Chapter Text
Khun Agnes. 쿤 아그네스.
That was her name. The name her father had given her. Her father… and her brother alike.
She had been raised on the 77th Floor for the past three years, alongside a man that could either be called her half brother or her adopted uncle. Whichever worked better. His name was Hachuling. There was also another uncle called Urek. And sometimes, a woman called Yuri and a dwarf person called Evan.
She had been raised by Wolhaiksong, but kept a secret. And that was at her father’s request.
Her father, Khun Aguero Agnis, requested that she be given a somewhat normal life.
She had heard the tales. She knew her father was truly her full-blooded brother. She knew that she had almost died with her mother, were it not for him to arrive just in time to save her. She knew that he had encased her fetus in a shinsu recreation of a womb and had externally linked her to him, so she could still grow, feed off of his energy.
She knew she was the reason why her father couldn’t be let out of bed right now. She had made him… was still making him weak, to this day.
She could never thank him enough. For raising her alone, for nine years. Even when he couldn’t hold himself upright, he smiled at her and played with her. He had made the first twelve years of her life the happiest they could ever be.
She had heard enough stories to know no other Khun could say the same.
Of course, she had rebelled, at times. And her father, Aguero, had let her. He had always let her be who she wanted to be, and let her feel what she needed to fear. The anger, the frustration. Her father had once told her that it was normal, feeling like this, when she was forced to hide her entire life. That it was okay to let it out, as well. He often said he wasn’t good at this kind of talk.
But Agnes preferred his genuine words to any other’s words of comfort.
“It’s been fifteen years,” uncle Haculing once sighed as they sat side by side, watching over her father’s figure. “Since I last saw him climbing the Tower. He looks a bit more peaceful now, if you ask me. But… I can see him in his eyes sometimes. Nothing can ever replace Viole, for him.”
Agnes listened to him. She didn’t question who Viole was. Instead, she said.
“Father said that there is no need to replace people, because each new person takes a different piece of the heart,” she recited without hesitation.
Hachuling looked surprised, but he smiled warmly.
“Your father is very right. But that means you'll only ever have one father, you know? Take care of him well,” and he ruffled her hair after she nodded.
She was subdued. How was she supposed to take care of him when he looked so weak? Maybe if she hadn’t… if she…
“He looks like he'll need a trim when he wakes up,” Hachuling brought her back from the spiral. “His hair's getting a bit too long again.”
He hummed then.
“You know, he used to keep them a couple inches shorter before you showed up. Close to the neck. At most, just up the shoulder line. And then he showed up with that long halo flowing just under his shoulder line, your father looked so cool!”
She nodded with a small smile.
“He is,” she said. “The coolest.”
She felt herself tear up.
“I love him so much, uncle,” she said, her voice breaking. “So much.”
An arm led her to rest her head on his side.
“I know.”
She cried against him. It wasn’t as good an embrace as her father’s, but she still felt protected.
Another time, it was Urek who looked at her, fixedly.
“What is it?” she muttered suspiciously.
“Mh… You just look a lot like Blueberry’s brother. You have the same eyes, same hair… must be the genetic transmission. That was genius, admittedly. Say, would you let me do your hair?”
She frowned.
“No way. Mister Urek always messes it up.”
The man deflated.
“Is that so… such a shame. You'd look so cute with a braid instead.”
She pouted.
“I have braids! Father taught me!”
She'd been training on her father’s hair. She thought she got quite good! But her father was still the one who braided her side tresses, mostly. When he was awake.
But Agnes had always thought that her father would never, ever leave her side, despite his weakness. If only because of the bond she and he had. The bond that connected them since he linked her to him a decade in the past. The one thanks to which she could talk to him without opening his mouth, through which she could hear his knowledgeable words despite the distance or the exhaustion.
She would always have that, at least.
But then, one day, the bond became silent.
“He gave you the firefish,” Hachuling noted as she held his inert hand in hers.
She nodded quietly. The firefish hadn’t been doing anything to help him anyway. Aguero had argued that it was better off in her hands. He had tightly leashed it in his own shinsu before giving her the leash. Even if the sentient flame was vicious, Aguero had taken great pains so that it could never escape Agnes’ control, so that it would never hurt her.
Agnes didn’t understand, how he could worry so much for her still when she had been so mean and ungrateful in the past.
But she wished she couldn’t understand when Hachuling had told her Aguero wouldn’t wake up again in a long time. That her father had been forced into a coma so that he could live just a bit longer.
That it was the sequels of the war that had shaken the Tower in the wake of an irregular. That Aguero was dying because, thirteen years ago, he had fought to help all those he could and impede the army’s progression on his home Floor.
That her father… might never wake up.
She knew it was only partially her fault, that her father’s injury had been what had weakened him over the years. But the reason he couldn’t heal himself was because he had always prioritised her over himself. Because he loved her.
But then, her opinions changed, when Hachuling handed to her a wrecked journal. Her father’s.
In the matter of a week, she learned more about her father than she ever did in twelve years.
About him, his ambitions, his feelings, his brilliant mind… about the people he hated, those he loved… the people who abandoned him, unknowing of his fate.
I didn’t have the heart to tell him that this wasn’t goodbye. the journal said, in one particular entry. This was a farewell for life.
I think I am tired of being abandoned.
But I'll try just one last time. For this child.
She hated herself, she hated the time that wasn’t theirs, how it wouldn’t be hers no matter how hard she wished.
But more than that, she hated the red witch Hwa Ryun, she hated Khun Eduan, her biological father, she hated Jahad, the king. And she hated the Twenty Fifth Bam, more than anyone else. More, even, than Jue Viole Grace.
She never wanted to meet him. She wanted to make him scream. But more than anything, she just wanted her father back.
“He relinquished his status as a Regular a long time ago,” her uncle told her. “That was how he was able to move around the Tower as he pleased, even higher than he ever climbed. I think he thought… he might have thought that it was the only purpose he had left. He made waves in his time. It’s been thirteen years and still people talk about what he did. But never about him. He was a genius in that way.”
She wanted her father to retell all of this to her himself. She just wanted him back.
Shouldn’t there be a way?
If I ask a red witch, would they tell me of a way?
A way to eradicate the poison that ran rampant in her father’s blood, cursed and scarring.
At least, even if he could never fight again from all his scars and injuries, he might still be able to live a long, long life with her.
But to accomplish that, she needed to learn the truth about what had happened years ago, on Khun Eduan’s Floor. In fact, she needed to learn all that had happened during the two years her father had changed the Tower, in his own way.
“I will go up the Tower.”
Hachuling and Urek looked at her, speechless. She stared right back, fierce and determined.
Before they could recollect themselves, she added.
“I don’t need to climb it. I just need to go and find the truth. I will find a way to save Father.”
She said so with intense conviction.
Hachuling couldn’t deny her.
But still.
“Your father wouldn’t want you to be in danger. The amount of training is not nearly enough for the trouble of the upper floors.”
She frowned.
“Still. I won’t climb from the beginning of the Tower for hundreds of years. I don’t need to be in danger. I'll blend in with the civilians. The firefish will protect me.”
I won’t take no for an answer.
Both males looked uncharacteristically serious. Uncertain, perhaps.
She pushed on.
“Please. Teach me how to use the Middle Area.”
They seemed to talk to each other with a glance. Then, as her nerves turned to fire, Urek smirked at her.
“Not so fast, baby. You'll need to prove yourself first.”
Urek taught her a lot during the next two months, until she could finally succeed in his test, and impress him enough that he let her do as she pleased.
He let her know that they would always be there in case she needed help.
Hachuling showed her the ways of the Middle Area. It didn’t take much time for her to memorize everything. She inherited that from her father, Hachuling said fondly. He looked a bit sad to see her go now.
“You're family,” he said. “To me, to Urek, and to Wolhaiksong too. Never forget that. Also…” he seemed to hesitate then. “Your father would not have wanted you to leave for the rest of the Tower, especially not so soon, but… he valued freedom. And he would have wanted you to have this.”
He knelt in front of her, and picked something out from under his cloak. After he deposited it in her hands, he realized these were cubes… tiny blue cubes.
Lighthouses, she realized.
Her father’s.
She looked up to meet Hachuling’s gaze. The man winked.
“Keep it a secret, alright? Don’t let anyone see you with that. Also, since you don't have a pocket, they'll be your language translation module as well as your inventory. So don’t lose them, and hide them well.”
She nodded firmly, even though she didn’t feel so brave. He seemed to know, but he said nothing.
She was grateful. She was still raised as a Khun. She had her pride.
“Now. It’s time for you to go, Miss.”
They were all there. Urek, Hachuling, but also Yuri and Evan, and even Baek Ryun. Everyone was there to see her leave.
Except her father. Her father, comatose, safe inside the resort.
Wait for me.
“See you later,” she told them, because she had no intention to leave for an impossible quest.
She would find a solution. Soon.
Urek smirked, and Hachuling waved, at the forefront of the crowd.
“Make us proud!”
She smiled, and even laughed.
“Are you stupid?” She heard one say, “she shouldn’t be seen! Don’t say idiotic things like that, she might take you seriously.”
“Right…”
“Be careful out there, Agnes-ah!”
What a bunch of idiots. Well, it was her bunch of idiots. Her father’s and her’s.
She smiled back.
“I'll be back soon.”
Just wait for me, everyone.
Wait for me, Father.