A very late night at the Maja Café was a silent one. There were only a few women there as most were out on missions; the younger ones already at home resting. Tonight, it was only Jieun and Bora and a couple of other senior majae.

            “headache?” Bora looked up from her soup and looked concernedly at Jieun’s preoccupied expression.

            “huh?” Jieun looked up surprised. “oh uh… no just trying to think about stuff.”           

            “stuff?” Bora raised an eyebrow.

            “Leeteuk oppa asked us to go to New York tonight. Something about suspicious rogue activities along the bars along Queens.” Jieun sighed taking a sip from her peppermint tea.

            “oh yeah I heard about that.” Then she noticed Jieun massaging her temples. “Are you still not feeling well?”

            “I am. it’s just that YiFan is meeting with a chief of police friend of his from the NYPD and we’re going to be there as agents from the FBI.” Jieun pushed her plate of chicken barbeque away after losing all her appetite.

She had fully recovered from her injuries and had been doing a bit of physical training to get back in shape. This mission though made her nervous as it is going to be her first time as an FBI agent. All she was used to was to be bait.

Bora laughed, she was 10 years older than Jieun plus she’s a Yang so she’d probably have more experience on this that she had.

            “come on, it won’t be that bad, Kris will be there and he’s, don’t tell him I said this, a natural. That face of his will fit in anywhere.”

            “I know but I just can’t help but feel nervous.” If Jieun was to be honest with herself it wasn’t entirely the mission that made her nervous. This mission would be the first one they’d be doing together after that awkward silence in her house a week ago.

            “it’s just all in your head, Jieun. Trust what you’ve learned and what you know, plus a maja’s instinct rarely goes wrong.” Bora said showing her confidence in the maja in front of her.

            “yeah, but it’s my impaired judgment I’m worried about.”

            “Jieun-ah, all you were told to do was gather information about what the humans know and help them solve the case. It shouldn’t be too hard; the feds almost always crack the hardest cases that the local police department finds great difficulty solving.”

Jieun just sighed. There was no way she could dampen Bora’s positivity.

            “At least this will be the last mission I’ll have in a while. Leeteuk oppa says he’ll have all of us in training after the month ends.” Bora nodded in agreement.

            “plus, it’s Donghae oppa and Jessica unnie’s wedding.” She added.

            “right! I almost forgot!” Jieun smiled. “a week of vacation before training starts.” She sighed at the happy thought.

Jieun then realized that the last week of the autumn season was her birthday. It may not be exactly be a secret but then she realized she would be turning 28 soon.

            “hey girls!” a male voice suddenly appeared and joined them at the table making the two witches jump.

            “Kai! What are you doing here?” Bora said with a hand to her chest.

            “it was getting boring at the Bar so I decided to drop in.” he looked around and his lips twitched then formed into a pout. “looks like it’s not only the Bar that’s boring tonight.”

            “yes, and aren’t you supposed going on a mission with Suho?” Jieun pointed at him with her for in a slight reprimanding tone.

            “he’s still looking for Sehun.” He shrugged. “so where are you supposed to go in this wonderful night”

Jieun stared at Kai for a few seconds and remembered how much he had changed since he became of age. The once shy boy she first met was now confident and in times, a bit arrogant. Jieun was worried that he might completely lose himself if he doesn’t stop soon.

            “I’m all free for the month, Jieun here will be off to New York with Kris.” Bora replied digging back into her dinner.

            “ohhh…what for? Succubus? Rogues?” Kai sounded excited but Jieun just shook her head.

            “we’re just going to help out with some murder cases, they think it’s some new serial killer but the Council thinks it’s something…our kind-ish.”

Kai raised an eyebrow.

            “’our kind-ish?’ wow, what a way to describe our kind.” He laughed sarcastically.

            “how would you want me to describe the beings not known to the human populace eh?”

            “well, you could say the cool ones or the magical ones.” He smirked, again with the thinking too highly of himself.

            “I know what you’ll be in the next minute.” Bora smirked looking at a point behind Kai. Jieun followed her gaze and grinned.

            “what?” he asked curiously.

            “dead meat.” Both girls said as Kai’s ear was yanked so hard he fell off his chair.

            “YEOW!!! OW! OW OW! LEGGO!”

            “I’ve been looking for you for the past 10 minutes, !” Suho came over and dragged Kai away from the table. Without so much as a goodbye to the girls he stepped out of the Maja Café and onto the streets where the rest of his team waited.

            “Suho must be really mad to cuss like that.” Bora giggled as she watched Suho’s team disappear into the portal with Sulli and Suzy.

            “yep.” Jieun said popping the ‘p’. “Suho’s been stressed these days, Syria’s not looking good and the Council is kind of nagging him about it.”

Bora grimaced.

            “I wouldn’t want to be in his shoes.”

            “ditto.” Jieun agreed.

A few minutes later both girls looked up as the door to the café opened revealing Chen and Lay.

            “I think they’re looking for you.” Bora guessed.

True enough when the two vampires saw her they immediately made a beeline towards their table.

            “time to go.” Lay said a bit cheerily.

“we better hurry, our duizhang doesn’t seem to be in a good mood.” Chen looked anxious. Jieun assumed he might have gotten to be the receiving end of one of Kris’ lashes.

“seems like the team leaders aren’t much in a good mood tonight.” Bora smirked.

“who wouldn’t? the Council gave them quite a talking to about the way they handle the teams. They didn’t hold back this time, no more sugar coating.” Chen shuddered. When the Council gets serious you wouldn’t want to do anything wrong.

“yeah, saw Onew walk away with his team, he didn’t say much but his face was so red he looked like he was about to burst.” Lay added, he looked less amused than he usually would have.

“you should’ve seen how Sunggyu punched both Dongwoo and Sungyeol for joking around before they left. And don’t get me started with the others.” Chen looked really shaken up.

Jieun had heard enough and stood up from her seat.

“in that case, we better get going.”

The three Yins bid Bora goodbye and walked towards the end of the pathway that leads to the Shia town square where all of the soldiers guarding Mt. Shia lives. In the moonlight, they saw 5 silhouettes and quickly hastened their pace.

            “about time.” Tao hissed in a whisper to Chen who stood beside him.

The atmosphere was very tense and even Krystal gave Jieun a very uncomfortable smile. None of them talked and only looked at Kris who stood looking like a statue. He didn’t move and only his long black coat moved with the wind as he stared down to the lights from the town square.

            “Krystal, take Chen, Lay and Xiumin with you to Manhattan, check out the last place the dead body was found, if rogues were involved you should find traces.” Kris spoke in a low tone that got everyone’s attention “then go to the 5^th precinct in Manhattan, I’m sure they will be expecting you there.”

            “got it.” she said and opened the portal. Lay and Chen went through first followed by Krystal. Xiumin stopped and looked back at Kris before stepping through

            “we’ll meet you back at the same unit.” He said and disappeared.

            “where to, duizhang?” Tao asked. She wasn’t sure if it was just her imagination but she detected a slight sarcasm in Tao’s voice.

However, she couldn’t dwell on the thought then as Kris started to give out orders.

            “we’ll go straight to the 101^st precinct in Queens. We’ll find clues and make sure this isn’t rogue activities or any kind from the supernatural.” The 3 other members nodded then Kris gestured to Jieun.

With a deep breath, Jieun casted the portal. The vampires’ hands twitched in reflex as warmth and the familiar scent of magic filled their nostrils and sent tingling sensations down to their fingers.

One by one, they stepped through the portal and out at an alley. A black GMC SUV was parked there and was obviously prepared by one of the elder maja.

            “I can’t wait till I get strong enough to cast me one of these.” Jieun mumbled to herself. Luhan heard her and grinned.

            “I heard it requires a lot of concentration and skill. We can’t have a faulty car on missions after all.” he smirked as he got into the front passenger seat. Jieun didn’t respond and just got into the backseat with Tao. Kris got into the driver seat and started the car.

With Kris’ driving and Jieun sabotaging the speed meters and traffic cameras, they arrived at the 101^st precinct in less than 15 minutes. Kris parked the car and one by one, the warriors stepped out of the SUV. Jieun had already changed their clothes as they got out of the portal. The 3 vampires wore plain black work suits with white inner dress shirts. Kris had a silver tie; Tao had black while Luhan a navy blue with gray stripes paired off with black slacks and dress shoes. Jieun wore a midnight blue dress shirt topped with a black suit jacket, black slacks and black leather 3 in. pumps.

As soon as they started towards the steps of the building, a tall man in his 50’s jogged up to them and walked straight to Kris and gave him a hearty handshake.

            “Kri—sorry, agent Wu, so glad you could come.” He said the wrinkles in his eyes became visible as he smiled.

            “of course, we are glad to be of help, Chief Heins.” Kris said with his business smile on his face. This man was as tall as Kris and bigger in built but for reasons very obvious to the team, Kris had more confidence.

            “this must be the team you spoke of? Ah Agent Lu, Agent Huang, so glad to meet you again.” Chief Heins stretched his hand and shook Tao and Luhan’s hands happily.

            “I could same the same, it’s been a long time.” Luhan smiled.

            “15 years, if I’m not mistaken. You look the same while I age everyday.” He laughed, a loud booming voice that echoed on the steps of the precinct.

Jieun stifled a gasp and caught Tao’s eyes; she looked at him to ask if he knew about them. Tao seemed to understand and nodded. Jieun almost blanched.

            “and this is Han Joan. Our new…recruit” Luhan grinned at Jieun, that name was a new one but she didn’t complain.

            “ah! Very nice to meet you. So sad I couldn’t see the beautiful Agent Kwon. ” He shook Jieun’s hand and then he looked at Kris now all cordiality gone. “now, we better get inside so we can brief you and your team.”

With a nod, Kris and his team followed the man inside.

---

the sun was up and the morning activities had started way back before dawn. Forest animals were now out and about, birds twittering, small mammals scuffling searching for food. But inside the heart of the forest stood a huge tree dwelling called Soul of Napolde; the place where the royal family of Lessien lived.

            “your majesty, his highness, the prince requests for an audience.” The court adviser informed the king.

            “send him in.” he said. The king was troubled, very troubled. He was facing a large circular table made of crystal water in front of him. Centuries ago when they were made immortal, the cloaked man gave him this table to oversee the place he held dominion over. He gave a vow to protect his people at whatever cost.

But something was wrong, the crystal table started to blacken and rot. The water looked like it had black oil oozing into it.

            “father.” The voice of his son echoed in the room. The king looked up at his son. The face he kept strong in front of his people vanished and the distress he had been feeling for quite a few days now was starting to appear in his features and he fell onto a chair.

            “Prince Theian, something has gone terribly wrong.” He shook his head.

            “I know, father.” His son mirrored his father’s worried face. “we surveyed the southern plains yesterday. Everything started to decay and we don’t know the cause. The trees and animals are in pain.”

            “we cannot let the elf kingdom suffer like this.” The king shouted punching the armrest of his chair.

            “I know and I think he knows it too.” what Theian said made his father look up.

            “what made you say that?”

            “he’s here, father. Lord Shua, is here.” His son said stonily. They both knew if the sun king was there it meant there was something very bad going on.

The first time they met the celestial god was when their world was about to go into ruins by a civil war caused by wicked members of the council who disagreed with the king’s decision to abolish slavery. They convinced the poor elves of the south that the king wanted the slavery to stop just so he could soften up his people and take their lands away. Succeeding in their manipulation the southern elves rose up against the king. The death toll was unbelievable and the very spirit that held their world together was dying. If the war goes on, their world will cease to exist, as they know it. Both sides will never survive.

The royal family had managed to expose the traitors to the south but by then it was already too late. The forest had already begun to die. Even though the war had finally stopped, they will not survive; they will die. That’s when the sun king appeared. He gave the royal family the ability to link themselves to their home, to their planet. With the use of their life force they gave the dying habitat the push it needed to live again. But in doing so it made them very vulnerable and it made them weak thus the sunn king made them immortal. As the rebuilding spread, so did the ability to link to the plants and animals, soon all the elves of Lessien had the ability and immortality.

            “I think he knows something disastrous is about to happen.” Theian said worriedly.

            “there is something disastrous happening. And if we don’t stop it the fate of two worlds will pay the price.” A warm, slightly thin tenor emanated from the balcony.

The king and the prince looked up to see the graceful figure of a man in a gold cloak walked in and as usual his face was covered. No one had ever seen his face or had any idea what he looked like.

            “my lord.” The king stood up. He may be king and ruler of Lessien but this in front of him was a celestial being and is way powerful than he could ever hope to be.” Both the prince and the king bowed and in response Lord Shua bowed respectfully back.

            “your majesty, I come once again at a very ominous time. My apologies for my visits are never quite festive.” They heard him sigh.

            “what is really happening here, my lord? Our planet is dying and it’s not the same thing as before. It rejects our life force.” The prince stated.

            “I know.” Theian grew worried at the tone of his voice. If this troubled the sun king, how bad was their situation really is? “this isn’t only happening in this world.”

That last statement surprised them speechless.

            “you mean-?”

            “yes, earth is also in a desperate situation.” Theian and his father looked at each other.

They knew of the other world. The guardians there were created right after they were made immortal and the creation of their dwelling, Mt Shia, had a slight impact to their world but the sun king had created a barrier to keep the two worlds from ever being connected.

            “what are the earth guardians doing to stop the situation there then?” the king asked. He couldn’t take the idea that the guardians were slacking off.

            “unlike you, they have no idea that another world exists. There have been significant events there that they can’t explain and can’t understand. To add to that, things are worse there because that is where everything is happening, not here.”

            “but what about the dying habitat here?” Prince Theian grew frightened for the other world but more so for their own world.

            “what’s happening there holds great impact to the balance of both world’s. They may not be connected directly but if one word perishes the other will suffer great imbalance. It may not die with the other world but effects are undesirable.” The more the sun king explained the more the Lessien royals feared for the worse.

            “wait, why is this happening in the first place? Didn’t you put a barrier of some sort to protect both worlds?”

            “I did, but something unexpected occurred.” The sun king turned and faced the king. “Corbus had managed to connect with one of the rogue guardians there.”

            “how could that happen?!” the king was furious. Corbus was one of the traitors they had sentenced to death but he alone managed to escape.

            “he had studied the gift I had bestowed upon you and he started to experiment with it. Instead of using it to give life he began taking the life force out of the habitation in the south, absorbing its magic and what’s been happening in the other world makes it even more impossible for the land to ever regenerate.” The sun king looked down at the crystal table. “this is evident enough.” His voice sounded hurt at the sight of the rotting of the once magnificent table.

            “so that’s why it couldn’t be revived.” Theian said silently. He knew that taking a life force from another living being is like taking away its soul; it can never be given back.

            “this information was never told to you because the gift that were given to them were very different to yours. They were once called humans but were now turned into something different that’s why they lived in another dwelling. The men are called the magi and women, majae.”

            “how different could they be from the people they protect?” the king asked.

            “not so much but they do have abilities that aren’t meant to be seen by the ones they guard. They don’t rule over them, they are more like protecting them from the shadows. They are forbidden to meddle directly in the affairs of humans like stop wars with their abilities, which they can easily do, but they are only allowed to try and make the two warring sides to make peace.”

            “like a political diplomat?” the king understood. He ruled and protect but the other guardians just protected, it was apparent for him how easily their world could be taken over.

            “yes, and unlike here, everything is worse there. They have to fight among the rebels that were once guardians like them and creatures that threaten the peace and secrecy they protected.”

Silence, they didn’t know why the sun king was suddenly telling what the other world was all about.

            “why are you telling us all of this? Will this information actually help us save our world?”

            “it might, because in order to save this world, we must save theirs first.”

            “how are we going to do that? Do you know a way for us to get there?” Theian, being the brave warrior that he had always been, was already ready to be of help.

            “I don’t. I can only take down the barrier from this side. I can’t take down the one from there.” He stood up from his chair.           

            “so how will we get there?”

            “my brother.” He gestured to the balcony; the king and prince turned their attention there. They were so immersed with their conversation that they didn’t notice that it had started to fog outside.

            “your brother, Lord Shua?” the king looked anxiously at the sun king.

            “yes.” His brows furrowed. “I apologize for the theatrics, he is not one for too much warmth.”

            “not at all.” as soon as the king said it a tall man in a silver cloak appeared from the fog.

            “on the contrary, my dear brother, I just don’t like YOUR warmth.” In contrast to his apparent cold demeanor his voice was a warm baritone and there was a hint of a smirk in his voice.

Lord Shua chuckled and motioned his brother into the room.

            “my lord.” He bowed followed by his father. And like what his brother did when he arrived earlier, he bowed to the royals of Lessien.

            “my brother had created the guardians of earth and created Mt. Shia for them, that gave me a headache once.”

            “don’t be such a cynic, dear brother.” He chuckled then faced the king and prince of Lessien. “they might make me feel unwelcome.”

            “you will always be welcome here, My lord.” The prince said. The new visitor looked at him and the prince thought that he might be giving him a smile.

“to the Elven king and prince, I hereby introduce myself.” He stretched his right arm and then tucked it in front of his body and gave a slight bow. “I am Lord Lua, the moon king.”

----

finally this story is moving towards the end..yes!