Chapter 28 – The Wait Begins

For the first week Hakyeon barely sleeps. He spends his nights fretting over whether Dohyun is alive or not. It takes days for news from the capital to get to this part of the country so if the king had been attacked and injured it would take them a while to find out. At the same time it also took days to walk here and Dohyun could be on his way back right now.

He spends his days crushed by guilt as he tries to fix the spell on Leo. Since arriving at the house Leo has been spending more and more time unable to change out of his cat form. He’d obviously failed to break the spell properly and now it was playing up. Leo tried to reassure him that he was just happy he was able to be here with Hakyeon and for the most part that was true but sometimes the frustration would creep in too.

Hakyeon spends any spare time he has on edge. He’d reconfigured the spells on the house so they were attuned to him – only now realising how much magic Dohyun had been using to keep them up at all times – so he had no choice but to abandon his old room and take over Dohyun’s.

One of the spells was around the perimeter of the house and would shock him when someone got too close. These days a lot of people were getting too close and it scares Hakyeon how quickly he decides that he can’t let them report back to the king, leaving him only one option.

The note Dohyun had left is crumpled and worn after a week of reading it over and over but Hakyeon never puts it down. It isn’t until Leo reminds him to contact Yeongsik that he even remembers that was an issue.

He and Prince Minho had spent a long time deciding how to go about this but when Hakyeon receives a letter from Jaehwan – and quickly informs the guard to never send him letters again in case they’re intercepted – that he figures out exactly what he’s going to do.

Yeongsik,

I’m sure by now you’ve heard about what happened at the palace. Don’t trust the king. All I ever did was work for him and yet somehow I came to be considered a ‘threat’. I took the opportunity to remove some rare ingredients from the king’s possession, it always annoyed me that he got the best and ordered others to bring theirs to him. Let me know where you stand on all of this.

Hakyeon.

The sorcerer writes and rewrites the letter before eventually just giving up. “Think this will work?” he asks Leo.

The Anyethi shrugs. “Maybe. Depends on how loyal Yeongsik is to the king.”

Hakyeon sighs and sends the letter before pulling out the one Dohyun had written to him. Once again it’s Leo that makes him realise he’s neglecting the things he’d said he’d do.

“Aren’t you supposed to go see Ravi about the health potions?”

“Ah,” Hakyeon gasps. “I forgot.”

He’d wanted to go see the potion maker sooner to get information on Dohyun but he’d been too distracted and caught up in his own mind to actually leave the house. He had the prince’s orders memorised and knew they were big so the sooner he got to Ravi the better.

“Let’s go in the morning,” Hakyeon suggests. “Do you think you can teleport yet?”

Ravi is drowsily minding the shop when they arrive the next morning. The fifteen year old flicks through a potions book, scribbling notes on the edges of pages as he goes.

“Welcome,” he greets when the door opens, not looking up at first. “How can I help–”

A glance towards the door cuts his words off, instead to be replaced by a screech. “Hakyeon!”

The potion maker sprints forward, pulling Hakyeon into a rough hug. Hakyeon laughs and hugs him back. “Long time no see,” he greets.

“You won’t believe what’s happened!” Ravi cries, trying to mentally prepare himself.

Hakyeon hands Dohyun’s letter over. “I already know. Do you know anything more?”

Like if he’s still alive? Hakyeon asks silently. It’s a tiny, unrealistic hope that’s hovering in the back of his mind but he can’t help it.

Ravi reads the letter and sighs, handing it back. “Mum went too.”

“Chunja did?”

The teen nods. “Yeah. She sent me a letter two days ago.”

“And?” the sorcerer prompts when Ravi doesn’t continue.

Ravi meets Hakyeon’s eyes sadly. “He didn’t make it. I’m sorry, Hakyeon.”

The breath escapes Hakyeon’s body in a surprised huff despite how prepared he’d thought he was. Leo nudges against his leg, meowing softly in comfort. Hakyeon bends down to pat him, using this time to compose himself.

“What about your mum?” Hakyeon wonders after a little while, voice sounding tight against his will. He clears his throat and stands up again.

“Mum fled the country, went back home, I guess.”

For a second Hakyeon wants to point out how irresponsible it is of her to leave Ravi, a fifteen year old, here alone but Ravi distracts him.

“Your cat is cute,” he states simply.

Leo narrows his eyes at the potion maker and then avoids the hand that reaches out to pet him.

“He’s also an arsehole,” Ravi adds.

Hakyeon laughs – ignoring the glare Leo shoots him – and corrects the teen. “Leo’s an Anyethi.”

Leo meows as Ravi’s mouth falls open. “No way! Anyethi are super rare! I only ever see things about them in potions books!”

Hakyeon recoils at the mention of ingredients. “Yeah, listen,” he begins. “There’s some stuff I need to tell you.”

It takes a long time to tell Ravi about all the things that had happened over the last two years. The teen interrupts frequently with questions and his expression gets grimmer and grimmer as the conversation continues.

“And how are you going to ‘get rid of’ all the sorcerers exactly?” Ravi asks at one point.

Hakyeon doesn’t particularly want to admit to what’s been going to in the last week but Ravi manages to weasel it out of him. His expression is one of complete disapproval and a little bit of fear.

“I didn’t have a choice,” Hakyeon mumbles, not liking the look.

“There’s always a choice,” Ravi replies.

They move on then to the prince’s plans and what he wanted Ravi to do, but Hakyeon’s thoughts linger on what Ravi had said. Could he somehow get rid of the sorcerers without killing them? Was that something that could be done? Could he take their magic from them? With a spell? With a potion?

He’s already brainstorming ways to go about this when Ravi sighs. “Listen,” he says. “I’ll make the potions, but just know that I don't really care about the prince’s plans. I’m doing this to help you, Hakyeon. However, you need to figure out exactly what it is you’re trying to do and whether it’s right or not.”

Hakyeon doesn’t really like that he’s being lectured by someone almost five years younger than he is but he has to admit that Ravi is right. He has no idea what he’s doing or how he’s going to do it. For now he has time to work on these things.

Leo is purring loudly on Ravi’s lap, enjoying the way the potion maker is rubbing between his shoulders. Now that the heavier topics have been discussed they’d taken a while to just catch up. Hakyeon had forgotten how much he’d liked Ravi. It was nice to feel like everything was normal for a little while.

“What do we do now?” Ravi asks eventually.

Hakyeon sighs. “I guess we wait.”

*Skips over a lot of major things in very brief detail* “Meh, they know the outcome of all this bull anyway” Lazy writing alert. 

(Edit: Drabble - A Good Actor takes place after this chapter and before/during/after chapter 30)

Just note that it’s around this time that Hakyeon begins trying to make the spell he uses to take away sorcerers’ magic and delivering bodies to Ravi to be sent away. He also teaches Ravi the teleportation potion which he figures out easily and begins studying why he failed to break Leo’s spell.