Taemin laid still as the royal doctor brought a cup of medicine to his pale lips, taking his time to swallow every last bit with the little energy he had left in him. It was now dawn, a few hours after the party had come to an abrupt end. The Prince could barely even move his body; the pain was just too much for him to handle, and his throat burned when he tried to talk. He had broken out into a fever and was very pale, which made the doctors unsure of what the outcome of his sickness will be and worried his family.

"How is he?" the King asked with his head lowered, already knowing what the results were going to be.

The royal doctor removed his spectacles from his face and rubbed his forehead, frowning. "Your highness may I speak to you outside?"

"O-of course..." the man followed him out the door, taking one last look at his bed-ridden son with sad eyes before casting them back to the floor.

The Queen approached her ill son and kneeled beside him, gently his hair as tears pooled her eyes. "My poor baby..." she sobbed.

"I'm fine, mother." Taemin weakly croaked, coughing violently soon after his throat burned from speaking.

"Taemin, stop! You must rest. Don't speak." the Princess approached her brother's bed and pulled the sheets up to his neck.

The Prince did as his sister said and stopped, trying to smile instead to show her that he was alright. Though, deep inside he knew he was anything but that.

"I'm sorry, Taemin." she began to cry. "I'm sorry I haven't been a good sister to you lately. I should've spent more time with you. We could've gone horseback riding, or gone swimming, or had sleepovers but now...it's too late to do those things. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Taemin."

The prince's smile only grew wider at his sister's words as he slowly brought his hand up to her face, wiping the fresh tears from her cheeks. The Princess smiled and kissed her brother's comforting hand as her mother nudged her shoulder, signaling her that it was time to leave so that the Prince may rest.

The two silently stood up and exited the room, but not before promising that they'd be back after lunch to see how he was doing. Taemin grinned and waved them off, but once both were out the door his smile reduced to a frown.

He didn't even think he'd be alive by the time lunch came around.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

That morning was just another normal shift at the market for Minho. He worked for an elderly woman at a vegetable stand, usually doing heavy duty work like carrying crates of produce or bundling them together and weighing them for customers. Today though, his task was to run the stand while the woman was taking the day to rest. He didn't mind though, knowing that he was being paid almost twice what he usually got...which in fact wasn't much.

"What can I get you, sir?" Minho asked the older man as he approached the stand.

"I have a list from my wife, if you could please just get whatever's on there." he said and handed him the piece of paper.

Minho nodded as he looked over the list and began retrieving the man's items. As he did so, he saw another civilian approach his customer, who seemed to be acquaintances with him, and he couldn't help but listen in on their conversation. First, they began talking about plans to have dinner together with their families this weekend, and then they had a lively conversation about carrots, which were placed at the front of the stand. The next topic of conversation though, was something that interested Minho quite a bit.

"Say, did you hear the news about Seonggong?"

Minho's ears perked up at the man's words, and listened closely to what they were saying as he continued preparing the food. I hope it's not Taemin....

"No, what happened?"

"It's their Prince! He's been poisoned, I believe. Right under their noses too...what a shame."

"...." Minho whispered to himself as his eyes widened in bewilderment. He tried not to overreact to frighten the men away, but approached them in great haste and asked, "Excuse me, did I hear you correctly? The Prince has been poisoned?"

"Yes, they say that he passed out almost instantly after the poison had entered his body. I hear he's in critical condition now."

Minho's body suddenly began to tremble as realization set in, and suddenly he felt sick to his stomach. Taemin was dying. It wasn't his fault in any way, but for some reason the man felt guilty, like it was his fault he wasn't there to protect Taemin or hold his hand while he was sick. He must be so scared right now.

"I suppose this means the future king will be the Princess's fiance," the other man piped up. "I hear he's from the Moon Kingdom. Good place...I travelled there once with my-"

Minho's head jerked up at this information. "Wait! Where did you say that man was from?"

"The fiance? The Moon kingdom. He's a fine noble, from what I heard."

The memories of the night of Taemin's disappearance replayed in the thief's mind, and he suddenly remembered the details of the Prince's captor. They wore the moon emblem on their masks...

Almost instantly the man bolted out of the stand and left the two standing there, confused. Chances were he was going to get fired for leaving the stand unattended, but at this point he didn't really care. He had to get to Taemin soon. He needed him.

"ONEW HYUNG! Key! Jonghyun!" Minho scrambled into their rented room, panting as he scanned the room for his teammates.

"What?! What is it? Goodness gracious Minho you scared the living daylights out of me!" Key shouted, holding his hand to his chest to recover from the shock. All three men were sitting in opposite corners of the room, most likely taking a break from their shifts at the market.

"It's Taemin!" he exclaimed, rumaging through his bag for his sword.

"Well, what's wrong with him?" Onew asked and