Chapter Twenty-Seven

Sora, Aeri, Mikail, Euyn, and Royo enter the Temple of Knowledge in Khitan and find eight Yoksa priests dead together and a ninth slain separately, all with brutal wounds. The group secures the temple, shaken by the massacre and the ransacked archives, concluding the killers were searching for something.

Pressed for time to save Daysum and Tiyung, Sora considers how vast the archives are. Aeri spots a living priest hiding upstairs. Because Yoksa cannot speak inside the temple, Mikail leads the man outside; he identifies himself as Luhk and agrees to help if they release the dead priests’ souls with funeral pyres.

While Mikail, Euyn, and Royo begin carrying bodies out, Luhk guides Sora and Aeri to hidden shelves and specific volumes, revealing how unlikely it was the murderers found what they sought. Mikail also requests lore on the Dragon Lord’s relics; he explains he suspects Joon may be attempting to reunite them, alarming Aeri and Sora.

Luhk assembles texts and scrolls in multiple languages. Aeri cannot read Khitanese, so Sora skims and marks passages for later translation as more materials arrive, including Weian and old Gayan scrolls. The women settle into urgent research while, outside, pyres are prepared.

Sora infers the priests likely resisted yet died serenely, believing they protected their knowledge. The group’s goals crystallize: find exceptions to the Rule of Distance and understand relic lore before Joon does, honoring the dead while racing against unseen killers.