Artem was the last place that all three wanted to be.

When Taemin had briefly stepped out to see what was going on, he came back and reported that the entire city was filled with members of the Council's Court. Every house was invaded and thrashed. It would only be a matter of minutes before the army got to the temporary shelter that they were in. 

"What do we do now?" Jieun asked helplessly.

"Do you have any wishing power in you?" Taemin asked. 

Jieun glanced down at her hands. "A little…"

"Okay. I need you to focus and take us back to the purple place. You know, 'the place with no violence.'"

"But what about Naeun and Mino—"

"Those two can handle themselves!" Taemin said, raising his voice. "What's important is that you take us to that place! Right now, we can't even fight! Mino's down, you're weak, and I can't handle a whole army with my power." He grabbed her shoulders. "We. Need. To. Retreat. Do you understand?"

Jieun bit her bottom lip. She let out a deep sigh before sulking and nodding her head. Taemin sighed in relief. He made a protective fire barrier around the three in case the army would barge in. Jieun shut her eyes and clasped her hands together.

I wish we can go back to the place with no violence!

Gold shimmers fell from her hands and scattered around Mino and Taemin. The three shut their eyes, bracing themselves before they were shot into another dimension.

When Jieun woke up, she saw Mino and Taemin already up. She slowly tried to sit up, but struggled to raise her upper body. Mino, who noticed that she had finally woken up, quickly bent down and helped her sit up. She groaned in pain and looked around herself, trying to figure out where she was.

Everything is purple… A small smile formed on her lips. I did it. The Place with No Violence.

"You okay?" Mino asked.

"Yes. Just a bit dizzy," Jieun murmured.

"Good," Taemin said. He sat down in front of Mino and Jieun. "Then I can start talking to you guys about your powers."

"Powers?" Jieun repeated.

"I feel like I need to explain certain things about how to use your powers. For the past few weeks, I've been making you recklessly use your power for our own benefit. Even though you think you're controlling it, you're not being efficient with it," Taemin said. He snapped his fingers and a small white flame flickered from the tips of his index finger and thumb. "You guys ready?"

Mino and Jieun nodded their heads. Taemin took a deep breath.

"Your powers can take what we call 'Free' and 'Form.' Some people like to free style their powers, like Myungsoo. He doesn't make his power take a particular shape or form, and thus he has for control of it. This is basically what you've been doing, Jieun. Your powers don't have an exact shape or form, and thus you're able to control it. However, at the same time, both you and Myungsoo can't bring out the power's hidden potentials. Also—in Myungsoo's case–if he screws up, there's a higher risk that he's going to face the damage. In your case, Jieun, if you don't control your power and screw up, then there's a higher risk that something you didn't exactly wish for might happen.

"Others like to make their powers take a specific form. Naeun, in particular, sometimes makes her power have no shape, like what Myungsoo does. On the other hand, when she's on offense, she makes a wind sword."

Jieun remembered the wind sword that Naeun had made.

"But she had a hilt," Jieun said.

"Yes, but the blade was made of wind, which is basically her hidden power: a wind so sharp that it could cut through anything," Taemin explained. "I would highly recommend you to make your powers take a specific form, Jieun. Your powers tend to run crazy, and you don't know exactly what it can or can't do. You need to think fast, and you can't do that. It's best for your powers to take a specific form while you stall time to think."

"That doesn't sound like a compliment," she said, frowning.

"It's not supposed to be one," Taemin said. "You need to make your powers take a certain form. It'll require more concentration on magic, but it'll definitely help you when you're being attacked. You can always switch from Form to Free, and vice versa."

"So let me get this straight: 'Form' is when you make your powers take a specific shape, like Naeun's wind sword, while 'Free' is when you make your powers take no shape, like Myungsoo's lightning and my gold shimmers, right?" Jieun asked.

"Exactly," Taemin said, nodding his head.

"So is yours a Free?" Mino asked Taemin.

Taemin paused. "Jieun, I know there isn't much to do around here, but can you give us some privacy?"

Jieun frowned. "What?"

"Give me and Mino a bit of privacy," Taemin told her. 

"How am I supposed to do that? It's just purple clay all around us."

"Go all the way over there and practice Form," Taemin ordered. Jieun scowled, but left anyway. When she was far enough, Taemin gave Mino a serious look. "You have a curse. Show it to me."

Mino hesitated, but showed him his mark. There was no point in hiding it now. He had shown Taemin the beastly effects of the mark, and there was no way that he could make up an excuse for that. He unraveled the bandage around his neck, revealing the flowery pattern. There was a faint shadowy glow that corresponded with Mino's heartbeat.

"This looks pretty bad," Taemin said.

"It is," Mino said. "Sometimes I'd black out."

"For your powers, you're going to have to do what we call 'Command.'"

"Command?"

"You listened to what I told Jieun, right? There's two common routes to controlling your powers: 'Free' and 'Form.' However, there's one other way of controlling your power, and that's 'Command.' It's more difficult because you and your power are constantly fighting against each other. Your must build a lot of resistance and conscience in order to achieve 'Command' successfully. Usually people end up dying with curse marks like yours, but it looks like you're able to successfully compete with it. Tell me, do you remember anything that your powers did?" Taemin asked.

Mino decided not to tell him. "No, I don't remember anything at all. I kind of black out and things get dizzy."

"How long have you had this mark?"

"Since we went to that witch village."

"Hm… By now, you should be regaining some consciousness when your curse tries to dominate you," Taemin mumbled. Mino was about to stiffen up, but told himself to relax before showing any noticeable action. "Well, all curses are different." Taemin opened the palm of his hand, letting a small whip of flame ignite. "All curses come with some kind of Form. They take shape of something, even though they're not exactly the shape they consume. Take mine, for example. You can see that it's shaped like a fire, but it's not exactly a fire."

"It looks like fire."

"But it's not. It's a curse that takes form of a fire."

"What's the difference?"

"There's a lot of differences, but it all depends on the curse. For mine, it's cold. It's cold and white."

"So what if I see a guy with blue fire? Is that a curse?"

"Depends," Taemin said. "You can tell because you have a curse mark. When you run into someone who has a curse mark, your curse mark and theirs might react to each other. They'll either show compatibility or try to fight each other."

Mino paused. "Wait. You basically admitted that you have a cursed power."

Taemin looked at him. "When?"

"Just now. 'A fire that's not exactly fire.' You said something along those lines," Mino pointed out.

Taemin gave him a light chuckle. "You're mistaken. It's not a curse. My power is something else."

"Really?" Mino asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm being honest." Taemin eyed at him. "Do you not trust me?"

"It's not like that," Mino replied. "I trust you."

Taemin smirked. "Of course you 'trust' me."

He made sure that he was very subtle with his tone so that Mino wouldn't notice what Taemin was really trying to say. Taemin got up from the floor.

"You should get up and train, too," Taemin said.

"How?" Mino asked.

"I'll teach you," Taemin said. He glanced over at Jieun. "Of course, you're going to need secret lessons from me because of your curse powers."

"How would you teach me when you never had a cursed power?" Mino inquired.

"Because even though my power isn't a curse, I still use the same technique: Command." Taemin extinguished the flames by clenching his fist. "Besides, this place is a great place to train. If you start going berserk, then the ground will probably swallow you up. We can get supplies from Jieun's ability as long as she doesn't overexert herself."

"What about Mino and Naeun?"

"They can handle themselves," Taemin said. He opened the palm of his hand, revealing a fiery droplet. "Unfortunately, with you two as you are, it'll be difficult for me to go in and save them right now. I'm afraid that they'll have to wait."

"For how long?"

"However long it takes until I deem that you guys can fight in a battle."

"Look, I don't know if you remember or if you forgot, but Jieun and I aren't from here. We don't have time to play around and sharpen up our skills or whatever. We need to get home as soon as possible," Mino said, reminding him about their situation. "We have family who're probably worried about us."

Taemin twitched a little. "Family? A different world? Why do you guys want to go back so badly?"

"What do you mean why? We—"

"If you guys stay here, you get everything!" Taemin pointed out. "Look at Jieun! She's got amazing powers! Powers that can grant wishes; it can make anything come true!"

Mino stared at Jieun before looking back at Taemin. He glared at him while he clenched his fist.

"But can she take us back home?" Mino challenged. Taemin remained silent. The cursed boy scoffed. "I'll take your stupid lessons only because I need them to survive this goddamn world. However, I won't forget that I have a place to be, and that I intend to go back."

Mino marched away, walking towards Jieun who was still having trouble with creating a shape out of power.

Taemin stood still for a few minutes. Then, he broke into a sinister smile before chuckling quietly to himself.

Home? he wondered. He looked up at the gloomy sky with sad eyes. Where can I find such a thing in this world?