Yesteryear

The Tale of Achilles

"So, what do you know about immortality? What do your people say about it?"

Yunho had come to Wooyoung right at breakfast time. His arms were loaded with platters filled with fruit and delicious bread for Wooyoung to enjoy. The taste of the berries distracted him from the pain in his ribs that had spread to a constant dull throb. He didn't doubt his side was black and blue, but at least his cheek didn't feel so bad.

The two men lounged on the floor together after Wooyoung had assured Yunho at least ten times that he didn't mind sitting there with him. Only when Yunho had given it up to lower himself in the hierarchy under Wooyoung's stubborn mind, they had eaten together. Now that both of them were relaxed, Wooyoung addressed the topic directly. He already had enough of Rome and wanted to go home and heal before his charades would get discovered. After Yunho had talked, Wooyoung would skip on sightseeing and go straight back to Yongguk. By now, the man probably already knew where he would send Wooyoung next.

"We have many myths concerning the matter, especially surrounding gods. Are you familiar with those? Achilles and Prometheus and the like?"

Wooyoung caught a berry with his mouth and regretted it a moment later. Yunho was so delighted that he tried it as well.

"Catch me up on it," Wooyoung said even when he knew those stories by heart. He wanted to make sure that no details would be lost in the tale and that whatever Yunho's connection with immortality grew out of, Wooyoung could follow.

As Yunho retold the age-old story of the man bringing fire to the humans from the Olympus and getting punished by being chained up while an eagle ate at his regrowing liver every day, Wooyoung made mental notes. There had to be a reason he was here and with Yunho rather than in Greece, where those stories originated from.

Neither Prometheus nor Achilles, whose only vulnerable spot was his heel since his mother Thetis, who had dipped him into the river Styx in the underworld to make him invincible, had needed to hold him somewhere produced any valuable details. The Roman and Greek legends concerning gods meddling with humans to either punish or bless them with immortality were endless. And yet, none of those immortals had withstood the marching of time.

Yunho ended his tales of what Wooyoung pretended to be fascinating new information with a bite into an apple.

"My master has tried these things for himself. To reach immortality, I mean."

At that, Wooyoung perked up. The interest shining in his eyes had Yunho continuing. The words dropped from his lips hesitantly, as if his tongue lingered before speaking them.

"Sometimes at night, he takes me out into the fields. He tries to anger the deities to get a rouse out of them. Juno has punished the house of a senator committing adultery with bolts of lightning before. It burned for three days and three nights before we could stop the unnatural flames. Sometimes his rituals scare me. He doesn't dare to try all of them on himself so he uses me occasionally."

Wooyoung drew his brows together. While Yunho hung in his memories, his eyes were directed at no particular corner of the room. Wooyoung used his distraction to eye him warily and check if he found any marks of said experiments.

"What rituals are they?"

Yunho cast a quick glance left and right, as if his lord could have appeared in a corner behind them to glare down at him viciously. When he spoke, his voice was quick and hushed.

"One of his friends found a fish, one that creates dreams. It makes the world look brighter and more vivid, as if the sight of a supernatural being takes you over for a few days. My master is sure that it has to be the source of immortality. He tried eating the fish in large quantities, but he grew sick. So now he experiments with the species and tries to mix human blood with theirs to use as a potion to gain immortality."