((a/n Welcome to part one of the finale of All That Glitters.))

It was one simple instruction: run.

“Half a day’s head start. Use it wisely, children.” The Horned One’s voice rolled down the length of the lodge from his position at the High Table. “And Fairest,” he added, his black eyes fixed on Sulli. “This is the last hunt. Do not bore me.”

The three girls were escorted from the lodge by a pair of trolls, past the other massive buildings until they reached the edge of the palisade. Irene was petrified and couldn’t help hanging onto Jessica’s arm as they were marched along.

Jessica herself wasn’t fairing much better; her last experience being chased down by the Horned One was a nightmare she had yet to wake up from, but at least this time they were given a little warning.

Sulli was very quiet, considering all of her past mistakes, and trying to think of what she could try this time to outsmart him. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the first time she had been led out with a group to the crest of the hill and then bid to run and hide in the forest, but according to the Horned One, this time would be the last. Every hunt before this, she had somehow entertained him enough to continue to be used for his sport. The other girls she had been chased down with hadn’t always been so lucky, and wondering what became of them had kept her up at night.

It was cold outside of the lodge, the damp fall air seeping right through the workout clothes Irene had been captured in. The overcast sky promised to be of no help to the girls as far as allowing them to keep track of their whereabouts once they were in the forest, and the trees themselves cut an intimidating line across the heath at the bottom of the hill.

Jessica and Irene let Sulli take the lead and the ex-F(x) member walked resolutely out towards the dark treeline before the trolls got restless.

Once they were out of earshot and beginning to make their way across the field, Irene ventured a question. “Shouldn’t we look for a way into the Hedge?”

Sulli frowned. “There’s only one way into the Hedge from here that I know of… and trust me, I’ve looked.” Countless times trying to jump into ponds or poke her head in promising animal dens during previous hunts had yielded little more than borderline hypothermia and injuries.

“There’s some massive marsh back on the other side of the hill, across that wide field - it leads to a part of the Hedge in some huge cave, but we’d never make it,” she said darkly.

That cave was familiar to Irene. She remembered Leeteuk forcing her through some sort of subterranean passage in order to get to Arcadia, but Sulli’s foreboding words echoed in her mind.

Jessica wasn’t so sure about Sulli’s fatalistic assessment. “I think I can get us across,” she said with a faint smirk.

+++

There was a knock at the bedroom door, and Seulgi laboriously pushed herself up from her slumped position, half on the bed, half on the floor, to go answer it. The Fetch sat up carefully, rubbing at the phantom pain of her cheek, as Wendy stirred in her lap.

“Open up, kiddos! It’s time to go!” they heard Amber call through the door. When Seulgi opened it, she saw the firebrand standing there with Joy, who was already dressed to leave.

Amber peeked in, and seeing the Fetch and Wendy on the bed together, she couldn’t help herself. “Is this a bad time~?”

But Seulgi interrupted her fun. “We talked to Irene in a dream,” she began.

Wendy pushed away from the Fetch with an apologetic expression, and came up to the others by the door. “We heard horns. We think it’s starting,” she added darkly.

Amber gave her a small smile and ruffled her hair. “We know. Everyone else already left, and I’m here to pick you guys up.”

Wendy squinted under Amber’s hand, but was quietly grateful that the older girl had kept her promise.

“Are you ready?” the F(x) member asked. “I mean like really ready. I’m not sure what’s going to happen, but I don’t need to tell you that with the True Fae involved, it’s probably going to be dangerous.” She paused and let her gaze settle on each girl in turn, making sure they understood the gravity of the situation.

“People don’t always come back from stuff like this,” she continued quietly. “The more of us who go, the more we could lose.” Wendy was staring up at her with an intense look that Amber had never seen her wear before. She tried to give Wendy a reassuring wink. “I just want to make sure you all know that.”

“We need to at least try,” Wendy said. “Irene won’t come back with us if Sulli and Jessica aren’t with her.”

Amber smirked. These kids were such trouble. “I won’t either, how about that- ah, but don't make me promise, okay?” She moved out of the doorway and gestured towards the living room. “Alright, that’s enough of a peptalk. Heechul’s probably wondering if I’ve chickened out by now.”

Seulgi and Wendy filed out of the room, but the Fetch lingered beside Irene’s bed. Amber gave her a sympathetic look and waited until the others were out of earshot. “... I don’t know what to say, except that if something happens to Irene in Arcadia, Red Velvet will need you here. You’re just a mortal,” she tried to say consolingly. “It’ll be too dangerous for someone like you.”

The Fetch gave her a small smile and nodded. “They need the real Irene," she said as she peeked down the hall at Seulgi's retreating back. "Please bring her back safely.”

Amber was reminded of the unkind way her team had treated Sulli’s fetch, too consumed by their grief for kindness and sympathy, and she suspected this poor girl found herself in a similar situation. If they couldn’t bring Irene home, would Red Velvet also cast her out of the group?

But time wasn’t on their side, and Amber didn’t know how to articulate her thoughts adequately. She gave the Fetch a bracing thumbs up and followed the rest of the girls out into the living room.

“Alright,” she began as she caught up. “I’m about to reveal to you my secrets for how I get around so quickly-” she paused suddenly when her phone buzzed. She checked it quickly and saw it was an address from Krystal. Another message came in as she stared down at her phone.

KR: [ hurry up idiot ]

AM: [ <3 u 2 ]

“One last thing,” Amber said as she stuffed her phone back into her pocket. “Be careful what you say.” She gave a knowing smile to Wendy. “It’s probably going to get a little tense, and if you accidentally break a promise while you’re there, a little bit of bad luck could get everyone into trouble.”

Wendy had the grace to look a little chagrined at Amber’s nugget of wisdom.

Amber smirked when the little songbird couldn’t hold her gaze. “Okay, let’s move.”

+++

If Irene had realized that the King had made her a fetch as well, she might have tried Dreamriding her likeness sooner. She felt fully refreshed despite that tense conversation and her rude awakening, but beyond regaining her stamina, she wasn’t sure how useful her Seeming might be in a situation like this.

Against one foe, like the Gold Knight, she had been able to toss away her Masque completely in an attempt to entrance him, but with bystanders like Jessica and Sulli around, there was a risk that they would fall under her spell as well. It was too much to chance, and she wished not for the first time that she had been cursed with an ability that was slightly more useful, and slightly less deadly.

Her other worry was that with the way she had yet to master completely hiding her Seeming, she might get them caught out here in the forest if they needed to hide. Unless she were to abandon the other girls for their own safety, they really would need to risk doubling back to the marsh for a chance to escape.

As they wound their way through the forest, Irene couldn’t help but notice how much older it felt than any other she had ever walked through. She also couldn’t help but note how quiet it was, as if there were no other creatures present besides the three of them.

Like this forest was here solely for the Horned One’s sport.

“So what’s the plan?” Irene whispered, unwilling to disturb the unnerving silence more than necessary.

They were letting Sulli lead, since she was the most familiar with this place, though she protested that she had only been used as the Horned One’s quarry a couple of times.

Sulli briefly glanced back at the two other girls. “We’ll get as close around the other side of the hill as we can through the forest and then…” she trailed off waiting for Jessica to fill in the rest.

“... And then I’ll use my Seeming to hide us while we cross the moors and find the portal in the marsh beyond,” the eldest finished.

Irene was unfamiliar with the other two girls’ Seemings, though she knew the Horned One had been calling Sulli another Fairest, and Jessica a Darkling. Did Jessica have the same abilities as Krystal? She supposed that would make sense, considering they were siblings. Maybe they had even had the same True Fae master. She was envious that they probably at least had each other during their childhoods in Arcadia, while she had been so incredibly alone.

“So would we have to wait for night, then?” Irene asked. The Horned One had mentioned a half a day’s head start, but she couldn’t be sure what time they had been ushered out of the camp, nor how long it had been since then.

Jessica cocked her head. “No, we should probably try and make a run for it as soon as we get back around to the edge of the forest.”

Maybe Irene was mistaken about her Seeming? Krystal’s shadows wouldn’t do much to hide them in the heath even in the diffuse light from this overcast sky.

Jessica glanced at her again as she tried to keep her footing while they pushed through the underbrush. “You’ve never seen me work, have you?” she asked slyly.

Irene blinked at her. She supposed she was glad at least one of them was able to have some fun while being hunted by one of the oldest and most dangerous True Fae in Arcadia.

“You’ll see when the time comes. Or, you know, you won’t see,” she added with a pleased grin.

+++

Amber led Joy, Wendy and Seulgi to a derelict district full of gated storefronts and boarded up windows. It was exactly the kind of place four female SM idols should not be, by themselves in the middle of the night.

But the F(x) member confidently walked up to a particular divebar on the corner of an alley and the main road, and as they approached, they noticed Krystal emerge from the shadows.

She gave a brief smile to the rest of them but turned an unimpressed expression on Amber. “Everyone else is already inside, waiting.”

Amber smiled, a little put out by the greeting, but secretly glad that everyone had waited for her. Heechul was the only person who knew where they were actually going, and she didn’t exactly want to run into any trouble before getting to the Horned One’s demesne in Arcadia.

She held the door to the bar open for the Red Velvet girls, but paused before entering herself. “Hey,” she said, grabbing Krystal’s elbow before she could disappear inside.

Krystal gave her a sidelong glance. “What?”

“You know, if something happens tonight, I-”

“Tch, let’s just get my sister back,” Krystal grumbled, shaking off her grip.

“Uh huh,” Amber said with an amused smile. “And Sulli.”

“And Sulli,” Krystal agreed with a small smile of her own before heading inside.

The bar was miniscule and their group filled the place up. Heechul was already at the back of the room, his arm outstretched as he held open the door to a bathroom for the girls to file in one by one and place their hands on an old, cracked mirror and be transported to the Hedge.

After everyone else had gone through, he gestured for Amber and Krystal to do the same, but Amber waved him ahead. “Just a second,” she said, causing Krystal to look at her with a raised eyebrow. The Cobalt Knight shook his head and pressed his hand to the glass, disappearing into the Hedge and leaving the two girls alone in the decrepit bar.

Well, almost alone. The grumpy bartender was idly wiping down the three feet of bar space nearby.

“Listen,” Amber began, “I’m serious. We don’t know what’s going to happen on the other side. Will you just let me-”

Krystal kissed her.

As surprised as she was, Amber readily accepted, letting Krystal carefully take her face in her hands. It was a gentle, grounding gesture. But even as they shared in that intimate moment, Krystal removed a hand and blindly reached behind herself until her fingers brushed against the mirror’s oily surface. Once she was sure it was the portal, she pressed her hand fully upon it and let herself be dragged into the Hedge, and Amber stood there in the abandoned bathroom, alone and stunned. Out in the bar, the bartender shook his head slowly.

“... I guess that just about covers it,” Amber breathed, giving herself a little mental shake before following after everyone. They were going to need her at her very best tonight, not distracted, not confused.

+++

Taeyeon shook her controller, grumbling as she stared up at the [ LOW BATTERY ] alert flashing on the television screen, interrupting her game. She sighed and let her hands drop into her lap. Her controller slipped from her fingers and onto the carpet as she let her head hang back to rest on the couch cushion. She was sitting on the floor of their dark living room, the glow from the T.V. casting everything in dim, blue light.

She opened to shout for someone to get her more batteries but she remembered the other girls had all gone out. Taeyeon hadn’t exactly been feeling very sociable, ever since her conversation with Heechul, and she had elected to stay behind. She stared up at the ceiling, trying to will herself up. The game wasn’t quite doing its job of helping to distract her from thoughts about Jessica and the Horned One, but it was at least letting her work out a few of her frustrations.

It was so much easier to be brave in a game. It was much more obvious what she was supposed to do.

And if she failed, she could always just hit reset.  

She lifted her head and looked down at the dead controller, on the floor by her leg. She left it where it lay and stood.

Maybe she'd try going for a run instead.

+++

Irene and Jessica crouched behind Sulli as she looked out across the moors. They had tracked the length of the forest, skirting the edge of the expansive field, trying to get as close to the marsh as they could while still staying out of sight of the camp on its high hill.

“Okay,” Sulli breathed, briefly taking her eyes off the landscape to glance at Jessica. “Your turn.”

Jessica had been trying to conserve her strength along their trek for this moment, and now it would be up to her to get them across safely. She put her arms around the shoulders of the two younger girls and drew them in close.

“I don’t want any cellophane jokes, alright?” she said with a ghost of a cheeky smile, a weak attempt at trying to dispel the tense atmosphere. “Just stick close to me, okay? Walk carefully, and try not to move around too much.”

As Jessica slid her hands along their shoulders, releasing them from her hold, Irene and Sulli watched in amazement as each other disappeared.

They were invisible.

Irene felt Jessica’s Seeming hugged around her like a thin blanket and she reached out tentatively to where she had last seen Sulli. She touched something - her arm maybe? - and she felt fingers close around hers.

Satisfied with her work Jessica smiled at them both. “Good, hold on to each other, and hold on to me, got it? I’ll be able to see both of you, but you won’t be able to see me or each other so you need to keep close.” The last time she had used her Seeming… well perhaps the time before that, had been to help her members sneak out of their hotel room in Tokyo for a nomihoudai. Those were the days. But the incident that had followed, and here now, where they crouched in the underbrush, was giving her a sense of real purpose for her ability.

It was nice to be needed. Wanted. So very, very different from the last time she had been in Arcadia.

She dropped her Masque, swathing herself in her own Seeming and took the girls’ clasped hands, standing them up. “Remember, try not to move around too much. It’s a long way across…”

Her breath froze in her lungs when the melodic call of a horn echoed down from the hill.

“W-we have to move,” Sulli urged, tugging them out of the safety of the trees. Another low note rolled across the heath, and another. And another.

Irene was doing her best to keep her footing on the uneven field as they crossed, but she continued to glance up at the hill, its crest fenced in by those high wooden walls. From their circumnavigated position, she couldn’t see any signs of a hunting party - or parties - but the horns clued her in that their time must be up.

The heath was indeed wide and it was a tense crossing as they made their way towards the marshes. Just like the forest, the landscape had this eerie, empty quality. Surely there should be some rabbits sprinting between the tufts of grass or birds of prey circling high above, but there was nothing. Just the sound of their stumbling feet and their labored breathing as they hurried along.

And, of course, the horns, which were coming from behind them in the forest now.

They were really out in the open now, but Irene thought she could maybe see some cattails and other flora that indicated they were finally approaching the marsh. Her gaze naturally swung back to look at the girls, whom she couldn’t see, to tell them as much, when she saw a site that stopped her dead in her tracks.

Sulli and Jessica almost pulled out of her grip and she clung to their hands with both of hers in a panic. “W-wait,” Irene hissed at them and they stopped.

Jessica followed Irene’s gaze back across heath towards the hill, fearing it was a hunting party, but what she saw…

“Isn’t that… Leeteuk?”

A shirtless, bedraggled figure was careening full tilt across the moor towards them. He pitched forward suddenly, tripping, and for a moment they lost sight of him, but then he stood up again and stumbled along until he was back up to his exhausting pace.

“Can he see us?” Sulli asked.

“He shouldn’t be able to…” Jessica responded absently.

“Is he trying to escape?” Irene suggested. She hadn’t seen him since that night at the feast, and while his letter to her had seemed heartfelt, she still wasn’t quite sure what to make of the Gold Knight just yet.

Especially now, with the sounds of the horns right at the treeline behind them.

The three girls flinched. “We have to keep moving,” Jessica prompted.

“We have to take him with us,” Irene countered.

Sulli was silent. The contents of the letter had shaken her, and knowing that Leeteuk was the sole reason why she had been subjected to the Horned One’s hunts again and again left her with little sympathy in her heart.

“Can’t you at least hide him?” Irene pleaded in the direction she figured Jessica was in.

Jessica growled and finally sighed. “No. I have to touch him first. Alright, Sulli? You keep taking Irene to the marsh. I can see you guys, so I’ll come find you after I get him.”

But Sulli held onto her tightly. “No! Don’t!” she urged, her face twisted in an expression of fear that only Jessica could see. “We’ll all go, we’ll all go. We can’t get separated.”

Jessica was hoping they would just listen to her, because getting to Leeteuk and back would take too long under the effects of her Seeming. They’d have to break their cover and make a run for it.

The peal of the horns once again rolling across the heath told her they were going to have to make a run for it now either way.

“Okay, RUN!” she shouted, letting her Seeming strip away as she broke from the girls and sprinted towards Leeteuk.

They followed after her, their concealment discarded, propelled on by the sudden rush of adrenaline from their plight.

Jessica was waving her hands in the air above herself as she ran, trying to get Leeteuk’s attention, but she couldn’t be sure whether or not he saw them since he was already running more or less towards them.

And as the girls tried to meet him, a new sound reached their ears.

Galloping.

And it wasn’t just the deep rumbling gait of the Horned One, but suddenly a whole troop of horses with whooping and shrieking riders burst out of the trees and began their chase across the field.

Leeteuk saw the girls running towards him and he breathlessly waved his hand at them, trying to get them to turn around and head back towards the marsh. What were they doing, running the wrong way with the Horned One and his posse hot on their trail?

“Back… go back…” he huffed, barely audible enough for his own ears. As they finally met, he grabbed at them, pulling them with him as he continued on. “The water,” he choked, “get to the water…!”

Irene could tell they were close, though the whole expanse of land was flat and it was hard to see the water itself. Her only indication was the way her shoes were beginning to sink into the mud with each step.

And suddenly with a splash she fell forward into the first pool of the marsh, almost pulling Sulli down with her.

“Up, up,” the other Fairest urged, hoisting Irene back to her feet.

“Here,” Leeteuk panted, pointing at a particularly wide body of water, reflecting the yellowed grass that ringed around it and the hoary, overcast sky above.

They dove.   

+++

The cavern echoed with their muted voices as Heechul, F(x) and Red Velvet plodded along.

Seulgi was doing her best to try not to step on any glowing mushrooms while Wendy had a fast grip on her hand, making sure they wouldn’t be separated at the first sign of trouble, and the rest of the group was strung out ahead and behind them as Heechul led the way.

“I hope you know where you’re going,” Amber called up to him from near the middle of the group.

“I suppose now wouldn’t be the time for me to tell you I’ve never actually been there before?” Heechul returned.

The group halted and they were suddenly all talking at once.

“You’ve never been there-?”

“I knew we shouldn’t have trusted-”

“How did you even know to get this far-?”

“We should have brought Henry after all…”

But they didn’t need to go looking for a way into Faerie, for the missing faerie folk themselves suddenly emerged from a pool before them.

“Irene?”

“Jessica!”

“SULLI!”

“... Leeteuk?”

Another cacophony of voices reverberated about the subterranean walls until a rather winded Jessica was finally able to yell, “RUN. GO BACK NOW!”

She dragged the other girls towards their would-be rescuers and as she was about to forcibly push them all back the way they came, there was another splash from the pool.

And another. And another, as figures began emerging from Arcadia into the Hedge in ones and twos.

And the cave was suddenly filled with the deep, rolling laughter of the Horned One.

From behind the three missing girls, Seulgi watched in slow motion as the Horned One reared up on his hind legs and heaved his spear towards their group.

There was the noise of the large metal tip sinking deep into flesh, finding its mark, and for a beat the only sound in the cavern was the intermittent drip drip of water falling from the stalactites high above.

And then the sound of a body hitting the dirt.

And then a scream.

“NO!!!”