"With my blood, I swear..."
"In the name of my family, I curse you, The Crown Prince! I swear that you'll never find happiness!"
"The blood of The Sun will always haunt you, in this life, in the next life, till the next life!"
"Your fate is in our hands! No matter how far you run, you'll never be safe! These will haunt you! All of these!"
"Mark my word, Your Highness!"
***
Karin screams as she opens her eyes. Khittan, who holds her hand startled as well.
"What happened?" Khittan holds Karin in his arms. Her body is shivering right now.
"Don't you have a vision? You're supposed to have it, don't you?" Karin asks Khittan.
"No. I haven't..."
"It depends on who connects the most with the situation. In this case, it was your ancestor who made the curse, Lady Sun..."
They look at the deaf boy. He nods his head while reasoning the matter to them.
What just happened to them?
Why suddenly a deaf boy can talk?
***
Two hours before.
"How can he help us?" Karin inquires Khittan. The man looks at the boy, making some hand gestures. The boy nods. He grabs Karin's hand and pulls her towards the place where he sat just now.
Khittan and the priest follow them as well. They gather around the spot, looking at each other with confused minds.
The boy grabs Karin's palm and squeezes it a bit. Then, he moves his hand to Khittan. The man gives the boy his palm, unhesitant even for a second. The boy then signals the priest to spread his embrace and grabs both Karin and Khittan's hands.
After a while, the boy shuts his eyes tight. The surrounding turns dark and windy. In a mere second, everything turns dark.
"Once you step in, there is no turning back..."
Both Khittan and Karin look at the boy, in shock. He opens his eyes, revealing the white pupil on his right eye and the black pupil on his left eye.
"Venerable... You... Can talk?" asks Karin.
The boy gives her a deep look.
"I was summoned by this child to help you seek the light. However..." the boy squints his eyes. "One mishap and everything will turn into ashes. So you have to bear it with me," he continues.
Karin stares at the boy's eyes. Both eyes are different. That might be symbolic of what he told them just now.
"What should we do now?" asks Karin.
"I'm gonna bring you back to the past. And you can decide after that," says the boy.
"Back to time? That's-" the priest shows a sign of worry.
"What's wrong, venerable?" Khittan asks him when he realizes there is a change in the priest's expression.
"Going back to time means you're playing with the past that can alter the future. You have to be super careful with your actions," instead of the priest, the boy is the one who clears things up.
"Are we gonna go deep, venerable?" the priest asks the boy.
"Don't worry. We're not gonna go too far. Just enough for our Lady Sun to decide the next step," the boy replies to him.
"Venerable, am I gonna find the truth?"
The boy turns his head and looks at Karin.
"The truth doesn't matter anymore. Only the future will be valuable..."
Karin looks at Khittan. The man nods in tiny.
"If it's for everyone's good... I'm ready!" Karin musters her determination, once and for all.
"Priest..."
"Yes, venerable?"
"You have to do the chant, along with me. Don't stop chanting in any situation, unless I say so. If you cut the chant, both of them might get stuck. There is no way they can come back to the real world," the boy directs the priest.
"Yes, I will stay awake no matter what..."
"Lady Sun... Your Highness... Listen carefully. You will enter your past, from where everything began. The only thing that you can do is to watch. No words, not even a scream. When you hear the sound of the bell from this shrine, you have to leave the spot and come back," the boy watches both Karin and Khittan. "Do not ignore it," he warns them.
Karin drops her sight at Khittan. This. Everything is for Khittan. The man suffered for so long, it takes a toll on him. He is innocent, but he's the one who pays. Now, today, at this very moment, Karin wants to end all of this nonsense revenge reincarnation shit!
Once and for all!
"Khittan... Are you ready?" she asks him.
The man nods in tiny. Stimulusly, both of them look at the boy, as a signal that they are ready to go. The boy closes his eyes, and the priest is ready to chant.
Moon Blood, Red Sun...
Fire and Ice...
For the Past, and Present...
To the Future that awaits...
"Ready, venerable?" the boy asks the priest. He nods and slowly closes his eyes, too.
Soul... Body... Air... Lights...
Dark... Fury... Love... Discard...
To Heaven, I present you, souls...
To Heaven, I give them all...
As the bell chimes hard...
That's when destiny collided...
***
"By the blessing of Heaven, you're now a husband and wife!"
"May you have a prosperous life!"
The hall resonates with the unity wish of the people; The Royal Family, The House of Sun, lords from the North and South, all staff members of the main castle, The Jade House, and The House of Sun.
Khittan skims around the hall. It's the exact hall that he saw in the dream. In front of him, stood The Crown Prince. Next to Khittan is Lady Sun, his ancestor. She was staring at The Crown Prince.
The Crown Prince looked exactly like him! But, his eyes were even more darker and... Evil. He grabs Lady Sun's hand, which the maiden hands over to him.
Soon, comes an old lady. She was in an orange robe, with gold embroidery all over the fabric. She brings a box, crafted with the dragon circling the Sun.
It's a unification sigil between the House of Jade; which is The Royal Family's official house and The House of Sun. The same sigil that he saw in textbooks when he was a student. The sigil was no longer used by the kingdom of Fransco.
"From now on, the two houses are unified in eternity, bestowed by Heaven. One leaves, and the other shall pursue. The unification that lasts... Until death do they part..."
The old lady opens the box. Inside, two rings are joined by a red thread. She puts the small rings on Lady Sun's wedding ring finger and the big ring on The Crown Prince's wedding finger.
"Repeat after me..." the lady says. Both of the newlyweds stare at each other.
"By blood, by flesh..."
"By blood, by flesh..."
"By soul deep within..."
"By soul deep within..."
"I bind to you..."
"I bind to you..."
"Till death do us part..."
"Till death do us part..."
Suddenly, the red thread vanishes. Khittan's jaw drops. He tries to touch Lady Sun's hand, but a hand comes from behind and stops him.
It's Karin.