Lin didn't head for the forest that night.
Instead, he walked through the cold, unmarked paths, the dagger Shen gave him pressed tightly in his palms. His fingers were numb. His body moved, but his mind was elsewhere, still at the cliff, still hearing the thud of Shen's lifeless body hitting frozen ground.
He reacha a small, wooden house on the outskirts of the capital.
It was quiet. Lights off. Curtains down. But he knew this was where she lived. Shen had spoken of her often in the dark silence of the prison cell.
His sister.
He knocked once. No answer.
Again. Still nothing.
Then the door creaked open slightly. A girl stood their quietly she looked younger than Lin. Her eyes were red, like she hadn't slept.
She stared at him"Who.....?"
He didn't speak.
But something in his presence, his silence the snow sticking to his black cloak made her freeze.
"You....were with him" she said, her voice trembling. "You're Lin"
Lin's head dipped slightly. That was all the confirmation she needed.
She stepped aside, wordlessly letting him in.
The inside was simple. Sparse. And yet everything smelled like grief. A scarf tossed on the table. A cup half full. A chair facing the window, waiting for someone who'd never return.
"I don't believe it" she said, slowly sitting."When the guards told me what he did. Why he died"
Lin remaind standing.
"I used to tell Shen he was too soft.That one day helping other would get him in trouble"
She looked at Lin, and for the first time, her voice cracked.
"But he always said....he met someone in the prison that reminded that kindness still mattered. That he felt like protecting you was the first time he he choose something.....for himself.
The silence after that was sharp.
Lin finally stepped forward and placed something on the table.
A small cloth bundle. Inside it, Shen's broken pendant.
She reached out, hands trembling.
Tears spilled down her face.
"I'm sorry" Lin said voice barely audible.
She looked up at him "Will you kill the ones who did this?"
He didn't answer.
But his eyes dark, cold , quiet said enough.
She wiped her tears and opened the cupboard to get something.
She handed it to him, "the map of the 3 sacred mountains." she said.
Lin nodded.
And with that he left.
The snow fell heavier. But the fire inside him had already begun to burn.