Laughter reached them before anything else did.
Not loud, not immediate, just a faint, mischievous ripple threading through the mist from somewhere they couldn't quite pin down, circling instead of approaching directly, like whatever produced it was enjoying the moment of not being seen. It moved around them in a slow arc, first from the left, then somewhere behind, then drifting faint from a direction that shouldn't have existed given how the other two had already sounded.
"That's not comforting," Areum muttered, flame flaring brighter at her fingertips.
"Nothing about tonight's been comforting," Do-yun said.
The mist ahead of them thickened, folding in on itself, and a figure peeled slowly into view, robed in shimmering, oil dark silk, two curved horns rising from its brow, claws wrapped loosely around a glowing scroll that unfurled and re-rolled itself in a slow, idle rhythm. Its feet never touched the ground.
