Ties Old and Distorted

"Is it the enchantment?" Seol asks after a beat. Her gaze is laid with worry as she notes the perspiration ghostly simmering against Seo's brow. His breaths are shallow and urge her to reach over with both hands to steady him. "Are you in pain?"

It was an inane question. But Seol had never seen Kang Seo faltering before. The notion itself is surreal. She had grown up believing him to be invincible, someone who never returned in defeat - who never fell ill. Seol swallowed. The hand that she had used to steady him comes off stained in blood. A thin yelp is torn from her throat as she stares first down at her own palm and then at him - where she could clearly see the ever drawing darker patch against his midriff.

"Wh - how?"

Seo speaks through clenched teeth, his face leached of color.

"It's the summoning."

"What does a bloody spell have to do with a gaping gash on your body?" He shakes his head but doesn't reply. Instead, his balance wavers. Seol maneuvers Woo sideways and supports him to remain upright. Her fingers wave through his and detaches the reins from his slipping hold. A wince marrs his brows and his forehead presses against her shoulder; Seol purses her lips, jaw clenching. "That's it - I'm taking you back."

"You can't -" he bites out the words, muffled against her. "It's the summoning. I - can't - leave." For a beat, she tries to understand what he means. The statement makes no sense to her. The summoning had long finished - the last flame had gone out as she watched. Seol wasn't certain how much of the old mountain lore Seo believed in - but she had only a flimsy idea of the entire deal.

Instead of pulling Bi with her, Seol dismounted Woo. And brushed a hand through her snout. Woo knows her way back - it was one of the specialities about the mare. She'd find her way back under any circumstance.

"Bring me Yong," she tells the kind eyed beast. "As fast as you can."

Seo had slumped back against Bi. Seol sees no point in rousing him again. Instead she takes hold of Bi's reins and leads the mare in the opposite direction. They were going back to the circle - to the damned summoning.

"Go back -" his voice is weaker than a whisper and easier to ignore. Seol shakes her head. Now that she knew what to look for, she could see the faint glimmer of the circle. Its flame was flickering again. Seo reaches with a shaking hand and grips her shoulder. "Stop."

She turns and looks at him. His silver eyes open a crack. His breathing labored. Seo shakes his head fractionally. Seol squares her shoulders.

"If something in here wishes to hurt you - I am not going to stop."

With a groan Seo pulls himself upright and against her protests dismounts. Bi sniffs at his neck, tracing her nose along the side of his throat affectionately. Seo clutches a hand against his injury, his face hard.

"Lain and I have debts," he says softly. "The bastard has been summoned, he wouldn't leave without wreaking havoc. It's against his policy." He speaks bitterly, as if he wanted things to have turned out another way. Seol's eyes widens a little. Of everything she has heard of mountain gods - whenever locals of shinju spoke of them they spoke reverently, no matter how brutal or dangerous the gods were - they were sacred beings. But Seo spoke of the sleep stealer as if he was just that - a thief. And how many debts can there be between a man and a god?

Seo places a heavy hand on her shoulder and turns to face her.

"He'd love nothing more than to tempt you into making a bargain with him," he says. "In exchange for allowing you to take me back. Which is why I want you to leave - mama."

The wind picks up, as if it has been listening in and was chuckling at the entire exchange. The sharp piercing cold was back. Seol shudders, recalling the voice in her dreams - eerily beckoning - come closer…

"There are gods with honor," Seo continues, extracting a dagger from his belt. "Then there are gods without. Some who would hold their end of bargains - some who would hold on to it unless they get a better bargain. Which is why I said only fools bargained with the sleep Stealer. True, he would get the information - but - he will only relinquish them to you if you are the best bidder among all." His silver eyes shine with contempt, his mouth curled with disgust. "To think the Kangs trace their origins to a honorless dealer of secrets -"

He flinches and bends over, hand clutched against his abdomen, his mouth twitching.

"Seo!" Seol rushes to him, just as the moon shifts behind a cloud. A strip of darkness falls over them and only his silver eyes and the lone flame in the circle remain shimmering. The wind slaps against her as an icy whip, resentful and furious that she shields him.

"Is it him?" Her voice is hushed, no matter how regardless Seo was of the Sleep Stealer - it was a God they spoke of. Seol puts away the questions of debts Seo had with the god, but the resentment stark in his face and the information he had just let slip is too sensitive to overlook.

"Kangs trace their origin to mountain gods?"

He brushes off the arm she had thrown around him.

"He was the one who brought them down from the mountains - waged a trail of blood in his wake. Made deals with gods and men - killed, destroyed, did everything that could bring him power. That could take him closer to the divinity he was denied. In the process - he founded the clan that has war and deceit in their blood."

He unsheathes the dagger he had clutched in his hand and drags the silver blade along his palm - cutting open a deep, dark line of blood that gleaned a startled yelp from Seol.

"What are you doing!"

"Giving him what he wants," Seo keeps his words brief. They are strained and laced with pain. "He will not have a blood bargain with you mama - he has to settle for the next best thing he can get."

He allows the blood to drip on those dying embers, and they sizzle with a renewed fire. The flame glows - white hot, almost blinding in its silvery shimmer. Seol has to blink back the pricking sense of discomfort the brightness brings. The thick stream of blood doesn't cease and Seo sways a little, a suppressed groan escaping his pursed lips. He places his other palm on the freezing ground to balance himself.

"Stop," Seol chokes, watching how he was quickly losing what little color he has. His blood seemed to feed the flames which had grown and expanded into the entire circle. Everything that touched his blood burned. "You can't bleed out - stop -!" She grabs his wrist and tries to pull his hand away from feeding the flames. "If blood is all he wants the Sleep Stealer can have -"

"No!" Seo tears his arm away from her hold, growling. Breath wheezes in the back of his throat and Seol feels the pricking static in the wind again. The circle of stones glow and the fire begins to recede. Seo draws in a shuddering breath just as they hear hooves in distance.

"It's Yong," Seol replies when his head jerks towards the sound. Tentatively she reaches with a palm and places it soothingly on his back. "I sent word to him. You don't have to fight anymore - tonight."

Muscles of his back bunches under her touch, his shoulders tighten with tension before relaxing. Seo nods, once - something part regret and part relief drawing against his features.

"I shouldn't have brought you here." He mumbles, his fingers curl around the bleeding cut on his palm. The flames die away, and so does the dying glow of the embers inside the circle.

When she reaches to wrap an arm around him, surprisingly he allows her. Seol supports him when his frame slackens against her, his head lolls a little before finding purchase against her shoulder.

"I shouldn't have taken you with me. I should have known…" His words slur and smudge against one another. Seol lifts her other hand to stroke his hair.

"There's only so much a man could do against a god," she tells him softly. "Nor matter how heathen the god is."

"Don't want to …. imprisoned again…"

"I'd like to see who dares," Seol tells him, pointing out the absurdity of the notion of him ever being imprisoned. Yong and his guards have drawn closer enough for their shadows to be stark even in the dim moonlight. Seol waves a hand at him.

"Here!" she says. "We are here!"