Archive of Our Own

The Hotel had stood there for so long that no-one remembered its real name. Unofficially, it was known as the Honey Trap Hotel, because whatever purpose and clientele it had served in the past, its purpose now was as a place of judgement and consequence.

A place for mortals to be tempted, and often, to be found fatally wanting.

But not on the mortal plane - there were police and lawyers and courtrooms for that, albeit of varying usefulness. No, this was for those who had sinned on a grander scale. Committed crimes large enough that those who lived in the dimensions beyond the three that mortals had to content themselves with took notice.

They called upon the Yong to assist them in this task. Once, they were humans like any other. Once. Now, they were more. Given powers and the ability to use them far beyond the mortal ken.

Yong Haneul-Balam was one of those. Their most common form these days was of a slender Asian woman, long dark hair and large eyes that had seen far too much in their time.

She was here at the Hotel today, to take another target. She neither knew nor cared if they were truly guilty of the crimes that had brought them to the attention of those she worked for. It was neither her place nor her job to know.

Her job was to remove them from their mortal lives. The rest was up to their gods.

Yong Haneul-Balam walked wearily up the path to the Hotel dragging her suitcase behind her. Appearances must be kept after all, and her case contained much that would help her in her task.

And in her vacation. She tended to ask for a few extra days at the Hotel whenever she was sent there on a task. Whatever else it was, it was a grand hotel in the old style, and she enjoyed taking advantage of its amenities along the way.

Once in her room, she unpacked her clothes, leaving the rest in her case for now. If she suddenly had to run, she could replace clothes. It would be a lot harder to replace everything else.

She took another one of the manna-candies from its wrapper and sucked down its sour-sweetness as she changed into her bathing suit to go for a swim. A combination of relaxation and seeing if she could catch the first glimpse of the man she’d been sent to kill.

And he could catch a first glimpse of her.

The manna-candies were one of those things that would not be so easy to replace. They were what marked her as a Yong and gave her access to both her powers and the way home when she was done.

She was allowed to eat and drink freely of the mortal world as she wished, tho’ she bothered only when she found it useful or desirable. Otherwise, she ate her manna-candies and did her job and tried not to think overmuch of the world she had left behind.

Once, like every Yong, she had been an ordinary mortal. Then, the accident. Then, the choice.

Haneul-Balam chose this life, to become a Dragon, a heavenly assassin at the end of the day, because she felt it was better than the alternative.

She who was now known as Yong Haneul-Balam simply wasn’t ready to be dead yet. That was the truth of it, at the end of it all. While she’d not been able to get to much of what she’d wanted and planned to get out of her life before, she wasn’t ready to be done with this life altogether.

That kind of hesitation was irresistible to the Heavenly Ones. She had been approached by them as her soul drifted between this world and the next. Asked what she desired to do – go on to her next life, however it was meant to be? or to become one of the Yong and take on tasks for the Heavenly Ones for a time of mutual choosing?

She chose to become a Yong and was, overall, quite pleased with her choice. She was sent to Earth on assignment rarely and even then, most of those assignments were pleasurable in some way – getting rid of some of the scum of the Earth or nurturing its Beauty in some way. The rest of her Time was hers to spend as she chose, in the Lands Beyond or on Earth, as she preferred.

Today was an assignment, however, and it was time she began it. She went down to the pool, slipped in the cool yet refreshing water, looked around for her target.

There.

She made sure to catch his eye, thrust her breasts in their bikini-top up and out in such a way that better men than this one would take notice.

He was not a better man, so he certainly did take notice. She indicated her interest, so he went and followed her to her room, put his hand on her back when she left again, dressed in daytime clothes.

The beginnings of possession, a possession that would end with his death. The Heavenly Ones had given her this assignment, but truly, as her target elegantly pawed her, marking her as his own in increasingly forceful ways, she began to think that she would have gladly done this on her own, for the sheer benefit of womankind.

But she said nothing. Did nothing. Played the part of a consummate professional. Sex work WAS work, work like any other, and she played that role to perfection.

He did not suspect a thing. She dropped the tablet in his drink, the fizzing of the reaction his last chance, a chance he did not know to take, and then went on her way.

What happened next was none of her concern. It never was. The Hotel would take care of her, as it always did, as the staff always did. No suspicion would ever come to her, no authorities ever inquire as to her place at a certain time. That was part of the job, that ability to trust that it could be done in safety from the outside world.

So as a man fell to a table behind her, choking out his life as he’d choked the life out of so many others, Yong Haneul-Balam went back to her room, packed her case, and prepared to move on.

Another day. Another job.

Nothing more.

Yong Haneul-Balam dragged her suitcase behind her once more as she retraced the steps she’d so recently taken. While she’d originally planned to stay a few more days, now she found the thought distasteful. Perhaps it was the way the man had touched her, as if his merest caress was a sign of ownership. Perhaps it was simply age. While temporal age held no more meaning for her, still there was a time of duration that did. Yong eventually lived too long, saw too much, and asked for release.

Sometimes it was given. Some of the longer-term residents of the Hotel were retired Yong, in fact.

Sometimes it was not. Some were not allowed the relief of being released from their tasks and either went mad or found their own release.

Haneul-Balam was neither ready for release nor inclined to seek her own, in any case. But she did desire difference. A time when she could simply be herself, without having to be Yong as much as woman. A place where she could be herself, without her profession or her designation intruding.

So she would not remain at the Hotel. Not today.

Where she would go?

That she did not know.