When my eyes opened again, I noticed I hadn't been moved an inch. I was still laying down on the couch, and BAP and my mages were discussing things in hushed tones. They didn't seem completely comfortable with each other, of course, but I was glad my mages were able to make at least a couple of friendships after being asleep for so long.

Sehun was the first to notice I was awake and slowly stepped away from where the other mages and BAP were huddled. He pulled me up so that I was sitting and then laid down on the couch with his head on my lap. Laughing lightly, I ran my fingers through his hair and remembered the time Jongin had done something similar to me.

"They're a little skeptical about letting us go back to your town." His voice was low so that the other mages wouldn't be distracted, yet Chanyeol and D.O. looked our way. Chanyeol smiled as he saw me and turned back, but D.O.'s eyes narrowed as he focused on me.

"She's awake."

Suddenly, I was aware that everyone had turned to me. What they were thinking, I didn't know, but I wasn't very comfortable with being stared at in such a way.

Joonmyun, being the ever cautious and gentle leader, walked over to where Sehun and I were. The other mages trailed after him, but I couldn't look past the worry in Joonmyun's eyes.

"We have a few questions for you, if you don't mind answering them."

I realized that even if I didn't want to answer their questions, I had no choice but to answer them. Yixing was holding the map within his hands and Minseok was looking at it from over his shoulder. Both males had their eyebrows furrowed, as if they saw something on the map that didn't make sense. When I looked over to Tao, I realized I knew what had concerned them. They were wondering why I wanted to go in one direction when Kris was in the other. Tao's shoulders were tense as he stood there silently, waiting for someone else to decide the plan of action.

"Are you really the descendant of the women who put us in these rings?" It was Baekhyun who asked, and when I looked over at him, his posture wasn't any more relaxed than Tao's. Baekhyun had once said he was in love with Yuna, and that I reminded him of her. I felt my head nod just slightly, and the betrayal in his eyes spoke volumes to me, "Why didn't you tell us?"

"We told her not to." Minseok answered for me, and the other magical beings turned to him and Joonmyun in surprise, "We were planning to tell you when Kris was with us, so you wouldn't forget what she's doing for us and instead remember who she has been born as."

Scoffing, Baekhyun turned his back on the rest of us and walked away, and I couldn't help but feel the tug on my heartstrings to follow him and apologize for all that I had hidden from them.

"We still had a right to know." In contrast to Minseok's strong and straightforward tone, Chen's had gone quiet and almost timid, "We were all affected by Yuna and the sorceress sisters."

"And of us all, Yun Seung has had to deal with the most." Everyone but Baekhyun then turned to Jongin, who crossed his arms over his chest as he stood beside D.O., "Despite who she was and who she could be, she found us all, promised to free us, and is still working to free us."

The room had gone silent for a few minutes, and as my fingers continued running through Sehun's hair, I took that time to look over the beings in the room. Baekhyun was still facing away from us, though I could see the shaking in his shoulders. The BAP warlocks were standing against the wall with their eyes flickering over us in amusement. Himchan even winked as I passed over his gaze, my eyes falling onto Luhan's in the corner of the group.

"I have a question." Luhan stepped forward as soon as he saw he had my attention. For a moment, his eyes flickered down to where Sehun was laying, and then he looked up at me with his lips curled into a curious frown, "What happened when we left the isle?"

My fingers froze then and I felt myself flinch. It hadn't been too long since I escaped and I was certainly scarred by what had happened in that temple. I found my hand suddenly being clasped into Sehun's, and when I looked down to see his reassuring gaze looking back at me, I let them know everything that had happened. When I looked up again, my eyes immediately went off toward Baekhyun. He had turned around during my story; and though his eyes were red from shedding tears, his features were soft.

"They said they 'helped her understand'?" When I nodded my head to confirm, Yixing's eyes darkened and he dropped his shoulders, "They possessed her. They were known during our time as humans as masters of the mind."

"Yuna would have never agreed to what they did. I should have remembered that." Muttered Chanyeol, and when I looked at the goofy giant, his eyes were clouded in guilt. How well did these mages know Yuna?

"We have to find Kris." Tao finally spoke his heart's true desire, though his shoulders remained tense as he focused his gaze on me, "Why are we going to the town when the map says Kris is somewhere else?"

I didn't know how to tell them that Kris had been appearing in my nightmares and that I finally realized he was in my castle back in town. I didn't have a reason as to why I was right and we should go where I decide is right to go. Like Yixing said, my ancestors were known as masters of the mind. What if they somehow warped my mind into thinking Kris was at home? 

"I have a feeling. Just trust me, please." No one spoke for a moment as I asked for their trust, and for a moment, I believed that meant that they wouldn't go with me again.

When someone cleared their throat, I looked up to see Joonmyun nod his head, "We'll follow you to the ends of the Earth."

"Do you really think you can afford to take that risk?" Yongguk's voice had me thinking that maybe he didn't want to be of help to us anymore, what with them being told to return us to the government, "We are coming with you."

"No way." I shook my head rapidly, and the magical beings had their eyes widened as they never expected for me to decline the help from BAP, "If you get caught helping us, they'll trial you with treason. I don't want them to put you in rings."

"They wouldn't be able to put us in rings." Himchan's lips were curved into a smirk as he corrected me, and with a shake of his head, he pushed off the wall, "They already have us tied to bracelets."

Yongguk cleared his throat when the room reached another silence, "We've had the same master for centuries. He'd saved our lives when our bracelets fell into Yunsoo's hands. He'd asked if he could free us, much like you plan to, but we decided we'd enjoy living as his companion. He's a good kid- a little clumsy and with a questionable group of friends, though."

"He gives you freedom?" D.O.'s eyes narrowed as if the idea itself were absurd, but I just watched Himchan smile and nod once more.

"He lets us do whatever we want. If he needs something, he just goes into a small meeting room like this one. Since Youngjae created it, he knows whenever someone enters one of his rooms, so we never miss our master when he needs us."

"Lee Jinki. Your master is Lee Jinki?" It made sense to me, since they had insinuated that senior Lee Jinki tipped it off to them that I had gone looking for the rings. It made sense that senior Lee Jinki was so worried when I told him I had to find the rings.

"Your childhood love, yes." Yongguk's voice had hints of amusement filling it now. As another voice cleared his throat, Yongguk continued, seeing the confusion on my face, "We enchanted him when we first met him. It enabled his age to change, so that is why you believe you grew up with our master."

Clearing his throat once more, Minseok cut into our conversation and tilted his head, "This Lee Jinki; would he be able to get us into the town without being detected?"

The sound of a wall creaking had me turn my head to Youngjae. The warlock was grinning as he pulled his hand away from a section of the wall that had actually disappeared into the ground, "Why don't you ask him yourself?"

"Guk, we have-" senior Lee Jinki looked nervous as he walked into the room, but he cut himself off as he saw the mages in the room, and finally, me.

"-Guests."

Senior Lee Jinki had always been handsome. He always dressed his best and had the kind of smile that could melt my heart easily; but at that moment, I felt nothing. He was still good looking, but I silently realized that any one of my mages was much more handsome than he was.

The fact that he was a familiar face had me both relieved and worried. Relieved because he was still alive, but worried because he had bruises and cuts lining up his entire frame and he looked as if he would fall over right there.

"Yixing, can you heal him?" I asked, and even though Yixing looked at me in surprise, he nodded and hurriedly crossed over to senior Lee Jinki in order to heal him. As he did, I slowly pushed Sehun off of me and joined the two of them where they stood.

"You're still alive." senior Lee Jinki breathed in relief. He made no move to reject the healing, but his attention was solely on me. Someone coughed then, and finally remembering we weren't alone, senior Lee Jinki let his eyes roam over the mages, "You found them."

"Most of them." Joonmyun slowly made his way over to us as well and held a hand out for senior Lee Jinki, "You must be Jinki. We wanted to ask for your help."

Seeing the confusion on senior Lee Jinki's face, Yongguk explained the situation, and Lee Jinki's face went from nervous to terrified. His hand kept randomly flying to his hair as if something about it was bothering him, and tears were forming at the corners of his eyes.

"Well that's going to be a problem." Lee Jinki sounded apologetic, but I knew there was something even worse that was going on, "But that's why I came down here. I was given my letter of promotion today. I'm to go to the frontline-"

I gasped, as did the BAP warlocks. Senior Lee Jinki was going off to the frontline; no, he was actually going off to be transformed into one of them. 

"-the day after tomorrow. I thought of running away, of hiding until they gave up on me... but I can't do that to my boys. They don't even know what this means."

He was talking about SHINee, and though I didn't have very fond moments of anyone in our town, I knew that it was different for senior Lee Jinki. Even if he was centuries years old, he still found himself in SHINee, and those boys looked up to him.

With that, senior Lee Jinki became exhausted by his own fear, and he was taken to another room by Youngjae and Daehyun. I know that even though senior Lee Jinki showed some faith in me over the years, he was no different from everyone else who belittled me. However, I remembered that Lee Jinki treated me like a little sister and that he was the one that let me go after the rings. 

"I wish... I wish I could do something to help him." I dropped my head and sighed, picturing senior Lee Jinki as he was forced into becoming one of them. Would he be scared, or was I thinking little of him?

"You told us before, of a boy who allowed you to come find us." Minseok spoke out of nowhere, and I lifted my head just slightly in order to hear him better, "Was that Lee Jinki?"

All I did was nod, and the next moment, the mages as well as the confused BAP warlocks that remained trailed off into the room senior Lee Jinki was brought into, and I slowly followed them. I watched as the mages looked to each other, and a dangerous gleam entered their gazes. Finally, Joonmyun smirked and cracked the knuckles on his fingers.

"Forget going into town undetected. As of now, it is under the control of EXO."

I have no excuses for my tardiness. I only ask that you wait to kill me until I finish the story. It has a long way to go and I don't think you guys want it to end here. Dun dun dun, by the way. Originally, Lee Jinki was supposed to be a sorcerer and BAP was supposed to be evil, but things happen. I'm still trying to figure out what's going to happen next, but it's definitely something that has to do with hostile takeover.

Someone has commented earlier and requested that I do a side story that explains EXO's backstories and how they became mages. It would basically be a chapter each and explain how each of them was chosen to become a mage and how the process went. It would be the past so the OC of the time would be Yuna and it would practically be a prequel to this story, and I plan to call it the Flower Girl. What do you think? Should I go on ahead with the prequel so you can know all about their backgrounds instead of the small snippets I give on here?

Anyway; as always, thanks for reading, subscribing, commenting, upvoting, and over all just supporting this story! I'm a terribly lazy author that only updates once in a while but I truly love you guys and all your comments and all of your- well, I just love you. I'm trying to make this story even better but even I make mistakes. Please, feel free to tell me whenever I do something badly so I may correct myself! Continue to support this story, and enjoy this chapter. Have a brilliant day!