Chapter 33
Dae-Hyun The throne room felt too large when Gon wasn’t in it. Censers burned along the red-lacquer pillars, threads of sandalwood smoke curling toward a ceiling painted with dragons and constellations. The courtiers had long since been dismissed; only lamp-flames, guards, and the faint scratch of a reed brush remained. I sat not on the throne but on the lower step before it, the old wood warm beneath my palms, the nation’s seal heavy on a low table at my knee. Across the open doors the courtyard stretched like a dark lake, moonlight pooling between stone paths and trimmed pines. Somewhere out there, a horned owl called once and fell silent. Eun-Ae stood to my right, where she always insisted on standing—half before me, half to the side, a shield no one had asked for and I would not do
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