"I've had enough of father treating me like a baby!" Baekhyun barks, grabbing a telescope from his bed and stuffing it into a rucksack, "I refuse--no I desist standing by and watching like a child any longer! I'm the crown prince of this kingdom!"

Hyohe sits on the bed quietly, watching her brother tear apart his bedroom.

"Where are my gloves??"

"In the drawer," Hyohe offers.

Baekhyun's stops for a moment, "Drawer?"

Dropping down to open it, sure enough, there they are.

"I don't think you should disobey the king's order," Hyohe begins, "it is unwise."

Baekhyun drops his shoulders and looks at his sister, "Hyo-ah, don't you think it's unfair?"

Hyohe keeps her head down, "I think fairness is a myth."

"Easy for you to say," Baekhyun continues, going back to his packing, "you've had everything handed to you. A job, a husband--"

Baekhyun jumps as his sister suddenly stands, her dark eyes look wetter than usual.

Hyohe's voice is shakes, "yes, I was given a husband. But what good does it do to be given a husband who will not love you?"

The prince is breathless, "a-ah...Hyo-ah, I'm sorry, I, I didn't mean--"

"Fine!" Hyohe storms past him, to the doorway, "go with him! I'll be glad to be rid of the both of you!"

"Hyo-ah..."

Baekhyun watches his sister disappear out the door. She rushes down the hallway, using the sleeve of her hanbok to wipe away impending tears before they can fall. As she goes to wipe one more tear she nearly runs into a plate of armor. 

"Hyo-ah!"

She glances up at the familiar voice, and Joonmyeon smiles down at her, looking delighted as ever. But the joy melts off his face at the sight of her runny eyes and quivering shoulders. 

A crease forms on his forehead, "Hyo-ah, you--"

"goodnight!" she breathes and steps around him before running down the hall and into her chambers.

The room is dark and quiet, cold from crisp night air. Breathing a sigh, she lets herself drop the ground against the door. Joonmyeon will probably ask her brother whats wrong. He'll probably say they fought. He probably won't say he accidentally poked a bruise that will never heal. Her brother may look weak-minded but he's at least attentive of things like that--things people want to keep secret.

Hyohe startles as a crack resounds and the room is suddenly aglow with firelight.

Across the room a face basking in orange light stares at her as if she isn't even really there--as if he may as well just be looking at the wall, and not his wife.

Sehun's eyes are as cool as always. No amount of warm firelight can melt the ice in his gaze. It was that ice that Hyohe hated, that drove her insane. She had only ever seen him smile--really smile--one single time. Still, that was all it took.

She breathes in a shaky breath and wipes her eyes once more. Sehun holds the candle steady, his eyes unwavering.

"You were already here," she whispers, offering an empty laugh.

Without waiting for a reply, one she knows won't come, she stands and moves over to the bed. Sehun watches her with something hiding in his eyes. She hated that look too. What could it possibly be? Sympathy? Guilt? Neither seemed like good options.

Slowly, she lowers herself onto the bed beside him. He takes a breath--the first sound he's made since she entered the room--and blows out the candle, plunging the world into darkness.

"Thank you," Hyohe whispers, and turns her face away from Sehun.

The light brush of his fingertips as he unties the ribbon of her veil sends shivers down her spine, and she releases a breath, letting another tear roll down her cheek--one he won't be able to see.

The room is silent for what seems like an eternity. She can feel the heat radiating off his body behind her back, just inches away. Close enough to touch but a million miles too far to feel. Another cold night together but alone.

She can sense his arm moving around her long before it touches her. The other arm comes after, and he pulls her back without a word, against the warmth of his chest. She breathes him in letting his smell, the smell of the outside, of pine forests and foggy bamboo valleys and cliffs by the ocean fill her nose. Something pricks at the back of her eyes and a sour laugh drops from her lips, along with another hot tear from her eye. Doesn't he realize it's too cruel? She never asked for love paid for by her father's power.

Still, she liked to imagine it. What would it be like if the arms around her actually craved for her like she for them? What if instead of simply feeling his warmth, she could feel his breath, feel his head on her shoulder. What if he wasn't simply holding her, what if he was embracing her?

These thoughts were the only thing that kept her waiting each long hour until his return.

"Does it hurt?" she asks quietly, peering through the black at the bandaged arm around her.

His answer comes like mist, barely seeping through the darkness, barely audible above the beating of Hyohe's own heart, "no, not terribly."

"...How long?"

One heartbeat.

Two.

Three.

Four.

"A few weeks."

She can only nod. He has already gone so far to give her comfort, the words come home soon only felt selfish.

Dawn rises above the palace rooftops, glistening with dew. Bursting oranges and majenta's of a new day chase away the sullen navy blue of the past. There is tumult in the courtyard as Sehun's men prepare to move out, some gather their things and take weapons from the armory, others sit on the palace's concrete steps and try to finish their breakfast before the long  journey begins.

Sehun enters the clearing standing tall. He wears a cape that hang over half of the front of his body, covering his wounded arm still in the sling. Men bow their greetings as he passes by, heading towards General Joonmyeon who laughs too loudly at a joke one of the guardsmen tells him.

The guardsmen beams, encouraged by Joonmyeon's laughter, "and then--"

Upon seeing Sehun, his eyes widen, and the man quickly jumps to attention, "Good morning, Sir!"

The smile on Joonmyeon's face disappates and he turns around, then his face softens at the sight of Sehun.

"Oh, it's just you!"

He slaps Sehun's shoulder, and Sehun attempts to hide a grimace--his arm isn't quite that healed.

"The way Kang here looked at you," Joonmyeons grabs the shoulder of the younger man beside him, who flinches and offers the general a stiff grin, "I thought he musta seen a ghost or something."

"S-sir," the boy Kang glances uncomfortably between the two older men.

"Don't you have something to be doing?" Sehun says, expressionless.

Kang instantly bows his head, "Sir, yes, sir!" and after shooting a sour glance at the general, takes off towards the armory.

"By the way," Joonmyeon interrupts, and jabs a thumb in the direction of the palace stairs, "where did you get this guy?"

Boisterous laughter erupts from a group of men gathered around the stairs.

"FIght, fight, fight!"

"Left hook! Right hook! Yes!"

A crease forms in Sehun's brow, and a shout explodes from the crowd as a few men scramble backwards to get out of the way of an oncoming pair of squabbling bodies. One of which has familiar long brown hair and youthful face.

"Give back my five gold coins!" A grubby guardsmen throws a punch at Xiumin, who nimbly dodges.

"I won it fair and square!" he retorts, jumping back to avoid a kick to the gut, then throws a bag of coins in the air and catches it again, "it's called gambling for a reason!"

"You little thief!" the man runs at Xiumin, who moves out of the way just in time to send the man barrelling into the crowd. The audience flips the man around and shoves him back into the circle, cheering.

"I saw him cheat!" one man yells, "he was keeping extra cards in his sleeve!"

Xiumin places a hand on his chest and feigns shock, "Who, me? never!"

Sehun storms over, and a Joonmyeon barely able to contain his laughter follows.

Seeing the magistrate, the crowd of rowdy men instantly quiets. The guardsmen sends on last punch on Xiumin, who dodges again, only to end up bumping into Sehun himself.

Xiumin whips around, lifting an arm to hit the man who got in his way, "Hey, move it, would you--!"

Sehun's glare feels the same as getting a bucket of ice dumped on his head.

"You~or greatness!" Xiumin finishes, bringing one leg behind him and fluffing out the flaps of his hanbok to offer an exaggerated curtsy.

He looks up with one eye, "Is there something the matter?"

Sehun holds one hand out flat. Xiumin expects the hand and staightens up, then scratches the back his neck.

"Um, I'm not sure what you--"

"The coins," Sehun says, "put it here."

Xiumins eyes narrow, and he shoots a dirty look at the guadsmen behind him, who grins back triumphantly. With a groan, he slaps the bag of coins into Sehun's hand.

The guardsmen steps forward and offers a bow, "thank you, Magistrate--"

Sehun tucks the coins into his hanbok, "I'll be putting these in the royal treasury. Thank you for your donation."

Both Xiumin and the guardsmen's faces both turn piping red. 

Sehun raises an eyebrow, "is there a problem gentlemen?"

Joonmyeon crosses his arms, smiling a bemused grin.

They shake their heads, "n-no, sir.."

"Good. Now you," he says to the guardsmen, "get your things together and grab a horse. And you," he turns back to Xiumin, "we're going to have a talk."

The guardsmen pivots away and beelines it for the stable, happy to get away. Meanwhile Xiumin scoots his feet forward with his head down like an injured dog.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"It was all in the name of good fun," Xiumin insists, "any man like a good gamble!"

"Not on palace grounds."

Xiumin waves a hand and wanders past the magistrate, "Yeah, yeah. Can't a prisoner at least have some fun?"

Sehun turns his head over his shoulder, "you're not a prisoner. You're our navigator. You know the blue mountain better than anyone else."

Xiumin rolls his eyes, before walking away, "yeah, and just like this, it's not exactly by choice."

The group of four sit in a circle on the temple's golden floor. Three stare intently with wonder in their eyes at the boy in all black sitting in the center, who scratches his head and groans.

"So what I'm saying is, I'm a mountain god. I lost my orb, and I need to get it back."

Chanyeol furrows his eyebrows, "what kind of orb?"

"you don't need to know that."

Kyungsoo leans in close to Eun, "You found a real cuckoo this time, didn't you."

"I heard that," Kai snarls, and Kyungsoo flinches back into place.

"Who took your orb?" Eun asks with wide eyes.

Kai's eyes grow dark and narrow, "someone I trusted very much."

Chanyeol tilts his head, "where is your orb, then?"

"It's in the capital."

Eun's eyes fly open, "the capital? That's a weeks journey away from here!"

Kai nods, "I used to visit...often."

Kyungsoo glances between the siblings and the man in the center and finally stands, "are we not going to acknowledge the fact that this thing tried to kill Eun while we were away, and came here covered in blood??"

"He already said he doesn't remember any of that," Eun explains, "something must have come over him."

"How do we know he's not lying?"

Kyungsoo's eyes meet Kai's, and for one instant Kai's eyes flash yellow.

"I'm not lying."

Kyungsoo blinks as if stunned by sudden sunlight and then shakes away the clouds that covered his thoughts. Words fall from his lips before he can realize what he's saying.

"n-nevermind," he mumbles, and sits back down, "he's telling the truth."

"What do you need your orb for?" Eun scoots closer.

Kai scoots back, and avoids her eyes, "Without it, something very, very bad will happen. I think the only reason it's okay right now is because of you. Though I don't know why."

Eun raises her eyebrows, "me?"

Kai's eyes rise slowly to hers and stay there, "that's why you have to come with me."

Chanyeol cuts in, "If Eun is going, I'm going."

Kai nods, "so be it."

Slowly, all eyes fall on the last person in the room. Kyungsoo twiddles his thumbs awkwardly.

"Kyungsoo-ah?"

The smaller man pretends not to hear it. But he can't take the pressure for long. He scrambles up awkwardly and gestures at Chanyeol.

"F-f-fine! I'll go! Stop looking at me already!" he storms to the entrance of the room, and everyone's eyes follow him, "yah! Stop looking at me liked I killed someone!" He shouts before stepping out into the courtyard, angrily grumbling to himself.

Kai watches him leave before turning to look at Chanyeol, "how soon can we leave?"

"Mid-day today, at the soonest."

Kai nods, "alright. I have things to prepare, but I'll return by then."

Chanyeol and Eun watch as Kai rises from the ground and in one step is out the door, in another is running across the rooftops, and after taking one jump, disappears into the heavy foliage.

Eun blinks, "that was--"

Chanyeol nods, "fast."

A knock echoes on the door to Hyohe's study, one personally placed in the center of the palace gardens, a quaint structure overlooking the garden pools.

"Come in," she calls, bustling to the other side of the hexagonal room to dig through a drawer of herbs.

"Your highness."

Joonmyeon offers a bow. Finding the herb she wants, Hyohe darts back to her desk.

The general takes long steps into the room until he stands on the other side, and  raises an eyebrow at the clutter, "What are you making?"

Without meeting his eyes, she trails an elegant finger down a page of a book, "A talisman for the magistrate's party," she turns to the drawers and this time pulls out on filled with assorted brightly colored fabrics, "cobalt blue for safety, cobalt blue..ah," tugging the ribbon out, she returns to her post and begins to fold the herbs inside it with expertly trained fingers.

Joonmyeon watches her eyes above her veil dart back and forth across her work.

"I see. Would you make one for me as well?"

Her eyebrows knit together, "make one for--?" she peels her eyes away from the papers, "do you think I have time to just--!"

Joonmyeon smiles, and she blinks at him.

"General," her eyes widen, "when did you...?"

"I thought you must have been too caught up in your work to see me. It's an honor to be noticed at last."

Smoothing out her skirt, eyes above a veil meet Joonmyeons.

"Did you speak to my brother?"

Joonmyeon shakes his head, "I tried. But he never listens to anyone, you know that. He said that I'd have to lock him in the dungeon to keep him from going."

Already back to her work, Hyohe nods.

"Why don't you just do it then?"

A lose strand of hair falls out of her braid, and she brushes it back behind her ear.

She looks up, "Hm?"

Joonmyeon coughs once, and clears his throat, "oh, um," his eyebrows furrow moment, searching, "he's the crown prince! I have no grounds to do so."

"He's disobeying a royal order," Hyohe counters, "that's plenty reason enough."

The mountain of clutter on the princess' desk has become a neatly folded silken pouch that smells of lavender. With nimble fingers, Hyohe pulls the drawstrings of the pouch shut and ties them, "all done!"

"Did something happen last night?"

The princess' eyes above her veil go from being warm crescents to widened almonds.

"You just looked upset. I mean, when I saw you in the hallway. I was worried--"

"No," she answers. sweeping fallen herbs off the desk and into her hand, "just a sibling's quarrel."

"It couldn't have been just that," he prods, "you look so tired recently. Isn't there something--"

Before he can say another word, Hyohe presses the tiny puch into his hands.

"No. Now," she turns away, pretending to organize her drawers, "can you bring that to the magistrate?"

With a sigh of defeat, Joonmyeon resigns.

"Yes. I'll tell him you sent it."

The back of he princess' head shakes, "There is no need."

"But you worked so hard," the general counters.

She looks over her shoulder, eyes sad crescents, "don't worry. He'll know. Somehow, he always does."

Hey guys! I got a lot of writer's block on this chapter after the first scene. I've already planned out the course I want this story to take, but as one would expect, as soon as you start writing the story begins to take on a life of its own. It's hard catering to the individual experiences of all these characters! >_<"

But so far I like the way things are turning out. Hopefully within the next few chapters we'll have a bit more understanding of our characters, especially the mysterous mountain god, right?

Thanks for reading! If you like the story so far let me know! I love hearing from you guys.

~Violet