Seoryeon crawled until his elbows tore and the mud filled his sleeves.
Night held its breath above the ravine. Hoofbeats faded, then returned, then faded again. The clean-seal men searched with discipline, slow enough to feel confident, quiet enough to feel practiced. Seoryeon kept his body pressed to cold dirt and counted the sounds the way he counted corpses.
His shoulder throbbed with every heartbeat. His ribs burned where the bandage had been sliced open again. The graze on his upper arm leaked warm blood down to his wrist. His Heart-Thread vibrated faintly, unevenly, a wire stretched past comfort and kept there by necessity.
The courier shook beside him.
The boy's breath came in shallow pulls. Each cough threatened to betray them. Seoryeon held the boy's jaw with one hand and pressed his palm over the mouth when the tremor turned into a cough. The pressure stayed firm. The boy's eyes filled with tears. Tears made no sound.
They waited until the night cooled further and the search line drifted downhill.
Seoryeon rose first.
He moved with care. His left leg carried more weight than it should, protecting the side that hurt when the lung expanded. His right hand kept the sword wrapped. Cloth hid steel. Steel hid leverage. Leverage bought seconds.
He tugged the tether once. The courier followed, stumbling, feet catching roots and stones.
Seoryeon did not soothe him. Soothe made people soft. Soft died faster.
They moved through trees until dawn grayened the sky.
The trail narrowed into shale. Wind bit at wet cloth. Smoke smell thinned. A different smell rose, faint and metallic, like cold water over old iron.
One of Seoryeon's remaining men, a gaunt spearman named Mu, stopped and pressed a hand to his chest. "Something feels wrong."
Seoryeon watched Mu's breathing. The inhale stuttered. The exhale came out thin. Mu's Heart-Thread vibration had begun to jitter, a small tremor beneath the skin that did not match effort.
Seoryeon nodded once. "The valley."
The courier whispered, voice raw. "Dead-thread."
The phrase sat like a curse.
They reached the ridge by midday and looked down.
The dead-thread valley spread wide and pale. No birds. No insects. Pines near the rim leaned inward as if trying to escape. The air below looked thicker, the haze resting at knee height like a low flood. Stones in the valley carried faint scratches and pits, as if the world had tried to erase them with sand.
Seoryeon watched his men swallow.
He watched the courier's hands clench and unclench, trying to hold courage in fingers.
Seoryeon stepped forward and began descending.
His reasoning stayed simple. The clean-seal riders would keep hunting. A broken place made hunters cautious. Cautious hunters left gaps. Gaps held exits.
The first steps into the valley felt normal.
Then the air changed.
Pressure sat on the tongue. Breath tasted stale. A faint ringing began behind the ears, the kind that arrived before fever. Seoryeon's Heart-Thread vibration sharpened and then lost rhythm, as if the wire had been plucked by an unseen hand.
Mu stumbled and caught himself on a rock. "My legs feel heavy."
Seoryeon didn't answer. Words did not alter physiology.
A second man, Jian, rubbed his forearms and stared at his fingers. "They feel numb."
The courier gagged once and held it down.
Seoryeon kept moving.
He forced his breath into a steady count. The count held his thread in line. Each inhale pulled against pain in ribs. Each exhale spread heat under his bandage.
They walked another hundred paces.
Mu fell.
His knees hit the ground. His hands clawed at his sternum. His mouth opened and closed in quick useless bites of air. His eyes rolled back until whites showed.
Seoryeon crouched and pressed two fingers to Mu's throat. Pulse stuttered. Heart beat fought itself. The Heart-Thread vibration under the skin shook out of rhythm.
Seoryeon slapped Mu's cheek hard enough to make the jaw click. "Breathe."
Mu's chest hitched. Air entered, thin and fast. His eyes refocused with panic.
Seoryeon stood and looked at the other men. "Walk."
The order landed like a stone.
Jian swallowed and dragged Mu upright. Mu's legs wobbled like a drunk's.
They moved again.
A soft hiss came from the haze.
An arrow punched into Jian's thigh above the knee. Jian jerked and grabbed the shaft, face twisting. The leg buckled. He fell hard, palms scraping stone.
A second arrow followed and struck Mu's calf. Mu cried out and collapsed, hands scrambling for purchase in loose gravel.
Shapes shifted between rocks.
Demonic raiders.
Five at first glance. More behind the haze. Their posture carried patience. Their Heart-Threads held steadier vibration. They had prepared for this place. They had paced their breath. They had learned the valley's price.
Seoryeon looked past them and saw a figure standing farther back, taller, calmer, held by a wider stance. The figure's thread felt thicker and cleaner than the others, tension held without tremor.
A rival captain.
The captain watched Seoryeon with the calm of a man reading a ledger. He raised two fingers and the raiders spread wider, aiming to herd Seoryeon into open ground.
Seoryeon tightened the tether around his wrist once and yanked the courier behind a low boulder. The boy hit the dirt and pressed his face into his sleeve, trying to hide coughs.
Seoryeon moved toward Jian.
Jian's hands shook around the arrow shaft. His breath came ragged. The valley squeezed his thread and turned pain into collapse.
Seoryeon grabbed the arrow near the entry point and snapped it to shorten the leverage. Jian screamed, then swallowed the scream. Seoryeon pressed a bandage hard over the wound and twisted it tight enough to slow bleeding.
Jian stared up at him, eyes wide. "They will circle."
Seoryeon nodded. "They will."
He rose and drew his sword.
Cloth fell away. Plain steel caught dull light. The air around the blade felt heavier, the familiar shift of weight that responded to contact.
The first raider rushed in with a curved blade aimed for Seoryeon's forearm, hunting tendons.
Seoryeon parried with the flat. Contact rang. Pain spiked through his shoulder. Fingers numbed for a heartbeat.
He released a short push through contact.
The enemy blade slid off line and scraped Seoryeon's sleeve. Cloth tore. Skin warmed. The raider's wrist opened for an instant.
Seoryeon stepped in and drove his point into the raider's weapon shoulder at the front seam. Steel bit. Anchor set.
He pulled.
The raider lurched forward, shoulder dragged out of alignment. The sword arm sagged. The raider tried to headbutt, face coming in close.
Seoryeon drove a knee into the inner thigh. The leg folded. Balance spilled. The raider dropped to one knee and coughed, breath failing as the valley punished exertion.
Seoryeon ripped his blade free and turned.
A second raider thrust a short spear toward Seoryeon's belly, point hunting the soft space under ribs. The spear trembled slightly as the valley tugged at the raider's own thread.
Seoryeon parried with the flat. Contact jolted his arm. He released a push.
The spear tip slid outward and scraped Seoryeon's belt line, tearing fabric and opening a thin line of heat across skin. Seoryeon's breath hitched, then steadied.
The raider stepped in and tried to shove the spear in with body weight.
Seoryeon stabbed into the raider's forearm near the wrist tendons. Steel sank shallow and precise. Fingers spasmed. The spear grip loosened.
Seoryeon pulled once.
The arm jerked forward into the blade. The spear dropped. Seoryeon followed with the guard into the jaw hinge. Teeth clicked. The head snapped sideways and the raider's stance sagged.
A third raider came low with a hooked blade aimed at Seoryeon's back of knee, seeking collapse.
Seoryeon pivoted and met the hook. Contact rang. Grip threatened to fail for a fraction.
He pulled through contact.
The hook jerked inward. The attacker's wrist crossed the centerline. Shoulder opened.
Seoryeon thrust into the shoulder pocket, deep enough to anchor. He pulled hard.
The attacker lurched forward and collided with Seoryeon's injured shoulder. Pain flashed white across Seoryeon's vision. His Heart-Thread vibration spiked, then wavered, then thinned. The valley seized the wobble and pressed.
Seoryeon forced his feet to hold. He slammed his forehead into the attacker's nose bridge. Cartilage crunched. The attacker's hands loosened. The hook fell.
Seoryeon shoved the body aside and drew breath through grit and pain.
His ribs screamed. His shoulder ground. His Heart-Thread vibration remained jagged. A knot behind his ribs tightened further, permanent damage forming from strain he had already paid too many times.
The rival captain began walking forward.
The raiders backed away from his path as if they feared his shadow.
The captain drew a longer blade, kept his stance wide, knees bent, weight low. His gaze stayed on Seoryeon's injured shoulder and bleeding side. He carried discipline shaped to kill peers.
Seoryeon's escort had become liabilities. Jian lay on his side, one hand pressed to his thigh, breath ragged. Mu curled in the gravel, eyes half shut, calf bleeding around the arrow. Both men's Heart-Threads jittered under the valley's pressure.
Seoryeon tightened the tether and kept the courier behind stone.
The captain entered range and struck.
The first cut targeted Seoryeon's shoulder, a shallow angle meant to peel function away. Seoryeon raised his blade to parry. Contact rang hard. Pain tore through the joint. His fingers numbed. The blade line dipped.
The captain pressed and slid the edge toward Seoryeon's throat.
Seoryeon released a push through contact with more force than comfort allowed.
The captain's blade jumped off line by a handspan. The captain recovered quickly and drove a thrust toward Seoryeon's ribs, aiming for the wound under the arm.
Seoryeon parried late. The point scraped his bandage and opened it further. Warm blood spread. Breath turned sharp.
The captain stepped in close and used his shoulder to crowd Seoryeon's sword line, forcing Seoryeon's elbows tight and his stance narrow. The valley punished the constriction. Seoryeon's Heart-Thread vibration wavered again.
Seoryeon anchored his point into the captain's inner thigh, high on the inside where balance lived. Steel bit deep enough to hold.
He pulled.
The captain's body jerked forward a half-step. Balance spilled into Seoryeon's space. The captain's free hand shot toward Seoryeon's wrist.
Seoryeon drove his knee into the captain's inner thigh and hit the same leg twice. The first impact softened it. The second impact folded it.
The captain's stance sagged for a breath.
Seoryeon ripped the blade free and slammed the pommel into the jaw hinge. Teeth clicked. The captain's head snapped sideways. The captain recovered faster than most, eyes sharpening through pain, blade rising again.
The next exchange hit Seoryeon's guard hard enough to make his hand numb to the wrist. Contact rang. The valley pressed on his lungs. His vision narrowed. His Heart-Thread vibration thinned, tension slipping away.
The captain drove a cut toward Seoryeon's throat.
Seoryeon raised his blade and caught it. Contact. Pain. He released a pull through contact.
The captain's blade drifted inward across his own centerline. Elbow lifted. Shoulder opened.
Seoryeon drove the point into the upper chest below the collarbone, angled down to break structure and steal breath. Anchor set.
He pulled hard.
The captain lurched forward onto the steel and collided with Seoryeon's shoulder. The impact drove Seoryeon backward two steps. His heel caught on loose shale. Balance slipped. The valley seized the slip.
Seoryeon felt snap-risk hover close enough to taste.
He forced his feet to plant and shoved the captain away.
The captain staggered, breath wheezing, hand pressed to the chest. Blood darkened cloth in a spreading patch. The captain tried to lift the blade again and his arm trembled.
Seoryeon stepped in, kept his sword close, and drove a short thrust into the captain's weapon shoulder. Steel bit. Anchor set.
He pulled.
The shoulder dragged out of alignment. The captain's sword arm sagged. The blade dropped.
The captain fell to one knee and tried to rise. The valley stole the attempt. The body tipped sideways into gravel.
Seoryeon stood over him, shaking.
His shoulder hung lower. Blood seeped from ribs. The cut at his belt line burned. His Heart-Thread vibrated faintly and unevenly, a wire scraped thin and kept alive by stubbornness.
The captain's eyes stayed open. The mouth moved, trying to form words.
Seoryeon knelt and listened.
The captain's hand twitched toward a scrap of bark tied inside the sleeve. Seoryeon grabbed it before fingers could close again.
The bark held a crude map scratched with sharp lines and symbols. A ring shape marked near a ridge. A narrow route avoided the worst zones. A timing note sat beside it, written in a hand that understood patrols and hunger.
Seoryeon looked at the captain's face. "Gate-site."
The captain's lips pulled into a faint smile. Pride and spite mixed together. Breath rattled and then thinned.
Seoryeon rose.
He walked back to Jian first. Jian's eyes searched Seoryeon's face for mercy. Seoryeon looked at the arrow wound and the tremor in the man's hands. Jian's Heart-Thread vibration jittered too fast. The valley had already decided.
Seoryeon took Jian's water skin and knife. He closed Jian's eyes with two fingers. The act cost nothing and saved no one.
Mu lay curled in gravel. His calf bled slow. His breath came in quick weak pulls. His eyes showed confusion more than fear.
Seoryeon took Mu's pouch of dried food. Mu's hand twitched once and then went still.
Seoryeon walked back to the courier and tugged the tether.
The boy stared at the dead, face pale, lips trembling. "Your men."
Seoryeon folded the bark map and slid it into oilcloth. "They paid for distance."
The courier swallowed. "They will hunt us again."
Seoryeon began walking, breath steady by force. "Hunters keep coming until the prey stops moving."
They crossed the valley with bodies behind them and a crude map ahead. The haze clung to their ankles. The pressure pressed on tongues. Each step demanded breath and each breath demanded thread.
By dusk, Seoryeon reached the far ridge.
He looked back once.
Dead-thread valley lay quiet and pale, full of silence and spent lives.
He tightened the tether, checked the map by fading light, and moved toward the next place where lies converged.