Chapter Text
I'm bristling like the needles of a cactus
I'm blooming like a flower in the desert
I'm escaping from this spell
Waking up from this dream in a maze
"So you really are her niece." Dong tilted her head. "How old are you?"
"I'm eighteen," Seulgi offered, wondering why it was important and how this woman knew her grandmother. "Why?"
The platinum blonde widened her eyes, totally baffled. "I'VE SPENT EIGHTEEN YEARS INSIDE THIS THING?" she asked, more to herself than the other two, panicking.
"Eh… We were actually thinking it’s been longer," Minji butted in, more confused than she was before about the whole thing. "How did you end up trapped here, in the first place?"
"I don’t know where to begin." The sorcerer rubbed her temples, pondering. "Actually, I was expecting someone else, not you two. Who are you, for starters? You’re not a sorcerer, how did you even manage to get in here?" She pointed at the vampire.
"My name’s Minji. I’m a vampire with… special abilities," the ravenhead started. "Actually, you’re as old as Sowon, right? You should know my clan. I’m from Umbra."
Seulgi glanced curiously between the two older women, not entirely able to make a connection between those two things.
It did ring a bell in Dong’s head, anyway. "And this is your ability? Getting into people’s minds?"
"Among other things, yes."
"Interesting.” The blonde raised an eyebrow. “And wait. You mentioned Sowon, she’s truly alive?!”
Hope was finally returning to her veins. She couldn’t believe it.
"Yes, and Eunha is alive too,” Seulgi intervened.
"Oh my god,” Dong whispered. “I want to be happy, but I’ve spent that long inside this thing, you have no idea about the huge mess we’re in. Where’s Soojung, Seulgi?”
"Eh…” The knight didn’t know the answer to that herself. She actually never saw her grandmother, only in paintings. According to her parents, she was dead, but considering they lied about everything else, that could be a lie too. “I don’t know. My parents told me she died. But they also hid from me that I was a sorcerer so… I don’t know.”
"No no no, this can’t be happening.” The blonde grabbed her head, now genuinely panicking. “Sowon is with you now?” She truly hoped that the answer would be a yes.
"She is.” Minji nodded.
"Can you bring her in here? Or is this the limit of your alter ego?”
The vampire frowned. How did this stranger know of such a specific detail?
"Uhm… I can try. Give us a minute,” Minji answered. She actually knew she was going to pass out after this, but if the panic poorly hidden in the sorcerer’s voice was any telling, they needed to get things done quickly.
"What are you do—” Seulgi started, before the image in front of her faded.
The knight was back in the tent, and she expected to be against the floor, but to her surprise Eunbi was holding her, and from her spot she could see Sowon doing the same with Minji.
Nannan was sitting beside the knight and the redhead, apparently watching over them.
The brunette briefly tilted her head to look at the redhead. “Thank you.”
Eunbi smiled. “No problem.”
Minji hissed, and Sowon moved her head to look at her face, thinking that maybe something happened to the vampire for using her ability. She was surprised they were back so fast.
"Hey, are you alright?” the black haired sorcerer asked.
"It’s my shoulder, but don’t worry about it,” the vampire said, shifting a bit. “In short, we found your friend. And if whatever she’s implying is true, we are in deep sh*t, people. She wanted to talk to you, Sowon.”
Eunha approached them and sat beside her wife and the vampire. “That’s all she said?”
"No,” Seulgi intervened. “We discovered how she ended up there. She apparently knows my grandmother.”
Yerin frowned, confused. “Your grandmother? I didn’t even know you had one.” She commented as she walked closer to them.
"That’s because she’s… Dead, according to my parents. Now I’m not so sure...” Seulgi admitted.
"At least that explains how she ended up here, kind of...” Sowon said. “Can you bring me with you too?”
"There’s no point in lying about it so I’m going to be honest,” Minji started. “After this, I’m fainting, that’s a fact. I spent too much energy today and getting you two in there is going to exhaust me, but I don’t want to leave Seulgi out of it.”
"But I can stay out of it,” Seulgi offered. “I mean, I’m curious but if that avoids you passing out after…”
"You need to be there.” Sowon shook her head. “If Dong is related to your grandmother, and your parents told you she was dead, I don’t like the possibilities ahead of us. Besides, she’s a wildcard sorcerer. She might give me a better idea on what to do with you.”
"Whatever works for you, I guess…” The knight trailed off. “What’s a wildcard sorcerer?” she curiously added.
"A sorcerer that’s basically good at everything, or has a pretty nice control of all the magic types,” Eunha explained. “A very rare kind of sorcerer. She will tell you more.”
"Who’s gonna hold us? I’m going limp too.” Sowon pointed out.
"Let me take care of it. Come on, don’t keep your friend waiting.” Yerin went to sit behind the black haired sorcerer.
Just in case it was too much weight, Eunha put a barrier behind the blonde warrior. Yerin was thankful for it because she had somewhere to rest her back.
Eunbi was dying of curiosity about everything that was happening. She still couldn’t believe that the girl she had on her arms and who she knew from years ago was a sorcerer, and that now they were actually surrounded by them, the thought made her head spin.
Minji grabbed one of Sowon’s hands with her good arm, asking Seulgi to put hers on top of theirs, and once that was done, they went back to the knight’s mental palace.
✦
To Minji’s relief, she was able to control her energy well enough to make them appear directly where she sensed Dong’s energy.
The moment Dong saw Sowon, all the worries inside of her head disappeared for a brief moment and she wanted to cry. She launched herself at the taller sorcerer, and the latter was just as happy to see her long lost friend.
"Good to see you too,” Sowon lightly chuckled, hugging her tightly. “I thought we had lost you. Why didn’t you answer us? What happened? How did you escape?” she rambled.
"There will be time to answer all of that,” Dong said, and she couldn’t explain the feeling of seeing the other sorcerer again. It felt surreal. “I need you to tell me how you found me, first. You found the storage? What about Nannan? What’s happening in the outside world?”
Sowon looked between Minji and Seulgi, to see if anyone wanted to explain that. They shook their heads.
"She’s all yours.” Minji sat on the grass, trying to save energy by doing the bare minimum.
Good thing they were still in the academy’s garden inside Seulgi’s head. At least the place looked pretty and it distracted the vampire enough about the way she felt her energy getting sucked out of her body.
"Here we go again,” the black haired sorcerer said, pulling away from Dong.
Seulgi imitated Minji, sitting beside her, Sowon did the same, Dong followed and then the black haired sorcerer began explaining.
"What about Haneul?" Dong inquired, once the other woman was done.
"Joohyun's father?" Seulgi frowned. So Dong knows him as well? "He's dead. He was murdered, actually." She grimaced. It had been years already, but saying that still left a bitter taste in her mouth.
"What? No… Every single thing you're telling me just keeps making things worse." The platinum blonde sorcerer wanted to turn to ash. "Did you find out who was the killer?”
"No. We suspected another country, and recently we talked about that with Joohyun. She suspected Aurum, and the court did too, for a while. But they never found proof.”
"That totally sucks,” Dong stated. “Joohyun… AH, JOOHYUN. She's his kid… Well I guess she's no longer a kid, for human standards. How old is she now?"
"Joohyun is twenty one now. They had another kid too, her name is Yerim, she’s six years younger than her,” Seulgi explained.
Minji, in all the time she sat there, listening to their talk, kept scanning Dong’s face. The woman intrigued her a lot, and the fact that she looked like Yoohyeon only added to her curiosity. What a weird coincidence.
Besides, Dong also possessed golden eyes. It was the first time ever Minji saw someone with such an odd eye color.
"Huh?” Dong was confused. “Well, I guess it doesn’t really matter. Joohyun is still the heir to the throne, right? She’s probably engaged by now, too.”
Seulgi uncomfortably pursed her lips, turning to Minji. “A little help, please?”
The vampire sat up straight, taking mercy on the knight. She turned her body towards the platinum blonde woman. “Joohyun is engaged, but she’s no longer heir to the throne, though the public doesn’t know yet. Someone tried to murder her, and they almost succeeded. I had to save her and the only way of doing that was turning her, so… Now she’s a vampire.”
The blonde was now beyond baffled. “You’re kidding,” she said in disbelief.
"No, she’s very serious,” Sowon butted in. “And that’s only the start of it.”
"Only the start? What else? How do you all know each other, by the way? Where do you fit in all of this, Seulgi?”
"Joohyun is my girlfriend,” Seulgi deadpanned.
"Ah, so she’s engaged to you? Marrying a Kang would be a wise thing,” Dong stated, it definitely made sense.
The knight pursed her lips uncomfortably once more. “She’s engaged to the Queen of Solari. I’m her Knight.”
The platinum blonde sorcerer frowned, opening her mouth to ask something else before the vampire cut her off.
"That’s an even longer story and believe me, we don’t have time for that now. I’m running out of energy,” Minji intervened. “We can tell you about it another time when I'm in a better condition. Please tell us how you ended up trapped inside of a necklace.”
"Wait, before that. How come you don’t know anything about this? Can’t you ‘see’ through me, in a way?” Seulgi curiously asked. Certainly Dong had to see something through her eyes when she… well, took control of her body. She was still kind of mad about that.
"I could only see through you when you were asleep, so I couldn’t catch up on much. I tried to leak my energy into your body when you were awake, but somehow you blocked me… I had to basically make you lose sleep to be able to take control of you. And that was just recently. I was desperate to let you know I was in here. You didn’t feel like the enemy so I had to take my chance,” Dong informed.
"Ah… Well, in case you ever do that again, don’t write in that weird language. We can’t read it. That note you left me, what did it say?”
"I forgot about that… It said ‘please take me out of here’. I noticed you had magical books with you, and for a moment I thought I sensed Eunha and Sowon, too, but I couldn’t be sure. I knew those books were from the storage, so I was searching if there was a spell that allowed me to go out on my own accord. But the only spell has to be performed by someone else, and I still need a body…”
"Now things are adding up…” Sowon mused. “So, about how you ended up inside the necklace?”
"If someone murdered the King and now they tried to murder his heir, I’m guessing this is the same people we were afraid of.” Dong turned to Sowon. “Remember the sorcerers that tried to come after us, at The Lodge?”
"I couldn’t forget them even if I tried,” the black haired sorcerer admitted.
"Well, they tried to kill all of us, me specifically for reasons you already know,” the platinum blonde woman explained, and the other sorcerer nodded. “They knew I wasn’t dead, that someone helped me escape, so they tried to follow my trail. I don’t know how, but they found the place I was hiding at in Ignis, so I had to flee again and that’s when Soojung brought me here.”
"Wait, when did that happen? It’s been hundreds of years since the thing with The Lodge.” Sowon was confused. The dates were not adding up in her mind.
“The next day after they tried to kill us. So… I guess about two hundred years ago or something like that?” Dong suggested, not sure about that herself.
There was no point on counting down the years when she knew she was going to live for a very long time.
"My grandmother was that old?” Seulgi frowned, thinking out loud. “Sorry, go on,” she sheepishly apologized.
"Well, so we came here, and this place was inhabited only by… Two, three hundred natives at best. It was perfect for hiding and we merged with them. Then the land started to get more populated and at least a hundred years later Quart, the capital, was founded by outsiders and a few people from the mountains. If Adamas is still standing, there’s a very high chance that someone there is a long lost relative of me or Soojung,” the platinum blonde sorcerer explained.
"Wow, wow, wow, hold on there.” Minji put her hands up. “You’re telling us the clan warriors descend from actual sorcerers? That explains a lot.”
"Indeed that explains why they’re gifted in a way and how they have a storage full of magical stuff underground.” Sowon mused, scratching her head. “But that still doesn’t explain how you ended up trapped in the necklace. What happened with Soojung?”
"Wait, so, what about my family? My ancestors are from Adamas then, not Quart?” Seulgi frowned, not able to follow how her bloodline was created. She always believed she was a part of the founders of the kingdom.
"Soojung is literally your grandmother, Seulgi,” Dong started, deciding to answer one thing at a time. “She’s the mother of the last kid she had, and that kid is your father. I personally know Dakho, he lived in Adamas until he was of age.”
To say Seulgi was flabbergasted would be an understatement. “I’m so confused.”
"I bet you are,” Dong lightly chuckled, feeling bad for her. She could imagine that for the knight, it was a lot to take.
"I’m curious about something,” Minji intervened again. “What happened with the people of Adamas… Their ‘gift’ to feel the energy around them, was that an accident or was it intentional?”
"That was totally accidental. We thought we would end up creating a new line of sorcerers but turns out the magic in their blood was too diluted to be able to make it. But they can feel it in a way. At least as far as I remember, I have no idea how things are working now.”
"So... The necklace and Soojung?” Sowon insisted, since her friend ignored her question.
"Ah, that, sorry,” Dong apologized, patting the other sorcerer’s thigh. “About how I ended up in the necklace. At first, I used it to escape The Lodge, way after we splitted up. I hid myself inside of it and Soojung took care of my body. Then we came here and she brought my essence out of the necklace and put it back in my body. When we settled in Adamas, she suggested we build the storage, because we carried a lot of valuable things with us, and we were still on the run, so she thought it might come in handy if we ever had to fight again. Things were very quiet for a lot of years though, we really thought they had lost our trail with the necklace trick.”
"But they found you again?” Seulgi offered.
"Somehow they did. That’s when we asked for help from Haneul—from the King. He hid our existence from the other kingdoms, no one had any idea that sorcerers still existed. We were afraid the enemy might find us, and we were in no condition to fight against them, it was only the two of us against all of them. And, we still couldn’t contact you, because we risked them finding out you were alive too,” Dong paused, referring to Eunha and Sowon. “I created Nannan to watch out for us, and then I hid myself inside the necklace. Soojung was supposed to hide my body somewhere inside the storage, and get me out of the necklace once we were safe again. But that clearly didn’t happen, something must’ve gone wrong.”
"Damn…” Minji mumbled. That was one hell of a ride indeed.
"Eunha and I came to Quart around the time the King was murdered. If only you hadn't hidden yourself inside the necklace, we might’ve met. We were just a few years apart,” Sowon said, now worried as hell.
If the people coming after them now were the same ones that went after them when they were at The Lodge, and on top of that with vampires and shapeshifters, they were in very serious trouble. They had barely made it alive hundreds of years ago, when they had more sorcerers to help. Nothing guaranteed they would be that lucky this time around.
"And how did you know about my existence?" Seulgi tilted her head at the blonde.
"Soojung was worried about you. While your mother was pregnant, she showed signs that the baby she was carrying could be a sorcerer. We visited a few times to make sure things were ok, but then everything else happened and we had to keep our distance, and your parents lived in Quart at that point, not Adamas. Maybe she contacted your parents, or maybe she even saw you when your mom gave birth. But I don’t know, I had to hide before that happened. I recognized you because you look a lot like Soojung, your energy has her essence in it, and your parents already had the name planned.”
"Wow.” Was all the knight could muster.
"There’s something I still don’t understand.” Sowon patted Dong’s thigh to make her look at her. “To get inside of the storage, we had to go through the cave. You recognize what I’m talking about, right?”
"Yeah?”
"Once we were inside, to find the exit we had to solve a riddle. The riddle had tarot cards and it was using The Fool and The Moon, why? How did you know we were going to find it?”
"As I said, we knew you and Eunha were alive. Soojung was supposed to contact you if things went south and she couldn’t get me out of there. We knew you would take the hint. But I guess she never contacted you, and you somehow found the storage anyway…?” Dong hesitantly asked.
"Indeed we never saw her, and, just so you know, we didn’t take the hint…” Sowon scratched her head nervously.
"No? Why?”
"Things turned a little complicated down there. Eunha couldn’t come with me so it was only me, a vampire and two kids.”
"You went there too?” Dong turned towards Minji.
The latter shook her head. “She went with Yoohyeon. She’s my mate.”
"Yoohyeon?” Dong frowned. “Wait, Kim Yoohyeon? The Princess of Umbra?” No way, she thought to herself.
Minji raised her eyebrows, surprised the sorcerer recognized the silver haired woman. “Yes… I didn’t expect you to know her.”
"Not only her, I know you too! You were her Knight, right? You’re a Kim too, Kim Minji—well, I think they called you Jiu in the Academy.”
The black haired vampire frowned. “How do you know us?”
"I actually know a lot about you and your clan… And heard a lot of stories about Umbra as a whole. But you made quite the impression on me, you are the one that single handedly burned Niten’s entire village down, aren’t you?”
Minji scratched her nape, uncomfortable with the reminder. “I wasn’t entirely alone but yeah, that was mostly me…”
Seulgi grabbed the vampire’s hand and squeezed it. She now knew that Minji still felt a bit guilty about that. The knight misjudged her as cold hearted the first time she heard the vampire’s story, but knowing her now and seeing how much she cared for everyone, she could understand why she did it.
The vampire looked at her and gave her a little grateful smile, squeezing her hand back.
"Watch out for this one.” Dong elbowed Sowon.
Minji snorted, both at the comment and at hearing the grunt of complaint of Sowon. “I haven’t fought like that in a while. I was in my prime back then, and really pissed off too.”
"You can still get pissed and I don’t think your body has gotten any older,” the blonde sorcerer pointed out matter of factly. “If only, it probably has become more powerful.”
Well, that was true. Minji might be untrained now, compared to how much she used to practice in the past, but her body was still the same. And her abilities somehow evolved too. How come Dong knew about all of that?
"I guess…” The black haired vampire trailed off, frowning.
"Back on topic, let me see if I got this right,” Seulgi intervened. “The people coming after us now are your enemies of the past, and the people that murdered the King might be them as well?”
"I suppose. Unless Haneul got enemies we didn’t know about,” Dong stated.
"We’re screwed.” Sowon hid her face in her hands.
"What? Why? You and Eunha are considerably powerful, you have… Three vampires and two of them are really dangerous, and you have Seulgi too. And if she’s the Knight of the Princess, then you have the whole kingdom on your side too. What’s the problem?”
"The problem is one of those three vampires is still a baby and this woman here.” The black sorcerer pointed to the knight. “Is still learning. She found out she was a sorcerer very little ago.”
"Hey, Joohyun is making progress. We have to start training her more seriously but she’s going well so far.” Minji defended. “She has potential.”
"And I can learn too. Just… Maybe with better instructions,” Seulgi added.
"You’re having trouble training her?” Dong asked Sowon.
The latter nodded. “I don’t know how to teach her. We share the same kind of magic, she’s an excidio too. But she’s not used to magic at all and things that seem natural to me are completely foreign to her.”
"Hm.” The blonde hummed, scanning the knight. “She has a lot of unexploited potential in herself. Why don’t you try training her along with weapons? If she’s good with that, try to mix magic with it.”
Sowon looked up. “That’s a nice idea. I guess we can try, are you alright with that, Seul?”
"Whatever works.”
The black haired sorcerer then turned back to her long lost friend. “By the way, how did you meet Soojung? I never saw her, and I don’t think Eunha did, either. She wasn’t a part of The Lodge, was she?”
"She wasn’t… Kind of.” Dong shook her head. “I met her outside of it. But that’s a little complicated to explain, maybe another time.”
"But—”
"Ladies…” Minji was a bit out of breath. “I’m really running out of energy now. If you have something else to say, say it now.”
The blonde nodded, quickly turning to Seulgi. “Seulgi, you really need to speak with your parents, or find out what happened with Soojung. There’s a chance she’s still alive and she can be of great help. Besides, I wanna know what the hell happened to her.”
"Noted.” The brunette nodded.
"And you.” Dong grabbed Sowon’s arm. “Try to find my body. I need it back. I don’t know where Soojung hid it, but it should be somewhere inside the storage, though I don’t know in what state after eighteen years… I’ve never been suspended for that long.”
"I’ll try, but I think that might need to wait, Dongie. She must’ve hidden it really well because we didn’t see anything like it down there. We will be back as soon as possible…” Sowon gave her a brief hug.
"That’s enough for me, thank you.” Dong was genuinely grateful. It was the first time in what felt like an eternity that she finally had contact with other people, and seeing someone familiar was comforting. “Take care of Nannan, too!”
"Take care of me too… Warn Hyeon that I’m spent…” Minji mumbled, before her eyes rolled back and she dropped to the ground.
✦
Back in the normal plane, they all woke up, except for the vampire. Seulgi was really disoriented because all the talk they had just felt like a very long dream and she felt tired. Eunbi was lightly slapping her cheek, trying to get her out of her daze. Nannan was on her lap, looking intently at the knight.
Eunha was moving Sowon’s left leg while Yerin slapped the other one, since the black haired sorcerer didn’t come back right away.
Eventually Sowon woke up, and she felt very confused as to why she was getting hit. She looked at Eunha that was on her side, and frowned. Then she noticed that somehow she was still holding Minji’s waist, with the hand that wasn't holding hers, and remembered everything that happened, along with the vampire’s comment about her shoulder. It made her wonder what the hell happened for her to get hurt.
Sowon started to sit back straighter, noticing she was kind of crushing Yerin. The blonde haired warrior released a sigh of relief.
"You’re heavier than you look,” Yerin commented, and Eunha removed the barrier that was placed behind the warrior so she could stand up.
"That’s usually what happens with dead weight,” Sowon retorted, keeping her front close to Minji’s back, trying not to move her shoulder. “She’s still gone, right?” She asked Seulgi, who was in front of her, and the brunette nodded.
"What happened in there?” Eunbi inquired.
"We’ll tell you about that in a minute,” Seulgi said, patting the redhead’s leg and moving the cat to stand up, he meowed and went to his bed, sitting there while looking at them. “We should really tell Hyun and Yoohyeon to come back now.”
"Help me move her somewhere else,” Sowon intervened, referring to Minji. ”And be careful with her shoulder. Rin, Bi, can you go by their house to tell Yoohyeon and Joohyun to come here?”
"Sure.” Yerin nodded, grabbing Eunbi’s hand to go towards the vampire’s cottage.
"I’m still wondering how she got hurt,” Eunha commented, once the warrior couple were out of the tent.
She helped her wife lift up the vampire, and Seulgi grabbed the cushions that they had been sitting on previously to put them near the furnace and place Minji in a comfortable position. Then they put Eunha up to date with the whole conversation.
"Something about what Dong said left me thinking,” Seulgi started. “My grandma was supposed to warn you two about the storage, but she didn’t. You found out about it thanks to Gahyeon, how?”
"I gave her one of our books, after one time we came here. I didn’t expect her to read it from start to end but she did, and she found out about the place because of something that it said,” Sowon answered.
The knight went to warm her hands with the furnace, pondering. “And where did you get that book from?”
"I always carried it with me.”
"That doesn’t make any sense…” Eunha started. “How did those instructions end up in there, then? We weren’t even here when you were born, Seulgi. We arrived years after that.”
"Ugh, I don’t know. This is far too complicated, I feel like I don’t know anything about my own family, it’s beyond frustrating.” Seulgi slumped on a chair, hiding her face in her hands. “I can’t believe everything that’s happening, really. Everybody keeps talking about my grandmother and I have no idea who she is. Just a few weeks ago I was a simple human being…”
"Yeah, that sucks indeed....” Sowon said, wondering how those instructions ended up in her book for a long while.
She carried it with her since they were at The Lodge, but according to Dong, Adamas was created after they had to escape. So, how could instructions of a place that didn’t exist yet, end up in Sowon’s book?
"That way of communicating you used… The letters, is it possible to stick them to a surface? Or modify the content of an existing page if you tell it to do so?” Seulgi suggested.
It sounded crazy but at this point nothing surprised her anymore, and this time she meant it. If someone came to her and told her cows could fly, she would’ve said ‘yes, obviously’ with a smile.
"That is possible, yes.” Eunha’s whole being lighted up with realization. “That could be what she did. But how did she find us? We don’t know who she is either. And why would she use a letter instead of talking directly with us?” She was full of questions, but couldn’t help it. She was trying to put together a lot of missing pieces.
"The hours ahead of us are going to be loooooong,” Sowon stressed, slumping beside the knight.
"Nannan!”
✦
Eunbi and Yerin had just arrived at the vampire’s house after a long walk, and the redhead went ahead to knock on the door. No one answered, and no sound could be heard inside the house. She looked quizzically at the blonde, and the latter shrugged, simply signaling for her to knock again.
Eunbi went on like that three more times, and still there was no response.
"I’m not knocking again.” The redhead turned around.
"Could it be that they’re not in the house? But if that is the case Minji would’ve told us, right?” Yerin tried to look inside through the windows but the blinds weren’t allowing her to do so.
"I don’t think she would forget about that,” Eunbi answered, thinking.
They slowly made their way back to the front of the house, where they were met with the same predicament once more—a locked door with no people to unlock it.
Resigned, the blonde took off one glove and put her hand against the cottage's wall. She closed her eyes as she said, "Give me a minute."
Eunbi nodded, stepping back slightly just to let Yerin do her thing. The redhead looked around in the meantime, trying to discern if there were marks of feet in the ground around them. She quickly found a spot where someone had clearly stepped on, but that looked like a single pair of shoes, which most likely belonged to Minji. It looked like the kind of marks her boots would leave behind.
When the blonde opened her eyes again, she said, "There's definitely two people inside. And I'm pretty sure they're Yoohyeon and Joohyun."
“Well then, I’m breaking in,” Eunbi concluded, turning back towards the door.
"Eh? Wait, you can’t do tha—” Before Yerin could finish her sentence, the redhead had already forced the door open and was walking inside the house. “She listens to me so well…”
"You said something?” Eunbi’s voice already sounded far away from the blonde.
"Nothing,” Yerin retorted as she put her glove back on. She quickly followed her girlfriend inside, almost colliding with her in the process. “Ah, so this is why they didn’t answer,” she chuckled, standing at the door of the bedroom.
Yoohyeon and Joohyun were sound asleep. Really sound asleep, they were barely breathing to the warrior’s ears, and the silver haired vampire’s body was totally engulfing that of the princess.
Yoohyeon had a leg thrown over Joohyun’s hip, both her arms hugging her, her head also resting on top of hers.
"I think Yoohyeon’s body is convinced that’s her girlfriend,” Eunbi stated.
"Or a plushie. Or a bit of both,” Yerin added. “Why is Hyun covered in dirt?”
"I’m wondering the same, she’s ruining the sheets.” The redhead went closer to them and tried to shake the silver haired woman awake. “Come on, Yooh. Work with us.”
"How come not one, but TWO vampires can’t hear us knocking? Don’t they have sensitive ears?” the blonde added, shaking the princess.
The latter briefly opened one eye. “Seungwan, it’s early. Let me sleep.”
Eunbi bursted out laughing. “That’s not Seungwan, you sleep-drunk-woman. It’s Yennie.”
"Eh?” Joohyun finally opened her eyes, still clueless to her surroundings. “What brings you here…?” she drowsily asked.
"Minji told us to call for you. Well, actually for Yoohyeon but she’s still asleep, why isn’t she waking up? Moonlady help us…” Yerin went to pull from the older vampire’s leg. “I envy this ability to sleep. I wake up with just the sound of a fly flying near my face.”
Just then Joohyun realized there was indeed a warm body pressed against hers, and all the events of the day started to come back to her, slowly. Still, she had no idea how she ended up in bed. She also wanted to turn around but she was unable to move.
The princess started laughing. “This happened every morning I stayed here. I can’t understand how she sleeps this deep, she’s like Seulgi’s lost soulmate. Minji wakes up in a second.”
"Eh?” Yoohyeon asked, confused.
"If we had known all it takes for you to wake up is saying ‘Minji’, I would’ve yelled that from outside.” Eunbi finally stopped shaking the silver haired vampire’s body. “Speaking of, we need you at the camp.”
The older vampire shifted, finally realizing she was engulfing Joohyun. “sh*t, sorry. It’s a habit.”
"Nah, no worries.” The princess dismissed, still laughing. “I’m that kind of person too.”
"What?” Yoohyeon tilted her head.
"I’m usually the one spooning people,” Joohyun explained. “Why do you need us at Adamas? What happened?”
"I think it’s better if we explain that on the way. And you should get a change of clothes, Hyun. You’re covered in dirt,” Yerin pointed out.
"And… I ended up covered in dirt, too," Yoohyeon groaned, looking at her own clothes.
Just then the princess realized that, indeed, she was covered in dirt and staining the sheets. “Ah sh*t. Sorry Yooh, I’ll help you change this after. Give me a minute…” She stood up and picked up clothes to get changed in the bathroom.
Yoohyeon grinned. Joohyun already sounded a hell of a lot more like herself, what they had done wasn’t pointless after all. “Take all the time you need.”
When the princess was out of earshot, Eunbi asked, “What the hell happened to her? Why is Minji’s shoulder out of service too?”
"Long story. We better explain that to you on the way as well,” the silver haired vampire cut short, also standing up and grabbing a change of clothes.
"You might need to fix the lock of your door, by the way,” Yerin informed.
"Huh? Why? What happened to the door?” Yoohyeon paused, looking between the two warriors.
Eunbi grinned apologetically. “I happened to the door. Don’t worry, I’ll help you fix it later. Your house is in the middle of nowhere, anyways, it’s not like you need the lock.”
The silver haired vampire shook her head, actually amused. She couldn’t get mad at the redhead, she found her way too funny, and what she said was kind of true.
Their house was mostly empty, outside of the necessary furnishing and well, Yoohyeon and Minji themselves. And Minji’s sword, that was very valuable too.
✦
Once back at the tent, they were all still trying to put the pieces together.
But, there was a huge problem, and it was that except for the oldest sorcerers, no one could put together pieces of things they didn’t know about.
Nannan apparently got tired of their pointless conversation and went to sleep.
"So our ancestors were actual sorcerers? Wait until Bora hears this. She'll be thrilled," Eunbi stated.
"And your grandmother was a sorcerer? And she helped build this place as it is? What the hell?" Joohyun asked, before back hugging the knight. She simply wanted to give her some support, after the events of the day.
"Yes, it's crazy, but it makes sense. According to my parents, she was the one that gave me that suppressant." Seulgi intertwined their hands. "You never saw her, Hyun?"
"I don't think so. If what Dong said is true, I was… Barely three years old when they were in contact. I wasn't allowed at the court that much either, at that age. And if I did I probably wouldn't remember anyways."
"Hmm." Seulgi hummed. She was hopeful that maybe Joohyun knew something about her, but it seemed like she didn't.
"Also, you’re telling me that the people who plotted to murder my father might’ve been sorcerers…?” Joohyun was flabbergasted.
"There’s a high chance, yes.” Sowon nodded.
Seulgi exchanged a brief side glance with the princess, and Joohyun rubbed her temples, deciding it was time to get that skeleton out of the closet too.
“I was there, the day my father was killed,” the princess blurted out.
Eunbi’s head snapped towards her. “What?! Sorry, but if you were there, why didn’t they take you too…?”
"I keep wondering about that myself…” Joohyun admitted. “The assassin tried to come after the both of us, actually. My father fought him back and well, that’s how he got stabbed. But the guy who killed him didn’t come after me. He ran away.”
Eunha tilted her head, frowning. “I suppose he felt the guards coming to the room? You must’ve screamed.”
"There weren't any guards.”
Yoohyeon looked between her mate and the princess. “Does Minji know this?”
"She never told you?” Joohyun raised an eyebrow.
"Nope. She only told me it was something you didn’t want anyone to know about.”
The princess half smiled. “That’s nice of her.”
"So you were alone? The King and his heir were in a room alone with no security?” Yerin stressed.
"It wasn’t just any room,” Joohyun clarified. “The whole thing happened in a wing of the palace that was out of service, absolutely shut to the public. It was supposed to be reformed but my parents held off the reform to focus on other more important projects. And my father liked to have time for himself, without anyone following him. That's why we were alone."
"And what about the assassin, do you remember anything about him?" Sowon inquired, trying to get at least a description. Maybe she recognized him.
"No… I haven't thought about that day in a while…" Joohyun paused. "I think I only saw his face. But I can't remember what he looked like. All I see is a blank space."
Yoohyeon thought of something, and she wasn't sure it could be, but asking wouldn't hurt. "Are you sure the assassin tried to go after you, too? What happened once the king was stabbed?"
Seulgi frowned, not following. "Where are you going with that?"
The older vampire put up a hand, signaling for Seulgi to let Joohyun speak.
"I told you, he ran away,” the latter answered.
"Without looking at you, a kid, heir to a huge kingdom, totally defenseless because there weren’t any guards around?” the silver haired vampire raised an eyebrow along with a fair point.
Joohyun frowned, and stayed silent. Indeed something sounded off there. But she was wrecking her brain, trying to remember what happened. After spending so many years trying to forget that day, it was extremely hard. Even after rummaging through those memories with Minji, the scene kept escaping her.
"Well, I thought about this when I told Dong there’s Yerim now, too. Maybe he didn’t bother because there was another heir anyways?” Seulgi suggested. She could feel that her girlfriend was spacing out behind her and she squeezed her hands, but the princess didn’t move.
"That does make sense.” Yerin nodded. “I mean, if I were the assassin I would’ve taken my chance, but knowing there’s another kid too, it’s kind of pointless.”
"When you say it like that it sounds horrible…” Eunha grimaced. “But it’s true. It would be pointless.”
"I’m not convinced that’s all.” Sowon was pensive. Everything Dong told them left her brain working at one hundred percent, trying to connect the dots.
Eunbi turned to look at the princess, noticing her eyes looked really far away. “Hyun, you’re still with us?”
"I think I remembered…” Joohyun trailed off.
Joohyun was adding details to the canvas in front of her, trying to use the new technique her father taught her. To her eyes, it was working perfectly. The painting was as realistic as it could get for a ten years old, but she was proud of it.
According to her teachers and her father, she had improved a lot in the last few years. She was painting a horse, and this time his tail looked like a proper tail, not like the previous time she tried. The bad placing of highlights had made the last one look like a broom instead of a tail.
"You’re doing really great, Hyun,” Haneul complimented her, kissing the top of her head.
"Really?” the little princess grinned from ear to ear. “One day I’ll be as good as you are. You’ll see.”
The king chuckled, crouching beside her. “I look forward to that, sweetie. But you’ll need to practice a lot for that, a loooooot.” He started tickling her belly.
Joohyun laughed hysterically. “Ah, dad, stop!” she tried to move his hands off her, but her father wasn’t listening. “You’re going to make me ruin the painting!” she complained, and only then he stopped.
Haneul picked her up in his arms. “Your painting looks fine. It’s not like I was putting my hands over it.”
"You better don’t!” the princess threatened, but the king didn’t seem to feel threatened at all. She crossed her arms over her chest, looking to the other side. “One day I’ll teach Yerimie to paint like this, too. But she won’t be as good as me.”
The king released a hearty laugh. “You shouldn’t think like that, Hyun. She’s your sister, not your competition. You need to be there for each other.”
"But all she does is cry…” Joohyun pouted.
"That’s because she’s only four years old, honey. You were a crybaby when you were her age, too. Don’t get co*cky because you’re a grown up now,” Haneul lightly scolded her, pinching her cheek.
The princess couldn’t help but snort. “Ok. I’ll teach her, and maybe one day she’ll be as good or better than me.”
"That sounds much better.” The king smiled.
Joohyun heard noise outside, which made her turn her head towards the source of the sound. She didn’t see anything, so she returned her gaze to her father’s face.
The king’s smile had faded, though. And his eyes were fixed on the window. The next thing he did was put her down on the ground.
"Stay here, Hyun. Let me check something.”
"Sure.” The princess didn’t pay any mind to the window and went back to the painting.
A few seconds later, her father was back beside her, pointing at something in the canvas.
"See this?” Haneul pointed to the horse’s eye, and Joohyun nodded. “If you add a little more white in this place, it will look better. Try.”
Joohyun pursed her lips, focusing. Just when she thought she had done it, a drop of paint drifted too far from the eye, ruining it.
"Noooo.” The princess turned to her father with a pout.
The king smiled reassuringly at her. “It can happen, it’s alright. It can still be fixed.”
As he said those words, there was another noise, once again coming from outside. This time Joohyun didn’t have time to turn her head towards it, because her father quickly put her behind his body.
"Hyun! Run!” Haneul shouted, pushing her back.
The princess was utterly confused. “Huh?”
Then she raised her eyes, and before them she saw a figure of a man wearing full black, his face covered by the shadow of his hood and a mask. He had something shiny on his hand, but she couldn’t recognize what it was.
"Joohyun! Didn’t you hear me?! Run, get out of here!” the king yelled again, as the other man launched at him.
They started wrestling, his father was aiming at the mans’ wrist, trying to bend it to the other side. Joohyun couldn’t move, her little body was paralyzed by fear.
The king hissed in pain, and only then she snapped out of her daze and started stepping back. However, the next thing she saw was the shiny point of a dagger coming out the other side of his father’s throat, as he dropped to the floor.
"Noooo!” Joohyun cried, mindlessly going towards Haneul, not giving a damn about the assassin in the room. She put her hands over the wound, but couldn’t stop the blood from flowing out of it. “No no no no, what did you do? WHAT DID YOU DO?!” she yelled to the man and then hissed, having cut her own hand with the edge of the dagger.
The princess glanced up at him, and the man’s gaze shifted as his eyes widened, full of panic. She believed she saw red and golden colors under his dark clothes, but the red could've been blood. Strangely so, his face looked familiar.
He looked down at his bloodied hands, then at her, and the next thing he did was scream, running out the window and stumbling over it, dropping to the small balcony with a loud thud. He got up anyway, and kept running until Joohyun lost sight of him. She didn’t care anyways, she was more worried about her father.
"Dad!” Joohyun cried, expecting him to wake up. “Dad, talk to me… Please…”
"What happened?” Eunbi inquired, snapping Joohyun out of her thoughts.
"That man. He was terrified…” The princess mumbled, and Seulgi got out of her embrace to look directly into her eyes.
"That man? The assassin? How?” The brunette shifted to put a hand behind her back in reassurance.
"When he came for us, he came for my father. Straight to him, even though he saw me. And when my dad’s body dropped to the ground I crouched beside him. The assassin saw me, but when we locked eyes he looked scared, and the next thing he did was scream and run away…”
"See? That’s what doesn’t make sense,” Yoohyeon pointed out. “He could’ve killed you too. Why didn’t he?”
"Maybe he was being controlled? Like what happened with the first man that tried to kill Hyun?” Yerin suggested. “Maybe he snapped out of it once his target was down.”
Sowon raised her eyebrows. “There’s a spell that can do that. That’s actually what we suspected might’ve happened to Sooyoung, but she was fine.”
"So it’s a real possibility? Damn.” Seulgi was stunned. “Maybe that’s why they never found the assassin. They might have picked a random guy to do the job.”
"It… It wasn't a random guy." Joohyun frowned as the image of that day became clearer in her mind, finally recognizing the man's clothes. "sh*t, now I remember… It was not just any random person. It was a guard! A guard of the palace. He had the guard's uniform under his dark clothes! Oh my god. I can't believe I forgot that…"
Everybody paled. Seulgi, specifically, looked like someone had turned her world upside down.
"You're telling me the King was killed by a guard of our own palace…?" the knight asked as she pulled away, astounded.
The princess dragged her hands over her face, realization hitting her like a horse kick in the face. "YES! For the Moon… No wonder I had that whole day repressed and locked away in some dark corner of my mind. I had never felt so betrayed before…"
Voices were suddenly heard from outside, nearing the tent. Eunha turned to look at the entrance, and not long after Yubin and Gahyeon were stepping foot inside, stealing confused glances between everyone.
"Heello? Why is everybody here?” Gahyeon didn’t bother with greetings. Her eyes fixed on the oldest vampire, who was leaning against a few cushions on the ground, with her eyes closed. Then she did a once over of everybody else, noticing their grim expressions. “Is something wrong…? What happened to her?”
"What didn’t happen to her has a shorter answer,” Joohyun said while looking at the pink haired girl. “We have a lot to tell you two.”
Yubin raised an eyebrow, just as lost as Gahyeon. “About what, exactly?”
"About everything. Even where you come from. And since you’re all here, what do you say we tell them what happened with The Lodge of Sorcerers as well, Sowonie?” Eunha turned towards her wife.
"Fine by me. If we are going against the same people that went after us… You really need to know who they are,” Sowon stated.
"But what about Bora and Siyeon? And Seungwan and everybody else?” Yoohyeon intervened, not wanting them to miss out on everything.
"We can tell them later,” Eunbi butted in. “Now, spill.”
