As soon as Amber set foot back in the tower, it felt as if there had been a subtle change in the magic of the place and she paused with a frown of confusion.  The metal in her hand was still warm as she held it close to her body but a strange gut feeling made her opt to turn left before she went back upstairs, ducking into the garden area.  With a quiet creak, the door swung open and Amber flinched in reaction.  Instead of seeing the vibrant, overgrown greens she was used to, the foliage inside had turned a decidedly less healthy shade.  Greens blended with yellows and leaves wilted under the heavy weight of their overgrown bodies.

                “What in the world?” she wondered aloud, reaching gentle fingers to brush against the nearest leaf.  To her relief, it did not simply crumble under her touch, but it did feel strangely dry.  She would have expected as much upon first arriving but now… it was quite odd.  No, alarming was a better word.  Leaving the door open, she bit her lip and turned to run out so she could take the steps up two at a time.

                Almost as soon as she stepped through the mirror door, the energy around her shifted to an awkward, tense and uncertain hostility that focused on her when both men turned to look her way.  Changsun’s face was pinched, the journal still in his hand, and he looked as if he was about to say something scathing until he noticed her expression.  “What’s wrong?” he blinked, clapping the book shut so that he could bridge the distance between them without hesitation.

                Not surprisingly, Seungho was right on his heels, padding along on all fours with his ears twisting back and forth.  “I don’t know,” Amber admitted as she chewed on her lip again, offering Changsun the warped belt piece on her open palm.  “But the properties of the Mobian portal have changed and the garden in the tower appears to be dying,” she whispered, looking between both of them nervously as Changsun picked up the piece and peered at it critically.

                “Dying?” he frowned, the expression indicating he knew he was missing something.

                “Everything has been kept the same since I and they have been here,” she clarified, gesturing at Seungho to pull him into the conversation.  “But now…” Amber trailed off, her brows furrowing as she mulled over what that might mean.

                “Show me,” Changsun commanded, a Mage in his element at last.

                “This way,” Amber beckoned, backtracking quickly so she could show him.

                When they crowded into the garden, Changsun took a knee and raked his fingers through the soil with a neutral expression on his face.  Grabbing a pinch, he sprinkled it in front and then whispered a few words under his breath.  Amber shivered as magic stirred briefly and she watched the muscles in Changsun’s shoulders tense at whatever he learned from his casting.

                “What is it?” she couldn’t help but ask, inhaling slightly when Seungho growled nearby, his ears flicking back and forth as if listening for something.

                “Nothing good,” Changsun grumbled, standing upright quickly as he moved to walk past Amber without actually answering her question.

                She grabbed his wrist before he could get far and he had to pause or pull her along.  “Tell me,” she stated simply, holding his gaze when he looked down to meet her eyes.

                His nose crinkled and he grimaced with a shake of his head.  “I need to check the portal first,” he admitted, jerking his head towards the hallway that would lead out.  For a brief moment, Amber hesitated, but it didn’t last and she let him go, resigning herself to follow in his wake.

                A quick glance down at Seungho showed he was still antsy, the muscles under his tawny hide jumping and twitching almost of their own accord.  His tail swished in obvious agitation and he pressed close to Amber’s leg as if for comfort or protection.  She wasn’t quite sure which it might be.  Without even thinking about it, Amber reached down to card her fingers through his mane, the simple action soothing some of the nerves immediately.  He looked up at her with wide eyes before he butted his head against her hand as if to reassure her in turn.

                Amber smiled and nodded before she shifted her attention back to Changsun who was wholly focused on the sparking gray sky overhead.  “I don’t remember it doing that when I got here,” he admitted, slowing to look back at her so he wouldn’t trip over something by not paying attention.

                “It wasn’t,” she confirmed with a helpless shrug.  “Just don’t get too close to the portal.  It destroyed the rest of my belt,” she grimaced, gesturing towards the metal piece in Changsun’s hand.

                “I see,” he frowned, the expression less than reassuring.

                Contrary to her advice, Changsun made his way right up to the very edge of the Mobian portal, head tilted as if he was listening for something.  She was about to caution him before he placed his palm near the surface and his eyes narrowed thoughtfully.  Stepping back, the Mage gestured with his arms out wide, as if drawing a circle in the air before he etched invisible symbols into the space before him.  Amber was familiar enough with casting to know he was using magic but as to what kind of spell, her guess was as good as anyone else’s.

                Both her and Seungho jumped back when a seemingly living spark of lightning jumped from the gray wall to strike the area in front of Changsun, nearly blinding them with the resultant flash.  “Holy mage fire!” he yelped, hands thrown up as if to ward the attack off.

                Seungho snarled and Amber cried out, “What happened!?”  She was still partially blind and couldn’t see much but the air was charged with power and she had a sinking feeling in her gut that told her something wasn’t right.

                “Get back!” Changsun commanded, grabbing Amber’s hand and shoving her behind him as he hissed a series of words under his breath and literally threw a hastily formed glob of power towards the portal.

                Amber screamed and hid behind Changsun, grateful when Seungho stood on his hind legs and braced her in the circle of his arms, ready to spring away if needed.  His ears flattened against his head and eyes disappeared into near slits when they all heard a hissing, crackling sound emerge after the explosion.  “What is-” Amber started to ask as she dared to peek around Changsun, but her words froze in when she saw the white lightning like an electrical snake undulating from the gray wall.

                Seungho’s warning growl and a firm tug on her shoulder made her step back with Changsun in tow.  They both gasped as they looked up and noticed similar arcs beginning to appear across the expanse of the sky.  It was bad enough they were appearing, but terrifying that they all appeared to be heading for their group.

                “Back to the tower!” Changsun hissed as he kept himself defensively in front of Amber.

                “What’s going on?  What about the villagers?” Amber rattled off, head darting about as she tried to locate the missing tools she was so accustomed to seeing.

                “Move!” Changsun urged, pressing harder.  For a wonder, Seungho was in total agreement and he practically carried her in his haste to get her away from the danger of the area.

                Whatever complaints she might have had died on her tongue when the very air crackled and her hair stood on end.  “Can’t you do something?!” Amber cried, grabbing onto Changsun’s hand as they rushed into the safety of the tower with Seungho leading the way.

                “Not on this scale,” the Mage panted with fear limning his voice.  He grunted when he ran into Amber as she hit Seungho when he came to a sudden stop in the hallway, his long body blocking the entirety of the passage.  Firelight flickered in the corridor and she could see the way his back muscles jumped with tension.  His ears were upright and straight forward and they flattened immediately as soon as they all heard a frustrated howl rip through the air.

                “Oh no,” Amber inhaled, eyes going wide in her face as she stiffened involuntarily.

                She was briefly squished between Changsun and Seungho when the latter tried to back up instinctively and the former shoved back with determination.  “To the casting hall!” he commanded, reaching around Amber to smack the beast with his hand.

                Seungho snarled in reaction, head whipping around to show a mouthful of fangs to the Mage.  Changsun nearly choked, flinching away at the expression with his hands raised as if he was going to cast a spell.  “Wait!” Amber cautioned, reaching up to grab Seungho’s face in her hands and pull his head down to look at her, though she trembled inside at her panicked audacity and his frightening visage.

                “Amber!” Changsun gasped, a hand latching onto her shoulder as if to pull her away.

                She ignored him and focused her will on Seungho, staring into his golden eyes.  “You are not a beast,” she promised, watching the animalistic savagery fade to the back of his eyes.  “And we cannot go outside,” she added without looking away.  “We’ve handled my father before.  We can do it again,” Amber promised soothingly, her thumbs against the side of his maw in a calming, rhythmic gesture.

                Another howl echoed through the tower and Changsun trembled, “We’ve gotta move.”

                Seungho’s ears tilted back and down but then perked up again as he continued to stare at Amber, part of the tension bleeding from his body.  He nodded once, the barest of quirks to the corners of his mouth appearing.  Without so much as a breath of hesitation, he ducked down enough to scoop both Amber and Changsun into his arms, holding them awkwardly pressed together and against his chest.

                Both yelped and clung to each other, wholly unsure of what was happening.  Amber’s world shifted when Seungho started moving, carrying them along at a quick but jostling pace that rattled her head and had her holding tighter with every stride he took.  Fur scraped against the doorway when he moved too close to keep from hitting them, but the stairs disappeared beneath his legs in a matter of heartbeats.  They were just in time for the sound of wood splintering and an echoing howl that bounced off the walls before it assaulted them in the entryway.

                “Inside!” Amber cried as she reached for the mirror, held in place by Seungho’s immeasurable strength.  He moved with the sound of her voice, unfreezing as he threw himself through the shimmering portal.  Sound disappeared behind them, but the ominous feeling of danger continued to loom closer.  “What’s going on?!” Amber demanded fearfully as soon as Seungho put her and Changsun down and turned to face the portal on all fours, tense and ready.  Every muscle in his body was tighter than a bow string and his low growl was easy to hear, even over the thundering of her heart.

                “The magic of the original casting is coming undone!” Changsun gasped, sprinting towards the counter where several books were.  Frantically, he began shoving them aside as he searched for one in particular.

                “What are you doing?!  We don’t have time!” Amber shrieked, taking a half step towards him with a panicked look over her shoulder towards Seungho.  Her father would be there any moment, she knew.

                “I need to find a particular spell!” he snapped in response, throwing more books away in his haste.

                “Changsun!” Amber yelled as she moved to join him, inhaling sharply when Seungho growled.  It was the only warning she had.  Lurching forward, she grabbed Changsun’s robes in both hands and bodily hauled him away even as she heard a terrifying roar rip through the air.  “Move!” she commanded, dragging them both behind her mother’s container so as to provide a barrier between them.

                Changsun yelled in confused fright and tried to find his footing enough to look back.  When they stopped, pressed hard against the glass container, they heard Seungho howl in angered pain.  Both peered around either side of the structure.  “What is-”

                “Father!” Amber shrieked, holding her hand out as if she could stop the larger beast from pinning Seungho to the floor.  His golden body writhed and slashed out.  Teeth gnashed and horrid snarls fell from peeled back lips like ink on parchment.  Red splashed onto the floor.  She couldn’t tell if it was from her father or Seungho.

                “Mage fires!” Changsun cursed under his breath as he darted around with his hands whirling in front of him.  His lips moved feverishly as he cast a spell towards the beasts.  Power rippled through the air, an invisible force that slammed into both creatures.  Yowling, they fell apart.  Long limbs flailed and tails lashed the air.  A pair of predatory eyes looked up.  “Oh e,” Changsun blanched, taking an involuntary step back.

                Rage personified, Jongwoon’s lithe body streamed through the air.  Talons reached for the Mage as an open maw threatened to devour him.  “Changsun!” Amber choked out the name.  Fear closed and held her in place.

                Like a deer before the kill, Changsun froze, all color gone from his face.  Mid-flight, Jongwoon lurched and snarled, his toothy jaws snapping back reflexively.  Dagger-like claws flashed out and Changsun screamed in pain as he fell back, holding his right arm.  Jongwoon’s body fell to the floor, shaking the ground on impact.  Seungho clung to the back half of him, clinging with all the fell strength and determination he had.  He freed his teeth to howl a challenge at the larger creature.  Red glistened on the savage fangs.

                “No!” Amber denied as her father raked his talons back, ripping Seungho’s face open before he sprang back, death in his eyes.  Seungho fell away and Amber sprinted out from behind the casing.  “Leave him alone!” she screamed, grabbing the necklaces in her right hand before yanking them off and pulling her fist back as if to hit the beast.  “Father!” she shrieked, running into the larger creature’s body as she slammed her fist against his back.

                An ear splitting keen rippled through the air as the crystal in her hand vibrated painfully.  Her father flinched and reared up, one hand pinning Seungho to the ground as he loomed over his daughter.  One crooked hand hovered near Amber’s head while the beast looked down at her with bared teeth.  And there he stopped, as if mesmerized.

                “Amber!” Changsun gulped thickly.

                Immediately, she shoved her free hand back as if to stay whatever action he might have been preparing.  Her bottom jaw trembled and her entire body shook as she took one uneven breath after the next, but she remained on her feet as she continued to look at her father.  By some miracle, her knees did not buckle when she met the dark eyes of her father set in a monstrous face.  Her hand holding the crystal continued to shake harder than the rest of her while the keening sound continued.  It burned in her palm, but she dare not let it go.  “It’s alright,” she stammered breathlessly as her teeth chattered.

                “Don’t you hurt her,” the Mage warned quietly, inhaling with an obvious flinch when the room itself shifted.  Sparks of white began to appear in the edges of the walls and Jongwoon’s head snapped up with a feral snarl.

                On instinct, Amber placed her left hand against his body, drawing his attention with her touch again.  “I’m here, father,” she promised in a voice that threatened to disappear at any moment.  She whimpered under her breath when he looked back at her, sinking lower to the ground so as to be closer to her level.  She could hear Seungho whine in pain around the bulk of her father and she swallowed the suffocating fear.  “Do something, Changsun,” she whispered almost without sound.  She wasn’t even sure he could hear her over the buzzing, sparking sound beginning to emerge from the walls.

                “Where… where do I even begin?” he murmured, utterly overwhelmed.

                Glass cracked like an arrow hitting a wall and both Amber and her father looked over as one.  A growing fissure was visible on the glass surrounding her mother.  “No!” Amber denied at the same time that her father gave a wordless cry.  Together, they lurched towards the enclosure.  With bloody claws and curious affection, Jongwoon wrapped himself around the glass as if he could prevent it from falling apart by force of will alone.  Amber placed the necklaces she’d been given up against the surface and held it there with her left hand, willing it to hold.

                She willed it to protect her mother.  She willed it to protect them all.  And as she did so, she closed her eyes and prayed, ignoring the burning pain in her palm as she continued to hold on.  Through clenched eyes, she cried – tears of pain and uncertainty.  Power filled the air and the sparkling droplets of water disappeared without touching the ground.

                Words of power finally began to hum through the space.  They wrapped around Amber like a blanket, providing a buffer from the storm in the room.  Only the words grew louder in her ears and it wasn’t until she opened her eyes that she realized it was Changsun holding her against his body.  A low growl reached her ears and then Amber gasped as she became the conduit of Changsun’s casting.  “Don’t let go,” he murmured in her ear with a hint of apology.

                His arms became the tether that kept her grounded while power surged through her arms.  The pain in her right hand became excruciating and she could smell burning flesh, but she could not let go.  A choked cry escaped her lips and glass shattered into millions of pieces.  She reached out with her left hand as if to catch her mother before she could fall but white lightning responded, grabbing hold and making her convulse with the steady stream of power.

                Magic unraveled around her.  It was the only way to describe it.  Through narrowed eyes, Amber watched her mother floating in space, cradled within a nest of lightning; she watched the threads of transfiguration break apart around her father and Seungho, distorting their forms unrecognizably as power struggled to find its place; she watched as gray skies appeared behind disintegrating walls.  And with a surprised gasp, Amber watched herself as she floated above it all.

                From her right hand, a single thread extended to her mother, her father, and Seungho.  It arched like lightning burning through her palm.  But it connected them all, circling back to her left hand to complete the ring.  And she could see Changsun holding her as the anchor ready to guide them home.  Through him, smaller, electric tendrils splayed out like roots, reaching into the gray nothingness around their floating forms.

                “Don’t let go,” she heard again, as if an echo of Changsun’s command but different.  Younger.  Feminine.  Her voice.  Reaching through time to catch up to them.

                Amber inhaled sharply and then lost sight of everything as she was pulled back down into her body and the maelstrom of power around them.  Twisted, pulled, wrenched… she felt as if she would be torn apart one moment or crushed flat the next.  Her hands ached from gripping so tight and flashes of light danced behind closed eyes.  It was blinding in one instance and then utterly dark in the next.  She thought she screamed.

                And then it stopped.  Abruptly.  Painfully.  Disconcertingly.

                Brown eyes snapped open to see normal dirt before them.  Air passed through her lungs in hiccupping, gasping sobs.  Her arms hurt and it wasn’t until she realized she was digging her nails into the flesh that she understood it was her own doing.  Whimpering assailed her ears and she knew it as her own voice.

                “Amber!” a familiar voice grunted, folding her into his arms.  “I’m here,” he soothed and Amber turned into his chest, burying her face against the fabric of his robes as she tangled the fingers of her left hand in the cloth, holding tight.  Understanding failed her and Amber cried, making herself small in the safety of his embrace.

                She trembled in the aftershock of casting until she heard someone else groan, “Yejin.”

                Amber froze and her eyes snapped open.  Immediately, she whispered, “Mother?”  She tried to turn and the arms held tight so she fought them harder, yanking free at last.  Rolling onto her side, Amber caught herself with her left hand and laid eyes on two people resting in front of her.  The first: her father, clothed in blue robes as she last remembered him.  His black hair was shaggy and covering part of his eyes as he looked over at someone else, one hand reaching to bridge the distance between them.  Amber followed the reach of his fingertips to see where another slender hand fit into his perfectly.  A grin broad enough to split her face appeared and Amber covered with her right fist as she laid eyes upon her mother.

                Dark brown hair fell in waves around her shoulders while sparkling brown eyes blinked slowly at her father.  An off-white shirt with a brown bodice and a burgundy skirt covered her slender form as she looked at the figure across from her.  “Jongwoon,” she whispered, a breathtaking smile appearing on warm lips.  “Am I dreaming?”

                “Mother!” Amber sobbed, scrambling to her hands and knees so that she could crawl towards the other woman.

                The slender hand pulled away from her father’s and Yejin sat up, bright eyes focusing unerringly on her daughter.  “Amber!”  Awkward and uncoordinated, Amber fell into her mother’s arms, sending them both to the ground as she cried into the older woman’s .

                “Amber!” she heard her father’s voice before she was sandwiched between the both of them, nearly crushed but still feeling as if she wasn’t close enough.  “Oh, baby girl,” Jongwoon murmured, lifting them both up as he cried into her hair and rocked them back and forth.

                Surrounded by the love of her parents, both of whom had been gone for several years, Amber could almost forget anything else.  Almost.  But there was no escaping her most recent memories, the pain still lingering in her right hand, or the fear she’d felt just before everything had changed again.  “Seungho!  Changsun!” she inhaled, tensing up involuntarily.  She fought against her parents as she struggled to find them.  To her left, she saw Changsun, sitting uncertainly near them.  She reached out to beckon him closer with her left hand before she looked right.  There was Seungho, in his human form.  One hand pressed hard against his cheek while red seeped around the hasty barrier.  But he was smiling at her as Amber her closed, right fist towards him.

                She was briefly confused by the closed fist but Seungho grabbed it with his free hand and moved in even as Changsun did the same on her other side.  And then she was trapped joyfully between all of them.  No one was transformed or angry or anything other than human and missing her.  The realization made Amber cry harder as she tried to hold onto everyone at once.  But she didn’t have enough hands and she didn’t know whether to focus on her parents or Changsun or Seungho and it was almost overwhelming, since they were all so closely interlinked in her mind.

                Her mother broke the confused silence, giving them all a direction to follow.  “How did you find me?”

                “We saw you in a spell,” Jongwoon admitted, cupping his wife’s face over Amber’s head.

                “But I don’t-”

                “And then we lost you again,” he frowned, his face falling at the memory.

                “But Amber found you,” Seungho was quick to point out, squeezing Amber’s hand tight as he kept one hand over his cheek in turn.

                “And helped us bring you all home,” Changsun confirmed, holding Amber’s left hand close as he looked between Jongwoon and Yejin earnestly.

                They all beamed at each other until Amber finally tried to open her right fist.  “Ah,” she grimaced, her hand trembling when she couldn’t open her fingers on her own.

                “Amber?” her parents asked in tandem.

                “Here,” Seungho offered, finally removing his hand to reveal a series of deep gashes on his face where it looked as if claws had ripped open his flesh.  Amber stared at the mangled skin in saddened horror as Seungho gently pried her fingers open, making her wince when they peeled back to reveal the crystal her father gave her, the strawman Seungho gave her, and a scrap of the golden ribbon her mother gave her.

                “You kept it,” Jongwoon whispered, gently touching the amethyst crystal with his fingertips as he looked at Amber’s face.

                “Of course I did,” Amber admitted, wincing when Jongwoon peeled the crystal up to reveal a burnt imprint in her palm from where the necklace had marked her.

                “You held on,” Changsun reminded her, folding his hand over hers in mute gratitude so that it covered the strawman and the scrap of ribbon.

                Amber nodded once in acknowledgement and then looked over at Seungho, who had one hand pressed firmly to his face again.  Holding Changsun’s hand as she looked at Seungho while she was braced securely between her parents, she confirmed, “I wasn’t going to let go again.”

(a/n: I think that, while this chapter may have moved a little fast, we finally have a resolution in sight!  I should hopefully be having the final (or next to final) update out asap!  I am sorry it has taken me so long to finish this story.  School (teaching and grading anyway) has been throwing me some curveballs.  So with any luck, I will be finishing this shortly.  As always though, I do appreciate my readers and especially my commenters and I hope you have found this latest update enjoyable.  Thank you!  <3)