There was nothing Malik hated as much as finding new Seekers. It was like finding a handful of sentient needles in a very, very large haystack. Sure, the Keeper had a general idea of where potential Seekers were, but it still involved a lot of Malik walking around aimlessly and seeing if anyone noticed her. It consumed so much time that could otherwise be used to actually try to find Pi.

Malik sighed and accepted the coffee from the little shop at the metro station. She hadn't paid for it of course - being a Seeker wasn't exactly a paid position - but the suggestion that she had paid was enough for the confused barista to prepare her order. She took a sip and grimanced. Ugh it was weak. Next time she'd make her own coffee and bring a thermos or something, this sugary crap hardly tasted like coffee at all. 

As annoying as walking around doing nothing was, that wasn't the worst part of finding new Seekers. The worst part was having to explain what was going on and waiting for them to get past the stages of disbelief and denial. Honestly Malik usually skipped those, they came to the Spire when they were ready and this way she didn't have to deal with their . 

She knew she should be kinder to them. Nadira had walked her through it when she'd woken Malik, but Nadira had always been a better person than Malik could ever be. Malik just didn't have the patience to put up with it all, not when she was probably just going to lose them all soon enough anyway. One established Seeker and 3 newbies meant 2 of them would be going through the portals alone and let's be real they weren't going to make it back. They were canon fodder. But what the Keeper said Malik did.

She drained the last of her crappy coffee and headed towards the university in Daejeon, one of the places where the Keeper had told her a potential Seeker would be. Better get this over with, the faster she could get back to the job at hand.

~*~

Shin Seungchae packed up her laptop and headed out the lecture hall. This lecture had been the worst, all about Sigmund Freud and his 'theories', man did that guy have issues. Ah well, at least she didn't have to think about those until exam time.

She joined the friends who were waiting for her outside. Miyeon was talking about the date she was going on this weekend. She was apparently panicking about her outfit being either too y or not y enough. Next to her Alexandra was rolling her eyes, she looked so done with Miyeon's ramblings. "I want to look great but I don't want to look too easy you know?"Miyeon said. 

"You can borrow my soft pink dress if you like, you know, the one that's a little low cut but the soft colour will keep it feminine" Seungchae offered.

"Oh really?" Miyeon's face lit up. "Oh I love that one, yes please!"

Alexandra shot Seungchae a look fo gratitue and quickly changed the topic to today's bull lecture. As they turned to leave Seungchae tensed and quickly turned toward where she'd seen white tower from the corner of her eyes but now- nothing. She shook her head, this was not the first time that had happened but there was never anything there. Must be a trick of the light. 

As they made their way home she happile chatted with her friends. They stopped for a hot drink at the campus café (ginseng tae for Seungchae of course, her one true love). Alexandra went on an amusing rant about the class while Miyeon fretted some more over her date. All was as it should be.

Until it wasn't.

The barista had just given her her tea and she was waiting for the others to be done but something felt off. There was a girl sitting at a table in the back sipping from a cup and looking unimpressed but as soon as they locked eyes the world seemed to stop. They stared at each other for a little while, and Seungchae didn't really know how to react. The girl was staring at her so intently it was unnerving. After what felt like an hour she finally managed to tear her gaze away and turned to her friends, but they walked right past her. Seungchae hurried up to them and tapped Alexandra on the shoulder. "Hey wait for me. Do you see that girl over there?"

Alexandra and Miyeon looked at her for a moment, clearly confused. Miyeon scrunched up her nose like she always did during a test when she was trying to remember the answers but they weren't coming to her. "W-what was that?" she stammered. "Who? What?"

"That girl," Seungchae pointed at the girl who was now getting up from the booth. 

Miyeon looked at the bench and back at Seungchae, looking even more confused. "Who? What?" Seungchae didn't think her nose could scrunch up more.

She shook her head. "Nevermind let's just go."

"I don't-" Miyeon backed away. "I don't... think... I know you. I'm just- I'm just gonna go." Miyeon half-dragged Alexandra out of the door while the latter was still looking from Miyeon to Seungchae like nothing in the world made sense.

Seungchae was frozen for a second by the absurdity of it all and when she followed them out the door they had been swallowed by the mass of students goinghome. She heard the creak of the café door and looked back to see the girl coming out of the shop as well. "Who are you?" she asked, though more like she accused. 

"They don't know you anymore," the girl said, still clutching the hot drink.

"Excuse me?"

"You woke up," the girl said with a shrug. "You don't belong in their world anymore. You belong to the Spire."

"The Spire? What are you talking about? And you didn't answer my question."

"I'm Malik and that-" she nodded in the direction just to the right of Seungchae, "-is the Spire."

Seungchae looked  and gasped. There before her was a tall pristinely white tower reaching up into the sky. A tower just like she'd seen in her peripheral vision countless times. But it was here now, right before her. Impossibly white and impossibly tall and impossibly there. There were so many questions swimming in Seungchae's head. What was it? Why was it there? What did it house? Who was this girl? Why did her friends walk away from her like they didn't know her?

So many questions that had so many answers for her to uncover. The situation was bizarre and surreal, but at the same time she found herself curious. She wanted to know more. She had to know more.

"Pack your bags and go to the spire," the girl -Malik- said. She put her hands in her pocket and started to walk away.

"Wait! You can't just leave me like this," Seungchae protested.

"Pack only the essentials and come quick." Malik said ove r her shoulder. "You won't need much where we're going and we don't have time to waste. The fate of the worlds depends on it." With that she walked into the stream of students.

"Hey!" Seungchae yelled after her. "You can't just leave like that! What do you mean the fate of the worlds? What do you mean worlds, plural?! Hey!" But Malik was already gone.

For some seconds she just stared dumbfounded at the way Malik had gone. What was going on? Was this a joke? Was this real? She shook her head, this was too much to take in and she had to think. And dammit her tea had gone cold.

author's note

Here's the first chapter I hope you guys liked it and sorry for the delay. Hopefully I'll be quicker in writing the others. So here's Seungchae, our first Seeker. Thank you Thelandofbrownsugar for this wonderful character and I hope I did right by her. I wasn't going to put a Malik POV in there but I realized that you guys needed some insight into how all this works before I toss you in head-first along with your characters haha. Anyway hope you guys enjoyed it and more to come soon!

And as usual thanks Lils for proofreading and fixing up the wordvomit I wrote at 2 in the morning xD