I ended up in the house by myself. How did I get there? I teleported as soon as Joonmyun told me the truth about all of us dying together. Though a part of me was comforted that we'd be together until the end, there was still the fact that I was now completely responsible for the lives and deaths of ten mages with two more to be found.

Why hadn't they told me earlier? Did they distrust me that much that they didn't bother to even tell me that I could kill all of them? Now I wasn't sure if I was ready to continue searching for the other two mages at all. If I was bound to get us all killed, then why bother trying anyway? I was trying to give them another chance to live, not a quicker way to die.

I realized it wouldn't take long for the rest of them to appear, so I did what I could and ran into my room to be alone with my thoughts. The knowledge started to cloud my own heart in doubt. All the times they had been worried about me getting hurt or sick, did they only mean that because they were worried for their own safety? Was I really only a way for them to get close to one another again and nothing more? 

A while later, and I'm not sure when it was exactly, but the door to my room was being knocked on with Sehun and Tao's voices calling me from the other side. I wasn't ready to talk to them, obviously, since I had just been given news that affected me greatly, so I didn't move from my bed and I waited until they apologized and left to go to sleep themselves.

Not only was I the descendent of the person who put them all in their rings, but now I learned that I also hold the key as to whether they all get to live or die. If I had learned that it was only I who faced death during our journeys, that would have been fine- heck, that was what I believed all this time. Now, however, it's different. Now I know that with a stupid mistake I could kill the people who were now the closest to me. 

Sleep evaded me that night and I stayed up huddled in a corner of my room. Call me dramatic, but with all the things I was learning recently, it was a little difficult for me to stay calm. Who would stay calm if they learned of the things I learned? I stayed in my corner until morning, when Jongin teleported into my room with a tray of breakfast in hand and slowly put it down on my bedside table before sitting down on the floor across from me.

"Have you slept?"

I didn't answer him.

"Are you hungry at all?"

I refused to even look up from my knees.

"Tao was crying last night."

Though I was worried about Tao, I couldn't help but remain bitter.

"And Sehun, the kid's always had a soft spot for you."

My mind flashed back to the night before, when Sehun and Tao had been calling me.

"Chanyeol, too. Blubbering something about wanting you to see us all together."

In all the time I had known Chanyeol, he had only ever smiled.

"We'll all be in the living room if you want to talk."

With that, Jongin left, and my eyes darted over to the breakfast he'd brought me. The smell of it had been filling my nostrils, and only because Cook Park had made breakfast almost just as wonderful.

I hesitated for a few moments before crawling over to the food and eating as much of it as I could. After I finished, I decided I would teleport to the kitchen, drop my dishes in the sink, and then teleport right back to my room. When I got to the kitchen, however, D.O. was facing the stove with an apron around his waist and turned to me when I came in.

With his lips pressed into a firm line, D.O. glanced from the tray in my hands to my face before his eyes narrowed, "Is it not to your liking?"

Remembering how vocally aggressive he had been the day before when we first met, I didn't exactly want to talk to him, and my feet actually backed away from him slowly, though my arms stretched out in order to place the tray onto the kitchen counter, "I-it was great, but it was too much."

"Sit down." I sat down immediately at the kitchen table and D.O. sat across from me with his arms crossed over the table's surface in what could have either been amusement or annoyance. I bet he was annoyed, though. He kept his eyes trained on me as we sat, and after fidgeting for a few moments, I heard him clear his throat, "Jongin and I were both heirs to successful businesses. Much like all of the other heirs of successful businesses, Jongin and I were both pretentious and obnoxious. The only difference was that Jongin was openly obnoxious and ignored anyone he had no interest in, while I shut myself in."

I watched D.O. as he spoke, because whenever he spoke of Jongin, his tone became so sweet and full of admiration that I found it increasingly difficult to be mad at D.O.

"When we had met, Jongin didn't like me. He said I was too quiet and it got on his nerves. I thought he was rude and that his voice was too loud for my own comfort, so we avoided each other to the best of our abilities. One day as I was walking downtown, I passed an alleyway and saw that a few men were brawling in it. I wanted to ignore it, at first, but I recognized his hair and I found myself waiting for the brawl to end."

He stopped for a moment to catch his breath, his head shaking slowly at the memories brought by his meeting with Jongin, "Jongin lost and was left on the ground bleeding. When he saw me standing there, he sneered and asked me if I was going to tell on him. I just draped my jacket over him to keep him warm, and then I left. After that, we were joined at the hip, and he trailed after me everywhere I went calling me hyung."

"It's like with Chen and Chanyeol." I didn't mean to say it out loud, but when D.O. stared up at me, I knew it was too late to take my words back. 

"They told you about their past, too?" D.O.'s lips curved into a worried frown for a moment, but then he shook his head again, "I've never seen all the mages trust a master so fully, it got me worried about-"

"What if I betrayed them?" I finished it for him because it was obvious, and because they had all already shared with me that there were possibilities of my betrayal.

"Or of us not making it to the end of the journey." he added on, not seeming to be upset that I had cut him off. His eyes flew over to the door leading into the living room before focusing on me again, "But that's something we should all be able to talk about together."

Just as I opened my mouth to disagree and tell him I'd just go back to my room, his eyes narrowed and I found my feet moving to the living room on their own accord. I swear D.O. snickered as he followed me into the living room where nine mages sat and stared at us with pale facial expressions.

"Yun Seung!" Chen leaned forward in his seat, whether to run away to his room or to run over to me.

I was still a little upset with the other mages, but I felt guilt tug at my strings when neither Tao, Sehun or Chanyeol looked up at me. Yixing and Chen were constantly looking between D.O. and myself, while the two elders had their stern expressions on me alone. Jongin and Baekhyun weren't looking at anyone in particular, but gauging everyone else's reactions.

"You should sit, Yun Seung." Baekhyun's voice had me looking over to him instantly, and though there was space to sit between him and Chanyeol on the floor, I shook my head and looked at the other mages. There was also some sitting space between Yixing and Chen on the floor, as well as Sehun and Tao. I figured Jongin and D.O. would be wanting to share the couch Jongin was sitting on, and that left the one other couch that Joonmyun and Minseok were sharing.

Slowly, I walked over to Sehun and Tao, and the two of them snapped their heads up at me. Tao's eyes were red again while Sehun's were slightly puffy. It took only a moment for them before they realized what I had gone to them for, and like old times, the three of us huddled together as we sat.

"Are you still..." Tao looked away as he asked, his voice trailing off into a whisper. I just barely shook my head and he nodded, his lips curving into the faintest of smiles.

"You're really not mad?" Chanyeol's voice was filled with excitement, and as I looked up at him, I couldn't help but smile back at his bright expression.

"No, Chanyeol, I'm really not mad." Baekhyun was smiling next to Chanyeol and a couple of other voices chuckled, but when I looked over at Joonmyun and Minseok, their expressions hadn't changed, "But I'd like... to have it explained to me."

"Well you see, it's like this." Joonmyun his lips and tried to speak, but for a few moments, he just sat there, unable to continue.

"It's a little difficult for us to explain." Minseok explained, trying to formulate an answer of his own to share with me.

Yixing looked at both of the elders and then to the rest of the mages before shifting forward in his seat and drawing attention to himself, "When they started working on the project with the Tree of Life, there was one worry that all the scientists and magical beings shared- what if we tried to kill our masters? In that case, we would have more power and the rings themselves would just be mere trinkets. So, they enchanted the rings and infused our essences into the rings. Basically, we're tied to the rings, and you're wearing the rings. I assume you've already tried and failed to take the rings off your finger. This is in case one of us were to try and take our ring and run off. We have no choice but to stay with you until you die, which will lead to our deaths, or wait for you to find a magical being who would be willing to help you get those rings off."

I glanced down at the rings on my fingers and remembered the time I had tried to take off my ring- it was when I first found Tao and I was freaking out because of the bright light it produced as Tao came out of the ring. My heart felt heavy as Yixing explained everything, because everything was formed in order to keep the mages from having any freedom whatsoever.

"We didn't tell you because we knew of how worried you would be." Sehun muttered from beside me, and I lifted my head just slightly to hear him better, "We were afraid that you'd be too worried to continue searching for the rest and we're all just so desperate to be together again that we didn't think we'd need to warn you."

"Don't you trust me?" I got to my feet as I asked, my voice raising in octaves and my body shaking in a mix of fear, anger and the longing to be understood, "You always say you trust me, all of you, and then you talk of all the things I can do to betray you or hurt you. You ten are the only people I have left in my life, I wouldn't have anything to go back to even if I betrayed you."

It was the first time I'd ever gotten so angry, and in front of the mages, nonetheless. They all stared up at me with expressions of shock, disbelief, and in some cases fear. All their expression lasted only moments, however, before they contorted into worry.

For a moment, I wondered why they were all staring at me in such a way, and then I realized I was sobbing. Chanyeol's reaction immediately followed, and the normally goofy mage was up and holding me in his arms within seconds. Someone else was rubbing my back and another voice was apologizing. I couldn't tell at that point, because I was focusing on the heat Chanyeol's body shared with me. A heat that eventually had my sobs quiet and my eyes shut.

A heat that I had been wrapped up in until it disappeared completely and I realized I was in my nightmare.

I had to do this one last update before going off for vacation. There is a 99.999999% chance that I won't update for almost a week, but I'll be writing while I'm on vacation and you'll have your next chapter up quickly! Have a very fun Fourth of July weekend for anyone celebrating it, and to everyone else, just have a good time living! :)

You guys didn't want me to introduce the next mage, so I didn't. I don't count the nightmare as an introduction at this point since Yun Seung's already had it like what, three times?

For today's question: Which mage would you prefer to be found next, Luhan or Kris?

As always, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading, subscribing, upvoting, commenting, and over all supporting this story! It means a lot to me and I'm so glad I haven't lost all of my readers just yet. I hit the 300 comments mark just today, and I'm so very very proud of this story. I hope you all take care, enjoy this chapter, and have a wonderful weekend!