Page 61 of Reign of the Talon
She had never heard of such a thing, had thought all humans were the same, all eager to hang Gumiho pelts on their walls, the nine tails hanging limp like dead caterpillars.
Jae is snuggled in his mother’s arms, asleep. Seojin administers the pain-relieving brew, and Ijun smiles tiredly in thanks. Her lips are chapped and almost colorless.
“Ijun,” Seojin says gently as he hands the vial back to Iseul to cap, “have you heard from your husband?” Iseul has heard that Ijun’s partner is fighting in the capital, and there is no telling if he is alive or dead. But it’s time for her to begin preparations.
Ijun seems to know Seojin’s reason for asking. “No word,” she rasps.
Iseul looks at Jae, so small, and liable to become so very, very alone. And then she looks at Seojin, whose dark, depthless eyes are mournful as he looks at the little boy. Is he thinking of his older brother, whom he lost? The way that Iseul is thinking of her family? She watches as Seojin blinks rapidly and as he murmurs a few reassurances to Ijun, before moving on to the next patient. And the next. And the next.
Each time after they visit Ijun, Iseul does not feel very well. Her skin, it becomes all clammy, and her stomach twists around in a way that is entirely unpleasant. She tries not to look back at the wounded woman and her son yet cannot stop her head from twisting. Ijun is stroking Jae’s hair, murmuring something that might be a lullaby. Swallowing hard, Iseul yanks her gaze away.
When Kang comes to relieve Seojin of his shift, Iseul cannot help but to stare at the metal muzzle rendering the advisor’s mouth useless. Like a dog. There are rumors, of course, of what the advisor did to warrant it. Attempted murder, of the best friend variety. Iseul finds this incredibly amusing as she and Seojin finally exit the festering stench-pot of the sickbay. She gulps in the fresh air of the opulent foyer, gulping down the sweet fragrance of the bubbling khana fountain…
Just as Seojin’s knees give out.
“Seojin!” Iseul snaps, tumbling down with him. She refuses to feel concern for him, but there’s a panicked sort of prickling in her heart as Seojin’s eyes flutter shut. Iseul slaps his cheeks, attempting to revive him. When that doesn’t work, she tugs insistently on one of his ears. Hard. “Get up!” she snarls, trying to disguise her fear with irritability. “Getup, getup. I don’t want to lug your dead weight around…” The tightness in her chest relaxes as Seojin stirs, his eyes fluttering open.
“Iseul?” He blinks, and she can see the exhaustion swimming in his dark eyes. For a moment, he looks fondly at her like he used to, when he was her…when he was hers. But then that fond, soft look is replaced by confusion, then by realization, and then, finally, by an emotion masked so quickly it leaves her with nothing. “We’re on the floor,” he mumbles.
“Astute observation.” Iseul bares her teeth. “Please get up. This floor is disgusting. It’s been trekked all over by bloodstained boots. And I’dreallylike to take a bath. The sickbay stench does tend to permeate everything.”
Seojin drags himself back to his feet with clear effort and groans under his breath.
Iseul can’t stop talking. She always has, when she is nervous. And seeing him fall like that… “A bath. I’m sure, Seojin, that you don’t want to see me naked. And gods know I’d rathergouge out my eyesthan see you in the nude. How about you uncuff me? Just long enough for me to wash?” She smiles beatifically, batting her eyes up at him. “I’ll be on my very best behavior, I promise.”
Seojin snaps his head toward her, suddenly looking very awake. Perhaps infuriated by her taunts, the nervous laughter underneath that he must perceive as authentic joy. “How,” he breathes, voice filled with disbelief and anger, “can you see all of this and feelnothing?”
“Easily,” Iseul purrs, but suddenly she’s not feeling very well again. “I remember what they did to my kind.”
“And the 43rdDivision?” he snaps. It used to be so rare that his gentle voice turns hard, but it does so now, and she is…used to it. “There were those who tried tostop it, Iseul. Like Ijun’s mother. Whose daughter is now dying from Imugi venom from the same monsters you allied yourself with!”
“What’s the use in trying if youfail?” snarls Iseul. And suddenly, there is hurt in her heart, so sharp that she flinches. “It doesn’t matter what they tried to do, because it didn’t work, and my family isdead.”
“There was a Prophecy,” Seojin replies harshly. “Just as there is now. You heard them, Iseul. Prophecies always come to fruition.”
She glares up at him, at the sad brown eyes that look hazel in just the right lighting, the gentle, beautiful face as familiar to her as her own. Seojin has always been one of the only ones brave enough to go toe-to-toe with the Dove Coop’s notorious madame. It seems like that, at least, has not changed.
“So why try?” Iseul whispers.
He shakes his head. “Because the other choice is to lay down and take it. It’s just like the emperor says. It would be cowardly to not at least try to defend these kingdoms, these people.”
Somebodyhas been listening to the emperor’s inspirational speeches. For all his many, many, many flaws, Iseul cannot deny that Haneul Rui is as silver tongued as can be.
It is a convincing emperor, after all, who can convince his troops to fight a losing war.
Yet there are whispers that this war isn’t as lost as once thought. With the rumored, forthcoming intervention of the gods, morale has—slightly—lifted, despite the ongoing Battle of Sanyeongto.
Just slightly.
And there wasn’t much to begin with.
“These families, Iseul—thesechildren. Look at Jae!” With his unchained hand, he gestures behind them to the doors of the sickbay. “Do you know who he reminds me of?”
Her throat is suddenly so, so dry. “Don’t say it,” she warns quietly. Furiously, she blinks back tears as Seojin says—
“You. He reminds me ofyou. He’s so small, and so scared. Yet he puts on a brave face, even though we all can see he is breaking underneath it. Jae is going to lose his mother and likely his father. Because of Lina. Because of the side you took in this war. Don’t you see?” Seojin’s voice cracks. “This is why I fight back, why I joined Gyeulcheon. And I think that if you let yourself feel something other than rage and hate, you’d join us, too—”
“Shut up,” she spits, curling her hands into fists.
