The crowd, including the several supervisors, were stunned silent for a moment at the raven’s decision. Suddenly, the crowd starts laughing in disbelief. To give the decision to the other allows them to pick the weapon that is their expertise. This was the main cause of downfall for many duel victims. So to hear that Yesung was going to duel empty handed against a well-equipped Minho, sounded much like a joke to the crowd.

“Silence!” Heechul shouts at the guffawing audience, eyes narrowing quizzically upon the raven. “This is a stage for duels and battles, Kim Jongwoon. Not a stage for entertainment. I hope you understand that.”

“Oh I am quite serious, sir.” Yesung answers simply without batting an eye.

“That is not a wise decision, Jongwoon,” Kyuhyun says, finally speaking up as he stepped forward so that he was beside Heechul now. “I would highly advise against that.”

Yesung simply tilts his head a little, an impassive expression still on his face as his eyes moved to meet Kyuhyun’s, ignoring his opponent who was getting antsy by now.
“This is my decision to make.” he says simply, his gaze unwavering as he maintained eye contact with Kyuhyun.

“Fine,” Heechul grunted. “Lee Minho, declare your weapon of choice.”

“Sword!” Minho answers without hesitance, considering sword-fighting was what he mastered in.

“Alright, you go grab that, uh, trusty sword of yours then.” Heechul says dismissively with a wave of his hand, earning a disapproving look from Kyuhyun for his informal speech.

“Hey,” Eunhyuk whispers quietly, squeezing himself between Kyuhyun and Heechul as someone ran onto the stage to hand Minho his claimed sword. “What did pretty boy master in again?” he questions.

“Daggers,” Kyuhyun answers. “From what I’ve been told by Leeteuk, his main weapons are a pair of japanese Sai daggers. However he keeps other daggers strapped to his thighs or belt as well.”

“Ok, mastering in daggers is pretty impressive and badass considering how it is such a close-combat weapon.” Donghae frowns. “Why couldn’t he had just proved his skills through a dagger-duel then? Not many can master that weapon, especially at such a young age.”

“He wants to show us something else — something that will make people stop questioning his worth.” Heechul says, quickly shoving the unnecessary two out of the way as Yesung and Minho took center stage. “Kim Jongwoon, Lee Minho — in a fight of honor and respect as a Celestial Clan member, your match starts…...now!”

There was a minute as silence as Minho crouched into a starting position, however Yesung did not mirror his stance. The raven simply stood still, patiently, maintaining eye contact with the other.

Minho decided to initiate first with a sharp stab of his sword towards the smaller before him. However, his sword made no contact with him. In a blink of an eye, Yesung had dodged the attack and maneuvered himself so that he was now beside the other rather than across.

“...too slow,” Yesung inserts briefly, before swinging a hard kick into the other’s abdomen.

Minho doubles over with a pained grunt as he skid back from the impact, stabbing his sword into the ground to stabilize himself. But before he could regain his composure, he was immediately knocked down to the ground with another kick from behind.

Minho tries to get back up as quickly as he could, however Yesung made no attempt to attack again and just stood where he was, watching the other struggle already.

“He’s fast,” Heechul commends, raising an eyebrow in amusement.

Blinded by rage for looking weak and losing to a newcomer in front of a full audience, Minho began to swing his sword aggressively. Having had enough, the raven reached out without hesitation and grabs the sword by the blade roughly, startling his opponent greatly as the sharp edges dug into the younger’s palm.

“What the hell!?” Minho shouts as he scrambles back onto his feet, trying to keep a grip on his sword but the other yanks it out of his hands, a little bit of blood now seeping out from the wound on the raven’s palm.

Kyuhyun’s jaw clenches tightly as he watched the duel, his hands gripping the railing so hard with tension that his knuckles turned white. The Yesung he knew two years ago would never have done something so reckless.

The younger tosses the sword aside before raising his injured hand up to inspect it, ignoring his challenger who was now claiming he was insane.

“I don’t think we should prolong this anymore,” Yesung says.

“Oh yeah? I’m not done yet!” Minho yells before charging at the younger.

Yesung just gives the other a very sinister and mysterious smirk.
He raises his right hand up, and snaps once.
In a bright flash, Minho was suddenly surrounded by a ring of tall sapphire flames.

The audience breaks out into a crazed frenzy at the sight before them as Eunhyuk and Donghae rushed forward to get a better view of what was happening.
Kyuhyun stares in disbelief at the flames, realizing that this was the younger’s powers as a  royal Dhampir.

Minho came to a screeching halt and froze with fear as his eyes darted wildly about, watching as the blue flames flickered around him.  He backs up a little so that he now stood in the center of the flames instead of the edge, his hands trembling at his side.

He lets out a nervous laugh however, to Yesung’s amusement.

“I-I’m not falling for s-such a dumb parlor trick!” He shouts angrily, however his wide eyes and trembling hands clearly gave his fear away.

“Parlor trick?” Yesung scoffs before walking forward towards the other. And as he did so, the ring of fire began to decrease in size, closing in towards Minho more.
Minho began to feel the heat of the flames and came to realize that he was soon going to be burned alive due to his arrogance. He frantically begins to turn in circles, trying to find a way out as the flickering flames got so close it began to singe his clothes.

“We need to stop this,” Kyuhyun suddenly hears Heechul mutter fearfully from beside him.

The three of them turn to look at the eldest in concern, noticing that Heechul’s eyes were focused on the bright blue flames with an expression of horror and panic.

“STOP!” Heechul finally shouts, his body now trembling in panic.“STOP RIGHT NOW!” he says just as someone suddenly runs into the arena and grabs the raven roughly.
Kyuhyun recognized the person who had just entered the arena as Choi Siwon.

The fire disappeared just as suddenly as it had appeared due to the interference, Minho dropping to his knees in relief.

Siwon was dragging the younger off just as people began to storm the arena to inspect Minho and the place where the fire began, trying to figure out how Yesung was able to conjure it. Too focused and drawn by the phenomenon that happened, no one but Kyuhyun noticed the way Yesung turned around and bowed his head as he pressed a hand to his mouth, leaning against his protector for support as he was lead away.

Memories of Yesung in a similar state two years ago suddenly struck Kyuhyun, causing his blood to run cold. Kyuhyun spun around around quickly and ran down the stairs, ignoring the others who were calling out to him. He found himself sprinting down the halls toward the locker rooms in search of the other.

He reaches out to open the door to the locker room but pauses when he heard someone talking angrily. Curious, he moves his hand away and leans in a little to listen.

“—I told you to keep the ring on!”

“But I—”

“Shut up! You listen to me, Kim Jongwoon.” One of the voices said angrily. “What I tell you to do is for your benefit. I am trying to help you, for god’s sake Jongwoon. You are a fool for doing such a thing!”

Infuriated by the way the other spoke to him, Kyuhyun opens the door aggressively to make his presence known. His eyes immediately land upon the raven who was sitting on one of the benches. Yesung quickly brings a hand up to his mouth again and turns away to hide his face.

“What the hell are you doing here?!” Siwon says through gritted teeth, maneuvering so that he was covering the younger, turning to face the fuming Celestial member.

“I am here for Jongwoon, you stay out of it.” Kyuhyun hisses as he walks towards them.
However, Siwon immediately reaches out and grabs Kyuhyun roughly by the front of his shirt.
“Release me now,” the brunette warns, turning to glare at him.

Siwon growls lowly as he tightens his grip on the other. “I will do no such thing—”

“Stop it,” a timid voice suddenly interrupts. “Let him go.”

Siwon was trembling with rage by now, but complies to the order and releases the other as he bows his head in obedience.

Kyuhyun was by Yesung’s side in a blink of an eye, reaching out to gently turn the other’s face towards him. Concern crosses Kyuhyun’s face as Yesung lets his hand fall away from his mouth, revealing a nosebleed and some blood seeping out from the corners of his lips, the younger’s injured hand roughly bandaged.

“God, Jongwoon….what is happening?” Kyuhyun quavered, reaching up to gently cup the younger’s face in his hands, letting his thumbs gently caress over his cheeks as he took in the bloody sight.

Yesung held his breath as he gazed up at the other, taking in the familiar feeling of those calloused but comforting hands caressing his face. He remembers that concerned expression on the other’s face quite vividly; the way his brows would furrow together in worry, the corners of his lips turning into a slight frown as his eyes stared deeply into yours, demanding you to open up to him.

Yesung soon found himself scared—Scared at why the other was still able to stir up so many emotions within him after two years.

And in this moment, Kyuhyun sees the Jongwoon he knew and loved.

Yesung reaches up with trembling hands and gently touches the other’s wrists, wanting to hold the other’s hands there for a moment longer, but Siwon suddenly steps in, putting a hand to Kyuhyun’s chest and pushes him back.

“Don’t touch him,” Siwon warns.

Broken from the dazed stupor, Yesung quickly stands up and attempts to wipe off as much blood as he could from his face, looking away from the brunette.

“I have the right to be concerned about him,” Kyuhyun challenges, turning his attention away from the smaller to glare at the other warrior.

“No, you do not,” Siwon sneers. “May I remind you, you are no longer his protector, Mr. Cho. Jongwoon was the one who wanted you gone. I have been with him for two years now, longer than you have, so I know more about him than you, and I know what is best for him.”

Kyuhyun’s eyes narrows into a glare as he began to lose his usual stoic demeanor.  “You don’t know —”

“Let me make this clear here,” Yesung suddenly interrupts, bringing the two’s attention back towards him, “as you have failed to understand previously; I don’t want anything to do with you anymore, Cho Kyuhyun. I want you to leave me alone and stay away from me.”

A twinge of pain strikes deep inside of Kyuhyun’s chest at his words as he began to resist against Siwon’s hold.
“You don’t mean that,” he breathes. “Don’t say that, you don’t mean it.”

“I thought I made this clear two years ago back at the academy.” Yesung says as he crosses his arms, and Kyuhyun could feel the other build walls up around him again, leaving behind a stranger that was no longer Yesung.

“No,” Kyuhyun says stubbornly, unwilling to let it just end like this. “You told me I would be your dream, someone you would live for,”

“Dreams change, Mr. Cho.” Yesung says coldly. “Love—the pursuit of love, the emotion of love…..all of it. It’s futile and useless. Love is a weakness.”

Yesung watches as the other goes slack, eyes staring back at him in dejection as his resistance against Siwon came to an abrupt halt.
“I choose power over it all,” the raven continues, gesturing for Siwon to step back as he moved to stand before the defeated man. “I’m sure you of all people would understand.”

Kyuhyun brushes Siwon’s hand him off as he straightened back up, maintaining eye contact with the younger. “Is this what you really want, Jongwoon?”

“Yes,” the raven answers simply.

Kyuhyun held his breath for a second as he gazed into the other’s cold blue eyes, hands clenching by his sides.

“Then your wish is my command, princess,” Kyuhyun whispers, sweeping down into a bow with one hand over his heart.

Yesung visibly tenses as he stared at the Celestial member’s action, before turning and brushes past both him and Siwon, leaving the locker room with Siwon on his heels, a proud smirk dancing across the current protector’s lips.

With nothing else but a troubled mind and desolate heart, Kyuhyun returns to the dorms in seek of his team members.

“How is Heechul?” Kyuhyun asks in hope to distract his mind a little as he enters the dormitory’s shared sitting room, plopping down on a couch across from Eunhyuk.

“Are you sure you should be worrying about Heechul?” Eunhyuk frowns. “You look worse than he did.”

“I’m fine,” Kyuhyun snaps, reaching up to run a hand through his hair only to notice he still had some of Yesung’s blood on his hand.

“Mhmm,” the other hums doubtfully, leaning back in his seat. “Heechul’s stable now, although he did get quite startled back there.”

“Why? What happened?” Kyuhyun asks, attempting to wipe off the blood on his pants.

“Well,” a voice joins in, “Since Heechul is a Royal Dhampir as well, he can detect another Dhampir’s magic when used. So according to Heechul, when Jongwoon released the blue flames, there was an immense surge of power that Heechul has never witnessed or felt before.” Donghae explains as he took a seat next to Eunhyuk, “and from what Heechul could tell, Jongwoon does not have full control of such offensive and combative power yet, since all Royal Dhampirs from the past few centuries only have defensive magic.”

Kyuhyun recollects Siwon scolding Jongwoon about taking off a ring when he was eavesdropping by the locker rooms.
‘Was that the ring he gave Jongwoon two years ago to suppress his magic?’
The thought lingers in his mind.
 

“So Heechul was was panicking because pretty boy was gonna burn the place down.” Eunhyuk restates bluntly.

Donghae frowns a little. “Not quite, but if you want it more comprehensible for your dumb mind, then yes.”

It was Eunhyuk’s turn to frown.

“That is a concern, however,” Kyuhyun says with a grimace, crossing his arms as he leaned back. “With no control of his abilities, and no one with experience in offensive magic, who is going to help train him more?”

“Well, that’s where you come in.” Another voice joins in, and Kyuhyun sighs as he admits to the realization that their group is never complete until all four of them were together.

“Are you sure you should be up and about? You had quite a scare back there.” Kyuhyun cautions, glaring at the elder when Heechul proceeded to slap Kyuhyun’s arm aggressively until he finally scooted over a little so he could sit.

“Of course!” Heechul huffs, making himself comfortable next to the youngest of them all. “Anyways, I was on the subject of you.”

“What about me?” Kyuhyun asks.

“To use Royal abilities, it takes a lot of physical strength and energy. However, to control the ability, one needs stable mentality and a strong mind.” Heechul starts, turning to face the younger as the other two lean in eagerly to listen.

“Jongwoon’s physicality is amazing, one of the best I’ve ever seen; he’s agile, quick, and stable. When he released his magic, I felt the strong potential energy of it. It was very powerful, just like his physical abilities. But at the same time, it was wavering. Jongwoon is emotionally and mentally suppressing or blocking something, and it was affecting his ability to control his powers entirely. He needs a strong, open, and truthful mind, but his mind was indecisive, emotionless, and restrained, making his powers very unstable and unfocused, which can be a major disaster if he lost complete control of it. Royal abilities reflect their master’s personality; if you are unstable, your powers will be unstable. And if there is no passion or emotion, the power has no focus which will cause it to get out of control.”

“So you’re saying he is mentally unstable—insane.” Eunhyuk inserts.

Heechul and Donghae turns to look at Eunhyuk with the most flabbergasted expressions, Kyuhyun only sighing deeply and pinching the bridge of his nose as he closed his eyes.

“No, you fool!” Donghae huffed, giving the other a smack to the arm. “Heechul’s saying Jongwoon is still very sane, but he’s just not being true to himself!”

“So what does this all have to do with me?” Kyuhyun says with a wave of his hand, trying to ignore the two that had started bickering.

“I will assign you as his trainer—” Heechul announces, Donghae and Eunhyuk immediately falling silent as Kyuhyun stares at the elder in disbelief.

“—again,” Heechul adds in unnecessarily.

“No,” Kyuhyun scoffs in disbelief, “No way in hell. He’s made it very clear to me he doesn’t want to have anything to do with me.”

“Well too bad, so sad.” Heechul says with a nonchalant shrug. “If he wants to get his powers under proper control, you , and I mean only you, can help him.”

“But doesn’t he have Siwon to train him?” Donghae asks.

Heechul shakes his head.
“Siwon is a great warrior, don’t get me wrong. However, what Jongwoon needs, he can not give.”

“That still has nothing to do with me,” Kyuhyun clips in.

“He trusts you, Cho Kyuhyun. There’s no one else he trusts more than you, I can feel it. His magic usually gives off a hostile and wild aura because it’s an offensive type, but when he is around you, I can feel it placate and fall more into his control.”

“That can’t be possible,” Kyuhyun says with a shake of his head. “He doesn’t want me anywhere near him.”

“That’s because he is afraid,” the elder continues. “Someone is planting seeds of doubt in him. Love and trust are strong traits in one's mental state, Kyuhyun, and someone is tethering them away in order to control his magic for their own benefit.”

“How though? It’s Jongwoon’s powers, not theirs.” Eunhyuk frowns.

“As long as Jongwoon doesn’t have complete control of his power, they are able to basically put a magic-suppressant on him, so basically a leash. That way, when they need his magic, they will remove his leash. They are basically taking away Jongwoon’s own free will. He’s becoming a slave to them.”

“The ring,” Kyuhyun suddenly says, sitting up in realization. “The ring I gave him two years ago, ZhouMi put a spell on it because his abilities were taking too much out of him. I thought the spell was to help keep the magic in control, not suppress it entirely. "

“You’re right,” Heechul says. “The magic I detected from the ring is not of ZhouMi’s though. ZhouMi’s spell has worn off the ring for awhile now since it was only supposed to be temporary. There’s another spell that has been casted on it, so Jongwoon has to take off the ring in order to use his abilities now because the spell completely restricts him from using it.”

“Shouldn’t we be telling him that instead?” Donghae frowns.

“We can, yeah.” Heechul shrugs. “But it’s risky. Once he hears it, he’ll want to take off the ring immediately even though he can’t control his abilities yet, or he won’t believe us at all and stray even further from Kyuhyun.”

“So you’re making me train him, even though I know near nothing about Royal Dhampir powers?” Kyuhyun questions, despite being concerned for the raven.

“Yes, no one else can help him but you.” The elder reiterates. “I’ll help you on how you should train him, but I myself should not train him because we lack a bond. You and him, however, despite him pushing you away, still have a strong bond.”

“What about Siwon? I know you have the authority to arrange this, but Siwon is still assigned to Jongwoon,”

“Siwon will remain as Jongwoon’s protector, just not as his trainer. But when Jongwoon begins to take up missions after novice training, you will go with him on missions because you are what he’s going to be tethered to in order to keep his magic in control. ” Heechul answers.

“So you’re reassigning Kyuhyun to another mission crew too?” Eunhyuk frowns, displeased that they’re losing their best member.

“No,” the elder answers. “With the amount of skill he has, by the time he finishes novice training and do a few missions, I have no doubt that he’ll be in rank 1 before we know it. Celestial authorities prefer to assign members of the same or similar skill level together, and since you three are some of the best in Rank 1, they’ll most likely put him with you all.”

“So we’re gonna have Siwon with us too?” Donghae whines. “I mean no offense, I’m sure he’s very capable as well, but he just gives a very weird aura. He’s kind of creepy….”

“I agree,” Eunhyuk adds.

“He’s a ing ,” was all Kyuhyun mutters, earning a look of astonishment from the other’s, them not expecting such vulgar words to ever come out of the great, stoic, Cho Kyuhyun.

“Well, with this all said and done,” Heechul starts, standing up. “You two monkeys stay here,” he says, eyeing Donghae and Eunhyuk. “Kyuhyun, come follow me. I’ve got some stuff to give to you.”

Without a word, Kyuhyun gets up and follows the elder to his Celestial office.
He enters the other’s office and was slightly taken aback by how messy it was, but decides it was best not to voice it out loud considering how feisty Heechul could get sometimes when nagged.

Kyuhyun was a little lost in thought about everything that he was just told as Heechul scanned his bookshelf, plucking books off one by one and chucking the one’s he didn’t want behind his shoulder’s.

“Here,” Heechul suddenly says, handing a heavy armful of thick, historic books to Kyuhyun. “Read up on all of these by tonight,”

Kyuhyun eyes the heavy load in arms warily. “There’s like….ten.” he mutters. “I may have many skills, but reading fast, mind you it’s a lot too, is not one of them.”

“Well, you better get started,” Heechul says with a wicked smile. “Training with Jongwoon starts tomorrow morning.”