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It was a good time in the Ling Ling Kingdom. The spring had bloomed, the air was fresh, and the peace reigned, as did the magic. King Ray Chen of the Ling Ling Kingdom had just ascended to the throne, a couple of years back. As his parents before him, he was not that focused on the reign, peace times were a bit boring. That is why he consciously left the reins to his group of advisors: the Elder Wizards. They were a group of Wizards who had kept themselves at the king’s right hand throughout centuries. They were the Elite, and the rest of the wizards in the kingdom and its surroundings studied magic all their life to get in the circle, with most of them not achieving it.
The day our story begins is a Saturday. The throne room, in all its imponent, red glory, housed a meeting of utter importance. His Majesty sat tall on his golden throne, listening to the few magic beings who had come to talk to him. He was not paying too much attention, instead of thinking of the food he was going to eat at dinner.
The youngest wizard was reciting a prophecy. Something about threats and fires and forests and oranges. The king was paying little attention. He trusted the Elders to solve this by themselves; they always did.
The large metal door to the throne room was opened by the guards and then closed. The drag of metal equipment could be heard against the stone floor.
The foreigner stole the King’s attention completely. His Majesty mouthed something and smiled mockingly at the man behind them.
“Your Majesty,” the youngest elder, after finishing reading, had called.
“Yes?”
“We need to do something about this. This seems to have considerable consequences to your reign if you ignore it. This seems of absolute importance.”
“Aren’t all your prophecies of absolute importance?” The King mocked, and a snort coming from behind them rang through the room.
“I mean, yes, but-“ His Majesty sent a questioning look in the youngest wizard’s direction, and shut him up.
“What is your name?”
“Master Sage of Magical Arts Edward Chen, Your Majesty.”
“Well, Chen, why don’t you go thwart this threat?” Eddy opened his mouth to answer but was interrupted by the king. “I can read your achievements in your face and position, and I am certain you are capable to fulfill this role.”
“But-“ One of the elders slapped him in the back, shutting him up.
“Am I wrong to think so highly of you?”
“No, sire.”
“Then, I’m ordering you, right now, to end this situation you are warning me about. Will you disobey your king?”
“No, sire.”
“Good,” King Ray nodded. “See! Lord Yang is here! Maybe he can lend you some knights. Am I right, Your Lordship?” The king exaggerated this one title as if it were an inside joke that only himself and Lord Yang were aware of.
Eddy turned around to Lord Yang standing there in a formal suit. The lord was giddy, not caring that he had just crashed a very serious meeting with the King himself.
For a man who probably had ridden up to the palace, he looked not a hair out of place. His squared glasses were impeccable, as was the grey suit he wore. His dark hair was neatly styled, and he wore a big smile. He stole a few of Eddy’s breaths.
“I’m glad to be of service, Your Majesty.” Yang’s voice was also light and joking.
Eddy hadn’t turned back to face the king, which won him a nudge from one of the men beside him. Lord Yang looked at him and then pointed at the King with his head, a teasing smile on his face.
“You’ll start your journey as soon as possible.”
“Excuse me?”
“I said that it was settled, you were to defend the kingdom from its impending doom, as soon as possible,” the King’s voice was cheerful, more cheerful than it ought to be.
“But-“
The eldest elder coughed, and Eddy was shut up for the third time.
Eddy had more things to say, but he did not feel like getting in trouble.
They all bowed before the throne and walked away. The metal scraping against the stone floor was heard again. Eddy came to a halt in front of the Lord. Yang just nodded with a polite smile, and Eddy nodded back.
The guards closed the big door behind them, and Eddy prepared himself for the incoming scolding he would receive.
***
“You are a bully,” Brett told the man laying across the throne. He sat cross-legged on the floor before it, dirtying his suit pants.
“Am I?” Ray answered.
“Poor guy is probably regretting even coming here in the first place!” Brett laughed. Ray laughed with him, and the guards sent them weird glances.
“Did you see how he looked at you? He was so close to jumping you.”
“He wasn’t, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“He was! You should go out with him,” Ray insisted.
“I don’t even know his name.”
Ray sighed, playfully exasperated. “That is a good place to start! ‘Hey, I’m Brett, what’s your name?’ And, he wasn’t the only one. You should stop checking people out so blatantly.”
“I didn’t check him out.”
“You did! I haven’t been your friend all these years for you to be embarrassed about a cute guy.”
“I didn’t say he was cute.”
“But you thought it, don’t lie to yourself.”
It was difficult for Brett to stay mad at the easy banter. A smile showed on his lips. “God,” Brett laughed. “I still don’t know who thought it was a good idea to leave you in charge of the whole kingdom.”
***
That night, Eddy thought keeping magic records in the kingdom was the best idea the Elder Wizards had ever had. It cost him five seconds to get to the ‘Y’ section, and a few more seconds to find who he was looking for.
‘Lord Yang Bo-yao, commonly known as Lord Brett Yang, Baron of the House of Yang and head of Ling Ling’s Order of Chivalry,’ the paper said. It contained his birth date and some other information. He just needed leverage to convince the baron into helping him. Nothing creepy in doing a background check of the people he planned on working with.
***
Eddy walked up to the training building the next day.
The place stank of sweat, and he absentmindedly compared it to the forced cleanliness of the elders’ compound.
Seeing everyone there, he felt overdressed. His outfit would be considered underdressed in any other situation, except here where everyone was training in plain shirts and pants.
Someone tapped him in the back, making him turn around. “Good morning,” a cheerful dame greeted. “You look lost. Can I help you?” She held a heavy sword, too close to Eddy. He stepped away.
“Actually, yes you can. I need to talk to His Lordship, where can I find him?”
She glanced at the clock in the wall. “It’s quite early. He should be outside doing his morning workout.”
“Thank you.”
Eddy stepped outside into the training grounds, where every step he took raised a lot of dirt and the sun burned his skin.
Yang drank water in the middle of the field. His small form was folded with his hands resting on his knees, drenched in sweat, and with some strands of black hair sticking to his forehead. His white training shirt was glued to his skin, and his panting breaths could be heard everywhere.
Eddy had to take a deep breath to calm himself down and started walking up to him.
“Good morning, My Lord,” Eddy said.
The baron looked up at him, a glint of recognition in his eyes. “Hello,” he tried to remember his name, to no avail.
“Chen, Master Sage of Magical Arts Edward Chen.” Eddy extended his hand and was welcomed by a smaller, sweaty hand.
“You should stop introducing yourself like that if you want people to remember your name,” His Lordship whispered. “Hi, Chen. What can I do for you?” His Lordship walked back to the building, with Eddy trailing behind him.
“You agreed to assign a group of men to help me in my mission on the forest.”
“Did I?” Yang asked, and Eddy nodded. “Well, then. Do you know what exactly you are fighting against?”
“Why would you want to know?”
“To strategize according to your needs in the battle.”
“Oh, true,” Eddy agreed. “I don’t know.”
“You don’t know what you’re fighting against?” They both entered the building’s central office. His Lordship raised the hem of his shirt and wiped the sweat off his forehead with it, and Eddy reminded himself to not stare. “That’s,” he picked up a spare shirt, “not reassuring.”
“I know,” Eddy answered sheepishly.
He looked at Eddy seriously. “I’m sorry, but if that’s all you have, I can’t do anything for you. It’s too risky.”
“Not even one?”
“Not even one,” he shook his head. “I know it’s not my business, but I don’t think you should go either, Chen. Not until you at least have more information about it.”
“But the king said-“
“The king says a lot of things. He doesn’t matter, his life isn’t the one in the line.”
“I’m sure I won’t die. The prophecy said it wouldn’t be a big deal if stopped as soon as possible.”
Lord Yang rolled his eyes. “And prophecies are known for not being at all misleading or understating. They are always true, am I right?”
The baron’s disbelief made Eddy’s resolute stronger. “Yes, they are. No one should doubt prophecies.”
“Obviously, no one should doubt them. Absolutely no one has died for trusting them too much, haven’t they?” he answered sarcastically. “I’m just saying that it seems a bit dangerous to shoot in the dark.”
“It won’t be a shot in the dark, I know what I’m doing.”
“I trust you do, hey,” he mocked again. Chen suddenly had the urge to turn him into a frog. “I can’t help you on your endeavor.”
“Alright.”
“Good luck.”
***
“I tried to change his mind,” Brett had reported to Ray after the king had finished tuning his violin. “He didn’t budge.”
“Change whose mind?” Ray asked while skimming through all the music sheets to choose something to sightread.
Brett sat in one of the chairs of the Palace’s practice room. “Chen’s, the young guy you sent to his doom.”
“I haven’t sent anyone to their doom that I’m aware of.”
Brett sighed, “You sent a noob into the wild to fight something he himself doesn’t have much knowledge about.”
“He doesn’t?”
Brett shook his head. “He is just trusting his dear prophecy. He is going to get himself killed before he even gets to the place he is supposed to go.”
“You are underestimating him; he will be alright.”
“I’m not. I have experience in this type of thing. Even if he were the most powerful being on this Earth, his first mission would fail only because he is alone and inexperienced.”
Ray looked at Brett’s eyes, serious. “I don’t even know why you’re telling me this. I can’t go out there and save him from his death.”
Brett sighed, “true.”
“Maybe you can go after him, I trust you not to die or embarrass yourself in front of him. Maybe you’ll both go out afterwards!”
“I am talking about a serious thing: his life is in the line, and you just want me to save him because we would be a good couple. Why am I not surprised?”
Ray chuckled. “You know me well.”
“Ray, focus. I can’t go after him; you should tell him to postpone it until he has more research.”
“Since when are you so interested in some genius random wizard? Didn’t you tell me you didn’t like him?”
“I don’t. The situation just seems dangerous,” Brett argued. “What do you mean genius?”
“Haven’t you connected the dots? He is younger than both you and me, but he is part of the Elder Wizards. Does that not seem like a prodigy?”
“How do you know so much about him?”
“I just do,” Brett scrutinized Ray with a gaze.
“Who is the one who’s interested in a random genius wizard now, huh?”
“You still are.”
“For God’s sake.”
“Are you planning on telling me why you aren’t actually going to save your damsel in distress?”
Brett rolled his eyes. “Hyung is still in there.”
“Oh, yeah. I forgot how scared of him you are,” Ray answered with a teasing smile.
“I’m not afraid of him.”
Ray always found annoying Brett amusing. “Yes, you are.”
***
‘Lord Yang had reportedly been in a relationship with a powerful wizard in his teen years and early adulthood. Yang and said wizard, which would like to remain anonymous, ended their long relationship on bad terms. The wizard placed a severe revengeful curse over Yang’s head, which contained a magical restraining order.
By that time, Yang’s mother was close to the king himself. She pulled strings until the wizard was banned to the forest, and Yang was banned from the forest. The wizard has never shown their face in the kingdom again,’ could be read on the magical yellow papers.
***
The green leaves rustled around with the breeze. The flowers had bloomed recently. Spring was at its height. It was a beautiful sight.
If it were not for the mission Eddy was supposed to be fulfilling, he would just stop to admire the landscape. Maybe he would look for some forest fairies; their job at bringing color to the season was always flawless.
Eddy hoped his anti-allergy potion kept up with everything around him.
After a couple of hours of waiting, he realized he actually had no information whatsoever on what he was looking for.
Maybe he should have said no, and it was a terrible idea.
His Lordship would be thrilled to know he chickened out. Eddy was too petty and strong-headed for that. Eddy would prove himself to be right, and that he was capable of an assignment as big as this one was.
He heard the breaking of a branch, and he turned to it. A small feathery creature run at top speed past Eddy’s feet. Many other magically creatures ran from the same direction.
Eddy went into that direction, figuring that was it.
Out of nowhere, he felt as if the air was pushed out of his lungs, and he fell to his knees. His body wheezed for oxygen.
‘Eureka,’ his mind supplied.
***
Brett had been following Chen at a safe distance for a couple of hours, close enough to keep him in his line of sight, but far enough to hide between the bushes if needed.
In those hours, he concluded that Chen was deaf or too focused on the landscape, as he hadn’t heard the particularly loud gallop of Brett’s horse.
Brett was not supposed to be caught dead in that forest. He was as silent as possible as if that was going to help him be invisible against the wizards around.
His plan was just to look after Eddy from a distance, help him if needed, and get out of the woods before the sun went down and someone got a whiff of his presence.
That was obviously not what happened.
The air was suddenly overtly magically, and it triggered a weird type of allergy in his being. His mind did not recognize the weird itch in his chest until it was too late to run. His horse didn’t seem to think it was, though, and that’s how he ended up being kicked to the ground. “Fuck.”
He stood up and felt the familiar voice in his ear. “What are you doing here? Wasn’t it enough what you did in the past, that you now dare to intrude in my land? Don’t you know what will happen to you?”
Maybe Ray was right, and he was afraid of him.
“No, I-“
“Why, then, are you here, Brett Yang?” Brett kept quiet; he did not want to anger him more. “I asked you a question!”
Brett coughed. “I was just- Just visiting, y’know? Seeing if everything was alright in this part of the kingdom, yes. I didn’t know these were your lands!”
“Do not lie.”
“I’m not lying!”
“Your friend over there says otherwise.” Brett’s head was harshly turned, and he saw Chen on his knees.
“He is not my friend.”
“Oh, should I say ‘boyfriend’?”
Brett was unable to stop his eyes from rolling. “He is not my boyfriend.”
“I told you: don’t lie. You know how I feel about lying,” Hyung said. “He is adorable. You surely have a type, don’t you? I hope he doesn’t miss you too much.”
“Don’t hurt him, please,” Brett pleaded.
***
After waking up, Eddy took quite a minute to get his body working again. He stood up, albeit shakily, and noticed the change of environment.
He knew he was in the same place he passed out on, but the forest itself had changed. The trees and the grass were burning, and the fire was close to where Eddy was laying.
He looked up, and there was it. The thing he was looking for.
The small frame of someone was floating in the middle of the chaos. He glowed up in fire red, and lava appeared to curse through his veins. The man was groaning in pain, and there was some blood in the ground directly below where he floated.
“Yang?” Eddy asked loudly, not believing his eyes.
“Fuck, you’re here,” a deep, dark, wheezing voice came from the man. “Go away, I don’t want to hurt you.”
Eddy was seriously considering running back to the palace, or even ignoring this and continue looking for the thing he was supposed to be looking for. Yang then looked down at him, and the suffering shined in his eyes.
His mission could wait.
“Brett, I need you to calm down.”
“Wow, how did I not think of that.” It was incredible how he was being sarcastic while on the verge of dying and killing everyone around them.
“Shut up, I am trying to help you. I need you to breathe.”
Brett’s insides burned, and he made this known by whimpering, loudly.
“First of all, I need you to come back down. Can you do that or do I have to lower you down myself?”
“I think I can do it,” Brett’s panting voice could be heard.
“Oh, cool. Getting your breathing under control will help. Look at the ground and lower yourself down. Slowly cut all magic from your feet, and gravity will make the rest of the job. Alright?”
Brett nodded and his stance in the air wavered. He fell down but did not touch the ground.
“Good enough,” Eddy approached Brett and touched him in the arm. When Brett felt this, he sent a blazing fire column near Eddy’s face. “Please try not to kill me, hey.”
“Sorry.”
“Perfect. Now open your eyes and look at me.” Brett hadn’t noticed himself closing his eyes. The darkness in them bore into Eddy’s mind, and he took a tiny step backwards. “You seem overfilled with rampant energy, and this could be dangerous. What I’ll do is take some of it so it doesn’t consume you inside out, and you get it under control, preferably before you burn the entirety of the kingdom down.”
“Would you please stop talking and get onto it?”
Brett flinched when Eddy’s freezing hands touched his burning skin, and this directed a powerful fire to burn at Eddy’s torso. Pink and black flesh could be seen, but Eddy tried to ignore it. “What are you doing?”
Eddy bit the inside of his cheek to not howl at the burn. “Contact makes this easier. Can I?” Brett nodded, and Eddy placed his fingertips on Brett’s temples. “You’ll feel tired afterwards. It is normal.”
“Shut up and start.”
“Oh, sorry.”
Eddy had experience in sucking the life source out of people. He didn’t make a habit out of it, but it was not the first time he saved someone from themselves, magically speaking. Knowing this, he had still underestimated the amount of energy eating Brett alive from the insides. Surely a lethal dosage, compared to his non-existent magical ability.
He took a couple of seconds to absorb everything he could and get himself under control. He could feel it coursing through his veins, the power. He tried to keep it together, he did not feel like exploding and brutally murdering everything around him, including himself.
His fingertips tingled, his torso’s flesh burnt, and he felt a little weirdly, but they were all things that could be attended to later.
The man in armor fell forward to his embrace, hiding his face on Eddy’s neck. Eddy rubbed his back soothingly.
“You’re safe now,” Eddy said while sitting them both down on the floor.
“Thank you,” Brett said, and his lips grazed Eddy’s neck.
“No worries, dude. But please, next time don’t go out of your way to get yourself killed.”
Brett chuckled, exhausted. “Oh, the irony.”
There were a few long minutes of silence between the two of them. Eddy summoned a bit of rain over them, just enough to kill all the fires that were still going strong. This appeared to bring Brett back from his stupor.
“You are missing your mission,” Brett whispered.
Eddy chuckled. This man almost died, and his first thought was about Eddy and Eddy’s priorities. “To be honest, I think you were my mission all along. And if not, at least I saved a couple of lives today, I think it is enough heroism for today.”
“Yup, enough magic trouble for a month.”
There was another long silence.
“We have to get going. Can you walk or should I carry you to the palace?”
“Shouldn’t it be me asking you that? You’re hurt.”
“And you literally were dying ten minutes ago. I think we are equally at disadvantage.”
“True. Anyway, my horse should be nearby. I trust Hyung to not hurt her.”
“Is that his name? Hyung?” Brett nodded. Eddy made a mental note to ask the Elders about him in the future.
Brett whistled loudly in Eddy’s ear, and tinnitus developed on it. A couple of seconds later, a white horse approached.
“Hi, princess,” Brett signaled the horse to lay down and petted her snout. “Do you know how to ride?”
“No, but how hard could it be?”
Brett chuckled.
He made Eddy ride in front, to Eddy’s disagreement. “I don’t want you to fall asleep and fall to your death.”
“I won’t fall asleep with you riding in front of me, and even if I do fall asleep, I won’t lose my balance.” After that, Eddy was given a crash course on riding horses, just enough to be safe.
They started their path, with the reins on Brett’s hands. Eddy hissed when one of Brett’s elbows grazed on a burn on his side.
“Sorry, we should get you checked with the court physician.”
Eddy shook his head. “The court physician? I was planning on getting some enchantment in there if it doesn’t close up and heal by the time we arrive at the palace. I have a lot of power inside me now, thanks to you.”
Brett rested his chin on Eddy’s shoulder. “Oh, what a powerful being.”
“Yes, I am. They should make a statue out of me.”
“They surely should. The great…” Brett scrambled through his mind, looking for Eddy’s name.
“Master Sage of Magical Arts Edward Chen, saving the kingdom from the claws of the chaos of Baron Brett Yang, of the house of Yang,” Eddy laughed.
Brett raised his eyebrow. “Why are you referring to me by my first name, and how do you know it?”
“I think, after watching you almost self-destruct and saving your life, I think I deserve to use your first name. And, I just know it. I’m Master Sage of Magical Arts Eddy Chen, I know everything,” Eddy hid his embarrassment in the joke.
“Huh, were you researching me?” Brett teased.
Eddy sighed. “Maybe?”
“Ooh, I did not even know we kept records about people. Did you find something worth sharing?”
“I found that you are an asshole.”
“I mean, that is not not true.”
“I know,” Eddy laughed.
Brett’s brow creased in courage. “In your research, did you find out that I’m single?”
“No, why would I-“
“Well, now you know, if you want to do something about it.”
Eddy didn’t blush, but it was a near thing. “I- Alright, I will.”