The silence that followed the battle felt heavy with possibilities, like the moment before thunder breaks across a clear sky. Jinmu stood among his twenty copies in the carved stone pavilion, watching as Palace Master Danhye Yeoryeong helped her disciples recover from their ordeal. The immediate rescue had been successful, but success in one battle didn't guarantee victory in the larger war that was clearly coming.
I need to think this through carefully, he thought, studying the faces of the defeated Night Drizzle Sect assassins scattered across the stone floor. Simply eliminating the guards and leaving would create too many questions. Do Giseon would know immediately that something went wrong. But what if we didn't eliminate them? What if we replaced them?
