Chapter 3 – The Assassin's Map
Eden crouched beneath a fallen pine, her breath low, her eyes sharp. The enemy camp was just beyond the ridge—lit by fire pits, filled with noise and drunken war songs. But she wasn't here for their steel.
She was here for their secrets.
Beneath her cloak, Eden pulled out a worn scrap of leather — a map sketched in blood and ink. It wasn't a battle plan…
It was a list of names.
One of those names had ordered the slaughter of her family.
And tonight, she would cross the first off the list.
---
She waited until the singing grew loud. Then, like a ghost, she slipped past the guards and into a collapsed grain tent. Her contact, a servant boy named Dren, was already waiting.
"You're late," he whispered.
"You're alive," she replied. "That's enough."
He handed her a scroll, tied with black string. "It's inside. The general's seal. Everything he knows about the capital revolt."
"Good," she said. "Then we're even."
But as she turned to leave, Dren grabbed her arm. "He knows someone's coming for him. He's doubled the guards."
Eden smiled coldly. "Let him. I want him to see me before I kill him."
---
Ten minutes later, chaos exploded near the command tent.
A soldier screamed. Then another. A blade flew from the shadows, slicing clean across a captain's throat. Torches dropped. Horses panicked.
And in the confusion, Eden disappeared again — leaving only a whisper behind:
> "Jin has returned."
---
Back at the ravine, Eden unrolled the scroll and stared at the seal.
There were more names than she expected.
The war wasn't ending. It was just beginning.