[Arthdal Chronicles] Fight for freedom

CHAPTER 18: Allies. (EDITED 07/22)

When Tanya arrived in front of her office, she put her hand on the door handle but she didn't open right away. 

Yangcha had already resumed his place next to the door, he noticed how Tanya was hesitant to enter and he wasn't surprised, he didn't trust Saya and he didn't think the High Priestess should either. But she didn't have to worry, as long as he was on duty he wouldn't let anything happen to her and he would be ready to burst into the room at any suspicious noise.

Tanya took a deep breath, she didn't really want to see Saya at the moment. She wondered what he wanted, maybe he knew about what she had asked her attendant to do and he came to tell her that whatever she wanted to do it was stupid. She sighed before she made up her mind to enter anyway. Saya was already there and had made himself comfortable, he didn't seem to bother himself respecting the fact that room was hers and not his.

When he saw Tanya, he greeted her with one of his smiles that reminded her of Eunseom then he started talking to her, but it seemed to the High Priestess he was turning around the bush, not saying or asking what he really wanted to. She asked him to go straight to the point as she doubted he was there to talk about the weather or her well-being.

"What did you talk about with Mubaek?" Saya finally asked. He knew she had met Mubaek earlier. He was on his way to see her in the Fire Room when he noticed she was talking to the warrior. He didn't intend to overhear the conversation in the first place and was about to leave but he stopped when he heard his name: Mubaek was talking about him being the mirror as he recognized his face easily when he had met him. He heard him saying that he believed the world would change once the sword, bell and mirror all came together.

Tanya was surprised he knew she had met Mubaek and she wondered how he came to know. 

- He asked me to lift the curse I put on his brother. Tanya simply replied. 

Mubaek, indeed, came to ask her to lift the curse on his brother because he had come really close to death during the night of the coup but that wasn't his only reason. He also shared with her the words Asa Sakan, the elder of the White Mountain Tribe, had shared with him: "Three babies were born on the same day and hour 20 years ago, the three babies were each born with the destiny of the bell, mirror and sword so they could end this world."  Mubaek believed Tanya was the bell as she had found Asa Sin's bell in the Great Shrine, he believed Eunseom, who he had helped escape when his plan to rescue the Wahan Tribe from Arthdal failed, was the sword and that Saya was the mirror. 

Tanya couldn't tell Saya everything, she didn't want to. He couldn't learn about Eunseom's existence as she didn't know how he would react to the fact she had kept for herself the fact he had a twin brother. She already knew Saya didn't care about people he didn't know, he had already told her that when she tried to ask him about what he thought about his birth family, but his reaction only made Tanya want to protect Eunseom from him even more. 

"Is that so?" Saya questioned and when she just nodded, he sighed. He knew she wasn't telling the truth and he wondered why she was lying to him. "You are hiding something from me Tanya, again," he murmured.

"And so? What if I am? Why should I tell you everything anyway?"

Saya smirked, she was becoming braver he wouldn't deny it. He approached her, taking her two hands in his. "Because we are on the same side so you shouldn't hide things from me," he replied with a smile.

"Are we really?" she asked, freeing her hands. The images of how joyful he was when the tribe leaders were slaughtered in the throne room came back to her mind as if she needed to be reminded of what kind of person Saya was. He had the same face as Eunseom but they really were two different people.