This is sort of a filler chapter, so don't expect much of it :) The true action begins next chapter!
XIV: Jungkook
"So this is the armory?"
As soon as Jimin snapped his fingers, opening up two giant iron doubleset doors, I walked into the large training room. Hundreds of weapons gleamed on the walls, their blades sending dappled shadows across the polished cypress floor. I saw scimitars, longswords, falchions, claymores, and countless others lined up neatly on the shelves. There were four shooting targets at the far end of the room, with a collection of bows and arrows ready nearby. All these blades and weapons could supply the whole army of India and still have some left over. The place seemed spotless, so I was confused as to why we needed to clean it.
"It can never be too clean," Baekhyun said, seeing my questioning gaze. "And besides, a sword with even the slightest bit of dust coating it would never be able to swing as true as a clean one. It's vital that we clean and oil our weapons as often as we can."
"Oh." I eyed a mass of daggers hanging on the eastern wall. Suddenly, this task seemed harder than I first expected. "And Taehyung expects us to clean every single one of these?"
"Not all of them. Some are just ceremonial, so those are our least priority. I'm guessing that he just wants us to oil the ones that are most frequently used in war. Throwing knives, scimitars, and whatnot." Jimin said, looking around the room.
"And... how many of these are ceremonial?" I asked, kind of dreading the answer.
"Oh, I would say about ten." Jimin said nonchalantly, scanning the literal thousands of weapons on the wall. Baekhyun and I stared at him in disbelief. "That isn't helpful at all!" Baekhyun groaned.
"Well, I never said it was going to be helpful, did I? Here, Baekie, catch!" Jimin threw a sharp looking katana to Baekhyun, who caught the leather grip easily in his large hand. Taking it out of its sheath, he inspected the blade, holding it up to the ceiling light. "A bit of dried blood," he muttered, walking off towards a small door half hidden by the array of weapons in front of it. "I'm getting some rags and cleaning equipment. Call me if you need anything."
"Okay," Jimin yelled back, walking down the rows of weapons as if searching for one in particular. He finally decided on a short scimitar in an intricately gilded scabbard. Walking back to me, he handed me the weapon. "Here. This is yours to clean. I think that Taehyung also wouldn't mind if you kept it. It's exactly the right length for you."
I turned the weapon over in my hands, staring at the sign of the golden dragon curling on the scim. "Thank you," I murmured, brushing the black sheath. "It's beautiful."
Jimin grinned. "I'll show you how to properly hold it later. Right now, let's start cleaning!" I wished that I could be as excited about our task as Jimin was. At least now, I had a new sword at my disposal. Maybe the armory wasn't so bad after all.
Taehyung POV
A vase went crashing against the far wall of the meeting room as I threw it in anger. It shattered into small glittering shards which littered the floor like small diamonds, catching what little light the windows had to offer. I stared at it, the churning feeling inside me yet to be satisfied. Grandfather had broken a vase just like this at the entryway. That's the only way you'll ever be able to beat Lucius. If you let yourself truly go. His scathing voice still echoed in my head. I hated him. Hated his old-fashioned ways. Hated his words. But mostly, I hated that some of his words were true.
"Rough day?" A voice asked from behind. I turned around to see Yoongi leaning on the large desk in the middle of the room, eyeing the shattered pieces of glass on the carpeted floor.
"Something like that," I muttered, kneeling down to try and sweep them into a pile. Yoongi joined me, and we silently sorted glass for a few minutes, careful not to cut ourselves.
"What did your grandfather say to make you so angry?" Yoongi finally broke the silence, looking at me from the corner of his eye. I studied my reflection in the glass, sighing.
"Where do I start? First, he insulted Jungkook. He told me that I should be looking for an eligible vampire girl from a high-class family. Soulmate bond or not." The glass I had been holding cut into my palm as I clenched my hands into fists. Yoogi looked on worriedly. "Then he dared to offend my parents' memory. Called them odd ducks and hinted that they should have stuck to tradition." I watched as blood steadily dripped from my hand where the glass had cut into flesh. "I almost slit his throat, Yoongi. Right then and there. I... couldn't control myself. Hell knows what would have happened if I did."
"But you didn't," Yoongi said simply. "You didn't, because you know better than that. That's what's important. You fought it off." I nodded stiffly, not wanting to tell him how close I had gotten to losing myself. How close the anger had been to taking over. I didn't want that to happen ever again. But...
"Hey... oh, am I interrupting something?" I heard a lively voice from the doorway, and Yoongi and I both looked up. Namjoon was standing there, running a hand through his brown hair like he always did when he was nervous. "I heard from Jimin that you guys wanted to speak to me?"
"Actually, yes." I got up, brushing the small fragments of glass off my tunic. They could wait. Yoongi got up with me, walking over to the table already covered with maps and papers. Namjoon was already looking at them with interest.
"So, I assume that you both got the message from Hoseok? About London?" They both nodded grimly, surveying the maps on the table. "I have to say, Shadow Valley is taking risks with this one," Namjoon piped up, tracing the outline of a village boundary. "London is a big city. Full of mortals. Anyone could get hurt."
"They don't care about hurting mortals Namjoon," Yoongi said dryly. "All they care about is winning. Deaths are just small obstacles in between. They've set whole towns on fire just to deliver a message. "
"Exactly." I spread out the map of London in front of us with all the necessary landmarks and borders. "Which is why we need to plan in a way so that we limit the number of humans caught in the crossfire."
"That's going to be hard," Namjoon muttered. "I can't guarantee they'll all be safe. Remember, our final goal should always be to win the war. If humans accidentally get in the way... then, well, we can't do much to save them."
"What if we send some troops into the human world here," I pointed to a location labeled Somerset House. "That's on the edge of the Thames River, so we'll have them covered if they try to escape by water."
Yoongi was nodding. "And we could send in the bulk of our army westwards, and slowly push them out of the city. Then the soldiers stationed on the eastern border can cut off the escape so that Shadow Valley is cornered. They won't exactly see it coming since London is so large."
"But what about the Specters?" Namjoon argued. "They can simply disappear into shadow and reform wherever they want to. They'll easily get past our lines."
"That's true," I admitted. "But I can't imagine that Lucius allied with so many of them. Probably ten at the most. And without anyone to command them, the Specters will probably just vanish. Our main priority is to wipe out Lucius's army."
Namjoon tilted his head. "I think that that will work. But we should still send some soldiers north and south so we have all exits covered. We should probably also call in our whole army by the end of tomorrow so that they're all assembled and ready to go."
"Now, I suppose our only problem is Lucius himself..." Yoongi mused, eyes ever so slightly glancing at me. "Taehyung, you're the best swordsman we have. Do you think that you could fight him one on one if it came to that?"
"Yes," I said with no hesitation. I had been dreaming of the day when I could battle Lucius head to head. "I can do that."
"Good. His choice weapon is probably going to be a double-bladed scim, so just watch out for that. Those things are deadly." Namjoon said, reviewing his notes. "I also wouldn't put it past him to somehow rig it with poison. So the safest bet is to not let it touch you, even a small cut is bad news. And if it does, go see Jin right away." When I started to protest, he glared at me. "I don't care about your history with Lucius, Taehyung. Your safety is more important to us than some fight to the death." His gaze softened. "Just think of how devastated Jungkook would be if he found that his soulmate simply died because he was too stubborn to go to a healer! You don't want him to feel that way, do you?"
"I would never want that," I said, knowing that he had me cornered. "Fine. I'll go see Jin if the scim somehow cuts me." Namjoon nodded in satisfaction, but his face quickly became serious.
"While we're on the topic of Jungkook..." Namjoon hesitated. "Have you marked him yet?" I looked sharply at him, and he flinched. "I mean, if he's ready."
"No, I don't think he is." I said, turning my attention back to the map. "He's barely been here a week, Namjoon. I don't want to rush him like that." Namjoon and Yoongi exchanged a glance, worry clearly written in their eyes.
"Are you sure, Taehyung?" Yoongi ventured to ask, and I looked at him wearily. "Marking Jungkook would give you more power in battle, that's for sure. And you're going to need all the power you can get when we go into war..."
"I said NO!" I yelled, making both of them flinch. I recomposed my temper, taking a deep breath. "No. He's just gotten to trust me, and we've only kissed once. Marking is a big step from that, and I won't do it until he's willing and ready. I can't force him to do it without his consent just because I want more power. I―I'm not my grandfather."
"Of course you aren't," Namjoon said quickly, putting a hand on my shoulder. "None of us think you are. I guess we're all just a bit jumpy for the battle." He laughed half-heartedly. "And you're absolutely right when you say that you should give him time. Power should never come at the cost of someone's misery."
I nodded, accepting his words. I looked at the map of London again, wondering if I could spot the street Jungkook lived on. No doubt he would want to go there when we went to London tomorrow. Which reminded me...
"Tomorrow, I'm going to be in London with Jungkook. I'll be able to see the city firsthand, so I may be able to check if there's any good battlegrounds. I can report back later that day."
Yoongi nodded. "That's fine by me. Just do us all a favor and watch out for Specters. They'll be roaming all around the city, no doubt." His eyes narrowed. "Even in broad daylight."
"I will," I agreed, rolling up the map on the table. "Now, I think that we're done. Go to your rooms. Get some rest. Tomorrow, I want you both to go to the eastern border, then get all the soldiers ready for battle."
"Sure," Namjoon said, clearing up all his note sheets and stacking them neatly on the table. "We can do that." He walked to the door, stopping and turning to Yoongi. "Are you coming?"
"Yeah. Just give me a minute." Namjoon nodded and ducked out of the room, almost banging his head on the low hanging doorway. Yoongi smiled in amusement, then turned back to me. "Do you need any help getting all that glass off the floor?"
"No, I think I can manage. It's my mess, anyways." Yoongi nodded, pausing as he went through the doorway. "And Taehyung? No one thinks that you're like your grandfather. You two couldn't be more different." I smiled at his support, and he gave me a rare smile back before closing the door behind him.
Sighing, I turned back to the glass on the floor, kneeling down again to try and collect all the pieces. One accidentally cut into my hand, and I watched as the crimson blood dripped from my hand onto the floor. I couldn't help but wonder how much blood would be spilled during this war. And whether it would all amount to something in the end.