I encourage you to click this line and read this before you read this chapter so that you don't all kill me.

All good things must come to an end.

With nowhere left to go but south, they traveled along the Highway of Hope, heading on a journey back to the beginning.

What a fitting name and fitting place.

The sun had just begun to sink in the horizon when they bumped into her - a young woman being robbed by a group of three huge, bear-like highwaymen, demanding the goods in her caravan at knife-point.

She cried out for their aid and Kris was obliged to stop for her, pulling out his sword and jumping from Pearl's back.

The problem was that she wasn't really in need of help - she was a robber, and those men her brothers.  They preyed on those who stopped for a pretty girl in distress, cutting them down and stealing their gold.

Just another job for another day, she thought - until Kris had used his sword to easily cut down all three of her brothers in quick succession.  In the end, she was left alone, screaming at Kris through a stream of tears, pulling out a knife from where it had been sheathed in her garter. 

"Tao, stop her!"

Anger burned in his chest.

Tao slid off the saddle in lightning speed, catching her with a hard grip on the wrist. 

Neither Kris nor Tao could have stopped what had happened next - the way her arm began to turn black from where Tao had gripped her, flesh and bone beginning to liquefy before their eyes.

As she succumbed to by the rapid decay of Tao's spell, she had managed to shout just one word, over and over, staring at Tao with eyes that burned with pain and hatred.

"...witch!  Witch!  WITCH!"

She dropped to the floor in a puddle of melting skin and bones and Tao stared down briefly, heart gripped with heavy disbelief and icy fear. 

When he gathered the courage to look up, Kris was staring at him intently with the same despair in his eyes as were in his own.

Before Tao could even process how he felt about it all, his eyes flicked down to see Kris' hand as it subtly tightened its grip on his sword.

The dream was over.

Tao turned, and fled.

There was no way in his weakened physical state that Tao could escape on foot, with Kris chasing him down on Pearl.

Tao could only hope to slow them down by bobbing and weaving through the sparse trees, lunging through bushes as as the sharp thorns cut through his arms.

It bought him only a few precious seconds more before the same hand which had once held him at night now came lunging at him through the air.  Tao ducked, evading the grip by mere inches only to trip along the tall yellow grass and fall tumbling to the floor as Pearl came to a sliding halt.

"You've got to come with me, everything will be okay!"

Taking a second to catch his breath, Tao slowly pulled his pole from his side, plunging it into the dirt and using his grip to slowly climb back onto his feet.  Kris eyed the weapon with anguish, lifting a long leg over the saddle and jumping off of Pearl's back, sliding his arm into the shield at his side.

"Please.  It doesn't have to be like this." 

Tao refused to respond, swirling the pole above his head as he slid down into a battle stance.

Kris looked hurt, hand outstretched toward Tao while shaking his head.

"I don't want to hurt you -"

A pole was swung at his face, interrupting him mid-sentence, and Kris was just barely able to catch it with his shield, knocking it back. 

Blinking away angry tears, mouth set in a grim line, Kris hunkered down, preparing himself for a battle he had never wanted.

The sun continued to set in the empty grasslands, the clanging of wood on metal and the frantic cries of desperate men ringing deep in the thick air.

So similar to, and yet at the same time so very different from their first fight, Tao and Kris were almost evenly matched, Tao's flexibility and speed a good counterpart to Kris' superior strength and stamina. 

In the end, though, because of months of having seen Tao in action, it was Kris who eventually struck the blow that knocked Tao off balance, the pole slipping from his fingers to fly out of reach.  Pushing the other down into the dirt, Kris held a sword to his neck, just gently pressing down.

The look in Tao's eyes.

"Let me go, Kris, please."

Tao was begging so prettily, struggling weakly against the other's body.  Kris leaned down, pressing their foreheads together and letting their tears mix.

"I can't, Tao.  You know I can't let you go."

Tao sobbed, bringing his hands up in the best imitation of a hug as he could give with the other's sword still pressing into this throat.

"I'm not - I'm not a bad person, I swear!  I never wanted to hurt anyone!"

Kris shook his head.

"You don't know what this power is doing to you.  Please - don't make this any harder than it already is.  It's not the end of the world - the Witch Council can give you a mark that will help control-"

At those last words, Tao's eyes shifted into a frightening shade of black.  ing a hand into Kris' chest, Tao threw Kris off of him with a powerful burst of magical wind.  As the other prince fell back, his sword was sent flying into the distance, sinking deep into the trunk of a tree.  Leaving Kris with just a shield at his side, Tao flipped back onto his feet, bringing his arms out to his sides as he clenched his fists tightly.  Kris watched in growing horror as magical power began to visible surge through Tao's body, filling his body with black runes that sank into his skin like dark, bubbling tattoos. 

"Not anymore.  Not again.  I refuse to let you chain - me - down!"

Blasts of fire and ice came at Kris at a furious speed, forcing the man to his knees as he blocked them with his shield.

"Please - Tao!"

One final blast had the shield wrenched off of Kris' arm, the arm that was wound back with it forcing the prince to cry out in pained alarm.  Clutching at his shoulder, he was helpless against Tao as the man shot his arm out, gripping Kris with a force that lifted him into the air, slowly choking the life out of the man he loved.

Tao's face twisted into an in human grimace as he drew his hand back, black magic swirling within an open palm. 

Kris searched eyes that were a soulless black, only to find that there was no trace left of the man he knew.

"T-tao..."

In a vortex of black that opened in the sky, a large black bird swooped in from the void, transforming in a flurry of black feathers. 

Half-formed still, a human hand struck out, hitting Tao with a blast of wind that forced him to let go of his grip as it sent him crumpling to the ground a few feet away. 

Coughing for air as he stared up at the newcomer in shock, Kris watched as the black-haired witch held out a hand, sending a gush of icy water that caught Tao full-on.

The cold cutting deep into his bones, Tao shrieked at the feeling, the black shrinking from the edge of his pupils as he began to come back into himself. 

When Tao looked back up, he was back to his senses, staring at the scene in front of him with terror and dismay through matted hair that dripped with water.

Kris was struggling to his feet again, looking around him for his sword, and Kyungsoo whipped his hand out once more, lifting Tao's pole from where it lay in the dirt and flinging it in his direction. 

"Tao - it's time!  I've told you what you must do!  I'll hold him back - now go, quickly!"

Tao caught the pole with one hand, spinning around to jump onto it. 

With dismay and awe, not one pair of eyes strayed from the sight of his magic filling the wooden pole beneath his feet, glowing with light as it lifted him unsteadily into the air. 

Kris began to run to his side, but a spell, courtesy of Kyungsoo's quick fingers, froze the prince's legs to the ground.  Kris could only stop and stare as Tao lifted beyond his reach, high up into the sky that had begun to bleed red. 

A torrent of wind began to rise up and form around Tao who was shouting something at him through the noise-

A hand extended out toward him through the grey and Kris reached back - only to be blown back by the shockwave as he watched Tao shoot into the distance with frightening speed.

Like a falling star, tracing its arc against the sky, as tremendous as it was brief, leaving behind nothing but pieces of itself in its self-destructive path. 

It took him just one day of traveling to reach the place where it had all begun. 

Of course, a journey of that speed exhausted the witch beyond relief - he crashed to the ground the moment he hit it, the pole shattering into fractured wooden pieces, too strung out from the magical powerf that had been imbued in it to stay in one piece. 

A dragon roared in the nearby distance as Tao picked himself up from the ground, turning back for one look at the beast that was rushing up toward him.

His mouth crumpled into a frown and he forced himself to look away, rushing into the castle without another word.

Tiny could immediately tell something was wrong - bless her heart, she ran alongside him for as long as she could, keeping him company as he ran through those open hallways, her head tracing his path through the view of the windows.  And when he finally passed beyond her reach, she mourned his departure with a long, low howl, already anticipating the worst but unable to do a thing.

Down, down, each flight of stairs, each step submerging him deeper into overwhelming resignation.

In the very basement of the castle, Tao pulled at the fake candelabra, standing back as the hidden door creaked open, dust flying and cobwebs spreading thin with its movement. 

Chest still heaving with exertion, he stared at the dark room waiting within. 

Swallowing his fears, he took a step into the room, once again completing the circle and forcing the spell that had lain dormant in the room to come alive once more.

In a whoosh of chaotic wind that blew the dust from the floor, the dim candle lights in the room came alight one by one.   A shaft of daylight broke through the musty room from the sole window, high up near the top of the circular room, shining weakly down upon the golden spindle before him.

Tao stepped to the spinning wheel with more than a little trepidation, coming face-to-face with what he had been trying to escape for years. 

After all this time - and yet here he was again.

Balling his fists to the side, he threw his head back and began to scream, wordlessly, a sound so wraught with grief and frustration that it nearly brought him to his knees in its power.

And when the shout had faded into angry sobs that shook his body in their strength, Tao had no choice but to bring his hand up slowly, staring at the pale flesh and the power that he knew coursed through it.

"So this is the end.  This is all I have left."

With great effort, Tao straightened his back, rolling up his sleeve as he slowly wiped the tears from his face.

"I might be a witch - but that doesn't mean I never had a heart.  The only crime I've ever committed was to fall in love with a man who society told me I couldn't have.  Let them all know that I chose this - I did - because damn the world who never gave me a chance!"

Tao held his hand up.

"And if I can't love the man I chose - I'd rather not love at all!"

He brought his hand down, stabbing it down on the sharp needle.

"There's always been another way, Tao."

"What do you mean?"

"If it came down to it - how much are you willing to sacrifice to keep him for as long as you can?"

"Anything." 

"Then Tao - you must finish the duty you were given seven years ago."

"The... spindle?  ...I'm not going back to sleep, Kyungsoo, not after all of this -"

"- You won't be going back to sleep, Tao."

"What do you mean?"

"Spells that are supposed to work on damsels do not work the same way on witches."

"What will it do then?"

"It will keep you free."

"I know you... I walked with you... once upon ...a dream -"

Kyungsoo had lied. 

Perhaps for the best, Tao thought to himself, through a wincing grin. 

He might not have had the courage to do it, otherwise.

"I know you, t-that look... in your eyes is... so familiar- a gleam -"

It all happened so dizzyingly fast - his vision was already beginning to double and blur, his mind struggling to stay coherent as he stumbled from the room on unsteady legs. 

He gave a wheezing cough, watching with morbid interest as black fluid splattered against the ground like tar.

"I know... it's true... that visions are... s-seldom all they seem -"

The grin fell from his face when he was no longer able to sustain it, already shaking with the effort of trying to move forward.

Tao collapsed against the wall, feeling the fire running through his veins, beginning to lock his limbs in place.

Tao was able to take one step more before he finally collapsed to his hands and knees, blood steadily trickling from his mouth.

"But, if I know you... I - I know what you'll do..."

Unable to go on, Tao laid his head to rest on the cold stone, his vision the last to go as the light in his eyes slowly faded.

"You'll love me at once... the ... way ... you did... once..."

In his last moments of lucidity, he took comfort in the vision of a familiar figure walking down the hallway to greet him, meeting him halfway with warm, welcoming arms.