Chapter 10 – They Live Here

Hakyeon frowns and comes to a stop, turning on the spot in confusion.

“This house, I swear…” he mutters.

Hakyeon looks down the hallway he’d come across on his way to his bedroom, he’d been hoping to get some sleep and begin recovering but it seems like that plan is out the door. The hallway was completely void of doors and it was a dead end. Behind him had also closed up, leaving him trapped here. Tutting, Hakyeon slides down the wall. It could be a while before the house releases him, he may as well get comfortable.

A lot of the protection spells on the house were useful, especially since Leo had come here, but most were just a pain. Two years ago Hakyeon had thought he’d removed this one, instead he’d just made it worse, increasing the frequency and length of time that the house would trap people for. If it happened once that day, it would definitely happen again.

Hakyeon takes a deep breath and lets his eyes close. He’d used too much magic and he could feel the effects starting to set in even though he hadn’t even come close to emptying his reserves. Sometimes meditating helped, and he didn’t really have anything else to do right now so he tried that.

When Hakyeon finally opens his eyes the house has released him. Feeling stiff and just plain tired from his fight with the apprentices and the tension with Ravi, Hakyeon clambers to his feet and starts for Hongbin’s room to warn him about the house.

Hongbin hesitates in his doorway. It’s ten o’clock, Hakyeon should be out of bed, shouldn’t he? Hongbin’s stomach growls and makes the decision for him.

He’s halfway down a flight of stairs when they disappear from beneath him. One second he’s falling downwards and the next the orientation changes and he’s flying forward. He lands hard on his stomach and slides along the floor.

When he manages to sit up – feeling more winded this time than the last – he looks over at Hakyeon’s bed. He thinks that what he finds there is more surprising that the floor disappearing.

A man, who is definitely not Hakyeon, stares back at Hongbin. He’s got the sheets pulled up to his face and his eyes are wide, he’d probably been startled out of sleep by Hongbin’s arrival. It is only after several seconds of staring at each other that Hongbin notices the cat ears on top of his head.

“W-what?” Hongbin asks.

Before the man can answer – if he’d have even answered at all – the bedroom door opens and Hakyeon appears.

“There you are, Hongbinnie, I was just coming to find you but you weren’t in your room. The house is playing up a little so you should stay out of the hallways.”

“Okay,” Hongbin wheezes as he forces himself to his feet. He feels bruised all over.

Hakyeon looks amused but hides his smile. Instead his attention goes to the man in his bed.

“You’re such a scaredy-cat,” he coos, approaching.

Hakyeon tangles his fingers in the man’s dark hair and massages between the cat ears. Despite apparently liking the massage, the man doesn’t take his eyes off Hongbin.

“I’ll take Hongbin to breakfast. Get dressed and come to the kitchen, okay?”

“…Fine.”

Hongbin is dragged from the room and then into another room which led almost directly to the kitchen. He points back in the direction they’d come.

“Who was that?” he demands.

Hakyeon gives Hongbin a questioning look. “That’s Leo,” he states like it’s obvious.

“Leo is a cat.”

“Leo is Anyethi,” Hakyeon corrects with a smile. Despite the smile he seems tense.

“Oh.”

That suddenly makes a lot of things clear and Hongbin wonders why he hadn’t realised that earlier, there was no way Leo had been a normal cat. Even Ravi probably knew with the way he’d been speaking about Leo. Hongbin is glad he finally knows but he also has several questions.

“Where do Anyethi live?”

That smile disappears. “They live here.”

Hongbin frowns. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that Leo is the last one and he lives here, therefore Anyethi live here.”

Hakyeon starts pulling food out of the fridge to make breakfast with while Hongbin tries to process that.

“You mean the last one that’s free?”

“The last one alive.”

“Oh.”

Hongbin bites his lip, he has questions and Hakyeon clearly doesn’t want to talk about it. Just as Hongbin is debating where or not to ask his questions and risk making Hakyeon mad, Leo walks in. He completely ignores Hongbin as he sits down and Hongbin thinks for a second that he prefers cat-Leo who was more approachable.

“Can you change at will?” Hongbin asks him.

Leo shakes his head but it’s Hakyeon that answers. “He used to. He obviously can’t now or he wouldn’t be a cat for months at a time.”

“Why?”

“A spell,” Leo mumbles.

“There isn’t really an easy way to explain it. Top-level creatures like Anyethi have intuitive magic which they use for pretty much everything. Transforming is different. I don’t really get it. The spell messed up his ability to change but he can use his intuitive magic now.”

Hakyeon wants to trust Hongbin for his own sake. For Leo’s sake. Especially for Ravi’s sake. Hongbin wants knowledge more than power, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t one of those people that would do anything for knowledge.

He won’t assume that Hongbin is going to do something bad, that would be unfair, and so he won’t let his mood dip. While he himself wasn’t a great judge of character, Leo usually did a pretty good job at picking out those that could be trusted. And he’d warmed up to Hongbin pretty damn quick.

For now all Hakyeon could do was answer Hongbin’s questions and trust Ravi and Leo’s impressions of the apprentice. He’d wait and hope that Hongbin was as good and smart as he seemed so far.

“Were Anyethi used for teleportation potions?” Hongbin wonders.

Hakyeon drops the plate he was holding and the apprentice flinches. Leo eyes them both wearily. He likes Hongbin and doesn’t want Hakyeon to be rash, but he also doesn’t want to be used against his will ever again.

Hongbin is surprised by the suddenly on-edge atmosphere and looks down. “I was just wondering. You said that time that different creatures were used to make different potions because of their natural abilities. L-Leo can teleport so I figured that was the ability Anyethi have – had, I guess – and maybe that was why they were… you know.”

The words tumble from his mouth so quickly he’s surprised they were understandable. Both Hakyeon and Leo just stare at him and he’s not sure what to do.

“…But seriously… I’m just curious…”

All Hongbin can think about is Ravi’s casual mention of Hakyeon’s previous apprentices on the day they’d first met. What had happened to them? Did Hongbin need to be worried about it?

Hakyeon was surprised by the question, surprised that Hongbin had been so on the money. He sees uncertainty and a tiny bit of fear flash in Hongbin’s eyes and a small part of him is pleased to see it, the rest of him feels bad about it.

He chooses not to answer the question, mostly because Hongbin had probably already gotten his answer. He instead finishes cooking, cleans up the plate and then joins Leo and Hongbin at the table.

“Leo and I are going away again so you can go stay with Ravi starting tomorrow.”

Hongbin feels his face light up but tries to control it. “Really?”

“Yeah. I don’t know how long we’ll be this time. Maybe three weeks.”

Hongbin was tempted to ask where they were going but he feels like he’s already walking on thin ice. Maybe Ravi will know. Would Ravi tell him if he asked? Probably not, Hongbin realises. He’d felt the tension between Hakyeon and Ravi but he also knew they were hiding things from him, he wasn’t stupid. He just hoped they’d tell him one day.