A lifetime ago, (and not so long at all) Celine (her name is Celine now, so her name was Celine then right) waited in a hospital room, one arm in a sling, singing to herself. Watching the music lights dance as she waited for her Mama to come back. Because when there was multiple people dead because of a "Giant beast" the police want to talk to the witness with claw marks on her arm who claims the beast was ran over by a train. Though she is not supposed to know all of that - but only Mama knew how quietly they would need to talk for Celine to not hear.
Which wasn't like her and the lights. She could play with them all she wanted without anyone noticing.
No one else saw the lights but her, and even Mama who believed her didn't have the lights respond to her like they did Celine. She knew her Mama believed her because together they would go to libraries and Celine would be in the children's section while the woman would find books herself on syn- something. (Synesthesia.)
The lines of light that glowed and waved back to her, ripples upon the water surface when she hummed and sang.
Mama asked her to tell her when the lights turned red - ever since that awful day when something had snapped and the flame slaves, the light thieves tore from the underworld.
The flame slaves were trouble thrice, her mama had explained.
Once for the souls they devoured, tribute to a terrible king who forever hungered as a flame, never satisfied.
Twice for the holes caused by the lost, disappearances that brought down searchers who would never find who they searched but might find something else. And also hide other disappearances. (Like the murderous Gumiho who had been sulking the edges of Mama's territory. It was only when poor Yeongho-oba's body had been found that Mama had realized the kind man who would set aside the liver for them hadn't been lost to something from the underworld. That there was a danger for her to drive away.)
Last - the Hunters would come to slay the flame slaves. And all they judged a threat to humanity.
A lifetime ago a woman walked into the hospital room, lighting up the music threads with a hum. (She'd been pretending to be human - they'd never thought to hide the music lights.) Celine watched with wide eyes as the music threads glowed and glistened in response. (The hunter had smiled as her eyes tracked Celine's darting around the room.)
Celine blinked and her bedroom came back into focus. The quiet melody next to her stopped.
"Hey," Hyeonseo said from a chair next to Celine's bed. "Welcome back." Gently the other woman reached out one hand, finger tips ghosting over Celine's temple as she moved hair from her face to behind one (human) ear.
"Only you would manage to look healthier in the Honmoon while also being a complete wreck." Hyeonseo chuckled - but there was no humor in the sound. A third of Celine's soul watched quietly with eyes that darted from Celine to something in the Honmoon, dipping under to see the world as a weave of souls and life. "I could suddenly feel you without scouring the horizon."
"What do you want." Celine growl - forced herself to say evenly. Forced the wave climbing up her throat at the mention of being able to be seen in a way that she had long been merely three shades away from invisible down.
"To make sure you are okay." Hyeonseo lied, lied better than even the Gumiho who assuredly was listening from somewhere in the building. It must be a lie because if Hyeonseo cared she would have stayed.
"What are you really here for." Celine ground out.
Hyeonseo brought her hands to her lap. "There was a tear here last night."
"Yes, I noticed. And dealt with it." Celine didn't wince as she stared down Hyeonseo and the pounding pain in her skull simultaneously. Of course Celine dealt with the tear - it could not have been Rumi's babysitter who killed the demons.
"Celine - there was a tear here." Hyeonseo said. "In the middle of the compound. Tears don't happen here."
Celine started to get up - face flushing as fury flared. "Rumi isn't-"
Hyeonseo was standing, one hand at Celine's shoulder. Not pushing her down, but insistent.
"No - this is too new for it to be her. And Demons don't do micro tears like this." Hyeonseo soothed, pulling the blanket back up around Celine. Celine kept her right arm out, digging her fingers into her palms to hide the claws.
(Please don't let this turn into a fight.)
"Rumi's not a demon." Celine reflexively responded as her mind caught upon the second bit of the statement.
"She -" Hyeonseo evidently rethought whatever she was going to say because she dropped that sentence. "Demons are merely the closest point of reference we have, besides Hunters, for her. And she's not responsible for this. It's too new. And if she caused active harm to the Honmoon by her presence we'd all be swarming with demons right now." Hyeonseo said the last bit with her eyes refusing to meet Celine's.
"What micro tears?" Celine said at last.
Hyeonseo's head dropped to her hands. "Celine," the other woman exhaled out in exasperation. "You do actually feel out the Honmoon don't you?"
Celine rolled her eyes, feeling out the shape of an old argument. "Pinging the Honmoon like sonar is dangerous."
"No it's not." Hyeonseo's face twisted. "I mean, that wasn't your fault."
The Hunter pulled up a chair to sit next to Celine's hospital bed.
"This must have been a frightening summer for you." The woman said kindly. "These, animal attacks and the multiple flash floods. You and your mother have been fortunate to have been on her business trips when they've occurred."
Flash floods - yes, that was how the raids of the flame slaves were being explained.
And poor Yeongho-oppa. Who the local village aunts would cluck approvingly when Mama went by the butcher shop and have to argue with him to pay a normal price instead of so many discounts. Who when he watched her would show her the beginnings of how to cut and trim meat for sale. (She wasn't supposed to hear him when she was sent off ahead of her mother home, but he had been always so loud and jovial, and didn't know how sharp her hearing was when her mama thanked him for watching for her. Who didn't know she'd hear him say, "It would be such a small petty thing for a man to look at a child and only see another man's child." He'd been sweet on mama. And mama had stopped protesting when Celine would point him out at festivals and dances to her, and started to smile and laugh when Celine would run to him for a hug.)
Yeongho-oppa, found in the woods with his liver gone, ripped from him.
"Have you seen anything?" The Hunter asked, eyes knowing.
"No." Celine lied. (She lied too much - she should have talked about the monster. The one who had clawed her mother. The one who had killed Yeongho-oppa. She lied too much and so had Eungyeong learned what her lying looked like.)
"Gwima had been looking for me." Celine said darkly. "And I kept poking the Honmoon." (And brought danger twice over down on her family. Hadn't she?)
"It's not your fault you connected to the Honmoon early - nor that you were hard for our teachers to find." Hyeonseo argued.
"I got my family killed." Because five different Honmoon breaches in the same area over a summer did that. Because when Gwima realized there was a fledgling hunter without any idea what she was doing - well, it was so much easier to strangle a fox kit than a full grown fox.
"Celine- just⌠watch." Hyeonseo hummed, a quiet melody and the Honmoon responded. And then Celine did see it. Not a tear, but the end of an old fishing net - the rope fuzzy from the pieces fraying at the edges.
"That's not good." Celine said at last as the knowledge settled, another ten pounds of nonsense on top of everything else.
Hyeonseo didn't say anything - her quiet look of "Yes you fucking idiot" didn't need any words. Especially not with the eyebrow hinting that Hyeonseo was considering adding on the epithets that had Mi-yeong placing her full weight on Hyeonseo's foot as Celine hurriedly talked to get their trio out of the room before Hyeonseo told their managers exactly what she thought of them.
The silence between them dragged - awkward and sharp in the years since they just talked.
"Have you been eating?" Hyeonseo said at last, just to break the silence.
Celine rolled her eyes. The fox looked up in approval from the burrow it had found somewhere in her as it hid from the Hunter. Of course it liked the idea of eating. "Really?" Celine queried.
Hyeonseo scoffed. "You're terrible at eating when you get sick. You always have been. ⌠I should write down Mi-yeong's soup recipe for Beok-ssi. You always ate that one."
Celine knew exactly which recipe Hyeonseo was talking about. And the fox apparently was able to find her memories because it was pleased despite the fear keeping it's fur standing on end, her mouth watering at the memory. The one with the liver. Of course it liked the idea. (Of course she had always eaten it, even with Eungyeong- disapproving of the recipe when she heard of it. Hyeonseo and Mi-yeong moved to trading helping with household chores in the neighboring community for access to the kitchens to make it for her instead when she was sick. Then smuggling it back home.)
In disgust she pushed at the fox, back into the burrow. It squirmed in her grip, clawing and snapping.
"Whatever you just did, stop it." Hyeonseo ordered, eyes flicking to a corner of Celine's bedroom.
Celine didn't know what exactly Hyeonseo was looking at and she didn't care. Her head swam with pain as she pushed the fox down. "I'm not doing anything." She lied, grasping the fox.
The fox twitched, slipped⌠and the headache eased. Celine panicked tried to twitch the fox ears. Nothing happened - good. She grimaced as she bit her tongue.
"Okay, that's better." Hyeonseo said - relaxing before turning back to Celine. Her eyes widened for a brief second before she reached out to touch Celine's arm.
Her hand brushed down the path of invisible scars, wounds only the two of them knew about long healed. Before resting on the thick scar, stretched from growing up that wrapped around Celine's wrist. A matched set to the one on her other wrist.
Hyeonseo gently held Celine's wrist in hers, rubbing her thumb along the ugly raised edges that Celine hated. Despite herself Celine relaxed into the familiarity.
"Let me take over hunting while you rest." Celine raised an eyebrow.
Hyeonseo breathed out. "Look, we both know we essentially split territory when I⌠disagreed about Rumi. But you need to rest and heal, and you won't be doing that if you're trying to cover all that ground."
Celine didn't want to hear Hyeonseo make sense. She didn't want to depend on Hyeonseo. Hyeonseo left and would leave again. But she was right.
"Fine." Celine agreed, sullen.
"And - I would like access to the library." Seeing Celine wind up for an argument Hyeonseo quickly pushed out - "With permission and advance notice given."
Celine stared in sullen mute silence - voice stolen by Hyeonseo's audacity. Hyeonseo could understand her in the quiet.
"Celine we both agree that the micro tears aren't being caused by Rumi. But something is causing them - and we need to figure out what. Especially as they are weakening the Honmoon around Rumi, you're sick and we have a civilian taking care of both you and Rumi."
"You have to give me a full day's notice - at least." Celine stated.
"Fine." Hyeonseo agreed instantly, relief flooding her features, her thumb never ceasing as it stroked Celine's wrist.
The Gumiho knocked on the door.
"I do believe it's time you let the patient rest." It wasn't a request.
Hyeonseo nodded, oddly subdued. Slowly her grip released Celine's wrist.
Halfway to the door, and to her escort out she turned around. "Celine - in the library do you know where I would find stories about - well broader myths and legends."
Celine nestled into her blankets. "Probably closer to the back. You know that our teachers hated me reading about that stuff."
Hyeonseo nodded slowly. Expression somber and - Celine closed her eyes. Her headache was effecting her vision. Hyeonseo had no reason to be realizing something quietly horrifying. If Hyeonseo had realized that Celine was corrupted by a fox she'd be trying to stab her Honmoon weapon through Celine's heart.
Hyeonseo left the room behind the Gumiho - and as Celine, exhausted, her headache flaring as her body shuddered, the ears and tails easing back into reality fell into an exhausted sleep, through the closed door she heard Hyeonseo begin to describe Mi-yeong's soup recipe to the Gumiho.
The Hunter left - and Celine breathed out a sigh of relief in the hospital bed - her good arm wrapping around the sling. The Hunter left - and she was safe. She just needed to wait for her Mama to return. She had hidden everything from notice. (But the Hunter had seen something that Celine hadn't thought to hide. And she would be back.)