Chapter 4

A week passed.

Rae Jin wasn’t sure how.

Time lost meaning inside the mountain. There was no sun to mark the hours—only pain, breath, and the echo of his own heartbeat pounding in his ears.

If he slept, it was because his body collapsed.
If he woke, it was because the pain returned.

Every day was the same.

“Sit.”

That was Roa’s greeting.

No encouragement.
No explanation.

Rae Jin sat.

If his posture wavered, the staff struck the stone beside his head.
If his breath scattered, two fingers pressed into his chest until his vision went white.

“Again.”

The word followed him everywhere.

Again.
Again.
Again.

By the third day, his hands shook even when resting.
By the fifth, his breath rasped like torn cloth.
By the seventh—

Rae Jin collapsed forward, coughing hard.

Something warm splattered against the stone.

He stared at it, blinking slowly.

“…That’s not good, right?”

Roa glanced down once.

“Better out than in.”

That was all.

Rae Jin clenched his jaw and pushed himself upright again.

“You’re enjoying this,” he muttered.

Roa snorted. “If I were, you’d be screaming.”

Later, Roa finally moved and reached for the bandages, unwrapping them without warning.

The smell came first.

Burned skin met the cold air—raw in places, darkened in others. His back bore the worst of it, where flame and smoke had lingered too long. Along his jaw, the damage was shallower… but visible.

Rae Jin clenched his jaw as the cavern light revealed his body.

“…So I look like this now.”

“You lived,” Roa replied calmly.

Rae Jin stared at his hands. They trembled—not from fear, but exhaustion.

“I can still breathe,” he muttered. “So I guess that’s good.”

Roa said nothing.

Instead, he reached into his robe and produced a small jade vial.

Inside rested a single pill.
It pulsed faintly—deep crimson, like blood seen through water.

Rae Jin stared at it.

“…What is that?”

Roa held it between two fingers.

“Crimson Meridian Restoration Pill.”

Rae Jin looked up slowly.

“…What does it do?”

Roa’s gaze flicked to his body.

“Your insides are worse than your skin,” he said flatly. “Smoke scorched your lungs. Cold cracked your channels. Fire twisted your meridians.”

Rae Jin processed that.

“…So I’m broken?”

“Yes.”

Rae Jin nodded once.

That sounded about right.

“And the pill?”

“It will force your body to repair what it can no longer fix on its own.”

Rae Jin stared at the pill again.

“…Force?”

Roa raised an eyebrow.

Rae Jin hesitated, then muttered, “You’re not… trying to kill me, right?”

Roa snorted.

“If I wanted you dead, I wouldn’t waste good medicine on you.”

Rae Jin considered that.

“…Fair.”

He took the pill.

The moment it touched his tongue—

Pain exploded.

It wasn’t heat.
It wasn’t cold.

It was pressure.

Like his body was being crushed from the inside, every meridian screaming as something violent tore through them—stitching and ripping at the same time.

Rae Jin convulsed.

His breath vanished.
His vision went white.

“…AH—!”

Roa caught him by the shoulder and slammed him back into a seated position.

“Swallow,” Roa ordered.

Rae Jin did.

The pain doubled.
Then tripled.

His muscles locked. His bones felt like they were grinding against each other. Something burned through his chest, down his spine, then burst outward like shattered glass.

Rae Jin shook violently.

“…You said restore!” he gasped.

“I did,” Roa replied calmly. “You were expecting comfort?”

Rae Jin collapsed forward, coughing, sweat pouring down his face.

“…You’re insane.”

Roa watched him.

“That was one.”

Rae Jin froze.

“…One?”

Roa nodded.

“Three times a day. Three days.”

Rae Jin lifted his head slowly.

“…I take that back. You are trying to kill me.”

Roa turned away.

“Rest until you can sit again.”

Rae Jin lay there, breathing shallowly, body burning from the inside.

“…And if I can’t?”

Roa didn’t look back.

“Then you weren’t meant to live.”

By the third day, Rae Jin no longer screamed.

The pills still tore through him—but now, something else answered.

His breath.
The rhythm Roa had beaten into him.

Inhale.
Hold.
Exhale.

The pain still came.

But it moved.
Flowed.
Passed.

On the final night, the bandages fell away.

Rae Jin stared down at himself.

The burns were gone.
The raw flesh healed.
The blistered skin smooth.

He raised his hands slowly, fingers hovering over his chest.

“…Are they gone?”

Roa glanced once.

“Not all.”

Rae Jin swallowed. “Where?”

Roa tapped his jaw.
Then his back.

“Your body needs to remember what it survived.”

Rae Jin touched the faint marks.

He nodded.

“…That’s fine.”

Roa studied him for a long moment.

Then he turned away.

“Good.”

The fire crackled.

Rae Jin sat there, breathing slowly. The pain lingered—but it was different now.

Contained.
Controlled.

Something inside him had stopped breaking.

Something had started forming.

Roa’s voice cut through the silence.

“Your body is repaired,” he said flatly.
“The damage is gone.”

Rae Jin let out a slow breath.

“…Then what?”

Roa looked down at him, eyes sharp as drawn steel.

“Then we build what was never meant to exist.”

The fire crackled.

Somewhere deep inside Rae Jin—

Something answered.