NO ONE'S POV

As Avery leaves the house, semi-willingly being dragged by Amber through the gate to a waiting Eric and Henry, Xiumin gives a deep sigh, letting the curtains fall back to their original place as he steps away from the window.

Since that night, Avery hadn't been the same.
 

She'd been quieter, almost docile, not even speaking to Tao when he tried to talk to her despite her pounding headache. In the past few days, she'd said hardly anything, eating in near silence unless asking for someone to pass something, setting their training before going off on her own, and then retreating to her room as soon as she deemed their training over.
 

No one, not even Lay, had been allowed in her room since, the healer crawling in with Xiumin and occasionally even Chen when his nightmares woke him in the dead of night. She'd been furiously writing in her book, a green-covered spiral bound one, no bigger than a normal diary. What she'd been writing, no one knows but she took it with her today, she takes it everywhere now, unable to leave it unattended.
 

That was the last straw for Xiumin.
 

She'd lost almost all her trust in them. Letting them wander freely outside of their cards meant she still held some for them but it was very little and likely fragile, on the verge of breaking, shattering at the next wrong move from any of the eleven brothers.
 

The door shuts behind him, hiding him and his four brothers from those playing on the PlayStation just down the hall. "This isn't good," Lay states, his usually relaxed demeanor shed in favor of one more rare, serious, and worried.

Suho scoffs from where he sits on the end of his bed. "It's not bad. If anything she's just showing her true colors so you can stop pretending to like her now."
 

Ignoring his counter-part, Kris leans forward, balancing his elbows on his knees and his chin on his closed fists, folding his tall frame almost in half. "Have either of you seen what's in that book she keeps with her?"
 

"Yea," Luhan speaks from his place on the ground, "You've taken so long to tell her what she wants to know, what she needs to know, that she's coming to her own conclusions. She has drawings of our cards, little notes about us, and things shes noticed while being bound to us, things she finds strange."
 

"Kris, we can't keep it from her. Not anymore, it's getting too dangerous for her to not know," Xiumin tries reasons, on the verge of pleading with his leader to erase some of the danger coming for the only female he's cared about in years.
 

Suho growls out his harsh disagreement and is ignored again, by everyone but Lay who pins him with a harsh stare. "Just what is your problem with Avery? You've been here for all of five minutes, hardly said a word to her, and have decided that you hate her very existence. So what is your problem with her?"
 

Leaning back in shock, caught off guard by the fierce remark, Suho fails to piece together a proper sentence to reason with his brother.
"Exactly. You have no reason to hate her apart from the fact she is a Summoner," Lay spits, putting more anger in his words than intended. "When did you become so cynical?"
 

"Isn't that reason enough?" Suho asks, grabbing fists full of his bedsheets to hold himself back from lunging at his brother. "She's a Summoner. Summoners don't care about us, they never have and they never will. Just because she's good at pretending doesn't mean she'll keep it up forever."
 

"It's not an act!" Luhan bursts. As the only one who can see Avery's inner workings and thoughts, his word should have been enough to convince the opposed Warrior but his mind is already stuck on one track, locked on proving his point and getting them to agree.
 

"When she quits acting, when she finally starts beating us, punishing us, using us only for her gain, will that be the point where you finally see the truth? She's a Summoner, they don't care for anyone but themselves."

Uncharacteristically, Kris is the one to storm from the room, the door slamming against the wall as he flings it open and retreats down the hall.

Suho deflates at the act, shoulders sagging and gaze dropping to his lap. "I just hope you see it before she hurts you again."
 

Pushing off the wall, Xiumin sits next to the younger Warrior. "She's not going to hurt us. We're not going to get hurt by her, she's never done more than say a few harsh words. I promise." He pulls him to his side, a weird side hug that they remain in until Kris returns, seeming significantly calmer.
 

"Did-did you seriously go through her room?" Luhan stutters, agast once he sees the books in his hand.
 

Kris holds up two books. "Not really, they were on her desk so it's not like I went through anything."
 

Xiumin returns to his place against the wall, shutting the door as footsteps attempt to creep closer to the room.
 

Taking the now-vacated space, Kris hands the books to Suho, gesturing for him to go through them. While he knows he shouldn't be showing him their content without asking Avery, he knows this is a final, last-ditch effort to convince his counterpart to try and trust their Summoner.
 

When noises are heard in the hall, just outside the door, eyes turn to Luhan who holds two fingers to his forehead and blocks the eavesdroppers from hearing any part of their conversation.
 

"Just remember, art tells the story of an artist in a way that words cannot," Kris says, settling in beside his counterpart.
 

"Did you seriously quote the cover of a sketch pad?" Xiumin gapes a half-laugh slipping through.
 

"Shut up."
 

"You're making me look at her drawings? What is this supposed to achieve exactly?" Suho scoffs, making no move to look further than the calligraphy quote on the tea-stained and clearly, hand made cover of the two books.
 

"Just do it."
 

The first book starts with a portrait of a woman, her wrinkled face kind and pulled up in a bright smile. He knows who this is