King of Stars Volume 1 (An interstellar ATEEZ Hongjoong fanfiction)

Part Eighteen Point Five: In Which Jongho Reunites with an Old Friend

The place that Master Commander Arcturus found himself was somewhere between the plane of the living and the path of the dead. The Void was suspended in a place between nowhere and everywhere, deprived of any sensory stimulation and impossible to leave unless they sent you back.

There were three of them, withered and hunched over in their thrones sitting high above the commander's head. All three had had their eyes narrowed beneath their masks in what could've been looks of disdain as they regarded him. Two of them were men who were adorned in robes of crimson while the woman in the center wore white. Finally one of the men, the one who had marred skin where his ears should've been, spoke to him squinting his milky eyes down the slope of his nose.

"Master Commander Arcturus you have been summoned here to answer for your defiance against a direct order from the Void," He gripped his throne with knobby hands and leaned forward. "You do understand that we three are ordained by him and therefore can issue orders in his name?"

"I understand," Arcturus muttered between gritted teeth. The Master Commander had been silently seething in rage after discovering that Jongho had been removed from his cell and Arcturus himself had been reported for torturing him without the elder's consent. He then was swiftly summoned to a hearing before them.

I'm going to gut the son of a bitch that ratted me out...

He had no respect for the three ancient figures before him and fought to keep the ever growing voices inside his head in check. But as his anger built so did the intensity of their screams. They clawed at him at the edge of his brain baiting him, taunting him.

Wizened old bastards...

Your temper will get you killed Arcturus...

"I was torturing him for information. Information that could be vitally important to fulfilling the prophecy," Arcturus explained. "Besides it was carried out under my orders on my ship—"

"Impulsive fool," The female elder hissed. Her thin skin stretched over her teeth beneath the wrinkled flesh where her eyes should've been. "Everything that the Void touches in under his dominion. The power you wield, quite impetuously, is bestowed upon you by him as well."

"You were to secure Jongho safely safely, to where he's to be executed!" The first male interjected angrily. "Because you've purposefully defiled that sacred order you will be punished for it."

"Punished for carrying out an order that was in our best interest?!" Arcturus finally exploded. The voices were now enraged and drawing blood inside his mind as they raked their hands against him. "What's the point of having my power if I am not allowed to use it?!"

The third elder sat in his throne silently watching on at the heated exchange. A red cloth covered his mouth and his eyes eerily reflected the pure black of the Void around them. He leaned over to the female as if he was whispering in her ear and she ground her teeth at whatever secret conveyed between them.

"We see all Arcturus," She wheezed out, her lips twisted into an grimace of a smile. "Don't think we don't notice how you've used your station for personal gain. But remember this you stupid man..." She growled between her wrinkled jowls. "If you're no longer useful to him, your existence is more valuable in death than in life..."