While waiting on Taeyang to pick her up, Jieun thought about the little things she had noticed through out the day between Jiyeon and Eunjung. She had a few classes with the two of them through out the day and while lately they had been very comfortable around each other, today Jiyeon seemed to be avoiding any conversation or interaction with Eunjung. The situation was very awkward between the two girls and Jieun needed to know what had happened. The curiosity was becoming too overwhelming for Jieun; she bit her lip and turned to her best friend who was playing Angry Birds on her phone.

“Jiyeon…” Jieun started off while looking at Eunjung and Jaehee who were standing by Eunjung’s motorcycle discussing who knows what, “did something happen between you and Eunjung?”

Jiyeon gritted her teeth and flung the bird on the phone screen too high and missed the last pig remaining on the level. “Gah! Stupid bird!”

“Jiyeon?” Jieun called her friend’s name expectantly.

“What?!” Jiyeon shouted and shook the phone on her hand before turning the screen off.

Jieun jumped back and muttered, “I think it’s more than just the game that has you frustrated.”

“What was that?” Jiyeon questioned.

Jieun nervously smiled, “Uh, nothing. I was asking if something happened between you and Eunjung. You guys were kind of awkward around each other today.”

“Oh…” Jiyeon turned to look at the ground and felt a bit of sadness come over her. Jieun worriedly looked at her friend and placed a hand on Jiyeon’s shoulder.

Jiyeon gave Jieun a sad smile. “It’s nothing Jieun. We just had a misunderstanding.”

Jieun narrowed her eyes at Jiyeon. She knew her best friend was lying and she was not going to let Jiyeon get away with it. Jieun needed her best friend to confide in her what had her upset. “Jiyeon, please tell me what happened. We’re best friends and we have always talked to each other about everything.”

Jiyeon nodded in acknowledgement and turned to look at Jieun once more. “I confessed my feelings to her and she turned me down.”

“WHAT?!”

“I kissed her too…”

“…wow.”

“Jieun…”

“What the hell is wrong with Eunjung? You’re a great catch Jiyeon! She’s stupid.” Jieun frowned at Eunjung and crossed her arms.

Jiyeon shook her head. “It’s okay Jieun. Don’t mention anything to Eunjung please. I’ll be fine; even though I like her, I rather have her as my friend than not have her at all.”

Jieun pulled Jiyeon closer to her and hugged her. “I’m sure you will meet someone else who will return your feelings. Please don’t dwell on Eunjung anymore.”

Jiyeon nodded while in Jieun’s embrace but knew that in her heart there was only Eunjung and that’s how it was going to be. Jiyeon didn’t want to meet anyone else or be with anyone else; she only wanted to be with Eunjung.





Eunjung had given Jaehee the directions she needed in order to get to the Guardians’ headquarters. For Eunjung to have done that meant that her trust for Jaehee had increased greatly and Jaehee wanted to waste no time in showing the Guardian that she kept her word. After saying her goodbyes to her friends, Jaehee had left the university and headed for the temple where she knew Tablo would be giving what was going to be his final lesson at the temple for sometime.

Despite having to deal with some traffic along the way, Jaehee had still made good time getting to the temple. While walking towards the training grounds, Jaehee passed by the church and noticed a small group of children running around the upper steps of the church. They were running around trying to get their kites to catch a gust of wind and propel into the air. Jaehee noticed that it was Hyori who was watching over the children and remembered that Hyori was one of the priestess who taught the children who came to the temple for training.

The young children who came to the classes at the temple were taught about the different classes they could choose from to train in when they got older. Some would become shadow priests, rogues, warriors, warlocks, or death knights. They were also taught how to master the ability to hide their true forms and use their human forms, but at their young age that skill was still complicated and not needed until puberty. And just like their normal schools, they were given recess which is why they were currently flying kites that they had made themselves.

Jaehee noticed how good Hyori was with the children and realized that this was probably one of the reasons why her mother thought Hyori would make a good wife for her. Jaehee was still reluctant about the arranged marriage but she needed to make nice with the priestess so she decided to approach her. As she made her way up the steps, Hyori noticed Jaehee and smiled at her.

“Good afternoon Jaehee.” Hyori greeted the taller woman and when Jaehee smiled at her, Hyori felt her heart skip a bit. Jaehee had not smiled at her like that in years.

“Good afternoon.” Jaehee greeted and turned to face the kids who were still playing around. “I remember making my own kite and playing with it like them when I was their age.”

Hyori giggled. “We all did that at their age.”

Jaehee nodded in agreement and Hyori grinned. She turned to the children and called them all to line up in front of the two of them. The children looked up at Jaehee expectantly and that made Jaehee a bit nervous; she wasn’t the best at dealing with kids their age.

“Class, this is Princess Jaehee. Due to the King’s absence, she is our current leader.” Hyori introduced Jaehee to her class and the children gasped and bowed at Jaehee. One of the kids, a boy, raised his hand while looking at Jaehee.

Jaehee looked over at Hyori then looked back at the little boy. “Yes?”

The little boy smiled, his two front teeth missing, and asked his question. “Princess, my daddy told me that you’re a dead knight and that they are really scary, but you don‘t look scary at all.”

Hyori tried her best to hold back her giggle and Jaehee smiled in amusement. The boy had gotten her class name wrong because she was not dead at all - she could raise the dead. Jaehee walked two steps down and leaned down to face the boy directly.

“It’s Death Knight, and…” Jaehee gave him an evil looking grin while revealing her true form to the children and making her voice as deep as it could go, “is this scary enough for you?”

The rasp in her voice a long with the bright green eyes, pointed ears and huge horns adorning her head caused the kids to go wide eyed and then scream. They started running around wailing and Jaehee threw her head back in laughter. Hyori didn’t hold her laugh back this time but shook her head at the same time. She called out for the kids to stop running and screaming. They stopped and returned to the line up they were in before and a few of them started giggling.

“Princess unni that was so cool!” One of the little girls commented.

“Yeah!” Others yelled out in agreement.

“I want to be a cool Dead Knight.” Another kid commented.

“Children please settle down. Grab your kites; we’re heading back to class.” Hyori told them and then turned to Jaehee and bowed. “Thank you for entertaining them. I’ll see you later.”

Hyori and the kids started to head back towards their class and while Jaehee watched them walk away she fought with herself over asking Hyori out on a date or not. She needed to ask Gyuri the same thing and after much internal fighting Jaehee chased after Hyori.

“Hyori wait!” Jaehee called out to the priestess as she was about to enter the classroom. Hyori turned around and looked at the taller woman expectantly.

“Hyori,” Jaehee said while catching her breath, “are you free tonight?”

“Yes, why?” Hyori asked. There was a glimmer of hope in her eyes.

“Would you like to go to dinner with me?” Jaehee asked and Hyori grinned.

“I would love to.” She replied.

“Okay, I’ll pick you up around eight.” Jaehee said.

“Please pick me up at my apartment because I would like to change out of these robes. You know the address right?” Hyori asked and Jaehee nodded.

“I’ll see you then.” Jaehee said and turned around to head back towards the training grounds. Hyori smiled and happily walked into her classroom to finish the lesson for today.





Hyomin slammed her fist onto the table in front of her. Eunjung had informed her and the rest of the Elite Six that Jaehee was bringing one of her rogue trainers over to train the Guardians who had recently decided to train as rogues. Hyomin was not having it though; she felt that letting even Jaehee know where their location was could put them in danger. On top of that, she was bringing in someone to train those she had already been training and this made Hyomin feel as if she wasn’t qualified.

In all honesty, she was not qualified to train rogues because she was not one herself and she did not know everything there was to being one. Her strength was in her own class, duel wielding fury warriors, and that was what she excelled in training.

Hyomin looked at her fellow Guardians and asked, “You guys cannot agree with this right? Having two Shadows know of our location is dangerous. Even if we have met Jaehee, she’s still a Shadow despite how good she might try to make herself seem.”

“You didn’t seem to have a problem when she suggested the idea of having an actual rogue train our rogues. Face it Hyomin, you’re not qualified.” Eunjung replied.

“She didn’t say that said trainer was a Shadow though.” Hyomin replied back.

“What did you expect them to be? Human? She’s a Shadow; I highly doubt they have a human training their rogues. If that was the case, we would have one too. You’re just mad because you had the idea to add rogues to our ranks but you’re not fit to train them.” Qri’s smart reply pissed off Hyomin even more.

“I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with having a rogue train our rogues. You’re a warrior Hyomin, not a rogue. You can’t teach them everything. Plus, I like Jaehee. She seems trustworthy and a good person. She managed to win over Eunjung too.” Boram commented.

Hwayoung looked at Hyomin and placed her hand on the older girl’s shoulder. “It seems like you’re insulted but you shouldn’t be. You’ve done well so far and they know a lot from what you’ve taught them. This rogue is not teaching them the basics; he’s just going to help them perfect what you’ve taught them already.”

Hyomin looked over at Hwayoung and calmed down just a bit. It was annoying how Hwayoung could calm her down so quickly nowadays, but Hyomin had already admitted to herself that she enjoyed it. The warrior turned to look at the only person who had not commented so far, Soyeon. The High Priestess had remained silent through the whole debate but Hyomin knew that Soyeon probably agreed with everyone else.

“I know giving our location up to Jaehee is not entirely a good idea, but I had a lengthy discussion about it with her. She has also accepted the one condition I gave her about the rogue trainer. If he has ulterior motives, I will kill him. You guys have my permission to do that as well.” Eunjung mentioned to them.

Soyeon finally spoke. “All of you are still skeptical about Jaehee to a certain degree but I must say that I trust her one hundred percent. No Shadow with such a great dark aura like her befriends the Chosen One and doesn’t do anything to her. If Jaehee was evil, she would have killed Jiyeon already, even with Eunjung protecting her. Also, don’t you think that if she didn’t completely trust the rogue she’s bringing over that she would have offered him specifically? I believe Jaehee is doing all she can to ensure that every single one of us trusts her completely out of the goodness of her heart.”

Everyone was a little surprised by Soyeon’s words except Qri. The mage smirked and broke the silence. “Someone has a crush.”

“I’m only stating what I have observed and what my instinct tells me.” Soyeon replied.

“Pfft…Jaehee and Soyeon sitting in a tree~” Qri started singing and Soyeon cast smite on the mage. “Ow! What the f---”

“Enough!” Eunjung yelled out and Boram and Hwayoung stifled a laugh. Hyomin was face palming at the whole scene.

“Boss! There are two strong dark auras approaching us!” Kyuhyun yelled out as he ran towards Hyomin. The young computer hacker panted heavily as he caught his breath. The Guardians stood up and started walking towards the doors of the warehouse.

“Tell everyone to stand down and let them in.” Eunjung ordered Kyuhyun as he walked behind them. Kyuhyun nodded and took off running to inform the Guardians guarding the entrance to their compound.

The red Mustang left a trail of dust behind it as it sped down the main road of the compound. It pulled into a spot next to Hyomin’s car and Jaehee along with Tablo stepped out of it. Tablo pulled a duffle bag out of the car and placed it on his shoulder. Eunjung walked up to the two Shadows and bowed before them; Jaehee and Tablo did the same.

“Eunjung, this is Tablo.” Jaehee introduced the older woman to Eunjung. Tablo gave her a smile and offered his hand for Eunjung to shake it.

She reached to shake his hand and introduced herself as well. “Nice to meet you. I’m Eunjung, leader of the Guardians.”

“So you’re my new boss?” Tablo grinned. “Jaehee explained your situation to me and I hope to gain everyone’s trust as I train your rogues.”

“We’ll see about that, but the one who can explain the situation with the rogues better than me is my second in command, Hyomin.” Eunjung turned around to look at Hyomin who stepped forward and introduced herself to Tablo.

Hyomin studied him as she introduced herself and did not find herself impressed with Tablo at all. The guy was taller than her, was average build, and was dressed like a skater with his bulky skating sneakers, ripped jeans, sleeveless shirt and baseball cap on his head. He looked more like he was going to go join the X Games than train a bunch of rogues. Never judge a book by its cover I guess.

“Please follow me. I’ve asked the rogues to gather in their training area. I’ll also show you where you will be staying.” Hyomin turned around and started walking towards the training area with Tablo following close behind.

Those who had come out to see who the dark aura they sensed belonged to either followed after Hyomin and Tablo or remained looking at Jaehee. They murmured amongst each other and Eunjung had not failed to notice it. She would have to address her Guardians later about the new Shadow that would be amongst their ranks.

Jaehee took this opportunity to look around the area. She was impressed at how the Guardians had turned this abandoned warehouse site into their living and training quarters. Jaehee was interrupted by her sight seeing when Eunjung spoke to her.

“Thank you for bringing Tablo over. I’ll keep you informed of the progress and of any other situation that might rise up with him.”

Jaehee turned to look at Eunjung and nodded. “Yeah, that’s fine. By the way, nice job with the place. I like it.”

“Thank you.” Eunjung replied and was then bumped to the side by Hwayoung who made her way towards Jaehee to greet her. Qri and Boram followed behind the taller girl and greeted the Shadow as well. After their greetings, they departed to go take care of their own business. Qri and Boram were due to go out to the city with their scouting groups and Hwayoung made her way to go see how Hyomin was doing with Tablo and the rogues.

“Mind showing me around Eunjung?” Jaehee asked as she watched everyone else walk away except for Eunjung and Soyeon.

“I have homework to do, but I don’t think Soyeon would mind showing you around. She knows this place better than I do anyways.” Eunjung bowed and turned around to head back into the main warehouse.

“Does she not spend much time here?” Jaehee asked Soyeon who chuckled and nodded. “How are you by the way?”

“I’m fine.” Soyeon replied. “Shall we start with the training grounds? I think they were Jiyeon’s favorite when I showed her around.”

“Sounds good to me.” Jaehee answered and followed behind Soyeon.

Jaehee remained impressed with the entire area while Soyeon showed her around. The training grounds were very similar to those in the Temple of the Shadows. Even though the afternoon was coming to an end with the setting of the sun, the amount of light and liveliness of the place surprised Jaehee. The Shadow was sure it had to do with the fact that this place was a sanctuary for those who served the Light. The contrast between this place and the temple at this time was very different.

In the afternoon, before night came, the temple became very dark and grim; but it was fitting for her people and actually made them more comfortable than the day light. Jaehee had also noticed that she was receiving quite a number of stares from some of the Guardians walking around the area. She stopped noticing them when she and Soyeon stopped in front of a particular building.

This building emitted a great source of Light energy and this let Jaehee know that she was in front of the church of the Guardians. She had never stepped into a Church of the Light and she certainly wasn’t going to enter the one in front of her. Just the aura of the place made the Shadow uncomfortable.

Soyeon noticed Jaehee’s uneasiness near the church and placed a hand on the taller woman’s shoulder. “Perhaps we should not be near the church. I shouldn’t have brought you over here.”

“It’s okay. I’m sure you just did it on instinct because it is part of this place.” Jaehee replied.

Soyeon shook her head, “I’m sorry. Shall we head back to the main warehouse? You’ll be much comfortable there.”

Jaehee nodded and began walking with Soyeon towards the main warehouse. When they approached the parking area in front of the main warehouse, Jaehee stopped in front of her car and pulled out her phone to check the time.

“Thank you for the tour Soyeon. I have to stick with my previous comment and say that I like what you guys have done with the place.” Jaehee grinned and Soyeon smiled back at her.

“You’re welcome and thank you. It’s also nice to see you again. You should stop by every once in a while to check on your friend.” Soyeon replied.

“I think Tablo will be fine, but I’ll try to do that.” Jaehee said and looked at the time on her phone once more. “I should really get going. I have date and I don’t want to look bad by being late to pick her up. Have a goodnight Soyeon.”

The slight smile on Soyeon’s face faded as she nodded. “Have fun and you have a goodnight as well.”

Jaehee thanked her and walked over to her car, got inside and started it. Soyeon looked on as she watched Jaehee pull away in her car and head back towards the entrance that served an as exit as well. Once the car was out of sight, Soyeon turned around and headed into the main warehouse. Boram and Qri had not left yet as they waited on everyone in their respective groups to make it to the Jeeps. The two of them had observed the interaction between Jaehee and Soyeon and Qri was dying to comment but she did not want Soyeon to hear her.

After Soyeon had disappeared into the warehouse, Qri elbowed Boram and let it all out. “I told you she has a crush on Jaehee! Boram you have to have noticed the way Soyeon looks at her. The whole “sworn to remain celibate” thing is a load of crap!”

Boram burst into laughter but nodded in agreement. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen Soyeon blush like that either. Did you notice she looked kind of disappointed when Jaehee mentioned a date?”

“Duh! Of course I did.” Qri replied.

“Do you think Jaehee likes her that way?” Boram asked.

Qri shook her head. “Nope or she’s completely oblivious to it. I might have been drunk on Saturday, but I remember seeing Jaehee dancing with a cute human girl that was not Soyeon. Actually, she was kind of hot, but not as hot as me.”

Boram rolled her eyes at Qri. “No one is as hot as you…according to you.”

“Shut up Boram. You’re dying to get into my pants.”

“Robes. You hardly wear pants.”

“Either way, you’re not getting into them that easily.”

“I think I already did.” And with that comment, Qri jumped out of the Jeep and started casting a fireball to throw at Boram who ducked and jumped out of the Jeep to run away from the mage.





The descent into North Korea had brought some disappointment to Seunghyun’s group. While they had crossed over successfully, searching for the tracks left behind by the King’s men had left them empty. Any traces of the tracks had disappeared or never existed on this side. Kyurhee had commented that perhaps crossing over had been a waste of time since they could not find them, but Seunghyun had convinced her that they should head inland and try to at least find any other clues.

Kyurhee had to admit that Seunghyun’s idea was a good one. She remembered over hearing her father and Nobleman Kim Kwangsoo discussing that clues about the original Book of Knowledge had been found in North Korea so she was sure her father had to have at least been in the country before disappearing.

Seunghyun had instructed the group to avoid using main roads and continue their trek inland using rural areas to avoid being spotted by North Korean soldiers. They had been successful making their way inland without being spotted by anyone and as night time descended upon them; they stopped in a wooded area to take a rest and eat to nourish their bodies.

They made a small campfire and everyone sat around it eating the meal Jiyong and another warlock had prepared for everyone. Conversations had been kept low and short and as everyone remained silent while eating their food, Kyurhee couldn’t help but to look around her surroundings. The light from the fire did not help while looking at the dark area between the trees but that was not what made her uneasy.

Even though the Shadows that had been attacking lately could hide their dark auras from everyone, Kyurhee could sense that not all was right. There was a ruffle from the leaves of the trees due to the slight wind but she knew that the crack she heard from a tree branch was not from one that was still on the tree. Kyurhee reached down by her feet and grabbed a handful of dirt.

She concentrated her hearing, ignoring the sounds of chewing and leaves ruffling, and turned to look over her shoulder. The area behind her was pitch black but she was sure there was someone headed her way. Kyurhee moved her right hand off the ground and swung it to throw the dirt she was holding behind her.

The rogue’s suspicions had been correct. The dirt hit the hidden figure behind her, revealing his location and blinding him due to the dirt in his eyes. Kyurhee’s reaction was so quick that her two daggers pierced the blinded rogue’s neck and chest before anyone else realized they were under attack.

“Shadows are hiding around here!” Kyurhee shouted and picked up more dirt to throw around. Everyone around the group got up from their seats and started looking around to see if they could spot anything.

Jiyong motioned for the other warlocks to begin casting their Rain of Fire spell. The three warlocks targeted different areas around the campsite and cast their spell. Balls of fire began raining down from the sky setting the targeted area on fire. If any rogues were standing around this area, they would be set on fire and their location would be revealed due to the lost of their stealth ability.

Rain of Fire was effective when three rogues were revealed in the areas the spells had been targeted to. Yonghwa and his friends jumped on the first rogue that appeared and killed him instantly. The second rogue was struck down by one of the warlocks quick fire spells. He burned down to a pile of ashes. The third rogue did not fear the flames engulfing his body and jumped towards Jiyong, effectively pinning down the shocked warlock.

Jongkook and Seunghyun reacted quickly by moving towards Jiyong and his attacker. Jongkook pulled the rogue off Jiyong and Seunghyun killed him by striking the rogue’s head with his heavy mace. Seunghyun turned to his boyfriend and helped Jiyong stand up. The rest of the group kept looking around for any other attacks that might come their way from a shadow priest or a warlock but nothing happened. If the group that had attacked them was made up of more than rogues, well they had used the rogues as bait to let them know that they had been followed.

Jiyong panted heavily and clung to Seunghyun as he tried to calm down. The rogue had almost sliced his throat open. Seunghyun looked around their campsite like everyone else but when nothing happened he knew no one else was going to attack them for now.

“I knew there was someone out here behind us. They’ve probably been following us for a while now.” Kyurhee said as she lightly kicked the rogue she had killed.

“I don’t understand,” Yonghwa started as he bent down to take a look at the rogue he and his friends killed, “how is it possible that we could not sense them? All Shadows have a dark aura about them regardless of their status.”

Everyone besides Seunghyun, Jiyong and Kyurhee muttered amongst themselves about the question Yonghwa had raised. Seunghyun raised his hand to stop them from talking and explained what he knew. “All of the Shadows that have been attacking us or the Guardians as of late have been undetectable. They have found a way to hide their auras’ from the Guardians and us. This makes it very difficult for us to know if we’re being followed or in danger.”

“I would suggest moving away from this place now. Rain of Fire must have lit up the area to a certain extent and we can’t have human soldiers finding us.” Kyurhee said and everyone nodded in agreement.

They gathered the three bodies of the dead rogues and set them on fire. The contained fire burned green as it turned their bodies into ashes and it would die out when there was nothing more to burn. The group gathered their belongings and made their way deeper into the woods.





Jaehee’s date with Hyori had been enjoyable to the say the least. Jaehee had made sure to be more attentive to Hyori and the priestess had been thrilled the entire time. For Hyori it finally felt good to get the attention from Jaehee she felt she deserved. One date was not enough to convince Jaehee that Hyori was the right choice and she mostly was looking to take Gyuri out on a date now. Thinking of Gyuri on her drive back home brought a big smile to Jaehee’s face and it overshadowed her date with Hyori.






Eunjung had spent most of the evening trying to work on the homework her professors had given her, but she found it hard to concentrate on it when her thoughts went back to Jiyeon. If she had no romantic feelings for the young girl anymore, than why did she keep thinking about her? Her duty was not the cause of it and Eunjung was starting to get the feeling that her restraints were not going to restrain her in the future.

The Guardian shook her head to get rid of any doubts and turned back to her homework. Eunjung knew that her homework would most likely not get a good grade but school was not really her priority. She was only going to be with Jiyeon and make sure she was safe. Eunjung jotted down the last of her answers, placed her pen down, and closed the book she was using. She walked over to her bed from the desk in her room and threw herself onto the soft sheets. It didn’t take her long to doze off into a deep slumber.






Jiyeon had a similar issue to Eunjung when it came to her homework. Jiyeon knew she had not concentrated on it like she usually did, but her thoughts were on Eunjung the whole time. Jiyeon wanted to use her powers to somehow help Eunjung realize that they were meant to be and that being together made both of them happy. Before finishing her homework, her thoughts had drifted from Eunjung to her powers.

Soyeon had asked her to practice on her meditation and so Jiyeon put more effort onto her homework to finish it quickly and then start working on her meditation. It helped that the apartment was quite at this time and she began meditating. The meditation did not help her with her powers because she ended up going to sleep while trying to meditate.

As she slept, she dreamed. And said dream revealed an idea that could help her in real life with Eunjung and the feelings she knew both of them have for each other.