Chapter Text
a small part of jaeyun didn’t really want to leave home.
but admittedly that part was small.
lyonesse was a beautiful place. there was no doubt about that. jaeyun loved everything about home. the way the sun shone down against his skin, the light tan he sported – which gave him the sun kissed appearance typical to the people of lyonesse. he loved the flavour of food here, the weather, the norm he built for himself in the solitude of the palace. lyonesse had one of the biggest marketplaces in the seven nations and everything was painted in shades of gold and yellow and somehow jaeyun always loved that.
one could argue that he didn’t have a lot of reference to compare but he did spend more than half of his waking hours in the library and while the paintings weren’t as reliable as most painters seemed to claim, he still liked it against the colours of the other nations.
by the time the ships cut free of lyonesse’s golden painted harbour though, the sun had already begun sinking behind the sandstone cliffs. it turned the gold into a kind of rose tinted pink that he couldn’t exactly name but felt like home anyways. his guard had vaguely suggested if he’d like to go sit beneath the deck in the chambers they’d prepared but jaeyun couldn’t make himself look away.
he stood at the rail, knuckles white against the salt weathered wood. he couldn’t help looking away as the place he called home, the warm gold of his life seemed to shrink into nothing more than a memory and the rising temple spires which told wayward ships where to find land. his eyes stung and he briefly raised his hand to his face, careful not to let the tears ruin the talcum and touches of colour his mother had put on his face.
“don’t let them see you cry,” she said and jaeyun had simply cried harder, “even a single tear will give them a reason to think less of you.”
he didn’t entirely understand why his family thought it was appropriate to basically trade him away to the stormborn he didn’t know. since he’d been born, he’d been treated as though he was made of gold. he remembered his grandmother telling him the story of the sun-kissed omegas and how omegas born to their bloodline was considered sacred. jaeyun had been born in the hour of the sun, right after the moon in the sky foretold midnight.
he’d been called the blessed omega far too many times to expect this in his future.
his father claimed that some things were less important than peace. his brother had stayed silent, hugged him and promised to write but he didn’t know what letters would cross the narrow sea, beyond whatever tensions had been growing between their two nations.
“you are to continue your education there,” his father had said, “just you are to follow stormborn standards. you’re still lyonesse in name and upbringing, jaeyun.” but jaeyun hadn’t understood that at all. a part of him knew that he might someday be married for political advantage. he’d come to terms with that. he didn’t exactly have romantic adventures at home – the golden omega was sometimes more guarded than the jewels on him he thought.
but this was something different.
“the stormborn simply like to be unclear about what they want,” his mother had said, “we take that to our advantage. your sanctity is none of the stormborns’ matter to worry.” why would they even want a sun-kissed omega from the royal family if not for a marriage alliance. jaeyun might not have travelled across the narrow seas before but he knew more about the world than his parents believed he did.
the stormborn had a prince who was newly of age.
yet, he was apparently not renowned or desirable enough for the hand of their prince.
jaeyun simply didn’t want to believe the purpose of his travel.
he was to be held as a prisoner. as leverage for two kingdoms which couldn’t afford war with winter coming up and resources running scarce. a part of him wondered if his family had something hidden in the agreement come next summer. the people of lyonesse weren’t exactly known for their transparency or honesty. it was customary to not believe what was in front of them.
jaeyun’s own scent was so thickly veiled that the air didn’t seem to shift much from the flowering scents of their marketplaces. he could smell saffron, cyprus and a touch of sage and none of that were his true scent. no one outside his mother, brother and his closest attendants knew what his scent was. he’d never grown close enough to anyone outside to unveil his scent after all.
he sighed, finally looking away from the place which he almost felt like had betrayed him.
he wasn’t irreplaceable as he’d been made to believe.
he was expensive. he bought things plain trade couldn’t.
he turned back towards the main deck, lined by crewmen who looked just as nervous about the journey as he felt. the ship lurched as lyonesse disappeared beyond the horizon and suddenly all they could see around themselves was water. jaeyun couldn’t let go of the frown as the deck shifted under his feet, making him feel uncomfortable and stuffy despite standing in open air.
behind him, he could already hear the servants already mumbling prayers in old valyrian to the gods of the sea and the gods of fortune. gods who the temples seem to forget until someone they loved was at sea. one of them stepped close to him, gently tapping his shoulder once and then withdrawing just as fast as though the golden silks on his shoulders burnt them.
“i will be fine,” jaeyun said, taking note of their concern as he couldn’t help feel guilty over the lack of recognition towards them. most of the attendants who had come with him had been specially hired for the travel, people who knew a little more about stormborn than he did. knew more about the accents than most people here did. but that also meant that the few friends he had in the palace no longer qualified to come with him.
what little he may have had in the form of company had been snatched away too.
he nodded to the rest and walked towards the inner deck, not bothering to look back again at the home he left behind. at this point it didn’t matter anymore whether the tears which he failed to hold back came from the salt of the sea or the sting of a betrayal he didn’t quite understand.
–
jaeyun could tell when the air shifted.
they’d been at sea for over four sun cycles and he was beyond exhausted. as the waves got choppier, jaeyun retreated to staying within his quarters, his sea legs not having found themselves at all. the waves got gentler as they got closer to the coast – perhaps another two or so sun cycles away. he stood on the deck for the first time since they left and he didn’t know what to make out of it.
the air was cold.
but the worst part was it smelled… like nothing at all.
there was a mineral clarity to the air that he detested. it sliced through his layers of perfumes, the veils he’d been meticulous to maintain throughout the voyage and it made his chest ache. lyonesse air had always been thick in incense from candles lit along every corridor, warm and damp from the sea and the desert breeze. each breath back home had tasted like warmth.
here, it was like he could taste iron in the back of his throat.
no one really spoke to him as he continued staring into the blue waters, hands gripping the railings of the deck to ensure he didn’t get too dizzy from the swaying. the last thing he needed was to crumple to the ground like a fragile nobody in a group of strangers who were somehow supposed to respect and protect him.
“how much longer are we going to be at sea?” jaeyun asked, valyrian rolling off his tongue as he looked to the closest crew member next to him. a part of him was aware that it was more of the common tongue which was spoken in stormborn, maybe only a select few of the most educated used valyrian and that too not on the usual. he knew that these were among the last things he’d speak in a language which was his own.
“not much longer,” the crewmate said as he bowed deep to the omega out of respect, “if the wind favors us, your highness, we’ll make it by sundown possibly.”
a part of jaeyun wanted to get off this boat, get back on land where the floor finally felt steady again. but the other part was nowhere near prepared to set foot in stormborn. his stomach twisted a little unpleasantly at the answer, even though he managed to keep his expression steady. he was good at that – looking polite and unreadable.
a sun-kissed omega didn’t show fear. a prince didn’t show fear no matter how far he was from home.
and yet the unpleasant feeling didn’t leave. just curled further up his chest at the thought of land finally drawing close.
there wasn’t much time left to pretend like he had a choice in anything anymore.
he inhaled slowly, hoping the familiarity from his veiling scents – maybe the richness of the saffron or the sweetness of the cypress – would ground him but the sharp scent of the north sliced right through it again, making him feel like he was breathing at the edge of a blade.
it made him feel so horribly small and exposed. like he was standing naked on this deck.
he briefly pressed his newly gloved fingers against the side of his throat, right over the pulse point where he could feel his own heartbeat fluttering far too fast for him to have actually been calm. back home, his mother would have scolded him for the gesture.
you make yourself look like a frightened little bird when you do that.
jaeyun used to give her a small smile and would stop. here though, with no one to correct him, he let himself linger on the touch a moment longer before dropping his hand back down at his side.
a wave crashed harder against the hull, jolting the ship enough to make his knees bend out of instinct. the deck swayed in a nauseating arc, the horizon tilting for a brief moment. jaeyun exhaled shakily and held on to the railing again.
seven hells he hated this voyage.
oh for heavens sake, he hated the sea.
one of his attendants scurried over, fussing over whether the omega needed a seat or warm tea or fresh perfume as though any of that could be achieved in a satisfactory manner aboard this floating prison. jaeyun had to force gentleness into his voice as he dismissed them quietly.
“i’m fine,” he said, “thank you.”
he wasn’t fine. he hadn’t been fine in weeks, from the very moment his father placed ink on that dreaded parchment and signed him away to a land he’d never let foot in before. but truly, what good was admitting that now to a group of strangers who simply stayed at his side for the payment?
he looked out again towards the expanse of endless water. the water was darker here, colder, even in colour. it wasn’t the same shade of amber blue that the shores of lyonesse were. instead it was a deep steel blue that reminded him of the storms drawn in old paintings. paintings which depicted the north as a land carved from the concept of winter itself. the wind didn’t carry the scent of spices, despite the boxes which had been stored on the ship as a gift alongside him.
it felt unnatural.
how the wind dared smell like nothing at all.
lyonesse air always had a story to tell. this felt more like a warning than anything else.
—
the sun was slipping downward when jaeyun resurfaced to the deck again, having put his appearance together again.
it stained the sky a muted greyish pink, nothing like the skies back at home. the memory stabbed sharper than he expected. all of a sudden, the reality of the fact that his home had probably been reduced to nothing but a memory knocked the wind out of his lungs.
sandstone cliffs turning pink with the setting sun
his mother’s hands smoothening the silk of his dress.
his brother, hyunwoo’s arms around his tight and wordless whenever he’d end up in his chambers in tears.
the way hyunwoo had avoided looking at his face, because looking at a final goodbye would probably make it even more painful.
gods, he missed him.
hyunwoo would’ve teased him for the way he was death-gripping the railing now. he would’ve told him not to let the stormborn see him look like a seasick puppy. he would’ve tickled him, made him feel like he was safe again and laugh until the ache in his chest loosened just a little.
jaeyun blinked, jaw tightening as the sting returned to his eyes. the salt wind nipped at their corners but he refused to let the tears fall. his mother’s words hovered again at his memory and he was kind of glad that it was this cold that the tears didn’t fall easily.
don’t let them see you cry.
he was no longer sure about who “them” was supposed to be. stormborn? the crew they’d put together in the last moment? fate itself?
did it even matter?
another gust of wind tore through the deck and jaeyun realized how much colder it was becoming with almost every passing minute. he honestly didn’t remember being this cold before, not even during the worst winters of lyonesse. he pulled his cloak tighter, tucking his hands into the embroidered sleeves of the dress. it was too thin for this weather, his chest half exposed. it was a typical attire for his kingdom.
clearly none of his seamsmiths had the common knowledge to think beyond the shores of lyonesse. nor did his parents apparently who’d hand picked the clothes he was supposed to present himself in.
he wondered what stormborn’s shores would look like at sundown. he’d read about the jagged cliffs and black stone fortresses that rose straight from the sea, about icy spray that stung the skin and massive waves that could swallow entire ships. he wondered if their capital smelled like their sea breeze did – like cold, hard iron.
he wondered just how out of place he would look there.
would the people stare? would they judge him for being different? for wearing different clothes, for walking differently? would they mock his accent when he spoke? would they see right through the thick layers of veiling and talcum to the frightened omega beneath?
he closed his eyes briefly.
don’t think about that.
he told himself but it was kind of pointless.
his mind betrayed him anyways, circling back to the thing he’d been avoiding since the beginning – the truth of his purpose here.
stormborn didn’t want him for the prince.
they didn’t want a marriage alliance.
they just wanted him.
a sun-kissed omega from a bloodline that was supposed to be sacred. an omega who had never shown his true scent to a soul outside his own blood. an omega who’d been raised with the same care you would give to a ceremonial blade – precious, protected, useful and yet something untouched.
yet something replaceable.
jaeyun swallowed hard.
the rail beneath his hands felt even colder than possible.
stormborn would have him soon.
he would no longer have a choice but to stand there, foreign and entirely and completely alone, carrying scents and perfumes from a land they didn’t even properly respect, speaking with an accent and a language most didn’t speak. he kept staring at the distant line where the sky met the sea – the place where land would appear soon, carrying the weight of an unknown future on its shoulders.
a shiver ran down his spine but this time it wasn’t from the cold.
no matter how much he tried to steady his breathing, the same truth settled into him like a stone sinking to the bottom of the sea.
he wasn’t ready for this. he wasn’t ready at all.
but his readiness never really mattered.
all he knew was he was almost at the place he was destined to call home. even though it had nothing to do with home at all.
—
land appeared all at once.
one moment there was only water, stretching along endlessly in every direction and the next… a dark jagged silhouette rose out of the sea like the spine of some ancient creature, long asleep beneath the waves. stormborn. exactly as the books had described it and yet nothing like what jaeyun was expecting.
the cliffs were completely black.
not dark brown or deep grey but truly black, as though they were carved from cooled dragonfire, even though dragons had been extinct for decades before him. or maybe the cliffs had been soaked in centuries of storms that gave the land its name until the stone forgot what warmth even felt like. they rose like sharp, uneven teeth, stabbing up towards the sky with an indifference that made jaeyun’s heart lurch.
at their crest sat the stronghold.
it wasn’t tall and grand like the sandstone towers of their palace back in lyonesse. it was low, spiralling and fortified, built for a siege. for efficiency instead of eye pleasing, like nothing in his place had any attraction to colour or beauty.
it scared him more than he thought it would.
the wind shifted again, cold, metallic and biting against his face like a reprimand and he realized the crew around him had begun moving with the hurried rhythm of men preparing to dock. coiled ropes were uncoiled and sails were tightened and adjusted. prayers were whispered with more urgency as though something catastrophic could happen between here and the shore.
“your highness,” one of his attendants murmured, almost apologetically, “we… we will be arriving shortly. the royal reception party has been sighted.”
jaeyun’s throat tightened.
he didn’t dare look immediately. instead he inhaled slowly through his nose even though every breath felt too sharp, too clean, too unlike home. he tried to steady the nervous flutter to his heart, tried to remind himself of his mother’s instructions, his father’s distant justification for throwing him away, his brother’s final wordless hug.
he reminded himself he was still a prince.
still sun-kissed.
still sacred, and definitely valuable.
but gods, he felt anything but.
when he finally looked towards the approaching port, the sight hit him hard.
the harbour was not golden or warm or bustling like lyonesse. it was carved directly from the black stone of the cliffs, functional and vast but completely devoid of colour. the wooden planks looked weathered by salt and eternal winter. the piers were reinforced by thick chains and iron beams. a line of armoured guards stood at the edge of the docks, shields strapped to their backs and long spears in their hands, cloaks whipping sharply in the wind.
and at the centre of them all, on a slightly elevated platform stood what jaeyun assumed were the stormborn nobility who had shown up to receive their “promised gift”. he didn’t know which one would be the one he was meant to live alongside, study beside and perhaps grow to resent for the rest of his years. he didn’t know which of these people would have authority over him, judge him in ways he wouldn’t be able to handle.
but his eyes found one figure almost immediately.
he stood tall – and noticeably so – with hair dark as the cliffs behind him, pulled back loosely as though he had no care for appearing overly polished. his cloak was black, lined with silver wolf fur that framed his shoulders and made him look broader than the guards around him, even though he looked like he had a lean build. his posture was relaxed but undeniably commanding, a presence that drew the eye instinctively.
even from this distance, jaeyun could see his expression was unreadable. not cold – just controlled and observant. it was the kind of gaze that missed nothing, not even a reflex or a blink.
something in jaeyun’s stomach tightened painfully.
he didn’t know who that man was but he felt, with a certainty that unsettled him, that this was not someone who would be impressed by his golden skin or expensive silks or even a title that lost most of its worth across the narrow sea.
one of the attendants leaned closer, voice small.
“the tall one in the centre,” she whispered, thankfully, “that’s the eldest prince, heeseung.”
heeseung.
the name flowed off his tongue easier than he expected.
this was the one who had newly come of age – one and two decades. the one stormborn who had apparently deemed jaeyun not worthy to marry, but somehow valuable to demand all the same.
jaeyun swallowed, fingers curling tighter around the railing until the salt-weathered wood dug into his palms through the fabric of his gloves.
so that’s him.
the ship lurched slightly as the crew prepared to dock, the ropes thrown and caught with sharp commands, echoing off the proximity of the black stone. jaeyun forced himself to straighten, lifting his chin the way his etiquette instructors had drilled into him since childhood. the wind tugged at the long golden ribbons he’d tied into his hair, pulling strands loose from the typical southern hairdo he’d carefully arranged it in. he resisted the urge to fix them.
appearance mattered.
well, everything mattered now.
as the ship drew closer, jaeyun felt the air thicken with tension, an invisible pressure he couldn’t name. it wasn’t hostile. it simply felt like he was giving a test. there were unfamiliar eyes watching from the docks. some curious, some bored. some openly scrutinizing his silks, his posture and his obvious foreignness.
and all the while, the crown prince continued to stare back at the ship, unflinching and unreadable.
when the hull finally scraped against the dockside and the gangplank was lowered, jaeyun felt the world tilt again, not from the ship but from the weight of this moment pressed into his shoulders. his home was gone. and every step here on would define if he turned his life into something worth living.
“your highness,” the same attendant from before said, “it is time.”
jaeyun gave a little sharp nod.
he stepped forward, towards the gangplank, towards the waiting eyes of the prince whose expression he couldn’t decipher.
the plank shuddered beneath him.
not visibly – it didn’t sway like a rope bridge or even creak in warning but jaeyun felt the tremor through the soles of the heels he’d been in since he felt home as though the wood itself knew that these steps mattered. perhaps it was only his imagination. perhaps the tremor he felt was just his pulse echoing too loudly in his chest. but the moment his feet hit the hard stone, something inside him curled up tight.
don’t fall here.
don’t falter.
don’t show fear.
the rules swarmed his mind, his mother’s voice echoing in his head again. he could suddenly hear too many voices. too many expectations from the people he left back home and he wished stupidly, that for once, the voice in his head would just be his.
the wind caught his cloak as he descended, snapping it behind him in sharp restless gusts. he kept his chin high, but his throat felt tight. it wasn’t from emotion, no. not even from fear. but from an instinct he didn’t have a name for. something deep and ancestral, something that recognized this land as more of a threat than a welcome.
the world seemed to go quiet around them.
not literally, of course. waves still crashed somewhere behind him, gulls called overhead, the metal clink of armour clinked as guards shifted weight. but most of those sounds felt muffled to him, distant as though they were swallowed by the pressure of the eyes fixated on him. stormborn eyes.
he didn’t look at them. not fully. instead, he let his gaze settle somewhere near the horizon, as though he was unfazed, like his gait was practiced, like this wasn’t the first time he was setting foot in foreign soil. like this wasn’t the longest he’d ever been away from home.
but he felt the scrutiny.
the way the very stone and atmosphere seemed to judge him.
his golden silks and ribbons were too bright here. too soft. too out of place. it was almost like a bird had gotten lost in a land where only wolves were supposed to survive.
when he finally looked up, like truly looked up from whatever hole he was digging himself into… the crown prince hadn’t taken his eyes off him.
for one unbearable heartbeat, jaeyun forgot how to breathe.
prince heeseung was even more imposing up close. not only tall, although gods, he was tall, but solid, broad-shouldered and built like someone carved by wind rather than raised by tutors. his black hair, now that he was this close, had streaks of silver in it. it had nothing to do with age, but perhaps fur which broke away from his cloak. his jaw was sharp and his gaze even sharper. but somewhere under that there was a kind of beauty that jaeyun would only imagine reading about in novels.
his look wasn’t dismissive or mocking.
it was just unreadable.
as though jaeyun were a problem he had already begun solving in his mind.
jaeyun tried to breathe through the layers of his own scent veiling, but heeseung’s presence pushed at his senses like a pressure change. alphas felt different in Stormborn, almost earthy, unhidden and grounded. it made jaeyun’s chest flutter with instinctive caution.
an older alpha man with an oddly strong scent, stepped forward from heeseung’s right. he had a weathered look, wearing a heavy steel pauldron engraved with the stormborn symbol. he spoke loud enough that the entire dock heard him loud and clear as he announced him.
“second prince jaeyun of lyonesse. sun omega of the eight petals and bearing of the sand-crown lineage. presented from the south to his highness, crown prince heeseung.”