--

11

--

You could feel your eyes starting to tear up.

“Give up already. You’re not going to win.”

You struggled to keep your eyes open, feeling your eyelids want to close immediately to save your eyes. No, you couldn’t lose. This wasn’t the way it was supposed to end.

“Give up. I’m going to- Hey! That’s cheating!” Junho’s eyes closed as he rubbed at them after you blew into them, leaning away from you as you threw up your hands and laughed in triumph. He sighed and shook his head, grinning at you.

“I won best two out of three, which means you have to take me out to eat,” you said in a sing song voice. Junho tried not to roll his eyes.

“Whatever. It doesn’t matter. They’re just staring contests.” An ingenious idea on his side, he thought to himself. He got to stare at you without seeming like a creep all of the time, and it was easy to win or lose because he didn’t need to blink, being a high level demon. But he figured you didn’t need to know that.

“Besides, it’s not like I’m going to let you starve. I have to eat too, you know,” he said, patting his stomach. You smiled at him. Junho was definitely someone you would only see as a best friend, and he told you the same thing after the first time you two spent time alone together.

You remembered the two of you sitting together awkwardly, unsure of what to say to each other. Junho made a few offhand comments about the weather, but the weather in Rivedon stayed the same for the most part until the winter. 

Out of randomness, you reached out and poked him in the arm. He turned to look at you with an eyebrow raised before poking you back in the arm, a little bit harder. You poked him back, and somehow, it turned into an all out poke war with the two of you practically fighting each other on the bench in the gardens.

It ended when Junho poked you in the face, and you cried out because it hurt. He stopped and gave you a look of alarm while you held your face and pouted at him. You two stared at each other until he spoke.

“I’m not the only one that feels like I’m five years old again, right?” And since then, you looked forward to spending time with him, because it was like re-living your childhood the way you were supposed to with him.

“Are you hungry now? Or did you want to go down by the river first before we ate?” You bit your lip and thought. If you ate now, then you’d be too full to play at the river.

“To the river first. I don’t wanna be too full.”

--

You and Junho went down to the river to skip rocks. Everything was a competition between the two of you, and you felt like he was an actual big brother, much more than Joon did. Joon still gave you the respect of the Arch Mage, but Junho didn’t care. Your title didn’t stop him from slapping mud onto your arm.

“Junho! Joon’s going to kill me if I get my dress dirty!” you said, making a disgusted face as you wiped the mud off of your arm.

“Oh well. I’ll take the blame, and you can hit him with rocks.” You rolled your eyes and sighed as Junho squatted down to look for rocks to skip. He always picked the smoothest, flattest rocks for you. Some of them were so pretty, you kept them. Joon always tried to throw away the small collection of rocks you kept on your vanity, but you hid them in the drawers where you knew he wouldn’t look.

After skipping a few rocks and talking about the small kingdom Junho was from, the two of you washed your hands, and Junho picked you up and carried you to the grass where your shoes and stocking were. You took them off so they wouldn’t get muddy, and you quite like the feeling of mud on your feet.

“I thought higher level demons were supposed to be weaker when it came to the physical strength department,” you said, wrestling your stockings on while Junho turned around. Any bare skin below your shoulders and aside from your arms was considered scandalous. Even Myungsoo hadn’t seen anything like that yet.

“Well, yes. Your attendant, Joon, could probably smash holes through the castle walls just by walking into them if he wanted to. But just because physical strength goes down as level goes up, doesn’t mean we’re that weak either.” You nodded as you processed the information.

“Do you eat raw meat like he does too?”

“I could. But I prefer my meat cooked.”

“Oh thank god.”

--

“So, Junho, who is it you think about whenever your eyes space out?” you asked while you ate. Junho choked on his food in surprise, and you patted him on the back until he managed to swallow his food.

“Uh, of course, y-you, I don’t-”

“Don’t lie to me, Junho,” you said, giving him an all knowing smile. You could tell there was already someone he considered special in his life by the way he smiled when he stared off into the distance. Sometimes, he’d even laugh before going back to doing whatever it was he was doing. You knew the feeling all too well. He took another bite of his food and chewed nervously while you smiled at him.

“Who is it, Junho? Is she pretty? Or is he handsome?” Junho choked on his food again and pressed a napkin to his mouth, trying not to spit his food out.

“Oh, so you like men. Okay.” Junho gave you a pleading look, and you just shrugged your shoulders and smiled at him.

--

“It’s not that I don’t like women, it’s just...”

“You prefer men over them,” you said, patting him on the shoulder. You could see he was nervous talking to you about this, but this late in the night, everyone was getting ready to go to bed, so he wouldn’t have to worry about being overheard, if that was what he was worried about.

“Not even that, there’s just one that I really...” You grinned and scooted closer to Junho.

“You really, really like? That you have a crush on? Have you confessed?”

Junho sighed. “No, I haven’t confessed. He thinks I’m too childish, and weird, and irresponsible, among other things. Besides, he likes someone else...” 

You jaw dropped, and you gave him a look of disbelief. “No! Who would pick anyone else over you?” Junho raised an eyebrow and stared at you until you realized what he meant.

“Well, you already like someone else so there’s no point in me... Oh whatever. The point is, you should confess anyway! Your charm is endearing,” you said with a slight pout. Junho laughed and sighed shortly after.

“You know, I came here to get my mind off of him. I just wanted to see what you were like, and never in a million years did I think I would be sitting here next to you listening to you tell me to go back to this guy while I tried to convince you to marry me.”

You shook your head and wagged your finger. “Silly, Junho. I can’t marry my brother.” Junho blinked rapidly at you for a few seconds before bursting out into laughter. You raised an eyebrow and watched him laugh until he was wiping tears away from his eyes.

“I-I-I’m sorry. That was just... I don’t know why that was so funny.” He finally stopped laughing and sighed. “I’m sorry for leading you on like that,” Junho said, turning his eyes away from you. You smiled at him and patted his shoulder.

“It’s okay. I could tell.”

--

Seungho informed you during lessons one day that Jaehyo had to make an emergency leave home.

“Oh? Why, what happened?” you asked, eyes going wide with concern.

“Some kind of unrest or rather another. Junho said he would be leaving soon as well.” You pursed your lips and nodded, eyes staring at the wall of text in your book.

“Which leaves you with three.”

“Four,” you corrected, eyes narrowing at Seungho. It didn’t take a genius to know who he left out. Seungho sighed at you and smiled.

“Right, four. Any closer to choosing who yet?”

“Anyone but Woohyun,” you said, twisting a strand of hand in your hand. Seungho rolled his eyes.

“Still not warming up to him? I don’t blame you.”

“It’s not that I’m not warming up to him. It’s just... I still don’t feel comfortable with him.” Out of all of your suitors, you couldn’t deny that Woohyun was probably the most devoted to you. He tried hard to please you, and most of the time, he ended up scaring you.

Dongwoo and Sunggyu were friends. They were comfortable, and they didn’t force anything on you. You weren’t scared of them, but you didn’t know if your feelings for them would ever go beyond friendship.

And then there was Myungsoo.

Seungho watched as a dreamy look appeared on your face and rolled his eyes. That also didn’t take a genius to figure out who you were thinking about right then and there.

“You know I want you to be happy, right?” Seungho said, leaning back in his chair. You looked up at him blankly, unsure of what to say.

“But you can’t forget your duties to the kingdom.”

--

“Hey, Joon,” you said as Joon turned to leave. He’d tucked you in already and was about to retreat to his room to rest when you called him back. Joon turned around despite how tired he was and smiled at you.

“Yes?”

“Do you know... what exactly it is that I’m supposed to do around here? I mean, I’ve tried to find it in the books, but I don’t see it, and I don’t want to sound dumb if I ask Seungho...” Joon let out a breath and slid onto your bed, laying down on his stomach. You reached out and played with his hair as he thought.

“It makes sense that you don’t find it in the books. It’s more of a legend really, the Prophecy.” You blinked a few times. You’d heard of the Prophecy before.

“Basically, the Arch Mage and the Arch Priest are supposed to lead their respective lands to victory and keep balance between the worlds. Victory over what, I don’t really know. All of the Arch Mages in the past have been good leaders and took good care of this land and people. I don’t really know what else we could ask for.” You pursed your lips.

“When Seungho dies, you’re the one that’s probably going to take over until we find a new High Mage. He was training one to replace him but uh... things happened.”

“What kind of things? Was he that High Mage that lived the shortest? I saw his picture in the portrait room.” Joon groaned and rolled off of your bed.

“That’s a story for another day. Ask Seungho about it. He should really be trying to cram more information into your brain faster.” You rolled your eyes as Joon bid you goodnight. You watched the door close and sighed, feeling the emptiness of your room.

Seungho seemed to be keeping a lot of information from you.

--

You finally got a day to spend with Myungsoo, which you chose to spend training with him because it’d been so long since you’d attended your training class.

“Well, look who the cat dragged in.” You walked into the training room sheepishly with Myungsoo and rubbed the back of your head. “I was starting to miss my daily dose of women in pants.” You rolled your eyes at Byunghe, and stopped in surprise to see Woohyun in the training grounds as well. You saw him glance towards you and stop, eyes flickering to your pants, and furrowing his eyebrows in confusion.

“What’s he doing here?” you whispered to Myungsoo.

“Training. Odd stuff really. He’s learning to control his power at lower levels rather than going out right brute force like he usually does,” Myungsoo said, shrugging his shoulders.

“So, he’s learning how to control himself?” you asked softly.

“Yeah something like that. Byunghee says he’ll be testing us over it today actually. How’s your control?” You flipped your hair and gave Myungsoo a look.

“I may not be as strong as you guys are, but I don’t lack in the control department.”

--

The knights in training plus you and Woohyun watched as Byunghee tossed an egg up and down in his hand. You glanced at Woohyun from your peripheral vision and noted that he looked a little bit anxious.

“So. Seungho and I will be throwing eggs at you today.” Seungho had a very smug look on his face as he stood behind his basket of eggs. Byunghee ordered everyone to space out and step behind empty baskets. You were stuck between Woohyun and Myungsoo, which made Seungho raise an eyebrow with a smirk on his face.

“You’re not allowed to touch your baskets. There’d be no fun if you could. So, you’re only allowed to use your magical powers to cradle the eggs and drop them into your basket without breaking them.” Without warning, Byunghee threw an egg at Sungyeol, making him throw up his arms and accidentally send the egg flying back at Byunghee. He dodged the flying egg and rolled his eyes.

“Well. I know who’s going to fail this exercise,” Byunghee said, raising an eyebrow at Sungyeol. Sungyeol laughed sheepishly while rubbing the back of his head. Seungho held up his hands and levitated a whole set of eggs before sending them flying at the trainees.

You concentrated, and cradled an egg with your water power before settling it gently down into your basket. You heard the tell tale sounds of eggs cracking, though and couldn’t help but snicker.

Seungho watched as you went through all four of your elements and nodded. At least you were varying it up and testing out all of your powers. He even watched as you moved the earth underneath the basket to catch eggs that you accidentally threw a little bit too far.

Byunghee sighed. He wished the other trainees were doing half as well as you were. The only one who even came close was Myungsoo, and Byunghee didn’t know whether or not to call it cheating.

When all was said and done, Byunghee felt like he was failing the trainees somehow. Except for you, he was quite proud of you. You did the best, even if you hadn’t been to training for a few weeks.

“Well, well. Let’s take a look then.” You glanced at Woohyun’s basket and noted a fair share of eggs. You looked up and saw him eyeing your basket, which was filled to the brim with eggs. You turned to look at Myungsoo’s, and noted that it was about halfway full.

Byunghee picked up Sungyeol’s basket and rolled his eyes as egg yolks and whites dripped through the bottom. “Sungyeol. This is disgusting.”

“I tried,” he said with a shrug. Seungho went through and counted your eggs, throwing out the ones you’d accidentally broken.

“I think we have a champion.” You laughed and raised your hands in triumph as Myungsoo rolled his eyes and grinned at you. Woohyun watched with jealousy as you turned to Myungsoo and gave him a high five through a gloved hand.

“And the loser is... Myungsoo.” Myungsoo turned to Byunghee in surprise.

“I’m sorry, what? I think Sungyeol is the loser here.” Byunghee laughed and picked up Myungsoo’s basket and dumped the eggs out. The shells cracked, but nothing came out. “What? It’s not my fault my power is fire. I can’t stop eggs from becoming hardboiled in fire.”

“I think it’s cheating.”

“How is it cheating?” Myungsoo asked indignantly. He sighed and closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“And as punishment for losing, you’re going to have to clean up all these broken egg bits and such. Have fun! Everyone is dismissed.” Myungsoo scowled at Byunghee as he and Seungho walked off together, discussing things under their breath.

“Yeah, have fun, Myungsoo!” Sungyeol said as he ran past Myungsoo, sticking his tongue out at him. Myungsoo sent a fireball after him, making Sungyeol yelp as he left the training room.

Soon, the only people left were you and Myungsoo. Woohyun was standing off to the side, looking sullen as you offered to help Myungsoo clean up.

“I can do it myself. I’m sorry this is how we’re going to have to spend our day together. Cleaning egg bits off of the training room. Real classy way to woo a woman, right?” You laughed and took off your gloves, rubbing your hands together.

“Who says we’re going to be in here all day?” You closed your eyes and concentrated your energy into your hands. “You might want to move a little bit closer to me.” Myungsoo blinked a few times before hurrying over and standing behind you.

You let out a slow breath and opened your eyes again as water exploded from your hands, forming a swirling wall of water around the two of you. Myungsoo shielded his eyes from stray sprays of water and looked around in awe. He leaned out to look at your face and saw your eyes glowing a gentle blue as your hands moved around to clean up the eggs bits before looking out at the water.

A moving wall of water. He could see himself reflected on the surface and almost wanted to reach out to touch it. Woohyun stood on the outside of the water and stared. He’d never really seen you use your powers before today, and from what he’d seen from the control test, he thought you were pretty weak. This definitely proved him wrong.

You suddenly dropped the wall of water and pressed your hands together, closing your eyes. When they opened, Myungsoo caught a flash of red in your eyes before you sent out a ripple of fire that evaporated all of the water, shrouding the room in a misty steam.

Woohyun shielded himself from you fire, but not fast enough. He felt a of flame on his arm and winced. What kind of powers were you hiding as the Arch Mage?

“Wow. That was easy,” Myungsoo said, looking around. Your eyes returned to their normal color of deep blue as you turned to smile at him.

“Yep. The sooner the better! I hardly ever get to spend any time with you, so I don’t mind using my powers like this.” You pulled your gloves back on and grabbed his hand, dragging him out of the training room with a laugh. “Come on, come on, hurry up!”

Myungsoo returned your laugh, hurrying after you. “Okay, okay, I’m coming. Slow down.” Neither of you noticed Woohyun giving you sad eyes.

--

Myungsoo watched you eat even more vigorously than you usually did and felt his stomach protest a little bit just looking at you. “You’re hungrier than usual,” Myungsoo said, raising an eyebrow.

“Happens if I use my powers too much at a time. I don’t think I have enough energy to sustain really large, heavy magic. Seungho says more energy comes with age and experience or if I bond with a vampire. It’s a little frustrating sometimes.” Myungsoo pursed his lips.

“Would it be so wrong if you got married to a vampire?” You stopped eating and frowned before turning to Myungsoo with a spoon in your mouth.

“It wouldn’t be you. So, yes. It would be wrong.”

--

Myungsoo sighed as he laid in his bed. He took you around for a walk around the forest, and the two of you talked about nothing in particular until the sun started to rise. It was the first time the two of you had ever lost track of time like that, and it ended with Myungsoo carrying you as he raced the sunlight to the castle.

The two of you barely made it in time, and you laughed as Myungsoo breathed hard, eyeing the sunlight outside. The sun didn’t affect him. It wasn’t pleasant, but he could go out into it like anyone from the land of the living. He knew it burned you however, which was why he ran so hard to get you to safety. Even if you took it lightly, he worried about you.

He took you to your room and bid you goodnight, getting his goodnight hug before leaving you with Joon. He wandered down the hallways of the castle quietly, thinking about his options again.

He thought as his legs mindlessly took him to his room, and he flopped onto his bed. Sungyeol was long asleep. He was normally a light sleeper, but when the sun came up, he was pretty much even more dead than he usually was.

A soft knock on his door jerked im from his thoughts as he rolled off of his bed and opened up the door. Seungho’s figure loomed in front of him.

“Let’s talk.”