CW: Explicit language, self-harm, blood and gore, mentions of s*icide.
The gloaming is dulcet. Vantablack shades and coruscating firelight paint the room fractal.
Jun is standing by his bed, slipping off his black funeral robes. His bandaged back is turned to Rin as the latter steps inside and quietly locks the door behind.
“My father is looking for you,” Jun says, exchanging his formal attire for a loose yellow robe. He ties it casually at the waist, but the collar hangs open, exposing his bandaged chest and clavicle. When he finally turns to face Rin, it’s this area that the raven’s eye is instinctively drawn to. “I would have thought you would be long gone by now.”
“You can’t get rid of me that easily,” Rin hums, a smirk curving his lips. He flicks his eye up to the lord’s detached expression and his own grows cold. “How was the funeral?”
The lord grimaces and sits on the edge of his bed. “Northern funerals are always so theatrical.”
“Theatrical?” Rin narrows his eyes and leans against the door, hands pressed between the small of his back and the mullion. “I thought you’d be more upset. Considering that two kids are dead.”
“I am saddened, of course. What happened was surely a tragedy.” He strokes the side of his neck, as if he were contemplating something. “But I hardly knew the man and his family. It is but another funeral amongst the many.”
“That’s not what Jun would have said,” Rin mutters, quietly.
“Excuse me?”
Rin shakes his head, pushing himself off the door. “It doesn’t matter.”
The little lord pauses, giving the approaching youth a wary look. “Kemi is still alive, by the by. Healer Wu was able to stabilise him. He had been sent to the Clinic for further treatment however.”
“Oh? I’m glad for him.”
“My father is in his office, deliberating what to do with you.”
“Let me guess….the gallows, right?” Rin laughs as he saunters over to Jun’s desk, fingering the books and documents strewn across. “I’m leaving before he can finish ‘deliberating’, anyway.”
“Do as you will, then,” comes the curt response.
Rin’s joints pop as he squeezes the book in his hand, pages bending under his white fingers. He intakes sharply, stifling the anger that spikes with his pulse.
“Have you been dreaming about your mother again?” He slides open a drawer and pokes around.
“What makes you ask?”
“No particular reason. I was curious about what kind of person she was though. From what I’ve heard, she could do nothing wrong.”
“…She tried, at least,” Jun says, stiffly.
“But I’m thinking that’s a lie. I’m thinking…Lady Hwan Jina was nothing but another High District asshole.” Rin turns around, a silver letter opener clutched in his hand. The corner of his mouth tugs up. His singular eye glitters. “A hypocritical bitch who fucked around behind her husband’s back while pretending to be a saint.”
The lord’s pupils constrict to needlepoints. Stark fury engulfs and twists his gaunt features. “Rin,” he rumbles, rising to his feet in a dramatic sweep. “Do not speak about my mother like that.”
“Hwan Jina,” Rin says, jabbing the small blade in the lord’s direction. “Are you gonna keep pretending? Isn’t it exhausting?”
The noble stares at him for a time, his eyes hooded and colour sapped. Slowly, a thin smile crawls across his face. Whoever this person is, Rin can no longer recognise him as his little lord.
“How long have you known?” At once, Rin notices the shift in Jun’s speech. The intonation and accent – delicate curls and a Western lilt.
The raven gives a sharp-toothed grin. He squeezes the handle of the letter opener and sashays towards the possessed body. “When Jun’s fever broke, back in the palace. I knew he wasn’t in control anymore.”
“You are astute, witch.” Jun elongates his spine and raises his chin, both hands coming to clasp demurely across his waist. His posture is that of a noblewoman’s, strong, tall, and with that hint of aristocratic arrogance. “Then you know my intent.”
“Can’t you see how fast he’s deteriorating because of you?”
Jun huffs sharply, hawkish eyes latching onto Rin’s. “When his heart wavered for you, I knew I had to protect him from your venom.”
“And why’s that? What does it matter who his ‘heart wavers’ for?” Those two words are uttered in a sneer, lip curling and flashing his canines.
“It matters because I know you,” Jun monotones, oaken lashes drooping in disdain. “And I know that you will only bring travesty to this House.”
“Travesty? To the House of Hwan?” Rin laughs, pulsing the knife within his clammy palm. “You’re too kind, really. To think I could ruin a House so favoured by the Mother.”
“You have already done so. Must I remind you of the Blue Plains?”
“If anyone’s to blame, blame that fucking blueblood–”
Goldens flash between those lowered lashes. Vitriol flares. “What is your intent with my son? What would satisfy you enough to leave?”
“I have no intent, other than keeping him safe. And nothing more would satisfy me than sending you to the underworld.”
“You wish to keep him safe and yet, because of you, he will be heavily scarred,” Jun says, coolly.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
This incites a raised brow from the raven. He steps ever closer, until they are but a foot apart. “He’ll survive a few scars,” Rin lilts, closing the gap between his and Jun’s face. He can detect the fragrance of incense from the lord’s hair. “I’m doing just fine with worse, aren’t I?”
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“That makes me so happy,” Rin exclaims, grinning widely. “I’ve never been called anyone’s ‘biggest threat’ before. How exciting.” He brushes his lips over Jun’s, feeling the coldness of the other’s lips. The lord flinches back with a sharp intake.
Rin gazes up at him, hellebore like a melted pool of black jelly. “But threat or no, I still have to bring him back. I need my little lord. And you…you are nothing more than the thing standing between us. So…you can just fuck off.”
His hand strikes upwards like a maddened snake. The bloodied blade slashes across his own wrist, sending a gory spray into the air. Intense pain lances. The wound gapes and gushes. He can see sinews and veins–
The knife goes clattering across the ground.
Rin forces mana through every channel in his body. It surges like torrid rapids, draining his core at an alarming speed. But he doesn’t stop. He can’t stop.
Head spinning, he parts his lips and sings the Soulwalker’s Call. The words of arcane rips his flesh apart. Excruciating pain tears through his convulsing form. White light blasts him clear of his ailing body and the final separation is like taking a clean breath after suffocating in muck for eons.
Jun crumbles into an impression of shapes and colours, swirling around, dragging the rest of the world along, until the very maw of midnight consumes the final scraps of the raven’s waning ken.
***
“Your Highness?”
Rin blinks.
A middle-aged woman is gazing at him, brows furrowed. She’s donned an apron and holding a bowl of black medicinal drink.
Rin flinches back in his seat, eyes widening. Wait — eyes?
He brings his hands to his eyes, both eyes, and feels around. They are both present and functional. Yet their shape seems different…more slanted and fox-like.
“Your Highness? Are you well?”
The raven lowers his hands, heart thrumming. He has become so accustomed to limited vision, that everything suddenly appears so vast and clear.
He swallows and glances around, lips twitching as he tries to contain a smile. “I’m fine,” he murmurs and an unfamiliar voice rumbles from his throat.
The Healer sighs and leans over the gaunt man in the bed between them. She slips her hand under the man’s head and helps him take sips of the medicine. “While I am sure His Majesty appreciates your presence, Your Highness would be of no assistance to anyone if you were to neglect your own health.”
Rin stares blankly at the ailing man, who still bears exquisitely beautiful features despite the ravage of sickness. Long black hair pools beneath his head as he drinks, thick lashes fluttering with every laboured swallow. When the Healer gently lays him back down, his complexion is pale and sweat sheens upon his wrinkled brow.
“…What did you call me?” Rin says, suddenly, snapping his gaze back to the woman.
She frowns and straightens up, empty bowl held loosely in one hand. “Your Highness. Is there something else you would rather be called?”
Recognition stirs. “…Ishiki? Ishiki Reo?”
The Healer raises her brows, clearly taken aback. “Yes, Your Highness?”
“Ah…then…this is the imperial palace?” Rin raises himself to his feet and his rich blue robes fall gently around his strong, soaring form. His head spins as he tries to get his bearings. He’d never seen the world from this height before, but somehow, this body feels right. Everything comes naturally to him.
“Yes, Your Highness,” the Imperial Healer replies, looking increasingly alarmed. “I think you should return to your quarters and rest. You are clearly exhausted from tending to His Majesty all night.”
Rin glances at the sick man again, head tilted. Depthless crimson eyes, red rimmed and glassy from fever, steadily gaze back. The raven smiles and nods. “Very well. I will be in my…quarters, then.” And after a pause, “Rest well, imperial father.”
It takes him a while to find a mirror. The third room he tries has a Northern-style vanity and a sprawling bed with decorative pillows. The scent of perfume and powder lingers in the air. The windows have been pushed open to let in a warm breeze, the private garden outside lush with summer blooms and verdant trees. Fragrant petals dance upon the air as they spin and flutter inside.
Rin rushes to the vanity and hunches over to inspect his visage.
A pair of bright blue eyes meet his own, set deep within a sharp, handsome face. The straight nose and generous lips upturned with a permanent shadow of aristocratic arrogance. His long dark hair is pulled up in a ponytail, though loose strands fall like feathers around his face. Daiki. This is the First Crown Prince Hino Daiki.
Rin drops down onto the stool before the vanity, fox eyes wide in disbelief. This isn’t what he’d been expecting when he performed the soulwalking ritual.
“Oh! My apologies.” A soft voice chirps from the doorway.
Rin glances over and sees a stunning Western woman standing in the room with a helpless expression upon her face. Immediately, he recognises her as Lady Hwan Jina.
He rockets to his feet and strides over to her in a mere three steps. Reaching over her head, he slides the door shut with a snap, barring her only exit.
Breathing hard, he glares down at her. She has her head tilted back to reach his eyes, her own round and glistening.
“Hwan Jina,” he begins in a growl. His free hand comes to snatch her throat. “What is this? Why am I the Crown prince? Where’s Jun?”
The lady blinks rapidly, mouth opening and closing silently for a few moments, before she manages a squeak: “Rinnie?!”
Rin jolts and releases Jina’s throat, heart thumping wildly in his chest. “…Jun?”
“Oh gods,” Jina sags against the door, relief stark upon her face. “Rinnie, thank the gods it’s you!”
The raven steps back jerkily, eyes gaping as he stares at Jina’s form. Indeed, it’s clear now that he’s watching her closely. In the way she positions her limbs, as if she were supposed to have a bigger build. In the way she tugs uneasily at her robes. And it’s especially clear in the way she carries herself, with the agile ease and princely poise of the little lord – recognisable as a fingerprint to the Rat.
Jina — or rather, Jun — pushes himself off the door. He smiles radiantly at Rin, eyes alight with sheer relief. “You’re here!” he breathes, gliding towards him. He takes the raven’s hands into his own, the lady’s so slender and tiny in comparison. For once, Rin is the larger of the two, and he can’t say that he doesn’t enjoy it. “But how are you here? And speaking of here, where are we?”
Rin smiles, pleased to see the little lord — his little lord — again. He squeezes those small hands, intertwining their fingers. “I came to find you,” he says, the prince’s deep voice edged with a charming husk. “Jina — your mother — possessed you, Jun. For whatever stupid reason, she’s latched onto you. If I don’t exorcise her soon, you’ll fall into a sleep you won’t ever wake from.”
“You mean to say I will die?” Jun frowns, brows furrowed in concern.
“Not quite. But close enough. Nuwa did tell me that people have died from possessions – so it’s a real possibility.”
“Rinnie…” Jun swallows and tilts his head up to gaze at those sharp blues. He finds himself breathless, as if he were suddenly dropped from a great height. “I…I want to apologise. For how I have been acting. You did not deserve to be treated so poorly–”
“You’re possessed,” Rin says, firmly. He gives the lord a cold smirk. “If there’s anyone who’s gotta apologise, it’s your old lady.”
“But–”
“Jun. Look in the mirror and tell me what you see.” The raven tugs Jun towards the vanity and gestures for him to glance into the mirror.
The little lord blinks at Rin for a moment, before acquiescing to his request. He peers into the mirror, head tilting this way and that as he inspects the lady. Then, after a while, something clicks.
He rears back with a sharp intake, hands coming to his cheeks. “Mother…”
“That’s what I thought. Hwan Jina. And I’m…apparently the first prince. Hino Daiki.” Rin glances down at himself, lips twisting to the side. “Gotta say, the guy is pretty well built. It’s nice being the tall one for a change.” He glances at Jun and drops a hand upon his head. “You only come up to my shoulders!”
Jun flinches under the large palm upon his head. He stares up at Rin, eyes big and depthless.
The Rat suddenly feels hot around the collar and he quickly removes his hand. Despite outwardly being in different forms, somehow Rin easily recognises the little lord, and vice versa. It’s as if they were both donning thin disguises, rather than occupying bodies borne from, what Rin suspects, Jina’s memory.
Regardless, it still feels rather odd. Looking upon Hwan Jina’s visage while experiencing the same affections he does for Jun. Affections. Is that what this is?
Rin scrubs his nape and clears his throat. “A-anyway. We have to figure out where the real Hwan Jina is. Given…our identities, I’m assuming we gotta play her game to find her.”
“Her game?”
“Mn. This isn’t an accident.” He absently raises his fingers to his right eye, grazing the skin just under the waterline. “I think this might be her memory. If we work our way through it, we’ll be able to find her. Or at least figure out why she hasn’t passed on to the underworld.”
Jun frowns, his fine brows knitting together. He touches Rin’s broad chest, pressing his small palm flat against his pulse. “I do not understand…” he breathes, intently studying the raven’s face. “If this is my mother’s memory…why are you the first prince? What relation could he have with my mother?”
“…” Rin purses his lips, uncertainty briefly staying his tongue. “Hwan Jina…she was close with the prince.”
“They knew each other?” Jun blinks up at him, all too trusting.
A light flush crawls across Rin’s cheeks. “They were having an affair.”
The little lord stares at him for what seems like an eon, pupils ticking as if he were trying to discern whether the youth were lying.
Eventually, he puffs out a heavy sigh, head drooping in acceptance. “It is no wonder then, that my father does not speak of her.”
“Yeah…he seemed pretty pissed about the whole thing.”
Jun brings his hands to his cheeks, gingerly touching his mother’s face. His brows crinkle in confusion. “Did my father tell you this?”
“Not quite.”
“Then how–”
“Come on,” Rin interjects, grabbing Jun’s hand. He flashes him a grin and tugs him towards the door. “We gotta figure out where your mother is and send her to the underworld. Unless you enjoy being possessed?”
The lord frowns and follows Rin, taking twice as many steps to Rin’s long strides. “Of course not. It has been a rather painful process.”
“One way of putting it, sure. And I need to keep you alive.” Rin pauses in the hall, glancing down both ends. It’s empty and quiet. A little eerie.
Jun’s cheeks darken. The faintest of smiles graces his lips. “Thank you, Rinnie. I am grateful for your assistance.”
“If I don’t save your ass, who will?” Rin hums, distractedly. “Here, this way.”
They head out onto the palace grounds, where the sun is high and strong in the sweet blue firmament. A light, crisp breeze dances through their hair and across their skin. These details only lends to the reality of this place, making Rin feel quite disorientated.
“Crown Prince.”
A hard chill streaks down Rin’s spine. He spins on his heels and sees the Mother gliding towards him with a group of palace officials following close behind. Even in this memory, which must have occurred at least twenty years ago, the Mother is exactly the same. In demeanour, in form, in the subtle impression of her sharp, exquisite features behind the gossamer veil.
Rin swallows and gives a jerky bow. Jun follows suit, but sinks down lower. Their hands part.
“Your Majesty,” the raven says, Daiki’s baritone vibrates in his chest.
“Lady Hwan Jina. I see that you are keeping my useless son entertained as per usual?” The Mother’s tone is brittle and sharp like broken glass.
Jun blanches and ducks his head, hands gripping the front of his robes. “Your Majesty…” he murmurs, quietly.
Useless son? The raven cocks his head, brow raised in interest. This was the loving relationship between the first prince and the Mother? “Imperial mother, Lady Hwan Jina and I were…ah…simply going for a short constitution in the gardens.” He might be laying on the accent thick here, but the Mother doesn’t seem to be fazed at all by his poor blueblood impersonation.
The Mother raises her chin ever slightly. Rin gets the distinct feeling that she’s looking down her nose at Jun. “Be mindful, my rapacious son. The roses are not so untended to be plucked by thy earnest hand. Those have thorns to wound and draw thy precious blood. Be not swayed by their beguiling petals.”
“Oh, you worry for naught, Imperial mother,” Rin hums, rocking back on his heels with a crooked smile. “I much prefer the flamingo flower to the roses. It has less petals and more…girth.”
“Rin–Your Highness!” Jun whispers sharply, eyes round and cheeks pallid.
“Your avarice will drag you further away from the throne, Crown Prince.” The Empress snaps her sleeve back, the force of her glare piercing even through the veil. “Are you so intent on making me regret your birth?”
“Why? Thinking of bringing another princeling into the family?”
“It should come as no surprise that the Emperor Consort could only produce a defected heir,” the Mother says, impassively. “A man who has barely clung to life from his youth can only serve as an ill omen. And his child, the grim harbinger.”
That must be the sickly man he saw before. Daiki’s father. A flicker of rage, not his own, sears from within. “Why did you take him as your Emperor, then? If he was an ill omen, why have his child?”
“…” The Empress locks her jaw and tilts her head, averting her gaze elsewhere. “An Empress needs an heir. I will be taking on a new Emperor Consort when he dies.” An empty smile crawls across her face. A cruel impression. “He is utterly replaceable. Much like yourself.”
Rin lurches forward, hackles raised, but a warm touch upon his back stops him in his tracks. He exhales sharply and straightens up, tossing his tense shoulders. “I will not keep Your Majesty any longer.” A sharp bow, a final glare, and he’s stalking towards the gardens with a firm grasp on Jun’s hand. He keeps a tight hold, never releasing him, even as the officials start to murmur restlessly amongst themselves.
He doesn’t look back at the Mother and the officials, so he doesn’t see their figures freeze and stiffen. Nor does he notice their flesh becoming hard and coarse like wood, before melting into the soil, travelling through pulsing veins within the ground after their prey…
“Rinnie–wait,” Jun huffs as he’s dragged along, his shorter legs struggling to keep up with Rin’s long strides. “Rinnie…Rinnie…you’re hurting me–”
The raven tears his hand away from Jun’s wrist, breathing hard. He continues pacing but he doesn’t go far, keeping within his little lord’s sights as he struggles to contain this strange, foreign anger.
“…Are you alright?” Jun rubs his sore wrist as he watches the irascible youth warily, fine brows pinched together. “Why are you so angry?”
“I don’t know,” Rin snaps, scrubbing at his brow. “I just feel…bad. Trapped. Like…like I wanna strangle the Mother but I-I just can’t–”
“Rinnie, you mustn’t!”
“I know, godsdamnit!” The youth throws himself onto a bench and hunches over, raking his hands through his hair. “I don’t know how…or why…but I can feel the prince’s emotions. He’s pissed at her. Real pissed. And it has to do with his father.”
Jun visibly hesitates before approaching his friend and sitting beside. He automatically takes Rin’s hand into his own, cupping his gentle touch around those large fingers. “The…the Emperor Consort?”
Tension drains from his shoulders at the lord’s touch. Rin raises his head and glances at his companion, blue eyes like the boundless summer sky. “But this is your mother’s memories, right? So why am I feeling his emotions right now?”
“I am unsure, Rinnie…I will admit, this entire situation is rather bewildering for me. I am still grappling with the fact that my mother was…with the Lost Prince.”
“Lost–?”
“Ah. That is what the first Crown Prince is colloquially known as.”
“…I don’t think he was lost at all.” Rin stares down at their conjoined hands, lips pursed in thought.
“What do you mean?”
“Why is your mother showing us this memory? Why is Hino Daiki so prevalent? It’s because he’s the one she’s sticking around for.”
Jun intakes, eyes growing twofold. “You mean to say that…the reason my mother has not crossed into the underworld…is the first Crown Prince? But I thought she was here for…” He trails off and bites his bottom lip. Brown lashes flutter low on his waterlines, throwing deep shadows into his gaze. “I see. Of course. That makes the most sense.”
“I think that Hino Daiki was killed and Jina knows who did it.” Rin squeezes the lord’s hand and parts their touch, only to pull the smaller body into his own. How strange, yet befitting this sensation is — to have Jun curled so neatly into his side…it sends his heart aflutter like hummingbird wings.
Two big black eyes peer up at him, shimmering with uncertainty. “But who could have killed him? And why?”
“Who gains the most from Daiki’s death?” Rin glances down and raises his brow, giving Jun a pointed look.
But the latter only blinks confusedly. “How could one dare harm a Crown Prince–”
“Who stands to lose the most if Daiki should stay alive? If he and Hwan Jina should continue their little affair?”
Jun stiffens in Rin’s embrace, his expression turned grim and edged with anger. “Rinnie. Surely you are not suggesting that my father is the killer–”
“That’s exactly what I’m suggesting.”
“You know that is simply impossible!” Jun exclaims, wildly. “My father is a Hwan! Do you know what that means? It means that he was born to serve the imperial family with his very life. To harm anyone from the imperial bloodline is the same as rejecting and trodding on the House of Hwan. Generations of devotion and loyal service, all destroyed in one blow.” He shakes his head, gripping the front of Rin’s robes with both hands, knuckles white. “My father would rather die than hurt the Crown Prince. The fact that he is still alive serves as proof of his ongoing loyalty.”
“Why do you trust him so much?” Rin frowns, tightening his hold around Jun’s squirmy form. The latter winces and stills, as if he were caught in the snare of a boa constrictor. “The guy barely looks at you–”
“I know my father,” Jun says, firmly. Clearly. “Who you think he is, is pure conjecture from a fragment of what you have seen.”
“And you know him any better?” Rin sneers, unkindly. “You think you know your father more than I do? You must be out of your fucking mind, little lord.”
“Out of my mind? Why, because I am prone to trusting people in good faith–?”
The lord jolts and glances down at his foot. A vine curls around his ankle in a painful grip. Hardly has his mind processed such a sight, when the vine violently yanks him off the bench and onto the grass, dragging him into the pulsing maw of a hulking creature. A grotesque writhing mass of bioluminescent flora, sentient, alive, and hungry.
I was about to reach the end while thinking ph look, not so much pain today
… I’m afraid the next chapters are gonna be painful again T_T
I hope everything will eventually turn out to the better hugs my two dumb bois
Thank you for the chapter!! ❤️❤️
UHUHUHUHUHUHUUU there may or may not be pain in the next chapter~~ ^3^
Thank you for reading Dondonnnn!! <33
What a good recipe for chaos…
Ohh there’s gonna be SO MUCH chaos 😂 Thank you for reading Clozed!! <33