Chapter 35 – The Report From the Shadows

【Yuna PoV】

The communication crystal pulsed with soft crimson light in my hand, warm against my palm as I sat alone in the small room I’d rented three towns away from Valerius’s manor.

Nobody could know I was making this call, not Jin and certainly not that fool noble or his new little protégé.

The light coalesced into a figure, translucent and shimmering like heat waves over desert sand, and I immediately dropped to one knee with my head bowed.

“Lady Seda.”

My voice came out steady despite the nervousness coiling in my gut, because speaking to one of the Great Master’s senior disciples always felt like standing before a goddess.

“Yuna.”

Her voice was silk and honey, sweet enough to rot your teeth.

“I trust you have news worth interrupting my evening meditation.”

I kept my eyes on the floor, not daring to look directly at her projection.

“Yes, my lady, the investigation has yielded unexpected results.”

“Go on.”

The temperature in the room seemed to drop despite the warmth of the crystal, and I chose my next words carefully because one wrong phrase could end with my death.

“The target, the young noble Valerius Ashford, is being trained by the Fallen One.”

Silence stretched for three heartbeats, then Seda’s laughter rang out like broken glass.

“Jin? That pathetic exile is still alive?”

“Yes, my lady, and more importantly, he appears to be preparing the boy for something, the training is intense and purposeful, not the idle amusement of a bored recluse.”

I risked a glance up and saw Seda’s projection had moved closer, her eyes narrowed with interest.

“Tell me everything.”

◆

I recounted the past weeks in careful detail, from my initial contract to kill Valerius to discovering Jin’s presence, from outsourcing the job to my incompetent apprentice Mei to observing their training sessions.

“The Fallen One has taken a personal interest in the boy, my lady, he’s teaching him combat techniques, strategy, even exposing him to real threats by allowing my apprentice to remain.”

“How interesting.”

Seda’s finger tapped against her chin, a gesture I recognized from intelligence reports as her thinking pose.

“And what of Jin’s condition?”

“Weakened, my lady, significantly so.”

This was the crucial part, the information that could change everything.

“He moves like a shadow of his former self, his mana reserves are depleted and his purification techniques are crude imitations of the Master’s work, he’s surviving on scraps of power, barely maintaining himself.”

Seda’s smile widened, sharp and predatory.

“The fool, he exiled himself from the only source that could sustain him and now he withers like a flower cut from its roots.”

I nodded, keeping my expression neutral even though I agreed completely.

From my perspective as someone from the Netherworld, Jin was still terrifyingly powerful, but compared to what he must have been at his peak as one of the Great Master’s disciples? He was a fraction of his former glory.

That’s why I hadn’t tried to kill him, even in his weakened state he could probably erase me from existence with a casual gesture.

“There’s more, my lady.”

“Of course there is.”

She gestured for me to continue, settling back into her projection like she was watching an entertaining play.

“Jin has been asking questions, subtle ones, about the movements of the Ashen Guard, specifically about a disciple named Leo who was sent down from the mountain.”

Seda’s amusement vanished instantly.

“Leo, Siegfried’s protégé.”

“Yes, my lady, Jin seems concerned about the boy’s mission and about Elizabeth’s growing influence, he’s been monitoring the situation closely.”

“Has he now.”

The silk in Seda’s voice had turned to steel.

“And what conclusions have you drawn from this, Yuna?”

I took a breath, knowing this next part was speculation but educated speculation based on weeks of observation.

“I believe Jin wants to interfere with Elizabeth’s plans, my lady, he sees the Ashen Guard’s expansion as a threat, though I cannot determine why since surely even in his weakened state he could stop them if he wished.”

Seda laughed again, but this time it was bitter.

“You don’t understand the Fallen One’s curse, do you?”

“My lady?”

“Jin doesn’t fear for himself, he fears for the Master.”

She stood and began pacing, her projection flickering slightly with the movement.

“That fool believes Elizabeth’s warmongering will somehow endanger the Master, as if anything in this world or the next could threaten the one who forged us all, he wants to stop her not out of self-preservation but out of misguided loyalty to the man he betrayed.”

I processed this information carefully, filing it away for later analysis.

“Then his interest in joining forces—”

“Is genuine, yes.”

Seda cut me off with a wave of her hand.

“Jin wants allies against Elizabeth because he’s too weak to act alone and too proud to crawl back to the mountain begging forgiveness, he thinks he can operate from the shadows, protecting the Master from threats that don’t exist.”

She turned to face me directly, her eyes burning with intensity.

“Here is what you will do, Yuna, you will make contact with Jin directly, not as my agent but as a concerned party from the Netherworld who has witnessed Elizabeth’s zealotry firsthand.”

My heart skipped a beat.

“My lady, if he discovers I’m connected to you—”

“He won’t.”

Her confidence was absolute.

“You will play the role of a mercenary assassin who failed her contract due to his interference, you will express concern about this Leo boy and the weapon he was sent to retrieve, you will hint at knowledge of the Ashen Guard’s true intentions.”

I nodded slowly, seeing the shape of her plan forming.

“And when he asks for more information?”

“You will offer to share intelligence in exchange for protection, make yourself useful enough that he keeps you alive but not so valuable that he questions why someone of your limited abilities would have access to such knowledge.”

Limited abilities, she said it so casually, but it was true.

In the Netherworld I was considered skilled, a master assassin with decades of experience, but compared to even the weakest disciple from the Upper World? I was barely worth noticing.

That’s what made me perfect for this role, I was beneath suspicion because I was beneath everyone.

◆

“What of my apprentice, my lady?”

“Keep her in place, the girl is useful cover and her genuine incompetence makes your own act more believable.”

Seda’s projection began to fade, the crystal’s power depleting.

“Jin will contact you within three days, be ready.”

“And if he asks why I’m willing to betray my employer for him?”

“Tell him the truth.”

Her smile was cold and calculating.

“Tell him you’re terrified of what Elizabeth will do if she gains more power, tell him you’ve seen the Ashen Guard’s brutality firsthand, tell him you want to stop them before they destroy everything, he’ll believe it because he wants to believe it, because it confirms his own paranoid delusions.”

The projection flickered one last time.

“Do not fail me in this, Yuna, if Jin can be turned into a weapon against Elizabeth then I will gladly suffer his presence, and if he cannot…”

She didn’t finish the sentence, she didn’t need to.

“I understand, my lady.”

The crystal went dark and I was alone again in my rented room, the weight of my new mission settling onto my shoulders like a physical burden.

I walked to the window and stared out at the town below, ordinary people living ordinary lives with no idea that gods walked among them and played games with their fates.

Jin the Fallen One, once the greatest swordsman to ever train under the Great Master Ise, now reduced to hiding in a minor noble’s manor and training children.

Elizabeth and her Ashen Guard, zealots who wanted to burn the world to protect their master from imaginary threats.

Seda and the Radiant Path, manipulators who wanted to conquer the world and force it to worship at their master’s feet.

And me, Yuna, a simple assassin from the Netherworld who’d somehow gotten caught up in the power struggles of living legends.

I laughed quietly to myself, because the situation was so absurd it almost looped back around to funny.

Three days, Seda had said.

I needed to prepare my story, polish my lies until they shone like truth, and figure out how to approach a man who could kill me without even trying.

◆

The next morning I returned to Valerius’s manor under the pretense of checking on Mei’s progress, and Jin was waiting for me in the garden.

He sat on a stone bench beneath a flowering tree, his posture relaxed but his eyes sharp as he tracked my approach.

“Master Yuna.”

His voice was neutral, giving nothing away.

“We should talk.”

My blood turned to ice, but I kept my expression calm and bowed respectfully.

“Of course, Master Jin, I’m at your disposal.”

He gestured to the bench beside him and I sat, maintaining a careful distance that showed respect without appearing fearful.

“You’ve been watching me.”

It wasn’t a question, and I saw no point in denying it.

“Yes, I wanted to ensure my apprentice wasn’t in danger, when I discovered who you were I became cautious.”

“Smart.”

He nodded slightly.

“Most people from the Netherworld wouldn’t have recognized me, but you did, which means you have access to better intelligence than a simple assassin should.”

My prepared story, the one I’d spent hours crafting, suddenly felt fragile as glass.

“I have contacts, people who remember the old stories about the Great Master’s disciples.”

“And these contacts told you I was here?”

“No.”

I met his eyes directly, taking a calculated risk.

“Finding you was an accident, but once I knew, I started asking questions about why a fallen disciple would be training a noble’s son, and the answers I found disturbed me.”

Jin’s expression didn’t change, but I felt the air around us grow heavier.

“What answers?”

“The Ashen Guard is mobilizing, Master Jin, Elizabeth sent one of her people down from the mountain on a retrieval mission, and from what I’ve heard it’s not just about recovering a lost weapon.”

That got his attention, his eyes sharpened and his posture shifted almost imperceptibly.

“Go on.”

“There are rumors in certain circles, whispers about Elizabeth’s true intentions, about Siegfried’s hatred for the Netherworld and his desire to see it all burn.”

I leaned forward slightly, selling the concern I didn’t actually feel.

“I’m just a simple assassin, Master Jin, but even I can see that whatever Elizabeth is planning, it’s going to end in blood, a lot of blood.”

He was quiet for a long moment, studying my face like he could read the truth written in my bones.

Then he spoke, his voice soft and dangerous.

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Because I don’t want to die when Elizabeth decides the Netherworld needs to be purged.”

The truth, or close enough to it.

“And because you’re the only one who might be able to stop her.”

Jin laughed, but it was a hollow sound without humor.

“I’m a fallen disciple with a fraction of my former power, what makes you think I can stop anything?”

“You’re still one of the Great Master’s students.”

I let conviction fill my voice.

“Even weakened, you’re worth a hundred normal fighters, and more importantly, you understand the factions, you know how Elizabeth thinks, you can predict her moves.”

He stood and walked to the edge of the garden, his back to me.

“What do you want in exchange for this information?”

“Protection.”

The word came out steadier than I felt.

“If I’m going to feed you intelligence about the Ashen Guard, I need to know you’ll keep me alive when they come looking, because they will come looking.”

Another long silence, broken only by bird song and the rustle of leaves.

Finally, Jin turned back to face me.

“Three days from now, meet me at the old mill outside town, come alone and come prepared to prove your information is genuine, if I believe you then we have a deal, if I don’t…”

He didn’t need to finish that threat either.

“Understood, Master Jin.”

I bowed and left, my heart pounding in my chest as I walked away.

Everything was proceeding exactly according to Seda’s prediction, Jin was desperate enough to accept help from someone he should distrust, and I was in position to guide him exactly where she wanted.

The game was in motion now, and all I could do was play my part and hope I survived to see the end.

Because when gods play chess, the pawns don’t often make it off the board alive.