The question obviously caught me off guard, and for good reason, too. I had already explained to both Tao and Sehun why I wanted them all together, but Kai hadn't seemed to want to know and thus I believed the rest of the mages would be more understanding without me having to go into detail as to why I wanted to find them all. 

I stared at Chen for a moment before my eyes wandered to the other three mages. None of them had loosened from their tense states, but Tao and Sehun were looking at me with eyes that were pleading, as if they were afraid I'd change my intentions. Then, I glanced over to Kai and noticed he was gripping the towel I had gotten for him in his hands, and I wondered why he his eyes tightened more at the question. Finally, I glanced back to Chen, whose eyes were still calm but daring me to say something he wouldn't like to hear.

"I want to free you- no, wait" As I cut myself off, Tao and Sehun jumped out of their seats as if they felt shocked and betrayed by my words, and Kai scoffed from beside me, "I'm going to free you."

Chen, who hadn't had a reaction as I fixed what I was saying, allowed for his gaze to soften as he slowly stood and walked over to me. I didn't know what he was planning, but he didn't seem like a threat to me so I only stood there and waited as he put a hand in my hair and ruffled it gently, "Forgive me for being skeptical. We've been through a lot in our lifetime."

Hearing that made me think about what happened to Kai's ring box before I had found him, and I felt frightened to know that they could have possibly gone through worse than what I already knew of. I had subconsciously turned to Kai as I thought of this, finding Kai's gaze to have already been focused on mine as if he knew what I was thinking of.

Kai's lips curved into a gentle grin and he walked forward, gently pushing Chen aside so that he could hug me with his face pressed against my hair, "Stop worrying about that. I'm fine, see?"

I nodded stiffly, though I could hardly concentrate when realizing I was being hugged. I hadn't had much affection shown towards me growing up, but being here with just these few mages was enough to erase all the years of emptiness.

"Get your fat off her, Kai. Can't you see she's uncomfortable?" Chen obviously didn't take being pushed aside well and pried Kai off of me, only to hug me tighter than Kai had, "It's okay, the big bad Kai won't go near you anymore."

Then he was running and cackling with Kai hot on his tail. I stared after them for a moment and then slowly glanced over to Sehun and Tao to figure out what was going on. The younger two mages had reclaimed their seats on the couch and were engaged in a conversation as if what had just happened with the other two mages was a regular occurence that didn't bother them anymore.

I made my way over to them, and with a wide grin, Sehun moved aside just enough for me to squeeze between them once more, and that's exactly what I did.

"They won't be done for a while." Tao answered the question I hadn't bothered to ask, and with unamused nods from Sehun and I, the younger two returned to their conversation, though they made sure not to leave me left out through it.

"Yun Seung, you see us in dreams before you find us, right?" Sehun asked lightly, and I looked over at him to see he wasn't looking back at me.

"I see the ring boxes, and the surrounding area that I know to look for when I do go on the journey to find the ring." I answered him, and with a small smile, Sehun dropped his head onto my shoulder, his face buried against my arm.

"It must be frightening to see all that happen and not knowing why." He muttered against my arm and it took some effort for me to be able to understand him since most of my hearing was focused on all the crashing and swearing coming from one of the other rooms.

I hadn't really thought of all the fear I felt with the dreams, since I usually just felt determined to help them reunite so I can free them once and for all, but Sehun undeniably brought up a good point.

"To know that you're doing all of this only to have our friendship in return is sometimes too good to be true." Tao spoke gently, and I turned to see him looking over at the other room where the loud sounds were coming from in curiousity.

"How do you trust me so easily?" I asked them slowly, since I knew that there could be a possibility that I was just tricking them- although that made me think of myself negatively.

"As mages we can see auras." That was Kai speaking as he exited the other room with a victorious smirk on his lips, "When you got on your knees to comfort me, I realized you weren't lying to me because your aura was full of pure intentions."

As I was beginning to wonder about the troll mage, Chen came limping out of the room with what seemed to be white powder covering his entire upperhalf. I gasped in worry and would have gotten up to make sure he was okay, but I was held down by Sehun, who shook his head.

"He deserved it." Sehun whispered, and though I knew he was right to some extent, I didn't exactly want to see Chen limping the way he was.

"But if you know when each other is lying, then how come you didn't realize Chen was tricking you about forgetting you?" I asked, watching as Chen fell into the recliner with a full pout on his lips.

"I've long been able to manipulate my aura." Chen answered me proudly, though it looked as if he was in pain to even be speaking then, "Even when I'm telling a hideous lie, I can trick my aura into remaining pure."

Chen was good; so good that it was even a little scary. At that moment, I couldn't help but think that, yeah, he probably deserved it. 

I was far beyond amused by the group of them and their antics. They were giant children who bickered and fought and even cried, in Tao's case. If this was how it'd be with just four of them, I was a little excited yet anxious to see what it'd be like when all of them were reunited.

Thankfully, I was given a few days of rest after finding Chen, instead of going right into search for the fifth mage, whoever he was going to be. Well, it was a rest from traveling, but not from the loud group of men the few mages I gathered ended up being. From the moment I woke up until I decided they were too much at night and went to sleep, I began to understand that life would never be like it was before I met Tao.

A knock came on my door on the fifth night of our rest, and as I was just starting to drift off to sleep, I wasn't really aware of what was going on for a few moments. Eventually, I rolled out of my bed and wobbled over to the door, prying it open to see a tear-stricken Tao on the other side.

"Tao?" Seeing his tears pushed the sleep out of my system completely. As I stared at him for moments in confusion and fear, Tao's eyes welled with more tears. Why he'd come to me when three of his friends were around was beyond me, but I definitely wasn't going to let him continue to cry, so I jumped forward and gently cupped his face, brushing the tears off his cheeks, "Why are you crying?"

He didn't answer for a few moments, though his tears did slowly halt and his eyes focused on me. I couldn't understand the look of desperation and of hurt in his eyes, but as I watched him, I soon realized why he was looking at me like that.

"Will you really free us?" the way in which he asked frightened me. It was as if he was fighting himself as to whether or not he should believe in me or what I've been trying to do for them. It made me wonder what they'd gone through to doubt me even though they said they could read my aura.

I was about to answer when I heard the distant sound of a pair of footsteps, and looking around Tao, I saw Kai at the end of the hallway with his eyes fixated on us. Sehun was right behind him, and the presence of a shadow behind the two of them alerted me to knowing that Chen was also nearby.

"You guys must have gone through a lot." It wasn't pity that I felt, but anger. Anger that someone could treat a boy as sweet as Tao so badly that he had a hard time trusting even myself when I reassured him more than twice that I wouldn't let them down. Along with that anger came determination; a determination to make sure I freed them no matter what was to happen to myself along the way.

"Let her sleep, Tao." It was Sehun's voice. He was scolding Tao, but with the look in his eyes, I knew he felt similar to what Tao was feeling. With even someone like Chen who knew how to manipulate his aura, who was to say I wasn't doing the same?

Tao paused for a moment, and a dejected smile formed on his lips without him even turning to look Sehun in the eyes, "You're right." With a sigh, Tao pulled himself away and trudged past the other three with his shoulders hanging low and right then, I felt my heart break.

"I had a dream earlier, Tao, about the fifth mage." Tao froze right before he could turn the corner, and the other three looked my way as well, "I made a promise to you, Tao, to find your friends and set them free. I'll keep that promise even if it kills me."

Seeing their dumbfounded expressions, I stepped back into the room to go back to sleep and slowly reached to close the door, "We leave to find the mage of the frost, Xiumin, tomorrow morning."

They didn't attempt to catch my attention again that night, but I realized that it was too late for me to sleep again what with all the thoughts swirling in my head. I thought of how the twelve mages, eight of whom I had yet to meet, must have been treated far before I was even around. If it wasn't me, would someone else have started to have those dreams and decided to go and rescue these mages? Or would the people who made up a map of their locations be looking for them for reasons still unknown to me? Would I be enough to protect these mages, or will they betray me once I set them free? Would the new mage also doubt me the way the other four have up until this point?

I'd never seen anything like this before. I knew it was a beach, something I read about in books and fairytales, because the sand was beautiful and the rising sun in the distance shimmered against the reflection of the ice. Ice, that was the thing I'd never seen before, and at a beach nonetheless. The amount of water that had been frozen in sheets disturbed me, but the fact that there were no clouds overhead was the most frightening part. How long had the water been frozen over?

More importantly, why were the other mages standing beside me on the shore with looks of horror covering their faces? What about the situation was so frightening that it had all of the looking like they were about to cry, and not just Tao? Again, that wasn't the most disturbing part. The most disturbing part was that I was walking onto the frozen lake as if I was being pulled to it, but for what? How was I supposed to know where the ring was supposed to be with the ice blocking me from whatever was hiding in the water?

I was looking up, then, because all of a sudden, it started to rain. Rain? Wasn't that impossible with all the ice? What was the rain going to accomplish, anyway, while the ice was a lot colder and a lot sturdier? As I was contemplating it, standing in the falling rain, storm clouds slowly formed and I know I was taking a step back in fear. Those clouds were familiar, and I knew it. Was Chen going to conjure lightning? No, his powers wouldn't be able to work if another mage's powers were in effect.

The urge to run away filled me again, though this time I wasn't sure if it was because of the ring I was looking for, or because of the lightning that was bound to strike. Before I could wonder too much about it, however, a strand of lightning broke loose and hit the ice before me. I didn't think it would even dent the ice, since it looked so sturdy,  but when it started to melt and crack even under my feet, I knew just how powerful those strands of light really could be.

Before long, as I stood there and watched, the ice started disappearing, and before I could make a break for it, I found myself submerging into the water. I didn't know how cold it was, because it was a dream, but when I looked around, I was nothing but surprised. I would have thought that more of the body of water had frozen, but it was full of average life, with schools of fish swimming around me, clearly unhappy with my intrusion. I could hardly see underwater, but I forced my eyes open anyway and started to look around for what I was there for.

I knew how to swim, since combat training had us prepared for the worst, but the fish around me and the dim lighting provided by the ice wasn't helping me to find what I was looking for; plus the fact that I was probably holding my breath so I could swim underwater. I felt like I was already starting to lose my breath, since I was out of swimming practice, but I also knew I was desperate to find that ring, so I kept swimming against it all and then I saw it. It was close to the surface and covered in ice, but I had already come this far and wasn't letting even that small amount of ice get in the way of me and the ring, so I rammed my shoulder against the ice repeatedly. I wasn't very strong, but even if it was enough to scratch the ice off, I'd try it.

I didn't have much time left, that was something I knew even without being there at that moment. I spent too much time underwater, and I was wearing myself out by trying to dig the velvet box out. That didn't matter to me. To me, nothing mattered more than the box that was covered in the familiar silver lettering of "EXO", and I wasn't going to give up until I had it in my hand. Finally, the ice broke apart, and I was able to claw it away until I was able to pull the box into my hand, but it was too late for me. My vision started going black, and my legs had stopped kicking to keep me up, and I knew I was done for.

"Even if I die, I'll get those rings."