Work Text:
When waking up with an empty mind, you need to make it work by answering some few questions you need to ask for yourself to help you in your situation.
'Where am I?'
The place is dark. No matter how many times he squints his eyes from the darkness, he can't make up a single outline of a shadow.
He also can't smell anything. There's not a single scent, even if it's the sweet fragrance of a flower, or a poisonous one like a sewer. There's nothing.
Even his sense of hearing is also rendered useless. He can't hear anything besides the single drop of water to a puddle somewhere in the distance. Each drop vibrates an echo that keeps getting louder and louder every time it reaches his ears.
It's loud, but it didn't provide him any help to where he is, only giving him a distraction to use his mind.
He tried touching around him instead. He can't feel what's below him from his clothes, so he hesitantly lets his hand—an exposed skin—wander through the ground.
Soft hands met a very rough, bumpy texture. It immediately made him jerked back his hand at the sudden feeling, but soon let his hand slowly sink beneath. He let his deft fingers shyly wander as if he's touching his lover's cheeks for the first time.
His hand explored beneath him, not too much for him to move, but too much for him to deduce where he is.
'Where am I?'
To answer that question, he appears to be in a cave.
'What happened?'
That... is something he didn't know the answer. No matter how many times he thinks it through, his mind always ends up blank.
(But there's something. Something ringing at the back of his head on what he should remember that seems to be so important that he can feel it at the tip of his tongue, but everytime he tried to pull it out it, the ringing became deadly silent)
'What happened?'
To answer that question, he didn't know the answer.
'When did this happen?' 'Why did this happen to him?'
He did not know. HE DID NOT KNOW.
Important questions, yet remained unanswered. How can he when he cannot even remember a single thing?
So it's expected he cannot answer the last question.
'Who am I'
"Isn't that an obvious question?"
A voice draws out in the shadows, forcing him to bring him out of his thoughts. He frantically turned his head to where the voice was located at, but the echoes did not help him find where the anomaly is.
"You are Cale Henituse"
Click
"The eldest son of the Henituse Family."
Click
"The young hero who prevented the terror incident in the Rowoon Kingdom a few years back."
Click, click
CLICK
Each word that comes out from that mouth feels like a stab, just like the step of the stranger's shoes that keeps getting louder and louder. Every step made him crawl a step back. Not standing up to run, just hoping his position is enough for him to make him smaller so he can get unnoticed from the dark.
But darkness seems to be the stranger's best friend.
His back met a dead end, and the click of a heel stopped right in front of him.
He's in a dead end, both from front and back.
"A Hero, a Strategist, a Commander. No wonder you are loved, even by the gods."
A chuckle broke out from the stranger's mouth.
"Even me."
"You seem to awfully know a lot about me." He—Cale, that's apparently his name —casually pointed out despite being cornered.
The stranger left another amused chuckle. "Oh, you have no idea."
"Yes, I do have no idea." Cale slowly crawls closer to where he can hear the voice. "Are you perhaps someone who I'm used to be close with?" He asked.
"Oh, absolutely." Cale can feel the smile from those words.
"I see..." Cale lets out a hum. Finally, someone who he can rely on to juggle his memory back.
"May I know your name?"
Cale heard the man let out an amused chuckle once again. "Even when your memories are missing, your charm is still there."
From this distance, Cale finally took notice of the stranger, not their face but more of their frame. The stranger's frame is towering over him, but the shadow lower themself gracefully in front of him as if welcoming a new liege.
"I am Adin... One of your dearest friend."
If Cale didn't let his guard down that time, he would've heard the sudden low octave of his voice. He would've felt the danger from his greeting. He would've seen the wicked grin spread across his face. He would've seen Adin's brown eyes narrowed and darken from cruel promises, he would've noticed that man's mind was brewing up sinful ideas. But it was too late to back out nor go back in time to change what's inevitable. Cale will find out too late that the man planned all of this ever since the opportunity was brought to him on a silver platter.
He will find out too late that the man planned to make him stay by his side. Slowly leashing him with his kind words and white lies, cage him with his proper care, until he will only believe in him and no one else.
And Cale will find out all about this when he's standing by Adin's side, with debris from the remains of the Rowoon Kingdom beneath their feets, and a sword pointing directly at the Crown Prince despair face.