Chapter 32: The Root Beneath the Snow

The days after the qualifier settled into a rhythm Ryu Jin had not expected. He woke, he trained, he attended classes, he sparred. But the frantic edge was gone. The desperate hunger that had driven him to the Pocket before dawn had eased into something quieter, like a fire banked for the night. The coin, still warm against his chest, no longer pulsed with urgency. It hummed, low and patient, like...