Hello, everybody!  I'm incredibly sorry for going AWOL for so long.  It was just one of those things where life threw one hundred and one things at me at the same time, including yet another episode of Korey and Broken Computers and then a massive round of Personal Life and School Avalanche.  But it looks like it's all back under control now, and I'm mostly okay.  Thank you to those of you who've been sending lovely messages of support.  I'll get round to replying to PMs and comments over the course of this week, and weekend updates will resume as of this coming weekend.  For now, enjoy the chapter!  The first few paragraphs will look familiar as they were also in the April Fool's Day prank chapter, but beyond that, it's all new. :)

Seoyeon left Chanyeol to talk to the Guardian by himself when the fox-creature woke up, since she didn’t understand half of what they were saying. It didn’t take as long as she had expected, and Chanyeol was tapping her on the shoulder to bring her out of her daydream long before she was prepared for it.

She blinked at him as she tried to readjust to her surroundings, and then pushed herself to her feet with a groan.

“What are we doing?” she asked.

“We’re going to go out and take a look at what’s going on,” Chanyeol murmured. “But we want to make a move as soon as we see what’s going on, so…”

Something about his voice had Seoyeon looking up, and she frowned at the expression on his face. He was looking away from her, but he didn’t appear to be looking at anything specific, and his forehead was creased.

“What?” she asked him, worried.

He glanced blankly at her.

Seoyeon grabbed his arm. “Chanyeol, if this is going to kill you or something—”

He laughed weakly. “You read too many books.”

“You’re scared!” she shot back.

Chanyeol swallowed and nodded.

“Chanyeol—”

He cut her off with a soft sigh. “I just can’t afford to bungle this,” he told her. “Too much is at stake.”

Seoyeon nodded, trying to understand, but it was a bit difficult when she didn’t even know what he was planning. “So what are we doing?” she asked again.

Chanyeol smiled weakly at her and turned to the Guardian for help. The foxish head lifted.

“You may find your mother among the waking dead,” the creature informed her. “Settle your heart, but do not let it distract you.”

Seoyeon stared at it. “What does that—?”

“This is the first plane of the Neuma,” Chanyeol told her.

“Souls linger here when they are mourned and feel the loss.”

Seoyeon jumped: she’d thought the Guardian was bowing out of the conversation.

“When people die, they come here.” Chanyeol gulped. “To this plane. It’s so close to the human world that souls that are blood-connected sing across the divide. That’s why the Neuma was targeting you when you arrived at Ximo.”

“I know that,” said Seoyeon. “But… my mother…?”

“May well still be here.” Chanyeol gulped again. Seoyeon felt his large fingers winding their way through hers. “It would…” He seemed to be gathering his thoughts. “I think it would do you good to see her and say goodbye. You’ll be safer when we get back to Ximo, and it’ll likely also help you deal with your loss. But also… I hate to ask this of you, but I need your help for what I’m going to do, and the best way you can help me is by meeting with your mother.”

Seoyeon looked at him blankly. “How?”

“I need to purge the plane with Phoenix Fire,” he said, “and since it’s very dangerous for me to attempt it on my own, I’m going to need several hours to prepare it. It’s just, I can’t be distracted at all while I’m doing it, and the monsters on this plane will probably start to sense it long before I’m finished calling it and ready to use it, so I need them to be distracted. If you’re out there talking to your mother, they’ll be much more interested in that than anything else.”

Seoyeon felt a chill running through her. “But that sounds… really dangerous,” she said in a small voice.

“Your mother won’t let anything harm you while you’re near her,” Chanyeol assured her. “And I’ll give you what protection I can. It’ll be best if you stay with her until I come to fetch you.”

It still sounded very dangerous. And very scary.

“But what if something nasty catches me before I get to my mother?” Seoyeon asked.

“Hopefully that won’t happen.”

“It sounds like there’s a lot that could go wrong.”

“It could,” Chanyeol agreed. “Hopefully it won’t.”

“Are there other options?”

“Not really, unless you want to stay with me and try to fight off the monsters yourself for several hours.”

Seoyeon bit her lip as she thought about it. “I guess I could always try.”

Taking both her hands in his, Chanyeol crouched down so that their eyes were level.

“Seoyeon,” he said. “I don’t want you to do that. I know you’re br