While the Song Clan armory and the Bai Clan herbal storehouses were still vomiting pillars of blue and purple fire into the night sky, Gu Chen sat in a dark corner of a nameless tavern.
Unlike others who would visit the brothels to please themselves and drown themselves in sorrow when they had hit rock bottom, this was the place Gu Chen would visit.
He had snuck out of the Gu Clan and his seclusion like a thief.
The underground chamber the elders had locked him in was too quiet. Too clean. Too full of the sound of his own teeth grinding.
Every time he closed his eyes he saw the empty vault, Gu Fan's mocking smile, and the way the entire expedition had collapsed around him like a house of cards someone had pissed on.
So he put on a grey cloak, pulled the hood low, and came here to drink cheap ale.
