Sunshine (alchemy of souls)

Chapter 25: a fake engagement?

Yuna pov:

We're heading to a fortress of some sort. Master Lee's dog was leading us here, apparently it was Gwigu, the relic of Jinyowon that Uk had smashed. Somehow it's soul had entered the dead dog.

It had detected sorcery here, so someone was trying to do The Alchemy Of Souls. When we finally got to the place it led us, it started growling and barking.

They had sent some of the best mages in Jeongjingak, so Sang-ho, Yul, Dang-gu and a few others, I was here because I had to follow Dang-gu around everywhere.

"Search the area" sang-ho said. The mages scattered, going different places to search, Yul went to the left as Dang-gu went towards the fortress-thingy, I wasn't to far behind him.

When we entered, he looked around searching for something, anything really. When we didn't find anything, he turned, nodding for me to leave first, just in case.

When we got back to where sang-ho and Yul was Dang-gu shook his head "there's no one here" Yul looked at me, "I didn't see anyone, nor did I hear anything." He nodded, believing me, as if Dang-gu would lie to him.

The dog was still growling. "But it sensed the energy of sorcery." Yul said, "master heo was right, that sapsali was really the Gwigu" Dang-gu said looking up in suprise. "Did The Alchemy Of Souls really take place here?" I asked,
Dang-gu, he just looked at me, it seemed he didn't know the full answer either.

Yul looked down, he seemed to see something, when he reached down to touch it, some of it fell in the water, making black smoke appear, Dang-gu pushed me behind him, so I could still see but if anything were to happen he would be there to protect me, from what I'm not sure, but he always thought like that.  "what is that?" He asked.

"It was just on the ground. A Soul Ejector" Yul said, just then Sang-ho seemed to see something, going over picking something up from the weeds "look at this, is this not Young Master Jang's binding bracelet?"

"It is, but why is it here?" I said, reaching to take it from Yul who had just got it from Sang-ho. "Dose this mean Uk was here earlier?"

Yul just looked back at the ground, a splat of blood mixed with water was there, having been looked over till now. "There's signs of a fight"

"You don't think anything happened to him, do you?" Dang-gu said to Yul, who just turned back to Sang-ho. "Sang-ho return to Songrim and report what you saw" he then turned to us. "Dang-gu, Yuna, go back to the fortress and search for Uk. I'll look around here" Yul said.

"Yeah" Dang-gu said, I bowed my head, before following after Dang-gu. We went through the forest, hunting for Uk. We saw someone running, we were going after them, we looked around for them, but we couldn't see them anymore, then Sang-ho nodded for us to go on straight.

We ended up at the Jang place, hoping to find Uk here, well and okay. Dang-gu had sent a servant to go get him for us, or maidservant Kim at least. We both were nervous, "it'll be okay gu, I'm sure he's okay" I said, he nodded but I knew he wouldn't believe me until our friend was in his eye site.

We heard footsteps approaching, we turned towards the walkway, only to see Park Jin, and Maidservant Kim coming towards us. "You were here as well, my lord?" Dang-gu said.

"What is it?" Park Jin said. "Well I'm afraid... Uk's fallen victim to the Alchemy Of Souls." Dang-gu said, not making things sound better. Maidservant Kim gasped "what?" Park Jin said, confused as we were.

***

By day break, news of a soul shifter in Cheonbugwan, had spread, so Park Jin went to check it out, dang-gu, me and maidservant Kim all with him, Songrim mages trailing behind us.