"Tae-Tae." Telieo whispered, reaching out a shaky hand to touch the younger. There weren't words for this, there wasn't anything she could do to fix this. The pain of rejection, and the heartache of long lost love, she still faced it after all this time. Her relationship with him had been as passionate as it had been deadly. He had been her undoing, and after the fire that consumed her home, she promised herself to never put herself in that position again. She'd seen her most trusted guards fall in love and become a family, she'd seen some of them die from heart-sickness after their other half left this earth, but she'd never seen one rejected.
"I died." The white haired male spoke, his voice emotionless and empty. "I told you that I searched for you, and it's true. I left." He let out a shaky breath, "I couldn't be here any longer and I couldn't keep hoping that my Soul-lM-Mate would be h-here for me-e." His finally voice broke. Tears gathering in his eyes as he stared at that painting. "There were rumors around 1487, or at least that's what I figure. There was new land out there, with new people and I couldn't spend more time here. I couldn't rot here like this castle. I remember the day I came here to say goodbye. It was the first time I'd seen Ggukkie's face in so long." His emotions were thick, she couldn't help but put her hand on his back, giving him the comfort he needed, without interrupting. "I snuck out, although I'm sure..." He paused. "he knew I left." The obvious skip of his brother's name something she was immensely grateful for. "I stole a horse, map, supplies, and set off. I rode until I couldn't. I would make camp like I'd learned in those tomes you used to read me. I foraged for food and water, I got sick and almost returned many times. But I kept going. I was going to prove to everyone who I was and what I could do. I made it onto a ship heading for this new land. I wasn't aware that there was a stow-away." His lips twitched upwards for a second. The ghost of a smile lighting up his eyes for even less time. "I met a man. The second we made eye contact it's like we clicked. I was so in love with the idea of a SoulMate, that I forced myself to believe he was it. He would only come at night, and would ask me what was going on, where I thought we were. I didn't think much of it until we were caught. He was thrown overboard and I was treated like a prisoner. They locked me in a cell and left me to starve, while we sailed to this new land. I remember getting the strength to slip out a window while they'd left me in the captain's quarters and then getting caught in a wave and pushed away from the boat." His eyes grew distant and his voice lost emotion, as if he were reciting something. "After that, I woke up on a raft made of drift wood with Jimin, the man I'd mistaken for my SoulMate." He finally tore his eyes from the painting and down to his hands. "I'm not sure what happened, just that we drifted for a long time. At one point we got caught in a storm. Jimin was dying and I was basically dead. I prayed to my mother, hoping she would remember me, or at least care enough to try and save me." He let out a shaky breath. "Of course, she didn't come. She never has." He whispered. Shaking his head, before continuing his story. "There was woman though. She was pale as the moon and just as bright. The world around us just stopped while she floated over the water in this beam of light. The feeling that surrounded her was cold and forsaken. She told me she was the Princess trapped in the Moon and that she too had lost her love. She took one look at Jimin and myself and crushed my heart. Taking what little will I had to live left and throwing it into the storm around us." His voice faded as another seemed to take over his own.
"This is not your Soul's Match. This man who you willingly incur the wrath of Gods for is no one to you. Do you still wish to save him?" The voice echoed around them and sunk into her bones. It was familiar as well as jarring. To feel her power and aura surround them even in the middle of the day, in the ruins of a castle. But she kept quiet, not knowing this male even if he held the face of her dear little brother, she couldn't be certain. "I must warn you that if you choose to save him, you must give up something in return. I can not simply gift you his soul. I am not nearly as powerful as an actual Goddess."
"All I could do was cry. Wondering what I had done to deserve such a fate. To find love and to lose it immediately afterwards. I could only stare at her as I thought." He looked back up, only this time facing another painting, hidden from view unless you truly look. It was of a beautiful young woman. She seemed to be glowing surrounded by dark blues and greens. Her pale skin just barely darker than her hair. Her eyes seemed to be staring straight at them as she looked out of the painting. Her dress was flowing as if it were caught in the current as she stood over the water, without touching it. Her face was kind yet guarded, the sadness in her expression captured perfectly. Her eyes appeared to be a faded blue, as if death had taken the light of them. There were no jewels adorning her young body, nothing to show who or what she meant to the world. She wore a long dress that covered most of her body, what little of her shoulders that did show were covered in smooth pale skin. The solitary figure who gave her life for the Gods, only to be punished to watch as her Soul'sMatch found another.
Telieo could feel the loneliness that clung to the young princess, the anguish that seemed to hold her face as tears fell from her colorless eyes.
Taehyung began speaking before she could get lost in those thought. "I told her I was going to die anyway. That giving my life for another, would be an honor. She looked so distraught when I said that. I remember watching her look away from me as if hoping I wouldn't see the tears falling from her eyes, as if the crystalline drops aren't what color my own."
"Tae." She breathed, unable to hear this without breaking down. "You gave up your freedom didn't you?" She whispered, as if saying it out loud would make it happen.
He let out a dry chuckle. "You always were so clever." He tried joking, but it was too late for that. "Yes. I gave up my freedom, and my life." He said, finally looking at her. Tears fell from her eyes once more. Her soul weeping for this young man before her. He opened his mouth but that same unearthly voice spoke for him.
"I am sorry, brave young man. You have fought so hard to find the ones you love. If this is the choice you make, you must go back to your family, for they will be able to save him. I will send you back to your golden cage, the price for his life will be your own. You will not be able to feel the moon's light or I will be forced to take your life. That is the way of the universe. Please, do not make me kill anymore. My brave young warrior, you shall be stuck in that cage until I set you free.
"She kissed my forehead and as the tears fell onto my face, I felt stronger than I ever have before. Then she was gone and so was the light. The storm started back up and I wasn't able to do more than hold onto Jiminie and the raft. We both woke up here in the ruins, I had to drag Jimin out of here and we made it to the greenhouse before I collapsed. It was early morning when Seo- Hyung found us."
She could only cry, how had something so horrifying happen to this bright young man? He was and always would be the best of them, she'd told him as much all throughout his childhood. Reminded him to keep his innocence, his youth. "Tae-ah, have you-"
"Yes." He cut her off, his own tears falling while he stared unblinkingly at that otherworldly being. "Everything you're thinking of and more." He whispered. I have resigned myself to this fate. I would not choose any other, for Jimin has become my very best friend. He found his Match in a set of twins here. The eldest of the two, Hyun-jungie, tries to spoil him rotten although she doesn't succeed often. The younger is a shapeshifter who never leaves his side. Jiminie made the mistake of telling them what had happened to get him here and Hyun-woo-ah shifted into a duckling forcing Jiminie to carry him for a month." A smile started forming on his lips as he began talking more and more about his friend. "Jungie, used her ability to keep Jiminie from leaving their suite for an entire month. She just kept creating portals that would lead him back to her. Of course, I could visit, but it was more fun to hear about it afterwards."
"Tell me more." She begged, needing to know that the freedom he'd so desperately craved as a child was worth the price of this man.
