Judal sat on the couch, one leg tucked beneath himself and the other stretched across Hakuryuu's lap. The prince's eyes were focused on the dark bruise forming on his calf, soft fingertips running over marred skin. The apartment was quiet save for the steady rap-tap-tap of rain on the windowpanes and the occasional creak from somewhere in the building. Not far from them, the pair of pursuant fae sat, staring unblinkingly.

The last half hour was something of a blur.

He could remember the courtyard most clearly. The white hot fury in Hakuryuu's eyes was difficult to forget, and for a moment Judal had thought it was directed at him. Fear, which had already been plaguing him at the time, had redoubled in ferocity. And then he had realized that Hakuryuu's gaze was not on him, but rather settled somewhere above him. When he looked, the towering fae had halted, eyes fixed on the prince.

"You," Hakuryuu had snarled, words dripping acidic from his tongue. "How dare you-!"

It was the first time Judal had ever heard Hakuryuu speak with such a voice. The tone reminded him of when the prince had given him his true name; it held the same breath of winter, the same frigid, overwhelming cold. He wasn't the only one that had felt it, for both fae drew back, almost flinching away from the enraged royal.

And then they lowered themselves to one knee, bowing their heads in reverence. Something clammy had clutched at Judal's throat, then. Those two who had chased him who knew how far across the city bowed their heads without question to the prince. Over time, the familiar shiver of Hakuryuu's magic had come to be somewhat comforting, but this time was different.

It bordered on frightening.

After that, things became jumbled.

He could faintly recall Hakuryuu speaking more, his voice harsh and vicious, and the courtyard writhing about him like a living thing. There had been blood, at some point, and he was almost certain that it hadn't been his own. Had Hakuryuu lashed out at the bowing fae? Possibly, but he couldn't be sure. The rain blended with the crackle of magic in the air, and everything became white noise and dull, throbbing pain.

They had gotten back upstairs, somehow. He had been in Hakuryuu's arms, he knew that much, and the two fae had followed dutifully behind them. Judal remembered wanting to ask Hakuryuu to make them go away, but it seemed he had lost his voice somewhere six blocks away and had yet to recover it.

Somewhere among the prattle of voices, Judal caught a pair of names.

Belial and Zagan.

It struck him belatedly that unlike their assailants from before, Hakuryuu actually appeared to know these two. Not just know them, but be familiar enough with them that their names rolled off his tongue like a whipcrack.

By the time Judal straightened out his thoughts, he was allowing Hakuryuu to peel his hoodie off and pat him down in search of injuries. He mumbled something about his leg, and this was where he found himself.

"Does this hurt?" the prince murmured, pressing his fingers to different points along the bruise. Judal shook his head. "Good, it doesn't seem fractured."

"We do know how to play with your toys without breaking them, you know." the green-skinned fae whined defensively. He seemed to realize as soon as he finished speaking that he had said the wrong thing.

Hakuryuu whipped his head around to snarl at the fae.

"Bite your tongue, Zagan!"

Zagan's face twisted with displeasure, and his jaw moved in what Judal thought was a display of petulance. Then, a droplet of purple blood spilled from the corner of his lips, sliding sluggishly down his chin. Judal's stomach lurched. He'd bitten his tongue.

Hakuryuu turned away.

"Pay them no mind, Judal. They can't do anything as long as I am here."

The paler of the two, Belial, scoffed.

"Unless you have a desire to lose the power of speech," Hakuryuu said sharply. "I suggest you keep your disapproval to yourself."

Several of Belial's countless eyes rolled, though his face remained convincingly unmoved.

"Forgive me if I am not convinced that you will permanently cripple your vassals for the sake of a plaything."

The prince stilled, then abruptly stood up, startling Judal.

He rounded on the fae kneeling beside the couch, placing himself between them and his lover. Even on their knees, Belial and Zagan were nearly as tall as their prince. Yet, Hakuryuu managed to appear both larger and far more intimidating than them simply by how he held himself and the tone of his voice.

"Judal is neither plaything nor toy! I expect far better from the two of you than this mockery and violence- If it were not for Judal I would be dead, and neither of you would have a prince to serve at all!"

"My prince, I doubt-"

"Silence!" he all but roared, raising his voice for the first time. "I owe him more than I can think to explain to you two, and it is a debt that I have sworn myself to! Never would I have thought that my own vassals would dare turn against him. You insult me, and the generosity of my host."

This statement seemed to sober them, but not soon enough for twin looks of shock and horror to cross their faces at the mention of the oath Hakuryuu had sworn. Belial's express may have been schooled once more into blankness, but the eyes across his body were all staring at Judal like he was something unsightly. Zagan had the courtesy to look guilty, or at least fake it.

"We did not know." he said.

"You didn't ask." Judal muttered, speaking for the first time.

All three fae turned to look at him. Zagan's expression betrayed a certain amount of surprise, as if he were just seeing Judal for the first time. Judal averted his eyes. The memory of being locked into the fae's gaze was fresh in his mind, and it was not an experience he sought to repeat.

Hakuryuu settled back onto the couch and drew his lover closer. Judal came complacently into the prince's lap and allowed himself to be fussed over. He was beginning to feel lightheaded, though he wasn't sure if it was from exhaustion or pain.

"We are not obligated to make inquiries of mortals." Belial sniffed, only to have Zagan interrupt him before he could further belittle anyone.

"But that mainly has to do with the fact we are so rarely spotted! We had barely set eyes on you when you took note of us. It was quite surprising!"

"You're like, the size of a small building."

Judal cast his eyes over the fae. He distinctly remembered them reaching up towards the second story of the building nearest to them, but a moment ago Hakuryuu had stood taller than them. They shouldn't fit in his apartment, he realized; the ceilings weren't high enough. But there they sat.

"...Or, you were." he amended lamely.

It was almost as though the laws of reality did not quite agree with Belial and Zagan.

For the last few minutes, a burning ache had begun to travel from Judal's wrist up towards his shoulder, prickling its way inch by inch through his muscles. Hakuryuu had lifted his arm as carefully as he could, examining the bloody bite mark left by the wooden serpent. Judal had simply added this to the other aches pulsing through his body and done his best to ignore it, having no way to dull the pain.

Suddenly, without warning or consent, Hakuryuu slotted his mouth over the bite and sucked. Judal yelped, surprised, then made a high, pained noise as the sensation hit his nerves. The suction dragged on already aching flesh, pulled at burst veins and made a fresh wave of pain wash down to his fingertips. He would have struggled, but for as gentle as Hakuryuu's hands were, his grip was firm.

Still vaguely lightheaded, Judal had no earthly idea what the hell Hakuryuu thought he was doing. He intended to ask his lover just that when he pulled back, but paused. Under the bright pink mark from Hakuryuu's mouth, the skin around the bite was turning a faint shade of green. Judal stared at it. After a moment of confusion, it dawned on him that he may in fact be poisoned.

This explained a lot.

Zagan's expression confirmed it. He looked guilty again, and this time the feeling appeared genuine. It lost meaning, though, when noted that he had directed his gaze at the prince rather than the person he had poisoned. It was obvious there was something like a protest poised on his tongue, no doubt a plea for the prince not to sully his mouth with a mortal's blood.

Before he had a chance to speak, Hakuryuu spat the mouthful of blood and venom at him.

Belial actually flinched. Judal might have as well, if the lightheadedness hadn't been making everything move much more slowly in his mind.

"Hakuryuu," he started. "You don't gotta..."

His words petered out as the prince's mouth pressed to his skin again.

Hakuryuu must have felt his point had been made, because he spat the next two mouthfuls of blood onto the carpet instead of at his vassals. Things were silent again, though Zagan was fidgeting with every bob of the prince's throat, until Belial sighed.

"I still cannot fathom why you are quite this cross," he said bluntly. "But at least allow Zagan to tend to the boy."

Incredulous looks from both prince and vassal turned on the fae. Belial glanced between them, then shrugged his shoulders, his second set of arms crossing over his ribs.

"I would rather not watch this all night." he explained dryly.

Privately, Judal agreed with him. Not that he didn't appreciate Hakuryuu taking care of him, or admire how determined he was as he drew venom from his wound, but it wasn't exactly a quick process. Or painless.

Anger still trembled just beneath the prince's skin, Judal could see it in the lightning strikes of blue sparks that danced in his irises. There was protectiveness too, evident in his posture, and pride in the tenseness of his jaw. Even if Belial was right, and he was whether they wanted to admit it or not, the anger made Hakuryuu defiant.

Judal rested a hand on his knee, and Hakuryuu's shoulders relaxed. His eyes grew soft when he looked at his lover, pride and anger receding to give affection room. They didn't speak, but they didn't really need to either. They had learned to read each other without words, without even gestures. Every flicker of their lashes and twitch of their lips was a sentence, and a single blink could sometimes be a whole conversation.

"Zagan," Hakuryuu instructed, eyes still on Judal. "Tend to his wounds. Gently."

Zagan seemed relieved to have something to do, whether he approved of the task at hand or not. Apprehension only dawned on Judal when the fae was already close enough that he could smell him ( wood bark and fresh grass, with a faint, lemony tint to it, ) but the vassal was surprisingly considerate. His long fingers skimmed over the places Hakuryuu had already examined, double checking his work with careful eyes, before moving to Judal's arm.

Extracting the venom was no more pleasant when Zagan did it; he grew a blossom in the palm of his hand, crushed it, then applied the paste to the wound. It burned, then itched, and if he hadn't been in Hakuryuu's lap Judal would have squirmed more. His head began to clear, though, so he chose not to complain.

Judal found himself watching Zagan's hands more than his face. These too were disproportionate, his fingers and nails far too long for his palms, and his wrists much too dainty for his hands. Despite that, they were elegant and precise in their actions, and moved with spiderlike grace.

What really bewitched Judal was his magic, which reminded him of Hakuryuu's in the same way a panther reminds one of a saber-tooth tiger. Hakuryuu's magic was impressive, beautiful, and sometimes frightening, but Zagan's took it a step further. His magic felt ancient and raw, as though Hakuryuu's version was several steps refined from whatever his was. He didn't need earth or seeds, life sprung from his skin in brilliant colors with only a thought.

In his mind's eye, Judal could see him touch the ground, and a forest springing to life before one could blink. A single finger rested on a tree from the courtyard and it grew tall as the sky. Fields of flowers blossomed under his feet and where he slept, new life sprung from the earth.

The flowers and moss that bloomed in his palms, which became salves and pastes and turnicutes on Judal's skin, were just a small show of his ability. His power was a bottomless well under his skin, pulsing through his veins, Judal could feel it.

"Oh my, what's this?"

Judal blinked. He didn't remember drifting into the white noise, allowing it to overtake him. When had he lost focus? If he tried to think back to what had been going through his mind, all he could recall was a sense of smallness, as though he was facing something far larger than himself.

Something was wrong. The air had grown tense again, and Hakuryuu's arm had tightened around his waist. Judal glanced over his own body, trying to find what was causing the prince's distress.

Zagan's examination had apparently progressed down his other arm by now, and at some point he had taken Judal's hand in his own and turned his palm upwards. Whatever he had expected to find, Judal didn't think it was the ugly, crimson burn that was emblazoned on his pale skin.

His first thought was that the shape of the burn seemed more peculiar to him than its origin. Judal had burned himself cooking before, he'd traced Hakuryuu's scars more nights than he could remember, but this didn't look like it had been caused by fire. It was a straight stretch only an inch wide on his palm, and then three smaller slivers across his fingers.

"We did not cause this." Zagan said, answering the unasked questions on the forefront of their minds.

"If not you," Hakuryuu said. "Then...?"

Judal curled his fingers, watching as the burns slowly began to line up.

"All I did was open the gate." he said.

The more he closed his hand, the more the burns began to take shape. Something was drumming at the inside of his skull, a realization locked away in the depths of his subconscious. Judal had known the answer before the question was even asked.

Belial's voice cut through the suspense hanging in the air like a well sharpened blade.

"The gate is made of iron, my prince."

Judal couldn't breathe.

Hakuryuu made to tighten his arms around his lover further, but Judal had already managed to extricate himself from his grasp. He was vaguely aware of being spoken to, of the eyes all following him as he crossed the room in long, purposeful strides.

The drawer closest to the entrance of the kitchen was rarely opened, because it was where Judal had deposited every item in his possession that held even a speck of iron in it. As such, Hakuryuu had never bothered to look inside, and his eyes widened when Judal wrenched it open and pulled something wrapped in stained cloth from within. His voice pitched up with distress, but his words were lost on his lover.

Judal tipped the cloth over, and out tumbled the iron bolt he had pulled from Hakuryuu's side the night he had found him. No one moved, no one spoke, the room just froze.

Judal never had figured out why he kept the damn thing- he was just glad that he had.

He could smell it. The blood second, the iron first. It scraped the inside of his mind with agonizing talons and made bile rise in the back of his throat. Judal's stomach turned, his instincts rebelled, and he ignored all of it to set his fingertips against the blade.

The skin burned.

Judal was aware he was shaking, aware that Zagan had reached him before Hakuryuu and pulled him away from the kitchen, away from the iron. His throat hurt. If he had screamed, he didn't remember. The prince and his vassals were talking.

"The boy is a half-blood, was that not obvious? Look at him. Of course there is fae blood in his veins."

"You think I cannot sense a halfling, Belial?!" Hakuryuu was snarling. "I have lived with him long enough that I think I would know!"

"I cannot disagree, my prince." Zagan hummed. One of his large hands rested on Judal's back, steadying him.

"Do you two think I'm blind?! Or do you just judge lineage on appearances?!"

"Well there are his looks, but a mortal would have surely perished from that venom long before I had a chance to cure them."

Hakuryuu faltered. He knew it was true.

"A half-blood, then." Belial drawled. "Better at least than you wasting your time entertaining a mortal."

"Bite your t-!"

"Now, now! I think our prince would have noticed if he were in the presence of mixed blood, don't you, Belial? They are an unstable lot, he would have been affected by iron long before now."

Belial's lip curled, but he seemed unable to disagree.

"So-o," Zagan sang thoughtfully. "Not a halfling. Perhaps- oh my! -a changeling, then?"

"A ch- You are spouting even more nonsense than usual!"

"Must you be so mean, Belial?!"

"No..." Hakuryuu murmured, staring at Judal with wonder in his eyes. "No, it makes sense. There were signs, I should have seen them but- Changelings are so rare these days, I hadn't been paying attention. Stars..."

"I suppose this changes circumstance some, does it not?"

"Just some, Zagan?"

"Must you speak to me like that you-!"

The conversation was dizzying, and Judal hadn't followed a word of it. He just stood there, staring at his burned hand as if at any moment he may blink and the skin would be umarred and everything would be normal.

He felt unsteady on his feet, off-balance, as if the entire world had just been tipped on its axis. Conversation carried on around him, the fae chattering and gesturing and arguing, but none of it reached him. The words were lost in a deafening wall of static that seemed to have surrounded him.

Judal watched as a single, solitary white spark leapt from his fingertip and melted into the burned flesh, leaving new skin behind.

"I need to go." he blurted, causing the fae to fall silent. "I need to- to clear my head. Or something."

"Judal-"

Hakuryuu's gentle tone just made everything more disorienting. Just then, Judal wasn't certain he could tell up from down, and the last thing he needed was to be pacified. He shook his head roughly, stepping away when the prince reached out for him.

"I'm gonna go lie down."

Undeterred, Hakuryuu took another step forward, concern written across his face.

"Alone." Judal said. "I need to be alone. For- For a while, okay?"

No, his lover's eyes said. That's not okay.

He could only spare a half-second for guilt, though, before turning on his heel and walking briskly to his bedroom. The longer he stayed still the weaker he felt, and if he remained where he had been any longer he feared he would have collapsed and been unable to right himself. It took all of his willpower to get himself from the living room to the door of his room, then inside.

The door shut with a sharp, decisive snap behind him. Judal leaned back against the faded wood and tried to breathe. His legs gave out, and he sank to the ground.

The burns on his hand ached.

He lifted his hand shakily, not sure what he was expecting to find, and watched as white sparks began to leap from his skin and erase the damage iron had done to him.

Notes:

If you're still confused, don't worry. Next chapter will delve more into Judal's race, what this means for him and Hakuryuu, and what it will mean moving forward into the second arc.

And if you're not sure where this came from, or if it seems sudden, worry not! I'll be adding a list of all the hints and changes that have been dropped since the beginning with citations to the chapters they came from!

Thank you everyone for sticking with me, and if you have a moment, I'd love to hear what you thought of this reveal in the comments~