Masters of the Sea

018

Hye Ra, I can explain...

Those were the words that Sunghyun wanted to say to her, but the words were lost to him. Looking at her with pleading eyes, pleading for her to be willing to listen to his story, Sunghyun watched as Hye Ra backed slowly away from him, one step at a time, until she finally turned on her heels and fled.

I'm sorry. I didn't mean to lie...

She had entrusted him with her true identity but he had not done the same with her. Instead, it had taken these circumstances to force the truth out, and from the mouth of a third party no less. As much as Sunghyun was glad that he was now reunited with Hoya, a familiar face in this foreign land, the larger part of him was grieving at what he could have possibly lost forever.

"Sunghyun! The Oracle! She's getting away!" Hoya was about to give chase after Hye Ra, but Sunghyun immediately reached out and grabbed hold of his arm.

Shaking his head, he sighed. No, don't chase after her.

"We need to capture her and bring her back to Baekje! Why are you letting her go like that?" Hoya demanded, unable to struggle free of Sunghyun's firm grip. It took a couple of seconds before he finally managed to get his head around everything that had just happened. I had captured the Oracle and then Sunghyun shows up from behind and attacked me... He was trying to protect her. The realisation finally dawned upon him. "Sunghyun, you know the girl?" he asked, his eyes widening in surprise. The word "know" was probably an underestimation of the truth, because from the way Sunghyun had been trying to defend her, even Hoya could tell that there was perhaps something more than met the eye.

Sunghyun loosened his grip on his friend's arm, giving him a comforting pat on the shoulder.

"You can't speak? What happened to you! Why on earth are you here in the Goguryeo forests instead of back home in Baekje?" There were too many questions that Hoya needed answers to.

Pointing the way back to the house, Sunghyun signalled for Hoya to follow behind him. The story was far too long for him to convey without a voice. If he was to tell Hoya the entire story from start to finish, then he would need the help of some parchment and ink.

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Hye Ra was confused, the thoughts flooding through her mind like a lake that had burst its dam.

Sunghyun is the leader of the White Knights... The man I rescued, the man I've been living with, and the man I... He was the one that Go Yeon was after, and she now she knew the reason why. The White Knights had come to Goguryeo as guardians of the Baekje princess, yet from what she had heard from Hoya's lips earlier, the knights had come with another agenda in store: to capture her. Suddenly everything made sense, the reason why someone would have wanted Sunghyun dead, the reason why he was always so reticent about talking about his past, and the reason why he had become more withdrawn when he discovered her true identity. Initially, she had believed he was upset with her for lying to him, now she knew the real reason why.

What are you going to do Hye Ra? She tilted her head upwards towards the night sky, now sparkling with the brilliance of a thousand stars. Silently, she prayed that the gods would give her an answer to her problem, but tonight he gods were silent. Goguryeo is my home, but Sunghyun... Her heart was torn in two.

Just then, she heard a rustling in the bushes not far from where she was seated. Picking herself up, Hye Ra slowly crept her way behind a huge oak tree, waiting in anticipation to see who it was who was approaching. Much to her surprise, the person who eventually emerged in the clearing was neither Hoya nor Sunghyun, nor anyone she would have expected to see again in a million years.