The night we reached the terribly mysterious house, I remained in the study room to think of possible ways as to why someone would have a map of the area when every smart town had already retracted to the underground. The worst part about the discovery of the map was the twelve pins scattered around the paper; and I didn't even know there were ten more mages to find! Wait, no, the worst part would be that someone knew about the mages and exactly where they'd be. Which brought me to another realization.

According to the pin placements on the map, I'd come to the realization that there was a mage in the town we were in currently; if not, the house.

My first thought was to bolt out of the room and tell Tao and Sehun about the map, but I wanted to be sure that it was correct before bursting into my full on panic mode. That said, I started to venture around the second floor of the house, where I currently sat in one of the rooms. I walked up and down the hallway, but there were only rooms, closets, and even a couple of bathrooms on the floor.

I decided to take advantage of the first bathroom I saw and ended up taking a long and well-needed bath. The bathroom was well stocked with all sorts of things, and I even  let out a sigh of relief when I saw a shelf of feminine care products as well as a bottle of lavender scented bubble bath soap. 

So, being the child I was, I filled the bath with the bubble soap, and pretended I had bubbles growing out of my skin for a while.The water was warm and soothing, and I unknowingly let my eyes close as I drifted off to sleep.

...

I knew I was still in the house when I looked around. The lights were on, but I could tell that the walls here were the same as the walls in the bathroom I knew I fell asleep in.

Yet, I didn't know where I was. None of the rooms I looked at had this kind of layout. The inside of this room was trashed, with papers all over the massive space, bookshelves and desks thrown around and practically destroyed, and even worse was the pile of wood sitting in the corner of the room.

Whatever this room was meant to be, scared me. There was a table in the middle, something that looked like it could be found in the Academy's biology lab. To further increase my horror, there were surgical instruments thrown around the floor surrounding the table as if they were flung around. The person who was dissecting things had obviously gotten irritated at what was going on.

The problem was that I couldn't see what was being dissecting; and I hoped that it wasn't a human. Without me knowing, I had started lifting papers off the ground and tossing them wherever I could. I didn't know what I was looking for, and I couldn't feel the things I was touching, but there was panic shaking my heart as if whatever I was looking for was so important that I was terrified that I possibly wouldn't ever be able to find it again.

Suddenly, I saw Tao and Sehun join me in the room, and when I looked up at them, they seemed to find something written in my face, for they immediately started looking under bookshelves and desks, and even under the dissection table.

Then, I realized where none of us had bothered to look. The corner covered with a pile of wood seemed like a perfect place to look and I raced over, tossing plank of wood after plank of wood so that I could see what was underneath it. Finally, my fingers seemed to brush against what I was looking for, and I glanced down at the familiar smooth black velvet box with the mysterious letters, "EXO" imprinted on it's flat surfaces.

Like expected, there were a few cuts scattered alongside the box's frame, either because of the wooden planks or the dissecting table that now sat flipped over on the other side of the room. Just as I leaned down to pick up the box and brush off all the sawdust covering it, it disappeared, and in a panic, I turned my head to see where it had gone off to.

I don't know why it had disappeared like that so suddenly, but perhaps whover was in the ring inside of that box was frightened I would harm him in the same way. After my eyes darted around for a few moments, I finally caught the box sitting on on of the bookshelves that was lying face down. I stood up to get closer to it, but it disappeared again, and I saw it land now on one of the desks. Tao and Sehun slowly tiptoed so that they were standing on two sides of the box to corner it, but I was still afraid it would disappear again.

This box was seriously going to give me a panic attack, but all I could do was hope dumbly that it would come back to me after all. Suddenly, a breeze filled the room, and as Tao, Sehun and I braced ourselves, it circled the box and kept it in place. The two mages with me seemed to be dumbstruck, or more like fearstruck, but I found my gaze once again captured on the box.

That sudden urge to run away filled me again, but I found myself taking slow steps forward and reaching out for the box that slowly fell into my cupped hands, the wind disappearing as quickly as it appeared. I smiled sadly at the condition of the box, and then my fingers slowly opened the box.

...

The same time Sehun decided to open the bathroom's door and gasp loudly as he shut it again. That effectively woke me up to a start and I looked down at the water surrounding me. The bubbles had died out during my nap, and the water had slowly turned cold. I was afraid to look at my fingers, but I eventually brought my fingers to my face and frowned at the pruny complexion they took on due to my nap.

Quickly, I got out of the bath and dried myself off with one of the towels I found in the bathroom closet, making sure to let the water drain out of the bathtub so one of the other boys could bathe after I was finished. The dream was constantly replaying in my head, however, and I found myself wondering if there possibly could be other spaces in the house I hadn't seen thus far.

I walked down the stairs to where Sehun and Tao had been seen earlier, and I found them in the same spots they were hours ago, though Sehun's head was bowed in what I could only guess was shame. To add to Sehun's innocent appeal, the tips of his ears were bright red, and I had to cover my mouth in order to keep myself from laughing.

Tao looked up at me and then back to Sehun, and I swear, Tao's smile turned wicked for a moment before he pounced up and leapt towards me, wrapping his arms around me and my eyes widened at the intimate gesture.

"That ert didn't scare you, did he, Yun Seung?" Tao turned his head towards Sehun as he spoke and even had his eyes narrowed at the poor mage, who seemed to shrink in to himself even more at the accusing tone in which Tao had used to speak to him.

With my own eyes narrowed, I crossed my arms as I looked up at Tao, and he turned back to me and his eyes suddenly widened and his lips formed a pout. How he can suddenly go from mischievous to angelic was beyond me, but I could feel my arms loosen and drop back to my side and Tao's lips then turned into such a bright smile that I found myself smiling just as widely.

"You're so adorable!" I couldn't help myself, and then I found myself covering my face to calm myself down before I glanced over at Sehun. He was looking up at me now, and though he still looked ashamed, he was biting on his lower lip and his eyes widened. I could have been imagining things, but it looked like there were actual tears in his eyes as he stared up at me. I slowly made my way over to Sehun, who flinched as if he was afraid I was going to hurt him, and I could only smile as I ran my fingers through his hair, "I would have been mad if you stayed there, but you left and respected my privacy. Man, how could I have found such cute mages?"

Sehun's face pinked, and when I glanced over at Tao, I noticed his face had already started to pink as well. I patted the space on the couch beside me, and Tao sat down next to me and I remembered the dream. I wanted to tell them about the new black box, of course, but my mind immediately went back to the map I'd seen in the study room and I gasped.

"What is it?" Tao's body tensed as if he was ready for an attack, but I put a hand on his shoulder, and he looked back at me in confusion.

"I have something to show you two." I jumped off of the couch and ran up the stairs, "Wait there!"

I didn't expect to take my words seriously, but when I came back down the stairs with the map in my hands, the two of them were in the same spot I left them, and I had to force myself to not roll my eyes at them.

Sehun glanced down at the map in my hands and frowned when he saw all the pins in it, "What is that?"

After placing the map down on the coffee table and pushing the table closer to the couch, I sat down on my knees and pointed at the pin where I found Tao, "This is the caves in which Tao's ring was found." Then, my eyes roamed over the map to where the wind turbine field was, and I pointed again, "This is the field where Sehun's ring was found-"

I was going to point to the house next and tell them I had found someone else, but Sehun had already pulled the map farther from me, and I saw the confusion in his face, "How did you know where to put the rest of the pins?"

"That's the weird part." I told him, glancing down at the nine other pins, "I don't know any of those places or how to get there. I found this map the way it is now upstairs."

The two mages froze and slowly turned to glance at each other. I wanted to speak again, but the fear on their faces stopped me. They knew something I didn't, as it seemed; and though I wanted to know what they knew, they seemed so terrified that I couldn't help but stand up and sit between the two of them again, pulling both of them into my sides for hugs.

"But who... who could know where we are?" I heard Tao's voice whisper as he glanced down at the map, his head resting against my shoulder. 

"Someone who wants power." Sehun muttered in anger, and I turned to him in worry, only to notice his face had tightened as he raised his head off of my other shoulder to look back at me, "You said we were asleep for over 300 years, so only someone powerful enough to know of our existence would know where we were hidden."

"Like the sorceresses that put us away." Tao muttered as well, and I turned to him to see his face had become crestfallen.

Again, I wanted to know what they were talking about, but I had a feeling that all had to wait for a different time. I opened my mouth to tell them about my dream when Sehun cut me off.

"We need to find the others, and quickly."

"All we have to do is follow the map, right?" The atmosphere had changed drastically and Tao leaned forward, his finger dragged along the map as he tried to figure out where we were. His finger did eventually stop, and he turned to me with his eyes wide as his finger pushed up against a pin, "One of the other mages is here!"

Sehun pushed Tao's finger away in shock and stared down at the map before his eyes shot to me, "Did you already know about this?"

"Yeah, and I know which one it is." I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair, "The dream showed a box that kept disappearing and reappearing-"

The other two mages gasped and looked at each other again before jumping to their feet.

"Are you serious?" Tao asked, his eyes already roaming the perimeter of the room we were in.

"You said disappearing and reappearing, right?" Sehun's eyes brightened slightly and I couldn't help but smile as I stood as well, and the three of us started to part ways to look for the mage.

"Kai is here somewhere." I said, surprised by the determination in my voice. We would find this mage no matter what.

So, first off, thanks to all the readers, subscribers, and commenters. I didn't really know what I was doing for the majority of this story so far, but I have a pretty good idea of what I want to write out.

I didn't plan on Yun Seung finding the maknae line first, it's just what happened as it progressed; because that's how it fit into the plotline. I'll give you a spoiler, one of the leaders will be the last to be found.

Anyway, I don't know who you guys want to see after Kai, so let me know! :D

And please, keep reading, subscribing, and commenting. It encourages me greatly! :)