Chapter Text
Seungcheol is fifteen when he leaves his home for a voice calling out to him. He likes his small village in the mountains, loves the folk there, enjoys helping his parents in their shop and keep the business going and the customers interested, if need be. But the voice keeps following him around. It appears in his dreams, talks to him and pulls him away from the mountain village. It sings him of a long-forgotten fable at night, lulling him to sleep and pulling him awake mercilessly. Seungcheol knows he has to answer the call — that’s how things usually are in their land, and so, with the first signs of winter appearing, he feeds the cats for the last time and slips out into the unknown.
It is generally believed that summer is the most magical time of the year, with faeries being awoken from their slumber. Here in the mountains, however, the rule doesn’t apply — and as Seungcheol makes his way down and steps into a pine forest, the snow crackles with magic under his boot. He recognizes the direction he has to follow, and he does so well. There’s no need for stops, and they’re not entirely safe either, as the creatures of winter are less light-hearted than faes, so the whole trip passes by relatively quickly — though later he can’t quite recall all the details. If this was the intent of a magical entity calling for him, he wouldn’t know.
He remembers, though, the first time he sees a charcoal-black tower at the very edge of the woods. It stands dark and lonely, tall — taller than any of the pines, really. He’s not quite sure, at first glance, that he can tell where it ends, and that slightly intimidates him. However, night coming close, he doesn’t think about turning back. Instead, he goes right to the door and knocks on it without hesitation.
Jeonghan says later that hesitation would probably kill him. Seungcheol doesn’t know if to believe that. Jeonghan is already a ghost, and is undoubtedly older, but still doesn’t seem any wiser than him when it comes to things related to death. His knowledge lies in quite mundane areas, like managing servants at the tower and finding work to give to fifteen-year old boys stumbling at his door, claiming that they were called to be here. He’s the one to open the door that night after a few long minutes, when Seungcheol is already shivering. Jeonghan’s also the one to give him food and sit him in front of the fire in the kitchens, as the boy retells the story of how had he got here.
“Well, that’s unusual, but certainly not new,” he says, signing and going back to chopping greens as soon as Seungcheol finishes. It’s not yet evident to the boy that his host is not, well, alive — he certainly picks up on Jeonghan looking pale and tired, but nothing beyond that, so the conversation flows rather smoothly. “You wouldn’t be the first one to come looking for a job under weird circumstances.”
Seungcheol nods, watching him carefully. Jeonghan seems to be cooking some sort of stew, and the smell is overwhelming. He tears into a bread bun he was given and lets himself relax.
“Really?”
“Yes, really.” A smile tugs on the corner of Jeonghan’s lips. “You have to hear Junhui’s story sometime, it is quite- not my place to tell, though.” He looks at Seungcheol, quiet for a second. The boy almost wants to know his thoughts.
A moment passes, full of silence, taste of bread and sound of a crackling fire. Then, Jeonghan says, almost like a suggestion, “Junhui can show you the ropes tomorrow. You should be around the same age. Besides, I suppose it would be better to have a real boy helping you instead of a ghost.”
That’s pretty much how it starts. Seungcheol spends his first night in a library (the tower needs some time to accommodate to new workers, Jeonghan explains, you will have your own space soon enough) and falls asleep as the older man starts a fire there, too exhausted from his adventure down the mountains.
Junhui turns out to be a talkative friendly guy. Seungcheol is relieved. For some reason he assumed him to be a stony-face prick, but the first thing he says is, “I like your hands. They’re really strong. You’re gonna fit right in! I’m Junhui. You can call me Jun. Or Junnie. My mom’s the only one who calls me that though.”
So, yeah. That’s a relief?
First two months go by quickly. He settles down, he makes home of his new space, and makes sure to leave milk on the window sill every night for any creature who’d want to take it. It turns out that for the most part, the tower doesn’t let in magic, being magical itself, but old habits die hard, and the silver shine on his window reminds Seungcheol of his old home, of the village and the mountains and the moon lightning up the attic and the snow covering everything in its warm embrace. Jun points it out every day when he comes to wake Seungcheol up, but if he finds it strange or amusing, he doesn’t let it show. It’s always a simple observation. Seungcheol likes it that way.
In these two months he doesn’t have an opportunity to go outside, but that gives him more time to explore. He gets to know Jeonghan more. He gets to know Joshua, another ghost and Jeonghan’s friend. Joshua looks more like a ghost, but his behavior sometimes can be more human than Jeonghan’s. Jun says he has a soft spot for all the teen servants, but Seungcheol thinks Joshua might just have a soft spot for his new friend.
Sometimes, when both Jeonghan and Joshua are busy enough to not notice Seungcheol’s work has been finished, he gets to know the tower – something that Junhui is very excited to share with him. As he explains to Cheol, all the rooms here have their place, but there are thousands of different ways to get to your destination. They make it a game, of sorts, to try and find new halls and corridors. Jun says they have to keep it a secret from all the other servants because Jeonghan doesn’t like new halls appearing. It takes some time for Seungcheol to understand why. He speculates it might be related to cleaning issues, maybe, but that quickly turns out to be incorrect.
The first time Hansol slips out of his room, in months, he goes to the library.
He’s not secretive about it. He just knows what route would let him avoid people altogether. He finds a book talking about sea dragons and peppermint candies in a big bowl. That’s new. He thinks about it, for a few seconds, then takes some. Who knows when he’ll return there.
Seungcheol is on his way to the library, that day, the same one he slept in on the first night. He rarely reads books – they’re old tomes, hard to look after, and he doesn’t want to be responsible if anything happens, but it’s quiet there, so he pays it a visit from time to time, just to collect his thoughts after a busy day. Joshua helps him to make it a little cozier, says it makes sense he would like this room in particular. Seungcheol’s grateful for that. He has hard time letting the past go, and the library recently reminds him more of home than his room does.
He’s not deliberately searching for new halls, this time, but somehow finds one, regardless. It looks way cleaner than these usually do, so at first Seungcheol doesn’t get a sense of anything being unusual. But there’s a door in the hall this time, and it certainly does not lead to a library. Actually, it doesn’t look like any door Seungcheol has seen in the tower so far. His interest is piqued.
He comes closer. The door is black, with the image of a serpent and cobra facing each other drawn on it. It looks too heavy (and is too cold, as Seungcheol finds out) to be wooden, but he can’t say what its made of, almost feeling like the structure changes under his fingertips. That’s certainly interesting. He opens the door, wondering if Junhui knows what’s there. Could it be a new room?
Behind him there’s a quiet gasp. Startled, Seungcheol turns around.
There’s a boy standing in the hall, a few feet away from him. He’s… young. Younger, in fact, than any servants Seungcheol encountered previously, clutching a book in his hands and looking at Seungcheol nothing short of terrified. He’s not a ghost, certainly just a kid wandering around, Seungcheol’s been in the tower long enough to learn the difference, but something still feels off. The boy doesn’t look like a worker.
“What are you doing here?” the boy asks and shifts back, not waiting for an answer. He’s wearing very nice clothes, but all the pockets in them are absolutely stuffed, which makes for a very strange visual. Seungcheol notices something fall out of them. It takes a few seconds for him to get what it is.
“Are those… from the library? Peppermints?” he points.
The boy looks down and gasps again. He takes his book in one hand and leans down to scoop candy from the floor, but even more fall out at the motion. His face goes pink, just a faintest bit of color, and that’s when Seungcheol realizes how pale it was before that. He’s feeling bad for the boy, honestly.
“I’ll help,” he suggests, coming closer. “Uh, you know, it’s probably best to just set the book aside, it’d be more comfortable- Hey!”
The boy bolts as soon as Seungcheol kneels next to him.
“Wait, what about your stuff-“ Seungcheol starts saying, but the boy just scowls at him.
“Go away!” he screams and closes the door with the force Seungcheol wasn’t expecting from him.
Seungcheol’s left blinking at the door in confusion, and then there’s no door. He finds himself in another hall, wide and familiar, and Jun’s head pops out from around the corner, looking at him in concern. “You need help?”
“Uh, maybe. I need to collect some… things.”
There’s still candy on the floor, right where it was left. Seungcheol’s still trying to figure out if this is a new trick from the tower when Jun picks up the book and frowns.
Oh, right, the book. Did the kid drop it?
“I didn’t know you had interest for sea creatures,” he says. “Also, this thing’s old, it’s better to just read it at the library.”
“Uh, yeah, I guess.” Seungcheol gets up and takes it. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure to return it. Now, can you help me with this mess before Jeonghan sees it?”
Hansol slams the door shut and breathes. He notices a tea set on the table – had someone visited while he was away? He’s not sure what he feels at the idea. That encounter messed his thoughts up, and they yearn to scatter away, leaving him overwhelmed and directionless.
At least he has his book. No, wait.
Hansol groans and sinks down. He’s not going out there again. This was useless. Damn that guy!
He’s so upset he eats all the remaining peppermints in one go. At least they go well with his tea.
The book and the candies have been sitting on his window sill for quite some time now. Seeing as Seungcheol still keeps changing the milk every day, it’s hard to forget they’re there, so the mysterious boy in the room is occupying his head at any time of day now, scowling, blushing, scared. Why was he scared?
It takes Seungcheol another few days to collect his courage and ask Jeonghan questions he hadn’t thought of asking at the very beginning.
When he does, it’s an early evening, and Jeonghan still has some time before he takes over the kitchens for dinner. It’s a short period of rest for them. Better be specific if he wants to learn something.
“Uh, so. Who are we working for, exactly? What is this tower? Why it exists?”
He probably should be embarrassed. The voice that called for him to get to the tower wasn’t going to appear suddenly and answer him.
He most certainly is embarrassed when Jeonghan snorts.
“Took you long enough.” He sees Seungcheol’s face fall, and adds immediately, with no malice, “people usually ask for that before accepting the job, that’s all. Sometimes, if they don’t, it takes them even longer to start questioning things, so you’re fine.”
Seungcheol squirms in his seat. Jeonghan signs, his face taking on a thoughtful expression, his gaze getting distant. It takes him a little too long to answer.
“I can’t tell you everything. This place is built on people with all sorts of different secrets, and the biggest one is not for me to reveal. But I can tell you the… gist of it all, if you will. I apologize for any uncertainty in my tale.”
“That’s fine.”
“Okay, so… First of all, the tower exists because someone wished for it to appear, and had enough power to manifest it into existence. That person was the Prince that we now serve. It happened… a long time ago.”
“Okay.” Seungcheol immediately envisions a hundred-years-old prince. Not very charming. If Jeonghan told him that, say, Junhui was the prince, that would be more believable – at least he has the looks for it. “Is it dangerous in here?”
Jeonghan clicks his tongue.
“Depends entirely on your definition of dangerous. As you probably figured out, we – all the undead spirits here – are cursed. It rubs off of newcomers. Not to the extent to put you in danger here, but when you go outside – that’s a different story. You’ll get used to it, in time.”
Seungcheol hums, deep in thought. He’s not sure he has the puzzle here, but some of the pieces start making more sense. “Is the Prince cursed?”
“He likes to think he is.”
“Do you think he is?”
“No idea. Personally, no, but he won’t listen to me.”
“You talk to him?”
“Sometimes.” Jeonghan leans back, seemingly content with the flow of conversation. “He’s curious to talk to. But mostly I just hang around and do the work asked of me.”
“Does the Prince have kids?”
Jeonghan leans too far and nearly falls to the floor.
“Have- what?”
“Kids,” Seuncheol repeats. “Since the tower was built a long time ago…”
Jeonghan looks at him with unreadable expression, then shakes his head and laughs. Seungcheol is in the middle of deciding whether he should feel bad about this or not when Jeonghan stops – and the smile he directs to Seungcheol is amused, but not mocking.
“You wouldn’t know that, so that’s fine. But for the Prince time goes differently than for any other living creature here. He’s literally ten years old.”
Oh.
The picture pieces itself in Seungcheol’s head. So it was a puzzle.
“Weird question to ask. It’s not wise to assume things in a place like this, yeah?” Jeonghan pats his shoulder lightly. “Let’s go, it’s almost time for dinner.”
“Yeah,” Cheol echoes just a tad bit late. “Let’s go.”
He keeps thinking about the Prince in the following weeks. Winter’s about to end, and though it’s not spring quite yet, everyone feels the change of the season. The tower slowly warms up. Joshua tells Seungcheol it has to adapt to the new magic awakening outside. The window sill in Cheol’s room becomes more spacious – the peppermints he ate, the book moved to his bedside table to not spill any milk on it. He tries to read it, too, going through the pages with great care; some of the language doesn’t make sense to him, but the illustrations are beautiful. At the very beginning there are little notes and sketches done in pencil. They seem really recent, and he wonders if the kid (the prince, apparently) left them there before losing the book.
Seungcheol doesn’t tell Jeonghan about him meeting the prince. He’s not sure he wants to tell Junhui, even if he grows suspicious of Seungcheol’s antsy behavior. But he knows he wants to return the book, even if it takes him a while.
Spring comes, and the tower breaks into a noisy chaos. Seungcheol makes sure no one sees him when he finally grabs the book and steps into the labyrinth of halls. The tower is insistent, leading him into dead ends and making him walk in circles. That’s fine – he’s not searching for a room this time.
It takes him some time, about a few hours, he guesses, to get somewhere, and the destination surprises him, because the door this time actually leads him outside. Not beyond the tower’s territory, signs of a new season appearing here rapidly when he could still see snow piling up not that far away; but still, it’s outside, scenery brighter that he has seen it in months, gotten used already to dark walls and semi-lightened rooms. It disorients him, only if for a second. The sun in the sky is not warm, but he hasn’t expected it to be. The air smells of soil and new life. Once again, Seungcheol follows the path.
A familiar kid sits on a lawn of fresh snowdrops. There’s a pile of wood and branches in front of him, as if he wanted to start a fire, but haven’t gotten to it yet. He doesn’t look up as Seungcheol approaches, and seems rather annoyed when he shouts:
“Go away, I told you I don’t wanna talk!”
Seungcheol stops a few meters behind him.
“Uhhh, I think you’re mistaking me for someone. Sorry.”
The kid turns, becoming alert in a second.
“I told you to go away the first time!”
“Yeah, I know, I’m sorry about that too,” Seungcheol raises his hand, the one not occupied with the book. “But you forgot something. I just wanted to… return it?”
“Return it to the library, then,” the kid mumbles. He turns his attention to the flowers around him. “See, I’m ignoring you… please.”
“Didn’t you like it?” Seungcheol steps closer. “Sea dragons, very interesting stuff.”
He sees the prince making a face, still not looking at him. The younger boy’s gaze jumps from Seungcheol’s figure to his face, and then to the book in his hand. He looks conflicted. Confused. “It’s… not really?”
They stare at each other a few seconds.
“Why aren’t you running away yet?” the kid asks, finally. He stands up, still eyeing the book.
“I don’t know, should I?” Seungcheol laughs. He stretches his hand towards the boy, “Here, you can have it. Nice sketches.”
“People usually do. It’s safer.” The boy steps out of the snowdrops and takes the book. “For real, though. You should go. It’s dangerous to be around me.”
His eyes look at Seungcheol, dark and tired. He doesn’t feel like he’s a hundred-years-old prince. He looks lost, if anything. Seungcheol wants to comfort him.
“Look, kiddo,” he says, getting on an eye level with him, smell of soil becoming closer. “This book you like – it talks about adventures, right? I’m sort of an adventurer myself. A new one, admittedly, but I’m not scared of you, and I want this to be mutual, okay? I’m Seungcheol.”
The kid gives him a long stare. “I’m gonna hurt you.”
“Probably, yeah,” Seungcheol laughs. “I’ve been told about the whole cursed thingy. I’ll figure something out.”
The kid stares longer. “You’re a weird one.”
“Always was.”
Seungcheol stares back. For a moment it seems to him like the corners of the boy’s mouth jump up, nervously almost, and his eyes become brighter with an emotion he can’t quite decipher, but that feeling is washed away in a second.
Finally, the kid nods. There’s something stubborn hidden in his whole posture – a challenge he’s ready to offer, and yet, Seungcheol doesn’t find it threatening.
“Okay, weird Seuncheol. I’m Hansol. You’re gonna stick around here?”