Hidden among regular humans are beings blessed by or descendant of the divine. They appear human, but are stronger and more gifted in Qi. While there are ways to tell them apart from regular humans it varies by the divine being they have ties to. The most well known being the golden gods blessed eyes commonly found among descendants of the Golden Sun imperial family.

  “I didn’t ask this before, but how did you find us?” Min asked as he gently stroked Tae’s hair. His lover’s head rested in his lap. The sun had set and Tae still hadn’t woken up. Min was getting worried.

  “You were actually pretty lucky regarding that.” The divine tiger said. “I just happened to be in range to sense his Qi.”

  Min understood what the divine beast meant. Tae’s Qi was rather unique. There was something raw about it, like it itself was a force of nature and not something siphoned off, refined, and then used.

  “So you felt the shock-wave when he channelled his Qi and followed it to the source?” Min asked.

  “Roughly, yes.”

  “Why?”

  “It’ll be better to explain that when he wakes up.”

  It seemed that was the only answer Min was going to get. But that answer just reminded him of another question he had.

  “How long is he going to be unconscious for?” Min asked.

  “Considering the state he was in,” the divine tiger began. “We’ll arrive at our destination before he wakes up, with the pace we’re going it’ll take at least a week to get there.”

  “What about the rest of your group?” Min’s heart sank at the idea of Tae being unconscious for so long, but it wasn’t something he could do anything about. He wasn’t in any place to be arguing with a divine beast, particularly one of a celestial dragon.

  “I’ve already sent them a message.” The divine tiger said. “They’ll meet up with us near the foot of the White Jade Mountains.”

  Min just nodded. He’d noticed some time ago that he was in a state of shock. He had been since they’d been ambushed. Seeing Tae like that… not to mention he was sitting by the fire next to a being straight out of the tales he’d been told as a child. The divine tiger looked so very… human. There were distinct differences, but Min had seen Tae shift between forms and imagined that the divine beast could do something similar if it… he? So desired. Min was assuming the divine tiger was male as it was shirtless, but… he realized that likely wouldn’t mean much to beings of the higher plains. He also needed something other than divine tiger to call it… him? Min sighed.

  “Just ask.” The divine tiger was smirking at him.

  “It would be incredibly rude of me to.” Min said, shaking his head.

  “Our forms follow the same nature as yours. I’m male.” the divine tiger was grinning. His teeth were a little too sharp, but then again he wasn’t human. “And you’re probably wondering what to call me.”

  Min just nodded.

  “Humans are relatively simple creatures.” The divine tiger told him. “I have many names, White Tiger, Baekho, Mountain Guardian, but I’d prefer it if you called me Beom.”

  “...” Min just stared at him. “Isn’t that just… tiger?” It was a name a child would call a house cat.

  “I’m rather fond of that name.” Beom said. His eyes softened. He glanced at the sleeping Tae before meeting Min’s eyes. “It was given to me relatively recently… twenty-six years ago actually.”

  Min’s mind was a whirlwind of questions. If the divine… no, if Beom hadn’t already made it clear he was going to wait until Tae woke up to answer any questions that related to Tae, Min would have begun firing them off one at a time. Instead he needed to wait. If it had been anyone other than a divine beast Min wouldn’t have been able to just trust and wait like this. Not when the one he loved lay unconscious.

  It had taken two weeks for Tae to wake up. Min now sat on his lover’s bed next to him. He’d known that the fact that his family and clan were alive would be a lot for Tae to take in, but he hadn’t even considered the implications of them being alive would have on Tae’s past. The man had been through hell.

  The information Min had gathered while Tae was asleep was at the tip of his tongue but Min held back. Tae was clearly not in a state for more information than what the leader of the Seok clan had told him earlier. Seeing Tae breakdown like that had hurt. Min put his arm around Tae, pulling his lover a little closer. Tae willingly leaned against him, resting his head on Min’s shoulder. Min kissed the top of Tae’s head, his lips pressing against the soft white hair.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  He couldn’t do much to help Tae right now, but he could offer physical comfort at least. It didn’t feel like enough, but until Tae spoke there wasn’t anything else he could do. Tae had refused to eat. He’d looked at the food with disgust before sitting on the bed. Min wished he was better at this comforting thing.

  ***

  Tae wasn’t sure if he was angry, hurt, or relieved. He had blood relatives that were still alive, a whole clan of them apparently. They were clearly warriors, he could tell that much just from meeting the clan leader. Yet they had failed to rescue him and his mother all those years ago.

  “I think I should probably be happy to learn my parents’ family is still alive.” Tae said finally. “But I don’t think I am.”

  Min just kissed him on the head again.

  “I think I’m more angry than anything. Part of me is relieved because my mother cared about them. She didn’t tell me much about them, but I could still tell.”

  “You don’t have to be happy to meet them. You don’t even have to consider them family if you don’t want to.” Min told him.

  “When I realized who he was, all I could see was my mother’s corpse.” Tae whispered.

  “I don’t think you’ve ever told me exactly what happened that night.” Min murmured. “Do you think talking about it would help?”

  “It might…” Tae hesitated. “I was about eleven.”

  Tae knelt at the foot of the master’s bed. The flimsy fabric of the outfit he wore did less than his hair did to cover him. The master put a finger under Tae’s chin forcing him to look at him. Tae’s gut went cold at the sight of the master’s nearly black eyes. Part of him knew this was wrong, but he’d become aware he didn’t have the power to say no. At least mother would get the medicine she needed.

  The sound of wood splintering caused him to jump and Tae turned towards the sound. The shutters had been bust in. Standing in the debris was his mother. Tae froze, his whole body going cold with dread. He wanted to yell, to move between her and the master, but he couldn’t, his body wouldn’t cooperate.

  She screamed in primal rage, launching herself at the master. Tae was shoved out of the way by the master. Not out of kindness, but so he wouldn’t hinder movement. Mother slashed with daggers. Tae didn’t know where she’d gotten them from but she clearly knew how to use them. Unfortunately the master was never unarmed.

  The master blocked yet another of her strikes before backhanding her across the face hard enough to make her stumble. Tae’s blood boiled. He lunged. He didn’t scream or yell. His feet pushed off from the dirty wooden floor gaining him height. His legs wrapped around the master's torso, his hands gripping the master’s throat. The unexpected weight caused the master to stumble, buying mother enough time to launch another attack.

  There was yelling and Tae was torn off the master’s back. His nails dug into flesh as he fought back. He felt the warmth of blood on his fingers. A blow to his gut stunned him momentarily, causing his vision to go white. It gave the master’s men enough time to capture him.

  When his vision cleared Tae turned his attention back to where he’d last seen his mother. Her daggers were no longer in her hands. That fact alone caused him to be gripped by panic. He searched for them. One was embedded in the master’s shoulder, the other several feet away on the floor.

  The master had her by the throat. She clawed at his hand. Tae screamed. He fought trying to break free, to get to her, to help her. The men who held him were stronger than he was. Tae continued to struggle anyways.

  Mother’s struggles slowed, becoming more clumsy. The master tossed her to the ground and made a dismissive gesture with his hand. A few of his men rushed forward, kicking mother while she gasped for breath. Tae continued to try to fight free, to stop them. He twisted and sunk his teeth into one of the arms that held him. The man yelled in surprise, releasing him. Tae took that moment and kneed the other man in the groin. He then ripped himself free, rushing to his mother. He slipped between the men and covered her body with his own. They only kicked a few more times before stopping.

  A hand grabbed him by the back of the neck. Tae froze at the chillingly familiar touch. His whole body was stiff with fear. The master lifted him off his mother by the neck. The master looked at him, his face unreadable. Tae didn’t even try to hide his fear.

  “You want to share her punishment and be with her that badly, fine.” The master said, his voice cold and devoid of emotion. “Lock them both up.”

  He tossed Tae to the floor again. Tae hit his head and his ears rang. One of his men grabbed Tae. The men murmured something, asking a question, the ringing in his ears made it impossible to understand. But he was watching the master as he responded. The man laughed.

  “Fine. Just chain up the boy first and do it somewhere else.” the master said. Tae had gotten good at reading the man’s lips over the years. He didn’t have the strength to struggle as he was taken away. Watching helplessly as the men took his mother.

  Tae shuttered at the memory. Min held him tightly, and Tae used that to ground himself. His mother’s death had been so needlessly brutal. War had been nothing to the brutality he’d been exposed to as a child.

  “They raped her for hours before tossing her broken body in the cell I’d been locked up in. As soon as she regained consciousness she dragged her body over to me so she could hold me in her arms. She apologized over and over again for not being able to protect me. She alternated between apologies and reassurances that she loved me until she died days later.” Tae whispered.

  He paused a moment before continuing. The words coming out of his mouth, the memories they carried, it all hurt.

  “I screamed when they took her body away a week later. It earned me a beating. They were careful to avoid my face, and though they wanted to, they didn’t rape me. No, I was the master’s favourite toy. None of them were allowed to touch me.” Tae laughed a cold humourless laugh. His voice cracked and it broke into a sob. He wrapped his arms around Min, burying his head in Min’s shoulder as the sobs shook his body.

  “I thought I’d killed them.” Tae said between sobs. “I destroyed that whole city, brought it down until it was nothing more than rubble and bodies. My body was covered in their blood. It took me twelve years but I thought I’d finally avenged her, avenged us.”

  The fact that members of the demonic clan had ambushed him and Min meant he hadn’t succeeded. They still lived. Tae knew exactly who they had been referring to when they’d said the word master. He’d once called the man the same thing. Tae had thought he’d killed him. A guttural scream of anguish ripped from his throat as he continued to sob, clinging to Min.

  He had failed. He had failed her.