𝗝𝗲𝘂 𝗱𝘂 𝗦𝗮𝗻𝗴 (𝘎𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘉𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘥 )

❛ 0 3 ❜

Let the games begin.

"And who is it you fear so much?" Yeosang asked.

He too was attracted by the king's offer, it was more than they wished for. They did not need riches or a certain wealth, they just wanted to live a simple life without knowing that everyone who saw them either hated or feared them. To be able to leave everything behind and start all over again. Not as a human being, neither as a creature. To start over just as they are, that is all they ever dreamed of.

"Well, it's a little complicated here. Even though we are considered gifted by the gods among humans, we do not have the best relationship with the gods." he began.

They might have played a game of cat and mouse before but they were now ready to help him. Not really the king, but the inhabitants of Obsidian. Hongjoong asked the guards to step out of the room, but they were not really convinced, especially his advisor Mingi who could already guess what the king was up to. One last time he tried to persuade him, but Hongjoong was already sure.

When he was alone with the shadow men, they slowly let up. Of course they were still careful, but for now they could do without the distribution. They approached the table and listened with interest. Of course they knew what was going on in the dense forests around Obsidian, but they too were a mystery why.

"You are one of the few people I tell," they also knew that those who learned of Obsidian's background disappeared soon after.

"Some time ago, Obsidian closed a pack with the gods. We were favoured by them, and other countries knew about it," he said, looking down on his desk. He wasn't really ashamed of his own kingdom's past, but he didn't like to tell them about it. He imagined how relieved he would be when the men he didn't know disappeared from the surface.

"You know the saying 'success is the devil's work'" he looked up at them, Yeosang could feel curiousity taking over his body.

"They say that this saying has its roots here in Obsidian," again that quiet tone that almost frightened you. Hongjoong was not surprised and just looked at him venomously.

"Then those who spread it were not wrong", the young king suppressed the desire to ask who spread it and focused on his choice of words.

His fingers tapped on the dark wood of the desk, he suppressed to show how much this started to almost excite him, to know how curious they were, without knowing what price they paid for this story.

"The gods would not help us, no matter how much my grandfather begged. For days he knelt and bowed, carrying all kinds of offerings with him," he scratched lightly on the smooth surface.

"The addiction to power probably runs in the family," commented Seonghwa, whereupon Hongjoong looked up again briefly.

"If you want to put it that way. I call it ambition, but each one of us has it their own way. Anyway, after several days of waiting, the offerings went up in flames, and out of the fire came Hephaistos," he told them, as if he had experienced the situation himself.

Yeosang straightened up when he realised which gods Hongjoong was talking about.

"The god of fire, volcanoes, blacksmithing and architecture," he explained to the others. They nodded, now understanding what the king was getting at.

"As already mentioned, Grandfather wanted to close a pack, but nothing goes unnoticed by the gods. It didn't take long for Nemesis to get wind of this," he stopped briefly, "I guess you don't know them. She is the goddess of justice. While Hephaestus gave us the black castle, Nemesis made sure we didn't get away with it. Blutmond, the creature in our forests, it comes from this pack. Every third year it crawls out of the shadows and brings a large number of Obsidian children to the underworld"

Silence spread again as they silently commemorated the missing children.

"Of course the royal family has a safe haven for these periods, but I don't want to have any more of Obsidian's children taken away from us, it looks bad when you can't explain to other countries why the children of you country keep on disappearing."

They suppressed the urge to brutally punish him, if only for this self-centred action.

"You only love yourself, don't you?" Wooyoung asked, his eyes still glowing yellow as he clenched his hands tightly into fists and claws pressed into his skin.

"No, that's not true," he replied after only a few seconds.

"That's right, you have forgotten his dear ambition," whispered San mockingly.

"What's the matter with this castle?" Yeosang asked.

He was the only one who let him speak sensibly and observed his behaviour and choice of words carefully. Hongjoong grinned at him knowingly.

"I knew that you would be the one to ask about the castle, after all it is your heart they hide behind the walls. He confirmed his theory to Yeosang.

"You know, gods have so much power," he began.

The other shadow men became silent, they knew about Yeosang and what he was, but they didn't know that others knew about him too. And as before, black mist took the corners of the room and came closer to them. But this time, it was not Seonghwa, nor any of the others.

It was Yeosang, who felt threatened.

"I have always wondered what it is like to carry everyone's blood. Maybe you could help me, Guardian?" he turned his head slightly to one side while looking into Yeosang's black, empty eyes.

His eyes never betrayed him, but the thick, deadly mist surrounding the desk told much more than the Shadow Man would like to believe.

"Don't get me wrong, of course I respect you, but you are on thin ground, you know that too, don't you?" Hongjoong received no answer when Yeosang drowned in memories.

Memories of the day when the gods gave him a new life.