Chapter 5. Obedience.

Chanyeol awoke when he felt a warm cloth on his forehead. He opened his eyes but was blinded for a few seconds by the firelight. When he was able to see once again, he realized he was inside a cave and that the same woman who had her eyes covered in blood was smiling at him. This time there was no trace of red in her hypnotizing eyes.

"You have finally awakened, lord Chanyeol, sole heir of the Parks of the East."

"How do you know that?!"

He was so scared that his first reaction was trying to strangle the young lady with his bare hands. But, before he was able to put a finger on her neck, his hands were once again abnormally slow, the young lady shed a tear of blood and he was threatened by three swords.

"Keep your hands away from my sister!"

"Joonie, is alright, I had everything controlled."

"I know you had it, Jen, but I do not trust him."

"We must, Jonnie, I have seen him in our quest."

Neither Chanyeol nor Nam Joon were ready to relax their attitude, not even after the words, Jen-nie had said. Only when Baekhyun appeared fully-healed behind the three men threatening him and carrying so many branches the lord could hardly see his face.

"Chanyeol! Stop! Is alright, lord Nam Joon, he has trust issues, the poor thing."

"Baekhyun?"

Chanyeol stood up and when his friend put the branches on the floor, he examined him from head to toe. There were no signs of scars and he seemed quite healthy after being lethally stabbed in his chest.

"How…?"

But it didn’t matter at all, because his best friend was alive and smiling cheerfully once again. He hugged him as if they hadn’t seen each other for years.

"It was me who cured your friend." the man with the longest face of the four was talking to him, too close to his face to feel comfortable about it. "I can control matter, so I made his muscle tissue and blood reproduce until his wound disappeared. By the way..." he smiled as if what he had just said was the most normal thing in the world."My name is Jung Ho-Seok, the sunshine of this group."

"Jung Ho-Seok…" Chanyeol was pale. "Matter... Baekhyun? What…?" and stared at his friend, looking for answers. 

"Dude… they have magic!"

"They have WHAT?!" Chanyeol started to feel dizzy and had to take a sit in the nearest rock. Baekhyun sat next to him, trying to help him to take in the news. "But… I don’t understand… hooow?"

"There are so many things that, the more we try, the less we can explain, milord." Jen-nie said. "We are the shamans of the sacred mountain of Paektu, and I am lady Jen-nie, the one who controls time."

"That’s why my movements were so slow, I guess."

"Yes, forgive me, lord Chanyeol, but, I had to protect myself."

"Understandable. But… why did you save us? And why the shamans with high magic are making an appearance so many centuries after we thought they had disappeared? Why are you here?"

"Those are lots of questions, don’t you think?" Namjoon intervened.

"We saved you because it was the right thing to do." the one with the most serious expression said. "I am Min Yoon Gi, milord."

"Yes," and Namjoon finally sheathed his sword, "it was the right thing to do, and, according to my sister, our destinies needed to be linked forever."

"Wait… what?"

The more they spoke, the less Chanyeol understood, and it was starting to slightly annoy him. Just slightly.

"I control time, lord Chanyeol, which means I can also see the past and the future. And I saw how the red sun, the King of Joseon died… and the Kingdom became chaos after that. I saw the Irworobongdo in flames, the land dry and everything covered in blood."

The mental image of a Palace without plants and covered in blood gave Chanyeol shivers. The palace walls had already witnessed too many innocent die, including his innocent aunt, lady Park Bom. But… “why it would be covered in blood? What is going to happen? Do they know or are they as confused as I am?”

"Which means?" he needed to know.

"I am afraid I cannot know for sure, but it means the Kingdom is in great danger."

"We could not just let our homeland to perish. We might have been hidden, but it doesn’t mean we are going to let people suffer." Ho-Seok added.

"And why do you need me?"

"Because I saw you your household standard, helping us and the First Princess."

"Is princess Chaeyoung with you?!" his eyes opened in shock. "Where is she?"

He started to look over the place, but, apart from Baekhyun and the four shamans, it seemed there was no-one else there. He would have noticed, because the princess, unwillingly, was a Stan-attractor.

"She is not yet here, we must wait." Jen-nie answered.

"Why should we wait with you? Or what’s more? Why should we believe you?"

"They saved me when they didn’t have to, Chanyeol" Baekhyun intervened. "I owe them my life, and, even if you leave, I’ll stay with them until I pay my debt."

Chanyeol stared at his friend quite annoyed by his decision. He had always admired Baekhyun’s morals and sense of honor, wishing that someday he could be a bit more like him, but, in moments like those, it was a bit frustrating. Just a little bit.

"But… Baekhyun…"

"C’mon, Chanyeol."

And his friend did the worst thing he could ever do to him: he looked at him with his puppy eyes, and the young lord knew he would do anything his best friend would ask.

"Alright, we’ll stay with them. But once you pay your debt, we leave."

Baekhyun smiled.

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Mi-young was still crying when her children asked for permission for entering to her chambers. She didn’t know what they needed so late at night, but, since they had insisted to the eunuch announcing them it was urgent, she let them pass.

"Mooootheeeeer!"

"Mooootheeer!"

They sat next to their mother, faces full of excitement, but when they saw her sad expression, their faces changed, and Mi-young revealed them the bad news.

"The Empress of China, your aunt, and my beloved friend, has passed away."

Tae Hyung and Chaeyoung glimpsed at each other, with sadness. They had never met their aunt, Empress Song, but their mother had always spoken so fondly of her that it felt they had known her. So, of course, to console their mother, they hugged her, not caring about the giggles it caused between the maids and the eunuchs. It always melted their hearts, to witness how much the First Prince and the First Princess loved their mother.

"I am alright, my children. Tell me… what is troubling you?"

"Mother! We’ve found a cure for father!" Chaeyoung exclaimed.

"No way… but I thought the physicians…"

"They are not trustworthy, mother," Tae Hyung opened the book he had been holding tightly and showed it to his mother, "because we’ve found this."

Mi-young took the book in her hands and Tae Hyung showed her one of the paragraphs, which talked about the Ginkgo tree, a tree that made the heart and organs’ irrigation, and also improved the blood pressure enough to make symptoms such as fainting or weak constitution disappear. At first, the Queen was really angry, because… “How could not the physicians have known about that remedy if my clumsy son has been able to find this at the Royal Archives?” A remedy that cured almost every symptom Seung-hyun was showing, to the extent some of the patients (according to the sources in the book) were completely recovered.

It was all too good to be true, and, when she kept reading, she understood why the physicians might not have said anything about that remedy: it was a very rare species and only grew at the private gardens of the Forbidden City of China. Then, she understood why…

"We do not have access to this remedy, Tae Hyung."

"I know the Emperor and you had always had a tense relationship, but, we are family, if the Emperor knows our father is sick, he would like to help."

Mi-young smirked, and although some scholars had always told her the First Prince was ready for more responsibilities, that genuine nativity proved her wrong: unfortunately, he needed to see a lot more the uglier side of life to be ready.

"My beloved Tae Hyung, forgive your mother for not letting you know the true nature of your uncle."

"True nature?"

"Have you heard the story of Queen Sandara and Royal Consort Bom?"

"Yes, Jeongwan has explained me."

"But… has he told you that it was your uncle who ordered to kill