Chapter Text
“Did you ever wonder why the Honmoon is always over top of people, when it protects people?”
Mee shrugged, adjusting her hanbok. “It’s just… made of souls. It sits over them like a veil. That’s all.”
Hae-won sighed and braided her long hair, looking out over the villages they intended to protect. “I wonder what would happen to a living soul trapped below it, that’s all.”
They watched dusk set in and the thin lines of the Honmoon shield glimmer. What did it truly matter to those on the top?
+++
“There is a visitor.” The tinny voice from the speaker annoyed Mira. They spent more than enough money on infrastructure to ensure that sound had quality, yet every time the security team called up it sounded like someone had resurrected a radio from an American horror movie set in the 80s. Her secret conspiracy theory (to be fair, one of many) was that someone had infiltrated their building before they bought it and infected it with cursed radios. It would have been horrible, but slightly epic. Fighting ghosts or zombies would make for some fun variety.
“Yeah, whatever. We’re busy.”
There was a loaded pause. “It’s… Celine?”
“Oh shit. Send her the fuck up.” Mira sat up abruptly and bristled before she launched off the couch like a tiger waiting for prey.
“Whoa, no! Bad hunter!” Zoey somehow managed to move quicker to intercept and smacked her lightly with a rolled up magazine, earning herself a scowl. She pointed the roll with the intensity of a ruffled kindergarten teacher. “Mira, she needs to speak her part so Rumi can heal. Come on. You know how she’s been.”
“Not sure that letting the woman who taught Rumi to feel ashamed of herself in the first place is the person she should be chatting with, but okay.” Mira sighed and rubbed her temples. “But I’m not leaving her alone with that-“
“-I’m not ready.” Rumi peeked her head into their common room, braid hiding behind her like an anxious living thing, her expression half guilty and fully stricken. “Can you guys….?”
“Handle her? Hell yeah.” Mira grinned.
“Politely,” Zoey added with a smile followed with an immediate stern look at her eager friend.
“Whatever.” Mira walked to the elevator and fell heavily against it with an almost joyful disregard. “Send her up.” Rumi was gone again, vanished into the labyrinth of rooms Huntrix had at their disposal.
Zoey made a face, trying to play peacekeeper. “All I’m saying is that maybe this isn’t a time to use violence-“
The doors opened. It wasn’t entirely clear which was fastest: Zoey’s squeak of frustration, Mira’s swiftly summoned gok-do, or Celine’s wickedly sharp hand sickle. But Celine kept her head on her shoulders while managing to look mostly unimpressed, and the younger hunters backed up a step as if coordinated. Mira snorted as though she hadn’t retreated and wasn’t impressed with the elder hunter’s reflexes, and her weapon vanished. She shrugged and walked away, muttering, “Worth a shot.”
“Right.” Celine shuddered off the interaction and turned her attention to Zoey, the only one of the three who seemed remotely interested in a possible benefit to her presence. “Zoey, I–”
“It’s not even that you didn’t believe we would be okay with her secret.” Zoey interrupted and then looked away, flushed but angry. “But you didn’t trust us. We were part of the Huntrix you built from the start and….and you didn’t trust us. Didn’t see us as Rumi’s friends , just…. Coworkers?” She teared up enough not to notice Celine doing the same.
“I’m so sorry….”
“Rumi isn’t here. She doesn’t want to hear. And Mira and I were never more than tools for you, so, maybe you should just go.” Zoey looked away, knowing she would be vulnerable if she saw Celine’s face. “We’ll protect the Honmoon.”
But who will protect you? Celine knew she had already poisoned those waters.
“Tell Rumi I’m here when she’s ready to talk.” She let herself out, quietly, and the tower fell into a rare hush.
+++
Far below, a hood shifted and an odd figure looked up at the Huntrix tower.
“Let it begin.”