Chapter 4 – The Echo Beneath the Surface
The symbol of the golden falcon haunted the Pavilion's leaders.
Inside the council chamber, the elders whispered in tones dipped with old fear.
> "Garud Vidya… impossible."
> "Even Aryavart didn't pass that to outsiders."
> "Then what does it mean that it appears now—on our land?"
Master Haejin, calm as always, simply stared at the image drawn in charcoal. He didn't speak.
But he remembered it.
From a war no one dared name.
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🌒 Meanwhile...
Ved practiced alone again.
But his swings were slower.
He could feel something watching him now. Not just people—time itself, like a winding serpent, curling around his choices.
At night, the dreams intensified.
A battlefield. A banner with a burning wheel. Screams. Shields crashing. And the same Sanskrit voice—never yelling, always calm:
> "न जायते म्रियते वा कदाचित्।"
"The soul is never born, and never dies."
When Ved awoke, his pillow was wet with blood—from his ears.
---
In the training yard the next day, Su-Ryang approached again. But not to fight.
To warn.
> "You've stirred something, Ved. I don't know what you are. But Pavilion elders now watch you like a loaded crossbow. Not all of them want peace."
Ved said nothing. His silence wasn't arrogance—he simply didn't know who to trust.
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🌬️ Outside the Pavilion
Two masked men stood on a branch above the cliff's edge, watching the Pavilion below.
One spoke in a whispering dialect not from Murim.
> "He's started hearing it already."
The other nodded.
> "The deeper he listens… the closer they come."
They vanished, leaving only falling leaves behind.
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🕯️ That Night
Master Haejin visited Ved's room, for the first time in months.
He carried not a scroll, but a single matchstick. He struck it, let the flame burn, and then said:
> "Do you know what the oldest fires fear, Ved?"
> "Wind?" Ved guessed.
Haejin smiled faintly.
> "No. Memory. Because memory can make flame burn again."
He handed Ved a sealed envelope.
> "You will leave in four days. Escort this scroll to the Mountain Circle Sect. Alone. Tell no one what it carries. This task is from the Pavilion itself."
---
As Haejin turned to leave, Ved asked quietly:
> "Do you believe I'm dangerous?"
The master paused.
Then answered:
> "Not yet."
And left.
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🌌 Elsewhere, in a Forgotten Shrine
A broken statue of Krishna stood, partially buried in moss and silence. Its lips chipped, but eyes clear.
Wind passed through.
And deep within the stone, something whispered…
> "यदा यदा हि धर्मस्य..."
"Whenever Dharma declines, I descend..."
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