"Huang."

The prince halted abruptly, his body tensing for only a moment before he looked over his shoulder at him.

"Your highness?" he said, annoyance in his tone, no doubt from him having only used his personal name.

"What is our relation?" Qi asked.

Prince Yuen stared at him for several long moments before turning and walking forward. Qi wanted to back away since he was still holding Zen in his arms, and that put him between himself and the other man, but before he could consider what action to take, his attention refocused on prince Yuen as he began speaking.

"It's not important right now," the man said as he placed a hand against Zen's chest.

Qi knew what he was about to do, but this time, he had no argument. The chill from the man's dark magic lowered Zen's body temperature so much that even he could feel it where he held him.

To his surprise, though, within seconds Zen's eyes were opening and he was squirming to be let down. He didn't want to. He'd recovered too quickly. Surely he needed held a little longer...

Regrettably, Qi relented after another moment and gently helped him back to his feet, then held his arm for a few more seconds, making absolute sure that he was steady before letting go. He looked a little tired, but besides that, he was quite aware of his surroundings and had his eyes narrowed suspiciously on the other prince.

Shaking his head and holding back a smile, Qi settled a hand on Zen's shoulder, drawing his attention.

"It's alright. Let's head back now," he said as he looked up at prince Yuen, hoping that he would offer to lead them back to the exit.

He didn't seem all that interested, but eventually he blew out a sigh and turned toward a far-off tunnel, gesturing to them with nonchalant a wave, to follow. Qi hurried after him, grabbing Zen's hand when he noticed him hesitating.

"You haven't answered my question, Yuen," he reminded the other as they walked.

The tunnel they were beginning to traverse had quite a shocking amount of spiderwebs hanging above them, the previous lengths of vines replaced by the arachnid fibers.

Where are the spiders?

"Do you have an invisibility spell?" the other prince asked as he stopped abruptly, but didn't turn to look at him.

Qi felt the hairs on his arms raise as he quickly cast the spell on himself. Unfortunately, it wasn't one of his stronger skills, so he couldn't cast it on Zen unless he had a lot more time to focus.

The sounds of people approaching caught his attention at that moment, and finally drew the other prince's back to them. When he noticed that he'd only been able to cast the spell on himself, he sneered and his body blurred toward Zen, grabbing him around the waist with one arm as his opposite hand dug itself into his hair and forced his head forward until his forehead rested against his shoulder. It was clear that Zen wasn't happy about the sudden situation, but he hesitated fighting against the other prince since he clearly had no way of hiding himself. After only a few seconds, their forms began to waver. It did not look like any kind of invisibility skill that Qi had ever laid eyes upon, though. It almost looked as if the spell was slowly crawling over them like a wave of spiders instead of being draped over them like a blanket. Qi's eyes widened at the sight and he wished that he could move, but he knew that doing so would only be detrimental considering how close the intruders now were to them.

"Your highness, who do you think the princess was talking about when she reported that the prince had been talking to people in his bog home?" a eunuch, who was holding a small torch and had just become visible as he came around a corner, asked.

The emperor was right behind him, calmly walking through the dark, damp cave.

Like father, like son. Their lairs are likely similar.

He passed them by a few feet before clearing his throat, drawing his escort's attention.

"It's the prince and his young guard. I'm not sure why, but he wishes to keep them both alive, which is odd. The prince, I can understand, since he'd had an eye for him for quite some time... but the guard. He just seems like he'd be in the way... yet he is now hiding him right in front of our eyes."

The eunuch immediately drew his sword and looked around... yet there was nothing to see but spiderwebs, moss, and a few random illuminating insects.

"Do not waste your time. Lest you forget, we are in my son's lair. If he wishes to hide someone, even I could not find them. Let us return, since we have gotten our answer," the emperor said as he calmly turned back around.

He truly cannot find us, even though he can sense us here?

Qi waited with baited breath as the two left, then waited still, until he saw something lowering down from the ceiling. The prince, with Zen hugging him tightly around the neck, and his legs wrapped around his waist, returned to the ground before him.

Thankfully, Zen was off of him the second he was close enough to the ground to land safely. He hurried to Qi's side as fast as he could, glancing at him several times, no doubt checking to make sure that his master was alright.

My Zen.

"I am fine. Are you well?" Qi asked, making Zen quickly nod and smile.

They truly did owe the other man now, but he didn't seem too interested in collecting on the debt, because he was already walking away... but he was now going back the direction they had come?

"I understand that your father went the other way... but is there a second exit?" Qi asked as he began to follow. He wasn't too keen on going back to that marshy house if they could help it. Of course, they had left their horses there, but he had no doubt that the other prince would be able to return them at some point.

Prince Yuen looked over his shoulder as they stepped back out into the large, partially-inundated area. A little ball of gold danced by the water's edge a good distance away, drawing his attention for the slightest moment before prince Yuen walked over to a wall covered in massive spider webs and gently ran his fingers along one thin, dew-misted thread.

"Come to me, my friends," he said as he tilted his head upward.

They both followed his gaze... then Qi felt his blood immediately run cold.

Before he could even see the massive, nearly-invisible spiders, he could hear them. Their calls sounded like the screeching of a bat, yet as they slowly descended and the faint lights from the insects below flickered against them, he could tell that they were definitely not bats... nor were they any size of spider he ever wanted to come into contact with.

The mossy ground shook beneath them as the first monster landed before its master. Prince Yuen calmly walked forward with one arm tucked behind his back, his free one reaching out to rub one of the beast's massive legs.

"It has been quite some time. Thank you for coming," he said as the sound of two more spiders landing near them drew Qi and Zen's attention.

They both withdrew their swords in tandem as they pressed their backs to each other's.

"Surely you can trust me some after having just saved your little guard from a rather gruesome death at the hands of my father?" the prince, who was now high upon the back of the first invisible spider that had descended, said.

Qi knew that they really had no choice in the matter. They were still in his lair, and if even his father couldn't handle him there, then they had no chance if he chose to dispose of them.

Reluctantly, he sheathed his sword and nodded for Zen to do the same. He looked nervous, but didn't argue as he returned his own blade to its scabbard, then faced him with a quick, humble bow.

"They will not harm you if you do not harm them. If you ever find yourself in need, just call for them. They will hear you..." he looked toward Zen, "even if no one else can."

They can hear thoughts?

A gentle tapping sound had Qi blinking out of his thoughts and noticing that the other prince was patting the spot behind himself with a grin.

There were three spiders... why ride together?

Except, when he looked to where his intended ride had landed, he noticed that it seemed to have completely disappeared.

"I have not yet claimed a reward for allowing you to return to my lair unscathed... and protecting your little guard from my father. Surely the simple request of joining me on our short ride to the surface is worthy of paying off my good deeds?"

He had no argument. If it was just a simple ride he wished to share, then he had no reason to decline.

"Zen," he said as he turned toward his subject.

Surprisingly, he looked extremely agitated as he scowled up at prince Yuen.

Shaking his head with a little smile, Qi stepped forward and placed a hand upon his shoulder, drawing Zen's attention immediately to him.

"Worry not. It is a very fair request. Let us be off and not dally here. We do not want anything else to find us," he said as he gently squeezed Zen's shoulder, calming the man before receiving a stern nod. He would do as told, like always, but he definitely did not seem to like the request.

I will make it up to you later, I promise.

With his mind settled, Qi quickly helped Zen up onto his abnormal steed, then walked over to where prince Yuen waited calmly atop his own. When he got closer, the other man reached down toward him, offering him a hand up as the spider hunched closer to the ground. Accepting, he carefully climbed onto the large creature, then situated himself behind the other prince.

"You may wish to hold on, your highness. I'm sure your little guard would be heartbroken if you fell," prince Yuen said as the spider began turning toward the wall.

Qi wanted to refuse and simply use his energy to help him stay on the animal, but he quickly decided that such a thing would be a waste... and what harm would it do to hold onto the man? In fact... Reaching forward, he carefully wound his arms around the prince's middle, then hugged him tightly as their spider began to climb vertically up the damp wall.

"You still have not responded to my question. Perhaps now would be a good time to ask it without distraction," Qi said with a slight smile on his lips.

"What is our relation?"

He felt the prince take in a deep breath, then sigh it out before reaching one hand backward slightly to gently settle it over one of Qi's.

"Is such a thing so important any longer? Whatever it was, it no longer is," he said solemnly as he returned his hand to where it had been holding onto the spider, making Qi curious as to what had made him break character for that one instance of softness.

"Do you wish that it still was, though?" Qi asked.

His words got a light bit of laughter from the other man as their spider climbed up into a small tunnel far above the ground they had been on. It was still sloped, and definitely would not have been easy to traverse on foot, but the beast made easy work of the silk-laden chambers.

"I do not know why I have tricked myself into thinking such things might still be possible so many times. For my father, and for myself, I should have killed you both the moment I was given the chance. And yet I began protecting your little abomination from my father when he got poisoned... and then I let you both walk into the palace grounds unharmed. Now you are riding on one of my glass tarantulas, yet it is on top of her back, and not in her belly."

Qi knew that they had been lucky. In all honesty, they should have been dead, many times over since they'd stepped onto the kingdom of Han's soil. Yet before him was the third prince of said kingdom. A curse master and murderer... who was helping them escape from his father. And who had actually been aiding them constantly and hindering the emperor's plans to dispatch them.

"What place did I have in your heart for you to put forth such effort for us?" he asked, needing to know what his mind could no longer answer for him.

Who was prince Yuen to him, and why did he have no trace of the man in his memories?

When he felt the man tense against him, he realized what he'd said.

"You knew me before. You know what happened to Zen... what happened to me, all those years ago."

There was no other way for him to have built up such animosity toward his sweet guard. If they had not met previously, and their first meeting had been when their carriage had been attacked on their way to the palace...

It made no sense to hate Zen for his actions from that point onward. There must have been a point in time that neither him, nor Zen, had access to in their memories any longer that had sparked the anger Yuen now held for him.

Prince Yuen nudged the spider with his leg, urging it to hasten its pace. To Qi's surprise, it shook its body violently instead, forcing him to hold onto the other prince far tighter than he'd intended. Evidently, the spider preferred to go at its own pace.

"Apologies," prince Yuen muttered before the animal gave out a warning screech, then calmly continued on its way.

Qi waited a short while for the man to continue speaking, but he clearly had decided on not responding to his question... again.

He didn't want to just give up on his chance to finally get some answers, but he wasn't sure how to go about asking in a way that would actually get the prince to tell him what he wanted to hear.

"Do I have nothing worth such information?" he asked in a hushed whisper, worried that Zen might hear him if he spoke any louder.

They finally breeched the surface a few moments later as their spider used its massive front legs to dig through a thick patch of brambles and vines. They emerged into a forest, and within another few minutes, stepped out into a familiar field of flowers.

Distractedly, he lowered his left hand to prince Yuen's leg as he scooted closer in order to look around the man without losing his balance.

"You truly did bring us back," he said, relief evident in his voice.

Of course, he knew that they would always be in trouble while they were in the prince's country, but at least they were no longer wandering underground, confused and worried.

"I really do owe you so much," he said honestly, knowing that riding with the man, as he'd requested, would never equal the amount of help he had given them.

Prince Yuen was silent for a long while as they both simply relaxed in the moonlight now casting a silvery glow across the fields of flowers.

"Wait a moment..."

Looking over his shoulder, Qi tensed when he realized that Zen was no longer behind them.

"Do not worry. I said that I would do nothing to him while he was connected to you. I just requested that his spider take a little longer to surface. He will be here shortly," prince Yuen said, drawing Qi's attention back to him, only to make him lean back slightly when he noticed that the man had turned so that he was partially facing him.

"I will answer one question right now in return for allowing me to do something of my choosing," prince Yuen said, making Qi's brows narrow.

He wanted to ask what the man's request would be, but he stopped himself before a single word left his lips. Instead, he nodded silently, then spoke.

"How do you know me?"

It was the most important thing he wanted to learn right then. Sure, he could ask about Zen, which he definitely needed to get information on, too, but it seemed like, when it came to the prince, what the man cared about most was him. So, he needed to know why he thought the prince of some tiny dwindling kingdom far off to the south was worth any of his effort.

Prince Yuen smiled slightly at his question, then leaned back just enough to make Qi relax.

"I know you, your highness, because I grew up beside you. Keeping you from too much trouble, Making you smile when you had bad days, and..." he leaned closer, but Qi refused to react.

His decision seemingly made the other prince smirk, before he finished what he'd intended to say.

"We were best friends. One a prince, and the other, the son of a rich nobleman who wanted nothing more than to make his prince happy every day for the rest of his life."

But wait... we are both princes.

He was sure that the confusion showed on his face, but the other prince, clearly content with his answer to Qi's question, reached forward and gently settled the palm of his hand against his cheek. It was cold... but at the same time, he couldn't help but feel the skin beneath Yuen's hand begin to warm, too.

"As per our agreement, I will now take what I want in return," he said as he leaned the rest of the way forward until his smooth lips brushed against Qi's own.