When I woke up in the morning, Tao was gone. I don't know when he got up and left, but I know I woke up alone. This is exactly what Jongin did to me, and I couldn't help but be bitter about it. I mean, what's the point of sleeping with me if you're just going to leave? Ignoring my bitter thoughts, I got dressed and headed out the door with my nightmare playing in my head. 

I haven't told any of the mages about the shifts in my nightmare, though I don't understand why they'd need to know about it. If it was a nightmare about one of the other mages, they'd worry. If it was something else, they'd worry. I don't need them to worry. Quickly, I changed into a new pair of pants and a shirt and sighed, reaching out for the door.

As I opened the door, I realized someone was opening it from the other side, and blinked at Baekhyun's narrow-eyed expression. He was looking at me as if he was suspicious and was planning to unearth any secrets I had hidden. Without missing a beat, he walked into the room, shut the door behind himself, and had blocked my view of the door.

"What is-"

"You ran away from me yesterday." he cut in, walking forward as I walked backwards. Somehow, I ended up on the bed, and he was still standing in front of me with amusement dancing in his eyes, "Why?"

Why? What would I tell him? That I'm afraid of turning into what they were dreading? That every time one of them doubted me it felt like a stab in the heart? What would I tell him without it sounding like a lie or a hope for his pity? I sat on the edge of the bed, fidgeting with my fingers. Baekhyun was still there and waiting for an answer, and I was trying to figure out what I wanted to tell him. 

"I knew it. You are just like the others." his voice was full of bitterness as he said this, and he turned back to the door, his shoulders dropping just slightly.

"I'm scared," I had spoken without realizing the words were in my mouth, and when I looked up at him, Baekhyun turned to me with his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"Of what?" He raised a hand and waved it in the direction of the door, a scoff escaping his lips, "You have nine mages under your command. Nine mages who have sworn to protect you until the day you either free us or return us to our rings. What would you need to fear?"

"That's exactly what I'm afraid of." There was panic filling my heart again, the kind of panic I felt when I had found Jongin, and the kind of panic I felt when I found out I was descendent of the ones who put my mages into their rings, "I don't want that kind of power! What if I take advantage of it? What if I hurt them? What if-"

"Do you plan to take advantage of us?" his voice had gone quiet, and a fragile expression took over his face, "Do you plan to hurt us?"

That set of questions didn't leave me any time to hesitate, "No."

The look he sent me was a mix of belief and caution, and he had walked over to me with a hand outstretched before him, "Baekhyun at your service, master."

"Yun Seung, please." I corrected him before taking his hand, and just as he pulled me off of my bed, the room door opened and before I could even register what was going on, Baekhyun was kissing me.

"We'll finish up later, okay?" He winked at me before leaving the room, shoving past a tight-lipped Joonmyun and a furious Sehun.

"Baekhyun, you ert!" I didn't have to see Sehun to know he had run down the stairs in search of the mage of light.

While the youngest mage ran off, Joonmyun gave me a weary look, "We weren't interrupting anything, were we?"

Pressing my own lips into a firm line and ignoring the stinging of my cheeks, I ran down the stairs following Baekhyun and Sehun. The two of them, as well as the other six mages were in the kitchen and I watched in confusion as Baekhyun ducked his entire head under the kitchen faucet in order to wash his lips.

"Woah, what's going on?" Tao was holding Sehun back as he asked, his arms wound tightly around Sehun in order to keep him in place.

"That ert forgot how to keep his hands to himself!" Sehun hissed, finally breaking Tao's hold off of him in order to stand there with his arms crossed over his chest angrily.

Chanyeol, who had been rubbing Baekhyun's back as if the shorter mage was puking or something, turned his head to look back at Sehun with mirth in his eyes, "Don't burst any veins, Sehun."

"Sehun, calm down and tell us what happened." Minseok had slowly put a hand on Sehun's shoulder and was relieved that Sehun hadn't jumped on him instead.

"He kissed Yun Seung." that was Joonmyun's voice, calm despite the irritated position he had taken against the wall.

That was enough to have Jongin shove Chanyeol out of the way and lift Baekhyun into the air by his collar, "Did someone give you the permission to kiss her?"

"I didn't know I needed your permission to kiss someone." Baekhyun answered back, his lips curling into a smirk as he glanced towards both Chanyeol and Chen, "Do I need your permission to kiss someone?"

Though Chanyeol had gone quiet with his gaze focused on Baekhyun, Chen's usually joyful demeanor sombered and his lips contorted into a grimace, "To kiss just anyone? No. To kiss Yun Seung? Yes."

"Did you forget she is our master?" Yixing's voice was scolding Baekhyun quietly, but when I glanced at him, his eyes were filled with a pain I couldn't understand.

"Sheesh, it was just a little peck. Fine, I won't kiss her anymore." Baekhyun pushed Jongin away from himself and wiped his mouth with the back of his arm, "I haven't regretted kissing someone so badly since the time I kissed Chanyeol, anyway."

Everything had gone silent with Baekhyun's confession, as if it was completely unexpected and no one had anything to say about it. Suddenly, Chanyeol ran forward and slapped a hand over Baekhyun's lips, "Baek! You said we'd never speak of it again!"

Someone nudged me, and when I checked, Joonmyun was slowly pushing me into another room, "Let's leave them to their lover's quarrel, shall we?"

Chanyeol and Baekhyun hadn't heard us, but the other mages slowly nodded their agreement and six of them went off to another room while Yixing made his way to the backdoor. Because of the way he had looked when he spoke to Baekhyun, I was worried about him and found myself trailing behind him to the backyard.

Yixing was sitting underneath the shade of a tree, and when I walked up to him, he patted the ground beside himself without looking up at me. I sat beside him like he wanted, and as he leaned against the bark of the tree, a thoughtful smile lit his face.

"You're not mad at him, are you?" Yixing asked, and I shrugged back as a response.

"He was right. It was just a kiss, no matter how unexpected it was."

"He shouldn't have done it. I did it before and it was a mistake." Yixing shook his head, his lips frowning and his shoulders tensing as he spoke, "I used to be an intern for the largest magical corporation in the world, nicknamed MAMA. I was surrounded by people who loved knowledge like I did; people who wanted to heal the world and advance it in any way that they could. Then one day, I met a girl named Yuna. Yuna was the most brilliant out of all the people that worked at MAMA, and told me there was a way to harness power from the Tree of Life and use it to better the world. The fool that I was, I was captivated by her determination and her will, and I fell for her as she gathered the strongest, bravest, most desperate men in the world. When she told me I could be a part of it- that I could become something great in order to help our world- I believed her. Then, I was turned into this. Because I didn't stop her, eleven other men were ripped out of their lives and turned into Yuna's puppets, and the puppets of everyone who claimed us after Yuna did."

Yun was the first part of my name. Did that mean Yuna, the beautiful and brilliant woman Yixing fell for was my ancestor? Did that mean that I really did have relations to the people that cursed these mages?

"You mean you're afraid of one of them falling for me?" I asked him to be sure.

"No matter how incredibly honest and sweet you are, Yun Seung... there's always a possibility." he looked grave as he confirmed my suspicions, and his gaze moved down to his lap. I put a hand on his back and rubbed it much like Chanyeol had done for Baekhyun.

"I wouldn't want it either, Yixing." I smiled at him gently, pulling myself away and getting to my feet, "So don't worry, Yixing. I won't let it happen."

"It's not like you can change how we feel about you." After he said this, I stopped where I was and turned to him, but Yixing had also gotten to his feet and walked past me into the house.

When I had gotten into the living room, Baekhyun was sitting in the corner of the room with his arms crossed over his chest in a sulking manner and the rest of the mages were keeping as far away from him as possible.

"Yun Seung!" I looked over to Tao and saw that he'd gotten up and walked over to me, his hands on his hips and his lower lip jutted out in annoyance, "Don't ever let any one of us kiss you again, okay?"

The rest of them were sharing Yixing's sentiment? I was hoping for at least one more of them to believe that I really wasn't there to hurt them, but it appeared that no one believed that anymore. Without answering Tao, I climbed back up the stairs and into my room, making sure I locked the door behind me. I was never sure if the mages actually trusted me or not. They said they trusted me, but at the same time, they were always so worried that I'd betray them.

I didn't know where I was, but I knew it was an odd sight. It was dark around us as we stood there in the massive earthy space. Below our feet, grass was swaying and tickling at us, but just ahead, the grass disappeared and turned into a rocky terrain. I inched toward it, seeing that the rocky terrain had actually been a cliff of some sort. Jongin was beside me as I neared the edge of the cliff, though the other mages were just a few feet behind the two of us. 

Peering down from the edge of the cliff, I noticed that it was pitch black and I couldn't see anything down there; and especially not the ring box I knew I was supposed to find there. It was pitch black all around us as well, though Baekhyun had created some small orb of light in order to allow us to see each other. Although I was terrified when I stood at the edge of the cliff, I couldn't help but gasp because it was beautiful. There were stars shining over our heads, and if we were on a cliff, water had to be nearby.

When I peered over the edge again, I was surprised to see a ball of light floating ahead of Jongin and I to show me what was down there. I couldn't see the ring box from all the way up on top of the cliff, but I knew there was a stream of water rushing by. When I glanced back at Jongin, he had gotten onto his hands and knees in order to see better, but his shoulders were shaking because there was no way for us to see anything down there. Then, after taking in a deep breath, and berating myself for even thinking of the idea, I dove from the cliffside right into the water.

Thankfully, I didn't die from the impact of the water, and I didn't fall onto any rocks, either, but there was a current pulling at me and making it difficult to get closer to the water. Finally, though, I had climbed onto the rocky shore under the cliff and took in deep breaths, looking around for the ring box. The floating ball of light followed me down to the shore and lit my path so I could see around myself clearly.

Then, I spotted the ring box. Jongin was at the top of the cliff, and just under the ledge he sat on, the tenth mage's ring box was wedged between the other couple of rocks. Just as I cupped my mouth to call out to Jongin, the most terrifying thing happened. The ledge that Jongin had been sitting on crumbled, and both Jongin and the ring box were falling.

When I had sat up after my nap with my head in my hands and my eyes looking out the window to watch the clouds roll by,  it had finally clicked.

I had been kissed, and by Baekhyun, of all people.

I appologize for such a late update, everyone. I was supposed to update yesterday, but I had a doctor's appointment and then I went out of town for a few hours. I'm supposed to go out of town tomorrow, as well, so I don't know if I'll be updating. Also, I might not be able to update between July 1st and July 8th. I'm sorry, I'm going on vacation during that time.

Anyway, I think it's pretty obvious as to which mage will be found next, right? It took me a while to figure this chapter out. I didn't know what I wanted as Yixing's backstory until I got to that point and I'm actually pretty excited by it! After our favorite owl is found, there will be only two mages left to find! 

For today's question, which mage do you want to be found next? 

As always, thank you all for reading, subscribing, upvoting, commenting, and supporting my writing all together! I appreciate you all taking time out of your days in order to read this. :) Please continue to support this story, and I hope you enjoy this chapter greatly! Thanks again, my friends, and have a brilliant day!