As his maid had told him when he woke up, Youngjae took some time to remember everything. After the battle in the mountains -where he died- their enemies had been about to burn his body when suddenly he started to breath anew. They took him and he had stayed in coma for a complete year, when he woke up that day, the witch had simply wanted to kill him, and send his head as a warning to the resistant who were still fighting against the reign of the witch, self proclaimed, Queen of the country. But, here he was, two years after he woke up from his coma, leaning in a king sized bed as the hand of the Queen, as the Shadow. It's been two years since the humans lost the war and magic creatures were reigning on the country.

A few days after the complete white dream, Youngjae was waiting for someone to come cut his head, as the witch has said. But no one came, not even to come give him food. He was starving to death, and he knew what he was talking about as he just came back from there. He had hard time to concentrate on anything, as all the things that were surrounding him were just a mix of shades of different shades of blacks and muffled sounds. There must been heavy doors between him and the people that were talking which made it impossible for him to understand what was being said. Since how long he had been here since the last and first visit he received, he had no idea. The simple thought of having spent one year in the coma was already a hard thing for him to proceed. It was like the hunger made it impossible for him to understand simple things, and he was far from being stupid in the first place. He wondered what it would have been for a normal peasant, maybe he wouldn't have survived at all.

The peasant boy had finally accepted not to be normal, he had accepted his nature even though he had no idea what he was, he just knew -and just needed to know- that he wasn't like any other. That was the reason he was still alive. Finally, a door opened and Youngjae knew they came for him. “Wow... you're still alive? Yet, your body is rotting...” his jailer said, and the instant after the door of his cell was opened. It had a different sound from the previous ones, his door had more a metallic sound, while the other sounded more like made of wood. Someone grabbed him by his armpit, and being in the state he was, Youngjae didn't understand it was actually his jailer taking him out.

He was stuck with the idea that someone will be soon cutting his head, any other option was impossible for him to imagine. He hoped someone would put a end to his suffering, death didn't scared him anymore, if it meant to get rid of all those bruises and the pain his body was putting him into. The young peasant had no more the strength to fight back, the one he had had in the mountains. “Hey boy.... you came back from the dead zone... How was it? To be dead?” a high pitched voice laughed asking him and Youngjae recognized it. It was the same he had heard for the first time when his city had been attacked. The witch. She was actually standing in front him, but Youngjae could only distinguish blurred forms and red colours around her head.

Cold hands came holding his face, forcing his lips into a pout as nails were digging into his skin. His head was being moved from right to left, and the other way, as if someone was checking his face. “What do we do with that one?” his jailer asked to someone, they were probably in the new room they were standing in at the moment. Maybe because it was his, but the odour was still horrible, yet he finally could feel that the place they were standing in was warmer than the cold and moisten one, he had stayed in for months according to the others' sayings.

“I'll keep it. He's cute and he had been dead. He can be useful. Be glad human. I won't kill you so you will become my personal little pet. Take him to my room and tie him well. I'll take care of him later.” The witch kept talking, too fast for Youngjae to proceed when he was being talked to or about. The instant after, hands were anew gripping him tightly, if he had enough blood for, his blood circulation would have been cut in his arms because of the hold. Came a time, he was being thrown in a warmer room again and something cold was being tied on his neck. Lying on the floor, Youngjae just let his eyes shut down, hoping he won't be able to open it again. After all this suffering, he just wanted to go back to that white place. It had been a scary place at first, but he hadn't been suffering and he knew that Daehyun was waiting for him there. If not his blonde friend, at least he liked to imagine that frightening black ghost shape to be him.

When he had rest enough, Youngjae woke up by himself, the scent of food making him come out his sense. He jumped on the food but something preventing him to move further strangled him at the same time. Bringing his hands to his neck, he realized he had an iron collar tightly tied around it, he tried to open it by pulling on it, but he hadn't enough strength to stand up, so this was an hopeless attempt. Yet, he needed that food and was ready to anything to get the tray nearer to him. Leaning on his side, he managed to catch it with his toes and pulled it toward him. As soon as it reached him, he engulfed the food in his mouth in case someone appeared and stole it. It was cold, but at that moment, he wouldn't be his usual picky self.

Once he finished, he leaned on his back, full of the food he just ate, he had made himself sick of it. He hadn't been used to eat that much -even at all- since a long time, and he threw up a good part of it on the carpet he was lying on. Lying next it, he didn't care. When all this would end? Maybe if he kept trying to pull on the collar with the only strength of his neck, he would manage to strangle himself. Now he had his stomach full of food and he had slept enough, he started to be able to think straight again. He felt like it had been a really long time since he had used his brain, the year which had past been a simple black hole. For him it had looked like a few days or even just a few weeks, so he had hard time to believe it had been a year for the others.

The others … how were they? What happened to them? Were they still alive? Youngjae wondered and there were no way he would ever know about them. Not being tied like an animals in the enemy’s repair. Daehyun, Jongup, Yongguk, Himchan … Junhong. He remembered well everything now, and as strange as it sounded, he wasn't even angry or anything against the young mage. “Finally, they found someone. The resistant will be caught soon.” A voice said as the door was being opened and Youngjae laid his head on the side to look at the newcomers. The two girls put their hand over their nose looking at him. “Oh god! We have to clean everything, and to clean him too before the Queen come back!” Youngjae frowned looking at the girls.

What were two humans doing here? Working for the witch? There were so many questions he wanted to ask but his mouth didn't seemed to agree with him. Also he didn't want someone he didn't know to touch him but his body either didn't want to move to manifest his disagreement. Apparently the girls hadn't the key for Youngjae's collar, so they washed him and did the same for the food he had spread on the carpet. Even if they put more time to clean the carpet, in the end it looked like nothing happened. They gave him new clothes, a white shirt and pants, a tan too transparent at Youngjae's taste but even if he could, he wouldn't complain about that. At least, they gave him new clothes. When the girls exited the room, the nauseous scent had left which confirmer what Youngjae had thought, it had been well his. Had they seriously let him with the same clothes for a complete year? Well thinking about it, he didn't want to think further about that matter and to take the risk to throw up again on the just cleaned carpet. As he had nothing to do, he tried to remember what the girls had been talking about.

The resistant? Youngjae didn't need more than just this to understand it was his friends they were speaking about and he smiled happily. It meant they were still alive! But for how long? She said they would be caught soon. He had to do something! But what? Being imprisoned like this, what could he do? Closing his eyes he thought for a long time about it before the light hit him. He kept his eyes closed and tried to open his mind, the young mage had well said he could hear him wherever he would be, so why not here? “Don't.” A voice spoke in the room and it distracted Youngjae in what he was doing. Opening his eyes annoyed, he looked at Daehyun's ghost in the room. “Why not?” Even though he hadn't been able to speak to the girls earlier, now he could easily and he didn't even need to open his mouth. “Because, look around you, stupid, before doing something stupid. … Stupid.” The Daehyun's shape said standing up from the bed where he had been sitting, “stop calling me stupid! You're the stupid one!” Youngjae burst back to the other watching him walking to the door but soon he vanished into the air as the door burst opened.

“HOW DID THEY KNOW WE WERE COMING?! WE HAVE A TRAITOR!! … BRING ME THE MESSENGER!!” She burst to someone in the corridors and slapped the doors closed before the other even had the possibility to answer. She turned furiously and Youngjae blinked at her. As soon as her eyes landed on the boy the witch calmed down and walking to him, she knelled down in front him before pulling him into a hug. Youngjae let the witch do whatever she wanted, afraid she would burn him down if he ever dare even to simply breathe. Pulling back, she had her hands resting on Youngjae's shoulders as she plunged her eyes into his and now Youngjae understood why the Daehyun's shape had told him to not open his mind. He could feel it, the magic emanating from the creature in front him, it was trying to get into his soul. If only he wanted, he could simply welcome it … what he did. The witch opened her eyes widely as she felt herself getting lighter and the world didn't seemed as bad as it had looked before. Youngjae smiled to the witch and raised a hand to rest his palm on her cheek. They didn’t exchange a single word but they didn't need to.

Youngjae could feel it and it was making him stronger. The whole year he had spent in the coma had closed his mind, but not only. Something had happened and now he could control whatever his power was. While he could welcome the creature's magic, whatever he himself was emanating, and which had made some creatures able to hear every single thought of him before, was staying blocked within him. Youngjae grew confident and absorbed more of the creature's magic; it was like sipping a delicious and warm chocolate in front a fireplace after spending a whole day in the cold outside under the rain and without any umbrella. The witch was now laying in his arms, falling asleep, her strength being absorbed by Youngjae. When she completely out, Youngjae panicked slightly wondering if he had killed her. What would he say to her minions if they found them like this? Holding her in his arms, he walked to her bed to lay her in it and sat on the edge of it, petting her head. She was sleeping peacefully and he waited for her to wake up.

“What have you done to me? What are you?” she asked afraid once she woke up, trying to crawl away from the boy in front her. Youngjae smiled warmly to her and she instantly stopped to be scared. “You needed to rest ...” The peasant boy knew it was the witch’s entire fault, everything that had happened, the war and the dead. He could have killed her, but would everything have stopped so far? It was something much more than simply a witch being afraid of something much more powerful than her. From this simple fact, it had raised a whole population to fight and for a war to start. The witch was about to say something when one of her servant came to announce her that the messenger had arrived. She nodded and forgot about the strange boy when the big animal entered the room and Youngjae widened his eyes at him wondering what Hermes was doing here. Was he a spy? Was he working for the witch? So many questions he wanted to ask but he couldn’t because the witch too had her own to ask. “Where are the humans?

– I won’t tell you.” Hermes replied staring at Youngjae intensely for a short time before he looked back at the witch, hoping that the young human had understood he wanted to talk to him. Youngjae didn’t know how he knew nor how he did it, but he managed to open himself to the enormous panther in front him while he was sitting on the floor, engaging a secret conversation with him while Hermes was still speaking with the witch. “Youngjae, what are you doing? I thought you were dead.

– You’re my messenger you have to tell me!

– I was... and somehow, when I woke up, I was like this.

– I am not your personal messenger Morgana… I only convey the Gods’ words, and never had I said I would take part in your business or the humans’ one.” It wasn’t simple to follow the whole conversation, but thinking about it, it was true that Hermes had never said he would fight with them or that he wanted them to fight for him.

“You have to open your mind so your friends will know that you’re alive.

– Liar. I know you went to Mato City after I went there. You helped the humans warning them about what I was planning!

– I can’t… if I do that, they would come running and another battle would occur. I don’t want dead anymore, from both sides. I need you to convey a message to them from me…

– It was the Gods’ will.

– Like I said to Morgana, I am not your personal messenger either young human. Moreover, I don’t want to die.” Youngjae raised an eyebrow at Hermes who explained himself. “They think I’m the shadow and they want me dead, Youngjae.

– And what the Gods’ want now?

– Are you?

– I don’t know.

– I am not.

– Then you can work for me while they think about a mission to give you.

– I will believe you and I’m sorry, I think my friends are too hurt to think straight. Can’t you just help me telling me where they are, even if it’s a simple clue about where they’re hiding?

– I don’t want to, farewell Morgana.

– Thank you human, and I’m sorry too. The Gods must know I have a liking for you like anyone else, of course if I knew I would have told you but I don’t. But don’t worry, if they don’t want me or someone else to tell you must mean that you’ll find them by yourself.

– Stay here! Come back! I’m not done speaking with you!

– I have to find them before the witch.

– But I am done speaking and listening to you.

– You will find them, Yoo Youngjae. I know you will.”

Youngjae nodded slightly for the witch to not notice him while he looked at Hermes’ back leaving and the witch after him trying to hold him back here. Now he understood the messenger wasn’t lying to him. Really, the only thing he had ever done was to convey a message and he really didn’t know where his friends were. He had been in his head without the other noticing it, and Youngjae knew. He knew that he said to the witch that he knew but wouldn’t tell her so she would have a reason to not kill him.

Once alone in the room, still tied to the bed by the collar on his neck, sitting on the floor, his back pressed against the bed, Youngjae had the time to proceed everything, to put his ideas in order and to think about a plan. He had to find his friends before the witch and he had to make it in a way the two wouldn’t meet or another bloody battle would occur again, and maybe there would be more deaths as the witch would fight, but wasn’t so sure about it because since the time he had disappear, his friends must have trained hard and they must be pretty good as they had manage to hide from the witch for that long. Youngjae had to be as smart as his friends, he had to look for his friends, without the witch watching every movement of his which wouldn’t be easy tied to the bed like this. He had to win that Morgana’s trust.

words 3089

A/N it's been a long time right ?
I'm sorry, but this story had some problems
and I had to fix it.
There are some incoherence in the story
and I'll try to correct it the best I can :3