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San Hyun-Ki couldn't believe he was still alive.

It has always been dangerous to oppose those in power.

However, sometimes, obedience was more deadly than open defiance to even the mightiest of men.

Yet, Hyun-Ki hadn't even considered refusing the Viceroy's idea of the negotiation with the Evil Spirits surrounding the fortress.

It, however, wasn't a sense of duty, obligation or loyalty that had guided the Sage's decision to follow the order given to him. It had been his desire to find the knowledge he'd been denied when he had been exiled here.

San Hyun-Ki had wanted to see it before he died - a scroll from the Forbidden Library of Pho-us-kah - relics he had spent searching for most of his life.

He couldn't stop and back away, not anymore.

When the Crown Princess herself had brought one scroll from the Forbidden Library here, to Surao, he had been closer than ever, and San Hyun-Ki had decided he would not rest until he found the relic.

He had never been so close since he was exiled from the capital, a lifetime goal he had often risked his life to pursue, a conclusion of his own personal quest.

The old sage still had tried to run when the Evil Spirits assaulted the castle and its defenders had shut down the gates in front of him.

It had been futile. The fox spirits had hunted him through the fields like the fleeing animal and had used his screams in an attempt to lure the soldiers out.

Old sage thought he was dying when they had brought him before the Dark One.

Hyun-Ki had only one thing to ask even as life fled from his body then: To see the Scroll of Pho-us-kah.

Then, his existence turned into unimaginable agony.

It was the end. Or at least he expected it to be.

He woke up on the sleeping rug, his body sore and his mind sluggish, yet unmistakably alive with considerably fewer injuries than cruel fox spirits had left him with when they brought him before their leader.

Hyun-Ki was healed.

He had to wonder why, and how, as he kept staring into the entirely ordinary wooden ceiling, trying to understand while his eyes became slowly accustomed to the dim light of his surroundings.

His thoughts drifted along as his mind struggled to focus. It was considerably easier than trying to fight the whims of his old body even under more favourable circumstances, let alone after the nearly fatal encounter with the terrifying spirits.

The creatures from beyond, however, weren't the only mystery that plagued him.

Despite his lifetime pursuit of knowledge, he still couldn't explain his own recovery any more than he could explain the origins of the beings his countrymen called Evil Spirits, their very existence being the subject of the old tales he never had the chance to confirm to be true.

Until now.

Yet, beyond that, there didn't seem to be any shortage of wonder.

The sage heard of the miraculous acts of healing, bestowed upon the mortals by the power of the gods through the hand of their most devout followers, though he hadn't witnessed them himself, only experienced them as extraordinary tales worth recording and remembering. Those, however, were restricted to situations most dire. Even if the Sage situation indeed had been one, he felt he wasn't worthy of the favour of the gods.

There was another explanation for surviving the blows that would break any common man, no less unlikely than the first.

Of course, there have been warriors who harnessed their inner energy to heal themselves, an ability achieved through rigorous training, through techniques kept secret, revealed only to the most talented of Disciples. Hyun-Ki even met such a man himself serving the current King!

All those abilities were genuine, remembered, recorded, struggled for, in quests for both perfection and personal power, and many of their wielders aspiring for the prominent positions within the society, and even the rogue ones commanded high respect.

San Hyun-Ki wasn't one of them. He was just an ordinary, if learned man past his prime.

Yet, he was healed. He inspected himself, just to be sure.

Had to be the work of the Evil Spirits, but for what purpose, and at what cost, he didn't know.

He tried to get back onto his feet, his head spinning as one of a drunk, yet not so intoxicated as one, his weakness being more one of the body than one of the mind.

The single room of the simple village house was completely barren aside from the sleeping rug, stripped of the meagre belongings of the simple peasants who likely once lived in it, and was drowned in shadows with the barely enough light let inside.

The fire pit was cold.

Then he noticed the differences, the traces of the climbing plants claiming the wooden walls, emerging from the cracks, and the window blocked with entangled briars growing thorns sharp and large as the blade of a dagger.

Hyun-Ki hesitated to get close to the plants. With their unnatural colour, they looked poisonous, even to the man who didn't consider himself knowledgeable in the herbalist's trade.

His head was still spinning, and there was something that felt plainly wrong in this strange hut, overrun by nature. The unexplainable sensation of the lurking danger he couldn't quite explain and pinpoint made him hesitate to do the obvious - to open the door.

For a moment, it was like the shades were moving in the corners where the ray of light coming through the cracks didn't shine, but when he looked again, there was nothing there.

He still couldn't shake off the uneasiness.

There was a noise outside, and the air smelled of the burnt wood mixed with the weird odour of the mysterious plants, though there was more to the feeling than a mere sound or smell.

Evil Spirits were nearby.

He was certain of it, though he wasn't able to say why.

It was just this feeling of wrongness.

Hyun-Ki's lifelong search for the ancient relics made him well aware of the unnatural aura they emitted. He remembered that in the old tunnels under the capital many, many years ago, such energy could have been felt even through the layers of the carved stone, pulsating with something mystical and unnatural. Sneaking into the stone pathways under the palace had been an offence, a provocation, a disgrace after he had been offered the privilege of entering the royal palace.

He had overstepped his bounds, and it had led to this exile.

Back then, he had been arrested long before he had had time to lay his eyes on the scrolls the Forbidden Library hid there, but he still remembered how it felt.

This place also swam in mysterious energies, all very unnerving to the man's very core, but at the same time, exciting, as they reminded him of his earlier days, along with his personal search for the legendary relics.

It was deeply unsettling, and hostile, though it gave the old sage a hope - it was possible that Scroll was nearby. Perhaps the Spirits wanted the artefact for themselves - why wouldn't they?

Contents of the Forbidden Library were sought by sages, adventurers, rulers, and entire empires.

A desire San Hyun-Ki understood.

Once his vertigo passed, curiosity got the better of the sage, and he tried to peek outside through the holes in the wall.

He could, however, still see very little. He was in the village, overrun with the strange greenery, crowded with the figures that moved past what he could see too quickly before his ageing eyes could focus.

There were many of them though

Then, against his own judgement made the mere moments ago, he tried the door anyway, regardless of the danger that might lurk behind.

He didn't get to open it, though.

A creature materialised from the shadow on his right, making him flinch, and make a two steps away from it in sudden fright.

Then there was another, just behind him as he turned to face the first one.

Hyun-Ki stumbled and fell, and tried to backpedal away from the Evil Spirits.

He had seen them before when he had accompanied Viceroy's men in the search for the scrolls in the forest shrine.

The sage had seen those monsters appearing out of the thin air to rip the men's throats with their claws, attacking without fear. Unnatural and terrifying, more beasts than women, but more women than a beast in the twisted likeness of the wolf walking on its back legs, with the black fur as the darkness they appeared from.

The sage had run back then as the soldiers fought. Now, there was nowhere to run..

Hyun-Ki expected them to pounce on him, to end his life.

They did not.

They, however, decisively tried to prevent him from leaving the hut that was obviously meant to be his prison.

The old sage didn't know what to say.

Then the door opened, and yet another Evil Spirit walked in.

This one that was shaped in a rat's likeness, with its eyes gleaming in red. Just like the other Evil Spirit, walking upright like man, dressed in armour which didn't resemble that of the Viceroy's men, yet obviously made by human hand - one of the Jin, he presumed through his limited experience with barbarians' culture.

It gestured at Hyun-Ki with its weapon - a polearm with a curved blade often wielded by the Viceroy's men as well.

It spoke. She spoke. Her voice was feminine in a tone, her language completely unrecognisable, foreign and unusual.

"I don't understand," he replied in Jin's language, knowledge of which was as valuable as it was dangerous to know, as the kingdom's constant fear of spies. Hyun-Ki's words were crude. He didn't speak the tongue of the Jin that well, but if the Spirits came from there, it might work, judging from the outfit.

It didn't, though the sage couldn't tell if the Spirit didn't understand, or found it below her to respond in the tongue.

She once again said something.

This time, the sage tried to be polite instead.

"This one is San Hyun-Ki, the humble advisor to the Viceroy.'' He introduced himself in the language of the Hanulbeol, moving to his knees, and lowering his head briefly, albeit hesitantly as he didn't want to be accused of divided loyalties - even if no one could see him there.

The rat spirit seemed more satisfied with that reaction, although her words became no more understandable than they were before, making him wonder whether they understood the local speech at all. The very fact they could speak, though, was certainly the most welcomed, if he figured this out he could ask them for the whereabouts of the Scroll he searched for. Even if they had it, and didn't want to part with it, whatever interest they might have in him could perhaps be leveraged for an opportunity to study it..

"This one wishes to negotiate peace..." he started, uncomfortable with the position and unsure how to handle the task. He felt his voice shaking. The role given to him wasn't something he knew how to handle, even if the other part of this conversation had been a human.

However, as the unexplained sensation was growing stronger, he forgot about the task in the middle of the sentence he tried to plan in the most courtly fashion.

"Have you heard of the lost library of Pho-us-kah?" He asked instead.

It was the same as his excitement had overcome him before and he had acted in the most disrespectful and offensive manner in the presence of the Crown Princess.

He came to regret it immediately as the wolf spirits grabbed him and dragged him outside. This time, however, he didn't have to deal with the fury of a human official, but the incomprehensible motivations of a spirit.

Defying a member of the Royal Family was treason, and he doubted the scorned beings from the other realm would be more merciful.

As his eyes acclimated to the sudden change of the illumination, San Hyun-Ki could see the village, completely overrun by the greenery that defied nature as proudly as the forms of the Spirits that shaped them, a personification of the magic come manifest.

There were hundreds of the creatures as well, with different shapes, forms and sizes, though uniform in their apparent gender even to the eye of the human, a veritable host of unnatural beast-women, all of them.

It was as bizarre as it was remarkable, though certainly not without a reason, with a meaning behind it.

As the priestesses were more common than their male counterparts among his people, with few questioning why, perhaps the Spirit Realm itself held a certain favour to ones of the specific gender as well. Gods certainly did. Why shouldn't those who opposed them?

Then, San Hyun-Ki came face to face with their leader flanked by the largest of his bestial followers, and surrounded by a small army of the spirits of various kinds, all armed and armoured.

Unlike the animal shaped spirit, the Dark One looked mostly human, with the attire that would suggest a merchant from the far north, though it wouldn't be out of place for a fellow sage as well, or the master of some fine trade above the grime and dirt.

He would, however, be lost in the crowd, with few features that would mark him as a foreigner, from the overall shape of his face to the complexion on his skin.

The man's presence, however, was otherworldly, with the unseen aura of the unearthly forces that threatened to overwhelm with sheer malevolence. Burning darkness of the stranger's eyes made the sage uncomfortable.

Still, it made the sage think of the relic he searched.

The man said something, his voice alien, unfamiliar.

San Hyun-Ki tried to understand, although without success. It wasn't the local language, or the dialect spoken in Hanulbeol-guk, not even the ancient one. It wasn't the speech of the Jin, either, nor the people from behind the sea of the east. That much sage was certain.

Hyun-Ki introduced himself once again, and when he failed, looked around.

A tall wolf beast-woman on the stranger's right wore the armour of the royal guard's captain, while the two tailed fox spirit on his left was dressed as a priestess would be, albeit a bit more provocative than it was usual.

It puzzled the sage, though rather than mockery, he saw it as an attempt to convey standing, which suggested familiarity even if the harsh tongue of the spirits didn't remind him of anything, a base of understanding that could be built upon.

The Dark One tried to speak again, with more gestures, rather rudely pointing around, trying to establish communication.

Hyun-Ki wasn't offended, being reminded of his own failures that nearly cost him his head.

This filled him with a certain hope when he exchanged words with the Dark One.

There was a method in it, even if meaning eluded him as he tried to repeat the words spoken without their comprehension.

Hyun-Ki still tried, hectically, with the different words, in the local dialect, and in the common one of Jin's tongue, as well as what he understood about the old speech, to no avail.

If only there was something universal, he thought.

Then, after several sentences repeating, Hyun-Ki had a moment of realisation.

His head almost hurt from the unpleasant aura that the stranger gave off, but it also filled him with the fleeting memories of this past attempts to look for the ancient relics

The Scrolls!

The Scrolls were written in the old dialect. The old sage himself would struggle to understand if he spoke with someone who remembered the ages of Pho-us-kah, and his disciples, but the symbols, those they understood.

Transcribed.

Failed to empower without the originals the Sage so desperately searched for.

Yet, he understood the symbols without the chance to lay his hands on the originals. They were a piece of history that even the Sage forever banned from the library in the capital would have to know.

The script would speak for him, he said to himself.

He tried to draw the symbols to the air with his finger, then on the broken cobble of the road.

It confused even the Dark One.

Hyun-Ki could hear the voice of one of the Spirits commenting on his action, though he couldn't comprehend the meaning. Maybe even the being from the other realm thought he went insane.

Overtaken with the moment of inspiration, he wanted to rush for the one campfire to grab the piece of the charred wood to scribble on the broken stones of the road with it.

He was slammed to the ground before he even made the step. The beast-woman was not taking well to old Sage's insolence any better than the very human officials, nobles and royalty would.

The Dark One had him released, lifted by the largest of his followers. At least he assumed that was what the words in the tongue, so alien, so hostile to the ears, meant.

It hurt. For the bear spirit, larger than any man, he was nothing more than the twig that she could break.

Still, Hyun-Ki still tried to gesture wildly with little of the thought now, spouting words from the languages he knew, hoping that one of them would land.

He wanted to write something down.

And finally, the strange beings understood.