Ghost Du Hongmo

Lessons From The Goryo (2)

When Asano got up to dress and leave, Hongmo had her back to the door. She didn't want to see him leave, for she knew that it would be some time before they would be able to meet up again. He had a lot of things to accomplish if he wanted to be King. And one of them was to marry Lady Masa and establish a connection with her to have a peaceful marriage. She was just a concubine in a long line of concubines in his life. But what made her special was that she was his first concubine and that she was also his friend.

If Asano and Masa could establish a connection and an understanding with her, Masa can help him rise to the throne and help control the rest of the concubines in the Back Palace. If she did well, then she would be moved up to the rank of wife and when he became King, she would be Queen. And should she become pregnant and give birth to a son, she would be the Mother to the Kingdom and be bestowed with the highest honor and rank.

Asano sat on the bed and Hongmo quickly closed her eyes and pretended to sleep. Asano patted her head gently before tracing the side of her face and neck.

"You take care you hear?" Asano told her. "Should you need anything you can always come to me and I'll help you."

He traced her shoulder with his fingers bring his fingers trace down the side of her body. Tracing her curves and then tracing her poison markings. He pulled a small section of her red hair into his fingers and started twirling the tip of her hair around his forefinger.

And before she could react, Asano took out his dagger and cut a piece of her hair that he wrapped around his finger. He had gotten up and left before she understood what happened and as she sat up to check her hair for the missing lock of hair. She heard him leave and close the door behind him as he walked out of her home. Her hand came up to her chest and her chest hurt. It physically hurt. She hunched over and tried to control the pain inside of her.

"What's wrong with me Goryo." Hongmo asked.

"It's called heartbreak, my dear Iris. Heartbreak and soon it would be called heartache."

"Make it stop."

"It's not me who is causing this." The Goryo told her. "It's a feeling you feel when you start to open yourself up to others and let them in. It's a feeling that humans feel once they start to care for others. You chose this remember? You knew it would hurt to see him leave and go to someone else. That is why you drew the line so clearly, because you knew that the both of you could not be together. That the only way to show him that you love him was to protect him. And the only way to protect him was with your strength and your powers. Had you gotten married to him, yes you both would be formidable together, but your powers would be confined in a strict royal palace. Your freedom would be locked inside and the souls we need to survive would be hard to get as well. Our freedom and will would be locked inside those walls and we would slowly die."

"We could sneak out."

"And tell Asano what when we get caught? Would you tell him about me? About the fact that you need souls to feed me? To keep us alive? That I'm the real monster who lives in you? The real Ghost who tied herself to you? Would you jeopardize yourself and me to tell him about us? And our twisted fates that have now become one? Or would you lie to him? And then tell more lies to cover up that lie and so on and so forth? Creating more lies upon more lies? And then hating yourself and me for making such lies? No. It is better for the both of us to never let anyone know about us."  

"I hate it when you're right."  

"I'm only right because I am you as you are me."  The Goryo told her.  "We are apart of each other now.  I only know you so well because I have slowly become you as you have slowly become me. You have decided a long time ago that we could bring nothing to improve Asano's status, connection, and riches.  We have nothing to offer him but strength and love.  Strength that will only be useful if we are free of that marriage and love that is unimaginable for you to speak of.  So instead of speaking about it, you will show it to him through other means other than sex.  That is our fate." 

Hongmo understood this, she understood this well, but she needed to keep reminding herself and needed the Goryo to remind her as well.