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The carriage rocked wildly as the horses thundered along the mountain pass. It was a dangerous road to take; Unseelie territory, and it being nighttime, to boot. But the cargo they were transporting could not be seen by the eyes of men, and so at night they travelled.
Felix held onto the seat for dear life, the tassels and embroidered fabrics hiding him from view swaying violently. He half expected to be pitched right out of the carriage, left in the dirt for the faeries to find while the horses galloped away as fast as they could.
"Whoa," Felix heard the conductor call to the horses. The carriage slowed to a stop. Felix was unable to see outside the carriage and dared not look, but he knew they couldn't have made it out of the mountains yet. He used the brief respite to tug the jeweled net over his hair back into order.
The maid had called it a net; Felix thought it looked like nothing so much as a spiderweb.
"Let us pass," the conductor said. "We have nothing you would want."
"Show us," said an oddly accented voice that sent shivers down Felix's spine.
"It's just a single human," the conductor said, "of no interest to personages as great as yourselves."
"Show us," the voice hissed again, only this time it seemed to come from every direction at once.
"The bride cannot be seen by the eyes of men," the conductor tried.
"We are not men," the voice replied, accompanied this time by a sinister cackle.
"I cannot let you see him," the conductor said, his voice reedy with fear but firm with determination.
Felix heard the metallic sound of a sword being drawn. His heart jumped into his throat and he threw the curtains back with a desperate, "Wait!"
just in time for the body of the conductor to fall at his feet.
Headless.
"Oh, god," Felix groaned, stumbling back against the carriage. He looked up and saw three riders on black horses, all in black, so that their pale faces and hands seemed to float, disembodied, in the night.
Unseelie.
The one with his sword drawn slid gracefully off his horse and sheathed it without wiping it clean. Felix saw the blood around the hilt sink into the black leather of the sheath, almost as if sucked in. Felix shuddered.
The faerie stepped forward into the light still cast by the carriage's lantern. He was tall, his hair silvery blue, and his eyes as deep and dark as a hole into the earth's core.
And he was beautiful, as all the fair folk were.
"What do you want?" Felix breathed, already as far back against the carriage as he could get. "I have nothing of value."
The faerie stopped before him and reached out a pale, long-fingered hand that grasped him none too gently by the chin and tilted his face up into the light.
"I was looking for someone," the elf said, his voice deceptively soft. "And now I have found him." He gave Felix a brief smile, so quick he almost thought he imagined it.
Then he grabbed Felix around the waist and hoisted him over his shoulder.
Felix squawked, scrambling to hold on to something, but the broad expanse of his captor's back was covered in smooth leather that slipped underneath his grasping hands. A moment later he was moved again, tossed over the horse's saddle as the faerie mounted up. He could hear one of the other faeries freeing the carriage horses as his captor pulled him upright.
Winded and sore, Felix gripped the saddle horn awkwardly from his sideways seat and, not for the first time, cursed his father for marrying him off to such a distant village. It was almost as if he'd wanted Felix to get carried off by faeries.
-
"We found him on the mountain pass," one of his captors told the faerie who may or may not have been their king. He was reclined back in a twisted thorn throne in a vast, eerily empty cavern of a hall they'd entered by way of a burned out tree trunk.
"Almost as if he was hoping to be found," another one put in.
"You've done well," the king said. "You may leave."
The three riders bowed and left. Felix turned to watch them go, a little unsettled. He hadn't exactly gotten to know them, but he didn't want to be left alone with a king either.
"Yongbok," the king said.
Felix turned to face him again, bristling. "My name is Felix."
The king shrugged. "The name your mother gave you, your True Name, is Lee Yongbok. I use it now to show that what I am about to say is binding between us."
Felix blinked. The king looked so young, younger than Felix, his narrow fox eyes bored. "How do you know my mother?" Felix's mother died in childbirth.
"She is one of my subjects," the king said. "You can see her, if you'd like. After we deal with the matter of your boon."
"My boon?"
"Lee Yongbok, you are a changeling come home at last to the court of your birth. As such, you are owed one boon from your sovereign. Which is me, by the way. Name your boon and be on your way."
Felix stared with his mouth hanging open. "I'm what?"
The king sighed. "You are an Unseelie fae, Yongbok. Felix. You were born here, and traded with a human infant shortly after your birth. As it is now the year of your 21st season, we have brought you back home."
Felix's mouth went dry. "What happened to the human infant?"
"Does it matter? Name your boon."
Felix's mind whirred. How was he supposed to come up with a suitable boon on such short notice? He'd spent his whole life until just a moment ago thinking he was as human as they came.
But that wasn't to say he hadn't heard his fair share of stories about the fae.
"The hunter that brought me here, with the blue hair." Of the others, one had red hair and the other green; Felix hadn't been told any of their names.
"I know the one of which you speak."
Squaring his shoulders, trying not to feel small in his wedding silks before the king of the fae, Felix said, "Give me his True Name."
The king didn't exactly sit up, but the look of boredom left his eyes. "Interesting. This is the boon you would ask of me?"
"It is."
"Very well. His True Name is Hwang Hyunjin. Now leave my sight and hope we do not meet again."
Felix bowed deeply and did not say 'thank you.' The fae hated thanks. As he left the hall, however, he wished his boon came with directions.
"Lost, lovely boy?" an ogre with mossy teeth asked, leering down at him as he stepped out into a different forest entirely than the one he'd entered.
"No," Felix said, stepping quickly and wishing his clothes weren't quite so bright; a shining white beacon amidst the darkness of the court.
"Ah, if it isn't the changeling bride," the hunter with green hair said, lounging in the shadow of a large tree. "I wasn't sure how many pieces to expect you in."
"Strange to see you walking around on your own two feet," the hunter with red hair said. He tilted his head, smiling catlike. "They are your feet, aren't they?"
"Where's Hyunjin?" Felix asked.
The hunters shared a look, their postures changing quickly from lazy to alert. "Why do you know that name?"
"Take me to him," Felix said, his hands fisted in his clothes at his sides. He had to force himself not to add, 'Please.' They would take it as a sign of weakness.
The hunters exchanged a silent conversation through glances and eyebrow wiggles; finally the red haired one said, "Fine. Come along, then," and peeled off into the darkness.
The path the hunters took him on was thankfully quiet; though he could feel life in the darkness all around him, no ogres or redcaps made a try for him.
"Here we are," the hunter said. He knocked on a too-narrow door hewn into a skinny tree, calling out, "Hyunjin! Your little friend is here to see you."
The door opened and Hyunjin leaned out, his expression quickly morphing from annoyance to surprise. His features were wide and round, except for his eyes; his eyes were strikingly feline, yet somehow lacking in guile or cruelty. Felix hadn't noticed before, really. He looked softer somehow, when he wasn't riding down Felix's carriage and murdering his chaperone.
"You're back," the hunter called Hyunjin said, still blank with shock. "Why?"
"Can I come in?" Felix asked, forgetting for a moment to act like an arrogant fae and slipping back into his human manners. "I mean, let me in," he corrected.
Hyunjin stared at him. The green haired hunter giggled.
"Oh, let him in," said the red haired hunter. "I want to hear what he wants."
So all four of them tromped into Hyunjin's house, which was far bigger on the inside than its tiny tree façade would have led one to believe.
"I'm Jisung," said the green haired hunter, "and this is Minho. You already know Hyunjin for some reason."
Minho hopped up on Hyunjin's heavy wooden table and crossed his legs. "Don't tell me you fell for him already and told him your name like the foolish buffoon you claim not to be," he said to Hyunjin.
"I didn't!" said Hyunjin.
"I asked for it," Felix said. "From the king. Hyunjin's True Name."
All three hunters stared at him with various expressions of shock on their faces. Jisung spluttered. "You what? How did you think to do that? And why?"
"He probably wants revenge," Minho said, nodding like he approved. "You did just kidnap him, Hyunjin."
"So did you!" Hyunjin said.
"We didn't touch him though," Jisung said. "You tossed him over your shoulder like a bag of heads and made him breathe in your stench the whole way here."
Hyunjin surreptitiously sniffed himself. "I don't smell..." he mumbled.
"I was meant to get married," Felix interrupted. They turned back to him like they'd forgotten he was there. "Now I'm here. You'll take responsibility."
Hyunjin blinked at him. "Responsibility?"
Felix looked Hyunjin dead in the eye. "You'll marry me instead."
There was a moment of silence. Then the other two hunters started hooting; Minho nearly fell off the table.
Hyunjin looked utterly stunned.
"This is amazing," Jisung said, wiping his eyes.
"Better than troll tipping," Minho agreed.
"M-marry you?" Hyunjin spluttered.
Felix felt one tiny twinge of guilt. "Or at least promise to marry me."
"You could have asked the king for any boon," Jisung said. "Riches, status, you name it. And you picked him?"
"Riches and status can be taken away," Felix said. "I'm in a strange land with no allies and no guarantee of safety."
"And now Hyunjin has to do whatever you tell him," Minho said, his voice awed. "Are you sure you were raised among humans? You are Unseelie to your bones."
Looking troubled, Hyunjin bit his thumb, staring at Felix as if trying to read his mind. "You could have just ordered me to help you," he said at length.
Felix forced himself to hold Hyunjin's gaze. He didn't have an entirely reasonable explanation for why marriage seemed appropriate; it just did. As if it might compel Hyunjin to treat him more gently, to help him honestly and not simply weasel his way around Felix's orders until he could buck him off into the dirt. Or worse.
"Very well," Hyunjin said, though Felix hadn't responded. "I will marry you."
Jisung spluttered again. "Seriously?"
"You can leave if you're just here to make fun of me," Hyunjin said.
"He's just concerned for the state of your mental faculties," Minho said. "I'm here to make fun of you."
Hyunjin sighed. "Let's just- sit down and drink some wine."
"That's the first smart thing you've said all day," Jisung said.
-
"I- only have one bed," Hyunjin said with a defeated sigh later that night, showing Felix into his bedroom. "I'll sleep on the floor."
"You don't have to," Felix said, reaching for his headpiece.
"Here," Hyunjin said, his hands covering Felix's where he was trying, with little success, to pull the pins free. "Let me."
Felix stood still. He'd only had a few sips of Hyunjin's faerie wine; hadn't wanted to compromise himself when one wrong move could give the faerie a deadly advantage. But Hyunjin had downed nearly an entire bottle, and though his breath smelled sweet and fruity, he stood without swaying and his hands were gentle and sure.
Felix looked up at him as he drew the jeweled spiderweb out of his hair. He had a mole just under one of his eyes, and soft, full lips that wouldn't be any hardship at all to kiss. If he would ever be willing to kiss Felix. Felix had gone from dreading the marriage his father arranged to forcing a stranger into what amounted to the same situation; Felix would be grateful if Hyunjin didn't hate him forever.
"You can wear some of my clothes," Hyunjin said, his voice soft in the air between them. "To sleep in."
"Oh," said Felix. "Thank you. Oh- sorry-"
"It's alright," Hyunjin said, smiling that brief smile again. It left his lips but lingered in his eyes. "I have a friend in the court who teaches etiquette. I could call in a favor to get you some lessons, if you'd like."
"I'd be grateful," Felix said. They were still standing too close. And maybe Felix regretted downgrading his demand for marriage to only a promise-
"Here," Hyunjin said, turning away suddenly and giving Felix space to breathe again. He pulled some clothes out of a dresser- all black, of course- and handed them to Felix. "They'll be too big, but we can get you new clothes made tomorrow."
"Thank you," Felix said. "I mean-"
Hyunjin laughed, more of an especially loud breath, but it made Felix's heart warm all the same. "You're welcome," Hyunjin said, in the exaggerated tones of someone speaking a foreign language.
Felix watched Hyunjin leave the room and hugged the clothes to his chest. It had been a long, insanely stressful day, but somehow, he felt he was on the right path at last.