Chapter Text
The heir apparent to Bladefrost Kingdom enters the almost empty throne room in the dead of night, in the midst of a snowstorm. Kyungsoo hears his footsteps, heavy and dragging, like the footsteps of a wounded animal, and two more behind him, one set light as the brush of a breeze, the other set slow and deliberate, surprisingly quiet despite the armor.
The prince does not forget his manners, offering a deep bow of respect and barely wincing when the action makes a new blood-red flower bloom on his white shirt. The other two quickly lower one knee and lower their heads, following their master’s lead.
“Your Majesty,” his voice is soft and melodious, Kyungsoo notices, “I have humbly come to request asylum.” He stares for a long time without speaking; the crimson stain deepens, unable to bear the strain of the prince’s bent waist.
He can more or less guess what happened to the Bladefrost Kingdom—assassination attempts are hardly uncommon among royalty, and with the current king in frail health it was only a matter of time until the different factions entered into a war of succession, even with an heir apparent declared.
He snaps his fingers, and his trusted aide Jongin appears with the royal physician in tow. “Granted,” he announces, leaning back to watch the almost-imperceptible shaking of those pale hands as the prince lifts his head to meet Kyungsoo’s eyes. He’s seen those eyes shine an eerie blue before, when the other man had channeled a wave of frost-infused mana to drive back monsters during a hunting festival. They’re glowing now, too, an unnatural blue that makes him look like a deity descended to earth… Kyungsoo finds himself looking again at the bleeding wound and it clicks.
“Yixing,” he calls the royal physician’s name, eyes still fixed on the growing pool of red marring white cloth. “Take care of him.” Jongin grabs both the physician and the injured prince by the wrist and the three of them disappear from sight. The two knights left behind are ostensibly alarmed and level accusing glares at him. He doesn’t miss the way their hands automatically reach for the hilt of their swords.
Kyungsoo sighs. “I sent them to the infirmary,” he finally says, taking pity on them. “Your prince is far safer here than he would be in his own country.” The knight in heavy armor stiffens, while the other one’s lips curl ever so slightly in a frown, one hand clenching into a fist.
They follow behind him as he exits the throne room with nary a word from their lips. Jongin is waiting just outside, teleportation spell one syllable away from activation. At Kyungsoo’s nod, a magic circle lights up beneath their feet and in a blink of an eye they’re in a completely different wing of the palace. The two knights immediately run to the prince’s bedside.
Junmyeon’s eyes are closed, jacket and shirt off to expose a slender neck and fair skin marred only by a fatal stab wound on his lower back. The edges of the broken skin are covered in rime, a testament to how the prince had continuously used frost magic as first-aid treatment. Yixing’s magic will knit the skin back together and heal the damage caused by forcibly freezing the wound, but it will take time. Judging from the speed they’d arrived, the trio must have run their horses ragged, stopping only for resupply of provisions lest they be caught by the assassins. There are dark circles under the prince’s eyes, and his lips are chapped and dry from the biting cold. His cheeks are an unhealthy red from windburn, unlike the soft pink they’d been suffused with before.
To his left, Yixing politely coughs. Kyungsoo gives him a puzzled glance.
“If Your Majesty is done appreciating the view,” the royal physician murmurs, amusement making his voice airier than usual, “is there anything about his injury you’d like to ask?” Kyungsoo purses his lips and ignores the playful jab. Junmyeon clearly had no qualms running to his kingdom for asylum, so he’ll definitely answer any questions Kyungsoo has about what caused the wound in the first place.
Still, it would be easier to plan for contingencies if Yixing gives him a timeline. “How long before he’s up and about?” Yixing holds up three fingers.
“Three days if he stays in bed and rests like he should.” Kyungsoo chuckles. Though the only times he’s seen Junmyeon are during hunting season, he highly doubts the prince will obediently lie down just because he’s told to. The heir apparent is stubborn enough to not have gotten a serious injury treated if he hadn’t literally been bleeding out. He does admire the first prince’s sheer strength of will, even if he doesn’t approve of it.
After ascertaining their master’s safety, the two knights position themselves at the entrance of the infirmary. The royal physician leans in and lowers his voice so he won’t be heard. “But are you serious about granting asylum?” A click of the tongue. “You know Bladefrost won’t let this go so easily.” Yixing pats his shoulder with a crooked grin. “Well, you know where to go when the enemy injures you.”
Kyungsoo smiles back grimly. “Let them try.” Coalhaven isn’t called a fortress city for nothing; as a prime location for the mining of precious stones and minerals, his forebears had prioritized the construction of solid defense mechanisms to protect their resources from invaders, and had eventually positioned it as the kingdom’s capital. Naturally, the descendants of the royal family had magic fine-tuned to utilize the fortress city to its fullest in order to repel enemy attack. Kyungsoo is no different, although he’d been from a distant branch family and initially removed from the line of succession. His senses extend throughout the city and beyond, alerting him to every living presence that enters.
Let the audacious younger princes and their hired cutthroats come if they dare, he thinks. As Earthbound Kingdom’s monarch, he would definitely show them a proper welcome.