It was only natural that they should flee Incheon, Seoul and Korea after Seunghyun's display. Outside the Tower of Saviours, there were plenty of others willing to hunt them down, conceive revenge against the victims. 

They had been able to shelter for some a few days in hotels and various things, places in rural areas that news had not yet reached. During those nights, Taeyang would curl up on one bed, looming furry body surprisingly light on furniture, with Jiyong nestled deep in his fur, sometimes whimpering in night terror until the other rumbled; assuring, comforting, lulling. The two maknaes would snuggle into Seunghyun, letting the vampire caress their hair, wrap them in sunlight. They would wrap themselves around him, nuzzling into his neck and sometimes even each other over his body. 

"Where are we going to go?" Jiyong whispered to him in the early hours of the morning, the maknaes still blissful in sleep, tangled in each other like vines and twined around his body. 

"We can't keep running from the humans forever, no matter how much money you have." Taeyang agreed. 

Seunghyun's hair was a reflective bronzed brown, his runes alight under his clothing. Daesung breathed against his neck, murmuring in the resonating tones of whale speech. Seungri's nasally breathing sounded like a gentle puff through a reed flute. 

"I know." He murmured, trying to decipher what Daesung was humming about, but unable. It had been many long years since he'd taken to sea, let alone speak to any of those creatures. Many were leery of his human visage and even those who knew him for himself were cautious of approaching him, if only for the power he weilded. "I did not protect you well enough. I'm not keen on making the same mistake twice."

Taeyang rumbled, content, but Jiyong kept staring. "Do you have a place in mind? It's risky, but I can fly us there."

"Kind of you to offer, but such a place cannot be reached by flight." He forced back the surges of power that hadn't been awake in him for many long millenia. He considered whether this was because of his coven marking on the back of their necks, how that magic connected their minds and he could understand the depths of their emotions: the friendships between Jiyong and Taeyang, Daesung and Seungri, how the maknaes loved him almost possessively. 

Jiyong laid back into Taeyang's fur, comfortable in the heat that form emitted, reminded of the fire and safety of his beloved Thera. "We'll go wherever you go."

Seunghyun smiled placatingly, eyes lighting up once more. "I'll protect you this time. 

Seunghyun hadn't known whether the mountain would still remember him, considering how long it had been since he'd come to his mother's grove. But it seemed the stone, too, was long-lived and had been still in his absence. It was surprisingly pleasant to know that some things just existed indefinitely, something other than himself. 

He had not told the others where he was taking them. There was no just way to explain it, but neither did they seem keen on asking. Daesung and Seungri were willing to go anywhere he said, his worldly experience outweighing theirs by far. Jiyong was tied to Taeyang, and they only seemed interested in taking in the scenery as they moved through the thick woodland. 

As they moved up the mountainside, the trees fell away and the earth turned to shale - thinly layered slate and shining obsidian flaking apart under the beat of rain and wind, cracking and slipping apart as they moved up the steep slope. He was grateful the mountain remembered him, the stone bending to a path for him to follow, weaving them through the decaying rock into a sheer cliffside. There, hidden from view above and below, was a crack-like opening marked by a tiny shoot bearing a single, hardy white flower - his mother's favourite, the Trillium. The small bloom swayed gracefully over to him, reaching out to him like an infant. He knelt down there, gently his fingers over the silky petals, power leaking from him and nourishing the dainty sentry. The bloom shivered under his touch, but leaned in a little more, the petals stretching up to him, almost like they would close around his fingers and cuddle him there. Remembering the duty it had been given, the small flower's tiny, quivering stamen lit up silver, the little pollen bulbs on the end shimmering into gold. The crack opened to reveal a warm, damp crevasse, a rush of exotic air and long-forgotten, ancient and trapped magic rushing out. 

On Seunghyun, these magics were nothing new, even with how long it had been since he'd felt them. He consisted of these magics, absorbed them from his grandparents to exist. Jiyong, too, seemed familiar to the energy, though he cocked his head as if they were different. He supposed that earthen magic and fiery magic were executed differently, would feel different on stranger's skin. Taeyang shook himself thoroughly, stepping back from the magic and sneezing like it was dust instead of the remains of a White Mage. Daesung cocked his head at the rush, indifferent to it. Perhaps even his short lifetime was enough to prepare him - he knew many of the most ancient ones, hidden deep in the seas, so perhaps this wasn't too new to him either.

Seungri's reaction, however, was what grabbed Seunghyun's attention. The youngest one stepped towards the opening, his eyes glazed over and his body movement jilted, as if they were outside his control. He breathed in the thickness, body trembling with apparent ecstacy before dropping to the ground, limp. Daesung caught him, easing him into a comfortable embrace. 

"Seungri? What was that?" The Siren asked, gently his fingers through the bark-coloured headgrass atop the dryad's head.

"Sire . . . " Seungri whimpered, jolting as the magic swept through him again. 

Seunghyun knelt next to the dryad and passed a hand over his smooth bark cheek, a sympathy tinging his smile. "Yes, maknae, it's the same magic. Your sire tree got its power from here."

Taeyang sniffed the dryad curiously, rumbling low when he couldn't sense anything. 

"But his sire tree is ashes." Daesung murmured, cuddling his first friend close. 

"The magic that made it his sire is not." Seunghyun countered. "I imagine he was never dosed with it so heavily. Bring him in and we'll allow him time to adjust."

When Seungri had recovered enough to bear his own weight and speak without a slur, Seunghyun lead them into the heart of the mountain, where his mother had lived. 

The hollow stone gave way to a massive cavern, towering trees and luminous leaves refracting light onto the pure gemstone walls, the soft golden petals of flowers shimmering in the eternal light and the whisper of lively green grasses passing close to the nutrient-soaked black soil. Simple grey stone lead to a treed alcove where there was a semblance of a small house, several shrub-grown beds sparking up their bloom as they sensed old life reentering the sanctuary. Creek and lake babbled in the distance, a small waterfall visible on the far side of the cavern. Butterflies matching the colours of the walls fluttered past with pixies hopping across their wings as they passed. 

Nervously, Seunghyun clasped his hands. "Do you like it?"

Seungri, still wobbly, threw himself into the vampire's arms and began to cry into his shirt. "Hyung . . . You're so amazing. How did you manage all of this?"

Mildly confused at the appearance of tears, Seunghyun his hair and kissed his head. "It was my mother's cove. She remained here long after my siblings abandoned it to create their own magics, but gave up her life a long time ago."

"What do you mean?" Taeyang asked, gently nosing at the soft petals of a nearby flower. The eggshell blue petals reached up and tenderly embraced his sensitive nose, lovingly over the parts of his muzzle they could reach.

"She was a White Mage, a child of the sun and the moon. She gave up her Ethereal form to ascend back to her parents. She's what the humans call the North Star now, a nova in her own right. But to do that, she had to abandon everything that came with being a White Mage, including her power. So, she left it here, in her most beloved grotto."

"Why haven't any of your siblings overtaken it, then? They were White Mages too, weren't they?" Jiyong questioned, leaning on Taeyang as he observed the cave of wonders.

"They were hunted quite thoroughly. They seemed to believe that their status would protect them, would prove to the humans their validity and proper prescence. It only made them more afraid and their sacred spaces were burned, their magics torn from them and their lives ripped away."

"Wow." Seungri breathed through his sobs. "How did you get passed that?"

He smiled gently down on Seungri, cradling the boy closer. "I was not a White Mage. In fact, I cannot control this place's energy. You would be a better caretaker than I, and that is the reason that in all my years, I've not come back. I would be a taint, a hinderance, to its growth. Should I have been here, it is possible that your sire would have never gotten the magic to spawn you in the first place, my dear little sapling."

Daesung had wandered over to the lake, the body of water stilling as if conscious. He reached out to it, fingers sliding along the glassy surface before there was a glad ripple and the waterfall once again picked up its thunder. It shuddered like a contented kitten settling in to nap, apparently approving the Siren to swim in it, command its depths. "I had no idea that I could affect freshwater."

"The magic of this place is strong, sentient in its own right. They all feel, even if they do not think, and they choose whether or not to accept you. All save me. Because I am her son, her only living child, I can command all of that I desire here." Seunghyun said, eyes still tracking Seungri as the dryad danced from tree to tree, his voice like reedsong and rustled leaves. His light brown headgrass, damaged twice over, deepened into a rich brown-black as the magic swept into his veins. Cracks in his bark, paleness in his lips faded as the green energy swept around him, embracing him entirely. Leaves, grasses, petals and pollen clung to him, eahc pressing their own kiss to his body, a proper steward to replace the caretaking their Queen had once done. 

Daesung came up his other side, leaning into Seunghyun's side and nuzzling into the smooth, flawless skin. "It's lovely. He was never so flawless even in his own forest."

"I'd imagine not. Nothing is so pure as this place - hidden away from filth and rot. No magic, no forest will ever compare to this."

"I suppose. The water magic is much weaker."

He down the Siren's cheek carefully. "No water will ever be as rich and deep with memory or ancient creation spells as your beloved ocean. There is no comparison on any land, even this one, to match such magnificent power. And as pained as I am to seclude you from it, I am loathe, too, to let you go."

"I can understand." Daesung murmured, leaning into the soothing touch. He had never known light in the deep, but he wasn't sure now that he could live without that heat and strength in this palm, the guiding amber effervescence that was Seunghyun. He did not know how he had lived without the claiming coven mark on the back of his neck, contentedly cool as the breeze passed over it. "I spent too much time away from you once already."

Seunghyun's smile was rueful and self-depricating. "I won't allow that to happen ever again."

Daesung bent down, nimble fingers working the top buttons of his jacket and shirt, to kiss the flawless hollow of his throat. "I know. You promised once already."

Taeyang nosed under his free hand, eyes a baleful red at being left out of the attention. Really, such an overgrown puppy. Seunghyun tangled his fingers into his hair as Daesung shed his clothes, working the many layers off and away. The thousands of runes lit up, the internal light, trapped, reaching out to the new and fresh energy freely offered by the gemstones. 

Jiyong's hands came across his back, smoothing over the supple skin and kissing down his spine as he worked out the belt. "None of this. We're safe here, content. No more hiding. Not here."

So, as Seungri spread the mosses and grasses he had managed to save from his forest from his body to the well-receiving earth, Seunghyun allowed his coven to strip him , reveal all of his secrets and illuminate the power stored within him. His hair jumped from black to cinnamon brown. Taeyang was always as close to as allowed and when in hellhound form, he shredded any clothes he had been wearing. Jiyong was quick to rid himself of his cloth constriction; scales, talons, wings and a tail erupting across him. His smile was sharp-toothed, but still as genuine. Daesung shook himself out and his clothes shifted into his native compact and bare top half with his scaled and powerful lower half. He slid over to the water and into the cool fluid, quickly becoming friendly with the power within, no one able to resist Daesung's giggly charm. 

"We love it." Taeyang assured, nuzzling closer to him once more, his fur sleek and glossy in the unhindered sunlight. The fires along his spine was muted in contentment, unburning even as the vampire ran his hand through the illumination. "Thank you for bringing us here, to your home."

Seunghyun looked up to the North Star, soaking up his mother's blessing. "Not mine. It's never been mine."

Taeyang cocked his head.

"It is ours. Our Sanctuary." He pet the hellhound once more, letting his power - long dormant - spin life through him and beam across the woodlands and grassy plains. "Welcome home, my family."