Serva me, servabo te

Save me and I will save you.

He was raised in fear of the very gift he had been given. Though he personally wouldn’t call it a gift -- rather, it was a curse -- others would say that he had been blessed with something remarkable. However, remarkable wasn’t something that belonged in a prestigious family such as the Kims of Ireland. They weren’t originally from Ireland, no. The Kim bloodline hailed from the land of South Korea, but this specific branch on the tree had settled in the green country of Ireland. The only thing notable about them was their expensive restaurant chain and their large, gorgeous castle.

Himchan was the youngest of two, but the heir to the company. They were a normal, traditional family. The eldest male was to be the successor whilst the other children, or in this case, child, would be married off to someone of equal or lesser power. It was a standard that had been set long ago and remained until the day they left.

Things were normal to the media, the public eye, etc. They seemed like a functioning, successful family. But once one surpassed the castle walls and looked beneath the sand they saw the dirt. The secret that was kept within the stone and mortar of an ancient castle. It was one that Mrs. and Mr. Kim were determined to hide until their deaths, and their intentions still remain solidified as if in written into rock.

As he later learned from a friend, the only friend he’d ever had and the only other person -- perhaps person wasn’t the correct term -- he was an abjurer. A forsaker. It was true, wasn’t it? The way he said it made it sound positive, wonderful, even amazing. Yet all he saw was someone who was weak, who rejected the outside and everyone in it. At the mere age of seventeen, he found himself bitter and closed off like an elderly man who only had memories of wars past to look back on.

The Kim’s dear, dear only son and heir was something preternatural. They found out one night whilst their child was attempting to disobey them in secret. The two loving, caring parents -- as they would say about themselves -- watched as their son brought the porcelain cookie jar to him through nothing but the flick of a wrist. Normally, it wouldn’t be a surprise, but the fact that said cookie jar sat proudly atop the refrigerator next to great grandma Kim’s ashes whilst Himchan stood at his full three feet four inches was what horrified them.

In fear of their own son, they kept him under house arrest. It wasn’t that they feared the raw, unpredictable power that he beheld. Rather, it was what that power might do to their prestigious reputations that sent shivers down their spines. They cared not for their son’s throes of sorrow as he watched his sister go out and be apart of society, nor did they concern themselves truly with his well being. It wasn’t civil to abandon the poor thing, so they did the next logical thing and isolated him. His sense of self grew to be warped and he feared every ounce of accidental magic that came out of him. He couldn’t control the powerful spells that would have rocks, plants, anything within reach curling around him and enclosing him in a space that cut out the other world entirely.

This sense of refusal towards society could, possibly, be attributed to his so-called family. So-called as in by name only. They had left him to be with himself which, for lack of better wording, was the worst thing that they could have done.

As someone who had resented himself since age six, it was dangerous to leave him alone. But their lack of compassion for him was what ultimately fueled their decision to leave one autumn night. He woke up in arms, terrified of the hollow calls of his that echoed off of the high walls of the castle. And his powers went wild. He scared himself, as all primal forces seemed to be against him. Magic surged through his veins in wave after uncontrollable wave as he let out his sorrows in the only way a child knew how. Through a tantrum. They left him alone and scared and terrified of what he could possibly unleash. He no longer had anyone to rely on, even if there weren’t many to rely on in the first place. He was nothing more than volatile bundle of fear and raw, unharnessed power.

It took some time for him to get used to it, but once he did the dread, the apathy, and the disparage began to set in.

Even the wondrous bonding of a familiar couldn’t fully dismiss the encroaching loneliness that surrounded his being like the tall stone walls of the castle that he lived by himself in. Though on nights when his sobs were loud and his thoughts were barbaric, the company of one that he had the most unique relationship with was comforting, it still did not fully quell his despair.

However, every once and awhile a traveller would invite themself to dinner and inside to explore the halls of his castle. Soon, though, he grew tired of it. There was no one he could trust, as trust was something that he had lost long ago with the departure of his parents. With a small dated red radio and a stack of spell books, he brushed up on the knowledge he needed in order to protect himself. His mother had hidden said reading material long ago, but once she had turned tail and left, he found himself with nothing to do but read the previously forbidden books. With the radio his only connection to the world outside -- a fact that he was quite satisfied with -- he read up on all he needed to know and practiced in the immense green backyard that hadn’t been groomed in over a year.

He fashioned the most elaborate spells and constructed the most ostentatious of potions just to keep intruders out. All he wanted was to be alone and safe in the confines of his own home. He’d be free from the burdensome promises of travellers and people.

But one managed to worm his way through the cracks in his impenetrable defenses. This hindrance came in the form of an obnoxious kid who wouldn’t leave until he was chased out. Himchan found himself building up his fortifications and turning the radio just a bit louder as he huddled with Sabhya in the large, extensive library. Thoughts of just why plagued him as he stared at that unreachable ceiling.

Why was that kid so adamant about talking to him? Why did he wait so long only to be chased away? Why was he able to slip through all of the precautions that Himchan took just to keep people out? What was he so intent on doing?

Apart of him thought that the kid was going to hurt him, that he had some ulterior motive to get under his skin and then ruin him just as people have done to him in the past. Yet there was something different about him. Something that separated him from his parents, his sister and other travellers. Was it… Willingness?

Regardless, there was no way Himchan would let him in. At least, that’s what he had thought.

Somehow, unconsciously, he let his guard down and allowed the kid to come right into his home. It was terrifying to have the door to his sister’s room creak open and have a stranger standing in the doorway. He stood, and attempted to look threatening, but Sabhya achieved that more than he did. Himchan was nervous, incredibly self conscious and afraid. Whatever this kid could do was unpredictable, and that made his blood run cold. Even his familiar could be no match for him. He had this air to him that was filled with uncertainty, as if his existence itself wasn’t even completely sincere.

But then he broached a subject that Himchan no longer wanted to acknowledge; family. They were family. This kid was the cousin he had long since abandoned the thought of, from a branch of the family that had presumably disappeared. For a moment, his heart softened and he felt the need to open up again. But quickly he retreated back into himself. He wouldn’t let himself be betrayed and hurt like that again. There was no way. He had already been condemned to a life of solitude, and he was fairly keen on keeping it that way.

But he gave in. He let that handful of a cousin stay for however long he felt the need to. That was all he could do, for a small part of him wanted to figure out just what the kid was there for. Perhaps it was curiosity getting the better of him, but he hadn’t ever had someone take such an immense interest in him.

It was almost heartwarming.