Content warning: Description of blood and gore. Mention of war and death.

Chaeryeong knew she was just walking on dry ground, but it felt a lot like wading. Through an endless murky river, with viscous water up to her chest. Her legs were too heavy and her head too light, probably because her blood wasn’t doing a very good job of staying in her body and going where it needed to go. The choking mesh of smoke didn’t help, and neither did the dead bodies that she did her best to avoid stepping on. So many bodies. Chaeryeong thought she heard some of them moan weakly at her as she passed, but she didn’t stop. She was afraid she wouldn’t be able to continue if she did.

Chaeryeong had no idea if she was going in the right direction, and she was prepared to wade for miles before finding what she needed to. But call it fate or her sixth sense, there it was. And there she was.

Hwang Yeji - captain of the Imperial Elite Force, the second prophesied Chosen One, and now, by the looks of it, slayer of the King of Demons - lying on her back with a massive red cloth covering her from toes to chin like a blanket.

“Is that the King’s cape?” Chaeryeong said by way of greeting. “You show-off.”

Yeji peered up in Chaeryeong’s general direction. It took a few seconds for her eyes to focus properly on Chaeryeong, before they became unfocused again. Chaeryeong wondered how many wounds she was hiding under her blanket-cape.

“I’m not showing off,” Yeji said, and Chaeryeong was glad that her voice still sounded clear and confident like it always did, if a little indignant. “I just wanted to look presentable when you come.”

“Okay, whatever you say, Yeji. Mind if I lie down here for a bit?”

Yeji hummed a Sure and Chaeryeong limped closer. She did the bare minimum job of digging out armor pieces and body parts (some attached, some not) so that she ended up with an exactly Chaeryeong-sized empty space on the ground, right next to the Yeji-shaped one that Yeji was already in.

They lay side-by-side for a while in silence. Chaeryeong let herself relax, for the first time in a while really, for the first time in her life maybe, and underneath the pungent smoke and surrounded by fire and blood on all sides, she felt a strange quiet settle in her chest. After a few moments, Chaeryeong recognised that feeling to be peace.

“So it was you, after all,” Chaeryeong said.

“Hmm?”

“The prophecy.” Chaeryeong turned her head towards Yeji to gaze at the symbol of the King of Demons on the cape, right above the left of Yeij’s chest.

“Oh.” Yeji’s eyebrows drew together, as if it was taking great effort to recall what prophecy Chaeryeong was talking about. “Right. You know, I wasn’t even thinking about that.”

Despite the state they were in, that made Chaeryeong - Imperial Warlock, the first prophesied Chosen One, and certified Snarky Smartass - roll her eyes.

“You’re telling me you finally did it, chopped the King of Demons’ head clean off and fulfilled your life’s purpose - our lives’ purpose - and you didn’t think about the prophecy that started it all?”

“I don’t know. Maybe I did?” Yeji’s face scrunched up in concentration for a second but she gave up quickly and shrugged again. “I don’t remember what I was thinking when I killed it. Right now, I’m just thinking about the weather.”

“The weather?”

“Yeah. Do you think the weather’s nice today?”

Chaeryeong turned away from the woman next to her and looked up. That was actually an excellent question. Chaeryeong stared hard, as if with the sheer force of her will she could penetrate the wall of opaque smoke both chemical and magical between her and the sky. She stared until her eyes started to water, and still, she could make out nothing but a distorted, blurry mustard stain for a sun staring back at her.

“I have no idea, Yeji,” Chaeryeong admitted, her own voice as faint as the rustling of a leaf.

“Yeah, duh, but what do you think?” Yeji pressed. “Do you think it’s nice?”

Any other time, Chaeryeong would have scowled at Yeji for spouting nonsense. But right now, as they lay there at the heart of the simmering battlefield, it seemed like a perfectly valid enquiry. And so Chaeryeong tried to think instead of trying to see. She was vaguely aware of the gaping wound on her own stomach and the sensation of someone’s head (the King’s head?) pressing against the sole of her boot, as well as the thousand smells of a thousand people’s blood mixed together in the air. But if she focused a little, it was surprisingly easy to ignore all of that and allow that sense of peace in her chest to expand into the rest of her.

“Yeah,” Chaeryeong concluded after a long while. "I think so."

Again Yeji hummed, this time warmly, melodically, just short of a song. “That’s good. That’s good.”

Chaeryeong felt a tickle in her bones before she even turned back to Yeji and confirmed it: The light was fading from Yeji’s eyes. A wave of urgency rose in Chaeryeong. But it was not panic. And it was not fear. Chaeryeong was prepared to let go. Sometimes, she felt like she’d spend the whole twenty years they’d known each other doing nothing but preparing to let go. She just had to ask one thing before she did.

“Yeji?”

“Yeah? What is it?” Yeji responded groggily, like she would whenever Chaeryeong woke her up so that they could go to training together.

“Is it… Is it all worth it? All of this?”

“Is... all of this worth it? Is it worth... all of this...” Yeji squinted up at the sky, as if still trying to answer her own question earlier about the weather. “I don’t know, Chaeryeong. That’s a really... hah, that sounds like a trick question. You always try to trick me...”

Yeji was trailing off. Chaeryeong watched the way Yeji’s chest rose laboriously, the symbol of the King with it, and then she watched it fall.

For a moment that stretched on and on, she thought that was that - it would never rise again. But another breath managed to shakily work its way into Yeji’s lungs, giving Chaeryeong one more chance.

“All right, let’s try a simpler question. Would you do it all over again? If you had a choice this time, I mean. Would you do all this again?”

“Oh.” Yeji laughed weakly. “That one’s easy.”

Yeji turned her head to make eye contact with Chaeryeong for the first time since Chaeryeong had laid down. The caked mud and blood on her face cracked as she grinned her signature open-mouthed, stupid, perpetually out-of-place Yeji grin.

“I would if you would,” Yeji stated. Simply, and as surely as the sky was blue. 

Chaeryeong smiled back, content with her answer, as she reached over and found Yeji’s hand under the heavily stained crimson blanket. She closed her eyes, letting that grinning face be the memory she’d keep of Yeji.

“Same,” Chaeryeong said.

Yeji probably didn’t hear it. But then, Yeji probably already knew.