The next day, we set off to find the tenth mage. When I had announced that I saw the next mage in my dream, the three youngest mages had gotten off the couches they were sitting on and almost tackled me to the ground as they asked who it was that I saw. When I said that it was the mage of Earth, Sehun and Tao dropped their shoulders and returned to where they had been sitting. On the other hand, Jongin was so excited that he pulled me into his arms and was spinning me around. After my incident with Baekhyun, I was more than wary to be spun around in such a manner, so I pulled myself away instantly and made sure no one could see that my cheeks had reddened.

Speaking of Baekhyun, I was relieved to know that he also didn't want to spend any more awkward moments with me and usually was in another room so he could avoid me. Unfortunately, when we set out to find the tenth mage, Baekhyun had no choice but to talk to me. The other mages, including Chanyeol and Chen, had marched ahead of us and left the two of us in the back so we could work out whatever Baekhyun and I had to work out.

Of course, for the most part, that involved me trying to inch closer to Sehun and Tao. Sehun and Tao would send me sympathetic smiles before nudging me toward Baekhyun again, but I didn't want to go anywhere near the mage of light.

"You don't have to run like that, I won't do it again." I didn't believe him completely, since he had already caught me once by surprise, but I nodded and allowed for him to catch up before I continued again with him by my side. His head was bowed as he walked, and he cleared his throat a few times even though his voice was absolutely fine.

"Why did you-"

"I'm sorry for kissing you." he had the tendency to cut me off whenever I spoke, "I was noticing how protective the others were when it comes to you, so I wanted to test it. I could have done it in another way, I know, but I knew it would have the largest reaction... and I was right."

When Baekhyun had kissed me, I hadn't been angry or even hurt; I had been too surprised by the kiss to react. Now, however, I couldn't help but feel a little hurt. Baekhyun had used me in order to see how the others would react.

"You used me." I turned to him to see he had stopped walking and was rubbing at his eyes as if he were crying. For some reason, I felt like his explanation was a lie to cover up why he really kissed me.

"I used to be a singer, you know." he sputtered as he continued rubbing at his eyes, and I glanced at the other mages to see they had gone far off, "I could get any girl I wanted, and they'd all be more than happy to comply to my requests. Until I met Yuna, that is."

Yuna? My ancestor Yuna? The one that Yixing admitted to have had feelings for?

"Yuna was brilliant and had all the resources she could ever need in order to be successful. I was drawn to her like a moth would be drawn to fire." Baekhyun continued speaking even though he was constantly wiping tears away, "I eventually fell for her, and convinced her to be mine. We had gone steady for almost a year, and then she told me about the MAMA corporation's project with the Tree of Life. She told me that if I wanted to be with her, I would have to take part in it. That if I took part in it, I could become an even better singer and light the path for many others after me." Then, Baekhyun's gaze focused on me, and the smallest of smiles lit his face, "You just reminded me so much of her that I couldn't help myself, but... but it was wrong, and I couldn't stay and tell you."

Baekhyun was with Yuna before? Baekhyun confused me with Yuna and kissed me because I reminded him of her? Of my ancestor who tricked him and broke his heart? And still had it, by the looks of it?

"But all this time it was like you hated me." I told him, my eyebrows furrowed in confusion at his confession. He insulted me more than once and spent most of his time away from me.

The mage shrugged and started to walk again, and I slowly followed him, losing my hurt and anger in the proccess, "I didn't want the others to know. None of them knew about me and Yuna, and if they did... I don't think I could live. I don't know how they'd react if they found out I'm still in love with the woman who cursed us."

I gasped as he finished. Never had I imagined that Baekhyun could have been in love with my ancestor, but it did make some sort of sense. Baekhyun had been harsher on me than any of the mages so far and now I learned that it was because I reminded him of a past love.

"I won't tell any of them," I assured him, and his red eyes slowly stopped shedding tears as he smiled at me, "Just, give me a warning next time you decide to kiss me?"

"You know, I trust you." Baekhyun was just one barrel of surprises to me, honestly, "No matter what you could do, I have the faith that what you won't do is betray us. I trust you."

I wanted to cry right then and there, because it was as if he was the first to trust me completely without some sort of "you could do this to us". Baekhyun, though he was sassy and strange by nature, was comforting when he wanted to be.

"Hey you two." When I looked ahead, Chen was looking at us with growing amusement, "Hurry up or we'll leave you here."

"How do you plan to leave her if she's the only one who can find D.O.?" Baekhyun called back, and I almost laughed at his tone. It didn't take much for Baekhyun to return to his sarcastic self.

"He's right! We should just leave Baekhyun here." Yixing continued, and I couldn't believe my ears. I take back everything I said about Yixing being gentle.

Joonmyun had stopped and turned to Baekhyun and I as well and slowly gestured to behind him with a jerk of his head, "Hurry or we won't make it by the end of the day."

Baekhyun walked up to the group and jumped onto Chanyeol's back, the taller male groaning at the sudden addition of Baekhyun's weight, "You need to warn people before you do that."

Funny, I had just told Baekhyun the same thing. As I was busy watching Baekhyun and Chanyeol bicker like children about Baekhyun's weight, I almost missed it when Sehun walked back towards me and turned around, crouching close to the ground.

"It's a pretty far walk. You might as well get on." Sehun spoke, seeing as I wasn't planning on taking his offer. After I finally agreed and climbed onto his back to be carried the rest of the way to where we'd be going to find the next mage, I turned my head and saw Tao looking over at us with a small grin.

"You're not upset with Baekhyun, are you?"

I shook my head without giving him a vocal answer, resting my head against Sehun's shoulder and hoping the ride would end quickly. Eventually, Minseok himself had gotten bored of being up front with Joonmyun, Yixing, Jongin, and Chen, and joined the three of us in the back.

"They're all so serious it's a bit terrifying." I found myself looking over at Jongin as the eldest mage spoke, and I felt myself biting my lip because it was just then that I remembered what happened in the dream, and I was worried about Jongin.

Like he knew I was looking at him, Jongin turned around and smiled widely at me before his attention returned to whatever was before him. It was then that I realized how dark it was becoming and that we were making our way onto a lush green field that stretched out for miles. I was let down as we stepped onto the grass, because Sehun had been thrilled by the fact that he was on grass because wind usually kept grass alive and kicking. A few feet ahead, Baekhyun had also been let down from Chanyeol's back and created a small orb of light within his hands to guide us through the night.

Since I was the only one who knew where the box actually was, I ended up walking in front of the other mages and looking back to see they had all followed me- with the exception of Jongin. When I looked to my side, Jongin was striding along with me and his eyes were twinkling in joy as we got closer and closer to the rocky terrain.

"The cliff is up ahead," I announced, and when Jongin nodded back to me with determination, the two of us walked onto the rocky cliff area. I tried looking down from the ledge, but all I saw was the blackness that covered the water and the rest of the cliff's underside. Just the light of the stars and of the orb of light created by Baekhyun wasn't enough, I realized, because it was still too dark to see anything but our own bodies and perhaps the person closest to us.

Like in my dream, when I peered over the edge again, a small ball of light was floating just above the ledge to show us just what we were looking at. There was a large body of water below us, and though I couldn't hear it very well, I knew it was still flowing as we watched on. With a sigh of frustration, Jongin had gotten down onto the ground and reached under the cliff's ledge for anything that could be sticking out between the rocks. It was dangerous, and I wanted to make him stop since it was so unsafe, but his trembling voice stopped me.

"Hyung, where are you?"

In the end, that's what convinced me to dive into the open waters in order to have a better look at the underside of the cliff. It was a very stupid idea, that much I knew from the time I had almost drowned when finding Minseok, but I had already put my pistols down onto the ground and had taken a step back.

"Yun Seung, what are you doing?" Joonmyun's voice had raised just slightly, holding a warning as he walked closer to me, "Back away from the cliff."

That seemed to snap Jongin out of his desperation as well, and when he saw what I was going to do, he reached out to me with a gasp, "Don't do it!"

It was too late, though. I had dodged both Jongin's hand as well as Joonmyun's, and I dove into the water, making sure I kept in as much air as I could before I hit the water. Though the water wasn't as cold as it was when I went searching for Minseok and Joonmyun, it was still pretty cold and the impact made me lose air almost immediately. I gulped in as much air as I could find when I resurfaced, feeling a little greedy about just how much air I was taking.

The light that had somehow formed while I was up there flew after me, and after struggling to keep up with the water current, I was able to pull myself onto shore in order to look around under the cliff's face. I spotted the ring box almost immediately and grinned as I tilted my head back in order to see it better. I suppose Jongin had leaned forward more in order to watch me as I got farther from his view, but that was enough to disrupt the poorly balanced cliffside, and the top of it came tumbling down with Jongin and the tenth mage's ring box. 

By some sort of miracle, as he fell, Jongin reached out and grasped the ring box in his hands before he teleported away. I let out a deep breath I didn't know I was holding and I believed that Jongin teleported back to where the other mages had grouped up, but then I heard Jongin's panting and turned my head to see him right beside me, holding out the ring box.

"Please..." he didn't say any more than that, and he didn't need to. I already knew how desperate he must have been in order to do the things he did just to find the box. 

After momentarily being awed by the silver lettering of EXO surrounding the ring box, I opened the box and squinted my eyes in order to figure out the symbol the ring had on its center- it was a stone of some sort. Finally, I slipped the ring onto my left hand's thumb, and the ring rested against where Joonmyun's ring already sat.

Ten mages down, just two more and a nightmare to go.

It's my first double update for the story! Oh em chicken. Well, maybe it's not a double update since I updated the last chapter a couple of hours before midnight, but I just finished the next chapter. I hope it clears up some confusions, but if it doesn't, I'll work on making the next chapter even better! I hope you like this chapter as well.

The next question is;

Who's backstory are you more curious about now? Tao's, Kai's, Chen's, or Chanyeol's?

Like always, thanks for all the reading, subscribing, upvoting, commenting, and supporting! I again hope that this chapter has been written better than the chapter before it. If not, the next chapter will hopefully be even better! But yes, I hope you all enjoy this chapter and have a brilliant day!