Jisoo hears the telltale beeps over the line that indicated Lisa just hung up on her. She just smiles and shakes her head. For all of her friend’s prowess in both battle and in dating, Lisa was still hopeless around tall, blonde, and pretty girls. A real disaster gay.

Jisoo turns around to an expectant shapeshifter.

Jennie had her hands on her hips and one eyebrow quirked. Her hair was neatly tied into one big braid and the unspoken question of “did your half-demon friend wake up and hit on my wifey?” spelled out completely behind pupils that glint cat-like in a thin vertical line before softening.

Jisoo just snickers.

“Yes, Lisa the is awake and yes, Cotton just threw her under the bus and told me that Lisa’s already hit on Rosie.”

Jennie narrows her eyes. The shapeshifter’s fangs peek out from under her top lip. She was not subtle at all at how possessive she is of the healer, and neither is she subtle about how Lisa just somehow annoys her and sets her off.

Jisoo just laughs louder. The seer rests the hand holding her phone against her hip, rests her back against the wall behind her and smiles.

“To be fair, I’m sure Lisa was probably high on some sort of potion and didn’t know better. If she wakes up with a hundred percent of her consciousness in a place she wasn’t familiar with, she’d be on alert and careful - hitting on a blonde would be the last thing on her mind.”

Jennie just huffs and shrugs.

“I still don’t trust that half-demon.”

Jisoo nods.

“Fair enough.” The seer holds Jennie’s gaze and smiles. She understands Jennie’s apprehension and discomfort towards Lisa, understands where it’s all coming from.

How can you not hate demons when nearly all of your clan was wiped out by them in the last war? When you grew up being trained by the Lynx, one of the most respected master shapeshifters of the magical world, who was murdered out in the woods while you were out training with her?

So Jisoo just stares and looks.

And Jennie stares back, letting herself be caressed by Jisoo’s soft gaze. She feels warmth spread slowly in her chest at the slight quirk in the seer’s lips.

A second passes and they just stand there.

Until Jennie realizes that people who just met each other don’t stew around in silence making eye contact.

The shapeshifter blushes. She looks down and she clears to compose herself.

“Right.” Jennie says. Jisoo just smiles wider.

The seer doesn’t find the sudden closeness they share after the last few days awkward at all. Jennie seems to be put off by it though, still uncomfortable with being so open and trusting of someone who is supposed to be a stranger to her.

“Let’s go back to the library?” Jennie asks, still trying to shake off the weird moment they just had.

“Sure.” Jisoo answers. Jennie turns around and starts walking towards the Ministry library with the seer following closely behind. Jisoo falls into step beside the shapeshifter and they quietly make their way to a table packed with tomes and artifacts, ready to dive into research once more.

The flight to the ministry was quick, though not as rushed as when Jisoo had flown to the little hut and greenhouse of the infamous healer. She wasn’t in a life and death situation leaving compared to when she first went, afterall.

Jisoo couldn’t help but notice the difference - where she had a dying half-demon nearly slipping off her griffin at midnight, the other she had a shapeshifter whose nails dug into her sides, arms wrapped around her torso, eyes shut tight and clinging on tightly for dear life.

Jisoo grimaced. The nails pricking into her were starting to feel like claws. 

“We’re almost there, shapeshifter. You’re not gonna fall off.” The seer said through gritted teeth. “You can loosen your grip because your claws are painful.”

Jennie immediately loosened her grip.

“I’m so-” the bloodline heiress started, until her apology turned into a shriek as her stomach dropped and her grip tightened twofold.

The griffin, upon seeing the rooftop of the ministry and the landing pad for flying creatures, made a sharp descent. Even Jisoo gasped at the suddenness of the drop.

“HEY!” The seer reprimanded her, giving three warning tugs on the feathers at the side of its neck as they were going down. “Hinsaeki!” She called out its name.

Jisoo didn’t have the time to saddle up her griffin when she rushed Lisa to the healer’s hut. If she had, she’d be tugging at the bridles to rein him in. She knew how much Hinsaeki hates having his beautiful white feathers pulled and hoped that the griffin would get the message and stop acting up.

Hinsaeki slowed down.

Jisoo felt like she’d just been on an insane roller coaster ride.

The griffin’s sides vibrated, as if it was laughing. Its eyes sparkled with something akin to mirth.

Jisoo trained her griffin and knew him well enough when he was being an . And at this time he definitely was.

The seer lightly kicked his side in annoyance.

“HEY! Hinsaeki what the hell?! Did you want to kill us?!”

The griffin flapped its wings and shook its head, blew out air from its nostrils.

Jisoo shook her head. It was only then that she noticed that there was something very sharp digging into her sides. She looked down to see the arms locked back around her torso in a deathgrip.

She couldn’t see it, but she could feel Jennie’s face pressed against her left shoulder blade and she was certain that the fearless shapeshifter had her eyes tightly shut in fear.

“Hey, Jennie Kim.” Jisoo croaked. “Are you sure you’re a panther and not a boa constrictor? Because you’re crushing my ribs.”

Jennie whined and loosened her grip. Jisoo swallowed air and felt the claws digging into her retract.

The griffin landed gracefully on the rooftop. The shapeshifter pretty much scrambled off the creature, just thankful for finally having solid ground to stand on. The seer followed suit.

Jisoo tapped Hinsaeki’s behind, then circled around to face her loyal companion.

“Hey, I know you did that as payback to Jennie.” The seer narrowed her eyes. “I know she attacked us but she also helped us and volunteered to come with us just so we’d have back-up going here and coming back to the hut. That’s not very nice.”

Hinsaeki just playfully shook his feathers, sides vibrating again.

Jisoo huffed.

“You’re unbelievable.”

Behind her, Jennie was looking down, palms resting on her hips.

Jisoo smirked.

“You didn’t have to come with us if you’re so afraid of flying, shapeshifter.”

Jennie inhaled sharply and closed her eyes. She felt a vein pop.

“I. Am. Not. Afraid. Of. Flying.” Jennie breathed, punctuating each word sharply. She opened her eyes slowly to see Jisoo’s teasing expression.

She got even more pissed. Jisoo sniggered.

“It’s okay to admit that. You don’t have to act so tough.”

Jennie’s nostrils flared.

“I’m not ‘acting tough’.” She explained. “I am simply,” she blinked - once, twice - “not used to flying.”

Jisoo grinned.

“Okay.” The seer nodded  slowly, patronizingly. “Of course.”

Jennie glared.

“Don’t you dare think - for one second - that I will hesitate to claw that look on your face, seer.”

Jisoo laughed.

“Relax.” The smile on the seer’s lips softened. Her eyes hold Jennie’s for a moment, and she lets sincerity slip out in her words. “I really do appreciate you coming with me.”

The genuineness in her tone surprised Jennie. The shapeshifter was a little taken aback at the sudden tenderness.

“I received visions warning me about my father’s safety and mine,” the seer then explained. “I was worried about making the trip back to the ministry and being here by myself. I was afraid of the possibility of getting attacked like Lisa did...”

Jennie watched as Jisoon’s heart-shaped lips quirked upward until the smile reached her eyes, too.

See, Jennie’s brain would have normally picked up on the fact that Jisoo has had visions and warnings about her safety under normal circumstances.

But moonlight painted Jisoo’s face, her natural beauty awash in a soft glow while the constellations reflected in her eyes, and all the shapeshifter could think about was -

The seer’s eyes are pretty.

Jisoo took Jennie’s hands.

“So, thank you.”

“Mmhm.” Jennie could only nod her acceptance to the gratitude being given to her. “It’s not a big deal.”

Jisoo’s smile widened and she nodded.

“Okay. Let’s go inside, then.”

Lisa yawns. The evening is still young but with her healing body demands sleep every few hours within the day. She finds herself falling asleep and taking random naps here and there.

She is sitting up in her bed in the greenhouse, watching cat videos on her phone. A few feet from her, Rosie is sketching her plants.

It’s been three days since Lisa woke up. Rosie and cotton have been carefully tending to her, making sure she was always comfortable.

The half-demon appreciated everything. She couldn’t think of any way to repay the kindness she’s been shown and she didn’t know what arrangement the healer had with Jisoo either.

She’d talked to Jisoo a few more times over the phone. She’d pieced together the whole story, bit by bit - from Jisoo’s visions of a healer with a rosefinch, to the moment she was attacked, to how Jisoo brought her there, to the three visions on the prophecy that Jisoo saw again while asleep, and the research that Jisoo has done so far at the Ministry.

A child baptized in runes and a child born in flames, Jisoo had told her. Soulmates of the same starmake, destined to meet and save the world.

It sounded like nothing more than a legend to Lisa - a myth the older witches told the young ones as they get tucked into bed.

Jisoo omitted the fact that she’s almost certain the prophecy spoke about Lisa and Rosie, though. The seer chose to only share this information with her father and Jennie, Jennie being the only other person there to help with going through all the materials in the Ministry Library.

Lisa’s thoughts on the prophecy and what Jisoo has been up to - she wonders if Jisoo checked on Dalgomie - is interrupted by Cotton arriving with a basket of food.

Lisa still doesn’t know how a tiny bird like cotton manages to carry such heavy and huge things with his beak. It’s not physically possible.

Cotton just chirruped when she asked one time, giggling as he answered, “why, magic, of course!”

Apparently, the outward appearances of familiars really betray how strong and powerful they are as beings made up of pure magical energy.

“Miss Rosie, Miss Lisa, I brought you dinner!” Cotton chirped.

Rosie looks up from her work with a smile.

“Thank you so much, Cotton.” The healer sing-songs her gratitude.

Lisa thinks of how perfect Cotton and Rosie are - both master and familiar are soft and gentle and have beautiful voices.

“Hmm? What did you say?” Rosie turns to her, eyebrows raised in question.

“Huh?” Lisa asked.

“You were saying something about me and Cotton.” Rosie explained. “I didn’t quite catch it. Would you mind saying it again?” The healer asked.

“Oh.” Lisa clears . She wasn’t aware she’d just said her thoughts out loud. She thinks of how she maybe does need all the sleep he should be getting.

“It’s just that,” Lisa explains, “I think you and Cotton are a perfect match. You suit each other well.”

“Ah.” Rosie smiles at what Lisa said. The healer turns to her familiar. “We really are, aren’t we?”

Cotton sets the basket beside Rosie. 

“Of course we are, Miss Rosie!” Cotton flaps its wings.

Rosie giggles.

“Yes, of course!”

The healer then turns to her food and reaches for the tray inside the food baskets which contain her rice and side dishes and meat. Afterwards, she casts a levitating spell on the other tray of food in the basket and makes it float towards her patient.

Lisa smiles and expresses her thanks.

“Thank you, Rosie.”

Rosie smiles, warm and true and blindingly bright.

“You’re welcome.” Rosie digs into her meal and takes a few bites. “And you don’t have to thank me all the time. It’s literally my job to heal.”

Lisa shrugs.

“But you’re really good at it and really kind, too. You deserve to be thanked constantly.”

Rosie blushes, and doesn’t respond.

They eat in silence for a bit, until Lisa, being who she is, speaks up to break the silence.

“So, you and the shapeshifter live alone here?”

Rosie looks up mid-chew, chopsticks raised in the air. She continues chewing for two more seconds before she swallows to answer.

“Technically, this is my house and Jennie was initially just a patient. I’d lived alone here with cotton for two years and a half before we stumbled upon Jennie.”

The memory flashes in Rosie’s mind for a fraction of a second - the moon in a sinister crescent smile, a bloody panther walking unsteadily on weak knees, stumbling into the edge of the barrier near the greenhouse, Cotton sensing great amounts of dark energy nearby and flying out ready to fight, only to see the dying shapeshifter revert to a female human to a cat, shadows dancing in flickers as if surrounding her - until another question pulls her out of her haze.

“So, did you come from a family of healers?” Lisa asks around a mouthful of rice.

Rosie takes a sip of water. She’s not exactly annoyed at Lisa’s inquisitiveness. She thinks her patient is just bored and looking for any kind of social interaction.

Rosie didn’t mind answering her questions, either. The questions are innocent and logical enough (it makes sense Lisa would ask them after staying for a few days). She just feels more sensitive than usual tonight - more nostalgic.

It must be the moon and the planets, Rosie thinks.

“No,” the healer answers with a small shake of the head. “I didn’t come from a family of healers.” There’s a pause, “-- or maybe I did,” a faraway look in her eye before she looks down. “I don’t really know and I have no way of knowing now, really.”

Rosie looks up with a sad smile, continues answering.

“The old lady who owned this greenhouse - Lola - found me and Cotton when I was about seven years old in the magical forest in the greenhouse. Neither of us had any memory of where we came from or who my parents were.”

Rosie recalls the story Lola told her, recounts it to her patient on impulse.

It was early in the morning, sixteen years ago. Lola was picking healing berries from the forest when she saw something sparkle in the sunlight a few feet away. When she approached it and saw what it was, she dropped the basket of berries she’d picked.

Shielded behind the shrubbery was a six-feet tall humanoid shape of pure magical energy, crouching down and pulsating blue. And wrapped in its arms was a little girl who couldn’t be more than six years old, face covered in smudges of dirt.

When she tried to go near, the humanoid shape screeched at her. Lola recognized the energies of the girl and the humanoid shape were similar and deduced that it must be the little girl’s familiar.

Lola didn’t understand why the familiar wasn’t disguised as some sort of creature and why it was exposed in its true form. But it dawned on the old lady that the familiar must be newborn, too, or at least newly summoned.

Lola then cast a spell that heightened her senses, tried to pick up on the leftover magical energy to get a sense of what happened here. She felt traces of spells which were quickly fading - the magic was weak, as if cast by someone with very little energy left. There was also a stain of desperation in the air, as if the spell’s last driving force was pure desperation.

Desperation and love.

Lola looked at the sleeping child and at the on-edge familiar. She wasn’t sure how but she needed to communicate somehow with the familiar before it started wildly attacking in an effort to protect its master.

It’s not like shapeless magical energy could understand words.

But it could probably understand emotions.

Lola went out on a limb and casted an empathic spell, hoping against hope that it would work.

And it did.

The old witch projected her worry and concern and her wish to help onto the familiar which calmed it down. Then, Lola tossed a few magical crystals towards it, which it hungrily devoured.

After thirty minutes, Lola arrived back at the greenhouse with an astral familiar in tow and it was carrying a sleeping six year old girl.

“Lola taught me everything I knew about herbs and healing.” Rosie smiles. “But she’d already been old when I met her. She died three years ago.” The healer reaches the end of her story. “And that’s how I came to be orphaned again.”

Lisa’s hand halts in mid-air, a grain of rice falling off her chopsticks.

“Oh.”

Rosie waves off the sudden heaviness that blanketed them.

“I’m fine, though, silly.” The healer laughs to dispel the aura around them. “I have Cotton. I will always have Cotton.”

Cotton, who had been listening, chirps in affirmation.

“So, it’s okay. I’m not sad or anything.” Rosie shakes her head, shrugs. “I just thought you might have been bored and wanted to hear a story.”

Lisa nods.

“Thank you for your story.” The half-demon smiles softly. “If it makes you feel any better, you should know that you’re not the only orphan in this room.”

Rosie looks at her. Lisa just smiles.

“I was six, too, when I lost my parents.” Lisa looks down at her knee, picks at non-existent dust. “Jisoo and I were having a sleepover. She was eight. She was my best friend. Jisoo’s father became my guardian.” Lisa looked up with a sad smile. “I still miss my parents, though. I barely remember what they look like, what they sound like. I keep hearing stories about how great they were, though, from people who really knew them.”

Rosie nods.

“Jisoo told me a little bit of your story. I hope you don’t mind.”

Lisa shakes her head.

“Not really.” She chuckles. “I’m sure there’s some patient-doctor confidentiality here that you’re not supposed to break.”

Inside Lisa’s brain, she knows she should be wary even if this witch healed her and had been taking care of her for the past few days. The world isn’t exactly sunshine and butterflies - Lisa would know, having seen and been dispatched to its uglier parts - and there are dark elements after her.

But something about the healer makes Lisa feel at ease - something makes her brain turn off its flight-or-fight response and allows her to just stay still.

Could it be a spell? Lisa had no way of knowing if it was - she’d have been way too deep in it to know.

Rosie chuckles, too, at her joke.

“Of course.”

The healer was ready to offer the half-demon what she easily offered her shapeshifter friend - care, protection, food and shelter.

But she finds herself already willing to offer more - a home, a friend.

Cotton just watches them.

The familiar thinks of how it was apprehensive and on-guard even as they were caring for Jennie. Its protective nature of its master demanded for it to feel that way. It wasn’t at ease with Jisoo either - part of its brain is always ready to snap at a moment’s notice and do everything it can to protect the healer.

But it didn’t feel that way about Lisa.

Cotton stares at the half-demon as she converses easily with its master.

This all cannot be coincidence. Cotton would have to find out who Lisa is and why she has a connection with its master.

Jisoo’s eyelids droop and her head lolls forward as she falls asleep. Jennie looks up from the scroll to see the seer dozing off.

The shapeshifter snickers before picking up a thick book and opening it in the middle. She holds it out right beside Jisoo’s ear then counts to three, in her head.

One, two…

At three she snaps the book closed, the sound resounding throughout their section in the library.

It jolts Jisoo awake right out of her seat, arms flailing and blubbering loudly. The seer falls to the floor.

Jennie cracks up in silent laughter and covers her face with a hand.

“SHHH!” scolds the librarian, walking towards them. The old woman trains angry eyes on Jisoo who was still on the floor, rubbing her bum. “Please, keep silent Ms. Kim. You are one of our most favorite visitors but we cannot allow you to make a ruckus!”

Jisoo shoots Jennie a glare, the shapeshifter still snickering.

“Sorry, Mrs. Choi. It won’t happen again.”

“It better not.” The librarian turns on her heel and walks away.

Jisoo gets up from the floor, turns to Jennie.

“Hey, what the hell?!” The seer asks in hushed anger.

Jennie just smiles a Cheshire cat’s grin.

But before the shapeshifter could fire back a response, a faraway explosion rocks the whole building and both witches grab onto the table for support.

Jisoo and Jennie look at each other, pains and alarm in their eyes and brains clicking into fight-or-flight.

Chaos around them ensues as the staff and visitors panic. The librarian who’d just chewed them out is now trying hard to make everyone stay calm.

“What was that?!” Jennie asks.

“I don’t know.” Is Jisoo’s hasty answer. “But explosions at the Ministry never happen. This can’t be good.”

A second explosion rings out, this time closer. The ground around them shakes and the shelves and books rattle.

Jennie and Jisoo both slip under the table for protection from falling tomes.

Witches flock to the exits in panic, rushing to get out of the library.

“How are we going to get out?” Jennie hisses.

“I don’t know but-” something in Jisoo’s mind clicks.

The last vision. The shadows. Her father.

Jisoo looks up at Jennie. Jennie sees a panic in the seer’s eyes that wasn’t there a moment ago.

“I have to get to my father,” Jisoo says.

“To the Minister?! But his office is on the other side of the compound!” Jennie protests, if only for the fact that what Jisoo is saying isn’t the most practical thing to do at the moment.

“We can’t-”

Before Jennie finishes her sentence, a woman flickers into existence two feet away from them.

“Jisoo!” calls out the woman.

Jisoo looks up in confusion.

“Seulgi?”

The field agent pants.

“Chief, we gotta get you out of here. Minister’s orders.”

“Dad, wha-”

Before Jisoo could finish her question, Seulgi grabs onto them both - one hand on Jisoo’s shoulder and the other on Jennie’s forearm - and flickers all three of them out.

They land on the rooftop and Seulgi stumbles in dizziness.

Jisoo reaches out to catch her. She catches a whiff of the strong scent of stinkhorn on Seulgi and almost retches.

Jennie smells it, too, and with her heightened senses as a panther, she nearly doubles over.

Seulgi is about to pass out, and fights to stay awake.

“Did you have to use such strong stinkhorn powder to flicker in and out of the library?! You’re a shapeshifter! A bear! The scent could make you sick!” Jisoo berates her friend. She then mutters a weak numbing spell under her breath, enough to dampen their sensitivity to the spell.

Seulgi shakes her head.

“I was with Wendy when I got the order. We were walking past the Improvement and Development Section. This experimental batch of stinkhorn powder was the nearest thing I could grab.” Seulgi coughs. “The scent needs a lot of work.”She reaches into her pocket and hands Jisoo her phone. “Minister Kim sent me to get you out here safely. He told me to call him once we’re on the rooftop because he needs to speak to you.”

Jisoo dials her father. He picks up immediately.

“Dad! Where are you?! Are you safe?!”

“I’m fine.” Her father breathes a sigh of relief at the sound of his daughter’s voice. Jisoo expels a breath she didn’t know she was holding, too. “Thanks to your warning, I had more agents on standby and my escape routes secured. Don’t worry about me.” Minister Kim continues before Jisoo could answer. “Now listen carefully, Soo, you have to get out of here immediately. Lisa is in danger and by extension, you are, too. You can’t be here or anywhere near the Ministry. My men are investigating the attack today and it looks like this was done from the inside.” 

Jisoo’s heart sinks.

“The Ministry has somehow been infiltrated. You have to get out of here. It’s safer out there, where no one from the Ministry knows where you are. Don't come back here until we find out who the traitor is amongst our ranks. You must make sure that the two of them are safe.”

She knew which two her dad was referring to.

The child baptized in runes and the child born in flames.

She’d discussed her visions with her father immediately after their arrival. She allowed Jennie to sleep and rest in the barracks at the Ministry as she talked to her father.

She told him about the runes and about Rosie’s powers. Her father told her of what he suspected - that the cave must have been a forbidden site of old magick, that the runes were probably the language of the ghosts of a time passed where the earth thrummed with energy and every single being on it was connected to that powerful energy.

And that’s how she knew where to start looking - to the oldest of accounts of witchcraft and magic, to find the point where fact and myth intersected, where the line between history and legend blurred.

“Yes, sir, we will.” Jisoo answers. “We’ll stay away and keep them safe.”

“Good.”

The call ends with a beep. Jisoo hands Seulgi her phone.

“Seulgi.” Jisoo says, eyes pleading. “Keep my dad safe.”

Seulgi nods.

“I will, Chief. You didn’t even need to say it.”

“Thank you.”

And with that, Jisoo turns to Jennie. The seer summons her griffin with a spell. Hinsaeki descends from the sky - this time complete with saddle and tack - and in no time, the seer and shapeshifter disappear once again into the night sky.