from the ashes || seo yul

prologue || a mother's lament

cw // blood, medium gore, death/dead bodies

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The horse was breathing heavily, the pace her rider set demanding. They had long departed the soft grasses of their valley, and yet the steed galloped, stirring the packed earth and leaving clouds of dirt in her wake. As if she knew that time was of the essence. That she needed to be reliable for the woman, usually so steadfast, trembling in her saddle.

"I am sorry. Not much farther now," Chae Ha yoon muttered at the sight of smoke on the horizon, gripping the reins tightly. "We will bring him home, Yong." Su hyun was a man of twenty-five now, and the aging mare could not carry both of them. The woman would walk, even if her shoes wore out and her feet blistered and ached. As long as her son lived.

Ha yoon clicked her tongue, guiding Yong to a trot as they neared the burning compound. The air was thick, and the stench of seared flesh quickly became overwhelming. She dismounted, no matter how appealing charging into the compound with Yong would be, and wrapped the mare's reins around a bamboo stem. If there truly are gods above, let him be unharmed... She marched on, covering the bottom half of her face with her sleeve, until she came across the wooden gate. The two Songrim mages guarding it looked at her warily, unsheathing their swords.

"No one's allowed in!"

"Move. I have reason to be here. My son..."

"But our master—"

"I will not ask again." Ha yoon gathered energy into her palm, forming a blue-tinted orb that thrummed with power. The mages flinched as the orb grew larger, though they firmly stood their ground. They obeyed only when it was too late—scurrying back and shielding themselves—as she launched her magic at the wooden doors. She picked up her skirts and dashed into the courtyard before the splintered planks could fall.

The fire surged at the woman's entrance, dancing high enough to singe her brows, but she made her way through the wreckage, through the corpses that littered the ground. Was one of them..? No. Ha yoon did not linger, parting some of the flames with a swish of her hand. She couldn't afford to think that way. Her eyes, stinging from the drifting ash, honed in on the mages clustered at the center of the bloodbath.

"Su hyun!" she demanded, sprinting to them. "Where is he?" Their expressions flickered, some sympathetic, others confused. While none had answers when she clutched at their sleeves, she held out hope as they parted to reveal their masters. The four of them were discussing something heatedly, voices clashing.

"How did this happen exactly?"

"Well, Jang Gang, was he not your close friend?"

"He recorded constellations at Cheonbugwan! How would he have the power to do this?"

"Lord Park?" Their heads swiveled as she interrupted their thinly-veiled quarreling.

"Ah!" Heo Yeom recovered quickly and pursed his lips. "Lady Chae, this is official business, you see. It is quite the complication..."

"Where is my son?" Ha yoon frowned at the man she originally addressed, but he refused to meet her troubled glance. Six seconds. Seven. She glared at the others at his silence, daring them to say the dreaded words: "He is gone, my lady. I am sorry."

It was the Gwanju who replied with a mere whisper, as if he himself could not believe the outcome. "Many were felled today because a mage used foul sorcery."

"Foul—" She too hissed incredulously, almost biting her tongue, "Foul sorcery?" Her legs threatened to give out. Su hyun could have lived, she reflected with the taste of bile in her mouth. If only she had given him the tool to do so. But she was too scared that he'd eventually burn from the inside out, that he wasn't the right—