He was to be trained to the toughest of his abilities. To be matched  with such fury and distraught, such as the burden of being the ensuing King of Daeho. The Crown Prince was to reign over the land in the coming decade, with the most powerful mage by his side, as his queen, Hwang Hye-jin.

It nerved him. 

The woman he was to marry, was the same woman he had fallen so heavily in love with, that he burned for her every gaze, burned for her light with such solemnity, he felt he would die if she was to bear such a fate.

Though he was distraught.

Hye-Jin, though the woman who he held onto for years was to be his queen, his companion, yet her heart would never belong to him.

He wished to have allured her heart by now, after all the years they shared in one another's company, after all the lengthy talks about past lives, or feelings in which they have never felt, but his efforts were futile.

Though he swore to every god that Hye-Jin would have fallen under the illness of love, she had not. She wasn't love stricken, she wasn't love sick, she seemed almost incapable of such deep emotion; at least that is what Go-won thought it be.

It was not that he was prideful in his eligibility to sway one to love him, his humility too strong to have placed such a god-forsaken thought in his mind, though he had believed, if one was to never fall under such a bug as love, after years of being the only people they had, then she must not be capable.

She must have traded her true happiness for power.

He wished that to be false.

He wished that if he was to marry, he would marry for love, but it seemed as though this wasn't to be his fate. He of course would marry for his love, but not for hers.

She would not burn for him, that like he does her. She would not find all that was looking for his arms, she would not love him.

But, Go-won believed that he could change that. Let it be his naeveness, or let it be his innocence to make him greatly believe in such a thing.

She had to be capable of loving him, there was to be no other fate for her or for him. They would have to force each other's hand to wed.

Let it be for love, and not the convince it originally was to be.

"Sire, what is it that plagues your mind?" The assistant Gwangju speaks as he settles in the seat in front of him, pouring them tea from the dark pot. His smile filled with motive unbeknownst to that of the Crowned Prince, but of course, his inability to concentrate on anything else than the raven hair beauty made him miss that fact.

"Nothing worth mentioning." Go-won responds with such swiftness and determination to halt his prior thoughts, he sips the newly brewed tea to cover up his discrepancies of behavior.

All Jin Mu did was show him a knowing smile.

"Well then, Judging by the energy at the tip of your sword, it appears that you have finally reached the highest stage of Ryusu." Jin Mu expresses with a smile, the seething tone of pride for his pupils' prowess and mastery.

Go-won laughs, "It's all thanks to your guidance, Assistant Gwangju." He lifts the clay cup of tea, his face wavering from such a face of pride, to that of maturity, checking himself.

"The only person who is on the same level as you, Your Highness, is most likely Seo Yul, from the Seo family. Her majesty, the Queen, and Seo Yul's father, General Seo, are siblings, are they not?" The man inquired, as if he already knew of such knowledge, just wanted to make sure.

"Yul and I, we were pretty close as children, but we've grown apart since he went to Songrim." The Crowned Prince admitted, with such plight and sorrow as he continued to sip his tea.

"Doesn't he have a strong relationship with Lady Hwang, as like the rest of the seasons: Jin Cho-Yeon, Park Danggu, Jang Uk?" Jin Mu inquired with intentions to stir up a more serious conversation.

"No, not anymore. He seemed to have grown apart from those who cared for him most, I suppose." Go-won's witty response led his master to muster a smirk on his face, as he knowingly struck some deeper emotion within Go-won, than the Prince would admit.

"Doesn't their past make you worried, sire? You are to be wedded to the Mage of Daeho in little time."

"Of course not, Lady Hwang and Seo Yul were just lackluster friends. They haven't been in much contact since his return to Songrim, as my Lady has informed me." His mind drifted from that point. He couldn't ever see Hye-Jin as someone who practices infidelity, that of any account, even with the false relation, she would never do that to him, to this possibility of being caught, of ruining their reputation.

Though Go-won didn't know Seo Yul like he once did, maybe Seo Yul had other intentions, other feelings that have been hidden from plain sight. Feelings for Hye-Jin, someone who didn't belong to him, someone who didn't love him, or was capable of love. He wasn't worried about her in any way.

He, unknowingly all while knowingly, played his fragile heart into her hands. He trusted she wasn't to drop it.

He placed his trust into her and he knew it would all be okay.

——

"Let me out of here!" The younger girl screamed with such might, as she used all her force to leave Cheonbugwan. Yet, her energy was useless, the walls were held by a spell as powerful as a thousand mages. Her energy was just to be wasted and used in vain.

"Please, I was mistaken, this is not what I wanted!" Hye-Jin sobs and tears plagued her face, her eyes having been plagued by the horrors of her training.

She was mistaken. The brutal hearts, the blood, it felt as it still lingered her body, her hands, her face. The ghost of all the terrors of the truth. Hye-Jin did not want any part of it.

She was to kill, or she was to be killed.

She had to do it. But did she? Did she really have to murder those people who she did not know if deemed innocent or guilty?

She had to bend her morals, but at what cost?

Power?

A Name?

She realized that she was wrong, Yul was wrong. She didn't want this 'honorable opportunity.'

She wanted to be a child. She wanted to make stupid jokes with her friends. She wanted the burden of  being the head of her clan one day.

But that was to be all gone if she continued this. She would, too, be gone.

"They will not hear from here. You're wasting your energy." The voice of a boy, one that hasn't reached maturity, one with very little pride, shouted out to her as she searched helplessly for where that voice stemmed from.

Hye-Jin gaze met with those of familiar ones. Eyes in which she had seen with the presence of Yul. The Crowned Prince.

He was a handsome boy, he held a stance, yet lacked certain maturity. His age was to blame, but he was as mature for a Prince.

"Your Highness." Hye-Jin bowed sternly, as she continued to collect herself, not meeting his gaze.

Go-won acknowledged her mannerism with a small bow, as he continued to walk towards her, his arms behind him.

"These walls are spelled. It helps keep criminals and the unwanted out, yet they also keep people in. Though you are a strong mage, Lady Hwang, these walls cannot be broken by your efforts. Your forceful actions are in vain." When the elder boy reached the girl, she brought her gaze to him, as they looked into one another's eyes.

He was taken aback by her beauty, her raven hair laid against her pale skin as her eyes reflected the lights of the fire and the moon.

"You are trapped here, forever long as they want." He finished as he offered her a small cloth to wipe away the tears that still strayed on her face. He was to walk away, to disappear. He shouldn't be down here, yet the mysteries of the younger girl and her monstrous power led his curtiosity to her.

"Are you trapped here too ?" Hye-Jin mustered through her weak, yet stern voice.

"I live here. I've been trapped my entire life." Go-won admitted, his back to her, as his head turned. He faced her once again.

"How can you live with this? The unknowing horrors, the death, the chaos. How can you breathe and not have a heavy consciousness?" The younger yelled, her voice becoming weak again, the once dry eyes brimming with tears once again.

Go-won gave her an honest look of acceptance of her words. Her words were true, this palace wasn't as innocent and as forgiving as what others expected it to be.

"You learn to accept the darkness that is hidden behind these walls, Lady Hwang. Want my advice?" The prince asked with a look of pity.

The girl nodded with desperation.

"The faster you learn to accept the truths, the more your odds are to survive them. Learn the hatred before the hatred learns of you. It will consume you, and you will fail to succeed. Accept it, better yet, manipulate it, and you'll survive." Go-won gave her soft smile as she nodded, taking in his words of knowledge.

He turned around to walk away once again.

"Hye-Jin." The girl shouted out to him.

"What?" He turned to face her once again, her face holding a different emotion than it did before.

"Call me Hye-Jin. I feel as though we will be seeing more of one another." Her once weak voice sounded with that of determination.

Go-won nodded, "Then call me Go-won, Hye-Jin." He looked at her one last time before he was to take his leave.

She nodded at him, almost as if she was allowing him to leave, yet her face held a soft smile.

His heart struck with unwarranted emotion as he turned his back, walking away from her with no direction of where he was to go.

——

"Hye-Jin, I was just about to head to see Master Park. I expect you to also be there." Jang Uk called out to the woman who had walked into the compound. She had a face of discomfort as she walked ahead, stopping abruptly at the friends behind her who had caused more trouble than she would have liked to accept. She hadn't seen him nor his maid servant, Mu-doek since he had gotten his gate of energy opened.

"You. Man Child." Hye-Jin yelled with disappointment as she turned around and slapped the boy across his head. "You curated the most trouble I have seen my uncle stress over since Naksu showed up. You are defiant, Jang Uk. I am disappointed" Her stern voice was void of any caring emotion, only that of disappointment, Jang Uk was upset that he had let her down, the person who always stood up for him.

Hye-Jin was seething with anger, that almost of a sibling when the younger gets them both into trouble. It pained her to see him still being a pain, even now when he has gotten what he has wanted all his life.

Hye-Jin blinked harshly as she inhaled, letting out a sigh, calming herself down.

"But what I'm most disappointed about, what pains me most, is that I didn't hear of this from you. I would have helped, I would have aided you and your defiant character, Uk. You and I, we are bonded by time, and it is hard to see that you are struggling without asking for my help." Hye-Jin seethed out with such emotion that she felt horrid, almost as the events of the previous nights.

Uk didn't say anything, he just hung his head low. He knew this would be what he was met with, this sort of sisterly scolding from Hye-Jin.

She had always been this way to him. She was always the one to bring him back to reality of the disturbances he has caused.

She was the one who always cared, no matter how much she had changed.

That never did.

Hye-Jin just scoffs as she walks ahead of him, both making their way to the training center,

When Hye-jin walked in, her gaze set on her angered uncle, who looked as if he was to explode.

Though to most his behavior was meek and his intentions were unknown, Hye-Jin read him like an open book and she was desperate for him to not continue with this meeting.

Hye-Jin wanted to stop whatever was to go down before it would begin.

"Master Park, please don't-" 

She was shut up by the weight of his hitting the air, raising it to cease any more words from coming out of her mouth.

Hye-Jin just painfully looked around, standing step behind Park Jin, as her gaze met Seo Yul's.

His gaze questioned her, without ever having his mouth to inquire. Hye-Jin shook her head, showing him that whatever was to happen, they would not approve of.

Hye-Jin racked her mind for any excuse she was to make this time. She could not let Jang Uk suffer the wrath of Park Jin, a man who won't explain why he must treat Uk  so poorly.

Uk has suffered his entire life fighting for approval, fighting for his right to be mage. Now that he has it, what he has longed and desired to have, he was to be shunned, almost as if in exile.

He didn't deserve this treatment, he never has. Whatever Jang Gang, or whatever the people before him have done, he did not deserve to be stripped of all that he is destined to have and to be.

This was wrong.

But, Hye-Jin had no say in the matter.

She couldn't change the rules of what the leader of Songrim has and will set in stone.

She was utterly useless, her hand tied, as she watched the lightfull expression vanish from Uk's face.

"From this moment forward, Jang Uk is forbidden from entering Songrim." Park Jin declared as he looked at all the other mages, Seo Yul and ark Danggu, along with Mudeok, all holding faces of astonishment.

"You must now hand over your Spirit Plaque that has granted you entry  into Songrim."  The leader of Songrim declared forth, as his stern gaze peered into the eyes of Jang Uk.

"I don't have it." The man said with a scoff, as his face measured to that of epiphany. He looked over at Hye-Jin, who once again, harshly closed her eyes.

"What?"

"The Spirit Plaque. I lost it." Uk admitted with indifference as he looked over once again at Park Jin, who held more than anger within his expression.

"I have no choice to hereby order Jang Uk to a hundred floggings." His declaration rang through her ears as if a knife through a heart. He was serious, and it pains her even more that whatever vendetta he was holding for anyone, had made him comparable to a monster than a man.

——

Hye-Jin stood next to Yul and Danggu, no longer wanting to associate herself with her uncle. She knew Uk would withstand such conditions, yet it still caused her to fume with anger.

"Can't you stop this?" Danggu's voice leaked of desperation as he turned his gaze to meet his cousin's, as she shook her head in response.

"Why not, don't you have the power-"

"No! I cannot. When I chose Songrim to abide in, I swore to legally never intervene with all in which the leader of Songrim was to rule or make law. I sacrificed my word to live, to teach, and to set base here. If I were to intervene now, it would cause more trouble for our dear friend." The facade of indifference that plagued her voice was cracking,  as if whatever wall she had put up was tearing down with every flog Uk received to his back.

"I am of no use." Hye-Jin admitted with disappointment as she looked over to Uk, whose pain was just growing with every strike to his back.

Uk arose, walking away in pain with his maid, both swords in her hand.

Hye-Jin made certain every mage had ceased, leaving just her, her uncle, Seo Yul and Danggu to stand before she was to speak to Park Jin.

Just as he is to walk away, she speaks up,"Whatever you have against Jang Uk, whatever ulterior motive or word you seek to uphold, you are doing more harm than good. Poor man was never raised with father nor mother, nor raised by anyone standing here today. You hurt him, as if he doesn't act like a child because of your actions. You are to blame for his defiance." Hye-Jin seethed with such fury inside, that she could possibly hurt him if he neared her

She was angry, nobody would listen to Uk, no one would acknowledge him, then blame him for his wrongdoings as if they didn't feign ignorance to his cries for help.

Just as they did her years agos when he was a child.

Just like the people of Cheonbugwan did to her when she was trapped in that palace.

"You shall not speak to me in that way! You do not have any right to try and shame me for anything I do or declare. He is a child because he chooses to stay one, not because of me. But because of people like you, people who brush off his actions and wrongs like he is still a child." Park Jin looked at her as if she had lost all her sanity and her mind. Danggu and Uk couldn't even believe that she was speaking out of such ingrained emotion

"That is exactly my point, Master Park. We all ignorantly treat him like a child because that is all you and everyone else has allowed him to remain. What does he know? He has been taught by books and people who could care less about him. You want to allow him to grow, teach him. Stop harming the little light of life this world has left." And with that, Hye-Jin took off.

She had to calm down and she knew she had to see the only presence that seemed to do so.

She had to see Go-won.