solis | svt au

2

Jeonghan stared with an unreadable expression at the sullen boy sitting on the floor. The boy stared back, a look of defiance on his face, and Jeonghan reluctantly broke eye-contact first to speak to the crew.

"Which one of you idiots decided to kidnap a child?" He glared at the crew, most of which were finding the floor, the ceiling, or their nails very interesting. Mingyu fiddled with his necklace as he avoided eye contact. "He's obviously not willing to be here and won't be of much use."

There was a long silence.

"Well?" Jeonghan could practically hear crickets chirping in the background. He sighed before glancing at Mingyu. "Hey Mingyu, Seokmin always wanted an apprentice right?" Mingyu cautiously nodded, confused at the sudden question.

"I guess we can just dump him at his shop since we can't exactly go back,"

Mingyu's eyes widened and he opened his mouth to reject the idea before abruptly closing his mouth. He didn't want to risk anything when Jeonghan was in that mood.

Jeonghan turned back to the crew, slightly calmer though still stern, "Any objections?"

All of his crew hurriedly shook their heads, relieved that the storm had blown over. An angry or frustrated Jeonghan was very rare and a stark contrast to his usual calm and laid-back manner. 

"That's settled then," Jeonghan said, "Change course to Astrum."

-

It was early morning, a week or so after the attack. The sun hadn't risen yet, and the sky was still dark. Seungcheol locked up the empty shop, a pack on both shoulders the only thing he was bringing, and walked towards the stables of Seungkwan's father's inn. They weren't actually riding horses, but it was where they were meeting up. In the dark, he felt a presence and heard footsteps following him. Turning to see no one there, his imagination went wild with possible threats.

Feeling antsy, he finally hurried over to his destination, where Seungkwan was waiting, holding a lantern giving off a small light. "Took you long enough," Seungkwan hissed. His tone was half-hearted as he nervously laughed. "I though you weren't going to show up."

Another voice suddenly spoke up behind Seungcheol. "You two are awfully loud for people trying to sneak out."

They turned around, eyes wide. Seungcheol automatically took a defensive stance, and Seungkwan hid behind him.

The voice had come from a rather short figure casting a dramatically long shadow, standing in the entrance of the stables. Coming closer, the figure revealed itself to be none other than Jihoon, the Storyteller. The looked at him warily, wondering what he wanted.

"Where are you two going in the middle of the night?" he asked, tiredness lacing his words. "Astrum, I presume?"

They looked at him, even greater shock evident in their expressions. Seungcheol managed to stutter out, "Wait-how did you-" before Jihoon held his hand up to interrupt. "It doesn't take someone with half a brain cell to figure that out. Where else would you go except Astrum, the most widely known pirate haven in the kingdom?"

"Oh."

There was a pause.

"You're not going to stop us, are you?" Seungkwan asked cautiously.

"No, of course not." Jihoon replied. "I'm going with you," He didn't appear to notice their bewilderment. "So, are we going or not?" The tone of his voice made it clear that he wasn't taking 'no' for an answer.

-

The journey took several days and felt rather anticlimatic. As the three of them walked, Seungcheol tried to think of where Chan could possibly be. Such a large city would take weeks to fully search and he might not even be there. His worried thoughts slowly increased as Astrum's enormous city walls came into view.