#did you remember the warnings and know you could never outrun a king forever

[hellenhighwater]

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Icarus: The Sun, The Sky, The Sea.

[alfredosauce50]

Hi! I was wondering if you could do some Romano + Prussia x royal reader (separate) headcannons? I'm a sucker for a good forbidden romance and would be happy to see what you want to do with it. Thank you!

Yes, of course! Sorry for the kinda late response--I got carried away writing other things. What a coincidence that I've been doing a lot of exploring in fantasy! The reader is referred to as she/her.

Forbidden Romance Headcanons - Prussia and S. Italy

Prussia - The earnest pickpocket and sheltered princess

Unfortunately, Gilbert is on the wrong side of history. As an albino, he's been an outcast ever since he was born. In an age of superstition and class divide, his parents had no problem abandoning an extra mouth to feed. Especially when they were a demon with magical powers. Left to fend for himself as a baby, he only ever survived thanks to the generosity of an old neighbor. When they passed away due to old age, he had to get on by himself on the streets. Stealing, lying, whatever it takes to get some quick cash. And he's been doing it ever since he was five.

He loved fairytales ever since he was a kid. His guardian always told him these stories before bedtime, after all. They said it was good luck to give the princess a flower, and he remembered this a few years later during the royal parade in town. Pushing through the crowd of onlookers, he held out a small dandelion hoping you would take it. Before the guards could swat him away, you took the flower with a smile. All you remembered from that time was a small and dirty face gleaming up at you. And, of course, a pair of striking red eyes you would never forget.

In his adolescence, he became a thief with quick hands. It wasn't until he took on the most dangerous job of all did he make himself a public enemy. Stealing the royal family's jewels. And he would've gotten away with it if he wasn't forced to take a detour through the princess's bedroom. Unbeknownst to him, you were wide awake. Immediately, you recognized him as the little boy from that day. Without thinking, you hid him in your wardrobe until the guards left. That was the start of a strange friendship forged between two people from two worlds--a dirt-poor criminal and the well-loved princess of a thriving kingdom.

He visits you from time to time by climbing up the side of the castle. When he first did it, you practically throttled him by his collar, screaming, “Do you have a death wish? They'll throw you to the lions if you get caught!”. He simply responds with, “The awesome me never gets caught! That's why I'm here, ja?” Soon, this becomes routine until you learn to trust him.

Gilbert loves gloating about his adventures as a street rat, whether it's about singlehandedly beating up gangs of bullies or outrunning the palace guards. As a sheltered person of royalty, his stories reflect experiences alien to you. But it opens your eyes to things you've never seen, and it's very fascinating.

If he's not telling grossly exaggerated anecdotes of his greatness, he'll bring in board games and cards he “borrowed” from his friends. You've never played with them before as your parents deemed them unrefined. It fills him with pride to see you enjoying yourself so much, especially when he's teaching you how to play.

You don't go out very often, so he always brings back little trinkets and souvenirs. When you found out he stole them all, you would hit him on the head and tell him off. “Where did you get these from? Stealing and giving these to the princess--do you know how stupid that sounds?” Then, you would pinch his cheek until he tears up and admits his wrongs. “I-I thought you would like them, okay? I wanted to give them to you as a present...” The next day, you would accompany him to the shops he robbed and pay the owners back.

He gets upset and embarrassed when he realizes those gifts aren't gifts at all. Not when you paid for them yourself! One of the ways he shows affection is through giving gifts, but that unfortunately clashes with not having money. So he's eager to make something out of himself, even if he has to work as a bottom feeder and face unfair treatment for what he looks like. When you find out, his boss gets one hell of a time dealing with you. After that, he uses whatever small amount he earned to buy something for you.

As he grows out of his old habits, he becomes more honest. In fact, he's so determined to prove himself that he shows up one day with a homemade board game scribbled out on a spare piece of parchment. He's nervous and twiddling his fingers, and that's when you know you have to help him get back onto his feet. He's so touched by your kindness that he shows you a secret he's been hiding forever--he can do magic. It's one of his skills that let him become so good at stealing in the past.

After some practice to touch up his abilities, you try convincing your parents to let him work in the palace as an all-rounder. With the magic dancing in his fingertips, there's nothing he can't do. He has a green thumb, good reflexes, and the horses in the stables listen to him better than the caretaker! He can't forget that you encouraged him to let go of his doubts and previous identity as a petty thief. There's nobody in the world he looks up to more.

On the night of your eighteenth birthday, he's invited to a ball to celebrate. Once again, he finds himself anxious to see you in your dress, especially when he's quite glammed up himself with his suit and hair slicked back. While you teach him how to dance, he tells you he looks ridiculous. But you think otherwise and make it explicit. That's when Gilbert realizes he's completely smitten with you. He embarks on another journey to improve himself until he thinks he deserves you.

South Italy - The plebeian pâtissier and renegade royal

War has ravaged the kingdom and eaten into the state's reserves, leaving inflation rates at an all-time high. The suffering middle and working-class take it up to their rulers in a coup d'état, killing the king and queen. And now, they're searching for the princess amidst the chaos of an ungoverned dominion. Romano couldn't be more indifferent to such a cause, only ever caring about putting food on the table. He works day and night helping out his family's bakery, making what he can to get by. However, he's forced to take a side when he finds a girl on his doorstep on the verge of starvation.

Unable to turn away someone in need, he nurses you back to health. However, he does so with spite, wondering to himself why he has to give what little he has left to a princess. When you feel better after a few days, he's eager to send you off but changes his mind as you leave. Romano can't bear to let you face certain death, or worse, knowing how bitter the townspeople are about the unpopular war. So he welcomes you back with a sharp sigh with his head turned away. “Alright, alright, you can stay. Now stop making that pathetic face, you spoilt principessa--it's depressing.”

He relays a few house rules as conditions for keeping you around. You have to help him with chores. Cooking, cleaning, sewing, everything. Considering you always had someone doing those tasks for you, you're hopeless at it. He'll swat your hand and show you how to do things right with an annoyed scowl. “No, no, no, no, no! You're doing it all wrong. This is how you do it. What do they even teach you in that palace, huh? Books? Maths? Books about maths? Well, they won't keep you alive, you know!”

Because he's so observant and strict, he's a good teacher, and soon, you get the hang of everything. Before, he had to open his mouth to correct you every few seconds, but now, he can just watch you do his work with his arms crossed. It's a little demeaning to have someone watch your every move, but inside, he's relieved you're finally fitting in and not a complete waste of his time and resources. In reality, he never wanted to send you off and hoped he could just handle an extra mouth to feed. Not that he'll ever tell you.

When you're out and about, he makes you wear a cloak to hide your identity. When he's forced to interact with people, he'll hold you close and play everything off without arousing suspicion. Even if your hood falls off, he won't react--he's screaming inside in panic, but he's a great actor when he needs to be. You're totally not the princess, just a crazy similar doppelganger. The cloak is there so that people don't make a fuss. When they leave, he'll turn to you and scream how much of an idiot you are. But really, he was just worried to death--and you have a feeling he was. So you hug it out and leave him cussing with a red face.

As you two grow closer, his cousin Antonio notices how much he cares about you despite his efforts to hide it. It's a problem. He approaches him and warns that if people found out he was hiding the princess, he would get killed with her. Romano heats up and screams, telling him that he already knew what he got into the second he let you into his home. When he's asked why he's still keeping you around, he responds with, “It's not fair that her parents fucked up, and she has to face the consequences. Just like how I never wanted to run this stupid bakery--I wanted to be a painter, not burn my hands in the kitchen all day!”

Unbeknownst to him, you overhear the conversation. The next morning, he discovers that you're gone and loses his head. While he's screaming and crying, he's swarmed with the possibilities of what happened to you. He's a bit of an overthinker, but his paranoia is deserved--were you taken away in the middle of the night? Are you even still alive? He spirals down a path of self-loathing until he confronts how much he misses you, then his regret of never being frank with his feelings. Romano didn't understand what he had until he lost it. To say this was a wake-up call--to be more honest with himself--would be an understatement.

A week later, you return unscathed. Turns out, you left to stay with the owner of a paint shop owner your family always supported and bought from. You present him with a gift of some high-end oil paints, brushes, and canvases. When he sets them all down, he'll pull you into a tight hug, and once again, tell you how stupid you are. While he has you in his coils, you smile to yourself as you pat his hair, happy that you also got something in return. Some transparency. “I just thought I'd give you something... For all the trouble.” You'd say, and he'd shush you with a few hard kisses. “You were never a trouble. I wanted you to stay, so I'm more to blame than you.”

As the political situation of the country calms down, so do the anxieties of angry neighbors pounding on his door. You return to his home much to his content. Now that you're just as good as him at icing cakes, you spend more time running the bakery. This gives him some time to paint, and he can't be happier. Once you both get settled, he discovers another hobby on top of making art. Making coffee! The bakery evolves into a café lavishly decorated with his paintings, and it becomes the most popular establishment in town. You both realize how overrated it is to want to be anything more--you never bring up your title ever again.

[vaguelyrotten]

Like a Lily in a Flood

Title: Like a Lily in a Flood Artist: @myulalie Beta: @another-random-stranger​​ Pairings: Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood, mentions of Jimon and Reyhill Word Count: 70k Warnings: Mild Gore, Beheading, Nearly being eaten alive and burned at the stake, Discrimination, Sickness Summary:  Alec returns home to find his town plagued by a mysterious illness. Unable to find a cure, he ventures into the woods to seek help from an unlikely source. We must not look at goblin men... This fic was created for the Shadowhunters Mini Bang 2021: Presented by the @malecdiscordserver

Chapter Five

“Let him go, father.”

Magnus. By some magic or miracle, whatever Alec had did worked. Magnus had found him and he was, hopefully, saved from a horribly tragic death. Not only that, the half-goblin had marched right into camp and confronted the very man that he both hated and feared face to face.

For Alec.

He was doing all of this for Alec.

He had to remind himself that this wasn’t Magnus’ fight but he had still come anyway. It was Alec who had journeyed into the woods in search of a cure, and Alec who had stumbled into Magnus’ life. The half-goblin hadn’t needed to help Alec, but he had, and in doing so, he’d ensured that their lives were remarkably and forever intertwined.

Magnus had kept him safe in his dangerous ventures into unknown woods and kept the beasts and goblins at bay.

Because of Magnus, Alec had never gotten closer to any full goblin than he did that first night he’d gone specifically looking for the half-goblin.

Until today, that was, and his reckless actions had now put them both in danger.

“Magnus, is this your new plaything that I’ve heard that has consumed so much of your attention lately? You really must introduce us.” Asmodeus gave Alec a small shove, causing him to twist and fall to the ground in between Magnus and his father. “Honestly, I thought the humans had more sense these days than to venture in here alone. You’ve obviously found yourself a particularly brave one — or a stupid one. There’s a fine, fine line between bravery and stupidity.”

“He’s under my protection,” Magnus growled in return, ignoring Asmodeus’ pointed jibes.

“Your protection?” Asmodeus laughed. “What makes you think that means anything? You're just a half-breed. You’ve got no status. No real power.” Alec knew that wasn’t true, not according to what Magnus had told him about magic, but the goblin king didn’t seem to want to acknowledge that fact; at least not in front of the rest of the goblin court.

“And I’m still your son — it’s your magic that runs through my veins, tainted as it may be. I might not have the full strength of your power, but trust me, I can get creative. I’ve had plenty of years of practice. You could say I’m pretty scrappy when I want to be.”

“You challenge a king?”

“No, I challenge a madman. It’s been a while but I know you’ve seen what I can do. That was nearly a hundred years ago, but my memory is very good. I remember that you envied my abilities and tried to take my magic as your own. Do you really want to take a chance at failure in front of your ‘loyal subjects’?” Magnus had dropped his voice to a vicious whisper, only loud enough for himself, his father, and Alec to hear. He knew, just as his father knew, that his people were only loyal out of fear. If a better option than Asmodeus came around, they’d take it in a heartbeat. And if that better option was Magnus himself? Well...

Asmodeus glared at his son, searching his expression for any sign of weakness. Finding none, he tipped his head in barely noticeable acceptance. “Fine. Release the boy. We better not find him alone in these woods again. Next time he might not be so lucky. My court is ever so hungry, and I’m sure none of them will be happy that you’ve taken their feast from them.” He turned towards the gathered goblins and gestured to the woods outside of the camp. “Come, my beasts, we must return to our hunt once more.”

Magnus continued to glare at his father’s retreating back as a knife appeared in his hand and he cut the vines around Alec’s legs and arms before helping him to his feet. Elias was waiting for them at the edge of the clearing, snapping his now sharpened teeth and stomping his hooves at the goblins who dared get too close to him as they passed.

Magnus grabbed a fistful of mane and pulled himself to the horse’s back, holding a hand out to Alec so that he could easily climb on behind him. Once they were settled, Elias took off for the treeline at a nearly impossible speed.

“You’re a prince,” Alec held Magnus’ waist tighter as they galloped away from the goblin camp. He knew he wouldn’t fall from Elias’ back. Magnus had told him that kelpies had a way of keeping their rider on if they wanted to but he was slowly realizing just how close he’d come to death at the hand’s of the apparent goblin king and his men. Magnus had mentioned that his father was Asmodeus but Alec hadn’t put two and two together until he’d been faced with it.

Magnus laughed, “No, I’m a bastard. There’s a difference.”

Even a bastard son of a king still shared royal blood. If Magnus even had half the power that Asmodeus had, Alec was starting to realize how frighteningly powerful that made the halfbreed. Enough, perhaps, to help heal the people in town with the assistance of Alec and his siblings, and possibly that friend of his that specialized in healing. Alec wanted to ask, but he could tell Magnus was still slightly shaken from the encounter despite his previous bravado.“You two don’t seem to get along.” Alec said instead.

“That’s the hard part about being what I am,” Magnus replied, leaning back ever so slightly into Alec’s hold and signalling for Elias to slow. “I’ve told you...I don’t fit in anywhere. The humans don’t like my goblin half because they think that I’m a monster, and the goblins think my human blood makes me weak and disgusting. I’m not welcome in Idris nor can I live in the camp with my father’s people. It’s a...lonely life.”

“What about your friends? And surely there must be others outside of them?”

“A handful. My mother wasn’t the only one who suffered the same fate but it’s not safe for us to be seen together. We meet up once or twice a year usually — just to check in and make sure everyone is still alive. It’s been a bit different this year with Raphael’s curse, so we’re trying to move around a lot more and never stay in one place too long but even that is risky...we just hope we don’t get caught. We’d be hunted either way.”

“Have you? Been hunted I mean? By my people or your father’s?” Alec knew it was a stupid question. Magnus had told him before that he’d been hunted but they’d never really discussed exactly what that meant. Magnus had seemed that he hadn’t wanted to talk about it and Alec could only begin to imagine the absolute trauma of the situation. He wouldn’t want to talk about what it was like being hunted either. But now… maybe things were different between them. Maybe Magnus trusted Alec with his doubts and secrets.

“A few times over the years,” Magnus started tentatively. “I know the woods better than most and Elias is fast. It’s hard even for a goblin horse to outrun him but I’m one of the lucky ones. I’ve known too many halfbreeds to meet their end being hunted like a fox.” He and his friends had even come awfully close a time or two before; it was only thanks to Magnus’ raw power and their ability to work together that they’d escaped with their lives.

“What are you doing out here, Alec?” Magnus’ voice was quiet as he shifted his weight on Elias’ back and motioned for the kelpie to stop in the clearing that he’d made camp in for the last few days. He slid off the kelpie’s back and took a few steps backwards so that Alec had space to do the same. “It’s not safe in these woods alone, I’ve told you that.”

“Looking for you. I...I haven’t heard from you in a few days. I was worried. I wanted to make sure that you were okay.” Magnus blinked, the fear in his heart making way for warmth. People didn’t care about goblins and they certainly didn’t care about their half-breed children. But Alec had been worried about him… he’d risked his life to go looking for Magnus to make sure he was alright.

Alexander Lightwood was certainly a gift that Magnus would treasure forever.

When Magnus said nothing, Alec began to worry that he’d said the wrong thing when he declared his concern for the half-goblin. “Also, Izzy needed more ingredients!” He replied quickly, trying to back pedal before either had a chance to dwell too much on what had been said. Magnus continued to stare at Alec with an unknown expression on his face. Alec idly reached up and rubbed the back of his neck with his hand trying to find new words to say how sorry he was that he’d over-stepped.

Magnus moved quicker than Alec expected, their lips crashing together. Magnus’ arms found their way around Alec’s waist and pulled him closer. Alec let himself melt into Magnus’ touch. When they parted, it seemed that the world had stopped. Alec stared into golden cat-eyes fondly until Magnus ducked his head and pulled away. “I...the wards,” he muttered, using the distraction to hide his emotions. “With my father and his crew hunting tonight, I need to make sure the wards are up. I wouldn’t want them to find us again. My posturing might not work next time.”

“Is there anything that I can do to help?”

“Just...stay here. I’ll be back shortly, then we can talk.”

Magnus disappeared into the treeline, magic already sparking at his fingertips, leaving Alec alone in the clearing under the setting sun to think about the events of the last few hours. He’d come looking for Magnus and hadn’t found him, instead running head first into the goblin king and his band of creatures. His horse had run off, the goblins had captured him and prepared to eat him (now that he was out of immediate danger, Alec could properly shudder at the thought) and then somehow Magnus had managed to find him. Not only that, he’d saved them both.

He shrugged off his jacket and threw it haphazardly on the ground by the firepit. It was the jacket Magnus had conjured for him the last time that he’d visited the woods, and now it was unfortunately ruined thanks to the rough handling Asmodeus’ men had treated him to. It was such a shame; this had come to be his favorite jacket...maybe he could ask Magnus to fix it. If he’d made it with magic, surely he could fix it with magic as well.

Alec sighed, glancing around the familiar grove of Yew trees that they’d stayed in the last time that he had visited Edom Forest. Despite the security of the dense trees surrounding them and the wards that he knew Magnus must have set, he felt far too exposed after his confrontation with Asmodeus and his men. He trusted the strength and safety of Magnus’ wards though, just like he trusted the man who set them.

The surrounding creek still bubbled quietly and Alec thanked the Angel that at least they had water.

While Magnus was still off double checking the wards around the camp, Alec decided to take the opportunity to clean up. All his gear was with his horse (and he hoped that Flame was okay and possibly had enough sense to head home because he would never forgive himself if something had happened to his loyal companion) so he had to make due with a splash of water and a little scrubbing with his hands, Magnus’ previous warning about Elias’ distaste for the stream entirely forgotten after the chaos earlier in the day.

After he’d washed the majority of the blood and grime off, he cupped his hands and raised the pooled water to his lips. It felt cool and refreshing in his mouth, with a hint of spice as he swallowed that he could only assume was unique to Edom Forest. This was the most delicious thing in the world after the day that he’s had.

He eagerly took another sip, and then another, relishing in the taste of near ambrosia before a sound from behind him had him jumping in surprise and turning quickly around. Magnus had approached silently and was staring at Alec with a look of terror on his face. “What are you doing?” He asked, his voice panicked and unsure in a way that had Alec’s heart beating quickly.

“Uh… drinking? And washing some of the blood off of my face. Is there...something wrong?”

“That’s the same stream from the last time, Alexander. Elias won’t drink from it, remember? Something is wrong with the water.”

Alec blinked, fear already curling in the pit of his stomach. He’d forgotten Magnus’ previous warning. “You said it was likely a dead deer or something upstream. Surely, it’s been long enough for that to have worked itself out” Alec muttered, knowing that arguing would be to no avail. Magnus knew the woods better than he did and if Magnus said that the stream still wasn’t safe then...

Shit.

“Alec, this creek snakes through the entire forest like an angry dragon. It starts on one side of Edom Forest and twists and curls through the forest before emptying out on the other end and travelling down towards the mountains. If you see water in the woods, it’s more than likely this one creek. Yes, it could have just been a dead deer but without knowing how far upstream the problem lies, we can’t exactly confirm that.”

“What’s going to happen to me? You said Elias wouldn’t drink from it but you never said why.”

“I don’t know why...just that it’s never good news if a water horse wants nothing to do with the water…” His voice trailed off as his eyes trailed worryingly over Alec’s body. “Come on, let’s get back to camp. I can run a magical diagnostic and we can cross our fingers that it turns something up.” Alec accepted the offered hand and let Magnus pull him to feet.

Once they were seated around the blue fire that was now burning brightly with the most delicious roast sandwich that Alec had ever had, Magnus let a shower of blue fall from his fingers. The sparkle of Magnus’ magic danced across Alec’s skin and sunk into his body with that now familiar pleasant tingle he’d come to associate with Magnus’ magic (and his alone — Asmodeus’ had not drawn the same comfort.)

The half-goblin frowned, his fingers twisting as he directed his magic to do what Alec could only assume was the aforementioned diagnostic spell. When the soft electricity under Alec’s skin finally faded, Magnus could simply shake his head. “There’s...something there. It’s a seed. It could grow, it could simply linger and nothing will change except…” He furrowed his brow for a moment before his face contorted into a look of shock. “Alec, who did you say the first people in the town to fall ill were?”

Alec’s mind grinded to a halt, any previous worry for himself and his well-being forgotten as he followed Magnus’ train of thought. “My father and his men...they were stationed outside of town. There were skirmishes on the border, I’m told. My mother said it was barely worth calling the men out. The soldiers from the neighboring country were poking at the men and causing annoyances rather than actually trying to make a play for territory.”

“They made their camp on the southern border, didn’t they?” Magnus asked, barely waiting for Alec’s nod before he continued. “This river runs north to south through the forest. It ends in the mountains on the south side but the north side…there’s an old spring. It’s deep into the forest, the normal forest, not Edom Forest. I haven’t been there in years, but I remember the water being still and blue. That one spring feeds the entire river. If something happened there…”

“It would affect the entire river and those who use the water…” Alec continued, already standing up and pulling on his jacket. He turned, looking for Flame before remembering that the gelding had spooked and run off into the woods when he’d been attacked by Asmodeus and the goblin court. “We need to go check out that spring...and we need to find my horse if we can.”

“Alec!” Magnus half-shouted as he jumped to his feet and caught Alec’s arm before he could wander off. “Alexander. Please. We will go to the spring first thing in the morning, I promise; but it does us no good to leave now. You’ve just possibly poisoned yourself and my father and his men are still out there hunting. We’ll be safest in the camp behind my wards until the sun rises.”

Alec wanted to argue. He wanted to beg and plead and tell Magnus that they needed to go now. He’d searched so hard for a cure for the mystery illness. The people of Idris had searched even longer… and now there was a possible source of the illness and he had to wait to find it. Yes, it still wasn’t a cure but if they knew what caused it then they’d have a better idea of how they could fix it.

He glanced at the north end of the section of the river that skirted their camp before glancing back to Magnus. Finally, he nodded and removed his jacket to sit by the fire once more. “Fine, but we go as soon as the sun begins to rise.”

“Agreed,” Magnus replied with a small smile. “As soon as the sky begins to turn peach...but I also need you to promise to tell me if you begin to feel any ill effects from whatever is poisoning the water. I can’t help you if I don’t know that you’re hurting.”

“I promise I’ll let you know if something is wrong.”

----------

When Alec woke in the morning, he mentally took stock of his body before he pushed himself into a sitting position to rub the remaining sleep out of his eyes. Everything felt fine, so far. His joints were perhaps a little stiff but honestly, who wouldn’t be after sleeping on the cold, hard ground all night? He glanced around the camp and found that Magnus had already risen and was nowhere to be seen.

Worry shot through him until he laid his eyes on a note that had been left where Magnus had fallen asleep the night before.

Alexander —

I’ll be back shortly. Please remain here until I return. I won’t be gone long.

~M.B.

Wait until Magnus returned from wherever he had gone. Alright, Alec could do that.

Sure enough, it was less than twenty minutes later when Alec heard the sound of something slowly moving through the undergrowth and scrambled to his feet. He waited, tense, hoping that Magnus’ wards hadn’t somehow failed and he wasn’t about to find himself face to face with the goblin king once more. After a moment of the sound growing louder, a figure emerged from the woods. Magnus, astride Elias, holding Flame’s reins in his hand and leading the gelding into the clearing.

“You found him!” Alec said, jumping into action and taking his horse’s reins from the half-goblin to begin checking his mount over for injuries. “I was worried that he may have gotten eaten in my place.”

Magnus snorted as he slipped from the kelpie’s back and joined Alec. “My father would never have eaten you — that was all for show. The goblins don’t eat much meat, and when they do it’s mostly marsh rats or squirrels or rabbits...both a horse and a human would be far too much work and they are all quite lazy.”

Alec ran his hand down the gelding’s legs checking for any lumps and bumps that hadn’t been there before lifting each hoof to take a closer look. Satisfied that nothing seemed to be amiss, Alec let Flame relax and took a step back. “It looks like he’s fine after a night in the woods.”

“He’s probably a bit confused but other than that he’s probably fine. We found him not far from the entrance. It looked like he was waiting for you.”

“We’ve been through a lot, me and him. My father always taught us that the way to win a battle was with a good horse,” Alec replied, running his hand gently over the blaze on Flame’s nose. “I had hoped he’d stay close but I also didn’t want any harm to come to him.” He turned to Magnus with a soft smile on his face. “Thank you. Having him back means more to me then you know.”

Magnus nodded, patting Alec gently on the shoulder before turning to stroll back to Elias. “Come on. We should get going. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover and not a lot of time to do it if we’re hoping to reach the spring before nightfall. I’ll dismantle the camp as we go,” He waved his hand and a sparkle of blue emerged from his fingertips and made their way to where Alec was sure the purple ribbons with the protective spells were tied.

Alec tightened the girth on the saddle and checked the condition of his tack before pulling himself into the saddle. “Alright. Let’s ride.”

----------

They rode for hours, following the creek north through twisting and unfamiliar terrain. “Magnus,” Alec asked, a question crossing his mind that he really should have asked last night. “How did you find me? I was certain I was done for.”

“Whatever you did with my coin… it made the medallion I took from my father go crazy. I felt it buzz in my pocket and once I took it out, it started spinning like a top hovering in the air. I probed it with my magic and that’s when it started glowing and…” He turned his head in Alec’s direction with an unreadable expression on his face.

“And?”

“It’s stupid but the minute I touched it with my magic, the air somehow smelled like you...like hickory and sinew and rain. I knew something was wrong… but then it started glowing, it zipped into the woods. I could barely keep up with it, and you know how fast Elias is...It led us right to you.”

“I don’t really know what I did,” Alec admitted, running his thumb across the healing cut on his face. “I didn’t really have a lot of options. Flame had run off with all of my stuff and your father’s men had tied me up and then he put me in this electric...bubble and I couldn’t get away. All I had with me was my clothes and what was in my pockets. I knew that you had to have put a lot of spells on the coin and I read in a book in our library that blood could be powerful in its own right...I took a guess and prayed that something would happen.”

“Playing with magic you don’t understand is dangerous, Alexander. You could have been killed...or turned into a toad or something equally as terrible.”

“I was desperate, I would have tried anything… and it worked, didn’t it? It brought you to me and you saved me from your father,” Alec replied, wishing that they weren’t on horseback so he could thank Magnus properly. “Why did your medallion act up though? That’s… strange. I’ve barely touched it.”

Magnus took the medallion out of his inner pocket and reached over to hold it out to Alec. “You said it looked familiar? Are you sure you haven’t seen this before?”

Alec shook his head as he took the medallion and brushed his fingers across the metal. “I don’t know how I would have seen it. You took it from your father and the first time I’ve ever met him was last night.”

“It belonged to my mother,” Magnus replied quietly, turning his head so that he wasn’t facing Alec. “My father gave it to her to keep her safe. It didn’t work...they still burnt her at the stake when they found out that she had given birth to a monster. I assume that her possessions were distributed among the townspeople. My father has been searching for this for a very, very long time. I’m not sure where he found it again.”

An image flashed in his mind — a long forgotten memory quickly flashing through his mind. He held the medallion up and let the dappled sun play across the metal as he willed his brain to find the rest of the memory that he was desperately trying to recover.

----------

He’d been young, perhaps six or so, and he’d been playing in his father’s study despite having been expressly forbidden from ever being in the room unattended. His parents had gone to town on some sort of Council meeting that he was too young to really understand the importance of. His sister had just been put down for a nap, and the housekeeper had left him alone in the playroom with some toy soldiers he had quickly grown bored of playing with.

He’d wandered down the stairs to the lower level, immensely proud that he hadn’t tripped and fallen, and had done it himself despite what the grown ups kept telling him. He’d stood in the foyer trying to decide if he wanted to go outside and ride his pony or if he wanted to go to the kitchen and try to sneak a cookie when something shiny from his father’s office had caught his eye.

He’d pushed open the door and had tiptoed inside, afraid that at any moment the housekeeper would come by and have his hide for being where he was definitely not supposed to be, and stood staring at some sort of necklace hanging from a wooden hook on the shelf behind his father’s desk. He couldn’t see it well — it was large and round — but it sparkled as the sun peeking in from the windows glinted off it and Alec wanted very much to get a closer look.

He tried to reach, but the shelf was too high for such a small person and jumping certainly hadn’t gotten anywhere near close enough. With great difficulty (and a little blood as he’d lost his grip and had cut his hand the second attempt that he’d made), he had pushed his father’s heavy wooden desk chair up against the wall and was able to climb on top. With the added height, he was now eye level with the necklace, which was a shiny silver and had some sort of snake on it. It looked like a pirate's treasure, like in the books his mother sometimes read him before bed.

Pirates.

That’s what he wanted to play, and every good pirate captain worth their salt needed their own secret treasure, of course. He could just borrow the pretty necklace — just for a little bit of course — he’d put it back before his parents came home and he got caught. He took the necklace off the hook and shoved it in his pocket before scrambling back out of his father’s office in case the housekeeper came looking for him.

He hadn’t noticed that the scrape on his hand had been bleeding quite so bad...and in the end it was the little handprint of blood on the shelf that had given his game away. His mother and father had been pissed and had punished him with all sorts of things that his younger self had thought had been incredibly unfair at the time.

----------

Snapping back to the present, he found that his hand was still clenched tightly over the medallion and Magnus was staring at him with a confused yet worried expression on his face. “Alexander, are you alright? I’ve been saying your name for a good minute and you just continued to stare off into space like you were remembering a past lover.”

“Not a past lover. I haven’t had one of those but you were right. I have seen this amulet before. It was in my father’s study when I was younger. I have this very specific memory of pushing a chair against a wall to get it off a shelf and then playing pirates with it. I wasn’t even supposed to be in there so I put it back before my parents got home but I must have cut my hand when I was trying to get it down. I left a bloody little handprint, and that’s how my parents caught me.”

“Wait,” Magnus started, the tone in his voice stopping Elias in his place. Alec halted his gelding next to the kelpie. “You’re telling me you bled on a very old, very ancient magical amulet?”

“I was like six, Magnus. I didn’t know any better. I thought it was just a shiny necklace. I used it for my pirate treasure.”

“That’s it...that’s the link. That’s why the tracking spell worked in reverse...and that’s why magic works oddly on you. You fed an ancient artifact your blood and it’s taken a liking to you.”

Alec blinked as Magnus’s words washed over him. “That’s...no. How is that even possible?” Granted, he’d learned since first venturing into the woods that stranger things were certainly possible, but this was far too much of a coincidence.

“Magical artifacts, powerful magical artifacts at that, like this amulet, gain a sort of...personality as they age. Imbuing any item with magic can make them temperamental. It’s why it’s not often done these days, but it was much more common when that was made. And that amulet is very, very, very old. It must have seen the blood you spilled as an offering and given you some sort of protection against magic. There’s a lot of my father’s magic in that amulet...so when you bled on the tracking coin… like calls to like. My magic and your blood called to my father’s magic and blood that you’d fed it long ago. The amulet was worried about you. That’s why it was so insistent that I follow.”

“That seems...far too unlikely. I mean, how?”

This time the corner of Magnus’ mouth hitched up in a half-smile. “Magic works in strange and mysterious ways sometimes, Alexander, and often the impossible becomes the possible. It’s best not to ask questions and to accept the miracle for what it is.”

Alec could see the roofs of several small cottages beginning to poke through the trees in the distance. “Houses? I didn’t think anyone lived in Edom Forest. Well, except for the goblins and uh...the half-goblins, I guess.”

Magnus hummed in agreement as he motioned for Elias to stop. “We’re not in Edom anymore. We passed through the outer wards an hour ago, couldn’t you feel that? They were heavy… and unhappy. It was strange. I mean to bring it up with Ragnor whenever we get back.” He slid from the kelpie’s back and glanced around the rocky shore they’d stopped on. “We should make our camp here tonight. We’ve got another half day of riding before we hit the spring but I’d rather not try to do that in the dark.”

Alec dismounted as he gazed wistfully at the tiled roofs before him. “Or we could go to town...see if there’s an inn? I’d kill for a chance to sleep in a real bed after last night. Something about the ground just didn’t agree with me. I’m still stiff and sore and I know for a fact that spending all day in the saddle didn’t help one bit.”

Magnus stared at him, a frown on his face. “Are you sure you’re okay? Not feeling any effect from the water you drank last night?”

“Nope, I’m feeling fine. Maybe I didn’t drink enough? Or maybe I’m just immune to whatever is making everyone sick. All that time I spent in the city may have exposed me to something similar, who knows.” He locked his hands behind his back and pulled, sighing happily as he felt the bones in his spine realign. “Yeah, just a little saddle sore and a little sore sore. I haven’t done so much riding in years. So what do you say about heading into town and trying to find an inn? Hot food, a comfortable bed…”

Magnus appeared to want to say something else but quickly changed his mind and shook his head instead. “As wonderful as that all sounds, I’m afraid that I won’t be welcome in an inn. I’m half monster, remember?”

“You’re not a monster, Magnus, and you’re half human,” Alec muttered as an unexpected rage bubbled away inside of him. “Why should they care anyway? As long as we’re willing to pay, and money is definitely not an issue, why should they care if you’re half-goblin? Or half-monkey?”

Magnus gave him a sad smile and patted his shoulder gently. “It’s alright, Alexander. It’s nothing that I haven’t experienced half a dozen times over in my long life. It’s not the first time I’ve been turned away from a city nor will it be the last. Honestly, it’s easier just to stay hidden and not take the chance in the first place. It’s safer that way.” He snapped his fingers and his hands were suddenly full of the purple warding ribbons. “Why don’t you head to town though and see if you can scrounge up something to eat for us? That way, I can save my magic for whatever we find in the spring tomorrow. In the meantime, I’ll set the wards and have our cozy little camp ready to go by the time you get back.”

Alec wanted to argue — memories from his close call with Asmodeus and his men the day before were still far too fresh in his mind — but he bit back his response before it had a chance to pass his lips. He’d done fine for himself before Magnus and he’d had battle training, he wasn’t completely useless. The worst he’d encounter in the short trek to town were normal humans and small woodland creatures. If he got in trouble, Magnus was still close enough to ride to his rescue. “Alright, I’ll try to be back before it gets dark.”

[thecagedsong]

Zelda’s Research

A/N Okay, so originally this headcanon was going to be in headcanon style, but then it became a fic, so here it is. I could never put together what exactly Zelda was studying, and fics usually made it seem like she was just being silly, trying to get Link to eat a frog that everyone already knew how to use. Everything connects here though, and I cried while wiriting it, because Zelda needs to be reminded constantly and often that she isn’t useless.

               Link was trying to be helpful. Zelda said she needed time away before Hyrule’s leaders arrived for the summit meeting, so Link took Zelda out to the mountains. Zelda shivered, so he gave her his wam doublet. Zelda didn’t want to talk about her outburst at Impa that she didn’t have the golden power anymore, so he didn’t ask. Zelda didn’t want to talk about the Calamity, or the future, or the past, or the summit, so they rode in silence.

               There was only so much he could do however, when Zelda threw herself off her horse, stumbled but missed crashing into a boulder, and frog jumped to catch a lizard.  

               “Are you okay?” he yelled, desperately calming their horses from her abrupt exit before swinging himself down beside her. Her horse had already bolted from the unfamiliar rider though. He didn’t wait for her to answer and started checking her over for injuries.

               “Yes!” Zelda cheered, the streak of mud on her face seemed to disagree with her, as did Link’s heart rate. “Look what I caught! My studies, before I was forced to stop, indicated that this critter can be used to augment speed. I just absolutely had to catch it before it got away. You said you remembered the time I tried to get to you eat a frog right? Well I had a break through before our trip to the spring of power and realized it needed to be cooked with monster parts before being consumed! Oh, this is so exciting. Do you happen to have a cooking pot on you? Wait…it had to be a particular kind of pot made with Hylian flint…”

               Link breathed out slowly. Only this princess would risk breaking her neck in the name of science.

               “I know what a hightail lizard is,” Link said slowly, taking the lizard from her and pulling out the three others he was carrying to show her. He put them all away and pulled out a potion bottle, “This is an elixir made from a hightail lizard. Now, no more throwing yourself from horses okay? You have a physical body again, and it can get hurt, and you nearly gave me a heart attack right there. You aren’t allowed to die. Ever.” He said it all as firmly as he could.

               “How can you know that? About the elixir I mean,” she asked, completely ignoring his warning.

               Link groaned, “It’s in the compendium. Not only that, it’s common knowledge. Any traveler or child could tell you the same thing.”

               “Let me see!” Zelda demanded, “I’ve been trying to translate that infuriating compendium for three years! Half of the letters were missing, the rest were in a dialect of Sheikah that was lost to memory seven thousand years ago!”

               Well, that made sense. Considering she had the sheikah slate without runes on it, he had always wondered what she was studying and doing with it besides taking pictures.

               “The compendium is in modern Hylian now,” Link said, pulling it up for her and showing it. The look on her face was somewhere between anger and wonder, “but like I said, everyone just knows.”

               “How did they know though? None of that was known 100 years ago. It was the stuff of fairy tales. And of course the slate had translation abilities in it the entire time” Zelda said, grumbling the last bit. She stood up straight and shoved the slate at him. “Change of plans, I want to get to Robbie. I entrusted him with all my notes, translations, and ideas.”

               “Er, is it that important? We need to make sure we’re back in Kakiriko before the representatives arrive,” Link said, wondering where this demanding Zelda had come from. They would barely be able to make it back to Kakirko before nightfall now that they would have to share a horse on the return journey.

               “I need to know what he did with my notes, because it sounds like…” Zelda’s eyes unfocused, she took a breath, then refocused on him. She was smiling, and there were tears in her eyes. “Yes. Yes, it is that important,” she said, her voice cracking. She looked like she did when she was first freed from the Calamity, when she asked if he knew her. Link the same panic came back at the thought of her crying, happy tears or not.

               “Alright!” Link said, jumping closer to her, “Is it important enough to be incorporeal for a few seconds?”

               Zelda nodded. He slid the slate onto his belt and helped her onto his horse, with his arms around her, he pushed towards Akkala.

               They came across the shrine at the riverside stables, and Link explained that he didn’t know if the slate could take two people, but if it couldn’t, she could travel to Robbie’s lab alone to speak with him. He would wait at this shrine for her to come back. He highlighted the symbols very clearly for her, and made her repeat the plan and directions back to him.

               “Well, get close to me then,” she said, stepping so that her back was pressed against his chest, “if all your things travel with you, skin contact should be enough to transport the both of us. Hold on tight.” Link gulped as he found his arms full of princess. Apparently, though she had been awkward with her body since she sealed the Calamity, she was relearning the joys of skin contact.

               He eventually tightened his arms around her waist, and he must have imagined her smelling him, just before she pressed the symbol for Robbie’s research lab.

               They both dissolved and arrived together. Zelda stumbled out of his hold right away though, and threw up on the trash heap outside of the lab. He held her hair back and winced every time she retched.

               “Better?” he asked, a minute after she stopped, and he almost pulled out some hearty durain simmered fruit before he realized he should ask first. (He hadn’t the first time and Zelda was currently trying to condition him out of the habit of shoving food at her when he thought something was wrong.)

               “Goddesses,” she croaked, wiping her mouth on her hand, “That was terrible.”

               “What’s all the ruckus?” a voice called, “I told you kids not to use my back yard for your parties anymore, not if you don’t have any decent mus—”

               Zelda and Link turned at the same time, and Robbie’s mouth dropped open.

               “My apologies, old friend. Shrine travel doesn’t seem to agree with me,” she said, forcing herself to stand up. Link kept an arm around her, and she seemed to accept the aid.

               “Princess?” Robbie’s voice croaked. He bowed first to her, then rushed forward and threw his arms around her. “Princess! My dear friend. Come inside, I’m so happy to see you.”

               “I’ve missed you too, old friend,” she said softly, then let Robbie pull her inside, with Link awkwardly shuffling beside her, still supporting her.

               Robbie started telling her everything then. How he knew Link could do it, and he’s been helping Link all along. How far he’s gotten with Cherry and what he’s discovered about guardians. How he had a wife and son.

               “How could you have a son?” Zelda managed to tease, “You always swore that your Cherry would be the only woman in your life.”

               “Cherry still is, it seems like,” Jerrin responded, with a friendly glare at her husband, who just laughed and helped Jerrin pull up some chairs.

               “Oh, I’ve missed you Zelda,” Robbie said, as they all settled with some tea and in front of the fire. “I had hoped I would live to see you again when I saw the Calamity leave the castle, but I feared that your trial meant your death.”

               “The goddesses were kind enough to return me how I was,” Zelda said, smiling. “However, before we discuss anything further, I have an important matter to ask you about.” Link watched Zelda closely, and she got that heartbreakingly hopeful look again, even as her hands stared fidgeting with her teacup. “I’m sorry, but I just had to know,” she said, “Robbie, did you…I mean…Link said everyone knew about cooking insects with monster parts. Did my research…Did I do…” her voice grew thick as she tried to get the question out.

               Robbie smiled and took Zelda’s free hand between his own, stopping her fidgeting. “Yes, Princess Zelda of Hyrule. I took your work and put the final touches on it before sending it to every town and providence, a week before your birthday. I had hoped to have some positive news for you; should the Spring of Wisdom not unlock your power. Hylians, Zora, Rito, Gerudo, Goron, and Sheikah knew about making elixirs and preparing meals the way you described to bring out the special effects, and had begun experimenting when Calamity struck. Your years of research and translation were not wasted, as I can say with no doubt in my mind that the work Zelda the Scholar did saved her people.” Zelda let out a sob and Robbie continued, “I got letters back for years, people thanking me for publishing your work because they were able to outrun monsters because they had brewed a stamina potion, and were able to save their children from burning villages because of strength potions and fireproof elixirs. Those years were anything but wasted.”

               Zelda was crying, and Link shot Robbie a panicked look, but he just shook his head fondly, so Link let her cry.

               “Thank-thank you,” Zelda said, giving a watery smile. “I needed to hear that.”

               “No, thank you, Princess,” Robbie said, giving a sad smile, “It was all your work. It did a lot more good than mine, in the end. Ancient technology is all well and good, but reviving as many guardians as I did only brought death. You focused on Hyrule itself, and brought hope. Hyrule will be forever in your debt. Unfortunately, since the King had decreed you weren’t allowed to pursue your studies, I decided to publish your work under the penname Adlez, in hopes of sparing you his ire. I tried to spread word that it was their princess who had discovered the secrets to Hyrule’s flora and fauna, but the origins of the discovery of so much were so secondary to the uses themselves, then the uses became common knowledge and people forgot there was a time they didn’t know. Only some of the Sheikah know that it was your work, your Highness. I pray you will forgive me.”

               “My people survived,” Zelda laughed through her tears, “You more than earned your forgiveness.”

               “I only helped,” Robbie said.

               “It’s getting late, you two will be staying the night,” Jerrin said, standing up and leaving no room for argument. “We will put you in Grante’s old room. I’ll go make it up for you.”

               Cherry also decided to make herself known in that moment by blowing a circuit.

               “Familiar name known! Princess Zelda! Bzzt!” which had Robbie scrambling towards the forge.

               Link took this moment of privace to place a hand on Zelda’s shoulder. She jumped, then leaned into the touch, smiling at him, wiping her tears away.

               “Hey, are you okay?” he checked.

               “I’m so much more than okay,” Zelda said, smiling at him. “I berated myself for those first fifty years, as much as I could while still keeping the Calamity at bay, thinking that if I had only awakened my powers sooner, if I had been willing to trust in my feelings and let myself love people, maybe things could have been different. That those years of research had been wasted because the slate had always been for you, I had just been stubborn, and the King had made sure that any useful discoveries I made had died with him when he forbade my research. Then I let it go, because I needed to focus on faith and hope to keep the Calamity back. But my work saved people, Link. Just plain Zelda saved her people too.”

               Link smiled because he understood exactly what that meant to her, and she squeezed his hand on her shoulder. Princess Zelda, without her golden power from the goddess, was just as worthy of her throne. Just Princess Zelda, did so much, she could do the rest of it too.

                Then Link cocked his head, “You know, if the King hadn’t stopped your research on that very day, you wouldn’t have given it to Robbie, and he wouldn’t have published it before your birthday.”

“Everything happened exactly the way it was supposed to,” Zelda agreed, understanding shining in her eyes and smile, “Hyrule survived, and the Calamity destroyed.”

               “That was all you Zelda,” Link said, giving a small smile, “I just helped a little.”

               She laughed, and it was a good sound.

               Link sent a prayer of thanks to the goddesses that he could be helpful.

[xxruinaxxmcu]

Gates of Glory, part 4

Loki x Reader

previous part

Loki studied the woman in front of him. He realised that the power she held was great, greater than he wanted to admit. Not only were her skills on the battlefield remarkable, but her brilliance was intriguing. She posed a threat, unless she was made to be an ally. Loki wiped his shock and anger away, made a welcoming hand gesture and laughed: "My plan."

"Indeed", Y/N replied, "Let's think this through. You've got Thor banished, locked up in Midgard. Without Heimdall, he won't return. If you tell him to close the Bifrost, which, I suppose, you will right after our conversation, Thor cannot return until you allow it. As for Odin... well, he will awake sometime. What is it you want to do with the sceptre you're wielding in this limited time?"

"Asgard would have crumbled beneath the pressure of war, if Thor had taken the throne, we'd be having an eye to eye with Jotunheim this very second! By banishing Thor, I can delay his reign enough to fix the mistakes my brother has made", Loki answered, raising his voice just a little.

"That sounds", Y/N made an amused expression, "Very heroic. However, you wanted him to make that mistake, did you not? Without your little spell, he would not have entered Jotunheim in the first place. Loki, remember the talk we had just before the ceremony? On the terrace. You know I share your concerns regarding Thor. If I wanted to betray you, I could have done that by now multiple times. I could have warned Heimdall, the All-father on that evening. I could have gone to Heimdall after discovering your actions today, and I could have let him hear you. I did not do that. Why is that?"

Loki pressed his lips together before he raised his eyebrows: "I'm sure you will tell me right about now."

"Because I'm interested to see your strategy", Y/N elaborated, "and we have stood aside each other for a long time now. As said, I won't kneel to you, but I will assist you."

"What makes you believe I need your assistance?", he asked in a dismissive voice.

"You may not need it now", Y/N replied, "But if your plan were to fail and Thor to survive, then you might want to know a few people you can trust, as Asgard will chase you."

"You'd become a traitor for that?", he asked amusedly and dismissively at the same time.

"Not really", Y/N shrugged, "I can't become what I already am."

"A traitor?", he huffed, "Do you truly know what that implies?"

"Loki, I am not from Asgard", Y/N reminded him, "I chose to join the Gods that rule over my realm. For many, that would be treason. Furthermore, I never told Odin of your plans, which is a direct violation of my oath as his warrior. Are you blind to see you're not the only one who works... independently?"

"And what is your goal? The throne? Power?", he asked with an eyebrow raised.

"I am not interested in the throne. What I want, however, is to prove them wrong", Y/N hissed, "Your birth right was to be king, my birth right was to be burned in a sacrificial ritual!" Y/N turned her head away: "I do not know how much you know about Vanaheim, but some of them worship their ancestors as superior gods. Every 100 years, a child chosen by the eldest is burned during a sacrificial ritual. I was that child. My mentor, who had seen my talents, who had given me the power of Yggdrasil - she didn't want to lose me. So she made me lie to my parents to lead them into a trap. She killed them, escaped with me. We went into hiding for so long. Until I was strong enough, old enough to join Asgard's army."

Loki's gaze searched for Y/N's eyes: "And why are you telling me this now?"

Y/N laughed dryly: "I've lied long enough, did I not? No, I thought it was only fair for you to know me, my history, if we work together. Helgunn, that's how my parents called me. Y/N L/N was the name I took on whilst hiding. I've never returned to Vanaheim in all these years you have known me, because all that awaits me is a nation that once wanted to see me burn."

"And that's why you're here", Loki concluded, "To prove them that you were strong enough to survive."

"I am here", Y/N nodded, "To prove them that I do not need their dead's blessings to be worthy."

"Joining Asgard's army might just be the one thing they call unworthy", Loki stated flatly.

"I'd call my affiliation a lot more... ambiguous than that", Y/N retorted with a dry smile on her lips, "Asgard has the fighting spirit Vanaheim has been lacking. And, frankly, the resources my realm never had."

"Fine then", Loki reached out to Y/N's hand, "Under the terms that I will kill you if you tried to betray me, we have a deal."

"Under the terms that I will put up a fight", Y/N specified.

"You're talking to a god, remember?", he asked with a grin.

"You're talking to a warrior", Y/N replied flatly.

"Alright", Loki took Y/N's hand: "We have a deal, then."

____________________________

When walking to her chambers, Y/N thought about the plan Loki had told her after their handshake. It was a risky one, Y/N thought. There were too many variables, especially Heimdall was a danger. Y/N sat on her bed, staring at the wall. Her sword lay in her hands as she thought about the next moves. Y/N knew that Odin was out of the game for several days if not weeks, and, considering what Frigga had said, maybe forever. Thor, on the other hand, was the big X in the equation. Somehow, Y/N doubted he'd let him be locked up without his powers on Midgard forever. Though he had always had a thing for Midgard, he was too obsessed with his own greatness, with his own power to miss out on it. And the throne, how he adored the sceptre of Odin. Chances were that his friends, Sif, Fandral and the others would disobey royal orders again to go to Earth to help Thor find his hammer and get his powers back. That hammer was the loose end in the plan as no one really knew how it defined 'worthiness'. Y/N sighted quietly and opened her drawer with her weapons. She took them out, one by one, and started to clean and sharpen them. Not only did that kill time, it also served a practical purpose in case of an imminent fight.

"I didn't tell you the entire plan before", Loki announced the following night when they met near a cave next to a pond at the edge of Asgard, where it was easy to block Heimdall from seeing them.

Y/N's face didn't change: "To be honest, I am not surprised. You always keep secrets."

"No, not really. I mean, I do. But that's different. I... adapted the plan", Y/N could see the dark smile on his face, "After discovering my past."

"So what's the adaption? Do you want the frost giants to take over Asgard, rule over them and force the nine realms into submission?", Y/N asked sceptically.

Loki laughed amused: "I am no madman."

"Sometimes, it does feel like it", Y/N commented dryly.

"Brilliance is often confused with insanity", he replied, "But no, that is not the adaption. If anything, it's quite the opposite. I will lure Laufey into Odin's chamber where they will attempt to kill him. However, I will kill them before they do. Their infiltration will be the deceptive story that I need to destroy Jotunheim and every single being in it." His voice became determined, somewhat bitter. Driven.

"You want to destroy an entire realm?", Y/N asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Jotunheim holds no value to me, or Asgard. Its existence is a sheer... waste of nerves", Loki replied without a single emotion reflected on his face.

"I do not weep over a species I grew up fearing", Y/N retorted quietly, "But remember that killing them won't wipe your history. It may give you the illusion of redemption, but it will still be there. Watching my parents die didn't wipe the memories of them telling me my only purpose was to die for them."

Loki's eyes changed to something much darker, something, Y/N had never seen before but that second he struggled to find words when hearing the truth from Odin: "Yes. However, I am so familiar with illusions that sometimes, they just become the truth."

"You did not grow up in Jotunheim. Their customs are unfamiliar to you, their deeds not yours. Just because you have the same capability of them does not make you the same", Y/N stated quietly, unsure of what to say.

"Doesn't it? If it didn't, why did Odin want to save me from the truth? Being from Jotunheim isn't like being from Vanaheim. The frost giants might just be the only thing Asgard and Vanaheim hate equally - the feared monster, lurking behind the corner", Loki's voice had a calm bitterness to it that startled Y/N.

"You can try to run", Y/N spoke softly, "But you cannot outrun your true nature. You can only accept it."

"And even if I accepted this", Loki turned towards her, revealing his appearance of a frost giant, "How do you expect people to react?"

Y/N pressed her lips together and took his hand: "Loki, Asgard was built on the principal of tolerance. Whether they like it or not, they will have to accept it. And I... how can't I accept a foreigner when I myself am one? The most realms of the nine are not that different, Midgard, Asgard, Vanaheim, Jotunheim - so many ideological differences were created by ourselves. I don't care whether you are an Asgardian or a frost giant, we're just as different, no matter what you are."

"When I fought you in the hall that day", Loki spoke whilst looking at her hand in his, "I knew that you were unlike the rest. For a warrior, you are truly remarkable."

Y/N huffed sarcastically: "For a god and prince, you are unsurprisingly arrogant."

"Excuse me, but that was supposed to be a compliment", he retorted with a faint smile.

"Unnatural to hear that from you, considering you called me wretched creature about 24 hours ago", Y/N replied amusedly.

"You threatened me" he defended himself.

"I saw right through you, I did not threaten you", Y/N corrected.

"Well, I'd say I am not used to that very thing", he replied with a grin.

"Well, I'd say you better get used to it quickly", Y/N suggested, "I don't intend to run away just yet."

"Very well, Y/N. I shall be your companion, then", Loki stated quietly.

"I won't disappoint you", Y/N promised impishly.

"Till now", he replied, "I can't remember you ever have."

Tag list:

@ultrarebelheart @adidabach @aqswdefrgthzjukilop @bluev0dk4 @inselaire @jessialchihomie

[bba-sae]

Memoirs of the Broken People

Pairing: JaehyunX Reader

Genre: Soulmate Au/Angst/Fluff/Historical

Word Count: 9k

Summary: History used to be your favorite class of the day. Used to. But that was before the visions, the lashing out and the incredible, undeniable heartache that erupted every day. History was Jaehyun’s least favorite class too. 

Author’s note: Goddamn, where have I been? IT’S BEEN FOREVER! How are all of you? I’m back from hell and better than ever! Jkjk, anyways, I’ve been super obsessed with NCT lately, especially Taeyong, so ironically I write about Jaehyun apparently??? Anyways! Requests are open still, but I can’t promise I’ll get it done super fast since I’m on vacation. Anywho, Enjoy this piece of shit I just wrote!

The buzzing of the fans that surround you occupies your attention, the mundane rhythm accompanying the scratching of lead against the paper as you etched text onto your notes. You yearned for a new song to listen to.  The bell rang exactly 34 seconds ago and counting, rallying students to shuffle into their seats.  Faces passed you, ones whose names you’d only remember for the duration of a semester but greeted anyways as they came into view.

“Good morning everyone.” Ms. Park greets the teenagers, who’ve fallen victim to the merciless weight of morning. The aroma of coffee and fresh cologne fills the room, “Hope you all had a good weekend, your unit tests are in the grade book.”

“Did our budding history professor set the curve yet again?” A student pipes up from behind, earning a joking glare you.

“Awe, if you put in a little effort to listen to Ms. Park instead of staring at Jennie all class period, maybe you could do well too!” Laughter erupts around you and you puff your chest in confidence.

“Shh, y/n likes history. There’s nothing wrong with that.” Ms. Park steps in before the boy could come up with a reply, sending you a knowing glance, “the best people love history.”

As if the boy had any shred of nerve left, he speaks up again, venom lining his words in annoyance, “Or nerds.” You send him a glare as you turn your head, and he smirks.

“Enough of that, we’re continuing with another period today. We’ll be talking about the Goguryeo-Tang war for the next two weeks!” The class groans in indifference, and Ms. Park beams with excitement a little bit more. Her hands clasp each other as she walks to her desk to display her power point onto the screen. Before the class, a portrait of a man appears onto the screen.

Something in the way the image pierced into your soul must have startled you, because just for a second you swear you are holding your breath. He was old, the paint detailing his age through wrinkles but his eyes look eerily familiar to you. The painting itself feels as if you had seen it before. You shake the thought off to listen.

“Does anyone know who this?” Ms. Park questions and calls on a student before a lack of volunteers could follow. The student shakes her head, too interested in copying her math homework down for her next period. Ms. Park continues, “this is Yeon Gaesomun, one of the great nobles of Goguryeo, and subsequently the new ruler after overthrowing King Yeongnyu. While I never personally met the man, most people note him to be quite intimidating.” Her joke falls short, and the awkward silence almost makes you cringe, but your mind has faded elsewhere at this point.

Yeon Gaesomun.

You whisper it under your breath, wanting to hear your voice say it. For some reason, the way it sounds is like something of habit rather than a new fact you’ve learned. You mind traces over possible reasons, the words of Ms. Park as they evaporate into the air as fast as they escape her mouth. The sounds around you become a dull buzz, the name continuing to roll off of your tongue. Except this time, you say it louder, paying no respect to the students around you.  You cover your mouth instantly, looking around to see the class you have disrupted.

But there were no students around you.

Torches and gold leaf works of art surrounded you; panic arising just enough to squeeze your heart. Yet, the build up seems to have no affect on your actual body, as you settle yourself on your knees in front of a pedestal. The actions felt religious to you, as if you had done it a thousand times before, and you soon realized that you had no control of what you do now. You were simply eyes looking through a window, a soul rendered useless looking back on what felt so painfully like memories. It felt so real, your thoughts and recollection of this world was so genuine, you believed that this person was actually you.

“Daughter, you aren’t safe. You cannot run away from your guards, your brothers cannot protect you like they used to and you-“ You see the man in the portrait sitting in front of you, adorned with gold and precious jewels, a robe cascading over his figure. Yeon Gaesomun.

“Have enemies everywhere I go. I’m aware.” You say angrily, a bitter feeling erupting through your body. You feel everything, even though you can’t do anything about it. The man in front of you- your memory tells you it’s your father- sighs in frustration.

“You will be escorted by a guard every where you go. Consider him your knight, he will ensure your safety.”  He says sternly, and you can feel that the topic is not up for debate anymore. This makes you groan in annoyance, already rising from your position to leave. You bow to the king, leaving the usual salutations before turning around and exiting the hall.

A boy enters your line of vision with a careful step. His presence sends a surge of warmth through you, a feeling you’ve never felt in your life. He smiles at you and his youth shines through his eyes, much like yours. He was far too happy to be a guard for your father.

“Princess, I am Jung Yoon oh, it is an honor to be your guard.” You eye the boy up and down, his voice sounds gentle and naïve and he appeared to be close to your age.

“My father chose you to be my guard?” You say indifferently, not taking the hand he had offered. The boy straightens up, puffing his shoulders in confidence. His hand retreats to his side quickly, curling into fists as his body straightens.

“I’m one of the best warriors in Goguryeo. A prodigy, if you will. It would have been ludicrous for your father not to trust me with his precious daughter.” You roll your eyes at this, continuing to walk away without him. He trails behind you anyways, the sounds of his armor shaking as he steps.

“Of course my father chose you, he enjoys over confident men. He’s rather fond of people that are like himself.” Yoon oh ponders the insult for a second, before brushing it off as if it never happens. He only laughs awkwardly, adjusting to the step of your feet as your pace quickens. You’re trying to get rid of him, while he’s getting ready for a challenge.

“With all due respect, I do not think I’m much like your father.” He explains, and you encourage an elaboration with a squint of your eyes.

You step a little faster, his pace matching yours in less than a second. He almost laughs at your attempts, already aware of the length of your legs and how there was no way you would get out of his sight. You try to throw him off by distracting him with questions, “Is that so? Why do you believe that?”

“I’m not too concerned with power.” He speaks with a strained voice, more focused on keeping up with you then answering your questions completely, “I’m more concerned with the people.”

“Are you insinuating that my father is not?” You fake a suspicious tone though you agreed. That was how it worked; you had learned of corrupted kings, and violent tyrants who thirsted for power, you were well aware that one was your father.

This throws the boy off guard, because his face drops and his feet pause for a split second. “That’s not what I meant,- I-“ He fumbles over his words, and you let out a laugh at his lack of composure. He notices this, his expression changing from embarrassment to a pointed glare when you’re not looking. “Princess,” He whispers closer to your ear, his pace looking more like a fast walk compared to your light jog, “Distract me all you want, you still cannot outrun me.” He says, and you side-eye him without turning your head. Your pace reaches maximum speed and you find yourself sprinting around the corner. You hear the clatter of his armor close behind you anyways, despite your valiant effort, and a hand clasps your waist to stop you before you can comprehend. He was right.

Your body pivots under the strength of his single arm and you’re met with the sturdiness of his chest. Shock fills you as you look up at the face that’s already looking down at you. A sick feeling follows after it, a feeling you’re unsure if you want to understand more. There was something about him that made you empty and full at the same time. You aren’t sure if you ever want to find out what that was.

“I warned you, princess.” His grip loosens but you’re instinctively still holding yourself against him. It’s a mix of impulse and habit but it washes away as you take a step back.

“Stop calling me that.” You say through pants, trying to catch your breath.

“Why? That’s what you are.”

Suddenly, a solemn feeling overwhelms your body, and you can’t help but feel pity for the body you’re in. Yet, this body was yours, you were almost sure of it. The memories, the scenery, the thoughts, and actions felt so genuine that they couldn’t possibly be anyone else but you. And you knew whoever you were now, wanted nothing more than to be free.

“I don’t want to be.” Was all you say before you feel a tingling surge through your body. The feeling of a thousand needles pricking you moves like a wave across your body, as your surroundings slowly shift to your usual classroom. Ms. Park is standing over you, a look of disappointment painted across her face.

“Have a good sleep?” She asks, her arms crossing as you sit up from your position. You cough, wishing that the eyes that were piercing into you would disappear. You awkwardly laugh as you avoid her gaze. 

“Sorry. Sleep deprivation, at it again.” You mutter, Ms. Park clearly not taking it. She nods anyways, pretending to believe you as she continues her lecture.

But you’re still sitting there, left with the motley emotions that filled you just seconds ago. A mess of questions swirls around your consciousness, and your attempts to sort or answer them become futile. Where were you just a few moments ago and why has it provoked so many emotions you don’t understand? Was the person you were, actually you? Who was that boy?

The boy, the guard, Yoon oh. You remember your encounter vividly, but his face couldn’t quite stick.

Class ends with a slow, excruciating pace and all you want to do is sleep for the rest of your days. The remaining class periods go by in mundane blurs, your thoughts taking over your entire mind. You’re far too distracted to care for Camus’ philosophy.

“Y/n” You feel a nudge on your shoulder, only the second catches your attention, “y/n?” A student beside you looks at your from her seat in front, her hands holding a pencil over the worksheet you were supposed to be doing, “Are you okay?”

You laugh, picking up your pencil to continue your work and nod your head a little too aggressively, “yeah of course, just, distracted.” Your friend eyes you suspiciously, continuing to copy down the answers from her phone.

“Clearly.” Her eyes are focused on the papers and screen but she speaks up again without looking up at her phone, “Must be an off day today, people have been falling asleep left and right today.” She yawns, stretching her arms behind her self, “Come to think of it, I might take a snooze right now.”

You laugh, the weight on your chest feeling a little lighter by the second. Your friend settles herself onto the desk, resting her head on her arms and closing her eyes.

“Wait you were serious? We didn’t even finish our worksheet.”

Believing the bizarre spectacle would end once you have some shuteye definitely proved it self as soon as your head hits the pillow. The same memory plays over and over again, like a constant playback through your dreams. You would have remembered the guards face like the back of your hand, if only your brain would let you remember it. But maybe it was your mind stopping you, maybe it was something much bigger than you could envision.

The next morning comes, after you reject the mere thought of sleeping. This time, you really were sleep deprived when you walked into Ms. Park’s class with a large cup of coffee at hand. She looks at you with a smile from her desk, grading papers in front of her.

“You look tired, y/n. Planning on catching some Zs today too?” She jokes with you, and you take a seat at your desk. You reply with a fatigued grunt, receiving a laugh from your teacher, “I’m surprised you dozed off yesterday. I thought you would find this stuff interesting.”

“It is, I’m just having, an off week.” You say unsure of your own answer, but lacking the energy to think of another answer. You guess that your teacher wouldn’t be too enthused that her student is having outlandish visions about her lesson plans.

“I guess it’s one of those weeks. I’m worn out too, so are the students in my other classes I assume. It’s the end of the year, I guess it’s just that time for you students to be a little spent.” She reassures you and watches the students filter through the door. She greets each one with a smile, only to be answered with a few silent waves. The bell rings, indicating the beginning of class and Ms. Park nearly jumps from her seat. “Okay class! Let’s get started shall we? Where did I leave off yesterday? Oh yeah, Emperor Taizong,” She pulls another portrait of a man, adorned with tradition Chinese clothing onto the screen, “remember this guy? He just succeeded in killing Yeon Gaesomun, and is plotting his first campaign against Goguryeo, while Gaesomun’s successors are battling it out for power.”

You speak up fast, not realizing you’re talking until Ms. Park eyes are on you, “He’s dead?” You say almost solemnly, earning a look of disbelief from your teacher.

“Of course he’s dead. He’s like, centuries old.” A student says from behind you, snickering a moment later. Ms. Park stifles a laugh but your look of discontent tells her to react differently.

“Yes, he was assassinated, remember?” You nod slowly, remembering the event, but in a completely different way Ms. Park anticipates. Your lack of response allows for Ms. Park to continue talking, well, you think she does. By now you’re already fading into oblivion once again. Just like you had the day before.

You’re sitting in a courtyard, your legs dangling off of a stone wall. You feel a wave of sadness rush over you, the uneasiness feeling more like fear of something than grief. The guard from before steps in front of you and searches your eyes for a sign of life. He seems older now, you seem older now, and the connection between you two must have become something more from the way his hands graze your arms. Your heart beats a little faster when you know he’s around, and you want to smile when he speaks.

“You’re father’s dead.” He says carefully, worried his words may break you.

“I know. “ You reply emotionlessly, your eyes shifting to your feet in the dirt. He sighs in front of you, shaking his head. You catch yourself tracing the lines of his face, memorizing each emotion as they become vividly painted in your mind. You want to keep the image of his face with you, never letting it go, but you know that cannot be done. No matter how hard you try to.

“Are you okay?” He lifts your head with his hand to face him. A feeling of relief rushes through you but you’re not quite sure why. Something must have happened to between the two of you to make it so easy for him to touch you like this, you wish you knew what it was. You stand up from your spot on the wall, his height clearly towering over you. You look up, a stern look upon your face, trying not to open yourself up.

“Do you think I can afford to not be? My father is dead, but life will go on, and the country will not stop its chaos because I cannot get my emotions under control. “

Silence answers you first, the boy thinking of the right words to say. He shifts from one foot to the other, hands clasping each other, desperately wanting to hold yours to reassure you he’s there. You feel his eyes burning through you when he speaks, “You’re still allowed to be sad. You can cry it’s okay, I won’t tell anyone.” For a second you believe you will, but another coarse voice sounds from behind you.

“Sister! There you are. I’ve been looking for you everywhere. You would think it would be easier, I’m quite good at finding beautiful things.” Your brother crudely wraps an arm around your waist, pulling you away from the guard in front of you. You remember his name to be Yeon Namsaeng, the oldest son of the late ruler. His mouth dripped with greed whenever he spoke, and you were well aware of his insatiable desire for power. Yoon oh’s body physically stiffens, and his jaw clenches with annoyance. Your brother eyes the boy, disgust filling his features, his eyes squinting in a judgmental glare.  “I see you’re still following the Princess around. My fathers dead you know, his orders no longer need to be carried out.”

Yoon oh laughs, and the grip around your waist tightens just enough to be painful, “If the Princess wants me to stay, I am obligated to follow my lady’s orders.”

“She is not your lady. She’s mine-“ He pauses to think over his words, “she is my sister, not some pile of dirt’s woman. That’s the biggest insult I’ve heard to the royal family.”

“Let her tell me that.” He answers quickly, and you know his eyes have never left yours since your brother appeared. Your brother’s gaze also shifts to you, his eyes prodding you for the right answer. You look up at your brother, a sense of hatred sweeping through your emotions.

“Let him stay, he has served me well thus far. I am in need of loyal guards during this time.” You wriggled yourself out of his grasp, his arm reluctantly letting go. You begin walking away, gesturing for the guard to follow you out. You feel the rage burning through the back of both of your heads, and it takes every bit of you to not hold Yoon oh’s hand out of spite for your brother.

“Your brother is,” He starts, but stops himself before he says the wrong words; you finish his sentence for him.

“Repulsive?” You say quickly, earning a laugh from the boy, “But he is the rightful successor, and he has power. I cannot imagine what he has planned for my other brothers.”

“What will you do?” He asks, you shrug and kick the dirt beneath your feet.

“Try to stay alive.”

The more you learned, the more you wanted to scream, the vivid dreams haunting your sleep, leaving you shuddering between your sheets late at night. Deep in your mind laid a world of destruction, war and chaos. Most of the servants you acquainted yourself with either dead or too scared to be affiliated with the royal family.

When Ms. Park spoke of the tyrannical rule of Yeon Namsaeng, you lived through it. You watched him murder peasants that sparked his suspicion, plot against your youngest brother, who had defected into the Silla empire and his rapacious desire for wealth and love tear you apart.

Presently, you sit beside Yoon oh in your quarters. You’re tending to his wounds, each touch of your hand making him wince in pain. He bites his lip to refrain from making noises, for if anyone to know he was here, your brother would be after you as well. Relentless despair corners every bit of your already spent conscious. The four walls that previously surrounded you disintegrate before your eyes, desks and books fade into the oblivion. A dimly lit fire flickers back and forth, creating silhouettes of two jaded souls connecting into one entity. 

His back is to you, but you want to see him, you want to see his face so badly. The mere thought of his soft features brought youncomfort whenever you had the chance to see him, because you knew the image would abscond within seconds of returning to reality. Yoon oh is trying not to look at you though, you can tell when you feel his eyes glance at you through the corners of his eyes and how his fist clench in frustration when his head hesitates to turn. Yoon oh doesn’t want to talk, so you occupy yourself with his wound. It was the result of a futile attempt to end his life, an order that was set by your brother. Yet, he would never admit to this fact if you asked. Yeon Namsaeng had regretfully sent Goguryeo’s best men into battle, having no choice to take Yoon oh away from you. It was for the good of the country, he tells you and you should prepare for the worst if anything should happen. 

What your brother didn’t tell was that he had already put a bounty on his head, paying a soldier to go into battle with your guard only to murder him on the battlefield and report the news as a casualty from enemy lines. Yoon oh tells you this when he returns, the wound in his shoulder still fresh and ready for your care. He says he figures that your brother hadn’t accounted for his talent as a warrior.

An arrogant boy he was, but yours nonetheless.  

That was the only thing he said to you, before you suggest he leave the palace to find safety since your brother will not be providing that anymore. As soon as the idea leaves your lips, Yoon oh responds with a stern “no”, and you insinuate his tone means you should leave the subject at rest. 

“I’m finished.”  You mutter, cleaning your hands in a piece of cloth, crimson staining the white fabric. Your eyes are downcast when Yoon oh pulls his garments back on his body and turns to you. The air between you feels suffocating, at least to your lungs it does. You don’t see it, but you can feel the way Yoon oh looks at you with such a miffed expression. 

“Never suggest anything like that again.” His voice is strong, it almost scares you if not the fact you knew him so well. You scoff at this, not understanding his reasoning as he speaks.

“Why? It’s surely the safest possibility. My brother cannot hurt you if you’re gon-“

“But he will be able to do as he pleases with you.” He replies fast, not leaving any opening for you to respond yourself. “I will not leave you. I can’t leave you. That will never be a possibility in a thousand years.” His expression softens when you look up at him. Your eyes are filled with fear, and you grab his hand tightly. He holds yours back instantly, the small piece of contact between you sending electrifying waves through both of your bodies. He brings his other hand to your face, grazing over your features softly. “And if your brother ever forces me to go again,” He pulls your face to his, leaving a chaste kiss onto your lips, the moment feeling euphoric to you. When he pulls away, he keeps your face close to his and his eyes scan your lips, desperately wanting to kiss you again, “I will always return to you, princess.”

Within the next second, you wake up in your bed, your alarm indicating that you’re probably late. But that doesn’t concern you because you’re crying. You’re sobbing and every inch of your body feels numb to everything around you. Because, the reason you’re crying becomes apparent each second you’re trapped in this labyrinth of lost memories.

He doesn’t keep his promise.

The next time you see Yoon oh, you know that it’s before you had accepted your feelings for each other. Because when he greets you, he refrains from grazing your arm like he had when he was in your quarters from the last memory. You acknowledge his presence with a nod, and he bows to you as he always had. 

“What are you doing here?” You ask angrily, your hushed tone sounding harsh though you didn’t mean it to. You had run away from the palace, escaping in the dark of the night only to be followed by your guard. Your father was still alive, but you felt dead inside. You had lost of your freedom by now, your father forcing you to make alliances with noble families, and detain you to your room when you were traveling. You were nothing more than a peacemaker, a façade to represent your father. He needed you to gain the nobles affection, he had figured that was what you did best. 

Even pawns get tired of being used, though.

“I’m here to tell you you’re being foolish.” Yoon oh says to you with an annoyed tone, grabbing your wrist firmly, pulling you towards his direction. You struggle under his grip and resist with all your strength. You pry his hands off and throw it to the side.

“What right do you have to treat me like this?” You ask, your tone sounding like a mix of betrayal and anger. How could he bring you back when he knew how you felt. He of all people had to understand. 

He turns to you with a sigh, his hand grabbing your wrist once more, “I’m a warrior, I do not need to be liked by you princess, just need to protect you.” You squint your eyes at him, still not budging when he pulls your body, “the people need you, princess. You’re the only piece of the royal family that has compassion for their country.”

“I cannot do anything to help my people, therefore I am no use.” You say solemnly, earning a pitiful expression from Yoon oh. He loosens his grip on your wrist to slide his hand down to yours, intertwining your fingers with his. 

“You have the ability to give people hope. You must keep fighting for your people, that is what makes you a far better person than your family.” He squeezes your hand gently and you smile at his gesture. Though it’s dark, you see him smile at you fondly, an expression you wanted to keep with you forever. 

It’s silent for a moment between the two of you, and Yoon oh waits until your ready to return. His hand still holds yours tightly. You ponder your next question for a moment, wondering if you should even ask in the first place. 

“Are you here because it’s your duty to me or because of your personal desires?” You ask anyways, and Yoon oh looks at you, slightly surprised. 

He thinks for a moment before answering, “I tried to convince myself that it’s the former.” 

“Did it work?” You ask immediately, and Yoon oh laughs at your curiosity. He gestures his head towards the palace and begins pulling you with him. This time you comply to hear his answer. The two of you walk hand in hand for a moment before Yoon oh leans in close to you, his lips grazing your ear when he does.

“No.”

The end of the unit was nearing, and you couldn’t be more satisfied. You had hoped that whatever was happening to you, would cease once you had stopped learning about it in class. 

You simply had to endure, as much as you could at least, and this would all be over. Yet for some reason, a part of you believed it wasn’t quite that simple. When her last lecture rolled around, you had faded once again much to your expectation. Within seconds of her speech, you find yourself pressed against a wall; your breath shallow trying to conceal the fact that you were there. You’re in Yoon oh’s quarters, you knew this from the sound of his voice on the other side of the screen that hid you. When the other voice in the room speaks, you knew exactly why you were hiding.

Your brother had paid Yoon oh a visit in the dead of the night, probably expecting to find you. The two of them spoke in equally annoyed tones, but when Yoon oh spoke, you could almost see the venom that he spat at the king.  

“You want to marry your sister?” Yoon oh asks, your body tensing up at the thought. You despised loveless marriages, almost as much as you despised your brother. You shudder at the thought, disgust overwhelming your body. You want to scream at your brother, tell him that you would never marry a grotesque pig like him.

“I cannot do so, if her heart belongs to a measly warrior,” His voice sounds eerily like a snake’s hiss, and you to desperately want show yourself to him in spite. But you know if you were to do so, you’re brother would not hesitate to get rid of Yoon oh out of jealousy. He continues with the same menacing screech he usually spoke with, “She fights with her life in everything she does, but of course you should know this. You know her awfully well by now, don’t you?” 

The question sounds more like a threat but you know Yoon oh well enough that he wouldn’t give in.

“You are disgusting.” He mutters, only to be followed by the awful laugh of your brother. 

“But marriage of true blood is the only way to go these days. It’s the only way to keep the line strong.” You hold in a scoff, knowing that this was not the only reason. You’re brother had always been eerily protective of you after all, keeping you away from everyone else when you were children. Your mother had questioned his intentions often, trying to shield you from his advances. But your mother was gone now anyways, and even she couldn’t protect you for this long. You noticed his glares at your brothers whenever you spoke to them fondly, the mere thought making you want to vomit.

“Your marriage to her, is it just for political reasons?” Yoon oh asks, his temper already far from salvation. You could see their silhouettes through the paper screen, and the slight step Yoon oh had taken toward your brother. The boy was ready to strangle the other, and the tension between the two was smothering you. 

“Part of it. Part of it is that I hear the voices of the people. How they adore her, how they believe there will be no woman of the kingdom just like her. I cannot stand Goguryeo’s most beloved woman falling for dirty scum. It taints her absolute innocence in a way, and beautifully rich people deserve beautifully rich things.” Your brother snickers as he speaks, his pompous nature making you sick. 

It must have affected Yoon oh more however, because you hear a thump against the wall and the sound of his sword being drawn. You curse at Yoon oh for not keeping his temper, knowing that your brother will use this to his advantage. 

“If you touch her I will-“

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but you’re not threatening a king are you?”

“My duty is to protect the princess. If that is the case, I will do anything for her.”

“Even give your life?” Your brother asks, his tone sounding far too suspicious for your liking. Yet, Yoon oh answers without a single ounce of uncertainty. 

“Of course.”

You’re brother doesn’t speak for a moment, perhaps not expecting his willingness for you. You hear his footsteps against the floor of the room, until a shadow stand before you through the screen. You hold your breath, gripping your garments in your fist as you bite you lip. The figure crouches down as if he’s in front of you, and you feel like you can see your brother’s eyes boring into yours with a smug smile across his lips. 

“Remember what you heard today, sister.”

Your breath is caught in your throat when your vision is suddenly catapulted into a new scene. You are no longer in Yoon oh’s quarter, and your brother is no longer in front of you, but you still feel the remnants of the fear that your were previously submerged in. 

It’s weeks after the last, petrifying encounter, and you know you have done anything in your power to gain your brother’s favor. You have complied to his every order in hopes that he wouldn’t carry out his threat to Yoon oh. You felt terribly trapped again, never having the freedom to leave your quarters unless requested by your brother, but you couldn’t come to regret it now as long as Yoon oh remained safe.

You saw him a few times, greeted him even fewer yet the time you were allotted to speak to him were too short for comfort. He would send you comforting glances, the only thing he could do when your brother had been keeping a continuous eye on you.

Now, your brother has called you to the courtyard, just in front of the gates to the palace. He wears disgustingly gaudy robes; with an equally disgusting smirk adorning his dreadful face. His gold rings taps against the chair he sits on, guards flanking both sides of him. You stand at the stop of the stairs and send a glare towards your brother, long enough for him to see.

“Brother, why have you called me here? Are you not supposed to be on the battlefield?” Your reprimanding tone crawls beneath your brother’s skin, and his fists fill with his own garments as he tries to contain his annoyance. He knew what you were insinuating, that behind his regal façade, he was never a warrior that could fight for his country. He hated the fact that you knew this.

He swallows his rage, the actions feeling dry against his throat. What follows is a smile, a silently crude remark as he’s already laughing at your misfortune, “I wanted to show you something. Something that has peaked my interest these past couple of days” He strides to you, his hands reaching your shoulders to turn you towards the gates of the palace. You reluctantly allow him to do so, sending him a malignant glare along the way.

The scene before you is shocking to say the least. You see the armor, the design you have nearly memorized by heart, covering a man before you. You try to make out a face, and your heart nearly stops when you see him, indicating only one plausible answer. His presence brings something both harrowing and comforting to your soul. Your voice shakes with the words you speak to your brother, “what is he doing here?”

A maniacal laugh rings behind you, hands tracing down your arms to harshly wrap around your wrists. You can feel the bruises forming beneath it as your brothers whispers along your ear, “Princess, this is what happens when you disobey a king’s order.”

The sound of broken tension erupts from feet behind you, a shower of arrows flying over your head. If you hadn’t known, you would think it a sky of shooting stars, dozens of wishes falling to their demise. If you hadn’t known, you would think it something of divine beauty, only manifested from ones dreams. If you hadn’t known, you would be breathing.

A bloodcurdling scream bursts through the seams, and it takes you a few seconds to realize it had come from you. Tears are falling mercilessly from the confinements of your eyes, and you are empty of any care to wipe them away. The eyes your staring into you are filled with an aching desire, one of the truly broken people. His jaded body merely keeps his gaze on you, the rust of his armor looking a thousand years old against the fresh gold inlaid within the gates.

You’re yelling for him to move, to do something-anything- because you feel the excruciating weight crushing your heart as every millisecond passes. A sharp sensation flows through your limbs, rendering them useless to any act of opposition.  You have half a thought to come running forward, but know it’ll be too late.

Before you know it, his body becomes a grotesque canvas of musky browns and dark crimsons as the full force of the arrows bring him his demise. The first one finds leave within his shoulder, dragging him down with it until the next finds itself in his stomach. The chaos that ensues is scarring, the image of such a beautiful body being marred by agonizing wounds. But he does not scream.

In fact, though you felt the pain of the hundreds of arrows impaling his figure, you swear, through the blurry haze of your tears, you saw a smile.  You were sure of it.

“No, no, please come back to me, please. Someone save him!” You plead for help, but as you searched the motley crew behind you, the world began to fade into a swirl of ash and dust. Pillars were replaced with wooden shelves, the stone you knelt upon became carpet, and the man beside you is soon a worried arm wrapped around your shoulder. Your belongings were cluttered on the floor, mountains of papers surrounding you. Ms. Park’s worried gaze beside you is paired with her tight hold on your body.

“Y/n, is everything okay?”

You sit in your desk, as requested by Ms. Park after your previous outburst during class. She told you she wanted to speak to you, to figure this all out, but when you enter the classroom your greeted with a note on the white board and another boy sitting in the front desk. 

Back in 5

You read the note, nodding as you place the note back on the board and turn to the boy who sits behind you. You were already aware that has his gaze hadn’t left you as soon as you walked in, but you don’t expect him to continue staring when you turn around. You awkwardly wave to him, only to receive no response. You can envision the gears working and turning in his head as his eyebrows furrow in deep thought. You take a seat, on the other side of the room, and pull out your phone. The boy gets up from his seat, and finds one next to yours and you eye him suspiciously. 

“What’s your name?” He asks, and you never believed that someone couldn’t merely ask for someone’s name with such curiosity. The way he asks seems like knowing your name is the key to saving the world, and when you tell him he smiles to himself. The gesture feels strangely reassuring to you, and you can’t help but smile in return. 

“I’m Jaehyun.” He says sweetly and holds out a hand for you to take. You oblige and shake his hand, the lingering contact sending a strange wave of a slight sting through you. He holds your hand for almost too long, and you’re already feeling the awkwardness creep up again. You cough and let go of his hand, retreating back to your phone immediately. It’s been far more than five minutes by now, yet Ms. Park is still nowhere to be seen. You figure she got distracted on her way back.

The silence is deafening in ways you don’t understand and a piece of you wants to speak up. Something about this boy, gives you an eerie vibe and you can’t help but feel a strange sense of déjà vu deep inside. You glance at him through the corner of your eyes, the boy nervously tapping on his desk.

“You get them too don’t you?” He asks, breaking the silence and you sit up to look at him. He looks at you like he already know the answer, but you aren’t quite following his query.

“What?” You ask, completely oblivious.

Jaehyun rolls his eyes, “the visions, the emptiness,” He pauses before his face softens at you. He looks at you like he has known you, though you have just met a few seconds ago, you can’t help but feel pained by his expression, “the sick feeling that the one you love may be gone forever and you can’t do anything about it.” He whispers and you stare at him for a moment. You couldn’t put your finger on it, but something about him was strangely comforting to you. You wanted to see him more often, if not for the stupidly sickening feeling his presence gave you. You shook your head, not wanting to reveal your experience with him.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He leans in closer to you, his hand laying flat against your desk, “I know you do.”

“And how’s that?” You ask, turning your face to him, the proximity of your faces sending shivering down your spine. You wonder if he can hear how fast your heart is beating, and your attempting to slow down your breath. He reaches a hand to your face, and you can’t bring yourself to move away. His eyes scan the details of your face in a way that makes you feel awfully empty.

“A warrior never forgets the girl he’s sworn to protect.” Your face visibly drops, and Jaehyun clearly notices because his face moves closer slightly. You snap out of the nostalgic haze you were once in, firmly pushing him away from you. He looks at you hurt, his hand still holding where you pushed him. You stand from your seat, arms folding into each other to close yourself off from him as much as possible. 

“Are you crazy?” When you ask, Jaehyun merely shrugs in acceptance.

“Call me what ever you want, whatever is happening to me is happening to you too. I know they are, and I know that I’m in those visions. Don’t you recognize me?”

“No I don’t. And I don’t know why you would think you were.”

He sighs, rubs his eyes and leans farther into his chair. He’s soon standing across from you, studying your face carefully, “because you’re in my visions. Except I’m convinced they aren’t visions at all.” He says and you cross your arms expectantly.

“And what do you suppose they are?”

“Memories. Y/n, I know you already think I’m crazy but hear me out on this, have you ever thought of the possibility that we may have been connected in the past life? I see your face in every dream I have, and the history of it syncs completely with what we’re learning in class, I’m just saying that we could b-“

“Soul mates?” You ask with disbelief. You never liked giving credit to fate, and the mere concept of soul mates was ludicrous to you. These happenings were simply coincidences, and you didn’t want to think too hard into them. But the look on Jaehyun’s face desperately wants you to believe him too. The boy has already fallen completely into his past life, his and his past lives’ memories merging into one being. This Jaehyun has completely accepted the young guard he once was, and he’s already in love with who he believes you are.  

Yet you didn’t understand why he could remember you so easily, and you struggled to keep his face in your mind. You were never able to hold on to the image for long enough, but Jaehyun had memorized every detail of your face just as he had centuries ago.

“You’re ridiculous, Jaehyun. Honestly.” You scoff and walk away from him, preparing to leave the room. Before you can, Jaehyun darts past the mess of desks that surround you. He grabs his wrist in a frenzied last attempt to keep you near.

“You’re not going to get away from me this easily,” He says arrogantly, and you scoff at his cockiness, “Run away all you want, I will always return to you, princess.”

Princess.  The way he says it is like a hand punching you in the stomach. The air that flows through your lungs is snatched away from you and a pained gasp escapes you. Princess. It curses your very being, sending your mind, body and soul into a dark abyss. You’re not sure if you want to escape. Princess. A smile, a gentle smile with good intentions, one you haven’t seen in a long time. A smile, it’s his smile, the smile that’s in front of your face.

But it can’t be. Everything you’re seeing isn’t real; none of it is real.

Jaehyun must have seen the surprise painted across face because he’s still holding onto you, hands on your shoulders now to keep you steady. Every word he speaks after is a knife in your chest “Is everything all right, y/n?” He says in a knowing tone, wiping the tears from your face. You hadn’t noticed you were crying.

You straighten up and cough, trying to brush off the sudden moment of vulnerability, “Yeah, I’m fine. Just, leave me alone.” You coldly remove yourself from his grip and open the door to exit.

His face falls. You try to not notice how much it hurts you too. He watches you as you leave, tears already threatening the corners of his eyes, “You’re still as stubborn as ever, princess.”

You stop halfway out the door, and your eyes are still fixated on the floor, “Don’t call me that.”

Jaehyun laughs before answering, “Why? That’s what you are.” You shake your head and escape from his sights, a myriad of thought rushing through you. You feel dizzy, like all the oxygen you were breathing had been cut off. Your strides become sloppy, and you’re struggling to keep yourself up, until a pair of arms holds you.  

“Y/n? What’s wrong?” Ms. Park asks, worry striking her face. You want to tell her about the weight that pressed against your chest, the one that feels like a thousand years of grief. You want to scream, you want all of this to be over, but most of all a part of you wanted to see Jaehyun again. His smile flickers in the depths of your mind, and the way he looks at you make you feel both empty and full. A feeling you’re quite familiar with. Your breaths are shallow, and right before you fade out completely, you aren’t quite able to tell Ms. Park what you wanted to say.

You remember. You’re finally remembering.

When you wake up, you’re back in your royal attire. You sit in the grass, in front of the pond you used to play with your brothers in. Except this time, instead of your brothers, Yoon oh sits beside you. His face is the same as the one you saw moments before, and for once you finally feel like you would actually remember it. He smiles at you fondly, hands playing with yours in his lap. He stares at the stars, but your staring at him. You watch the way he bites his lips in concentration, trying to find the constellations you told him about before. The prominent dimples make him look boyishly handsome, and his fair skin glows in the moonlight. He turns to you, a smile already painted across his face.

“What are you thinking, princess?” He asks, his voice low and melodic. You swear you could listen to the sound forever.

“Will we be happy in our next lifetime?” Yoon oh laughs, squeezing your hands as he intertwines your fingers.

“We are happy now, aren’t we?” He asks, but you shake your head in response.

“Yoon oh, we’re with each other in secret. Everyday, we risk getting executed by my own family. I cannot marry you, unless we leave the palace. And if we ever do there will be a bounty on your head. This isn’t happy, this is fear.” Yoon oh smiles at you softly before pressing your hands to his lips in a sweet gesture. When he looks up, your already leaning into him, your faces ever so close. He places a gentle kiss on your lips, eyes lingering to watch the way you smile under his touch. This was the first time he has kissed you, a moment you would cherish forever.

“Any lifetime I live with you will be a happy one.”

You snap out of your dream with a hand shaking your shoulder. Ms. Park sits beside you while you lay in the nurses office, relief filling her features when you open your eyes.

“Oh thank god, I thought you were a goner.” She jokes and you sit up from your position, “Sorry I was late, didn’t expect my errand to last that long.”

“You did it on purpose.” You mutter and Ms. Park tilts her head in innocence, “You wanted me to meet that boy in there, didn’t you?” She shrugs, giving you enough of an answer.

“Both of you were going through the same thing. I figured the was some kind of connection, besides, I love this soul mate stuff.” She smiles and scrunches her nose at you. You still feel weak when you turn your body towards her, falling back onto the bed. “He described your face to me when I asked him who he saw. It was enough evidence for me.”

“Is that really a thing? Someone looking exactly like they had in their past life?”  She nods at your question, trying to find the exact words to answer you with. 

“There are few cases when the face of a person follows them through another lifetime.” She says with a steady gaze on your face. You can feel the pity that saturates her expression, her eyes pleading with you.

“Is there an explanation for it?”

She smiles, her hand reaching out for yours to send a tight squeeze.  Her voice sounds more like a whisper, as if a secret not even meant for her; a secret meant for you and him, “They are meant to be found again.” You nod, already half knowing her answer before she says it, you were just waiting to hear it out loud.

The nurse and Ms. Park send you home, despite your opposition. You need to talk to Jaehyun, tell him everything, but Ms. Park informs you that he didn’t show up to her class and he likely ditched school for the day. You reluctantly comply, knowing you won’t get better if you don’t get some rest.

But when you come back to school next day, Jaehyun is still nowhere to be found, and you get more anxious each day you don’t get to speak with him. Through investigation, you learn that his friends haven’t seen him either, and a week goes by with you having to bear this terrible numbness on your own. Another week goes by, and you’re greeted by Ms. Park’s smiling face as soon as you walk through her door. You curiously tilt your head at her and she takes a step closer to you.

“Guess who I saw in Mr. Johnson’s room, making up a test?” Your face perks up and you don’t wait for her to continue.

You’ve never felt more awake in the morning, but now you feel like you could run a thousand miles. Before you even realize it, your stomping your way through another classroom, eyes scanning the faces that line the desks till your gaze falls on your target. Your hand beckons at the curly brown tufts, face buried in a thick white packet, “I need to talk to you.” He looks at you with an uncomfortable grin when he scratches the back of his head. He glances at his teacher and back to you, trying to think of an excuse to avoid you. He doesn’t want to talk, you know this, you’re the one who hurt him after all but you figure he will want to hear what you have to say.

He lets out a cough, tearing his gaze away from your piercing eyes, your body shakes from the constant feeling of emptiness that has filled you, “I’m busy, I’ll talk to you la-“

“I remember.” You interrupt him, unaware of the onslaught of tears that threaten your composure. He looks at you shocked, unable to fabricate the words he so desperately wants to say. Before you have time to acknowledge his movements, he’s already grabbing your hand, pulling you out of the classroom. You hastily turn your head to his teacher, sending him a quick apology, as Jaehyun pays no respect to him or his test.

You watch as he walks in front of you, your heart beat speeding up every time you catch sight of his face. The familiarity splitting your very being apart as you watch every memory play through your head vividly. You’ve seen this face and you can’t fathom how terribly you missed it. The way his eyes look onto you like you have pieced together the universe with your bare hands, or how his hands burn against your skin in such a bittersweet sensation you don’t know how you could ever let go. Then there’s his lips, and how they quirk into a slight smile as he laughs and mutters a quick I love you, whenever your near.  Every detail of their soft, pink presence is painted into your mind, kept with you forever. You remember how they felt, though he always kissed you with such haste as they lined your frame in the purple wisps of the twilight.

He has you against the wall, searching your face for confirmation of what you had just said to him a few moments ago. His hands grip your shoulders, loosening almost as soon as they’re on you. “What did you say?”

“You left me.” You say through a whimper, his hand coming up to wipe the tears away. He wants to kiss you, hesitating when he has your face close enough to his, it’s been so long he doesn’t know if he can so easily. Your hands grip the side of his shirt, the energy that surrounds your bodies, drowns the both of you. You gasp for air, still letting your face be held in his hands, close enough to feel his lips after thousands of years, “You let my brother send you off to your death. You let him shoot you even though you knew. You let him make me watch. You could have stayed with me, why didn’t you stay with me, I just wanted to be with you.” You lift your hands to his chest and Jaehyun sighs in return, tears falling from his own eyes, mixing with your to make a tragic concoction of lost memories.

“I’m sorry, princess. He said he would kill you if I stayed, I couldn’t let that happen, you had so much life in you.”

“I married a my brother. I was dead inside without you.” He presses his forehead to yours, as if to reassure you that he was there, alive in front of you. God did he miss you. “I begged the Gods to kill me, every day. I wanted to see you so badly, they couldn’t even kill me out of pity. “

“But they listened, they heard you and you’re here with me now and we’re safe.”

“We can be happy in this lifetime?”

“Any lifetime I live with you will be a happy one.”  With that, Jaehyun finally lets go of everything that has been holding him back, because you look at him with those eyes he has known all to well and he can no longer stop himself. He kisses you, and it doesn’t matter how he does it or how long he does, all that matters is that he’s kissing you, you’re kissing him back and the both of you have been waiting for this moment –quite literally- for centuries.  

[btswishes]

The last of her kind.

BTS AU

Part1 / Part2 / Part3 /

A/N: Here we go with part 2.I am really sorry it took me so long to write it guys. I hope you like it and sorry for any mistakes made.It came out longer than expected. Requests are open as always and ships as well.

Word count:  4,472

Warnings: Blood and swearing from time to time.

  Your body was relaxed ,covered by the blankets over you, but it wasn’t going to be like that for long. Before the clock struck midnight, your eyes opened up, almost like you heard screams.Slowly you stood up and with your bare feet, walked towards the window. 

  Your hand gently grabbed the curtain and pulled it, revealing the darkness that was the night in this place. You were thinking about a lot of things, indeed to many for one to handle. 

  Normally you would go out and walk in the forest uninterrupted by anyone, but let’s not forget you weren’t at the same castle as before.It was night, everyone was sleeping, you were alone, the forest was peaceful . The world outside the castle walls was practically calling you.

  There was still something in you that wanted to keep you in this room. What if the king found out? What if something happened to you? You were indeed curious,but was it worth it? You were about to pull the curtains again and close off the world that was in front of your eyes, when you heard something...coming from the distance....

         Come...

  If this wasn’t a sign I don’t know what was. You placed your hand onto the window and gently opened it.Stepping on the sill, you jumped down, making no sound at all. The skin on your feet made contact with the grass and the white nightgown ,on your body ,swayed with the wind.

  You looked back at the castle to make sure no one saw you. The good thing about this place was that it was covered with a thick fog, something very useful when trying to go somewhere without being caught by anyone.

           C-o-m-e...

  As the voice called you again, you started walking towards the forest that was in front of you. There were wolfs, glowing eyes that were looking at you, uneasy sounds coming from every direction, darkness at every corner.But to you it was nothing, as your thirst for knowledge was bigger than fear.

  How long have you been walking?You asked yourself ,as you felt your body being swallowed by the trees. No matter what, you felt like something big was waiting for you...you had to know more, you just had to.

      Closer...

 The voice whispered, sending chills down your back.Soon you arrived at a cliff, which was covered in a very thick, milky white fog. You knew that if you walked closer, you were going to fall.

“If you are trying to kill me, think again.”you looked around to see if the voice was still here

      Go...

“Even very strong magical creatures can die, if they fall from here.I am not willing to go that far yet.”you turned around, getting ready to leave ,with disappointment in your heart.

      Zahassa don’t fall...

  You stopped walking, shocked from the name you just heard.

         Zahassa know...

“Who are you?”you turned around ,searching for the woman speaking.

            Come...and......see...

   At this point you weren’t afraid anymore, with full speed you ran towards the cliff and jumped off it. Once the fog cleared, you noticed how high in the air you actually were, frighteningly high.

 “I see.”you smirked ,after realizing the truth “This is a test to see if I am a real Zahassa.” still the question remains, how were you going to land?

  You could do it like you always did, but what if there were people around? If someone saw you that would be bad. The worst case scenario would be the count or even the king, now that, that would be really bad.

           If you hesitate...you...

“Die. I know how these things work. I have lived for quite some time, I am not that dumb.”

           We will see...

“Did you just laugh at me?”you sighed out in irritation “Fine then, have it your way.” the earth was closer than it had been so far. You closed your eyes and clenched your muscles. After releasing them, your body changed, landing safely and majestically.

“What are you going to say now?”you asked , full of yourself 

     That fur...

          That color...

   After the knowledge your clan possessed, each and everyone could transform into a tiger. You were from the most oldest family in the Zahassa clan, the Langarda household. What made you special wasn’t only the things your family knew, it was the form you had as animals. Pure white, thick fur, big and very sharp teeth and jet black patterns onto your bodies.Eyes that glowed in the color of gold and limitless powers.

  Light and dark, white and black opposites standing next to one another. Your strong body ,like a glorious statue of a god, was sitting on the hill.  

“Where are you?”you asked , what you thought to be a ghost “Did I scare you?” you laughed to yourself

   Don’t think so little of me...Langarda ...daughter...

“Are we that famous?”you looked towards the sound, yet there was no one there

   Indeed...you are...

“Why am I here?”you asked, walking around, the leaves crackling under your big paws

  You are the last...you must know...must...

  The voice started disappearing in the direction in front of you, so you decided to follow it. You must know?What did she want you to know? Well you were about to find out, more or less. The fog pulled away it’s white hands from a building, that was unveiling itself in front of you.

  It was old, hidden, falling apart, but unforgotten, filled with memories and many mysteries. The gigantic doors opened up in front of you and the trees pulled back their roots, making as much way as possible for you.

   They haven’t forgotten...who you...are

  She said again.Once you stepped foot in side, your body changed in it’s human form again. Looking around you started remembering things from long ago, very long ago.You heard children's laughter and right before your eyes, three little kids ran past you and you followed them to an open space in the castle like building.There were 2 boys and one girl.

  Walking closer you saw their faces.

“Give me back my bow!”yelled out the girl and reached towards one of the boys.

“Come and get it.”he stuck his tongue out at her and started running towards you, until he went through your body. As the little girl followed ,you were able to see her face...

   You were cute...

 The voice echoed again. Yes, these kids were walking through you, because these were your memories, of the past.Memories this house has kept for you. “I was.”you sighed and stepped in front of the second boy, which was still sitting on the grass.

“You were so shy back then Lyrius.”you reached out your hand to touch his hair, but it just went through “What was I expecting...” a sad laughter came out of your lips 

“Give it back!”you turned your head to look at your past self ,fighting with the other boy.

“Agis, you were never nice to me.”you walked over to them “Dad used to say that you were doing this because you liked me.” you looked up “Why did you bring me here?”

  To see...your past...

“I know my past!”you yelled out, the memories disappearing, leaving you in the almost ruins of something you once called home.

   You are the last of us...you need to know...

“I need to know what?!Say it already!”

    You need to know....what happened...

“Stop talking nonsense.There is no point in being here, I can’t dwell in the past forever.”you started walking towards the exit, angry

    But this isn’t the past...it is as alive as you...as existent as your heart beat...

“I am the last of our clan and it will always be like this.”you trembled, as your bare feet touched the cold stone stairs.

   Yes...the last one...awake...

  Your body stopped in the middle of a motion. “Awake...”you turned around “What do you mean awake?”now this was different 

   You need to know...we are here...we are all here

“Why, tell me!”you demanded 

     Here...because we are all ...a-

“IS THERE SOME HERE!”you heard someone yell out from somewhere near the house.

“Shit!”you must go, you had to. Who knew who that person was.

   You jumped off the stairs and ran towards the forest, trying to outrun the person, who might or might not be following you.Leaving the house behind you, you heard the voice for a last time, as it was fading fast.

   Come...to us...again...

  After what just happened ,you were definitely going back to that house. The question was how?You walked out of the fog once more and luckily still found your window open. Looking around to make sure you were alone, you jumped and closed it behind you.Before you were able to get in the bed, there was a knock on the door.

“Yes.”you said 

  The door opened up and a man with brown hair walked in, looking at you from head to toe.

“His Highness wishes to have breakfast with you my lady.”he bowed and was about to exit, when you stopped him

“Umm, isn’t the count here?”you were asking about the man who brought you here yesterday, he seemed nice.

“In this castle live 6 counts, you must be more specific when you ask about them.”

“Ah, I didn’t know.”you said 

“My name is count Jung Jungkook.”he bowed again “Count Hoseok is in another part of the castle.” he moved aside and a maid walked in, holding a dress in her hands “I will leave you now.”he closed the door behind himself

“Good morning my lady.”the girl bowed down and walked towards you, placing the clothing on the bed

“What is your name?”you asked her

“Pia, my lady.” she looked shy, but very cute and young. You could see the mint color of her hair peeking underneath her head rail, the coral colored eyes and watermelon lip tint.

“Pia, what are you doing here?”you asked her ,as she was placing the dress on your body

“I am afraid I don’t understand the question my lady.”she made sure everything looked good and proceeded with brushing your hair

“I mean, here in the forest. Away from the sea and ocean.”your words made her stop what she was doing. Looking into the mirror you could see her expression.

“I am just a maid my lady.”it was obvious that Pia wanted to hide something from you, but you already knew what it was

“Isn’t the land a bit uncomfortable for a mermaid?”you asked her

 The girl dropped the brush she was holding and stepped back,shocked from your words.

“My lady, how do you know?” she looked scared

“Your hair and eye color,they are of mermaid origin. Judging by your way of speaking, you are of nobility.Am I right Pia?”you stepped closer to her and pulled the head rail off. Exposing two fins, which she tried to hide with her hands.

 You picked up your bag and pulled out of it a cream, which you applied, with out her permission, on the fins.In seconds they disappeared and her breathing became more normal.

“M-my lady...”she stood up and you quickly tied up her hair and placed the rail back on

“I am very sorry for doing this to you with out asking first, but I wanted to see if this would work on you.”

 You flashed the girl a smile and her eyes started shining. She than helped you get ready, finishing your hair and everything.

“My lady you look beautiful.” she clapped her hands “His Highness has good taste in clothing.”

“You mean to tell me that...the king did?”you turned around to look at the girl

“Why yes of course. He is waiting for you.”

 Pia opened up the door for you and you made your way towards the dining hall of the castle. Once you entered the big room, you immediately felt two eye looking at you and only you. You bowed lifting your dress a bit.

“Good morning Your Highness.” you sat down, looking at him the same way he was at you

“Did you sleep well last night?”he asked you with his deep voice

“I did. Thank you for the dress, you shouldn’t have done this for me.”you said, trying to change the subject, because you didn’t actually sleep last night.

“I will do what ever I want to do.” he said and picked up his glass, taking a big sip

“Is there a problem?”you asked him, as his piercing gaze was locked on you, even as he was eating

“I am just surprised that you didn’t ask anything about this.”he placed the crystal glass back on the oak table, leaning back in his chair.

“Should I?”you weren’t hungry at all at this moment, mostly because the food you ate wasn’t of normal origin

“Most people do.”another short answer

“Well...”you leaned on the table and look directly at him “...I am not most people. I am too complicated to understand, even for the undead.” after sitting back normally you gave him a proper answer, even if the question wasn’t exactly asked in the normal way “Even if you were a demon, I wouldn’t care much. You see, as a healer I have seen many dead people and lots of blood, you are not the first and most definitely not the last. There will come more after you my king, mark my word.”

 Immediately after saying this ,you closed your mouth and looked in another direction, knowing that unconsciously you said too much about yourself.The king was about to say something, when the count known as Jungkook stepped in the hall, carrying news with himself.

“Your Highness, the duchess has come to see you.”

“Now?”asked king Namjoon

“Yes, she is waiting.”

 You stood up and started walking towards the door, when Namjoon flew to you, pushing your body against the wall. He looked in your eyes and leaned forward, until your lips were almost touching.

“Where do you think you are going?”he asked with a seductively deep voice

“To my room, I see you have a guest. I don’t want to cause you trouble.” you tried to escape him, but he didn’t let you

“You aren’t going...”leaning to your hear, he whispered the last word.”...anywhere.”

 He grabbed your hand and pulled you towards the room the duchess was waiting in. Once you stepped foot in there, the woman stood up and came closer to great you.You were shocked, she looked like a child, like you almost. Her hair was lemon blonde and her eyes in a deep sage color. It seemed that she liked to smile a lot.

“Your Highness, it has been a long time.”she bowed at him and then you, flashing a bright smile

 Next to her was a butler, he looked young, with jet black long hair, tide back and same color eyes. He quickly helped the girl sit back on the couch and passed her some kind of liquid to drink.

 You were looking at each other, sitting on the couch in front of her with the king. You wondered if you should say something, as the moment you saw her, you noticed something very important.

“Is something wrong madam?”asked the butler

 You looked up and sighed, starting to talk “I don’t think that black seed tea will help your problem.”

“H-how did you know?”the girl asked you shocked

  The same way you knew about Pia. Years of reading all kinds of books and random ‘adventures’ around the many different kingdoms that existed in this world. No matter if magical or not. You knew almost everything there was, except new found things, which you researched when you found even the smallest time gap.

“I have seen many sicknesses in my life time.”you nodded

“Yet, mine can’t be cured.”the girl looked down at her lap, with sadness filling her voice

“My duchess.”the boy placed his hand onto her shoulder

“I wouldn’t say that.”the girl almost instantly looked at you and so did the king

“Aren’t you a human doctor?How do you know of this?”asked the butler

“The cause is simple, as well as the cure.”you stood up and walked over to her “It is normal for your kind.”you knelt in front of the girl, taking her hands in yours “You aren’t aware of what you are and so don’t know what to do.”

“I don’t understand.” she became more confused with every second

“Her father is a magician of very high rank and so is my misters.”said the butler

“Her father may be, but she isn’t.”you looked at her “Do you perhaps have a harp shaped ,in a way, birthmark?”

“No she doe-”the girl jumped up and cut off the words of her attendant

“How did you know?!”

“I knew it.” you sat back down and so did she, now looking at you with bigger eyes “You were born near a special lake, deep in the forests of a distant land.”the girl nodded, her heart starting to beat faster and faster “That exact day was a festival ,held by a certain person. Before your first cry, you heard the music he played and so this happened.My duchess, you are no longer daughter of a magician...you are a nymph.”

“Does that mean, I don’t have a incurable sickness?”    

“There is no such a thing as an incurable sickness. In your case you have to go home and find a instrument which you can play with out lessons.By playing that music, your powers will be released and there will be no problems with your body.”

 The girl jumped up and grabbed your hands, thanking you a thousand times, before running out of the castle ,with her butler behind her.You sat back down on the couch.

“I guess, she couldn’t wait.”

“How did you know of this?”

 The kings voice, made you remember that he was indeed present in this room with you. The difference was that you two were now alone and you had to answer his question.

“I have seen many magical creatures and so I can differentiate them. For instance the maid named Pia, she is a mermaid of nobility.”you stared talking, when you felt a hand on your leg, slowly creeping to your waist “Y-your Highness...”you gasped in shock

“I gave you my name...call it!”he said with an even deeper voice than before

“N-namjoon, what are you doing.”he pushed you on the couch and hovered over you

“You are very special, aren’t you Y/N. You knew about Pia and the duchess.Yet when I ask you how, you tell a lie. How can I make you tell me?”he placed his lips on you shoulder, then started leaving a trail to your neck. “If you don’t hurry up and say it, I will reach your...”he was indeed close to your lips, closing your eyes something fell on the ground and he stood up to go and see, at that exact moment you ran out of the room, to your own.

 Closing the door ,you jumped on the bed and hid your face in the pillow.

“Is something wrong my lady?”Pia asked as she looked at you

“Pia, I need to ask you something.”you patted the bed and she sat down next to you

“Yes of course my lady. What is troubling your mind?”

“I have been a healer for a very long time and I know many sicknesses and their symptoms, but...I have been feeling strange and can’t seem to connect it to anything.Maybe you might know.”you said, your face still in the pillow

“Oh dear, if you don’t know my lady, why do you think I would?” 

  You lifted your head and placed it onto her lap. Pia gently untangled your hair, brushing it with her fingers, which kind of relaxed you a bit.

“I don’t know what is happening.”you sighed ,looking up at her “My heart is beating fast, but I don’t seem to have high blood pressure.My face gets all red, but I don’t have a fever.”

  As Pia was listening to you talk, she started slowly getting the symptoms that you were experiencing.

“My lady, does this happen only when his Highness is around?”she asked you

“Come to think of it, it does. Maybe the blood he drinks...no that can’t be.I have performed a lot of surgeries.” you were exited about finding a clue, but them sighed again after nothing came together as an answer.

“I think I know what is going on, my lady.”

  Upon hearing her words, you jumped up, sitting on the bed and looking straight at the girl’s face. She came closer and made sure to whisper. 

“My lady, I think...I think you have fallen in love with His Highness.”

“No that can’t be.”you pulled back a bit and leaned on the bed, turning around

“Your heart knows it my lady, you haven’t figured it out yet.”she said

  You jumped up again and looked at her “Then again...I don’t know the symptoms of love.” you grabbed your leather journal and started looking through. Pia placed her hand gently on the book and pulled it down, making your eyes shoot at her.

“My lady, love isn’t something you can cure.”she patted her chest “It is something special that is in your heart.”

  Pia proceeded with explaining to you ‘love’, as simply as she could, after noticing you didn’t know about it.Slowly but surely, you started believing her, everything started adding up perfectly.

“My lady, could it be...you haven’t experienced love before?” she gasped in shock

  You crossed your arms in front of your chest and looked at the window “Now that you have explained it to me. I can say I have felt this feeling, but it was a long time ago.”you sighed “A very long time ago indeed.”

“Will you tell His Highness, my lady?” Pia asked you directly and you jumped from the question, almost immediately 

“What! Of course I won’t.”you wiggled a bit on the bed, to find a comfortable position “To him I am just interesting, a new toy that will stay here until it breaks. Plus that he looks famous with women, I bet he already has someone he likes.”

“I can guarantee he does not, even if he has lived a long time.”Pia turned towards you “My lady, I think he brought you here because he was lonely, being alone all these years isn’t good.”

“I do know how that feels, but still I fill like a toy.”you sighed

“My lady, you are very special, I don’t know why, but I can feel something from you. Maybe something His Majesty has noticed as well.”

“Maybe...”your eyes shot back up, filled with concern

  You remembered him saying that he saw you from the forest. Which means, you didn’t notice him at all...could he...could he have seen you using your powers?No that sounded to absurd. If he did, he wouldn’t have been so shocked when you helped the duchess.  

“Oh, I almost forgot.”Pia stood up, fixing her dress a bit “I wanted to show you our herb garden.”

“You have a herd garden!”you were so exited, who knew what kind of plants grew in these parts of the land, where darkness ruled over the day and night.This information made you quickly forget about the problem at hand and rush out of the room.

  Pia opened the metal fence for you and you walked right in like you were home. In a way ,your real home had turned into something like a garden too.In here there were many plants, flowers that you never knew could have healing properties. You pulled out your sketchbook and started drawing the new plants in there, writing everything you knew about them next to the illustration . Pia noticed how into the plants you were, so she left you alone.

  Jumping from one flower bed to the other, you felt so free and happy. Nature was the element your clan ruled over, well not ruled over, maybe coexist with sounds better. In the end you spend almost the whole day in the garden.

“How can these plants get enough sunlight, if the sun doesn’t exist here?”you stood up and looked at the dark sky, that had only a bright moon to illuminate it

“When you want to survive, you find a way.”

  Upon hearing the deep voice behind you, you quickly turned around and were met with the king’s eyes, looking at you.

“Maybe they were able to collect enough light when the sun still shined here.”you bent down again and continued drawing, trying to ignore him 

“You are quite knowledgeable indeed Y/N.” his eyes turned towards the sky “A very long time ago the sun was able to reach these lands and cover them with warmth, but now only the darkness remains. 

“How long has Your Highness lived here?”you asked him

“I have been here for longer than you think.”he walked over to you and sat exactly next to your body, making you flinch from the sudden movement “These lands belonged to a very powerful and legendary clan named the Zahassa .”

 So he knows... you thought to yourself

“At that time I was very young, a child to be precise. I used to play with the children of that clan...but one day they suddenly vanished. Like smoke in the air. I haven’t seen or heard any of them since. I wonder if some of them are still alive.”he sighed 

“It sounds to me like you had someone you liked from there.���you said bluntly, without even thinking

“Well, I won’t say you are wrong.”your head snapped towards him shocked “I liked her a lot to be honest. I don’t know why I am even saying this to you.” he looked deep in thought “I think she was the only daughter of her family, I still remember the name L-”

  You suddenly stood up “I feel tired, so I will go to my room.”you bowed “I will excuse myself Your Highness.” and you ran to your bed chamber as fast as you could, jumping once more on your bed. Different scenarios started playing in your mind. He really knew your family...could you have met him in the past?Turning on your back, you started talking out loud.

“Do I know him?No that can’t be.”rolling on your side, you stared debating “Was he about to say Langarda?But there are other families that also start with an L. Like Lenda and Lethia...”you stood up and started hitting your head lightly “Uhhh, damn it Y/N. Why didn’t you stay and hear him say it!” you were rolling around like crazy, yet there was a possibility he was talking about your family...yet you didn’t believe it. 

  As you fell asleep, you weren’t aware of the person leaning on your door, on the other side. He had his back pressed on the oak, as he sighed and left...did he know who you were, or he just felt something for you...