Sitting inside what Amber soon realized was the Mayor’s house, she took deep calming breaths and kept her eyes trained on the door leading inside the castle.  She knew she needed to take care of her injuries but she was still too shaken and nervous about the beast.  Over and over again, she replayed the creature in her mind, worrying her lip between her teeth as she did so.  It reminded her of the picture of a lion she’d seen in a book a long time ago.  But the proportions and features were wrong.

                Bigger than her, it had knocked her through the air with ease.  Made of solid muscle and bone, it was no figment of her imagination and it had nearly killed her today.  Razor talons on fingers too long to be paws had scored her badly and those fangs could have savaged her had she been a little less lucky.  Covered in golden fur, graced with a sinewy tail, and crowned with an overgrown mane of hair that didn’t quite go all around its head, her opponent had been every bit a savage beast.  But there was something disturbingly intelligent about the eyes.

                It had set a trap for her after all.  From the moment it emerged from the castle, it probably knew exactly where she was.  Smashing the wire mannequin, who was now better, had served to be distraction enough to draw her out as it wanted.  And that was book recorded predatory behavior; there was no doubt about it.  But she couldn’t understand the nameless anger she’d seen in its eyes.  Or the confusion after.

                Grabbing her arms tight, she continued staring at the door through the window and shivered.  She had done nothing to deserve such anger other than appearing here.  And even that was a pitiful excuse for such rage.  “What are you?” she breathed, listening to the constant snip, snip of shears through cloth behind her.  The only villager who had been of any use was the sheers and she still wasn’t entirely sure which Lee it was.  Regardless, they were helping to cut the deep red sheets she’d found in the Choi sisters’ bedroom into usable strips she could bind her wounds with.

                When the shears were finished and Amber was relatively sure the beast wasn’t going to appear any time soon, she finally forced herself to stand up and see what she could do.  Shooing most of the villagers out and shucking her ripped shirt, Amber used the warped mirror in the girls’ room to see the extent of the damage on her back.  Deep gashes running from close to her spine diagonally up her back and over her ribs burned like a banshee.  Blood had already oozed free to stain the top of her pants and she hissed at seeing the pale glimmer of her ribs peeking through the upper most gashes.  That part, at least, looked worse than it was; she was still close to being nauseous at feeling so very ripped apart though.

                “Dammit,” she sighed, holding her hands close to her chest over her bands.  Relying on them to grant her a modicum of modesty, she emerged from the room without her shirt to try and find water enough to clean the wounds, moving with precise care; too much motion pulled at already fragile, broken skin.  Surprisingly, the rain barrel nearly every house had was somehow fused into the outer wall, half in and half out.  She wasn’t entirely sure she trusted it, but the liquid was likely all she was going to find.  Not to mention magic had a way of keeping things from changing when it wanted.  Not even dust marred the surface.

                Using a clean strip of cloth, she wiped her wounds down as best she could, biting her lip and the inside of her cheek when she wasn’t clenching her jaw.  “e,” she laughed-sobbed brokenly, the sound harsh and pained.  When she was finished and white as a ghost, Amber turned back to her image in the mirror with a dry strip of cloth in hand.  “Okay,” she panted, staring at her unclothed torso in the mirror.  “You can do this,” she added encouragement, lamenting she had never really had to practice with Sungmin and Minho and even Soonkyu around.

                As she pressed one end to her side to hold it in place, she could feel Auntie Park’s presence.  The mortar and pestle perched on the bed and watched her do her best to bind the open wounds.  Peering over her shoulder, Amber aligned the first strip and hissed when she firmed it against her back, winding it around her torso quickly.  As she worked, she could also feel Auntie Park’s gaze on her.  Another glance at herself in the mirror revealed a fading blotch of color on the back of her shoulder and her chest above the bind.

                “What?” she muttered at the mortar and pestle as heat rose into her cheeks.  Of course she didn’t get a response, but she could read the curiosity there.  Annoyed with herself, and Changsun, Amber finished wrapping the wound and dragged her tattered shirt back on, covering the damning marks.  “Stupid,” she grumbled, half referring to herself and half to Changsun.  He was careful never to mark her on obvious skin but the fading bruises from his mouth practically burned on her body under the watchful gaze of Auntie Park.  “Please don’t ask,” she sighed instead, placing a hand over where the front bruise was, dropping her head.

                The mortar and pestle didn’t do anything more than hop off the bed and lead the way into the living room.  A small collection of transformed villagers awaited them in the main room.  It was larger than most of those in the village: enough for five people and nicely furnished, Siwon’s money was all over the interior in the form of gaudy decorations and artistic furniture.  All of it looked just as warped as the rest of the village though, so here, it was nothing special.  The kitchen looked much like her own would, as did the dining table, if a bit bigger and nicer.  She didn’t dare go into the main bedroom, or even try since Siwon himself, a quill and ink pot, waited at the door.

                Turning a thoughtful eye to him, she scanned the rest of the room and noticed a side door she hadn’t originally seen.  “Is that your study?” she asked, pointing towards the room.  The quill and ink clinked in response and Amber had no idea what he was saying.  After a moment, she took a breath and moved towards it anyway.  He didn’t try to stop her and when she opened the door, she smiled that her guess was correct.  “Good,” she grinned, disappearing inside to search around.  A few breaths later, she returned with a wavy parchment scroll in her hands.  “Alright, Mr. Choi,” Amber her lips and laid the scroll out on the kitchen table.  “Help me understand what’s going on here,” she urged, pointing at the quill expectantly.

                He seemed rather affronted by the casual suggestion, but after a brief congress with the others present, he hopped up from the floor to the chair to the top of the table and resignedly started scratching away at the scroll.  As Amber suspected, Mr. Choi was among the most literate in the village and could easily scrawl the words she needed to know what happened to get them here.

                Through his writing, she learned that a bright light had come from the Tower.  Shining like a signal beacon, it had pulsed up and arched through the air in a continuous line, winding as if searching along a path before it had landed right in the middle of the village.  Tendrils of silver, spidery threads had ensnared everyone and everything in and around the village before pulling them back to the center.  Frighteningly, the Mage tower and house apparently folded off the ground as if rolled into a giant bowl until it hung upside down above them.  The same gray something that had gathered the tower up also closed around Karith, locking them inside a giant dome thing.

                They felt power flash, something traveling over their skin and through their bodies but none of them had realized what it meant at the time.  The world had shifted then.  He’d felt crushed and pulled apart at the same time while the light disappeared and returned with blinding strength.  When the sensation of moving and being tortured ended and they could all see again, things had ended up like they were now.  Encircled by a stone wall and unable to escape, the village existed in this space while the castle existed in the center.  And everyone was changed into what she saw currently.

                None of them had ever been in the castle.  The monster kept them out.  And unlike Amber, they weren’t able to open the outermost gates to try getting out that way.  Trapped, they had existed there since things had gone wrong.  It hadn’t been so bad at first.  But over time – he didn’t know long as there was no day or night here – the monster got angrier.  It would come out to prowl around, ruining whoever was in the open at that time.  But the destruction was never permanent.  They always got better after a matter of… days?  Marks?

                “Do you know what happened to my father?” Amber finally asked when Siwon made no mention of the Mage himself.

                The quill tapped on the almost full parchment and looked confused.  No.  His next words helped fill in the blanks for her.  He explained that none of them could talk to the monster but it was the only one they had ever seen.  Until recently, they had thought all four of them had been inside the tower when it went up.

                “Not true,” Amber shook her head.  “Changsun and I got away.  Seungho and my father stayed behind,” she explained.

                Then the monster is probably something they summoned by accident and it likely killed them.

                “No!” Amber denied violently, hitting the table with her fist so that Siwon danced away.  She winced at her reaction and took a calming breath.  “Sorry, but I can’t just believe they’re dead.  Not after all this,” she whispered, no longer looking at the villagers as her thoughts turned inward.  She couldn’t accept that she had been chasing a lost cause for three years.  Until she saw it with her own eyes, she would not believe they had been killed.  After all, she and Changsun had survived, and the villagers had survived.  Why couldn’t her father and Seungho?  Even if they were trapped inside with the beast.  It was possible.

                The sound of the quill scratching on paper drew her attention back to the page and she frowned.  How much time has past?

                Startled, Amber blinked at Siwon and then the rest of the villagers clustered around her.  A pale sense of horror settled over her as she realized that time actually didn’t mean anything here.  Swallowing her surprise and running a hand over her short hair self-consciously, Amber answered, “It’s been over three years since Karith disappeared.”

                Quiet stirrings among them spoke volumes that they were talking, but Amber couldn’t understand.  The villagers shuffled to and fro, worked up about it.  She frowned at their reaction and turned away from them so that she could see the castle again.  That had to be the tower didn’t it?  The color was the same but nothing else looked familiar; not the outer wall, not the three stories, not the brief glimpse she had of the inside.  Nothing.  And the chances were very good that she would have to go inside to find her answers…  The thought filled her with trepidation and fear.  The beast was in there.

                “One thing at a time, Amber,” she had to remind herself, grabbing her necklace with a shaky hand, exhaling slowly; taking too deep a breath hurt since it pulled at her wounds.  her lips, she nodded once and moved carefully towards the door.  Immediately, the local denizens swarmed her in agitation.  Amber paused and frowned at them.  “I can’t very well stay here forever,” she explained with furrowed brows; that remained to be seen but she refused to think about it.  They stilled at her words, though she could tell they weren’t happy about it.  “You want to get out of here too, don’t you?” she prompted, not surprised when they froze – as if the thought had stopped occurring to them – and then broke into excited movement.  “Exactly,” Amber smiled, making her way to open the door.

                Slinking from house to house, keeping an ever watchful eye and ear turned towards the castle, Amber investigated what she could on the outside.  Her home was not among those scattered around but she did manage to find a chopping knife that was similar to the feel of a short sword in her hand.  She borrowed it from Hyukjae and Hyoyeon’s home, as indicated when they opened the door for her.  It didn’t take Amber long to realize that the houses were magically keyed to the individual villagers, which explained why she couldn’t open it herself.  She didn’t understand why she could open the outer gates yet but hopefully the answers would be had inside the castle.

                Rather shamelessly, she borrowed a new men’s shirt from Donghae’s house, but she had to grab one of Jonghyun’s because the others were too large.  By the way the scythe hop-followed her into the room, she figured out which Lee he was.  “I’ll give it back,” she laughed slightly, feeling strangely more comfortable in the rougher, off-white, homespun fabric.  “Thank you,” Amber murmured earnestly, letting her fingers trace over the familiar cloth.  Jonghyun couldn’t say anything but she got the impression he was both mildly miffed and pleased.  She could understand that.

                Fully clothed and armed at last, Amber finished checking the rest of the houses quickly.  There were some herbs in Auntie Park’s shop she found to chew on and help ease the pain she still felt.  She just had to get around all the new growth inside; it was as if the dried plants had come back to life and decided to take over the interior.  Very strange indeed.  Coming full circle, Amber finally found herself back in front of the outer wall of the castle, staring at the door from several lengths away.  A handful of villagers were still following her raptly, hanging on her every move.

                “You can do this,” she exhaled as nerves tried to tie her stomach into knots.  Her back didn’t hurt as much and she felt slightly removed from the situation, which helped her keep a more level head.  Mostly.  She was still more than a little afraid of stepping inside but what choice did she have?  Sit here and wait?  For what?

                She had little doubt that Changsun would have gone chasing after her.  He had been trying to catch her when she passed him at the estate anyway.  But even when he found Andante, or the horse went back, what could he do?  If she had hit a patch of wild magic, would he realize it?  Would he be able to do anything even if he did?  After their fight, would he care enough to try?

                The last made her fist ball in anger and Amber clenched her jaw.  It didn’t matter.  Whether he would or not didn’t mean much to her in this place.  She’d spent three years trying to find it; giving him information to help her find it; and if they hadn’t managed together, never mind the King’s High Mage and all his helpers, she didn’t even begin to know how Changsun would manage on his own.  Now that she was here, she wasn’t just going to sit and wait anymore.  And she would be damned if she wasn’t at least going to try.

                “You can do this,” she whispered again, jumping with a yell when something brushed against her arm.  Four villagers shifted back at the same time, just as surprised as her.  “Yah!  Don’t do that,” Amber forced a laugh when she recognized Donghae (it was his handle that startled her), Jonghyun, Youngwoon, and Hyukjae, respectively.  “What are you doing?” she exhaled with her heart still racing in her chest.

                On her other side, Auntie Park took the opportunity to write on the ground again: Help.

                “You sure?” Amber questioned, brows rising in surprise.  Immediately, they clamored together and managed awkward bows instead of nods.  She hadn’t even realized how wound tight she was until the relief at their offer washed over her and Amber beamed.  They weren’t much but it was better than trying to go alone.  “Okay,” she nodded, threading an invisible strand of hair behind her ear.  “Let’s do this,” she nodded, steadying herself with a breath and finally striding forward.

                As a group, they stopped next to the door and Amber listened intently, waiting to hear if the beast was nearby or not.  But when silence continued, she opened the barrier and peered inside, noticing the same unfamiliarity from before.  The beast was nowhere in sight, but she did notice a thin trail of red staining the ground in patchy splotches.  They led toward the castle itself.  Biting her lip, she steeled herself and gestured for the four tools to follow her as she slipped inside.

                Every nerve tingled at being so out in the open as they sprinted for the nearest bit of cover across the yard.  She didn’t feel much better until they hit the outer wall of the castle, back pressed flat against it while they paused to listen.  Her kitchen knife was clenched tight in her hand and Amber tried to control her breathing so she could listen better.  Nothing changed.  Gathering her courage, she inched towards the yawning portal that led inside and poked her head around the corner, staring into the darkness.  Her heart quaked at the lack of light.  Amber closed her eyes for a moment, trying to remain calm.  She felt someone brush against her calf and figured it was Youngwoon or Hyukjae based on the size.

                Placing a finger to her lips, Amber opened her eyes again and gestured for her companions to be quiet as she snuck around the corner and began creeping her way down the hall.  To her relief, it didn’t extend nearly as far as she thought it would, and there was light around the bend.  Dim torches flickered from their sconces on the wall, fluttering in a nonexistent breeze.  They revealed the interior in slightly orange hues, showing that the center was actually circular in nature.  Surrounded by a square fortress, the middle was… “My father’s tower,” Amber whispered breathlessly, moving to place a hesitant hand against the familiar stone.

                She hadn’t seen it in years and yet the memory was etched in her mind: unforgettable.  Home.  It wasn’t what it should have been and it had changed, but Amber was home.  For a moment, the world pressed close, flooding her with feelings: happiness, hope, worry, and then one of the tools brushed against her, and she pulled her hand free with a gasp.  “Sorry,” she inhaled, shaking her head once with a loud swallow.  “Let’s keep going,” she whispered, gesturing to the left.  Either way, if it was a circle all the way around, whichever side they chose first wouldn’t matter.

                Her companions followed along without hestation.  She could feel them hovering close at her back, moving along with tiny clicks as their hard wooden handles tapped against the ground.   The corridor remained the same width for several paces until they came to a break that went straight towards the wall to her left, much like the entrance opening.  There was a normal enough looking door at the end too.  When Amber glanced to her right, she saw the corridor continuing around without a break and she frowned.  “Well?” she whispered, nodding towards the entrance.

                Amber got the impression they didn’t know what to think either.  Shrugging, she resituated her knife and moved close to press her ear against the door.  Nothing.  After a long moment to be sure she wasn’t just missing it, Amber finally nodded and grabbed the handle.  Her eyes narrowed determinedly as she pulled and it opened without a sound.  Blinking at her luck, she peeked through the crack and gasped quietly before it swung the rest of the way open when she let go in surprise.  The four tools crowded close to see what caught her attention and they all stopped in turn.

                Unable to believe her eyes, Amber walked into the green space and brushed her fingers against the nearest leaves.  A fully grown corn stalk, vibrant and alive, and bursting with sprouted corn.  Next to it was a small explosion of tomatoes and carrots and cabbages and even potatoes!  The small but sufficient space was boxed in by the dark gray stone of the wall but Amber knew this place.  “It’s our garden,” she murmured with a laugh and a bright smile.  “How is it doing so well?” she frowned in thought, crouching to get a better look.

                They all froze when they heard something slam somewhere, the sound faint but noticeable.  It was followed by a low growl echoing off the walls, bouncing off the stone until it was impossible to tell where it was coming from or even how close it was.  Holding her breath, Amber jumped for the door, pulling it close so that she could use it as a shield to peer around.  Crouching behind the barrier, she strained her ears; the hair on the back of her neck stood on end when she heard footsteps, heavy breathing, a low snarl.  The beast…

                For a moment, it sounded closer and then as if it was moving away.  The other side of the tower maybe?  Clutching her weapon, she eased out and squat-walked towards the corridor around the tower, to the dismay of her companions.  She needed to see…  Looking to her left, there was no sign of the beast and the floor was clear.  Perhaps it usually went on the right side.  Firming her jaw, she curled her fingers around the corner and poked just enough of her head out to glimpse around the bend.  Damn!  The curve didn’t allow her to see the entrance.

                Her stomach dropped to the floor when she heard something sniffing though.  The growl came again, rumbling and angry.  Footsteps moved closer and Amber saw the flicker of a shadow on the wall.  The flash of gold next was unmistakable and she froze completely when they saw each other at the same time.  “Oh boy,” she exhaled, fingers pressing hard into the stone.  It stared at her, unmoving, the wound in the shoulder still open, still weeping, but it didn’t look as bad as earlier.  With her other hand, she waved at the tools to get back.  She doubted they could outrun it anyway.  But there was no way she was going to trap herself in the garden with no way out.  “Run,” she whispered without checking to see if they’d listened to her.

                Teeth glistened when the beast hissed.  Amber gave a muted cry and shoved herself off the wall, pelting down the hallway.  A trembling roar followed.  Stone vibrated under her feet as the beast gave chase.  The corridor continued to bend but stone opened to her right and Amber dove for the first available opening.  Stairs!  She nearly knocked her teeth out when she stumbled, dropping her knife in the fall.  Scraping footsteps behind her forced her to get up.  Climb!  Climb!  Her legs burned and blood rushed in her ears, roaring, always roaring at her.

                A trap door made her pause.  Shoving it open, she threw herself to the floor and slammed the door behind her, ramming the lock into place.  The beast banged into the other side of it, howling savagely.  Bucking like a living thing, the barrier held.  For now.  Amber lurched to her feet, choosing one of the two doors in the square room.  Straight in front of her!  Banging and clawing sounds followed.  The entryway opened into another straight hall.  No door in front.  Deciding in an instant, she shied left, following the corridor until it turned left, showing another corridor.  This one had a door.

                Amber sprinted for it with the sound of wood splintering.  “Go, go, go!” she commanded herself, hauling the wooden panel open and throwing her body through.  Another door appeared in front of her on the other side.  She shoved it open without hesitating and lurched forward, coming up short with her heart in .  Blood on the dark floor.  Claw marks on the walls and door.  Anger and pain was etched in every stone.  The beast.  “Uh… no!” she gasped, backpedaling to the sound of metal keening.  Throwing herself into the hallway again, she went right, running like mad.

                Something slammed with a loud crash and Amber panted, rounding the corner.  There!  A doorway to the right.  She jumped against the wall when the entryway behind her burst open.  Golden fur flashed in her eyes and Amber leapt away, clawing at the door.  The beast snarled behind her.  Open!  Slam it shut!  Sprint!  No claw marks.  No blood anywhere.  Go!

                Flinching from the sound at her back, Amber crashed into the door at the end, jarring her shoulder in the process.  Open, open!  Yanking on it, Amber flung herself inside, dragging the door closed behind her.  It still had a lock.  She used it and clung to the handle with both hands, waiting for the beast to start breaking it down.  Eyes shut tight and teeth clenched, she continued to wait but the strange silence made her blink in confusion.  Silence?

                “What the…?” Amber murmured, perplexed.  She leaned against the barrier but didn’t hear anything more than soft breaths nearby.  No growling.  No roaring.  And certainly nothing trying to break the door down.  She didn’t have the courage enough to open it but she did pry her hands free so she could look around.  Maybe it would give her some clue.  As soon as Amber faced the rest of the room, she froze.

                It was her room.  Exactly as she’d left it three years ago.