Knife, Twig, and String [Beast]
Title: Knife, Twig, and String
Recipient: zenfu
Pairing: very slight Hyunseung/Yoseob
Word count: 7,162
Rating: Pg-13
Warning(s): scenes of violence
Summary: On a magical night like the equinox, no rules govern men and gods.
Notes: supernatural/fantasy/dystopic AU
"Erm. What do you do for a living?"
"Seriously? I'm standing here with a six-inch knife in one hand and a loaded crossbow in the other. I have a short sword slung over my back and I'm armed to the teeth with various implements of death. Doesn't that give you any clue?"
"So ... you're a salesman of sharp, pointy things?"
"Hmm. Consider the fact that I'm here in your bedroom in the middle of the night, my crossbow is pointed right at your chest, and your bed is now nothing more than a sorry collection of tattered sheets. Also, all my tools are poisoned. Guess again."
"Aha! You're a particularly dedicated salesman of sharp, pointy, and poisoned things!"
"... Close enough. But letting this drag on is torture. I'm an assassin. And I'm here to kill you, if you must know."
"Ah. Maybe the all-black fashion statement without an inch of visible skin should have given me a clue."
"Yes. Yes, it should have."
"Who'd have thought you can't trust an unexpected midnight visitor bristling all over with deadly things?"
"Everyone but you, apparently."
"Oh. Well, forgive me for not recognizing the signs. I haven't been the target of an attempted assassination before, mind you. I'm new at this."
"Very few ever become experienced in almost getting killed. But that's just my professional opinion."
"Fascinating. And the reason for not having killed me yet? I can't imagine it's just for the conversation. Pleasant, though."
"Thank you."
"I think I asked you a question."
"Oh, yeah. Sorry. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that you have me trapped in a binding charm?"
"Technically not a binding charm. Just a spell to turn your skin to stone. But obviously undercharged as it just immobilized you instead of... I don't know, actually turning your skin to stone."
"There's that, yes. I guess I should thank you?"
"It wasn't actually intended. I think I miscalculated the moon cycle so my invocation was a bit off. But you're still welcome."
"..."
"So somebody wants me dead?"
"That would be the short of it. Unless you can think of any other reason why an assassin would pay you a visit?"
"Hmmmm. You're actually a baker in disguise and you're here to bring me strawberry shortcakes?"
"..."
"No?"
"No. No shortcakes."
"That's too bad. I like cakes."
"Duly noted. By the way, would you mind letting me go? My leg is starting to itch."
"And the odds of me doing that are...?"
"Basically zero."
"I'm glad you're keeping up with current events."
"You're one to talk."
"I was deeply asleep! And I was rudely awakened by someone who wanted to kill me! I think that's enough reason to be confused for the earlier part of our conversation."
"Maybe, maybe. Now will you kill me yourself, or will you turn me over to the authorities?"
"Hmm. Given that I'm not friends with the law and that the two of us are essentially colleagues, maybe I'll take a third option."
"I don't think I'll like this option."
"You know what, I don't think you will, either. I'm Yoseob. But you probably already know that. You are?"
"Kikwang."
"Sorry, but I'm inherently capable of telling when somebody's lying."
"Fine. Junhyung."
"Again with the lying?"
"Fine. My birthname is Jaesoon, but I will hurt anyone who calls me that."
"Ooh. Angsty."
"You try living with that name. Wait. Colleagues?"
"Yeah! We just target different things."
"Like... rats? You're a rat exterminator?"
"... not quite. Consider the fact that I can use magic bare-handed."
"Demons, then. You're a demon hunter."
"Almost got it. You kill people. I kill gods."
"Oh."
"Yeah.
"I suddenly feel over-employed."
"You don't say... Oh look, Hyunseung's back!"
Junhyung didn't get to see whoever this 'Hyunseung' was. An annoyed chant and a sudden tingle of electricity later, Junhyung was out cold on the floor and being stripped of his weapons.
~*~
It was the start of a rocky friendship, if you could call it that. Then again, Junhyung had an unconventional view on the matter.
He woke up with a pounding headache, but the fact that his head was still attached enough to ache was definitely a step up from his expectations. A quick, close-eyed inventory of his body revealed no broken bones or missing appendages, and he was glad enough that he immediately forgave Yoseob and his friend for stripping him completely naked. It was natural to be cautious around assassins.
He could hear breathing nearby.
"I have other weapons hidden on me, you know," he drawled from his undignified position on the floor.
"I highly doubt that," an unfamiliar voice answered. Junhyung opened his eyes and saw a pretty but neutral face illuminated by weak candlelight. It was the only thing he could make out in the darkness. Hyunseung, possibly.
"I'm an assassin. We plan for these things." Intimidation. Even words were weapons in an assassin's arsenal.
"Yeah, about that," Hyunseung said with a smirk that looked foreign on his otherwise emotionless face. "Yoseob told me about your being... what was your colorful phrase? 'Armed to the teeth'? Not anymore." He held up a curved metal contraption shaped specifically to fit inside Junhyung's mouth. "Light enough to maneuver with just your tongue. Employs a firing mechanism triggered by your breath. Fortunate that you hadn’t armed it yet when Yoseob trapped you. Preloaded with three needles, all poisoned with belladonna extract. The concept is ingenious but the choice of poison is uninspired."
"There are other hiding places," Junhyung said confidently. He tried to push himself up to a kneeling position, but his back was glued to the floor. Ah. The wonders of magic.
Hyunseung's mouth twitched to a disgusted frown. "Yeah, we checked there, too," he said, and Junhyung suddenly felt very violated. "I still don't know if we found a poison capsule or just a suppository, but we threw it out anyway. You really take your job seriously."
Junhyung paused. It was possible he had one more advantage, but if he said anything Hyunseung might-
"And don't think we didn't notice the powdered casteronum under your fingernails. Now that was a good choice. It took me five minutes to transmute it into something harmless."
Junhyung gave himself time to calm down and accept the fact that he was completely disarmed. So it came to this; the only weapons he had left were his own hands and feet. They should be enough. He'd killed with nothing else before. Now if he could only move them... "You're good at this," he admitted grudgingly.
"You're not the only one who takes his job seriously," Hyunseung answered, his face going impassive once more. "Yoseob wanted to be the nice guy and kill you so you'll at least be saved from misery. I'm not similarly inclined. Start talking. Why Yoseob?"
"You know that's a pointless question to ask," Junhyung taunted.
"Of course. But I just thought I should start by being polite. Is there any point in continuing?"
"No."
"Good. That saves us time." Hyunseung reached for something outside of Junhyung's limited field of vision. He held it up near the candlelight for Junhyung to see. It was a twig. "You don't have any defenses against magic on you, not even basic warding glyphs or isolation totems, so I assume you haven't encountered offensive magic before. Or you didn't expect to fight people like us."
"My client was a bit vague during the meeting," Junhyung said, resolving to be less courteous to the man if-- when he got out of here. On the other hand, Junhyung scolded himself for taking the dearth of information as a challenge. It was partly his own fault, but his employer didn't need to know that.
"Then let me give you a personal education." Hyunseung rolled the twig between his fingers. He was smiling for the first time, and Junhyung noted with a thrill of foreboding that Hyunseung smiled the way a snake would smile. "This twig is your right middle finger. Is that clear?" he asked in a voice so like a teacher's that Junhyung almost answered out of sheer habit.
Hyunseung snapped the twig in half. Sharp pain burned through Junhyung's finger so suddenly that blood drained from his face before he realized what was happening. Years of training took over with a response to the stimulus: he bit his lips to keep his gasps from escaping; his eyelids froze instead of flying wide open.
"And that was just a clean break," Hyunseung said, examining the smaller twigs closely by the candlelight, his face a mask of dispassionate curiosity. "Imagine. I could have twisted it apart. Or burned it. I could have powdered it right before your eyes. And it didn't have to be a finger. It could have been your leg. Or your arm. Or a rib. Or three ribs, one after another. Or I could have dropped it in boiling water and it could have been your tongue. Or your stomach. Or your dick. I could have used acid."
Whatever the words did to him, Junhyung kept his reaction as blank as he could make it. Years of practice and a platonic approach to life came in handy. Give him nothing, he'd learned, until you can read him better than he can read you.
Hyunseung daintily held up another twig by the light. "Who commissioned you?"
"You sound like an amateur asking questions," Junhyung gritted out despite himself.
"And you're being too conventional," Hyunseung said while staring intensely at the twig. "Obviously, you didn't introduce each other when you met. But assassins are also trained behaviorists. Tell me."
"He's an idiot who withheld critical information about the contract."
"And you're the idiot who accepted it anyway." Hyunseung put the twig down, but Junhyung knew better than to be relieved. A tomato was raised to the flickering light. "This is your left lung," Hyunseung said, and he let it touch the flame.
Junhyung bit his tongue to stop from screaming. The effort was almost enough to make him pass out again.
At the edge of Junhyung's mind, the part that was freest to look for distractions, the tiny area he learned to always detach from his body, he heard the sound of a door opening followed by light footsteps. And Yoseob's voice."Hyunseung, what are you doing?"
"Burning his lung to a crisp," Hyunseung answered plainly.
"Fun! But no need. I found the guy."
"Oh." Hyunseung set the tomato aside, but Junhyung couldn't tell from the blaring pain in his back. "That's less enjoyable."
"It gets better," Yoseob said, bright as day. He tossed what looked like a coconut towards Junhyung, which rolled to a stop right beside Junhyung's head and blank eyes stared back at him. It wasn't a coconut. "I thought you two should get the chance to say hi. Or you could tell him that your contract has been voided. He can't, see."
Junhyung stared into those dead but familiar eyes to keep his mind away from the fire in his body. He had a few choice curses at the tip of his tongue, and he would have yelled them had he not bitten himself bloody.
"If you gave him a clean death, I will break up with you," Hyunseung said, more annoyance in his voice than Junhyung ever thought his captor could express.
"I did, but I had a good reason."
The tapping of impatient fingernails against a wooden surface. "I'm waiting."
"He was hired by someone else. He's a middle man."
"Wait. This guy here was hired by that guy's head there, who in turn was hired by someone else? What's to stop us from thinking that everybody was hired by everybody else? It's turtles all the way down!"
Junhyung coughed drily, completely not believing that Hyunseung was capable of exclamation marks. "Turtles?" he groaned.
"Hyunseung likes to throw idioms around from out of the blue. But that one's pretty obscure so I don't blame you if you haven't heard of it." Yoseob appeared within the circle of candlelight, and Junhyung flinched as much as he could. Yoseob wasn't unattractive per se, but candle light played tricks on people's faces: features were exaggerated, shadows were angled all wrong, expressions magnified and perverted... It was fine for Hyunseung, who looked like a marble statue in the weak light. But Yoseob just looked wrong. "I see the two of you are already bonding and he's playing nice. He could have been worse. He likes you!"
Junhyung's eyes opened wide at those words. Hyunseung's gaze was as blank as ever, but that was practically an affirmation from someone like him.
Holy fuck.
"Seriously," Yoseob continued. "I'm always 'let's kill him and put him out of his misery' but he's always 'life is precious enough to be worth the torment'. He's of the opinion that anyone who survives after he's done with them really deserves to live. So he's a saint in a manner of speaking. He's a good guy!"
"Holy fuck," Junhyung gasped because some thoughts just needed to be expressed. His middle finger throbbed painfully, to say nothing of his lungs insisting that they were still being barbequed.
"Anyway, I did some digging - metaphorically, mind you - and I think we could use your help on something. Hyunseung, the dramatic lighting is great, personally I love it, but it's kind of too dark at the moment, huh?"
"Fine," Hyunseung said with a loud sigh.
"You really insist on showing me the horrors of your torture chamber?" Junhyung groaned. But that was good for him. The more he knew about his environment, the more he could manipulate the situation to his advantage. Torture chambers meant sharp things. Sharp things meant weapons. Weapons meant leverage, and he was sure he could wield weapons better than these two clowns.
"Torture chamber?" Yoseob asked aghast as he walked out of Junhyung's field of vision. "Please, we're not that tacky. You're in my bedroom."
Hyunseung gently breathed the candlelight away. Against everything that Junhyung had ever learned about cause and effect, the darkness went away with the flame. Moonlight seeped back in through an open window, casting a faint silver glow on the very same room Junhyung invaded earlier that (lifetime?) night.
"So. You get a choice." There was a sound of metal scraping against leather. Hyunseung left his seat and Yoseob took his place, fiddling with one of Junhyung's throwing knives in his hands. "You have three options."
There was a discreet cough in the background.
Yoseob rolled his eyes. "Fine. Two options, but one of them will lead to another choice between two further options."
"It's not like I'm going anywhere," Junhyung said when Yoseob paused.
"Politeness is always a good thing," Yoseob insisted. "So! First choice. You got sent to certain death on this assignment but, surprise, surprise, your targets decided to give you a chance to pay the system back a fierce bitch if you work with them. This is a deal between colleagues, see?"
Junhyung hummed as he considered his choices. The last time he just said yes without knowing background information, he ended up in this pretty little mess. "Indulge me. If I say no?"
"You get to choose with whom to spend the rest of your life!"
"Something tells me it won't be a choice between the bar wench and the maid."
"Sorry, your options are limited to just me and Hyunseung. No girls."
"Under the appropriate soft light, I sometimes look like a girl," Hyunseung offered.
A thoughtful silence followed. "You know, he kind of does," Yoseob agreed.
"There are no words." Junhyung made a show of thinking long and hard, but he knew he didn't have to stall for time. His two captors took politeness seriously given all the effort they took in not killing him yet. "Hypothetically speaking, if I choose you...?"
"The rest of your life will span the next five minutes," Yoseob informed him without losing a single ray of cheerfulness.
"I see. And if I choose the pretty boy over there?"
"You could live for the next two months." Yoseob bit his lip. "Possibly."
"Possibly?"
"It's the longest someone's lasted under Hyunseung so far. You could break the record!"
"I used to be a healer," Hyunseung volunteered. "I can keep you alive indefinitely. Regenerating your lung will be child's play."
"Wonderful," Junhyung told them with a groan. "Just to be clear: it's a choice between being dead in five minutes or wishing I was dead for the next two months, possibly?"
"If it's any consolation," Hyunseung said with no consolation in his voice, "I doubt you'll last that long. Three weeks, tops."
"Duly noted. And you're not worried that I could just go along for now then kill you the first opportunity I get?"
"No," Yoseob and Hyunseung said together without missing a beat.
It was the most emasculated Junhyung had ever felt.
~*~
"We're seven hours away from the autumnal equinox," Yoseob said as he wrapped himself in clothes very similar in style to Junhyung's fashion as an assassin. "That means a lot of the cosmos-oriented religions are gearing up for a major state of transition. You're just pretending to listen, aren't you?"
"Mm-hmm," Junhyung said absent-mindedly as he checked his equipment for any sign of mishandling. "Yeah, that sounds fascinating."
"Which god are we aiming for?" Hyunseung asked, dressed almost identically to Yoseob. The numerous twigs and produce stuffed in his pockets made him look oddly lumpy.
"Remember when we killed summer a few months ago?"
"Because you couldn't take the sweltering heat anymore? Vaguely. Wait, don't tell me. The other seasons are pissed because you killed their brother? "
Yoseob examined himself before a mirror. He waved a hand and the angle of reflection changed to show him his back and nodded at how tightly his clothes fit. "That would have been too mafiaesque for my taste. Besides, the seasons reincarnate every year. I doubt revenge is on their agenda."
"Sorry, wait," Junhyung interrupted when he started catching up to the conversation. "You killed summer? As in the season? Hot, dry, girls wear fewer clothes summer?"
"Just the avatar," Yoseob said demurely but with pride glowing in every decibel.
"Which is practically the same thing," Hyunseung added with a disappointed frown. He didn't like it when his accomplishments, shared or not, were belittled.
Junhyung felt called to respond with sarcastic disbelief because, despite having first-hand experience of magic as proof, how do you kill a season?!
"Is the same thing," Yoseob amended, reading Hyunseung's sentiment. "And it's depressingly simple, too. You'd think they could put up more of a challenge, what with being avatars and all."
"Are we... are we going after autumn now?" Junhyung asked, still shaken. The situation called for another holy fuck.
"Winter's more vengeful," Hyunseung said with a sniff.
"It's not any of them," Yoseob said, remembering the topic at hand. "Hyung, remember when we did the thaumaturgical calculations and we realized we needed a thrice-anointed, sixteen-faced padparadscha with a flawless prismatic effect?"
"Item of great power," Hyunseung summarized drily for Junhyung's sake. "Which we stole from the temple of the god of returning hope."
"That. Turns out that when they called that gem 'The Wishful Eye', they weren't kidding around."
"Oh." Hyunseung shrugged and patted his various pockets thoughtfully. "Personifications of abstract belief are tricky to harm."
"Don't worry, he's still blind anyway," Yoseob said, brimming with confidence. "He's going to manifest later at some point during the equinox. But his followers weren't exactly productive the past year, so they decided to try to appease him by capturing the person who actually picked the eye from the statue."
"My contract was to kill, not capture," Junhyung weighed in when he felt he wasn't contributing enough to the discussion. They both looked at him like he was being entirely too slow on the uptake. Then came the click of realization. "Oh."
"They're welcome to try," Hyunseung said quietly with a steely glance at Junhyung from the corner of his eyes that suggested more twigs and tomatoes.
"Come on, he wasn't in on the plan, Hyunseungie," Yoseob almost wheedled. "Junhyung's a nice guy. Right, Junhyung?"
"Once, I killed a man by forcing his own femur down his throat," Junhyung said, cursing everything in creation that led him trapped between two supernatural assassins who deemed his sense of masculinity superfluous.
"See? Nice! Very compassionate!" Yoseob insisted. "Look, he didn't even lay a scratch on me while I was asleep." And Junhyung's ego crumbled a little bit more.
A tense moment followed, one filled with placating smiles (Yoseob), impatient fingers (Hyunseung), and desires to run far, far away hidden beneath impassive glares and maybe a hollow smirk or two (Junhyung).
Eventually, after unmeasured time, Hyunseung blinked. "Have you worked the nodes?" Hyunseung asked, and Junhyung allowed himself to breathe a little.
"As best as I know how to and I'm fairly confident in the results," Yoseob answered unfazed. Then to Junhyung, "Hyunseung's better at computations."
"Sorry, nodes?"
"Focuses of belief," Yoseob clarified. "The only way to kill a god is to take out the nodes first. They're unkillable otherwise."
"That... makes sense?" Junhyung said despite knowing that tone and body language were entirely lost on Yoseob. Although perhaps plenty of things were, given the way Yoseob just barreled through conversations.
"Perfect!" Yoseob cheered. He crouched low and took a running leap out the window.
"The pillars of the devout," Hyunseung explained. Junhyung considered how twisted his world had become for him to rely on his interrogator to make sense of it all. "The people who centralize the belief that keeps the gods grounded on this plane of reality. The strategically important priests," Hyunseung hissed when Junhyung kept looking at him blankly.
"So not just any priest?"
"Only specific ones. Computing the nodes is about finding the right priests. Or monks, in this case."
Junhyung thought hard but could not define the difference. "Priest, monk... I'm perfectly okay with going on a killing spree."
"Funny," Hyunseung said with a crooked smile in his direction. "So am I."
"Hyunseung," Yoseob's disembodied voice called from the mirror. "No creeping out the nice, new teammate. And come on, we don't have all night. At least not without some serious intervention with the flow of time."
"We could if we-"
"No, hyung."
Hyunseung frowned. Junhyung followed Yoseob's exit before the remaining assassin decided to take his frustration out on the nearest living thing, i.e.: Junhyung.
~*~
On a good night, navigating the city by rooftop was fairly simple. Jump here, grab the handhold there, avoid that freshly tarred roof, make sure the shingles don't rattle when you step on them, and try not to startle the dogs.
Agility and strength were crucial to stealth. Any assassin who couldn't grip the edge of a windowsill with just the strength of his fingertips, or twist backwards in mid jump to grab the last knife holstered on his shin, or pop his own shoulder back into place with nothing more than a wince, or track a target around the city for hours in the dead of night without making a single sound, or swing a kneeling position into a double kick and use the momentum to escape the counter-attack... well, an assassin who couldn't do those things was a dead assassin. This was the world Junhyung knew. Numbers can stop making sense, languages can split a hundred million ways, water can turn into blood, but as long as this basic tenet held true Junhyung didn't care about anything else.
Apparently, magic broke a lot more rules than he expected.
Or maybe it was just Yoseob.
"Wow, you move really fast!" Yoseob said for the world to hear.
Junhyung gritted his teeth to stop from commenting on the impossibility of it all. At this rate his teeth would be worn out by sunrise. Hyunseung, at least, had a better sense of decorum. Or maybe he just tuned the world out again. It was hard to tell.
"Do that again!" Yoseob practically shrieked when Junhyung launched himself off a roof, grabbed the very edge of the gutter with one hand, planted his feet against the wall and pushed off in a controlled arc to land on the rooftop across the street from where he started.
Even in the dim light he saw Hyunseung roll his eyes, jump... and copy Junhyung's every move nearly flawlessly. As if Junhyung just wasted three months of practice to hone his coordination to perfection for that one maneuver.
"Thanks for the tip," Hyunseung said in his listless voice.
Yoseob landed lightly beside them after a clean jump that Junhyung just knew was impossibly long even if the guy was tiny. "Hyung, don't steal the guy's thunder. That's his move."
"It was only once," Hyunseung deadpanned. "It isn't worth doing a second time."
That's it. Junhyung's patience can only last so long.Nobody depreciated his technique and got away with it. A fluid flick of the wrist later, Hyunseung was staring at empty space while Junhyung staggered to his knees with the knife he just threw poking out of his own recently healed lung.
"Yeah, we kinda prepared for you retaliating against us," Yoseob said as an afterthought. Junhyung gurgled his belated agreement. "Hyung, a little help?"
"Sorry, I wasn't paying attention. What happened now?"
"The new guy hurt himself. But it wasn't his fault."
"Throwing his knife at me wasn't his fault?"
"You said you weren't paying attention!"
"To him, no. I had better things to do. Like breathing. And metabolizing."
"Bleeding to death here," Junhyung managed to croak even as the world was blurring together.
"Not quickly enough, apparently."
"Hyung, just heal him already!" Yoseob insisted. "The sooner we finish this, the sooner Junhyung-hyung can leave you alone."
"Things would have been much simpler if you just let me twist his intestines up in knots," Hyunseung grumbled, but he took out his slabs of wax and phials of oil just the same. A minute of impatient grumbling and a surprising absence of pain later, the knife was back in Junhyung's holster and his wound had been transferred to the tongue of wax that Hyunseung threw to the side.
He could only gape at Hyunseung. How was that even possible.
"Best not to ask questions," Yoseob said with a wink. "Hyunseung likes to keep his techniques secret."
Junhyung gaped. "But... causality. And rules. And what the hell."
Hyunseung shrugged, having already dismissed Junhyung in his mind. He squeezed Yoseob's butt, muttered a distinctly audible 'You owe me' in his ear, sent a pointed glare towards Junhyung and leapt off the opposite side of the roof.
Yoseob frowned at Junhyung thoughtfully. "You know, you're almost more trouble than you're worth."
"But..." and that was all Junhyung could think of saying. "But."
"It's magic," Yoseob said with a shrug identical to Hyunseung's. "It wouldn't be much if we were still bound by rules. Anyway, come on. Night's still pretty young to just lie there and be sexy."
"Wait, sexy?!" Junhyung yelped. But Yoseob had already bolted after Hyunseung. The proximity charm that they'd carved unto his skin was already starting to burn, and if Junhyung didn't close the distance between them he'd be a pile of ashes come morning.
~*~
Apart from sharp pointy things and poisoned sharp point things, there were a few more unspoken tools in an assassin's arsenal. Acrobatics was a given, along with physical strength and the mastery of different weapons. Adaptability and openness to the unplanned deserved mention. An inclination for accurate observation... it wasn't something that was taught in the guild, but every assassin had it nonetheless. Students who didn't notice the finer details of their training course were sent home, often in pieces.
Junhyung would be the first person to admit that he wasn't the sharpest throwing knife in the holster, but he'd be spared the chore because other people would happily admit it for him.
Sometimes, though, the obvious was really just impossible to ignore.
"There's no point in being magical if you don't let people know about it," Yoseob said with a smirk after a glance at Junhyung's expression. "Really, recognition is half the charm."
The temple was... tacky. Really, there was no other word for it.
"And intensely magical," Hyunseung added seriously when Junhyung muttered his observation.
Junhyung's eyes traveled from the curved spires to the hanging torches, from the crude runes and glyphs carved on marble pillars to the pools of water and lumps of cheap quartz scattered geometrically all over the outer cloister. Man-sized plates of polished bronze adorned every corner. "To scatter the light everywhere and banish the dark," Yoseob explained as he assembled an intricate web out of yarn and beads and a single live beetle dangling in the center.
"That's a shamble," Hyunseung added helpfully while Yoseob bit his lip in concentration. "You have your poisons and knives. I have my plant matter. Yoseob has his shambles."
A shamble. Junhyung had heard of those. And when he thought about it, he recognized the signs and saw the magic it represented now that he knew what to look for. Like how the beads flew up and down along paths of air instead of string; how the beetle lay suspended in the middle without flapping its wings, its little legs scrambling madly without purchase; how Yoseob pushed and pulled with his fingers and the web of string passed harmlessly through his flesh as if he was made of smoke.
A shamble, Junhyung knew, was not magical in itself. Constructed only out of whatever the user can find in his pockets with a single living thing tangled in the center, a shamble was a tool that pulled ambient magic within reach of the user. The stronger the life at the center, the stronger the power. A model of the world that came out of your pocket. A model of the world being pushed around, manipulated like a toy in Yoseob's too-big hands.
"I hope you're paying attention," Hyunseung said almost chidingly, almost scolding.
Junhyung threw his attention back to the temple, where the still water in the pools was rippling and the bronze plates clouding with moisture. But then the shards of quartz began to glow an eerie yellow and Yoseob's shamble started to tangle and the beetle at the center scurried its legs frantically.
Yoseob grimaced. He was intruding and the temple was fighting back. But that was expected. He'd have been more surprised if it didn't.
Junhyung glanced sideways at Hyunseung, who was perched on the balls of his feet, ready to leap into action at a cue that Junhyung didn't know. Junhyung mirrored the stance, muscles taught and ready, body coiled like a spring, ready to run and flip and throw his knives at the first opening.
A spark jumped from one shard of quartz. The beetle exploded, showering them all with bits of chitin and slivers of iridescent wing. But before the shamble could collapse without life at its core, Yoseob replaced it with a single egg of pale blue.
The light in the crystals lost their brightness. The water in the pools began to boil. The bronze plates tarnished before their eyes. And from the egg, a single crack.
"Now," Hyunseung breathed in a whisper.
A flash of movement leaping into the night, two figures running nimbly through the walkway, footsteps not making any sound on the ancient stones. Behind them, Junhyung heard a young bluebird chirping hungrily from the remains of its shell.
~*~
The temple was darker inside, but that was no surprise. It wasn't a challenge For Junhyung either, who knew how to navigate in the dark. It was all a matter of seeing the edges of things, the shape of things. The keen eyesight to detect patches of gray lighter than the background. Assassins had to be at home in the dark.
He didn't know how Hyunseung was able to keep up, magic or not. But there was no point in wondering about it.
The whole time, Junhyung expected armed guards to step out of the shadows, waited for the telltale shiiiiing of a properly sharpened sword cutting through the still air, for the waft of air pressure that belied an incoming volley of knives.
There weren't any. It made Junhyung feel welcome. That was a bad sign. "Are they expecting us?" Junhyung hissed quietly. Hyunseung didn't deign to answer. There was light in the distance, flickering and warm that suggested fire instead of magic.
"It's the equinox," Yoseob's voice said clearly, sounding like he was right behind Junhyung. "There won't be that many guards about since the god can take care of himself."
"Where are you?" Junhyung muttered.
"I took a different entrance. Just follow Hyunseung. He knows the way." Yoseob's voice faded smoothly.
"If I understood him correctly," Junhyung said doubtfully as he crept around a corner after Hyunseung, "he means the god's already... here?" The lack of snide remarks told Junhyung he was correct. "Holy fuck."
"We're here," was Hyunseung's answer as they stopped before a gigantic door flanked by extravagant torches in the shape of the wings of a phoenix.
Tacky, Junhyung thought again as Hyunseung laid his palms flat against the stone and pushed. The arched doors split at the center and swung inwards, bathing both assassins in warm orange light.
~*~
It wasn't that the he was overwhelmed; Junhyung wasn't that religious. He was an assassin. He dealt with people. He didn't think about what happened after death, he was just careful about giving instead of receiving. He didn't worry about souls and planes of existence, he just had to make sure that his targets stopped existing in this one. An assassin who worried about the implications of life and his job very quickly lost both.
But in the presence of true divinity, Junhyung couldn't help but wonder if maybe he should have snuck in a prayer of his own every once in a while instead of just being the cause of prayer in other people (often their last one).
There were seven guards armed with an assortment of heavy, pointy things. But they didn't matter. Junhyung knew he could take them: temple guards weren't the highest trained of fighters, and seven against one just meant they'd hit each other instead of him. And if Hyunseung was good enough to copy Junhyung's moves after seeing them only once, then he was good enough to stay away.
The dark-skinned and fierce-eyed monk seated on the throne was more worrisome. Especially when Junhyung realized that they were probably around the same age, give or take a few months. It was hard to be sure; the roaring fire behind the throne hid his features in shadow but Junhyung's vision was sharp enough. And the man was looking exclusively at Hyunseung.
"I thought you said he was blind," Junhyung hissed.
"In a given sense of the word," Hyunseung answered plainly, not backing away from the god's stare.
"But not the literal sense?!"
"No." Clearly, Hyunseung did not pick up on verbal cues very well.
"The fact that you're not bound in chains severely disappoints me," the monk said in a voice that combined the huskiness of young adulthood and the vibrancy of divine vocal chords.
"Incompetent subordinates," Hyunseung said with a shrug. "We've all had our fair share of them. What's your name this time?"
The monk looked lost as he considered the question. "Doojoon," one of the guards pitched in casually, and the god nodded.
"Yes, that one. But what's in a name?" Doojoon asked philosophically. "Aside from making the name-bearer susceptible to certain forms of magic."
Junhyung bristled. "Let's just kill him and get out of here."
"I'm afraid it won't be that simple," said Doojoon. "See, this body isn't technically mine. I just chose to insert my consciousness into the vessel. And only for tonight."
"I admit, this wasn't exactly part of the plan," Hyunseung said to Junhyung. "He was supposed to have fully manifested by now. Then I kill him dead flat while you distract the guards by playing bait."
"Not that you can kill me, anyway." Doojoon raised a hand and the guards stepped back with pride in their eyes. "I'm sure you're exceptionally powerful, Jang Hyunseung. You wouldn't have been able to steal my Eye otherwise. But you should know that not even you can hurt me significantly. Wherever people wake up to face the new day, I will be there to represent the hope in their hearts. Even in yours, whatever you may call that withered muscle that pumps black sludge through your veins."
"So this turned out to be an exercise in pointlessness," Junhyung asked.
"Maybe not so much," Hyunseung said, raising a bunch of twigs to the light. "These are your spines," he told the crowd.
The guards launched themselves at him. But before they could reach him with their weapons, Hyunseung snapped the bunch between his fists. The clutter of metal and meat grew silent way too quickly and Junhyung was doing his best to not feel horrified at what he just saw.
Bodies were not supposed to just collapse like that.
"Interesting technique," Doojoon noted from his throne, completely unharmed. "No needlessly flashy displays. Just business-like execution of what needed to be done. Not exactly memorable but who am I to argue with results?" He snapped his fingers. A spark of lightning arced straight at Hyunseung's chest and threw him bodily across the room. A throwing knife froze in mid-air exactly an inch from the avatar's nose.
"Erm," Junhyung said eloquently, trying to hide the fact that he'd already drawn another knife and was a short swing away from throwing it.
"You're new at this," Doojoon said, calmly plucking the knife from the air. "And you're not exactly involved. But you've done your share to remove hope from the world so you're not one of mine." Doojoon languidly threw the knife back, and Junhyung leapt away just in time to avoid the magical shockwave that followed.
There was a scuffle from the shadows high above, from somewhere along the complicated arches that decorated the ceiling. Seven spools of red yarn snaked down, each one wrapping itself tightly around Junhyung with deceptive slowness. One for each limb and three around the torso.
Doojoon looked puzzled at the development, but his expression dissolved into a sardonic smirk aimed at Junhyung. "I guess we'll meet again some other time," he said mysteriously. Junhyung decided he didn't like that smirk.
A patch of shadow detached itself from the dark of the ceiling and landed lightly beside Junhyung, leaving behind a trail of yarn winding up to the arches. "You talk too much," Yoseob said cheerfully as he tugged on the yarn tied around his fingers. The string pulled taut and Junhyung was lifted off his feet with a thoroughly undignified yelp.
A shamble, to focus magic according to the will of its wielder, needed life at its core.
In a moment of detached clarity available only to those who are really, completely, absolutely screwed, Junhyung realized the entire point of why Yoseob chose to keep him alive.
Silver fire streaked from the tips of Doojoon's fingers and died out right before it reached Junhyung. Yoseob grinned and started adding beads to the web, beads of wood and glass that floated in the air instead of riding along the strings.
"You haven't fully manifested," Yoseob said with a viper's grin. "You're nowhere near strong enough to hurt me like that. Didn't see this coming, did you?"
But the god wasn't fazed. Doojoon smiled ruefully. "I've been blinded where it matters most," he admitted. "But you can't kill me. Not like this." And it wasn't a plea for mercy - just an honest statement of how things were.
"I know. I'm familiar with how hope works in the world. But it doesn't matter, does it? The point is you'll be dead. For a while, at least." Yoseob pushed a final bead into place and Junhyung felt Yoseob's presence surge down from the strings and engulf him completely.
"Too bad you're only human," Doojoon said. Junhyung decided he really hated that knowing tone of voice.
A rush of energy, a spark of power, an unseen explosion that Junhyung felt from the very center of his heart. Doojoon's eyes widened and grew blank, then he toppled forward off his throne and fell to a crumpled, groaning heap on the floor. He tried to crawl, to push himself to his feet, but a lazy incantation murmured beneath Yoseob's breath froze the monk in place and turned his skin to the dark gray of graphite.
The god was dead. For now.
The magical tension in the strings collapsed and left Junhyung hanging awkwardly off the floor like a mishandled marionette. Not that he was in any state to complain: he was too busy gasping for air and convincing his own body that his heart did not burst and he was still alive and the overflow of adrenaline was entirely uncalled for.
"You took the shock way better than I expected," Yoseob said as he poked Junhyung's cheek. "I really thought you were gonna die back there. And my shamble would definitely have collapsed without you at the core."
"Fuck," was all Junhyung managed to express. He realized that the yarn was cutting painfully into his skin and hanging like this wasn't providing him any leverage whatsoever. That was good. Noticing the finer details meant he was alive enough to pay attention to trivial things. Which meant his brain was winding down from its panic.
"Colorful vocabulary," said a coughing wheeze from the back of the room, and Junhyung's eyesight cleared adequately to see Hyunseung ambling his way back to them. On his chest was a patch of burned skin the size of a dinner plate, visible through the tatters of his clothes. "I'm losing my touch," he added, leaning on Yoseob.
"Good thing Junhyung's here, huh?" Yoseob told him cheerfully. "Wouldn't have been able to do it without him. Score one for the new team!"
"Insert generic protests here," Hyunseung said, disinterested in the conversation as he took out a bottle of pale green oil that he rubbed gingerly on his burn. "That bastard really got me!"
"I'm sure you'll heal just fine, hyung. Come on, I'm in the mood for some hearty breakfast!"
"A little help, guys?" Junhyung said. He could have freed himself if his arms weren't fully convinced that there were made of lead. Besides, they were a team now, right?
Yoseob was entirely cheerful on his way out of the hall. "I'm sure someone as awesome as you can manage to free himself!"
"Allow me," Hyunseung offered. Junhyung knew better than to feel relieved.
Hyunseung held up a grapefruit. "This is your brain," he told Junhyung, and tossed it into the fire.
Recipient: zenfu
Pairing: very slight Hyunseung/Yoseob
Word count: 7,162
Rating: Pg-13
Warning(s): scenes of violence
Summary: On a magical night like the equinox, no rules govern men and gods.
Notes: supernatural/fantasy/dystopic AU
"Erm. What do you do for a living?"
"Seriously? I'm standing here with a six-inch knife in one hand and a loaded crossbow in the other. I have a short sword slung over my back and I'm armed to the teeth with various implements of death. Doesn't that give you any clue?"
"So ... you're a salesman of sharp, pointy things?"
"Hmm. Consider the fact that I'm here in your bedroom in the middle of the night, my crossbow is pointed right at your chest, and your bed is now nothing more than a sorry collection of tattered sheets. Also, all my tools are poisoned. Guess again."
"Aha! You're a particularly dedicated salesman of sharp, pointy, and poisoned things!"
"... Close enough. But letting this drag on is torture. I'm an assassin. And I'm here to kill you, if you must know."
"Ah. Maybe the all-black fashion statement without an inch of visible skin should have given me a clue."
"Yes. Yes, it should have."
"Who'd have thought you can't trust an unexpected midnight visitor bristling all over with deadly things?"
"Everyone but you, apparently."
"Oh. Well, forgive me for not recognizing the signs. I haven't been the target of an attempted assassination before, mind you. I'm new at this."
"Very few ever become experienced in almost getting killed. But that's just my professional opinion."
"Fascinating. And the reason for not having killed me yet? I can't imagine it's just for the conversation. Pleasant, though."
"Thank you."
"I think I asked you a question."
"Oh, yeah. Sorry. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that you have me trapped in a binding charm?"
"Technically not a binding charm. Just a spell to turn your skin to stone. But obviously undercharged as it just immobilized you instead of... I don't know, actually turning your skin to stone."
"There's that, yes. I guess I should thank you?"
"It wasn't actually intended. I think I miscalculated the moon cycle so my invocation was a bit off. But you're still welcome."
"..."
"So somebody wants me dead?"
"That would be the short of it. Unless you can think of any other reason why an assassin would pay you a visit?"
"Hmmmm. You're actually a baker in disguise and you're here to bring me strawberry shortcakes?"
"..."
"No?"
"No. No shortcakes."
"That's too bad. I like cakes."
"Duly noted. By the way, would you mind letting me go? My leg is starting to itch."
"And the odds of me doing that are...?"
"Basically zero."
"I'm glad you're keeping up with current events."
"You're one to talk."
"I was deeply asleep! And I was rudely awakened by someone who wanted to kill me! I think that's enough reason to be confused for the earlier part of our conversation."
"Maybe, maybe. Now will you kill me yourself, or will you turn me over to the authorities?"
"Hmm. Given that I'm not friends with the law and that the two of us are essentially colleagues, maybe I'll take a third option."
"I don't think I'll like this option."
"You know what, I don't think you will, either. I'm Yoseob. But you probably already know that. You are?"
"Kikwang."
"Sorry, but I'm inherently capable of telling when somebody's lying."
"Fine. Junhyung."
"Again with the lying?"
"Fine. My birthname is Jaesoon, but I will hurt anyone who calls me that."
"Ooh. Angsty."
"You try living with that name. Wait. Colleagues?"
"Yeah! We just target different things."
"Like... rats? You're a rat exterminator?"
"... not quite. Consider the fact that I can use magic bare-handed."
"Demons, then. You're a demon hunter."
"Almost got it. You kill people. I kill gods."
"Oh."
"Yeah.
"I suddenly feel over-employed."
"You don't say... Oh look, Hyunseung's back!"
Junhyung didn't get to see whoever this 'Hyunseung' was. An annoyed chant and a sudden tingle of electricity later, Junhyung was out cold on the floor and being stripped of his weapons.
~*~
It was the start of a rocky friendship, if you could call it that. Then again, Junhyung had an unconventional view on the matter.
He woke up with a pounding headache, but the fact that his head was still attached enough to ache was definitely a step up from his expectations. A quick, close-eyed inventory of his body revealed no broken bones or missing appendages, and he was glad enough that he immediately forgave Yoseob and his friend for stripping him completely naked. It was natural to be cautious around assassins.
He could hear breathing nearby.
"I have other weapons hidden on me, you know," he drawled from his undignified position on the floor.
"I highly doubt that," an unfamiliar voice answered. Junhyung opened his eyes and saw a pretty but neutral face illuminated by weak candlelight. It was the only thing he could make out in the darkness. Hyunseung, possibly.
"I'm an assassin. We plan for these things." Intimidation. Even words were weapons in an assassin's arsenal.
"Yeah, about that," Hyunseung said with a smirk that looked foreign on his otherwise emotionless face. "Yoseob told me about your being... what was your colorful phrase? 'Armed to the teeth'? Not anymore." He held up a curved metal contraption shaped specifically to fit inside Junhyung's mouth. "Light enough to maneuver with just your tongue. Employs a firing mechanism triggered by your breath. Fortunate that you hadn’t armed it yet when Yoseob trapped you. Preloaded with three needles, all poisoned with belladonna extract. The concept is ingenious but the choice of poison is uninspired."
"There are other hiding places," Junhyung said confidently. He tried to push himself up to a kneeling position, but his back was glued to the floor. Ah. The wonders of magic.
Hyunseung's mouth twitched to a disgusted frown. "Yeah, we checked there, too," he said, and Junhyung suddenly felt very violated. "I still don't know if we found a poison capsule or just a suppository, but we threw it out anyway. You really take your job seriously."
Junhyung paused. It was possible he had one more advantage, but if he said anything Hyunseung might-
"And don't think we didn't notice the powdered casteronum under your fingernails. Now that was a good choice. It took me five minutes to transmute it into something harmless."
Junhyung gave himself time to calm down and accept the fact that he was completely disarmed. So it came to this; the only weapons he had left were his own hands and feet. They should be enough. He'd killed with nothing else before. Now if he could only move them... "You're good at this," he admitted grudgingly.
"You're not the only one who takes his job seriously," Hyunseung answered, his face going impassive once more. "Yoseob wanted to be the nice guy and kill you so you'll at least be saved from misery. I'm not similarly inclined. Start talking. Why Yoseob?"
"You know that's a pointless question to ask," Junhyung taunted.
"Of course. But I just thought I should start by being polite. Is there any point in continuing?"
"No."
"Good. That saves us time." Hyunseung reached for something outside of Junhyung's limited field of vision. He held it up near the candlelight for Junhyung to see. It was a twig. "You don't have any defenses against magic on you, not even basic warding glyphs or isolation totems, so I assume you haven't encountered offensive magic before. Or you didn't expect to fight people like us."
"My client was a bit vague during the meeting," Junhyung said, resolving to be less courteous to the man if-- when he got out of here. On the other hand, Junhyung scolded himself for taking the dearth of information as a challenge. It was partly his own fault, but his employer didn't need to know that.
"Then let me give you a personal education." Hyunseung rolled the twig between his fingers. He was smiling for the first time, and Junhyung noted with a thrill of foreboding that Hyunseung smiled the way a snake would smile. "This twig is your right middle finger. Is that clear?" he asked in a voice so like a teacher's that Junhyung almost answered out of sheer habit.
Hyunseung snapped the twig in half. Sharp pain burned through Junhyung's finger so suddenly that blood drained from his face before he realized what was happening. Years of training took over with a response to the stimulus: he bit his lips to keep his gasps from escaping; his eyelids froze instead of flying wide open.
"And that was just a clean break," Hyunseung said, examining the smaller twigs closely by the candlelight, his face a mask of dispassionate curiosity. "Imagine. I could have twisted it apart. Or burned it. I could have powdered it right before your eyes. And it didn't have to be a finger. It could have been your leg. Or your arm. Or a rib. Or three ribs, one after another. Or I could have dropped it in boiling water and it could have been your tongue. Or your stomach. Or your dick. I could have used acid."
Whatever the words did to him, Junhyung kept his reaction as blank as he could make it. Years of practice and a platonic approach to life came in handy. Give him nothing, he'd learned, until you can read him better than he can read you.
Hyunseung daintily held up another twig by the light. "Who commissioned you?"
"You sound like an amateur asking questions," Junhyung gritted out despite himself.
"And you're being too conventional," Hyunseung said while staring intensely at the twig. "Obviously, you didn't introduce each other when you met. But assassins are also trained behaviorists. Tell me."
"He's an idiot who withheld critical information about the contract."
"And you're the idiot who accepted it anyway." Hyunseung put the twig down, but Junhyung knew better than to be relieved. A tomato was raised to the flickering light. "This is your left lung," Hyunseung said, and he let it touch the flame.
Junhyung bit his tongue to stop from screaming. The effort was almost enough to make him pass out again.
At the edge of Junhyung's mind, the part that was freest to look for distractions, the tiny area he learned to always detach from his body, he heard the sound of a door opening followed by light footsteps. And Yoseob's voice."Hyunseung, what are you doing?"
"Burning his lung to a crisp," Hyunseung answered plainly.
"Fun! But no need. I found the guy."
"Oh." Hyunseung set the tomato aside, but Junhyung couldn't tell from the blaring pain in his back. "That's less enjoyable."
"It gets better," Yoseob said, bright as day. He tossed what looked like a coconut towards Junhyung, which rolled to a stop right beside Junhyung's head and blank eyes stared back at him. It wasn't a coconut. "I thought you two should get the chance to say hi. Or you could tell him that your contract has been voided. He can't, see."
Junhyung stared into those dead but familiar eyes to keep his mind away from the fire in his body. He had a few choice curses at the tip of his tongue, and he would have yelled them had he not bitten himself bloody.
"If you gave him a clean death, I will break up with you," Hyunseung said, more annoyance in his voice than Junhyung ever thought his captor could express.
"I did, but I had a good reason."
The tapping of impatient fingernails against a wooden surface. "I'm waiting."
"He was hired by someone else. He's a middle man."
"Wait. This guy here was hired by that guy's head there, who in turn was hired by someone else? What's to stop us from thinking that everybody was hired by everybody else? It's turtles all the way down!"
Junhyung coughed drily, completely not believing that Hyunseung was capable of exclamation marks. "Turtles?" he groaned.
"Hyunseung likes to throw idioms around from out of the blue. But that one's pretty obscure so I don't blame you if you haven't heard of it." Yoseob appeared within the circle of candlelight, and Junhyung flinched as much as he could. Yoseob wasn't unattractive per se, but candle light played tricks on people's faces: features were exaggerated, shadows were angled all wrong, expressions magnified and perverted... It was fine for Hyunseung, who looked like a marble statue in the weak light. But Yoseob just looked wrong. "I see the two of you are already bonding and he's playing nice. He could have been worse. He likes you!"
Junhyung's eyes opened wide at those words. Hyunseung's gaze was as blank as ever, but that was practically an affirmation from someone like him.
Holy fuck.
"Seriously," Yoseob continued. "I'm always 'let's kill him and put him out of his misery' but he's always 'life is precious enough to be worth the torment'. He's of the opinion that anyone who survives after he's done with them really deserves to live. So he's a saint in a manner of speaking. He's a good guy!"
"Holy fuck," Junhyung gasped because some thoughts just needed to be expressed. His middle finger throbbed painfully, to say nothing of his lungs insisting that they were still being barbequed.
"Anyway, I did some digging - metaphorically, mind you - and I think we could use your help on something. Hyunseung, the dramatic lighting is great, personally I love it, but it's kind of too dark at the moment, huh?"
"Fine," Hyunseung said with a loud sigh.
"You really insist on showing me the horrors of your torture chamber?" Junhyung groaned. But that was good for him. The more he knew about his environment, the more he could manipulate the situation to his advantage. Torture chambers meant sharp things. Sharp things meant weapons. Weapons meant leverage, and he was sure he could wield weapons better than these two clowns.
"Torture chamber?" Yoseob asked aghast as he walked out of Junhyung's field of vision. "Please, we're not that tacky. You're in my bedroom."
Hyunseung gently breathed the candlelight away. Against everything that Junhyung had ever learned about cause and effect, the darkness went away with the flame. Moonlight seeped back in through an open window, casting a faint silver glow on the very same room Junhyung invaded earlier that (lifetime?) night.
"So. You get a choice." There was a sound of metal scraping against leather. Hyunseung left his seat and Yoseob took his place, fiddling with one of Junhyung's throwing knives in his hands. "You have three options."
There was a discreet cough in the background.
Yoseob rolled his eyes. "Fine. Two options, but one of them will lead to another choice between two further options."
"It's not like I'm going anywhere," Junhyung said when Yoseob paused.
"Politeness is always a good thing," Yoseob insisted. "So! First choice. You got sent to certain death on this assignment but, surprise, surprise, your targets decided to give you a chance to pay the system back a fierce bitch if you work with them. This is a deal between colleagues, see?"
Junhyung hummed as he considered his choices. The last time he just said yes without knowing background information, he ended up in this pretty little mess. "Indulge me. If I say no?"
"You get to choose with whom to spend the rest of your life!"
"Something tells me it won't be a choice between the bar wench and the maid."
"Sorry, your options are limited to just me and Hyunseung. No girls."
"Under the appropriate soft light, I sometimes look like a girl," Hyunseung offered.
A thoughtful silence followed. "You know, he kind of does," Yoseob agreed.
"There are no words." Junhyung made a show of thinking long and hard, but he knew he didn't have to stall for time. His two captors took politeness seriously given all the effort they took in not killing him yet. "Hypothetically speaking, if I choose you...?"
"The rest of your life will span the next five minutes," Yoseob informed him without losing a single ray of cheerfulness.
"I see. And if I choose the pretty boy over there?"
"You could live for the next two months." Yoseob bit his lip. "Possibly."
"Possibly?"
"It's the longest someone's lasted under Hyunseung so far. You could break the record!"
"I used to be a healer," Hyunseung volunteered. "I can keep you alive indefinitely. Regenerating your lung will be child's play."
"Wonderful," Junhyung told them with a groan. "Just to be clear: it's a choice between being dead in five minutes or wishing I was dead for the next two months, possibly?"
"If it's any consolation," Hyunseung said with no consolation in his voice, "I doubt you'll last that long. Three weeks, tops."
"Duly noted. And you're not worried that I could just go along for now then kill you the first opportunity I get?"
"No," Yoseob and Hyunseung said together without missing a beat.
It was the most emasculated Junhyung had ever felt.
~*~
"We're seven hours away from the autumnal equinox," Yoseob said as he wrapped himself in clothes very similar in style to Junhyung's fashion as an assassin. "That means a lot of the cosmos-oriented religions are gearing up for a major state of transition. You're just pretending to listen, aren't you?"
"Mm-hmm," Junhyung said absent-mindedly as he checked his equipment for any sign of mishandling. "Yeah, that sounds fascinating."
"Which god are we aiming for?" Hyunseung asked, dressed almost identically to Yoseob. The numerous twigs and produce stuffed in his pockets made him look oddly lumpy.
"Remember when we killed summer a few months ago?"
"Because you couldn't take the sweltering heat anymore? Vaguely. Wait, don't tell me. The other seasons are pissed because you killed their brother? "
Yoseob examined himself before a mirror. He waved a hand and the angle of reflection changed to show him his back and nodded at how tightly his clothes fit. "That would have been too mafiaesque for my taste. Besides, the seasons reincarnate every year. I doubt revenge is on their agenda."
"Sorry, wait," Junhyung interrupted when he started catching up to the conversation. "You killed summer? As in the season? Hot, dry, girls wear fewer clothes summer?"
"Just the avatar," Yoseob said demurely but with pride glowing in every decibel.
"Which is practically the same thing," Hyunseung added with a disappointed frown. He didn't like it when his accomplishments, shared or not, were belittled.
Junhyung felt called to respond with sarcastic disbelief because, despite having first-hand experience of magic as proof, how do you kill a season?!
"Is the same thing," Yoseob amended, reading Hyunseung's sentiment. "And it's depressingly simple, too. You'd think they could put up more of a challenge, what with being avatars and all."
"Are we... are we going after autumn now?" Junhyung asked, still shaken. The situation called for another holy fuck.
"Winter's more vengeful," Hyunseung said with a sniff.
"It's not any of them," Yoseob said, remembering the topic at hand. "Hyung, remember when we did the thaumaturgical calculations and we realized we needed a thrice-anointed, sixteen-faced padparadscha with a flawless prismatic effect?"
"Item of great power," Hyunseung summarized drily for Junhyung's sake. "Which we stole from the temple of the god of returning hope."
"That. Turns out that when they called that gem 'The Wishful Eye', they weren't kidding around."
"Oh." Hyunseung shrugged and patted his various pockets thoughtfully. "Personifications of abstract belief are tricky to harm."
"Don't worry, he's still blind anyway," Yoseob said, brimming with confidence. "He's going to manifest later at some point during the equinox. But his followers weren't exactly productive the past year, so they decided to try to appease him by capturing the person who actually picked the eye from the statue."
"My contract was to kill, not capture," Junhyung weighed in when he felt he wasn't contributing enough to the discussion. They both looked at him like he was being entirely too slow on the uptake. Then came the click of realization. "Oh."
"They're welcome to try," Hyunseung said quietly with a steely glance at Junhyung from the corner of his eyes that suggested more twigs and tomatoes.
"Come on, he wasn't in on the plan, Hyunseungie," Yoseob almost wheedled. "Junhyung's a nice guy. Right, Junhyung?"
"Once, I killed a man by forcing his own femur down his throat," Junhyung said, cursing everything in creation that led him trapped between two supernatural assassins who deemed his sense of masculinity superfluous.
"See? Nice! Very compassionate!" Yoseob insisted. "Look, he didn't even lay a scratch on me while I was asleep." And Junhyung's ego crumbled a little bit more.
A tense moment followed, one filled with placating smiles (Yoseob), impatient fingers (Hyunseung), and desires to run far, far away hidden beneath impassive glares and maybe a hollow smirk or two (Junhyung).
Eventually, after unmeasured time, Hyunseung blinked. "Have you worked the nodes?" Hyunseung asked, and Junhyung allowed himself to breathe a little.
"As best as I know how to and I'm fairly confident in the results," Yoseob answered unfazed. Then to Junhyung, "Hyunseung's better at computations."
"Sorry, nodes?"
"Focuses of belief," Yoseob clarified. "The only way to kill a god is to take out the nodes first. They're unkillable otherwise."
"That... makes sense?" Junhyung said despite knowing that tone and body language were entirely lost on Yoseob. Although perhaps plenty of things were, given the way Yoseob just barreled through conversations.
"Perfect!" Yoseob cheered. He crouched low and took a running leap out the window.
"The pillars of the devout," Hyunseung explained. Junhyung considered how twisted his world had become for him to rely on his interrogator to make sense of it all. "The people who centralize the belief that keeps the gods grounded on this plane of reality. The strategically important priests," Hyunseung hissed when Junhyung kept looking at him blankly.
"So not just any priest?"
"Only specific ones. Computing the nodes is about finding the right priests. Or monks, in this case."
Junhyung thought hard but could not define the difference. "Priest, monk... I'm perfectly okay with going on a killing spree."
"Funny," Hyunseung said with a crooked smile in his direction. "So am I."
"Hyunseung," Yoseob's disembodied voice called from the mirror. "No creeping out the nice, new teammate. And come on, we don't have all night. At least not without some serious intervention with the flow of time."
"We could if we-"
"No, hyung."
Hyunseung frowned. Junhyung followed Yoseob's exit before the remaining assassin decided to take his frustration out on the nearest living thing, i.e.: Junhyung.
~*~
On a good night, navigating the city by rooftop was fairly simple. Jump here, grab the handhold there, avoid that freshly tarred roof, make sure the shingles don't rattle when you step on them, and try not to startle the dogs.
Agility and strength were crucial to stealth. Any assassin who couldn't grip the edge of a windowsill with just the strength of his fingertips, or twist backwards in mid jump to grab the last knife holstered on his shin, or pop his own shoulder back into place with nothing more than a wince, or track a target around the city for hours in the dead of night without making a single sound, or swing a kneeling position into a double kick and use the momentum to escape the counter-attack... well, an assassin who couldn't do those things was a dead assassin. This was the world Junhyung knew. Numbers can stop making sense, languages can split a hundred million ways, water can turn into blood, but as long as this basic tenet held true Junhyung didn't care about anything else.
Apparently, magic broke a lot more rules than he expected.
Or maybe it was just Yoseob.
"Wow, you move really fast!" Yoseob said for the world to hear.
Junhyung gritted his teeth to stop from commenting on the impossibility of it all. At this rate his teeth would be worn out by sunrise. Hyunseung, at least, had a better sense of decorum. Or maybe he just tuned the world out again. It was hard to tell.
"Do that again!" Yoseob practically shrieked when Junhyung launched himself off a roof, grabbed the very edge of the gutter with one hand, planted his feet against the wall and pushed off in a controlled arc to land on the rooftop across the street from where he started.
Even in the dim light he saw Hyunseung roll his eyes, jump... and copy Junhyung's every move nearly flawlessly. As if Junhyung just wasted three months of practice to hone his coordination to perfection for that one maneuver.
"Thanks for the tip," Hyunseung said in his listless voice.
Yoseob landed lightly beside them after a clean jump that Junhyung just knew was impossibly long even if the guy was tiny. "Hyung, don't steal the guy's thunder. That's his move."
"It was only once," Hyunseung deadpanned. "It isn't worth doing a second time."
That's it. Junhyung's patience can only last so long.Nobody depreciated his technique and got away with it. A fluid flick of the wrist later, Hyunseung was staring at empty space while Junhyung staggered to his knees with the knife he just threw poking out of his own recently healed lung.
"Yeah, we kinda prepared for you retaliating against us," Yoseob said as an afterthought. Junhyung gurgled his belated agreement. "Hyung, a little help?"
"Sorry, I wasn't paying attention. What happened now?"
"The new guy hurt himself. But it wasn't his fault."
"Throwing his knife at me wasn't his fault?"
"You said you weren't paying attention!"
"To him, no. I had better things to do. Like breathing. And metabolizing."
"Bleeding to death here," Junhyung managed to croak even as the world was blurring together.
"Not quickly enough, apparently."
"Hyung, just heal him already!" Yoseob insisted. "The sooner we finish this, the sooner Junhyung-hyung can leave you alone."
"Things would have been much simpler if you just let me twist his intestines up in knots," Hyunseung grumbled, but he took out his slabs of wax and phials of oil just the same. A minute of impatient grumbling and a surprising absence of pain later, the knife was back in Junhyung's holster and his wound had been transferred to the tongue of wax that Hyunseung threw to the side.
He could only gape at Hyunseung. How was that even possible.
"Best not to ask questions," Yoseob said with a wink. "Hyunseung likes to keep his techniques secret."
Junhyung gaped. "But... causality. And rules. And what the hell."
Hyunseung shrugged, having already dismissed Junhyung in his mind. He squeezed Yoseob's butt, muttered a distinctly audible 'You owe me' in his ear, sent a pointed glare towards Junhyung and leapt off the opposite side of the roof.
Yoseob frowned at Junhyung thoughtfully. "You know, you're almost more trouble than you're worth."
"But..." and that was all Junhyung could think of saying. "But."
"It's magic," Yoseob said with a shrug identical to Hyunseung's. "It wouldn't be much if we were still bound by rules. Anyway, come on. Night's still pretty young to just lie there and be sexy."
"Wait, sexy?!" Junhyung yelped. But Yoseob had already bolted after Hyunseung. The proximity charm that they'd carved unto his skin was already starting to burn, and if Junhyung didn't close the distance between them he'd be a pile of ashes come morning.
~*~
Apart from sharp pointy things and poisoned sharp point things, there were a few more unspoken tools in an assassin's arsenal. Acrobatics was a given, along with physical strength and the mastery of different weapons. Adaptability and openness to the unplanned deserved mention. An inclination for accurate observation... it wasn't something that was taught in the guild, but every assassin had it nonetheless. Students who didn't notice the finer details of their training course were sent home, often in pieces.
Junhyung would be the first person to admit that he wasn't the sharpest throwing knife in the holster, but he'd be spared the chore because other people would happily admit it for him.
Sometimes, though, the obvious was really just impossible to ignore.
"There's no point in being magical if you don't let people know about it," Yoseob said with a smirk after a glance at Junhyung's expression. "Really, recognition is half the charm."
The temple was... tacky. Really, there was no other word for it.
"And intensely magical," Hyunseung added seriously when Junhyung muttered his observation.
Junhyung's eyes traveled from the curved spires to the hanging torches, from the crude runes and glyphs carved on marble pillars to the pools of water and lumps of cheap quartz scattered geometrically all over the outer cloister. Man-sized plates of polished bronze adorned every corner. "To scatter the light everywhere and banish the dark," Yoseob explained as he assembled an intricate web out of yarn and beads and a single live beetle dangling in the center.
"That's a shamble," Hyunseung added helpfully while Yoseob bit his lip in concentration. "You have your poisons and knives. I have my plant matter. Yoseob has his shambles."
A shamble. Junhyung had heard of those. And when he thought about it, he recognized the signs and saw the magic it represented now that he knew what to look for. Like how the beads flew up and down along paths of air instead of string; how the beetle lay suspended in the middle without flapping its wings, its little legs scrambling madly without purchase; how Yoseob pushed and pulled with his fingers and the web of string passed harmlessly through his flesh as if he was made of smoke.
A shamble, Junhyung knew, was not magical in itself. Constructed only out of whatever the user can find in his pockets with a single living thing tangled in the center, a shamble was a tool that pulled ambient magic within reach of the user. The stronger the life at the center, the stronger the power. A model of the world that came out of your pocket. A model of the world being pushed around, manipulated like a toy in Yoseob's too-big hands.
"I hope you're paying attention," Hyunseung said almost chidingly, almost scolding.
Junhyung threw his attention back to the temple, where the still water in the pools was rippling and the bronze plates clouding with moisture. But then the shards of quartz began to glow an eerie yellow and Yoseob's shamble started to tangle and the beetle at the center scurried its legs frantically.
Yoseob grimaced. He was intruding and the temple was fighting back. But that was expected. He'd have been more surprised if it didn't.
Junhyung glanced sideways at Hyunseung, who was perched on the balls of his feet, ready to leap into action at a cue that Junhyung didn't know. Junhyung mirrored the stance, muscles taught and ready, body coiled like a spring, ready to run and flip and throw his knives at the first opening.
A spark jumped from one shard of quartz. The beetle exploded, showering them all with bits of chitin and slivers of iridescent wing. But before the shamble could collapse without life at its core, Yoseob replaced it with a single egg of pale blue.
The light in the crystals lost their brightness. The water in the pools began to boil. The bronze plates tarnished before their eyes. And from the egg, a single crack.
"Now," Hyunseung breathed in a whisper.
A flash of movement leaping into the night, two figures running nimbly through the walkway, footsteps not making any sound on the ancient stones. Behind them, Junhyung heard a young bluebird chirping hungrily from the remains of its shell.
~*~
The temple was darker inside, but that was no surprise. It wasn't a challenge For Junhyung either, who knew how to navigate in the dark. It was all a matter of seeing the edges of things, the shape of things. The keen eyesight to detect patches of gray lighter than the background. Assassins had to be at home in the dark.
He didn't know how Hyunseung was able to keep up, magic or not. But there was no point in wondering about it.
The whole time, Junhyung expected armed guards to step out of the shadows, waited for the telltale shiiiiing of a properly sharpened sword cutting through the still air, for the waft of air pressure that belied an incoming volley of knives.
There weren't any. It made Junhyung feel welcome. That was a bad sign. "Are they expecting us?" Junhyung hissed quietly. Hyunseung didn't deign to answer. There was light in the distance, flickering and warm that suggested fire instead of magic.
"It's the equinox," Yoseob's voice said clearly, sounding like he was right behind Junhyung. "There won't be that many guards about since the god can take care of himself."
"Where are you?" Junhyung muttered.
"I took a different entrance. Just follow Hyunseung. He knows the way." Yoseob's voice faded smoothly.
"If I understood him correctly," Junhyung said doubtfully as he crept around a corner after Hyunseung, "he means the god's already... here?" The lack of snide remarks told Junhyung he was correct. "Holy fuck."
"We're here," was Hyunseung's answer as they stopped before a gigantic door flanked by extravagant torches in the shape of the wings of a phoenix.
Tacky, Junhyung thought again as Hyunseung laid his palms flat against the stone and pushed. The arched doors split at the center and swung inwards, bathing both assassins in warm orange light.
~*~
It wasn't that the he was overwhelmed; Junhyung wasn't that religious. He was an assassin. He dealt with people. He didn't think about what happened after death, he was just careful about giving instead of receiving. He didn't worry about souls and planes of existence, he just had to make sure that his targets stopped existing in this one. An assassin who worried about the implications of life and his job very quickly lost both.
But in the presence of true divinity, Junhyung couldn't help but wonder if maybe he should have snuck in a prayer of his own every once in a while instead of just being the cause of prayer in other people (often their last one).
There were seven guards armed with an assortment of heavy, pointy things. But they didn't matter. Junhyung knew he could take them: temple guards weren't the highest trained of fighters, and seven against one just meant they'd hit each other instead of him. And if Hyunseung was good enough to copy Junhyung's moves after seeing them only once, then he was good enough to stay away.
The dark-skinned and fierce-eyed monk seated on the throne was more worrisome. Especially when Junhyung realized that they were probably around the same age, give or take a few months. It was hard to be sure; the roaring fire behind the throne hid his features in shadow but Junhyung's vision was sharp enough. And the man was looking exclusively at Hyunseung.
"I thought you said he was blind," Junhyung hissed.
"In a given sense of the word," Hyunseung answered plainly, not backing away from the god's stare.
"But not the literal sense?!"
"No." Clearly, Hyunseung did not pick up on verbal cues very well.
"The fact that you're not bound in chains severely disappoints me," the monk said in a voice that combined the huskiness of young adulthood and the vibrancy of divine vocal chords.
"Incompetent subordinates," Hyunseung said with a shrug. "We've all had our fair share of them. What's your name this time?"
The monk looked lost as he considered the question. "Doojoon," one of the guards pitched in casually, and the god nodded.
"Yes, that one. But what's in a name?" Doojoon asked philosophically. "Aside from making the name-bearer susceptible to certain forms of magic."
Junhyung bristled. "Let's just kill him and get out of here."
"I'm afraid it won't be that simple," said Doojoon. "See, this body isn't technically mine. I just chose to insert my consciousness into the vessel. And only for tonight."
"I admit, this wasn't exactly part of the plan," Hyunseung said to Junhyung. "He was supposed to have fully manifested by now. Then I kill him dead flat while you distract the guards by playing bait."
"Not that you can kill me, anyway." Doojoon raised a hand and the guards stepped back with pride in their eyes. "I'm sure you're exceptionally powerful, Jang Hyunseung. You wouldn't have been able to steal my Eye otherwise. But you should know that not even you can hurt me significantly. Wherever people wake up to face the new day, I will be there to represent the hope in their hearts. Even in yours, whatever you may call that withered muscle that pumps black sludge through your veins."
"So this turned out to be an exercise in pointlessness," Junhyung asked.
"Maybe not so much," Hyunseung said, raising a bunch of twigs to the light. "These are your spines," he told the crowd.
The guards launched themselves at him. But before they could reach him with their weapons, Hyunseung snapped the bunch between his fists. The clutter of metal and meat grew silent way too quickly and Junhyung was doing his best to not feel horrified at what he just saw.
Bodies were not supposed to just collapse like that.
"Interesting technique," Doojoon noted from his throne, completely unharmed. "No needlessly flashy displays. Just business-like execution of what needed to be done. Not exactly memorable but who am I to argue with results?" He snapped his fingers. A spark of lightning arced straight at Hyunseung's chest and threw him bodily across the room. A throwing knife froze in mid-air exactly an inch from the avatar's nose.
"Erm," Junhyung said eloquently, trying to hide the fact that he'd already drawn another knife and was a short swing away from throwing it.
"You're new at this," Doojoon said, calmly plucking the knife from the air. "And you're not exactly involved. But you've done your share to remove hope from the world so you're not one of mine." Doojoon languidly threw the knife back, and Junhyung leapt away just in time to avoid the magical shockwave that followed.
There was a scuffle from the shadows high above, from somewhere along the complicated arches that decorated the ceiling. Seven spools of red yarn snaked down, each one wrapping itself tightly around Junhyung with deceptive slowness. One for each limb and three around the torso.
Doojoon looked puzzled at the development, but his expression dissolved into a sardonic smirk aimed at Junhyung. "I guess we'll meet again some other time," he said mysteriously. Junhyung decided he didn't like that smirk.
A patch of shadow detached itself from the dark of the ceiling and landed lightly beside Junhyung, leaving behind a trail of yarn winding up to the arches. "You talk too much," Yoseob said cheerfully as he tugged on the yarn tied around his fingers. The string pulled taut and Junhyung was lifted off his feet with a thoroughly undignified yelp.
A shamble, to focus magic according to the will of its wielder, needed life at its core.
In a moment of detached clarity available only to those who are really, completely, absolutely screwed, Junhyung realized the entire point of why Yoseob chose to keep him alive.
Silver fire streaked from the tips of Doojoon's fingers and died out right before it reached Junhyung. Yoseob grinned and started adding beads to the web, beads of wood and glass that floated in the air instead of riding along the strings.
"You haven't fully manifested," Yoseob said with a viper's grin. "You're nowhere near strong enough to hurt me like that. Didn't see this coming, did you?"
But the god wasn't fazed. Doojoon smiled ruefully. "I've been blinded where it matters most," he admitted. "But you can't kill me. Not like this." And it wasn't a plea for mercy - just an honest statement of how things were.
"I know. I'm familiar with how hope works in the world. But it doesn't matter, does it? The point is you'll be dead. For a while, at least." Yoseob pushed a final bead into place and Junhyung felt Yoseob's presence surge down from the strings and engulf him completely.
"Too bad you're only human," Doojoon said. Junhyung decided he really hated that knowing tone of voice.
A rush of energy, a spark of power, an unseen explosion that Junhyung felt from the very center of his heart. Doojoon's eyes widened and grew blank, then he toppled forward off his throne and fell to a crumpled, groaning heap on the floor. He tried to crawl, to push himself to his feet, but a lazy incantation murmured beneath Yoseob's breath froze the monk in place and turned his skin to the dark gray of graphite.
The god was dead. For now.
The magical tension in the strings collapsed and left Junhyung hanging awkwardly off the floor like a mishandled marionette. Not that he was in any state to complain: he was too busy gasping for air and convincing his own body that his heart did not burst and he was still alive and the overflow of adrenaline was entirely uncalled for.
"You took the shock way better than I expected," Yoseob said as he poked Junhyung's cheek. "I really thought you were gonna die back there. And my shamble would definitely have collapsed without you at the core."
"Fuck," was all Junhyung managed to express. He realized that the yarn was cutting painfully into his skin and hanging like this wasn't providing him any leverage whatsoever. That was good. Noticing the finer details meant he was alive enough to pay attention to trivial things. Which meant his brain was winding down from its panic.
"Colorful vocabulary," said a coughing wheeze from the back of the room, and Junhyung's eyesight cleared adequately to see Hyunseung ambling his way back to them. On his chest was a patch of burned skin the size of a dinner plate, visible through the tatters of his clothes. "I'm losing my touch," he added, leaning on Yoseob.
"Good thing Junhyung's here, huh?" Yoseob told him cheerfully. "Wouldn't have been able to do it without him. Score one for the new team!"
"Insert generic protests here," Hyunseung said, disinterested in the conversation as he took out a bottle of pale green oil that he rubbed gingerly on his burn. "That bastard really got me!"
"I'm sure you'll heal just fine, hyung. Come on, I'm in the mood for some hearty breakfast!"
"A little help, guys?" Junhyung said. He could have freed himself if his arms weren't fully convinced that there were made of lead. Besides, they were a team now, right?
Yoseob was entirely cheerful on his way out of the hall. "I'm sure someone as awesome as you can manage to free himself!"
"Allow me," Hyunseung offered. Junhyung knew better than to feel relieved.
Hyunseung held up a grapefruit. "This is your brain," he told Junhyung, and tossed it into the fire.