Chapter 7 – What are you?

It’s hot, Hakyeon grumbles to himself. It never got this hot where he was from and he was glad of it. Why he’d agreed with Jaehwan to go on this walk he has no idea. It was his day off and he just wanted to sleep and maybe do some reading, yet here he was walking all over the palace with his guard.

In the last week Jaehwan had pretty much been around constantly and at first Hakyeon thought it was annoying, but then he’d found it sort of relaxing and beneficial. Jaehwan was always talking – often about things going on in the palace that Hakyeon wasn’t supposed to know – and Hakyeon found it easy to zone out to. Jaehwan was quickly becoming a good friend and ally.

When they get to the courtyard Hakyeon isn’t expecting anybody to be there, but there is. It takes Hakyeon a moment to recognise the boy as the same one he’d seen in chains a week earlier. He wasn’t chained now but he’d definitely been roughed up. Hakyeon could only see his arms and a little of his chest but the boy was bruised all over.

He’s lying on his back on a stone bench with a book behind his head like a pillow. He looks like he’s asleep but Hakyeon wasn’t sure. Maybe his eyes were closed because the sun was bright. Who knows…

While Hakyeon was the best sorcerer from his region he knew he had a lot of things he couldn’t do. He couldn’t do any healing spells properly. His far-sight potion never worked. And he just could not charm a rabbit’s foot to be lucky. However, there were some things that Hakyeon was better at than anybody, and identifying magical creatures was one of them.

Magical creatures always had a certain feel around them which Hakyeon attributed to their higher levels of intuitive magic. That boy who was lying in the sun with his head on a book and bruises on his skin, he was definitely not human.

“I wouldn’t if I were you,” Jaehwan warns.

“Wouldn’t what?” Hakyeon asks without looking away from the boy.

“Whatever it is you’re thinking of doing.”

Hakyeon is already walking forward before Jaehwan finished his sentence. “I’m just going to talk to him.”

Jaehwan sighs but doesn’t pursue his charge. “I wouldn’t do that either.”

It is only as Hakyeon approaches that he sees the cat ears on top of the boy’s head, if one hadn’t turned to listen in his direction then Hakyeon would never have noticed them at all. While Hakyeon’s teacher had taught him about how wrong it was to use creatures, he hadn’t really told Hakyeon about the types of creatures there were beyond the ones that always showed up in potions.

Hakyeon feels an uneasiness settle in him as he remembers the scene from the other day. He hadn’t been sure what to make of it at the time but now he knew that this boy had been captured and brought here to be used and he didn’t like it.

Hakyeon is still several meters away when the boy sits up and turns to give him at wary look. Hakyeon stops where he is, not wanting to startle him. The boy had obviously been through a lot in the last few days, Hakyeon was kind of surprised he was still in one piece to be honest, considering his treatment and the fact that he was a creature.

“Hi,” the sorcerer greets softly. He motions to the empty space next to the boy on the bench. “Can I sit there?”

The cat-boy glances at the space beside him as if surprised it was there and then he’s staring at Hakyeon again. The nod he gives is so small Hakyeon almost misses it. Hakyeon smiles and takes the seat.

The boy is on edge – Why shouldn’t he be? Hakyeon grumbles – but he looks okay until he notices Jaehwan. He instantly tenses and his ears shoot back to lie flat against his head.

“It’s okay,” Hakyeon says softly. “He’s on our side.”

The boy looks around at Hakyeon but one ear stays pointed towards Jaehwan. “Our side?” he asks with narrowed eyes.

Hakyeon smiles, “You know, the ‘not-catching-and-torturing-people’ side.”

The boy’s ears shoot forward in surprise. “People?” he whispers.

Hakyeon shrugs. “Yeah. You are a person, aren’t you?”

The boy looks down, trying to figure out how he feels. Nobody had ever called him a person before. He’d been called a great number of things, but ‘person’ was never one of them. He’s surprised, of course, but he also feels his lips begin to turn up into a smile.

Hakyeon feels his own smile grow in response but the boy is embarrassed by it. He ducks his head to hide his happiness. How long has it been since he’s smiled? It feels weird on his face. How long has it been since he’s spoken to someone? No, how long had it been since he’s been spoken to nicely?

The sorcerer chatters about everything and nothing and the cat-boy listens. He’s curious. About the world he knew nothing about, about the people that lived in it, and about the incredibly powerful sorcerer that sat next to him like he belonged here.

There was no denying that Hakyeon was powerful, Leo could feel the deliberate magic reserves. It unsettled him because he knew how they were built up, but he wanted to trust this man, so for now he’d give him the benefit of the doubt.

“Can I touch your ears?” Hakyeon asks after they’ve been sitting together for a little while.

The desire to trust is what makes the boy nod cautiously. He couldn’t protect himself right now so he really was taking a risk. Part of him felt stupid, part of him felt anxious, and the rest of him was completely drawn in.

Hakyeon reaches out slowly and runs a finger over one of the boy’s ears. “Soft,” he mutters.

Hakyeon doesn’t think the boy realises that he has begun leaning into the touch. Fighting off a smile, Hakyeon begins to massage behind the ears like he would on a normal cat and the boy’s eyes close.

“Mmm,” he murmurs.

It’s the first time he’s had someone touch him in a nice way since his parents had been killed. It feels good and he fights the urge to purr.

“What’s your name?” Hakyeon questions softly.

The boy pulls back, looking confused. “Not ‘what are you?’”

Hakyeon frowns sadly. “No.”

“But everybody asks ‘what are you?’”

“Well I want to know your name. I don’t care what you are.”

They stare at each other for a long time. Hakyeon is incredibly depressed over the boy’s response but at the same time he feels happy. That he gets to talk to this boy and to start learning about his life. That he’d been allowed to touch. That he had had the teacher he had had even if he hadn’t understood the lessons he’d been taught until now.

“I’m Hakyeon,” he says, hoping to draw out a response.

The boy’s eyes are shining when he looks up to answer. “Leo.”

Hakyeon feels the need to do something about this. Years of his teacher’s words and lectures repeat in his head. All of the times he’d been forced to listen to him go on about how magical creatures shouldn’t be used as ingredients and kept in cages. He’d always agreed to some extent, but for the first time Hakyeon feels the same passion his teacher had and he realises why his teacher had wanted to work in the palace, to put a stop to it all. To the cruelty and the slavery and the war Hakyeon hadn’t known they were fighting.

After exchanging names, Hakyeon hadn’t gotten a chance to talk with Leo any more. He had a lot of questions, a lot of things he wanted to discuss, but Jaehwan’s warning that Suhee was coming stopped him. He said goodbye to Leo, promised to talk to him again, and fled the courtyard with Jaehwan.

Hakyeon didn’t get to talk to Leo for another month. Occasionally he’d see the boy around the palace, accompanying the king or lounging in the sun in the courtyard, but he never had the chance to talk due to the guards. It’s Jaehwan that gets Hakyeon information about the boy.

“He’s pretty much allowed to go anywhere in the palace,” Jaehwan tells him.

“Why? He’s nothing more than an ingredient to these people.”

“Nobody really said anything, but I think the king is using him as a sort of display of power.”

Hakyeon scowls. “But why? How is he any better than other top-level creatures?”

Jaehwan shrugs. “You’ll have to ask him that,” the guard smirks. “I found out where his room is.”

“Really?” Hakyeon demands, springing to his feet. He’s already planning how to get into that room.

“Are you sure this is going to work?” Jaehwan asks nervously. “Why do you want to see him so badly? Is it really worth risking our lives for? You do know if we get caught they’ll kill us for treason, right?”

“It’ll work. Yes, yes and yes. Now shut up so I can concentrate.”

Jaehwan watches as Hakyeon takes a deep breath, mutters one word and then fades from sight. The drawback of this spell was that Hakyeon wasn’t actually invisible, he just couldn’t be looked at directly. His shadow could be seen really clearly, however, and that was why Jaehwan had been dragged into it.

“How long will that last for?”

“Until I stop it. Now let’s go.”

They walk down the hallway together. Jaehwan bows and nods to guards as he goes and Hakyeon shadows him. Literally.

Leo’s room was in the ‘lower-guest’ housing and the whole area was empty. Or it would be if it didn’t have guards all over the place. Luckily there is only one guard outside Leo’s door and it was the same guard that had told Jaehwan where the room was in the first place.

“Sungsoo,” Jaehwan greets him.

“Jaehwan,” the guard grins back.

“You look so bored,” Jaehwan laughs, wrapping an arm around Sungsoo’s shoulder.

He begins to distract the guard and Hakyeon places his hand over the lock on the door. After a couple of seconds it gives a soft ‘chink’ – which Jaehwan laughs over – and the door opens. Hakyeon slips in, closing the door swiftly and silently behind himself and then casting a silencing spell over the room.

Leo is staring at the door, looking worried about what was to come. Hakyeon doesn’t like that look so he quickly removes the spell and Leo’s mouth falls open in surprise before curling into a soft smile.

“You came,” he says softly.

Hakyeon grins. “I came.”