chapter xv. crescendo
The air has grown cold by the time you return to the other side of the village, making your way back to the main road leading to where you first came from. Chilly breeze passes around you, strong enough to pierce through your thick coat that your body shivers in its presence.
Above you, the sky is shifting. The golden shades that you saw in the afternoon is blending into the muted hue of the sunset. A display of pastel clouds and indigo-coloured shades are seen dancing on the darkening sky, with merely a thin layer of gold left surrounding the descending sun like a golden halo glowing right above the horizon.
As you continue your journey home, leaving the famers' village and the vast farm estate behind you, you find yourself getting lost in the display of light and colours that seem so uncommon to your eyes.
It amazes you how the places that you have been to lately could be so different to one another. Not only in terms of their culture, the people you see, and the local weather that you must endure, but also in the myriad of shades of colours that you get to see in the surrounding nature, as well as the scents wafting through the air.
Noticing you shivering under your coat, Yoongi delicately reaches out to grab your hand as he walks beside you. He has been silence for a while now, ever since you left the tavern together soon after sharing a long, deep, and surprisingly, meaningful conversation. But never once had he ever let his attention on you slip that he can easily notice it when the expression on your face gradually changes over time.
"Perhaps, the next time you are out traveling like this, you might want to consider wearing thicker clothes and prepare some gloves," he says as he gently rubs your hands in an effort to warm up your frozen fingers.
Little does he know that he is doing more than keeping your hands warm, as the heat starts coursing all the way to your chest, flowing right into your fluttering heart and spreading all over your face that you can barely look at him.
But Yoongi is too deeply concerned over your dainty fingers to notice it, and you are enjoying this moment too much to stop him.
"Thank you, I'll keep that in mind," you whisper to him while keeping your eyes down, still too flustered to look at him in the eyes.
Ever since your unexpected date at the tavern, everything about Yoongi has become more intense. His deep gaze which lingers on you until you are made to feel completely exposed, vulnerable, as if he could see right through your facade. His actions and gestures that are still as graceful yet has gradually grown more intimate with each passing second that you spend together.
And there is also the change in his speech, his soft spoken words that feel like a gentle caress reaching deep into your soul. Even when all he does is to ask about how you are feeling with the rapid change of temperature and the buzz from the brew that you had drunk back at the tavern still coursing through your body.
It feels overwhelming, although instead of feeling like you are intimidated by his rapt attention, you simply feel somewhat reassured.
You feel seen, after years and years of having to live in the shadows and having no one understanding what you had to go through. At the same time, he makes you feel heard, when you were finally able to share with him your deepest and darkest thoughts, your troubles, everything that has been left unspoken for many years. And Yoongi has been so respectful as he listened, never once undermining your fears and worries when you opened up about how it felt for you being kept hidden in the dark for so long.
But keeping your eyes away from his only allows you to focus on something else. Like focusing on the flow of energy coming out of his body, for example, and the way his touch seems to exude unnatural warmth which feels like an electric current transferring into your skin.
"I suppose your experience in traveling to different places have taught you how to adjust better," you murmur to him with a smile once you realise that while you are trembling under your cloak, Yoongi doesn't seem to be struggling when he is the one wearing nothing more but a thin layer of clothing that doesn't seem adequate enough to protect him from the cold.
"You're still warm."
Yoongi lets out a chuckle, and only then do you finally raise your head to look at him. "I do adjust better with the weather, no matter where I go. It doesn't affect me that much," he reveals with a grin, as he talks about it as if it is something that is common to happen.
His words take you back to your past conversation, when he talked about his life and the work that he does for the mercenary army. Granted, he didn't tell you much about himself aside from the general things that he was willing to share, but you have learned a bit more about him which has given you a sense of relief, giving you more reasons to feel much safer when you are with him and less wary. Not even when you look at him with the knowledge that you have gained about his secretive brotherhood of the mercenary army.
Once the cold no longer bothers you all that much, you continue to walk together a bit further until you are back at the crossroad where you had started your afternoon trip at the village of Grimm.
The farmers' village lies behind you, while the dark pathway leading back to your father's private property lies ahead of you. Looking around, you finally notice what you have failed to pay attention to today before you managed to learn more about this place—that the eerie forest that you had been warned to stay away from has always been closer than you had thought.
Stretched out across the rising terrain before your eyes and atop of the surrounding hills, the forest appears to you in a form of a massive wall of trees, all standing as tall as your eyes can see, with intertwining branches and thick canopy of leaves spread high above to shield you from the darkening sky.
In the daytime, the forest itself didn't seem as eerie or intimidating.
But of course, the first time you laid your eyes on your surroundings, you hadn't met with the farmers or received their warnings, nor had you paid any attention to the deep woods. Now that the darkness has begun to spread around you, everything about the forest seems to be warning you to stay away.
"Are you sure that you're not interested about that tour downtown?" Yoongi asks as you stand together at the crossroads, with your eyes looking into the deep forest and his eyes locked on you. A part of you wishes that you could stay with him just a bit longer, yet the dark sky above becomes the silent reminder that you shouldn't.
"I'm quite sure," you quickly say to him before you start to consider otherwise, because you are also quite sure that you are running out of time.
Yoongi had first offered to take you on a tour downtown once you concluded your talk, to see more of Grimm and the places that should be more interesting than this secluded village and its modest tavern. But your time spent with him had already lasted longer than it should have.
So the moment you realised that the day was already turning into dusk, with a heavy heart, you were left with no choice but to refuse his offer and let him know that it was finally time for you to leave.
"That's too bad, because if I am allowed to be honest with you, I am not ready to see you go so soon," Yoongi admits to you, which warms your heart just as much as it warms your cheeks. Standing before you, Yoongi takes your hand in his and leans down, pressing his lips on the back of your hand in a gentlemanly manner as a way to bid his goodbye.
"Still, I must thank the Fates for keeping our paths crossed, that we are able to meet like this despite our limited time together," he gently says to you as he straightens back up. As his gaze softens just as much as his voice does, your chest feels tight with doubt.
Will we see each other again?
Will I have another chance to speak with him like we did today?
Have I missed out on a chance to learn more about him?
These silent wonderings continue circling through your thoughts, and for the first time, fear grips at your chest at the mere thought that you might not see him again.
"Do you trust the Fates to bring our paths back together again?" you ask him in return, unable to hold back from wishing loudly that you will meet each other again the next time you walk through the portal, that he would be there when you emerge on a different foreign land for another unexpected journey.
With certainty in his eyes, Yoongi nods and says, "I do. I believe it will happen, as long as our souls continue to look for one another, we will find our way back to each other again."
His faith seems alluring, that you cannot help but feel the same hope growing in your chest that perhaps fate would bring you back together again. But you are too deep in admiring his confidence with his belief that it would take hours later for you to recall his words and wonder what he truly means.
"Then I shall pray that you are right," you mutter to him, "If we do ever cross paths again, then I'll be able to admit that Fates may have a hand in us finding each other no matter how odd the possibilities are."
Your words seem to please him. "Then I shall count on it to happen again," Yoongi says with a wide smile on his face, while you silently wish for the same.
Unlike before, Yoongi insists in walking you home. With the night soon falling, and the threats of the dark curses of the forest troubling your thoughts, you have no choice but to agree with him this time. The journey is more tasking now than before, when you are going uphill rather than going down from the main road.
But with Yoongi by your side, you find no trouble carrying on. His presence brings you peace, while his gentle voice keeps your nerves from spiralling out of control as the darkness around you thickens.
Yoongi glances at you to notice that you keep sneaking a peek through the shadows, wary of what you might see in the dark, and he begins to question you, "You know, if the darkness bothers you, perhaps I could—"
Even before Yoongi can finish his words, you can already tell what he is trying to offer you, as he has been trying to do the same ever since the moment he first brought it up back at the tavern. To be given the chance and reason for him to use his magic, to display his mana right before your eyes, just so he could get a reason to see yours.
You had expected that he would bring it up again before he finally lets you go tonight, after you had solemnly refused that offer previously at the tavern. Only because you knew that you couldn't do the same in return.
To reveal to him the mana within you that may lie dormant, or the magic that your father may have placed on you to keep your safe in your journey.
And yet, as you silently anticipate to hear Yoongi's alluring way of stating his offer, those words never come. You turn curiously to question him about it, only for you to notice Yoongi looking far away into the distance, far beyond the deep foliage of the woods to see something that your eyes cannot see.
The way his brows are furrowed and the stiffness forming on his shoulders feel unsettling. There is tension coming out of his body, even if it doesn't seem enough to show you that there is a possible danger lurking through the darkness.
"Is something the matter?" you question him while glancing around, wondering what might have caught his attention, since it seems to be important enough to draw such reaction that you are now seeing from him.
At the sound of your voice, Yoongi snaps out of it. Drawn back to your presence, the dark expression he wears on his face clears out as he turns to look at you.
"I have been looking forward to finally gain an extended time with you by walking you home, but I'm afraid this is as far as I can go," he suddenly says with regret in his voice.
A myriad of questions come to surface, filling your head along with uncertainty, yet you choose not to question him further. A part of you feel the same regret of not having that extended time to spend with him, but there is also a part of you that is overcome with relief, because this would only allow you to hide your father's secret hideout from him and, hopefully, the magic portal that is hidden behind the locked doors.
"I suppose I'd have no choice but to let you go, after all. What a pity," you mutter to him with a low voice, hoping that your conflicted feelings wouldn't show through your words.
"Yes, it's a pity indeed," Yoongi says, and you can see a glimpse of bitterness sparkling in his eyes; his annoyance at the sudden disturbance which seems to require his presence seems so palpable. "But I will make it up to you if we do meet again," Yoongi stops himself by shaking his head before correcting his words, "No, what I mean is—when we are to meet again."
You cannot resist the ghost of smile forming on your face at how promising his words sound. "You sound so confident."
"I must, if I am to see you again," Yoongi says to you with a genuine smile, and you find yourself sharing the same feeling of hope of seeing him again. As he bids his goodbye for the second time, Yoongi doesn't take your hand in his, but politely bows before you as he says, "Until then, Princess."
As Yoongi rises to his height, you can only look at him while feeling dumbfounded. The different nickname that he has given you is filled with jest, no doubt spoken with humour instead of derision—because there is no way that Yoongi knows who you are, isn't there?—yet it still throws you off that you find yourself unable to speak.
With a small grin, Yoongi lowers his hat to cover his face, allowing you no chance to speak at all before he turns away and starts walking down the pathway where the two of you had come from. You remain for a moment at the same spot to watch him disappear between the trees before turning away, continuing your journey back to the house hidden beyond the hill.
For a moment, you continue to walk as if you are lost in a daze. Something inside you feels heavy, and it seems to be getting worse the more distance you have between you and Yoongi.
Suddenly doubting that you will have the same luck of seeing him on your next journey, you quickly turn on your heels and rush back to find him.
You have no idea what you are hoping to find by chasing his tracks and following his shadows. Perhaps your desperate need to cling to him has taken over you that you fail to think logically about this. But you know for sure that you have no plan at all as you rush between the trees, ignoring the shadows reaching out to you as you follow the trails that he has left behind in his departure.
And yet, the pathway that you had walked on with him has been left vacant, with no trace of his shadow left behind.
He is gone, you wonder to yourself as disappointment grows within you. How did he manage to move so fast?
As you take a moment to catch your breath, you take a quick glance around, trying to see if you can still catch his shadow and find a way to stop him before he could go any further. You continue going down the hill until you nearly reach the line of trees bordering between the woods and the village, where you finally catch the sight of Yoongi disappearing towards a different part of the woods, and you quickly run to catch up with him.
Yet Yoongi is walking too fast.
From one side of the woods to the next you try to follow him, walking across the foot of the nearest hill without emerging into the main road, and you find that Yoongi has gone further away from you.
There is nothing that you can do to stop him as he walks straight into the deeper, darker side of the forest, disappearing between the shadows of the trees just as the sun dips beyond the horizon, making it seem as if the darkness has engulfed him completely. And it steals any chance that you have left to catch up with him before the curse of the forest rises in the coming nightfall.
Yoongi's legs feel heavy as he trudges along the dirt path taking him through the deep thickets. His heart feels just as heavy, though it has nothing to do with the unsteady ground or the muddy path he is walking on.
He simply feels this way because of his reluctance to be apart from you.
Deep down, he realises that this feeling will only get worse the more he spends time with you. The pull that he feels toward you has been growing steadily stronger, and if he should continue meeting up with you like this, the longer he is in your presence, the bond that has been formed between you will only become more solid.
Even as he has gotten further away from you, his heartbeat is still racing rapidly. His entire body still feels tense, not only because of how excited and nervous he had been for being able to spend time with you. But because he had gotten close—so close—to revealing everything to you.
"I might have to show it to you to prove it..."
He can still hear his own voice as he was offering you a quick show of his magic, the words came slipping out of him before he could stop it, before he could even think or consider all the risks.
It would only take one touch, one single brush of finger, one contact between his hand and yours, and he would have revealed it all. His secret. His father's secret. Your father's secret.
His hand tenses right beside him as he walks through the woods, still feeling the urge to reach out to touch your fingers. The tingles of his magic that had been calling for you still lingers with every twitch of his fingers and ever stretch of his palm.
If only you had said yes and accepted his offer.
He regrets that it never happened, as not only did he lose the chance to hold your hand, he had also lost the chance to be completely truthful to you. And yet, at the same time, he is also relieved, because your rejection had only given him more time to be able to get closer to you before something like that—the revelation of his identity—could ever happen.
It would be too soon for it to happen now, he keeps telling himself as he slowly clenches his hand. Because she might pull away if he finds out about everything before she is ready.
He can already imagine what would have happened if he had pushed his intention earlier, if he had been more adamant in forcing you to reveal your true self and have his magic activate the mana inside you.
All he intended to do was to confirm his suspicions about you using the Wicked King's magic to travel around. Such action would help him find answers, and he would have been able to use it to track down the King, and then after, to be able to find Queen Milena.
But the more he thinks about it, the more it feels like a breach of trust. He can picture you steadily pushing him away once that happens, that the truth will only scare you away instead of pushing you closer to him.
One day, it would still happen; the day when the truth behind your heritage is finally revealed to you and how the two of you had been connected since birth. But that time is not now. For that moment to happen, Yoongi would have to gain your complete trust, to allow you to get to know more of him and him to you. Something that would be impossible to gain with just a couple of short encounters made.
As Yoongi continues his journey through the forest, he uses the silence that is now engulfing him to silence his mind.
The scent of the forest mixing in with the evening breeze calms him down, while the dark movement of trees distracts him from his own thoughts. It would be crucial for Yoongi to regain his composure and clear his mind before confronting the ripple of mana that had summoned him merely moments ago, forcing him to separate himself from you.
Yoongi is quite familiar with this energy, hence he knows what to expect as he continues going deeper into the woods, ignoring the sounds of the forest and the branches that seems to be reaching out to him, until he finds the dark presence standing in his path. They are standing merely a few feet away from Yoongi's portal once he stops, not too far from the gate which he had used earlier in the afternoon as a mean of transport to reach Grimm.
Which only means that he had been using it to follow Yoongi's trails. Once again.
Wearing the formal uniform from the Empire's knighthood instead of a disguise that he normally uses as a common member of the mercenary army, Sergeant Jang Yijeong stands under the shadows formed by the thick foliage, his back leaning against one of the thickest trees with his eyes looking straight above his head, as if he is able to look past the foliage and see the darkening sky above.
He still has his gaze locked on the unseen sky as Yoongi approaches him silently, and the fairy soldier murmurs with a voice that comes out as gently as a hum, "It seems that it would rain soon."
"Would that be the reason why you sent out a sign for me to find you here?" Yoongi jokes with a scoff, "Have you come only to tell me that it's raining tonight? Do you perhaps carry an umbrella with you to protect me on my way home?"
"Not really," Yijeong says with a shrug, unbothered by Yoongi's mockery. His expression remains calm as he turns to look at Yoongi. Even if the sight of the Crown Prince wearing a commoner's clothing surprises him, he surely isn't showing it. But the flair on his skin bothers Yoongi a little, showing him that his friend had been using an additional magic when he was stepping across Yoongi's portal.
For what, he has no idea. But it is enough to make him grow alert. Because there has to be a reason why his friend needed to use magic to cover his own trail.
"So—what have you gained from today's meeting with the mysterious princess?" Yijeong asks before Yoongi can start asking questions.
This time, Yoongi is the one struggling to control his expression. With his bamboo hat still covering his head, he knows that the shade would still be enough to hide his furrowed brows as he questions his best friend, "What are you implying?"
"I am just assuming that you are to gain some information the moment you have the chance to," Yijeong continues, "Wasn't that the reason why you sought her in the first place?"
"That's not the only purpose that had led me to start following her, and you of all people know that," Yoongi seethes, hating the way he cannot actually argue with that assumption when it is partly true.
Yoongi curses inwardly as guilt grips at him in the chest. He suddenly feels like a criminal for deceiving you, while at the same time, he cannot regret the actions that he had made so far because they have given him the chance to meet you and talk to you in person. He sees it as a blessing to have been given the chance to get to know you, after all the years that he had spent chasing shadows without a single clue where to find you.
He had even spent years questioning himself, doubting his own memories and faith, almost believing that you never existed.
Until the ripples of magic first began appearing, stretching out through space and time each time you used the magic which took you to different places the same way he uses his portals.
As if Yijeong has the ability to look into the inner battle that Yoongi is currently having, he tilts his head and raises his brows. "It's not?" he questions Yoongi, remembering quite well everything that Yoongi had shared with him in the past.
It was during the first night he felt the burst of energy that came when you opened your father's portal when Yoongi revealed his true mission for the first time to Yijeong. Except that the only thing that Yoongi did was to reveal who you were, just to let his friend know that the mysterious traveller that Yijeong had met back in Smotia may truly have a connection to the missing Queen, and that you have somehow made contact with the magic that not many would be able to control.
Yoongi had shared his suspicions with his friend that night, believing that you had been granted a way to use the magic.
It was then when he decided to follow you, except that while he did so to confirm the threads of fate connecting your souls together, he merely revealed to Yijeong his need to find out about your magic; to see if it had been the same magic which was used by the person responsible for the Queen's disappearance, to learn the secrets behind the missing Queen, and to see if following your trails would lead him into finding her.
Yoongi has yet to understand the reason why he felt the need to hide his own agenda, when he could have opened up and shared everything with his best friend. Just like how he has always been able to share about everything with him for years.
Perhaps he had done it out of pure instinct, as he had been tormented by doubt at the time he was divulging his thoughts to Yijeong. He was doubting not only the soulmate bond that he believed to have since he was no more but a young child, and he was doubting your existence, having lost sight of you ever since the day the Queen disappeared.
And he wanted to keep everything to himself until he was able to prove it.
That you are truly the missing piece of his soul that he has been seeking for so long.
"Oh, that's right. What was it that you said before?" Yijeong says in a mocking tone, drawing Yoongi back to focus on him again, "You're only making sure that she remains safe."
With a frown, Yoongi recalls saying those exact words to Yijeong just a while ago. Hearing it spoken back to him only makes him feel uneasy.
He has been keeping too many secrets and has been spending the whole day teetering on the edge of spilling everything out, and his friend seems to be poking at the right direction because his skin will not stop bristling in annoyance.
"I meant it when I said that I felt the need to protect her," Yoongi slowly admits, and hearing himself saying this out loud, he realises that these are no longer empty words to be spoken.
Especially after what he had learned earlier when he sat down with you, when he listened to you sharing a small part of your life that he couldn't have known if he had only relied on the intel that his men had previously given him.
Yijeong gives him a sly grin. "Protect her, by stalking her and acting like a mysterious escort?" he asks again. Only this time, Yoongi can sense his mocking tone softening.
"When you first told me about it, I had assumed that you would remain in the distance, hidden away as you watch her movements, instead of approaching her directly and going on dates with the innocent girl," Yijeong continues to question Yoongi as he shifts against the tree that he has been leaning on and moves his arm around.
Only then does Yoongi notice that his friend has been swinging his short sword lightly by his side. Free from its sheath, the sword glimmers in the dark. The tip has grown stained, making him wonder if Yijeong has been using it as he was strolling through the deep forest.
A protective magic to cover his trails. A sword on the ready and pointed out as he made it all the way here.
Something is happening. Yoongi can feel it, and he knows that may have something to do with the reason why Yijeong had decided to come here after finishing his royal duty at the palace.
But Yoongi merely shakes his head, unable to focus on his friend, nor to try and guess what his friend had been dealing with before he made it here. Not when his mind keeps replaying the conversation that he shared with you. Yijeong's curiosity of his actions keeps triggering his memory that he can almost hear your voice again, to hear your words, and he can almost picture you being locked up inside the main palace at The Citadel as how you described it in your story.
No wonder you had been so desperate to step out of the palace.
And I had been so close, he wonders to himself as realisation dawns on him. As he recalls those long nights when he sent out his men to observe the main palace of The Citadel, only to receive reports about them being kicked back from the territory. As if there was an invisible barrier stopping them from getting too close.
Within that kind of protection, the King and his men would have been able to protect you from any kind of threat that may come towards the empire. But outside, with nothing more but the spell that had been cast inside your ruby necklace, you are more liable to incoming danger.
Just like that day in Narlès, when you were almost put to harm as you came across the group of thugs that seemed to have the ability to use dark magic to look past the shielding spell protecting you at the time.
Sighing, Yoongi shakes his head once again to brush away the thought of you coming into harm's way. "There are varying factions in play who have set their eyes on the Wicked King at the present time, now that he has gained attention with his empire growing in strength and territory, and human kingdoms seeking alliance with him," Yoongi says bitterly while growing more and more concerned has he continues,
"He may have succeeded in hiding the Princess' existence from his enemies for so long, but if someone like me was able to find her through the magic that she is using to travel around, someone else could be looking the same way. Not only would they be able to trace her, they could use her as a way to get to the Wicked King once they know how important she is to him."
Swinging his short sword side to side while looking as if he is deep in thoughts, Yijeong glances sideways at Yoongi. "Of course, you would know, because that was your initial agenda when you followed her, wasn't it? To use her to get to the King," Yijeong mockingly says, poking at Yoongi's deep remorse further, leaving him speechless.
Yijeong stops talking, and the weapon that he is playing with glows under the streaks of light surrounding them as he lifts it up. "Are you sure that gaining information and protecting her at the same time were the sole reasons why you have been trailing her?"
The crease in Yoongi's brows deepens. "What do you mean?"
Yijeong says nothing at first and continues swinging his sword around the same way he would during his practice routines. Yoongi realises that Yijeong is doing this to help him think, so he remains quiet and waits until Yijeong is ready to share his trail of thoughts.
After a short while, Yijeong stops playing with his sword and turns to face Yoongi. "I know who she is to you," he suddenly says, and before Yoongi can say anything to respond, Yijeong continues, "I can tell from the way you'd react whenever I talk about her that she means something more. Not just a means to an end, but something more."
"And what would that be?" Yoongi asks in return, trying to see how much Yijeong knows about his well-kept secret.
The grin on Yijeong's face widens as he playfully—with a disrespect that should be frowned upon at the empire yet welcomed by Yoongi only because of their friendship—clutches at Yoongi's shoulder with one hand. His eyes glowed with mirth when he speaks, "Once upon a time, back during the ancient times when fairies were roaming freely in this realm—"
Yoongi groans and mumbles, "Here we go," not knowing where this is heading, although he does have an inkling of what his friend is trying to say.
"The Fates had found us all—our ancestors, I mean—valiant, slightly feral and unruly, but it was all because most of us had to roam through the realm without a purpose, without anything to bind us to one place, and most of them, in their lives of solitude, managed to create havoc. So they started to created us in pairs," he continues on with a light tone while a mixture of dread and unease begins to rise in Yoongi's chest, for knowing that his connection to you is about to be revealed.
And yet relief washes over him when Yijeong continues on to say, "The Fates gave each of the ancient fairies their love-mates, to whom a fairy would have their soul bonded with so they could have some place, someone, to come home to after their wild adventures. If only to make sure that order could take place once again in the realm. And that was before our ancestors began building our empire into what it is today."
With a deep sigh, Yoongi feels as if the weight on his shoulders being lifted, knowing that the wouldn't have to keep this fact as a secret for much longer. Seeing the tension in Yoongi's body fading away, Yijeong nods and takes a step back, releasing him from his hold.
"That is what she means to you, isn't it? She's your love-mate," Yijeong says. "Your soulmate, if we want to use a present term."
Closing his eyes, Yoongi releases a deep exhale of breath and nods. "How did you know?"
Shrugging, Yijeong sheaths his sword away. "Having a soulmate is a rare thing to happen for the likes of us, especially in the present time. Now that we have order in place, finding someone who is fated to our souls have grown rare," Yijeong muses with a soft voice. "And we're not Weres or Vampires who are still destined to have a companion to spend the rest of their immortal lives with, so obviously, that thought never crossed my mind. Until recently."
Yijeong turns to look straight into Yoongi's eyes, staring deeply as he speaks with a gentle voice.
"The night I was out in the slum district of Smotia to search for the runaway mage under your command, you sent out men to track down the source of an unfamiliar mana you felt from downtown, did you not?" he asks, to which Yoongi confirms with a nod. "That was her, wasn't it? It was the night when I met her at a tavern. Unfortunately, I had to encounter her without knowing this."
Yoongi says nothing, so he simply continues, "But she has yet to make contact with magic then, so the only thing that I could gather is that you felt her soul that night, calling out for you for the first time."
With a bitter chuckle, Yoongi shakes his head. "I keep forgetting how perceptive you can be. I still don't understand how you managed to put things together when I tried my best not to give it away."
Yijeong responds with a scoff. "I've been to places, just like you have been, remember?" he grins, causing Yoongi to chuckle. "I've seen soulmates recognising one another, and how they were able to find each other through the invisible threads pulling them together. And I've seen how these bonds growing and strengthening once they gave in to the connection that was fated for them. It isn't hard to notice that you are being drawn to her presence the same way, that it wasn't just the magic that she is using which helps you to find her."
Narrowing his eyes at Yoongi, he tilts his head, as if he is trying to get a read of the Crown Prince. "I can tell that the more you spend time with her, as you keep getting close to her, the more you would be able to feel it. Is that also the reason why you have been staying close? Have you been trying to confirm the bond that you have between you?"
Yoongi's shoulders sag in defeat for the first time. "Again, you are too perceptive for your own good," he says, drawing a smile on Yijeong's face as he looks at Yoongi without a hint of guilt in his eyes. If any, the Sergeant of his Empire's army looks proud of himself for being able to read him.
"You are partly right, as much as I hate to admit it. I wasn't sure about the mate bond, thinking that it was nothing more but an old myth that belonged in the past. I didn't even want to admit it to myself, much less to share this with anyone else. Not until I have everything confirmed and make sure that
Yijeong leans back against the tree behind him. "When you first told me that Queen Milena had a child, and that the Wicked King may have been hiding her from the world, I had an inkling that there was something more about her that may have caused you to be so invested in finding her, but a part of me refused to believe it."
Yijeong squints his eyes as he gauges Yoongi's reaction, who isn't giving him much. Not like it would be easy for him to see it anyway, with the bamboo hat shielding his emotions and the dark crawling closer now that the sun is completely gone.
"I couldn't put it together until recently, only after I went on that mission to the Werewolf Kingdom, East Hallow, and met this newly mated couple who had hired me because they have been in a bind," Yijeong continues.
"And then, of course, the matter that happened with your necklace," he adds, as his gaze flickers down Yoongi's chest, right where he knows the necklace would be hanging under the thin shirt that Yoongi is wearing. "The first time she used the portal by herself, your necklace showed a reaction. I thought that it happened simply because your magic reacted to the portal magic that mirrored your family's, but I know that there is something else affecting it."
Yoongi clenches his hands, resisting the need to reach for it as Yijeong continues, "Your amulet was supposed to help you find her, wasn't it?"
"I hate that you are always right," Yoongi says as he lifts his head with a deep huff of breath. Carefully, he reaches up to his neck to pull the necklace out of his shirt. The amulet shines in the dark, sprinkles of blue dust coming out of the stone, allowing Yoongi to tell the moment you walk through the portal taking you back home.
"The amulet—it was imbued by the same magic that was passed on to me by my father. It was supposed to help me track down the source of magic that The Wicked King had kept hidden from us. Obviously, I never thought that she would have access to the magic herself in the King's absence," Yoongi explains while he continues to observe the reaction coming out of the necklace, until the blue gleam begins to fade.
"But the Emperor had placed another spell inside the amulet," he adds, as his memory takes him back to the Emperor's chambers, on the day he received the secret mission from his ailing father. "A spell that he once used to track down the Queen, altered in a way that I would be able to make use of it by tracking down the only missing link I may have left to find the Queen."
Yijeong nods. "The Princess. Your true soulmate. Which gave you another purpose for you to go through with this mission."
Once again, Yijeong surprises him for being able to surmise this much. What Yoongi cannot reveal to Yijeong is that he is right about Yoongi finding a new purpose now after meeting you.
Thinking about you only reminds him yet again of your story. Picturing you living such a sheltered life before you were finally brought here to the fairy tale realm causes a tight pinch in his chest.
If only you hadn't been under the Wicked King's care, perhaps you could have had so much more. You could have been able to see the world, to experience life the way you deserve it. Instead of having to find it by sneaking out of the palace's walls and slipping away from the King's guards with measly disguises protecting you, or by sneaking through the King's hidden portals just to see the world.
Recalling the way you looked at your surroundings when he took you on a walk across the meadow today, how your eyes were filled with wonder and joy the whole time, Yoongi hates thinking that you were never given the chance to have it all.
When Yoongi talked about you finding freedom during your excursion back in the market town, he never could have known how close he was from the truth. He also never expected that you would admit to it so openly once he gave you the opportunity to share a bit of your life. Bot now, after listening to your story, he can't decide if he should be happy that he had been right about your circumstances, knowing now what kind of life that you have had to endure under the Wicked King's rules.
But knowing the truth had only made him feel determined to change that.
The freedom that you have been yearning so badly in life, Yoongi is willing to give it to you in a heartbeat, to make it possible the moment you allow him to do it for you, to help you escape from the life that you had to remain stuck in because of your family's secrets.
Despite the trust that he has for his friend, Yoongi has no idea how much about this fact that he could share. Even with the signs, how his feelings are constantly growing within him, the doubt that he feels about this soulmate bond is still present in his thoughts. No matter how small, it does come in his way of focusing on his true mission for reclaiming the empire's true glory.
"Look, I'm not here to stop you from messing around with her," Yijeong casually says as he straightens up right in front of Yoongi while giving him a slight bow, a gesture that is meant to show respect to the apparent heir of the empire's throne, which only means that whatever it is that Yijeong might say next would be important enough for him to shed his title as the Crown Prince's best friend.
The sudden formal stance that Yijeong holds as he speaks only makes Yoongi grow wary. Because despite the calm tone of his voice, Yijeong's gaze becomes hard when he looks at Yoongi to say, "You've been summoned."
Swallowing down the uneasiness taking over him, Yoongi lifts his chin to ask, "By who?"
Yijeong refrains from answering for a moment, which isn't making things any better. But Yoongi's unsettling gaze soon makes him waver, and Yijeong has to reluctantly speak up. "The Empress wants to see you."
Sighing to himself, Yoongi tries not to be bothered by the news. He had somehow expected that the Empress would one day find a way to bring him home under her terms. Being left in the dark with no power in her hands would have made her feel restless, especially knowing that she no longer has any control of Yoongi as long as he is away from home.
He shouldn't worry about the Empress when he has eyes on her even when he is away. But it does make him wonder what the Empress is up to now.
"Did she say what she wanted?"
"Only that she wishes to see you. To talk," Yijeong continues with a small grin. Yet the bitter and unamused tone that he is using when he talks about the Empress' wicked schemes makes Yoongi grow restless even before Yijeong adds, "She has guests staying at the empire that she wishes you to meet."
Something flares in his eyes, and Yoongi's chest tightens. He doesn't like seeing that look. Not from him. And Yoongi already knows that he wouldn't like whatever Yijeong is about to say next.
Yoongi seethes. His voice is filled with venom when he asks his loyal friend, "Who?"
"Byron Koshar. The Emperor of the Neo Empire of Kosha." Yijeong's voice is filled with hatred as he mentions the name of their former enemy, and that hatred brings chill running down Yoongi's spine when his friend continues to say, "And his daughter, Princess Celestyna, the second Princess."