White flurries cover the mountain tops and harsh winds chill the shore.  The Land of Seol had never been a land where seasonal changes were noticeable.  Instead of one broad city, the Land of Seol is divided into hundreds of tiny villages where families find solace in the small nooks and crannies of the mountain valleys.  The palace is situated at the peak of the tallest mountain.  An intimidatingly high stone wall encircles the massive palace grounds, causing the people of Seol to think the King and the royals as an even further and higher entity.  Just above the edge of the wall, one can see the top of the highest tower inside the royal palace.

"What news of the convoy to Nyo?"

A hefty man wrapped in layers of dirty fur bows.  His beard and brow are frosted with the outside snowfall.  His face is chapped red from the journey.  He is of one of the group of men traveling from Nyo.

"They have conceded My Liege, except..."

The King raises his brow.  A dangerous look replaces the leisurely one from before.  "Except?" he growls.

The large messenger gulps in nervousness, despite being twice as large in girth as the King.  He must word his tale just right or else it will be his own head.

"The Queen of Nyo is very... attached to the late Seer's offspring.  They want to wait one year, until the child is an adult, to release him,  my Liege."

"An adult, you say..." the King muses. 

He thinks back to his consultation with his own shamans.  The wizards at his disposal had foreseen that the child would be of great value to him.  Not only would the child be a powerful Seer, the child of this generation would be a talisman in its own right - a human talisman.

"Yes, my Liege.  The child is fifteen.  Less than one more year will bring him to his sixteenth year.  The Queen asks that she be able to raise him like her own son until he is of age."

"Son?!" the King starts, sitting up in his seat.  The others in the throne room flinch.  "A son?!  Aren't the Kim Seers a lineage of females?"

"My Liege, if you please..." comes a reedy voice from next to the throne.  It is Byuhsool, one of the shamans in the King's advisory line.

The King turns his eyes toward Byuhsool, allowing him to speak.

"This generation of his lineage is powerful for the fact that he is a male Seer, my Liege.  A rare occurrence that is said to only fall every hundred years."

"But the prophesy... am I to take this male child into my chambers?" the King returns.

Byuhsool's thin, cracked lips form into a sneering smile.  "Yes, my Liege.  There are ways to take the ity of males as well.  I am told, though a male, the child is a beauty to behold."

"Hmmm..." the King slumps back into the throne, the collar of his brocade tunic.  "I have no qualms about gender" he laughs.  "But a beauty, you say..."

The King wets his lips slowly with his tongue.

"I don't know if I have the patience, but... for now, I will allow it."

"My Liege?" the messenger asks.

"Tell the King and Queen of Nyo that I will expect my gift in exactly one year's time" the King tells him, the corners of his lips curling in an ominous way.   He leans forward in the chair of the throne, eyes dangerously bright.   "Tell them, that I will be eagerly waiting."

Despite the impending change of seasons, the wind is relentless against the wooden doors of the many houses in the land of Tae.  Built for a warm climate and soft breezes, the roaring winds rattle the doors of even the palace.  The palace servants shiver, not from the cold, but from fear.  The wind, it seems, is an omen of change.  In this case, it is a change for the worse.

It had happened one still, balmy night.  The full moon's light had shone on the edge of a sharpened blade.  Cloaked in expensive linens and masked in good intentions, General Yeolgoon had requested a meeting with his brother the King.  It was late.  Surely, the King would have retired already?  But at the news that it was none other than his only brother, King Taeyeol had agreed to it.

Despite the protests of the palace guards, despite the protests of the Inner Court servants, the King had arisen from his bed chambers and went out to greet his one and only blood brother.  The King was weary.  Due to the rumors of internal unrest in the Land of Tae, different Kingdoms and foreign lands had started to attack in small ways, eager to take over the expansive land of Tae.  The King trusted Yeolgoon to take care of these on the military front, but more than talk about armed tactics, Taeyeol just wanted to speak man to man, brother to brother, family to family. 

When King Taeyeol enters the council room where Yeolgoon waits, he embraces his brother tightly.  It has been a while since the King has seen his brother's face and he is more than joyed to see a face he's longed for.

"Brother" Taeyeol calls out, voice tinted with emotion.  "It's good to see you.  How is the front?"

"Your Highness" Yeolgoon bows.  The linens of his shorter tunic are dyed red, despite it being a faux pas to wear the color of royalty in the presence of the King.

"Please, Brother.  Do not address me so formally when we are alone.  We are brothers first, are we not?"

Something in Yeolgoon's face changes, but the King does not notice.  Instead, the King clasps Yeolgoon's hand, smiling tearfully.

"..."

"These days, I often find myself thinking of our childhood.  We were so very close then, as boys.  Were we not?"

"Were we?"  Yeolgoon slips his hand away and turns his back on the King, looking out the window.  "Perhaps your memory has been sweetened with time, Brother."

"Do you not remember?" asks the King earnestly.  "When our uncles and father were fighting their bloody battles, we only had each other in the world, Brother.  Can you tell me that you do not remember?"

The King moves to where Yeolgoon stands, eyes still filled with affection and pleading.

"Oh, I remember, Brother.  But I believe that my memory serves me better, Brother."  Slowly, Yeolgoon turns, facing the King.  "I remember being sent to the front lines as a young boy.  I remember being beaten every single day by our father, the King."  He spits the last words as if they are disgusting in his mouth.  "I also remember you saying nothing in my defense when Mother too turned me away."

"Brother..."

"No, Brother.  The problem is that I remember all too well.  How pathetic I was.  How weak I was.  How stupid I was to believe that despite it all I was tolerating everything for you!"

"Yeolgoon... what..."

"Don't feign ignorance, Brother.  When you were set to wed, did I not plead to you?  My last remaining pride.  You crushed it.  After all I had given up for you.  After all I had tolerated.  For what?!"

"You...you mean... you are still in love with the Queen?" the King's face is pale.  His hand shakes as he raises it, reaching for his brother's cheek.  But the King's hand is coldly slapped away as Yeolgoon turns his back on the King once more.

"You knew it all, didn't you?" sneers Yeolgoon.  "You knew and yet, you failed me one more time.  Well, that was the end of it, Brother.  That was the day my love for you died."

When Yeolgoon turns back around, King Taeyeol sees the steely cold in Yeolgoon's pupils.  What the King doesn't notice is how Yeolgoon's hand reaches inside his sleeve slowly.

"I...I...didn't..."

"And if you didn't know, Brother, that is a thousand times worse.  For ignorance in a King is a much more poisonous trait than malice or greed ever will be."

The King's mind spins.  To think that his brother had been subject to torment all those years.  To think that his military career had been forced upon him.  To think of the pain Yeolgoon had gone through.  It was too much.  He looks into Yeolgoon's eyes, hoping that, though words fail him now, that Taeyeol will be able to heal him in someway.  As if in slow motion, Yeolgoon draws close.  It's almost as if Yeolgoon moves in for an embrace.  And though a part of Taeyeol understands, another part of him still chooses to believe.

The King closes his eyes, wrapping his arms around his younger brother.  He feels the sharp excruciating pain in his gut.  The blade is quick and his blood runs warm.

"You don't deserve it, Brother" Yeolgoon says in a cold, detached voice.  "The land nor the Queen."

Scarlet flows fast onto his already crimson tunic.  The King's robes are always crimson, embroidered in gold silk thread, and today, they remain crimson.  As his consciousness wanes, Taeyeol's mind jumps from thought to thought - how Yeolgoon has always looked his best in red; how he hopes that with his death, Yeolgoon may heal a little from his past; how he hopes the Queen will be safe.  And lastly, the King's thoughts reach Chanyeol, his only son.

'I love you' the King thinks and then his mind is enveloped in black.

The funeral is a small affair.  The new King had at least allowed this.  Chanyeol grabs his own arms in a death grip, forcing himself not to shake, forcing himself not to cry.  Men are not supposed to cry during a funeral; that was the task of the women.  And yet, as Chanyeol sneaks a peek at his mother, the Queen is stock still.  Although pale, the Queen is stoic with expressionless eyes.  They walk slowly in the funeral procession as they reach the burial grounds.

Once the procession is over and the King has descended into the ground, servants still loyal to the former King rush Chanyeol away.

"We must get you to safety Prince Chanyeol.  General Yeolgoon is bound to do you harm."

The servants surround the Queen as well, but the Queen does not move from her spot by the grave.

"Please, Your Highness.  We must move quickly before the guards come."

The servants cry, beg, and plead with the Queen.  But her only words are: "Leave me be."

In the end, Chanyeol is taken from the burial grounds first.  All the way, Chanyeol's head is turned, watching as his mother sways in the wind.  She looks ever so small and ever so pale.  Still unwell, the Queen is too thin and too weak for this hardship.  Before his mother fades in the distance, Chanyeol sees her lift her head and meet eyes with Chanyeol.  They are the eyes of someone saying good bye.  And it's only then that Chanyeol lets out a choked sob.