Chapter 12 flashback

“Are you ready to go?” Hakyeon asks.

Leo nods and holds his hand out to the sorcerer. Hakyeon takes it and gives it a squeeze.

“Should we have told Hongbin?” the Anyethi asks quietly.

The question had been crawling around unpleasantly in the back of his mind since he’d dropped the apprentice off at Ravi’s a week ago. Today they would be going after Hongbin’s old teacher and the other apprentices Hongbin had studied beside for two years.

“We would have had to explain everything…”

But what if he’s loyal to his old teacher? What if he finds out what we did? Leo chooses not to say these things out loud. He didn’t want to give Hakyeon a reason to doubt Hongbin. Insinuating that Hongbin was a danger in some way was probably the worst thing he could do.

“We should explain everything.”

“Maybe,” Hakyeon mutters, more to himself than to Leo. “I’ll think about it.”

“Okay.”

Leo grips Hakyeon’s hand tighter in his own and teleports.

Chapter 14 – Where Hongbin’s From

 “Why are you here, Jaehwan?” Hakyeon questions.

It was a little late to be asking, honestly, they were already positioned and ready to start their attack. The guard had just appeared out of nowhere when they’d hidden themselves, like he’d been given a heads up that they’d be here.

“Ravi said you’ve been using too much magic, I’m here to stop you from driving yourself to insanity.”

Of course it was Ravi, both Leo and Hakyeon think.

Hakyeon rolls his eyes at Jaehwan’s words. “The only reason I had to use so much was because Leo couldn’t change last time.”

Leo scowls. It wasn’t his fault that he couldn’t change, and he knows Hakyeon didn’t blame him for anything, but he still felt guilty about it. Hakyeon had had to work so hard the last time they’d done this and all he’d done was help Hakyeon teleport from place to place. Yes, it had been tiring, but Hakyeon had been mentally exhausted.

Hakyeon wants to point out that it’s still a huge risk, what if Jaehwan was seen by someone who escapes? He eyes Jaehwan who hadn’t even thought far enough ahead to change out of his uniform and sighs.

“Yeongsik could recognise you.”

Hongbin’s teacher, Yeongsik, had been ‘friends’ with Hakyeon for years, since he’d still been in the palace. As far as Yeongsik knew, Hakyeon was on his side, but to Hakyeon it was a struggle to keep up the pretences.

“I’ll be fine. He met me once, Hakyeon, and that was eight years ago.”

Hakyeon purses his lips. “Fine, let’s begin.”

“What’s the plan?”

“Leo will go on the other side near the front door and begin first. He can–”

“How do I known when he’s begun?” Jaehwan butts in.

“…When the yelling starts…”

Jaehwan laughs. “Oh, right.”

“Leo can teleport around and knock out a bunch of people quickly. I’ll take care of the people that run, a group of apprentices got away last time and they attacked us last week. I don’t really want it to happen again so –”

“Why did you guys even go last time if Leo couldn’t transform? Wasn’t that risky?”

Hakyeon sighs at being interrupted again. “They were planning to go out and catch more major creatures so we didn’t have much of a choice. We did manage to get the job mostly done.”

“Jaehwan, you’ll go directly to the basement as soon as it starts. There have been a few times where sorcerers have destroyed the basement before we can get in there and release the creatures.”

‘A few’ was an understatement. Hakyeon hated it how often they’d been unable to save the creatures that were being held on these properties. The magic the sorcerers used to keep people out of the basement, or wherever else, was complicated and often invented themselves. It took even Hakyeon a little while to get in but in most cases the sorcerer had already destroyed the place.

“If you get there fast enough then they won’t have a chance to place all of their spells and you can get in easily. You should be able to break the easier ones yourself. The –”

“Is it only the entrance I need to worry about? What if someone is down there?”

“Just knock them out. You can just release the minor creatures from the basement, they’ll find their own way out. Leo will teleport the major creatures to where they belong and then release them.”

“Top-level?”

“If there are any they’re usually okay to find their way home by themselves but if they’re in bad shape bring them up with you.”

Hakyeon is expecting Jaehwan to interrupt again but he doesn’t. Instead he nods.

“Once everything is still I’ll go around and get rid of their magic. We’re done after that.”

“Okay. When do we start?”

Hakyeon doesn’t have to answer, beaten to it by Leo who scoffs at the guard and then teleports away. Things always took so long when Jaehwan was around.

They don’t have to wait long for the yelling to begin. It’s mostly surprise or outrage as Leo zaps from place to place, knocking apprentices and sorcerers unconscious as he goes. They’d tried a number of different methods over the years and so far this was the most effective, even if it left Leo exhausted.

Hakyeon sets off after the first retreating figure at the same time Jaehwan manages to get into the house. He sprints down the hallways and is really glad that the layout of the house seemed to make sense, unlike Hakyeon’s random trap of a house.

The first lot of stairs he tries lead to a regular basement and he curses, running back the way he’d come into a sort of study area. Leo is busy here, knocking apprentices out by using his intuitive magic in a way Hakyeon had mastered but Jaehwan had never figured out.

When Jaehwan finally finds another set of stairs he feels like he’s been in the house for a long time, searching uselessly. In reality it had been less than one minute since the whole ordeal had begun. He sprints down the stairs and lets out a sigh of relief when he senses the magic around the two thick, wooden doors.

Hakyeon had been right, the spells there weren’t too strong for him to break and he enters the basement quickly. A young sorcerer is there and he throws a spell in Jaehwan’s direction before he goes back to trying to cast another spell.

Jaehwan blocks the spell easily – to his surprise – and charges at the sorcerer. When their bodies collide the spell that had been gathering on the sorcerer’s hand escapes and instead flies towards the wall. The explosion is enough to pelt them with stone from the walls and Jaehwan can only imagine what the spell could have done if it had had time to charge up.

The sorcerer appears to have been knocked out by the tackle and Jaehwan checks his vitals before getting to his feet.

He scowls in disgust as he looks around. Most of the creatures were minor creatures, jammed into cages too small and with too many others. There also appears to be a breeding pair for most species’ that were kept separately in cages nearly too small to move in.

The major creatures weren’t in any better condition, shackled so tightly and muzzled in ways that must have made even breathing a struggle. Jaehwan gives them a wide berth anyway, they were dangerous when they were happy and these had obviously been abused for years.

Jaehwan releases the minor creatures as he’d been instructed. He gets scratched and bitten as he quickly lowers them to the floor one by one but pays it no mind. The major creatures he’ll leave to Leo who would have better luck with them anyway. He looks around for any minor creatures he’d missed and is about to leave when he spots one.

He rushes over to something not much smaller than a cat. At first he thinks it’s a minor creature that was kept on its own but then he notices the thin – charmed, he believes – chains that strap the creature down so it’s flat on its stomach and the thick muzzle that bound its head. It’s a puppy, Jaehwan realizes as it looks up at him with sad, dull eyes.

The other creatures had also been miserable, obviously, but this one looked at Jaehwan in a way that made his heart break. Jaehwan’s hands shake as he breaks the chains, concentrating his magic so to not hurt the puppy as the chains snap.

The muzzle, he can now see, is attached to the floor and is what had kept the puppy in place. It’s harder to get off and Jaehwan has to be careful not to hurt the puppy with his magic as he breaks it apart.

When the puppy makes no attempt to stand up or move, Jaehwan picks it up as gently as he can. Despite it being underfed and miserable looking, Jaehwan thinks he’s cute. The puppy lifts one paw weakly and it brushes over the side of its face and neck. Only then does Jaehwan notice the silver band around it. He recognises it and realizes what the puppy is.

One touch of the silver collar reveals magic way beyond Jaehwan’s level, as he’d expected. He pats the puppy comfortingly before tucking it into his arms and beginning the walk out of the basement.

Leo is leaning against the wall in the lounge room, panting and shaking a little as he attempts to recover from teleporting so much. Hakyeon on the other hand is pulling the sorcerers and apprentices into a group outside so he only has to cast the spell once.

When Hakyeon sees Jaehwan he smiles. “Nobody got away this time. Creatures?”

“I released all of the minor creatures and there were five major creatures.”

Jaehwan holds up the puppy. “And this guy.”

“Oh,” Hakyeon gasps. “It’s an Anyegi!”

Leo’s reaction is not as enthusiastic, ears pulling back wearily, and Jaehwan’s thoughts instantly go to the antagonistic relationship cats and dogs usually had. He holds back a chuckle.

“He’s got some sort of spell stopping him from transforming,” Jaehwan tells Hakyeon, pointing out the collar. “Is it the same as what Leo had?”

Hakyeon scowls at it, just now seeing it. “Yeah, it is. It looks weaker though so I should be able to get it off.”

He knows how to get it off now, he won’t screw up again. With a sigh he takes in the puppy’s condition, noting the state he’s in sadly before he reaches out and rubs the puppy under the chin.

“Don’t you worry,” he tells the puppy before turning to Jaehwan. “Put him on the couch and help me gather up everybody.”

“Got it.”

Hongbin’s old teacher gets a name! (about time).

I didn’t go into detail on the puppy’s condition because frankly I didn’t want to research what abused puppies look like and the state he’d be in. I also didn’t want to depress you guys any more by being descriptive about the basement, so yeah. Let’s just say it as a horrible place and leave it at that.

*Watches choreography teaser* *Melts into a puddle*

I cannot reveal how many times I watched that 5 second clip, my dignity won’t allow it… I was supposed to be writing an essay when I scrolled past that on tumblr… needless to say, the essay was not finished.

I hope Ravi knows he’s responsible for the deaths of countless Starlights.

I love how Leo goes all out, but Ken in the back is just like ‘ugh’ *wiggle* ‘good enough’.

I can’t wait for this comeback *sobs grossly*