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Red Skys and Royal CardsRead or Don't Read. Does have a Spoiler for the chapter, but also a cautionary note for it and a slight blabble of my words and explanation/warnings.
This chapter doesn't need to be rated for its contents becasue it isn't graphic or violent, but I still want to caution readers that don't like to read about death. I want to warn you now that I do get into the past of one of the EXO boys and the death of a child occurs and how it happened with the connection to their Specialty. Emothions are going to be afected from this and I want to warn you before you start about what is going to come.
Many of the pasts that the boys will share aren't going to be nice, pretty and fluffy. While some parts of it are those qualities, as I've mentioned in previous chapters they had a very dark and violent past. We are going to learn of them over the course of this story many of the things they have done when hey were completely ruled by that dark side of them. What they did to Yongguk's Warrior is a tip of what they were once capable of doing and still are.
I just wanted to take the time at the begining of this chapter to tell you all this becasue I want you to be at least slightly prepared for everything that is going to be coming in future chapters. I like to make the emotions I portray as real as I can, I want you to be able to picture what they are seeing, doing and feeling. I want you to understand that for some this can be hard to read if you feel strongly enough what I am trying to portray. If you get to that part of this chapter I am speaking of and do not wish to read it, skip it.
I'm not going to put many Warrnings on future chapters unless the violence is pretty severe, but as readers you know this stroy, its an action story and there is a war going on. Things aren't going to always be fluffy and fun, especally now that we are getting into this arc of the story. Some future chapters are going to be rated for some of the fightng and violence that is going to happen. I'll rate chapters according to AFF guidlines and make altered chapters for the scenes that might be like Flare's.
EXO's past is dark and terrible, I havn't hidden that fact. As readers you are going to learn it in this story before we reach the end.
One thing I can guarentee, though:
I don't want to scare you away, becasue you have most definatly read worse in this story already, but there are some that like the warning and caution in advance.
Sorry to put this blurb here but some like it and others skip it, that's fine. I do hope you all enjoy the chapter though.
Blessed be.
“You’ve seen so many sides of me while I have been here.” He muttered. “You’ve seen what I became over the years because of what happened to us, you’ve seen me change and express myself again like I once did and you’ve seen that dark part of me that I once was. You’ve seen so much and have accepted that part of me without question, and now that you have started asking I think you should know. You should have some of those answers.”
“You’re not usually like this, what’s different now?” I asked him when he nuzzled my hand for a moment before he kissed it.
“I’ve come to realize how quickly I can lose you, be it from physical harm or emotional and metal separation. I don’t want to lose you to anything, and if telling you about a past I never want to remember and relive is what it will take to keep you close to me, then I’m willing to do so.”
“If you aren’t ready to tell me then please don’t.” I told him and his cheek in reassurance. “You don’t have to tell me, I’m not going anywhere.”
“It’s about time you know at least something, and none of the others are going to willingly offer you anything anytime soon.”
“Alright, Suho. Let’s hear about your past.”
I felt a soft sigh that blew from his lips against my palm as he shut his eyes to hide the pain I could see flickering in their depths. “Out of all of us I was the closest with JiHoon. While our ages were different we still got along so well, I grew up knowing him and watching him grow. We were friends from his birth. Our families were quick close and our homes where the closest to each other so it only seemed likely that we would see each other often. Apart from my siblings, JiHoon was the person I was closest to for the longest time.”
Suho crossed his arms on my legs and rested his head on them, looking off to his right was a sad smile. “As the two of us grew older we met the rest of the boys. We all lived in the same village but there were many fields that separated our homes, which always made it tricky to see one another unless we found a place to meet and a time to do so. Our friendship between the thirteen of us grew as we aged but JiHoon and I always found time for just the two of us connect.”
“Things started to change though.” Suho continued as he kept his gaze away from mine. “When we discovered we could control Cards and the Warriors within nothing changed all that much, we still met up and spent time together as we continued work for our families and the village. Back then when I was just entering adulthood I would work on the farms for money to provide for my family, help in the market where I could to get food for us. I didn’t care much for this world of Cards other than as a sort of sport between the thirteen of us.”
He sighed and turned his head up to look at my eyes. “It took only a few months before that all changed. I stopped helping at the market. I refused to work on the fields as little more than slave labor to the farmers that could pay me. I let the power that the Cards gave me cloud my mind. I let it take control and wanted more, wanted too feel more of that enticing power, and I wasn’t alone in that. The others here, we all craved the same thing. The twelve of us banded together and left our families behind and our best friend as we went in search of more power that was out there.”
“Cards appear when a Dealer accomplishing something.” Suho muttered. “Not every accomplishment is kind or just. The harder the task the stronger the Warrior a Dealer can uncover.” Suho went silent after he spoke of that and turned away from me. He buried his face in his arms and shook slightly as if he were fighting a terrible memory.
His muscles shook as he tried to regain control of himself. I ran my fingers though his silken hair as a form of comfort unsure what else to do for him. “What’s the worst you have done to obtain a Card, Suho?” I asked him as his silence continued once he had gone still for a few minutes.
“The last Card I ever Claimed was the strongest of all.” His voice shook as he spoke. “It was the final Card I needed to reach twelve full water Decks. I knew what I had to do to Claim the Card that allowed me to be able to not only have my Ability to control and manipulate water to the skill and precision I had, but would allow me to manipulate any liquid substance.”
“I was still human.” Suho chocked out as he looked up at me, salt water b his eyes just waiting to fall free. “I had feelings, no matter how warped they had become, I could still feel guilt and remorse. Although I had become numb to the feeling of most of them, it still weighed on my mind, which is why I held off until the very end.”
I cupped his cheeks with a soft smile. “What was it?” I softy pressed again and I brushed a few stray droplet of water away.
His eyes glazed over as his memory took over his conscious thought. “I let and infant drown as I watched on. I could have saved her, I could have allowed her to live but I just watched on as she got swept up by the current and drown. The moment her soul let her body the final Card I needed appeared before me. I didn’t even hesitate to Claim it as I turned my back on the lifeless body of the small child being carried away by the rushing river.”
“Oh, Suho.” I breathed as I watched him finally break down and let his tears roll down his eyes. The pain and guilt that filled his eyes was heart wrenching.
“That was the one life I wish didn’t have to be lost. The life that still haunts me to this day.” He spat as he turned away from me so I couldn’t see his face any longer.
Having him share this piece of his past does mean something to me. I’m thankful her opened up to me and willing shared about how close he was to his friend, what he did as a boy and what stared to change things for him. But it was clear he still had much in his past he was not willing to share and had yet to come to terms with. I could tell he was keeping pieces of his past locked away and hidden.
He was still going to hide aspects of it from me; I could see him locking things from me in his eyes when they met mine. There were things in his past he wasn’t ready to share and it was clear they might just be worse than what he has already told me.
“That wasn’t the only life lost to you, was it?” I asked as the curiously got the best of me and I had to ask. They already told me they have all killed before, and my fear with Suho now is the death he shared with me now is the kindest of them all.
I felt his head shake from side to side. “No.” He breathed. “But it was the last of my human life.”
“It wasn’t your fault she was in the river in the first place, Suho, you only did nothing to prevent anything further from happening.” I tried to comfort him.
Suho’s POV“The how and why are irrelevant. It is still on me that the girl died the way she did.” I ground out as the memory of the day took over my vision. I can still feel
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