The snow had not melted from Zhen Yu's boots by the time he left the palace.
He did not ride to the barracks or the gates. Instead, he walked the long, silent road east of the city, where incense smoke curled into the frozen air and the bronze bells of a forgotten temple tolled in the wind.
The Buddha Temple was old — older than the dynasty, some said. Its stone lions were worn smooth, its painted guardians faded to ghosts. Yet within, the air was alive with chanting, a thousand murmurs rising like waves against the cold.
And there, beneath the prayer wheels, leaned an old man with a bamboo staff.
Grand Master Shen.
His hair was white, his beard long and tangled, his left eye clouded with blindness. Yet his remaining eye gleamed sharp as a hawk's, seeing what others could not. He wore no crown, no armor — only a patched robe and the smell of sandalwood.
"So," Shen said, tapping his staff against the stone floor. "The King sends you to hunt her."
Zhen Yu stepped forward, his voice low.
"Then it is true. She exists."
Shen's laugh was dry as falling leaves.
"Exist? Boy, she endures. More than you, more than I, more than your glittering brother who sits on that throne."
The Duke's gaze hardened.
"If she devours monsters, why choose me? Why not send priests, sages, men of the Court?"
The old master tilted his head, his blind eye fixed on Zhen Yu.
"Because she will trust no one. Not kings, not courtiers, not soldiers. Her silence is her shield, her curse, and her prison. But you…"
He tapped the Duke's chest with the end of his staff.
"She is mute, and you are the only one who can understand her sign language. She has never harmed a human, for she swore to her mother she never would. But humans will not see the vow — they will only see her cursed veins. You will have to protect her from monsters… and from men."
The incense smoke curled between them like coiling fate.
"She will devour monsters for humanity. But every one she swallows will tear at her from within."
For a long time, Zhen Yu did not answer. The temple bells tolled again, soft against the snow.
At last, he bowed his head.
"If fate commands it, then I will find her."
Shen's mouth curved, neither smile nor frown.
"Not fate. Choice. Remember that. The monsters she swallows will rip her veins open, piece by piece. If she has no one beside her, she will not survive. And if you fail…"
The old master's eye gleamed like a flame behind smoke.
"…then you will not survive, either."
The bells rang again, long and hollow.
Zhen Yu turned toward the mountains, his silver sword heavy at his side.
The path west had begun.