Chapter Text
The dead started rising on a perfectly ordinary day. Or, maybe, during the stormy tail-end of the week before it, given that the cemetery was a good full day away from the capitol on foot and the dead seemed to enjoy aimlessly strolling around and disorganized movement. Chan wasn’t even around at the town to witness what happened when the realization first hit, but he heard enough from the quickly spreading news.
People who were believed to be dead for – sometimes months, sometimes years and decades – were suddenly at the main square or at the pasture, chaotically roaming around; sometimes speaking nonsense, sometimes laughing and giving out hugs to relatives, sometimes throwing in violent punches. Their behaviour was inexplicable but at the same time, so was their presence among the living, so that made sense in Chan’s head.
It also tore him apart. His already difficult sleeping schedule became nonexistent as he stared up at the ceiling at night, hoping and fearing and anticipating and dreading seeing the face of his mother among the villagers. Or worse, that of his sister. He wondered suddenly if burning the body of Sana and their unborn child had really been for the best – but at the same time, he was secretly glad he didn’t have to fear going through the pain of their loss again. Chan could hear his soldiers cry at night in the barracks and he knew he wasn’t the only one tormented by complicated feelings.
The main consensus was that the dead were there and they were there to stay. They didn’t act as normal people did and had sudden bursts of violence that made them dangerous, and thus, the living had to keep away. That was the advise of the castle mage. His underlings, among which Seungmin – the only one Chan knew by name – had investigated the dead and had come to the same conclusion: something very, very unnatural was going on, something no mage had seen before, and weariness was for the best. The castle mage’s advise had been adopted by the King as well, in an address to the people.
The crypts within the fortress lagged behind but caught up eventually. Luckily for the crowned prince, that happened when Chan was within the tall walls of the capitol.
“I still think we should do more. We have two hundred soldiers in the barracks and we’re using them to – what? Build old-fashioned walls and cells. They’re trained soldiers! They can fig–”
“The King is avoiding a fight,” Seungmin cut him off and Chan frowned.
“You heard the reports – this is happening all over the kingdom. It’s not localized to the capitol. It’s a global –”
“We still haven’t heard from the Kingdom of Enh–”
“And if they've all perished at the hand of the dead, you’ll never hear of them!” Chan snapped and moved to stand in front of Seungmin, who glared at him hotly as if they were enemies. Chan took in a deep breath, knowing the mage was… peculiar. “It’s global. And it’s getting worse, there are more and more complaints and reports of violence! Diseases are spreading and erecting a wall doesn’t solve the problem, only postpones it!”
“The mage council hasn’t ever heard of this happening! These – these creatures that we’re seeing – their souls are twisted. Not normal. We don’t know what we are dealing with and we don’t know how they will react to an attack –”
“So the solution is doing nothing then?” Chan countered and Seungmin sighed, stepping aside and continuing on his way.
“If you can meet with Death and command him to take the souls back into his domain, be my guest. And if not – we will wait until new knowledge is unlocked.”
Chan clenched his fists and watched him go, deciding against following the mage and continuing this useless debate. The King had already given his last word, which followed the castle mage’s opinion: wait, build walls and protect the people, mobilize the citizens in all villages of the kingdom to also do so, and do not engage.
With a sigh Chan stomped off towards the gardens of the fortress. It was the shortest path to the stables and also the most beautiful. And these days, he could do with something pleasing to the eyes and soul.
As he was passing near the late queen’s fountain, Chan paused and squinted. The Crowned Prince was sitting on the marble, staring up as he talked to a woman – to not just any woman – he was talking to –
Chan sprinted.
“Your Highness, step aside!” he yelled as he approached. The Prince turned to face him with wide eyes, and so did the woman – an exact copy of the marble bust in the fountain. Within a split moment, she was pushing the Prince backwards into the water and Chan strained his feet to run faster. “Get off!” he snapped at the woman and bodily pulled her away from the fountain where her hands were still holding the Prince under water. He placed a leg behind her knees and pushed her chest to get her on the ground and then turned to grab the Prince’s arm. “Your Royal Highness, are you alright?”
The Prince was gasping and spitting out water, hanging onto Chan’s hand as a lifeline as Chan pulled him up and out, dragging him further out of the dead woman’s range. “My – my mother was here – did you – my mother!” Chan turned around as he felt the weight of his hip lessen and before he knew it, there was a sword through his chest. He coughed and met the eyes of the late Queen, who was staring back blankly. “No! Mother!”
“Stay down,” Chan hissed and pressed the Prince back down by the head before quickly pulling a knife out of his belt and sticking it through her throat. “I’m sorry,” he whispered and pushed the knife further in, closing his eyes as she gurgled and the Prince behind him sobbed out.
The now double dead woman leaned forward atop him and Chan held her up despite the screams of his body, not about to disrespect the late Queen.
“Your Royal Highness!” There were yells and loud footsteps and the royal guard was finally doing their damn job, but Chan’s head was no longer there. His vision blurred and with every breath, he felt the blade of the sword move around his organs. With a wince, he freed a hand to pull on his cape and heard it tear at the back. He blanketed his front, the bloodied tunic and the corpse, and nodded at one of the royal guards.
“Take the Prince inside. Maybe to the medic – he probably inhaled water,” Chan said and swallowed down blood. Unsuccessfully, if the look of horror on the Prince’s face was anything to go by.
“My – my mother –”
“You know it’s not her, your Royal Highness,” Chan said and took a step back, the body leaning on him with dead weight making it hard to stay upright. She was leaning on the hilt of the sword too. Chan grimaced. “Bring him in,” he said with more heat this time and two of the guards started dragging the protesting Prince away. The last one hesitated.
“General Bang, is this –”
“Send someone to collect her body,” he said and finally let her crumble to the ground as the Prince got out of sight. Chan stepped back and gripped the hilt of the sword. His own sword, too, damn it.
“General –”
“Just go,” he ordered and the man bowed a little before turning away. “And seal off the royal crypt!” The man looked over his shoulder as he jogged to give him a nod and continued.
Chan withdrew to the shadows of one of the cherry trees nearby and leaned against it with every intention of dying there. It was – it was finally his time. He’d buried his whole family, he’d buried whatever chance he’d had of creating a family. He was a General, sure, but he slept, ate, fucked and shat in the barracks, his only job being training troops and leading them to battle every year or so when needed. He wasn’t leaving anything behind and death was… a mercy. Something he'd been secretly craving for for years now.
Perhaps he could even meet Death. Ask him to take his souls back. Chan would’ve loved to see the look on Seungmin’s face when he fixed the whole issue singlehandedly.
He did see Seungmin’s face.
Chan didn’t remember falling asleep but he awakened in the infirmary with Seungmin and the castle mage sitting on the closest cot, watching him with furrowed eyebrows. Chan sat up, looking down at his chest and the now no-longer bleeding but still raw-looking and painful wound and then turned to stare at the two mages. He blinked and they did too and the silence stretched for a long time.
“I’m still alive?” he croaked out after a while and the castle mage nodded while Seungmin’s frown deepened and he looked down at his hands where a book was open – he’d obviously been reading prior to Chan’s awakening. Why did he awaken? How!? He’d been fatally wounded by, weirdly enough, the already dead Queen and there was no way he lived. Chan gasped as a sudden realization hit him. “I can’t die, can I? It’s not just the dead becoming alive again. The living can’t go to the Underworld, can they?”
“This is the working theory given that you are still among us despite life-ending injuries,” the castle mage answered quietly and Chan nodded.
“How is that possible?”
“We believe that Death is no longer in his domain.” Chan tilted his head in confusion and Seungmin rolled his eyes.
“He’s not doing his job. Collecting souls and keeping them in the Underworld. We have conducted a quick survey in the past few hours and there also doesn’t seem to have been any deaths in the town for… a few weeks at the very least now.” Chan nodded slowly, mind running.
“I’ll still die, won’t I? Once… Once this whole situation is resolved?”
“You are supposed to be dead, General Bang,” the castle mage answered plainly, one of his hands playing with his beard. “Once the balance to the scales is restored and Death resumes the collection of souls, yours will be among the first to be taken.” Chan licked his dry lips and nodded again.
“If that happens,” Seungmin muttered darkly, and received a sharp look from his mentor. “His Majesty the King has summoned you to his private chambers when you are ready for it,” the mage said in a louder voice and the castle mage stood up from his seat slowly.
“It may feel as though you have been robbed from the release of death, General Bang, but take it as an opportunity. Your soul is bright still, you are meant to do and achieve more than what you’ve had the chance to so far.” The old mage bowed a little and Chan immediately did too and then watched him walk away, Seungmin hot on his tail.
Mere minutes later Chan walked down to the King’s chambers. The wound in his chest stung and pulled as he moved but he wasn’t about to spend more time than he had to in the quiet and dimly lit infirmary, alone with his thoughts, so on his way he went. Not like he could make the King wait, anyway.
“Your Majesty,” Chan said as he got to one knee and bowed.
“Rise, General Bang.” Chan’s eyes met those of the old King and he was surprised to receive a smile. “I hear you gave your own life to save my son’s. That is a trade I must commend and express my gratitude for.”
“I was just doing my job, Your Majesty.”
“You were acting as a King’s Guard more than those of the rank,” the King said with a raised eyebrow but Chan didn’t react. The King huffed and gestured him closer. Chan realized suddenly they were alone. Apart from the two guards stationed outside the door, there was no other soul within a hundred meters or more. “I know you have already given your life for this Kingdom, but I must ask one more thing of you, General Bang. You will be handsomely rewarded at the end – or, well, someone of your choice will inherit the reward.” Chan clenched his teeth at the reminder and cleared his throat.
“What is it, Your Majesty?”
“I want you to take my son and hide.” Chan blinked.
“I don’t understand…”
“The capitol is a dangerous place. We have the crypt, we have the most populated town of the Kingdom right below these walls, and the largest cemetery just a few kilometers away. Both as a King and as a father, I want Jeongin far away. Until this… problem is solved, he must stay safe, so that he can continue the rule of this Kingdom when the time comes.” That sounded an awful lot like the King was admitting defeat. Already deciding there was no hope. Chan stepped closer.
“Your Majesty, if I may – I killed the – I killed your – I killed the late Queen. Again. The dead can die! We can mobilize the –”
“She rose again.” Chan’s eyes widened, surprised. “We have since burned her remains.”
“So there is still a way to –”
“General Bang, we will not start a war against our own deceased and lose our living unnecessarily. A fight has already been discussed and rejected,” the King said sternly and Chan bowed his head, looking at the lush carpet with a clenched jaw. “I will remain here, to take care of my subjects – both living and dead – alongside the castle mage, who has been consulting the mage council and looking for a solution. And you will take Prince Jeongin away to a safe ground, so that our future is guaranteed. Do you understand me?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“I will have the mage Kim Seungmin accompany you as well. It will be wise to keep in contact, and for you to have help of more spiritual nature, if needed.” Chan nodded curtly, knowing this wasn’t a request, and was dismissed with the command to depart in the morrow.
—
Chan went to the barracks for the night, to say goodbye to his soldiers, to speak to his second-in-command and now official General, and to collect his very few personal items. To say farewell to the place too, since it had become his home over the years.
He barely slept, but that wasn’t an unusual event, and by the time the sun rose, he was atop his stallion and leaving the town with two more horses at his side. Seungmin rode calmly by him, even when the party escorting them to the forest had to resort to violence to keep the wandering dead away. Prince Jeongin, on the other hand, looked traumatized and shaky, and Chan felt pity for the poor boy.
Barely an adult, being lead away from all he knew, and just recently almost murdered by his supposedly dead mother.
It was quiet for a long time as they stepped into the forest and marched on, and Chan pulled on the reigns to get his stallion to walk closer to the Prince’s mare. “I am truly sorry for what you had to witness yesterday, Your Royal Highness.” The Prince nodded. Chan waited for a reply but when nothing came, he licked his lips. “I understand you may be reluctant to leave the safety of the fortress, Your Royal Highness. But His Majesty –”
“Please call me Jeongin,” the Prince interrupted and their eyes met briefly. “You almost lost your life saving mine, and now we’re – we’re far away from the ceremonies of the crown.”
“That doesn’t strip you of your title,” Chan reminded and avoided using an address, still trying to gauge the situation.
“The likelihood of soon having no Kingdom to rule over does,” the Prince retorted dryly and Chan blinked, sharing a look with Seungmin over the Prince’s shoulder.
“Jeongin, the Kingdom will remain standing. Your father –”
“My father is with the people, taking care of them,” the Prince interrupted the mage. Chan watched the two openly. “And I’m running away like a coward! My place is there – with him, with them!”
“You’re not running, you are reluctantly relocating on horseback,” Seungmin pointed out and Chan sent him a look of disbelief.
“Jeongin,” he said clumsily before the Prince could reply and that got the young man’s attention. “We will not go far away. We will be near for when we are needed, but until that moment comes, I agree it is for the best that the future King of the land remains well-protected. There is no use in exposing you to unnecessary danger when one competent ruler is already taking care of the situation, is there?”
The Prince remained silent for a few seconds and then there was a quiet, “Where are we going anyway?”
“I have a… friend out in the forest.” Though knowing Changbin and his reclusive way of life, Chan wasn’t too sure if friend was the appropriate title or even if they were going to be allowed to stay. “He’s a kind man, saved my life once. Lives far away from the rest of the villages – and cemeteries – in the area and is a competent hunter. We can lay low with him, I’m sure.”
“You’re sure? You haven’t spoken to him to confirm?” Seungmin asked loudly, looking at Chan as if he was daft.
“I was told to figure out a safe house ten hours ago, Seungmin. I did what I could,” Chan snapped and then took a deep breath. He had to stop getting riled up so easily; he was going to spend the next… who knew how long with the young men, and had to learn to live with them. “As I said, he’s a kind man. He wouldn’t turn us away.” Seungmin made a face but nodded.
The horses couldn’t go very fast in the thick forest and the Prince and mage weren’t used to long travels, so they had to set up camp at a field to rest and sleep, but by night fall of the following day, they reached Changbin’s cabin and got turned away.
“Please, Changbin,” Chan pleaded quietly and looked towards the Prince and Seungmin, still on horse back, a few meters away. The scowling muscular man tried to close the door in his face again but Chan continued pushing against it and even slipped a foot in to keep it open. “Please, we need your help. Not just me, the Crown –”
“I really don’t care about the Crown, Chan. Go away,” Changbin grit out.
“Then just do me a favour, okay? I know you don’t like people, but we didn’t have a choice. We need a safe place for the Prince –”
“I don’t do favours, I’m sorry.” That was a lie, but Chan decided to switch tactics.
“How about a deal then?” Changbin hesitated and Chan grinned a little. “Just let us in and we’ll talk. I assume you’re not fully up-to-date with what’s going on out there. But I can – I can promise you all the gold you can’t even imagine!” The King did say Chan was going to obtain a handsome reward and, well, Chan was also going to die so…
“No gold,” Changbin said quietly after a beat and pulled the door open wider. “We’ll talk about that later. Tell your guys they can come in.” Chan grinned and nodded, waving at the Prince and Seungmin.
The Prince walked past him first and greeted Changbin, but Chan didn’t hear the rest of the conversation, because Seungmin pulled at his arm to bring him closer. “Something is wrong with this man!” he hissed in Chan’s ear and before Chan could process that, the mage was storming in, finger pointed at the shortest man in the room. “What are you!?”
“What?” Changbin asked in confusion, eyes flickering to Chan’s face as he stepped into the cabin as well. Chan shook his head with a shrug but before he could say anything, Seungmin continued.
“You’re not to be trusted! There is a shadow to your soul!”
“What are you on about?” Changbin demanded, suddenly looking angry, and Chan stepped in between the two before Seungmin got them kicked out.
“Woah, what was that, Seungmin? You can’t just tell people that,” he said calmly and gave Changbin a side smile over his shoulder.
“There’s something off about him,” the mage snapped back and stepped closer to Changbin, bringing him chest-to-chest with Chan. “Reveal yourself!”
“Get out of my face!”
“Okay, okay, let’s calm down, shall we? Sorry, I’ll handle this,” he told Changbin and turned to Seungmin. “Stop attacking the guy providing you with shelter and a bed,” Chan hissed lowly and Seungmin gave him a betrayed look.
“There is something wrong with his soul and his aura! He’s – he’s human, I think, but… Not fully. He could be one of them!” Seungmin snapped back and Chan blinked, stealing a look backwards at where Changbin was pouring the Prince a cup of wine. He didn’t seem any different from the Changbin he’d met three years prior, but Chan wasn’t a mage; anything beyond the physical realm was out of his reach and understanding.
“Okay, thank you, Seungmin. I’ll keep an eye on him, okay?” Seungmin pursed his lips but nodded and Chan squeezed his shoulder before moving past him to join the other two.
“I was just telling Jeongin – there’s three bedrooms here, so one of us has to take the floor or we share,” Changbin said as he faced Chan. He pointedly did not look in Seungmin’s direction and Chan couldn’t blame him, but it did also put him on edge after hearing what the mage had to say.
“I’ll take the floor here, it’s not a problem,” Chan said and Changbin nodded.
“I already finished dinner and it’s too late for me to cook again. If you want, you can use the kitchen, but I’m going to go back to bed.”
There was still food left-over, since they’d packed for a journey longer than the two days it took them to reach the cabin, so that was settled at least. Chan ate quietly while the mage and the Prince whispered about one thing or another, and he almost missed the call of his name until the Prince repeated it louder.
“How did you meet this man?” the Prince asked and Chan cleared his throat.
“There was this rogue problem a few years back. I went out with ten men after what we thought is a handful of bandits, but it turned out there was a lair of dozens. All of my men were killed and I almost died too, but Changbin found me in the forest. He killed my attackers and took me here, tended to my wounds. He’s… a great man below all the gruffness. Just… not very fond of being around people.”
The Prince nodded but Seungmin was still frowning.
In the end, they retired into the two other bedrooms and Chan pulled a bear skin from the back of a chair onto his body as he sprawled on the floor. He sighed. What was he even doing? He was a warrior, a soldier, a General of the royal army, not a… babysitter. He dragged a hand over his face and then remembered the wound on his chest. Now fully painless despite not actually healed.
He wasn’t much of anything anymore; a man running on borrowed time. Maybe a change in pace in his last days was going to be good for him. Maybe whatever awaited in the future was finally going to amount to something. A lot of maybes and not enough sleep.
Chan closed his eyes and tried his best to get lulled into unconsciousness.
—
The crow stationed at the window of the unruly man named Changbin saw him stir in the early morning and flew off, letting out a piercing caw that had Seungmin snapping awake and sitting up in bed. Seungmin licked his dry lips and forced his fast-beating heart to calm as he realized it was already dawn and their host wasn’t about to strike in the dead of the night.
Quietly, the mage got up from the bed and avoided the creaking floorboards, stepping closer to the door. Despite what he’d expected of the way of life of a single man, Changbin’s house had no rats, and the two spiders in the corner of the main room were earless and thus useless when it came to eavesdropping. So Seungmin found himself doing the work manually for the first time in a long while. He pressed his ear against the wooden door and listened in as Changbin went out of his bedroom and into the main room.
Chan hadn’t been awake as of yet but a groan alerted Seungmin to his wakening. “I’d like to know why the Crowned Prince is hiding in my cabin,” Changbin said, his voice muffled through the door. “Is the Royal Guard going to knock down my door for it?”
“No, the whole point is keeping him away from the fortress and everyone around it,” Chan replied, his voice rough with sleep. Seungmin could barely understand him and he decided to risk it and quietly slip out of the room and listen in from the corridor. “You really don’t know what’s going on out there, do you?”
“You’re making it sound real bad, so I’m not even sure I want to know…” There was a squeak of a chair and Seungmin assumed Changbin took a seat. Another chair was dragged along the wooden floor. Chan.
“Man… It’s not good. The – the dead have risen.” There was a silence and Seungmin had to peek around the corner to catch a glimpse of the bulky man’s face. He looked like he’d seen a ghost – and perhaps he had. Seungmin’s eyes narrowed as he tried to get a good reading on Changbin.
“What?” Changbin asked quietly, but it didn’t seem like he was surprised and in need of an explanation. He was just shocked. Seungmin’s bad feeling only grew deeper.
“People who have died come back to life. Just like that. Not only that: people who die keep living. It seems like their souls just don’t get collected. We don’t know –”
Seungmin quickly slipped into his room before Changbin could see him as the man stormed onto the veranda out front. Seungmin moved to discreetly open his window a fraction and sat down by it. He could hear a lighter and knew Changbin had lit a cigarette.
“You okay, man?” Chan asked as he exited the house as well. “Have you maybe seen someone –”
“You offered a trade, right?” Changbin interrupted and there was a small pause. “You three can stay here. And even more than that, I can – I can get you in contact with – with someone. He can help you. But in return – once this is over, I’m collecting my payment, okay? And you can’t refuse – you’ve already agreed.”
“Sure, of course. What is it? Are you sure you don’t want –”
“I need you to help me die.” Seungmin blinked, taken aback.
“What?” Chan asked, voicing Seungmin’s question out loud.
“I can’t deal with this any longer. I just want it to be over. I need you to find a way to get it done.” There was another pause and Chan made a noise, but Changbin spoke over him, “You promised.”
“Alright,” Chan said through his teeth and the conversation was over. Chan went back inside if his heavy footsteps didn’t lie, and Seungmin was left contemplating.
Chan’s soul had a dimness to it these days, too, now that he thought about it. He was supposed to be dead, he was by all definitions dead and only kept together by the fact that his soul never left the body. That tended to leave a mark. Changbin’s soul casted a shadow, it was different, but perhaps… Perhaps the two were connected. Perhaps he was also somehow a victim of the circumstances they all found themselves in.
Seungmin got up and opened the window wider, poking his head outside. Changbin startled and looked at him with wide eyes, then sighed and leaned back against the wall.
“You’ve also been kissed by Death, haven’t you?” Changbin looked at him for a few seconds and then laughed, but it felt forced.
“Oh, we didn’t stop at just a kiss,” the man said and put out his cigarette, throwing it in the almost overflowing bucket by the door. Seungmin watched him enter the house again and frowned. Changbin was an odd creature.
And he didn’t stop exhibiting peculiar behaviours: the three of them ate breakfast while Changbin spent the time baking cookies. Seungmin struggled to figure him out. Once that was done, they all set off on a journey by foot.
“So, where are we going exactly?” Jeongin asked after a while and Changbin’s shoulders stiffened.
“A good summoning ground. I’m sure your mage friend can tell you more,” he said as his pace quickened.
“Summoning ground?” Chan repeated quietly just as Jeongin chuckled.
“I’m the next King of Miroh, I’m educated in the art of magic,” he informed Changbin and then met Seungmin’s eyes. The Prince gave him a small smile, the dimples just barely showing up, and Seungmin tried to return it awkwardly. “A summoning ritual can only be executed on specific grounds, depending on the type of spirit you wish to summon,” Jeongin provided for Chan and then turned to Seungmin again. “I thought you need quite a lot of ingredients for a summoning ritual?”
“You do,” Seungmin trailed off and they both looked at Changbin again but the man didn’t offer more details. They didn’t speak until they reached the supposedly good summoning ground.
Once Seungmin stepped foot on the open field, he couldn’t help but gasp. The mossy grass was wet with moisture and the field ended some hundred meters away where a picturesque waterfall loudly crashed against rocks and gave birth to a stream. The surrounding trees were lush with fruit and lianas and the meadow itself held a number of mushrooms arranged in a circle. Seungmin could almost hear the heartbeats of numerous creatures, out of sight now that humans trespassed, but usually rustling around.
The place was the literal definition of life, bountifulness and fertility, and Seungmin could almost feel the magic bounce within it.
“Are you okay?” Jeongin asked quietly and Seungmin nodded.
“It’s a really good summoning place,” he admitted begrudgingly and Changbin smirked in his direction before crouching by a few mushrooms. He lay down a couple of cookies on a handkerchief and dug in his vest pocket. Chan stepped closer with curiousity and Seungmin followed suit. A small wooden trinket was placed down by the food and then Changbin held a knife to his hand. “This is spirit magic! How do you know of it?”
“Which spirit are you summoning?” Jeongin asked with a note of excitement as Changbin placed a few drops of blood in the grass.
“Wait, are you guys for real?”
“We’re in a place of abundance and flourishing life, he can only summon a spirit of life here,” Seungmin explained to Jeongin who nodded.
“Are you actually going to summon something – something non-human here? Are you serious!?” Chan repeated and Seungmin rolled his eyes.
“Why did you think we needed a suitable summoning place?”
Jeongin – who was a lot more patient and kind – turned to the soldier. “I believe we will indeed summon a spirit, a spirit of life to be specific. They help maintain one part of the Balance. They facilitate the birth of new life, the progression of seasons, the creation of art. Just everything that has to do with creating and living! Oh, sometimes they can appear in animal form! So maybe we should also keep an eye out for that.” Jeongin seemed happier than he had been in a few days now and Seungmin was glad to see it, but also once again wary of Changbin. “I’m so happy that I’ll get to meet a spirit!”
“I don’t understand. Is that all you are going to do? You didn’t even specify the name of the spirit! You didn’t explicitly warn them against harming us! There are so many violations to the summoning ritual that I think you couldn’t do worse if you actively tried!” Changbin sighed and moved away to sit in the shade, taking out another cookie for himself.
“Oh, but what if a spirit of death comes instead?”
“As your friend just said, they can’t be summoned from a place that is full of life. I know what I’m doing,” Changbin snapped and he seemed on edge all of a sudden. Seungmin narrowed his eyes further.
“Wait, there's spirits of death!?” Chan asked, his voice one pitch higher.
“How do you know what you are doing? Frankly, you seem to have skipped about a dozen steps or perhaps you’re doing a new type of ritual that somehow not a single mage in existence knows and yet the hunter in the cabin in the woods does!” Seungmin was frightened, not that he was going to admit that to the group. He didn’t know what to expect and Changbin continued to act irrationally and inexplicably. Seungmin hated not being on top of the situation.
“Look, only one spirit will answer this call and it’s the one that we’re looking for, so just relax, okay?” Changbin said and that only made Seungmin worry more.
“And which one is that?” Chan asked.
“Life.”
“What?”
“What!? Do you mean The Life?” Jeongin dropped to the grass too, opposite Changbin.
“No. That is impossible,” Seungmin denied immediately. So the guy was just mad! “You can’t summon Life himself. This man is a charlatan!”
Life was the deity of the Overworld, of the living, of life and the Earth. He wasn’t a lowly spirit that bent to the rules of the summons. He was everywhere, everything all at once and Seungmin, along with many other mages, doubted he even existed in a corporeal form. It was a wide-spread belief among the mages of the world that Life was incorporated in all of his workers; not a singular being but the idea of what all spirits of life represented and what they accomplished together. And the same naturally held for Death.
“Just give it a few hours, okay? You have nothing to lose, you’re supposed to sit with your thumbs up your ass in my cabin anyway – you can do it on this nice meadow too.”
Chan seemed to struggle with the idea, jaw clenched and eyebrows narrowed, but he nodded curtly and sat down between Changbin and Jeongin. Seungmin sighed and decided to follow despite his doubts.