When Luhan woke up and learned that his powers weren't working, he almost started freaking out. The twelve mages had gone to another town in order to destroy it and rebuild it much like they had done to Yun Seung's, and all seemed well until that morning. Chanyeol and Chen had been running circles around him the night before, exclaiming how eager they were to start working on the town they were currently in.

Luhan didn't get it at first, why the two mages were so excited to destroy the town when they hadn't been this eager to do it to Yun Seung's, but he knew the reason was Yun Seung herself. With no leads on how to find Yun Seung, the twelve mages were doing whatever they could do to keep themselves busy and keep their minds from worrying too much. 

For magical beings like Luhan who had mental powers, being worried was a terrible thing; really, any extreme amount of emotion was dangerous for him. The last time he had reached an overwhelming amount of emotion was when he was betrayed by Yuna, and ended up destroying half of the lab the mages had been held in. No other emotion had driven him to lose his power, however, and for that he was worried.

"Maybe the others lost their powers too." It wasn't a completely positive thought, of course, but it would make him feel better than he was feeling about not using his powers. There was little anyone could have done to the group in order to stop their powers, but he refused to be the weak link again.

The first pair of mages he checked on was Chanyeol and Chen. The two troublemakers were as energetic as they were the night before when they had expressed their excitement, and their powers worked as well as they always did.

"Lu?" Chen had stopped his destruction of a poor one story house in order to look at the blonde haired mage, his head tilted to the side in wonder, "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be working on the barriers with Min?"

"Sorry, Jongdae, I just wanted to check on you." It was true, but he felt uneasy in their presence as the two of them glanced between each other and then back to him as if they knew his secrets better than he did.

"Are you okay?" Chanyeol lifted a hand to check on Luhan's temperature, but the mage merely shook his head and quickly walked off, waving a hand behind him.

"I'm fine. Enjoy your demolition job."

His next targets happened to be Baekhyun and D.O., since the two of them were close to where Chanyeol and Chen were in order to make up blueprints for construction. They were staring at the destructive pair in blatant disappointment, but were quick to turn to Luhan as the male approached.

"Were they so loud that even you had to check on them?" D.O. had an eyebrow raised as he asked, his gaze quickly turning onto the fire and lightning mages before returning to Luhan's, "Or is something troubling you?"

Because Luhan didn't want to alarm anyone or let them on to his growing worries, he shook his head and forced a smile onto his lips, "I was just wondering if it's fun working here after those two monkeys tear up town."

"We've been tempted to just blast them and get it over with." Baekhyun finally allowed some amusement to cross his facial expressions as he and D.O. shared a nod and a longing sigh.

Translation- their powers worked absolutely fine. That left Luhan dropping his shoulders in disappointment, and he walked to the tent Kris and Joonmyun had set up in the center of the town. There was no reason to check on the other mages, because it was obviously only Luhan that had lost access to his powers, but he was afraid of what the leaders had to say to him.

Kris and Joonmyun were huddled over the map the same way they always were, but they were distracted enough to look at Luhan when the tent flap had moved. Joonmyun turned back after confirming it was only Luhan, but Kris walked closer to the mage with his arms crossed over his chest in irritance.

"What are you doing here? Minseok came in here looking for you." Luhan guiltily dropped his head as he was scolded, but Kris wouldn't have that and gently lifted Luhan's chin, and though he was younger, Kris was taking care of him, "What's going on, Lu?"

Luhan wanted to tell him, he really did, but he couldn't stand being the one that dragged everyone back again, so he forced another smile upon his lips and shook his head, "Sorry, Yifan, I just got distracted."

For a moment, Kris stared at him in disbelief, and it took all Luhan had in order to keep himself composed, "Then get back to work, Lu. We have to get to the next town by the end of the week."

Just as he was about to leave the tent, Joonmyun called his name, and Luhan slowly turned back, "You don't have to worry, Lu. I don't know what you're worried about, but you don't have to worry."

Luhan forced himself to nod and he left their tent; and instead of making his way to the border where Minseok was most likely waiting for him, Luhan journeyed on foot to a place where he could be alone and figure out what was going on with him. He found one at a small lake, perching himself ontop of a small boulder with his eyes wandering and taking in all the beauty he saw.

He was used to meditation, since it kept his emotions in check, but everyone knew just how emotional Luhan was. Luhan kept his emotions at bay, and wasn't afraid of them until the emotions got too hard for him to control. Many years ago, there was an incident where his loss of control had put all of their lives at risk.

They had been devising a plan to escape MAMA Corporation for a month, with Jongin and Minseok quickly overpowering the guards that handled them. Ten minutes after they had escaped their holding cell, alarms sounded and the building started to go on lock down, with guards running at them from every hallway; and Luhan started to panic. His powers, when under panic, went out of control and equipment went flying around the room as the others tried to calm him down. The worst part, however, were the metal doors that were slowly closing on them and keeping them in the room of danger.

It had been a long time ago, and the others had already forgiven him, but Luhan didn't want to be the one that ruined everything again; he refused to be that person. After that incident, he had taught himself meditation and learned it was the key to keeping his emotions balanced.

"There you are." One of Luhan's eyes flew open as Jongin walked up to him. The other ten mages were behind him, but they all stepped back when they noticed Luhan was meditating, "We've been looking all over for you."

"What's going on with you?" Yixing was trying to check his forehead like Chanyeol had done earlier, but everyone knew there was nothing physical bothering Luhan.

There were many reasons Luhan didn't want to tell them what was bothering him, but only one reason made him want to tell them after all; they were brothers. If anyone were able to help him, it would be his brothers. So, in the end, he did tell them the day's events and why he was sitting there and meditating at such an off time. Though a couple of the mages seemed to be amused that he had worried enough to lose his powers, they hadn't sneered at him or thought of him to be weak; if anything, they had been supportive enough to sit down and meditate with him.

"You bottle your emotions up too much." Jongin's voice startled him, startled everyone, as Luhan turned to the mage of teleportation, "For those of us who rely on our minds like you, me, Yixing, Yifan and Zitao, emotions are important. Yes, it's terrifying for you to lose control of them, but when you bottle them up, you're not doing yourself any favors."

"He's right, hyung." Luhan wondered how Tao and Jongin had become so wise despite their young ages that even they were teaching him, but it only made him smile, "When you're angry, you should take it out on something, or cry when you're upset. You bottling your emotions could be why your powers decided not to work this time."

Luhan nodded, but his attention was brought to Yixing, who spoke a moment later, "What have you been worried about?"

Though he thought it was obvious, the others looked to him like he would be sharing a dark secret, "I was one of the last to be found, but I feel like I'm the one who knows her the least. Even Yifan had a psychic connection with her and became closer to her before I could even think of it. I'm jealous, and I'm worried; because what if something happens to her, or even worse, what if she's okay but decides to never come back for us? Does that mean I'm the only one who will never get to know her?"

Joonmyun sighed then, and the first leader stood and crossed over to him, placing a hand on Luhan's deflated shoulder, "I forgot that you haven't had much time to interact with her. I'm sorry, Luhan."

"For what it's worth, I think you and her had good chemistry." D.O. muttered as he stood up as well, followed by the other mages, "You were eager to get to know her, and you certainly treat her better than I did."

A couple of the other mages glared at D.O., but didn't say anything as they walked away, leaving Luhan there with Kris and Sehun. Kris had a small smile on his lips as he stood in front of Luhan with a finger pointed to his own forehead, "Sometimes, the only way to keep our emotions stable is to stop thinking. It's difficult at first, but it makes listening to Jongdae's mindless drawl easier."

Sehun didn't leave with him but took a seat next to Luhan on the boulder and joined the elder in staring out at the water. It was silent for a moment because the two of them were close enough to be in each other's presence without talking, but even they couldn't understand each other sometimes.

"Do you miss her?" Luhan finally asked, as Sehun hadn't mentioned her in a couple of days, and Luhan was also starting to worry about him.

"More and more every day." And then, Sehun chuckled and wrapped an arm around Luhan to keep him warm as the moons appeared in the sky. Luhan wondered how it got so dark so quickly, and he also wondered why everyone else was taking care of him.

"But you don't talk about her anymore." Luhan pointed out simply, and with a deep sigh, Sehun rested his head against Luhan's shoulder.

"Because just saying I miss her won't bring her back, hyung." Luhan turned his head to the younger for a moment, and saw the tears that were streaming down his face, "But the twelve of us are here; together, free. Isn't this what we've been wishing for?"

Luhan wished to agree, to say that yes, it is what they wanted and all they could ever need, but he wasn't quite sure anymore. Even if he didn't know Yun Seung very well, he knew enough that the other mages were really fond of Yun Seung's presence in their lives.

Once upon a time, he had been the weak link, unable to control his emotions when he really needed to; but maybe it was best that he didn't control his emotions. If his emotions hadn't stopped them, he would have never become closer to the other eleven mages that shared his fate. If they had escaped from MAMA corporation that night, he would have never become friends with Sehun. He would have never learned meditation to keep his strongest emotions from acting out. He would have never met and been freed by Yun Seung.

For the first time since becoming a mage, Luhan felt that he was never the weak link.

Sorry to everyone who wanted someone else to be the main character of this chapter, but I really wanted it to be Luhan, simply because a lot of the other mages have their own chapters unwinding after this chapter and the past two featuring Xiumin and D.O. Now some of you might be wondering why I'm still not going into depth about their backgrounds and stuff, and that is merely because their backgrounds will be completely revealed in the prequel, The Flower Girl, which will be uploaded as soon as this story is complete. We still have a long, long way to go.

As always, thanks for reading, subscribing, upvoting, commenting, and over all supporting this story! We passed the 20,000 views mark recently, though I forgot to let you know earlier. It's very exciting to know that this story has enough support to have over 20,000 views. Dal and I hope to one day find our story on the "Featured" list, and until then, I hope you're all here to continually support this story. I hope you enjoy this chapter, and have an amazing day!