Sneaking around was not something Tzuyu excelled at, especially since her aura made it difficult to go about unnoticed. So when she tried to tiptoe her way at the garden underpass that led to the house of the daughter of the music God, Mina, she was spotted within seconds.

“What brings you here?” Mina asked as she plucked the last of the berries and placed it on her basket. 

The messenger revealed herself from behind the rows of trees and made her way to her. “Nothing, really,” she answered. “I just want to see what you’re up to nowadays.”

Mina scoffed, “A goddess as busy as you couldn’t afford to travel to such a desolate place just to see precisely how idle I am nowadays.” She sighed as she heaved the basket to her chest. “Follow me back as you state the purpose of your visit.”

Aside from being known as the daughter of the goddess of the Sun, music, truth and prophecy, Mina was also known as the legendary musician that did charms as she sang and played her golden lyre. She had inherited her mother’s poetic side and was known to move people with her words. But ever since the death of her beloved, Mina had been unable to produce such great works in a long time and had secluded herself away from society. 

Tzuyu followed her to a small, cozy cottage and watched her as she emptied the fruits she gathered, placing them on her kitchen counter. The cottage seemed lived-in, signifying that Mina must’ve been in it for some time. Witnessing the melancholy Mina radiated from her way of life, Tzuyu realized the difficulty of what she was about to ask her.

“I need you to play again,” Tzuyu said, getting to the point.

“Why?”

“There’s something I have to confirm and only you can help me.”

Mina stopped organizing her kitchen and turned to face the messenger. “What makes you think I would help you?”

“Deny it as you will, but I know you miss music. I can tell. It’s in your blood after all, and it is something that you can never get rid of. That…” Tzuyu said. “...and the faith of our crops rests on whether or not I accomplish my task.”

The music goddess sighed and offered for Tzuyu to sit on the chair. When she did, Mina sat on the seat across her. “Enlighten me on the situation,” Mina said. 

The tall goddess, Tzuyu, told her her plan to use Mina’s music to convince Dahyun in releasing Sana from her chains of the Underworld. A combination of the goddess’ singing and playing should move Dahyun’s heart and charm her into letting Sana go. 

“You want me to go back to the Underworld?” Mina, arms folded, raised an eyebrow.

“For a short amount of time. You’ve done it before and left unscathed.”

To better understand Tzuyu’s request, a bit of history of Mina’s visit to the Underworld will be explained. After the death of Mina’s partner, the goddess ventured down to the Underworld to bring her back. Carrying her golden lyre, she faced the Underworld goddess and pleaded. Now, letting anyone leave the Underworld is something that Dahyun never permitted. Any attempts to do so would lead to a confrontation with Cerberus, her multi-headed dog. However, not even the Underworld queen was able to resist the beautiful music Mina played. She sang and played with pristine elegance, moving those that heard it. With this, Dahyun agreed to let Mina’s partner go with the condition that she leave first and not look back to see whether or not her partner was following. Although such a condition seemed simple enough, Mina failed nonetheless. Because as she came near the exit of the Underworld, upon the site of a beautiful sunset, she turned around to beckon her beloved to share the moment with her. And with that, Dahyun rescinded her partner’s permission to leave, which left Mina to grieve. 

Mina closed her eyes for a moment, remembering the events that occurred that day, the pain and the frustration to see her beloved get taken back. The goddess took a deep breath and fixed her eyes on Tzuyu. “My music cannot help you,” she said. “It’s failed me back then, it will fail you as well. Sana will remain in the Underworld because that’s where the universe chose she should be. I am not so powerful as to bend the will of the universe.”

“But it did work back then,” Tzuyu said. “You got Dahyun to do something she never did, and that was to give the dead the opportunity to leave her realm.”

“But you see, the dead didn’t leave her realm. My music did nothing.”

“It’s a shot worth taking. You will lose nothing if you play your music. Nayeon will once again leave the harvest unattended and there will be nothing for the villagers to eat. She is stressed about bringing her daughter back, and I want to put an end to this.”

Mina searched through Tzuyu’s pleading eyes. She hadn’t been feeling the music ever since she left the Underworld, and frankly she wouldn’t have said yes if anyone else other than Tzuyu asked her. There was something about the messenger that made it hard for her to refuse her request.

The music goddess sighed and gave a slight nod. “Fine, fine,” she said. “One song and that’s it. The rest is up to you.”

~
Sana followed Dahyun’s footsteps as she walked around performing her duties as queen of the Underworld. Rather than paying much attention to learning the processes however, Sana continued to get distracted over every little thing she spotted as she shadowed her. 

“Hear me out,” Sana jogged in front of her and pointed at a clearing next to one of the underground rivers. “If we put a raspberry patch, this would look so much more lively. Add to it some lighting on the top, the waters would reflect it and add some sparkle to it. The redness of the fruit would look good with it, don’t you think?”

Before Dahyun could even say any of her thoughts, Sana grabbed her hand and pulled her to the side of the pathway. “We could add some flowers to this walkway as well,” she said enthusiastically. She pointed to the cracks on the side of the path, “We should fix these while we’re at it. These cracks could be quite dangerous. Imagine, I could have fal