With another nod Kyungsoo exits the room, not batting another glance at either Taekwoon or Hongbin. Taekwoon releases a sigh and looks at the results once more. Trying and failing to solve the mystery of Kai’s awful state.

Present 

Kai and Kyungsoo were sitting by the former’s bed, Kyungsoo attempting to get Kai to eat food.

“Kai, you have to eat, you didn’t even touch your breakfast this morning.” Kyungsoo offers a spoon of roast summer gourd soup.

Kai waves the spoon off, “I’m not hungry.” He looked a bit paler today, a bit more subdued, it didn’t settle well with the prince.

“You don’t looks so well, you need to eat.” He goads once more, spoon nearer to Kai’s mouth.

Kai suddenly looks at Kyungsoo, his eyes looking over his breathing wheelchair, caretaker and friend. The man, though a bit disgruntled at the beginning, has come to be a constant warmth the past week. Someone he could talk to without restraint, with Baekhyun going off with his physical training. Kai had become quite jealous of the others, his state of disability really taking a toll on a man so used to be always on the move. But Kyungsoo was there, a constant. With him at the break of dawn until the dusk. He only ever left at weird intervals where he said he would do some research  He was quiet, a bit sarcastic, and a whole lot of fun to tease. However, the man was also caring and attentive, and although Kai complained almost every day, Kyungsoo trudged through with silent resilience.

Kai flashed Kyungsoo a smile, “Hey, thanks.”

“Don’t thank me yet.” Kyungsoo responds, the spoon returning to the bowl that was held in Kyungsoo’s other hand. His leaving Kai and moving to the wooden bowl with the golden liquid.

“You’ve been nothing but a sport this past week, I haven’t been able to thank you.” Kai says giving Kyungsoo a smile.

But before Kyungsoo can respond, Taekwoon calls for him.

“Kyungsoo, my office. Now.” He apologizes to Kai and tells him he would return.

But before he can even take a step towards Taekwoon, the main doors burst open revealing four different figures. Kyungsoo recognized the three the moment they barged in, but the fourth one he had never seen in his life.

Kyungsoo immediately notices that there’s a frantic look on the faces of his comrades, eyes bulging, streaks of sweat adorning their faces.

Kai also notices them and gives them a timid wave from his bed, this sparks a flurry of movement.

Chanyeol moves first, guiding a slender man to the Kai’s bed. He was dressed casually—an outsider—and had a lyre tucked into his side. The rest of the group of paranoid men settle behind the man, their mouths shut, shoulders tense.

The man looks over at Kai and gives him a knowing smile and introduces himself.

“Hello, my name is Lay minstrel to the gods, actor of lore, poet of the world, diplomat to plants, and in the near future, your one and only savior,” he smiles.

Kai looks at him shocked. Kyungsoo sprints to his bed. Taekwoon stalks near.

The man, Lay, notices Kyungsoo approaching and directs a smile towards him, “Hello, Kyungsoo, I hope you’re doing well.”

“W-what? How do you know who I am?” He asks flustered, “And what are you spouting about being his one and only savior?”

Lay only chuckles.

“Sanctuary told me, obviously.” He pauses, walking toward the other side of Kai’s bed.

“How do you think I got here? It’s not particularly simple, don’t you think. And as for being Kai’s savior, well he’s been dying for a few weeks now, so this old tree asked me to save him” Yixing drawls slowly while he looks over Kai, ignoring the flashes of fear and anger flashing through a number of people’s faces.

Kai, in particular was an intersection of baffled, angered, and lost.

“Wait! What! I’m dying!? Taekwoon, you said everything was inconclusive. What’s is happening?”

Taekwoon looks unfazed as the man screams at him, he only nods towards Kyungsoo dismissively.

Kai looks at Kyungsoo. And Kyungsoo did not know how to describe what he saw. Heartbreak, confusion, anger, disappointment, but most importantly pleading. Pleading for Taekwoon and Lay to be lying, pleading that Kyungsoo had not deceived him.

“He wanted to tell you, but I told him not to. Not unless there was a way to save you.” Kyungsoo says. And for the first time since any of them have known Kyungsoo, he bows his head in shame.

What followed was silence.

“Well, this sounds like I caused a little lover’s spat.” Lay smiles attempting and failing to diffuse the tension.

“Now, why don’t we all just calm down so that we can extract the extremely insidious life force feeding off of Kai’s energies.”

He was once again met with silence.

Peeved Lay rolled his sleeves and added a bit of authority into his voice, “Kyungsoo, move. Kai, stop sulking. Deal with this later, right now there are more pressing matters at hand.”

Kyungsoo looks up and silently leaves Kai’s bedside, but not before giving a sorry glance towards Kai, joining the others behind Lay.

“Taekwoon, please come here. I require your assistance.” The head slowly approached Lay. He was not one to usually be the submissive, but he has been dealing with life energies all his life, and he could see the purest of energies emanating from the man. He was not lying about talking to Sanctuary.

“Now, Kai, we’ll need you remain calm throughout this procedure. Just lie there and look pretty for me.” Lay smiles, then focuses his attention on Taekwoon, “I need you to strap him to the bed, then during the procedure there will be spikes in his energy flow, I need you to make sure that these are stabilized.

Taekwoon nods, before strapping Kai onto the bed.

Lay then proceeded to take his lyre out of its strapping and hold it in position.

He then begins to strum a tune, a slow and deliberate tune while everyone watched and listened in awe. Suddenly, the room felt hazy and heavy with a lethargic aura. A heaviness and a calm flowing through the room like a soft breeze.

Eyes start to get hazy, heads beginning to lull, then the tune stops.

The haze is no longer there, the headiness long dissipating almost instantly. The audience looks over at Lay and see that he has stopped playing. They wonder why, but as soon as they see Kai in deep slumber, they knew.

The procedure was about to begin.

The joy filled gaze that Lay had held throughout his time in Sanctuary was no longer there, in its place was a look of pure concentration.

Lay starts playing again, but now it sounds fuller, more alive, the room began pulsating with a powerful vibrancy, as Lay’s fingers threaded gracefully through the chords. Then, his lyre begins to glow as balls of light energy start appearing over Kai’s bed, six in total. All floating gracefully over Kai like a halo.

Once again, the tune reaches its end as Lay puts his lyre back into its strappings. He then moves to one side of the bed and asks Taekwoon to take his place holding Kai’s head.

Lay reaches for one ball of light and places it in his palm, he then looks at Taekwoon.

“Where is the origin?” he asks Taekwoon.

“Abdomen.” Comes the curt reply of the head.

Lay nods and places his palm with the ball of energy over Kai’s stomach, his eyes closed as he attempted to feel the motion of the energies. Slowly moving his hand around—probing. This takes goes on for quite a bit, Lay hovering his hand over Kai’s body as he explored his energies for the root of the malign energy.

Then, Lay abruptly stops, his hands ending right above Kai’s belly button. He slowly opens his eyes lifts his hand and releases the ball of energy and letting it float in the halo above Kai.

Lay then proceeds to take off Kai’s tunic, ing the fabric and opening it up to reveal his flat stomach. Lay then grabs another ball of energy and directs it to hover directly over Kai’s abdomen. He releases the ball, letting it float there for a while before carefully placing his pointer finger and his middle finger of both hands into the orb. He then slowly extracts his fingers from the orb, now his hands covered in a thin sheet of energy, his movements leaving threads of energy that were connected to the sphere.

Lay slowly leans in closer, but not before looking at Taekwoon and nodding. Taekwoon nods in response, tightening his grasp on Kai head.

The minstrel places two fingers on the skin of the man. And the reaction is immediate as Kai violently jerks at the touch. The boy’s body convulsing aggressively on the table, his body frantically fighting against the restraints. The boy’s eyes were still closed as Taekwoon did his best to stabilize the energy, sedating the boy’s consciousness.

Lay immediately withdraws and looks over to the group standing a short distance from them.

“Chanyeol, Kyungsoo hold him. Now.” He commands, the two immediately moving towards their friend and holding his limbs in place.

Lay takes a deep breath and assumes his position, “I’m cutting through the energy that’s leeching Kai’s energies. It’s latched onto Kai quite tightly, so it will be a painful experience, he’s going to be struggling throughout the entire process.” The two nod.

“I’m starting.”

He then places his fingers on Kai’s stomach and once again the boy convulses upon contact. Lay continues though, his two hands moving in opposite directions as the boy began thrashing more violently his fingers leaving lines of energy as they move across Kai’s stomach—marking the places of cleansing.

Lay could see the boys struggling with Kai’s arms, mostly likely leaving bruises. He then takes a glance at Taekwoon, and he looks steady, his harsh eyes trained in absolute concentration. He continues, slowly carving through the energies within Kai. It’s a slow process, but eventually he manages to complete the circle. Once he extracts his fingers from Kai’s stomach, he places them into the ball of energy once again and directs the sphere back into the halo.

He takes a deep breath and looks to the faces of his assistants. Taekwoon was still concentrating but Lay knew that it was taking a toll on his body, while Chanyeol looked absolutely spent, Kyungsoo oddly looked unperturbed.

“The worst is over, but our task is far from done.” The three nods and assume their position once more. Lay now takes two spheres into both his palms and slowly lowers it into the center of the circle he has drawn. The sphere sink into Kai’s stomach causing the boy to convulse once more, the three assistants engage their patient, restraining his mind and body.

Lay concentrates as he pulls the energies within Kai’s stomach to enter the spheres. His muscles tense as he continually exerts energy into the extraction, trying to leech the malign energies that have stuck to Kai’s body. He breathes heavily as he feels his eyes water and his body tense. But he powers through, slowly reaching the major extraction. Once he deems that the majority has been extracted, he slowly pulls it out.

The spheres are filled with energy, so it requires so much energy just for him to keep himself awake. He tries to stabilize himself as the energy leaves him, but he cannot let this energy go, if he let’s go now the effects would be catastrophic on Kai’s body. He had to get it out all clean now.

He starts pulling, but he physically can’t, the energy build up is too massive for his power to take out by himself. He arms were starting to fail him, the amount of energy he’s been using taking its toll on his body.

However.

Suddenly there are two hands on his back as he feels energy slowly transferring into his body, surging through his arms and expanding the barrier provided by the orb. He then begins the physical extraction once again. It’s still difficult, but slowly he’s able to pull out the energy.

What comes out is a sphere the size of a gourd being extracted, within it a mass of black energy gurgling and moving aggressively in its white prison. Lay heaves a sigh as the entire sphere is extracted. Then there’s a resounding breath of relief as they see Kai’s body physically relax. Lay lets the sphere hover over them before looking over everyone.

“We’re almost done, but he’s in no more danger. What’s left is the residual energies that that the source left behind, but they’re benign. It’s just a matter of cleaning his energy flow.” He smiles. The rest give him tired smiles.

“All of you can let go now, he won’t budge. Maybe for a long time.” He says with a soft chuckle.

“Taekwoon, please take the source to a safe place. It’s still very much alive, but like every living thing, without nutrients it will slowly rot and die.” Taekwoon nods and takes the source into his hands and walks into his office.

Lay then proceeds to take the last ball of energy he has not used to and slowly moves it across Kai’s body, dark remnants immediately pulled into the sphere as Lay moved his hand through his body. Eventually, he clears all remnants of the darkness. The sphere now filled with benign energy. He injects some life energy into the sphere and it slowly starts to change, the pitch black turning into pulsating green. He then releases the energy, the green immediately blending into the air.

He then pops the spheres one by one. He looks at Kai and gives him a small smile before he feels the darkness take over him as he slumps onto the floor unconscious.

---

Author's Note:

So, Kai's alive, but also there's tension between him and Kyungsoo, so ya. I really apologize how short this is, and how long it's taken me to update, but work has been, well, work.  Anyway, it's going to get a bit more exciting soon as the party will go on their first adventure. :)

Also, what do you guys think about Lay? 

Please vote, comment and subscribe as it give me life and motivation.