It had been decades since Dara used one of the Sanctuaries. But the protective magic surrounding the Sanctuaries were still intact and powerful. The circle of toadstools that served as a sign for every Siesmyre that a Sanctuary was nearby also protected it. Its magic prevented anyone not belonging to the Siesmyre race from coming near the location of the Sanctuary by leading them to another direction.

There were eight Sanctuaries located all over the world that served as secret passages, allowing Siesmyres to travel quickly to any of the eight directions. These Sanctuaries also served as temporary haven for fleeing Siesmyres from those who hunted them as well as temporary evacuation centers during times of great calamities like floods and earthquakes.

With the spread of man's pollution, the Sanctuaries aided every Siesmyre seeking new homes that were still pure and pristine. Dara had instigated the creation of these Sanctuaries before she fell ill. Now that she had awakened, she was happy to see that the thirteen Elders of the Siesmyre clan had made improvements to the passageways. Chambers could now be found in each Sanctuary. These chambers often served as meeting places or a temporary home for the Siesmyres because the magic protecting the Sanctuaries also prevented the Midnight and Lightside corporations from hearing their conversations.

Dara deftly bypassed the toadstool circle. In the eyes of ordinary humans, the toadstools appeared as colorful and poisonous mushrooms growing around a large tree. Because of the toadstools' magic, no one could see that right beside the tree was a wooden door covered in leaves and vines.

She pressed her palm to the tree trunk. Every Sanctuary had a guardian tree beside their portals. The guardian tree would self-destruct if someone other than a Siesmyre would force himself to enter the portals, thereby destroying the portal itself. After such destruction, another guardian tree would grow somewhere and a new portal replacing the destroyed one would appear for the Siesmyres.

The guardian tree instantly recognized Dara and immediately opened the portal for the Eastern Sanctuary for her. Dara stepped inside and the door disappeared behind her. Before her lay a flight of stairs going down.

She unfolded her wings and flew down the long spiral staircase. When her feet landed on the ground, she immediately sensed the presence of Elder Lee Duk Hwa and Elder Kim Mi Kyung. She smiled, she was just right on time.

Hyunah's appearance in the house coincided perfectly with her meeting with the two Elders. If Hyuna had not appeared, she would still have left the house. Jaejoong though would start wondering where she was going. The guy was as curious as a cat. But that was normal for young people.

When Elder Lee Duk Hwa and Elder Kim Mi Kyung entered the secret chamber, Elder Kim Mi Kyung immediately approached her. Her face looked worried. Could something have happened to the young Baville? Did his immunity fade?

"You shouldn't have left Jaejoong with the succubus!" Elder Kim Mi Kyung admonished her.

Elder Lee Duk Hwa and Dara laughed.

"You scared me, Elder Mi Kyung. I thought the young Baville had already lost his immunity and was now dying."

"The baby is doing fine," interjected Elder Duk Hwa. He was sitting cross- legged on the ground and as usual was smoking his large cigar. The smoke coming out of his mouth began to take on different shapes. It first became a flower, then a horse and it even turned into a car.

Dara found herself remembering her childhood. She was a precocious child. Always running and flying everywhere she chose. None of the other Elders could control her mischievousness and prevent the pranks she always played on everybody. But the moment Elder Duk Hwa began telling his stories, she would sit before him and like the other Siesmyre children became silent and enthralled. Elder Duk Hwa's stories would come alive because of the shapes coming out from the smoke of his cigar. The smoke would assume the characters and places in the stories of Elder Duk Hwa. And they would move and react in accordance to the story. This was a time when humans had yet to invent movies.

Dara was not sure if Elder Duk Hwa still told his stories like before since she heard that he now owned a DVD player and a large screen TV which occupied most of the space in his house.

The two Elders, though equal in rank and power, looked very different from each other. Even their personalities were exact opposite. The calm and composed Elder Duk Hwa was twenty-feet tall, while the feisty and worrisome Elder Kim Mi Kyung was barely ten inches tall.

Elder Duk Hwa was the clan leader of the Tarosians. Humans would quickly recognize him as the giant in their children's fairytales. Elder Mi Kyung was the leader of the Siorens and was known to people as Brownies. Brownies were considered by humans to be the smallest among magical creatures and could be found in flatlands and large farmlands. They were wrong on the first part and right on the second. There were other Siesmyres, unknown to humans who were much smaller than Elder Mi Kyung.

Elder Mi Kyung and her clan were currently having house problems. The use of too many pesticides on farmlands affected their health but the conversion of large farmlands into subdivisions and business districts with large malls was the most immediate danger to their homes. Elder Mi Kyung and her clan often used the Sanctuaries to travel to other parts of the world to seek out new homes.

Elder Duk Hwa and the Tarosians had no such problem since they had always lived in ice-covered mountain peaks deemed inhospitable to humans. Unless of course some humans would discover lots of mineral deposits on their mountain homes. Then mining companies would come, level the mountain down and it dry of all the minerals it possessed before leaving it totally destroyed and polluted. Mining was among the top human activity that thoroughly polluted the environment. Air, soil and water became thoroughly contaminated and toxic once a mining company had begun its operation and even after it had left the place.

A lot of Tarosians had lost their lives when humans developed the technology to mine mountains because of the pollution they produced. The Tarosians could easily defeat these humans to prevent them from destroying their homeland, but they would earn the ire of Lightside Inc. who protected these beings with souls no matter the atrocities they committed. Only one Archangel was needed to wipe out the entire clan of the Tarosians. So, the Tarosians had chosen to move and find another mountain than to fight for their rights.

Dara sat on one of the flat white marble stones surrounding the small underground spring. The spring, like everything else inside the Sanctuary was magical. The clear waters of the spring allowed them to look into the world of the humans. A Siesmyre simply had to think of what he wanted to see and the spring would show him the images, just like TV. The only difference was everything the spring showed was current events. Once that scene or situation was over, the spring could no longer show it.

A smile crossed Dara's features as she realized what the two Elders were currently watching on the spring. It was the scene inside Jaejoong's house.

The succubus did not waste any time. The polo shirt she was wearing before Dara left was now gone. She had begun her seduction of Jaejoong.

Dara waved her hand to stop the scene. The crystal waters of the spring stopped broadcasting. It turned back into a normal-looking spring.

"Aren't you even worried that Jaejoong would again fall to that succubus's charms?" Elder Mi Kyung's voice was full of concern.

"It would just be , Elder Mi Kyung. Jaejoong would never again allow himse