Of wizards and princes and grumpy knights

The sound of trumpets blow through the city and the cheering from the crowds is deafening. Joonmyun (or, as he is normally referred too, His Royal Excellency Suho) watches with a fond smile as his younger brother steers his horse through the crowd with a brilliant smile and his mantle flying behind him, his right-hand knight right beside him.

Chanyeol is 17 and probably the most prince-like of them all. He’s tall, strong and good-looking, completely in love with adventures and known for going on several fairy tale quests, which he all succeeds in completing. The people love him, he’s their favourite prince, their knight in shining armour and they always crowd around him as he returns from one of his latest quests, cheering for him like now. Chanyeol has just returned from defeating a terrible troll in the southern parts of the kingdom and Joonmyun feel the pride swell in him as Chanyeol waves at the crowd.

“He looks like a self-good idiot”

Clearly his even younger brother Kyungsoo (16) does not share Joonmyun’s feeling of fondness but then again Kyungsoo doesn’t like anyone except maybe Joonmyun and his partner Yixing (or, as he is normally referred to: his royal majesty Lay).

“I think he looks pretty cool” Baekhyun, Joonmyun’s oldest younger brother (18) whispers next to Joonmyun just as Chanyeol rides through the palace gates, the court ladies whispering and giggling as he smiles at them. “At least the girls seem to like him.”

“Such a shame he doesn’t like them” Sehun (15, the youngest prince) says with a snicker and Joonmyun calmly put a hand on Kyungsoo’s shoulder as a reminder not to glare too hard at Baekhyun or Sehun (manners!).

In front of them Chanyeol dismantles his horse and walks towards them with a blinding smile.

“Welcome home brother!” Joonmyun says and opens his arms in an inviting gesture. Chanyeol grins and sweeps down in a bow in front of them, his companion and right hand Xiumin falling to his knees in an even lower bow beside him.

“Your royal Excellency, Your royal majesty, brothers- it’s a pleasure to be back!” Chanyeol says and straightens. Xiumin remains in his low bow while mumbling all the titles in front of him.

“…My noble prince Baekhyun, My noble prince Kyungsoo, and My noble prince Sehun it’s a great honour to stand before you once again.” Xiumin finishes but remains in his bow.

“Rise dear knight” Joonmyun says and Xiumin rises, still keeping his head respectfully bowed. Joonmyun can’t wait until they are ridded of all the ladies and lord in the court, when Xiumin can drop some of the formality and look at him as they share a cup of tea. “Come brother, the banquette is prepared. I am sure you have a lot to tell us” He continues and Chanyeol’s smile widens.

“Indeed I have Your excellence”

“Do you remember the fairy tales about wizards we heard when we were little?” Chanyeol asks and beside him Kyungsoo looks like he’s trying very hard not to roll his eyes. Joonmyun smiles meaningfully at Chanyeol and he hastily correct himself. “Your royal Excellency” they’re not even through the fourth dish and Chanyeol is already forgoing the titles. Some chairs away Lord Minho looks disapproving and tries to lecture his two daughters that “behaving uncivilised and rude towards a king is not attractive” as the girl’s giggles, blushes and casts shy glances at Chanyeol. Chanyeol, of course, doesn’t even seem to notice them.

“The ones about the old men in the tombs?” Sehun asks, not even trying to sound interested and Joonmyun skilfully kicks him under the table in an unnoticeable way. Sehun jumps and almost glares at Joonmyun before he remembers himself and plasters on a forced smile that doesn’t fool anyone. At least he’s not looking like he’s about to die, just slightly constipated.

“Yes, exactly!” Chanyeol says and nods eagerly.

“I am afraid that I’m not familiar with these stories” Yixing says beside Joonmyun and Joonmyun turns to smile fondly at his husband.

“Oh, no problem Your royal majesty Lay- I will tell you the tale!” It’s funny how Chanyeol never forgets Yixing’s title although Yixing has been a royalty for a far shorter time than Joonmyun. “It’s an ancient story in this country, the legends of the wizards. The legend says that there once was wizards in this country. Very, very powerful wizards. No one knows how many there was to begin with but apparently there was enough to start a great war that lasted for centuries. The story says that the wizards, that where once very friendly, started a great war against each other over a piece of pie, a war so terrible that it lead to that almost the entire human race was extinct. However, one wizard realised this before it was too late and with some magic, some great human warriors and a whole lot of cleverness he managed to put the few remaining wizards under a deep spell. He separated their bodies from their souls and put the bodies in large tombs that he then shattered all across the country, far away where the souls of the wizards never could find them again. He then said that they would be bound to travel this world forever in the form of a bodiless-soul until someone found both their tomb with their body and their wandering soul. Only then could they be whole again but they’d still be under control. They’d be sworn to serve the one who liberated them for as long as the two of them are alive. Still today people search for hidden wizards shattered across the world” Chanyeol ends the story with a low mysterious voice and a not-so-mysterious wiggle of his eyebrows.

“No one has found one of course, Your royal majesty” Kyungsoo explains. “There has been some people claiming to have seen souls of wizards but no one who has found anything remotely like a tomb and in the story they are described as massive. Which of course makes this legend very unrealistic and unlikely to be true, Your royal majesty”

“They are true!” Chanyeol says with a pout and turns to Kyungsoo, who raises an unimpressed eyebrow. “And I have in fact seen a soul of a wizard” He says with a very dramatic voice and turns back to Yixing. Beside him Kyungsoo can’t help but rolling his eyes. “Now my next quest, your royal highness, will be to find this wizard and his tomb and get myself, and this kingdom, a wizard servant!”

“That’s insane” Kyungsoo exclaims from the side as Sehun and Baekhyun bursts out laughing. “You can’t go searching for a wizard! You just returned home!”

“Yes I can! I can do anything!” Chanyeol exclaims and turns back to Kyungsoo once again with a frown. “After I beat the troll I was severely hurt and I could have died, as you all know…”

“And thanks to the brilliant work of the men of Lord Taemin you didn’t” Kyungsoo irrupts sharply and turns to nod in respect at the man further down the table. Lord Taemin nods back with an amused smile as his son, young lord Kai blushes heavily when he meets Kyungsoo’s eyes. Kyungsoo seems to momently forget what he was talking about as he keeps his round eyes on lord Kai, which gives Chanyeol a chance to speak up again.

“Yes but before that I swear someone helped me. I was on my way of fainting when I saw a ghostlike figure walking towards me and I immediately started to feel better! My wounds were starting to feel as if they were healing and everything!” He explains seriously and Kyungsoo tears his eyes away from lord Kai to look at him doubtfully.

“Maybe you saw an angel, we did actually hear about them in our stories when we were little as well” Baekhyun says innocently and Sehun laughs into his napkin.

“That’s different, angels doesn’t exist!” Chanyeol says and beside Joonmyun Yixing chokes on his wine. Joonmyun turns his attention away from the conversation and looks at Yixing with a frown. His lover looks slightly flustered and he’s blushing but assures Joonmyun that it’s nothing.

“Just swallowed my wine weirdly” He mumbles and Joonmyun nods before he turns back to Chanyeol.

“I will allow you to go on this quest” He irrupts Chanyeol’s and Kyungsoo’s brickering. “If you remember to be back before Lord Baekhyun’s and Lady Taeyeon’s wedding which is in less than a year. If you think you can find this wizard and his tomb in less than a year then you are free to go. Although I do request that you spend at least one week at home before you leave.” He continues and Kyungsoo looks at him in disbelief as Chanyeol grins widely.

“I assure you, Your royal Excellency, finding this wizard will be a piece of cake!” Chanyeol says, full of confidence and his killer smile in place. “I already know where his is after all.”

Joonmyun wonder if he should be more worried about Chanyeol going on this adventure or for Lord Minho’s daughters. It would be greatly inconvenient if they were to faint right during the banquette due to Chanyeol’s smile.

“His royal Excellency Suho will be greatly offended that you left 5 days after your return and not a week” Minseok mutters sullenly as they ride out from the capital during the early morning hours. The sun is just peeking up above the horizon and Chanyeol send him a smile that seems to shine even in the dull morning light.

“Oh he won’t mind, you know how Joonmyun is: by the time we return he will have forgotten everything and is just glad that we’re back. Also he will be waay to busy admiring my wizard to say anything about it” He says cheerfully and Minseok rolls his eyes.

“You don’t even know if we’ll find this wizard. You think you saw a ghost-like figure when you were half unconscious and now you have decided that it is a wizard. That is not a lot to go on and while I know better than anyone how much of a luck you have this wizard is not going to just fall in front of you when we get to the mountain. You’re more than likely to go back to the capital empty handed. And when you do Joonmyun will blame me for letting you go to early.” Minseok says, sounding even grumpier than previously and Chanyeol lets out a pearly laugh in the otherwise silent morning air.

“I assure you Minseok, when we get to the mountain we will find this magician in no time. I mean, how hard can it be?”

Not that hard it turns out, not that hard at all.

“I can’t believe he actually just fell down right in front of you” Minseok says, chock evident in his voice as he stares down on the struggling ghost-figure. They had reached the mountain a week after they left that capital and had only been searching it b an hour before they heard a loud scream and a weirdly formed rock fell down right in front of Chanyeol. In the bright afternoon light they first didn’t see the ghost figure attached to the stone but after several moments of squinting and staring (and after the ghost-like figure had uttered a “Stop staring you creeps!”) Chanyeol has managed to make out a pointy hat, strong cheekbones and piercing eyes together with a cloak that definitely looks wizardly.

“You’re a wizard!” He says in excitement and the figure looks up at him disapprovingly. Behind him Minseok mumbles something about unbelievable luck and unfairness of the world that doesn’t seem to apply to heroic princes.

“Am not” The ghost-like figure says and Chanyeol blinks in surprise.

“Then what are you?” he asks and if he’s not mistaken the figure looks like he’s slightly panicking.

“I am a…a… a ghost! Yes, a ghost! A very scary one, rawr!” He exclaims and Chanyeol thinks he bares his teeth but he’s not sure. It’s very hard to see.

“That must have been the lamest try to trick someone ever. No one will ever believe that you’re just a mere ghost because 1) they don’t exists, 2) they’re not attached to large amulet and 3) they don’t say rawr according to legends, they say boo” Minseok says in a sarcastic tone and Chanyeol tries to look as if he totally wasn’t fooled by this wizard. No way had he actually believed that the figure was a ghost, nope, no way, Chanyeol is smart.

“Well boo on you then” the figure answers, glaring angrily at Minseok and Chanyeol decides that this is not how he wanted to start his relationship with the wizard.

“Well anyway” He says, disturbing Minseok and the figure’s staring contest “Even if you’re a ghost or wizard I’d just like to thank you for saving me that day” Chanyeol says and sends his best, friendly smile towards the figure as he hunches down and reaches over with a helping hand towards the fallen wizard. “I owe you my life, what’s your name? Mine is Chanyeol, this is Minseok”

“Hello” Minseok says “You will call me lord Minseok and him your highness, prince or lord Chanyeol”

“As if I’m going to call you any of that” The figure mutters and seems to consider ignoring Chanyeol’s attempt at friendliness but after some tense minutes he sighs and takes Chanyeol’s hand. A chill runs down Chanyeol’s spine at the contact but he resists shivering as he helps the wizard up on his…uh…amulet?

“I’m Chen” The wizard introduces himself as he seemingly sits one the stone-amulet-thingy, although he doesn’t seem to really have legs. “And yes, you do owe me so please leave and don’t ever bother me again. And tell no one that I’m here.”

“Well” Chanyeol starts, slightly chocked by the unfriendly attitude of the wizard. No one is normally ever this rude to him, not even Minseok “I don’t owe you that much. Besides, don’t you want to find your grave?”

“Are you saying that your life isn’t worth as much as leaving me alone?” Chen answers and squints at Chanyeol, who simply shrugs. “Well then, You’re officially annoying and no,I don’t want you to find my grave because I value my freedom”

“So it is true! The legend! I will become your master if I find your grave and stuff!” Chanyeol says, gleefully clapping his hands and Chen looks absolutely horrified.

“There is no way you’ll be able to find my grave though” He counters “I haven’t been able to find it for centuries there is no way that someone like you would be able to find it. And even if you do there is no way that I will follow you there.” He continues with distain in his voice, looking Chanyeol up and down with an unimpressed expression.

“Don’t be too sure, someone up there clearly loves this guy because he has an unbelievable luck, he did find you pretty quick after all” Minseok says before Chanyeol can answer Chen and the wizard seems to think this through with a frown on his face. “Also, you’re attached to that stone so we’ll just force you to come along.”

There is a long silence as Chanyeol’s eyes goes between Chen and the rock.

“No.” Chen says slowly, like he’s trying to buy time but it’s too late because Chanyeol has already started to reach for the rock. “Now hold up, wait a minute…” Chen continues as he tries to jump away on the rock but Chanyeol is quicker and the wizard emits a very unmanly shriek as he is lifted by the rock in the air.

“Welcome to the fellowship of Prince Chanyeol! We will now start on this noble quest to return you to your solid form and get me my own wizard!” Chanyeol exclaims and smiles up at the figure now hovering above him.

“Oh great” Chen says weakly and Minseok snorts behind them.

“So where did you grow up? How old are you? Do you have any idea of where the grave can be? Did…”

“Please make him stop” Chen groans to Minseok as Chanyeol keeps asking questions in the background. They’re sitting by a campfire and Chanyeol has been bombarding Chen with questions since they found him.

“No. I believe a lot of these questions relevant information we need for this mission” Minseok says with a sweet smile and Chen groans again as Chanyeol asks, maybe for the fourth time, what his favourite colour is.

“Stop asking, I won’t tell you anything!” He snaps at Chanyeol, who looks at him with big eyes, a pout forming on his lips and Chen’s harsh eyes soften.

“Can you just answer one question?” Chanyeol asks and Chen considers it for a minute before he nods slowly. “Don’t you remember anything from your past life?”

Chen sighs and rubs his head. He’s easier to see in the dark when the glow that surrounds him is more prominent. His lips seems to be permanently turned up at the corners and instead of legs his torso turns into a fog that’s tied to the stone.

“Of course I remember my last life, you don’t forget 20 years of your life in the blink of an eye!” He starts, bitterly staring into the fire. “I remember the war, the fights everywhere and how the sky was blood red every morning. I remember the few moments of the last fight. I remember when I saw my best friend defeated at the ground and the hopelessness I felt before I joined him. And then it’s just sort of blank and I woke up on a mountain without a body and some weird-looking fellows after me, trying to kidnap me and find my grave.”

“It is true then” Chanyeol says slowly, the darkness around them feeling heavier than moments before. “You did start a war over a piece of pie”

The heaviness in the air is instantly broken as Chen sends Chanyeol a piercing glance that makes him flinch back. The air around them seems to shiver with a sudden tension and it takes Chanyeol some moments to realise that the temperature is actually rising around them. Oops, wrong answer.

“No you complete moron! We didn’t start a 20 year long war over a piece of a pie!” Chen almost screams and Chanyeol glances up to the sky as he hear thunder in the distance. “You ing incompetent humans started it because you couldn’t accept that wizards could roam around freely with a free will. Your race tricked the highest of our order into promising your king their service and then used them to take down the rest of us. Thankfully the highest found a hole in their contract which made it possible for them to cast this spell over us but those idiots mispronounced the last part of the spell, turning us all into vulnerable spirits just waiting to find a master instead of freely roaming wizards!”

The fire has risen to a frightening height beside Chanyeol and he squeezes out a quick sorry, trying to calm down the raging wizard before him as Minseok swears lowly.

“I didn’t know, I apologize” Chanyeol says, moving further away from the fire. Chen seems to calm down a bit but he keeps raging on.

“The plan was to bind us to a grave and therefore we’d technically have a master and nothing could be done if no one found the grave because the king wouldn’t be able to come up with an order that the wizards could go through with. But they failed. Making us all nothing but half-useless spirits with graves that are impossible to find. Most wizards soon decided that being a slave to a human would be better than being close to nothing at all for an eternity. But not me. Not after all they’d done. Not after they killed Liyin, not after they killed Luhan and Kris. I will never be a slave to a human” The fire and sky calms during the time Chen speaks and his voice gradually turns bitter. In the end it’s nothing more than a low whisper.

Chanyeol looks at the wizard as he stares into the slowly calming fire, trying to come up with something to say but it’s hard. He doesn’t really know what happened, it must have been several thousand years ago after all and it doesn’t sound like any of the stories about the wizard he has ever heard. Then again the wizards are supposed to be evil and pie-maniacks and Chen doesn’t really seem like neither.

“You clearly can still use magic though” Minseok says lowly from the side and Chen snorts.

“Yea, A little but…” His speech is abruptly irrupted as an arrow shoots out of the forest and misses Chanyeol by a millimetre.

Chanyeol is on his feet the next second, his sword dragged as he avoids the next arrow and smoothly steps in front of Chen. All senses on high alert he scans the surroundings, looking into the black forest. Beside him Minseok is on his feet and moving towards the outskirts of the glade where the arrows are coming from right as another swarm of them shoot towards Chanyeol. Chanyeol bats most of them away with his sword and manage to avoid the rest, protecting Chen as much as he can.

“You do realise that you’re protecting a magician that can’t be hurt by arrows right?” Comes the sarcastic voice behind him and Chanyeol flinches, stopping a second as he realises the stupidity of his actions. It’s all it takes for him to miss one of the arrows and he lets out a low grunt as it sinks into his shoulder. Cursing himself for not being on his guard and taking of his armour before he grinds his teeth and awaits the next swarm of arrows. Beside them Minseok has dissapeared.

“, are you hurt?” Chen asks from behind him and Chanyeol almost thinks he hears concern in his voice. He doesn’t answer though, too focused on ignoring his pain and waiting for the next attack.

It never comes. Instead he hears a high-pitched screaming from inside the forest followed by some other shouting voices before it turns silent again. He and Chen waits some nerve-racking moments in tense silence before Minseok comes out from the forest with a grim expression.

“How many?” Chanyeol asks.

“Only 4 but they seemed like scouts, probably alerted by the large fire Chen created.” Minseok answers grimly and moves to stomp out said the fire. Chanyeol nods and grinds his teeth as he moves to pick up their stuff.

“Weird, I though these woods where safe, since we’re still in Lord Taemin’s domain” Chanyeol mumbles and ignores the pain in his left shoulder as he picks up their stuff and balance the backpack on his right shoulder.

“These were not normal wildlings or thieves” Minseok answers grimly. “They had a uniform I don’t recognize but it looked like one of the cults” He gives Chanyeol’s shoulder a look before he completely manage to turn out the fire. “We’ll have to look at that later, right now we have to move. I have a feeling they were only the first ambush.”

Chanyeol looks at him grimly before he turns around and takes up Chen’s amulet, not trusting the wizard not to run away just yet.

“I could help you with that” Chen says quietly and gestures to the arrow still sticking out of Chanyeol’s shoulder. Chanyeol blinks at him momently, taken off guard by the sudden kindness but before he can answer the low sound of a horn cuts through the forest. He looks at Minseok as he leads their horses in front of Chanyeol and quickly mounts his, Chen making a small sound as he’s placed right behind Chanyeol. It took about 5 tries before Chanyeol figured out a way to attach the stone amulet to his horse without hurting his horse or making Chen fall of and Chen seemed to develop a growing dislike for horses after ever try.

They gallop out of the glade, Chanyeol ignoring his wound as much as he can. The horn sound again and this time it seems closer and Chanyeol digs his feet into the side of his horse, manning it to go faster.

“Chanyeol I think you’re bleeding down your entire front.” Comes Chen’s voice behind him and Chanyeol grinds his teeth as he feels a droplet the might be blood or sweat run down his stomach.

“I’ll be fine” He says shortly and behind him Chen snorts.

“As if, now hold still and concentrate on steering this beast. This might tickle”

A strange feeling runs along Chanyeol’s spin up to his shoulder and he does his best not to shudder as the droplet of blood seems to reverse and go back to the wound on his shoulder.

“Are you healing me?” He asks with a strained voice, keeping his eyes on Minseok’s back as they steer out on the road.

“No, I can’t do that while you still have the arrow in you and I don’t think it would be a good idea to try and drag it out while you’re riding. I’m simply stopping the blood flow” Chen says behind them just as the horn sounds again, now sounding even closer.

Minseok picks up the speed and Chanyeol is soon to follow. They ride through the most of the night, occasionally hearing a blast from the horn. Through the night it seems like they manage to shake off their followers but even when they haven’t heard the horn for several hours they don’t stop, Minseok and Chanyeol have done that mistake too many times before.

The sun is already above the horizon as they stop and rest, Chanyeol basically falling off the horse. Minseok is at his side the next moment, half carrying him over to the stream they just arrived at and places him on the ground.

“Your blood doesn’t seem to have left the wound” Minseok says sounding perplexed.

“You’re welcome” Chen grunts from where he’s still attached to the horse. He seems to be trying to release himself but his hands seems to half go through the straps and he frowns as he tries to make the stone wiggle off the saddle. “Now get me down so I can heal that stupid wound before all my powers run out, I don’t got the entire day.”

Minseok blinks at him a couple of times before he hastily scrambles of the ground and towards the saddle. With some quick movements he manage to get Chen free and carries the amulet towards Chanyeol. As he’s placed beside him, Chanyeol can see that Chen looks thinner than before, not as prominent as he was when they first found him.

“I’ll go and fix some food” Minseok mumbles and goes back to the horses, leaving the two of them alone.

“You’ll have to take out the arrow yourself” Chen says and Chanyeol squint to try and see his expression. “I don’t have enough energy to properly focus my body.”

“Is that why you’re looking so vague?” Chanyeol asks. “Because you can’t put together your body? Are you going to fade out?”

“No I’m not, I just can’t touch stuff. And it looks like I’m fading because my magical glow is fainter, not because I’m actually disappearing. Now, can you drag out the arrow? I’m getting tired from keeping your blood from flowing everywhere while stopping it from coagulating around the arrow”

Chanyeol nods and grimaces as he reaches up and pulls out the arrow. It hurts like hell and he pants through his teeth as he gets the arrow out with one quick motion. Chen doesn’t say anything and Chanyeol watches in amazement as a small sphere of water rises from the stream. He bites his lower lip until it starts to bleed as Chen cleans the wound with the water.

He focuses on trying to see Chen’s expression as a way to ignore his pain. He follows the line of Chen’s nose, barely visible in the rising sun and lets his eyes glide down the wizard’s shoulders. He squints at Chen’s face again and makes out his eyes and a frown on his forehead as he cleans the wound. Chanyeel guesses that Chen’s probably quite attractive but it’s hard to see when he’s not in solid form.

“Stop staring” Chen whispers, voice lower than normal as he lets the now red water flow back into the stream and wash away with the rest of the water. “I need to concentrate”

“Why are you healing me?” Chanyeol asks, ignoring Chen’s words and trying to find Chen’s cheekbones. They can’t really be that prominent and high up can they? Was they that before? “You said after all that you didn’t want to be a slave, shouldn’t you just let me die?”

“Just because I’m a wizard doesn’t mean I’m heartless.” Chen mumbles. “Besides, the chance that you’ll find my grave is very small, various others have tried and failed. I’ve spent thousands of years running away from knights and kings and evil men, I think I can find a way to run away from you too.”

Chanyeol is about to answer with a cheeky comment but then his shoulder starts to sting and tickles uncomfortably and he gasps loudly, cutting of his words. He presses his lips together and bites down hard on his teeth in order to stop a scream from escaping his throat.

The stinging feeling is over as soon as it came and soon the only thing that’s left is a small tingle in his shoulder. Chanyeol twists his head to look at his shoulder and discovers that the wound is completely healed- no scar. He turns back to look at Chen and realises that the magician is lying down in the grass, almost invisible but Chanyeol can hear him panting softly.

“Thank you” He says and tries to look where he thinks Chen’s eyes are. He gets a grunt in response and Chanyeol keeps squinting at the magician. He can barely see anything when Chen is lying down and pushes himself up and forward on all four, trying to find the eyes of the magician.

“Your face is like 10 cm from mine, back off you creep” Comes Chen’c voice from underneath him and Chanyeol feels his face heat up as he straightens slightly.

“Sorry” He says and squints thoughtfully where he thinks Chen’s face is. “I’ll tell you what” He continues. “I owe you my life now so when we find your grave I will only ask you to accompany me to the capital and show the brothers that you exists and stuff and then I’ll let you go, as long as you promise not to kill someone or hurt the kingdom in any way”.

There is a pause.

“What?”

“I don’t really want a slave anyway” Chanyeol says. “And your healing skills are probably of better use in some village than roaming around on adventures with me. You could help a lot of people, not just be a fancy companion of mine. So I’ll let you go and have your freedom.”

Chen is quiet for an awful amount of time and Chanyeol desperately wishes that he could see his expression. After what feels like an eternity the amulet/stone rustles and Chanyeol can actually see the shadow of Chen as he rises from the ground.

He can definitely see the eyes that are suddenly millimetres from his own and is piercing him with a serious look. It’s scary even though the effect is half destroyed by how the eyes are half see-through.

“I swear on everything I am, Chanyeol, if this is some stupid ploy…”

“It’s not.” Chanyeol irrupts, staring back into those eyes. “I promise”

“You promise?”

“On my honour as a prince, on my kingdom”

Chen seems to think it over for a while. Eyes never leaving Chanyeol’s as they have a silent staring contest. Chanyeol refuses to relent and stares right back at Chen.

“Okay” Chen says finally. “I will hold you to your word. If we find my grave I will follow you to the capital, do some cute tricks for your brothers or the court or whatever and then I will be gone, doing whatever I want to do as long as I don’t hurt anyone except for in self-defence, deal?”

“Deal” Chanyeol says, relaxing slightly as Chen’s eyes shift away from him.

“One question” Comes Minseok’s voice from where he sits by the horses and they both turns towards him. “Does half- ghost wizards eat?”

“No” Chen answers and suddenly sound extremely bitter. ”I haven’t tasted food for ages, it goes straight through me. So while you enjoy your meal I am going to sleep”

He jumps away and Chanyeol grins as he watches the stone jump under a tree, Chen’s silhouette becoming clearer in the shadows. Chanyeol’s exhausted after the long night but he feel as if his relationship with the wizard has gotten better, even though Chen still seems very grumpy.

Maybe he’s just in general a grumpy person.

“Stop daydreaming and get over here and help me with the food” Minseok says, sounding annoyed and Chanyeol quickly pushes himself off his feet.

“Coming” He sing-songs and skips over to where Minseok sits.

He sure has a feeling this will involve into a great adventure.