Black Magic

Homecoming

Chapter 33: Homecoming

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Excerpt from Dragons: A History of Mixed Blood and Magic, Written in the year 611 A.C.

1111 A.C. The War is Over

After 500 years, the Heartstones have been reunited, and the Earth Heartstone has been completely cured of Dark Magic.

Though it is hard to say how the Jewel was cured, we believe that the Dark Magic was turned back to Light Magic because the Heartstones were selflessly used in an attempt to save a dying dragon's life.

Regardless of how it happened, once the Earth Heartstone was purified, any thrall that it had possessed over the Dark Dragons and human Shadowmen was broken.

Those dragons that had been turned Dark regained memory of who they once had been; their eyes no longer glowed red and their body no longer held the threat of spreading Infection to others.

By all appearances, Dark Dragons were returned back to normal, back to the person they were before being infected with Dark Magic....

Chanyeol paused in his scribbling, his quill going silent against the worn pages of the old book. He bit his lip and glanced across the room to where Baekhyun was sleeping. The older male looked relaxed, peaceful, not a care in the world. But Chanyeol knew better. Sleep was good for healing, but Baekhyun was far past that point. Sleep meant escape. Escape from reality.

Chanyeol's heart was heavy as he turned his attention back to the book in his lap. He dipped his quill into the pot of ink that sat on the bedside table, and then forced himself to write the next lines.

Dark Dragons were cured of Dark Magic, but it seems that in the process they were completely stripped of any Elemental magic they may have once possessed prior to becoming Infected. Those who were healed returned to the world not as Elemental Dragons...but as Humans who had once been Elemental Dragons....

Chanyeol snapped the book closed, not even giving the ink time to dry. He didn't know what had compelled him to write in the stupid book in the first place. Maybe he just needed to see the words on paper, see it spelled out in front of him. Maybe it was just the act of writing it down, letting the words flow from his hand to the pen to the paper, a sort of outlet.

Maybe he just felt like the entries in the book needed to have a conclusion.

Maybe he was just bored.

Chanyeol swallowed around the lump in his throat and rose from the bed he'd been sitting on, drawing closer to Baekhyun to run a hand through his hair. Baekhyun stirred, his eyes blinking open just a bit, and Chanyeol's breath stuttered for a moment as the smaller male stared at him without recognition. But then the moment passed, and Baekhyun's eyes cleared, and Chanyeol began to breathe again.

"Hey," he said quietly, smoothing Baekhyun's bangs back, "the celebration is about to start. Do you want to come and walk around for awhile? Get out of the room?"

"I thought that was tomorrow?" Baekhyun croaked.

"It's tonight. Can't you hear everyone outside getting ready?"

It was an innocent question. The sounds of celebration were already loud in Chanyeol's ears, crowds of people moving, low rumbles of music beginning to drift on the breeze.... But he could immediately sense the way Bakehyun tensed on the bed. The air grew heavy with awkwardness.

"No," Baekhyun muttered stiltedly. "No, I can't hear anything beyond these walls."

Chanyeol's hands were shaking with how badly he'd just screwed up, and he didn't want to apologize because he'd already learned that that just made things worse—