They'd been traveling for hours without cease, Jongdae and Suho still on horseback, Yixing, Luhan and Minseok on foot. High above their heads the moon loomed bright, but it was obscured mostly under the canopy of trees and branches. Minseok hadn't even dared approach the animal to check for the pouch he hoped still contained the cursed ring. Jongdae, however, on a silent word from Minseok, reached back and felt the bag that had been secretly attached to the horse's saddle. Whatever he felt through the layers of cloth seemed to reassure him that it was still there. He nodded to Minseok when the others weren't looking. Anything further, Minseok dared not do, for fear of alarming the still furious but now silent templar.

"Luhan..." He'd tried to approach him, to no avail. Luhan ignored his precious attempts completely except when Minseok forced his attention and then he scowled and pulled away his arm, intent to focus more on the forest floor and their direction. Yixing remained silent, but he was just as subjected to Luhan's silent treatment as Minseok.

Minseok, how strange it felt to be called that again. To think of himself that way after all this time. He owed the templar an explanation, surely. He owed them all one. But Luhan frightened him, and it wasn't just because the templar had the powers to resist him. Minseok was still sure of his own abilities. Yixing also was more than capable of fending him off, now that he knew to be prepared. He wouldn't make the same mistake again as to be surprised by Luhan's magic cleansing power. In fact, the templar would likely die if he ever tried to defy Yixing again.

"I told you..." Yixing had whispered to him shortly after they set off. "I told you... I said he could not be trusted." Minseok resolutely shook his head, wishing for Yixing to stop. But he did not. "Fool. And you think he won't turn you in now?"

"He won't, now stop it." Minseok had pushed passed him, both of the mages turning mum when Luhan glanced fiercely back at them to check if they were still following. Minseok knew he'd never be able to turn his footsteps away. He couldn't, and he didn't want to.

Still, Yixing tried to dispute it. "We should leave. Now."

"No."

"Minseok-"

"I said, no. Go if you want, but I will not."

The thing Minseok feared the most was not actually Luhan turning on him. It was Luhan turning his back on him. Walking away. Figuratively, and for good, and not just the image of his back as he strode through the trees following Jongdae and the horse. But if Luhan actually left Minseok behind, or thought he was wasn't worth it at all.

He'd never seen him so angry before, not even when Minseok had bound the bandit mage in the crushing prison and taken his life before Luhan's very eyes. Would he still let Minseok follow him if he knew where Minseok had learned that spell, if he knew that Yixing had acted as his mentor for years, if he knew truly what Yixing was? Currently, the only thing Minseok trusted Luhan with was not harming Minseok. Everything beyond that fleeting bit of hope, however, was in the air. Would he still try to arrest him and take him to the Circle Tower? Would Minseok still one day have to make his escape and never see Luhan again? All thoughts he needed seriously to reflect on, without having the least bit of energy to do so.

Yixing didn't go. He stubbornly kept pace like a bodyguard and only spoke once when they had to halt because Suho was so faint he almost fell out of Jongdae's arms and off the horse.

"Let me," he said, pushing passed Luhan's mildly worried posture to attend to the dwarf. Luhan almost protested, but when Suho sighed, visibly relieved by a healing aura, he had no choice but to let the elf mage continue his magic. 

"I'm sorry," he uttered, when Yixing straightened up. 

The words made Minseok gasp silently, even as Yixing glared at Luhan. "What?" The mage squinted his eyes, not caring at all that the templar was taller than him. If it was a battle for intimidation, Yixing would have won easily. 

"I'm sorry. For earlier. For hurting you accidentally," said Luhan, real remorse in his voice. 

"Seems you could accidentally do a lot of harm if you wanted."

"Yixing..." Minseok warned lowly. 

"Alright, alright, I'll drop it," said the spirit mage, his tone just a shade lighter despite his obvious exasperation.

Luhan dropped his head, lips twisting together almost angrily and his fist balled up, clenching tightly. Before he loosened it, visibly calmed down, and turned his head away. He didn't even look at Minseok as they started off again. It burned, nearly rankled Minseok that Luhan just knew he would follow him. Whether Luhan knew it or not, Minseok was his willing prisoner, following him into the night.

They slept only when dawn emerged. Now sure that they'd put enough distance between them and the dwarves, they slept, trusting that distance and the trap runes Yixing had set up behind them would keep their rear safe and clear. Only Luhan looked reluctant to close his eyes and rest. Jongdae tried to persuade him, claiming first watch, and while the dwarf passed out like a log beside him, Luhan yawned but shook his head. 

"Sleep, templar," Yixing demanded, misleadingly soft. 

"I don't need it-"

"Yes, you do. You're about to hit a waking nightmare state even without magic." 

Minseok held his tongue, and instead of sidling up to Luhan like he would normally do, he crept in between the space of a large aboveground tree root and Suho's conked out form. Luhan hesitated to respond, but Minseok felt flushed when he glanced at him and where he was, before Luhan turned back to Yixing. He opened his mouth, but the mage spoke again first. 

"If you're scared of us, you don't have to be. Minseok will freeze my into hundreds of fleshy shards if I did anything to you, so there. Sleep. Please," he practically grumbled, before turning away and laying flat on his back to rest. "And watch out for forest snakes."

His assurances must have worked, despite the taunt, because Luhan finally relented and found his own tree to lean back against. His eyes slipped shut around the same time as Minseok's. Jongdae woke them up around noon, Luhan only consulting the map Jongin had drawn for him once, before they set off again along the deep forest trails. 

"Is this it?"

"Are you sure?"

"It seems dark."

Four of them, with Kyungsoo holding back with Alistair, peered through the edge of the forest, crouching along a natural ridge which held a perfect view of a soft meadow below where stood a rustic plank and panel home. Two-stories with an even and proportional, wide layout; a taller structure in the back connected to a barn. The fields surrounding it had been many centuries ago plowed for grazing and farming. 

"I thought you said it was a manor," Sehun whispered. 

Jongin held in his sigh. If the stranger, Kyungsoo as Jongin was trying very hard to think of him as, was correct in what he said, this entire place was a trap. It bore all the marks for it, a silent piece of land, dark house, not a sound coming from anywhere, not even the barn or the pasture beyond. It wasn't supposed to be that way. There should have been druffalos in that pasture, by everything Jongin knew about the lady, his lord's half-sister, Sehun's aunt. 

"We're west of the lake. And this isn't Orlais," Baekhyun whispered back. "Manors out here are practical, Sehun. Not ten-story castles. Although apparently they're ridden with evil-doers."

Yet they didn't see them. Anyone.

"I don't like this," said Jongin.

This should have been the end goal. The finish to their journey. They would stay here until the spring then return to West Hills, returning Sehun to his rightful place as the fourth (and now third surviving) son to the Arl. Edgevalley Manor, their winter reprieve as directed by the Arl himself, but something wasn't right.

"She's not here."

"What?" Baekhyun echoed from where his head was practically shoved beneath Jongin's armpit. 

"Lady Hyori. She hasn't been here in months. Maybe longer."

"I don't understand." It was Sehun's voice, confused and scared. 

Jongin didn't understand either, and that was beginning to eat at him from the inside out. The Arl was a well-informed man. If his sister had gone to Orlais for the winter like she sometimes did, he would have known, and he would never have sent Jongin and his bastard son to Edgevalley, knowing that she wasn't there. Unless there was more going on than Jongin knew about. That thought did not make him happy, but in any case, they could not stay here. They also couldn't return to West Hills. And they also had hired killers to worry about. Jongin didn't like Kyungsoo, but he could not discount the man's warning. 

"What do we do?" Chanyeol's voice was clear, despite the worry threaded in his words. 

"I don't know," said Jongin. 

A twig cracked behind him, frightening everyone, but it was just Kyungsoo crouching bored next to a tree. All of them had their heads down or obscured in case anyone was waiting for them. Anyone, like the ruffian cousins that apparently wanted Sehun dead. Jongin wished now more than ever that they hadn't let Changmin get away.

"I imagine they're here already," said Kyungsoo, although he didn't have to remind Jongin of that.

"If you heard correctly," Baekhyun sniffed. He, however, hadn't taken his keen eyes away from the manor and the fields surrounding it since they first laid eyes on the place. He was tense, body on alert, laying prostrate on the dirt to keep his head low. Jongin crouched just over him. On the other side both Chanyeol and Kris kept a few feet back. 

"I know what I heard," Kyungsoo replied blankly. "This is a fool's errand to even be here."

"We told the others we'd be here though," said Chanyeol.

Kyungsoo huffed. "So? They could be halfway to Orzammar depending on how far the dwarves went. Are you really going to sit here like bait, waiting for the axe-murderers to arrive?"

The problem, Jongin thought, was that they had no backup plan. Returning to West Hills without knowing for sure whether or not an illness had taken over the arling was out of the question. Taking Sehun back to his grandfather's estate east of Denerim was also not an option, not with how far they'd travelled. Redcliffe may be an idea, but there was still Sehun's safety to think about, and since they'd been spotted in that city before, evidenced by the attack that had come not one day later, Jongin doubted they could remain there all winter without incident. Still, it was the best option, and maybe from there he could figure out what was going on in West Hills. 

"I see something!" Baekhyun whispered harshly. Jongin's attention whipped immediately back to the manor. 

"Who is it?" asked Chanyeol.

"Can't tell. Inside the barn though, there is something moving."

"We should leave," Kyungsoo added almost immediately.

Sehun, unsurprisingly, seemed to agree. "I-I... I think we should too."

"Could just be an animal," said Chanyeol, a fair bit unbelieving.

"Or maybe it's Kris' dragon," Baekhyun snarked. 

The qunari actually grumbled at that, but refused to rise to the elf's provocation.  

"What if it's the others though?" Chanyeol continued to run through possibilities. "Luhan and the mages. Jongdae. Suho. What if they got here first? Or what if they never found Suho?"

"You think they'd give up so fast on the dwarf?" Baekhyun asked while Sehun whined. 

"No," said Jongin. And anyways, Xiumin really wanted to get back the ring. Jongin tried hard to not let that nag him, what the mage wanted with the enchanted object, or why it seemed to have something to do with Sehun. "Still, it could be them. We have to investigate."

"I'll go," said Chanyeol. 

"And me," Kris added. 

Baekhyun laughed. "The two of you are the least sneakiest out of anyone here. I'll go, but only if Kyungsoo comes with me."

"Why?" the other one snapped.

"Because I don't trust you, and I'd rather you stayed right where I can see you."

Kyungsoo snorted, but he didn't put up a fight. "Fair enough. Let's go then. See if you're intelligent enough to survive walking into a trap you know could very well exist."

Jongin held his breath as the two continued to bicker, before quieting themselves and slinking parallel through the trees that wrapped and curved around the pasture, aiming to approach the barn from a different angle. They were out of sight within a minute. Sehun shivered violently beside Jongin, and Chanyeol knelt down to put a hand against his back. 

"What happened to my aunt?" he asked, scared. "Did they... would they have...?"

"The Lady Hyori married into Orlesian minor nobility. She's a widow now, but has family ties on the other side of the Frostbacks. Sometimes, I have heard she spends the winter there," Jongin tried to explain.

"But you said, the letter said-"

"I know what the letter said," Jongin grunted. "But now I'm second-guessing this entire operation, including the letter's validity, and I don't know what to do about that!"

Sehun shrunk away from him cowed, and Chanyeol hissed at Jongin.

"I'm sorry," he added lamely. "I don't mean to frighten you, but it's my job to keep you alive until we can return to West Hills."

"And a right job you're doing at that." Chanyeol was not impressed. "We should go back."

"Go back, where?"

"West Hills. Redcliffe. Anywhere that has walls. I'd almost settle for a vacation at the Circle Tower, if that meant not having to worry about being slaughtered by animals or bandits or assassins in the night."

Jongin smiled to himself. "Luhan would love that. Or not."

"You mean Xiumin would not, therefore Luhan wouldn't?" Chanyeol chuckled in return. The joke had at least diffused their anxiety, for the moment. They waited in silence for a while longer, Sehun breathing shallowly, Kris huffing from having to stay low to the ground.

"They're even with the barn now." Jongin pointed to where Baekhyun and Kyungsoo were just barely visible in the shadows of the forest. A heavy moon lit up the entire field which would unfortunately provide them no cover once they stepped passed the trees. 

A low grumble echoed from the qunari's chest, and Jongin turned to look at him. "What?"

Kris returned his gaze, and then stared back towards the two in the distance, mere pinpricks from this far away. "This trap Kyungsoo speaks of..."

"Yes?"

"How do we know, Kyungsoo himself isn't the trap?"

Sehun bristled at once. "He isn't. He couldn't."

"But how do you know that?"

"Because... he's saved me... many times!"

"Saving you for what?"

Sehun choked up, and Jongin felt alarmed. Not from what, but for what? "That doesn't make sense," Jongin uttered. But a lot of things already didn't make sense. Like this entire journey, like being tailed night and day by men with a definite penchant for taking Sehun's life. And with the amount of suspicious characters they've amassed in their own party, it's no wonder their lives are like this. When did Jongin get so complacent, surrounding Sehun with assassins and thieves, apostates, and now a human with the reek of Darkspawn. A character he'd just approved to let follow Baekhyun into what could positively be a trap of his or anyone else's making. 

"They vanished!"

"What?!" Jongin jolted at Kris' words.

"Baekhyun and Kyungsoo. I was watching them, and a second later they literally vanished! Into thin air!"

"That's... how is that possible? You're seeing things." Chanyeol cried out. 

"I'm not! As in, I'm literally not."

"They must have ducked back into the trees," Jongin tried to explain. Even so, he could not see them.

"But they didn't!" Kris continued dumbfounded. "Maybe he wasn't kidding about being sneakier than us."

"What do you mean?" asked Sehun.

"I mean, that vanishing like that is a feat even mages aren't efficient at. But... but... sometimes..."

"Sometimes, what?" Jongin was starting to get worried.

"I've heard there are sects, secret organizations, that have learned the art of invisibility. Spies, assassins, rogues and thieves, those sorts of professions. When I lived under the Qun, we were told stories of such pagans who..." Kris trailed off. 

Chanyeol was near breathless. "Could he have made both of them disappear?"

"Perhaps."

It was telling that in the span of moments, they'd gone from disbelieving Kris entirely, to actually entertaining the idea. Jongin felt they were so confused and scared, anything could be possible now. And he didn't like any of it. Baekhyun hiding such a skill, if it were true, meant trouble. And as if they weren't in enough trouble already, it was about to get worse.

"Found them!" A cry rose up from behind them, and from no one familiar. Perhaps the trap wasn't in the barn, but merely the bait, and the real threat had been behind them all this time. They were cut off from the safety of the forest, the clash of weapons all around, echoing through Jongin's ears, and the shouts of an attacking band. Suddenly nowhere seemed like a safe place to be. 

Jongin grabbed Sehun and yanked him to his feet, already yelling, "Run!" before dashing down the slope of the meadow towards the manor. They raced as fast as their legs could go, Kris and Chanyeol cursing as they kept up. An arrow narrowly missed the back of Jongin's head, and he pushed Sehun to the ground not a moment too soon, before another one missed the exact spot he'd been at. Jongin drew his shield, crouching over Sehun as it deflected another set of arrows. Chanyeol paused just long enough to grab Sehun from the ground, tugging him once again to his feet and shielding him with his body as Jongin blocked himself from yet another wave of arrows. At least several attackers had followed their flight, Kris' longsword already doing battle with a human who looked almost puny next to the giant of a qunari. They used the distraction to keep on running, almost halfway to the house before another set of arrows flew past them but going the other way. 

Jongin very nearly cursed the face of Andraste herself when he thought they were going to die, cut off from two directions like ducks on a lake. But then, "Jongin! Sehun! Hurry, run!" 

It was Baekhyun, crouched in the shadows of the house, his bow already aimed to fire again, and beside him was Kyungsoo wielding a massive crossbow about as big as himself. Jongin heard rather than saw the desperate cry of death when the bolt of the crossbow found its target, another attacker going down in the grass behind him. 

"Inside the house!" Baekhyun called again. 

Chanyeol wasted no time dragging Sehun the final distance towards the manor, and Jongin and Kris followed right on their tails while Baekhyun and Kyungsoo covered them in the air. The door was already open wide from where Baekhyun had kicked it. Jongin paused just long enough to usher everyone inside, fighting off another rushing attacker with his shield, and then he darted through the entryway. Kris slammed it shut a moment later and bolted it with a heavy wooden rod.

It was silent for a moment, everyone panting, and only one loud thump on the outside of the door where one of their attackers crashed against it. He pounded again while Jongin counted heads. They'd all made it inside with no serious wounds, although Sehun looked ready to pass out from where he slumped into the floor. 

"Well, Kyungsoo was right. It was a trap," said Baekhyun with a sharp, although grateful tongue. "We found the steward tied up in the barn. He was making just enough racket to draw our attention."

He paused, startled, when a man outside shouted suddenly, "They're inside! Bring the torches!"

"Those bloody whoresons!" Chanyeol growled. "They pushed us straight here! This house is the trap!"

"Well, I did warn you!" cried Kyungsoo, bitter and loud.

"How many attacking?" Kris asked quickly.

"More than a dozen?" Jongin guessed.

"At least that many," Kyungsoo agreed, "if not more. Because they were streaming after you as soon as you fled down the field. This house can't possibly withstand a siege." 

At that moment, a rock barreled through one of the windows, shattering the glass and splintering the frame. Sehun screamed and dived out of the way just as a lit torch followed the rock, landed against a rug and immediately lit up the room.

"They're not putting up a siege!" Chanyeol suddenly yelled. "They're going to burn the house to the ground and us along with it!" 

"Back door, now!" Jongin barked wildly. Another rock careened through another window, a torch catching the curtains on fire this time, as the six of them took off through the center of the house towards the back. A wave of heat brushed across Jongin's face as the flames took shape, gusting and billowing. He caught the whiff of something gaseous and oil based, testimony that their attackers had been prepared for just this outcome. A few lit arrows flew through the busted windows as well. He dodged one and caught another with his shield. It bounced away but caught on an upholstered arm chair instead. Jongin waited, as everyone scrambled from the room, trying to block their escape, but Baekhyun stumbled on a canister and went hurling towards the ground. He shrieked when his head collided with a corner of the wall, and Jongin dove towards him, lifting the elf with one arm around the middle of Baekhyun's body. 

"Up! Get up! You can do it!" Blood streamed from Baekhyun's head, but he obeyed. His feet met the ground where Jongin supported him, half pushing him back towards the center of the house. 

Ahead of them though, Kyungsoo shouted again. "They're in back too!" Jongin heard the clashes of more windows breaking apart, all the while the flames from the front of the house were growing. 

"They're covering us on every side!" Chanyeol echoed a moment later. "We're completely trapped!"

They converged in the center hallway, no way out through any of the four corners of the mansion. With every second passing though, there were more explosions as the torches took root, and flames lit up every wall, curtain, piece of furniture, rugs and more. Jongin froze, sweat pouring across his face but absolutely furious at their situation. So this was the end? Their final destination after all? Himself and Sehun, Baekhyun and Chanyeol, Kris, and their poor mule left somewhere in the trees; even Kyungsoo whom Jongin had doubted. They would die together in a fiery blaze. Already the beams along the edge of the house were crackling, about to collapse with them underneath. 

And then Jongin remembered something. Baekhyun clung to his arm, clutching his head. Sehun cried, practically clawing at Kyungsoo's robes while the shorter man struggled to remain upright and hold onto the boy sinking against the floorboards. Chanyeol and Kris crowded around everyone, as if their height and bulk could save them all, but only Jongin's brain was working. Only Jongin's memory could possibly save them. An offhand remark he'd heard as a child, a story with a side tale, the Lady Hyori's voice recounting how one winter she'd hidden from a particularly vicious rampaging bear who'd gotten inside her home.

"The basement! There's a basement!" Jongin called loudly, battling the roar of the flames all around. 

"What?!" Baekhyun shrieked in return.

"Here! There is a basement... right..." Jongin almost knocked him over in his rush to pull aside the one rug left in the place that hadn't yet caught fire. The one they were standing on. "Here!" He shoved it aside, beneath which there was a trap door with a heavy metal ring. He reached down to the grab it, but the door was wedged shut, refusing to budge. 

"Let me!" Kris pushed him aside, lending his strength to the door instead which creaked and caught but finally came open. A rank, stale blast of air rushed at their nostrils, but underneath  the door was a stone staircase leading into blackness, and Chanyeol immediately threw Sehun down the steps. Kyungsoo followed, then Baekhyun followed by Jongin, and Kris had just a foot on the stair when all of them froze and panicked and tumbled against one another. 

It was ears-splitting and mind-numbing, the roar that cascaded through the air. Jongin clutched at his ears, but he swore the sound ripping through his body was more painful than being doused in a freezing stream, more vicious than the laps of the fire blazing around them. Probably more violent than being jolted by magic or held within a crushing prison.

Of all the times for Kris' worst nightmare to come to life, in the middle of a burning building from which they had little chance of reemerging, there it was. 

"Dragon!!"

Halfway across the field, sword already bloodied from fending off the attackers, as they tried to make their way towards the house through which they'd last seen Jongin and the others flee, Luhan dropped to his knees. His sword and shield hit the earth, hands clutching his head as the dragon's screech pierced through his mind and caused his body to convulse.

"Minseok!" he cried through half-stuck teeth, eyes clenched. He tried to move, tried to open his eyes, but everything was black and dizzying and he could not stand up from the sound of the monster flying above.

He stretched a hand back as Minseok fell next to him. "Luhan!" 

"Minseok we have to... we have to... reach them! We have to save them!" 

He tried again to get to his feet, but his knees would not hold and he toppled once again towards the ground. A burst of flames lit the ground nearby, lighting up a whole string of bodies, their attackers who had also fallen to their feet at the dragon's command. A blast of lava hot air pounded the ground around the dragon's initial target, toppling the one large tree which stood before the manor. 

"Luhan, get up!" Minseok cried. 

But the tree, roots and all, fell towards them, ground caving in as the branches collapsed all around them. Luhan felt a body fling itself over him just as the tree hit the ground with a shudder of earth and dirt and splinters and leaves. They were trapped. 

4,500 words

Oh lookee! A LONG chapter from me for a change! Hehehehe. There was just too much to write and I just had to leave everyone at the Worst. Possible. Cliffhanger. Ever! Because I am like that.

I am curious actually, if anyone would like me to post a kind of "Summary" of what's happend in the story so far, listing everything we (you, the readers) know about the characters, their backstories, and all the currently loose plot threads, because there are many of them. I have my own "don't forget [x] plot device" list for my own writing purposes, but if you think you'd like this as well, please let me know in the comments and also subscribe to my AFF Blog. I will compile something and post it to the Blog if people want it, so that you don't get your hopes up with a "Story Update" post. Just let me know!

♡ Rosie

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In other news this week, I've started an angsty Xiuhan fic: The Stars Seldom Speak, and posted a Chansoo oneshot: Hotshot.