Awaiting The Dawn

4: Chosen By The Heavens

Hisa was impressed that the Ik-Su from her memories didn't seem to age at all.

His messy blonde locks still covered his eyes so thoroughly it was a wonder how he could see anything. By her count, he was around thirty three, and yet he looked the same as seven years ago. 

"Yoon, I've told you about Hisa before, haven't I?"

"No. That's why I'm telling you to explain!"

"No? I guess I haven't!" Ik-Su chuckled, acting just as careless as she recalled.

They only spent a little time together when she was ten, but Hisa never forgot how, by instinct, she felt his presence before he entered the village. Or how her father practically cried in joy when he saw him. How the priest helped her when she needed it most.

It seemed Ik-Su also remembered her.

The priest giggled as he introduced her and rubbed the back of his head. "This is Hisa. She sees things that even I can't." He turned to her. "You're about sixteen now, yes?"

She shook her head.

"Ah, seventeen?" He snapped his fingers.

Hisa firmly nodded, then bowed in greeting to the boy and the princess, who kindly didn't interrupt their short exchange.

"Ah, I should have known. You've grown so much compared to back then."

She smiled and sat down beside her hat, letting the bag she held fall to the floor. Hisa was happy seeing the person she looked up to as a child.

He was still as kind as ever, despite all the suffering she knew passed his way.

"So you're...a priest?" The princess asked Ik-Su, likely unsure of how to react. She glanced at Hisa, meeting her eyes. "And so are you?"

It was true that the situation was unanticipated, but Hisa was indifferent with how the water flowed down this particular path.

She wasn't supposed to fall from the cliff and be taken in by Yoon. Still, she'd never admit it was due to her moment of carelessness, which was reminiscent of a certain cheerful priest.

"I was told my uncle drove all the priests out, so I thought you would be older." The princess looked at them, seeming more taken off guard than disappointed.

"I dunno, he seems pretty old to me." The boy, Yoon, muttered as he moved to fetch the priest a clean cloth.

Ik-Su acted unbothered by the comment. "Well, Hisa's father, my predecessor, was. But now I've replaced him."

Hisa clicked her tongue. The way he said it sounded as if he were dead.

Only a few people, such as her father and some priests-in-training managed to survive. But the chaos forced everyone to separate. After the incident, her father stumbled into a remote village and ended up marrying into a small clan in the mountains bordering the Kai Empire and Kouka Kingdom.

And he was very much alive! Probably teaching the village children how to read, or praying while he waits for Hisa's mother to come back from hunting.

"So you knew I'd be coming here?" The princess asked.

"Sure did." Ik-Su got onto his knees. "It's my job to share the voice of God with everyone. God tells me all sorts of things that are happening out in the world."

Yoon tugged Ik-Su's clothes, exposing his shoulder. "It's not much of a job. You don't even make any money. All you do is pray."

Then he spoke of priests with the assumption they were all the same. "All that fishy talk about 'the voice of God' is what got you guys kicked out of the temple." Yoon tossed some fabric over Ik-Su to cover him up after snatching his dirty clothes.

Hisa shook her head and pointed to Ik-Su, trying to indicate that not all priests were like that. Few could hear the gods' voice.

And in Hisa's case, she had no ability to hear their voice at all.

Others like herself were said to have gone insane by attempting to hear their voice. And if she couldn't commune with the gods, then her prayers were pointless. At least that's what she thought.

And even if they weren't, it'd leave a bad taste in her mouth to pray to them. The gods did not deserve her father and Ik-Su's trust.

Which reminded Hisa of how perfectly timed their reunion was.

She scooted over to Ik-Su and handed him the knife, which lost its sharpness after Hisa used it to save herself.

"Why were you kicked out?" Princess Yona asked a question that confirmed Hisa's suspicion that she was left ignorant of the bloody, dark affairs that went on in the palace.

Neither of the priests showed any sign of offense, however the same couldn't be said of the boy.

He looked at her with a cold expression, and Hisa could see it didn't come from loathing the princess herself, but of what she represented. "You lived in the palace, but you don't know?"

An image flashed before her.

A tiny, dirty outstretched hand.

Desperate for food. Grabbing a rock. Ready to fight. Or die.

She looked away, setting her sights back on the priest who squeezed her shoulder.

Ik-Su looked at Suzu's knife. Knowing her clan's tradition, he seemed to put together why Hisa gave it to him and hadn't spoken a word thus far.

He handled the item gingerly, quietly promising to bury it.

It'd be better for a normal priest to pray for the departed. Hisa bowed her head in thanks, sitting comfortably beside him.

She didn't stand up when she heard a pained groan, or when the princess called out Hak's name and rushed to his side.

The boy motioned for Yona to move. "Out of the way. He's got a fever. It won't break for a while, but the worst should be over after tonight."

"Please save him!" The princess cried.

Hisa knew how much pain and loss the girl felt since her sixteenth birthday. She also knew that the princess had not yet healed from what happened that night.

If the person who held her together broke, the princess would not recover.

Hisa had seen fragments of that night a few times before, and again a couple weeks before.

Sometimes she saw it through Hak's eyes, other times it was through Princess Yona.

For seconds at a time, she was a soldier facing the thunder beast, a servant hiding in their quarters, and a man with a bloody sword standing before the newly departed king.

Sounds and smells dulled and mixed, warping what was said or who did what.

It was always like that whenever Hisa saw violent struggles, likely because she couldn't bring herself to focus on clarity or understanding.

She just wanted it to end.

Though she understood the princess who lost herself when she fled the palace, that wasn't the case for Yoon. He was impatient with her, not caring about her own struggles.

Hisa knew he was kind at heart, and she only held goodwill toward him, but his disdain against a group of people was targeted at the wrong person.

"That's what I'm doing, I don't want him to die." Yoon replied with a strangely calm look on his face, but his words were out of frustration. "But I'm not a doctor. And you shouldn't assume I'd help. You haven't even thanked me for saving you. Have you even thanked him? He nearly died protecting you."

Only when her fellow priest stood and approached them that Hisa did as well. To her, it looked like the young princess was about to break down.

"It's alright." Ik-Su stepped in. "He's not meant to die here."

Hisa nodded while she patted the princess' shoulder in comfort.