Jūras vējš meant sea wind in Latvian – the terminal was one of the smaller ones at the Freeport of Riga, and thankfully wasn’t fitted for security cameras; the person watching it would certainly get a shock when they saw thirteen people appear inside the terminal out of nowhere.

“So, where are the keys supposed to go?” Baekhyun hummed, scanning the inside of the terminal.

“I don’t know, but they’re vibrating,” Suho replied, holding up the tube that contained the four keys. Sure enough, there was a rattling noise emanating from inside.

“Well, let them out; see what happens,” Luhan shrugged.

Flying by the seat of their pants had gotten them this far – it couldn’t hurt to keep doing so.

With a small huff, Suho unlatched the cap of the tube and the keys flew out, soaring in the air and disappeared through a wall.

“Are you kidding me?” Dahlia asked tonelessly.

“It just…went through a wall…” Chanyeol groaned. “What the hell was that?”

“Clearly it’s a mirage or something; chill out,” Tao replied, walking towards the wall.

However, instead of walking through it as he had thought, he smacked into the solid surface.

“How’d that work out for you?” Chen smirked.

“Not good,” Tao muttered, rubbing his sore nose and forehead.

But – whether it was because of something Tao did or it was just good timing – at that moment a thin archway appeared in the wall. Tao turned around and flashed a proud smile at the others, his reddened nose and forehead contrasting sharply against his smug expression.

The thirteen filed through the entryway and down a narrow stairwell, the entryway disappearing behind them. Baekhyun generated a few floating orbs to light their way as they made their way down to find a secret dock with a boat large enough to fit them.

“I guess we…get in?” Lay wondered, scrunching his nose.

“I guess we do,” Suho shrugged.

The thirteen climbed into the boat, situating themselves on the wooden benches. Once they were all settled, Xiumin looked around for a pair of paddles since there was no engine on the boat.

“How are we supposed to – oh!” He exclaimed as the boat lurched forward.

Without any assistance, the boat journeyed slowly through another mysteriously-appearing archway and down the river Daugava towards the Gulf of Riga.

“I’ll say one thing,” Kris mused as he leaned back, letting the boat take them to their destination, “the Tree doesn’t do things halfway.”

In the distance, slowly drawing nearer, was an island shrouded in a thin mist. Dahlia quirked her head as she caught sight of it, pulling out her phone to look at a map of the gulf.

 The island wasn’t on the map on Dahlia’s phone – Dahlia assumed that the island wasn’t even supposed to be there. It must’ve been created by the tree, and given the fact that there’d been no media uproar about a mysteriously appearing island the tree must’ve cloaked it too.

As they sailed closer to the island the thin mist that enveloped them seemed to become thicker, cutting them off from the world outside. The boat came to rest at a small wooden dock that seemed to grow out of the island itself. They disembarked from the boat and stepped onto the island, the grass thick and green under their feet.

At first, they couldn’t see anything. The twelve guardians glanced around the island, trying to find their tree in all its original glory, but it wasn’t there.

And then…she saw it.

“There it is. That’s your tree.” Dahlia said, her breath catching in as she stared at it.

It was no longer a tree – instead, it was a stone pyramid made out of something similar to opal. It was