Jin slept better than he had in weeks.
When he woke up, the sun was already high and the room was warm. For a moment he just lay there, listening to the noise coming through the window. Shouting from the training ground. Someone laughing near the gate. A cart rolling past on the road outside the wall. It sounded like a town now, more than a school.
He got dressed, splashed water on his face, and went downstairs.
He had barely made it halfway across the courtyard when someone called his name.
"Jin! Jin, do you have a minute?"
It was an older man from the market district, one of the survivors who had come out of hiding after the forest spread. Jin knew his face from the morning training but not his name. Two more people were walking behind him, a woman with a toddler on her hip and a young man with a bandage around one wrist.
"Of course," Jin said. "What's going on?"
The old man looked a little embarrassed. "It's about the festival. In Andong. The one on the Board."
