As the end of the Seventh Year Gathering approached, ZaiWin was forced to regretfully leave that part of the forest and start making his way back to where he knew the others would be.

He chose to find the largest group of kids, the ones that had been left behind after the dueling challenge. He’d wait for the others with them. Still, even though finding them wasn’t all that hard, he chose to remain out of sight until the Calzai’s men made their way back, leading the rest of the kids with them.

Taking into account the rate of casualties up till the moment he’d left the group, he was kind of surprise seeing that they had all made it back. Well, all except the bronze-haired boy he’d tried to save from FeiWan’s fury and had almost got him killed. As to be expected, there was no sign of him.

CarFan was also being carried in an improvised stretcher made of tree branches, pulled by one of the Calzai’s man. He had a bloody, swollen face and two clearly broken arms, none of the injuries looking as if they were the result of a mere accident. The girl that had accompanied him still tagged along beside him, watching him with a worried expression.

Once they entered the improvised camp the kids waiting there were immediately relieved. They could finally go home!, it was written in everyone’s faces. But when ZaiWin stepped out from the trees finally showing himself, the entire camp was immediately silent again.

Most of the kids that had been left behind looked at him with those all to familiar glares of disdain and despise. But the ones that had been with him at the start of the hunting challenge looked as if they were seeing some unworldly ghost raised from the dead. Only the twins took a single glance at him and looked as if they couldn’t care less.

Finally NimRen was the first to react, gasping and running across the empty clearing to tightly wrap her arms around him. ZaiWin couldn’t help tense up at the feeling of her warm hands pressed against his back, even over his tunic. And so he tried his best to gently push her back.

“ZaiWin! I can’t believe it! We thought you were dead!” she blurted out, glancing at him from head to toe and back up again, and he gave her a small, friendly smile.

“I’m fine.”

“You’re fine? How can you say that? FeiWan said you had been injured!” she quickly demanded, the still visible stains of blood on his clothes easily capturing her gaze, and ZaiWin shrugged.

“It was just a scratch, really.”

ZaiWin made the mistake to raise his head to look at the others, and FeiWan's angry scowl as he crossed his arms sent his heart racing in alarm.

“If you were fine, why didn’t you come back to us? Uncle Yu was looking for you the entire night!” NimRen persisted, now in full scolding mode, and ZaiWin scratched his head, but then remembered he had to be careful not to undo the knot tying his hair.

Even though the little one had left his backpack behind he had apparently taken the hairpin he’d given him. Which was good. It had actually eased his conscience a bit. At least he’d have money to buy some food.

“I got a fever. I was asleep for an entire day. And since I didn’t know where you were headed next, I decided to make my way back here and wait for your return,” he argued, discreetly taking a glance towards the Yu Calzai, wanting to determine if the old man was actually buying his tale, but the Calzai was simply staring at him, looking completely undisturbed by his sudden reappearance.

At this explanation, NimRen immediately went from angry to worried again. Her face was still bruised, but the darkening areas were almost completely gone. And she looked really tired, dark circles shadowing her bright, green eyes.

“Okay. We’ll set camp here for today. We’ll leave in the morning. Make sure you have enough rest. If everything goes according to plan, we’ll be out of these woods by tomorrow night,” the Calzai declared and hopeful whispers sounded everywhere.

“NimRen!” CalWan’s strong voice reached them with ease and NimRen frowned, ready to protest.

“Go. I’m fine, really. We can talk later,” ZaiWin assured her before she could argue with her brother, and NimRen sighed, lowering her gaze.

“I was feeling … horrible, thinking that something might have happened to you … because of me … I’m so sorry …”

“You have nothing to feel sorry about. I was the one who agreed to go. Even if something had happened, it would only be my own fault.”

“But …”

“Besides, I’m fine. See?” He spread his arms and NimRen took another look at him, ending up nodding. “Now go. Before your brother beats me to a pulp as well.”

NimRen cringed at those words, confirming his suspicions that CarFan’s dreadful state was probably CalWan’s doing. Nodding, she hesitated one last time before making her way to her brother’s side.

A tall, large shadow approached him and ZaiWin’s smile immediately disappeared, before he tilted his head back to look up at the man standing beside him. RouZen gave him one of his wide but ferocious smiles that didn’t quite reach his dark eyes.

“Good to see you’ve made it out alive, kid.”

“Thank you,” ZaiWin carefully replied, suspicion crawling into his thoughts.

“Here. You’ll probably need this.”

ZaiWin lowered his gaze and looked at the simple, silver hairpin the tall man was holding. He didn’t want to take it. He didn’t want to owe something to one of the Calzai’s men. To one of Hao’s men. But he wanted even less to have to argue in order to have things go his own way. And so he simply took it and nodded.

“Thank you,” he said again and RouZen gave him another wide smile before walking away.

Once they finally reached the edge of the forest, two days later, carrying their injured companions and the bodies of those who hadn’t made it, the news were already all over the place. The entire ruling Clan of Pon had been found guilty of high treason and put to death by imperial decree. Proof of a complex and ongoing plan to murder the Empire’s El’Gin had been found in their main household, in Pon. It had been many years since such an intricate plan to overthrown the throne had been uncovered.

As such, in a clear attempt to set an example and to avoid any future attempts of rebellion, not a single member of the Pon Clan, from the elderly to the children, had been spared. FonRou, however, never even made it to the Palace to officially receive his sentence. Pon was officially declared as an ungoverned Province, joining the three other already ungoverned Provinces of Ven, Far and Sur.

As a neighbor Province of Pon, Nox had to immediately start making arrangements to defend their borders from possible feimao’s incursions. Once a Province lost its Governor no one could tell how long it would take until feimao started taking over the land. Besides, Nox was yet to solve that same problem in their own lands, and now they had not only one, but two ungoverned Provinces just outside their borders.

Once back home, ZaiWin didn’t even have time to breathe before he was thrown back into another battle field.