Chapter Eight - Fate

Hwa Ryun awoke and couldn't see.

No, no she could. Half of her couldn't see, the other half could feel. And somehow that was worse.

There was a hand in hers, small, fragile. Strength burrowed under the flesh of it, strength burned down by shackles and she saw -

Everything.

As a diviner, she was supposed to only see when she actually looked. The stories were lies: they'd always been lies, the diviners have control, they are in control, but -

Not now.

Fire licking up stone walls, smoke making everyone else but you cough.

Her, your master, your owner, screaming, looking at you in rage and hate but screaming for you with something opposite of that. You don't question, because you have no need to. Everyone hates you here. Everyone -

"Go away!"

A blonde man with a single cracked red horn snarling deep in his throat, a single knife in hand. Your mouth opens, you see the stars at the corners of your eyes.

He laughs at you. "Get lost, you monster! You're the one who caused this! We'll die because of you! If you'd just done what you were supposed to…"

Blood. A clearing of corpses. A wave of leeches. You, with only tired hands and feet and your new master squirming and screaming by your feet, the sunset giving you more power.

The walls of your home, the dirt of your floor, the first splash of water in your hair, a single window of weak sunlight. Gruel,thin and watery and weak and thrown at you. It is fine, you don't need it and it's better than the rotten raw things but still you wonder. You know the taste of dirt better than anything else but you still wonder all the same.

A pair of big yellow eyes beaming at you and touching you with eager, questing fingers. You jerk back because touch means pain. Touch means punish. They yank at you anyway. They are just as filthy as you are, their fingers grimy with blood and other things (you know blood best the taste is always sharp tang and tack in your mouth) as they pull you closer like something other than pain.

Did your master love you once?

"Please stop."

Hwaryun froze, yanked firmly out of a past that wasn't hers, a person she didn't belong as, and stared into a pair of worried golden eyes. A small figure, messy short hair, pale skin, raggedy clothes, sitting cross-legged in a grey world full of clouds.

"I…"

"That was close," they said, lips shifting up by reflex, she could feel. "Much further down and I think you could have been stuck. It's dangerous to see into people's selves like that without practice I've heard. I'm Yoru, what's your name?"

She couldn't answer immediately, struck by the complete lack of anger at the loss of privacy at the delving deep, at the seeing without boundaries. She can almost forget the lie. "Hwa Ryun," she said after a moment.

"What a pretty name," they said, and they meant it, she could feel it in her skin and shinsu. "Can I call you, Ryun?"

"Sure." She didn't care, a name was a name.

"Great!" They smiled and her chest lifted with warmth. Unfamiliar. She catalogued it for later. "I don't know how you got into my head but you should be more careful."

"I've never been pulled in like that before," she admitted and as she spoke, the grey seemed to recede. The room filled with the smell of a dead fire, soft fur, shinsu and something thicker. "Where am I?"

"You're in the mating dens behind Headon's Gate." Yoru scratched their cheek. "I believe that's what it's called anyway. You were attacked by Soul Leeches."

Hwaryun licked her lips. "That's farther than I expected." Diviners could go anywhere they wished, yes, but that didn't mean she knew how. She had barely started training… and now her home was gone.

Hell Joe the rightful ruler indeed.

Then the rest of the sentence caught up with her. "They threw me to the leeches."

The smile dropped and their face turned so cold that for a moment a terrible thrill went up her spine. "I see. They were those kinds of people then."

"Most are," she said, now aware of the cloth on her back, the bandages on her torso and the one over her eye. "How do you know about the leeches?"

"I was created to kill them."

"Oh." Hwaryun recalibrated, resting her palms against the cave floor. "You're an artificial mage? Natural ones usually are sucked up because they're stupid."

"Something like that I think. I have a master, for what it's worth."

"She's a shitty master then." Her mind flashed to blonde hair and catlike eyes.

They didn't say anything to that. She didn't press. It wasn't her business. "Are there any free mages here?" they asked instead.

"In Wolhaiksong," she replied and his eyes went wide. Oh, he knew what that was? Or maybe it was an implication. "Though they're also not normal people, so good luck getting to them."

"Maybe my owner is trying to get to them."

"They wouldn't let her in." Hwaryun sat up slowly and hissed in pain. Divinity didn't tell that you things still hurt. "Her magic isn't as strong as yours, even if she's as irregular of a mage as you are."

"Oh." He didn't seem surprised by this either.

"Why?"

"My contract will keep draining her."

"She was the one stupid enough to make it." Hwaryun rolled her shoulders, testing them, swiping her head back and forth and ignoring the pain. "And it's been nearly half a decade. It'll probably wear off soon. Are you worried you're shaving off her lifespan?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"... She was the first light I ever had."

Hwaryun thought this over and flexed her fingers. "Well, you're the first light I've ever seen in a sense so I suppose I can understand."

Yoru smiled at her weakly.

It was then that she noticed their hand hadn't left hers even once.

Something rumbled beside them. "Mind translating that for the rest of the room, Yoru?"

Yoru's cheeks dusted pink and Hwaryun rubbed her eye and eye socket. "Sorry, Mister Khun. It's just been… a long time since I met someone familiar with the concepts that could hold a conversation."

"Diviners are to work with mages or those who have ascended," Hwaryun said flatly. "It's nothing special."

"It's special to me specifically Miss Ryun."

Well okay then.

"Why is a Khun out here for mating season anyway?" she asked as if she couldn't look. Because she could, she just chose not to. Because now with her one eye, she could see him, feet of rippling mass and power and magic, dragon with claws and nails and bristling fur.

"It's complicated," he said in a clipped voice. Yoru twisted to look at him, grabbing something before it could roll away. Ah. An egg. "And not your business."

"It usually isn't," Hwaryun agreed well enough. "But is that egg yours?"

"She's ours," Yoru said before this Khun could get antsy. Most Khun with kids hardly cared so it was surprising to see this one so prickly.

Hwaryun examined them both, eye searching for the familiar gold of shinsu. "Ah, so she is," she replied. "Your shinsu is melding well."

"It's an honor to hear so."

Her lips twitched. Oh yes, this mage would do nicely.

You're too young, insisted her mother in her head. Well, her mother was dead now and she had nowhere else to go. At least a mage would help her survive.

She was supposed to feel something about that wasn't she?

Ugh. He'd said so much, and in front of Mister Khun too. He was probably going to be in trouble when he got back to the Church. Then again, how would he get back there in the first place?

It wasn't like magecraft was a secret anyway. It was the worst kept secret on his church's territory. Urgh. He had no clue about this land. At least they knew what shinsu - soul water - was.

Bam found himself muttering under his breath in his birth tongue. The pocket was currently in sleep mode so he was free to do it. That was, until Miss Ryun started laughing.

Oh just his luck. But this didn't really bother him. In fact he was absolutely delighted.

"A speaker too!"

"It's just part of our education," she told him in that bland voice but the lift of her remaining eyebrow told him otherwise.

Bam smiled a bit wider and looked up at Khun, who had shifted back to stretch himself without crushing anyone. He couldn't help but admire that kind of consideration for others even with all that power tightly coiled under his skin. The egg in his lap wiggled in approval of such thoughts, which was also kind of sweet.

… I can't believe I've made a life with someone else. His thumb brushed the egg with gentle steady strokes and he felt it vibrate against his hands. She seemed… pleased? He couldn't be certain. Mages were people who revitalized and destroyed and continued that cycle. Creating life was… very rare. It took a lot of power. Usually through magic yes but… few mages had families of their own will, under their own power. It was… discouraged.

He explained that as such to Khun, who had sidled up beside him, looking at himself and Miss Ryun both like they had grown extra heads.

"Creatures are more capable for families than mages, is the myth," Bam said after a moment. "Tend to be not as social, that kind of thing."

"Sounds more like blue turtle than you," said Rak with a smirk. He dodged Khun's irritable swipe.

Bam, despite himself, felt his mouth turn up into a smile. They all cared so much about each other. It was amazing.

Black March tingled up his sleeve.

"Anyway," he said, trying to ignore it and well, to hopefully explain. "Diviners and mages work well together, because they're taught to. Diviners can handle the shinsu mages use and create 'paths' with. Their shinsu flows together more easily and…" He shook his head. "It's hard to explain. I only managed it once. It's very dangerous if you're not prepared. Not even those given guides should do it easily."

"Melding with another person's power requires openness," Hwaryun added. "You're opening another person's path. That means they have to trust you not to control their body's flow. Diviners are able to guide flow because we know our own destiny, but it doesn't mean we're safe from those of others. I'm surprised you survived doing it once, especially since you're contracted with a subpar mage."

"Ah…" Bam scratched his head. "I'm still not sure why that happened… anyway. I suppose I… need to explain what she means." He cleared his throat and shut his eyes, recalling, recalling that moment, the time Rachel's blood trickled down his back, the way she'd cried to him with her most real emotions, begging to be saved, begging to change fate.

It wasn't enough, he was old enough to realize now. He was also old enough to wish with all his might that the two of them were. That the person who was his world was everything he needed when he treasured her. That he was everything she needed.

Khun watched the moment Yoru's entire body shifted, like liquid, into someone else. Not from human to monster or something ethereal, but rather like a person locked themselves up in a cage, waiting to be told they were free. Yoru opened their eyes, and they were as empty and soulless as a corpse, endlessly tired and cold. Hungry for anything to fill them.

"Mages do not contract to other mages as a matter of course," he said after a moment. "Mages are of magic, and to mix their magic is often deadly to the contractor moreso than the contracted. And if the mage is weaker than the one they're holding power over, it's considered a waste of power because the other mage can reverse it at anytime if there's no spellwork carved into it. As it is now, the spells on my back are all that's keeping my contract functional without killing her in the process. So I need to find her and find a way to get rid of it before it kills her."

"Not to mention it causes you to be unable to give shinsu properly to that egg."

The empty look seemed to wink out. "Well… yes." Yoru shook their head and added. "I have a license and a pocket as an adventurer, but apparently you need a team of three at minimum…?"

"Yeah." This Khun could deal with. "Adventurers need parties of three to start off with. That's the only reason I'm still here. Rak isn't interested in hunting during mating season and the two Anaaks aren't capable. Senior isn't interested in fighting anymore and Junior's younger than you two so it won't happen."

Yoru's head tilted up towards his. This close, Aguero could kiss them on the forehead and no one could judge. "What about you?"

"I'm a creature," Khun supplied. "That doesn't mean I can't. It's just a harder sell. And Shibisu and Hatz are probably going with Endorsi. You could join them."

"No," Yoru said softly. "I mean, could we go with you? I've given you a responsibility you weren't ready for, and now you know plenty about me, and you want to adventure, so we could go together."

The guileless earnestness in his face makes Aguero's head swim. Not with joy exactly. Not with fear exactly.

Yoru's eyes are swallowing him, sucking him in with undivided attention.

And he doesn't know what to make of it.

The egg wobbles and clangs like a bell inside Aguero's head. And all he could think of was -

Maria.