Between Brothers
It was the darkest hour of the night.
"The Second Young Master approaches!"
The elders formed two ranks. Those of the Luoyang faction stood to the left; those of the Gangnam faction to the right. Subordinates of lesser standing dropped low as one and vanished from the front courtyard at once.
As the elders straightened their robes, the world sank into silence.
Out of that darkness and quiet came a continuous ring of metal and the sharp click of heels.
When the source of those sounds appeared at the entrance of the manor, the elders bowed their heads in unison.
A left foot sheathed in black metal armor of unknown make struck the flagstones with a heavy clang. The right foot, shod in the finest leather and fitted with a heel to match the armored sole, answered with a crisp click.
Clang. Click.
The rhythm was precise, yet the pairing of sounds was somehow deeply unsettling as it rolled across the front courtyard.
Four masters followed him without a footfall, shadows in his wake.
Clang. Click.
At last the steps halted before Elder Hahu.
His lord did not turn to face him. Even so, Elder Hahu's expression locked hard, and cold sweat traced the deep lines of his brow. His massive frame seemed to shrink before their eyes.
In the elder's lowered gaze lay his lord's left hand, wrapped in the same black armor as the foot. With a grinding creak, the armored fingers clenched and unclenched again and again.
Elder Hahu bowed his head still lower.
"Elder Hahu."
The voice was a low animal growl braided with the sound of wind leaking through a torn paper screen—a voice ruined beyond repair, savagely hoarse.
"Yes, my lord. Command me."
The end of Elder Hahu's own voice cracked against his will.
"You claimed you were certain, did you not?"
"...I have no face left to show."
The armored left hand creaked once more, a sound that crawled under the skin.
"No face, you say."
It was not the armored hand but the right—gloved in leather—that seized Elder Hahu by the collar.
The elder could have thrown that grip off with a surge of internal energy, yet he did not resist. He dared not.
In almost the same breath the black-armored left hand flashed.
"Ghk—!"
Between his lord's fingers hung Elder Hahu's own eye, torn free. He swallowed the scream. His lord stood no higher than his shoulder; when the collar was hauled up, their gazes met.
From the eye-slits of a golden mask that covered the entire face, a pupil of blazing red looked down upon him—the coal-ember glare that marked Mara Rakshasa, the exclusive martial art of Sapaecheon's Lianzhu.
"An eye is gone."
The hoarse voice, scarred by inhalation burns, carried a thread of internal energy and settled low around them.
"And when you lose your face as I did, that will be the true meaning of having no face left to show."
So spoke the Second Young Master, Yeon Ja-cheong—the young master whose face fire had taken.
His left hand clenched with a grinding crack and crushed the elder's eyeball to pulp.
Watching that hand drift slowly toward his own face, Elder Hahu shook like a tree in a gale. The surrounding elders lifted their heads and stared at that hand alone, every gaze trembling. They already knew well that the Second Young Master ruled through terror. Even so, rage of this order was without precedent.
"My son!"
A woman's clear voice rang across the courtyard. The Second Young Master's hand stopped cold.
"Elder Hahu has committed a grave fault, that much is true—but is that truly where your anger should be directed?"
The voice was languid, seductive, and laced throughout with venom. Escorted by scores of maids and stewards, the speaker revealed herself: Grand Madame Ouyang, mother of the Second Young Master. Arrayed in splendid court dress, she approached with unhurried grace and spoke to her son as if in a whisper.
"That anger of yours should fall upon the one who covets the seat promised to you."
Her lips, painted violet, stirred.
"Upon that treacherous wretch Yeon So-hyeon."
With a creak, the Second Young Master's left hand clenched once more upon empty air, almost reluctantly, then withdrew.
Freed from the grip, Elder Hahu forced his knees straight, rose again, and bowed his head.
"My son, an excellent choi—"
"Listen well."
Cutting her short, the Second Young Master's permanently ruined voice drove itself into the elders' ears.
"From this moment I go to the Imperial Capital to meet the present heads of the Sixteen Imperial Capital Families."
He meant to move on the assumption that Yeon So-hyeon had already gathered every former family head.
Grand Madame Ouyang clapped her hands lightly.
"Indeed! Under ordinary circumstances they would never cooperate with us—but once they learn that Yeon So-hyeon has been calling upon every former head, the present heads will be eager to join hands themselves!"
The tighter Yeon So-hyeon bound the former heads together, the easier it would be for the Second Young Master to forge a common front with the current ones.
"Therefore you will stop those old men from trading on their family names."
His red gaze flashed.
"Make it clear to every high official those old men try to reach that the Sixteen Families and those old men are entirely separate."
The elders answered as one.
"As you command!"
The First Young Master, Yeon So-hyeon, would move the former heads; the Second Young Master, Yeon Ja-cheong, would move the present ones. That alone would more than suffice to warn the high officials how terrifying it was to meddle in the Luoyang Sword Family's succession struggle.
"Elder An."
"Yes, my lord!"
Elder An—who, like Elder Hahu, had tasted defeat that day—answered at once.
"What move do the elders predict the wretch will make next?"
Neither Grand Madame Ouyang nor the Second Young Master ever called Yeon So-hyeon the First Young Master, as if they could never acknowledge him as the Luoyang Sword Family's Dae-gongja. Elder An bowed deeply.
"We judge that his next move, like this one, is likely to be a solitary stroke!"
A grinding creak answered like a reply.
"If the wretch means to survive, a solitary stroke is all he will be able to choose from now on."
Separate from his fury toward Yeon So-hyeon, Yeon Ja-cheong's mind turned cold and razor-clear.
"Elder Hahu."
"Yes, my lord. Command me."
Thin threads of blood still seeped from the empty socket as Elder Hahu answered.
"I grant you one more chance."
"I am grateful!"
The Second Young Master's red eye fixed upon him.
"If the wretch moves alone, we will use our overwhelming difference in force."
"As you command!"
Grand Madame Ouyang smiled, languid and poisonous.
"Crush the solitary stroke with both reaction and preemptive strike—is that your meaning?"
The Second Young Master turned again to Elder An.
"He revealed his martial arts, you say?"
"Yes! We have not yet identified them precisely, but judging by all intelligence so far, he appears to have crossed the wall—or reached a realm equal to it!"
"He hid it his entire life."
Through the slits of the golden mask the Second Young Master scattered red light as he swept the elders with his gaze.
"There is no fool left in this place who still underestimates him, I trust."
Grand Madame Ouyang answered before any elder could.
"This mother will fill your seat while you are gone. Go with an easy mind."
It was she who had built his power within the Luoyang Sword Family since his earliest years. Filling the vacancy he left was naturally her part to play.
When the Second Young Master Yeon Ja-cheong boarded the vast black carriage with his escorts, those waiting raised his standard upon it.
"My son."
Through the window Grand Madame Ouyang whispered to him.
"Whenever that anger of yours begins to cool, remember this."
"..."
"It was the Tang woman who burned the left half of your body and your face. It was the Yak woman who obstructed the treatment."
She dredged up the twisted past, pouring hatred from her eyes and spitting resentment from her mouth.
"This Sword Family must become ours."
It was a truth that needed no answer, and none came.
Six fine horses gave a long cry, and the Second Young Master's black iron fortress carriage rolled out of the manor courtyard. More than twenty armored carriages waiting before the gate took the lead; twenty more followed behind the fortress carriage. Scores of mounted warriors closed ranks around the column.
If only I had borne my son a few months earlier...
The Second Young Master and the First Young Master were both seventeen this year. Grand Madame Ouyang glared up at the sky with pure loathing and ground her teeth.
By now my son would be Young Family Head, ruling the Sword Family at my side...!
Had that been so, her son would have been the First Young Master, and he would have become Young Family Head without the slightest trouble—or so she believed.
"You heard the command."
She lowered her gaze to the elders and called out.
"Move, all of you!"
That voice, heavy with iron authority, drew their answer as one.
"We receive Grand Madame's command."
Valley of Sin. The forward base.
Standing upon the watchtower with the wind in his face, Yeon So-hyeon spoke.
"Bi. You've come?"
The Fourth Young Master, Yeon Bi, vaulted up in a single bound, landed upon the tower, and offered his eldest brother a long formal greeting.
"Yes, Elder Brother. This younger brother has arrived."
Yeon So-hyeon reached out and roughly tousled the Fourth Young Master's hair as he once had long ago.
"You brat."
"Heh heh heh."
It was a sight he could never show before others, for the dignity of a Fourth Young Master who led a force of his own.
"You've worked hard."
"Not at all. The hard work has all been yours, Elder Brother. This younger brother only helped a little from the side."
Beyond mere modesty, the Fourth Young Master spoke with genuine feeling, then delivered the news he had brought.
"The Second Young Master's procession has left Luoyang."
"As expected. A little sooner than I anticipated. The Sichuan Tang Family's arrival was earlier than expected as well."
The world was wide, and capable people were many.
"Only a little, though. Just a tiny bit."
The Fourth Young Master pinched thumb and forefinger to show the smallest gap; Yeon So-hyeon smiled at him.
"Elder Brother."
"Yes."
"You must not trust the Sichuan Tang Family to the end."
The same words Tang Baek had spoken.
"I know. Don't worry."
"Of course. However high they jump, they'll still be in the palm of your hand."
Everything was flowing exactly as the elder brother he so deeply respected had foreseen. Yet the Fourth Young Master's expression was somehow sulky.
"I wish we could just scatter poison along that bastard Second Young Master's route, set off thunder bombs, and blow him clean to hell."
Yeon So-hyeon smiled at the pointless grumbling.
"If we did that, the elders would seize the pretext of an heir's assassination and try to replace the family headship with rule by an elders' cabinet."
"Those men would do exactly that."
The Fourth Young Master glared into empty air and spent a moment cursing the elders under his breath.
Watching him from behind, Yeon So-hyeon felt a memory surface—one that no longer existed in this world.
The joint venture site had been changed to the Valley of Sin by Yeon So-hyeon's hand, but in the original history the Fourth Young Master's business had been in Walnut Village. Back then Yeon So-hyeon had not stood with him; the Fourth Young Master, Yeon Bi, had taken those first steps alone. He had been only beginning, no threat to anyone. And yet that simple enterprise had been dealt a blow from which there was no recovery—at the hands of the Second Young Master, Yeon Ja-cheong.
At the time the Second Young Master had torn into the Fourth Young Master's business with a violence no one had dared imagine possible. He had even ignored the mediation of the Luoyang Sword Family's highest operating council and accepted disciplinary measures afterward without flinching.
Back then, not a single person truly understood the distorted, twisted grudge that man carried.
A monster raised in confinement under a mad mother's endless curses of resentment and hatred—that was the Second Young Master, Yeon Ja-cheong.
"Bi."
"Yes, Elder Brother."
"This time will be different."
However the Fourth Young Master chose to take those words, his eyes went round for a moment—then he broke into a bright smile.
"Of course it will."
In the distance a roar of cheering rolled back to them—the cry that announced the completion of the evolution. The light grew so bright that the Fourth Young Master raised a hand to shield his face.
Far off, the eastern sky brightened, and a new sun was rising.