Chapter Text
“Have you finished your selection, sister?”
“Nearly. This last pair is a tad tricky.”
A room of smoke, shapes weaving in the eerie mist like characters in children’s tales.
“Are you sure about them?” Atropos looked into the rippling pool of water, watching the silhouettes of two young men running across it. Her sister hummed.
“Indeed. They will do well with each other.” Clotho smiled.
“The ceremony, it draws near, sisters. The last one for a long while, I’m afraid.” Lachesis spoke with an airy voice, gliding her way to her fellow sisters at the glistening water’s edge. “Ah, a tragic pairing, I must say.” She brushed her fingers through the water’s surface and the Three Fates watched as the pictures changed, showing the two young men among scenes of blood, fire, and death. War was coming.
“These two will play an important role in the coming war. They must find their strength in each other, or lest be lost to their fates.” Clotho reached into the water, splashing it upwards into the air and watching as the droplets morphed with the smoke, an image of two ribbons taking shape, one a bright royal blue, and the other a crimson blood red.
The ribbons swirled through the air in front of the sisters. “Their time is short,” Atropos noted, seeing the frayed ends of the colorful fabric. “Will they last long enough to serve their purpose?”
“Oh yes,” Clotho responded. “Alone, their fates are fragile, frayed. But together,” she waved her hand and the two ribbons swirled around each other, tangling and knotting together to the point where you couldn’t tell where one ended and the other began. “They will find balance in each other.”
“They will need it,” Lachesis lamented, watching as seven other ribbons of many dazzling colors took shape before them, floating aimlessly in the air, awaiting direction. “All of them will, should they want to survive the coming trials.”
“Indeed.”
Atropos smiled, looking down into the water once again, watching the two young men in question. The two stood back to back, their magic swirling around them with swords poised, watching as the horde of enemies closed in on them. Despite the seemingly dire circumstances, the black haired boy smiled, reaching back and quickly squeezing the redhead’s hand as he said something that made the other smile.
Yes. They would do just fine.
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“Han Jisung!”
Jisung wasn’t sure he’d ever made such an inhuman noise as he screeched in terror, being tackled to the ground and finding himself under a smiling boy with silvery hair.
“Felix, what the hell, man?” Jisung tried to catch his breath, not at all amused at how the slightly younger boy laughed, standing up and offering a hand to the black haired boy. He accepted the gesture as a peace offering.
“Sorry,” Felix laughed. “I wasn’t expecting you to fall over like that.”
“Well when you catch me off guard like that-”
“Aren’t Slayers always supposed to have their guard up?” Jisung rolled his eyes when he heard the voice of none other than Seungmin, the chestnut haired boy smirking as he slung an arm over Jisung’s shoulder.
“Would you rather me slice someone’s arm off the next time they try to scare me?” Jisung gestured to the katana sheathed at his hip to prove his point.
“No one is slicing any limbs off, thank you,” another voice, Changbin, laughed as he joined the group of friends outside their dorm building. “Especially not when we’re this close to finally graduating.”
Ah yes, graduation. Jisung sighed at the thought, simultaneously excited and terrified of the notion. He’d spent his entire 20 years of life training for this day, so he could finally become a Slayer, finally leave the safety of the Academy’s grounds and go out into the rest of the world and protect people. That’s all he’d wanted to do since he was a child, all any of them wanted to do.
Not like any of them really got any other choice in the matter.
“You guys excited to finally become real Slayers?” Changbin asked as the group headed inside. The dorms weren’t anything special, just a long hallway and many floors of tiny rooms upon tiny rooms, bright lights shining down from the ceiling onto the group of friends.
“I’m excited to finally kill some real demons,” Seungmin replied nonchalantly. “That’s what we’ve been trained for, isn’t it?”
“I’m more excited about finally being bonded to my partner!” Felix smiled widely. “Aren’t you guys?”
Jisung shrugged. Part of the events of graduation was getting paired to a partner by the Fates, someone who supposedly complimented your abilities and would back you up in battle as you fought the hordes of demons. Someone you would be paired to for the rest of your life, whether you liked it or not.
Jisung wasn’t too keen on it.
“Oh come on,” Felix bugged the black haired boy. “The Fates setting you up with a partner that is essentially your right hand man, your second half in battle, who fights with you so well that you don’t have to even tell them what to do, they just know because they know you that well. I think that sounds amazing.”
There were many people like Felix, people who loved the idea of being Bonded to another soul, of having someone to rely on in battle, to protect them and in turn for them to protect, but then there were also people like Jisung, people who saw the Bonding ceremony as a liability, as just another way to get him killed young out on the front lines.
“I’m with Jisung, to be honest,” Seungmin sighed, stopping in front of his door. “Relying on someone else to protect me is just another way to get myself killed, and I don’t know about you guys, but I fully intend to retire when I turn 28.” Seungmin ran a hand through his messy hair. “Anyway, I’ll see you guys tonight at the Ceremony.”
“See you, Minnie!” The small chorus of voices replied as they continued down the hall.
“I mean it can’t be that bad,” Changbin said thoughtfully. “Just look at Chan and Woojin hyung. They’ve been on the front lines for almost four years now and they work like a well oiled machine. They’re the strongest Slayers on the front lines right now.”
“Chan is also a pyrokinetic and Lieutenant,” Jisung reminded him. “Of course they’re strong.”
Changbin shrugged. “Point still stands.”
The three friends bid each other goodbye once they came to Jisung’s door, agreeing to all sit together at the Ceremony that night, before Jisung slid into his tiny room, closing the door with a gentle thud behind him and sighing in relief.
Jisung really hated group training days, and he didn’t understand why they’d had his entire graduating class to come out and train today when it’s literally the day of their graduation. Jisung could keep his walls up with ease around a small group, but with several hundred people all in the same location? It was like a tsunami of energies bombarding him, and it took every ounce of strength he had to keep it from overwhelming him.
The dark haired boy sat down on the plain white sheets of his bed, glancing at the black uniform laid out for the prestigious event of the night. He really wished he’d been blessed with a more useful magic, maybe something like Seungmin’s shadows or Changbin’s gravity manipulation, but no, he’d been cursed to be an empath. His magic was more of a nuisance, a pain in the ass because he had to block out everyone’s energies constantly or else get overstimulated and be unable to function, and it was all but useless in battle. He’d had to work twice as hard in training his combat skills to even prove that he was capable of being on the front lines, because everyone else had abilities that made them stronger, and Jisung’s only weakened him.
“There’s nothing wrong with being a Support,” they’d all told him, and while, yes, that was true, that wasn’t what Jisung wanted. He didn’t want to hide in the back, waiting to run in and clean up the aftermath of a battle and help the wounded, he wanted to be the one fighting the battles. That’s what everyone of their lineage wanted.
400 years of an endless war, back and forth between the Slayers and demons. No one remembered how it started or even who their people were before, all they knew was the demons were doing their damnedest to eradicate them.
And they were winning.
It was slow, but it was happening. A few generations ago, the Academy would graduate a few thousand new Slayers every four years. Now? Jisung’s graduating class was less than 500. In a full blown war, 500 new soldiers to account for a four year gap before the next class graduated wasn’t a lot, no matter how skilled they were. Slayers were powerful, more powerful than the average demon by a long shot, but the demons had the advantage in numbers, and that advantage was growing every year.
Not to mention, most Slayers died young on the front lines, the average life expectancy being about 23 years. You were allowed to retire at 28, but the amount of people that reached that point were far and few between. That’s why many women stopped even going through the Academy, choosing to live their lives giving birth to as many children as their bodies could handle, having those very same children immediately be put into the academy, never even knowing their mother’s name. It didn’t bother him; they were all like that, all children of a system that had been in place for longer than anyone remembered. Chances are, his mother had died years ago from complications in birth, as most of them did after a while.
Anything to further their cause, anything to win the war.
Jisung groaned, unsheathing his katana and raising it before his eyes, watching the way his lamp light glinted off the royal blue blade. Their katanas were enchanted to take on the color of their wielder's magic, and he’d always been fond of the shade, despite hating his magic. He gripped the hilt with a skilled hand, twirling the blade through the air once, twice, three times, before swiftly sheathing it again. Soon enough, he’d be using his blade against real enemies, enemies who were out for blood. He was ready for it, he knew he was.
With a glance at the glowing numbers on the clock on his nightstand, he knew it was time to get ready. The Ceremony of Souls would be starting soon.
“Congratulations!” Changbin pounded Jisung on the back as he sat down beside him in the grand hall. Gold decorated vaulted ceilings lie above them, like what Jisung used to see in pictures of fancy performance theaters from the outside world. The chairs were simple, all lined in perfect rows facing the stage where a large magic circle had been drawn in black paint before a bowl of glowing coals that sat on a simple wooden stool.
“You too,” Jisung smiled, noting the way his friend had actually bothered to style his dark blue hair in order to at least look somewhat presentable in his fancy black uniform.
“Can you believe we finally graduated?” Felix smiled on Jisung’s other side.
They had just been sent to the hall for the Bonding ceremony, officially called the Ceremony of Souls, after being granted their official titles as Slayers by one of the High Council Generals. It was an honor to most, though Jisung didn’t particularly care about titles or the grandeur of the whole affair. He just wanted to be done with the whole thing.
“Now we just have to get assigned our partners,” Seungmin rolled his eyes on the other side of Changbin.
“I hope the Fates pair me with one of you guys,” Felix squeezed his hands together, gazing at the stage in anticipation.
“When do they ever pair friends?” Jisung deadpanned.
“I mean they paired Chan and Woojin…”
“Okay besides them.”
Felix laughed brightly, leaning on Jisung’s shoulder. “I’m gonna miss you, Sungie.”
Jisung shook his head with a smile, arm resting over his best friend’s shoulders. “You act like we’ll never see each other again.”
“I mean we certainly won’t see a lot of each other,” Changbin lamented with a small frown.
Jisung knew he was right, that after they were assigned their partners, they would be sent off to the front lines and not see much of anyone other than their partners for the years they spent out there. There were strong chances that they’d be assigned posts near each other, and they could always contact each other, but it was obvious by how absent their older friends had been since graduating four years ago that the chance to just check in and catch up with others while fighting a war was far and few between.
“I’ll miss you guys.”
Jisung looked over at the younger boy with shock written in his features. “Did the Kim Seungmin just admit that he’d miss us?”
“Yeah, and what about it?”
The group of friends laughed.
Soon enough, silence fell over the hall as a cloaked figure stepped onto the stage, the wine red fabric billowing behind them as they stood front and center, addressing the seated graduates.
“Welcome to the Ceremony of Souls.” The voice was feminine and commanding, bringing all fidgeting and murmuring to a halt as all eyes focused on her. The crimson hood hid her face, and that somehow made her feel even more powerful. “As you are all aware, this is where the Fates will grant you your partners, where you will make your oath. I will cast a spell using the magic circle on the stage, and the coals will burn two names into the paper I feed it. When your name is called, you will join me on the stage and step into the magic circle where we will begin the Ceremony. Once the Fates have claimed your partner, there is no discussion to be had. You do not get a different partner, you do not get to back out. Your partner is chosen for you by the Fates, someone who compliments you, who will make you stronger in some way. Once you are Bonded, it’s for life.
“You are to protect your partner with your life. Should they be tainted by a demon, you are to use your blade to take their life, and should they suffer such a fate or die on the front lines, you will have to continue your service alone. The Ceremony will tie your souls together, bound by fate to serve one another, to protect each other, to help each other as you battle the hordes of demons, and you are to remain loyal to them until your dying breath. There is no greater dishonor than failing your Bonded partner. Take this oath seriously, and may the Fates bless you in your endeavors to keep us all safe.”
It felt like a heavy blanket of anxiety had come to rest over the crowd as the hooded woman walked across the stage, grabbing the bowl of glowing coals and placing it in the center of the magic circle. Jisung felt a gentle squeeze on his hand, noticing Felix gripping it with a wide smile, watching the woman with excitement dancing in his eyes. At least someone was excited to be partnered with a stranger for the rest of their life.
The woman reached into the pocket of her cloak, pulling out a small piece of parchment paper and placing it in the coals. As the parchment caught fire, small flames devouring the paper and sending little sparks into the air, the woman raised her hands over the bowl, murmuring a few words under her breath. The magic circle began to glow a blinding white and Jisung could feel the tension of the magic in the air as the Fates were called upon, asking for their guidance in the Ceremony. He’d seen magic performed so many times in his life, but he couldn’t help the way his eyes widened as he watched the burned parchment literally unburn itself, reforming into the crisp rectangle it had been before it launched into the air, fluttering down gently into the spellcaster’s hand.
Jisung felt a lump forming in his throat as she read the parchment, and then spoke the names of the first two partners to be Bonded.
“Han Jisung and Lee Minho.”