wooyoung absent-mindedly toyed with his red string the entire way there. he still couldn't wrap his mind around the possibility of him having a soulmate. they weren't even supposed to have a soul, since their soul should be given to the moon goddess at birth, signifying their position as a moon dust.
"what are you doing, moon dust?" the man asked him. wooyoung glanced up, seeing that the man was looking at where his red string was. to normal people, it must look like wooyoung's just playing with air. maybe he'll think that wooyoung was crazy and that he'd release him and let him go back to his family.
yeah, right. a little voice at the back of wooyoung's head muttered, like he'd believe that.
wooyoung shook his head, lowering his gaze and murmured, "nothing, sir."
wooyoung was in a dilemma. he already sort of knew why he was going to the castle. the crown prince wasn't married yet. and with the stories his parents used to tell him about the royals, the prince must be of the same age as him now. it just doesn't make sense that the prince wasn't married yet. most princes would be having their second child by now. so wooyoung must be summoned to the castle to see who the prince was tied to by the red string of fate.
but something in wooyoung tells him that he didn't want to do that. that he didn't want to know who the prince was tied to. it was a weird feeling, wooyoung had never experienced such feelings. even when he was forced to give hints to some horrible, terrible people so that his family could be safe and sound. it might just be wooyoung's sorcerer counter-part saying this, however, since wooyoung knew that the sorcerer part of him did not particularly enjoy wooyoung being a moon dust as well.
see, all sorcerers have this underlying desire to become famous. to have everyone come to their humble abode whenever something's wrong — to cast a quick recovery spell for their sick child, to fix a broken ladder or two, to utter a prayer so that their child might be selected by the royal army so that they could serve for their country. all these things feed onto the pride of being a sorcerer. and since not everyone's gifted enough to be a sorcerer, most sorcerers were prideful and arrogant.
wooyoung wasn't, and he could tell you that mingi and yunho weren't, too. the two giants were probably the most humble pair of friends wooyoung had ever met and sometimes, just sometimes, he wished that mingi and yunho could boast about their achievements a little as well since it's almost like they don't know how much they've done for the village.
the two were identified as a sorcerer before wooyoung was. that was because wooyoung's identity of a moon dust was presented before his identity as a sorcerer. and it didn't matter if wooyoung came from a line of sorcerers; there could be generation gaps between the presentation of a sorcerer. so yunho and mingi did so much more good for the village before wooyoung even joined the academy. he learnt so much with them and through them that most of the time, wooyoung sees the two as mentors rather than friends. but, of course, neither of them wanted wooyoung to think like that.
"we're here, sir," the horseman announced as the carriage slowly pulled to a stop. the man got off the carriage first, wooyoung following suit and found himself standing in front of the castle. the castle wasn't as big as the palace of the clouds — of course it wouldn't be, wooyoung, he thought to himself. no one would dare to have a bigger palace than the moon goddess herself — but it was beautiful and elegant nonetheless. it stood proudly at the north of the village, with the sun hitting and bouncing off all the right surfaces and therefore illuminating the castle in this majestic, dream-like hue.
the man walked up the stairs that led to the palace, wooyoung following behind him and allowed himself to continue admire the beauty of the palace. no commoner had ever been this close to the palace ever since the prince was born. something about the king not wanting any 'filthy blood' around their palace until their son was of age and was able to make his own decisions. well, given that wooyoung was standing here right now, the prince must be able to make his own decisions now.
