cassiopeia ꒱ markhyuck

thirty four

Jisung was completely out of breath by the time he stumbled into the sorcerers' lair. He was sure he was quite the sight—frazzled, sweaty, panting, with his eyes wild and the color drained from his face in his panic. But he didn't have time to think and worry about his appearance, even if he knew there was someone in the sorcerers' dwelling that he cared about impressing very much.

Speak of the devil.

"Chenle!" Jisung cried out frantically, startling the poor apprentice so hard that he almost dropped the vial he had been holding as he was walking by.

"...Jisung?" Chenle whispered back after a beat, looking shocked and confused. "What are you doing down here? Don't you work the night shift?"

"Chenle, we don't have time," Jisung gasped out, grabbing the smaller beta by his shoulders. "The king and queen are in danger. I need you to go get Jaemin, now."

Something in Jisung's eyes must've scared Chenle into taking him seriously, because the beta didn't protest or say another word as he nodded and ran off to find his teacher.

Jaemin rounded the corner again soon after with Chenle trailing after him, hair ruffled from sleep but eyes wide and alert as he ran up to Jisung.

"What's the matter? Chenle said the king and queen are in danger?" Jaemin said hurriedly. Jisung just nodded and pushed the gas bomb into Jaemin's hands, still trembling.

"My partner didn't show up for our shift at the outer gates tonight, so when I ran down to check, every guard outside the king's bedroom was unconscious. I found this on the ground next to them."

Jaemin examined the bomb, leaning down to sniff it just as Jisung had done. His face paled with realization, more panic leaking into his expression.

"This is a very powerful sleeping potion, made from aglaophotis. Without an antidote, the guards won't be waking up for hours, days even."

"We need to get them an antidote right away then," Jisung said frantically, "the alpha traitor is in the bedroom with the king and queen. I think he might try and kill them."

Chenle and Jaemin exchanged a look of horror. Jaemin was the first to school his face back into determination, looking nothing short of diplomatic as he began to bark out orders.

"Get the holy oak root and moly leaves!" Jaemin demanded, and a group of apprentices scrambled towards the ingredients shelves. "We need to make a shit ton of the antidote for aglaophotis gas, immediately. The lives of our king and queen depend on it."

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The nightmare Donghyuck had that night was strange and haunting in a way he had never experienced before.

He could hear Mark's voice in the distance, crying and pleading to save Donghyuck's life, but he could not see him anywhere. The place Donghyuck found himself in was a dark void, where he could see nothing but hear everything.

He wished he could go to Mark and comfort him, tell him that he's okay and that he doesn't have to cry, but he couldn't. He was frozen in place, unable to move or speak.

When he looked down, all he saw was his own abdomen, cut open and continuously bleeding, leaving a puddle of dark red blood beneath his feet that stained the black void and permeated the space around him.

He was suffocating in silence, bleeding out in solitude, and he could nothing but sit in agony as he listened to Mark's muffled, desperate pleas.

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