Prologue: Baekhyun

Witch

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Baekhyun couldn’t see faces, but he could tell voices and tone.

Pleasant voices were soothing to hear. His mother had a pleasant voice, sweet and lilting, a voice that was able to remind him of faint memories of her face from a time when he was still allowed to see. His father had a less pleasant voice, but Baekhyun’s father wasn’t around much because of the war, so it didn’t particularly matter. His father’s chief advisor, whom he’d left back home to support him, had an awful, scratchy voice that made him positively irritated every time he heard it.

The girl they’d just brought to him minutes prior spoke with a voice that made him think she hadn’t spoken in days. Or months. Or years.

“Let me get this straight,” Baekhyun says, leaning forward. “You just came from Shen Yuan. But you’re not Shen, and you’re also not a spy.”

“I’m not a spy,” she grits out. “I told you, Your Highness, they had me captive. For three years. I just managed to escape and then came here.”

Baekhyun has heard the story already, but it just wasn’t adding up very well. “You have to understand that your claim of escaping Shen Yuan’s is hard to believe, especially because they like to execute rather than keep their captives.”

She sighs through her nose. Baekhyun can hear her irritation; he allows himself to picture the look on her face. But it’s hard, because he doesn’t know what her face looks like. “I told you. I’m a special case.”

“And that case is?”

“Send the guards out,” she prompts. “I’ve told you, I want to talk to you alone.” There’s a moment of silence before she thinks to add, “Please, Your Highness. I just can’t trust too many people right now.”

Baekhyun ponders his options idly. There’s many possibilities; she could be an assassin sent by the Shen. Or she could just be an assassin in general, from any of the neighboring kingdoms. Or maybe she’s a conwoman. Or maybe she’s telling the truth, but the last one’s a bit absurd.

Absurd to many people, but her voice. Voices—the slightest changes in tone and texture of speaking—those don’t lie. That reveals the truth, whether somebody likes it or not. And Baekhyun ca