“I don’t get it. Why do I have to do this?” Sinb complained as she carried a bouquet of flowers in her arms, “I thought I was just supposed to be training the elves?”

“This will also be part of your duties, Sinb.” the elder elf reprimanded her, “We are living in this realm with those of the other kind and we are best united at all times, so an act of goodwill is mandatory to show that we are on their side.”

Sinb could only nod to that, remembering the history that was taught to them since childhood.

It wasn’t always peaceful in their realm. They were different creatures of different origins and different cultures and traditions. Therefore, a difference in opinions was inevitable.

A long time ago, a large scale conflict started between the shapeshifters and the elves due to a rogue shapeshifter destroying an important heirloom that the high elf owned.

The elves failed to know that time that the rogue shapeshifter has long been casted away by their kind and, with that lack of knowledge, the elves proceeded to wage an attack on the shifter’s lands.

Seeing the destruction caused by the conflict, the nymphs intervened, trying to keep both sides from fighting and adamant at keeping the conflict from escalating any further, however the elves saw this as a declaration of war against them and began to hurt their kind as well.

The nymph’s retaliation was immediate, not wanting to let the act of atrocity slip by and soon each land had gone against the other. Lives were lost, properties were destroyed and amongst the losses were Sinb’s parents.

It was only during the intervention of the mages and fairies that the conflict was put to a stop, with the mages’ spells keeping attacks from reaching anyone and the fairies making sure that no one tried to attack anyone else.

In the end, each side came to a compromise, each region electing a representative of their own and creating a council to keep matters between each region solved without a need for fighting. Sinb has just been newly chosen to be their representative, and now her first task was to greet the representative of each region who had also just been chosen.

Sinb, of course, asked why the elves were the ones who had to go through the effort and the elder reminded her that it was because of the elves’ misunderstanding the situation which was why the civil war began in the first place. So it has been a long standing tradition for the elves’ representative to show an act of goodwill to the other regions, which leads them to their current situation.

“Why flowers then?”

“We’ll be meeting the representative of the Nymphai region first.” the elder explained, “As an apology for attacking them when they were merely trying to stop the bloodshed. I’ve heard their representative have a love for flowers.”

Sinb stared at the flowers in her arms, frowning as she thought over the elder’s words, “But aren’t they the deities of the land?”

They have just reached the meadow that led to the flower fields that was currently being protected by a barrier placed by the nymphs since it was blooming season and they didn’t want the flowers to be harmed by anyone trespassing their territory.

The thought made Sinb frown more.

‘Bringing these flowers is a wrong move.’ she thought.

Before she could do anything about it, a voice had called out, interrupting her train of thought and momentarily taking her attention away from her current worries.

“Who goes there?”

The elder elf was quick to respond, “We come from the Elven region.” Sinb heard her companion call out even if they couldn’t sense anyone’s presence anywhere nearby, “We’ve come to introduce our council representative and we bring a gift.”

There was no response for a while. Sinb even thought that they weren’t able to hear what he had said but was soon proven wrong when the barrier began to fade and a full view of the entire land of flowers met their eyes.

The view was completely breathtaking, rows upon rows of different flowers littered the entire field, fragrances mixing in the air, giving the place a pleasant and relaxing feel. Whenever the wind blew, dandelions would flutter about, casting a magical view that was a complete spectacle to the eyes.

And amidst all this beauty, Sinb saw the main jewel amongst all the treasure surrounding them.

Walking through the path in the middle of the flowers was one of the nymphs. Her white dress made her look as if she was gliding effortlessly across the sea of flowers, her hair fell down her shoulders too perfectly for it to be real and when the wind blew, Sinb was given the pleasant view of the nymph’s features that she could easily confirm to be one of the most beautiful faces she’s ever seen.

Sinb forgot to breathe, completely in awe at the goddess before her.

The closer the nymph approached, the more she felt herself being a nervous wreck. She couldn’t… there was no way she could be graced by this presence. It almost felt like she wasn’t worthy.

And when she was finally a few steps in front of her, Sinb forgot to function completely.

“Is she alright?” the nymph asked, gesturing to her while looking to the elder with an inquiring look. Sinb didn’t realize that she’s been staring for a while until her companion had nudged her arm, prompting her to snap out of her thoughts and finally take in the current situation.

Sinb opened and closed to say something, anything to the nymph before her but found herself at loss for words. The elder could only sigh and decided to take over, seeing that Sinb was having a hard time with what to say.

“Our representative has brought a gift, as a symbol of goodwill from our region.” he spoke, nudging Sinb again as he tried to make her understand that it was her cue to give her the flowers. Thankfully, Sinb seemed to receive the message as she straightened herself.

“Uhm… right, I–” she cleared , “Here you go.”

Sinb knew she was in trouble with the way the elder elf grimaced at her poor choice of words, but she wasn’t focused on that. She was staring at the nymph’s face, still thinking to herself how someone so pretty could exist. It was then that she noticed the sad look the nymph sported the moment her eyes fell on the flowers she was offering.

Sinb pulled back just when the nymph was about to receive them, surprising the woman, the elder and even herself.

The elder elf nudged her again, whispering her name harshly but she once more ignored him, just staring straight into the nymph’s features whose gaze mirrored her own.

“I’m sorry…” Sinb spoke, with all the sincerity she could muster, “For bringing you these flowers.”

She could feel the looks of confusion directed at her but she pushed on, knowing that what she was doing was the right thing.

“I heard that you liked flowers, but I guess this isn’t the best way to give them to you. We shouldn’t have plucked them up from the land.” she said apologetically, “I’m sorry for taking these flowers away from their home.”

The nymph seemed genuinely surprised at her words, as if she never expected to hear them spoken by anyone.

“I’m Yerin.” the nymph spoke, approaching closer, “And you?”

Taken aback by the sudden question, Sinb struggled a bit before managing a proper answer, “I’m Sinb.”

“Sinb.” the nymph nodded, “It’s a pleasure to meet you and I…” the nymph held out her hands, asking Sinb to hand her the flowers, “Accept your token of goodwill.”

Sinb could clearly remember the smile Yerin gave her that day.

Sinb woke up with the sun’s rays peeking through the windows of her room and shining down on her face, immediately telling her that it was already morning and she may have skipped out on her morning duties, but can anyone blame her? Yerin’s disappearance has plagued her mind since the past night and it’s been difficult for her to get some proper sleep.

Nevertheless, she’s awake now, and that meant going back to work. Groggily sitting up, she realized she fell asleep on her desk. She must have fallen asleep somehow while going through the places where Yerin may have run off to.

Her eyes took notice of the maps spread out on the table: maps of their realm, of the south, the western lands, and their neighbor from the far eastern seas. Each leader of the aforementioned realms gave them bad news, that they’ve not seen hide nor hair of the nymph but Sinb didn’t want to believe it. She must be out there somewhere, waiting, and if Sinb has to spend the rest of her life to find her then she will. Yerin just didn’t want to be found.

As Sojung has told her— she’s not in any danger, nor is she gone, she just can’t be found and the only conclusion that Sinb could think of was that Yerin was in hiding and the Queen somehow has something to do with it.

The mage’s words rung in her head once more-- she can’t trust anyone. What does that mean? Is there anything going on behind the scenes that she doesn’t know? And what does it have to do with Yerin? With all of this?

“You’re awake.” her thoughts came to a skidding halt as a voice spoke. Looking over to the source, she jumped up from her seat in surprise– the chair toppling down at the abruptness of her actions when she saw Yerin standing by her room’s doorway.

“Yeri–” she was about to say, but her vision cleared and Yerin’s figure faded, leaving an empty space before her. The elf stood, unmoving, eyes dazed and body stiff as she tried to register that she was just seeing things.

“Yerin…” Sinb let out a shaky breath, feeling the emptiness of the room consume her.

“Sinb?” a small voice interrupted her thoughts for the second time, causing the elf to look up only to see the fairy fluttering about, staring up at her in worry.

“Oh, Eunha, sorry I didn’t see you there.” Sinb straightened herself, forcing a small smile towards he co-representative, “What is it?”

“You know, if you have something in your mind you can always turn to us.” Eunha fluttered closer, patting her nose in an act of affection, “We’re all here for you, alright?”

This time Sinb gave out a genuine smile, fighting off the tears that were more than ready to fall at any moment, “Yeah. Thanks. But never mind that, what’s wrong?”

“Oh right, Sojung’s calling for a meeting. She says it’s important.”

“Alright, let’s go.”

The place was still empty when they arrived, but soon enough Yuna came in, surprising the elf.

“Yuna?” Sinb approached, Eunha currently perched on her shoulder, “Did Sojung call for you too?”

Yuna didn’t answer and just brought the elf in for a hug, knowing that she needed it even without Sinb saying it. The shapeshifter could easily sense her friend’s current emotional state, not to mention Eunha was clinging onto her, giving her the sign that she was not okay.

Fairies normally didn’t have abilities that relate to people’s feelings but Eunha was an exemption. She’s an empath, and the very first of their kind to be one. She could easily sense any emotion coming from anyone within her proximity and this allowed her to be chosen as council representative among her kind. Because of her ability, she’s gained the favor and support from all the fairies in their region.

It was also why Sojung chose her as an assistant. The mage wasn’t one for words, and could express her emotions in the wrong way and could easily be misunderstood so for Eunha who knew a person’s real feelings, she was the best candidate to deal with the cold mage.

As if on cue, the meeting room’s doors burst open, revealing the council leader walking briskly inside.

“Call back all search parties.” Sojung ordered as soon as she entered the room, alarming Sinb who didn’t understand what was going on.

“What?”

“Yerin is not in this realm.” Sojung gave her a pointed look.

“Maybe we should just settle down and explain the situation to her first.” Yuna told the mage who took in a deep breath and nodded.

“Sorry about that.” the mage sighed, massaging her temples, “It’s just… this was worse than we thought.”

“That’s not really comforting me right now.” Sinb stared.

“Let me do the explaining.” Yuna quickly intervened, noticing the agitated state their leader was in. She couldn’t really blame her, she was also in the same state the first time she heard the news. If it weren’t for Yewon calming her down, she’d also be a nervous wreck.

Apparently, Yuna took too much time to form the words to explain the situation and Sinb has had enough of the tense silence.

“What is going on!?” Sinb stared at all the faces currently in the meeting room, “Someone tell me what’s happening right now! Is Yerin okay!?”

“Yerin’s okay.” Yuna told her quickly, “Take a seat first.”

“How do you know that?” Sinb turned to her, gripping her shoulders, “Did you see her? Did you meet her? Where is she?”

“Sinb, calm down–”

“I’m trying! I’m trying, but please…” Sinb tightened her hold on Yuna, the shapeshifter feeling the elf shaking all over as she tried to keep it together, “Please tell me where she is…”

Yuna swallowed, taking a moment to decide whether to answer or not and finally came to a decision, “Yerin’s in the human realm.”

Sinb took a step back and began heading for the magic circle in the corner of the room. A circle that Sojung made so they could transport to the human world whenever they wanted.

However, before she could take another step further, Sojung blocked her way. Sinb made a move to bypass her but Yuna also kept her from proceeding further by grabbing her arm. The shapeshifter was stronger than her, so shaking her hold off was out of the question.

“Yuna let me go, I have to see her!” Sinb exclaimed, “And Sojung–!”

“You can’t see her Sinb.”

“Why!?”

“Yerin ran away because of you.” Yuna explained, immediately feeling the elf’s strength leave her body, “Sinb… you can’t go to her.”

Yuna looked over to the mage who just nodded.

“If you step a single foot into the human realm, you’ll die.”

So Yerin's location has been  disclosed~ what's Yerin doing in the human realm though?  🤔🤔

Thanks for the subs and upvotes everyone 😊 And also to everyone who's commented, thank you very much~~ ❤️