It was on one sunny morning that Tagon headed for the house where Saya lived. That wasn't his adoptive son he wanted to see, in fact, he barely visited him except for political discussions, he wasn't good at playing the father and so, he rather preferred escaping any potential awkward moments. When he arrived at the house it was Hae Tuak who welcomed him, when he asked for Enoria, the maid bowed with a smile and quickly disappeared to go search for the one the Union Leader wanted to see. A short moment after, Hae Tuak came back alone, visibly embarrassed.
"Niruha," Hae Tuak started, "I am sorry, she is not in her room."
"Where is she then? Weren't you supposed to keep an eye on her?"
"I was ! I mean, I am ! It's just, you know, she is not easy to watch over, she complained before she noticed the dark look Tagon was giving her and she bowed her head, "I will go search for her."
At that moment, Tagon felt someone pulling his sleeve carefully. He turned to face Yangcha. The warrior looked at him and then he pointed in a direction. Tagon followed with his eyes the direction his warrior was pointing to then he smirked, Enoria was laying on the rooftop. Hae Tuak saw her too and yelled.
"Hey you! Tagon Niruha is waiting for you, get down right now!" Hae Tuak shouted.
Enoria didn't answer, she didn't get down either.
"Hey! You! Are you deaf or something?! Didn't you hear me?" Hae Tuak continued.
"I heard you Hae Tuak. Actually, I think all Arthdal heard you," Enoria finally replied but without bothering moving from where she was.
"Hey! If you heard then get down, Tagon Niruha is waiting!"
"Don't hey-me, I don't take orders from you," she replied in a calm murmure, annoying Hae Tuak even more.
"That girl! Who does she think she is? I can't believe it," Hae Tuak complained.
The situation almost amused Tagon but he had other things to do than waiting all day there for Taealha's maid to successfully make Enoria obey and in fact, he highly doubted that would even happen. "Get down, I need to talk to you," he ordered with a firm voice.
Immediately, Enoria stood up, jumped from the roof and landed gracefully on the ground. "Niruha," she greeted with a bow and a smile.
"What were you doing over there?" he asked, curious.
"Sunbathing."
That was an answer Tagon wouldn't have predicted, and it confirmed him she was one of a kind. "Why on the roof?" he questioned.
"For calm. It's quiet there, except when Hae Tuak is near."
"Hey! You! Watch your mouth!" Hae Tuak complained with gritted teeth, she clenched her fist as if ready to punch her but the warning look Enoria gave her made her immediately give up and she gulped, looked away and said in a low voice : "I mean, don't do that, be nice, huh?"
Enoria only discreetly smiled, it seemed to her that Taealha's maid had learnt the lesson, she wouldn't dare to even try punching her just like she hadn't hurt Tanya again since that day she had threatened her.
"Is she that difficult to handle for you Hae Tuak?" Tagon mocked but he didn't wait for an answer and he sent the maid away as he wanted to speak to Enoria in private.
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Enoria welcomed Tagon and his masked warrior in her own room and closed the door behind them. Silently, the Union Leader glanced over the room and he had to recognize that she had been given a pretty room for someone who had threatened them to reveal their most important secrets.
"Are you having fun tormenting Hae Tuak?" Tagon asked as he sat.
"I have to confess it's quite fun indeed," Enoria replied.
"Are you feeling fine in that room?"
"There are too much walls to my taste."
"Would you prefer to sleep outside on the grass like a savage?"
"Like an Igutu, yes," she corrected him, "you can deny your true nature as much as it pleases you but you must feel it as much as I do, the need to be outside, close to Nature. That's the Neanthal blood in us speaking. We are not made to stay between four walls."
The corner of his lips slightly raised, "I don't know what you are talking about, I don't feel such a thing."
"Maybe because you fought against what you truly are for too long," she deplored, "anyway, how may I help you ?"
Tagon didn't comment on her last sentence but she wasn't exactly wrong. He had always loathed what he was, being different was his curse and so, he had buried it deep inside himself.
He sighed before he explained why he had come to see her : he wanted her to get information -if she didn't already have some- on Asa Ron's next potential move.
She didn't have anything to share with him at the moment, the old man was plotting in a very careful way and she had not find out anything yet.
As they talked they came to the conclusion that, obviously, Asa Ron was searching for a way to get rid of Tagon but they couldn't figure out which way he was going to use : Tagon was Tagon, loved and cherished by the people of the Union for his great contributions, Aramun Haesulla's second coming, the one who had received the ability to practice ollimsani despite not being a member of the White Mountain Tribe. In the eyes of the people, he was a sort of hero and Asa Ron had nothing to directly use against him since he had done nothing to harm the Union.
As they talked, Enoria went back and forth in front of Tagon who followed her with his eyes, just like Yangcha, standing slightly behind him, was doing.
"Can't you stop moving?" Tagon finally asked as they had both fallen silent to concentrate on their own thoughts.
-No I can't, I always walk when I need to think about something serious. If you can't bear me walking just stare at the wall.
Tagon gave an amused smile. Under his mask, Yangcha smiled discreetly as well.
And she continued walking, not bothering herself about the fact it could bother the Union Leader who just watched her do so. She stopped when a bird landed on the edge of the window. Tagon didn't really pay attention to it, but Enoria did, and she frowned hearing in her mind the information it was carrying.
"What could he do with Laughing Gym?" she murmured to herself before she started her walk again, trying to figure out, thanks to the new information she just got, what the old man could have in mind.
"Laughing Gym?" Tagon interrupted her reflexion, "isn't that a poisonous mushroom?"
"No it's not," she replied, "rather than a poison it's an hallucinogenic which also gives high fever and blue spots on the body of the person who ingests it."
"So what? What about it?"
"Asa Ron made Asa Yon search for it, but what for?" It wasn't a question she was addressing him, she was questioning herself, she wasn't the type to enjoy not knowing her enemy's plan.
"How do you know that?" he interrupted her thoughts.
"I am quite a resourceful person," she answered with a satisfied smile.
"I thought you didn't have information to share."
"Now I have, just be happy about it and don't try to understand how," she replied, "anyway, I highly doubt Asa Ron wants the Laughing Gym for himself so it means he wants someone to go crazy for a short moment."
"Probably not me, if he wanted me to go crazy he would have found a way to do it for good."
"As if you were not a little already," she muttered as she looked outside.
-I heard you you know. Tagon smiled.
"Oh did you ?" she amused herself, "and so what? Are you going to kill me? Too bad for you you can't. Don't take it wrongly, I am a little bit psycho too so do not worry you are not alone."
Tagon laughed lightly. To be that careless about her words, she was indeed a bit psycho but her assurance actually pleased him. But he didn't come to question his sanity or hers and they quickly went back to the main topic.
One thing was certain, the only thing Asa Ron had that Tagon didn't was his pseudo-abilities. And no matter what Tagon was to do or how much he was loved by the people of the Union, he knew there was nothing he could do to beat the sacredness of the Asa Clan and so, the only way Asa Ron had to go against Tagon was by using the Gods against the actual Union Leader who had done nothing wrong in their eyes though.
"How could he turn the Gods against you? How could he take the advantage?" she questioned, still moving back and forth.
Tagon didn't answer right away, he too lost himself in his reflexion until something came to his mind. "If my success become mistakes in their eyes, he will have the advantage."
"Yes, sure, but how will he d-" she had interrupted herself when her eyes had caught Tagon's, and she was almost certain they had just had the same thoughts, "he wouldn't dare to do that, would he? The people won't buy it."
"They will if he plays his game well. He will use his pseudo-abilities with the Gods to make the people believed the Igutus and Neanthals we've killed during the Great Hunt are back and angry."
"It was years ago, why would gosals appear only now? How will he justify such a thing?"
"He won't because he doesn't have to, he will say the Gods don't have to justify themselves, he will hide behind his status."
"That's why he made Asa Yon searched for Laughing Gym," Enoria murmured, "he will use it on the people of the Union-"
"-because if they go crazy and have blue spots on their bodies, he will have a « proof » to base his words on. He will accuse the gosals to be searching for vengeance."
"If he does such a thing, to soothe revengeful spirits you will no choice but to practice-"
"The saenamsani ritual," Tagon replied as he clenched his fist, "he wants me to kneel in front of him."
"You pissed him off when you pretended to be possess by Aramun Haesulla so he probably wants to show you he will always be superior to you in the hierarchy of Arthdal," she said in a low voice in fear his anger would grow even more, "but if this is really his goal I am afraid it's too late to do something about it-"
"It's been weeks," Tagon interrupted, "everything is probably already well prepared."
She nodded but didn't add more, there was nothing more to say anyway.
Yangcha was following their reflection quietly. During their discussion, he had followed her with his eyes, though she had been careful not to look at him in return. He felt a bit of jealousy seeing her forming a great team with Tagon. He knew Tagon appreciated her, if not he wouldn't have let go the fact she kind of called him crazy, if not he wouldn't be there waiting for her to help him, if not he wouldn't laugh and smile like he was doing. But Yangcha didn't want Tagon to get close to her, he didn't want her to make him laugh or smile, he didn't even want him to look at her either, especially when she was wearing a dress that made her look more stunning than she already was.
As Tagon stood up and walked near the window to take a look outside while thinking, turning his back to Enoria and him, she smiled at him and his jealousy disappeared replaced by the softness and warmth of her smile. He lost himself into her shining eyes for a few seconds before Tagon turned again and they interrupted their eyes contact as soon as he moved.
In few seconds everything that needed to be said was said through their eyes. They couldn't talk, they couldn't touch each other and they couldn't see each other privately either but he knew she had not changed and she understood he had not either. Time had not harmed them.
Tagon didn't notice what had just happened. He was too lost into his reflection about Asa Ron for that. Heading to the door to leave he told Enoria she was of great help and asked her to try to find out more if she could and she promised she would try.
"Don't go too far, I may come back later," Tagon said.
"Don't worry, I stay close, I am not leaving," she replied, but it wasn't really to him she was talking to. She bowed to him as he opened the door and left, followed by Yangcha who would have loved to stay.
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Tagon didn't have time to come back to talk to her, it was later the same day that he had realized they were, indeed, too late to stop Asa Ron's plan.
Gilseon had rushed to the Palace to inform him a paradise flycatcher with a blue tail was found dead and that some people, with blue spots visible on their bodies, suddenly went crazy and fainted, and in the forest a tiger was found dead, heartless, with blue blood on its claws. The rumor was quick to spread : the spirits of Neanthals and Igutus were back as gosals and their anger was directed to the Union Leader, Tagon.
Asa Ron had played with the fear of the people, in Arthdal there was a prophecy saying that the day a paradise flycatcher wore another colour there would be a catastrophe and so the people of the Union had rushed at the Great Shrine, hands full of gifts, to ask their High Priest to soothe the revengeful spirits and save the Union from the wrath of the gosals.
As they had predicted, Tagon was unable to do anything against the old man's plan, they had been too late to figure out his move and he had no choice but to follow the rules. He was summoned for the saenamsani ritual, had to go barefoot and at the view of all from the Palace to the Great Shrine and then forced to kneel in front of Asa Ron to soothe the spirits of Neanthals and Igutus.
And, even though the spirits of Neanthals and Igutus were supposedly soothed after the ritual, nothing seemed to be able to soothe Tagon's anger.
The humiliation he had been through made him break everything possible in his room and only Taealha was capable of calming his anger. She reminded him that it wasn't over yet, that nothing was set in stone and that no one could end it for them as the game would be over when they would say it was. She asked him to get a grip on himself and to accept the situation as it was, at least for the moment.But Tagon couldn't accept it, he couldn't forget the humiliation he went through and finding a way to get rid of Asa Ron was the only thing he had in mind.