The next morning, the Duke's banner left Jing.
Snowflakes clung to the fur of the riders' cloaks, their horses' hooves crunching against frozen earth. The city vanished behind them, swallowed by distance and storm. Ahead lay only endless white — mountains like jagged blades cutting into the heavens.
At Zhen Yu's side rode General Liang Hu, broad-shouldered, his scarred face shadowed beneath his hood. Behind them trailed Bai Chen, pale and thin as parchment, and a handful of soldiers chosen not for loyalty to the Duke, but for the King. Their silence was heavier than the snow.
After hours of silence, Liang Hu finally spoke.
"Yu. Why only you? A witch who devours monsters should be the concern of priests, exorcists — anyone but you. Why does the King send his brother?"
Zhen Yu's gloved hand brushed the hilt of his silver sword, his breath misting in the cold.
"Because she will only trust me. Not priests. Not sages. Not soldiers. Only me."
Bai Chen's teeth chattered as he forced words past his lips.
"B-but… I heard she can kill a man with no mercy. They say anyone who steps into those forests never returns. The snow itself eats the bones."
Liang Hu turned and glared, voice like a growl.
"Do you intend to scare the men to death before the monsters can touch them? Hold your tongue."
But Bai Chen's eyes darted nervously to the mountains ahead, and his silence carried more fear than words.
Days passed. The world narrowed to snow and stone, to the crackle of fire at night and the long shadows of pines bending under their frozen weight. Wolves howled in the distance. Twice they saw claw marks gouged into tree trunks, higher than any man's head.
At last, they reached the foot of the mountains. The forest loomed above them — a dark sea of snow-drowned trees, their branches like skeletal arms. The air was colder here, heavy with something unseen.
Zhen Yu dismounted. Snow crunched beneath his boots as he turned to the men.
"Rest here. Set camp. Wait for me. If I do not return within a week, then seek me. Do not enter the forest unless you must."
Liang Hu's jaw tightened.
"Yu—"
"This is an order," Zhen Yu said, his cold eyes brooking no refusal.
Liang Hu fell silent, though the fire in his gaze did not dim.
The Duke stepped into the forest alone.
Snow swallowed his tracks almost as soon as they formed. The pines crowded close, their shadows like bars of a cage. Each step was heavy, the wind wailing like a voice too faint to hear.
He followed no path. The forest itself seemed to shift around him, the drifts rising higher, the branches closing tighter.
And then—
A sound.
Soft. Subtle. Too deliberate to be the wind.
Zhen Yu froze. His hand slid to his sword, his eyes narrowing at the trees.
Something moved between them.
Not a wolf. Not a man.
Something else. Watching.