She had been so wrapped up in starring in her own little romantic comedy that she’d forgotten that the genre of her life’s movie was something very different.

Something much darker.

The remainder of her confessions had passed smoothly…with the exception of Kyungsoo – who had once again gifted Dahlia with a bouquet of her namesake – causing a number of groans as well as the uproar caused by Chen – having quite literally swept Dahlia off her feet with a kiss.

Yet she should have known…Dahlia should have known that things would be progressing too smoothly. All the guardians should have, yet they were so blissfully wrapped up in their unconventional romance that they had tuned out everything else.

The twelve had popped over to the Old Town Square once they had arrived in the vicinity. Their campsites were set up and they were free until the following day when the carnival would open its tent flaps to the people of Prague.

The clock was mounted on the southern wall of Old Town Hall and was unfortunately surrounded by a large number of tourists.

“Why the Tree keeps putting these things in crowded tourist areas is beyond me,” Xiumin muttered.

They had twenty minutes until the clock struck the hour – the clock would become animated, its carved figurines marking the hour with their movements.

“This isn’t like the fountain,” Tao muttered. “There’s nothing to represent the white suite, or even time, because the whole thing represents time.”

“Why don’t you three just put your hands anywhere?” Chanyeol offered. “You guys can’t exactly get up to the clock without everyone noticing, so maybe it could work.”

They had nothing to lose, so with a resigned sigh Tao walked over and placed his palm flat against the cool stone of the southern wall with Luhan and Kai following suite. With a quick nod to each other, they began to use their powers.

A soft glow spread around their fingers, exactly like it had for the black suite guardians at the fountain. Yet their proud smiles began to fade when they realized there was no accompanying unlocking sound.

Perhaps it didn’t work.

“Wait,” Baekhyun interjected, pointing upwards. “Did you see that?”

A brief glint came from the decorated pinnacle at the very top of the Astronomical top, alerting the guardians to the location of the next tube. Tao slowed time around them, giving Kris enough time to fly up and retrieve it without raising suspicion.

As Kris pulled the tube out of the newly formed hatch in the pinnacle, the three guardians down below removed their hands from the stone wall causing the hatch to fade away as if it had never been there. As his feet touched back down on the ground Tao unfroze time and the thirteen waited with baited breath as the guardian of flight displayed the thin metal tube with the symbol of EXO etched on it.

It had worked.

Kris opened the lid and pulled out a white key identical to the first key they’d discovered, the ring a hexagonal shape just like the sign of the Tree. He made sure to check the tube thoroughly for a slip of paper, not wanting to give Sehun another chance to show off.

48°39′49.12″N 20°18′20.35″E

It was a process they had gone through before, and so Dahlia whipped out her phone and typed in the coordinates.

“We’re heading to the Ochtinská Aragonite Cave, apparently,” she informed the twelve standing around her.

“May I?” Xiumin asked, holding out his hand.

Dahlia nodded, passing her phone over to the oldest guardian. He held the screen up and scanned through the article online about the cave.

“…blah blah blah, it’s a unique aragonite cave situated in southern Slovakia, near Rožňava….blah blah blah,” he mumbled, skipping over the parts he saw as unimportant. “Aha! In the so-called Milky Way Hall, the main attraction of the cave, white branches and clusters of aragonite shine like stars in the Milky Way.”

“Stars,” Baekhyun repeated. “Light.”

A crooked grin worked its way across Chen’s lips. “I guess we know which key we’re going to find next.”

“Just one problem,” Dahlia interjected. “Slovakia isn’t on our tour route. I mean, it’s south east of here…ish, so it wouldn’t be hard to get there. That being said, we have no idea where the fourth key will be once we’ve found the next one.”

“It might not even be in Europe,” Sehun interjected, nodding in agreement. “And even then, we don’t know where the tree would be.”

“Kai can teleport anywhere in the world,” Xiumin began, placing a hand on the younger guardian’s shoulder. “And I’m not trying to downplay your abilities or stamina, but travelling long distances with all of us over and over would just be too much for you.”

“I’ll freely admit that,” Kai nodded. “From here to the carnival is fine, but the more people there are combined with longer distances…I’d be wiped and we could be stuck somewhere until I regain my strength.”

“We could stay overnight at a hotel or inn somewhere, but we have the obligations to the carnival si