The palace had finally fallen quiet.
After the strange discoveries surrounding the Empress, the attempted attacks, the dark magic, and the mysterious events connected to ghosts, the Emperor had stopped treating anything as coincidence.
Every detail mattered now.
Every name.
Every old record.
Every person whose history did not quite fit.
And tonight, one particular name had returned to his thoughts again and again.
Shin Gu.
The Emperor sat alone in his study, a single lamp burning beside him.
On the table lay several reports.
One concerned the Empress's strange encounter with death.
Another described unusual movements connected to the palace.
A third contained information about the Shin Gu Kingdom.
The Emperor picked up the last report.
His eyes moved slowly across the page.
According to the old records, when the two kingdoms had established their alliance, the Shin Gu royal family had sent their daughter to marry Prince Liang.
That part was recorded clearly.
