The two women rode out of the town in the depths of the night, neither one saying a word as Sooyoung led them southward. She wasn't sure which Tower to start at, but at least she did know that Noria was south of Telsan. Leading Taekwoon's horse from her own, she set a hard pace once they were free of the city, the moon giving enough light to see by and the road hard packed by the passage of many thousands of wagons over the years. She even had the brief thought that she might be able to catch up to Taekwoon and his captor somewhere along the road, but realized that it was in folly. The abduction had taken place in full daylight, giving them a chance to escape and be hours ahead by now.

It was only when they reached a fork in the road that Sooyoung drew rein and looked to Jihyo. The pale older woman had kept pace well, though she took the chance now to smooth her silky black hair out of her face and back into the ties it was meant to be in. Her sleek black dress still looked pristine and it was either due to magic, or the unlikely fact that Jihyo was a goddess. Sooyoung refrained from looking down at her own rumpled brown skirt and focused instead on the magician. "Which road do we take?" she asked curtly.

Jihyo's slender brows drew down as she frowned and shook her head. "You could do with a bit more refinement, girl," she said icily, picking an imaginary spot from her skirt before she looked up. "I am not your servant and you will not treat me as such."

Despite the urgency of the situation, Sooyoung felt shame run through her as she realized that it was exactly what she had been treating the older woman as. A flush heated her cheeks as she ducked her head into a bow. "I am sorry, Magician," she apologized, though it was through clenched teeth: oh how she hated apologizing! "I just-"

Jihyo waved a hand as if to dismiss the explanation. "I understand, more than you can suspect. But thank you for the apology. Now," she urged her horse forward, using only her hands to do so: the prim magician had declined to ride astride and instead sat side-saddle, meaning that she could only use her hands to communicate with the animal. Unless she could speak with animals, like Taekwoon could... Sooyoung narrowed her eyes at that thought and looked down at her own horse.

The older woman ignored her and moved close to the two signs that pointed down each fork of the road. "This one," she said as she rode by, and though they wouldn't make a difference to Sooyoung, she read the  signs as she passed. Elarin was the one they did not take: Ardin was the one they did.

"So Junho took him to Ardin Tower?" she asked, urging her horse to take longer strides to catch up with the female magician.

The amused glance that Jihyo gave her said that she was so very wrong in her assumption. "Ardin is not a Tower, dear. It's one of the three sections of land that Noria is split into. Ardin to the West, Elarin to the East, and Mesarin to the South."

Sooyoung's brow furrowed as she considered that. "I thought Noria was split into nine," she said, halfway a question.

Jihyo dipped her head as if in concession, but added, "It is. Each of the three provinces are split into three as well, to create nine. Just as the Ancali were nine, but lived in pairs of three."

Now that was a word Sooyoung had heard before. The Ancali were the creators of Calceryn and all that lived and breathed on the world, as well as being the source of where the Norians got their magic. But, "They lived in three? Like..."

"Mated, yes. Two female and one male." Sooyoung flushed at the thought of sharing Taekwoon with another woman, and Jihyo must have known what she was thinking because the older woman laughed. "No, Sooyoung. The two women shared the man, yes, but they also were mated together. All three connected."

"Oh," she said quietly as that brought a whole new dynamic to what she had thought, and her whole face heated. Jihyo's laugh didn't help.

"Anyway," the woman continued, brushing off Sooyoung's embarrassment in the chance of a lesson, "Junho's Tower should be one of the three from Ardin, because his power lies mainly in the arcane. The ability to do things not of nature," she explained when she saw Sooyoung's confusion. "Every magician can do many things, but just as anyone else, we have stronger talents in diffferent aspects. His talents lie in the arcane, as do my own. But he's not from my Tower, so that rules out one of the three."

"You speak as if you know him well," Sooyoung ventured quietly.

Jihyo grimaced and gave a shrug. "Um. Well I helped to teach him when he was in the apprentice stages. I thought he might choose my Tower but he didn't, in the end, and I think it was due to our differences."

Sooyoung didn't feel as if that were the whole truth, but she kept that thought to herself and let the woman keep some privacy. "Then you're older than him," she mused. "How old is he, actually?"

Jihyo's eyes narrowed in thought and she seemed to do calculations in her mind for a moment. "He's twenty-seven," she finally said, nodding her head as she did.

A flash of surprise ran through Sooyoung as she realized he was the same age as Taekwoon. "Is he especially powerful?" she asked hesitantly, wondering how the man had been able to steal her husband. She had assumed that he was far older and therefore had more experience, but now she was just left confused.

It seemed that Jihyo understood the reasoning behind her question, though, because the woman gave her a sidelong look. "Children born with a strong gift are supposed to come to the Towers to train at the age of nine," she explained softly. "I don't know how your husband avoided that, because even I could feel his power potential just in the room you two shared at the inn."

"We're from Arisan," she defended immediately. For this woman to be implying that Taekwoon had intentionally avoided training angered her, but she knew she wouldn't get answers if she lost her temper. "He's taught himself everything he knows."

"Hmmm. So he does understand how to use his magic, then?" Jihyo asked, guiding