I nudged Taeyong a little with my elbow, motioning for him to speak, but he simply flinched at the action.
He sent me a confused look before turning his attention back to the rest of my group and the generals from the provinces, furrowing his brows before realization dawned in his eyes.
The man in black bowed deeply, greeting the other men in the room with a series of half-hearted mumbles before getting back up.
I wanted to roll my eyes, but brushed it off and turned to face Yunho with a smile as the water elemental stood up from his seat.
His brown hair was unruly and messy, looking as if he had been running his hands through it over and over again in frustration.
He looked stressed, I thought, as if he wanted to ask me something as his eyes flickered back and forth between me and the generals.
Everyone else in the tent kept their eyes trained on me, no one even sparing the fire elemental, the traitor, next to me as much as a glance.
I sighed. Typical.
"I'm fine," I said, raising my hands in an awkward gesture in front of me.
Yunho let out a heavy breath and took a step back as the words slipped past my lips, looking relieved.
"I'm fine, really," I pressed, letting my gaze travel over the others as well, smiling a little at my group of brave elementals, my family.
They did their best to return my smile but it was clear that their hearts weren't fully in it.
But neither was mine.
"Well then, now that the emotional business is out of the way and our lovely heir has finally returned, how about we get back to where we left off?" one of the officers said, clapping his hands together to the others' attention.
I immediately recognized him as Min Yoongi, the general of Ignia's army.
Still as cold-hearted as ever, I thought to myself, though I knew better than anyone that it was all a front that he was putting up for show, for protection.
He had always been that way, and in some ways, I saw myself in him.
This time, I didn't refrain from rolling my eyes.
"We're glad to see that you're safe, princess y/n," Jeongguk said, his striking blue eyes glinting at me in the flickering light from the candles on the table.
Yunho cocked a brow at the interaction but said nothing to it, side-eyeing his fellow water elemental instead.
"First of all," I said, locking eyes with Seongwha and Honghoong, noticing how everyone seemed to look to them for their next words, my two leaders.
I felt pride was over me at the sight of the two opposites cooperating, smiling a little.
"I'm very sorry that I left you with all of the responsibility. It was my weight to bear, never yours, and for that, I apologize."
Hongjoong looked taken aback, but Seongwha simply smiled at me as he crossed his arms over his chest and sat back down in his chair, leaning back as he took a deep breath.
"Second, I'm also very sorry for the loss of your soldiers," I continued, turning to the generals on the other side of the table.
"They did not deserve to die. The fates are truly cruel. I will do my best to ensure that their memory is kept alive forever in the minds of every Avalonian from here on out so their sacrifices won't have been in vain."
Namjoon nodded his head, Jimin and Taehyung bowing theirs slightly at me as a sign of gratitude.
"And third, as I said before," I said, grabbing Taeyong's wrist and dragging him to the table along with me.
"I brought a guest."
The man in black stayed quiet as the fourteen men by the table finally let their gazes flicker to him instead of me.
Yoongi's eyes burned with so much hatred that I almost took a step back at the sight.
"You," he sneered, much like I had done in the forest when I had stumbled upon Taeyong.
He grit his teeth and made a move to get up from his chair, but was cut off by Taehyung who stood up, towering over the fire elemental before pushing him back down.
Yoongi pointed an accusatory finger at the traitor next to me, "You!" he exclaimed.
"How dare you even show your face in front of me after what you did? After the damage that you caused? Do you have any idea how grave the consequences of your choices are?!"
I nudged Taeyong again, feeling uncomfortable at the turn the situation had taken, at the number of unanswered questions, but it did nothing.
I let out a huff of frustration, raising a hand to silence Yoongi.
"I found him in the forest, lurking around in the darkness, following me," I explained.
I glared at the man next to me as I remembered how scared and vulnerable he had made me feel during that moment, shivering involuntarily as it all came back to me.
"As you can all see by his familiar red eyes, he is a fire elemental, and as you have probably also guessed by the uniform, also a man in black. One of Daios' men."
The tent fell awfully quiet as the words slipped past my lips, looks of realization dawning on the elementals' faces, their glares growing even stronger, harder, angrier.
"Taeyong," I said, making the man next to me jump a little as I turned to face him with a strained smile.
"Why don't you tell us exactly what you were doing in the forest in the middle of the night, stalking the heir to the Avalonian throne when we're currently in the middle of a war with your lord?"
I took a deep breath before continuing, feeling my hands heat up again as my anger resurfaced.
"I'm sure everyone here is eager to get some ANSWERS to all of their questions," i said, clapping the man on the shoulder before making my way over the join the rest of the group at the table, taking a seat next to Wooyoung.
"And what makes you think he's going to talk? There's no reason for him to spill Daios' secrets," Hoseok said, furrowing his brows at the man standing by the end of the table.
"Because I'm giving him this opportunity as a chance to right his wrongs. I'm giving him a chance at life!" I said, raising my voice at the end.
"He betrayed me, his kin, his own element, his future queen, and if he has a much as a single spark of honor or good left in him, then-"
"I- I regret it," Taeyong said, stammering as he took a step forward, his red eyes flickering with so many emotions that it almost made me dizzy to look at him.
"I want to help. I need to help," he said, looking back and forth between the other elementals.
"And I came to warn you," he continued as his eyes locked with mine once again, "And to apologize for-"
"For what?" Yoongi snapped, interrupting him with blazing eyes.
Taeyong jumped a little at the other fire elemental's outburst before regaining his composure.
"For what exactly?!"
"Yoongi, now is not the time," Taeyong sighed, running his hands through his messy blond hair.
My eyebrows immediately shot up, watching the others' expressions change as well as we all turned our heads from Taeyong to Yoongi and back to Taeyong again, jaws going slack with surprise.
"Do the two of you know each other?" Jimin asked, looking confused at the two fire elementals.
"Yeah, what's up with the first-name basis?" Taehyung asked, also looking more surprised than anything.
Yoongi's eyes smoldered as he glared at the man in black, once again gritting his teeth, "Well, I'm not exactly proud to admit it, and I honestly wish I could say no, but it's true."
He hesitated a bit before continuing, looking as angry as ever.
"He used to be one of my soldiers, a captain in Ignia's army," he spat, and Taeyong inched back a little as the words slipped past the older elemental's lips.
"A spy mission gone wrong. A faithful servant turned into a traitor. He never came-"
"I want to go back," Taeyong said, interrupting the general, only adding to the confusion that hung heavily over the rest of the group by the table.
All of us continued to look back and forth between the two of them as they shot comments back and forth between each other, their glaring only growing more intense by the second.
"As I said, I regret what I did, Yoongi. I never meant for it to go this far-"
"Did you tell that to Jeno, though?" Yoongi growled, getting up from his chair as he leaned over the table, the flames burning away at the candles flickering wildly.
"Does he know about this? About your sudden change of heart?"
Taeyong bit his lip.
"Wait- does Jeno know about this as well?" Namjoon asked, turning to face his fellow general.
"We don't issue spy missions anymore, Yoongi, you know that more than anyone," Seokjin said, leaning over the table to look at the fire elemental as well.
"King Myeongdae struck a deal with the lords of the provinces-" Jimin began, and I felt my heart clench at the mention of my father's name.
"My lord- does that mean that he knew about Daios before this? Did the lords- Jeno- Yoongi, did you know about this beforehand? Why didn't you tell us?" Hoseok exclaimed.
But Yoongi was still too occupied by his staring contest with the treacherous fire elemental at the end of the table to answer the other generals' questions fully.
"They were all in on it, old tales of the elements, mixing them, the dangers- Taeyong was sent to investigate," Yoongi said.
"But not to join the rebellion, goddamnit," he hissed.
He brushed it off with a movement of his hand, ignoring their other questions as he continued to question the man in black.
"What happened, hm? Did Daios finally do something so over the line that you simply couldn't take it anymore? What could possibly-?"
"Jeno doesn't know yet," Taeyong said, interrupting Yoongi again before he fell quiet for a moment.
His voice was no longer shaky or unsure, but strong and deep.
The look in his crimson red eyes changed as he took a step forward, and I subconsciously leaned a little further back in my chair as I felt my breath catch.
"But he needs to. That's the reason I came here in the first place. To explain. I won't dent the fact that I betrayed him, that I betrayed Avalon," he said, glancing at me for a second before continuing.
"But I never wanted to see the kingdom ruined, I swear. I want to help. Help the provinces, help Jeno, help the rest of them," he said, probably referring to Jaemin and the others.
"Please," Yunho said, speaking up for the first time in a while as he gestured for Taeyong to continue.
His voice was barely more than a whisper, a tired breath, as he ran his hands through his hair in frustration.
"Please explain. I'm so confused that I'm not even sure what it is that I know and don't know anymore."
I nodded my head in agreement, already feeling tears springing to my eyes as my broken heart thumped desperately against my ribs.
"Taeyong I need you to tell us everything you know, I need-" I said, my voice cracking at the end of my sentence, cutting myself off as I sniffled a little.
There was so much about my kingdom that I didn't know.
About my own father, the ruling powers of the provinces, about the history of Avalon, and the elements themselves.
Things that could end up getting me killed.
Things that prevented me from seeing the whole story, the whole situation, from understanding Daios and the reasons, explanations, behind his actions.
Taeyong nodded his head, lowering his blazing eyes to the floor as he took a deep breath, clearing his throat.
And so, we let the man in black speak.
We had no other choice than to hear the traitor out.
Besides, I thought to myself, the situation couldn't possibly get any worse than it already was, right?
A/N:
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