for everyone: the earth isn't humming [1/2]
For: everyone
Title: the earth isn't humming
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: Minseok/Kyungsoo
Word Count: 12.2k
Summary: Kyungsoo just has to kill the future King of the North. Simple, right?
Warnings: mentions of violence and death, fight scenes, sex with age difference (ks is 17, ms is 20)
A/N: I joined your medieval prompt with some supernatural aspects, I hope you like it~ World (very) loosely based on GoT. As always, thank you to mellie for your tireless input and beta-ing. Mama powers AU.
Kyungsoo supposes his childhood was different from other children, but he doesn’t really have all that much to compare it to, anyway. Since he was a boy, practically all he’s known has been fighting and pain, thanks to his father.
When he was merely six years old, his mother died in a small skirmish while on her way West to sell some baked goods she had made. Apparently the Northerners (bloody, stinking barbarians as his father would always refer to them) had decided the caravan she was on (with two other women and one man) had come too close to their territory.
Kyungsoo never sees his father cry over this, only begin drinking more heavily. He hears him murmur to himself how he should’ve been in that caravan with her, but how could he have known? And could he have even protected his wife from the cruelty of the barbarians, who swing blunt axes meant more to damage than to cut? Who have knowledge of magic unknown to all other lands?
The East, where Kyungsoo lives, has few magicians, mostly due to the fact that the Northerners treasure them, so by default, the East has banned them. The East and North have been sworn enemies for years from what Kyungsoo’s heard, from what little he can glean from the scant picture books he can get his hands on, and neither side has escalated a full out war despite small happenings back and forth time and again.
(Could his mother dying really be classified as a “small happening”? He wonders.)
The reason he’s heard (that everyone in Ostgrund, the city he called home, knew) was that the North and the East were once a huge, entire kingdom, but twin brothers were born to the King and Queen of the time. By default, the one born first (first by a paltry three minutes), was technically the crown prince. However, the “younger” prince was angered by this, and they thus decided to settle it by drawing a line in the middle of the land, splitting it into roughly two equal sections, each prince now a rightful King. While no bad blood was really kept between the two princes in their time, over the years, the lands became bitter rivals. Kyungsoo’s only heard stories from his father about the treacherous North, and how all the people in it are cold-hearted barely humans, but Kyungsoo himself has never been outside of Ostgrund.
At the ripe age of six years and seven months, Kyungsoo’s father begins to train him in the art of battle. Kyungsoo had been learning from the local teacher about reading and writing, but this is quickly cast aside in favor of sword practice, target practice, anything his father can get his hands on, really.
His father had once been a decorated part of their so-called city legion, who had sworn to protect the people of the city and their small mine, carved deep like a visible scar in the side of their mountain. While he’s no longer the legion’s head commander, he still spends most of his time there. Kyungsoo used to look up to his strength, but only realized much later in life that physical strength didn’t necessarily make a person strong.
Kyungsoo fears his father, so as much as he misses seeing other children of the town at school lessons, and hearing stories about the dragons that used to traffic the skies and the winter that lasted through four generations, he dutifully practices his sword wielding daily. And his hand-to-hand combat. And his knife skills. And his bow and arrow skills.
And like this, Kyungsoo grows up. He’s not very tall, and looks almost soft, but looks can be deceiving. Under his clothes lies the body of someone carrying too many burdens, with soft flesh of youth having been changed to muscle instead.
His life grows into an odd routine, practicing his fighting skills for lack of other things to do, going into town occasionally to buy some staple foods. He cooks for his father and himself, always has dinner prepared for when his father arrives back home. His father is home increasingly less, but Kyungsoo doesn’t bother to find out why. He focuses on keeping their humble home clean; he sweeps the clay floors, polishes the table, cleans out their wood-burning stove that doubles as a place for cooking as well as heating their house in the winter months. Kyungsoo makes sure they always have flour and potatoes and rice, and keeps their wine stocked too as soon as he’s old enough to buy it, the older woman he buys it from always regarding him with saddened eyes.
But sometimes during the day, he wanders away from their town, past the loud voices echoing from the mine, past the small downtown area and shops, past the sporadic houses that dot the outer edges of the city and into the woods slightly to the north of his town.
He often hunts here, but most days, uses it as an excuse to run around and explore, feet padding gently on the soft earth floor beneath him. Kyungsoo sometimes climbs trees, sometimes merely runs around and sits for a bit, contemplating.
Never has he seen another person in the woods - they are deep, confusing, free of trails or pathways that mar their surface (besides the main road going west, but that’s more south than where Kyungsoo is), which is why he’s surprised when he chances upon another boy one day.
He watches a boy who doesn’t look much older than him, fit with brilliant blonde hair, move the water about the pond with lazy flicks of his wrist. Kyungsoo stands behind a tree in awe, gasping when the boy raises the water above his head, for it to crash back down in front of him, sprinkles of water catching the light diffusing between the treetops from above.
The boy turns around, scanning the forest, and Kyungsoo isn’t quick enough to hide before the boy’s eyes land on his.
“Show yourself,” he says simply, standing up to face where Kyungsoo was. Kyungsoo slowly steps out of the woods.
“You’re an Easterner?” is the first thing the boy asks, and suddenly everything clicks in Kyungsoo’s brain. This boy must be a magician from the North.
“You’re from the North?” he asks, and the boy’s mouth curves into a smirk. “Why are you here?” Kyungsoo presses on unabashedly.
“Ah, I can’t tell you that,” he says, smile still on his face. And Kyungsoo’s amazed, because, even though his city was the first large one when coming in from the North on the main travel road that also veered to the West, merely a half a day’s travel from the border, he’s never seen magic before, much less a Magician.
“How do you do that?” Kyungsoo blurts out, and the boy’s forehead crease in confusion, before smoothing back out as he understands.
“Ah, you mean the water?” he asks with his pink lips stretched in a grin, fingers fluttering, causing the water in front of him to break into small ripples, tiny beads jumping up before landing back down softly. “Don’t tell anyone you saw me, and I’ll tell you.”
“Who would I tell anyway?” Kyungsoo asks, brows furrowed and lip drawn up in a pout. The boy regards him with something akin to confusion in his eyes, before asking, “How old are you?” Kyungsoo tilts his head in question, but answers softly, “fourteen.”
“Hmm,” the boy muses, fingers tapping his chin now, “when you reach a certain age, around fifteen, you just know. You can feel it, channel it. Not that many people can though. And I’ve heard the East has all but eradicated their Magicians.”
Kyungsoo frowns morosely, staring back at the water behind the boy.
“Well, I must take my leave now,” he says, smiling softly before starting to walk in the opposite direction Kyungsoo had come from.
“Wait!” Kyungsoo calls out, desperate for more knowledge. He’d never seen a real Magician before, wasn’t even sure they existed, and here he was squandering his chance to ask better questions.
“How do you channel it?” he asks quickly when the boy turns back around.
The boy smiles cryptically. “The earth will speak to you. And then you will know.”
Kyungsoo watches his figure recede in the distance. He sits on the forest floor, soft earth beneath him yielding and crunching with dead leaves, dried grass. He doesn’t go home for a long while.
--
Even two years after, Kyungsoo still thinks about that day, wondering if he’ll develop powers of his own. Hoping, waiting, expecting. Daydreams of fire shooting from his hand are on his mind when his father interrupts one night.
“Kyungsoo,” his father starts this particular evening at dinner, “I have something important to tell you.”
“Yes, father?” Kyungsoo asks, looking up from the rabbit stew he’d made. He and his father rarely talked over dinner.
“The King of the North, well,” his father frowns slightly, wets his lips, must rethink his words, “do you know anything about the politics and bloodline of the North?” he settles on. Takes another sip of wine out of his misshapen metal goblet.
Kyungsoo watches his father’s lips as he speaks, a thin line, and figures he must’ve gotten his own from his mother. He barely remembers her now.
“I do not,” he replies softly.
“The current King is old, older than me,” he says with a wry laugh. “He has no sons, and the daughter his wife had died at birth along with her mother. He was never married again following this, so he has no true heir.
“The ruling power will therefore go to his younger brother, a man who currently oversees the entire Northern Forces. This younger brother has three sons, one of which is rumored to be currently being groomed for the position of head of the Northern Forces, as his father is falling into ill health.
“It is important you remember this, Kyungsoo,” his father says, pausing to take a bite of bread, “the three brothers are Kim Minseok, Kim Joonmyun, and Kim Jongin. Kim Minseok is the most important, being the eldest. If you followed what I was saying, you would know that this boy, Kim Minseok, may become King of the North. If his uncle and father were to die, he is the next in the bloodline. There is no doubt his uncle will die within the next ten years, and if our knowledge of his father is correct, he will follow soon after, if not before. Do you understand?”
Kyungsoo nods, a bit unsure of why his father is telling him all of this. He could draw the simple family tree out in his mind, it wasn’t all too complicated.
“But that would still be many years away,” his father continues, “if this boy - Minseok - were to, I don’t know, say be killed, it would upset the balance of power slightly. Throw them off. They’d have to scramble to find a new head of forces. To groom the next eldest brother to become king.”
Kyungsoo nods to let his father know he’s listening, keeping his eyes averted as he quietly continues to eat his supper.
“Have you ever killed a man before, Kyungsoo?” his father asks, and Kyungsoo sets down his spoon in confusion, glancing up to meet his father’s eyes, irises nearly black, before looking away again.
“No, father, just some game in the forest.”
“But you’d know how, right, son? I bet you’d be good at it, too.”
Kyungsoo swallows down the bile building up in his throat, an uneasy feeling settling over him in their dimly lit kitchen. Picking his spoon back up, he tries to continue eating as he normally would, but it’s difficult. He faintly hears the sound of something thrumming in his ear that isn’t his heartbeat, but he ignores it.
“I suppose after all you’ve taught me that I would be, yes.”
“That’s my boy,” his father says with a smile, showcasing his yellowed teeth. “I’ve been thinking up this plan, with some of the other men in the city forces. We want to send someone to kill Kim Minseok. I volunteered you for the task.”
Kyungsoo’s spoon drops to the table with a slight clatter; his tongue feels heavy in his mouth, much too heavy to move and form syllables to answer his father.
“You’re perfect for it if you think about it,” his father continues, seemingly ignoring Kyungsoo’s alarmed state, “you’re a good enough fighter to be able to climb the ranks to get to him, and you’re close enough in age that it should be natural.”
“You want me to sneak into the North, and kill the head of the Northern Forces? Surely they’ll never let me leave alive,” Kyungsoo points out, eyes wide.
“We do not have time for such luxuries,” his father replies gruffly, shaking his head. “If you have a chance to kill him that also compromises yourself, it does not matter. You need to simply do it. Soon he will be more protected, when his uncle dies. The time is only right now.”
Kyungsoo blinks, mouth falling open slightly. He shouldn’t even be surprised that his father was this uncaring of his life, but having it laid out for him like this so bluntly still hurts. His chest stings and he doesn’t understand why. That damn thrumming is growing louder and louder in his ears now.
“This would bring ultimate honor to our family. Don’t you understand? Your sacrifice will make enormous steps towards our goal.”
Kyungsoo stares at his father, meeting his gaze for one of the only times in his life. What’s the point of a family having honor if their bloodline dies out with Kyungsoo?
“Do I have time to think about it?” Kyungsoo asks, watches as his father’s brow furrows in unbridled disgust.
“You will do it,” he says, continuing, “what even is there for you here? Do you wish to join the city forces? Maybe work for the mine?” His father’s low laugh unsettles something in Kyungsoo.
There’s nothing for him here, sure, but that’s not his fault.
“I will go,” he says quietly, nodding his head to his father before getting up, leaving his spoon and half eaten stew, walking out of his house with slow steps, breaking into a full out run as he nears the town’s border. The only familiar, comforting thing to him is the visage of the wood’s edge ahead of him. The sound of his feet meeting the ground beneath him almost drowns out the low sound that’s been getting louder and louder.
He barely makes it into the first small clearing before tears are streaming down his face. Legs giving out, Kyungsoo crumples to the forest floor in defeat, swirling dust surrounding him in the low light of evening. Sobbing, he bangs his fists against the ground in sadness, in anger.
His father doesn’t care about his life (his fists hit the ground beneath him).
His father ruined his life long before he even realized it (his right hand is bleeding, he barely notices).
This city holds nothing for him, he can barely name five familiar faces (the earth is shaking under Kyungsoo, he doesn’t notice).
Through his torrent of emotions, a thought crosses his mind - maybe he could just use this “mission” as an excuse to escape, leave his father, leave this life that he never really wanted behind. Start anew in a different place.
He opens his eyes, breathing heavily through his mouth, gasping for air, when he sees it. He watches ripples emanate from the earth surrounding him, widens his watery eyes when he realizes - it’s him, he’s controlling the earth, he’s making the pulsating sound, he’s -
He shuts his eyes, bringing his breathing rate back in check, and the rumbles dissipate, before he promptly passes out, fall cushioned by decaying leaves.
--
Kyungsoo treks home the next morning before sunrise, trying not to be surprised at the fallen branches littering the slightly worn path back into town where the mud road picks up. The houses he sees seem to be fine, if not a bit shaken. He’s somewhat glad for this.
He sneaks into his house just as the sky fills up with orange early morning light. Placing the rabbit he’d caught on the table, he notes that nothing seems that out of place.
His father comes down as Kyungsoo’s gazing out the window in their kitchen.
“Where’d you go?” he asks gruffly, rubbing at his stubbly face with a meaty hand. Kyungsoo’s never really noticed how old his father really was, but the shadows thrown in the room by the pale morning light seem to emphasize his hollow cheek bones, the streaks of grey in his hair.
“I went to hunt when the earthquake came,” he mutters, “so I stayed in the forest and fell asleep there.”
“Ah,” his father acknowledges, lacing up his worn boots before standing up. “By the way, I’ll brief you tonight about your journey.”
Kyungsoo merely nods, not bothering to watch as his father leaves their house, door quietly sounding shut behind him. A breath he hadn’t even realized he was holding is released.
--
A few days later finds Kyungsoo on the back of an older horse, packed only with a simple map, a sword and knife, a simple change of clothes, and water and bread to last for five days. To go North, he must first make his way West, where he can then pick up the trail to the North. His destination is a city called Felswand, a tall, imposing training camp in the middle of the mountains if his father’s information is to be trusted. It should take him around four days to get there on horse if he spends most of the day travelling.
His departure from town features no heartfelt goodbyes, just a simple pat on his back the morning he saddles up.
“Do us well, Kyungsoo,” his father says, before Kyungsoo takes off without so much as saying a word, figure receding into the new light of morning, briefly wondering who “us” was, when his father was essentially (in his own mind, anyway) sending his only son, his only living family, to his death.
--
Kyungsoo finally comes to the outer border of Felswand after a grueling week of travel. He’s hungry, having run out of supplies days ago, and nary a town was in sight along the road he was travelling, on a constant incline, only growing colder and colder as he pushes further into the treacherous snow-capped mountains. The mountain terrain was something Kyungsoo was not used to; that coupled with the bitter cold he wasn’t expecting made it a particularly unpleasant journey. Does anyone even live here? He wonders. He sometimes smells the smoke of a campfire, but perhaps it’s just seeped into his clothes from the nights huddled up next to his own fire. His nights were unpleasant, shivering by a fire he’d built, wrapped in his change of clothing.
He’d also tried to channel his power as he had unbeknownst to him earlier, but all he manages is to see a few weak ripples as he breaks a stone the size of his fist into three pieces. It was a start, but didn’t make him feel very good. It did, however, tire him out, making it easier to sleep quickly.
However, as he stands now, he can see the walls of the perimeter of the fortress. Kyungsoo was unsure of what exactly was inside, but he was fairly certain his father had been correct in saying this was the hub of the Northern Forces. It looked intimidating enough to fit the bill; a castle-like structure looking like it was carved out of the very mountain it sat upon.
His horse trots along carefully, the sound that’s accompanied his entire trip, before they reach what appears to be a wall in the road, or perhaps more aptly a tall building made of stone. Warily, he approaches it, being greeted by what appears to be a knight in a lookout post.
“State your business,” the knight commands. Kyungsoo keeps his eyes trained forward. “I’m making my way to Felswand, to join the Northern Forces.”
Kyungsoo doesn’t see the way the man eyes him scrupulously, before scoffing lightly.
“Tie up your steed and enter the door on the left. Talk to the man inside there.”
Kyungsoo nods, doing as he says. He glances over to his horse, wondering what will happen to the both of them here, before he takes a breath, pushing open the door.
The room he enters is warm, crackling fire in a fire pit on one side of the room, and a man perhaps in his late forties sitting at a table, reading something with his feet propped up.
“And what do we have here?” he asks, setting his book down and swiveling his feet back under the table.
“My name is Soo,” Kyungsoo lies easily, meeting the man’s eyes, “and I’ve come to join the Northern Forces.”
The man laughs. “You’re just but a lad,” the man spits out at Kyungsoo, “do you know how to even use that sword?” he asks, gesturing at the scabbard securely fastened to Kyungsoo’s waist. And this, this is his chance, he can’t have come all this way just to be turned around by some mean looking man on a power trip.
“But I do know how to use it. I can fight,” Kyungsoo says simply, refusing to break their eye contact. “And I also have the power of Magic.”
The man looks up surprised at Kyungsoo, before getting up from his chair, murmuring, “wait here,” as he scurries into a door behind where he sits, which goes outside apparently. Kyungsoo shivers as a burst of cold air escapes from the door as it closes. A hawk flies off towards the castle walls, Kyungsoo watches with his brows drawn together in confusion.
Another cold burst of air, the man is back. “We take Magicians very seriously,” he starts, sitting back down, “someone will be down momentarily to take you up with them. Are you hungry?”
It’s almost comical how this man’s attitude had changed with Kyungsoo’s one sentence, but he ignores that particular thought for now in favor of his rumbling stomach. “Yes please. Thank you.”
The hawk is apparently their means of communication, because a little while after, a young man who can’t be much older than Kyungsoo enters.
“Is this the Magic user?” he asks with a smile, rubbing his gloved hands together. Kyungsoo fleetingly hopes they’ll give him some gloves, or perhaps he can earn a pair in some way.
“Yes, I’m Soo,” he says, looking down at his hands clasped in his lap.
“Well, Soo, I’m Kim Jongdae,” the man says with a grin, corners of his mouth curved upwards. “Why don’t you grab your horse and come with me. Will you open the gates, sir?”
The man who greeted Kyungsoo nods and Kyungsoo does as Jongdae asks.
What Kyungsoo thought was a “wall” actually was a gate of sorts - it opens with a low groan, and Kyungsoo leads his horse through to see Jongdae atop a horse waiting for him on the other side. He sidles up next to Jongdae, and they begin their descent towards the fortress.
“Where do you come from?” Jongdae asks after a few moments of silence. Kyungsoo thinks up a convincing lie for a moment.
“I’m from the West, and once I realized my Magic potential, I wanted to move North. I heard that’s where most Magicians are.”
Jongdae chuckles, “that is the rumor going around, I suppose. Not a bad one, eh?” Kyungsoo, unsure of how to reply, lets silence overtake them once again.
“So, how old are you, Soo?” Jongdae asks after a beat.
“I’m 16,” he says. Jongdae lets out a low whistle. “You’re quite young. I’m 18 myself, anyway. A lot of Magicians here are fairly young.”
“Why is that?” Kyungsoo asks quietly. Jongdae chuckles. “Well, you know, not that many Magicians even exist, and a lot of the older ones don’t want to fight in wars or anything, but rather just lead a quiet life. The people here have more or less agreed to stay.”
Kyungsoo nods quietly, absorbing the information. He had always assumed there were lots of Magicians in the North, but perhaps this is not the case. A rumor about a powerful Magician army would deter other countries fighting with the North, he supposes. Biting back a smile, he tries to squash down the swimming notions in his head that perhaps he’s quite special.
“I would like to learn how to use it,” Kyungsoo murmurs quietly, eyes focused on the imposing fortress drawing closer and closer.
“You can’t control it yet?” Jongdae asks, glancing over at Kyungsoo.
“Not exactly, not to its full potential.”
“Your full potential,” Jongdae corrects with a tinkling laugh. Kyungsoo only nods.
--
Jongdae shows him to a sparse room with two beds pushed against opposite walls, a small fireplace in between them. The only other furniture is a lone chair and a small armoire.
“There’s another boy about your age rooming here, his name is Park Chanyeol.” Kyungsoo nods in acknowledgement. “Feel free to make yourself at home. Chanyeol should be around later to show you to the great hall when dinner is ready.” Jongdae smiles, and turns on his heel to walk out.
“Wait,” Kyungsoo squeaks, “won’t there be a test of some sort?”
Jongdae snorts. “You’ll just join training with the others and they’ll gauge your skill then. I assumed you’d wanted to take a rest now from your tiresome travels.”
Kyungsoo nods again, before his face breaks into a small smile.
“Thank you Jongdae.”
Jongdae bows exaggeratedly, before leaving Kyungsoo, door clicking closed softly behind him.
--
Chanyeol makes fast friends with Kyungsoo (even if the feeling is not quite mutual). True to Jongdae’s words, Kyungsoo joins the Magician’s training the day after. He’s in awe of the other Magicians skills, their way with their powers, how they make it look so effortless. Kyungsoo wishes to be like that, and feels fairly embarrassed when all he can do is make the dirt of the ground the practice in move around a bit.
However, they have sword combat training, and Kyungsoo excels in that. The others are at a very basic level, which makes sense, Kyungsoo thinks. They all probably didn’t have fathers who forced them to learn.
Above their training is a small balcony, and an older man usually watches over them. Everyone just refers to him as the Trainer, so Kyungsoo doesn’t pay too much attention to him.
But one day, a smaller, younger male strolls out, slightly soft looking face fit with unstyled brown hair, eyes small but alert, taking in everything.
“Ah, it looks like our leader has arrived,” Chanyeol says with a laugh one morning between huffs of breath. They’re doing simple hand to hand combat today, something Kyungsoo can just breeze through (and has been - the others hate to be pinned against him).
“That’s Kim Minseok?” he asks, gaze averting back upwards to where the unknown man was standing above them, gloved hands clasped on the railing in front of him.
“The one and only,” Chanyeol answers easily, smiling down at Kyungsoo. “He must see something that interests him; normally he doesn’t stay this long. Perhaps it’s our very own new little deadly woodland creature?”
Kyungsoo rolls his eyes before stepping on Chanyeol’s foot with his heel.
“Gods, Soo, take a joke,” he hisses, and Kyungsoo smiles.
When he looks back up, Kim Minseok is looking directly at him with an unreadable expression, sharp eyes honing in on him, before he looks away again. Kyungsoo feels a chill run down his spine.
--
Kyungsoo mostly manages to stay mostly quiet, going unnoticed by most, besides the fact that he stays late after their Magic training. He’s frustrated one particular evening, sitting on the ground and closing his eyes, when he’s interrupted by the sound of footsteps.
He looks up to see Kim Minseok; his pulse quickens and he can’t help it.
“I don’t believe we’ve met before,” Minseok says, looking down at Kyungsoo who quickly rushes to standing, feeling a tad lightheaded. Minseok smiles at him as if he can read Kyungsoo’s thoughts, perfect teeth on full display. “I’m Kim Minseok.”
“I’m Soo,” Kyungsoo says.
“I’ve heard you’ve been asking about me,” Minseok states rather than asks, tilting forward slightly on the balls of his feet. Kyungsoo fleetingly thinks of how childish and cute and - what? - he seems at the moment before the fear of actually speaking to Minseok overtakes that.
“I was just curious,” he says quietly, settling his eyes on Minseok’s shoulders instead of his face. The fur draping him looks quite warm and soft.
But Minseok tilts his head, as if waiting for more explanation.
“You’re just… around my age yet in a high position. Also I’ve heard you can manipulate your Magic flawlessly.”
Minseok lets out a small chuckle. Kyungsoo moves his eyes to his chin instead, so he can watch his gums peek out when he smiles.
“I’ve heard you’ve got a lot to learn. I watched your normal training the other day. You’re quite skilled with a sword,” Minseok says, rubbing a hand along his chin, “can you manipulate your power at all, though?”
“No,” Kyungsoo says morosely, “I only used it once, and it was mostly on accident. Now I can barely move rocks around.”
“Mostly?” Minseok asks with a snort, “many Magicians summon it occasionally without realizing it in the beginning.”
“I was very angry one night,” Kyungsoo explains, kicking at the ground beneath their feet, “and I caused an earthquake.”
“An earthquake?” Minseok asks, eyes widened. “You must’ve been pretty angry.”
Kyungsoo nods rather than answering, but Minseok presses on.
“I was thinking, since you’re so advanced in combat but rather behind in the realm of Magic, that perhaps I could help coach you outside of the normal training sessions? I’ve never seen a controller of Earth before.”
Kyungsoo looks up in surprise, meeting Minseok’s eyes, but only finding sincerity there. He quickly averts his gaze.
“That’d be nice,” he agrees quietly, pulse beating out of control, cool sweat gathering in his palms.
Minseok nods. “Meet me tomorrow near the outside gate. You know where that is?”
“Yes, sir,” Kyungsoo says quickly.
“Minseok is fine,” Minseok says with a laugh, before bidding his goodbye, leaving the grounds.
Kyungsoo sits back down for a while, soft earth cushioning him. His heartbeat evens out after a few minutes that seem to stretch on for longer.
--
Minseok is amazing, Kyungsoo realizes after they train together for two months.
Kind and patient almost to a fault, he’s witty and sharp, and his Magic is beautiful. Kim Minseok can control ice, forming snow, simple crystals, and even fanciful ice sculptures with simple flicks of his wrist. While controlling the ice he seems regal yet carefree, stunning beautiful and impressive and Kyungsoo’s never felt like this about anyone before, he realizes belatedly.
“Today, Soo, I wanted to try something different,” Minseok starts, biting his lip before releasing it to continue, “I want you to break the ice creations I make. I think this will be a good practice of the focus I’ve been trying to get you to understand.”
Kyungsoo nods, unsure of how exactly this will work, but he’s willing to try. He’s been getting better at smashing rocks, forcing certain parts of the ground to shake, controlling the dirt, but he’s never tried anything like this before. After an hour of barely making cracks in Minseok’s damn chunks of ice, Kyungsoo is frustrated. And when he’s frustrated, he can’t control his power very well.
“Try it again, Soo-ya,” Minseok encourages.
“Hyung,” he protests weakly, tired of it, before a figure approaches them.
“Joonmyun,” Minseok cries cheerfully, a smile overtaking his face, “you’ve made it here again, finally.”
Kyungsoo tries not to gasp when he sees who Joonmyun is - the fact that he’s seen this man before.
“Hello hyung,” Joonmyun greets, blonde hair parted down the middle, fit in immaculately clean looking clothing, looking slightly more matured, but still essentially the same as Kyungsoo remembers. Kyungsoo tries to ignore his own dirtied clothing, probably in need of a wash.
Kyungsoo turns to see Joonmyun’s inquisitive eyes on him, but the smile on his face betrays nothing - does he recognize Kyungsoo? Perhaps meeting Kyungsoo was such an insignificant event for him, he doesn’t remember. Their meeting was seemingly seared in the back of Kyungsoo’s eyeballs since that fateful day.
“Who is this?” Joonmyun asks, smile still plastered on his face.
“Ah, this is Soo, our new recruit. I’m helping him develop his magic skills.”
“Nice to meet you,” Kyungsoo meekly mumbles, eyes downcast. Minseok’s ice is starting to melt, a small puddle forming underneath it.
“Likewise,” Joonmyun says, voice pleasant.
“Soo,” Minseok starts, turning around to face Kyungsoo with a smile still on his face, “we can continue tomorrow. I’ve got to catch up with my brother.”
“Okay,” he agrees easily, making his way back towards the castle at a slightly faster pace, feeling a set of eyes on him. Joonmyun remembering him could really shake up the balance he’d achieved with his life here.
--
Kyungsoo’s question is answered when Joonmyun catches him shortly after dinner about two weeks later.
“You’re growing quite close to my brother,” Joonmyun whispers in his ear, shuffling him away from the group with a cool hand on his arm, “this worries me a bit.”
“Why would it worry you, hyung?” he asks gently, teeth clenching against his will.
“I know you’re a liar for one thing, we both know we met each other in a forest in the Eastern lands, no?” The shadows thrown from the fire play on the side of Joonmyun’s face, accentuating him into sharp lines.
Kyungsoo takes a shaky breath in. He had seen this coming, knew Joonmyun would doubt him, but he’d thought about his lie, planned his rouse too carefully to have this stop him.
“Do you think if I told them I was from the East they would have taken me in? They would’ve killed me,” Kyungsoo explains in a low voice.
“Then why are you here?” Joonmyun asks, tilting his head a bit, voice icy. A few strands fall from out of place from his perfect center parted hair. His hair isn’t greasy, and Kyungsoo fleetingly wonders if he uses his own powers to wash it. “I think that’s an even more interesting question.”
“I wanted to learn more about Magic while using my skills for something,” he starts, looking up to meet Joonmyun’s gaze. “Additionally, I am not particularly attached to my home.”
Joonmyun smirks, and maybe he might be satisfied, but somehow Kyungsoo still feels like a vulnerable little boy in front of a dragon’s nest. And perhaps he is; Joonmyun can be quite intimidating. As if Minseok could sense his discomfort from across the room, he’s suddenly striding towards where Joonmyun and Kyungsoo were standing, his palm coming to rest on the flat between Kyungsoo’s shoulder blades.
“What’s going on?” Minseok asks quietly, small smile on his face.
“Ah, I just wanted to meet the man my brother is always talking about.”
Kyungsoo furrows his eyebrows in confusion, stealing a glance at Minseok - who might be blushing?
“You’ve already met,” Minseok murmurs, voice low and colored by some emotion Kyungsoo can’t recognize.
“Well,” Joonmyun says, eyes wide and smile unsettling, “you can never be too sure about someone, right?”
“Right,” Kyungsoo agrees weakly, before Joonmyun turns on his heel, leaving Kyungsoo and Minseok.
[ pt2]
Title: the earth isn't humming
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: Minseok/Kyungsoo
Word Count: 12.2k
Summary: Kyungsoo just has to kill the future King of the North. Simple, right?
Warnings: mentions of violence and death, fight scenes, sex with age difference (ks is 17, ms is 20)
A/N: I joined your medieval prompt with some supernatural aspects, I hope you like it~ World (very) loosely based on GoT. As always, thank you to mellie for your tireless input and beta-ing. Mama powers AU.
Kyungsoo supposes his childhood was different from other children, but he doesn’t really have all that much to compare it to, anyway. Since he was a boy, practically all he’s known has been fighting and pain, thanks to his father.
When he was merely six years old, his mother died in a small skirmish while on her way West to sell some baked goods she had made. Apparently the Northerners (bloody, stinking barbarians as his father would always refer to them) had decided the caravan she was on (with two other women and one man) had come too close to their territory.
Kyungsoo never sees his father cry over this, only begin drinking more heavily. He hears him murmur to himself how he should’ve been in that caravan with her, but how could he have known? And could he have even protected his wife from the cruelty of the barbarians, who swing blunt axes meant more to damage than to cut? Who have knowledge of magic unknown to all other lands?
The East, where Kyungsoo lives, has few magicians, mostly due to the fact that the Northerners treasure them, so by default, the East has banned them. The East and North have been sworn enemies for years from what Kyungsoo’s heard, from what little he can glean from the scant picture books he can get his hands on, and neither side has escalated a full out war despite small happenings back and forth time and again.
(Could his mother dying really be classified as a “small happening”? He wonders.)
The reason he’s heard (that everyone in Ostgrund, the city he called home, knew) was that the North and the East were once a huge, entire kingdom, but twin brothers were born to the King and Queen of the time. By default, the one born first (first by a paltry three minutes), was technically the crown prince. However, the “younger” prince was angered by this, and they thus decided to settle it by drawing a line in the middle of the land, splitting it into roughly two equal sections, each prince now a rightful King. While no bad blood was really kept between the two princes in their time, over the years, the lands became bitter rivals. Kyungsoo’s only heard stories from his father about the treacherous North, and how all the people in it are cold-hearted barely humans, but Kyungsoo himself has never been outside of Ostgrund.
At the ripe age of six years and seven months, Kyungsoo’s father begins to train him in the art of battle. Kyungsoo had been learning from the local teacher about reading and writing, but this is quickly cast aside in favor of sword practice, target practice, anything his father can get his hands on, really.
His father had once been a decorated part of their so-called city legion, who had sworn to protect the people of the city and their small mine, carved deep like a visible scar in the side of their mountain. While he’s no longer the legion’s head commander, he still spends most of his time there. Kyungsoo used to look up to his strength, but only realized much later in life that physical strength didn’t necessarily make a person strong.
Kyungsoo fears his father, so as much as he misses seeing other children of the town at school lessons, and hearing stories about the dragons that used to traffic the skies and the winter that lasted through four generations, he dutifully practices his sword wielding daily. And his hand-to-hand combat. And his knife skills. And his bow and arrow skills.
And like this, Kyungsoo grows up. He’s not very tall, and looks almost soft, but looks can be deceiving. Under his clothes lies the body of someone carrying too many burdens, with soft flesh of youth having been changed to muscle instead.
His life grows into an odd routine, practicing his fighting skills for lack of other things to do, going into town occasionally to buy some staple foods. He cooks for his father and himself, always has dinner prepared for when his father arrives back home. His father is home increasingly less, but Kyungsoo doesn’t bother to find out why. He focuses on keeping their humble home clean; he sweeps the clay floors, polishes the table, cleans out their wood-burning stove that doubles as a place for cooking as well as heating their house in the winter months. Kyungsoo makes sure they always have flour and potatoes and rice, and keeps their wine stocked too as soon as he’s old enough to buy it, the older woman he buys it from always regarding him with saddened eyes.
But sometimes during the day, he wanders away from their town, past the loud voices echoing from the mine, past the small downtown area and shops, past the sporadic houses that dot the outer edges of the city and into the woods slightly to the north of his town.
He often hunts here, but most days, uses it as an excuse to run around and explore, feet padding gently on the soft earth floor beneath him. Kyungsoo sometimes climbs trees, sometimes merely runs around and sits for a bit, contemplating.
Never has he seen another person in the woods - they are deep, confusing, free of trails or pathways that mar their surface (besides the main road going west, but that’s more south than where Kyungsoo is), which is why he’s surprised when he chances upon another boy one day.
He watches a boy who doesn’t look much older than him, fit with brilliant blonde hair, move the water about the pond with lazy flicks of his wrist. Kyungsoo stands behind a tree in awe, gasping when the boy raises the water above his head, for it to crash back down in front of him, sprinkles of water catching the light diffusing between the treetops from above.
The boy turns around, scanning the forest, and Kyungsoo isn’t quick enough to hide before the boy’s eyes land on his.
“Show yourself,” he says simply, standing up to face where Kyungsoo was. Kyungsoo slowly steps out of the woods.
“You’re an Easterner?” is the first thing the boy asks, and suddenly everything clicks in Kyungsoo’s brain. This boy must be a magician from the North.
“You’re from the North?” he asks, and the boy’s mouth curves into a smirk. “Why are you here?” Kyungsoo presses on unabashedly.
“Ah, I can’t tell you that,” he says, smile still on his face. And Kyungsoo’s amazed, because, even though his city was the first large one when coming in from the North on the main travel road that also veered to the West, merely a half a day’s travel from the border, he’s never seen magic before, much less a Magician.
“How do you do that?” Kyungsoo blurts out, and the boy’s forehead crease in confusion, before smoothing back out as he understands.
“Ah, you mean the water?” he asks with his pink lips stretched in a grin, fingers fluttering, causing the water in front of him to break into small ripples, tiny beads jumping up before landing back down softly. “Don’t tell anyone you saw me, and I’ll tell you.”
“Who would I tell anyway?” Kyungsoo asks, brows furrowed and lip drawn up in a pout. The boy regards him with something akin to confusion in his eyes, before asking, “How old are you?” Kyungsoo tilts his head in question, but answers softly, “fourteen.”
“Hmm,” the boy muses, fingers tapping his chin now, “when you reach a certain age, around fifteen, you just know. You can feel it, channel it. Not that many people can though. And I’ve heard the East has all but eradicated their Magicians.”
Kyungsoo frowns morosely, staring back at the water behind the boy.
“Well, I must take my leave now,” he says, smiling softly before starting to walk in the opposite direction Kyungsoo had come from.
“Wait!” Kyungsoo calls out, desperate for more knowledge. He’d never seen a real Magician before, wasn’t even sure they existed, and here he was squandering his chance to ask better questions.
“How do you channel it?” he asks quickly when the boy turns back around.
The boy smiles cryptically. “The earth will speak to you. And then you will know.”
Kyungsoo watches his figure recede in the distance. He sits on the forest floor, soft earth beneath him yielding and crunching with dead leaves, dried grass. He doesn’t go home for a long while.
--
Even two years after, Kyungsoo still thinks about that day, wondering if he’ll develop powers of his own. Hoping, waiting, expecting. Daydreams of fire shooting from his hand are on his mind when his father interrupts one night.
“Kyungsoo,” his father starts this particular evening at dinner, “I have something important to tell you.”
“Yes, father?” Kyungsoo asks, looking up from the rabbit stew he’d made. He and his father rarely talked over dinner.
“The King of the North, well,” his father frowns slightly, wets his lips, must rethink his words, “do you know anything about the politics and bloodline of the North?” he settles on. Takes another sip of wine out of his misshapen metal goblet.
Kyungsoo watches his father’s lips as he speaks, a thin line, and figures he must’ve gotten his own from his mother. He barely remembers her now.
“I do not,” he replies softly.
“The current King is old, older than me,” he says with a wry laugh. “He has no sons, and the daughter his wife had died at birth along with her mother. He was never married again following this, so he has no true heir.
“The ruling power will therefore go to his younger brother, a man who currently oversees the entire Northern Forces. This younger brother has three sons, one of which is rumored to be currently being groomed for the position of head of the Northern Forces, as his father is falling into ill health.
“It is important you remember this, Kyungsoo,” his father says, pausing to take a bite of bread, “the three brothers are Kim Minseok, Kim Joonmyun, and Kim Jongin. Kim Minseok is the most important, being the eldest. If you followed what I was saying, you would know that this boy, Kim Minseok, may become King of the North. If his uncle and father were to die, he is the next in the bloodline. There is no doubt his uncle will die within the next ten years, and if our knowledge of his father is correct, he will follow soon after, if not before. Do you understand?”
Kyungsoo nods, a bit unsure of why his father is telling him all of this. He could draw the simple family tree out in his mind, it wasn’t all too complicated.
“But that would still be many years away,” his father continues, “if this boy - Minseok - were to, I don’t know, say be killed, it would upset the balance of power slightly. Throw them off. They’d have to scramble to find a new head of forces. To groom the next eldest brother to become king.”
Kyungsoo nods to let his father know he’s listening, keeping his eyes averted as he quietly continues to eat his supper.
“Have you ever killed a man before, Kyungsoo?” his father asks, and Kyungsoo sets down his spoon in confusion, glancing up to meet his father’s eyes, irises nearly black, before looking away again.
“No, father, just some game in the forest.”
“But you’d know how, right, son? I bet you’d be good at it, too.”
Kyungsoo swallows down the bile building up in his throat, an uneasy feeling settling over him in their dimly lit kitchen. Picking his spoon back up, he tries to continue eating as he normally would, but it’s difficult. He faintly hears the sound of something thrumming in his ear that isn’t his heartbeat, but he ignores it.
“I suppose after all you’ve taught me that I would be, yes.”
“That’s my boy,” his father says with a smile, showcasing his yellowed teeth. “I’ve been thinking up this plan, with some of the other men in the city forces. We want to send someone to kill Kim Minseok. I volunteered you for the task.”
Kyungsoo’s spoon drops to the table with a slight clatter; his tongue feels heavy in his mouth, much too heavy to move and form syllables to answer his father.
“You’re perfect for it if you think about it,” his father continues, seemingly ignoring Kyungsoo’s alarmed state, “you’re a good enough fighter to be able to climb the ranks to get to him, and you’re close enough in age that it should be natural.”
“You want me to sneak into the North, and kill the head of the Northern Forces? Surely they’ll never let me leave alive,” Kyungsoo points out, eyes wide.
“We do not have time for such luxuries,” his father replies gruffly, shaking his head. “If you have a chance to kill him that also compromises yourself, it does not matter. You need to simply do it. Soon he will be more protected, when his uncle dies. The time is only right now.”
Kyungsoo blinks, mouth falling open slightly. He shouldn’t even be surprised that his father was this uncaring of his life, but having it laid out for him like this so bluntly still hurts. His chest stings and he doesn’t understand why. That damn thrumming is growing louder and louder in his ears now.
“This would bring ultimate honor to our family. Don’t you understand? Your sacrifice will make enormous steps towards our goal.”
Kyungsoo stares at his father, meeting his gaze for one of the only times in his life. What’s the point of a family having honor if their bloodline dies out with Kyungsoo?
“Do I have time to think about it?” Kyungsoo asks, watches as his father’s brow furrows in unbridled disgust.
“You will do it,” he says, continuing, “what even is there for you here? Do you wish to join the city forces? Maybe work for the mine?” His father’s low laugh unsettles something in Kyungsoo.
There’s nothing for him here, sure, but that’s not his fault.
“I will go,” he says quietly, nodding his head to his father before getting up, leaving his spoon and half eaten stew, walking out of his house with slow steps, breaking into a full out run as he nears the town’s border. The only familiar, comforting thing to him is the visage of the wood’s edge ahead of him. The sound of his feet meeting the ground beneath him almost drowns out the low sound that’s been getting louder and louder.
He barely makes it into the first small clearing before tears are streaming down his face. Legs giving out, Kyungsoo crumples to the forest floor in defeat, swirling dust surrounding him in the low light of evening. Sobbing, he bangs his fists against the ground in sadness, in anger.
His father doesn’t care about his life (his fists hit the ground beneath him).
His father ruined his life long before he even realized it (his right hand is bleeding, he barely notices).
This city holds nothing for him, he can barely name five familiar faces (the earth is shaking under Kyungsoo, he doesn’t notice).
Through his torrent of emotions, a thought crosses his mind - maybe he could just use this “mission” as an excuse to escape, leave his father, leave this life that he never really wanted behind. Start anew in a different place.
He opens his eyes, breathing heavily through his mouth, gasping for air, when he sees it. He watches ripples emanate from the earth surrounding him, widens his watery eyes when he realizes - it’s him, he’s controlling the earth, he’s making the pulsating sound, he’s -
He shuts his eyes, bringing his breathing rate back in check, and the rumbles dissipate, before he promptly passes out, fall cushioned by decaying leaves.
--
Kyungsoo treks home the next morning before sunrise, trying not to be surprised at the fallen branches littering the slightly worn path back into town where the mud road picks up. The houses he sees seem to be fine, if not a bit shaken. He’s somewhat glad for this.
He sneaks into his house just as the sky fills up with orange early morning light. Placing the rabbit he’d caught on the table, he notes that nothing seems that out of place.
His father comes down as Kyungsoo’s gazing out the window in their kitchen.
“Where’d you go?” he asks gruffly, rubbing at his stubbly face with a meaty hand. Kyungsoo’s never really noticed how old his father really was, but the shadows thrown in the room by the pale morning light seem to emphasize his hollow cheek bones, the streaks of grey in his hair.
“I went to hunt when the earthquake came,” he mutters, “so I stayed in the forest and fell asleep there.”
“Ah,” his father acknowledges, lacing up his worn boots before standing up. “By the way, I’ll brief you tonight about your journey.”
Kyungsoo merely nods, not bothering to watch as his father leaves their house, door quietly sounding shut behind him. A breath he hadn’t even realized he was holding is released.
--
A few days later finds Kyungsoo on the back of an older horse, packed only with a simple map, a sword and knife, a simple change of clothes, and water and bread to last for five days. To go North, he must first make his way West, where he can then pick up the trail to the North. His destination is a city called Felswand, a tall, imposing training camp in the middle of the mountains if his father’s information is to be trusted. It should take him around four days to get there on horse if he spends most of the day travelling.
His departure from town features no heartfelt goodbyes, just a simple pat on his back the morning he saddles up.
“Do us well, Kyungsoo,” his father says, before Kyungsoo takes off without so much as saying a word, figure receding into the new light of morning, briefly wondering who “us” was, when his father was essentially (in his own mind, anyway) sending his only son, his only living family, to his death.
--
Kyungsoo finally comes to the outer border of Felswand after a grueling week of travel. He’s hungry, having run out of supplies days ago, and nary a town was in sight along the road he was travelling, on a constant incline, only growing colder and colder as he pushes further into the treacherous snow-capped mountains. The mountain terrain was something Kyungsoo was not used to; that coupled with the bitter cold he wasn’t expecting made it a particularly unpleasant journey. Does anyone even live here? He wonders. He sometimes smells the smoke of a campfire, but perhaps it’s just seeped into his clothes from the nights huddled up next to his own fire. His nights were unpleasant, shivering by a fire he’d built, wrapped in his change of clothing.
He’d also tried to channel his power as he had unbeknownst to him earlier, but all he manages is to see a few weak ripples as he breaks a stone the size of his fist into three pieces. It was a start, but didn’t make him feel very good. It did, however, tire him out, making it easier to sleep quickly.
However, as he stands now, he can see the walls of the perimeter of the fortress. Kyungsoo was unsure of what exactly was inside, but he was fairly certain his father had been correct in saying this was the hub of the Northern Forces. It looked intimidating enough to fit the bill; a castle-like structure looking like it was carved out of the very mountain it sat upon.
His horse trots along carefully, the sound that’s accompanied his entire trip, before they reach what appears to be a wall in the road, or perhaps more aptly a tall building made of stone. Warily, he approaches it, being greeted by what appears to be a knight in a lookout post.
“State your business,” the knight commands. Kyungsoo keeps his eyes trained forward. “I’m making my way to Felswand, to join the Northern Forces.”
Kyungsoo doesn’t see the way the man eyes him scrupulously, before scoffing lightly.
“Tie up your steed and enter the door on the left. Talk to the man inside there.”
Kyungsoo nods, doing as he says. He glances over to his horse, wondering what will happen to the both of them here, before he takes a breath, pushing open the door.
The room he enters is warm, crackling fire in a fire pit on one side of the room, and a man perhaps in his late forties sitting at a table, reading something with his feet propped up.
“And what do we have here?” he asks, setting his book down and swiveling his feet back under the table.
“My name is Soo,” Kyungsoo lies easily, meeting the man’s eyes, “and I’ve come to join the Northern Forces.”
The man laughs. “You’re just but a lad,” the man spits out at Kyungsoo, “do you know how to even use that sword?” he asks, gesturing at the scabbard securely fastened to Kyungsoo’s waist. And this, this is his chance, he can’t have come all this way just to be turned around by some mean looking man on a power trip.
“But I do know how to use it. I can fight,” Kyungsoo says simply, refusing to break their eye contact. “And I also have the power of Magic.”
The man looks up surprised at Kyungsoo, before getting up from his chair, murmuring, “wait here,” as he scurries into a door behind where he sits, which goes outside apparently. Kyungsoo shivers as a burst of cold air escapes from the door as it closes. A hawk flies off towards the castle walls, Kyungsoo watches with his brows drawn together in confusion.
Another cold burst of air, the man is back. “We take Magicians very seriously,” he starts, sitting back down, “someone will be down momentarily to take you up with them. Are you hungry?”
It’s almost comical how this man’s attitude had changed with Kyungsoo’s one sentence, but he ignores that particular thought for now in favor of his rumbling stomach. “Yes please. Thank you.”
The hawk is apparently their means of communication, because a little while after, a young man who can’t be much older than Kyungsoo enters.
“Is this the Magic user?” he asks with a smile, rubbing his gloved hands together. Kyungsoo fleetingly hopes they’ll give him some gloves, or perhaps he can earn a pair in some way.
“Yes, I’m Soo,” he says, looking down at his hands clasped in his lap.
“Well, Soo, I’m Kim Jongdae,” the man says with a grin, corners of his mouth curved upwards. “Why don’t you grab your horse and come with me. Will you open the gates, sir?”
The man who greeted Kyungsoo nods and Kyungsoo does as Jongdae asks.
What Kyungsoo thought was a “wall” actually was a gate of sorts - it opens with a low groan, and Kyungsoo leads his horse through to see Jongdae atop a horse waiting for him on the other side. He sidles up next to Jongdae, and they begin their descent towards the fortress.
“Where do you come from?” Jongdae asks after a few moments of silence. Kyungsoo thinks up a convincing lie for a moment.
“I’m from the West, and once I realized my Magic potential, I wanted to move North. I heard that’s where most Magicians are.”
Jongdae chuckles, “that is the rumor going around, I suppose. Not a bad one, eh?” Kyungsoo, unsure of how to reply, lets silence overtake them once again.
“So, how old are you, Soo?” Jongdae asks after a beat.
“I’m 16,” he says. Jongdae lets out a low whistle. “You’re quite young. I’m 18 myself, anyway. A lot of Magicians here are fairly young.”
“Why is that?” Kyungsoo asks quietly. Jongdae chuckles. “Well, you know, not that many Magicians even exist, and a lot of the older ones don’t want to fight in wars or anything, but rather just lead a quiet life. The people here have more or less agreed to stay.”
Kyungsoo nods quietly, absorbing the information. He had always assumed there were lots of Magicians in the North, but perhaps this is not the case. A rumor about a powerful Magician army would deter other countries fighting with the North, he supposes. Biting back a smile, he tries to squash down the swimming notions in his head that perhaps he’s quite special.
“I would like to learn how to use it,” Kyungsoo murmurs quietly, eyes focused on the imposing fortress drawing closer and closer.
“You can’t control it yet?” Jongdae asks, glancing over at Kyungsoo.
“Not exactly, not to its full potential.”
“Your full potential,” Jongdae corrects with a tinkling laugh. Kyungsoo only nods.
--
Jongdae shows him to a sparse room with two beds pushed against opposite walls, a small fireplace in between them. The only other furniture is a lone chair and a small armoire.
“There’s another boy about your age rooming here, his name is Park Chanyeol.” Kyungsoo nods in acknowledgement. “Feel free to make yourself at home. Chanyeol should be around later to show you to the great hall when dinner is ready.” Jongdae smiles, and turns on his heel to walk out.
“Wait,” Kyungsoo squeaks, “won’t there be a test of some sort?”
Jongdae snorts. “You’ll just join training with the others and they’ll gauge your skill then. I assumed you’d wanted to take a rest now from your tiresome travels.”
Kyungsoo nods again, before his face breaks into a small smile.
“Thank you Jongdae.”
Jongdae bows exaggeratedly, before leaving Kyungsoo, door clicking closed softly behind him.
--
Chanyeol makes fast friends with Kyungsoo (even if the feeling is not quite mutual). True to Jongdae’s words, Kyungsoo joins the Magician’s training the day after. He’s in awe of the other Magicians skills, their way with their powers, how they make it look so effortless. Kyungsoo wishes to be like that, and feels fairly embarrassed when all he can do is make the dirt of the ground the practice in move around a bit.
However, they have sword combat training, and Kyungsoo excels in that. The others are at a very basic level, which makes sense, Kyungsoo thinks. They all probably didn’t have fathers who forced them to learn.
Above their training is a small balcony, and an older man usually watches over them. Everyone just refers to him as the Trainer, so Kyungsoo doesn’t pay too much attention to him.
But one day, a smaller, younger male strolls out, slightly soft looking face fit with unstyled brown hair, eyes small but alert, taking in everything.
“Ah, it looks like our leader has arrived,” Chanyeol says with a laugh one morning between huffs of breath. They’re doing simple hand to hand combat today, something Kyungsoo can just breeze through (and has been - the others hate to be pinned against him).
“That’s Kim Minseok?” he asks, gaze averting back upwards to where the unknown man was standing above them, gloved hands clasped on the railing in front of him.
“The one and only,” Chanyeol answers easily, smiling down at Kyungsoo. “He must see something that interests him; normally he doesn’t stay this long. Perhaps it’s our very own new little deadly woodland creature?”
Kyungsoo rolls his eyes before stepping on Chanyeol’s foot with his heel.
“Gods, Soo, take a joke,” he hisses, and Kyungsoo smiles.
When he looks back up, Kim Minseok is looking directly at him with an unreadable expression, sharp eyes honing in on him, before he looks away again. Kyungsoo feels a chill run down his spine.
--
Kyungsoo mostly manages to stay mostly quiet, going unnoticed by most, besides the fact that he stays late after their Magic training. He’s frustrated one particular evening, sitting on the ground and closing his eyes, when he’s interrupted by the sound of footsteps.
He looks up to see Kim Minseok; his pulse quickens and he can’t help it.
“I don’t believe we’ve met before,” Minseok says, looking down at Kyungsoo who quickly rushes to standing, feeling a tad lightheaded. Minseok smiles at him as if he can read Kyungsoo’s thoughts, perfect teeth on full display. “I’m Kim Minseok.”
“I’m Soo,” Kyungsoo says.
“I’ve heard you’ve been asking about me,” Minseok states rather than asks, tilting forward slightly on the balls of his feet. Kyungsoo fleetingly thinks of how childish and cute and - what? - he seems at the moment before the fear of actually speaking to Minseok overtakes that.
“I was just curious,” he says quietly, settling his eyes on Minseok’s shoulders instead of his face. The fur draping him looks quite warm and soft.
But Minseok tilts his head, as if waiting for more explanation.
“You’re just… around my age yet in a high position. Also I’ve heard you can manipulate your Magic flawlessly.”
Minseok lets out a small chuckle. Kyungsoo moves his eyes to his chin instead, so he can watch his gums peek out when he smiles.
“I’ve heard you’ve got a lot to learn. I watched your normal training the other day. You’re quite skilled with a sword,” Minseok says, rubbing a hand along his chin, “can you manipulate your power at all, though?”
“No,” Kyungsoo says morosely, “I only used it once, and it was mostly on accident. Now I can barely move rocks around.”
“Mostly?” Minseok asks with a snort, “many Magicians summon it occasionally without realizing it in the beginning.”
“I was very angry one night,” Kyungsoo explains, kicking at the ground beneath their feet, “and I caused an earthquake.”
“An earthquake?” Minseok asks, eyes widened. “You must’ve been pretty angry.”
Kyungsoo nods rather than answering, but Minseok presses on.
“I was thinking, since you’re so advanced in combat but rather behind in the realm of Magic, that perhaps I could help coach you outside of the normal training sessions? I’ve never seen a controller of Earth before.”
Kyungsoo looks up in surprise, meeting Minseok’s eyes, but only finding sincerity there. He quickly averts his gaze.
“That’d be nice,” he agrees quietly, pulse beating out of control, cool sweat gathering in his palms.
Minseok nods. “Meet me tomorrow near the outside gate. You know where that is?”
“Yes, sir,” Kyungsoo says quickly.
“Minseok is fine,” Minseok says with a laugh, before bidding his goodbye, leaving the grounds.
Kyungsoo sits back down for a while, soft earth cushioning him. His heartbeat evens out after a few minutes that seem to stretch on for longer.
--
Minseok is amazing, Kyungsoo realizes after they train together for two months.
Kind and patient almost to a fault, he’s witty and sharp, and his Magic is beautiful. Kim Minseok can control ice, forming snow, simple crystals, and even fanciful ice sculptures with simple flicks of his wrist. While controlling the ice he seems regal yet carefree, stunning beautiful and impressive and Kyungsoo’s never felt like this about anyone before, he realizes belatedly.
“Today, Soo, I wanted to try something different,” Minseok starts, biting his lip before releasing it to continue, “I want you to break the ice creations I make. I think this will be a good practice of the focus I’ve been trying to get you to understand.”
Kyungsoo nods, unsure of how exactly this will work, but he’s willing to try. He’s been getting better at smashing rocks, forcing certain parts of the ground to shake, controlling the dirt, but he’s never tried anything like this before. After an hour of barely making cracks in Minseok’s damn chunks of ice, Kyungsoo is frustrated. And when he’s frustrated, he can’t control his power very well.
“Try it again, Soo-ya,” Minseok encourages.
“Hyung,” he protests weakly, tired of it, before a figure approaches them.
“Joonmyun,” Minseok cries cheerfully, a smile overtaking his face, “you’ve made it here again, finally.”
Kyungsoo tries not to gasp when he sees who Joonmyun is - the fact that he’s seen this man before.
“Hello hyung,” Joonmyun greets, blonde hair parted down the middle, fit in immaculately clean looking clothing, looking slightly more matured, but still essentially the same as Kyungsoo remembers. Kyungsoo tries to ignore his own dirtied clothing, probably in need of a wash.
Kyungsoo turns to see Joonmyun’s inquisitive eyes on him, but the smile on his face betrays nothing - does he recognize Kyungsoo? Perhaps meeting Kyungsoo was such an insignificant event for him, he doesn’t remember. Their meeting was seemingly seared in the back of Kyungsoo’s eyeballs since that fateful day.
“Who is this?” Joonmyun asks, smile still plastered on his face.
“Ah, this is Soo, our new recruit. I’m helping him develop his magic skills.”
“Nice to meet you,” Kyungsoo meekly mumbles, eyes downcast. Minseok’s ice is starting to melt, a small puddle forming underneath it.
“Likewise,” Joonmyun says, voice pleasant.
“Soo,” Minseok starts, turning around to face Kyungsoo with a smile still on his face, “we can continue tomorrow. I’ve got to catch up with my brother.”
“Okay,” he agrees easily, making his way back towards the castle at a slightly faster pace, feeling a set of eyes on him. Joonmyun remembering him could really shake up the balance he’d achieved with his life here.
--
Kyungsoo’s question is answered when Joonmyun catches him shortly after dinner about two weeks later.
“You’re growing quite close to my brother,” Joonmyun whispers in his ear, shuffling him away from the group with a cool hand on his arm, “this worries me a bit.”
“Why would it worry you, hyung?” he asks gently, teeth clenching against his will.
“I know you’re a liar for one thing, we both know we met each other in a forest in the Eastern lands, no?” The shadows thrown from the fire play on the side of Joonmyun’s face, accentuating him into sharp lines.
Kyungsoo takes a shaky breath in. He had seen this coming, knew Joonmyun would doubt him, but he’d thought about his lie, planned his rouse too carefully to have this stop him.
“Do you think if I told them I was from the East they would have taken me in? They would’ve killed me,” Kyungsoo explains in a low voice.
“Then why are you here?” Joonmyun asks, tilting his head a bit, voice icy. A few strands fall from out of place from his perfect center parted hair. His hair isn’t greasy, and Kyungsoo fleetingly wonders if he uses his own powers to wash it. “I think that’s an even more interesting question.”
“I wanted to learn more about Magic while using my skills for something,” he starts, looking up to meet Joonmyun’s gaze. “Additionally, I am not particularly attached to my home.”
Joonmyun smirks, and maybe he might be satisfied, but somehow Kyungsoo still feels like a vulnerable little boy in front of a dragon’s nest. And perhaps he is; Joonmyun can be quite intimidating. As if Minseok could sense his discomfort from across the room, he’s suddenly striding towards where Joonmyun and Kyungsoo were standing, his palm coming to rest on the flat between Kyungsoo’s shoulder blades.
“What’s going on?” Minseok asks quietly, small smile on his face.
“Ah, I just wanted to meet the man my brother is always talking about.”
Kyungsoo furrows his eyebrows in confusion, stealing a glance at Minseok - who might be blushing?
“You’ve already met,” Minseok murmurs, voice low and colored by some emotion Kyungsoo can’t recognize.
“Well,” Joonmyun says, eyes wide and smile unsettling, “you can never be too sure about someone, right?”
“Right,” Kyungsoo agrees weakly, before Joonmyun turns on his heel, leaving Kyungsoo and Minseok.
[ pt2]