Seoyeon’s head was pounding uncomfortably when she woke up. Everything laid dark around her, and it wasn’t until the aching in her skull dampened the slightest that she was able to tell that every possible light source had been put out, probably as a punishment. She tried to move from the uncomfortable position her body had been thrown in, but it only hit her later that they had chained up both her arms and legs, and so the chains only clashed against the metal of the cell bars. The loud sound echoed through the corridor, and Seoyeon winced slightly. 

Then, there was a low sound from the other end of the corridor, and that’s when realisation hit her along with the memories. She wasn’t alone. And the fact that the other person present in the hallway of cells was the one she’d seen be killed eleven years ago, only worsened her headache. Kyungsoo had explained himself—that night he managed to make a full fledged clone of himself and escape when he sensed that something was wrong—but it didn’t help her case much. How could Seoyeon erase eleven years of guilt and survival in the span of a few hours? 

He spoke first, voice quiet and hostile. It was clear that he had swallowed down whatever veil of vulnerability that was present hours prior. ”How did you get captured here?” 

A few seconds passed. ”I was tricked. I thought this ship headed elsewhere but they must’ve caught on my powers. What are you doing here?” She snapped. 

”I was also captured.” He replied. ”I escaped and they found me again.” 

That didn’t seem to answer even one of the many questions Seoyeon had posed herself. ”You’re going to have to elaborate on that.” 

Kyungsoo sighed heavily. ”The reason they caught up on your powers is because they know how to identify people like us. There’s this underground battleground where we fight like rats in cages, I was part of it until this…Strange writing on my arm appeared and I escaped to find out more.” 

She felt her body freeze instantly. Underground battleground. Writing on arm. Kyungsoo seemed to read her silence perfectly, because it wasn’t too long until he spoke again. 

”You have it too, don’t you?” 

Seoyeon’s headache worsened, and the girl grabbed her head for support. ”And what if I do?”

”Then it’s like what I thought.” He hurried. ”Seoyeon, someone must’ve cast a spell to tell us this. If they managed to get it on both of us, that must mean they know who we are and that we’re both alive.” 

She did not like that thought one bit, even if she had figured that much herself. ”And you don’t think that someone is trying to lure us in and kill us?” 

”I’m sure we both considered that before heading this path. Is that not why you are here too?” 

There he went, reading through her like glass, just like he did when they were children. It surged an unwanted feeling, one that made her feel weak, and vulnerable. And so she pushed it down, down deep where it belonged. Because they weren’t children anymore, they barely knew each other, and the world was very different. 

She chose not to give in, and he continued. ”I don’t think whoever this is might want to kill us. There were only a few people who ever knew what we harnessed. What if it’s—”

”Who? The queen? The king?” Seoyeon almost laughed out of her bitterness. Kyungsoo was quiet for a few seconds before speaking again. 

”Is that so hard to believe?”

She couldn’t believe her own ears. ”The king and the queen are dead, Kyungsoo.” 

”Don’t speak like that.” He warned. ”You don’t know that.” 

”I do, actually.” Seoyeon spat. ”Their bodies were retrieved.”

”So was mine. And yet here I am.”

”But they never harnessed the same power as you do, and you know that. Why are you grasping onto a hope that doesn’t exist? You’re usually calculating and logical, this is unlike you.” 

”Unlike me?” Kyungsoo taunted, and Seoyeon shut , biting down on her lip hard. 

”What is this underground battle thing about anyways?” She muttered, switching subject.

”Like I said, people like us get captured there. We train, get food and a bed and fight against each other like caged animals for other criminals’ enjoyment. We’re divided in ranks from weakest to strongest, and then they have their champion. It’s run by these three men, though the third is considerably younger. He runs the one in Nevenia, which is where I was.” 

”Name?” She massaged a sore spot on her neck. 

”Im Changkyun.” He answered.

So that’s why he had asked her if she worked for him earlier. Im Changkyun had probably sent those men to capture him, and for all Kyungsoo knew he could have sent a person with magic powers for him. 

”Why don’t you all just escape? These are all humans, no? So what the hell are you doing stuck back there?” 

”It’s not as easy as it seems.” Kyungsoo explained. ”First of all, they have the gadgets necessary to keep us from using magic when needed. Second of all, in a world like this, where people starve on the streets, a bed and food sounds more inviting than not. It’s easy to just.. fall into a routine when you’re there. I actually tried to escape with multiple people, and I was the only one that made it out.” 

Seoyeon didn’t respond. Instead, a new question arose. ”But how the hell was this not known to us? That there are more people like us? How did I not come across any of this until now? Where do we even come from?” 

There was a silence for a couple of seconds, like the prince was busy gathering his thoughts before speaking again. ”They keep this underground battle thing pretty secret, while there are many civilians who attend the fights, I think they find a way to keep them quiet about it. I have no idea why or how.” 

With great hesitance, she lifted her gaze to where the sound of his voice originated. Her eyes had more or less adjusted to the dark around her, which helped her make out a silhouette behind inside one of the cells, crouched by the wall. That was the prince. The boy she had once had once shared her troubles with. The boy she buried her brother with. And yet, the one sitting right across her didn’t feel like that boy she knew. This Kyungsoo was different, just like she was from the Seoyeon who had walked the castle grounds eleven years prior. They knew each other, but he felt like a complete stranger. Not to mention the very much still burning image of his limp body lying on the ground beside the king. How could one replace a memory like that? For the longest time of her life, that had been her last memory of the prince. How could she just..be fine with the fact that he was back and alive? It wasn’t fair. 

”Why didn’t you seek me out?” Seoyeon found herself asking before she could stop herself. 

”I did, Seoyeon.” His tone that had before been cold and composed, now shone with urgency. ”The strain of cloning myself made me pass out for two