that sentence," Yul challenged him. "Go ahead and lie about my family's loyalty to the royal family!"

"Which branch of the royal family?" Jin Mu asked, confusing everyone.

"What are you talking about?" Go Won questioned him. "The royal family only has one branch right now."

"Yes, your father ascended the throne because his older brother died without an heir," Jin Mu reminded him. "Or so you were told, Your Highness. All these years, you were told a lie. You are not the only heir to the throne."

Jang Gang's former assistant said those words while staring at Jang Uk.

The latter rolled his eyes in exasperation.

"How can you listen to all this nonsense with a straight face, Your Highness?" He called out to the Crown Prince. "I understand that you wish to protect this lunatic since he was your master—"

"Just like you're protecting Naksu because she is your master?" Go Won threw back. "I'm no longer fooled by your lies!"

He turned to Jin Mu.

"Nor will I listen to your nonsense! Not only am I the only heir to the throne, but I am General Seo's nephew! I will not stand here while you defame his name!"

"Jang Uk is the late king's son!" Jin Mu revealed in one last desperate attempt to shift the blame. 

Jang Uk in question burst into laughter.

"Seriously, who would believe such a stupid joke?"

"Think about it, Your Highness!" Jin Mu insisted. "Why would Jang Gang block his own son's gate of energy? And why would he so easily disown his only son when taking his last breath? It makes no sense, unless Jang Uk was never a Jang to begin with!"

This time the Crown Prince, Seo Yul, Park Dang-Gu and Jin Cho-Yeon stared at Uk, who stood speechless.

"He makes a valid point," Bu-Yeon quietly commented behind him.

"I planned to take my former master's secret to the grave, but I can no longer remain silent!" Jin Mu kept going out loud. "You told me to tell you everything, Your Highness, so I will start with the most-guarded secret in all of Daeho: a few weeks before his death,  King Seong switched souls with Jang Gang, who had learned the forbidden Alchemy of Soul! King Seo did it so that he could use Jang Gang's strong body to sire an heir, and not any heir: one born under the King's Star!"

Chapter Text

For an entire minute, everyone in the secret gathering room stood speechless while staring at Jin Mu. It was so quiet that one could hear the gentle crackle of every single flame: the green ones burning in the braziers, and the yellow ones burning on the torches held by Seo Yul and Dang-Gu.

The Crown Prince broke the silence, his voice dangerously low as he addressed the Assistant Gwanju.

"If you are lying about this..."

"I wouldn't dare, Your Highness!"

"...I will execute you myself," Go Won finished the threat.

Jin Mu swallowed nervously before deciding to reveal more of what had transpired twenty years ago:

"King Seong wrote his will to name Do-Hwa's son his heir, but Jang Gang hid the will before it could be shared with the Unanimous Assembly. *Jang Gang also ordered me to destroy Jang Uk's constellation plate and to forge a fake one, all so that no one would know the truth. It is hidden right here in Cheonbugwan, Your Highness, I can show you this instant!"

Despite Jin Mu's conviction, Go Won was still skeptical. If a constellation plate could be forged, than who was to say which was real?

"What of King Seong's will?" The Crown inquired, knowing that it was the one document that could not be falsified.

The Assistant Gwanju visibly winced, then responded with a more cautious tone.*

"I never read it myself, Your Highness," he admitted, "but I strongly believe that Park Jin knows about the late king's will. That is why he has been so protective of Jang Uk!" 

Go Won turned his gaze to Jang Uk in question. The former mage of Songrim was obviously shocked by Jin Mu's outrageous claims.

Not just shocked, but shaken. He was trembling to the point of almost dropping the chest containing the divination bells. 

However bitter and jealous Go Won felt towards Jang Uk, part of him sympathized with the orphan. That's why he decided to put an end to this heated confrontation.

"We will settle this matter, and that of your trespassing, during the Unanimous Assembly meeting next week. Until then, no one shall leave the capital."

Jin Cho-Yeon, Park Dang-Gu and Seo Yul turned their gazes towards Jang Uk and Mu-Deok, who had been planning to leave the capital before next week.

"And if I hear that you or Mu-Deok have caused trouble?" Go Won added, pointing a finger at Jang Uk. "I will arrest you myself. As for you..."

He moved his finger towards Seo Yul.

"Tell my uncle that we require his presence in the capital. Since you are ready to go back to Seoho and take over as the leader, General Seo should resume his active duty as a member of the Assembly."

Everyone turned to look at Yul, who did not look pleased at having his father's name brought up again.

"With all due respect, Your Highness," the future leader of Seoho responded cooly. "If you have a message for my father, you should convey it to Master Heo. You already know that my father cannot leave Seoho as he pleases. King Seong's decree—"

"King Seong has been dead for twenty years!" Go Won loudly objected. "My father annulled that decree so that your father could attend his own sister's coronation. But General Seo never showed up!"

Anger rose in the prince's throat as he recalled all the times he had been disappointed by his maternal uncle's absence. He knew very well that the major families of Daeho would have respected his father a bit more if only General Seo had shown steadfast support to the throne. Instead, the venerated soldier had been mostly indifferent to Daeho's ruling family...his own family-in-law.

"I spent my entire childhood listening to Master Heo's ridiculous excuses for General Seo's absenteeism," Won told his cousin Yul. "Whether it was to celebrate holidays, important events with the Court or even my birthdays! So don't you dare tell me that I should discuss anything with Master Heo. I'm not stupid!" 

Seo Yul didn't respond. He knew that arguing would only make his cousin angrier.

"Leave, all of you!" The Crown Prince shouted.

When the group of friends obeyed and turned their backs on him, he felt the need to say something else:

"Mu-Deok," he called out behind gritted teeth.

"Yes, Your Highness?" The young woman responded without turning around, which he considered a clear sign of disrespect.

In truth, Jin Bu-Yeon was just trying to hide her eyes. She knew that there was enough light in this room for people to notice that she was blind. But Go Won didn't know that.

He thought that he was talking to the Mu-Deok he knew, but now that he had her attention he didn't know what to say. 

Things had not happened the way he had expected. He had thought that she would immediately bargain for her freedom if she was accused of being Naksu. He was used to her being dramatic and passionate in her arguments, so he had anticipated the chance to exert some control over her.

Instead of begging, however, she had reversed the interrogation and calmly asked him for proof of her identity.

He was certain that she was a soul shifter, the one who had eliminated the Master Kang when they were stuck in the ice stone barrier. But Go Won's certainty wasn't a tangible proof. He needed concrete evidence...or a confession.

"You have until next week to confess your crimes," he warned Mu-Deok. "If you don't, and I find proof that you are Naksu—"

"What? Naksu?" Dang-Gu quietly reacted, sharing an incredulous look with Cho-Yeon.

"If you find proof of any crime, then I will accept my punishment," Jang Uk interveneded, turning around and stepping in front of Mu-Deok to face the Crown Prince. "Mu-Deok is under my protection. Anyone who tries to hurt her will have to go through me first."

"Are you threatening the Crown Prince?!" Jin Mu exclaimed, pretending to be scandalized.

Deep down the Assistant Gwanju wanted to clap his hands in glee: finally, the two young kings' sons were at odds with each other in a meaningful way!

"And how could you defend her when you are powerless?" Go Won challenged Jang Uk.

"He's only pretending to be powerless, Your Highness!" Jin Mu commented, adding oil to fire when he pointed at the Gwanju's sword in Uk's hand. "Why would he carry that sword unless he could use it?"

Jang Uk snapped at Jin Mu:

"I can't use it, but I wish I could! I wish I could draw its blade and cut your tongue with it, you lying snake!"

"Watch your tongue, Jang Uk!" Go Won admonished him.

Jin Mu quietly chuckled, pleased to see that the Crown Prince was fully on his side.

"We should let him speak, Your Highness. Let him further incriminate himself. The time has come for him to suffer the consequences of his actions." 

"What about you? Are you ready to reap what you sowed?"

Everyone turned to look at the one who had spoken.

Mu-Deok. She was still hidden by Jang Uk, so no one could see her scowl at her uncle.

"How dares a lowly servant girl like you talk to me that way!" Jin Mu yelled at her.

She scoffed dismissively before replying in a cool, detached tone:

"The better question is: how dare you underestimate the King's Star?" 

Something in her voice gave everyone pause as it echoed around the cavernous room. She herself calmly turned around and walked away.

Jang Uk moved a few seconds later, grabbing the torch from Seo Yul so it wouldn't look suspicious that Mu-Deok was comfortable walking in the dark tunnels. 

As soon as Jang Uk and Mu-Deok were out of sight, Dang-Gu rubbed his free hand to his covered arm.

"Woah! Her voice gave me goosebumps!"

"Me too," Cho-Yeon admitted, frowning.

This wasn't the first time that her intuition told her that Mu-Deok was special, but once again she chose to believe what she was told rather than what she felt.

"Maybe it's because she didn't speak in dialect?" The younger Jin sister reasoned. "It seems that spending time with us nobles has helped improve her diction and personality. Good for her!"

Unlike her, Seo Yul and Go Won were not fooled.

Mu-Deok had talked to them without faking her accent plenty of times, so they knew that the accent wasn't the reason why she had sounded so different to their ears.

The cousins exchanged a look of confusion. They had previously dealt with a spirit who had pretended to be Mu-Deok, so they were acutely aware of the difference in her behavior. But they also knew that Jang Uk would have noticed if this Mu-Deok was an imposter. If Jang Uk was going along with her odd attitude, who were they to say anything about it?

They couldn't figure out what was wrong about Mu-Deok in the first place. And even if they could figure it out, they wouldn't talk to each other about it considering what had just transpired.

The Crown Prince lifted his chin haughtily before pivoting on his heels. He was heading back to the palace, and it would take him several minutes to reach the front entrance of Cheonbugwan.

"Yul-a, let's go!" Park Dang-Gu called his friend.

Jin Mu silently fumed as he watched three of the Four Seasons leave his secret gathering room...which was not so secret anymore!

He took a few deep breaths to calm down and figure out a way to reclaim the divination bells without the Crown Prince's knowledge. 

He thought, and thought, and thought...then prayed that he was not too late to use an impromptu contingency plan.

He used a hidden passage so he could reach Yeom Soo quickly.

The young mage was in one of the storage rooms 'interrogating' So-I. He had never liked her, so he was thoroughly satisfied to have the chance to beat her up the way he had wanted to do for months.

After hearing her scream and cry for several minutes, he was sick of hearing her voice. He drew his sword to stab her.

"Don't kill her yet!" Jin Mu forbade him as he barged into the small room.

"My lord?" 

"Use her to retrieve the divination bells first. The intruders were no other than the Four Seasons and Naksu! The guards won't be able to stop them..."

"Why didn't the Crown Prince stop them?" Yeom Soo asked, confused. "We sent guards to the Jang residence because he asked us to arrest Jang Uk! But now he's letting him go?"

"That's not important right now! Go to the eastern end of the backyard and exchange So-I for the bells! Tell them that Jin Woo-Tak lied and that she is truly Jin Bu-Yeon."

Yeom Soo wanted to say that the Four Seasons weren't stupid enough to believe that, but he didn't want to argue. He was too relieved that his orders involved negotiating rather than fighting. He knew that he stood no chance against the combined forces of the Four Seasons and Naksu, not even with all the thirty guards on duty by his side. 

"It looks like you're going to be useful at least," Yeom Soo commented as he grabbed So-I's arm and dragged her out of the room.

"I will escort the Crown Prince back to the royal palace," Jin Mu announced hurryingly as he started walking in the opposite direction. "You weren't there when he gave Jinyowon permission to confiscate the divination bells, so you can feign ignorance when he asks about it. I will acquire a different set of bells before returning and will place that in the chest instead."

"That is brilliant, my lord," Soo praised his leader's plan and bowed in respect before heading to the back yard.

Even weakened as she was, So-I resisted him along the way, so it took them a while to reach the eastern side of Cheonbugwan.

Sounds of a commotion were loud in that backyard, so Yeom Soo decided to go in one of the lookout towers. That gave him a bird view of the confrontation afoot.

First, he noticed that there were a dozen guards retreating from the fight with arrows protruding from their dominant arms. They had lost against Park Dang-Gu's impeccable aim. 

Then Yeom Soo noticed the guards who were completely knocked out, lying on the ground like flies burned by fire. Those guards had deeper wounds after being cut by Seo Yul's swords.

Thankfully for the rest of the guards, Seo Yul was now too exhausted to keep fighting. Jang Uk was helping him stand next to Mu-Deok, who was now holding the chest.

Finally, Yeom Soo's eyes focused on Jin Cho-Yeon. The priestess had no weapon, but she didn't need any. She was using her bare hands to demonstrate the superiority of Jinyowon over Cheonbugwan.

With intricate movements of her fingers, she was able to control the flows of energy around her. She deflected the blasts of Ryusu and Chisu cast against her. Most of the time she could redirect the attacks so precisely that she would use them to knock out other guards.

The way she was turning direct blows into friendly fire was impressive. Yeom Soo knew that very few mages could do it. To his knowledge only Jin Mu could do it and that was because he was taught by the Gwanju Jang Gang.

The few guards who managed to move in Cho-Yeon's blind spot were knocked out by Park Dang-Gu, who was beaming proudly at his powerful bride.

Yeom Soo shook himself out of his begrudged admiration for the priestess and shouted loudly enough to be heard by all.

"Stop!" His words made everyone below freeze.

Uk looked up at the source of the voice. It was hard to see the man's face since he was standing in a lookout tower, but Uk could guess that it was Jin Mu's trusted subordinate Yeom Soo. 

"So-I," Yul and Bu-Yeon quietly said at the same time when they noticed the person standing next to Yeom Soo.

"Give back what you stole and I will let her go," the powerful mage of Cheonbugwan said out loud.

What he didn't say out loud was easy for the group of friends to interpret: he would kill So-I if they didn't return the divination bells.

"Let's just leave," Jang Uk prompted his friends. "Who cares about her? The Crown Prince allowed us to take the chest anyway!"

"I promised So-I that we would come for her," Seo Yul reminded Uk as he tried to walk towards the lookout tower.

He felt responsible for the young woman somehow. Deep down, he regretted not insisting on escorting her to the city guards. He believed that she would not have fallen into Jin Mu's clutches if he had kept an eye on her and even offered her shelter.

His guilt was even stronger than what he felt for Naksu because at least Naksu was a strong mage who could defend herself. So-I, on the other hand, was defenseless.

Yul didn't make it far without Uk's support. He nearly fell to the ground, dropping on one knee and managing to prop himself with the hilt of his sword. He was started to get frustrated with his mysterious ailment.

"Young master Seo Yul!" So-I yelled her concern, knowing exactly what was wrong with him.

Her shouting made the captain of the guards pinch his eyes. He had an excellent eyesight, so he managed to recognize her even from afar. 

"Why is Jin Bu-Yeon here?" His question caused a murmur of confusion to spread amongst the mages of Cheonbugwan.

They weren't aware of So-I's real identity. In fact, very few people knew that she was a fraud. Not even the members of the Unanimous Assembly were aware of the extent that Jin Mu had gone to seize power. They had been too focused on the Crown Prince as the supposed King's Star to care about what had happened to Jin Ho-Gyeong's eldest daughter.

Park Jin had been instructed to wait until the next meeting to reveal every detail of Jin Mu's scheme and was ordered to provide concrete evidence gathered according to protocols.

"So-I could be a valuable witness for our investigation against Jin Mu," Park Dang-Gu pointed out as he too paid more attention to the fraud.

"My mother said that she knows where my real sister is," Jin Cho-Yeon added a vote in favor of rescuing So-I. 

She turned towards Mu-Deok and motioned for her to hand over the chest.

"You cannot be serious!" Jang Uk objected.

To him it would be ridiculous to exchange the bells he needed to save Cho Yeong's soul for that imposter. But his friends didn't know how important those bells were to him, and he couldn't tell them the truth without revealing that Mu-Deok was indeed Naksu.

Jin Bu-Yeon was the only one who knew, and yet she looked ready to do the exchange.

"Mu-Deok-a!" Uk hissed at her when she obediently approached her oblivious younger sister.

She ignored him and talked to the other priestess.

"Do you happen to carry a divination seal, Young Lady Cho-Yeon?"

"Of course!" Cho-Yeon responded with two vigorous nods. "You may not know that, but all priestesses of Jinyowon carry at least one seal at all times."

She pulled one from a sleeve of her elaborated wedding, which had discreet pockets sewn where no one could see.

To people who knew nothing about priestess powers, she was holding a mundane chain of golden beads. But the group of friends knew exactly what it was because they had seen her use a similar seal months ago, to stop Jang Uk's right arm from hurting people.

"Why do you need this?" Cho-Yeon's mindless question made Bu-Yeon move her head to frown at her.

That was a mistake, because Cho-Yeon noticed her eyes. Bu-Yeon tried to hide them with one hand, but Cho-Yeon caught it.

"Mu-Deok! What happened to your eyes?"

Realizing that her younger sister still hadn't put two and two together, Bu-Yeon lied, making sure to exaggerate her fake accent:

"Ah, my eyes? One of those soul shifters in the tunnels blinded me with some weird spell. My eyesight is gradually returning, so why do my eyes still look bad Young Lady Cho-Yeon?"

Cho-Yeon let go of her wrist and patted her shoulder in sympathy.

"I don't know what kind of spells that soul shifter used on you, but you shouldn't worry. If your eyesight is returning then the spell is temporary. Just to be safe, you should go to Sejukwon, alright?"

That didn't sound like a good idea to Bu-Yeon because their father was also in Sejukwon. She wanted to avoid him as much as she was avoiding her mother.

"Don't make me wait!" Yeom Soo called out from the tower, drawing his sword as a warning.

"What are you doing?" Jang Uk asked Bu-Yeon as he approached her and Cho-Yeon.

"I was thinking that Young Lady Cho-Yeon could seal the chest to block any magic coming from these divination bells," Bu-Yeon explained. "The way she blocked the energy that manifested in your arm, remember?"

"But I was able to remove that seal. Can't Jin Mu just do that too?"

"Not if I cast a stamp spell on it!" Cho-Yeon offered. "Only a relic of Jinyowon can break that spell. Not even my mother can undo it without the relic."

Jang Uk let out a long sigh of relief and nodded in agreement. 

When Cho-Yeon took the chest from Mu-Deok, the latter gently elbowed him.

"How could you think that I was giving up?" She asked, midly offended by his lack of trust.

"Is that seal really enough to break the spell?" He asked back, still worried.

"Technically it's not breaking the spell it's blocking the energy of the spell, but the end result is the same. Unless my uncle steals the relic from Jinyowon, Cho Yeong is safe now."

That answer was not completely reassuring to Jang Uk. He knew that Jin Mu was capable of stealing from his own sister. Jang Uk's only reassurance was that he had a slight headstart. Jin Mu didn't yet know  that the bells were sealed.

"His Highness the Crown Prince gave me permission to bring this chest to Jinyowon," Jin Cho-Yeon informed all mages of Cheonbugwan to hear, holding the chest high above her head. "It contains divination bells, which are used for sorcery."

The guards hadn't known that, and most of them started expressing the collective opinion that it was best that the priestess take the chest after all. Unlike her, they weren't trained to break spells of sorcery.

"Why would we trust what you say?" Yeom Soo argued. "You broke in here like thieves and came out carrying something that doesn't belong to you!"

"Since you don't trust me then I will give you the chest," Cho-Yeon conceded. "But I cannot trust you either, especially when you are threatening my sister! So I will seal the chest, and no one will be able to open it until the Crown Prince can retrieve it and bring it to Jinyowon himself."

Before Yeom Soo could protest, she activated the seal, making the beads glow with her powers before wrapping them around the chest. Then she cast the stamp spell on the seal. Doing that spell took a lot of her powers, but she didn't let anyone see how tired she was. She stood a bit taller and projected a lot of confidence as she looked at Yeom Soo.

"And don't make me wait!" She threw his earlier words right back at him.

Considering how easily she had defeated his fellow mages, Yeom Soo didn't dare to anger her. He dragged So-I down the lookout tower and exchanged her for the chest. At the last second she remembered to act like a blind woman.

Cho-Yeon couldn't stand to take her hand even after pretending that they were sisters. It was Dang-Gu who took So-I by the arm, and he immediately noticed that she was bruised and battered.

So did Seo Yul.

"How dare you hit her!?" He shouted at Yeom Soo. "I'll make sure you pay for this!"

Yeom Soo was less worried about the threat from the Songrim mage than he was about the seal from the Jinyowon priestess.

If the chest couldn't be opened then Jin Mu couldn't swap the bells.

At least Yeom Soo had done exactly as he was ordered...and he had caught Jin Mu's unspoken instruction on what to do next.

"Sorry for causing trouble on your wedding day," Seo Yul said as he lay down in an infirmary bed at Sejukwon.

"It's alright, we will be just a few minutes late for the ceremony," Cho-Yeon reassured him. "My dress is intact, so my mother won't know anything until tomorrow."

"We're just glad that we made it just in time to help," Dang-Gu commented as he gripped Yul's hand. "Get better soon, alright? We will visit you tomorrow."

The couple left the infirmary room, trusting that the healer on duty would keep Yul stable until Master Heo's return. Heo Yun-Ok wasn't in Sejukwon becaue she was a guest at the wedding. 

Before leaving, the bride and groom convinced Jang Uk and Mu-Deok to come with them.

"Mu-Deok can see enough to enjoy herself!" The gullible Cho-Yeon reasoned. "Please come for just a few hours, then you can come back here to keep Yul company."

"And to keep an eye on So-I," Dang-Gu added in a grave tone. "Maybe you could interrogate her off-record? We need to learn more about that creepy gathering room in Cheonbugwan, but that's not part of our charges against Jin Mu. And if So-I happens to know enough, maybe we can use her as our main witness instead of making Father-In-Law testify against Jin Mu."

"That would be great," Cho-Yeon said with a long sigh. "I know that my father willingly committed all those crimes, but it's only because Uncle Mu lied to him! But So-I chose to work with Uncle Mu!"

"Everything will be alright, my love," Dang-Gu told her as he wrapped his arms around her tenderly.

The group ended up being an entire hour late to the wedding ceremony, which had been postponed since everyone was waiting for the bride and groom.

It was clear that Lady Jin and Lord Park were furious, but they pretended to smile for the sake of the guests.

Overall, the wedding was a grand event and all invited enjoyed themselves. Even some of the mages of Songrim supposed to be on duty downed a few drinks and danced in corners away from Master Heo's sight...not that Master Heo could reprimand them when he himself was drunk to a stupor.

The wedding host wasn't drinking just to celebrate the happy event; he was using alcohol to momentarily forget the terrible news that Jang Uk had shared with him about Seo Yul's condition. 

Hours later 

"We could have stayed a bit longer, you know?" Jang Uk assured Jin Bu-Yeon as they crossed the forest surrounding Songrim. "It's your sister's wedding after all."

"I am very happy for her," Bu-Yeon commented with a soft smile. "She is marrying a man who loves her wholeheartedly...not some opportunist who proposed to her only so she would open his gate of energy."

"Hey!" Jang Uk exclaimed, once again embarrassed by the shameful details she knew about him. 

At least this piece of information wasn't secret, many people in Songrim and Jinyowon knew about it. Had Bu-Yeon been in the capital at the time Uk had propossed to Cho-Yeon, she would have known years ago.

"Why did you refuse to come back to Jinyowon?" Uk asked Lady Jin's true heir, referring to So-I's accusations.

"There were times when I thought about coming back for my sister," Bu-Yeon admitted. "Mother was always so strict with her, although Father often protected her. In the end I wasn't too worried."

"You didn't answer my question," Uk bluntly pointed out.

Bu-Yeon sighed loudly before going still and tilting her head up to contemplate the evening sky past the foliage.

Her powers allowed her to perceive the dusky hues painted by the setting sun, although they didn't appear as the red, orange and pink colors that seeing people saw. Her vision was limited to what people would consider shades of white, blues and green, whereas to her they were all just trails of spiritual energy.

What mattered most to her was her ability to 'see' the stars, even when seeing people couldn't because they were at the wrong angle.

After acknowledging the brightness of the King's Star, Bu-Yeon looked, and looked, and looked...and her heart broke anew as she failed to find her own birth star.

She wasn't really surprised, just disappointed. For years she had held onto the hope that she could have her birth star if only she grew her powers to their highest level. 

"Did you enjoy living like a peasant?" So-I had asked her in the morning, and the answer was no.

She had not enjoyed it, but the reason why she had done it was simple: to accelerate the results of her self-training.

Overcoming the weaknesses of the flesh and denouncing the luxuries of the world was the fastest way to grow spiritual energies, and she had achieved that. But it seemed to her that even two decades of spiritual growth weren't enough to make her one wish come true.

There was another way for her to obtain a birth star. She had vowed to never go that route, but to her greatest shame she had nearly broken that vow.

Now she felt like a hypocrite for lecturing Cho Yeong about not using the ice stone.

"What's wrong?!" Jang Uk asked in alarm.

It was only then that Bu-Yeon realized that she was crying.

"Jin Bu-Yeon, answer me," he called out quietly as he placed one hand on her arm.

"I-I was...I was s-scared," she finally answered his initial question. 

"Scared? Of what?" He asked her as he gently pulled her towards the fallen tree near the gates.

She took a few centering breaths once she was seated, and was able to control her sobbing.

"I was scared that I couldn't resist the promise of the ice stone's powers. If my mother couldn't resist it, nor the Gwanju, if even my uncle coveted it...then I feared that I would try to use it for my own selfish reasons too. And I was right!"

"What do you mean?" Uk asked, confused, crouching down so he could be at eye level with her.

They couldn't actually make eye contact, but he thought that it was better than just standing.

"You're better than them!" The King's Star reassured the powerful priestess. "You took the ice stone away from Jin Mu and Shaman Choi, and you stopped Mu-Deok...I mean, Naksu...ah, no, Cho Yeong. You stopped her from using the ice stone."

Bu-Yeon wiped away her tears with the back of her hand, then lowered her head in shame.

"I'm not better than them, Jang Uk. I tried to take the ice stone for myself, but you stopped me."***

Uk's heart skipped a beat when he understood what she meant.

"That's...that's what you were trying to do when you sneaked in my bedroom? Whe I thought that you were removing my clothes?" 

She nodded in confirmation.

"Why would you even want the ice stone?" Jang Uk asked tactlessly. "You already have great powers!"

"Don't worry, I won't try it again," Bu-Yeon promised.

Jang Uk huffed in annoyance then stood up.

"You have a terrible habit of not answering questions," he commented before extending his hand to help her up. "And that's fine, we don't have time to chit chat. We should start my training." 

"We should first tell Cho Yeong what's happening," Bu-Yeon suggested. "She can hear everything I do but she can't see anything. She must be confused."

"Tell her?" Jang Uk repeated with a frown. "You can talk to her...yes, of course but...me too? I can talk to her as well?"

"You can do it because you have the ice stone that was used to create her soul ejector," the young priestess reminded him. "I can bring us all to the plane of existence created by the Alchemy of Souls. All three of us have been there before, and I remember the way. I can bring us back there now that Cho Yeong has stopped fighting me."

"I can talk to Mu-Deok?" Jang Uk asked for confirmation one more time, gratitude making his heart swell in his chest. "Right now?"

"Yes, here," Bu-Yeon said as she took his hand.

His breath hitched when everything went dark all around him.

Chapter Text

When Jang Uk blinked his eyes open, he found himself within the Alchemy of Souls. Just like last time, his mind was reeling from the strange sensation of moving slowly as if in water, but being able to breathe normally.

This time, Jin Bu-Yeon was right there beside him from the start, holding his hand.

She was no longer in the beautiful hanbok that Maidservant Kim had made her wear for the wedding, and her hair was no longer in a braid.

Instead, she looked exactly the way Uk remembered when he had been forced into the Alchemy of Souls with Gil-Ju's soul ejector: her hair was tied in a loose ponytail, her eyes were covered with a flimsy piece of cloth, and she was dressed in mended clothes like a peasant.

Uk's voice wouldn't come out when he opened his mouth, so he shook their linked hands to draw her attention. After giving him a quick nod of acknowledgement, Bu-Yeon extended her free hand to point at something ahead of them.

At first Uk couldn't see anything other than the swirls of dark energies surrounding them. But after his eyes adjusted to the darkness of the spiritual environment, he detected a small source of light: it was a shimmering sphere, and within it was the silhouette of a person.

Uk's heart skipped a beat. Although he couldn't see the person in that sphere from this distance, he knew exactly who it was.

He turned his head towards Bu-Yeon, who didn't look back but nodded at him once again, confirming his guess without saying a word.

The young priestess suddenly surged foward, swimming in the sea of energies towards the sphere and pulling Uk with her.

They were moving slowly and yet Uk felt as if they were in the middle of a storm, the energies around them whipping around like waves and whirlwind.

When they reached the sphere, Bu-Yeon slowed down to a stop. Uk was briefly taken aback by the appearance of the person inside the sphere.

It was Naksu. She looked like herself: not like the harmless young servant Mu-Deok, but like the dangerous shadow assassin that Songrim had burned.

Her jet black hair was gathered in a soldier's bun with a sharp hair pin, and she was wearing a proper plate of armor and arm guards on top of her multi-layered blue and red uniform. She had her sword belt on but her sword was left forgotten on that shelf at the Jang residence.

Jang Uk felt mildly intimidated by the woman in front of him. He knew that this was what the woman he loved truly looked like, but he had never expected to see the black-haired assassin again. He was so used to seeing Mu-Deok's face that he felt uncomfortable in the presence of the soul who lived within Mu-Deok's body.

After long seconds spent staring at her, he saw her return her stare...with eyes he had never seen before. It was as if he was looking at a complete stranger, and his mind and heart couldn't agree on how to feel about her.

His heart did skip a beat when Naksu's gaze moved away from his face to focus on the way Bu-Yeon's fingers were wrapped around his wrist.

Uk didn't want Naksu to misunderstand anything, so he immediately snatched his hand away from Bu-Yeon's hold. He felt both women's gazes when he dramatically wiped his hand on his clothes—not the clothes he was actually wearing in the physical world, but the blue outfit he had on the night Gil-Ju had tried to shift souls with him.

He saw Naksu's lips move, but he couldn't hear what she said. He turned towards Bu-Yeon and tapped on his ear to make her understand that they couldn't communicate.

Bu-Yeon placed her hand on the shimmering surface of the sphere. The light of the transparent barrier pulsed a few times and Naksu stepped back, looking worried.

"I'm not going to hurt you," the priestess promised, but the former assassin didn't look convinced.

Uk also placed his hand on the wall, and he heard himself gasp upon feeling the immense spiritual powers contained in that sphere. He placed his other hand on the wall and closed his eyes to focus on what he was feeling.

"I know that you are powerful, but this is...a lot," he commented after trying and failing to gauge just how much energy was spent to create that sphere. This was the barrier that was protecting Naksu's soul from going wild, after all.

Uk opened his eyes and knocked on the wall to beckon Naksu closer. She remained still. 

"Come here, Mu-D...I mean, Nak...umm Cho Yeong! Yes, Cho Yeong, come closer. We have to touch this barrier to communicate."

The black-haired woman hesitated a little longer before approaching. It was when she finally extended her arm forward that Uk noticed the dark blue veins on the back of her hand.

Signs of petrification.

Cho Yeong paused when she saw his eyes widen in worry, and lowered both her hand and her head. She was ashamed of becoming another soul shifter who had gone wild.

"It's alright, it's alright!" Uk assured her, knocking on the wall again. "I have the ice stone, remember? Jin Bu-Yeon will teach me how to use it. You won't turn into stone, I promise!"

Cho Yeong didn't look relieved. She kept her head down and shook it twice, making Uk frown in confusion.

"Why are you shaking your head?" He asked, growing frustrated with her guarded behavior. "I don't know what you're trying to say! Put your hand here!"

When Cho Yeong still didn't move, Jin Bu-Yeon intervened:

"I know that you don't trust me, Cho Yeong, and I understand why. But right now we need your cooperation. It is for your own good."

The former assassin lifted her head and glared at the priestess before finally closing the distance to slap the wall with her open palm.

Jang Uk felt a power surge within the thin barrier. It took him a moment to realize that it was Cho Yeong's powers colliding with Jin Bu-Yeon's.

"Woah!" He exclaimed once he managed to tell the two forces apart. "You're just as strong as Jin Bu-Yeon, Cho Yeong!"

"No, she is definitely stronger than me," Cho Yeong corrected him.

It was odd for Jang Uk to hear her speak with her real voice, but he made the effort to commit that voice to memory along with her face.

He hadn't really paid attention to her real body when he had watched it burn, and back then he couldn't even see her eyes. Now he could admire every detail of her appearance. She was different from Mu-Deok, but she was beautiful too...

...although she looked much scarier, especially when she glowered at Jin Bu-Yeon.

"If only I were more powerful than you," she said behind gritted teeth, "then you couldn't have trapped me in your body and blocked my powers for so long!" 

"I did it to protect everyone," Jin Bu-Yeon defended herself once again, keeping her tone calm. "You would have quickly turned to stone if you had shifted souls with that woman—"

Cho Yeong slammed her fist on the wall this time, making its light flicker. 

"And so what? Do you expect me to thank you, priestess?"

"Well, yes!" Jang Uk snapped at her, and part of him was satisfied to see her gape at him, if only because she looked less scary with her eyes and mouth open in shock.

He gave her a hard look before turning towards Jin Bu-Yeon. He made sure to keep one hand on the luminous sphere before flattening his other arm against his side. Then he stood up tall and bent at the waist to give a proper deep bow of gratitude to the priestess.

"I haven't properly thanked you myself," he told her, articulating each word slowly so that Yeong wouldn't miss anything. "If it weren't for you, Gil-Ju would have taken my body months ago. You stopped him from completing the Alchemy of Souls, and last night you stopped Jin Mu from taking control of Cho Yeong's soul with the divination bells."

With his upper body still lowered, Uk slightly turned his head up to throw a quick look at Yeong.

"You too, bow down!" He silently mouthed, adding quick movements of his eyes to further convey the message.

The former assassin scrunched her face, clearly displeased by his instruction. He pursed his lips and squinted his eyes in warning.

"Do it, or else..." He meant to say, but his intimidation tactic didn't work.

Yeong scoffed and looked him up and down repeatedly.

"Or else, what?" Her body language communicated. 

Jang Uk huffed in annoyance and straightened back up, then threw the hand not touching the sphere in Jin Bu-Yeon's direction.

"Or else she won't help us!" He said out loud. "Stop being so stubborn and show some gratitude to our savior, will you?"

Cho Yeong laughed out loud, making him frown.

"What's funny?"

"Your belief that she's helping us out of the goodness of her heart. That's funny to me because after being locked in here for a whole day, I know that everything she's doing is for her own benefits!"

"What are you talking about? What benefits?"

"She said it herself, she wants the ice stone too!" Yeong reminded him, pointing a accusing finger at Bu-Yeon. "The only way to stop me from petrifying is to place the ice stone in the body I have shifted to...her body! Once she has the ice stone, then she can do whatever she wants with it!" 

"That's not what I plan to do!" Bu-Yeon denied vehemently, raising her voice for the first time since this awkward conversation had started.

Uk wanted to believe her. He trusted her since she had already confessed her attempt to steal the ice stone from him. She seemed like an honest woman to him. She was secretive, yes, but honest. 

"Then what do you plan to do?" He asked her.

"I'm definitely not offering to teach you how to use the ice stone just so you can place it in my body, king's star. Like I said, the only way to avoid a catastrophe is to ensure that only you can use it."

Uk lifted an eyebrow at her.

"What did I say about your habit of not answering questions?" 

She huffed in annoyance at being chastised for her evasiveness, and finally explained:

"I will teach you to use the ice stone, but only so you can heal Cho Yeong's soul from the effect of the divination spell. You don't need to counter the effects of her soul shifting."

"I don't need to? Won't she eventually turn to stone, then?"

"Not while her soul is in my body, no. And Jin Mu couldn't have succeeded in casting the spell on her if I had known how to counter the divination spell in the first place. Now that I have seen how how its dark energy flows, I can adapt my barrier so that it won't reach—"

"Are you talking about this barrier?" Cho Yeong chimed in as she tapped her fingers on the shimmering surface.

"Yes," Jin Bu-Yeon confirmed.

"So you're saying that you will keep me trapped here after Jang Uk heals me?" 

"No way!" Jang Uk voiced his disagreement for that solution, and Jin Bu-Yeon shook her head.

"No, I won't keep you here," she reassured Cho Yeong. "Once your soul is healed, I will give you back control of my body."

"But what about my powers?"

"You wilingly chose to give up on your powers yourself, Cho Yeong. Are you now asking to have them back?"

The former assassin huffed in frustration.

"Fine, I did give up on my powers! But do you truly expect me to live a normal life knowing that your soul is still inside this body, ready to take over any time you wish?"

Jang Uk didn't like that idea either, especially after all the embarrassing moments he'd had knowing that Jin Bu-Yeon could hear, see and feel everything that Mu-Deok did with him.

Bu-Yeon slammed her hand on the wall, making both Uk and Yeong flinch.

"Who said anything about a normal life?" The priestess asked rhetorically. "You no longer have the choice to live a normal life! Have you already forgotten what my uncle said in front of the Crown Prince?" 

Jang Uk tensed up. Of course he hadn't forgotten the way that Jin Mu had turned his life upside down just this morning. He had just hoped that he wouldn't need to address the problem until much later.

Jin Bu-Yeon didn't want to wait any longer to discuss this serious matter.

"There is no way that my uncle lied, Jang Uk...ah, you are not even a Jang, you are a Go. And you are the rightful king of Daeho."

Uk shook his head vigorously.

"Even if it's true that the late king shifted souls with my fa...with Jang Gang to have an heir, the Unanimous Assembly will never accept me as the king! They're not going to disturb the already fragile peace in Daeho, especially after they already swore their allegiance to the Crown Prince!"

"They only did it because they believed that the Crown Prince is the king's star," Bu-Yeon reminded him. "They will change their minds once they learn the truth. A king who is a king's star is a boon for Daeho. No mage in their right mind would prefer the current king with weak mage powers over you."

"Surely the members of the Unanimous Assembly cannot be so fickle-minded," Jang Uk argued.

"Yes they are," Cho Yeong countered. "At least half of them are fickle-minded. The other half need to be bribed before they cast their votes."

"How do you know that?" Uk asked, his heart racing when she lowered her head in shame once again.

"I...I killed a lot of mages, you know that already. What you don't know is that the targets that Jin Mu assigned me were chosen because they were from families who could influence the decisions of the Unanimous Assembly one way or another."

Jang Uk gasped in shock. He had never dared to ask about Naksu's past because he had been afraid of the answers to his questions.

He had chosen to live in ignorance. It had been easy to ignore Naksu's crimes as an assassin because Mu-Deok looked incapable of killing anyone; but now, Uk stood face to face with Naksu herself. Unlike the meek servant who had followed him around for the past months, this woman looked indubitably dangerous.

This woman was the crazy master who had taught him her Tansu technique...a technique she must have used to eliminate dozens of mages. Some of those mages were family members or friends of his fellow mages in Songrim!

"This is why the Crown Prince wants to arrest me," Cho Yeong commented a bit louder, her head still bowed. "He probably thinks that I know all the soul shifters planted by Jin Mu in those influential mage families."

"W-wait, are you saying that you don't know?" Jang Uk guessed, and she nodded in confirmation.

"Jin Mu isn't stupid, he knew that Songrim would keep track of all the people I assassinated. Not all of them were direct targets, Jin Mu ordered me to kill decoys too. Some of the targets had already secured a new body before agreeing to be killed, just like master Kang. Others were people who couldn't be bribed, so killing them would make room for more easily manipulated people to take over their titles...of course, Jin Mu never told me who was who. And I-I didn't...I didn't c-care to-to know the details..."

"Cho Yeong!" Jang Uk called out when he noticed that she was trying to hide her sobbing.

Her shoulders started shaking as she went on:

"I w-was just waiting for the day...for the day when he w-would finally...order me to kill the p-people who unjustly murdered m-my father...but h-he lied to me a-all along!"

"So he should be the one punished for all those assassinations!" Uk asserted. "He manipulated you into doing his bidding ever since you were just a little girl. Even Gil-Ju said that Jin Mu exploited both you and your father! This isn't on you."

"Yes it is!" Yeong shouted, lifting her head to show a face contorted in anguish, tears trailing down her cheeks. "I'm the one who killed all those people, Jang Uk. Whether or not they were corrupt or innocent people didn't matter to me, not then. I welcomed all my missions because I considered them practice for the time when I would finally get to avenge my father!"

Jang Uk didn't know what to say in response to that, so he just stood there, keeping one hand against the wall when all he wanted to do was cross that barrier and hold Yeong in both of his arms.

She, on the other hand, didn't keep standing. She turned her back to him, leaned against the barrier then slid down to sit on the shiny floor of the sphere. Before crying in earnest, she placed her head between her knees to keep her voice as quiet as she could. Uk felt powerless as he watched her body tremble in sorrow.

When her sobbing subsided, Jin Bu-Yeon spoke up.

"You said that those people's innocence didn't matter to you then," the priestess paraphrased the former assassin's words. "What about now?"

"Seriously?" Jang Uk reacted, irritated by the question. "Can't you tell that she regrets killing those people?"

"Killing those people brought out a lot of emotions out of her," Bu-Yeon commented as she crouched down to be at the same level as Yeong. "Not just regret, but guilt, and sadness too. What will you do with all of these emotions, Cho Yeong?"

"Leave her alone!" Uk yelled at the priestess, but she didn't move.

Yeong was the one who moved to her knees to face Bu-Yeon, and she placed her hand back on the wall to respond.

"Those emotions are...p-pointless," she said in a croaking voice. "I cannot undo what I did. I'm a criminal. A monster."

"Monsters don't regret their actions," Bu-Yeon calmly argued. 

"But regretting my actions doesn't make me a good person!" Yeong countered while wiping away her drying tears with the back of her free hand. "Regret doesn't wash away the blood on my hands. There's nothing I can do right now that will change the past! And even if I could..."

She trailed off and sighed in frustration. Bu-Yeon's lips stretched into a satisfied smile.

"Even if you could what?"

"Even if I could atone for my sins, no one would allow me to do that," Yeong finished her sentence. "Whether it's Jin Mu, the Crown Prince or Lord Park...every mage in Daeho would rather hear that I'm gone for good than hear me beg for a chance to make things right."

"I wouldn't!" Jang Uk chimed in, slapping a hand on the wall in anger. "How can you talk about being gone for good while I'm supposed to marry you, huh Cho Yeong? Have you lost your mind?"

"Haven't you realized that you can no longer marry me?" She nearly shouted in frustration before getting back up on her feet. "You could never marry Cho Yeong, because I'm supposed to be long dead! And you can't marry Naksu, a criminal who will be hunted down if people find out that I'm still alive."

She briefly closed her eyes before articulating an upsetting truth:

"The only way for us to be together was if I lived as Mu-Deok, but even that option is gone now. Jin Bu-Yeon is not going to let us live in peace!"

"I'm not the one threatening your peace," Jin Bu-Yeon argued as she straightened back up too. "But I'm also not going to help Jang Uk use the ice stone unless he fulfills his part of our agreement."

"So what do you expect from me now?" Uk asked, growing more and more irritated with the priestess' demands. "What is doing the right thing?"

"I expect you to assume your responsibilities, king's star."

"That's rich coming from you! You're the heiress of Jinyowon but you've neglected your duties for over ten years!"

The accusation hurt Jin Bu-Yeon, but she didn't try to defend her decision. She couldn't explain everything without revealing that she didn't have a birth star.

And rather than argue with Jang Uk, she took her chance with Cho Yeong.

"You cannot change the past, but you can definitely shape the future. If Jang Uk became king, he would give you the chance to atone for your sins."

"I don't want to be the king!" Uk yelled, his voice echoing briefly around the sphere before it got lost in the void of this spiritual dimension.

The king's star took a few deep breaths to calm down, then he shared the only solution he could think of at the moment.

"I will tell the Crown Prince that I won't claim the throne. I need to talk to him in private, without Jin Mu trying to manipulate the narrative. The Crown Prince might be prideful, but he's a good man. He can't hold a grudge against me for my birth knowing that I had no control over it. And he has no proof that Mu-Deok is Naksu, so he won't arrest us."

"If I remain a soul shifter then my eyes might give me away," Cho Yeong warned Jang Uk.

"Don't worry about your eyes," Jin Bu-Yeon assured her. "After Jang Uk heals your soul, they will no longer be a problem."

"How come?" Both Uk and Yeong asked, but the young priestess didn't share her plan.

"Just trust me," she pleaded, and they silently agreed no to push for an explanation.

"Then the Crown Prince will believe us," Jang Uk went back to his plan. "And he will allow us to leave the capital."

"I doubt it," Jin Bu-Yeon said. "Go Won is indeed a prideful man, so he won't let you just disappear knowing that you have everything that he wants. Not just the birthright to inherit the throne, but Mu-Deok's affection too."

"What?" Uk reacted at the same time as Yeong said "Shhhh!"

Uk leveled a curious look at his fiancée.

"What was that? Why are you trying to silence her?"

Yeong cleared her throat a few times and looked away from him.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she lied in a higher pitch than normal.

She was lying so blatantly that Bu-Yeon almost laughed at her. The priestess had to hide her laugh behind a fake cough.

"Cho Yeong? Look at me," Uk instructed in a sweet voice. "Come on, look at me, I have something important to tell you."

"Just tell me, I don't need my eyes to listen."

"Just look at me," he insisted, so she did.

She was surprised to see that he was smiling. He even chuckled when she frowned.

"What? What's the important thing you wanted to tell me?"

He brought his face very close to the barrier and beckoned her to do the same. When they were both just a few inches away on either side of the shimmering surface, he whispered with utmost seriousness:

"Don't ever try to lie with your real face again, you're very bad at it."

"Shut up!" She reacted reflexively, slapping her palm against the barrier. 

Jang Uk simply leaned away from the wall and laughed at her.

The humorous atmosphere helped them reconnect, but it didn't last long.

"I didn't realize that the Crown Prince had feelings for you too," Uk admitted in a serious tone as he swept a hand through his hair. "This is getting too complicated...so you might be right, priestess."

"She's right about what?" Yeong asked, confused.

"That I must do the right thing, and that is to have Jin Mu arrested. He should be punished for his crimes, and his soul shifters should be stopped! Dang-Gu and Cho-Yeon asked us to interrogate So-I. She knew about the secret tunnels, so she might know about the soul shifters."

"First we need to hide So-I in a safe place," Yeong suggested. "She is a liability to Jin Mu now, so he will send people to get rid of her."

"And I need So-I to lie to my mother about me," Bu-Yeon decided.

Jang Uk and Cho Yeong exchanged a long look.

They didn't understand why the young priestess kept running away from her own mother. Lady Jin was a strict woman, but she clearly loved her eldest daughter, to the point of looking for her even after all those years.

"Alright, let's secure So-I first," Uk agreed. "My home...I mean, the Jang manor is probaly under watch right now, so we should go to Chwiseonru. Then we will start my training. I want to be prepared in case something happens to the divination bells. We should have kept them ourselves."

"They are safer in Jinyowon," Bu-Yeon assured him. "After everything that has happened, my mother will not allow a single intruder to step foot in Jinyowon. Her traps are much more dangerous that the ones in the tunnels of Cheonbugwan, believe me."

"We have to be prepared regardless," Yeong echoed Uk's sentiment. "I don't want to end up like last night. Being controlled by Jin Mu was terrible."

Begrudgingly, the former assassin nodded at the young priestess.

"Thank you for stopping me," she finally said, very quietly. "And for making Jin Cho-Yeon seal the bells."

Jin Bu-Yeon nodded back, then suddenly disappeared.

"Hey! W-what happened?!" Jang Uk exclaimed, perplexed as he couldn't find her anywhere he looked. "Jin Bu-Yeon!"

"She's still here," Cho Yeong assured him with a  shrug of her shoulders. "She's just pretending to give us some privacy."

"Ah," was all Uk said for a while, feeling awkward now that he was alone with Yeong.

He forced himself to look her in the eyes, and was surprised to find that she had been staring at him already with new tears in her eyes.

"What's wrong?" He asked her, trying not to sound too panicked.

"I thought that I had changed my fate," she admitted, her voice shaking with emotion. "I thought that I could leave the past behind me and look forward to a happy future...but I didn't deserve it. After everything that I did, I should pay for my crimes, one way or another."

"What exactly did you mean by atoning for your sins?" Uk asked as he moved his hand to line up his palm with hers. 

"I don't remember every name of the people I killed, but I remember their faces. It would take me months, or maybe an entire year, but I could track down every family that I wronged and help uncover Jin Mu's group of soul shifters. That's the only way to uproot all the corrupted members of the Unanimous Assembly. The other members will just follow the lead of their king. As long as the king is a just ruler, then Daeho will be fine."

For a few seconds Jang Uk could only stare at his fiancée, taken by surprise.

"What?" She asked when he tilted his head to admire her.

"You've thought about this before. Making amends for your crimes. When did you start putting this plan together?"

"I never thought that I would be given the chance to execute it anyway," she deflected.

"When?" He simply repeated his question, and she relented.

"After Lord Park interrogated us separately. I used to hate him, because I thought that he had a hand in my father's murder. But over the months, I've had the chance to observe him. He is a good leader. He's strict but he has a great sense of justice...I admire him for that. I know that I will never be as good as him, of course, my soul is tainted forever."

"Hey, nobody's perfect anyway," Uk gently reminded her. "And few people in your situation would ever think of making amends. I know wouldn't."

"Yes you would."

"Come on, you know how lazy I am, you had to force me to train both in Danhyanggok and in Jeongjingak. I remember the faces of all my former masters but I wouldn't bother to track them down and apologize for being such a bad student."

They both chuckled at that, knowing very well that he was telling the truth.

Suddenly Uk turned serious and placed his other hand on the barrier. Yeong mirrored his action, scrutinizing his face as he seemed to think hard about something.

He opened his mouth to speak, but then hesitated. He didn't want Jin Bu-Yeon to hear about his new plan.

Thankfully, Cho Yeong knew him very well by now. She could guess what you had decided to do.

"It's a risky move," she whispered. "Are you sure?"

"No, but it's worth the risk. Unless you don't want to do it, of course."

She mulled over what she thought he was asking her to do, then nodded her assent.

"We were never meant to have a normal life anyway," she commented with a smile.

"Jang Uk is the king's star?" King Sun repeated part of what his son had just reported.

"The late king shifted souls with Jang Gang to sire a son?!" Queen Ha-Sun focused on another part of the report.

The two monarchs were sitting in the throne room while the Crown Prince stood as a petitioner across the water. He had just returned from Cheonbugwan  and had shared everything that he'd seen and heard.

"That is what Jin Mu claims, yes," he confirmed. "I don't believe him. I think that he was just trying to make me arrest Jang Uk. I suggested that we wait until the Unanimous Assembly meeting to resolve all matters between Jang Uk and Jin Mu."

"Will we be able to find my brother's will before then?" The king asked against Go Won's expectation.

"Father, Jin Mu lied about that will! This is just his attempt to save himself from imprisonment!"

"I believe Jin Mu because I never found my brother's will," the king's declaration shocked the prince even more.

"What!?"

Go Sun bit the nail on his thumbs and looked around him, expecting the ghost of his brother to haunt him after all these years.

"It's not my fault," he disclaimed to no one in particular before addressing his son. "When I asked the Unanimous Assembly about my brother's will twenty years ago, I was told not to worry since my corronation had already been decided. But if the will names someone else as the rightful king of Daeho... then I'm a traitor to my own brother!"

"How could you be a traitor when you didn't know what King Seong's will was?" The Crown Prince argued. "The ones who hid the will are the traitors! They're the ones who should be punished."

"Wait, wait!" The queen shouted hysterically at her husband and son. "Are you hearing yourselves? You're talking as if King Seong's will is still valid. You are the king now, Your Majesty! Your will is what matters, not your dead brother's!"

"Not if my brother named the king's star as his heir!" King Sun denied. "I'm not going to stand against the king's star!"

Go Won stared at his father and closed his hands into fists as anger climbed up his throat.

Not only was he outraged by his father's cowardly behavior, but he was furious to learn that Jang Uk could yet again obtain something that he had worked so hard for.

From Go Won's perspective, Jang Uk had never worked hard to get what he wanted. Everything seemed to fall on his lap. It didn't seem fair for Won that the disgraced son of Jang Gang was about to appropriate the most precious thing that Won had: his birthright!

"If you won't stand against the king's star, then I will!" The Crown Prince announced sternly before pivoting on his heels and walking away.

He knew that his goal was ambitious, and that he would receive great opposition from the members of the Unanimous Assembly. It was certain that they would accuse him of deceiving them about being the king's star. He couldn't allow those old men to dismiss him so easily even before he had the chance to ascend the throne and prove his worth as a ruler!

"To think that I agreed to take the fallout of Jang Uk's actions!" Won grumbled, feeling stupid for blindly trusting someone he had thought he could call a friend. "He set up this trap against me!"

The Crown Prince begrudgingly decided to ask for help from the only one other person who was willing to oppose the revered king's star.

Jin Mu.

The Assistant Gwanju was surprised to see the Crown Prince return to Cheonbugwan, but he was pleased to learn that they were finally on the same page.

What Go Won did next didn't please Jin Mu however: he confiscated Jang Uk's constellation plate, went to Gwanju's office and sat in the Gwanju's chair. Then he wordlessly ordered Jin Mu to sit down with a wave of his hand. He was clearly taking charge.

"Now that you have exposed Jang Uk's secrets, tell me how you planned on getting rid of him," he announced firmly. "I will execute that plan myself, while you hide in your secret office. You cannot show yourself until I become the king and absolve you of your crimes...but only if your plan works."

Jin Mu's lips tremble with anger, but he forced himself to obey the command he was given.

He needed to pretend to be loyal until the ice stone was recovered and Go Won was officially introduced as the new Danju of the secret society.

Jin Mu had a few weeks to arrange everything. Once all the pawns of his game were put in place, then he would finally claim everything he had coveted for so long.

Chapter Text

"Before dealing with Jang Uk, you must first neutralize Songrim," Jin Mu advised the Crown Prince. "Park Jin will spare no resource to protect Jang Uk. I therefore advise you to have him arrested as soon as possible."

The Crown Prince lifted a skeptical eyebrow.

"Even if I were king, I couldn't do such a thing without prior approval from the Unanimous Assembly," the official heir to the throne pointed out. "And that approval would require a plausible cause for the arrest, not one of your far-fatched fabricated stories."

The Assistant Gwanju bit the inside of his cheek to stop himself from yelling at his former pupil for talking to him so disrespectfully.

After taking a centering breath, Jin Mu articulated his scheme:

"Park Jin should be arrested on two accounts: conspiring against the royal family and destabilizing Cheonbugwan."

The Crown Prince frowned.

"Elaborate," he ordered.

Jin Mu lifted his head high and started laying a foundation of truth before building his lie:

"Nineteen years ago, Park Jin killed the constellation mage Cho Chung, claiming that Cho Chung had used sorcery."

"I remember hearing about that, yes," Go Won commented. "Cho Chung was a prominent mage of Cheonbugwan, and he brought shame to the institution by becoming a soul shifter."

"Cho Chung was in truth the victim of a soul shifter!" Jin Mu explained. "Someone used a soul ejector to shift souls with him, not the other way around. And Park Jin didn't kill him because of the soul shifting, no! Park Jin killed him to stop him from telling your father the king about two things: one, that Jang Gang was creating soul ejectors from the ice stone he had stolen from Jinyowon; two, that Jang Uk's constellation plate proved that he was the late king's son and the king's star!"

The Crown Prince shot up to his feet and stared at Jin Mu in shock.

"Are you telling me that Songrim killed an innocent man!?"

"Yes, Your Highness! And Cho Chung's death greatly affected the Gwanju Jang Gang. The two of them were close friends, you see, and losing his friend sent Jang Gang on a spiral. He abandoned his duties as the Gwaju and disappeared without saying a word, leaving Cheonbugwan without a leader."

"Park Jin indeed destabilized Cheonbugwan," Go Won agreed. "And by hiding the truth about Jang Uk's parentage he conspired against the royal family! Still, he cannot be arrested without the Unanimous Assembly knowing why. He is the leader of Songrim, not some common criminal!"

"You could circumvent the rules since you will have Jang Uk's constellation plate as evidence," Jin Mu reminded the Crown Prince. "With a royal mandate, you can arrest Park Jin first and explain later. The Unanimous Assembly will understand that you couldn't give Park Jin time to fabricate false evidence to appear innocent."

Go Won squinted his eyes and scrutinized his former master. As far as the young prince could tell, the Assistant Gwanju was more likely to fabricate false evidence than the leader of Songrim.

"How do you know that Cho Chung was the victim of a soul shifter and not the other way around?" 

Jin Mu's face betrayed his guilt before he could school his face. 

"Don't you dare lie to me," the Crown Prince warned him. "If I suspect that you're lying, I'll have you arrested immediately!"

Feeling cornered, Jin Mu had no choice but to tell the truth:

"I'm the one who forced Cho Chung to shift souls. He refused to lie about the constellation plate, in fact he was trying to convince Jang Gang to tell your father the truth about Jang Uk. I mean no offense, Your Highness, but knowing the king's disposition..."

"My father would have meekly abdicated in favor of Jang Uk, yes, I know," Go Won agreed with his assessment.

"I couldn't allow a child born from a sorcery spell to sit on the throne," Jin Mu claimed. "So I found another constellation mage who was willing to take Cho Chung's place and convince Jang Gang to hide the identity of Lady Do-Hwa's son. Jang Gang figured out that it wasn't the true Cho Chung and shifted him back. He would have done anything for Cho Chung, he had gone as far as to swear a vow to..."

Jin Mu clicked his mouth shut, stopping himself from revealing the true reason why he had decided to completely get rid of Cho Chung and betray Jang Gang.

"Well?" The Crown Prince prompted him impatiently.

"I had no choice but to ask Shaman Choi to make Cho Chung's soul go wild with the divination bells. When the news broke out, the four major families gathered and eliminated Cho Chung thinking that he was a willing soul shifter. Park Jin dealt him the final blow."

The Crown Prince's eyes widened in shock, then he closed the distance with the Assistant Gwanju and angrily grabbed him by the collar.

"The same divination bells that Jang Uk came to steal from you?" The younger man asked as he vigorously shook the older one. "Those bells??!"

"Y-yes, Your Highness!"

"You're telling me that your plan involved making Mu-Deok go wild? You wished to kill her?"

"T-there is no other...no other way to prove...that she is...Naksu," Jin Mu tried to justify his decision, his voice wavering as he was shaken back and forth.

"Yes there is!" The Crown Prince shouted as he pushed him away. "All soul shifters carry a blue mark! That's all I need to prove that Mu-Deok is guilty. I will confirm it myself, so don't you dare lay a finger on her, do you hear me?"

Jin Mu gingerly rubbed his neck while trying not to show his outrage at being roughed up by his former pupil...his former pupil, who was clearly blinded by his feelings for Naksu.

"She is Jang Uk's woman, Your Highness," the Assistant Gwanju stated the hard truth. "She is on his side, which makes her your enemy. A dangerous enemy, at that, or have you forgotten that she is the infamous assassin? Do not allow sentiment to cloud your judgment!"

"Do not tell me what to do!" Go Won yelled back. "I am the Crown Prince!"

"Being the Crown Prince won't mean anything as long as Jang Uk is the king's star!" Jin Mu countered.

That reminded the prince of his greatest fear:

"If I tell the Unanimous Assembly about Jang Uk's constellation plate, they might decide that he should be king in my stead."

Jin Mu briefly looked down to hide his smile, then fixed his collar. When he looked back up, he spoke confidently the Crown Prince:

"Do not worry, Your Highness. As long as King Seong's will is destroyed, then Jang Uk will be nothing more than a dead man's bastard...a bastard who helped the shadow assassin Naksu escape justice!"

"Leave Mu-Deok out of this!" The Crown Prince argued vehemently, pointing a finger at Jin Mu. "We just have to make sure that Jang Uk cannot inherit the throne, that's all."

"What about the ice stone, Your Highness?" Jin Mu eagerly reminded.

"I delayed my confrontation with Jang Uk because I need time...time to find a way to destroy the ice stone. That is, if Jang Uk truly has it."

Jin Mu gasped on shock.

"D...d-destroy the ice stone, Your Highness? Why would you do that?"

"You said it yourself, my title means nothing if he is the king's star! But without the ice stone, the title of king's star means nothing!"

Destroying the ice stone made sense for the Crown Prince, but Jin Mu needed the ice stone to further his own plan to become the new ruler of Daeho.

"I will talk to my mother," the Crown Prince announced as he took steps towards the secret door. "I need her to help me convince my father to write the mandate to arrest Lord Park."

"Yes, Your Highness," Jin Mu responded flatly, bowing just before Go Won stepped out of the secret office. 

The Assistant Gwanju waited a few minutes before expressing his rage at being treated like a mere servant by the Crown Prince. He unleashed his powers on the furniture, blasting the desk and chairs in the room.

"If I can't lay a hand on Naksu, then I'll have to count on the mages of Songrim to deal with her," he decided. "I don't need evidence to convince them, a rumor will be enough to manipulate their feeble minds. With the arrest of Park Jin, they will need someone to blame for their misery."

Park Jin stared at his nephew, who had just finished reporting the eventful morning he had just before his wedding.

The leader of Songrim could hardly believe that Jin Mu had dared to jeopardize the already fragile peace in Daeho.

"I should have killed him when I still could," he commented bitterly. "It's too late now."

"Uncle, is it true?" Dang-Gu asked, fretful. "Is Jang Uk the late king's son?"

Jin didn't answer, but his nephew knew how to interpret his silence.

"If you knew the truth but hid it all these years...Uncle, doesn't that mean..."

"That I committed treason? Yes!" Jin agreed and turned around to face the window. "I did it to protect Jang Uk, but most importantly I did it to keep the peace. By the time Jang Gang told me that Lady Do-Hwa's son wasn't his, the queen had already given birth to a boy. An heir to the current king! Telling the truth then could have plunged the kingdom into a civil war!"

"A ci-civil war," Dang-Gu repeated, only just realizing how dire the situation could get. "No, Jang Uk doesn't want the throne anyway, there's nothing to fear!"

Park Jin pivoted on his heels to yell at his nephew.

"Don't be naive, Dang-Gu! As the new leader of Songrim, you must always expect the worst even as you do your best to prevent it from happening."

The younger Park briefly held his breath in shock, his eyes wide with panic.

"What? What do you mean, the new leader...what?!"

"You must take my place and lead Songrim," his uncle solemnly request. "As you just said, I committed treason! The Crown Prince isn't stupid, he knows that I was involved in keeping Jang Uk's parentage secret...and I openly lied to him about the king's star. If he hasn't already sent guards to arrest me, he will do it at first light tomorrow!"

"What should we do?" Dang-Gu asked in a panic.

"Right now you should go and spend the night with your bride. Do not return until you receive an official report on my arrest. I'm sorry to ruin your happiness so early in your marriage, Dang-Gu."

Internally, Jin was also lamenting the fact that he himself might never marry Kim Do-Joo.

"If Jang Uk becomes the king," Dang-Gu whispered, sweating from the fact that he was speaking such treasonous words. "If he does...then maybe everything will be alright?"

Park Jin sighed loudly.

"Do you think that the members of the Assembly are idiots? Half of them know Jang Uk as an insubordinate student who only ever does what he wants. Why would they accept him as the new ruler? And even if they did, what about General Seo?"

"Oh dear, I forgot," the younger Park said as he massaged his temples. "And Yul urgently needs surgery...how did things get so bad so quickly? On my wedding day, of all days!"

"It all started twenty years ago," the older Park stated somberly. "Conflict was bound to tear the realm apart when the late king passed away and Jang Gang disappeared a year later. Both the throne and Cheonbugwan were weakened, and Jin Mu exploited the power vacuum. I should have been more decisive in dealing with him!"

He slammed a fist on his desk, frustrated that he had missed his last chance to fix the problems started by his dear friend Jang Gang.

But then, in a moment of clarity, the leader of Songrim realized that he had tackled the problem of Jang Uk's identity the wrong way.

He shouldn't have kept the truth hidden, at least not from Jang Uk. His attempts to protect the boy had led to this very precarious situation, and now Jang Uk was a target at a time when he no longer had his mage powers.

But were Jang Uk's powers gone for good? That was unlikely.

"Maybe you're right, Dang-Gu," Jin said as he opened a drawer to pull out a piece of parchment. 

"About what, Uncle?"

"Maybe everything will be alright. After all, he is the king's star..."

By the time Jang Uk and Jin Bu-Yeon arrived at Chwiseonru with So-I, it was the middle of the night.

The popular Inn was filled with Songrim mages who had been on guard duties during the wedding at the Heo Mansion. Now, those young men were finally able to celebrate and express their joy for their comrade Park Dang-Gu.

It was fortunate that so many of them were inebriated, otherwise they would have wondered what their former comrade Jang Uk and his former servant Mu-Deok were doing in Chwiseonru. The two of them were half-dragging half-carrying a young woman whose bruised face was partially hidden by the hood of a cloak.

After settling in one of the larger suites, Jang Uk and Bu-Yeon interrogated So-I about Jin Mu's secret society. They were disappointed to find out that So-I did not know much more than Yeong: she reported seeing about forty soul shifters during each of the secret society's meetings, but she couldn't tell if those had been the same people every time. They had kept their faces hidden, so she couldn't identify them. Most importantly, she didn't know anything about Jin Mu's invitation.

The only interesting piece of information So-I provided was that Jin Mu had named her, or rather named Jin Bu-Yeon, as the new Danju. 

Jang Uk ended up asking So-I a few more questions on the layout of the secret area of Cheonbugwan, just in case he needed to return there.

Once he was satisfied that he could trespass on the Assistant Gwanju's territory without help, the former mage of Songrim decided to let So-I rest in the only bedroom of the suite.

The bedroom had two mattresses, so Jang Uk dragged the second one to the sitting room. He even decided to close the door to the bedroom to give So-I some privacy. In truth he felt some pity for her, especially with her body all bruised and battered. At least she had received potent pain medicine at Sejukwon. She just needed time to heal.

Before sliding the door shut, Jang Uk made sure to warn her against escaping through the window.

So-I's reaction made him smile.

"How could I escape through the window? We're on the second floor!"

Jang Uk clearly recalled that, on the day he met Mu-Deok, she had actually fallen from a window on the second floor and walked a way with only a minor limp.

Uk's smile fell when he turned around from the closed door and saw Mu-Deok take a seat on that second mattress. Well, it wasn't Mu-Deok, it was Jin Bu-Yeon. When she closed her eyes, Uk was almost fooled into thinking that it was the woman he knew and loved.

The more he thought about it, the more uncomfortable he was with the situation of both Cho Yeong and Jin Bu-Yeon sharing the same body.

"If only this was just a bad dream," he mumbled to himself as he moved to sit down at the table.

After stretching his tired body, he looked at Bu-Yeon and was surprised to see that her eyes were still closed. 

"Did she fall asleep?" Uk wondered before standing up to shake her up.

Just before his hand connected with her shoulder, she suddenly opened her unseeing eyes. He took two steps back and moved both arms behind him, clasping his hands together and pretending that he'd been waiting patiently.

"We should start your training now," she announced with a wave of her hand to beckon him closer. "Take a seat."

Jang Uk frowned at the young priestess.

"You want us to train here?" He asked as he sat on his knees right in front of her. "There are dozens of mages downstairs, they will be able to sense the energy of the ice stone!"

"No one will sense anything as long as we stay in the spiritual plane during your training. We will need to relocate once you are ready to heal Cho Yeong, but that won't happen for at least three days."

Jang Uk was still processing the words she had just spoken when she placed her hand on his chest. 

He gasped in shock when he suddenly found himself standing right next to Jin Bu-Yeon in a eerily empty space.

Bright constellations twinkled over their heads in a dusky firmament. The star lights were interspersed among dark and pillowy clouds. The breathtaking sight was reflected in the water covering the floor under Uk and Bu-Yeon socked feet...which remained dry.

"This...this the place where I saw the ice stone," Jang Uk voiced his thought out loud once he recognized the spiritual dimension. "Where is it?"

Bu-Yeon removed her hand from his chest and pointed at the ice stone floating behind him.

At first, the ice stone looked just as Uk had seen it last time: a diamond-looking stone with a faint string of white light at its center.

"Before we start, I need you to forget all the teachings you received about magic," Jin Bu-Yeon declared as she extended her right hand towards the ice stone, fingers splayed.

"What?!" Jang Uk exclaimed, his surprise quickly replaced by awe as he watched the powerful priestess work magic.

She moved her hand in a clockwise direction, her fingers spiraling towards the center of her palm to form a fist. The ice stone shone bright in response to her movements, but instead of a blinding white light it beamed rays of different colors.

"The cast-spelling system used by all mages of Daeho is vague and difficult by design," Bu-Yeon explained. "My mother told me that the system was created so that mages couldn't train to be as powerful and proficient in magic as they were in the times before the great chaos. Mages were true mages back then, but nowadays mages are just...my mother described most mages of Jeongjingak as soldiers with magically-enhanced martial arts; whereas mages of Sejukwon are healers who can barely tell the difference between physical and spiritual wounds."

"Of course your mother would say that, she despises all mages of Songrim," Uk commented flatly.

"At Jinyowon, the first lesson taught to priestesses is to see the bigger picture of magic," Bu-Yeon went on as she stepped in a circle around the ice stone.

"What bigger picture?" Uk inquired as he followed in her footstep, eyeing the prismatic light emitted by the ice stone with curiosity.

Bu-Yeon stopped moving and gave him a long-winded introduction to magic.

"Everything in this world has a spiritual energy, from the smallest grain of sand to the largest beasts swimming in the seas. Even inanimate objects carry residues of the spiritual energies of those who crafted them and of the places where they were crafted. All spiritual energies are unique, although their flow can be similar to others, such as the spiritual energies of plants growing along the same river bank, or the spiritual energies of mages from the same clan."

The powerful priestess extended her hand once again but this time waved it left to right. The ice stone stopped shining and dropped to the floor, creating subtle ripples in the water.

"To become a powerful spell-caster, you must first understand how spiritual energies are interwoven within the environment."

Uk took a moment to mull over what she had just said before picking up the ice stone.

"Alright, that makes sense. If I hadn't thought of the way that the ice stone barrier interacted with mage energy, I couldn't have figured out a way to change its shape from fog to rain."

Jin Bu-Yeon nodded twice then went on to summarize the different types of interactions between the innate magic of people and the magic found in nature.

Most of the lesson was boring to the former mage of Songrim. Fortunately, he had read so many books on magic that he was able to follow even the most obscure details given by the heir of Jinyowon.

When she moved on to describe the ice stone, pieces of puzzle started falling into place and forming a big picture in Jang Uk's mind.

"So, for me to unlock my powers, I need to...use all this water to cast Tansu again?" He guessed, pointing the sheathed sword at the floor then at the ice stone.

"Yes," Bu-Yeon confirmed.

Her concise response made him think that the process would be quick.

He quickly found out that he was wrong.

Mr. Lee woke up with a startle from the sound of someone knocking.

Worried that the royal guards had returned, he exited the servants' quarters and cautiously made his way to the gates of the Jang residence. He quickly recognized one of the two silhouettes highlighted by the few braziers still burning in the yard.

"Lord Park? What are you doing here so late?" 

It was indeed the leader of Songrim visiting the Jang residence. His trusted assistant Sang Ho was standing a few paces behind him, keeping watch of their surroundings.

Park Jin thrust his arms forward to place a box in Mr. Lee's hands.

"I came to return this to Kim Do-Joo. If anything happens to me, she is to pass it onto Jang Uk."

"B-but! We don't know where the Young Master is!" Mr. Lee argued. "He and Mu-Deok never returned from the wedding!"

"Just give this to Kim Do-Joo," Lord Park insisted. "She will know what to do."

Mr. Lee nodded, then watched the two powerful mages disappear in the night. With trembling hands, he went inside the main residence and placed the box in the master's sitting room.

He had a bad feeling about this impromptu visit, but all he could do was pray that his dead master Jang Gang's spirit would watch over everyone.

It took Jang Uk three entire days to be able to unlock his powers from the ice stone. When he  failed to do it on his own the very first day, he asked for Cho Yeong's help:

"I need to learn Tansu from the ground up this time," he told his former master in the dimension of the Alchemy of Souls.

He had asked Jin Bu-Yeon to bring him there so he could talk to Cho Yeong. He knew a lot of theory because he had read so many books on magic, but Cho Yeong had more practical experience as a mage.

"What do you mean from the ground up?" She asked him.

"You used Tansu the first time we met," he reminded her. "You didn't have your powers or your sword, but even with that crab leg you could have killed me right there! That's because your technique was perfect. When I learned the technique, I was too focused on manipulating my powers to care about the proper movements. My technique is sloppy."

"It would take you years to perfect the movements," Yeong pointed out. 

"I don't think that my technique needs to be perfect, it just has to be good enough to establish a spiritual interaction between the water of that floor and the ice stone."

"Alright, let's do this."

Over the next two days, Jang Uk spent a total of twenty hours mirroring Cho Yeong's movements as she demonstrated the swordmanship technique of Tansu.

He got distracted a few times while admiring her beauty and elegance, but she didn't reprimand him for that.

It was because he was paying such a close attention to her appearance that he noticed that her petrification seemed to have accelerated. He brought up his concerns to Jin Bu-Yeon.

"How is it possible? She's not using her powers, she's just showing me how to move!"

"My barrier is still working, don't worry about it," was all Jin Bu-Yeon said in response to his panic.

She sounded very calm, and Yeong herself didn't look surprised, so he didn't bring it up again and focused on refining his Tansu technique.

Although his signature foot stomp was not needed to execute Tansu, he kept it as the second to last move of the drill.

On the third day, that foot stomp caused all the water from the floor to rise up in the spiritual dimension of the ice stone. Thanks to his practice Jang Uk didn't hesitate and finished the move, sending all the energy of that water at the ice stone.

The ice stone shone bright, blinding him for a few seconds. It was only once he could see again that he realized that he had unsheathed the Gwanju Sword.

He had his powers back!

"Using the healing powers of the ice stone will take less time," Jin Bu-Yeon promised him.

The problem was that the priestess was much more patient than the king's star. The progress she deemed fast was excruciatingly slow to him. 

For example, it took him hours to move the ice stone with his powers after he unlocked them. Even then, he couldn't keep it floating for more than a few seconds at a time.

"Damn it!" He cursed under his breath when the ice stone dropped to the floor.

The water had disappeared since he had used it all for Tansu, but the floor still reflected the sky that was not truly a sky.

Jang Uk hated the way that everything felt so still, peaceful and immutable in the spiritual plane. This environment was in stark opposition with his emotional struggle. Spending so much time in this empty space gave him too many opportunities to think about the turmoil in his life. Once the emergency of healing Yeong passed, he had many another emergency to deal with.

He bent down and snatched the ice stone off the floor with just his hand instead of using his powers.

"Jin Mu could be stealing the divination bells as I'm fumbling here, unable to cast a single spell with the ice stone," he mumbled in frustration.

"Let's take a break," Bu-Yeon suggested as she suddenly appeared.

"Where have you been all morning?" He asked her testify.

She was spending less and less time with him even though he needed her more now that he could use the ice stone. To him it felt as if she was distracted by something else...but what could be more important than his training?

"You need to eat. Then we have to find So-I."

"So-I?" Jang Uk echoed, confused.

"It's been hours since I last sensed her. She left the inn and hasn't returned."

Between two blinks of his eyes, Jang Uk returned to the physical world and stared at the open door of the bedroom.

So-I was indeed missing.

"Why didn't you stop her?" Jang Uk questioned Jin Bu-Yeon as the two of them exited Chwiseonru. 

"I was busy."

"Busy doing what?"

"We are being followed," she warned him and evaded his questions at the same time.

The two of them were wearing cloaks to hide their faces, but the people secretly sent to watch them recognized them and followed them.

One of those spies was a royal guard, while the other two seemed to be mages. The mages were moving ahead of the guard on opposite sides of the street. Even from a distance it was easy for Jang Uk to tell that one was from Songrim while the other was from Cheonbugwan. 

There was actually a fourth person following the duo from a farther distance, and she easily blended with the crowd: a servant of the Jang household. She had been tasked by Kim Do-Joo to share a grave news with the young master.

Intimidated by the other spies, the servant didn't dare approach her former master's son. She remained in the shadows while Jang Uk and Jin Bu-Yeon decided to report So-I's disappearance to Lord Park.

"Yul will be angry with us...hey, maybe So-I went to Sejukwon to visit Yul?" 

"If that had been her intention she would have taken Seo Yul's spiritual plaque with her," Bu-Yeon argued.

"Right," Uk agreed as he patted the plaque in question, secured in a pocket of his cloak.

His plan was to use Yul's plaque to sneak inside Songrim, but he couldn't do that because there were many mages guarding the gates.

That was abnormal. No one guarded the gates, the mages who patrolled were always found between or within the buildings, not so far out!

Worse was the fact that all the guards looked at Jang Uk and Mu-Deok with hostility.

"How dare you show your face here, Jang Uk!?"

It was a furious Cha Beom who had spoken.

"What is this about?" Uk asked his former comrade. "What happened?"

"You dare ask what happened? It was the usual, Jang Uk! Things went horribly wrong because of you!"

Out of habit Jang Uk turned his head to exchange a look with Mu-Deok, but of course Jin Bu-Yeon's eyes didn't meet his.

"Was Lord Park arrested by the royal guards?" She guessed.

That came as a shock to Jang Uk, whereas it further irritated Cha Beom.

"Why do you ask a question when you already know the answer, huh? Leave, both of you! Get out of the capital before you cause more trouble!"

"You think that we wanted to stay here?!" Uk snapped at him. "We have to stay because we were forced to show up at the next meeting of the Unanimous Assembly!"

"Good! I hope that the leaders will fit your punishment to your heinous crimes...Naksu!" Cha Beom yelled while pointing an accusing finger at Mu-Deok. "Everyone knows the truth now!"

Jang Uk instinctively moved to stand in front of Mu-Deok.

"And you, traitor!" Beom added. "I can't believe that I admired the way you were making fast progress in your training. It was all because you were learning from that monster!"

"She's not a monster!" Uk defended Cho Yeong, knowing that she could hear everything. "She was deceived by Jin Mu into hating Songrim. Everything is Jin Mu's fault!"

"How can you blame your mistakes on someone else? You truly are a coward!"

"Coward! Traitor!" The other mages started chanting.

For a few second Jang Uk stared speechless at his former comrades.

Going back to being a social paraiah was difficult to accept after spending months in Songrim, but it didn't hurt him as much as he thought it would.

He had never cared for these mages' approval anyway. They had mocked him or pitied him for years without ever trying to help him. They had only seen his worth after his gate of energy was opened...thanks to Mu-Deok. 

Jang Uk only cared about her opinion. No one else's opinion mattered to him.

"Let's go, Mu-Deok-a," he said loudly enough for all to hear.

He then grasped Jin Bu-Yeon's hand and walked away. 

"Don't you dare feel guilty about this," he said when they were out of earshot of the gates. "This is all Jin Mu's fault."

"I know that it..." Bu-Yeon started, paused, then nodded. "Ah, you're talking to Cho Yeong."

Jang Uk almost asked out loud if he would ever talk to Yeong in complete privacy. This body-sharing problem was starting to annoy him, but he didn't have a solution for it.

"...ster! Young Master!" Someone called out a few trees ahead.

It was an older woman, and her silhouette was familiar to Jang Uk. When she was close enough he recognized her as one of the servants at the Jang residence.

An hour later, he was holding a crying Maidservant Kim tightly in his arms.

"I'm so sorry," he whispered as he tried to contain his tears. "Lord Park was arrested because of me. I ruined everything yet again."

"N-none of...none of this is your fault!" Kim Do-Joo responded.

Once they both calmed down, she brought Jang Uk to the main sitting room and presented him a box.

He knew what was inside the box even before he opened it: the royal seal and a scroll. But he hadn't expected to also find a letter from Lord Park. He hurried to open and read it.

"Jang Uk,

Forgive me for hiding the truth from you all these years. I believed that you could live a carefree life as Jang Gang's son, but I was wrong.

I would be lying if I said that I hold the memory of King Seong in high esteem. The consequences of his decision came at the terrible price of Lady Do-Hwa's honor and Jang Gang's peace of mind. As their friend, I will never forgive his Majesty for his deception.

As a subject of the great kingdom of Daeho, however, I find myself hoping that King Seong's will is the solution to all the problems plaguing our nation.

I have not read the will, and I do not need to know what it says. I did not know the late king very well, but I know you, Jang Uk. You may be impulsive and short-sighted—"

"Did he have to write that?" Uk grumbled.

"—but you have a good heart. That alone is not enough to save Daeho from Jin Mu's machinations, but t he royal seal can help with. I implore you to use it wisely, along with the other powers bestowed to you by the heavens.

With the selfish wish of seeing you again under more joyous circumstances,

Park Jin."

Uk put the letter aside and held the royal seal for a few seconds, finding it heavier than it looked.

"I will make some tea," Kim Do-Joo announced, leaving him alone to read King Seong's will.

When she returned with a tray, she found Jang Uk still staring at the content of the will. His hands were visibly shaking as they held the scroll wide open.

"Young Master?" She called out after placing the tray on the table. "What's wrong?"

Instead of answering, Jang Uk stood up, handed her the scroll and ran out of the room.

"Young Master!" Do-Joo vainly called out.

After a moment of hesitation, she dared to read the dead king's last command.

The first lines of the will made perfect sense: they legitimized Lady Do-Hwa's son as the rightful heir to the throne of Daeho.

Kim Do-Joo's own hands started shaking when she read the king's explanation for his use of sorcery to father an heir: a shaman had warned him that an army of a thousand stone mages would slaughter the innocent people of Daeho unless the king's star rose in the sky to protect them with his light.

"Stone mages? Is that referring to soul shifters?" Do-Joo wondered just as she reached the last lines of the will.

"Shall Gwanju Jang Gang decline the honor to serve my heir to the fullest of his abilities, I hereby command him to elect and train his successor, whose name shall be listed and approved below.

Signed, King Go Seong."

Below the royal seal, a name had been written in a different calligraphy style and ink color, right next to the stamp of the Gwanju of Cheonbugwan.

Kim Do-Joo's skin went very pale when she read that name. It was as if she had seen a ghost:

"C-Cho Yeong, daughter of Constellation mage Cho Chung and Jinyowon priestess Yoon Sang-Hee."

Chapter Text

20 years ago

Jin Mu was in the constellation room hiding amongst the shelves storing birth plates.

He was hiding because he planned to overhear the secret conversation between Jang Gang and Cho Chung. He had overheard the two mages agree on a time to convey in one of the most important halls of Cheonbugwan.

Jang Gang was losing hope in his ability to succeed in giving people a true second chance at life with the Alchemy of Soul. As the Gwanju, he was seeking the expert opinion of a constellation recorder mage, the only kind of mage who was better than him at reading the skies and divining the fate reserved by the heavens.

Thankfully, Cho Chung was his close friend and was unlikely to report him to the Unanimous Assembly for practicing forbidden magic.

Jin Mu, for his part, did not want Cho Chung to get involved in the experiments. Jin Mu worried that Cho Chung would notice that there were fewer soul ejectors than Jang Gang had created. Jang Gang himself was too busy to notice that his pupil had been stealing the soul ejectors and handing them over to Shaman Choi.

As soon as Jin Mu heard the doors to the constellation room open, he cast a silencing spell over himself so he wouldn't make a sound.

He strained his ears to be able to hear Jang Gang inform Cho Chung that he was in possession of the legendary ice stone.

"How could you do this, Gang?!" The constellation recorder mage nearly shouted at his leader. "You were trained in Songrim along with Lord Park. You know better than me how hard the founder of Songrim Master Seo fought to abolish the use of the ice stone!"

Jang Gang defended himself:

"I had to do it, Chung-a! After the rebellion staged a few years ago**, I could no longer stay passive!" 

Silence blanketed the vast room for long seconds before Cho Chung spoke more quietly. 

"What do you mean by staying passive?"

Jang Gang huffed in frustration.

"You know the same thing that I know...the reason why the Unanimous Assembly allowed General Seo to cause such an uproar in the first place** is that...the king is dying."

Cho Chung opened his mouth to deny the fact, but stopped himself.

"I...yes, I know that everyone knows that the king is dying. But what does that have to do with you stealing the ice stone from Lady Jin?"

"Before I answer your question, I would like to specify that I didn't steal the ice stone from Ho-Gyeong. She is the one who gave it to me first, I am merely borrowing it. I will return it as soon as I complete my work."

"Cheating death isn't work you should be proud of, Gang-a! You are the Gwanju, for heaven's sake!"

Jang Gang snapped, exasperated, and threw his hands in the air.

"Yes, I am the Gwanju! I am the king's most trusted advisor and mage, so how can you expect me to stand and watch him die without trying to save him? I have to at least try, Chung-a!"

Cho Chung went quiet for a moment before sighing deeply and shaking his head.

"I applaud your loyalty to the king, Gang, but I fear that the heavens have completely forsaken the royal dynasty. Even the king's brother is a weak mage!"

"I know. The king's only hope to secure his throne and the future of his dynasty was to marry a lady from a powerful mage family..."

"But the only candidate he wanted was Lady Do-Hwa, and she chose to marry you instead. Are you doing this out of guilt, Gang?"

"No! Why would I feel guilty that Do-Hwa chose me over the king? On the contrary, I feel honored! But Do-Hwa fears retaliation from the king, and she wants us to cut all ties with the royal family."

Cho Chung frowned in confusion.

"You are the Gwanju, you cannot cut ties with the royal family!"

"I can do it if I give up my title," Jang Gang's decision shocked both Cho Chung and Jin Mu. 

"What!? Gang-a, you have no heir," Chung pointed out. "No one else can replace you if you retire!"

"The title can be granted to a different family."

"Whose family can boast to have a mage who can rival you in powers?"

Jin Mu whispered "the Jin family," but of course no one heard him.

Coincidentally, Cho Chung mentioned his name:

"You do not wish to make Jin Mu your successor, do you?" He asked Jang Gang in a panic, then suddenly dropped to his knees to kowtow. "I beg you to reconsider, Gwanju! Jin Mu isn't worthy of that honor!"

Jin Mu gasped in reaction to the other mage's judgement. Fury climbed up his throat as the constellation recorder mage's words echoed in his mind.

'Not worthy.'

As a descendant of the revered Jin Seol-Ran, Mu was born with great divination powers. He was much more powerful than a simple constellation mage like Cho Chung, and yet everyone in the capital looked down on him just because of his illegitimate birth. Even his own sister Ho-Gyeong despised him.

All the powerful mages of Daeho had refused to teach Jin Mu how to control his powers...all except Jang Gang. Unlike most of the nobles in Daeho, Gang was a humble man who embodied the principles of honor, compassion and justice. Despite being acclaimed as the most powerful mage of all Daeho, he wasn't arrogant like many members of the Unanimous Assembly.

"I am quite offended that you are so strongly opposed to the idea of my pupil becoming my successor," Jang Gang told Cho Chung.

The constellation recorder mage remained on the floor with his head lowered, but did not retract his argument.

"I will not deny that Jin Mu is a powerful mage, but being powerful isn't the only trait of a leader. I have heard what the other mages say about Jin Mu, Gwanju. His behavior..."

"Enough!" Jang Gang commanded. "I will not tolerate gossip about my pupil. If anyone has any complaint about Jin Mu, they should report him to me according to the rules."

"But, my lord—" Cho Chung started, but didn't dare finish his sentence.

He knew how protective Jang Gang was of Jin Mu, everyone in Cheonbugwan knew that. And that was the reason why no one dared to report Jin Mu's wrongdoings. They all knew that the Gwanju would just brush the problems under the rug.

"In any case, I don't plan on making Jin Mu my successor," Jang Gang's next words made Cho Chung sigh in relief. 

On the other hand, those same words made Jin Mu's chest tighten painfully.

For years, Mu had hoped that his master would eventually come to respect him as an equal, but clearly that wasn't the case.

"Then who is worthy of taking on your title?" Cho Chung asked. "There is no mage in Cheonbugwan who can measure up to your skills, even if he trained for decades. Is there a promising mage in Songrim? Have you discussed this with Park Jin?"

"No, Jin would try to dissuade me from retiring," Jang Gang answered before helping him back up. "That is why I've decided to tell you and no one else. You are the only who understands."

"After losing Sang-Hee, I do understand your desire to make the most of your time with Do-Hwa. I want you to be happy, my friend, but as a mage of Cheonbugwan I also need the guarantee that we will have a good leader! We need someone who will help maintain the balance between the different factions of power in Daeho."

"Yes, I know that."

"All due respect, Gang...if you did know, then why did you start experimenting with the ice stone? You might have already doomed us all to a calamity akin to the Great Chaos two hundred years ago! No one can wield the powers of the heavens with impunity."

"No one except the one born under the king's star," Jang Gang declared then pointed at the well.

Intrigued, Cho Chung followed him to the water.

"I didn't go into this blindly, Chung," the Gwanju assured his subordinate. "According to my calculations, the one under the king's star is either already born or will be born within the next year. If my actions ever cause a crisis, Daeho can still count on a savior."

Jin Mu was shocked by the news. Jang Gang hadn't told him about the king's star! 

The pupil leaned over the shelves to take a peek at what his master was doing:

He dipped his fingers in the water, using his powers to open the ceiling. After revealing the clear night sky overhead, he projected the image of its stars all around the room.

Most people would not recognize those stars, but Cho Chung's training allowed him to identify them. After spending a few minutes of observing those stars, he sucked his breath in shock. 

"Why...why is Yeong's birth star part of the king's constellation?!" He then cried out. "I created her constellation plate myself four years ago, and at the time her birth star wasn't part of any constellation...nor did it look so bright!"

"This is the reason why Yeong's birth star looks so bright," Jang Gang said and pointed at something.

Jin Mu couldn't see what it was that the Gwanju showed that made the constellation recorder mage so upset that he sobbed in despair.

Jang Gang handed Cho Chung a handkerchief to dry his tears.

"Why would the heavens make my daughter endure so much pain?" The constellation recorder mage asked once he calmed down. "Is this my fault? Did I offend the heavens in a previous life?"

"I do not know, my friend," Gang responded with a sympathetic tap on the shoulder. "What I do know is that Yeong must be prepared for the hardships ahead of her. I can tell that her powers are already awakening. That is a sign that she is a prodigy."

"I don't want her to be a prodigy!" Cho Chung lamented. "I wish she could enjoy years of innocence like most children. I don't want to send her away to Jinwoyon."

Jang Gang startled.

"Why in the world would you send her to Jinwoyon?" His question made Chung look back at him in confusion.

"Where else should I send her? She certainly cannot train here, she's a girl."

"Of course she can train here, I would teach her myself!"

Cho Chung stared at his friend with a slack jaw, and Jin Mu was equally shocked by what his master had just said.

"Surely you jest, Gang?" Cho Chun asked Jang Gang. "You are the Gwanju, why would you bother training Yeong yourself?"

"Because she is the one I wish to name as my successor," Jang Gang declared firmly. "And as the new Gwanju, she will be able to guide the one born under the king's star."

His words were followed by a long moment of silence.

"B-but..." Cho Chung stuttered, shocked and in disbelief. "Gang-a, w-what you're...this cannot be! Yeong becoming the next Gwanju? The Unanimous Assembly won't allow it. She is a girl!"

"There is no rule forbidding women to hold the title of Gwanju," Jang Gang informed Cho Chung "In fact, no rule states that all men must be mages and all women priestesses. This social division should have become obsolete long ago! If there is one legacy I wished to be known for, it is my plan to break the status quo."

"That is a noble endeavor, Chung, but the status quo has persisted for so long! I fear that your will alone may not break it, at least not before Yeong comes of age."

Jang Gang clasped his arm over his friend's and nodded solemnly.

"I vow on my title of Gwanju that I will make your daughter the greatest mage of her generation, Chung."

Jin Mu held his breath as his hands tightened into fists in anger. He couldn't believe that his master had chosen to train some commoners daughter when he wasn't even done training Jin Mu himself. Why was she getting a treatment of favor?

"But what if Yeong disappoints you?" Cho Chung asked in fear. "What if she isn't strong enough to endure the training of the Gwanju, or what if a new apprentice mage shows greater potential than her in the future...a boy?" 

Jang Gang grabbed Cho Chung's other arm and pulled him closer so he could look him in the eye. 

"Did you not just see Yeong's birth star, Chung? The only one who could ever show a greater potential than her is the one who will be born under the king's star! And there is no way that the king will let that boy become the next Gwanju. It will be Yeong, I swear it!"

Still hidden behind the shelves, Jin Mu was holding onto a shelf to stop himself from falling to his knees in despair. This wasn't what he had expected to hear when he had planned to spy on Jang Gang and Cho Chung's conversation.

"And I am aware that my will is not enough to change the status quo," Jang Gang conceded. "That is why I already drafted a request to name Yeong my successor. I just have to make the king approve it...but I need your blessings first, Chung. Do you trust me to train Yeong to become the first woman to lead Cheonbugwan?"

Cho Chung was overwhelmed and could do nothing but stare at his friend for a long moment. After the shock passed, he nodded twice. 

"Entrusting my daughter's mage training to you would be the highest honor of my life, Gang," he eventually agreed. "But why would the king be the one to approve your request? Shouldn't it be left to the vote of the Unanimous Assembly?"

"The Unanimous Assembly cannot intervene in this case since I am giving up my family's right to claim the title of Gwanju. Once Yeong is approved for the title, it will belong to the Cho family. The king will have to grant Yeong a noble title, land and servants. That is not something that the Unanimous Assembly can do." 

Cho Chung's wide eyes filled with tears of gratitude. He reached out to his friend with trembling fingers, gripping his arm.

"Gang-a, I don't know how to repay you for all that you have done for my family."

Jin Mu's eyes also filled with tears, but those were tears of bitterness and envy. He wished that Ho-Gyeong had helped him the way that Jang Gang was helping Cho Chung. Instead, she had rejected him, her own half-brother. He blamed all his shortcomings on her.

"You can repay me by sharing your mother's meat pie recipe!" Jang Gang joked as he pulled his friend by the shoulder and walked them both towards the doors. "It has become Do-Hwa's favorite dish but Do-Joo cannot make it quite like you."

"Now that you have my daughter's loyalty, you think yourself entitled to my mother's recipe too? How presumptuous of you, my lord!"

The two friends laughed in good fun as they left the constellation room, oblivious to the presence of Jin Mu behind them. The Gwanju's assistant waited a few minutes before allowing himself to fall to his knees and cry in earnest.

He didn't cry for long, and he didn't cry for himself: he was simply mourning his loyalty to Jang Gang.

He had always known that he would have to betray his master one day; he just hadn't expected that the day would come so soon.

Once he wiped his face and stood back up, he started thinking of a way to ruin Jang Gang's plan to name Cho Chung's daughter the next Gwanju. It wouldn't be easy to stop Jang Gang, who was not only the most powerful mage in Daeho and a close adviser to the king. 

"If the king learns that the Gwanju is practicing forbidden magic, he will condemn him to death or exile him," Jin Mu thought after a while.

Little did he know that, not only would King Seong not condemn the practice of the Alchemy of Souls, but he would use it for his own interests.

AoS fanvid: Cho Yeong/Naksu (YouTube)

 Now

"I should have known that you would fail me," Jin Mu said as he twisted the needled inserted in So-I's fingertips.

She barely made a sound, but she closed her eyes in pain as her whole arm twitched.

"All the women in my life have failed me," he shared with her. "My mother brought me into this world without first securing a status for me; my sister denied my request to be legitimized when she became the leader of Jinyowon; my niece refused to give me the ice stone that Jang Gang hid before disappearing; and Naksu..."

He twisted the needle again, forcing it a little deeper inside So-I's finger while imagining that it was Naksu's finger.

So-I screamed in pain this time, so loudly that even Yeom-Soo wanted to place his hands over his ears. He had never seen Jin Mu torture a prisoner before and was shocked to see how sadistic the Assistant Gwanju was.

"...not only did she fail to kill Park Jin, but she joined his side! She helped train Park Jin's protégé Jang Uk! Then she dared to resist the divination spell! How did she do that, huh? Tell me!"

So-I was confused by Jin Mu's question. She didn't realize that Naksu was Mu-Deok. To her, Mu-Deok was only Jin Bu-Yeon.

"I-I don't know...don't know anything about Naksu," she told Jin Mu, who slapped her face with the back of his hand.

"Then what use are you to me, huh? Why should I keep you alive, you little traitor?!" 

So-I knew that she deserved to die after everything that she had done, but she couldn't die peacefully unless she made sure that Seo Yul was healed. 

"I...am t-the Dwanju," she reminded Jin Mu. "You...named me...in front of...soul shifters. They don't know that...I'm not...the real Jin Bu-Yeon. S-since...Shaman Choi...is...gone...y-you need me...to control...them."

Jin Mu slapped her again for her insolence. He knew that she was right, but he couldn't admit it out loud.

"Give...give me t-the cure," she demanded.

"What cure?"

"B-blood para...site."

"There is no cure, you idiot! The medicine that Jin Woo-Tak gave you should last you until the end of the month, and I won't give you more need you after that!"

"No!" So-I cried in despair, hiccupping between sobs. "Y-young mas...ter...Yul...will die!"

At first Jin Mu was confused by the mention of Seo Yul, but after a few minutes of questioning So-I he found out what had happened: she had transferred the blood parasite from her body to that of General Seo's heir!

"How could you be so stupid?" Jin Mu yelled as he shook So-I by the shoulders, aggravating her injuries. "Blood parasites feed on magic! If Seo Yul has had it in him for weeks, he is sure to die very soon! I'm surprised that he was still able to walk the other day!"

Resigned to the tragic truth, So-I just lowered her head in shame and regret.

Jin Mu pushed her away and started to pace the room, trying to control his panic.

He knew that Seo Yul's death would bring General Seo to the capital. If the general came, then Jin Mu's plan was sure to be ruined.

"There is only one way to save Seo Yul," Jin Mu realized after thinking for a few minutes. "Yeom-Soo, bring me something to write! I need to send two letters, one to Jang Uk ."

"A letter to Jang Uk?" Yeom-Soo repeated dumbly.

"Yes! The ice stone can revive the dead, so only Jang Uk can save Seo Yul. It shouldn't be hard to convince him, Seo Yul is his friend! But just in case he decides to hide instead, I will tell the queen that her nephew is on the brink of death and that Jang Uk is the only one who can help. And once Jang Uk uses the ice stone, the Unanimous Assembly will turn against him and against Songrim!"

So-I wasn't happy that she had accidentally helped Jin Mu's plan to trap Jang Uk, but she was relieved that Seo Yul wouldn't die needlessly because of her.

With her greatest concern taken care of, she no longer needed to hold onto life.

Meanwhile

"Mu-Deok-i!" Jang Uk shouted as he shoved the door open to enter Mu-Deok's bedroom.

Jin Bu-Yeon was seated cross-legged on the floor, her hands dropped over her knees and her eyes closed.

She was meditating. Normally Jang Uk would leave her alone, but he was too eager to talk to Cho Yeong to wait for her to finish. He tried to shake her awake, but to his surprise she didn't stir. 

"Jin Bu-Yeon!" He called out repeatedly without success.

He briefly panicked when he didn't sense her breathing, but after calming down he noticed that she was simply breathing very slowly. It was quite impressive.

"Now is not the time to be impressed!" He admonished himself before grabbing her hand and closing his eyes to focus.

Since receiving lessons on magic from Jin Bu-Yeon, he had learned how to move his spirit from the physical world to the dimension of the Alchemy of Souls.

Just like the previous times he had been there, he felt as if he had dived into a lake. Currents of dark energies swirled around him, but he didn't panic. He floated this way and that, looking around for the luminous sphere that was protecting Cho Yeong's soul.

He looked, and looked, but he didn't find it.

"Yeong!?" He started shouting, the fear of losing her forever making his intangible form shiver.

After what felt like hours of search, he finally found her on the other side of a strong current of dark energies.

She was practicing her swordsmanship with a blade made out of chisu...which she was holding with a hand that was close to completely petrified.

"What in the world are you doing!?" Jang Uk yelled at her.

Although she sensed him approach, she didn't hear him right away. He had to hold onto her shoulder to properly communicate with her.

"Where is Jin Bu-Yeon?" He asked her, his eyes moving all over to assess the extent of her petrification. "Why isn't her barrier here? Most importantly, why are you using your powers? You know that it accelerates the petrification!" 

"Yes, I know," Yeong responded with a casual shrug of her shoulders, almost dislodging his hand.

Her nonchalance made him more upset, and he yelled even louder.

"If you know, then why are you doing it? Are you insane?!"

Unbothered by his outburst, Yeong simply rolled her eyes.

"You already know that I am insane, Jang Uk. Why are you acting surprised now?"

"This isn't the time to joke around!" Uk reprimanded her. "Lord Park was arrested, we need to talk to the Crown Prince to free him!"

"We can't see the Crown Prince right now since I'm still petrifying. So hurry up and master the healing spell!"

"Hey! I'm trying my best!"

Yeong scoffed.

"That's not your best, Jang Uk, otherwise you would have already healed me! I've been intentionally accelerating my petrification just to motivate you to master the healing spell a lot faster."

Jang Uk gasped in shock.

"Are you kidding me?"

"No! If you don't master the healing spell in two days..."

"Tomorrow," Jin Bu-Yeon's voice resonated behind her.

Jang Uk startled as the sphere of light materialized out of thin air, taking shape around him and Cho Yeong and trapping them both inside.

Jin Bu-Yeon's soul appeared next to the sphere, her hand already placed against the wall. 

"You will be completely petrified tomorrow," she told Cho Yeong.

Instead of being alarmed by the terrible news, the former shadow assassin simply nodded and pushed away Uk's hand. 

"Did you hear that, king's star? Hurry up or I will die tomorrow!"

Jang Uk's jaw dropped. He really shouldn't be shocked by Yeong's decision to endanger her own life since she had done it before. He knew exactly who she was...well, not entirely. He had just learned something new about her.

"You were supposed to be the next Gwanju!" He blurted out. "Jang Gang named you his heir twenty years ago! It's written in King Seong's will!"

Cho Yeong looked surprised at first, but she quickly turned furious. She tightened one hand into a fist and slammed it against the wall. It caused a flash of light as her powers collided with Jin Bu-Yeon's.

"Jin Mu!" She growled. "So this is why he ruined my father's reputation and turned me into an assassin. He knew that I could never become the next Gwanju if I became a criminal! He wanted that title for himself!"

"It makes sense now," Uk agreed, then he had to repeat the news with his hand on the wall of the sphere to inform Bu-Yeon.

"I will kill him!" Yeong promised. "Very slowly, just the way he taught me!" 

"Do not stoop to his level!" Jin Bu-Yeon forbade her on the other side of the barrier. "Let the heavens punish my uncle. His fate was sealed the moment he used those divination bells. You should not add more blood on your hands, Cho Yeong. Revenge doesn't befit your title of Lady Gwanju."

"Who said that I was going to claim that title now? I don't want it!"

"The heavens care little for what you want, Cho Yeong! And as we saw last night, this was your destiny all along!"

Yeong sighed in frustration.

"Fine. If I get the opportunity to kill Jin Mu, I'll do it quickly. Is that good enough for you, priestess?"

Jin Bu-Yeon shook her head in exasperation. Even after months of sharing her body with the former assassin, she was not used to the dark personality of the notorious Naksu.

"Wait, wait," Jang Uk said, confused, moving across the sphere to stand face to face with Jin Bu-Yeon. "What did you mean when you said that you saw that this was Yeong's destiny all along? What did you see last night?"

Instead of answering, the young priestess pushed her hand through the barrier, grabbed his arm and forced him to return to the physical world.

"Hey! Why did you do that?!" He asked, feeling slightly dizzy.

"She's coming," Bu-Yeon replied just a second before Kim Do-Joo barged into Mu-Deok's bedroom.

The older woman looked fearful as she handed a letter to Jang Uk.

A letter penned by Jin Mu himself.

After Do-Joo left, Uk read the letter out loud for  Bu-Yeon and Yeong. He tore it apart as soon as he finished.

"How dares he use Yul to trap me?" He yelled, furious.

"He is correct, only you can save Seo Yul," Bu-Yeon pointed out.

"I haven't even mastered the healing spell, how could I bring Yul back from the dead?"

Jin Bu-Yeon's response shocked him:

"Using the ice stone to bring back a soul to its own body is a less complex spell than fixing the crack caused by soul-shifting."

Jang Uk gaped at the powerful priestess in disbelief.

"Are you serious?"

"I am. Remember that my mother tried to kill Yeong just to demonstrate the power of the ice stone?"

"Ugh, don't remind me," Uk whined, then nodded. "Alright I will resurrect Yul."

"And you must wait for someone to remove the parasite from his body before bringing his soul back. If the cause of death isn't resolved then he will just die again."

Jang Uk nodded in acknowledgement, then asked.

"How do you know all this? Is this knowledge kept by the Jin family? Jin Seol-Ran never used the ice stone, it was Master Seo who did, and he only left Words of the Heart."

Jin Bu-Yeon hesitated to answer, but decided to tell the truth that her mother had kept for so long.

"The knowledge on the ice stone was written by Master Choi two hundred years ago during the great chaos. Jang Gang found Master Choi's book and shared that knowledge with my mother."

"W-what?!" Jang Uk reacted, baffled. "Why would Jang Gang share notes with Lady Jin after stealing the ice stone from Jinwoyon?"

"He didn't steal it, my mother initially gave him the ice stone of her own free will, but he didn't return it afterwards. I overheard them argue about it a few times before Jang Gang completely stopped visiting Jinwoyon when I was eight years old. He and my mother used to be close, but the ice stone ruined their relationship. Just like it ruined my relationship with my parents and my uncle."

Jang Uk sighed in frustration. So many of the problems he was facing today were the consequences of the mistakes made by elders who should have known better. The Gwanju and the Head of Jinyowon were supposed to be pillars of Daeho, but they had almost led it to its ruin.

And as the one born under the king's star, Jang Uk was supposed to right their wrongs. Such a burden felt too heavy to carry for him.

"It won't be so hard if I have you by my side," he declared confidently as he extended his hand towards Mu-Deok.

He stopped himself before he could touch her face, reminding himself that this was Jin Bu-Yeon's, not Cho Yeong's. He struggled not to show his disappointment as he stared into the blind woman's eyes.

"What are you talking about?" She asked him, tilting her head to the side. 

"Ah! I mean...you can help me avoid Jin Mu's trap, right?" He switched subjects, moving his hand to scratch his head. "If I save Yul, everyone will know that I've had the ice stone all along. No one will believe me if I said that I didn't know I could use it until this week."

"Cho Yeong has an idea," Jin Bu-Yeon announced, then frowned. "She said that we should keep up the lie...what lie?"

Jang Uk immediately understood what Yeong was referring to: asking the Crown Prince's help.

Without Lord Park's support, Go Won was the only ally Jang Uk could turn to...even now that he knew the prince's feelings for Mu-Deok.

"Alright, we have a plan, let's execute it after I heal Yeong. By the way, where in the world were you earlier?"

"Earlier?" Bu-Yeon repeated.

"Yes, earlier, when I found Yeong's soul unprotected! Why did you remove the barrier? I can't believe that you went along with her crazy idea to accelerate her petrification!"

Jin Bu-Yeon remained quiet instead of offering an explanation. There were many reasons why she had removed the barrier, but Cho Yeong had made her promise not to tell Jang Uk anything unless it was strictly necessary.

"Jin Bu-Yeon!" Jang Uk called out, and she decided to distract him with a more pressing matter.

"You need to master the healing spell, Jang Uk."

"Right, right!" He conceded, then dropped into a seated position.

He focused inward so he could access his connection to the ice stone.

After teaching him for several days, Jin Bu-Yeon now doubted that he could master the spell in such a short amount of time. He was a fast learner, but Cho Yeong had made things harder for him. Bu-Yeon wasn't too worried about that, however.

After all, Cho Yeong herself had come up with a back up plan if Jang Uk couldn't master the spell on time.

AoS fanvid: Uk+Yeong (YouTube)

The golden rays of the setting sun made Jang Uk blink his eyes when he opened them.

He had spent hours trying to master the healing spell, but he had failed to do so.

"I can't do it," he quietly admitted to Jin Bu-Yeon who was seated on the other side of the room. "I can't save Yeong."

He shifted to his knees and crawled towards Mu-Deok, his vision growing blurry from his tears.

Jin Bu-Yeon stopped him in his track:

"Cho Yeong can help you do it."

"What?!"

"This afternoon you asked me why I stopped protecting Cho Yeong's soul from petrification. It was partly because she needed to use her powers to learn a complex constellation spell. She has been learning it from the moment you started training with the ice stone."

"A constellation spell?" Jang Uk repeated, confused. "What spell?"

"One that can strengthen your connection to the ice stone and make it easier for you to master the healing spell...any spell you would wish to learn, in fact."

"T-that's possible? Truly?"

"Yes, it is one of the advantages of the relationship between the king and the Gwanju. The Gwanju doesn't just lead the mages of Cheonbugwan, he also trains the royal family in magic."

"Right, Jin Mu trained the Crown Prince because Jang Gang was gone," Jang Uk reflected out loud.

"The Go dynasty couldn't have ruled all the powerful mages of Daeho without the Gwanju," Jin Bu-Yeon pointed out. "The king never had to be the strongest mage in all of the kingdom, he only had to have a strong Gwanju to shield him. King Seong would have lost his throne to General Seo twenty-five years ago if it hadn't been for Jang Gang**."

"Shhhh!" Jang Uk reacted reflexively. "We don't talk about that!"

"You will be forced to talk to General Seo himself sooner or later, Jang Uk," Bu-Yeon argued. "At least saving Seo Yul will assure that the General will listen to you."

Jang Uk rubbed his temples, feeling a migraine come up. He had too many problems to deal with now. 

"Whatever, let's focus on that constellation spell that Yeong learned. Can she do it without risking to turn into stone for good?"

"No, not unless she casts the spell from the constellation room in Cheonbugwan," Bu-Yeon specified.

"Well, let's go to Cheonbugwan then!" Jang Uk immediately decided as he climbed up to his feet. "Getting in through the front doors will be easy, Jin Mu must have given the order to arrest us. Once inside, we just have to make our way to the constellation room. So-I told me about all the shortcuts we can use."

"We do need to find So-I," Bu-Yeon commented. "Jin Mu will use her to control the soul shifters, he named her the Dwanju and people still think that she is me. My mother made the mistake to go along with that lie, so she will definitely try to arrest So-I now."

"Yul will be upset if anything happens to So-I," Jang Uk commented. "Alright, let's get some food before going to Cheonbugwan."

After grabbing a quick snack from the kitchens, Jang Uk was ready to go, but Jin Bu-Yeon asked to stop in the main sitting room. She surprised him by walking towards the shelf holding Naksu's sword.

"Wait, no!" Jang Uk exclaimed, moving fast to place himself between her and the weapon.

"Cho Yeong says that you might have to fight your way out of Cheonbugwan," Jin Bu-Yeon explained. "She is right. As much as I hate the idea of using violence, I know that my uncle will not allow you to leave without a fight. I don't need a sword, but if I use my powers as normal, my uncle will know that it's me. It would be better for him to think that his own pupil turned against him. He deserves nothing less."

Jang Uk stared at Mu-Deok's face, wishing he could look at Cho Yeong's real face instead.

He could only imagine what she felt staring at the sword that had been an extension of her arm for so many years; the sword she had thought would help her avenge her father.

She had endured years of hatred and loneliness all because of Jin Mu's lie. Jin Mu had been her master, and until recently she had obeyed him without question. Jang Uk was certain that deep inside, part of her still respected the Assistant Gwanju, if only because he had made her the feared shadow assassin Naksu, whom everyone in Daeho feared.

But she wasn't meant to be feared. She was meant to be respected! For years he had hated the fact that he couldn't become the next Gwanju, but now he could gladly give up that dream knowing that the title was supposed to be hers.

"Alright, you can fight, but take this instead," he said as he handed her the Gwanju's sword.

Jin Bu-Yeon frowned at the sacred weapon.

"What difference will this make?"

"I made a promise to Master Lee, remember? That I wouldn't let Mu-Deok raise Naksu's sword against anyone. If you do, he will kill you."

"Alright," the young priestess agreed. "There is something else to worry about."

"What is it?" Jang Uk asked then watched her blink once, twice...the third time, her eyes focused on the Gwanju's sword, the pupils shining with bright blue sparks.

Then she smiled in a way that was very familiar.

"Yeong?" He whispered, and she looked up at him, back to being the Mu-Deok he knew.

"It will be suspicious if I still look blind after so many days," she explained. "Jin Bu-Yeon is letting me take control since I don't have much time anyway."

She drew the Gwanju's sword and admired the way her powers lit up the runes carved onto the blade.

"Your hands!" Jang Uk reacted when he saw unnaturally dark blue veins slowly covering her fingertips.

Without thinking, he took her left hand and lifted it to his lips to kiss her knuckles.

"I will heal you soon," he promised her as he looked at Cho Yeong with a tender gaze, making her blush and fidget in embarrassment.

"D-don't do that! Jin Bu-Yeon is watching!" She reminded him.

She tried to shove him back, but he planted his feet and kept her hand in his. Her momentum forced her to stumble forward, and since she focused on sheathing the sword she couldn't avoid bumping her nose against Uk's shoulder.

He didn't mind, he simply wrapped his arms around her to keep her against him.

"Jin Bu-Yeon has been watching us all along anyway," he pointed out. "I don't care anymore."

"Jang Uk!" Cho Yeong complained, her cheeks growing warmer.

"Why do you keep calling me by my full name, huh?" He questioned her then leaned back to peer down at her. "Once we get married you will be a Jang too..wait, no, I shouldn't keep the Jang surname. Should I take yours instead?"

"H-how can you think about something so frivolous at a time like this?"

"It's not frivolous," he calmly argued before dropping a soft kiss on her forehead.

Cho Yeong gave up on arguing. She pressed her face against his neck and let herself relax for the first time in days.

It had only been a few days since their plan to get married and have a peaceful life had been completely derailed, so she made sure to enjoy the warmth of his embrace for a whole minute. She knew that there were many more days of hardship ahead, even if they managed to strike a deal with the Crown Prince.

After she stepped away from him, she extended her hand and waited expectantly.

"What?" He asked, confused.

"Since you won't give me a ring, give me back the jade."  

"Ah, yes, hold on," he replied and fished into one of his pocket for the matching stones.

They were now pendant necklaces, and he gladly fastened the blue one around her neck. He smiled widely when she offered to do the same for him with the red jade necklace.

She raised her eyebrows in surprise when he grabbed her sword to arm himself.

"Are you sure that you want to use that?"

"Yes, and I hope that it will annoy Jin Mu," he cracked a joke just to see her chuckle and shake her head at his ridiculous idea.

Although he was still worried about her, he felt better now that she was by his side in the physical world. He appreciated everything that Jin Bu-Yeon had done for the past few days, but she didn't make him feel as confident as his former master and future wife.

Chapter Text

Just as expected, getting inside Cheonbugwan went smoothly.

Jang Uk and Naksu arrived with the intention to give themselves up. The guards dutifully tied them up and brought them to Yeom-Soo.

"Why did they come back?!" Jin Mu's right hand man mumbled grumpily under his breath when he saw the king's star and the shadow assassin.

Yeom-Soo suspected that they were up to no good, but he also assumed that they didn't have their powers since they had not been able to fight the last time they had come.

Yeom-Soo still had errands to run for Jin Mu, and he was getting exhausted and irritated. He hadn't even had the time to get rid of So-I's body!

Out of convenience, he decided to confine Jang Uk and Naksu in the same storage room where he had left the imposter's corpse. The candles in the room had all burned out, so the crime scene was not visible from outside the room.

"Stay right next to the door," Yeom-Soo instructed his prisoners at the threshold of the door. "If you move too much, you will...bump into a very unpleasant surprise."

Jang Uk just shrugged his shoulders in disinterest, while Naksu glared menacingly at Yeom-Soo. He hid his fear of her by turning his attention to the swords he had confiscated.

"Well, ah, let's take these somewhere else," he instructed one of the guards, leaving only five mages to guard the door.

When that door was closed shut and locked, Jang Uk and Cho Yeong ended up in complete darkness. After waiting a few minutes in silence, Yeong used a modest blast of ryusu to cut the ropes around her wrists.

"I can't believe this," she whispered as she carefully moved in the dark to free Jang Uk. "They know who I am, but they thought that these stupid ropes would be enough to confine me? Does the name Naksu mean nothing anymore?"

"They don't know that you have your powers back, remember?" Jang Uk whispered back as he rubbed his wrists and shuffled around the room with no clear sense of directions. "They're going to regret it soon, that's for...ow!"

His foot had collided with something on the floor when he had moved back a few steps.

"What's that?" He asked at a normal volume.

"Shhh! They're going to hear you on the other side of the door!"

"There's something on the floor!" He explained at a lower volume.

He crouched down and used his hands to feel whatever it was he had found...and he froze.

It wasn't something. It was someone.

"What?" Yeong asked, then flicked her wrist to make a small ball of chisu light appear above her palm.

She directed the source of light towards Jang Uk, who gasped in shock at what he had found.

It was So-I's corpse.

"No way," Jang Uk whispered, aghast. "Jin Mu killed her? But I...I thought that he needed her!"

"Clearly he decided that she was no longer useful to him," Cho Yeong commented flatly.

She was not emotionally affected by the thief's death, but in the back of her mind she could sense Jin Bu-Yeon's sadness.

It felt strange for the former assassin to be able to perceive the powerful priestess' presence now. For months, Cho Yeong hadn't realized that her soul was sharing Mu-Deok's body with its original owner.

Now that she was aware of it, Cho Yeong was uncomfortable with the idea of having someone else constantly watching and listening to her and Jang Uk. This problem wasn't a priority right now, but Yeong had mentioned it to Bu-Yeon while Jang Uk was busy training.

The powerful priestess had promised that things would change, but she hadn't explained how. Every time Yeong had asked, the answer had always been:

"You will see after Jang Uk heals you."

"What should we do?" Uk asked Yeong after moving So-I's body to a more dignified position. "We can't just leave her body here. Should I revive her?"

"No, Jin Mu will sense the ice stone power if you use it," Yeong warned him. "And you shouldn't cast that reviving spell on a whim! Just because Jin Bu-Yeon said that it's easier than the healing spell doesn't meant that you will succeed casting it on the first try."

"You're right. Well, let's come back for So-I after I heal you. Right now we need to go to the constellation room...wait. We need our swords first."

"I can locate mine," Naksu assured him before closing her eyes to focus.

Since she had access to her powers, it was easy for her to find her sword. Its blade retained residues of her spiritual energy.

"It's not far, I'll lead the way," she told Jang Uk, then converted the ball of light into a larger ball of chisu energy.

She threw it at the door to blast it away, and in the process she knocked down two of the five guards.

Before Jang Uk even stepped outside the room, the other three guards were already unconscious on the floor. He smiled proudly at the demonstration of his fiancée's impeccable martial arts.

There were many more mages guarding the storage room where their swords were kept, so Jang Uk had to eventually help Cho Yeong beat them up.

Using his mage powers again felt great. It had been a few days since he had them back, but until now he had only used them to train in the spiritual dimension of the ice stone. Fighting Jin Mu's subordinates in the physical world made him feel like a proper mage once again. 

He could tell that Cho Yeong was also reveling in her ability to show her worth as a mage. She didn't have to kill anyone anymore, so she was using her powers in creative ways to simply knock her opponents off their feet.

The downside of Naksu's decision not to kill the guards was that most of them were able to get back up and rejoin the fight. One of them had a great idea: he pretended to fall unconscious so that Naksu would forget about him. As soon as she turned her back to him, he got back up and brandish his sword to stab her.

Jang Uk saw the danger, but it was too late for him to warn Cho Yeong. He was too far away to push her out of harm's way, and in his panic he instinctively drew on the ice stone's powers—he threw his hand forward to remotely create an energy shield at Cho Yeong's back.

The tip of the guard's sword bounced off the energy shield and made him jump back on impact. The noise made Yeong look over her shoulder.

"Damn it!" She said under her breath when she saw the energy shield protecting her back.

Before the guard could recover, she dropped to a crouch and spun around to sweep kick his feet. As soon as he landed on the floor, Jang Uk brought the shield down to knock him out.

"What were you thinking?!" Yeong yelled at Uk, who briefly gaped at her in disbelief.

"I was thinking about saving you from a stab wound! The only healing spell I know is for your soul, not your body, remember? You're welcome, by the way!"

Cho Yeong rolled her eyes at him before walking inside the storage room. He followed after her once he made the shield disappear.

"Are you really not even going to say thank you?" He asked her, offended that she would get angry rather than grateful.

The former assassin sighed in exasperation, more at herself than at her former pupil, then turned around to talk to him while staring him straight in the eyes:

"Thank you for sparing me a minor wound, alright, but now Jin Mu knows that you brought the ice stone here! Worse, he knows exactly where you are!" 

"Ah, that," Jang Uk reacted sheepishly when he finally realized his mistake, but then came up with an idea. "Well, since he can sense the power of the ice stone then I can trick him."

"What? How?"

"I'll be right back!" He said before rushing out of that storage room.

Once he tapped into the ice stone's unlimited reserve of energy, he used it to sprint across secret passages at inhuman speed.

Within a minute, he arrived in the corner of Cheonbugwan that was the farthest from the constellation room. He used the ice stone to create a powerful blast there, then he used his own physical strength to run back to Cho Yeong. It took him almost ten whole minutes this time.

"T-that...should....should g-ive us...some...time," he commented while he was still out of breath. "Jin Mu...will...not...know that...the constellation room...is our...true...destination."

Yeong nodded in agreement and walked ahead of him, carrying both her sword and the Gwanju's.

To her great frustration, the doors to the constellation room were locked with a powerful sealing spell. There was no doubt that Jin Mu was the one who cast it.

"Of course it had to be a spell that he never taught me," the former assassin mumbled grumpily.

"If I use the ice stone to break the spell, Jin Mu will know that we are here," Jang Uk commented with exasperation. "My diversion will be useless, then."

"Maybe Jin Bu-Yeon knows how to break it," Cho Yeong voiced her guess, and was surprised when Jin Bu-Yeon responded inside her head.

"What?" Jang Uk asked after a moment of silence.

"She said that I can break that seal myself if I use the Gwanju's sword."

Jang Uk snapped his fingers when he remembered a detail about Jang Gang's sword.

"Jin Bu-Yeon is right! The sword is passed down to every Gwanju because it's not just a weapon, it can break any spell cast here in Cheonbugwan!  But I don't know how. The magic of the Gwanju's sword isn't written down in any books..."

"Who needs spelling books when you can be taught by the heiress of Jinwoyon herself?" Naksu joked before tossing her own sword at Jang Uk.

He caught it midair without even looking at it. He  focused all his attention on her with a mixture of admiration for her mage skills and worry for her gradual petrification.

The first time that she sent a blast of chisu against Jin Mu's seal, nothing happened. After calmly listening to Jin Bu-Yeon's instructions in her head, Cho Yeong tried to break the seal again. At every new attempt, she made the runes on the Gwanju's sword glow in a different pattern.

When the correct combination of runes was activated, Yeong's blast of chisu finally of broke the energy seal placed by Jin Mu.

"Let's go," Naksu told Jang Uk after she sheathed the Gwanju's sword. 

As soon as she stepped inside the constellation room, she walked towards the well. She opened the ceiling by transfering her powers in the water of, waited for the energies of the skies to be pulled inside the constellation room, then executed a quick succession of hand movements.

Her powers made the water float out of the well and form a ring around her and Jang Uk.

"Cast the healing spell now, hurry!" She instructed him before extending her hands towards him to transfer the energy of the constellation spell.

Jang Uk saw her hands and face start petrifying a little faster, but he didn't let that worrying sight distract him. He pressed his eyes shut, focused inwards and drew the powers of the ice stone.

With slow but precise movements of his hand, the former mage of Jeongjingak executed a complex spell. He couldn't tell exactly how the healing spell worked since he wasn't trained in Sejukwon to fully understand what he was doing. He blindly trusted Jin Bu-Yeon's teaching.

Usually, he would fail to complete the spell because he would get overwhelmed by the ice stone's deep energy: it would pool too quickly inside his energy core and make him lose his concentration. That in turn would prevent him from shaping his fingers at the exact steady rhythm that Bu-Yeon had taught him.

This time, however, Yeong's constellation spell helped the energy of the ice stone flow gradually into Uk's energy core and he easily finished the series of hand signs.

He watched with relief as some of the ice stone's energy transferred into Mu-Deok's body and the signs of petrification disappearing from her skin.

Just as the healing spell was about to be completed, a blinding white light unexpectedly shot out of Mu-Deok's body. Jang Uk had to look away to protect his eyes, and he looked back just in time to watch Mu-Deok's body collapse.

"Yeong!" He shouted as he rushed forward with his arms extended, managing catch her before she hit the floor.

She was unconscious and looked terribly pale, almost like a corpse.

"Yeong? Jin Bu-Yeon? Are you okay?!" Jang Uk called out in a panic, shaking Mu-Deok's shoulders and patting her cheek.

He was so focused on her that he did not register the doors opening behind him.

"Yeong, wake up!" He called out again, but she didn't move.

"Did you hear that, Your Highness?" Jin Mu's voice resonated in the constellation room. "He called her Yeong, not Mu-Deok! Yeong is Naksu's real name!" 

The Crown Prince walked inside the constellation room along with Jin Mu.

He had heard Jank Uk, but instead of caring about Mu-Deok's true identity he was worried about the fact that she visibly looked unwell.

"What's wrong with her?" He asked Jang Uk.

"I don't know!" The king's star admitted, worried for his former master and fiancée.

She was breathing, but her skin was getting warmer than normal.

"Why did you even come here instead of going to Sejukwon to save Yul?" The Crown Prince interrogated him.

"He must have come here to cast a powerful spell!" Jin Mu guessed right away after he noticed the open ceiling above the well. "By using constellation magic to enhance his connection to the ice stone!"

"Is that true?" Go Won asked, curious and mildly fearful of Jang Uk.

"Of course it is true, Your Highness!" Jin Mu insisted. "And with all that power, it will be easy for Jang Uk to steal your throne and—"

"Shut up!" Jang Uk yelled at him, his anger making him accidentally tap into the ice stone powers.

Ripples of magic spread all over the room, making the shelves and constellation plates shake for a brief moment.

"Guards!" The Assistant Gwanju called loudly, fearing that Jang Uk would attack him in earnest.

Twenty mages rushed inside the room and formed a circle around Jang Uk.

"I don't want to fight!" The king's star yelled at the crowd around him, then he addressed the Crown Prince. "I don't want the throne, Your Highness, nor do I want to be the king's star. You know that! That's why I asked you to take the fall for my actions when I took down the barrier around Jeongjingak disappear."

"Why did you pretend to lose your powers, then?" Go Won asked back angrily. "You lied to me!"

"No I didn't! At the time I didn't realize that I could use the ice stone! I don't want it for myself, I only ever wanted to use it to save Ye...err, to save Mu-Deok."

"You called her Yeong," the Crown Prince pointed out.

"Because she is Naksu!" Jin Mu reiterated.

Jang Uk leveled a murderous look at him.

"Yes, Yeong is Naksu's real name, and you know that because you're the one who trained her to become an assassin!"

"What!?" The Crown Prince exclaimed in shock as he turned his head towards his former master.

Jin Mu clicked his tongue in annoyance. He hadn't expected Jang Uk to turn the tables on him, but he wasn't going to give up now.

"Jang Uk is lying, Your Highness! He is trying to frame me!"

Go Won turned back his head towards Jang Uk, frowning.

Realizing that he needed to separate the Crown Prince from Jin Mu, Jang Uk carefully lowered Mu-Deok to the ground. Then, he made a show of slowly drawing out Naksu's sword. After looking at each of the mages surrounding him, he spoke up with the most menacing tone he had ever used:

"If you don't want to end up crippled for the rest of your life, I suggest you leave now. I have the ice stone, which means that you don't stand a chance against me!"

The mages of Cheonbugwan hesitated to move, until Yeom-Soo made the decision to walk away out of self-preservation. The rest of the mages followed.

"What are you doing!?" Jin Mu yelled at his defecting subordinates, looking at them with wide eyes. "Come back here! Yeom-Soo!"

In the few seconds that Jin Mu was distracted, Jang Uk managed to get closer to him. He attacked Jin Mu with Naksu's sword.

"Jang Uk, stop!" The Crown Prince shouted. "You said that you didn't want to fight!"

"He is a liar, Your Highness," Jin Mu commented as he easily blocked Jang Uk's first strike with the scabbard of his sword. 

Jin Mu feigned a kick to make Jang Uk move back, and he used that moment to draw his own sword.

For a whole minute Jin Mu confidently parried Jang Uk's next blows. He moved fluidly thanks to his longer experience in combat.

What he didn't notice was that Jang Uk wasn't really trying to beat him at swordsmanship. Jang Uk just wanted to make him move away from the Crown Prince by a minimum of a dozen paces.

Once that was done, Jang Uk switched his grip on Naksu's sword to hold it like a spear, gathered energy from the ice stone and transferred it to the blade.

Dropping to one knee, he slammed the tip of the blade down onto the floor, his mage energy spread out in a circle to trap Jin Mu in an immobilizing spell.

"W-what!?" Jin Mu reacted in disbelief, barely able to move his lips. 

Jang Uk smiled proudly as he stood back up. He had finally taken his revenge on Jin Mu for trapping him the last time he had been in Cheonbugwan.

"Unlike your spell, mine isn't an illusion. You truly cannot move," he stated the obvious, then turned towards the Crown Prince. "I didn't lie, Your Highness: I don't want to fight, I just want to talk...but only to you, without Jin Mu interrupting."

"I'm listening," Go Won responded cautiously.

He listened to Jang Uk tell him the story of how an innocent little girl like Cho Yeong became the fearsome shadow assassin Naksu:

Jin Mu had brainwashed her into hating the mages of Seongrim by lying to her that they were responsible for the death of her father...

"...Cho Chung," Jang Uk revealed a name that the Crown Prince already knew.

He vividly remembered his discussion with Jin Mu just a few days ago about the constellation recorder mage.

Jin Mu himself had admitted that he had framed Cho Chung, claiming that it was solely in fear that Cho Chung would reveal the secret of Jang Gang's experiments with the ice stone.

But now the Crown Prince understood that Jin Mu had actually ruined the Cho family because of the title of Gwanju.

"How could you do that!?" Go Won yelled at Jin Mu.

The Assistant Gwanju still couldn't move, but he was gathering his powers to break the spell. For now all he could do was listen to his former pupil lecture him:

"Jang Gang was not just the Gwanju, he was your master! How could you go against his wishes? "And Cho Yeong was your pupil, just like me! How could you ruin her life? She was supposed to be the next Gwanju..."

He tapped the palm of his hand to his chest twice before specifying:

"...my Gwanju!"

Jang Uk didn't like hearing the Crown Prince sound possessive towards his woman, but he decided not to comment on it for now.

"I can still offer her a pardon when I become the king," Go Won decided, nodding to himself for coming up with a convenient solution to keep Mu-Deok by his side.

But he worried that Jang Uk would be in the way.

"What guarantee do I have that you're not lying to me again?" Go Won asked. "You have the ice stone now, you are all-powerful. What's stopping you from seizing the throne? The Unanimous Assembly will gladly crown you king instead of me. They don't respect my father, they only fear the Seo name on my mother's side."

"Well, I don't have the Seo name," Jang Uk replied flippantly.

"But you are the king's star, the savior of Daeho!"

"No, you are the king's star, Your Highness," Uk countered. "That's what the Unanimous Assembly believes right now, and I'm not going to correct them."

"Do you take me for a fool, Jang Uk?"

"Listen, there's no time to argue!" Jang Uk commented in exasperation as he walked back towards Cho Yeong.

His eyes widened in shock when he saw that she now had blisters erupting all over her skin.

"I need to take her to Sejukwon," Jang Uk pleaded with the Crown Prince. "Come with me, and I will give you the ice stone right after I save Yul. That way, you can prove to everyone that you are the king's star!"

"You...you will give me the ice stone?" Go Won asked, incredulous.

How could someone so easily give up on the greatest source of magical power to ever exist?

"Yes, I will give it to you!" Jang Uk confirmed. "But we need to go to Sejukwon first! Yeong needs treatment right now! I didn't learn normal healing spells, only the spell to save her soul from petrification."

"Save her soul from petrification?" Go Won echoed. "Don't you have to give her the ice stone for that?"

"No, we found another way. I kept the ice stone and used it to break the effects of the divination bells, but...I don't know what happened, her body is reacting strangely!"

"Alright, go to Sejukwon," the Crown Prince allowed.

He stepped aside to let Jang Uk through. Jang Uk gently lifted Cho Yeong to carry her over his left shoulder, keeping her sword in his right hand. 

He was about to step outside of the constellation room when Jin Mu finally broke the immobilizing spell.

"That little traitor isn't leaving this place alive," the Assistant Gwanju announced as he took menacing steps towards Jang Uk with his sword forward.

The Crown Prince stepped ahead to confront Jin Mu.

"The only traitor here is you. Leave, Jang Uk! I will join you in Sejukwon later. Cho Yeong and Yul better be alive and well when I get there!"

"They will be!" Jang Uk promise before rushing out of the constellation room. Unfortunately, he had to leave the Gwanju's sword that Yeong had dropped.

He used the power of the ice stone to blast away the guards who tried to stop him on his way out of Cheonbugwan.

Meanwhile, Jin Mu was furious at the Crown Prince.

"How could you let the ice stone slip through your fingers just because of a woman?" He reprimanded his former pupil. "You are a fool, Go Won!"

It was the first time in that he had ever called the prince by his name. Go Won didn't appreciate the omission of his title.

"I was a fool for believing that you wanted to help me," he corrected his former master while pointed his sword menacingly. "Now I see you for who you truly are, Jin Mu: a greedy man who covets other people's powers! It is no wonder that you worked with Shaman Choi to usurp my mother's title!"

"Who said that Seo Ha-Sun is your mother?" Jin Mu asked just to destabilize the prince.

Go Won froze, doubt paralyzing him. Was he just like Jang Uk: the son of a soul shifter? 

No, he refused to believe it.

"If she wasn't my mother, she wouldn't call me her son!" He reasoned out loud, but Jin Mu just laughed.

"She wouldn't dare to admit that you are not her son, otherwise she would be discarded by the king! Who would defend her, huh? Her brother? No, General Seo will disown her the minute that he learns that she used dark sorcery!"

"You're lying!" Go Won objected. 

"No I'm not, and you know what's funny? General Seo will definitely take advantage of your questionable parentage to pressure the Unanimous Assembly into choosing a new king...him! This time Jang Gang isn't here to protect the royal family from the Seo clan! Who else can protect you now, if not me?"

"I never asked for your protection, I only ever asked to train me! You are not even my Gwanju..."

"Do you believe that Naksu can protect your throne? General Seo will kill her first! She is a known criminal and a soul shifter! Songrim already knows that, I made sure of it!"

The Crown Prince's heart skipped a bit in a moment of panic. He knew that he couldn't protect the woman he wanted if Songrim decided to hunt her down. Naksu was indeed a heinous criminal, but it was all because of Jin Mu.

"You will not get away with this," Go Won declared coldly as he readied himself to attack the man who taught him how to fight. "One way or another, you will be punished for all your crimes, Jin Mu!" 

"If I fall, so will you, Your Highness," Jin Mu promised. "I will swear on my life that you are Shaman Choi's son, and the Unanimous Assembly will happily revoke your title of Crown Prince! As you yourself told Jang Uk, they don't respect the royal dynasty. That's because it has grown too weak to lead Daeho."

"I am not weak!" The Crown Prince yelled angrily.

"No you're not, I'm the one who trained you to be strong! But it will be all for nothing if the king's star lives! The only way to secure your throne is to eliminate Jang Uk! You cannot trust him to give you the ice stone!"

"I trust him more than I trust you!"

"I don't need you to trust me, I need you to do as I say! Otherwise, I will tell the truth to the Unanimous Assembly...even if it is the last thing I do before they sentence me to death. What will you do, then?"

Go Won didn't have an answer to that question. As much as he loathed to admit it, his royal ascension depended on his deal with Jang Uk. But if Jin Mu revealed the lie, then it would be all for nothing!

"Why are you doing this, Jin Mu? Are all the crimes and sins you committed just so you could become the Gwanju?"

Jin Mu smiled widely. He was not going to reveal his entire plan to the Crown Prince, but he was going to manipulate him just enough to finally get his hands on the ice stone.

Chapter Text

When Cho Yeong woke up, her whole body was aching, she had a terrible migraine and a mild fever. 

Wherever she was, there was a window right across from her, and the beams of sunlight filtering through it blinded her.

To avoid making her headache worse, she had to slowly roll over and switch sides to face the wall instead of the window.

"Ow, ow," she whined, feeling bruised all over despite moving gingerly.

"Yeong!" She heard Jang Uk call out and was surprised that she hadn't felt his presence at all.

She made the mistake to quickly flip to her right side, and nearly threw up from the strong nausea that overcame her.

"Easy, easy!" Jang Uk whispered as he sat down on a chair nearby and offered her a cup of tea.

It was medicinal tea, and she realized that this was the reason why her sharp senses were greatly impaired.

"I don't want to drink this," she declined when he brought it close to her face. "It's making me sluggish..."

"It was the only way to lower your fever! We were lucky that I convinced Heo Yun-Ok to give it to you!"

"Why am I even here...in Sejukwon? What happened?"

Jang Uk switched the cup of tea for a cup of water. After helping Cho Yeong take a few sips, he shared the events of last night. She listened attentively but was confused by some details.

"Blisters?" She repeated as she looked down at her arms.

Her skin was slightly bruised, but there were no signs of blisters. She felt mostly clammy from her fever.

But there was something about her arms that made her blink. Once, twice, three times.

"This...t-this is..." she stuttered, not just because of the appearance of her arms, hands and nails, but also from the sound of her own voice. 

With trembling fingers, she touched her hair...which was jet black rather than brown.

Jang Uk silently nodded to confirm her guess. 

"Yes, Mu-Deok's body transformed into yours."

It was only when he said that that Cho Yeong realized that she could no longer sense Jin Bu-Yeon in the back of her mind.

"Why can't I feel Jin Bu-Yeon's soul anymore?"

"Because her soul isn't here," someone replied at the door.

It was Master Lee.

Cho Yeong tensed up, feeling vulnerable in her weakened state, but Jang Uk gently patted her arm in reassurance.

"He's not going to hurt you. I told him everything."

"Everything?" Yeong repeated, displeased. "Jin Bu-Yeon forbade you to tell him about her!"

"Well, she's not here to complain about it, is she?"

Yeong sighed in exasperation, but Jang Uk defended his decision.

"I had to tell Master Lee everything so he would understand what was happening to you! No one here in Sejukwon knows that you are here, only Heo Yun-Ok. It's a miracle that Master Lee arrived at the right time!"

"Actually, Heo Yeom called me days ago to help him save Seo Yul," the old mage specified. "I just arrived today."

"You can cure Yul?"

Master Lee shook his head.

"There is no cure for that blood parasite, so we have to let Seo Yul die. Only then can Heo Yeom surgically remove the parasite, and I can cleanse Seo Yul's body of any remaining trace of sorcery. Once that's done, Jang Uk can revive him with the ice stone. I thought that it would take him weeks to train, but Jin Bu-Yeon already taught him how to unlock the ice stone powers. It will be easy for him to learn the reviving spell."

Both Jang Uk and Cho Yeong sighed in relief knowing that their friend could be saved. Jin Bu-Yeon had told them that it was possible, but it was even better to know the details of a feasible plan.

Then Yeong asked Master Lee with caution.

"What exactly happened to me, then? And what about Jin Bu-Yeon?"

"From Jang Uk's description of what happened in Cheonbugwan, my guess is that Jin Bu-Yeon used Hwansu to leave her body while he was performing a harmonizing spell."

Cho Yeong gasped.

"Hwansu? You're telling me that she mastered Hwansu...at twenty-eight years old?"

"All the hours that she spent meditating paid off," Jang Uk casually commented, nodding his head several times. "She's good at it, so she must have been training for years, right? Especially when she had nothing else to do back in Sari village."

Cho Yeong and Master Lee were both offended  by Jang Uk's mild reaction to Jin Bu-Yeon's prodigious achievement. They exchanged a look, thinking to each other 'he doesn't fully appreciate the amount of work and dedication required to achieve Hwansu.'

"But, wait, what harmonizing spell?" Cho Yeong asked Master Lee next. "You said that Jin Bu-Yeon used Hwansu while Jang Uk performed the harmonizing spell. Did you mean the healing spell?"

Master Lee tilted his head to the side and took a moment to think. Jang Uk had also called it a 'healing spell' too, which had originally confused the old mage.

"Someone like Jin Bu-Yeon should know that it is not an actual healing spell. No one here in Sejukwon would know about it...except for Heo Yeom, if he remembers my teachings. No, the spell that Jin Bu-Yeon taught Jang Uk is a harmonizing spell, a specialty of the priestesses in Jinyowon. The goal of a harmonizing spell is to have the body, soul and mind be sound and in balance. This helps optimize training, just like meditating and like suppressing one's sexual desire."

"Can we not talk about that again?" Jang Uk mumbled, clutching his chest and shivering at the memory of drinking Master Lee's tea.

"When Jin Bu-Yeon's soul left her own body, only Naksu's soul was left in it," Master Lee kept explaining. "Soul-shifting without using Hwansu causes an imbalance between the body and soul. The harmonizing spell rectified that imbalance by making Jin Bu-Yeon's body match Naksu's soul instead."

Cho Yeong's jaw went slack as she realized that Jin Bu-Yeon had planned their separation from the start. 

"I'm grateful to have my body back, but...why would she give away her own body in the first place?"

"I suspect that it is so that no one would be able to track her," Master Lee shared his guess.

"What do you mean?" Cho Yeong asked.

For the next minutes, she and Jang Uk listened in shock as Master Lee revealed the secret that Lady Jin had shared with him just a few days ago:

Jin Bu-Yeon had died in the womb, and Lady Jin had begged Jang Gang to revive her with the ice stone. But since Jin Bu-Yeon was never meant to live, she did not have a birth star. And without a birth star, she could not be tracked, not even through her Jin bloodline. That was the reason why Lady Jin couldn't find her all these years.

"But since Jin Bu-Yeon's body has been affected by the ice stone not just once, but twice, her body can be tracked by whoever possesses the ice stone."

"Oh," Jang Uk reacted in surprise at first, then he sighed in frustration.

If he gave the ice stone to the Crown Prince, then the Crown Prince could potentially use it to know where Cho Yeong was at any given moment.

"I am surprised that Jin Bu-Yeon used so much of her energy to protect your soul in the first place, Naksu," Master Lee told Cho Yeong. "Why would she help a shadow assassin?"

It was Jang Uk who answered the question:

"Master Lee, Jin Bu-Yeon told me that she could sense that Cho Yeong was a kindred spirit. She helped her out of compassion."

The older man lifted an eyebrow in skepticism.

"Somehow I highly doubt it. Naksu—"

"Her name is Cho Yeong," Jang Uk corrected him sternly.

Lee tilted his head as he looked the king's star straight in the eyes.

"Why are you being so defensive, Jang Uk?"

Jang Uk stood up and let go of Cho Yeong's hand to fully turn around and face the older mage.

"Because the name 'Naksu' will be on everyone's lips by the time the Unanimous Assembly gathers. If Dang-Gu learns that she's here, he will send people to arrest her! I suspect that Jin Mu is responsible for that. You said that you wouldn't harm her as long as she doesn't use her sword to kill people..."

"And I have kept my promise."

"But will you defend her if someone tries to kill her in front of you?"

Master Lee squinted his eyes at Jang Uk, and after a long moment of tense silence:

"It depends on her answer."

"What answer?"

"Why did Jin Bu-Yeon help you...Cho Yeong?" Master Lee asked her directly.

Cho Yeong hesitated before answering.

"I don't really buy the idea of Jin Bu-Yeon helping me out of compassion...every time she talked to me privately, she kept saying that powers like mine are meant to serve the greater good; that I should leave the path of destruction towards which Jin Mu pushed me and instead be a beacon of light for others. She gloated about being right when we looked at my birth star."

"Your birth star?" Master Lee repeated with interest. "What is particular about your birth star?"

"It is part of the king's constellation. It is right next to Jang Uk's...the second brightest star."

"You have the same birth star as Jin Seol-Ran, then, the way that Jang Uk's birth star is the same as Master Seo. You were meant to stand side by side all along."

Jang Uk was pleasantly surprised by the news, and he turned around to smile widely at Cho Yeong.

"Well, I didn't need to see our birth starts to know that! From the moment I saw the blue light in your eyes, I...ah, by the way, that blue light is gone."

"Just as Jin Bu-Yeon promised," Yeong whispered. "I am no longer a soul shifter..."

It had taken her months to make peace with the fact that she would live the rest of her years as Mu-Deok. Now, she had to get used to the idea of being herself again.

"I'm going to miss that blue light a bit," Jang Uk's comment made her squint her eyes.

"Is that the only thing you are going to miss about Mu-Deok? What about her face? You fell in love with her, not me."

Jang Uk chuckled while shaking his head, then sat back down next to her.

"Don't be ridiculous. It doesn't matter what you look like! It's your crazy personality that makes you who you are."

Yeong was about to slap his shoulder for calling her crazy so casually, but then she noticed that he looked exhausted. He had deep, dark circle under his eyes, which were bloodshot.

Knowing him, she guessed that he had watched over her all night without sleeping.

So, rather than hit him, she patted his back in a soothing rhythm.

"You are just as crazy as me," she joked before gently pulling him forward to lay his upper body on her lap.

It took him a mere minute to fall asleep. His fear of losing her had kept him going past his point of exhaustion. Now that she was safe, his mind finally allowed his body to collapse.

"Make sure that he wakes up in four hours," Master Lee instructed Cho Yeong. "Or maybe six hours. Heo Yeom needs to remove that parasite first, and the surgery will take time."

Cho Yeong nodded.

"Alright. And by the way, Master Lee... don't worry about what Jang Uk said. I don't need you or anyone else to protect me."

The old mage stared at her for a long moment.

"Not even Jang Uk? Who, by the way, you still call by his full name. You two have been through a lot together these past months and you are supposed to get married, so why do you still address him the same way you would an acquaintance?"

Cho Yeong immediately grew defensive.

"How is that any of your concerns? I can address my own fiancé however I want!"

"Your fiancé is the king's star," Master Lee reminded her in a stern voice. "Just like Master Seo. My master did so much for Daeho but ended up alone and heartbroken because Jin Seol-Ran refused to grow old with him. If you have the same birth star as Jin Seol-Ran—"

"I'm not Jin Seol-Ran," Yeong asserted, "and Jang Uk isn't Master Seo. If Master Seo Gyeong cared so much about Jin Seol-Ran, he shouldn't have given her a choice to decline his offer to use the ice stone! He should have used it himself to heal her, instead of wasting his time composing a pointless poem."

"While I agree that he should have healed her himself, I must disagree that 'Words From the Heart' is a pointless poem. It is a very important part of Master Seo's legacy."

"How so?"

"That is for Jang Uk to find out," the old mage declared in a cryptic way before leaving the infirmary room.

For several minutes, he debated going to see Jin Woo-Tak. If someone could track a powerful soul shifter like Jin Bu-Yeon, it was a Choi descendant trained in sorcery.

Master Lee needed to find Jin Bu-Yeon as he couldn't resolve a particular problem on his own. It was that problem that had kept him out of the capital for weeks, and he feared that it would turn into a disaster very soon if left unchecked. 

But using sorcery to track the heiress of Jinyowon sounded like another recipe for disaster, all the more when said heiress didn't want to be found.

"I cannot do this," Lee Cheol forbade himself. "The abuse of sorcery is what started all these problems. Maybe I don't need a priestess, maybe the second opinion of a level-headed mage will be enough."

He set out to find Park Jin in Jeongjingak, only to find out that Park Jin had been arrested. Park Dang-Gu was the new leader of Songrim, and the poor boy seemed overwhelmed by everything that had happened in the past few days. 

"When the Crown Prince comes to Sejukwon, I will convince him to release your uncle," Master Lee assured Dang-Gu. "I believe that it will be easy now that Jang Uk has struck a deal with him."

"Thank you, Master Lee!" Dang-Gu exclaimed, deeply grateful for the help.

"Where is your bride, by the way?" The old bachelor asked the newlywed. "Maybe a priestess of Jinyowon can help me, after all..."

Jang Uk knew that he was dreaming because there was no logical explanation for his standing in Jinyowon right next to Jin Bu-Yeon.

She was no longer dressed in Mu-Deok's rags. Instead she was wearing a proper priestess dress, and the scarf covering her eyes was embroidered with the Jin family's emblem.

The two of them were standing right outside the cave of relics, getting soaked by the rain of a raging lightning storm.

"There is a calamity coming after all," Jin Bu-Yeon announced in that calm and detached tone of hers as rain poured all over the place and started a flood.

"What?" Jang Uk reacted, utterly confused by this dream. 

"The heavens will not be satisfied even if my uncle pays for his sins," the priestess went on. "So many people allowed him to commit atrocious acts, whilst others stood by and did nothing...like me. I knew what he was capable of, yet I did nothing for years."

Thunder boomed loudly overhead, as if the skies agreed with her self-condamnation.

"Where did you go?" Jang Uk asked her. "Master Lee told us that you used Hwansu to shift your soul in another body. Is that true?"

"We will see each other very soon, king's star," she replied vaguely.

Jang Uk had to close his eyes when the wind changed direction and blew raindrops in his face...

...and when he opened them again, he was lying in an infirmary bed in Sejukwon.

"I hope this was just a stupid dream," he mumbled under his breath as he dragged himself to a sitting position.

"What stupid dream?" Someone asked to his right.

It was Heo Yun-Ok. She was carrying a tray of medicinal teas.

"What are you doing here?" Jang Uk questioned her as he got out of Cho Yeong's bed.

"Replacing the medicine that Naksu didn't take earlier."

"Where is she?" Jang Uk asked as he fondly looked back at her bed, realizing that she had moved him to lie down comfortably after he fell asleep.

"Naksu is taking a bath," Heo Yun-Ok informed him. "She looks much better now, so you should leave as soon as she takes this medicine. I won't help you after that. I cannot believe that I helped you hide her here in the first place! If my grandfather finds out that I let a monster stay—"

"She's not a monster!" Jang Uk immediately argued.

"She killed a lot of people!" Heo Yun-Ok countered. "Many were your own fellow mages! How can you stand to be with her? How can you love her at all?"

"I won't bother trying to explain because you just can't understand!"

The young healer gasped, offended.

"Are you calling me stupid?"

"No, I'm calling you privileged!" His response left her confused for several seconds.

"Me, privileged? How can you say that when I'm from a lesser noble family and you are a Jang?"

"Have you ever been barred from entering any place in your life?"

"Well, I haven't tried to go where I'm not supposed to be..."

"So you say while standing in Sejukwon? Ha! You are a skilled healer, yes, but you are no mage. You wouldn't be allowed here if you weren't Master Heo's grand-daughter."

"What is your point, Jang Uk?"

"My point is that you don't know how it feels to feel rejected by society! You don't know how it feels to have hatred and resentment as your sole motivations to beat the odds stacked against you! You don't know how it feels to grow up without parents, believing a lie about yourself, and going two entire decades before realizing that the elders who were supposed to protect and guide you actually controlled you to fulfill their own interests!"

Heo Yun-Ok frowned at Jang Uk.

"Is this the reason why you love Naksu? Because she experienced a painful childhood just like you?"

Neither she or Jang Uk noticed that Cho Yeong was just behind the door, waiting to hear Jang Uk's answer.

Deep down, the former assassin thought that she didn't deserve to be loved by anyone. A part of her worried that Jang Uk loved her for the wrong reason, that he got attached to her just because she helped him fulfill his goal of becoming a mage. She thought that he would have become devoted to anyone who had agreed to unlock his energy gate, she wasn't special. Her insecurity mostly stemmed from the fact that he had proposed to so many women before her, and every time it was in the hope of unsealing his gate of energy. 

Yeong wanted to believe his repeated words of reassurance that he only truly loved her, but it was hard for her. She didn't think that she was worth loving in the first place, she felt that she was just lucky that she found someone who cared enough about her to want to marry her. It was a much better fate than Jin Mu had wanted for her.

She blinked in surprise when she heard Jang Uk laugh inside the infirmary room.

"What's so funny?" Heo Yun-Ok asked him.

"Your reasoning is funny! Why would I love someone just because they understand my pain? If that were the case, I would have fallen in love with someone else a long time ago. A lot of people have been through tough times!"

"Then why do you love her?"

"I really don't have to explain myself to you, but I don't want you to misunderstand Yeong. Her name is Cho Yeong, not Naksu. I love her for many reasons: she is loyal, has a strong sense of integrity, she—"

"A strong sense of integrity? Are you kidding me? She's an assassin!"

"Jin Mu forced her to become one! He was her master ever since she was a little girl, so she obeyed his order out of loyalty. How could she have known any better?"

"Good people know the difference between right and wrong without needing anyone to tell them!"

"Well, Yeong has chosen to do good from the moment that Jin Mu no longer controlled her! If she were such a monster, she would have taken advantage of her secret identity to continue killing mages. She lived right here in Songrim for months, but did she do it?"

Heo Yun-Ok didn't have a pertinent counterargument, so she used a weak response:

"How would I know? She's a shadow assassin, she could have hurt people in secret..."

"She was a shadow assassin only for Jin Mu! If she had killed anyone after becoming Mu-Deok, she would have told me. She had many opportunities to betray me and she didn't take them, and that was after she warned me that she would betray me if it benefitted her!"

"She didn't betray you because it benefitted her in the long run! Now she's going to marry you!"

"If everything she did was for her long-term interest, then she would have chosen Yul over me!**"  Jang Uk blurted out.

"What?" Heo Yun-Ok gasped. "Are you saying that Young Master Yul knows Naksu...and he likes her too?"

"I didn't say that, you figured it out yourself," Jang Uk deadpanned.

Heo Yun-Ok huffed in annoyance, but forced herseld to ask more questions because now she feared for the safety of Seo Yul.

"How did Young Master Yul get entangled with Naksu? Why hasn't he said anything to my grandfather?"

Jang Uk pursed his lips in displeasure. He used to begrudgingly respect the name 'Naksu' but now he was annoyed that people called her that. It was much better when everyone thought of her as Mu-Deok, because at least then they knew that Mu-Deok was under his protection.

"Jang Uk?" Heo Yun-Ok prompted him again, and he decided to satisfy her curiosity. He owed her that much after she'd helped take care of Yeong.

"Yeong and Yul met before she became an assassin. He knew her as a person, not as Jin Mu's assassin. When Yul found out that Mu-Deok is Naksu, he helped keep her identity secret because he knows that she herself isn't evil. It's Jin Mu who wanted all those mages dead! And Yul knows Yeong like I do. He knows that she is strong—"

"Obviously, otherwise she couldn't have killed all those mages!"

"I'm not talking about her powers as a mage! That's the reason why I approached her, sure, but then I got to know her and I found out she is much more than her combat skills. She is strong mentally, her power of will is just admirable, she never gives up on her goal even when things get hard! She is strong, but she isn't cold. She likes to act tough, but she is kind and caring, although she likes to have time to herself once in a while. I wonder if it's because she grew up isolated? She is an awful liar, by the way, so I guess that makes her an honest person. And she is so brave..."

Heo Yun-Ok stared at Jang Uk, watched him smile and animatedly gesture with his hands and his spoke about his fiancée...and she lost the will to argue with him.

As much as she was disappointed to know he would never return her feelings, she was somehow relieved to learn that he wasn't being manipulated by Naksu. He sincerely cared about her, and he seemed to be happy by her side.

Yun-Ok still had some pride, however, so she refused to just stand there and listen to her crush sing praises about his fiancée.

When Heo Yun-Ok turned around to leave the infirmary room, she caught Naksu peeking from outside, her eyes wide and full of tears. 

"Why does she look shocked by what he said?" Yun-Ok mumbled to herself before clearing her throat loudly.

Naksu wiped her unshed tears and walked inside the room, acting like she hadn't heard anything.

"You are awake? Good!" She told Jang Uk when he turned around to smile at her. "We still have almost two hours before Master Lee calls on you, so we should eat."

"Not here!" Yun-Ok specified sternly before stomping out of the room.

Yeong watched her leave, hoping that she hadn't seen her moment of vulnerability. 

"It's fine if we don't eat here, we can just go next door to Jeongjingak," she then told Jang Uk. "I know my way to the kitchens there, obviously, and I won't get...what?"

Jang Uk was staring at her with a look she couldn't interpret. She refused to think that he was admiring her appearance since she felt that she looked terrible: her hair was still loose and damp, and she was now wearing the plain brown hanbok given to Sejukwon patients.

"Jang Uk!" She called out when he kept looking, making her struggle not to blush or cry.

She was still feeling emotional from hearing him say all those nice things about her to Heo Yun-Ok.

"Hmm? Yes, let's go eat, right...oh wait! Take your medicine first."

He gently took her by the arm and sat her down on the chair before handing her the tea.

Even after a good bath, Cho Yeong didn't feel her best, so she didn't refuse the tea this time. Sipping on it turned uncomfortable because Jang Uk stared at her the whole time, sitting on her sick bed right across from the chair.

"What's wrong with you?" She grumbled before emptying the cup and shoving it in his hand.

He dutifully put the cup away and responded:

"Nothing is wrong, I just think that you're beautiful."

He said so casually that it took Cho Yeong's mind several seconds to register the words.

"I...wh-what...alright, thank you?"

Jang chuckled then stood up from the bed.

"Why are you thanking me? I didn't give you your good looks, your parents did."

It was a simple compliment, but after hearing him passionately defend her character just a few minutes ago, Yeong couldn't contain herself anymore.

She let her tears of gratitude fall, making Uk panic a bit.

"What's wrong? Are you feeling worse?"

She shook her head but started sobbing in earnest. Although he was confused by her reaction, he decided to just sit back down on the bed and drag her with him so he could hold her in his arms. He gently patted her back as he rocked back and forth to soothe her.

"It's okay," he whispered when she calmed down, and leaned back so he could gently hold her face with both hands.

After giving her a reassuring smile, he brushed his thumbs accross her cheekbones to wipe away the remnant of her tears.

"As long as we're together, everything will be okay," he promised.

Yeong nodded, and directed her eyes away from his tender gaze because it was making her want to kiss him.

Then she realized how illogical it was for her to fight the urge to kiss her own future husband. After taking a calming breath, she forced herself to stare right back at him.

"Jang Uk," she said his full name...which wasn't truly his full name, she belatedly realized.

Master Lee's earlier reprimand about her calling her own fiancé by his full name made some sense now. She decided that she should just call Uk by his first name, as it was the name given by his mother. The identity of his father could be argued, but no one could deny that Lady Do-Hwa was his real mother.

"What is it?" Uk asked Yeong, his eyes full of concern.

She leaned towards him, meaning to just drop a soft peck on his lips. She smiled at the quiet sound of surprise that he made, but he quickly recovered and made her moan when he deepened the kiss.

At first that kiss was a shared expression of their relief. For days, they had lived with the fear that she would die because of Jin Mu. They both deeply appreciated Jin Bu-Yeon coming to the rescue.

Jin Bu-Yeon had done more than rescue Cho Yeong's soul: she had given her body back. And now kissing Jang Uk felt different for Cho Yeong since she was in her own body this time.

Even with her improved stamina, she needed to come up for air, so she reluctantly parted her lips from her fiancé's and leaned back to get some space to breathe.

"Yeong-a," Uk whined in protest and chased her lips with his eyes still closed, but she turned her head to the side to catch her breath.

She gasped in shock and shivered in pleasure when he simply started kissing her neck instead.

During the hours he had spent watching her demonstrate the proper form of Tansu, he had fantasized about being able to touch her in the physical world. At the time, he had thought that he would never be able to do that, that he would have to live with Mu-Deok for the rest of his life...which had been fine, all he'd wanted was for her to be safe!

But now that she had her own body again, he wasn't going to miss this first opportunity to fulfill his fantasy. He sighed in contentment at the sound of her real voice, and his arousal skyrocketed upon hearing the little whimpers of pleasure she made in reaction to his kisses and caresses.

Although Cho Yeong had no prior experience of having a lover, she didn't shy away when Jang Uk's hands untied her hanbok and slipped past the thin layers to reach her bare skin. Instead, she used one of her own hands to grab his chin and direct his lips back to hers.

Once they went back to kissing, she made herself more comfortable by straddling him on the bed. From there it was easy for her to unfasten the ties of his clothes. Her boldness was partly fueled by the knowledge that it was her training that had made his body stronger than when she first met him.

He was faster and more agile now, and she could no longer take him down by surprise the way that she could have killed him with that crab leg.

Their touches grew more frantic and they moved in tandem to get even more comfortable on the bed.

They completely forgot where they were, which is why they were caught unaware by Park Dang-Gu. The new leader of Songrim walked inside the infirmary room without knocking or announcing himself.

"Jang Uk! I'm sorry, but you need to—what in the name of the stars! Jang Uk!!!"

Cho Yeong quickly hopped off Jang Uk's body and off the bed, then had to immediately sit down on the chair because her knees were wobbly. She fixed her appearance while Jang Uk dumbly stared at his friend.

"W-what...what are you doing here, Dang-Gu-ya? Is Yul..."

"Forget about Yul for a second!" The young Lord Park shouted as he shook an accusing finger at his friend. "How could you do this to Mu-Deok, huh?!"

"Huh?" Uk reacted, confused.

It took him a moment to realize that, from Dang-Gu's perspective, he had been caught kissing and touching a woman who wasn't his fiancée.

"I know that Mu-Deok is Naksu," Dang-Gu said, "but that's not a reason to cheat on her, Uk-a! She went through so much just to be with you, and you ditched her at the first sign of trouble? I thought that you had changed from your old misguided ways!"

Then Dang-Gu turned towards the black-haired woman that he didn't recognize.

"And you, miss! Even if you have no decency, you should at least fear for your life! His fiancée is Naksu! Nak. Su! The shadow assassin!"

Now that she had the time to gather her wits, Cho Yeong was calm enough to correct the new leader of Songrim:

"Park Dang-Gu, I am Naksu," she informed him. 

"Her real name is Cho Yeong," Jang Uk specified.

At first Jang Uk's friend wouldn't believe it, so Yeong put on a little act to make him recognize her: she tied her hair up in a soldier's bun and moved to lie down on the bed. As soon as she closed her eyes, Dang-Gu remembered seeing her dead body in the secret chamber.

"H-how's this possible!?" His question prompted Jang Uk to tell him everything, even the part about Jin Bu-Yeon.

Chapter Text

While Jang Uk was recounting the events of the past few days, Park Dang-Gu felt a headache start at the back of his skull.

He had just started leading Songrim, but he felt tired to his bones as if he'd done it for a lifetime. Too much had happened in the past week alone!

His uncle's arrest had seemed like the worst thing that could happen, but then he had heard the rumor that Mu-Deok was Naksu, which meant that Uk had betrayed all of Songrim by hiding her and deciding to marry her.

As if that had not been enough, Master Heo had then shared the awful news that Yul was dying!

At least last night, Master Lee had assured Dang-Gu that Yul could be saved...but the very next minute, Master Lee had told Dang-Gu about the unnatural floods happening in the eastern region.

Natural disasters such as those floods could only have one explanation—the gods were punishing Daeho! 

Last night, Dang-Gu had believed that this divine punishment was unexpected and unfair. But now that he was listening to Jang Uk list all of Jin Mu's evil deeds, everything made sense.

"The heavens are punishing everyone for allowing Jin Mu to defy their will," the young Lord Park whispered to himself, recalling his uncle's admission:

"I should have killed him when I still could!"

He let Uk talk some more, until he heard of Uk's deal with the Crown Prince.

"You cannot be serious, Uk-a!" He exclaimed. "Why in the world would you strike such a deal with the Crown Prince?"

"Because he's on our side!" Jang Uk defended his decision. "He promised to issue a pardon for Yeong."

"You can issue a pardon yourself, as the rightful king of Daeho! My uncle said that only you can—"

"I don't want to be king!" Jang Uk's declaration left Park Dang-Gu stunned for an entire minute.

After the silence grew uncomfortable, Dang-Gu laughed, so loudly and so hard that it made his headache worse.

"W-what's so funny?" Jang Uk asked him when Dang-Gu finally calmed down.

Dang-Gu massaged his temples before speaking up, his jovial expression quickly morphing into a serious one.

"This is how Jin Mu managed to ruin so many lives."

Jang Uk frowned at him.

"What do you mean?"

"The people who could stop him—Lord Jang Gang, my uncle, Cho-Yeon's mother, even General Seo...they all had the means to stop Jin Mu, but they did nothing!" Dang-Gu elaborated, anger slowly creeping in his voice. 

He threw his arms in the air.

"And look where their inaction led us! The heavens are going to punish us all with the floods! But how is it fair to us, huh? It's not like we could have stopped Jin Mu and Shaman Choi from using the ice stone!"

"Wait, what?!" Jang Uk reacted, shocked.

Cho Yeong was equally shocked but she remained quiet, her wide eyes trained on Park Dang-Gu.

The young leader visibly winced.

He hadn't meant to blurt out the terrible news so carelessly. Master Lee had asked him not to tell Jang Uk about the floods until Yul was revived.

"What do you mean by the heavens are going to punish us all with the floods?" Jang Uk asked.

The leader of Songrim looked back and forth between the secret king's star and the chosen Gwanju.

"Master Lee will tell you later."

"So it wasn't a stupid dream, after all?" Uk said to himself, but loudly enough for Yeong to hear him.

"What are you talking about? What stupid dream?"

At first Jang Uk wasn't sure that his dream was worth sharing, but considering what he'd just heard Park Dang-Gu say, he guessed that it was important.

"I saw Jin Bu-Yeon in a dream—well, no, it was a vision, I suppose," he told both his fiancée and friend, running a hand through his hair as he tried to recall the details of said vision. "We were standing in Jinyowon, and it was raining so hard that the whole place was flooding. Jin Bu-Yeon said...she said that there is a calamity coming."

He locked eyes with Dang-Gu before adding:

"According to her, the calamity is a punishment from the heavens, against the people who did nothing to stop Jin Mu from committing his evil deeds."

"The king's star is supposed to save Daeho from this kind of calamity," Park Dang-Gu reminded Jang Uk. "But you plan to give the ice stone to the Crown Prince, so he can pretend to be the king's star...do you realize how insane that is, Uk-a?"

Now that he Jang Uk had the time to think, he could admit to himself that his plan was greatly flawed. But there was a reason why he didn't want to be the king's star.

"If I become the king's star, the Unanimous Assembly will consider the Crown Prince a fraud."

"He is a fraud! He is neither the king's star nor the rightful heir to the throne. You are!"

"But he was raised to believe that he would become king!" Jang Uk argued. "I know how it feels to grow up believing a lie, and I know how much the truth hurts, so how could I take away something he has believed to be his birthright all along? Also, I'm the one who originally asked him to pretend to be the king's star!"

"You didn't know about your destiny at the time," Dang-Gu countered. "You are in your right to change your mind now that you know who you are! You cannot just walk away from the responsibilities given to you by the heavens themselves, especially when a calamity threatens all of Daeho!"

Jang Uk closed his hands into tight fists as he exchanged a heavy look with his childhood friend. Never in his life had he expected Park Dang-Gu to corner him in this fashion. Of all the people he knew, Dang-Gu had been the only one who tolerated his rebellious behavior.

How things had changed.

"How can this be the right thing to do?" Uk questioned. "Claiming the throne and the title of king's star at the same time? No one should have that much power! I don't want that kind of power!"

"It is exactly because you don't want it that you are the best suited to wield it," Master Lee declared as he walked inside the infirmary room.

The three young mages turned their attention to him, and he pointed the top of his staff over his shoulder.

"The Crown Prince is at the gates," he informed Park Dang-Gu. "I promised to negotiate Park Jin's release, but the guards won't let me out or let the Crown Prince in."

"They are following my orders," Dang-Gu explained. "I didn’t know the exact time when Uk would revive Yul, so I put Songrim on lockdown the entire morning. I thought it best to put up our barriers so that no one outside could feel the powers of the ice stone...by no one, I mean the members of the Unanimous Assembly, Jin Mu, and Lady Jin."

"That is a prudent measure, yes," Master Lee commented with a nod of approval. "But I promised you that I would negotiate Park Jin's release with the Crown Prince..."

"There is no need for you to do that, Master Lee. Jang Uk will do it himself."

"What?" Jang Uk in question startled, taken by surprise.

"That is the least you can do for Songrim," Dang-Gu declared, looking back and forth between Jang Uk and Cho Yeong. "I understand why you took Naksu as your master, you were desperate at the time, but you still betrayed us all, Uk-a. You owe us an act of good will, and freeing my uncle would be one."

"We definitely need Park Jin's help to address the problem of the floods," Master Lee said, gauging the reactions of Jang Uk and Cho Yeong to guess if Park Dang-Gu had told them about the calamity.

"Why didn't you tell us about the floods earlier,  Master Lee?" Cho Yeong's question confirmed that they now knew.

"To prevent Jang Uk from being distracted by such worrying news," the older mage justified his decision. "He ought to focus on saving Seo Yul first, because General Seo is likely to arrive in the capital before the refugees from the eastern region. The general must be pacified first, otherwise a civil war will be our next immediate problem. Park Jin would actually be the best candidate to mediate negotiations between Jang Uk and the general. I would not recommend a direct interaction, Jang Uk. Remember that your father was his enemy."

"Which father?" Jang Uk asked, then answered his own question. "It doesn't matter, I suppose. General Seo hated them both."

"After pacifying General Seo, the next matter at hand will be dismantling Jin Mu's group of soul-shifters," Dang-Gu reminded the others.

He crossed his arms over his chest then looked at Cho Yeong.

"Normally I would refuse your help, but you worked for Jin Mu for years and helped him build that group. And you were a soul-shifter yourself. That makes you the most qualified to eliminate the threat that they represent. I just need to convince the others that working with you does not go against our values."

"How does it not go against your values?" The former assassin asked defiantly.

"Yeong-a, shhh!" Jang Uk tried to shush her, worried that she would upset Park Dang-Gu.

But the young leader of Songrim remained calm as he justified his decision.

"Everyone deserves a chance to atone for their mistakes. You're not the one who wanted to kill all these mages; Jin Mu was the one who gave you the order to do that, and he manipulated you into hating us all. Jin Mu is the real enemy, and the only way to honor our fallen comrades is to make sure that Jin Mu pays for his sins. You are the best ally we could ask for to achieve this goal, especially since you are a two-for-one deal with the king's star himself...am I wrong, Jang Uk? You're going to help us too, aren't you?"

"Yes of course," Uk agreed with two firm nods, smiling. "Thank you, Dang-Gu-ya!"

"Don't thank me yet, first come with me and tell the Crown Prince that you are keeping the ice stone...and claiming the throne!"

Jang Uk grimaced, then threw a look at Cho Yeong.

They had come up with the plan to strike a deal with the Crown Prince together, but that plan was crumbling right before their eyes.

"I would like to have a moment alone with Yeong," Uk requested.

"Do as you wish," Master Lee agreed. "Just remember that Heo Yeom will be done with the surgery in about an hour, and you need some time to practice the reviving spell."

Jang Uk nodded in acknowledgement.

Master Lee walked out of the room. Park Dang-Gu was about to follow, but he stopped and looked at the young couple.

He had to remind himself that those two had been through a rough night and a rough couple of days—no, in truth, they had lived with the threat of being discovered for more than half a year now. It was no wonder that they had decided to leave the capital.

Dang-Gu stopped forcing himself to behave like a leader and allowed his compassionate side as a friend to come out.

"I'm sorry that it's come to this," he told his friends. "I know that you two wished to just get married and leave the capital to build a new life. But it's not possible anymore. We have to fix the mistakes of our elders, otherwise things will get worse, and for all of us this time. Please, Uk-a,  you must do what is right."

Jang Uk didn't say anything, but the serious expression on his face was enough of a reassurance for Park Dang-Gu.

When the young leader of Songrim left the infirmary room, the king's star let out a loud sigh of frustration.

"I'm so sorry, Yeong-a," he said as he stepped closer to her and took her hand in his. "I should have thought of a better plan."

"We both knew that it wasn't the best of plans, that's why we didn't share it with Jin Bu-Yeon," she pointed out.

"Speaking of Jin Bu-Yeon, I think that we need to find her. If someone can help with this flood problem, it's her...or Lady Jin, but I wouldn't count on Lady Jin. And I wouldn't dare to ask help from Cho-Yeon. Dang-Gu would kill me."

Cho Yeong looked down at their linked hands then tilted her head as she thought about a solution.

"I don't think that we need Jin Bu-Yeon's help," she concluded. "I think that Jin Bu-Yeon already prepared us for this calamity." 

"Wait, what? How do you know that?"

"What spell did you spend most of the past few days practicing?" Yeong's question confused him at first.

"The healing spell?"

"No, before that."

"I couldn't practice anything else, I wasted three days just trying to get access to the ice stone...wait a minute! To get access to the ice stone, I needed to refine my technique for Tansu, so that I could move a large quantity of water..."

"Exactly. And during those three days, Jin Bu-Yeon taught me constellation magic, so that I could enhance your connection to the ice stone. If handling all the water of the flood is too hard for you, I can help."

"And yet, you don't want the title of Gwanju," Jang Uk commented teasingly.

"Just like you don't want the title of king's star," Cho Yeong threw back at him.

Uk pinched his lips, then changed his hold on her hand, interlacing their fingers. He stared at the shape of her fingernails for a few seconds, noting how different they looked from Mu-Deok's fingernails.

"Being the king's star wouldn't be so bad," he quietly admitted. "But being king? That means..."

He looked up to stare into Yeong's eyes, feeling apologetic.

"That you will be the queen. We will both be confined to the palace for most of our lives, sharing a vast roof with hundreds of people who will pretend to be loyal servants. Are you alright with that?"

Yeong searched his eyes and was shocked to realize that he was seriously considering their future as king and queen of Daeho. The notion was ridiculous to her since she had always thought of herself as one of the lowest amongst the people.

Until she had met Jang Uk, her life had meant nothing outside of her revenge for her father. All the powers she had gained, all the brutal training sessions she had gone through, all the people she had assassinated...back then, everything that Jin Mu had told her to do had made sense in the grand scheme of ruining the people who had ruined her family.

But being the queen would mean the total opposite: she would live for the sake of other people, especially the weak and pititful people who couldn't help themselves.

"No," Yeong answered honestly. "I don't want that kind of life."

To her surprise, Uk smiled at her, looking relieved.

"Me neither. I just wanted to make sure that you hadn't changed your mind after hearing Dang-Gu's inspiring speech."

"Park Dang-Gu will be furious when he finds out that you don't plan on breaking our deal with the Crown Prince."

"Technically, I plan on changing our deal with the Crown Prince. He can become king and lie about being the king's star until his coronation. The Unanimous Assembly won't be able to do anything after that, even if they learn that I'm the one who can control the ice stone."

"Are you sure that it's a good idea to lie about the identity of the king's star? Jin Bu-Yeon would say that it's not the right thing to do and that the heavens will punish us all for your mistake. Also, the Crown Prince might not agree to the new deal since you will break your promise to give him the ice stone."

"Once the Crown Prince learns about the floods, I'm sure that he will agree to the deal. What use would it be for him to be king if his subjects all drown beforehand? I'm sure that petitions from the eastern region are being brought to the royal family as we speak. This deal will be mutually beneficial."

Cho Yeong had a bad feeling about this new deal, but she knew that it was the best plan to satisfy all parties.

So she nodded her head and let go of Jang Uk's hand. He was about to protest the loss of skin contact when his stomach growled.

"I will get you some food," she assured him. "It's time to prepare lunch, so the servants in the kitchens will be too busy to notice me..."

She looked down at herself and pursed her lips.

"...as long as I wear a proper uniform, that is. I'm sure that my old one is still at the servants quarters."

"Alright, thank you," Uk said as he leaned down to press a gentle kiss on her forehead and tugged on her hair to unravel the high bun.

"W-what...what are you doing?" Yeong stuttered, her heartbeat picking up the pace as he moved to kiss her cheek next, all the while running one hand in her hair. 

Her face went red from embarrassment and arousal when he slipped his other hand under her clothes to touch her skin.

"Jang Uk, stop it!" She yelled at him as she pushed him away. 

He grinned at her with a mischievous look while inspecting her appearance with satisfaction.

"Alright, now you can go, you don't look anything like the scary Naksu."

"W-what?"

"Dang-Gu recognized you when you put your hair up in that soldier's bun. That means that other mages might recognize you too with that hairstyle and your serious face. But now you just look like a pretty woman who got caught with her lover."

"You're unbelievable!" Yeong scolded him as she started plaiting her hair. "Couldn't you just tell me instead of..."

She didn't finish the sentence, feeling her cheeks burn from embarrassment all over again.

"Instead of?" He teased her.

"Get out!" She yelled at him and even bent over to pretend to remove one of her slippers.

"Alright, alright! Be careful!" Jang Uk replied as he rushed out of the infirmary room.

"That's my line," she quietly said as she forced her heart to calm down.  

Jang Uk was so reckless, and always trying to get under people's skin, so she feared that he would offend the Crown Prince in more ways than one.

"Park Dang-Gu will be with them," Cho Yeong reminded herself, but it didn't make her worry any less.

"So you are going back on your word?" Go Won questioned Jang Uk after hearing the new plan.

He and Jang Uk were sitting down in Park Dang-Gu's office, while Park Dang-Gu himself was standing by the window.

"Last night you promised to give me the ice stone after healing my cousin!" The Crown Prince reminded the king's star.

"Last night I didn't know about the floods!" Jang Uk pointed out. "I need the ice stone to solve that problem even after I revive Yul."

"You can solve the problem of the floods?" Park Dang-Gu asked, surprised. "Master Lee said that we need a priestess of Jinyowon for that."

"Well, I'm the king's star and I was trained by a powerful priestess of Jinyowon, so I think I could manage." 

"Are you sure that you can handle it, Uk-a? This isn't the same as taking down the ice stone barrier. We are talking about floods!"

"Don't worry, Dang-Gu-ya! If it's too much, Yeong can help me. Jin Bu-Yeon trained her in constellation magic."

"So she can enhance your connection to the ice stone," the Crown Prince commented, recalling Jin Mu's explanation.

He also recalled Jin Mu's threat to ruin his life and have Cho Yeong executed, unless he gave the ice stone to Jin Mu before General Seo arrived in the capital.

Go Won planned to do as Jin Mu asked, but only until he became king. Jin Mu wanted him to issue him a pardon, but Go Won plan to have him arrested and executed on the spot.

And once Jin Mu was out of the picture, the Crown Prince planned to issue the pardon for Cho Yeong and to name her his Gwanju. She might not like it, but she wouldn't have any choice in the matter, especially if he threatened to arrest Jang Uk.

Deep down, the Crown Prince knew that cooperating with Jin Mu even temporarily was risky and simply not the right thing to do. And yet, he didn't feel conflicted about his decision. Why should he openly make himself Jin Mu's enemy? Jin Mu had manipulated and defeated the likes of Jang Gang, Park Jin and Lady Jin! Confronting him directly didn't work, so the best course of action was to stab him in the back. That was all he deserved, as far as Go Won was concerned.

But to execute his plan, he first needed to force Jang Uk into giving him the ice stone. Go Won knew exactly how to do that.

"Does Cho Yeong even know that I saved her life?" He asked Jang Uk. "If I hadn't helped you leave Cheonbugwan last night, she might have died. She owes me her life."

Jang Uk almost argued that he could have taken care of Jin Mu himself by using the ice stone, but he decided not to. Instead, he estimated that now was a good time to make things clear to the Crown Prince about Cho Yeong.

"Yeong-a knows that you helped me save her, Your Highness, but she does not owe you anything. I am the one who owes you an invitation to our wedding! We wouldn't be be able to marry at all if I hadn't brought her to Sejukwon in time."

"You cannot marry her!" the Crown Prince blurted out without thinking, rising on his feet. "I forbid it!"

"I beg your pardon?" Jang Uk reacted, standing up as well.

Park Dang-Gu looked back and forth between the two men, his eyes going wide as he finally understood that the Crown Prince liked Cho Yeong too.

"I said that you cannot marry Cho Yeong," Go Won repeated more quietly, feeling embarrassed by his outburst when he saw Park Dang-Gu staring at him. "At least, not before I issue her pardon and name her the new Gwanju."

"Yeong doesn't want to be the new Gwanju," Jang Uk informed him. "Once we fix the problem of the floods, we will leave the capital and get married."

"This isn't what we had agreed upon, Jang Uk! You cannot just leave the capital!"

"I can do whatever I want, I am a free man!"

"But Cho Yeong is a criminal, and it is my right to stop her from escaping justice!"

"No, you have no right to decide Cho Yeong's fate," Dang-Gu chimed in. "You are not the king."

"Not yet, but..."

"But what?" Both Jang Uk and Park Dang-Gu asked impatiently.

"My father plans to abdicate during the meeting with the Unanimous Assembly," Go Won lied.

That lie was Jin Mu's idea, so that the Crown Prince could ascend the throne immediately and issue him a pardon.

Go Won decided to make the lie a bit more believable so that Jang Uk wouldn't suspect anything:

"My father is scared of being haunted by King Seong's ghost if he doesn't respect his will."

"Wouldn't King Seong's ghost have haunted him twenty years ago when he ascended the throne?" Jang Uk joked, but Go Won didn't laugh.

"You cannot go back on your promise, Jang Uk! You said that I would be the king and the king's star!"

"How can you try to usurp the powers of the heavens knowing that they will punish you for it,  huh?" Dang-Gu questioned the Crown Prince, pointing an accusing finger at him. "You are just like your master Jin Mu! You covet powers that are not yours!"

"How dare you speak to me with such insolence, Park Dang-Gu!" Go Won yelled back. "I am the Crown Prince!"

"This is Songrim, not the royal palace! I am the ultimate authority here!"

"You are nothing but the nephew of a traitor!" The Crown Prince argued while glowering at him.

"Oh, so my uncle is a traitor? Well then, that means that you acknowledge King Seong's will!  Therefore, you are not the Crown Prince! Jang Uk is the true heir to the throne!"

"Enough!" Jang Uk shouted.

The other two young men went quiet, but kept glaring at each other.

Jang Uk sighed loudly in exasperation. Since when was he the reasonable one in the group?

"Your Highness, I sincerely apologize for changing the clauses of our arrangement, but we must think of the greater good. Only I can stop the floods—"

"No, Park Dang-Gu said that a priestess of Jinyowon can do it too! Lady Jin could resolve this problem."

"Good luck convincing her," Dang-Gu and Uk said at the same time.

"When I become king, I can simply order her to do it. And to become king, Jang Uk must swear that he will never claim the throne and that he will get rid of King Seong's will..."

"Fine, I don't want the throne!" Jang Uk agreed.

"...and he must give me the ice stone," the Crown Prince finished.

"No deal!" Dang-Gu exclaimed. "Only the king's star can yield the powers of the ice stone!"

"I don't want to use the ice stone," Go Won told the truth, but lied by omission.

Jin Mu was the one who wanted to use the ice stone, but Won planned to stop him at the last moment.

"I just want it as a guarantee that Jang Uk won't break his promise again," Won told a partial truth. "After I ascend the throne and after Lady Jin stops the floods by my command, I will return the ice stone to Jinwoyon. That's where it is supposed to be, locked with the other relics."

"You expect us to believe that you won't keep the ice stone for yourself?" Park Dang-Gu reacted disapprovingly.

"I expect you to believe that I am a man of my word! Unlike Jang Uk here, I have never broken a promise, have I?"

The leader of Songrim and the king's star couldn't argue against this point. However difficult the Crown Prince could be, he always did what he promised to do.

But Jang Uk still had one concern, so he told the Crown Prince.

"I'll give you the ice stone if you promise to leave Yeong alone. You will issue her pardon then let her leave the capital with me."

"Uk-a!" Park Dang-Gu shouted at him, but Uk ignored him.

He stared at the Crown Prince, whose jaw was tense from anger.

"Fine," the Crown Prince agreed with a curt nod, although he still planned to ask Cho Yeong to become his Gwanju.

If she refused, he would let her go...maybe. He just had to agree now so that he could become king and issue her pardon. Protecting her was the most pressing matter now.

Jang Uk nodded back. The solemnity of the moment was ruined by his stomach growling.

"I need to eat before reviving Yul," he announced.

"This is a bad idea, Uk-a, you shouldn't give him the ice stone!" Park Dang-Gu warned him, but Jang Uk didn't care.

He had never listened to the leader of Songrim, it didn't matter that it was his friend this time.

Chapter Text

"His Highness the Crown Prince!" The royal page announced as the heavy doors of the throne room were pulled open.

Go Won walked inside with his head held high. He entered the room and walked straight ahead to meet his parents, not waiting for his eyes to adjust to the low lighting.

He had never liked the architecture of this room, so he made a mental note to renovate it once he became king. 

Two guards followed half a step behind the Crown Prince, one of them holding a thick wooden box. It had been spelled by Master Lee to contain the powers of the ice stone. Although the magical energy did not spill out of the box, it was quite obvious that the box contained a precious item.

"Is that the ice stone?" The queen asked excitedly when she spotted the box, her face half-hidden by a light veil.

Go Won did not immediately replied. He was too shocked from seeing Jin Mu stand behind his seated mother.

"Well, son? What is it?" The king asked in turn, and the Crown Prince took the box from the guard before presenting it with a respectful bow.

"Yes, Father, Mother, this is the ice stone. Jang Uk handed it to me after renouncing his claim to the throne."

"Truly?" King Go Soon asked, gripping tightly the armrests of the throne in question.

His eyes sparkled with relief that his legitimacy would not be questioned by the Unanimous Assembly.

"Yes, Father," Go Won confirmed. "I saw Jang Uk burn King Go Seong's will with my own two eyes."

"This is great!" Seo Ha-Sun declared cheerfully, and waved her hand at Jin Mu. "What are you waiting for? Take the ice stone and make me a soul ejector! I cannot wait to get out of this ugly and sickly body."

Go Won straightened up and wrapped his arm protectively around the box.

"Forgive me, Mother, but that will not be possible," he regretfully announced. "When Jang Uk handed me the ice stone, he imposed a few conditions. One of them is that no one should use the Alchemy of Souls."

"I am not just anyone!" Ha-Sun shouted at her son. "I am the queen of Daeho, and as my son you should endeavor to help me!"

"Mother, this is not—" The Crown Prince tried to argue, but she cut him off.

"Have you not heard? Your uncle's cavalry has almost reached the city gates! If he sees me in this state, he will repudiate me! Worse, he will question your parentage! Is this what you want? After everything that you have been through, will you give up on your title? On your future?"

Go Won knew that his mother was genuinely distressed about being stuck in Shaman Choi's sickly body, but he also knew that the words she had just spoken came from Jin Mu.

Jin Mu should be hiding for fear of being arrested. But instead, he was standing tall in the throne room. As if none of the incidents with the Choi siblings and Jang Gang's returned had happened!

This meant that, during the time the Crown Prince was in Songrim negotiating with Jang Uk  the Assistant Gwanju had managed to return in the good graces of the king and queen.

The Crown Prince decided to hold his peace for now, and he resumed his report on his agreement with Jang Uk:

"Jang Uk's second condition is that we free Park Jin. We arrested him because he kept King Seong's will secret. We can no longer justify this arrest."

King Go Soon hummed in reflection.

"Yes, as long as Lord Park promises to take that secret to the grave, he should be released," he decided.

"No!" Both Go Ha-Sun and Jin Mu objected.

Go Won leveled a threatening look his former master. Jin Mu swallowed nervously before offering a justification to his objection:

"I propose that we wait to release Park Jin after the meeting with the Unanimous Assembly. Just to keep Jang Uk accountable for his promises."

"Yes, I agree!" The queen immediately supported his idea.

"That was not part of my agreement with Jang Uk," the Crown Prince calmly objected.

"But it is necessary to ensure Songrim's compliance!" His mother defended. "The new leader, Park Dang-Gu, isn't he a close friend to Jang Uk?"

"He is, but—"

"Then he cannot be trusted! We must use his uncle to keep him in line, at least until I acquire my new body! Don't you know that the mages of Songrim are intent on executing all soul shifters? If Park Dang-Gu learns about me taking a new body, he and Jang Uk will ask for my head!"

Go Won used two fingers of his free hand to smooth out the frown creasing his brow.

He was trying his best not to sound upset by his mother's schemes, mostly because he was convinced that she was influenced by Jin Mu.

The royal son tried to reason with the queen:

"Mother, wouldn't Uncle repudiate you anyway if he learned that you used the Alchemy of Souls? It is forbidden magic!" 

Seo Ha-Sun sat a little taller and grinned with satisfaction before sharing an unexpected news:

"My brother will not find out anything, since my new body looks almost identical to my real one! It has been years since I saw my brother, he will not notice the difference."

Both the king and the Crown Prince's eyes went wide as they stared at the queen.

Go Won recovered from the shock first as he made sense of his mother's words. 

"You found a lookalike? Where? How!?"

He threw a hard look at Jin Mu, convinced that the Assistant Gwanju was the one who had accomplished such a difficult task.

"That does not matter!" Ha-Sun declared, then turned towards the king.

She snatched the veil off her head and looked straight into her husband's eyes with her mismatched ones. She then pointed at her disfigured face.

"Don't you wish things could go back to normal?" She asked him in a pleading voice. "This is the only way for us to move forward! Once I have my body back and Won shows the ice stone to the Unanimous Assembly, we will finally be respected! None of these mages will dare to talk over us as if we don't matter!"

"I'm not sure," the king's indecisive words and tone made his wife and son sigh in disappointment.

Behind the queen's seat, Jin Mu rolled his eyes, exasperated with the weak king.

"My king, we cannot falter now," Ha-Sun went on, her voice firm with convinction. "Not only must we all look sure, but we must look strong and united, especially in front of my brother! Or else..."

She didn't finish her sentence, but she didn't need to. All present in the room, even the quiet guards, knew that General Seo was the greatest threat to the royal family's reign.

For a few seconds, King Soon looked back and forth between his wife and son. Eventually his gaze settled on his wife, and he meekly nodded before turning to Go Won.

"Your mother is right, my son. We must show a strong and united front to the Unanimous Assembly. If General Seo suspects that something is amiss, he might start another rebellion."

"Uncle swore his allegiance to our family!" The Crown Prince reminded both his father and mother. "He would never go back on his words!"

"But if he did go back on his words, who would stop him?" Jin Mu posed a rhetorical question. 

The answer was obvious, even to the quiet guards: if the General started another rebellion, no one would stop him from winning this time.

"Twenty-five years ago, it was Jang Gang who stopped General Seo," the king reminded his son. "But Jang Gang is dead. I do not have a powerful Gwanju to rely on."

The Crown Prince tensed up, remembering that he wished for Cho Yeong to become his Gwanju...but that would never happen if General Seo found out that she was the infamous shadow assassin Naksu. General Seo had no tolerance for criminals or forbidden magic. 

Still, Go Won believed that he could reason with his uncle if any conflict arose between the royal family and the Seo clan.

"Father," he spoke up with his head held high, "my uncle rebelled against the royal family twenty-five years ago because he believed that it had no future. King Seong was sickly and had no heir, his position threatened the stability of our nation. You are not in the same position as your brother because you have me. I am your son, and I am General Seo's nephew. Our families are united both by blood and honor!"

"My brother will deny your blood relation if he sees me in this body," the queen reiterated her point. "So you must allow Jin Mu to create a soul ejector for me to use the body of my lookalike!'

The point was valid, and thus the Crown Prince nodded his ascent.

He stared at Jin Mu, who smiled triumphantly before asking a question:

"Does Jang Uk only gave two conditions in exchange for the ice stone, Your Highness?"

That was Jin Mu's signal to the Crown Prince to execute his plan.

"No, Jang Uk has a third condition," Go Won confirmed.

His mother groaned plaintively, and she bent over her seat to hold her forehead.

"How dares that boy impose so many conditions on us? Who does he think he is?"

"He is the king's star, my queen," Go Soon reminded her.

"Not anymore!" She denied vehemently. "Now that we have the ice stone, my son is the king's star! His reign will never be questioned or contested!"

"Yes, you are correct, I forgot," the king commented with a relieved smile.

He turned back to his son and asked:

"What is Jang Uk's third condition?"

Jang Uk's third condition was absolute freedom and amnesty for him and Cho Yeong. It was a fair request, but Go Won did not wish to fulfill it. If he did, he would never see Cho Yeong again and could never make her his Gwanju.

Instead of voicing Jang Uk's wish, the Crown Prince used Jin Mu's idea to lie in Jang Uk's name: 

"Jang Uk wants me to ascend the throne as soon as possible...he wants you to abdicate as the king, Father."

The king looked shocked, but the queen smiled in satisfaction.

Jin Mu had already informed her that this would happen. She herself wanted her son to become king, so that he could protect her. If the truth of her using the Alchemy of Souls ever came to light, the Unanimous Assembly would put her on trial. Only the king could veto such decision, but her husband was too weak to oppose the votes of the Unanimous Assembly. Her son, however, was powerful and ambitious. He had inherited those traits from her, and she could not be more proud of him for seizing the opportunity to acquire the ice stone.

She herself had ambitious plans for the future, but she was going to wait until she got rid of Jin Mu before sharing those plans with her son. 

The night before the meeting

For the third time that morning, Park Jin inspected the magical barrier surrounding his cell. Breaking out of the royal dungeons would have been easy if that magical barrier hadn’t existed. Of course Park Jin would have never dared to escape in the first place, but it would have been easy.

The reason why this barrier was a problem for the former leader of the Songrim was that it was cast with constellation magic.

Very few people in Daeho had full mastery of that type of magic. Mages in Songrim only studied the theory of constellation magic in passing; most mages in Cheonbugwan only knew a few spells according to their respective tasks.

The priestesses of Jinyowon were the only ones who could claim to be somewhat proficiency in that ancient practice, as their training was more holistic than the training of mages.

Traditionally, only the Gwanju had access to the obscure books on constellation magic kept in Cheonbugwan. However, those obscure books were not enough to fully train the Gwanju. 

Jang Gang had been the most powerful Gwanju since the great chaos thanks to his former friendship with Jin Ho-Gyeong. Those two had been veey close when they were young, to the point that most nobles had expected them to marry. During their close years, they had trained together in order to become as powerful as they could ever be. That was how Jang Gang had mastered constellation magic.

Unfortunately, Gang had taught Jin Mu some of that magic, and now Jin Mu was using it to keep Park Jin confined to the dungeons.

Jin had never approved of Gang's decision to teach Mu, and for many years he had not even understood why the Gwanju would take the illegitimate Jin under his wing. 

But now Park Jin knew why Jang Gang had done it: because Jin Mu had the immense magical potential innate to his bloodline, which meant that he was powerful enough to help Gang conduct his experiments with the ice stone; but also, because Jin Mu would be too grateful for Jang Gang's teachings to report him to the Unanimous Assembly for practicing forbidden magic.

"If only you could see what you did, Gang-a," Jin talked out loud, hoping that his friend's spirit could hear him. "Jin Mu used everything you taught him for his own selfish interests, and now Jang Uk is the only one left to stop your perfiduous pupil!"

"Jang Uk cannot stop me," Jin Mu's voice resonated beyond the magical barrier.

Park Jin stood a bit straighter and leveled a murderous look at his approaching enemy...but his eyes quickly widened in shock at what Jin Mu was holding in his open palm.

A soul ejector.

"No!" The former leader of Songrim exclaimed, dread making his hands shake.

Jin Mu noted his reaction and smiled devilishly.

"It is reassuring to know that someone else wishes that Jang Gang could see the fruit of his work," the Assistant Gwanju stated as he slowly paced along the door of Park Jin's cell. "After all, my master is the one who put everything in motion. After two hundred years, he was the one who brought back the Alchemy of Souls."

After a few more steps, Jin Mu went still and stared Park Jin in the eyes.

"When Jang Gang told me that he was doing it all to save the king, I did not believe him, not at first. I thought it was just an excuse he meant to give the Unanimous Assembly if he were ever caught. I thought that his true goal was to become the king himself. After all, he was the most powerful mage in all of Daeho. He had defeated General Seo and earned the respect of all members of the Unanimous Assembly. His wife was the most beautiful of all the noblewomen, born to be queen! Surely, if he acquired the power of immortality, no one would oppose him if he claimed the throne for himself."

Jin Mu briefly closed his eyes and tightly closed his hand around the soul ejector. He took a deep breath and reopened his eyes before resuming:

"It was only when he decided to stop the experiments that I realized he was sincere. He had never meant to seize power from King Seong!"

"You realized that Jang Gang was not like you," Park Jin reiterated with a smile. "Although he was misguided into using forbidden magic, his intentions were noble. You, on the other hand, you have always been rotten to the core. Your soul is corrupted by evil, and you have spread that evil everywhere in the—"

"And there is nothing that you can do to stop me!" Jin Mu pointed out triumphantly. "You were so close to defeating me, Park Jin, so close! Do you even know why you lost our long game?"

"Because unlike you, I tried to follow the rules!" Lord Park argued, and Jin Mu cackled in response.

"The rules are for lesser people, Lord Park, not for powerful mages like you and me. And following the rules is not the reason why you lost the game. You lost because you didn’t use your trump card to your advantage."

"My trump card?" Park Jin echoed, confused.

"Jang Uk! He was the key to your success, but instead of training him you stunted his growth! You stupidly obeyed Jang Gang's command to keep King Seong's heir in the dark about his identity. The king's star, chosen by heavens themselves to wield the greatest powers known to mortals, and what did you do? You denied him his godly birthright!"

Park Jin glared at Jin Mu, but he did not argue the point.

It was true that he had been wrong to stop Jang Uk from becoming the king's star. Going against the wishes of the heavens had been foolish.

And yet, Jin had bet all his remaining hope on Jang Uk. The fact that Jin Mu was standing in front of him with proof that he had access to the ice stone...Park Jin's hopes were completely crushed now.

"Me, on the other hand, I carefully prepared my trump card," Jin Mu announced, and opened his hand once again to showcase the soul ejector. "I dedicated an entire decade to train him myself, but I learned from Jang Gang's mistake. I didn't teach my pupil everything I knew, otherwise he would have been able to stop me by now. He believes that he can get rid of me, that he can throw me aside the moment I am no longer useful to him. What he does not realize is that he is the one who is about to run out of his usefulness. I couldn't have stopped Jang Uk on my own, that's true, but now that he's done it for me, I can finally implement my plan to seize power."

Park Jin gasped when he guessed who Jin Mu's trump card was. The one he had prepared for ten years...

"The Crown Prince! All this time, your plan to seize power involved—"

"Using the Alchemy of Souls to claim the Crown Prince's body, yes," Jin Mu finally articulated his grand scheme. "I am a direct descendant of the great Jin Seol-Ran, and yet I was denied access to power for so long! My own sister would not acknowledge me. You and your predecessor rejected my application to Songrim. All the other powerful mages refused to teach me magic! I wasted years wandering without purpose, doing nothing of value until Jang Gang welcomed me in Cheonbugwan."

Jin Mu laughed once again, his satisfaction enhanced by the shock painted on Park Jin's face.

"But now I can reclaim the years that all of you nobles stole from me! You, Park Jin, were among those who voted against me becoming the new Gwanju when Jang Gang abandoned his post. I hated you for it then, but now I am grateful for the rejection. Had you not denied me the title of Gwanju, I would have never realized that I could simply aim for a higher title. That wretched Shaman Choi managed to become the queen, so it is only right that I become the king! I deserve nothing less than to rule you all!"

Park Jin couldn't believe what he had just heard. He had known for years that Jin Mu planned to control the royal family, but not to this extent!

"Have you no fear, Jin Mu?" The former leader of Songrim questioned the present Assistant Gwanju. "It is one thing to commit crimes against the laws of men, but to go against the laws of Gods? You were not born to be king. Challenging the will of the heavens will lead you to receiving divine punishment!"

"The heavens only punish those who abuse the power of the ice stone, and I don't plan to do it," Jin Mu declared as he lifted the soul ejector to eye level. "I have created a single soul ejector, this should not count. The Crown Prince believes that it is for his mother, and I will let him believe it until the very end. It is fortunate that I found that lookalike years ago."

"A lookalike?" Park Jin said, confused, but Jin Mu didn't elaborate that point.

Instead, he kept outlining his plan.

"And once I shift my soul into the Crown Prince's body instead, I will return the ice stone to my dear sister. After all, she will need it to stop the floods."

"What floods?" Park Jin asked, his heart beating faster and harder as he suspected that his greatest fear had already become reality.

"Ah, of course you wouldn't have heard of it, you are cut off from the rest of the world. Well, allow me to inform you that abnormal torrential rains have been ravaging the eatern provinces. Soon enough, the floods will reach the capital."

"Oh, no," Park Jin whispered, aghast from the news. "I failed. I failed everyone, and now all are paying for my mistakes!"

Jin Mu chuckled.

"Yes, Park Jin, you have failed, and you will receive your due punishment...but first you will watch me execute Jang Uk and Naksu...ah, I should get used to her calling her by her real name, Cho Yeong. Or should I use the name that she used to disguise herself? Mu-Deok!"

"Cho Yeong?!" Park Jin repeated in disbelief. "Naksu is Cho Chung's daughter?"

Before being arrested, he had heard the terrible rumor that Mu-Deok was Naksu. He had always suspected that Jang Uk's loyal servant hid a terrible secret, but he had never found evidence to support his suspicion.

Knowing that the rumors were true would normally make Park Jin furious at Jang Uk, but the circumstances were not normal. Far from it.

"Yes! I'm the one who took Cho Chung's daughter," Jin Mu proudly admitted. "Jang Gang spent all these years looking for her just so he could keep his promise to Cho Chung and train her to become the new Gwanju. Oh, how I wish that Jang Gang had seen what I did to his precious heir!"

Jin Mu looked around him and started speaking at a higher volume:

"Are you watching, master? You did this! You betrayed me first by choosing some common constellation mage over me! You showed me the powers of the Alchemy of Souls and then took it away from me. You even thought of sealing my gate of energy! Had you not wronged me so, none of this would have happened!"

"Wait," Lord Park whispered to himself, his shock replaced by clarity.

Considering that Jin Mu had raised Cho Chung's daughter to become an assassin, odds were that she would kill Jang Uk at the first opportunity l. But instead of killing him, she had trained him, exactly as King Seong's will had decreed!

"This is fate," Park Jin realized, an indescribable sense of relief washing over him. "I failed the people of Daeho, but the heavens intervened. All will be well in the end."

With this new epiphany soothing his soul, Park Jin walked away from the door of his cell to calmly sit down on his cot.

"What are you doing?" Jin Mu asked him. "I'm not finished talking!"

"Talk all you want, Jin Mu. In the end, you are just a mortal like the rest of us. Sooner or later, you will suffer divine retribution."

Jin Mu vehemently argued against Park Jin's prediction, but Park Jin no longer cared about the Assistant Gwanju.

He focused all his thoughts on Jang Uk and Cho Yeong, wishing them to overcome all the obstacles lying on their path to restore order to Daeho.

"Achoo!" Jang Uk sneezed into his bowl of soup.

"See? That's because you didn't dry your hair properly!" Cho Yeong lectured him on the other side of the table. "Don't you dare catch a cold before the important day tomorrow!"

"I'm fine! Someone must be speaking about me," Uk argued before picking a piece of meat and grimacing. "This is too greasy."

"You see? I told you so!" Jin Cho-Yeon told Park Dang-Gu, who sighed in annoyance.

"You two should have married each other since you have the same bland taste in food," Cho Yeong joked.

"No way!" All the other three reacted at the same time, making her shake her head fondly.

The two young couples were dining in the main hall of the Park residence, enjoying a moment of respite before the meeting of the Unanimous Assembly the next day.

Since Jang Uk and Cho Yeong could not stay in Songrim, its young leader had decided to host them in his family home.

It had been years since Jang Uk had last visited the Park family, and this time was much more convivial than all the previous ones.

For one, Dang-Gu's uncle wasn't present to yell at them. The only elders present were Dang-Gu's parents, and they knew nothing about Naksu or the king's star. They had been very friendly to Jang Uk and Cho Yeong before retiring to their quarters in the secondary building. 

Another perk of this visit was that Uk no longer envied Dang-Gu. When they were children, Uk was jealous of the fact that Dang-Gu had his mage powers and his parents alive and well.

Now Jang Uk had his own powers, and while he was still an orphan he now had hopes to create his own family with Cho Yeong. 

"I'm sure that everyone is speaking about you in Songrim," Dang-Gu commented on Uk's joke on his sneezing. "They know that you're the one who revived Seo Yul, so they must have guessed that you're the true king's star."

"I still cannot believe that Jin Mu was telling the truth," Jin Cho-Yeon commented between two small bites of her meal. "Or that Eonnie was hiding as Mu-Deok all this time...I mean, sharing her body with you, Naksu!"

"Cho Yeong," Jang Uk corrected his former fiancée, but she ignored his comment.

"I should have known that Mu-Deok was special, she was able to enter the relics cave! But everything is so confusing now. Where did Eonnie go?"

When Yeong shrugged her shoulders, Cho-Yeon turned to Uk.

"You said that you saw her in a vision. Did she give you any clues on where she could be?"

"Not really," Uk responded with another shrug of his shoulders. "Your sister is a mysterious woman, Jin Cho-Yeon. She did a lot of things without warning me or Yeong, for months! And even when she started talking to us, she left a lot of things unsaid..."

"Such as the fact that she could use Hwansu," Cho-Yeon stated what Uk had told her the day before. "She is so powerful! She truly deserves to lead Jinyowon. I am no match for her, as always..."

"We need to find her," Park Dang-Gu announced somberly. "So-I was one of our key witnesses to testify against Jin Mu, but she's dead now. The Unanimous Assembly won't believe us if Cho Yeong is the only one with tangible evidence. Even with the Crown Prince on our side, we cannot get Jin Mu convinted so easily."

"I'm glad that the Crown Prince is on our side," Cho-Yeon admitted. "And that he plans to return the ice stone to Jinwoyon. It seems that all our problems started when my mother took it out of the relics cave to give it to Jang Gang. Maybe the floods will spontaneously stop once the ice stone returns to its rightful place?"

"The rightful place of the ice stone back in the heavens," Jang Uk argued. 

"No, its rightful place is in your hands, king's star," Dang-Gu said with a reproachful look. "It's just that you're too scared to keep it, just like you're scared to become king."

"Jang Uk isn't serious enough to be king anyway!" Cho-Yeon commented with a frown. "And can you imagine Naksu being the queen? That's insane!"  

"Her name is Cho Yeong!" Uk corrected her yet again.

"I know that, but everyone else knows her as Naksu! Nobody knows about Cho Yeong,  she was supposed to be dead long ago! My point is that no one would accept the two of you as the rulers."

"No ones has the right to decide who can be king or queen," Dang-Gu countered. "The heavens decided it long, before any of us here was born!"

"The Crown Prince and I already sealed our deal, Dang-Gu-ya, let it go," Uk pleaded with his friend.

"I have let it go, but we should all pray that Yul's father will not ask too many questions."

Everyone at the table tensed up at the mention of General Seo.

The respected and feared general had arrived in the capital the day before and had taken over the Heo residence.

Thankfully, Seo Yul was fully healed, and the story that he and Master Heo had agreed on was that Yul had been poisoned. The advantage of being brought back to life with the power of the ice stone was that there was no trace of sorcery left in his body. Yul had fully recovered from all his pain...at least his physical one.

Mentally, it was obvious that the young Lord Seo felt guilty about many things, mostly hiding the secret of Mu-Deok's true identity and hiding his ailment from Master Heo.

The good news was that the other mages of Songrim had forgiven him about Naksu. Most of them even believed that Jang Uk had coerced Seo Yul to keep quiet all along.

But it was exactly because all of Songrim knew about Naksu being alive that General Seo was likely to demand an investigation at the meeting with the Unanimous Assembly.

At the very least, Cho Yeong could easily hide since everyone expected her to look like Mu-Deok, not like herself.

Seo Yul didn't know that she had reclaimed her original appearance, but she was certain that he would be able to recognize her if they met again.

As long as Yeong avoided the mages who had fought her in battle, she could steer clear of General Seo's path.

That did not mean that she wished to stay hidden forever. She still wanted the chance to atone for her crimes. 

With all the blood on her hands, she knew that she could never be fully at peace with herself, but she had to at least try to turn Daeho into a better place than she had helped Jin Mu make it.

After meeting Jin Bu-Yeon, she could no longer allow her selfish desires to dictate her actions. She now made the conscious effort to follow her conscience, which she had ignored all those years for the sake of her revenge.

Her life had changed so drastically since she had met Jang Uk, and she would do anything in her power to live her new life to the fullest with him.

"Everything will be fine," Uk promised as he placed a reassuring hand on top of her own.

She nodded then went back to eat.

Jin Cho-Yeon suddenly dropped her chopstick, making it clang against the porcelain of her bowl.

"What's wrong?" Park Dang-Gu asked her.

"The queen is General Seo's sister, how did I forget that!?" She exclaimed, her eyes wide with fear. "My father...General Seo will have my father executed, won't he?"

"General Seo is well-known for his intolerance to dark magic," Jang Uk bluntly commented. 

"Oh no!" Cho-Yeon exclaimed before burying her head in her hands to weep.

"Don't scare her!" Dang-Gu admonished Uk.

"I'm not scaring her, I'm telling her the truth!"

"Don't worry," Dang-Gu told Cho-Yeon as he wrapped an arm around her shoulder. "Your mother will not let anything happen to your father. General Seo will not dare to start a conflict against Jinwoyon."

"Unless General Seo convinces the rest of the Unanimous Assembly to punish Lady Jin," Jang Uk speculated. "She schemed with Jin Mu and allowed So-I to impersonate Jin Bu-Yeon just to get the ice stone."

"All the more reason to find the true Jin Bu-Yeon!" Dang-Gu pointed out. "If Lady Jin is punished for her actions, Jinwoyon needs a new leader. Since Cho-Yeon is my wife, the Unanimous Assembly might refuse to acknowledge her as the heiress because she would have too much influence."

"That's a good point," Jang Uk conceded, then shared a look with Cho Yeong. 

They both suspected that the meeting tomorrow would be unfavorable to them, but they had to attend it first then adjust their strategy according to the Unanimous Assembly's decisions.

"Where is Cho-Yeon?" Lady Jin asked Cho-Yeon's former chaperone.

The young servant nervously clasped her hands together before answering:

"L-lady Cho-Yeon is at the Park residence, my lady. She went there yesterday."

That made Lady Jin huff in exasperation.

"How many times have I told that silly girl? She is not a Park! She should live here at all times, just like her useless husband lives in Songrim!"

The servant bowed down and mumbled "yes, my lady" with the hope that she would simply be dismissed.

But Jin Ho-Gyeong had a task for her. 

"Go to Cheonbugwan and deliver this," the leader of Jinyowon instructed as she retrieved a sealed letter from one of her sleeves. "Tell the guards that the letter should go directly to Jin Mu. Wait until they deliver a reply, it should not take more than an hour."

"You want me to deliver this right now, my lady?" The servant asked, eyeing the dark sky.

"Yes, right now! Take a few guards with you, and do not return without Jin Mu's response!"

Lady Jin walked away and locked herself in her office. She spent an hour writing down a long letter to Cho-Yeon.

The letter contained instructions on how to govern Jinyowon. Ho-Gyeong had always believed that she would personally train Bu-Yeon on how to lead their institution. Although So-I had promised to give information on Bu-Yeon's whereabouts, she had not contacted Ho-Gyeong in many days.

Ho-Gyeong feared that something had happened to So-I, and that she herself would be punished for allowing So-I to impersonate Bu-Yeon. 

In this case, Ho-Gyeong needed to pass on the instructions to Cho-Yeon with the hope that the latter would find Bu-Yeon.

"Where are you, Bu-Yeon-a?" Ho-Gyeong asked out loud as she sealed the letter. "Are you truly Mu-Deok? That's not possible, she wasn't blind! But she was able to open the cave..."

"My lady!" The young servant called out outside the doors. "My lady, Young Lady Jin Bu-Yeon wishes to see you!"

"What?!" Jin Ho-Gyeong exclaimed then rushed to step outside. "Why are you still here, I sent you to deliver the—"

She froze when she saw who was standing behind the servant.

It was So-I, who was holding the letter meant for Jin Mu. 

Ho-Gyeong opened her mouth to yell at the thief, but at that moment she noticed details about So-I that made her pause.

So-I was no longer in rags, but was dressed like a priestess of Jinyowon. This suggested that she had stolen a priestess' uniform to sneak inside the main building.

Why had no one stopped her? Ho-Gyeong had told everyone that So-I was a fraud! Cho-Yeon's chaperone of all people should know that. Why hadn't she alerted the guards?

"I am the one who ordered Se-Hyun to return," So-I said, and the way she said it made Lady Jin frown.

Although So-I's voice had not changed, her diction had. This was not the same diction she had used when pretending to be Jin Bu-Yeon. She was pretending to be blind again.

Why would she bother to do that when her deceit was already discovered?

Ho-Gyeong gasped when she belatedly noticed that the letter in So-I's hand was unsealed.

The seal was magical. Other than the addressee of the letter, only another priestess of Jinyowon could break such a seal.

"Who broke that seal?" Lady Jin asked.

The servant moved aside and gestured with her hand to indicate that it was So-I.

"That's impossible! This little thief has no powers!"

"Indeed, Mother," So-I said before moving the index and middle fingers of her free hand in a circular motion, creating a golden light of spiritual energy in the process.

That quick swooping motion caused a change in the letter held in the other hand...the broken seal was restored!

While breaking a seal could be done by any powerful priestess of Jinyowon, restoring a broken seal to its original state was a very complex spell taught only within the Jin family.

There should only be three people alive capable of casting that restoring spell, and Ho-Gyeong was one of them. Another one was her younger daughter Cho-Yeon, and the third person was—

"So-I did not have any powers, but I am not So-I," the blind woman standing in front of Ho-Gyeong announced.

"B-Bu...Bu-Yeon-a?" Lady Jin stuttered, confusion and excitement warring in her heart as she took short steps towards the fake So-I.

"Yes, Mother, it is I."