hold me 𐦍 yeonbin

013 ᯓᡣ𐭩

Siyeon leads Yeonjun down a stairwell lined with vines and lilies growing between the cracks in the dark wood. There are mushrooms coming from the ceiling and floorboards that provide the only dim light, some luminating neon blues and greens, some red with dots in varying colors. Most of them are not native to Terra. The shadows flickering on the walls at their feet stutter in the inconsistent, flickering glow.

Siyeon’s home reminds Yeonjun of Taehyun’s. The exterior is based on human architecture, but inside the house is much larger than it appears.

As a pixie, Yeonjun is unfazed by the idea that the human Soobin was in contact with the warlock Siyeon. Chaos is unpredictable regardless of the realm. Entropy is the only law which every realm has in common.

As a human, Yeonjun is perplexed. Those born of magic rarely visit Terra due to its dampening effects on their natures. The conditions of Siyeon’s banishment meant to render her skills useless. A warlock with no outlet for their magic, no elements with which to cast spells. isn’t a threat.

At the bottom of the stairs Siyeon stops in front of a large metal door lined with ivy and aster. A stained glass window glows violet around the outline of a crescent moon. The well Yeonjun heard when they arrived sings softly from the other side, nearly dried.

Siyeon places her hand on the moon, closing her eyes as she concentrates the magic she shouldn’t have into her palm. The moon glows purple and fazes into the rest of the glass as the door fades. It isn’t a door the way humans create them. There are no handles, nothing to grip or turn. One only needs asks permission and will be granted access if their intentions are clear.

Siyeon guides him into the room that smells of cobwebs and old growth. It is mostly empty aside from a small desk lined with several vials, and a large black cauldron radiating from the center in shifting cool hues. The well comes from inside the cauldron.

“It’s mostly for show,” Siyeon says, “I haven’t built a bridge to your realm in, maybe, ninety or so years.”

“Is there anything in it?” Yeonjun asks, peering over the side into the emptiness.

“Not yet.” Siyeon pushes aside several vials and leans against the desk.

Yeonjun can’t hear anything from her heart. Like the man with fake eyes, she is completely unreadable at times.

“How long will it take?”

“The bridge will take no more than a few weeks.”

“And how much dust will it require?”

Yeonjun flexes his hand but his palm is empty. It’s pitiful. Most of his dust is upstairs sitting uselessly on the table.

“I have enough dust stored already to conduct my magic into the construction. What I need from you right now is your permission.”

Siyeon reaches out. She means to read his fortune.

“I’ve never had my fortune told before.”

“Very few pixies have. Humans, even less so. Soobin was the first of the humans I read.”

“What did you see?”

“I can’t tell you that.” Siyeon squeezes Yeonjun’s hands. “Close your eyes,” she says.

They both close their eyes. Yeonjun’s anxiety spikes when the image of the man with fake eyes flashes in the dark. The feeling of Siyeon’s energy connecting the two of them replaces the dizziness that comes with Yeonjun’s memories. It courses through his human body, dipping into his mind and body and he can feel her in his bones. He shivers at the intrusion.

Yeonjun loses himself in a starless sky over a field of bluebells. He’s on his back. White dust clouds the air.

“There is more pixie in you than human,” Siyeon begins.

Hope. It’s a new one. Yeonjun doesn’t mind hope.

“Which means that there are two ways you can die on Terra.”

Dread. Less welcome than hope.

“I don’t want to die.”

“Without an active contract, even in this human form, you must keep your spirit high. Your human body struggles to combat that which would have killed the part of you that remains pixie, just as your pixie spirit protects your human body from the damage caused to you by the humans.”

Despair.

“I don’t want to die on Terra.”

Siyeon tightens her grip over Yeonjun’s hands. He holds onto her as if he lets go he will fall through the floorboards and back onto the operating table.

“Unlike pixies, humans do not require contracts to brighten their spirits. They find their light through joy.”

Joy is a human emotion Yeonjun has studied but has yet to experience. It is not unique to humans. Yeonjun has seen what happiness looks like on warlocks and stars and vampires—practically every being he has studied. How to obtain happiness is a lesson he never learned.

“What should I do to find joy?”

“By nature, humans have the ability to find happiness in infinite ways. The human Soobin is a scholar. He will show you how, if you are willing to listen.”

He doesn’t want to rely on a human for assistance. Soobin is no use to him anymore. Yeonjun could tell from the second he saw Soobin that he was independent, but that’s as far as it goes. For all his boldness, his human spirit is weak.

Siyeon’s fingers loosen, halting the flow of energy. Yeonjun opens his eyes to a frustrated Siyeon.

“You don’t believe me?” Her voice drops, and she sounds like a real warlock.

Yeonjun begrudgingly closes his eyes again. It is not his place to question a fortune teller during a reading.

“The tattoo of a name will bind you to the human,” she continues. “As he did yesterday and will continue tomorrow, the human Choi Soobin will listen when you speak. Let him expect the same in return.”

Tomorrow.

It takes a moment to understand what she means. Humans have no concept of a Tomorrow. They don’t even have a proper word for it.

Tomorrow.

The implications send Yeonjun’s mind into a whirl. Compared to the idea of a human Tomorrow, even being strapped to the operating table is preferable. Humans break too easily.

Yeonjun fears the worst. He clenches his wings to his body like phantom limbs. His dust surges through his veins in an attempt to remind himself that he is not and will never be human. He doesn’t want to die on Terra, but more than that, he doesn’t want to die as a human.

♡₊˚ 🦢・₊✧𐦍

turns out yeonjun is actively dying. unless, he keeps his spirit high.. aka the pixie needs to be happy in order to stay alive.

and what is it with the whole tomorrow thing? why did siyeon call soobin his tomorrow?

xx nini