The next morning, Irene knocked on the door to Wendy and Joy’s room, and the latter opened it. “Irene?” Joy squinted at her. “You… seem better,” she noted with a hint of suspicion. Irene smiled faintly, still kicking herself for showing off. She wasn’t getting any better at hiding who she was from other Fae, but the least she could do was not pull anymore stunts like when she had revealed herself to Wendy.

“I went dreamriding last night,” Irene admitted. She needed to tell the two girls about what happened, and there was no way around this admission. It was best just to cut to the chase.

“You what? On Seulgi?” Joy gasped. There was no other option - Seulgi was the only mortal on their team. Joy knew it was too difficult to dreamride in another Fae’s Dreamscape without their permission. Joy looked Irene over anew. “No wonder you seem so much better. That must have been some dream!” Dreamriding was something of a necessity, and practiced often enough by their kind, but using it on someone they knew, especially without their knowledge, gave it a sort of… unethical quality.

Irene could feel her cheeks begin to color. Why did Joy have to say it like that? Truthfully, while that brief moment in Seulgi’s actual dream had been enough to restore her, it was their jaunt through the Hedge that was giving Irene this illusion of energy. It was nervous agitation. “Is Wendy awake?” she asked, pointedly ignoring Joy’s musings. “I need to talk to you both you. Something... happened in Seulgi's dream last night.”

“Last night? In Seulgi’s dream?” Joy iterated, retreating into the room to allow Irene inside. She wanted to tease the older girl, but Irene’s expression was quite serious.

Irene spied Wendy still fast asleep on her bed and went over to gently rouse her. “No, I guess not in her dream so much as... well, it’s much more complicated than that,” Irene replied darkly. Wendy turned and looked up at Irene pitifully, before throwing a sheet over her face to shield herself from Irene’s faint glow. It was far too early for this. “I’m sorry,” Irene apologized briefly, pulling the sheet off of the poor girl. “Can you get up for a second? We need to talk.”

Wendy obediently, if silently, obliged and sat up to make room for her on the bed. She wasn’t about to admit to their leader that she had only just fallen asleep a couple of hours ago. Joy sat across from them on her own bed and waited for Irene to start.

Irene took a breath. “So, Seulgi was in the Hedge last night.” Joy looked appropriately confused, but Wendy just watched them both mutely. Irene paused, realizing the girl probably wasn’t following.

“Wendy, do you know about the Hedge?” she asked, waiting only on that expected shake of Wendy’s head before launching into an explanation. “So you know that there’s the mortal world, right? The one we’re in now? Well there’s also Arcadia, where the Fae are from.”

“-the True Fae,” Joy cut in bitterly, but Irene silenced her with a look.

Wendy nodded, the only thing she could do in the face of all of this startling information she’s been receiving this whole past week.

“So somewhere in between those two worlds is something known as the Hedge; you pass through the Hedge to get from here to Arcadia or back,” she continued. It was a gross oversimplification, but it would suit the purposes of her explanation. “The ‘True’ Fae from Arcadia sometimes go there, but more often it’s used by people like us.”

Wendy pointed at herself. Irene gestured more broadly. “All of us. We’re not quite True Fae, but we’re… Fae-touched. We’re Changelings.”

Wendy’s mouth made a small ‘o’ as Irene used that word Taeyeon had called her during their meeting. “And that’s... different?” she asked.

“Very,” Joy offered. Irene silently disagreed. They may not be part of the Gentry, but she could still feel the Fae’s eccentric evils tingling like an ever-present itch just beneath her skin. “I can explain it all to you later, but I want to know what happened last night,” Joy said dismissively, turning her attention back to Irene.

Irene let out a long sigh. “Last night... “ Good grief, now she was going to have to explain Dreamriding to Wendy. “Just try to follow me on this okay?” she asked the poor girl.

Wendy nodded slowly, already mentally preparing to be lost again. She watched Irene’s glow flicker and dim as their leader rubbed her temples tiredly.

Irene looked at them both and began again. “Last night I went into Seulgi’s dreams.” She paused and glanced at Wendy waiting to see her inevitable shock, but to her own surprise, Wendy was simply watching her attentively, waiting for her to continue.

Irene blinked at her and went on. “But Seulgi wasn’t in her own Dreamscape. For some reason she was in the Hedge.”

Joy’s confused expression returned. “Okay, but how?”

“That’s what I want to know,” Irene said waving her hand. “And there’s more: Amber and Krystal were in the Hedge with her, following her.” Now that she thought about it, it was Amber who had suggested that Irene harvest from Seulgi. Did she want Irene to see that Seulgi was in the Hedge for herself?

Joy interrupted, “Wait, why were they following her? Did they lead her there?” She was still hung up on the fact that Seulgi, a mortal, had managed to find her way into the Hedge.

Irene shook her head. “They didn’t know why she was there either, which is why they were following her.” She paused again. “Joy, I think there’s something going on. Last night was so confusing, and I think Amber attacked someone, and then we all just ran…” She pulled her legs up onto the bed and hugged her knees to herself. At the time, she hadn’t exactly had the clarity of mind to really assess everything that had transpired, but now that she was recounting their escapades, she realized what a risky situation they had actually been in.

Wendy, rather characteristically despite barely being able to follow the conversation, scooted closer and put an arm around Irene. Her glow was completely gone, like a snuffed candle. “Was everyone okay?” She still wasn’t quite clear on what the Hedge actually was, but if they got into a fight, it must not be entirely safe.

Irene nodded, but then stopped. “Actually, I’m not sure. Seulgi and I escaped, but Amber and Krystal…”

Joy got a dark look. “What happened to them?”

Irene shrugged. “I don’t know. They were right behind us, but Seulgi was holding on to me when we escaped and I ended up being pulled into her Dreamscape.” Irene looked at the door to the room. She had left her phone on her own bed. She wanted to text Krystal to see if they were okay, but she wasn’t quite ready to wake Seulgi up just yet.

“I’ll try to get in touch with them later. Joy, I just have so many questions…” She leaned into Wendy’s embrace, worry creasing her brow.

Joy was very worried. She had sometimes seen Irene struggling with the stresses and burdens of trainee life throughout these last two years, but their would-be leader had never let herself become this vulnerable in front of her. Irene was the type to stoically work through her own troubles, and while Joy admired her strength, she found herself wondering if it wasn’t perhaps a little unhealthy to always worry about things alone.

This wasn’t exactly the time to congratulate Irene on a breakthrough, however.

“Who was Amber fighting?” Wendy ask with a quiet, pensive expression.

Irene shrugged against her. “I have no idea. I didn’t see anyone else while I was there, though we weren’t really there for long.” She looked across at Joy with a serious expression. “She burned everything. Even if they did escape, she could be in a lot of trouble.” Joy dropped her gaze.

“Amber told me…” Wendy started hesitantly, but faltered. The two other girls looked over at her. “She told me that someone’s targeting us. Targeting SM- I mean, the… the Court,” she tried to explain, using the unfamiliar vocabulary everyone kept tossing around.

“What do you mean someone’s targeting the SM Court? Is it the True Fae?” Joy asked. She was trying to keep her agitation under control, knowing Wendy didn’t quite grasp the truth of what SM Entertainment actually was. But, then again, it was Joy. “Is it another Court?” she pressed. “I bet it’s YG.”

Irene was pensive. Courts fighting against other Courts was an unfortunate commonality - greed and egos ran rampant in Fae social circles both in Arcadia and on the mortal plane, but if this was some sort of petty power play by another company, then why target the girls? Why Seulgi?

Wendy shook her head helplessly. “She didn’t say who, just that we needed to be careful who we talked to and… where we went.”

Irene watched her shrewdly. “Wendy, what kind of meetings were you having with Amber?” she asked suddenly.

Wendy winced a little and pulled away from Irene. “She wants to teach me how to Dreamshape.” Amber said Wendy had a natural talent for it. She was already so empathetic with others, especially her members, it would be easy for her to learn how to enter their Dreamscapes and help protect them from intruders.

Joy nodded thoughtfully. It wasn’t a bad skill to have, though she wasn’t sure she could see the immediate use of it. Irene, however, was suitably impressed.

“That’s not an easy thing to learn how to do,” she said. “Who are you practicing on?” Were they also jumping into Seulgi’s mind? Or perhaps some new, helpless trainee?

Wendy shook her head. “No one, yet. She’s only explained the basics to me so far.” And shown off her own skills, Wendy omitted. Every time they locked themselves in a room together it inevitably began to feel like a sauna. Amber was much better at hiding her Seeming from others than Irene was, but Wendy could still see wisps of smoke curling off her frame when she got excited.          

There was a knock at their door and Seulgi peeked her head in. “Good morning?” she half-asked as she saw them all sitting in there in sudden silence. “Am… I interrupting?” They were all three of them giving her the oddest, appraising look.

Irene forced a grin. “Nope, come in,” she said gesturing for her to have a seat next to Joy. Joy scooted over obligingly to make room. “... How are you?” Irene asked as Seulgi was seated.

Seulgi put a hand beneath her chin and turned her head this way and that, cracking her neck. “Oh, I’m alright,” she said, still a little nerved out at the way everyone was watching her.

“I had the strangest dream, though…”