A Garden Of Loneliness

Act One: The Magician - Chapter Three

The smell of incense and mint was heavy in the air from where Taehyung worked. His long fingers delicately ran over the small amethyst figure that he was carving as he sat at a wooden table no larger than a nightstand with his bottom plopped into a chair that had once been a barrel. Light from a candle filled chandelier brought a warm rainbow glow over his hunched frame as the flame from the candles flickered from a soft purple to a gentle orange as Jimin's magick ran through their waxy frames. And all along the walls were wooden shelves lined with drying herbs, bars of soap, vials of perfumes, potions for illness's, blankets and robes, poppets and crystal figures, and anything else that Taehyung could craft as he hid in the back of the shop as his brothers worked the front. His eyes never left what he was carving, the small athame in his hands working steadily over the purple crystal as the image of a bat started to come to life as he worked. And after a while a small tune began to fall from his throat as he hummed to himself and put in the last little details before placing it carefully beside the row of other creatures he had made since he had awoken at dawn. There was already a decent amount filling the shelf. But still, like clockwork, he grabbed another stone. This one was a drusy agate that was a mixture of lavender and grey. A beautiful cavern filled with little pointy stones playing peek-a-boo near its bottom. And within a matter of seconds he began to carve. Not a thought in his mind besides finishing his task. His fingers moving without rhyme or rhythm. Simply moving and creating as he lost himself to his work and waited out the day till he could sneak to his room in the inn above.

Loose blue and black strands of his hair fell into his eyes as he leaned even further over the agate in his palm, and with a pout, he set his work down and reached upwards in order to retie it into a low ponytail at the nape of his neck with a loose bit of leather. When he was done, it rested against the tall lace collar of his blouse and fell down limply towards his sweaty back where the silk fabric clung to him like a second skin. There wasn't much air in the room, and while there was a window, Taehyung was not eager to open it on the off chance that a passerby from the street would look in and spot him where he sat. While there wasn't a high chance that someone would recognize him, he had always worn a mask up until now, he didn't feel comfortable taking the chance. So instead, he brought up his puffed lacy sleeve and wiped at his brow before picking up the agate again and continuing his carving.

Time passed him by like a blur. The only thing mattering being his work as he focused entirely on it even when Yoongi came in to bring him some tea or Jimin came to see how he was doing. He would only mutter a few words under his breath and continue on as if they weren't there at all. It wasn't that he was purposefully ignoring them. Rather he was doing everything possible in order to get through his day and not focus on the feeling of anxiety smothering his chest and constricting his lungs. Staying in the storeroom was all that he could do, and while it wasn't perfect, it was better then being spotted.

Since coming to Copperlin, Taehyung had only been outside once. And that was on the night that they had moved there as they had stealthily hastened their way through the roads without being seen all the way from their mother's cottage. In all the years that he had traveled due to his former work, not once had he been as terrified as he was when they were coming to the inn. It was... an experience. To say the least. And the entire time he had been plagued with nightmares that both haunted his sleeping and waking hours as illusions of beings who could never be there suddenly stood before him as if they had always been. His terrors had made the journey hard. Harder then his brothers would ever admit to as they took over his watches and tended to his fragile mind. But in the end they had made it. And ever since. He hadn't stepped a foot out of Thraine's home. During the day he stayed in the storeroom and worked, having Yoongi enchant whatever he made when it was time to close for the day, and at night he escaped through a secret passageway to what had once been the attic above the main part of the inn where he now lived. His brothers had each taken up their own rooms on the first floor similar to some of the other workers who needed lodging and hadn't originally been a part of the village. But, Taehyung had wanted to be as far from people as possible. Which was rather counterproductive to why he had set out to come here in the first place.