Chapter Text
Belos's eyes snapped open. It took him a second for what just happened to catch up to him. The human, the palisman soul amalgam... his grimwalker. A low growl rose in his throat, a familiar feeling of rage bubbling up to the surface. As he seethed, his breathing became more labored, and it almost felt as if he were inhaling gulps of tar, tainting his airways and making him want to retch. No, not now, not when the only one who...
That thought all but knocked him flat on his back. The newest grimwalker had been the only one to ever stay with him when his curse truly took hold of him. Always patiently waiting it out, palisman in hand, always so gentle with him after an outburst, as though he might break. Because he would care if he broke. He looked so much like him, too. Belos really had overreacted. All his boy had done was ask a few questions. How could he have let rage cloud his thinking so terribly? He needed to make this right. He could make a new one, but for the first time... he didn't want to.
---
Hunter's feet pounded against the rocky soil of the forest floor. He'd run from the owl house in a blind panic, fallen asleep against a tree after a panic attack exhausted him of his energy, and then woken up to the sound of scouts loudly crunching through the leaf litter. He had bolted, but he was hungry and thirsty and tired, and his legs were still sore from his frantic dash last night. He managed to evade the scouts for a good few hours, but really, in that state, getting caught was inevitable.
---
And so that was how he found himself, arms and legs shackled, sitting against the floor of a magic containment spell, being brought before the emperor. His uncle. who had lied to him, his whole life, about everything - who he was, what he was, his purpose. So why did he want to grovel and beg for forgiveness, just like he always did? Why, knowing the history behind the title, did he still want to be the golden guard? But looking up into the emperor's masked face, he knew exactly why. He still loved him. He loved his uncle, because of course he did. He wanted things to go back to the way they were, before any of this happened. He knew the emperor was going to kill him, but some small part of him wondered if maybe he would take him back.
"Guards, you are dismissed." His uncle waved off the masked witches, and Hunter found himself on the floor rather than the floating containment, before hearing the creak and thud of the heavy throne room doors as the guards left. He stared at the floor in front of him, too afraid of what he would find if he were to look up.
But then, a gauntleted hand grabbed his chin and tipped his face upwards to look at his (now unmasked, to Hunter's surprise) uncle's face. Belos smiled warmly at him, and all he could do was stare up at him in shock as he heard the next words fall from his lips.
"Welcome home, Hunter."
And then everything went dark.