((a/n HOO BOY.))

Jessica was watching Sulli studiously. “Can you stand up for a minute?” she asked.

“What?” Sulli asked, still confused as she looked between the two other girls, but she obeyed.

Jessica scooted off the bed and walked Sulli over to a small table at the other end of the room. It had an iron oil lamp placed on it that she snatched and held up to the other girl.

Sulli leaned away, having a lamp waved in her face. “What are you doing?” She was still rather distraught over Irene’s news, but Jessica was doing a good job of confusing her even further.

“I’m looking to see if you have a shadow,” Jessica answered, and Sulli’s eyes went wide. Jessica pushed her until she was standing up against the wall and held the lamp up once more. After a moment Jessica frowned sympathetically, and Sulli paled.

“No…”

Jessica carefully returned the lamp to the table. She climbed back into bed next to Irene silently.

Sulli leaned back against the wall in shock. “They made a Fetch,” she said numbly. “That’s why you thought I was still at the company.”

Irene looked up at Jessica, a little confused. She vaguely knew what a Fetch was, but she had never encountered one before. “So now there are two of her?” she quietly asked.

Jessica was watching the flickering light of the lamp. “Sort of.” She glanced at Irene briefly. “You never had a Fetch, did you?”

Irene shook her head.

“They’re usually made by the True Fae to take our place with our families when they kidnap us.”

“And they use a piece of you to create it,” Sulli said, slowly coming to sit on Irene’s other side.

Jessica nodded. “Usually your shadow.”

Irene put her hand on Sulli’s and gave it a gentle squeeze. The Sculptor hadn’t bothered attempting to replace her when he took Irene from her family. He had simply removed all reason for her to be missed.

Irene glanced at Jessica suddenly, and saw the girl’s faint shadow against the headboard. Jessica met her eyes with a knowing look.

“The King must not have bothered with me,” she said with a wry smile.

Irene blinked at her. “The King made Sulli’s Fetch?” she asked in shock.

“He’s a Mimic,” Sulli said matter-of-factly. “Why do you think he looks like that?”

Irene knew the King was powerful, but she had never really understood what his Seeming was. Over the course of her trainee years at the company, she had only been called to Court once, but she had remembered his curious countenance ever since. It suddenly made sense the way she had heard it explained to her: ‘he is no one, and he is everyone’.

“I wonder if the others know,” Sulli mused quietly. Irene guessed that they must, based on the confusing drama surrounding F(x) recently, but she kept her suspicions to herself.

The three girls fell each into their own thoughts about their teams and their fates.

+++

Amber met the Red Velvet girls with surprising swiftness.

“Were you at the company building already?” Wendy asked in surprise when she saw the firebrand approach. Wendy hadn’t even had a chance to put her phone away yet.

Amber shook her head. Her expression didn’t carry any of her usual cheekiness as she walked right up to Seulgi.

“Tell me everything that happened.”

Seulgi dropped her gaze. She was glad Amber was here, but she wasn’t sure how she would be able to help. Shouldn’t they call the police or something?

“We were on our way back to the dorm,” she began. “There was this like, flash of light and suddenly she was just… gone.”

Joy and Wendy looked at each other in alarm. Amber’s gaze slowly swiveled to the two girls.

“Flash of light?” Amber asked with more than a hint of suspicion in her voice.

Wendy and Joy nodded at her with pointed looks.

“Yeah, I don’t know, maybe I out for a second or something,” Seulgi continued, missing this exchange. “I’ve already tried calling her twice… it just goes straight to voicemail.”

“Alright,” Amber said after a moment. “Let’s head back to your place and we’ll make a plan there. Wendy, call your manager, okay? He’ll know what to do.” Amber put an arm around Seulgi’s shoulders and steered her on ahead back to the dorm while Joy and Wendy brought up the rear, the waifish girl trying to discreetly make the call.

Once they were back in their dorm suite, Amber made sure the rooms were clear and locked the door.  

“Alright. Come here, you two,” she said impatiently to Joy and Wendy. She shooed Seulgi away. “Can you give us a sec?”

Seulgi went to sit on the couch morosely. They were keeping things from her again, but she knew they were just as worried about Irene as she was. She checked her cellphone for the hundredth time that evening, but still the screen showed no new messages.

While Seulgi was thus occupied, the three other girls put their heads together. “Okay,” Amber started. “No more games, alright? Joy, I need you to make a dream pact with me. And Wendy? You need to watch Seulgi like a hawk- uh, no offense.”

Wendy waved away her concern.

Joy looked a little hesitant. “Is that really necessary?” she asked. Giving Amber the ability to invade her dreams at will felt a little… invasive.

Amber gave her a leveling look. “Listen, we don’t know where Irene’s been taken, and we still don’t know where Leeteuk and Henry are. If you get taken next, this would be the easiest way I can find you.”

Wendy glanced over at Seulgi. The girl was laid out on the couch with her phone on her chest, staring up at the ceiling. “Can’t you still try to dreamride with Irene?” Wendy asked Amber quietly. She knew Amber was rather talented at it, but she didn’t know what her limitations were.

Amber shook her head. “I can try, but dreamriding another fae you haven’t made a pact with takes focus, and I haven’t exactly had a reason to practice something like that yet. She needs to be asleep, for one, and if there’s someone blocking me… well,” she said, letting her sentence hang there.

“That’s great, but we have another problem,” Joy muttered.

Amber rolled her eyes. “What now?”

Joy tilted her head towards Seulgi on the couch. “What do we tell Romeo over there? ‘Oh, don’t worry about Irene, Seul. I’m sure she just decided to skip off to Daegu in the middle of the night’?” Amber raised her brow at the epithet, but now wasn’t the time to share in the latest gossip.

The three of them looked at Seulgi for a moment in silent contemplation.

“Can’t we just tell her?” Wendy suggested meekly.

“You can’t,” Amber warned. “We’re under a pact as Changelings to not reveal ourselves to mortals.”

“What about the Courtless?” Joy asked suddenly. “They’re not bound to the Changeling pacts.”

“Do you know any Courtless who can tell her?” Amber asked with a raised brow.

Joy fell silent. As a brand new idol, she wasn’t exactly well-connected outside of her own Court. She tried to think of some of the smaller companies and their artists, but she just hadn’t had enough exposure to other groups yet.

There was still something bothering Wendy. “But that flash… we think it was Irene’s Seeming, and if Seulgi saw it-”

But suddenly there was a ringing, and Seulgi bolted up with her phone to her ear. “Irene?!” When she heard the voice on the other end, however, her features immediately darkened.

“... who is this?”

The three other girls crowded around as they watched Seulgi’s expression slowly twist in confusion.

“Who is this?” she repeated. “Where’s Irene?! Wait, don’t-!” Seulgi slowly lowered her phone from her ear.

“Well?”

“Who was it?”

She looked up at them helplessly. “I don’t know. It was someone calling from Irene’s phone,” she said, her voice shaking.

Wendy sat down next to her and put an arm around her shoulders. “What did they say?” she asked gently.

Seulgi looked up at Amber. “He said, ‘The Rose Knight is in the Goblin Market.’”

Amber didn’t miss a beat as she began heading towards the door. Wendy got up to follow after her.

“Oh, no you don’t,” Amber said with a laugh, hearing her approach. She pointed at the couch. “You’re staying right there.” Next she pointed at Joy with a meaningful look. “And you, if someone calls Seulgi’s phone from Irene’s number again, I want you to answer, alright?” Joy nodded her understanding. She might be able to get something a little more useful out of their informant next time.

Satisfied, Amber turned again to leave, but Wendy tugged at the back of her shirt. “What if something happens to you again?” she asked quietly.

Amber smiled with curiosity and watched her. “Cute,” she said half to herself.

“Don’t get your feathers all ruffled, I’m just going for a little walk.” With a wink, Amber let herself out of the suite before anyone else could argue.

Wendy didn’t need Joy to tell her Amber was lying, and she stared at the door for a long moment until Seulgi finally broke the silence.

“... What’s the Goblin Market?”

+++

“Ugh, it smells,” Krystal said.

“It’s exotic,” Luna corrected with a smile. Krystal gave her a look, but scooted a little closer as they waded through the crowd.

“You didn’t have to come, you know,” Amber said over her shoulder as she tried to lead them along through the bustling streets of the Market.

Krystal glowered at her back. Luna jumped in with a response, covering for the younger girl. “Oh, and miss a chance to rub elbows with the underbelly of the Hedge? We wouldn’t miss this for the world~!”

Amber passed a hand over her face and groaned, though she was secretly glad they had both decided to tag along. Well, perhaps insisted was the more appropriate word. She had told them everything that had happened to the Red Velvet girls, and upon mentioning that she intended to go after Henry, they had resolutely stated that they intended to accompany her. They had declined to mentioning their little adventure to Victoria, just in case their leader wasn’t terribly keen on letting them skip off into the Hedge to track down a rogue Knight.

That, and Amber was sure their leader would have asked for their plan, and frankly, there wasn’t one.  

Amber switched her valuables to her front pockets where she could keep a better eye on them, as she was jostled by creatures half her height.

The Market was a sprawling, ramshackle mess: row after row of rickety stalls and shops selling all manner of strange goods and services stretched out in every direction they looked. And Krystal wasn’t wrong: it did smell. There was the distinct odor of too many unwashed bodies too close together layered beneath myriad smells coming from the businesses themselves; fennel, tallow, leather, alcohol, every corner they turned harassed their senses in some new way.

And, of course, there were the goblins.

“So…” Luna began, her mood having shifted from excitement to plain curiosity. “Do you know where he is, or…?”

“... or are you just getting us lost?” Krystal finished.

Amber slowed and the two other girls stopped behind her. They had wandered off the main drag, so there weren’t quite as many people pushing about. She turned to face them with a cheesy smile.

“Please. Me? Lost?” She glanced around at the shops’ signs. “... I don’t suppose either of you happen to be able to read German, huh?”

Krystal rolled her eyes, but suddenly Luna brightened. “Wait, I have an idea!”

+++

Amber was gone all weekend. It was a tense period for Red Velvet as Seulgi took to wandering about the neighborhood, Joy questioned some of the Courtiers she had met during her summons, and Wendy tried to keep an eye on them both.

“Seulgi wait up,” she called as she trotted after the taller girl. “Your legs are longer than mine…!”

Seulgi realized she had sunk into a reverie and paused so Wendy could catch up. “I’m sorry,” she said genuinely. She was starting off on another one of her long walks in the vague hope that she might find some clue as to how Irene had suddenly just disappeared.

Wendy clapped a hand on her shoulder. “We’re going to find her, Seul. Amber’s out there looking, and the company knows…” She couldn’t stand seeing Seulgi like this, but her acute attention to Seulgi was in a way helping Wendy avoid thinking about what Irene might be going through. She was thankful she shared a room with Joy, because she was afraid of being alone with her own thoughts.

Seulgi, however, was alone. It was such a strange thing to suddenly realize how much time she had been spending around Irene these past five years, only to have her be gone so completely. Even just these past few days had been enough to emphasize what a regular part of Seulgi’s life their leader had become.

But Wendy was a great comfort. Seulgi slowly pulled her into a hug. Wendy reciprocated, rubbing her back gently.

“Thanks,” was all Seulgi could manage. She knew she wasn’t exactly making the situation easier on the other girls, moping about constantly, but it was hard to shake herself out of her dark thoughts, wondering what might have happened to Irene.

Wendy’s phone buzzed and she pulled away from Seulgi. She checked the ID and saw that it was their manager. “Just a second, Seul,” she said as she walked away to take the call.

“He what? Me? Are you sure? … Well of course I’m nervous, I’ve never- right. Okay.” As Wendy pulled the phone away from her ear, she saw that she had incoming messages as well.  

AM: [hey are you guys around?]

WD: [of course! Did you find anything?]

AM: [yeah we’re coming over]

“Amber’s on her way back. I think she’s figured something out,” Wendy said hesitantly. “We should head back.”

It wasn’t a long wait after they had returned to their dorm before they heard a knock at their door.

Seulgi and Joy stood expectantly as Wendy went to answer the door. They heard her greet Amber and welcome her inside.

And Krystal.

And Luna.

And Henry.

“What-”

“What’s he doing here?” Joy asked suddenly. Everyone froze.

Amber worked her jaw and turned her head a bit. “He turned himself in,” she said in a strained voice. “Jesus, Joy, was that necessary?”

But Joy wasn’t finished. As soon as they were all inside, she wheeled around on Henry. “Did you take Irene?” she asked him. Seulgi watched the exchange in shock. What did Henry have to do with any of this? Turned himself in for what?

Henry closed his eyes briefly, as if struck by a blow. “No! I swear it wasn’t me…” He grimaced, pursing his lips and said nothing more. Joy was surprised at his resistance. Was this the power of a Knight?

“He’s lying,” she said darkly. Even if she couldn’t get him to speak the truth, she could at least tell this much.

“What do you mean he’s lying?” Amber asked incredulously, having just been subjected to the girl’s Seeming herself.

Seulgi had had enough. She was on Henry suddenly, grabbing him by the front of his shirt. She lifted him up and slammed him against the wall, pinning him there.

The whole room fell silent.

“Where. Is. She,” she snarled. Henry’s head fell forward and he hung limply from her grip. She had knocked him out.

“... Seulgi what the ?” Amber breathed. She wasn’t going to say Henry didn’t have that coming, but...

Wendy tentatively reached out a hand and touched Seulgi’s shoulder. “S-Seulgi?” Was she… growling?

She held Henry up for another moment before she seemed to snap out of whatever had gotten ahold of her. She released him and he fell to the floor in a crumpled heap. She took a step back, almost into Wendy. The smaller girl put her hands on Seulgi’s arms.

“I… I’m sorry, I just…” Seulgi stuttered.

“So that’s what they meant,” Krystal said suddenly, thinking back to that night in the Hedge with the hooded figures as she stared at Seulgi.

“She’s a Beast.”     

“I mean, I called her Seulbear as a joke, I didn’t think…”

Seulgi seemed mortified at her own violent outburst and she knelt by Henry’s unconscious form. She looked up at Wendy helplessly.

“Let’s take him to the couch,” Wendy suggested timidly, still a little intimidated by Seulgi’s display.

Seulgi nodded and hooked his arm around her shoulders, lifting him up far too easily. Everyone simply watched her as she took him over to the couch and laid him out. Wendy went to the kitchen to look for something she could fashion into an ice pack.

There was so much happening all at once that Amber wasn’t sure what to focus on, but eventually she settled on Joy. “I’m not sure he’s lying,” she said hesitantly. How could she argue with a Truthsayer, after all? “Is it possible he’s just not telling the whole truth?”

Joy watched his limp form. “Yeah, I guess that might be it. I’ll try again when he wakes up,” she said tonelessly.

Krystal went over to Seulgi and started looking her over. “I don’t really see anything else different,” she muttered, then motioned for Luna to look as well. “Is she just… strong?”

“No, look at her eyes!” Luna said, leaning in. Seulgi leaned back.

“What do you mean my eyes?” she asked, unable to help blinking.

“Oh my god! Her teeth!” Krystal said suddenly as Seulgi spoke.

Amber came around to look, too. “What do you mean? Let me see!”

Wendy came back into the living room to see Amber, Luna, and Krystal looking into Seulgi’s open mouth like dental assistants.

“Uh…”

“It’s like she really is a bear!”

“Or maybe a wolverine?”

“That’s really specific…”

“I think they’re cute.”

“Bears are cute, too.”

Wendy tiptoed around them to administer to Henry.

“What are you talking about?” Seulgi asked, backing away from them. What she had done to Henry had been decidedly not cute.

Luna straightened up. “You’re like us, Seul.”

The three F(x) girls posed suddenly, like a trio of very strange superheroes. Amber let thin trails of flames race down her arms into her open palms. Krystal swathed herself in shadows, and Luna stood behind them both, with her hands in the air, letting arcs of electricity crackle between her pointed fingers.

Wendy let out a low whistle, but suddenly Seulgi fell back on top of her in her haste to put some distance between herself and the other girls.

“W-what the what?” Seulgi sputtered. Wendy tried to help her up from her crushed position.

“Too much?” Amber asked Wendy.

“Too much,” Wendy agreed with a grunt as she supported Seulgi’s weight.

But Amber wasn’t daunted. Things seemed to be going their way finally, now that they had Henry in custody.  She grabbed Seulgi by the wrist and helped the girl back up. “Come on, Seulbear, I think it’s time we had The Talk.”

+++

It had been a very long night, but Wendy was up again early the next morning. She couldn’t sleep thinking about her individual ‘schedule’ their manager had called about the day before. As she wandered into the kitchen, she saw Henry there with his head in the fridge.

“Henry?” she asked in surprise and he startled.

“Jesus, Wendy!”

“What are you still doing here?!” she asked.

He was about to answer, but seeing that she was clad in naught but a nightshirt, he glanced up at the ceiling and swallowed.

Wendy looked down at herself and cursed. She ducked back into the hallway and called from around the corner.

“Get out, will you?!”

“Just… put some pants on so we can talk, okay?” He called back in a strained voice.

Wendy gave a frustrated sigh as she marched back to her room. She didn’t have time for this. She had received a summons from the King and there was no way she was going to be late because of the likes of Henry.

After she had gotten dressed, she returned to the kitchen to find him eating a bowl of cereal.

“So Seulgi’s terrifying,” he began around a spoonful.

Wendy still couldn’t believe he was standing in her kitchen. “Well you should be afraid. This is your fault!”

Henry swallowed hard and set the bowl down on the counter, having suddenly lost his appetite. “I know it looks bad, Wendy, but-”

“It looks bad?” she asked, her voice raising in pitch. She walked up to him and poked him in the chest. “Irene’s gone! And Amber saw you trying to give Seulgi to some goons!”

He rubbed the spot where she had jabbed him. He was receiving a lot of injuries recently.

“I was trying to not give her away!” he said defensively. “Do you think I wanted to see them take her?”

Wendy stared up at him incredulously. “How am I supposed to know what you’re thinking?” She couldn’t even begin to fathom what kind of business Henry was mixed up in that would make him sell them out. “How could you?”

He couldn’t meet her gaze. “It’s too complicated to explain. Look, the point is, I’m here now.”

“Which brings me back to why are you still in our dorm?!”

Henry raised his hands disarmingly. “Amber wouldn’t let me go with them, so I stayed here. They’d never think I’d come here. It’s the perfect hiding place!”

Wendy squinted at him. “... Who’s ‘they’?”

“The Hunters,” he said, then after a pause he added, “And the other Knights.”

“And you think we’re supposed to protect you? I’m going to see the King right now.”

“WHAT? Wendy, Wendy, Wendy wait-! Wendy, please! You can’t…!” He babbled as he grabbed her shoulders and shook her.

She pushed out of his grasp. “Don’t touch me! Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t turn you in!”

He made a strangled noise and danced around the kitchen for a moment. “I can’t tell you! You just have to believe me!”

Wendy opened and closed it again, unsure how she could convey to Henry what a stupid argument that was.

“Joy…” she called.

“W-wait!” Henry said walking over to her in a panic.

"JOY!” she called again, louder, just as Henry tried to cover .

“I know where Irene is!” he whispered to her hurriedly. When it seemed like Wendy wasn’t going to cry out again, he backed off. “I know where she is,” he repeated more calmly.

“You could have lead with that.”

He ran his hands through his hair in exasperation. “I’m not supposed to tell you.”

Wendy rolled her eyes, sharing in his frustration. “I don’t have time for this. I have to go.”

Henry gave her a frightened look.

She closed her eyes briefly and rubbed her temples. “I won’t tell them you’re here, but if there’s someone like Joy there, I can’t make any promises,” she said with a sigh.

Henry smiled at her. “Thanks, Wendy! You’re the best!” He went in for a hug, but she stiff-armed him.

“You’re not off the hook yet. I’m not sure what kind of mood Seulgi’s going to be in if she sees that you’re still here while I’m gone.”

He nodded soberly. He didn’t know what to expect either, but he hoped it didn’t involve any more concussions.

+++

Wendy wasn’t sure what she expected from a summons to the Court Haven, but one nerve-wracking walk up to the opal diaz and a curtsey later, she found herself staring into her own reflection as the King greeted her.

She was so distracted by what she saw, she lost all sense of courtesy. “I’m…”

The King tilted his head a bit and she mimicked his action. “A Beast, my dear, yes,” he said gently.

“... a bird,” she finished in awe. She had seen hints of her Seeming before, during her lessons with Amber and at times when she was feeling especially bold in front of the mirror at their dorm, but never to this extent. With her Masque completely stripped away in the presence of the King, she was getting her first full look at who she truly was.

Wendy looked like a tengu of lore with dark grey feathers for hair and red ones sprouting from her temples. Great wings were folded at her back, spanning her full height. She tore her gaze away from the King’s face and glanced down at herself. Her nails were long and sharp, and her feet had been replaced by delicate talons. She knew there was something bird-like about her Seeming, but she hadn’t been prepared for this - certainly not to this extent.

She briefly wondered if she could fly.

The King waited patiently for her to take all of this in. After the last time he had called a meeting like this, he wasn’t exactly eager to move on to business.

Wendy seemed to recall herself though, and made a bow. “O-oh, I’m sorry!” she panicked.

The King waved away her concern and turned to walk back up the steps of his diaz. He took his time getting settled in his throne before beginning.

“Wendy.”

“Yes, sir!” she said.

The King paused and leaned forward. She looked up at him expectantly. He turned his head this way and that about the Hall.

“See?” he said, gesturing at Wendy. “This is the kind of respect I deserve!” There was murmuring in the wings and a few nervous chuckles.

“This is why I love the new groups,” he continued more quietly, as if he were just speaking to her alone now. “You’re not all hot heads like…” he trailed off, but Wendy suspected she could guess who he was referring to. “Like some others.” He cleared his throat and Wendy winced at the strangely metallic noise.

“But my dear,” he said, “what I have to tell you will not be easy for you to hear. But between you and Miss Park, I thought you might be able to handle things a bit more… maturely.”

He waved a hand out in a beckoning gesture, and a figure approached from the mist-filled wings.

“The show must go on, you understand,” he said solemnly.

And there Irene came to stand at the foot of the diaz, looking for all the world like it was the most natural thing after a weekend of no contact.

Except it wasn’t Irene.

Wendy could see it in her eyes.