Sanguis Amortis [Ryeji AU]

Chapter 1

Hwang Yeji

 
Seulgi was everything my father deserved. She was beautiful, homely, and could calm the beast within him with just a smile. She was exactly what the middle-aged fisherman needed. He had grieved my mother for 17 years before she came along. Everyone deserves love.
They had been together for over a year now and last week they announced that Seulgi was with child. It was perfect, if you took me out of the picture, they would be the picture-perfect family. And, well, I was 18, no longer a child. The small beachfront house I called home was cramped as it was and there would be little space for another person, even a baby, with me there. Sadly, I knew I had to move on out.

I was working in my garden, humming to my tomato plants and encouraging their growth. Technically very little should have been able to grow in the soil of our garden so salted by the sea, but being half-witch from the Hwang coven, gave me green fingers and every living plant I touched or sang to would sprout new life. We all have gifts, my father told me when I was little. My mother's gift was for aquatic plant life, that's how they met, my father found my mother floating on a bed of seaweed while he was out fishing. My gift wasn't anything special, I didn't have the power of a full-blooded witch but I could grow just about any plant. A useful gift especially during bad harvests. The tomatoes were almost ready for picking. Seulgi had interrupted me. Her face was red and she wrung her hands on her flour covered apron.

"Yeji, can you please come inside?" She asked. Her voice trembled slightly and I was caught out by the use of my actual name; everyone I knew called me Yeddeong.
I stood wiping my dirt covered hands on my old and worn blue jeans and walked towards her. She stopped me with a hand on my shoulder and she lifted a clean edge of her apron and began wiping at my forehead.
"Seulgi, what are you doing?" I laughed, confused but I didn't push her hand away.
"You've got soil on your face." She stepped back smiling at me but her usual warm smile wavered.
"What's wrong? Is it the baby?" I asked suddenly panicked and my hands reflexively moved towards her stomach. She shook her head, pressing her lips together.
"The baby is fine." She reassured taking my hand in both of her own. "There is, I can't believe this, oh Yeddeong." She seemed to choke on her words.
"Tell me what's wrong, is it Dad?" If it wasn't the baby then it had to be Dad to make Seulgi so sad like this. She shook her head again.
She took a deep breath. "They're here for you." She whispered looking behind her and back at the light blue house.
"Who is?" I whispered back conspiratorially. Everyone I knew lived on or near this beach.
"A Royal." She whispered back; head bowed eyes not looking my way.
It took me a moment, really a moment too long, to catch up to what Seulgi was telling me. It was just so, unexpected. This wasn't meant to happen. It never happened.
"Yeddeong." She whispered getting my attention. I looked away from the house and back to Seulgi. "You have to go meet her." She said giving me a forced smile of reassurance. I nodded my head and she lead me back to our small house by the hand she still held.

My head swirled as we walked back towards the wooden back porch. A Royal here for me. I never thought this would or even could happen; not really. When I gave my blood sample for testing as was the law on my 18th birthday, almost a year ago now, I didn't even think about the possibility. Soul match testing was just something that happened. It never meant anything. No one ever actually matched with a Royal or Noble. But apparently, it could happen, and it did happen - to me.
My heart beat a race inside my chest as Seulgi opened the door still clasping my hand tight in her own.
My father sat with his back to us at the small table in our kitchen. Before him, stood two guards in the deep midnight blue uniform of the reigning monarchy. My Father's large frame prohibited me from seeing the figure who sat opposite him at the table. All that was noticeable at first was black as night hair, short, above the shoulder.
Seulgi cleared her throat as she pulled me to her side almost protectively and I stumbled into her. My Father turned standing from his seat, stepping aside and I saw her for the first time. Well, for the first time in person. Her regal face was one the whole country was familiar with.
She stood from her seat ,much shorter than I expected. Her form was small but rather womanly, with a noticeable cinched waist and hips to match her bust. She wasn't large, but evenly proportioned in an almost too perfect way one would expect from a Princess.
Her silver-grey eyes met mine but for a moment before Seulgi pulled my arm and my senses, momentarily lost, were found. I averted my gaze.