After the discovery of Sungjong’s originality, Myungsoo has kept his lips sealed. Once they reached the gates of Skyfall, Sungjong has had enough of Myungsoo giving him the silent treatment. “Wait, before we go in. Can you explain something to me first?”

Myungsoo looked the younger in the eyes but dare not utter one sound. His emotionless reaction left Sungjong in a dilemma. Should the lad proceed and seek answers from the Great Wizard Myungsoo or drop it? Finally, when he had mustered the courage to speak up, Myungsoo cut him off.

“That day, by the river. You left for a while, didn’t you? Before you found the tavern, you met with someone or something didn’t you?” Myungsoo asked in a low and dangerous tone. Sungjong gulped and froze. “At the tavern, you pretended to be drunk so that all of my energy would be focused on you. Then you lowered the defense of my shield using dark magic and that was how I lost Jisoo,”

Sungjong’s lips twitched a little, “H-how?”

“When white and black magic rubs together to break down any form of defenses, it awakens silver magic. When silver magic is present, it weakens all magic,” Sungjong hide his face from Myungsoo instantly as the older pushed on, “Not only then did I suspect you. In the hall, I warned you not to use magic, but you did and dark matter sensed it! Then, you overreacted when I told you about the Keeper’s father. The truth was you wanted to run away, not from me but to meet up with him didn’t you?”

This time Sungjong glared at him, “Who do you mean?”

“You can’t be that oblivious. Your family, Wizards of Alkanos were born from Deathless Light! Kwon Jiyong is your grandfather of one thousand years ago! The husband of the Great Witch Yoo Jiae!” Myungsoo announced before he was knocked off his horse by great strength. His startled horse stood up with its hind legs as it kicked out its forearms before rushing off into the woods. Once his horse fled, now standing in its place was Daesung. Meanwhile, on the side, Sungjong tried to control his mount.

Myungsoo, who was now lying on his back, glanced up and into the dark pupils of a familiar man.

“Welcome back, master Myungsoo.”

It was Yoochun, his normally brown pupils were shrunken and sclera was nothing but pitch, black, darkness. He was possessed. Myungsoo tightened his jaw and stared directly into Yoochun’s eerily eyes.

When their first day have had enough of its say, their first night crawled in and naturally took over. Jisoo, who have fallen asleep for the rest of the evening, began waking up to the sound of crackling fire. As she slowly rises from her sleeping spot and into a seating position, she noticed, a few feet before her fire flames dancing freely in all sorts of color—colors she can’t imagine ever seeing in fires. The red, orange, yellow, blue, white, and even black mash up and laces around one another beautifully, confusing Jisoo’s blindness a little.

She has sat beside working fire before but remembers it being much brighter.

“They seem to like you a lot,” a man spoke. Immediately Jisoo identified it to be Jaejoong’s voice. Given his voice, the only thing Jisoo knew was that the man was seated a little left and in front of her. “Gloomers,” he added, though it only mystified Jisoo more.

“Who?” she questioned, turning her head toward his direction.

“Black matter. However, I refer to them as gloomers. Pesky evil little things really.”

Jisoo stayed quiet for a moment, processing everything in slowly. The last few days has been extraordinarily strange and out of the ordinary for her. However, the black figures aren’t exactly new to her. Yet, she knows nothing about them or their purposes. After learning that Jaejoong is their master and host, Jisoo thought this would be the perfect time to learn more about them.

“Earlier, Lord Xia mentioned that you’ve stopped seeing them. Why is that..?”

Jaejoong let the fire do the talking for a minute or two before he heaved a sigh. “I didn’t necessarily stop seeing them. They’ve chosen to hide from me because of how I treated,” Jaejoong paused to scoff, “or should I say how I mistreated them?”

Jisoo didn’t comment. She thought it would be best to not disturb his train of thoughts or mood.

“Gloomers. Before I betrayed my purpose, they were Bloomers. Kind, gentle beings with names and personalities though without faces. Together with I, they guided and aided me in curing and healing the wounded—mainly mortals. Xia may have told you already, about how bad of a person I was. How I changed and how I wanted to rule the humans,”

Jisoo wasn’t sure if she was supposed to answer the question but hummed regardless.

“He’s right. At one point I wanted absolute control of the humans. I wanted their King dead, not by my hands but by his people’s,”

The lass’s eyes widened. Every King has been equally worshipped in all generations, and she can’t imagine why someone would want someone of that high regard to die. Surely, was this man as evil as his brother make him out to be? “..But why?”

“He had Jiae killed.” Jaejoong’s one sentence hushed Jisoo up instantly. Though, she can’t stop wondering who Jiae was. Rationally she assumed this Jiae was in some kind of intimate relationship with Jaejoong, otherwise, the male wouldn’t be so upset at Lord Xia, and the world.

Jisoo fed the fire as Jaejoong had instructed with the unused woods by her side. Meanwhile, Jaejoong had taken off his mask and examined the old object carefully. He smirked a little at the dents made, each line was memorable to an extent. After they’ve allowed quiet and peace to fill the void, Jisoo decided to break the silence.

“Have you ever thought that if you’re kind to dark matter then they’ll show themselves to you again?”

Jaejoong frowned as he has never given it much thought, “Why do you think that?”

A soft chuckle erupted from Jisoo as she went on explain herself, “You said it yourself that when they were kind they had personalities, names, and didn’t hide from you. To me that sounded like you adored and loved them, which was why they chose to show you their different personalities and let you see them. Just like anyone out there. If you treat them with kindness and fairness, they will do the same to you. They wouldn’t run or hide from you,”

Jaejoong heaved a breathy scoff, it was so simple yet so hard to achieve. “And how can you treat them with kind and fairness if they won’t show up in front of you?”

A smile was drawn across on Jisoo’s face as she had the perfect answer, “Just because they’re hiding doesn’t mean they can’t see and sense it. If you treat yourself well, they will eventually reappear.” To not let the conversation go to waste, Jisoo carried it on using her personal experiences,

“Here, take fishes for example. My father and I used to go down to a lake, there were a lot of fishes but hard to catch because others abused their habitat with traps, and anger which inserted fear into them. So after a long time, father and I cleaned up the lake, it took us two weeks. But because we were gentle when clearing it, the fishes paid us back. Catching them became easier since they were no longer hiding. My father and I could eat as long as we treated their home and them with respect. Or when I first saw dark matter, it greeted me from afar. Though I was afraid of it, it didn’t hurt me. So when I started seeing more and more of them, it became easier, up to a point where I sort of expected them. See, if the first meeting was bad, I would have tried to run away or hide from the following encounters. I think what Gloomers need is their kind master back.”

For a moment there Jaejoong couldn’t believe he really sat through Jisoo’s ramble, but in the end, he had to agree with her.

“However, Gloomers can only get their master back if he’s genuinely happy. Which leads to my next question, can you be happy?”

Jaejoong was stunned for a moment. Happiness was a human emotion he hasn’t felt in the longest time. Except for that one time. “Sure,”

“Really?”

“Hm, I can only be happy when I bring her back.”

Jisoo’s smile turned into a sad one, “How do we bring back Jiae? I’ll help you.”

“If you really want to help then, after I kill Jiyong, you will have to turn over your life as well. Would you do that?”

A little shocked but Jisoo nodded nonetheless, “In the past, dark matter saved me. This time I will save dark matter. I promise.”

A/N: Shorter chapter but hopefully this chapter cleared up a few things. It's a bit messy of a chapter but heh, please leave any comment down below~ Particularly questions! I'd love to answer whatever I could or address it in following updates.