Chapter 23 · The Other Name

The trial chamber smelled like burnt iron and old fear. Rin's wrists were still raw from the chains, even though they'd been off for three hours now. She stood in the gallery, pressed against the back wall, watching cultivators file in like this was some kind of theater. Dad was somewhere in the crowd. She couldn't see him. Didn't want to.

Kael was at the center platform, hands clasped behind his back, face blank. He looked like he'd slept fine. Like yesterday hadn't happened. Like he hadn't taken a crossbow bolt meant for her and then told her to save the man who'd just sold her out.

She hated that she kept looking at him.

The trial wasn't for her this time. It was for some low-level sect enforcer who'd been caught taking bribes. Rin didn't care about the guy. She was here because Dad had shoved the blood ledger into her hands last night and told her to watch. Every reset kills someone else. His words, not hers. She'd read three pages before she had to stop. Names. Dates.