Chapter Text
A fan whirred loudly in the comparative silence of the tent, blowing the faintest of cool breezes on Khun Aguero Agnis’ dissatisfied face. The cheap fan did little to abate the heat of the tent out in the midday sun; nor did opening any available flappy window the tent provided. The day was oddly still: not even the slightest breeze permeated the air, spare for Khun’s plastic blue battery-powered fan.
With a boredom reserved for only the most mundane of tasks, Khun reviewed the documents spread out on his desk one more time and filled in several more fields onto his laptop, his fingers digging into the keys with quick accuracy. Out this far into the wilderness, Khun could only rely on his team’s solar-power batteries and poor-reception walkie-talkies. The lack of internet was especially grating on Khun’s patience today; his work seemed especially light, with few forthcoming discoveries.
Becoming a leader of an archaeological dig team hadn’t been the top of Khun’s life dreams, but it was the one he had somehow, inevitably, over the ever-changing course of time, ended up with.
It was a long story, and not one worth reminiscing over today.
Heaving a sigh, Khun grabbed a pen and clipboard from his desk. Better go check on the team, make sure they’re complying with protocol, or whatever. He clipped his walkie talkie to his belt and lifted the flap for the tent, wincing at the assault of the bright glare of the sun. His eyes adjusted in a second to the sight of the towering walls of red rock and sweeping lanes of dust interspersed with only the toughest of weeds. It was famously dry in this part of the Atacama Desert, the only available water being the giant water tank in the back of their supply truck. Hopefully, it meant Khun might finally find something well-preserved, some piece of history that could let him forget the mess King Jahad had made of the world.
Turning, Khun slipped through a narrow crack in the rock wall, rays of the sun penetrating the first few feet into the darkness before his team’s lanterns lit the way. This cave had only been a recent discovery after a rockslide revealed it in an earthquake the month before. Khun’s team, being backed by one of the Ten Families, had been the first to get on site and begin examination for possibly significant discoveries.
Standing at the edge of a ledge, Khun squinted down at the depths of the cave and the rickety ladder set up for the descent. Lanterns spilled milky yellow light onto the sharp contours of the cavern, and Khun noted their first, and so far only, discovery: a strange tepee of rocks that seemed to attempt to reach out of the looming pit, but cut several meters too short. His team’s analysis of the rocks had concluded that they came all from different areas in the cave and were all within conceivability of moving. It was no rockslide, and a clear indication something had lived in these caves.
Hopefully, that something was either long gone or friendly. They had Ran, a young trained bodyguard from his family, and a distant cousin of Khun’s. But he had just turned eighteen, and this was his first real mission, albeit his raw talent in magic. Khun just hoped he wouldn’t be necessary.
Unclipping his walkie talkie, Khun held down the button to speak. He should, hopefully, be just within reception range from here. He didn’t favor going down the ladder if not necessary. “Team, pick up. Any updates? Over.”
Khun waited for a moment, but the only sound keeping him company was the steady drip of water echoing from somewhere within the cave. He would have to go farther in.
Those idiots better be sticking to the plan, Khun thought tiredly, but I wouldn’t be surprised. Wangnan, Prince, Yeon… they always rile each other up. Ultimately, this was why Khun needed to get in the habit of doing his paperwork sometime else and start supervising them more frequently. But, really? Was it that hard to follow orders?
Khun tsked and grabbed a spare flashlight and rope from the work supply chest at the entrance of the cave before descending the ladder. His each footstep clanked down the ladder until hit solid rock, a frown sharply pulling at his face. He turned to face further down the cave. A crackle came from his walkie.
“-raptor? Novick? I thin- guys might want - over here. Over.” Khun squinted at the walkie: that was Wangnan’s voice!
“Did - fin- light? Ov-” Khun muttered a curse under his breath; his team had definitely gone farther than he expected. Switching on his flashlight, he hurried down the main tunnel. At the end of the main branch, the cave branched out in several directions. Khun had instructed the team to divide and conquer, but to report back at the first sight of anything new. Clearly, they’ve skipped straight to finding out what it is.
A sharp crackle and then - “Yes! Oh god, get everyone over here, they’re gonna love it! Oh god, this is - insane.” There was a pause. “Ahem, over.” His eyebrow twitched at that - Yeon’s voice, now.
Khun pulled up his walkie and held down the button. “Ah, my lovely team. What have you discovered this time that was so urgent that you couldn’t follow protocol?” Khun’s voice echoed in the cave around him, sweet and smooth but laced with a deadly edge as he spoke. “I’d suggest you get explaining before I have to order Ran to keep you all in line. Or worse, I’ll deal with you all myself,” he said, putting special emphasis on the final word, “Over.”
“Khun!” Wangnan said, his voice an alarmed stream of static coming from his walkie. “Well – ah - we saw a strange red light and decided to follow it. And now… god, you wouldn’t believe it until you see it! Guess what it is!” Silence on the other end of the comm prevailed for just a moment too long, and Khun sighed at the dramatic antics of his teammate. “A perfectly preserved human! Over.”
Khun’s eyes widened before narrowing in contemplation and pressing down the button to speak. “A red light? Did it not occur to you that something magical and dangerous could have been down there, ready to rip you apart? Bombs won’t do much to protect you when you’ll just bring everything down on your head!” A sharp sigh. “Novick, Akraptor, head over to Wangnan’s team. Yeon - we need you back up at base camp to make sure nothing goes wrong, and your fire tricks are best for a single-person defense. Ran, I need you to leave your post and meet up with Wangnan immediately. And Wangnan - describe how to get to your location and give us details on this preserved human you’ve found. Over and out.”
A chorus of “Yes, sir!” and “Yes, Mr. Khun,” or even Ran’s plaintive acknowledgement of “Khun.” came in over the walkie.
“Ah, well, it’s the first cave up to the left, then take another right, and finally a left. You’ll notice the light then. Yeon will meet you there.” Khun was already on his way, flashlight out and ducking through narrow parts of the cave. This part had not been lit yet, and the farther he went the narrower it became, as if made for a child. “The human is enclosed in a red crystal that seems to be emanating light; appears to be around eighteen, maybe sixteen years of age. Long brown hair, and wears rags. Shows no sign of decomposition. That’s all I got, over.”
Khun squinted into the cave as he dissolved the information. “Novick, Akraptor, you two won’t be able to fit through here without some trouble, so head back up top. Over.”
The walkie crackled with their responses and Khun soon found the cave walls to be faintly outlined in red light. Yeon stood in the shadows, the faintest tint of red reflecting back into her pink irises. “Khun, the rest of the team is just around the bend. I’ll head back to the top?”
Khun nodded. “I assume you’ve taken down some basic records? If so, go ahead and do the bookkeeping, Novick and Arkaptor will keep guard.”
“Yes, sir!” she replied before slipping past Khun, and into the dark.
Facing his eyes forward, Khun turned the corner and gasped.
Wangnan had understated just how grand it was. The once narrow and near-claustrophobic cave opened out into a grand cavern that was bathed in a vivid red light. The red crystal appeared to take the shape of a thorn, taking up the entire space of one side of the cavern and coming to a point at the ceiling, as if trying to pierce through to the sky itself. The human itself seemed small to the grandness of what Khun dubbed as the Thorn in his mind; a tiny speck in the thrumming crystal’s magic that was laid in front of them.
“Khun!” Wangnan exclaimed, and he finally tore his eyes from the Thorn to look at the yellow-haired man, his hair near orange in the light.
“It’s amazing, isn’t it?” Prince said from beside him. Ran said nothing, sitting on a rock with a drab expression on his face. Goseng sat crouched in front of the the Thorn, poking and prodding and then furiously scribbling in her notebook.
Khun hummed. “It definitely is. This is a huge discovery.” He paused, turning to the walls. There, filling up a large swathe of wall, was a repeated craving of three eyes. Khun would know that craving anywhere: it was King Jahad’s symbol. “But a dangerous one, it seems. Anything else you omitted in your brief report earlier?” He said, his voice rising to a point as sharp as Thorn behind him.
Prince scowled and Wangnan grimaced. “Ah, didn’t want to worry you too much…”
Khun shook his head before walking up behind Goseng. “He’s still alive, isn’t he? No one looks that perfectly preserved and is surrounded by this much magic wouldn’t be.”
Goseng rose slowly. “Yes, but… how to get him out? This crystal is huge; it isn’t coming out except in the tiniest of chunks. It would take months, even years!” Idly, Khun noted that this close to the Thorn, her glasses reflected a perfect shade of red. Khun shook his head. He had some ideas, but they had to be tested first.
“Magic, you can’t cut it up. You react it with other magic.” Khun turned to meet his cousin’s eyes, who nodded. Ran rose, and electricity sparked from his hand. “Everyone but Ran, under me.” Khun commanded, throwing out lighthouse cubes and activating them the moment everyone was safely around him. A glowing blue shield sprung into place, creating a mix of red and blue light in the room. “Ran. Shoot.”
Ran grinned, electricity arcing out of his hand in a deadly lightning spear as he pulled back and threw with the force of a sledgehammer. “Take THAT!” His yell echoed in the cavern, but once the sparks cleared, the Thorn stood tall and undamaged. Khun frowned, deactivating his lighthouse barrier with the click of a button. He stepped forward and placed a hand over the crystal, which was surprisingly warm.
“Seems like it absorbed your lightning, Ran,” Khun commented, “But maybe…” He frowned and closed his eyes before pulling a knife from his hip holster, pressing it to his palm. Faintly, he heard Wangnan and Prince let out exclamations of protest, but it was drowned out by the pounding in Khun’s ears as he drew the knife down his palm and pressed his bloodied palm to the Thorn.
A deep rumble seemed to grow from the crystal in front of them and it began to glow impossibly brighter until Khun had no choice but to squeeze his eyes shut and press all of his weight into the crystal, his palm throbbing in pain. The roar grew and grew, and suddenly, Khun was falling.
The weight under him vanished, and Khun found himself touching something both warm and soft. His eyes flew open to near darkness, and now only the faintest of red light was coming from the back of the boy in front of him. The boy’s hand twitched, and a breath was exhaled.
Khun crouched over the boy, his hands hovering and unsure. A drop of blood curled down his palm, holding at his pulse before dripping to the cave floor.
“Khun!” Goseng called, alarmed and armed with bandages. “Please, we need to treat this.” Wordlessly, Khun held out his hand and let Goseng wrap it silently, his eyes on the boy.
Golden eyes cracked open and immediately latched onto Khun’s. “B-blue…” The boy whispered, his voice hoarse.
Khun pinched his lips together and called for water, but the boy seemed to react to his expression, eyes widening in worry. Forcing his face muscles to relax into a smile, Khun reached out his good hand to the boy. “Hey, it’s okay. Just getting you some water so you can speak, alright?” Prince handed him his bottle, and Khun took his now wrapped hand to push the boy’s head up into the crook of his arm and offer the water with the other. “Drink.”
The boy took several sips before coughing, and Khun shushed him and pulled him to sit straighter. “My name is Khun Aguero Agnis,” he offered, encouraging the boy to drink more with a nudge of the bottle.
Once the boy seemed to have calmed down, he offered the bottle back to Prince with a tentative smile, which Prince took with a bewildered surprise on his face. “I’m Prince.”
“Ran.”
“My name is Wangnan.”
“A-and I’m Goseng.”
The boy watched all of them with his wide gold eyes. Khun was struck with how kind they looked, how innocent. It was not what he would expect from an ancient human, asleep for God knows how long. Those eyes turned to him. “Y-your… blood…” He said, tentative, before shaking his head. “I’m…” He seemed to think. “The 25th Bam. It’s the day I was born…” he trailed off.
“Bam, okay. We’ll call you that. You can just call me Khun.”
“You woke me up, Mr. Khun? How long has it been? Rachel said…” The boy stopped again, his golden eyes scrunched and confused.
“I- yes. For these kinds of situations, it’s always either magic or blood that breaks the spell, or blood of someone inherently magical. My magic isn’t particularly strong, but it is rarer than Ran’s. So I offered you my blood.” Khun knew just what this kind of situation was, if the tug in his blood to Bam said anything. He would need to consult his books again.
Bam looked at him, gold eyes searching. “You’re bound to me now, you know.”
Khun smiled wryly. “I’ve done my research. I never expected it to happen, but here we are.” Khun sighed, then stood, grasping Bam’s hand and pulling him to his feet. “I don’t have much to lose with being bound to anyone right now. And with time, it’ll fade. Don’t worry, Bam.”
“Okay,” Bam replied, still looking into Khun’s cobalt blue eyes as if no one else was in the room.
Wangnan cleared his throat, and Khun and Bam startled slightly away from each other. Khun held up a lantern and nodded towards where they came. “Alright. Let’s get back to base camp. Goseng, I want you to finish documenting anything else you can find here. Ran, stay with her. The rest of us will head back.” Goseng and Ran nodded, and Khun turned back to Bam. “You okay with moving?”
“I think so…” Bam replied, taking a step and smiling back at Khun at its success.
“Good. Let’s go.”
They made good progress until they were back to the main cavern, Wangnan and Prince squabbling in quiet tones while Khun led, Bam just behind and gripping to the edge of his shirt like a child. Khun would find it quite endearing, if it weren’t for the fact Bam was some kind of ancient human with the magic of an giant crystal infused in him.
Khun threw a look over his shoulder and met Bam’s wide and soft golden eyes.
Well – maybe it was a little endearing. Just a little.
“Do you know anything about these… rocks, here?” Khun figured it couldn’t hurt to ask, gesturing towards the spire in front of him.
Bam nodded. “I built it.”
Prince gasped from behind them. “You built that? Wow, how long did that take? I can’t ever imagine… How weird…”
“Just because you’ve done barely any physical labor in your life doesn’t give you the permission to be rude!” Wangnan exclaimed, and those two were back to arguing again.
Khun sighed. “I apologize for them.” Bam only smiled back at him, and Khun turned back to the spire. “But why?”
“I wanted to escape this place.”
“Did you?”
“…Yes, for a time. But…” Bam looked down at his feet, his lips and eyebrows pinched in distaste. “Not through there. Through the tower… but Rachel… she-”
Khun looked at Bam, his blue eyes wide before becoming worried. “We don’t have to talk about this now,” Khun said with a smile plastered on his face, as his insides churned in shock. He thinks of the tower, and of the legends of how King Jahad and the leaders of the 10 Great Families and his army had come up from the depths of tower and conquered the weak, magic-less tribes of Earth, and how the tower was locked away in the ensuing years. Legends said all that remained was a husk of a dungeon, still to this day bleeding magic out into the world in the form of beasts and crystals that formed deep in the earth.
For Khun, it was a story as old as time itself: the history that had rewritten itself over the Aztecs, the Incans, the Romans and the Greeks. Those histories were dim, when a beast a millennium old ruled over them all. Khun’s father was one of those immortals, and without that blessing, he would never have the innate skill of magic – or Shinsu, as called in the days of the tower.
The fact that Bam had come from the tower, the fact that his face looked so youthful but his eyes, though innocent, looked years older than any eighteen-year-old –
Bam was likely immortal. Perhaps something of a god.
“How old are you?” Khun asked, innocent enough, as they approached the ladder leading up out of the darkness that engulfed them. Wangnan and Prince had long since gone silent behind them, at the mention of the tower.
“I’m not sure…” Bam said, voice wavering.
“Ah, well – then how many years of your life do you remember, outside of this cave?”
Bam perked up at that. “Maybe eleven?”
Khun directed a sharp frown Bam’s way. It was plain to see that he was not an eleven year old. Bam smiled reassuringly back at Khun’s gaze, and Khun internally berated himself for being so obvious. “I grew up here.”
“Kinda unpleasant place to grow up, huh?” Prince piped in, his voice slightly high with incredulity.
“Prince!” Wangnan exclaimed, again.
“As I said, ignore them. They never stop arguing,” Khun butted in, beginning his ascent up the ladder. Bam followed him easily enough. “And I’m about twenty-three. To be fair.” Khun pulled himself up to the top of the ledge and held a hand out to Bam, on the rung below him. Bam stared at his hand for a moment, as if it was something alien. “Take it,” Khun said, and Bam did. With a firm tug, Bam was a breath away from being in Khun’s arms.
“Ah,” Bam said, softly, his hands shifting to grip onto Khun’s shirt. Khun’s lips tilted into a languid smile.
“I hope to get to learn more about you, Bam,” Khun said softly, just loud enough for only Bam to hear. There was something about this boy – Khun knew, something greater than him being immortal, or some all-powerful being. Some distant part of Khun felt as if he had known Bam in another life.
But maybe that was just the blood bond talking.
“Me too, Mr. Khun,” Bam said with a soft intake of breath, his attention caught by Khun. Satisfied, he held onto Bam for a moment longer before stepping away. Khun turned to face the light at the entrance of the cave, Wangnan and Prince clambering up next to them.
“Khun!” a fierce whisper came from across the cave, close to the light. Another step, and Yeon, Akraptor and Novick’s faces became visible. “We have a problem! There’s beasts just outside – some kind of beetle thing…” Yeon spoke, nervously flexing her hands with sparks of fire coming from her palms.
“Let me guess – they’re powered by a red crystal?” Khun questions, and the three nod. Khun sighs. We just can’t get an easy way out, huh? Clearly, Bam’s awakening had somehow disturbed the beasts, likely formed from the same Thorn Bam had absorbed. “We need to buy time until Goseng and Ran finish documenting the cave we found Bam here,” Khun said with a nod towards Bam, who stepped forward and waved at the three. “It could have vital information we may need in the future. So we need a plan.”
“I’ll help,” Bam offered, his voice low.
“Then I need to know what you can do. Run me through it?”
Bam nodded and briefly explained his powers: he was a wave-controller, could summon six or more bangs at once, could fly via wings or a shinsu disc, could summon orbs, do reverse shinsu control, and a variety of complicated-sounding techniques. Khun nodded at each in turn, expression plain while the rest of the team looked progressively more disbelieving.
“Your powers may be weaker outside of the tower. Here, the air is just air,” Khun said, “and reverse shinsu control will only work on beasts or people with innate magic, like you, and partially on me. How about you try and see how many bangs you can summon, but don’t drain yourself.”
Bam nodded, concentrating for a moment. Three bangs appeared, but the third seemed unstable.
Khun leaned forward and watched Bam carefully. “Here, you won’t be able to draw shinsu from the air, only yourself. But maybe…” Khun placed a hand over Bam’s, and watched as the third bang stabilized, frost accumulating at the edges of the blue magic. He smiled. “With the blood bond, we can draw on each other’s shinsu, too.”
Bam nodded. “Let me try to give you some?”
Khun just held out a pale hand, and Bam grasped it. His eyes widened in alarm as he felt the rush of shinsu flow up his arm, through his blood. It burned with cold, and suddenly a silent blast of freezing cold froze the entire cavern. Ice glittered off every surface, and his teammates made muffled noises of alarm. He’d froze them all to the ground.
“Ah! Sorry,” Bam said, and across the room Yeon had already melted herself out with a scowl on her face.
“Don’t worry, I can reverse it,” he said, placing a hand on the ice and reabsorbing his and Bam’s magic, a rush of exhilaration running through him at the power in his palms. He felt like his blood was freezing and burning at the same time. “But now, I have a plan. Listen up.”
~*~
Khun knew they would have to delay for anywhere from a half hour to two hours, so they would have to play the long game. The longer the agitated beetle-beasts went without noticing them, the higher their chances of success.
With his shinsu disc, Khun had Bam send Akraptor and Novick into rocky sniping nests that he had prepared just for this reason, or in case any human raiders deemed it a good idea to steal their haul. A little bit of stealth and a couple crystal shinsu bullets, and their defense was bolstered.
Yeon would draw the beatles farther down the canyon by setting small fires, and Khun would defend at the cave entrance with his ice and lighthouse cubes. Bam would alternate between helping the two of them, and Wangnan and Prince would head back inside the cave to gather any lingering equipment.
Khun crouched in place at the cave entrance, listening to the distant explosions before slipping into the tent and beginning to pack up. Bam would give him the signal if the beatles were diverted back to the cave: a ping on one of the lighthouse cubes he’d given Bam.
(When he had given him the cube, Bam had looked at the cube with an odd expression on his face. Khun had explained normal lighthouses couldn’t sustain themselves with shinsu here, so after decades of shinsu-free tech invention, they’d created a smaller, weaker version of the lighthouse.)
Checking his laptop, Khun checked to make sure Yeon had uploaded the files she had retrieved – and good, there it was. He switched off the desk fan and packed everything back into boxes to load into the truck.
Tapping the lighthouse cube, Khun signaled Clear?
A second passed, and then – Clear, Bam signaled, a soft pattern of vibrations running through the cube in his pocket.
Slipping out of the tent, Khun climbed into the back of the truck and around the water tank, tapping on the keypad to open the closed part of the trunk. He placed the boxes gently in before closing it with a gentle click. Wangnan and Prince should still be in the caves, clearing out any remaining equipment, Khun noted mentally.
It was then that the cube chose to vibrate, and oh no. Danger, Bam said. Khun ducked under the water tank and listened carefully. It had only been half an hour – less time than Khun was hoping for. He sure hoped Goseng wasn’t taking her time.
Khun barely dared to breathe, carefully listening for any indication of the beetle moving nearby. A soft scuttling sound reached his ears, slowly becoming louder to a near tremor in the earth. These things were not small, at all.
Strike? Bam signaled, again. Khun did not want to start a fight near the truck: if the gas tank got damaged, they wouldn’t be able to get out of here for another week at best.
Distract, Khun told Bam, instead. The blood bond told him Bam was somewhere up on the far side of the canyon. A blast from there confirmed his suspicions, and the beetle stopped.
Shots rang up from above – Novick and Akraptor must finally have been able to take aim. Khun slipped out from under the tank and peeked around the body of the truck. About 200 yards away, the beetle was struggling to stand. Stop, Khun signaled, and a soft light from Bam communicated the same to the snipers.
Coming out of his hiding place, Khun runs up to the beetle, extending a hand to freeze it to the ground. His lighthouse cube buzzes in alarm, a faint tugging at his blood accompanying it telling him that Bam is concerned. Khun just smiled and threw a thumbs up, pulling out a knife and jumping on top of the beetle.
It was rare Khun had the opportunity to take a sample of many magical beasts, and Khun was not wasting it.
His eyes latched to the red crystal embedded at the top of the beetle’s head, and Khun struck down with his knife to pry it out. Black blood seeped onto his knife and hands when he reached to pull at the crystal. Once free, the once-hard shell of the beetle seemed to shrivel, and Khun stumbled.
A rush of wind, the beat of wings and warm hands around his middle informed him Bam had caught him before he could fall. Khun just smiled, holding up the crystal to the sun.
“It’s the same as yours,” Khun said, and turned in Bam’s arms. “Let me see that thorn of yours.”
Bam just nodded before turning, and Khun pressed the smaller crystal to Bam’s thorn. Then, he dropped a pinprick of his blood onto the crystal before doing the same. Finally, he asked for Bam’s hand.
“Just need one prick of blood, and this crystal will be yours again,” Khun said.
Bam looked back at Khun, with a small frown playing on his lips. “Why is that necessary? To kill it for me?”
Khun stared back at Bam. “Don’t you want to be back to your full power?”
“I want to be strong enough to protect my f-friends…” Something dark passed over Bam’s face. “They’re gone now, aren’t they?”
“Unless you were friends with any of the leaders of the 10 Great Families, I’m afraid so,” Khun said, voice soft. Khun worried over Bam’s sudden change of personality for a moment, and regretted he had to be the one to tell him it. In the middle of a battlefield, no less.
Bam turned away, squeezing his fist. He stared at the ground, something dark in his face. “This is all because of Rachel,” he whispered.
“Who’s - ” Khun began, but was cut off by a bang farther down the canyon. He pursed his lips, another wave of regret running through his veins. “Go help Yeon. Please. We’ll talk about this later,” Khun said, placing a hand on Bam’s shoulder and squeezing before running back in the direction of the cave, slipping the crystal into his pocket. They’d have to deal with that conversation more later.
By the time Khun had finished dismantling the camp and Bam had signaled Clear once again, Goseng and Ran appeared from the cave, squinting in the harsh sunlight. Khun called Yeon and Bam back via the lighthouse, turning to Goseng and Ran and quickly advising them on the situation.
“Any beetles left for me to zap?” Ran asked, bored.
“No.” Bam alighted next to Khun, Yeon, Novick, and Akraptor stepping off of his shinsu disc. Ran just shrugged.
Nodding to his team, Khun turned to the truck. “Visible mode,” he called, going to collect his lighthouse cubes from around a second van that appeared. “Can’t get this many people in a two-seater truck,” he explained, for Bam’s sake. “Ride up with me, Bam. Wangnan, you can drive the van.”
“Now, let’s get out of this god forsaken desert.”
~*~
The truck rumbled and shook as they rolled over yet another pit on the long, dirt road stretching in front of them. They had long since left the canyon, leaving clouds of dust behind them and only desert as far as the eye could see beyond them. The van road alongside them, the road just big enough for the two cars.
Bam sneezed next to him, rubbing at his nose with his eyes scrunched up.
“Not used to this much dust?” Khun asked. Their trip so far had been mostly silent, Bam staring out the window with that dark look on his face. Khun could feel it, faintly: the tug of anger, the depth of sorrow that warred within Bam. He let him have his silence, his time to mourn, and to adjust.
“No,” Bam said quietly, turning to look at him. Khun glanced at him and smiled, keeping his eyes on the road.
“You all flew around in spaceships, didn’t you? We’ve tried to replicate those feats, but without magic, the best we got is rockets, planes, and cars. So, with cars – you get dust.”
Bam stared down at his hands, flexing them absentmindedly. “It’s different here. A bit harder to breathe.”
“I’m sure it’s just the shock of coming here. You’ll get used to it eventually.” Khun tapped the steering wheel as he stared straight ahead, into the depths of the Atacama. “And… I know we will never be the same as your friends from the past, and whoever you’ve lost. But I hope in this life we can come to be your friends, too. I’ll help you however I can for you to adjust to this place, Bam.”
Khun didn’t know quite why he said that – he’d barely known Bam for half a day. But he knew Bam was strong, and he was bound to him for the time being and – something. Something else about Bam pulled Khun to him, like a planet revolving around the sun.
“Thank you,” Bam said, “but you really don’t need to do that. I’ll just…” he trailed off, lost for words.
Khun shook his head. “You know, I’ve got to stay close to you until the bond wears off. I’ve not much a choice, unless I want to start having blood leak out of my ears trying to get back to you.”
“What?” Bam said, alarmed, and Khun laughed.
“Just playing. Blood won’t leak out of my ears. Maybe out of my eyes, though…”
“Khun!” Bam exclaimed, and Khun looked out of the corner of his eyes to see him smiling. “What really happens, though?”
He hummed. “If I remember correctly, we’ll just get really weak, until we can’t move any farther away from each other. But the radius is pretty big, if the fight in the canyon says anything.”
“I wish you could’ve woken me up without the bond,” Bam said, worried, “I don’t want to hold you back.”
“You won’t. And you know just as well as me that’s this is the only way to cement your claim back to this world, for now. Being frozen in pure shinsu like that – it’s otherworldly. It does things to your mind, your body. And you knew that the moment I freed you, didn’t you?”
“I did.” Bam flexed his hand again, this time staring at Khun. He felt the golden-eyed immortal’s gaze vividly on the side of his head. “I feel like I’d float away somewhere if not for you, right now.”
“That’s a fun way to word it. You’d just fall asleep again, Bam.”
They fell back into silence, the truck passing through the desert until the sun descended down from the sky, turning what was once blue overhead a vivid array of oranges and reds. Over the next hour, they parked the truck and van, setting up the tent and sleep rolls.
Night had fallen, rations given out, and Khun found Bam sitting on a lone rock outside, staring up at the sky.
“What are you thinking about?” Khun asked. He could feel Bam’s loneliness from the tent.
“Rachel,” he answered, “she wanted to go to the top of the tower to see the stars.”
Khun squatted next to Bam, picking up a sharp rock and twirling it between his fingers. “Well, those are real stars, I’ll promise you that. You can see the Milky Way from here – see that white splattering of dots, spanning the sky?” Bam nodded. “That’s it. Our galaxy. The world is so much grander than the tower and this Earth – who knows what powers are out there.” Khun paused. “But you don’t like Rachel much, do you?”
“No. Not anymore.”
“What happened? If you want to talk about it, of course. I won’t push you.”
Bam didn’t hesitate. “She taught me how to read and write, in the cave. And all these other things I never knew. And then she left me for the tower. And tried to kill me and my friends, so many times. And – then, sealed me away.” Bam sighed. “Not much else to say. I think I hate her now.”
“I would too.” And then: “I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“She just sounds like an asshole. No one wants to deal with that.” Khun turned and saw a smile on Bam’s face, still turned up to look at the stars.
“She was right about one thing, though,” Bam said, “The stars are pretty.”
Khun stood, looking down at Bam. Locks of hair kept on falling onto his face, each time, Bam’s gentle hands moving forward to push them away. Khun thought his eyes were stars in themselves, burning molten gold. “They are,” Khun agreed, looking at him. Gently, he reached out and ran a hand through Bam’s long hair, and Bam turned to look at him, a soft smile gracing his face.
“What is it?”
“Just thinking – do you want this cut? I can do it for you, if you like.”
Bam turned to look at his hair himself, running his hand through it. “I had it this long, once, but… yeah. I think I’d like it best short.”
Khun smiled. “Should I go get the clippers, and a lantern? If you want to do it out here.”
“Sounds good!”
After a quick rummage in his pack and grabbing a lantern from the tent, Khun returned to Bam’s side, setting down the lantern and sitting behind Bam. A small orange flame flickered at the center of the lantern, casting light across Bam’s back, and the mess of hair there. Khun settled his hands on Bam’s shoulders, and after a quiet “Is this okay?” and Bam’s accompanying nod, Khun moved his hair to his back and began gently running a comb through it, starting at the ends.
Bam leaned back into Khun’s touch, quiet and pliable under his hands. Khun sensed Bam’s contentment through their bond and smiled. “How short do you think you’ll want it?” He said, his voice barely above a whisper and just by Bam’s ear.
Bam took a moment, turning to look at Khun and reaching out to touch Khun’s hair, the light blue verging on purple in the torchlight. “I like your length,” he said, gold eyes staring into his in an unyielding honest gaze. Khun blinked. “But mix it up a bit. I don’t want to be a Khun-clone,” Bam said with a giggle, and oh, how Khun wanted to bottle that sound and nestle it just next to his heart.
He could feel his ears burning, so he just ducked his head in a nod and motioned for Bam to turn around again. He did, but a smile far too pleasant graced his face.
Running the comb through Bam’s hair one more time and meeting no resistance, Khun grabbed the scissors. “I’m going to start cutting now, okay? Stay still.” Bam made a soft noise of acknowledgement, and Khun got to work.
This was not the first time Khun had cut a teammate’s hair. Prince was fussy, and on long trips he demanded that no one less than the best hair stylist in the next hundred miles to cut his hair. It just so happened that it was Khun – and, of course, once Prince started getting trims, Wangnan wanted them, and so on.
Unlike anyone else’s hair Khun had cut, though, Bam did not make a word of protest. He seemed to be thoroughly soaking up Khun’s attention, letting out breathy sighs when Khun ran his hands through his hair to grip the strands. His ears and cheeks felt warm, and Khun found himself touching Bam’s hair a bit more than necessary, just to hear that little noise of pleasure.
When Khun finished, he stood and walked around Bam, brushing out the front of his hair for him and enjoying the undivided attention of Bam’s gaze. A couple clips at the front, and Khun said, “There. All done.”
“Thank you,” Bam murmured, his hands twisting together and his head tilting down to look more carefully at Khun, who was crouched just in front of Bam. “How does it look?”
Khun offered a small smile, wondering if his blush was still visible on his face. Hopefully not. “It looks great. Much more mature – before, you looked young. Shady too, like a criminal.”
Bam gave an unsure smile at that. “Criminal?”
“It’s just because you could barely see your face. You’re too sweet to ever do anything evil.” Bam just stared down at his nails, and Khun frowned, connecting the dots. “You were a criminal? In the tower?” He was a bit disbelieving, but Khun knew how to read a person.
“I was a FUG slayer candidate. I was blackmailed into it, but some of them weren’t so bad.”
“Huh,” Khun said, his mouth forming an ‘o’. “Well. FUG still exists. It’s a bit of an open secret, but – they’ve only one immortal from the tower on their side – probably the only one besides you outside of Jahad and the 10 Families. So, they’ve got not much of a chance.”
Bam looked up sharply at that. “Who? Who’s the other person from the tower?”
Khun thought for a moment. “Ha Jinsa? Jingsung? I think. People don’t talk about him much.” And all of a sudden, Bam was on his feet, a determined gleam in his eye. He held his hand out for Khun to take.
“We have to find him,” Bam said, staring down at him with those brilliant eyes, now clear and unobstructed by his hair.
“Why?” Khun asks, the surprise visible in his tone.
“Because,” Bam said, “He’s my master. And I have to find him, let him know I’m okay.”
Khun stared back into Bam’s eyes and smiled, reaching up to grasp his hand. Bam pulled him up to his feet, his eyes softening in reflex to his smile. “Of course I’ll help you find him, but it won’t be easy. And you’ll need a proper identity, because right now you shouldn’t exist.” Khun left his hand in Bam’s, and tugged him along, reaching down to grab the lantern and slipping the brush and clippers into his pocket. “Don’t worry, though. I have plenty of contacts, and so does Yeon and Wangnan. I’m sure they will help. Even Prince. None of us here really like Jahad.”
“Ah- well, I don’t know about joining FUG…”
Khun scoffed. “Me either. But we have time to figure things out before then.” He continued pulling along Bam, who tightened his hand in Khun’s and brushed against his shoulder. Khun turned and saw Bam’s smile.
“Thank you for helping me.” Khun had said of course one too many times, so he just let his smile do the speaking.
It was going to be a long way home, and a long time until they found Ha Jinsung, but Khun was ready to take the leap. He had spent too much time pretending to try to gain back the Khun family’s favor after the dilemma with Maria, and too much time learning about the past to find his purpose. Khun didn’t know if soulmates existed, but if they did, Khun thought his red string of fate led right to the man beside him.
I’ll help you, Bam, Khun thought, squeezing Bam’s hand and feeling him squeeze back, and warmth thrummed in his blood so brightly to the point Khun couldn’t tell if it was his feelings or Bam’s, because if there’s anything in this life I’ve been waiting for, it’s you.