VII. The More You Lie, the Stronger the Truth


 

Baekhyun could navigate with minimal light—he’d practiced before. In fact, he had a month where he had been forced to train with no light, which meant using blades while being unable to see more than half a foot in front of him. So he wasn’t particularly bothered when Heejin led him down the trap door, which snapped shut behind him, and they descended down into complete darkness. He was, however, surprised that she did it with so much ease.

It was odd with Heejin, because Baekhyun struggled to figure out what to make of her. She had scaled the rooftops the second time they met with well-practiced ease that was indicative of experience, and she was apparently usually capable of climbing the crates. Now, he could hear her steps down the ladder, sure in the absolute darkness despite her injury, and it reminded him that this girl was strangely, against all odds, capable. But then there was the fact that she bled and hurt like any other person and hoarded Miran’s cookies jealously with a hint of childishness.

Was this how everyone in the outer city was like? He found that hard to believe. Given the fact that no one else seemed to sneak around in the middle of the night, Baekhyun wanted to assume that she was unique. It somehow felt better that way, too.

His foot touched solid ground a moment later. There was the grating noise of a match being lit, and then his surroundings flickered into view as Heejin held up the small flame.

“You can control fire, can’t you?” she asked him. “I don’t have a lantern with me, but can you keep the fire burning?”

Baekhyun hesitated for a moment. Heejin knew his power, but apart from occasionally summoning air, he wasn’t keen on using it in front of her. His power… well, his power felt like it belonged to the inner city, to his family, and out here, he wasn’t to use it unless it was absolutely necessary. It wasn’t his to use.

“Boxian,” Heejin prompted, “can you? Or can you not do that with fire?”

He bristled. “I didn’t say I couldn’t.”

“You were the one who told me your control over fire wasn’t as good as air and water."

“I can still keep the fire burning,” he sniffed, all reservations flying out the window as he reached for her match. Adjusting his grip a bit, Baekhyun focused on the flickering flame, drawing it towards him until he was cupping it in his palm. He shook the match out and let the fire burn slightly brighter, so that their surroundings could be at least partially illuminated.

Around them were stone walls that formed a narrow passage. It was very humid, which would’ve proved difficult if he wanted to summon his own flames, but as it was, he already had a source to draw from, which made things a lot easier.

Heejin was standing very close to him. She leaned in, eyes wide as she stared at the flame he held in his hands. Baekhyun wasn’t sure why he felt so proud that she looked surprised.

“That’s really cool,” she breathed. “How does it work?”

A bit perplexed, Baekhyun shrugged. “It just does,” he replied, for lack of anything better to say.

“Thanks, genius. How does it work? Because you control when you want to use it, that means it’s voluntary and not automatic, right? Is it like raising your arm? Or running?”

He’d never thought about it that way. Countless exercises later on how to better channel and summon his power, and Baekhyun had never really thought into the logistics. He called, focused, and it came to him.

“I… command it,” he settled. “For the fire, I feel it burning and maintain it, and if I want the flame to be brighter, I can pull surrounding air and feed it more oxygen.”

“If it’s not actually a physical limb connected to you, don’t you technically have to imagine it?” Heejin asked. “Whatever you imagine your power doing happens, right?”

Baekhyun frowned. “Not really. Imagination has no bounds, and my power is not unlimited.”

“I see,” was the response he got after a moment of silence. “Well, let’s go. I wanted to show you a place. It’s much nicer there than outside. Just follow the hall, I’ll tell you when we get there.”

Continue down the hall they did. The flame flickered off the dark stone, and at some point, the path dipped down into stairs, and Baekhyun could feel the passageway become even more damp. Heejin didn’t talk much, which felt a bit odd, because she usually had an abundance of things to say. He didn’t have enough courage to start a conversation.

A little while later, the stairs sloped upward again. Heejin’s steps slowed to a stop, and Baekhyun raised the cupped flame to shine on their surroundings.

There was a small wooden door in the wall. There was a faint, pleasant jingle of keys before Heejin was digging them into the lock. It clicked, then her hand paused. “Have you ever seen the sea, Boxian?”

“The sea? Vasileia is a port city. We are next to the sea.”

“No, I’m asking if you’ve actually seen it.”

In textbooks. Heard from others; knew what it was supposed to be like. Had wished he’d be able to see that; an endless expanse of water, something that sounded like home. But… “No.”

“Your power is water, and you live a few kilometers from the sea, yet you’ve never seen it,” she marvelled, and Baekhyun bristled, anticipating some hidden mockery. Before he could retort, Heejin gestured at the door. “This is one of the rare rooftops that’s high enough that you can see the sea without having to travel all the way to the edge of the outer city or outside the gates. There’s not much from here, but it’s still pretty, especially if you’ve never seen it before.” She drew the key out of the lock and gave the door a small push.

The faint silver of moonlight poured into the hall, and Baekhyun extinguished the fire in his palms. They had connected onto yet another rooftop, this one much more narrow than the last.

Heejin stepped outside first. “C’mon. You need to get to this one corner edge to actually see it.”

Without waiting for him, she began limping to the said spot. Baekhyun stared after her for a couple seconds too long before hurrying after her.

Heejin had left him a space next to her in the corner. In front of them, a seemingly endless maze of Vasileia’s buildings sprawled, through the roof they were on were higher than most. Then, further off, between the rise of the walls, there was…

Baekhyun’s breath caught in his throat. Beyond the stone that surrounded the city, he could catch a glimpse of a dark expanse that spread out forever. It wasn’t nearly as black as the night sky, and there was a pale path of light where the moon reflected on the waters, glittering in a manner that seemed otherworldly. The surrounding walls rose higher at both sides, leaving him nothing but that pocket of sea to stare at.

Baekhyun wasn’t sure how long it was before he tore his eyes from the sea, although his head was pounding at the thought in itself, and the only thing he could continue to think of was that he wanted to be there, where water touched the horizon and stretched on and on. He had always been taught to train with barely enough to work with—what would it be like to have so much under his command?

“Well?” Heejin prompted. “What do you think?”

He turned back to her. “It’s beautiful,” he managed, and he meant it so much that he didn’t even think about being embarrassed at how awestruck he sounded, even to his own ears.

She let out a quiet laugh. “Never thought I’d see you so impressed at something, Boxian.”

Boxian. Baekhyun had gotten used to responding to that name, and he hadn’t minded it. But in that moment, under the haze of seeing the sea, he wondered what it would be like to hear her say his real name, in a manner that wasn’t patronizing, irritated, or full of empty praise like it was often said back home. He wondered what it would be like to hear it, just as it was.

But the desire passed, and he knew that he couldn’t toe the line even more. Instead, he tried for a nonchalant shrug. “Have you been to the sea?”

She peered at him. “Why? Do you want to?”

He scowled. “I am asking about you.”

Heejin waved her hand. “I’ve sailed to a couple of places when I was younger. And the gates are open during the day, so I can go see the ocean anytime I want to.”

Something suspiciously akin to jealousy rose at those words. “You can come and go to visit the sea as you please?”

“Yeah.”

Baekhyun turned back to look again. It had seemed endless just minutes ago; now, the small corner he could drink in over the walls felt much too tiny. He wanted to stand up against it, right where he could touch the waves and feel the wind. But he could never sneak out during the day, and even if he could, his family would never…

“I can take you one day.” Heejin’s voice cut through his thoughts, and he snapped around to stare at her. “Not today, and probably not anytime too soon, but if you come out earlier, we can make the trip out there. I know how to sneak out of the city at night. We can go to the beach.”

He eyed her, half convinced she was just joking. But Heejin’s expression was entirely serious, large eyes somber when he met her gaze, which meant that… she did mean it? A buzz of excitement rose, but barely a moment later and Baekhyun was wondering why she would do something like that for him. Come to think of it, he still found it hard to wrap his head around why she was even meeting with him. Really, he wasn’t sure why he was, and…

Heejin tilted her head, and it occurred to him that she was waiting for a response. Baekhyun sniffed and turned away, all thoughts about her intentions fleeing to the back of his mind. “I suppose that would be nice.”

In his periphery, Baekhyun could see Heejin smiling. Afraid his face would feel warmer than it was if he looked directly at her, he turned his attention back to the sea.

***

Baekhyun felt well-rested and was on time when he headed down the stairs to the kitchen. There was breakfast on the table already, and he scanned his surroundings in case Miran had decided on another of her surprise appearances. Idly, he wondered what colour she would be wearing today. She never wore the same clothing twice, from what he had seen, though she seemed to have settled for simpler attires since coming to teach him.

Miran was nowhere in sight, so Baekhyun sat down at the table and began eating breakfast.

He was halfway done when the door opened. He turned. “Good morn—” The rest of the sentence sputtered off like fire doused in water.

Dowon had just finished shrugging his coat off. “Have you still not finished your breakfast yet?”

A week. He had completely forgotten that Miran was only substituting Dowon for a week. He’d gotten so used to her presence that he had completely lost track of time, and some foolish part of him must’ve completely neglected the fact that Dowon would be back soon, which meant things would be different. Such as not being able to eat breakfast while chatting with someone, or not watching her dump five spoonfuls of sugar into a small cup of tea.

Baekhyun gulped. “Sorry, sir.”

Dowon waved a hand at him. Shovelling down the rest of the food, he set the dishes in the kitchen, then hurried back to the table.

His tutor had already made himself comfortable and started laying out the books they were going through. Baekhyun sat down in the chair across from Dowon nervously. He could never tell the man’s expressions (unless it was around Miran, apparently), and today was no exception. He was always snappish and brusque, but even impatience had better or worse kinds.

“I saw the report from your evaluation,” Dowon said in a deceptively conversational tone. “Let’s start with that.”

When he didn’t speak, Dowon raised an eyebrow. He held up a slip of parchment. “Displayed adequate control over shield of air,” he read, “however, Baekhyun lost focus and seemed to be too distracted a state to answer questions properly. Evaluation failed.”

Failed. The world deafened around him, and Baekhyun felt himself freezing. It was an awful sort of sensation of in-between as his mind filled with the fog and cotton of numbness, protecting itself from the sting of terror at Dowon’s words.

He wasn’t sure how long he felt absolutely untethered from his surroundings, but then Dowon snapped, “Baekhyun. Answer the question.”

He jolted, and all of a sudden, the severity of failed crashed back down on him.

“I am sorry,” were the only words that came out. “I-I got distracted, and I was exhausted that day. I talked to Sanghoon the day after my evaluation and requested more training than usual.” He didn’t include the fact that he had requested the extra training as a mediator for the guilt of sneaking out. Baekhyun barely dared think about anything related to Heejin or the outer city when he was back home. “Sanghoon says I am getting better with conjuring the air shield.”

Dowon made a noise. “At least you knew where to improve,” he muttered, more to himself. “I suppose I can’t fault you too much, given that you had to deal with Kwon Miran for a week.”

Baekhyun blinked at him, wide-eyed. Dowon being put off by Miran to the point of blaming Baekhyun’s own shortcomings on her? That was unheard of from the man, because he usually had nothing less than critique for Baekhyun, be it his fault or not.

“I didn’t say this for you to loosen up,” Dowon said brusquely. “Regardless of that woman’s incompetencies, I expect you to be caught up with your lessons as planned, and for you to take extra time to work on the areas you’re lacking. Am I clear?”

He nodded.

There was a moment of silence. “Are you still having problems with sleep?” Dowon asked.

It took all of Baekhyun’s self control to keep his tone neutral. Sleep meant nighttime, and nighttime meant the outer city, and the outer city meant Heejin, and that meant…

No. He wasn’t betraying his family. He wouldn’t ever betray his family.

“It has gotten better, sir,” he replied cautiously.

“Good,” came the dispassionate reply. “Alright, let’s see if you’ve actually learned anything this past week.”

***

Thankfully, the lessons went well. Baekhyun resorted to pinching himself at every unwelcome thought of Heejin, which happened to be quite a few times. The day progressed surprisingly smoothly, and by the time the schedule was over and Dowon was walking him back home, he found it a bit odd that Miran’s constant presence had disappeared just like that. He couldn’t imagine not seeing her again, especially because she had been so overwhelmingly there the past week, but realistically, Baekhyun couldn’t imagine an occasion where he’d really see her again. That, and the fact that he knew enough not to bring her name up in front of Dowon.

By some miracle, he slept well without the tonic, exhausted from training. The next morning, Baekhyun woke up feeling more like himself than he had for weeks. Like he had for the past ten years, he pulled himself out of bed, well-rested, made his bed, pulled on fresh clothing, and headed downstairs to eat. Dowon was there when he was putting his dishes away and arranging the books.

It was odd, this routine, because since the past couple of weeks, Baekhyun had found every constant, routine part of his life messed up and twisted inside-out and outside-in. From meeting his father to training to Miran to Heejin—it had all been so different. Yet today… today felt familiar. Normal.

Normal, if not for the fact that he knew he had told Heejin he’d be back tonight, which meant he’d see her again soon. Baekhyun shook the thought out as Dowon sat down in front of him, unwilling to entertain it any further in front of the man.

“I’ve seen no problem with your lessons,” Dowon informed him. “But you clearly need more work fighting with both your power and a weapon at the same time, so I’ll be training with you today.”

Baekhyun blinked. “So no lessons today?”

A brusque nod. “Change into training clothes and we’ll go.”

Five minutes later, they were walking down the path towards the arena, and Baekhyun realized that even if the morning had felt normal, it wasn’t anymore. He’d walked down the path hundreds upon thousands of times, yet he didn’t feel anything when he spotted his siblings, some stopping to stare or point at him. There was no irritation. No pride. They were just… there. Pairs of eyes tracking his movements, passive bystanders watching him climb higher and higher. If he did fall, did it mean anything to them?

He wasn’t even sure what it meant. Baekhyun hadn’t particularly cared about them before either, but there had always been a twinge of something. They’d been a meaningful comparison point; by placing himself next to them, he could feel proud of himself and his power and his improvements. Now, the comparison fell flat.

Baekhyun was almost relieved when they moved past the residential areas to the arena.

“I want you to be blocking with both air and a blade,” Dowon was instructing him. “But not at the same time. You need to learn what to use at the appropriate moment. Got it?”

Baekhyun nodded. “Yes.”

Dowon tossed a sheathed shortsword at him. Baekhyun drew it from the scabbard, watching as Dowon picked up a broadsword for himself. He gulped. Dowon wasn’t nearly as strong as Sanghoon, but his blows were still heavy and he was just as vicious. Sanghoon was also much quieter when they were sparring, while Dowon didn’t spare him a sharp word at every slight misstep.

Baekhyun raised his sword in a ready stance. It was stuffy in the closed area compared to the open one, which meant that commanding and summoning air took much more concentration than usual.

“Remember to use both,” Dowon said. Then, without waiting another moment, he slashed at Baekhyun.

The best advantage he had over his tutor was that he was much more light footed, which meant that evading was easier. But Dowon had never been fond of an evasive style of fighting, because every time he darted aside, Baekhyun found himself yelled at for not being able to counter the blows.

At some point, he was too backed up in a corner to move. He summoned a shield of air as Dowon brought the broadsword down with absolutely no mercy, wincing at the strain. The shield dissipated a moment later, with Baekhyun barely managing to duck and roll aside before the blade slashed down at where he had been a split second ago.

They continued for a while, never gaining the upper hand against Dowon, yet never lagging too far behind. Just as he was nearing the dregs of his energy, he managed to block one swing with air and go for an immediate counter, intent on ending the session with at least one win under his belt.

It worked. He was leveling his shortsword to Dowon’s throat, keeping up the shield of air around his side, when he made the mistake of faltering.

Baekhyun had trained with a blade thousands of times. Sparring sessions’ wins and losses were based on who managed to either disarm or corner the other, which, in most cases, and it wasn’t anything new. He had known from the beginning that one day, he would not only have to hold his sword to someone’s neck but actually bring the blade across it, and Baekhyun had never had a problem with the thought.

Except he had almost done it—he had held a knife against Heejin’s neck, had felt how easy it would’ve been to cut deeper and slit , and felt how simple it would’ve been to take a life. And now, somehow, it just wasn’t the same.

The brief moment of distraction was enough for the shield to dissipate with his concentration. His swing went lopsided, and the sudden lack of air resistance sent Dowon’s sword slicing towards him at a frightful speed. The man was skilled enough to slow the blow, but not before the blade slashed against his upper arm.

Baekhyun hissed in pain, dropping the shortsword. Dowon cast aside his weapon as well, hurrying towards him. “What the hell were you doing?”

The fabric of his tunic had torn, already staining dark from the cut. It wasn’t extremely deep, but Baekhyun winced at the sharp burn. “I am sorry,” he managed, trying to catch his breath. “I just—I just got distracted for a moment.”

He could feel blood dripping down his arm, underneath his sleeves, until it reached his hand, trickling to his fingertips, and finally splattered against the ground. Baekhyun stood stock-still, knowing that it had been his fault entirely, waiting for the lecture that was bound to follow. It was the same mistake he’d made at his evaluation—the exact same mistake.

Dowon’s silence was enough to keep him rooted in one place, staring at the ground and wishing it would swallow him up.

Just when Baekhyun thought he’d snap under the pressure, his tutor heaved a sigh. “That was extremely stupid of you,” he said in his typical biting tone, though he didn’t seem any more angry than he usually was. “You need to keep your concentration, Baekhyun, even in training. I expect that much of you. You should be better than this.”

Baekhyun gulped. “Sorry, sir.”

He felt Dowon pick up his arm before the man was pushing his sleeves up to inspect the wound. Baekhyun allowed himself to shift his gaze away from the ground to look at the cut. It wasn’t terrible; he’d certainly had worse, but what made it bad was that it had been easily avoidable. If he hadn’t shut down the moment he tried to raise his shortsword to Dowon’s throat, he probably would’ve won. It was clearly a problem Baekhyun needed to fix soon before it caused more than a shallow wound in training.

Dowon dropped his arm and made an irritated noise. “Go find the healer. We’ll work on your power this afternoon, so you won’t have to use that arm.”

***

The healer stitched up the wound and gave Baekhyun a tiny jar of salve to rub on it to speed up the healing process. He opened it, ready to apply it to his arm (it smelled surprisingly pleasant), before remembering that he was supposed to meet Heejin tonight. Then he remembered that she was still limping from when the crates had fallen on her. Against all better judgement, Baekhyun screwed the lid back onto the salve and placed the untouched jar into his pocket.

Dowon made sure to work him extra hard. To his relief, wind and water obeyed him perfectly to make up for the derailed training session in the morning, and even earth and fire were decent. Dowon gave him a very gruff, very ambiguous that was better before sending him home to rest.

Baekhyun did not in fact rest. He heard the servants leave, watched the sun dip beneath the horizon and the moon replace its post in the sky. Outside, quiet chatter died into the silence of night, and Vasileia seemed to sleep.

Baekhyun did not. He pulled on his cloak, padded quietly downstairs, and slipped out the door.

***

Heejin was earlier than him this time.

Baekhyun had a bit of trouble scaling the crates without straining his still-injured arm (he’d bandaged it before he left the house, but it still hurt if he tried to apply force). He ended up summoning a draft to carry him onto the roof, and the air current was wobbly enough to dump him right in front of Heejin, who was sitting with her back to the wall and her leg propped in front of her.

She jolted a little bit when she saw Baekhyun. “Woah.”

He frowned at her. “What?”

“Did you fly up?”

“Yes.”

“Are you too good to climb crates?”

It took Baekhyun a second or two to realize she was joking. He was genuinely surprised to find that no defensive reaction reared its head at her words. Maybe he was beginning to get used to Heejin, with her harmless quips. Because that’s what they were; harmless. Not angry or disappointed or taunting.

“I have a power,” he told her pointedly, “why not use it?”

“You know, most people don’t make it obvious when they brag.”

Baekhyun sat down next to her, making sure to keep a respectable distance between them. He dug into his pocket, where the small jar of salve thankfully remained, and stretched his hand out to Heejin. “Here.”

She took it from him. “What’s this for?”

“Your wound. It is commonly used to treat injuries because the healer infuses it with magic to help speed up the recovery process. You just have to apply it on the cut.”

Heejin’s eyebrows shot up so high that they disappeared under her bangs. “You brought this for me? Isn’t this kind of stuff… hard to come by? Magic and all?”

Baekhyun turned away so he wasn’t looking at her and rather at the bland stone wall across from them. “I am not giving it to you for no reason,” he said. He really should’ve thought the excuse through before making it. Or even just thought of a plausible excuse. “It is…” He glanced towards the other corner of a wall and was struck by sudden inspiration. “You said you would bring me to see the sea, and you cannot do that until you have healed. The quicker you heal, the sooner I get to see the sea.”

He felt Heejin’s eyes on him even though he refused to meet her gaze. Just when he felt the scrutiny was a bit too much, she turned away. “Fair,” she said, and didn’t linger on the topic. “So how do I use this thing?”

Very thankful that she didn’t probe and he didn’t have to continue his made-up story to hide the fact that he had given her the salve that should’ve been used to treat his own injury, Baekhyun gestured at her wounded leg. “Just apply it to the area that was hurt. Do it for two days and it should be fully healed.”

Heejin didn’t question him anymore. She rolled her pants up all the way to mid thigh, and a bit aghast at the casualness of her actions, Baekhyun turned his head in the opposite direction. He didn’t look at her until he saw her pushing her trouser leg back down in his periphery. “Thanks, Boxian. And wow, it does feel better. My leg literally stopped hurting the moment I smudged it on.”

He made an uncommitted noise in response, something he’d learned from Dowon, and Baekhyun was surprised at how easily indifferent he sounded when he actually felt quite pleased at what he’d done. His own arm throbbed, but Baekhyun didn’t quite mind as long as Heejin was healing. It meant she could take him to the sea sooner, he reasoned to himself, now more or less convinced by his own excuse—it made him feel less foolish. “Apply it again tomorrow,” Baekhyun instructed her. “Then the day after, and you should be fully healed.”

“Got it.” Heejin leaned forward a bit, forcing him to meet her gaze. “I’ll take you to the sea next time we meet, then.”

Baekhyun perked up. “Really?”

A smile spread across her face, and Baekhyun’s brain was too frazzled with excitement to fight the fact that he found her, with her freckles and large eyes and uneven hair, to be very pretty. “Yes, really.”

It wasn’t the thought of the sea that made him smile back, even if he really did anticipate it. Baekhyun found himself matching her grin, unable to help himself.

He knew he didn’t smile this often back in the inner city.

_________

hello, it's been five months when it shoud've been like... three because i had this finished two months ago lol 

i know there aren't a lot of people reading prodigy, but comments are appreciated! let me know what you think :) this fic is my baby so i will be finishing it no matter how long it takes LOL just so i can officially say cutlass is finished!