~One Moon Away~

                Ruins loomed on the horizon, shadowed and haunted. Wisps of clouds trailed over the face of the luminous, full moon, filtering the bespelled land with patches of silver light. Stolidly fighting the growing, uneasy feeling in her belly, Sunyoung clung to Eunyoung’s waist as the horse beneath them picked its way over the terrain.

                “You know we really shouldn’t be out here,” Sunyoung whispered, peering over the covered shoulder to catch the profile of the other woman’s face.

                Dark eyes gave her a sideways glance with a wry smile tugging at . “I thought you’d be more eager to see what’s in the ruins,” she admitted, the hint of a laugh hiding in her pleasantly low voice.

                Sunyoung sighed and wrinkled her nose. “I am, but…” she trailed off, brown eyes narrowing further when she looked ahead to their destination. Empty and forbidding, the abandoned city of Lyndfell had been silent for years. Only animals called it home now, and those were few and far between.

                “But what?” Eunyoung frowned, pulling Mabb up short, a worried gleam in her eye. The brown horse snorted and shook her head but offered no other resistance.

                “It just feels off,” she admitted after a pause, fingers tightening into loose fists.

                “Anything else?” A warm hand pressed against Sunyoung’s, earnest and concerned.

                She shook her head and pursed her lips. “Nothing dangerous. It just makes me feel uneasy.”

                “Ah. It’s probably just ‘cause you’re a Sensitive. And because we’re here,” Eunyoung shrugged, giving the shorter woman’s hands a reassuring pat. “But the festival isn’t for another month and the elders promised us there was nothing dangerous here anymore.”

                While that explanation had never really sat right with Sunyoung, she didn’t argue. “I know. Come on. We should hurry and get down there so we can get home before anyone notices we’re missing,” she urged, gesturing ahead.

                Eunyoung snorted and waved off her concern. “It’s a poorly kept secret that all us younglings sneak out to see the ruins. Do you really think if there was such a problem, the elders wouldn’t do more to keep us in the city?”

                “We’re not younglings anymore,” she grumbled in response, hugging Eunyoung tight and propping her chin on the taller woman’s shoulder with a toothy grin.

                “Tell them that,” she responded with a roll of her eyes.

                Without any other words, she clucked to Mabb and the horse started plodding along once more. Hooves clopped along broken pieces of what was left of a road, but there was little enough noise in the area. Most creatures stayed well away, especially during this time of the year. The pair knew they could feel it too: a tension in the air and a tingling on the skin. Sensitives felt it more keenly, but even normal folk could sense the change around this time.

                And it wasn’t just the change in energy as they approached Lyndfell either. What had once been a sprawling metropolis was now a half-city. Literally. The entire front half of the area was just gone as if it had been wiped clean from the face of the earth. Nothing dared grow in the space left behind so it remained a lifeless desert. Even the road had been taken so that Mabb’s hooves were harder to hear, leaving the pair in an uncomfortable quiet they were loathe to break by talking.

                Eventually, the barren surface gave way to slowly eroding buildings and the odd plant growing through the unkempt road. Most of the doors and windows were broken or gone, testament to the many thieves and fools who had come after the people fled. Nothing of value remained and, if one listened hard enough, some said they could hear the whispers of the people who had been lost here over two hundred years ago.

                Mabb shivered beneath the two women, startling them with the full body quiver. Sunyoung held tighter, the knot in her belly worse than before, and Eunyoung took a calming breath. She kicked her heels gently against Mabb’s ribs and clucked again to get her moving once more. Neither dared look to either side, fearful of seeing glimpses of ghosts or imaginative shadows in the remains. Their destination was straight ahead anyway, in the veritable heart of the city.

                “Sunyoung,” her companion called, pulling Mabb up short as she pointed ahead.

                Blinking to help focus her sight, Sunyoung leaned up and gasped quietly. “The Citadel,” she breathed, mouth hanging open as she drank in the moonlit sight of the perfect structure. Darker than night, the exterior of the Citadel was coated in thin plates of onyx. Legend said it had originally been covered by the purest marble but after the Banishing, it had turned dark. Sparks of light swirling in the blackness made Sunyoung frown and she pointed ahead. “What are those lights?”

                “Huh?” Eunyoung hummed, glancing at her companion quizzically. “What lights?”

                Confused, Sunyoung rubbed her eyes and looked again. The glimmering, dancing motes of illumination were still there. “Nothing,” she shook her head, chewing the inside of her bottom lip. Eunyoung gave her a look that said she knew the woman was lying but didn’t say anything else. “Let’s take a look inside,” she urged instead, threading a lock of wheat colored hair behind her ear.

                “That was the idea,” the rider chuckled, moving them along again.

                “It’s so tall,” she couldn’t help but murmur, craning her head back to see the spire rise into the air nearly twenty horse lengths.

                “Hard to believe it’s even possible to build that high,” Eunyoung remarked with her head tilted back.

                “They say magic was used to create it. Back in the old days,” Sunyoung whispered, the mere thought making her shiver.

                “The elders say a lot of things,” her friend huffed, pulling up short at the entryway just as a large cloud crawled into place over the moon, casting them into further darkness. A yawning portal beckoned before them, dark and mysterious and suddenly very foreboding. “Come on then,” she urged in a weak voice, giving Sunyoung a hand down first before sliding off herself. She quickly tied Mabb to a nearby piece of sturdy debris and then moved to rejoin the shorter woman at the entrance.

                “My skin feels like there are things crawling on it,” Sunyoung admitted, frowning as she traced her fingertips over her arms.

                “Are you okay?” Eunyoung immediately asked, coming close to grab her hands and see for herself.

                “I’m fine,” she promised too quickly, an involuntary shiver making her inhale sharply.

                “You sure?”

                “I promise,” Sunyoung lied, squeezing her hands in response. Most of her wanted to get back on the horse and go back to New Lyndfell without delay. The energy here felt alive and… hungry. It unnerved her, especially with the moon gone. But the other part of her wanted to see just what was inside. “Let’s go,” she urged, nodding towards the interior. “Might as well see what’s here in case I end up coming back.” Her smile was weak and forced, but it was the best she could do.

                “Don’t say that,” Eunyoung murmured, shaking her head without meeting Sunyoung’s eyes.

                She didn’t know what else to say to that. It was a very real possibility and denying it wouldn’t make it any less true. So she didn’t say anything. Mutely, she sighed and moved to Mabb’s side to pull a torch from the saddle pack.

                “Let me,” Eunyoung urged, trying to hurry over and take the unlit torch.

                “I can do it,” Sunyoung reassured her, holding firm. “Please.”

                With a slow, acquiescing nod, Eunyoung let go of her hand and then patted her on the head. “Trying to impress me?” she teased.

                “No,” the other woman scowled playfully. “I’m just showing you I can.” That earned her a bright grin that was even easier to see when the torch flickered to life after a few attempts with the flint stones. Orange light danced at the end of the wrapped stick and Sunyoung smiled. “See?”

                “Yes. Now after you,” her companion gestured towards the opening with a mischievous gleam in her eye.

                Sunyoung blanched at that offer, staring at the darkness and then glancing at the torch. She hadn’t really thought about going first… As soon as she heard her friend sigh and move to take the torch, she waved her free hand dismissively. “In we go!”

                “Sunyoung!” the other woman squeaked in surprise, lunging to catch up as her friend strode towards the entryway.

                Darkness peeled away from the light as if it were alive, hovering just outside the bubble of protection, heavy and depressing. She felt more than saw Eunyoung at her back, her friend’s presence steadying her when she just wanted to run away. The place screamed of wrongness or at least unnaturalness, and it made her hair stand on end. “Why’s it so empty?” she wondered aloud, confused by the absolute lack of anything inside. She knew what the stories said, but she couldn’t help it.

                “Supposedly, everything inside disappeared in the Banishing too. Just like outside,” Eunyoung answered anyway, the sound of her voice small and quiet.

                “Yeah, but I thought there’d be someth-” Sunyoung started to say before a silver ray of moonlight emerged from the opening of the spire above them, piercing the blackness with a divine spear of luminescence. Both women gasped as the beam lit up the etched, marble floor, giving just enough light to see the interior of the rest of the enclosure.

                “By the Order’s Breath,” Eunyoung gasped, mirroring Sunyoung as they both turned in slow circles, hands outstretched as if they could touch the walls from where they stood.

                Etchings at the very top gave way to paintings further down and in the center of the room was a perfect circle. The beam of moonlight could have made it and yet it was clear the stone had been chiseled away to leave the intricate series of marks and unreadable words in the center. “Is that a magic circle?” Sunyoung pointed in disbelief.

                “Maybe,” her friend whispered after an extended pause. “I’ve only ever heard about them. Let’s get a closer look,” she grinned, the expression nearly childish in her excitement.

                As soon as she took a step, Sunyoung reached out to stop her, gripping her wrist tightly. “Wait! It’s dangerous!”

                Eunyoung paused to shrug and give the shorter woman a slight shrug. “It’s not time yet. And besides, you know it doesn’t affect someone like me.”

                “Still…” she trailed off, reluctantly letting go. For a moment, she watched Eunyoung step cautiously into the circle, letting out the breath she’d been holding when nothing happened, and then turned her attention to the walls. She’d let the other woman tell her what she’d found in the moonlight. Every nerve in her body wanted to get away from it anyway… But the paintings on the walls were interesting indeed.

                Stepping closer, she noticed that the most recent ones – that were closest to the ground – were all pairs standing in front of a circle on the ground with a weird opening in front of them. All the pairs were different but the circle and opening were the same in every painting. Shuffling to the last one in the procession, she squinted and turned her head to the side, feeling memory tickle her thoughts. “Those look like Taeyeon and Hyoyeon.” Her eyes widened as she realized they probably were. Just like the rest of the pairs she could see were likely those who had come before. But the etchings… Those were something else. Something she couldn’t see and that the Elders didn’t tell them about.

                “Oh wow!” She was startled by Eunyoung’s voice directly behind her. “Do you think these are all of them?” she wondered, placing a hand on Sunyoung’s shoulder.

                “I think so, but I can’t tell what the etchings are,” she admitted in frustration, biting her bottom lip in the process.

                “Maybe they’re from before,” she suggested, head craned back to see as much as possible. Their efforts were stymied when the light disappeared once more, hidden by a passing cloud. “Oh dust shards,” she grumbled, laughing once when Sunyoung looked at her with a raised brow. “What?”

                “Nothing,” she just laughed, shaking her head.

                “Really?” Eunyoung teased, leaning close to point a finger at her friend’s face, grinning broadly.

                Sunyoung was about to respond, already open for the words to come out, but she paused instead. Confused, she shifted over just enough to get a better look around her friend so she could see the glimmer of lights dancing in the floor and just above it. She could feel Eunyoung watching her, obviously confused, but so was she. Blinking hard didn’t make them go away, and when she looked up again, Sunyoung nearly stumbled backwards. Glimmering wisps of light appeared like stars along the whole interior of the enclosure. She suddenly felt very small and very alone… “Can we go now?” Sunyoung whispered, blindly reaching for Eunyoung’s hand for comfort.

                “Of course,” her friend promised, not understanding what she saw but aware that something was there. “I’ve got you,” she soothed, putting an arm over Sunyoung’s shoulder and hugging her close. “Let’s go home.”

                “Thank you,” Sunyoung sighed, gladly putting the structure behind her.

                Neither said a word until they were back on Mabb and on the path home again. “I’ll never understand how you Sensitives don’t go crazy, seeing the things you do,” Eunyoung admitted, keeping one hand on top of Sunyoung’s as they rode along.

                “We don’t normally see things though,” Sunyoung explained, biting her bottom lip again.

                “I know, I know. You usually feel things.”

                “Mm.”

                “So why can you see things here?” Eunyoung asked, looking over her shoulder to see what kind of response she’d get.

                After a moment’s thought, Sunyoung shrugged and shook her head. “I don’t really know.”

                “That’s not much of an answer.”

                “Honestly, I wish I had one.”

                Eunyoung sighed and squeezed Sunyoung’s hand again. “I know.”