Chapter Text
He was running.
He didn’t know where he was running to, but that didn’t matter to him right then. He just had to get away, and once he was safe (or, as safe as he could be), he could figure things out from there.
His palisman was clenched tightly in his hands, motionless in its staff form, yet he didn’t ride it, even though his original staff had been left behind in his panicked escape. He wasn’t actually sure if he could ride it. He knew he didn’t have his own magic, and he didn’t know if that mattered for flying on a palisman staff. Now, however, wasn’t the time to test that out- he needed to run , and he didn’t have time for learning how to do something new. It wasn’t like he’d been able to practice, what with him living in the castle and all. What would he have said to anyone who saw him flying around on a palisman staff he should have turned in to his uncle? ‘Oh, this? Yeah, I’ve been hiding this palisman from my Uncle even though I know he needs them to live because I got a little attached to it, sorry.’?
Not like it made a difference in the end.
His uncle still found out.
Really, it was Kikimora’s fault. Of course it was; she’d been trying to get him outright killed for weeks- why would snooping in his room be below her?
Yes, she’d broken into his room, found his palisman, and reported it to the emperor.
Hunter had been called into the throne room for reasons unknown to him at the time. As such, he’d been apprehensive, but not too overly worried. Despite the whispers of fears lingering in the corners of his mind, he’d assumed that he was just going to be given another mission.
But those fears quickly took over the moment he entered.
The cardinal was clenched tightly in his uncle’s hands, and even with the mask obscuring his features, Hunter could feel the rage rolling off of the man in waves. Hunter’s mind screamed at him to run, to hide, to do something to protect himself from something that hadn’t even happened yet, but all he did was freeze and stare. Stare- stare at the palisman he wasn’t supposed to have, stare at the uncle he wasn’t supposed to betray, stare at nothing in the nonexistent hope that his uncle might not notice how afraid he was.
Of course, his hopes didn’t make any difference, either.
“Hunter.”
His uncle’s voice was cold, cold in that way it only got when Hunter messed up very badly . Emperor Belos was a gentle man, most of the time. With him, at least. But that made sense, he was an emperor, and they were family. All rulers had to be cruel sometimes. Emperor Belos wasn’t quite the same person as Uncle Belos, and Hunter understood that. And most of the time, that difference was clear. Uncle Belos usually treated him kindly. The man had never been overly affectionate, but he was gentle. He cared about Hunter, and that was why he had to make sure Hunter was strong enough to face the world. He had never blamed his uncle for not coddling him.
Even as the Emperor, Belos was not terrible. He was, for the most part, a fair and just ruler, who just needed to have a heavy hand when the situation called for it. He took no pleasure in enforcing the law beyond the satisfaction of knowing he was keeping his kingdom safe. And in dealing with the Golden guard, the Emperor set reasonable standards and expected him to be able to meet those standards. Yes, he’d punished him for failing to meet them, but that was the cost of learning. He would never become better if he never had to face the consequences of his failures.
So, Hunter never believed that Belos was a cruel man.
Despite that, he did recognize that he feared him. Sometimes, at least.
Hunter couldn’t remember a time when Uncle hadn’t been afflicted by his curse (though, he didn’t remember very much of his early childhood at all), and the curse had only grown worse as time went on. Uncle would sometimes fly into a rage, a rage much worse than he would usually express, only to apologize to Hunter afterward. His uncle could be scary, but it wasn’t his fault , and the man even felt guilty about it.
Hunter didn’t blame him.
He didn’t .
But in that moment, he knew that the rage being directed at him wasn’t the result of his uncle’s curse. No, this rage was because Hunter had messed up.
Badly.
And, seeing this figure before him- not his loving uncle, nor the just emperor- Hunter was terrified.
And he couldn’t respond.
“ Hunter, ” the emperor repeated. “Do you have something you want to tell me?”
His voice was even, but he could hear the dangerous undercurrent beneath. Hunter’s mouth grew dry, and his tongue felt too big in his mouth. His words got stuck behind an invisible wall, and even once he finally convinced his mouth to open, nothing came out.
His uncle shook the palisman staff back and forth.
“I believe you hid something from me, boy.”
Hunter’s heart thumped loudly in his chest, making the blood rush in his ears.
“I-”
He barely got a word out before the emperor cut him off (though he wasn’t sure what he would have said, anyway)
“You what , Hunter?” Belos hissed. “You stood in front of me, telling me that you couldn’t find any more of the very things I need to survive, and all the while, you kept this hidden away from me?”
Hunter’s shoulder’s began to stiffen and move toward his ears as he started to rock on his heels. He couldn’t meet his uncle’s eyes, even though he couldn’t see them.
“I’m- I’m sorry…”
But apologizing was a mistake.
“You’re sorry?! ” Belos yelled, his voice booming. “You attempt treason , and all you can say for yourself is that you’re sorry ?!”
Treason?
“No, Uncle, I-”
“Silence!” the older man cut him off again. “Perhaps it was foolish of me to believe you were better than this. But no , you’re just as weak as the rest of them.”
“Uncle?”
Hunter took a half of a step forward, and he was quickly met by his uncle’s open palm as the man rushed forward, closing the rest of the gap between them.
“Do you truly believe you still have the right to refer to me as if we were family, when this is how you behave?” Belos questioned dangerously. “I am your emperor, and you will address me appropriately.”
His cheek stung, but not as much as his heart did. This really wasn’t because of the curse. If it was, his uncle wouldn’t have slapped him- his cursed flesh would have attacked. No, this wasn’t the curse’s doing.
This was Hunter’s fault.
He lowered his gaze further, lowering himself to kneel at Belos’s feet.
“I-I’m sorry, Your Highness.”
The emperor glared down at him.
“I’m sure you are,” he spoke, his voice suddenly sounding a bit more like the gentle voice he was used to.
And yet, something still sounded so wrong about it.
“And that’s why I’m sure you’ll have no objections to me destroying your precious palisman ,” he added.
Hunter’s heart dropped, acting like a lead weight holding his body to the floor. Despite this, his head shot upwards as he frantically searched his uncle’s blank mask for any sign the man was bluffing.
But of course he wasn’t bluffing- how many palisman had his uncle consumed? How many times had he watched him break them apart and suck the magic and soul right out of them- palismen Hunter himself had provided.
With no further discussion or theatrics, Emperor Belos shifted the staff so he held one end in each hand. Then, as if he was watching in slow motion, Hunter saw the wood of the palisman staff begin to strain. The wood began to bend, began to warp, and he knew there was only a matter of moments before the staff snapped in two, and the palisman was dead.
His body moved on its own accord, his mind having not been involved in the decision. He shot forward with a desperate shout, reaching forward toward the small, wooden bird that had flown itself into his life.
“Rascal!!”
A moment later, Hunter realized he was sitting on top of his uncle, who he’d knocked to the floor. His uncle’s mask had been knocked off by the impact, and it was still rocking on the floor. Rascal was now held in his own hands, the wood slightly malformed but still in one piece.
He didn’t have any time for relief before he heard his uncle let out a pained groan.
Scrambling, Hunter climbed off of the man, backing up toward the door. He only stopped when his back met the closed door of the throne room. Emperor Belos, meanwhile, slowly got back up.
“You… miserable… brat!!”
The emperor stalked forward, and Hunter pressed further into the door, his hands gripping Rascal to his chest.
He didn’t completely understand why he was so terrified. He knew that this wasn’t the curse, and his uncle never hurt him too badly when the curse didn’t make him. And besides, a large portion of his mind reasoned, whatever his uncle did do to him, he deserved it. He had betrayed the only family he had left, so he had no right to complain if his uncle punished him for that.
“You’ve really chosen a piece of wood over your own family, the one who took you in and raised you,” Belos scoffed. “Truly, I don’t know why I’m surprised, considering what you are.”
“W-What?”
Hunter hadn’t really spoken out of confusion- rather, it was more of an automatic response to his own shock. He figured that his uncle meant that he was a traitor, that he was an ungrateful brat, something along those lines. Instead, his uncle actually explained, and his explanation was something Hunter had neither expected nor been prepared for.
“You, my dear boy, are little more than a pawn ,” the emperor spoke darkly. “An important pawn, yes, but a pawn nonetheless.”
Belos placed a hand on one of his shoulders, squeezing painfully tight.
“But no matter.”
Thankfully, the tight grip didn’t last long, as the emperor let go with those words.
“I tried to give you a good life before the Day of Unity- as a payment of sorts for the sacrifice you’ll have to make for the sake of the Titan,” Belos continued. “But I suppose I was being foolish. Clearly, you can’t be trusted with the gift I have given you.”
Sacrifice?
His uncle’s eyes were cold now behind the mask, the coldest he’d ever seen them. They were so cold that Hunter briefly hoped that this man and his uncle couldn’t possibly be the same person. But they were .
“It really is too late now to replace you. Far too much hassle.”
Hunter could feel his legs trembling, threatening to drop him to the floor.
“But I can certainly make sure you’re kept in check.”
Then, Emperor Belos leaned back toward him, reaching out his hand again. Hunter shut his eyes tightly, expected it to hurt, but he felt his uncle’s hand grip his chin gently instead. The man’s words, however, were anything but gentle.
“Do open your eyes, my little Grimwalker,” his uncle instructed, his voice containing the same false comfort as his touch. “After all, this may be the last thing you see.”
Suddenly, a white-hot, burning pain erupted from his wrist, feeling worse than it had reason to. The pain made Hunter’s eyes fly open. Looking down at the wrist that held his coven emblem, he saw a strange glow coming from beneath his glove. More disturbingly, however, was the creeping tendrils of red magic slowly moving up his arm.
Hunter let out a short shriek, but despite the pain, the tendrils soon seemed to stop their encroaching. This gave Hunter the smallest bit of relief; however, it only seemed to re-ignite Belos’s rage.
“What?!” the man shouted in confused anger.
Then, the emperor gripped his arm tightly and tore off the glove, revealing a small set of shallow wounds, which crossed over the emblem on Hunter’s forearm. Seeing this, Belos’s eyes shot to his own, the disbelief mixing with the rage.
“ WHAT DID YOU DO ?! ”
For a moment, Belos let go as he saw that his plan, whatever it was, had not worked.
Hunter took that moment to blindly reach for the doorknob.
Thankfully, his hand met with the metal and he grabbed onto it, twisted it, and pulled it open.
And then, he ran.
And ran .
.
.
.
“Under My Skin,
I Cannot Run Away…”