21. XXI

The late summer heat sent its merciless waves across the lands. Elantris found itself trapped in a feverish dome, as it endures blazing sun rays and brisk winds. With a spark, the dried out, inland vegetation becomes a burning inferno. 

“Your majesty,” A courtier rushed into the palatial room. “The fabrics exports from district eight have been disrupted by the forest fires.”

The King frowned in annoyance. “Do they not have water?”

“There has been hardly any precipitation for the past few months, your majesty.”

The King glanced outside his glass window and raised his brows. “It does seem dry.” 

“And so,” the King continued, “isn’t Lord Kwon doing his work?”

The courtier began cautiously. “Y-Your majesty… we have…received news of unrest in district eight. The citizens have suffered great loss from the growing heat, and they are strongly demanding the removal of food rations.”

“What about district 2? The Aquas could spare them some water.”

“There is not much water left in district 2, your majesty.” Most of the water was already spent on the capitol. The district could barely support itself in this drought. 

The King frowned. “What about the unrest?”

“Protests and strikes has begun, and it does not look controlled, your majesty.” The courtier paused. “Should we send in some sentinels, your majesty?”

The King spluttered a wheezing cough. 

“Your majesty–” The courtier began to worry, but the King shook his head weakly and said hoarsely. “Send them in. I doubt that my concubine's brother would know how to deal with those ungrateful rats.”

He in another wheezing breath, yet before he could achieve a moment of peace, another figure appeared in mid-air. 

“Your majesty.” It was one of his invisible spies. “The Marquis’ residence is under attack.” 

“What?” The King choked. 

Suddenly, a gust of wind rushed through his windpipes, and his brain was a blur of nothingness. Voices and shouts diminished and drifted far away as he was engulfed into a void of darkness. Amongst that vast hollow emptiness, was an eerie voice that began her wicked ritual. 

 

“My brother.”

 

“I told you to do no harm to my brother, didn’t I?”

 

The voice blasted in his ears as he yelped against the female ghost. Slowly, the void of darkness cleared, revealing a woman of pallid complexions with lavender pupils and a lunatic smile. 

 

Lee Sunmi. 

 

The concubine that died innocently under his hands. 

…….

“Your majesty!”

“Your majesty!”

The King found himself on his majestic bed, surrounded by a flock of courtiers and maids. In the midst of the gathered personnel, there stood the Queen and his Crown Prince, who both contained looks of worry and concern. 

“Alfonso!” The Queen cried. “You’re awake!” Despite the pooling warmth under her eyes, the King was pretty sure there was a flash of disappointment in his wife’s gleaming orbs. 

“Father! Are you alright?” The Crown Prince was geniune, however. 

With the help of a few arms, the King stretched himself up with a grunt. He opened his mouth but only an airy breath escaped his throat. He choked, and the Queen soothed his back gently, with faked concern in her eyes. “Take it easy, my dear."

The King was sure the Queen was treating him with such tenderness because her son’s journey to the throne is soon to be completed. The King should be concerned about his deceptive Queen, his incompetent Crown Prince, and his power-hungry concubine and eldest son. 

Instead, the King shudders at that haunting wicked smile. He wondered who planted such horrid snapshots in his brain, but Lee Sunmi was already dead, and she would remain dead. The ugly truth to her death will remain buried, just like all the disappearances of the palace’s rotten truths. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A thin wisp of haze shrouded the silvery claw, wiping off its ethereal glow. In the midst of shadows, the assassins raised their swords. Before they charged, the ground shuddered below their feet. In a blink of an eye, the garden transformed into a sinister menace. The summer green grass thickened and sprouted in an instant, as they cocooned around a dozen pairs of legs. The assassins tried to fight off the grasp, yet the meadow kept its fangs and slithered its way up. Oak trees stretched their arms, forming a dome of canopy, as vines shot from above. Splatters of blood stained her masterpiece. With a lift of her arm, two dozen lifeless bodies lay on the floor. Some had vines entangled around their neck, throats pierced by thorns, while others had branches stabbed through their chests and whip-lashes over their backs. Only the lucky ones were gobbled up by enormous petals. 

A handful of them were able to escape the Marchioness’s wrath. They flung themselves onto her, swinging their swords while dodging her flying thorns swiftly. Her emerald sword clashed with theirs, producing cacophony underneath the silent starry observers. 

She tried to catch her breath as she escaped a blow narrowly. It has been a few months since she had released her powers all at once, and this was indeed taking a toll on her stamina. 

I should’ve trained more, if this would happen.

She thought, as she gritted her teeth and swung another blow to the nearest killer.

Three left. 

Even as a trained warrior herself, she struggled to catch up with their swordsmanship. Not to mention that her lungs were for air, and her muscles were starting to tremble. She dodged and drew back, attempting to shoot out her branches, but her strength was deteriorating, and her weakened branches were easily sliced by sharpened swords. They moved closer towards the mansion, while she shuffled backwards. 

She did consider using poison, but she was afraid. She had no idea who wanted Taemin dead. It could be one of his political enemies, those who held power in their palms. If any one of the assassins manage to escape, then her dangerous secret will be known. 

She couldn’t afford this risk, especially when she is his wife, the Marchioness. Who knows what the King would do if he knew she was trying to neutralise his poison. 

She took a deep breath, clenched her jaw and mustered all her strength, hoping her powers won’t run out just yet. A strike followed, as two more collapsed under her hands. 

The burst of her powers was all she could make, as the last perpetuator drew himself closer and closer. Now, the tremors on her legs were too hard to hide, but she bit the insides of and forced herself to keep standing. 

No. I can’t collapse. I can’t fall down just yet. 

Her chest heaved to as much air as possible, while faint clashes still echoed from the living room behind her. They were still fighting. Taemin is still in danger. She hasn’t finished her job yet. 

 

Just one more strike. 

 

Just one more. 

 

She begged the energy in her veins to beat again, to circulate and revive her soul again, yet none of those waves came to her. 

Knowing that she ran out of powers, the man came closer and closer, and she could almost make out a mocking smile from his eyes. He was just almost an arm’s width from killing, or poisoning—or whatever he would do— until—

 

His smouldering pupils turned hollow. 

His face sank into a mask of emptiness.

 

An agonising scream escaped his mouth, before he collapsed onto the tartered, bloody floor. 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Naeun

The man collapses with a thud. 

With my lungs still gasping for air, and my legs screaming at me, I turn back. 

The faint moonlight crafts his lone silhouette on the patio. His hair is dishevelled, and when I narrow my eyes for a closer look, I almost let out a gasp. His face is as white as a sheet of snow— almost pale as a ghost. The scarlet splatters on his face only makes him look more sickly and frightening. He in air through his colourless lips, as his chest heaves heavily, gasping harder than I am, and it was then when I realised that half of his coat is soaked in blood. 

Yet with that tattered body and sickly face, dark, simmering flames fuel his pupils. 

 

I have never seen him so anguished—  no, I have never seen him so broken, yet so full of power at the same time. 

 

Not even when he stands in gore and smokes in the opening ceremony. Not even when he is engulfed in the wraiths of poison. 

 

If I was still the same self as four months ago, I would’ve been afraid. 

 

Yet this frightening image does not cast fear in my heart. 

 

Instead, all I could wonder is what they have done to him, if he is truly alive— if the dripping blood on his shoulder would cast immense pain on him— whether he would crumble in front of my eyes, and how I should hold him in my arms like how he held me through my nightmares weeks ago. 

“A-Are–” My voice comes out as a croak. I swallow my words and force them out again. “Are—you—” Before the last word escapes my throat, my legs finally surrender to defeat. I’d expect the feeling of soft grass grazing against my crumbled knees, yet a pair of arms catch me midair. A whiff of metallic scent fills my nose, as his soaked shoulder comes into view. 

“W-What are you doing?” I croak. 

With one arm hooked behind my knee, and another around my shoulder, he hoists me up without a word. 

“H-Hey! Put me down!” I say. “Aren’t you injured?”

Only his footsteps answer my plea. Step by step, he lifts me up the stairs. My energy is starting to fade, and haze slowly coats my vision. We must’ve entered a room, because I hear the door snap shut behind us. This was when I finally hear his mutter against my ears. 

 

“That was too risky.”

 

He places me gently on the silken sheets. His arm still loops around my back, while the other caresses my wrist. 

 

“If it wasn’t risky, I wouldn’t have helped.” I say weakly, as his warmth coats me into drowsiness. 

He is weirdly silent. I assume that he must be as out of breath as I am. Immediately, I let my heavy eyelids flutter close. I’d expect him to loosen his arms around me, and silently exit the room, yet he sinks beside me. 

“Go get a healer.” I mutter. I am in no state to take care of him, and with all the bloodiness and sickly paleness, he surely needs help more than I do. 

I don’t know what happened downstairs, but he must’ve had a hard fight. 

 

Silence stretches, filling the narrow space between us. 

 

Suddenly, an embrace of warmth surrounds me. 

 

“I don’t want you risking yourself for me.” He whispers against my ears, as he wraps his trembling arms around me. 

 

I let out an empty laugh. 

 

“I’m not risking myself for you,” I retorted, blurting out all the words I can before I lose my breath. “I’m here for me. Because I still have things I wish to accomplish with my life.” 

I just want to survive. I just want my safehouse, my protector to survive. I just want my family and my friends to survive after all of this. All I wish is to protect them all. 

“It… it’s just that…” I in another breath. “My wishes have something to do with you.”

 

There is no need for him to feel sorry. 

 

I am only saving him for me. 

 

No more.

 

A moment passed in stillness, as he tightened his hold around me. “I don’t have any wishes, Naeun,” he said gently. His voice brushes past my ears. “I haven’t had the luxury of dreams for many years.”

 

Somehow, my lips curl into a smile. 

 

“Liar.” I whisper, as fatigue pulls me away from his warmth into darkness. 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Taemin

When she landed from the skies, my heart collapsed. 

I did not want to drag her into this. Bloody assassins, deadly deals, lethal snickers— these are just the norms of the sinister courts. On my sixth year of trekking into the realms of darkness, I should be able to manage it on my own, and even when my powers have vanished, when my bones cackles in pain, and when I am between life and death, I knew I was facing this alone, and no one should be drawn into my mess. 

No one, and especially not her. 

Yet at that moment, when she raises her arms and unleashes her blast of powers, my heart shivered in fear. 

 

I’ve forgotten all the pain in my veins, the gushing wound on my shoulder, the trembling hands and my shattered bones. 

 

Amidst the gloomy darkness, all I can see is her. Every swing of their swords, and every dodge that she makes, send shudders into my spine. 

 

Because this is exactly what haunted me in my dreams. 

 

Her cold body lying lifelessly in my arms.

 

I told myself to move— I told my legs and my chattering bones to bring themselves together, I yelled at my soul to come alive again.

 

Get up— for goodness sake—

 

I can’t let her sacrifice herself for me, I can’t let her become the lifeless corpse in my nightmares, and I—

 

I can’t bear to lose her. 

 

Grunts and screams seep through the howling winds, and when I turn my head to the glass doors, our garden has transformed into a monstrous abyss. 

And standing in the centre, was the beautiful ruler of hell herself. Her curled black hair fluttered against the clanging the swords, her long dress flowed against howling winds, her feline eyes fired murderous glares across the room. 

 

It reminded me of the opening ceremony, when I saw her for the first time, and when she demonstrated her immense skills and striking abilities. For these past months, I’ve forgotten how powerful she is, how capable she is in battling hundreds, let alone defeat dozens of skilled assassins. 

But that doesn’t mean I’m willing to see her fight for me. I’d adore her for fighting for herself, for her own house, yet right now, for every second that I watch, my blood turns colder and colder, and my heart lurches in anguish. 

I prayed to the heavens to keep her safe, begged the heavens to let me keep her safe, let me protect her, let me do all the dirty things so she won’t have to get her hands dirty—

 

Please. 

 

I closed my eyes and took a deep, shuddering breath. 

 

Suddenly, all the clashes, the clangs and shouts turned into silence, as a gush of energy rushes through my blood, and the familiar wave of power blasts through me. 

The burning pain leaching through my bones, the snickering toxin running through my veins, and the gushing wound on my shoulder vanished into a breath of nothingness. 

 

“MY LORD!” Ravi yells, as a sword comes hair-breadth away from my eyelashes. 

 

This time, I dodged. 

 

The sword slipped past my cheek, and right at that moment, I caught the poor man’s eyes. Immediately, he drops his sword to the floor, and crumbles to the floor with a thud. Usually I would toy with the assassins, explore their minds and to find out who was indeed behind them, yet right now, I have no time to play around. 

I have a wife outside. 

 

My wife. 

 

I try to catch a glimpse outside, just so I could slip past the intruders to fight those in the garden, but another sword slices an inch away from my nose. I turn back to catch his eyes, but it’s too dark, and my violet gaze couldn’t catch a single thing. Instead, when the sword comes towards me again, my injured arm raises itself and catches the sword by its hilt. The assassins seemed to forget that I don’t just rely on my eyes— or they think I’m physically weak— because when I twist his wrist with a crack, he yelps in pain. I catch his dropped sword and stab him without hesitation. More and more come to me, and metallic bloodiness splatters all over me, while my coat drips and soaks in weight. 

Finally, I was able to catch a slit between those hungry wolves. 

There were only a few intruders left, as they cornered around her. She panted her breath, and her branches were sliced off easily. 

I have to be out there right now.

The door was on the other side of the room, so I sliced through the assassins with my arm and my eyes, severing through blood and bone. 

I needed them out of my way.

At last, after I’ve killed her last assassin on the patio, she turns to me, with dishevelled hair splattering all over her face, with lips parted apart to catch her precious breath of air, and with clothes torn apart. Her eyes glitter in the darkness, mirroring the starry glow of celestial heavens. 

 

I can’t help but to release a heavy sigh of relief between my gasping breaths.

 

When she widens her shimmering eyes, I only wonder if they have been this brown— all this time. 

 

There were a million words that I wanted to say, how relieved I am, how sorry I am, how worried I am, and when she collapses in my embrace, I only keep my trembling arms around her. 

 

I don’t even know why my arms are trembling, why my heart is still sprinting like crazy despite knowing that she is safe, but all I know is that her scent of jasmine and oleander has never, ever been so reassuring. 

 

I know I am afraid.

I have been afraid before. I have been afraid for my family, wondering if they’ll be safe if my plan fails. I have been afraid for the wronged souls that were killed under my hands for the King. 

 

But I have never been terrified. 

 

The moment when she descends from the skies, and when her amethyst ring glows in the dark, all I know is that it’ll haunt me forever, that I have someone who would risk their life for me, that I have a wife that stands by my side.

Not a deal partner. 

 

My wife. 

 

As she flutters her heavy eyelids close, I wipe off the strands of her hair on her pale cheeks. I place a kiss on her forehead, as I make a sacred vow to myself— I will protect her, till whenever we will end. I will keep her safe and sound, I will be her strongest safe house ever. 

 

As a husband should do. 

 

When I tuck her warmly under the sheets of my bed, the striking pain hits me in full force, and it curses me for ignoring its existence.  

My knees crumble to the wooden tiles, and I crawl myself to the door, hoping she won’t be awake from the noise. I barely manage to shut the door behind me and collapse in the hallway. 

“My lord!” Ravi comes right on time, and I raise a shaky finger to my lips while sending him a look of warning. 

“Shush!” My voice comes out as a hoarse whisper. 

He holds me to the armchair as I barely chug down the usual pills. I had no idea if they were able to sustain me through the night, but at least I would be able to walk with them. 

When our household healer arrives,  I raise my trembling arms to my room.  “The Marchioness.” I croak, but Ravi commands. 

“No, the lord first.”

“Ravi–” I tried to protest, but the healer clearly had his priorities. 

In a blink of an eye, the wound on my shoulder vanishes. Meanwhile, the sharp painful toxin turns into a slow dull sensation, as I wait for the pills to do their magic job. 

Under my stern gaze, the healer enters my room with the guidance of Naeun’s maids. Shortly afterwards, the healer returns. 

“Rest assured, my lord. The Marchioness has only suffered from a few cuts and bruises. Her lady ship has merely fainted from exhaustion and she will be fine tomorrow.”  

“Thank you.” I nod, and he disappears back to his quarters. 

 “Was it necessary to be reckless, my lord?” Ravi exclaims. “The maids could’ve brought the Marchioness up, her ladyship has only fainted from fatigue, but you my lord, the poison is eating up your soul!” 

I answer him with silence. 

He furrows his brows. “Does Lady Son know about this?”

I shake my head weakly. 

“My lord!” He protests. “What is the point of striking the deal when she is not curing you?”

“She is already doing that.” I say.

“And it’s taking too long!”

I force open my eyes to muster up a glare. “Don’t– you– dare tell her anything.” From the pain to losing my powers. 

He lets out an exasperated sigh. “My lord, it’s not even about the pain now… you have LOST your powers! Who knows what the King has added in that lethal toxin? Who knew that poison could work like silent stone?!” 

“I still got it back.” 

“BARELY!!” 

Ravi is right. I know I’m on dangerous ground. If news leaked out that the mind-controlling Marquis has lost his fearful ability, who knows if more would send their assassins to this house, or my family. Many are aiming for my position, to be the King’s right-hand man. 

I would be equally as terrified as he is, knowing that my life-long ability is gone.

But at that moment, when she landed in front of the porch, all I could think of was just her– even more than my bleeding shoulder, my brisk bones and my lost powers. 

And somehow, I was able to muster up and force out the last remnants of strength in me. 

If it wasn’t her, I don’t know how I would be alive—no, I don’t know how we would be alive. 

“She still saved me and you, so she deserves a rest.” I managed to say.

Ravi opens his mouth, but this is not the time to dwell on this matter. We still need to figure out who sent these killers. 

I have my own speculations, but I need confirmation.

“The last man is only unconscious.” I know the last bits of my powers weren’t enough to kill him. 

Ravi nods. “Please allow me to handle the things for now, sir.” 

I don’t know what kind of method Ravi manages to use, but before dawn breaks, he comes to me at the office. Just by the anxious face on him, I already know that something might be wrong. 

“My lord,” Ravi swallows the lump on his throat. “They might have know of your poison.”

I tried to keep my breathing steady, yet a shiver whirls down my spine. 

I already guessed who’s behind this, and if this person knows of my poison, it will be dangerous for us all. 

“The assassin was employed by a client, and they were told to attack our residence after precise calculation at a specific time. They said you would be most vulnerable at the latter half of the night.” 

Ravi bites his lip. “That’s perfectly in line with what you suffer from already.”

I close my eyes briefly, and let my mind whirl around this mess. Time pauses, and Ravi begins treading back and forth nervously. 

“It’s Myungsoo.” I say, after releasing an inaudible sigh. 

“The Prince? But how?”

“Didn’t our spies say that the eldest son of house invisibilis seemed to be close with Myungsoo?”

Weeks ago, our informant reported the connection between Viscount Invisibilis and Prince Myungsoo. I