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13

--

You stared at Seungho as you sat across from him in his study. Then your eyes moved to the little jar holding a blue swirling mist on his desk.

“I’m supposed to what?”

“Absorb the energy. Just stick your hand in there and your passive power should do the rest,” Seungho said without looking up from his scrolls. You stared at the jar apprehensively until Seungho pointed two fingers towards it, and it floated towards you and landed in your lap.

“Come on now, we don’t have all day.” You sighed and gently unscrewed the top before sticking your hand into the jaw with your eyes screwed shut. Nothing bad happened though, and your hand absorbed up the energy until it was gone.

“There. That wasn’t so bad, was it? How do you feel?” You just shrugged your shoulders and replaced the top on the jar.

“Same as usual. Maybe a little bit less tired. Whose energy was that?”

“Just energy,” Seungho said with a smile before signing the bottom of the scroll and sending it towards a cubby on the shelf behind him.

This time, he was all for telling you whose energy it was, and why you needed it every couple of months or you would die. But Myungsoo was the one that insisted Seungho keep it from you. He didn’t want this extra thought of death looming over you, or worry about taking his energy. He knew you would worry, and he didn’t want to distract you from your duties.

“Hey, Seungho?” Seungho grabbed a fresh piece of parchment and dipped his pen into the inkwell before looking up at you.

“Yes?”

“The High Mage and the High Priest... Are they like kings?” Seungho pursed his lips while he thought.

“I suppose you could think of it that way. I’m in charge of the castle of Rivedon and the surrounding lands, making sure everything runs smoothly. So in a way, I suppose you could call me a king. I don’t know how things work in Armalis to tell you about the High Priest.”

You nodded, and finally plucked up the courage to ask what you’d been wanting to asking him since he told you about Gyuri. “Then... when you... pass away, who’s going to take over your job?”

Seungho blinked a few times before setting his pen down and reaching for his cloak hanging on the back of the chair. “Come with me. We’re going to have a little history lesson.”

--

You followed Seungho down a familiar hallway, and the two of you stopped in front of the portrait room of all the past High and Arch Mages. Seungho held open the curtain for you as he stepped inside.

“This is where all the portraits of the High and Arch Mages are. There’s considerably less Arch Mage portraits here than High Mages, but that only means their portraits are bigger.” Seungho gestured to one side of the room.

“I’ve been here before,” you said, looking around, “and I’ve been meaning to ask you about...” You took a few steps and stopped in front of the High Mage with blue eyes.

“The dates on his portrait overlap yours. And yours look like something was scratched out and corrected.”

Seungho stood next to you, his eyes going fond before turning to sadness.

“He was my replacement. I trained him to replace me after Gyuri died, so I could retire and live out the rest of my life peacefully.”

“So... he’s really the one that’s supposed to be running the kingdom? What happened to him?” you asked, staring at the portrait.

“He died,” Seungho said simply. You stared at the protrait’s eyes. “He died saving the people he loved. His wife and his children.”

“What happened to them?”

“His wife died giving birth to twins. You know, there’s a reason why you have his eyes.” You froze for a second before your eyes widened, and you turned Seungho with a surprised expression on your face.

“He’s... my father?” Seungho nodded.

“You have his eyes. But you look just like your mother.” You turned back to the portrait and stared at him. This was your father. Your hand reached out, as if to touch him, but you quickly pulled it back.

“What... What about my mother?”

“A princess of Armalis.” Your eyebrows were in danger of disappearing into your hairline.

“I just wish he told us. It’s not like we would’ve condemned him. The people of Rivedon are so much more open minded than the ones in Armalis. If he’d just said that they were in love, they could’ve lived here peacefully, and you and your sister would’ve known equal love.”

--

Seungho let you go to do whatever it was you wanted. You passed by the training room and stopped. Everyone was lined up in full armor, their faces shielded by long black helmets.

“Seungho says it’s not long before Armalis makes their move. All of you need to be ready to go at any point in time, including during the day.” You felt someone come up from behind you and chuckle.

“Like the armor? It’s the reason I could afford to do nothing but sleep all the time.” You glanced over your shoulder to see Sunggyu standing there, hands in his pockets.

“What’s so special about it?” you asked as Byunghee had them run a few more drills.

“Well, it’s almost the same material your armor is made of, except I had to take special care to make it stronger but lighter. It absorbs sunlight and turns it into usable energy. As long as none of your skin is showing, it should protect you fully from the uh... adverse effects of sunlight. Unless you’re living, of course.”

“So you do do something to make a living,” you said in mock surprise. Sunggyu frowned at you and shoved at you gently, making you laugh. The two of you stood there and watched as they trained while listening to Sunggyu go into the details of armor forging. It was actually very interesting to listen to, and you found yourself getting distracted from the training to ask Sunggyu questions.

When the training was done, Byunghee called them to line up again. They called out the salute of fidelity to the kingdom of Rivedon and removed their helmets to tuck under their arm. You saw Myungsoo, and Sungyeol, and on the very end, you even spotted Woohyun.

At the front of the line though, were people you didn’t recognize. “Sunggyu, who are those people?” you asked, whispering to him quietly.

“The knights of Rivedon. They’re all usually on missions somewhere around the land or training, doing what none of the other residents of Rivedon dare to do. The best of the best. They’re the ones with the full cape with the crest of Rivedon on the back. The trainees like Myungsoo have a half cape. Seungho pulled in the big guns.”

Byunghee turned around and beckoned you to come in with a finger. You pointed at yourself before climbing up the observatory window. “That’s not very lady like,” Sunggyu said, smiling with amusement. 

You rolled your eyes and jumped. A few of the knights made motions of surprise to go catch you, but you caught yourself with a stream of wind and rode it over the chasm to land right next to Byunghee. Myungsoo smirked at you while you fixed your dress.

“The Arch Mage,” Byunghee said. The row of knights kneeled down on one knee before bowing their heads at you. You blinked rapidly for a moment until one of them looked up to speak.

“It’s a pleasure to finally meet you. We’ve heard good things about you. My name is Soohyun, and we are the knights of Rivedon.” The rest of the men looked up, and you looked at all of their faces.

“You know, despite the length of her training, the Arch Mage is actually quite strong and very fast. I bet she could even take one of you on and hold her own fairly well,” Byunghee said. You raised an eyebrow at him. You had no idea what he was talking about. You could barely take himon. How were you supposed to fair against a knight?

“Is that a challenge?” Soohyun asked with a smirk on his face. The knights stood up, and you blinked rapidly, involuntarily taking a step back from them. They were huge compared to you.

“You can fight our youngest.” The smallest knight stepped forward and bowed to you before smiling.

“My name is Dongho. It’s nice to meet you.”

You bowed back and swallowed nervously. “You look younger than I am,” you said, looking worried.

“Don’t worry. I’m older. Much older,” he said with a laugh. He handed his helmet off to Soohyun and took off his cape.

“How are you with weaponry?”

“I haven’t learned how to use weapons yet,” you said, casting a nervous glance towards Byunghee.

“Just use your sword anyway. She’ll be fine,” Byunghee said dismissively, motioning for the others to move out of the way.

“Do what?” you said, looking at him incredulously. Dongho pulled out his sword and took a few steps back away from you.

“You’ll be fine.” Byunghee gave you a thumbs up and crossed his arms over his chest.

“Are you ready, Arch Mage?” Dongho asked, raising his sword and pointing it at you.

“No,” you said lightly, preparing yourself.

“Good.” And he charged at you.

--

The High Priest finished going over battle tactics with his generals and sent them off to prepare the troops. The Arch Priest frowned as she listened to him talk and sighed.

“Do we really have to do this? What is there to gain from trying to take over Rivedon?”

“There is no gain from just trying,” the High Priest said snidely, “we’re going to take over it completely and take everything they have.”

“But why? We live in completely different worlds!” The High Priest turned to look at the Arch Priest with a raised eyebrow.

“Are you questioning me?” he asked, voice full of menace. The Arch Priest shrunk back. “I suppose you’re only worried about your precioussister. There’s no point in worrying about trash like that.” The Arch Priest got angry and tried to say something, but the look on the High Priest’s face made her close without a word.

“We attack them tonight.”

--

You gasped and threw up a barrier of water, diving out of the way when Dongho burst through the water easily and swung his sword. You could hear the metal sail past your ear. If you were any slower, you’d probably be down one ear.

Dongho shifted the weight on his feet and swung again, making you duck underneath his sword and shift your own weight, grabbing his arm to pin him behind his back, but he was almost as fast as you were, and countered your grab with his own, making your eyes widen as you struggled to get out of it and push away from him.

“Very impressive,” Soohyun said, smile on his face. Byunghee nodded. Myungsoo pursed his lips. He didn’t like the idea of you going up against a knight. Though Dongho was the smallest one out of them, he definitely wasn’t the weakest.

“You’re really fast,” Dongho said as he attacked you again. You dodged out of his way, using the water to slide on for an extra boost of speed.

“Thank you,” you said, nearly breathless. You didn’t know how much longer you could keep this up. By your guess, it’d barely been five minutes, and you were using everything you had just to avoid his attacks.

You stopped for a second to take a breath, and Dongho used that opportunity to throw his sword at you in an attempt to stop you. You yelped and threw up a water barrier. Dongho laughed as his sword slowed down in the water, then suddenly, the barrier froze over with the hilt sticking out.

Your eyes widened in confusion before the barrier broke, and ice shards came flying at you. You threw your hands up and surrounded yourself with a whirlwind of fire as Donghoo grabbed his sword and broke through the flames.

Myungsoo and Woohyun made the motion to run out and help you, but you were gone by the time the flames disappeared. Dongho stood up from the ground and looked around before pulling his sword out of the ground. He glanced around cautiously before swinging his sword up to cut through a fireball coming in his direction.

You appeared in front of him breathing hard. This was really taking up a lot of your energy, and Byunghee could see that. You were much better than when you started out. You had the technique and skill, but lacked the stamina to keep it up.

Dongho smiled at you and took a stance before gripping his sword with both hands. “You fight well,” he said before swinging his sword and sending out a wave of water. You tried to summon up another barrier of fire, but didn’t have enough energy.

Byunghee stepped out and threw up a large wall of fire, completely evaporating the water. Dongho stepped back and bowed to you as you panted on the floor, trying to catch your breath.

“I’m sorry. I was out of line.”

“I’m impressed,” Soohyun said, smiling at you. “You didn’t get hit once and only lost because you tired yourself out. You’ve only been training for a few months?” You nodded as Myungsoo hurried over to you and helped you up to your feet, brushing away a few stray strands of hair from your face, careful not to touch your skin.

“Wow. A few months... I can only imagine what you’ll be like in a few years.” 

Dongho hurried over to you and grinned, holding out his hand for you to shake. “We’re going to be staying at the castle for a bit. Let’s train together?” You laughed and nodded, taking his hand to shake.

“I won’t be satisfied until I win against you fair and square,” he said, making you nod in agreement. Myungsoo asked you quietly if you wanted help to your room, and you nodded, bidding everyone goodbye as Myungsoo helped you out.

Woohyun watched as you two left, jealously in his eyes apparent. “And you. I’ve heard things about you,” Soohyun said, turning to Woohyun. Woohyun wasn’t technically in training to be a knight, but he definitely could be from what Soohyun saw.

“How about a spar? I’d like to see just exactly how strong you are.” Woohyun smirked as he bowed and stepped out of the line with Soohyun.

“Oh god,” Byunghee said, pinching the bridge of his nose. Everyone in the room could feel Woohyun’s energy flaring up. He needed to vent, and what better person to take it out on than a knight of Rivedon? “I suppose I’ll tell Seungho we’re going to need a new training area.”

--

As Myungsoo pushed the door open to your room, you heard a low rumbling noise echo down the hallway, making both of your look down the empty hallway curiously until it stopped. Myungsoo helped you over to your bed, and you rolled onto it, sighing dramatically.

“If the enemy knows you have low stamina, they could use that to their advantage and use it to tire you out before destroying you,” Myungsoo said, hopping onto your bed next to you. “I can’t always be there to protect you.”

You pouted and rolled until your head was resting on his lap. “Is this what I have to do to get some of your attention these days?” you asked, tracing circles into the side of his leg. Myungsoo sighed as he leaned back onto his arms and stared at the back of your head.

“I’m sorry I’ve been so busy lately. I haven’t been trying to neglect you on purpose.” You made a whining noise and curled up before making yourself comfortable.

“I just miss spending time with you, that’s all,” you said, closing your eyes. Myungsoo brought a hand up to your hair gently.

“Really? Last I heard, you were getting friendly with Woohyun.” You frowned and turned so you could look at Myungsoo.

“We’re becoming friends, I guess. But he’s not you.”

This was going to prove more difficult than Myungsoo thought.

--

Woohyun and Soohyun were in the infirmary getting patched up when Myungsoo walked by with an amused smile on his face. He’d heard that they fought, and though Woohyun put up a very good fight, Soohyun won, but only marginally.

“I feel like I haven’t done enough training now. You’re really only twenty-two years old?” Woohyun nodded, gritting his teeth as the nurse tutted and bandaged up some open wounds. Soohyun failed to tell him that his swords were infused with magic to keep vampires from regenerating after they’d been hurt.

“Good fight. You’re strong, that’s for sure, but you lack a little bit of finesse. I’m sure after a bit of training, you’ll be almost as skillful as the Arch Mage. She was a beautiful thing to watch.” Woohyun’s eyes narrowed a bit, but he couldn’t say anything, not after losing like that. Woohyun caught Myungsoo walking by and called his name, making him stop with a raised eyebrow.

“I’d like to talk to you, if you don’t mind,” Woohyun said, hopping off of the cot.

“You’re free to go. You should heal up before the night is over.”

--

“It’s your fault, you know. That she ran out of energy,” Woohyun said as he walked beside Myungsoo. Myungsoo pursed his lips. “If she were bonded to me, she’d have enough energy to be able to sustain herself and her magic.”

“How is this my fault? I’m not forcing her to stay with me.”

“You’re not doing anything to push her away.”

“Why should I? It’s her choice.”

“Myungsoo.” Myungsoo stopped walking and sighed heavily before turning around to look at Woohyun. “You know as well as I do that if you keep giving her your energy like this, neither of you are going to live very long.”

Myungsoo stared at Woohyun for a few seconds before turning his eyes down. “I know. Try harder to win her over. You can protect her. I’ll push her away from me when the time is right.”

“I’m not even sure if she has feelings for me at all,” Woohyun said quietly as Myungsoo turned and left him in the hallway.

--

You were shaken awake violently in the middle of the day again. As you groaned and rubbed at your eyes, you could hear the castle’s alarm bells ringing.

“Here,” Joon said, throwing you a change of clothes and a cloak. You changed as quickly as possible, eyes still barely open.

“Where are we going?” you asked sleepily as Joon grabbed your hand and pulled you out of your room.

“Up to Seungho’s study. Just in case.” You followed behind Joon as people ran past you in armor. You could see the archers taking their positions on top of the castle walls and wondered which one of the soldiers running past you in armor was Myungsoo. And Woohyun.

Sunggyu joined you and Joon on the way to Seungho’s study, letting you lean on him as Joon opened the door for you.

“I’m surprised you’re awake,” you mumbled as Sunggyu sat down on a chair and pulled you down into his lap.

“I am too, don’t worry about that,” he said in a low voice before yawning. For some reason, you didn’t feel a sense of urgency. You didn’t feel anxious, or worried, or nervous, something you found a little bit strange.

“Did they spot the soldiers from Armalis or something?” you asked sleepily, closing your eyes again.

“No. Seungho said this was just a drill. But uh, no one else really knows that besides, Seungho, Byunghee, and myself. And now you.”

“Oh. A drill. How lovely.” You yawned and fell asleep again in Sunggyu’s arms.

--

The next morning, you were the only one out of the usual crew that looked well rested. Joon looked like he was going to pass out on his feet as he woke you up in the morning. Sunggyu must’ve carried you back to your room after the drill was over.

Joon hopped onto your bed and closed his eyes, saying that he’d get up to draw you a bath in a moment. You went into your closet to find some clothes to change into and nearly screamed when you bumped into your armor on its stand.

“Oh. My armor. Good grief.” You sighed and held your chest for a moment before stepping out of your room.

“Joon, did you...” Your voice trailed off when you saw him fast asleep on your bed, even letting out a loud snore. You rolled your eyes before heading into the bathroom to draw your own bath.

--

When you left your room, Joon was still sleeping. You closed your door quietly and looked around at the many people making their way around the castle. It didn’t look like they were too tired because they all had so many things to do.

You made your way to the training hall and peeked inside, eyes going wide when you saw cracks, fissures and bolders littering the once clear area.

“Yeah... Product of Woohyun and Soohyun’s battle yesterday. All training’s been moved to the knight’s training area,” Byunghee said from behind you.

“Good lord.”

“The scary thing is, Soohyun wasn’t even going all out. None of the knights look tired this evening from the drill last night. Woohyun looks a little tired, Sungyeol looks like he’s ready to pass out, but Myungsoo looks like Myungsoo.” Byunghee rattled off a few more things as you followed him down another part of the castle you’d never explored before.

He opened up the door, and your eyes went wide at the sheer size of the training area. It looked like it was in a gigantic cave, with passages leading who knows where.

You spotted Myungsoo training against one of the knights and smiled. “Myungsoo’s definitely tired. You see how his mouth keeps opening slightly?” Byunghee chuckled and ruffled your hair.

“Do you know all your suitors that well?” You opened and closed your mouth before giving him a sheepish smile. It was only Myungsoo that you knew that well, and you hoped that Myungsoo knew you that well too.