Strange.  That was the word that Amber would have used to describe her life immediately after they all escaped the pocket universe.  Of course she was happy.  Her father and mother were back and together again for the first time in years; the village and all the villagers had returned and were back to normal; and Seungho and Changsun were restored as well.  But things were definitely strange and she wasn’t entirely sure how to feel about all of it.

                She remembered the first few days of returning to their realm as if in a foggy dream, making her doubt whether she was awake even when she knew she was.  Changsun and Seungho were healed of the worst of their wounds.  The village resumed life as normal.  Her parents acted almost as if they’d never been separated, falling seamlessly back into old habits.  But a lot of it Amber missed, since she’d been bedridden almost immediately anyway.  Miraculously, the tower had been brought back just about as if it had never been gone, with some minor, notable changes – like the ribbon and strawman from her room – but they all felt different.

                Amber’s mother threw herself back into living with the fervor of a fanatic, almost running the house by herself as she checked on everything to see what she had missed these past few years.  She didn’t remember anything from the time she was gone, so she had a lot to catch up on.  When she wasn’t hovering and sometimes staring at Amber as if she was one of the most precious things she’d ever seen, she spent just as much time reestablishing contact with the villagers – Auntie Park was particularly happy about her return - and came back nearly everyday with more gifts of gratitude and joy.  It was a joy that was shared freely and easily among the rest of them, but especially her father.

                Jongwoon was a changed man himself.  He did not remember his transformation half as clearly as Seungho did, recalling only the overwhelming need to protect Yejin from anything and everything.  Now that she was back, he was practically glued to her side when she was home, offering to help whenever he could.  And even when he couldn’t, he was still there, just watching and smiling at her.  When he wasn’t checking in on Amber or playing the question game with Changsun at any rate.

                Yes, Changsun had opted to remain with them at Karith, residing in the bedroom that had once been his anyway.  He sent word to his estate to let everyone there know his condition but he stayed all the same, avoiding Amber like the plague and butting heads constantly with her father.  It might have been worse if Seungho had been around, but… as soon as he was recovered enough to travel, he followed the letter they sent home to his family so that he might heal and reassure them that he was alive and well.

                As for Amber, she was utterly unused to being in her current position.  Between being almost smothered by the attention of her parents – which she enjoyed and didn’t in equal measure after the first couple days; being treated like she was a disease by Changsun; and desperately wondering how Seungho was, she was utterly sick and tired of being sick and tired.

                Her father feared for a little while that being the conduit for the casting that had allowed them all to come home may have damaged her irreparably.  In truth, she was a little afraid herself.  After the rush of being alive wore off, she found herself tired all the time.  Even worse, her body sometimes refused to work as it always had and she experienced frightening moments of helplessness as often as she suffered from sudden fainting spells.  She wasn’t privy to the conversations that went on behind closed doors, but there had been times she could hear her father and Changsun yelling despite the floors between them.  Amber was more than happy to try and shut out the sound by hiding in her mother’s embrace during those moments.

                And all of that happened before the King’s High Mage himself made an appearance at their tower.  It was yet another thing Amber wasn’t exactly involved in, but that was also because the High Mage wanted to study her in turn – something about being the keystone piece in a casting of such unheard of magnitude.  She distinctly remembered there being a lot of magical energy around the tower that day; it sparked and popped in the small distance between objects and made her hair stand on end.  She didn’t like it.  Fortunately, she didn’t have to worry about it for very long either.

                No one told her what was said between them, but the High Mage was ‘convinced’ to leave without his answers until such a time that Jongwoon wished to give them.  And that was the end of that.  Even Amber could get no answers out of her father when he came to check on her, feeling her forehead with the back of his hand and whispering quiet words under his breath.  She didn’t know the spells he was using but she could feel the power brushing over her skin, questing and gentle.  But still he had no answers for her; nothing like what she had experienced had ever been recorded before.

                Time.

                It was the only thing he could ask of her.  To give him time to sort things out; to give herself time to heal; to allow enough time to pass so that things would finally begin to feel normal and right again.  After all, time itself was beginning to catch up to him and Yejin.  It was only a gray hair for him at first.  Then another and another after that with a couple new aches he didn’t have three years ago.  And Yejin’s face shifted subtly day by day, stretching in slightly different ways until fine wrinkles began to appear at the corners of her eyes and the seven years she’d been missing finally settled over her like a missing coat.  In Karith, many villagers commented about similar experiences, and they could all safely assume that Seungho was going through such changes as well.

                So as time continued to fix itself in the natural order of things, Amber was told to give her own situation a little more of it.  Then again, Amber had never exactly been good at waiting.  Which was how she found herself successfully cornering Changsun in his room after she pretended to be sleeping when her parents came to check on her one evening nearly two weeks after they’d been back.

                He never had been one to lock his door and that was a habit that hadn’t changed since they’d been apart.  Amber had to hide the amused smile that threatened to pull at her lips when he sat up in wide-eyed shock, conjuring a small mage light to see who was intruding.

                “Amber,” he gulped, looking very much as if he wanted to bolt from beneath the covers that only partially covered his unclothed torso.  He also hadn’t been one to sleep in much of anything either.

                Mutely, she placed a finger to her lips and carefully closed the door, keeping her expression as neutral as possible.  Nerves tangled her belly into knots and worry filled the back of her mind as she determinedly pulled herself upright, still feeling unused to wearing the dress-like sleeping shift her parents had bought for her.  Frustratingly, she very nearly fainted right then and there.  “Don’t!” Amber immediately gasped, catching herself on the door with her other hand reaching out to stall Changsun as he lurched as if to catch her.

                “Sorry,” he whispered, turning his head away so that she couldn’t see his eyes

                When Amber looked at him, shadows obscured his face but the soft, white light danced across the back of his tan shoulders and sparkled playfully in trimmed, black locks.  She remembered well the way such things had felt to touch.  But Amber took a small breath and gently slid her body to the floor so that she was sitting instead and wouldn’t risk falling if a spell did catch her unawares.  “I don’t blame you,” she admitted at last, folding her hands on her straightened legs as she rested her head against the door.  Her hair bunched against the hard surface and she wrinkled her nose, knowing she needed to get it cut again.  Her mother didn’t want her to though, so she hadn’t yet.

                Changsun gave her a sidelong look, his held tilting enough to reveal one dark eye peering at her.  “You should.”

                She ignored his words and added, “Nor am I mad at you.  At least not for saving us all,” she amended, a strained smile quirking her lips.  He turned to better face her, a glimmer of hope in his eyes, and then winced when she spoke again.  “I am mad at you for ignoring me.”

                “I hurt you,” he mumbled, hands bunching into fists as he gripped his covers.

                “And my father hurt you,” she shot back, picking her head up to lean forward slightly.  He might have also been talking about older hurts but she felt no need to dredge such memories up this evening.

                “I almost killed you.”

                Amber took a small breath, pausing to adjust her thoughts.  What she’d felt after coming out of the pocket universe had been enough to tell her that.  She nodded in acceptance and inhaled, “And by now, my father has probably pulled every scrap of casting information out of you to better understand it.  Which means you should know how to tell me what you did.”

                He grimaced at her words, closing his eyes so that he wouldn’t have to look at her.  Changsun’s shoulders rose and fell and he his lips with a nervous tongue that darted out quickly.  “If I had more time, I could have-”

                “Changsun,” Amber interrupted him before he could further wallow in self-pity.  “I know my father has probably been making you feel as guilty as possible for what happened to me, but without you, we all would have died anyway.  Or been trapped forever,” she added with a resigned shrug.  “I just… need to know what I went through.  And why,” she admitted, gritting her teeth as she wrapped her left hand around her right, still feeling the phantom ache of the crystal that had been embedded in her palm.

                Taking another slow breath, Changsun ran his hands over his hair and nodded once.  His belly clenched as he pulled his legs up enough to pivot on the bed, kicking his legs free while the covers remained strategically over his lap.  Once upon a time, Amber would have blushed.  Not anymore.  “Everything was connected to you,” he explained in a mere whisper, elbows propped on his knees and his hands hanging limp in front of them.  She could just make out the scars on his right arm, but her observation was distracted by his words.

                “Me?” Amber frowned in confusion, trying to understand.  “But I can’t even cast magic.”

                “No, but you have been surrounded by it your whole life,” he explained.  “Ever since you were born,” he shrugged with a weak smile gracing his lips.

                Unsure what he was getting at and annoyed if he was trying to throw her off, Amber narrowed her eyes.  “That’s the same as any person who lives with a Mage though.”

                Changsun raised one hand in a placating gesture and nodded in agreement.  “True, but the day your mother disappeared set things in motion for the series of possible events that came after.  I’ve talked it over with your father and he agrees,” he promised when her frown deepened.  “Reluctantly but he would say as much,” Changsun’s head nodded as his eyes roamed with the words.

                “Okay,” Amber conceded uncertainly, eyeing him as she waited for him to continue.

                “If I hadn’t changed the spell that day, things might not have ended up the way they did.  But because of it, we found your mother.”  Amber held her breath and nodded.  Seungho had never been able to explain it in detail in his beast form and she had wanted to understand so badly.  “Only the original spell that took her had been warped in the failure, trapping your mother in the same space you would be stuck in later,” he explained, gesturing with one hand fluidly.  “And when we found her, she had been transfigured in the casting.  Either the first or the second.  We still aren’t entirely sure, but just like your father was changed and driven by a single minded purpose, so was your mother.”

                Amber inhaled sharply and she automatically reached for the crystal that was no longer around her neck.  “The white lightning?” she murmured, fingertips pressing against her chest as her heartbeat sped up at the memory.

                “Exactly,” Changsun nodded with a helpless shrug.  “The empowered scrying spell allowed us to see her form even through the transfiguration.  Things were not exactly under control at the time, but we might have been able to figure it out then since she had tentatively recognized Jongwoon.  It was a matter of mitigating the power and unraveling the first spell in such a way to bring her back, but when you came in, she recognized you.  Or at least the power in you.  And it upset everything else we might have done.”  His excitement over his topic warred with the reality of what they’d faced that day, and she could see him trying to balance the two in his expression.

                Confused tears appeared on Amber’s lashes and she looked at him with glistening eyes as she tried to understand it herself.  “If you knew, then why did you let me leave?  Why did we run away?” she demanded through her closing throat.

                “Because she would have killed you.  By accident and without meaning to, but the nature of her form would have destroyed you had she been able to reach you like she wanted.  That’s why your father sent you away,” he swallowed as he looked down.  “Seungho was supposed to come too,” he added, picking at his hands uncertainly.

                Amber didn’t say anything.  She already knew why Seungho hadn’t.  Hastily, she wiped at her eyes and took a steadying breath.  “So why did Karith disappear?”  They were already far away from the answer she’d originally been seeking but she hadn’t known she wanted to know this just as badly until right now as well.

                “Your mother,” Changsun replied, looking up to meet her eyes with painfully open sincerity.  “She doesn’t remember any of it, like your father doesn’t, but when you disappeared through the portal, she tried to search for you.”  Amber covered with her hand and searched his face, almost wishing it wasn’t true.  “And your father wasn’t going to risk losing her again by closing the first portal so he tried to transfigure her one more time.”

                She held her free hand up and whispered, “The glass dome?  But that doesn’t-”

                Changsun nodded and she stopped.  “The empowered scrying spell was achieved through a transfiguration spell.  Jongwoon tried to use it to cancel the spells out, but what ended up happening was a trade in power.  The bowl we used became the dome that covered your mother, freezing her in time, and the transfiguration spell merged with the portal energies to find everything that bore any trace of you and hold onto it as tight as possible.  You said it yourself.  Don’t let go, and she didn’t,” he explained with a pained expression.

                “She heard me?” Amber frowned in confusion.

                “It happened right before your father trapped her in the dome so that moment was frozen with her,” Changsun confirmed.  “So she stopped but the command continued through the traded power.”

                “And the dispersing transfiguration magic moved out from the source, transforming everyone like she had been with a decreasing amount of power,” Amber added on as the years of studying and scouring tomes clicked into place.

                “That’s exactly right,” Changsun smiled softly with honest pride in his face.  Amber almost didn’t recognize it and she blinked uncertainly.  He seemed to notice her confusion for he looked away and added, “That should have been the end of it.  As you know, none of us could find the pocket universe under the influence of the Mobian portal effect.  But…”

                “Wild magic is unpredictable,” Amber filled in the blank, reaching for her necklace again.  She was frustrated by its disappearance and annoyed her father hadn’t given it back yet.  More importantly, she didn’t want to remember the fight that had driven her into that bit of magic.

                “And no one knows what it’s capable of.  But that also explains why it allowed you to find the impossible.  In effect, the spell that was looking for you the first time found you when you fell into the magic.  The necklace kept you safe but it also gave you unquestioned passage into the one place no one else could go,” he laughed once, shaking his head at the luck of it.

                “So how did you find me?” she questioned, frowning that they had never really discussed that part of his arrival.  “I know you teleported in, but…”

                “I knew you, Amber.  Inside and out,” he promised with a quiet confidence that made her shiver slightly.  “All I needed was a crack to slip through.  Some shift in the magic inside gave me the opening.”

                “The mirror,” Amber blinked, looking at him.  “Seungho kept trying to keep the portal into the casting hall closed so that my father wouldn’t get free, but we forgot or missed it or something and it moved on its own.  Power came from the portal when it opened the door to the casting hall-”

                “And created the ripple in space,” Changsun laughed, nodding to himself.  “That’s one more mystery I can answer for your father,” he sighed, appearing to lose his energy as they neared the answer she had originally asked for.  “We both know what happened after that.”

                Amber nodded in agreement.  “When you teleported in, you breeched the perfect barrier and the spell began to unravel bit by bit, tearing itself apart.  Which brings us back to the beginning,” she whispered, feeling her stomach tighten into knots again as she looked at Changsun’s expressionless face.  He wasn’t looking at her anymore.

                In a deadpan voice, he murmured, “I gave the magic what it wanted.”  His eyes rose to meet hers.  “You.”

                An icy chill washed over Amber and dropped open in disbelief.  “But you said it would-”

                “Kill you,” he agreed in a tight voice as he looked away.  “Back then, it would have.  But with my magic and the tranation and augmentation spells I set on you to reverse the original castings, I… hoped it wouldn’t still.”

                Silence descended between them, ominous and heavy.  Amber made no effort to break it either and she could feel Changsun’s gnawing guilt and biting fear from where she sat.  She opened her right palm to stare at the permanently marred flesh, tracing it with the fingertips of her left hand.  “You augmented the protection spell my father cast on the crystal didn’t you?” she murmured, the words a statement instead of a question.

                “Yes,” Changsun answered quietly after a brief pause.

                “And you used me for the tranation spell,” she added just as quietly.

                “You were connected to everything,” he croaked.  “I saw the threads connecting you to everyone.  And I just didn’t know of any other way…” he trailed off as his voice died out.

                Amber swallowed and sniffed once, covering her scar with her good hand.  “So you broke the spell around my mother, reverting her to the white lightning form.”  Changsun grunted once in confirmation.  “Which bought you time so that the power wouldn’t go after you or anyone else.  Because it was going for me.”  Another flat grunt answered her.  “And that power traveled through me before changing and undoing everything, effectively cancelling the spells.”

                “Yes,” he whispered into the silence.

                She felt strangely numb.  Amber thought she should have been furious or upset or even at least crying but there was nothing.  Nothing except one more question.  “You could have used a teleportation spell at any time, couldn’t you?”

                “I think so,” Changsun swallowed, threading his fingers together as he clenched his hands tight.

                “But you didn’t,” she stated, raising her eyes to meet his gaze.

                He looked back at her, unblinking but shaken.  “No.”

                Amber nodded once and took another shallow breath.  Looking away, she leveraged herself back into a standing position, feeling Changsun’s eyes on her the whole time.  Awkwardly, she brushed herself off and turned to open the door.  She paused when his voice broke the silence.

                “Amber…”

                Tilting her head, she waited to hear what else he might say without actually looking at him.  But no other words passed his lips and her shoulders dropped slightly.  With no further hesitation, Amber stepped out of his room and closed the door behind her.

                Changsun returned home a few days after that.  No one tried to stop him, though Amber made sure he took a handful of letters with him to give to her friends at his estate.  He could still barely meet her eyes and she didn’t know how to respond.  So she let him leave too.  Amber was very torn about everything.

                She had her mother and father back.  All of her searching had finally paid off, but it felt like she’d lost the people who had helped her succeed.  Worse, she simply did not feel like herself.  She was getting better but Amber felt like she had no purpose.  There was nothing driving her anymore, and while she enjoyed the company of her parents, she felt strangely out of place with them in turn.  She knew she loved them and they loved her, but they belonged together, through and through.  It almost felt like she was imposing some days, and Amber had never expected to feel that.

                Furthermore, seeing her parents’ happiness only made her more confused about her feelings for Changsun and Seungho.  Things had never exactly been simple between them, but now they were almost impossible to untangle.  She cared for both of them like they cared for her.  Changsun had come to rescue her and Seungho had overcome the beast to see her for who she was.  But one had chosen to risk her life for the sake of everyone and the other had not returned.  Or written back yet.  She knew why Changsun was avoiding her, but why was Seungho?  Had he changed his mind after everything that had happened?

                They were questions Amber could not answer and they distracted her enough to cut herself while peeling potatoes.  “Ow!” she chirped, sticking her sliced thumb into in reaction.

                “What happened?” her mother immediately asked, sitting at the table across from her as she worked on dicing carrots for their stew.

                “Nothing,” Amber sighed, glaring at her thumb as if it had betrayed her.  She glanced at her mother once and then resumed working, determined to keep herself focused this time.

                Yejin watched for a quiet moment more and then set her knife and carrot down.  “Are you alright, dear?” she murmured, getting up to gracefully close the distance between them.  She knelt in front of Amber and grabbed her hands in her strong but delicate ones, peering into her downturned face with gentle concern.

                “I’m fine,” Amber promised weakly, her tone hardly reassuring.

                Her mother laughed sadly and reached up to brush her fingers against Amber’s cheek.  “I know I missed you growing into a woman, but you’re still my little girl.  And I can still worry when you don’t shine like you used to,” she said with the hint of a smile tugging at her lips.  “I know you’ve been trying to be strong.  And I’ve been trying to give you the time and space to… be you,” she shrugged uncertainly, aware that she wasn’t really sure who her daughter had become.  “But you can talk to me, little one.  Please,” she pleaded, a subtle request to let her be needed once more.

                Amber sniffed and looked away briefly, feeling the crushing wall of uncertainty pressing at her defenses again.  “I don’t-” she started to say before she stopped, wiping at the corner of her eye with the hand holding the knife.  They both jumped when they realized what she’d done and Amber hastily put it down on the table before she looked at her mother again.  The face was familiar but older; it wasn’t the same one she’d remembered from her childhood but the feeling was there.  “I don’t know where I belong,” she admitted with a harsh swallow, grabbing her mother’s hand and holding tight.

                “You belong here,” Yejin immediately responded, clasping Amber’s hand between both of hers.

                A surge of frustration washed over Amber and her lips thinned as she struggled not to grimace.  “This will always be my home,” she confirmed with a nod.  “But what am I supposed to do here?  Peel potatoes for the rest of my life?”  Her mother’s face shifted into sad concern and Amber went on, “Run errands to Karith when I get better?”

                Yejin sighed and her lips.  “You’re still recovering dear.  And you’re young yet.  There’s still plenty of time to figure things out.  You did for your father and I,” she smiled, looking towards the front door where they knew Jongwoon would come through eventually.  He was back in the tower again, but only for short periods of time.  He did much less research now that Yejin was back.

                “I know, mother,” she sighed, frowning as she tried to figure out how to better explain it.  She opened to speak again and then shook her head with a smile and a dry laugh.  “After everything I’ve seen.  Everything I’ve experienced and been through…  This isn’t enough anymore,” she admitted, nervous but relieved when the words made sense after she said them.

                “Oh Amber,” Yejin sighed, resting one palm on her daughter’s knee.

                “I think I should go to Bannersport,” she explained calmly, feeling her stomach knot with a different kind of tension.

                “But that’s so far away,” her mother frowned, blinking in confusion.

                “I think I should go stay with the King’s High Mage,” she added with a confident nod.

                “Now that’s getting a little carri-”

                “He wanted to see me anyway,” she interrupted her mother with an imploring expression.  “And while I can’t cast the magic, I know what happened and how to explain it.  Father can send me in his stead and that way he wouldn’t have to go.”

                “He wasn’t going to go anyw-”

                “And it would give me something to do,” Amber stated flatly, finally voicing her real concern.  She swallowed when her mother’s face fell.  “It’s just… a lot has happened since you’ve been gone.  And… I don’t know that I can figure everything out from here.”  If nothing else, being in a place like Bannersport would keep her mind off of other things.  “Please,” she whispered, treating her mother to the same word.

                Yejin sighed uncertainly, her face twisting into slight confusion.  opened and closed several times as if she was going to say something, but nothing came out.  Eventually, she finally managed, “We can talk it over with your father.  He’ll know more about what to do,” she exhaled, looking away even as she held onto Amber’s hand tighter.

                Amber sighed and nodded quietly, searching the room for anything to help the strange situation they’d found themselves in.  In all honesty, she didn’t know if her father would be harder or easier to convince.  But she had to try.  For herself if nothing else.

                As expected, Jongwoon was dead set against the idea at first.  Amber could tell that her mother had been counting on that by her relief at his announcement that their daughter couldn’t go.  His outright refusal only made Amber more determined, however.  Doggedly, she hounded her father, breaking down every component of every spell to him at every opportunity she was given.  To her credit, she even managed to surprise him once or twice; he had more knowledge than her overall, but she had studied this particular area of magic for years.  Nor could he deny that she was getting better day by day.  She hadn’t fainted in three days’ time and her weakened moments were also becoming less frequent and intense.

                “Maybe,” Jongwoon finally conceded with a conflicted expression on his angular face.  He was undeniably proud of her, that much was obvious, but he was still very much a concerned father who did not wish to chance losing his daughter again as well.

                Amber beamed and nodded, almost certain she had already won.  She’d been planning how to get there for days already, just in case she managed to win him over.  “Then this is what I think I should do,” she began, meticulously pointing out her travel route and who she would be going with.

                “Him?!” Jongwoon burst out in surprise.

                “Yes, him,” Amber nodded firmly.  “He won’t turn me down and you can hardly say I’d be safer in anyone else’s company,” she added with a knowing look.

                Her father frowned as he crossed his arms over his chest and grudgingly snorted in agreement.  He still shook his head and wrinkled his nose at her choice though.  His expression became resignedly thoughtful as he finally relaxed and turned his full attention back on Amber again.  “I think I finally understand how your mother must feel.”  At Amber’s confused look, he smiled, “Wondering when you grew up and not quite ready to let you go yet.”

                “I wasn’t ready to let either of you go myself,” she reminded him, meeting his dark eyes evenly.  His hair was just as disheveled as always with a little more color than usual.  The grays looked good on him.

                “Come here you,” Jongwoon smiled crookedly, pulling Amber into his arms and resting his cheek against the top of her head.

                Amber melted into his embrace and closed her eyes.  With the side of her face pressed flat against his robed chest and her arms snugly anchored around him, everything felt right and good for that brief moment in time.  “I love you, father,” she whispered, cracking her eyes open to peer at the part of the study hall open to her.  Familiar books and tomes littered filled tables and she smiled at the sight.

                “I love you too, baby girl,” he whispered, kissing the top of her head before continuing to hold her tight.  “I’ll talk to your mother,” Jongwoon eventually sighed, rubbing Amber’s back with one hand.  “She’s not gonna like this,” he chuckled, though the sound was a little flat.

                “I know,” Amber smiled, happy enough to have him on her side.  “Thank you.”

                He chuckled again and whispered, “For you… anything.”

(a/n: A couple more days left before the deadline and I think I'll make it!  There should only be an epilogue left at this point, so now it's just a matter of writing it.  Tomorrow's gonna be quite full but with any luck, I'll have some more time this evening or Tuesday and whatnot.  Wish me luck!

But more importantly, what do you guys think?  I tried to get most of our answers in this chapter and I can only hope that the magic explanation came across as sensible.  I thought it made sense when I was writing it but if I need to clarify some more, please let me know.  ^_^  Otherwise, I hope you look forward to the last (presumably) chapter of this story and I just want to thank everyone who has been so patient and understanding with me.  I know I haven't been the most reliable updater lately and I'm just grateful you're still here.  So thank you and please be patient for just a little bit longer.  <3  You guys are awesome!)