𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 4,400 words

𝐘𝐞𝐨𝐬𝐚𝐧𝐠

As the words dropped, he pulled his arms away from the merman prince, letting go of every brace he had given the other.

There was no way his father had been tricked by a witch, believing that Yeosang would merely come here to discuss complications with the sons of the other kingdoms - and not be held captivated in a foreign castle that he was not able to escape.

His eyes felt like burning in the eyesockets, but the fairie prince ignored the pain, directing his stare at the woman anyway, "You cannot just hold us as hostages! We're important people and my land needs me to come back rather soon."

To Yeosang's annoyance, the Sorceress didn't agree with his view of the situation, clicking her tongue as she gave him a broad toothy smile, "You will have to solve the curse then. Before that, the castle's doors will stay locked."

"You have cursed us?!" someone exclaimed, making Yeosang redirect his eyes in the direction of the siren.

Seonghwa who stood close to the other seemed like he was about to burst out in flames of rage.

The witch simply just shrugged her shoulders at him, giving him the same toothy smile as she walked closer to the unconscious demon on the floor. She scrunched her nose as she pulled up in her long fabrics and nudged the creature with the tip of her shoes, "You surely did a great job trying to kill him," she looked at the wolf hiding in the blanket, teeth trying to scare her away.

"I understand though," with a flick of her wrist her dark magic lifted Hongjoong into the air, his head falling backward in a repellent way while droplets of blood dripped from the corpse.

Yeosang couldn't help himself but look away.

"Demons can be quite the deal, I must agree," continuing, she drew her eyes over them all again, "I will leave you to it now, have a great evening."

"Woah woah, wait! You can't just leave after telling us that you've cursed us? You better break that stupid curse yourself!"

Those cat-like eyes stared at Jongho for a long minute, a bored expression filling all her features before her eyes suddenly rolled around at him, "But that's the whole point of casting a spell at someone - they have to solve it themselves. I will give you a hint though, which is; the answer is stored in the hearts of the other princes. There you go, dearest siren prince, now, if you may excuse me I'll go patch up prince Hongjoong."

The room fell quiet when she left. Yeosang wanted to leave too, the remnants of left anxiety swelling in the pit of his stomach, strings filtering into knots of throbbing discomfort. The fairie prince's slow eyes lifted to another fighting scene of the tall princes in the middle of strangling each other, claws and teeth and foul words spit at each other as they collided.

The vampire was heaving the phoenix into the air, his crown falling from the top of his head and hitting the ground with a hollow sound as he gasped for air. Wooyoung was screaming at them to stop and the wolf on the ground could do nothing but growl at them from the opposite end of the room. Yeosang gulped as all resentment hit him like a harsh wind.

The meeting with The Great Sorceress only confirmed that this place was filled with dark magic, and Yeosang didn't like it at all.

Faeries' magic had roots in nature, being as pure as something ever could be. But the executive sorceress used magic drawn from the shadiest places in the world, full of all kinds of darkness and evilness - Yeosang was sure.

And now his heart; his pure heart had been cursed with this- this wicked sinful spell! Yeosang wanted to cry. He didn't doubt that he never would be allowed into his home ever again - they would all kill him before his filthy feet would touch the holy ground of the fairies' kingdom. He had been touched with darkness, breaking the curse would never be enough to undo what had damned him forever.

The prince with the curls left the meeting room before anyone even noticed it. The boy sped away from the place, his boots hitting the floor with quick steps as he lay the entire castle behind him to find the only most private room for him to be at. The servants he passed sent him a questionable look, silently asking if he needed their assistance, but he ignored them.

With a shoulder, he pushed open the door, bumping his back into it when he entered to close it again. Yeosang inhaled deeply, lifting a hand to tear at his shirt while he bit down at his bottom lip.

What was he supposed to do now?

The boy felt like his head was spinning around, his being nearly leaving the ground he stood on for the better of not taking any responsibility for what was happening in the present.

Something tickled his cheek before traveling up along his cheekbone, onto his nose. Yeosang's eyes crossed in order to see the little creature sitting on the tip of his nose with its fluttering wings.

"Oh, hello there," he said, taking a step further into the room as he suddenly felt the slightest calmer.

The butterfly fluttered its wings, excitingly sending him a greeting back as it left his nose and flew to sit on his shoulder instead. Yeosang crouched down to his feet and untied his laced boots before throwing one of them through the room. The boot hit the floor with an aggressive sound lingering within the walls for what seemed like a few minutes before it died down. Sadly, Yeosang's anger didn't disappear along with the sounds.

The fairie hardly grew anger out of petty small things that irked his temper into reacting - it didn't fit his calm grounded nature. But this was not just small insignificant quarrels that passed between them all, no, this was defining his and everyone else's fates of their future, something that probably had been cast upon them the moment they stepped into this damned castle. Yeosang could not believe it. Or, he rather did not want to believe that he had been involved in dirty tricks that he never thought would happen.

How he wished he had opposed his father's idea of having him come here...

But he did not, and now he was stuck in a castle full of insanity.

Yeosang bent down again and practically tore the other of his boots off, throwing it through the room with a boost of magic as he went straight to the soft bed and plumped down into it, head first. The prince sighed heavily.

For a moment, he just lay there as he didn't mind the creeping branches of vines and greenery tying around his ankles and growing along his body in a way that felt like the only familiar thing in this entire place. The fairie's muscles calmed the second the pieces of nature touched his yearning self, twisting around his weeping soul that already mourned his seeming fate.

He was missing nature; he was missing the bare ground under his feet, the raw sun spilling through leaves and brightening his fair skin! His miss was depressing, leaving his magic to grow plants and herbs along the wall of his chamber, filling in cleared spots until everything was green. This room now resembled an overgrown greenhouse, where the growth had run out of control. But it was far from enough for Yeosang - this was not the same! For him, it felt like only stepping into his imaginary illusion of what his emotion was able to pull out of his mind.

He let the knubbly greenery embrace his matter he wasn't able to do so himself - at least their soft leaves tended to him better than he would have done himself. A branch softly came to caress his cheek, another one holding tightly around his hand, reassuring in some way, Yeosang thought.

The prince's face sunk deeper into the pillow, head pounding as he desperately wanted to think of some way he could save himself. But honestly, he had no idea of how to put down a spell that strong.

The Great Sorceress was no jest - she was almighty and may be the most powerful witch in history, which, therefore, didn't make any sense why she had decided to play a part in the kingdoms' peacemaking. It would only be a waste of time for her as she surely not would reap any benefits from renewing the kingdoms' law and order.

The white butterfly kissed his forehead with its soft, fluttery wings, whipping strands of blonde curls out of his eyes when he looked up at it. He would have to survive being here for a long time, Yeosang concluded.

For creatures of the night do not befriend each other as much as he knew...

_____

𝐒𝐞𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐡𝐰𝐚

The phoenix was rather pissed off if he had to say it bluntly. Had he known Emma would be here, he would not have come - at all. He would have fled to another dimension if it meant he would be able to avoid her curses, even if it would be at the cost of his own people.

She had played them all, making them think they came here to only negotiate on behalf of their parents when they in reality would stay until they probably had ended each others' lives. Not to mention that not even all of them knew why they were sent here.

And he had no notion of what her intentions might be, which he considered extremely unsafe. It made him realise how unpredictable his future seemed to be, now that it pretty much lay in the hands of the sorceress he already had encountered under albeit different circumstances.

Seonghwa was one of the two children his parents had. Phoenixes did not tend to have many children, unlike the werewolves and the merpeople. Their fertility was rather low, which made sense when the specie lived so long. If Seonghwa failed this specific commission, then would they withdraw his royal title and throw him out of the family, well aware that they still had centuries left to try to have another child that may be more pleasing than him.

Seonghwa accepted that. As mean as it may sound, he understood the importance of keeping the throne in order to maintain the voice the royal family made for their people in this cruel world. If he did not do well enough in negotiations, he was not suited for the life of a royal phoenix.

Although, he had himself been part of the prior war between the kingdoms, thus his much experience within warfaring and negotiations. The phoenixes had desperately been grasping the idea of only solving the conflict through diplomacy rather than violence, but as hopeless as it always was between the different kingdoms it didn't seem that any other but the merpeople were interested in negotiating. It appeared impossible to come to any agreement, but that was no surprise.

The darkness outside was consuming all the stars, and Seonghwa wondered when it would do the same to him.

The phoenix had wandered through the castle's dark hallways illuminated in old, traditional torchlight there reminded him a lot of his parents' home. Old-fashioned aesthetic. He stepped into the grand library that might be holding a sample of every printed book that ever had existed. He hoped to find peace here for the rest of the night.

Apparently, that was not an option.

By the furthest end of the room, a halo of blond hair sat in front of the large window section, a book in his lap as he looked out over the landscape outside the castle. The light was dimmed in here as well, making the powerful rays of the moon protrude even more through the locked glass.

The fairie prince looked even smaller as he sat there all by himself with his head bent a little back and Seonghwa imagined how his eyes were huge as they reflected the moon's glory.

The prideful prince silently stepped closer, his fingers curling at the strange feeling appearing in his guts. The airy, oversized clothing that prince Yeosang wore told him that the younger had escaped his chamber to sit here, star-gazing instead of sleeping. His array of white garments made him resemble the softness of a puffy snowflake landing on the ground in complete calmness.

Suddenly Yeosang snapped his head around, probably sensing that he was not alone there anymore. Seonghwa watched how dull, blue-grey eyes searched around until they landed on him in the darkness. The phoenix expected him to lay away his book and stand up as his eyes would turn red. He did not believe the words that came next.

"I have made up my mind, and you have my permission to kill me."

He considered the smaller male for a long time; having his sight trail across every part of his feature to figure out if he was hiding intentions beneath his behaviour. The phoenix prince took another wary step closer to the other, eventually coming to stand right in front of the huge windowsill that the fairie was sitting on. Seonghwa had all his attention directed at Yeosang, pulling all his might into his posture.

"I am not interested in such things," he said harshly, "Why are you here?"

The fairie shifted where he was seated and pulled his bend legs close to his chest as he regarded the outsides again, chin resting on one of his knees, "I could not sleep."

Prince Yeosang was feeling down - not that Seonghwa cared at all; he had to remind himself that the fairie was far from innocent, in fact, he knew the other must be dreaming of murder when he slept. But he still seemed frail at this moment.

He sat down on the windowsill as well, making sure there was a rather large distance between the two, as he peeked out at the beautiful landscape surrounding Nyx castle. At times he watched the other out of the corners of his eyes, noticing the little pout there had formed on his lips now - strands of hair falling into his face, unprotected by the missing golden crown.

"Say, Park Seonghwa, how do you exactly know The Great Sorceress?" the fairie murmured but still not turning to him.

The question made him scoff.

"Why would you think you have the right to know? Sitting there and looking all miserable and depressed will not pardon you and the things your family does in this world."

Seonghwa didn't look at the other's reaction this time, but the stir of soft hair told him that he was moving.

"Well, have you considered that we currently are locked within the same walls?" clearly smiling into the words with sarcasm he then continued bitterly, "I will receive my answer, let it be one or another way that doesn't matter."

The library was quiet as they always tend to be, but this one was lacking the peace that Seonghwa had been seeking in the first place.

"For one supposed to be as pure as you surely got a spiteful tongue," Seonghwa sneered at the other, bringing his entire frame to rest against the cool window glass as he glanced over his shoulder at Yeosang, "How cruel," he tsked.

The instant Seonghwa's tongue touched the top of his mouth Yeosang's shifting red-blue eyes snapped at him, throwing daggers under the bright moonlight. Seonghwa sent him a smug smile as he straightened his back, "Are you sure that you're a pure-blooded fairie?"

The phoenix placed a flat hand down onto the windowsill before he slowly leaned forward the other with something flickering deep within him, glazed over by the moon. His lips curled into the same cocky smirk from before, an arrogance playing with the poor boy in front of him.

For a split second, Yeosang wore a debating expression that drilled deeper down than his features. It seemed his prior confidence faltered the longer it took for him to realise what Seonghwa was implying.

Until he understood.

The other prince frowned upon his remark, heaving himself to look straight into his eyes, "Do you really believe what you are saying - that I am not worthy of my status but one from a kingdom of utter liars and deceivers!? And yet you still have the audacity to contradict yourself, supposing me to be as pure as all fairies should be. For a fact, may I remind you that my kind is capable of killing like all you hell-bound creatures - you even claimed that yourself, why now pushing it in the other direction, saying that I'm the wrong one here? Shall I remind you that I have absolutely nothing to have said when it comes to ruling my kingdom? Stop fooling yourself this much."

If it had not been for the younger's stupid pretty little face, Seonghwa would have wanted to mess with his sense of touch. Instead, he retreated to his seat up against the window as he clamped his palms closed.

"I don't just go around and kill people as you seem to think," Seonghwa said as he tilted his chin a bit higher, "I protect my people. There's a difference in that."

"Oh please, look! Now you are deluding yourself again! Don't try to act all virtuous and mighty, Park Seonghwa. You are tainted with darkness - all your kind is! I have heard stories about you, and they all just show how disturbingly corrupted you really are," the intense dissension had the fairie grit his teeth as he pointed a sharp finger at Seonghwa.

"You don't just 'protect' your people," he air-quoted as he continued, "No, you're the crown prince - you do not need to protect when you have others to do it for you! It's easier to use your possession for personal gain, right, that's what this is all about. You do not care about the kingdoms fighting each other - not when you have centuries to live in!"

At the aggressive tone, Seonghwa felt the tremble in the air of magic being pushed, suddenly sighting the little winged insect crawling on the prince's shoulder. He regarded it not when he gathered himself and answered with a furtive voice, "And guess what? I know a whole lot about your family as well... If you continue like that, I might be tempted to send the demon at you."

Flinching, the fairie prince was quick to ignore his skittish move and send Seonghwa a hard glare instead, pretending his eyes hadn't just flashed yellow before, "I'll kill you if you do."

Seonghwa scowled at him as he crossed his arms. It seemed considerably absurd how the light illuminated the fairire prince's far beyond beautiful features while he spoke such foul words - how his blonde curls shimmered like gold in the silver light as nose, lips, and chin cast shadows along the floor into the library. He was bewitching in the most delicate way of twisted lies from a pretty face - something Seonghwa hadn't encountered in the last few decades.

For fairies could only tell the truth.

Which, Seonghwa figured out must mean that either Yeosang meant he actually would kill Seonghwa if he ever did manage to force the demon prince or that he himself had been right about Yeosang not being full-blooded of his kind.

"Yeosang, darling," he said sweetly, propping up one of his legs at the fitment, "Even though we both are princes, that does not mean we are from the same generation. I am far older than you and have lived for decades like a few of the other princes. That means that I have experienced more than you could dream of, too. My kingdom has been in great danger for the last few centuries caused by the evilness lurking around in every other creature alive. The number of phoenixes left has critically dwindled, and because of what?" Seonghwa stalled to look intimidatingly into his face.

"Because all creatures have been desperate to come into possession of phoenixes' tears there are said to be able to heal every possible injury. My kind has been brutally tortured and murdered in order for all wickedness to gain its power. I have witnessed it all."

He drew in a sharp breath of air that only felt like burning the entire way down his throat. Seonghwa chased his emotions away, scaring every little fragility of what horrors painted his memories with blood, "The impudence you have to tell me that I do not care about my people is outright unhinged when I in fact have gone to war and fought for my people's rights!?"

The other gazed down at his fingers there had let go of the book they had been holding before, now twisting the golden ring on his pointer finger.

Then he said: "Perhaps you think that makes up for the times that I know that your supposedly miserable people have abused mine? Putting your kind in the better light will not change the truth! Phoenixes are not innocent and have never been regardless of how they have been treated."

Seonghwa's fingers ticked.

And it became harder to prevent himself from doing something mindless like how it always ended.

"What don't you understand, prince Park?"

He couldn't keep them off anymore.

Seonghwa darted forward, his heated hands reaching out for the prince's wrists to cause him some pain for the words he was letting out. But nearly the second he started moving, his breath was thrown out of him as a strong shield kept him from nearing Yeosang. Seonghwa hissed in annoyance and shifted his arms around him, being stopped mid-air as he quickly figured out his arm was not even able to move from the spot he sat.

Seonghwa drew his gaze to the other prince who had scrambled down from the window sill and hit the floor instead. His chest raised and fell as he pulled at the air harshly, eyes wide and filled with fright. A sheen of green and purple hues danced around him and Seonghwa believed he never had seen a more prominent eye colour than the one the fairie prince wore. For a moment, Seonghwa just stared at him without realising how his magic was keeping him trapped or how the fairie prince was holding up his book protectingly in front of him, revealing the name of a powerful spell book full of protections against dark magic - a rather well-known book to the phoenix.

"You don't get to touch me with those, those- bewitched hands!"

Observingly, Seonghwa drew his gaze down to where the fairie's fingers grasping around the book were turning white even in the faint illumination.

"Of all the princes I knew you would be the hardest to get to. Fairies do not lay their trust in anyone except themselves, right?" he sighed dramatically to draw out the tension with a hidden smug smile under the heavy facade.

"Stop talking nonsense and start answering my first question," Yeosang forced, "Tell me how you know The Great Sorceress, or else I'll have you trapped here for a long time. Don't test me," he said firmly as the shock from Seonghwa's surprise-attack seemed to gradually vanish again.

With manners, of course, the phoenix prince rolled his eyes with huge exaggeration, "Fine, fine!" he exclaimed with a huff, "I'll tell you after you set me free from this malicious magic."

After a few seconds of consideration, Yeosang finally let his guard down and freed Seonghwa, although still keeping his distance from him.

Seonghwa held his promises and told him what he wanted to know, "See, as I said before many centuries ago other species started hunting phoenixes for their tears. It caused the population to fall drastically as my people were both kidnapped and killed in order for criminals to gain what they wanted. This caused my mother to grow desperate and thus she sought the most powerful sorcerer to help protect the phoenixes against those heinous crimes."

"So she entered into an agreement with The Great Sorceress?" Yeosang asked.

The phoenix nodded, "She did, yes, and the price of her protection was my parents' firstborn child's hand in marriage," he grumbled, "Are you surprised little fairie? The lucky one was me. For decades she lived in our palace, attending every little meeting the king and queen played part in to gain as much knowledge of our politics as possible."

"She's a witch, prince Kang, I'm sure you already know that and she abused her might, luring me into spilling secrets of the royal family that she was unable to gather herself. And to this day, I still do not know what the purpose of it all was."

Yeosang furrowed his brows as he seemed to take in the new information and the phoenix couldn't care less about him knowing the truth now that the settlement had happened so many years ago.

"Wait, does that mean..."

"No, it does not. Emma and I broke the ties a long time ago when I finally grew confident enough to tear the old agreement. There are only a few pure-blooded phoenixes left anyway while the hunting nearly has stilled again, so her protection was nearly not needed anymore."

The other prince nodded quietly and rushed up from the floor once he noticed he was shrinking under the stare of the taller phoenix. He perceived the way something clicked in the younger's mind and Seonghwa nearly felt like he had to protect himself again. Although he extinguished the flame before it escalated into a fire.

"The night you arrived at the castle.." he started, trailing off with a hint of hesitation, "You were... you were hunted? You are a pure-blooded phoenix, you must have been hunted by those dark creatures out there!"

Oh, how Yeosang was right, that little intelligent being did notice too much for his own good.

Seonghwa hissed at him as he took a step forward, "So attentive, I'm quite impressed about your abilities to see connections."

Before Seonghwa got to sink his claws into the fairie's shoulders, Yeosang had already disappeared from the library, leaving him befuddled alone in the shimmering moonlight.

♛