Eunha winced as another explosion resounded throughout the archery range and another target was bombed to smithereens, leaving nothing behind but debris.

“Is she still at it?”

Eunha looked up to see Yuna walking over, staring at the lone figure in the range who was notching another arrow into her bow and aiming for another target which was once more blasted to nothing as soon as the arrow hit its intended target.

“I’d be frustrated too.” Eunha mumbled, remembering what had happened after their meeting this morning.

Needless to say the elf did not take the news lightly, it took all of Sojung and Yuna’s abilities to keep the elf’s powers at bay before they spiraled out of control due to her rising emotions. She had insisted on ending the Queen’s life, about to march towards the Great Tree to do just that, but Sojung had told her that it was too risky to do so. They didn’t know what could happen to Yerin if they hurt the Queen in any way, so killing her was not an option, unfortunately.

Angered, Sinb marched out of the meeting room and decided to vent her frustrations out on the archery range. Eunha volunteered to accompany the elf to keep an eye on her.

“How’s Yerin doing?”

“A bit better, but she’s frustrated too.” Yuna answered, “Yewon’s keeping me updated. Yerin's okay but she wants to help, so she’s trying to find a way to strengthen the barrier all the way from the human realm.”

“Is it possible?”

“Amongst the other realms, the humans’ side isthe most disconnected to us.” the shapeshifter replied honestly, “Sojung says it’s still not possible at the moment.”

“What about the curse?”

“Sojung is working on that. She’s trying to establish contact with the rogue witch Yerin was talking about so they could work on it together, but it’s obvious she doesn’t want to be found.”

“She must be something to be able to avoid Sojung’s search magic like that.” Eunha sighed, jumping at the sound of another explosion, “Does Yerin have any more information on the curse?”

“Unfortunately, her information is limited too, she said the witch couldn’t really figure out how to deal with the curse without all the information about it. There are a lot of curses that have the same effect as the one she has now, so we can’t find an alternate remedy for it at the moment.”

“Well bummer,” Eunha grumbled, bringing up her knees close to her chest as she sighed, “Why am I not surprised that Queen will have that one important thing that we need to beat her.”

“A bit understandable since Yerin’s basically in control of this land.” Yuna shrugged, “As long as Yerin’s capable of amplifying the defenses outside the realm, then outside forces can’t do anything to us, and we can easily deal with the inside. That Queen wants Yerin out of the picture no matter what.”

Yuna shifted into her pup form and bounded around Eunha before jumping onto her lap, surprising the fairy.

“What? You miss Yewon already or something?”

‘It’s usually cuddle time during this time.’ Yuna explained telepathically as she could not speak while in her other form, ‘So yes, I miss her a lot so you can be her substitute for now.’

“Whipped.”

‘What’s whipped mean?’

“Maybe you should ask Yewon.” Eunha chuckled, the shifter’s silky fur. She could tell how much Yewon takes good care of the pup with how healthy she looked, no wonder Yuna would miss her at this time. They surely must have spent a lot of time together.

This brought her thoughts to Sojung, thinking of how the mage was probably hard at work while the rest of them were lazing around like this. Sojung did tell them to leave her alone for a bit as she organized everything concerning the upcoming coup d’etat and she knew that if she disturbed the mage, she would be in for a harsh scolding, but it can’t be helped that she would worry for the woman sometimes… maybe all the time.

Being the leader of the council wasn’t easy, not to mention being the mage’s leader made it a lot more difficult. There was just too much responsibility placed on her shoulders that Eunha couldn’t help but wonder how she’s able to carry the burden of all of it. Eunha had insisted earlier that she'd help her out, but Sojung refused, saying that they should be as discreet with their plans as much as possible and to leave it to her. It annoyed Eunha to no end but the least she wanted to do was to put more stress on the woman’s shoulders so she just agreed.

Sojung was tired.

Eunha could feel it. It was practically radiating out of her in sonic waves that the mage might as well just scream it out loud. But she didn’t want to look weak in the face of a threat so she keeps up her façade, trying to keep her bearings together. It was worrisome, to say the least, to see their leader do all the work.

Sojung has a point, Eunha knows she does, but it wouldn’t hurt her to ask for help…

“I wish Sojung’s okay…”

‘I wanna help her too Eunha.’ Yuna said accompanied by a small whine as her ears drooped, ‘But it’s too risky. Sojung’s the only one who can tell who to trust and who we shouldn’t. If I had even the smallest ounce of her abilities, I would have taken that burden off her shoulders.’

“Right…” Eunha absentmindedly agreed before her eyes widened in realization, “Wait, that’s it!”

Yuna tilted her head to look up at the fairy, ‘What’s it?’

Instead of getting an answer, she found herself stumbling out of Eunha’s lap disorientedly as the fairy suddenly stood up without warning, “I have to go Yuna. Look after Sinb for me!”

‘Wai– Yes, of course you won’t explain it to me.’ the shapeshifter rolled her eyes when the fairy disappeared in a flash of light. She just shrugged, sitting on her hind legs and watching Sinb blast another target into nothingness. Yuna had to cover her sensitive ears with how loud the explosion was, ‘Well, if she’s that happy then it must be something good.’

“Are you sure?”

“I’m not an empath for no reason Sojung. Let me help.”

The two were currently inside the council meeting room once more after Eunha had barged in and told Sojung of her idea.

She realized it when Yuna mentioned having even a bit of Sojung’s abilities, and the mage was currently dealing with finding who the traitors within their ranks were. Sojung usually uses her spells that deals with sensing a person’s inner thoughts which was not that far off from her ability to sense emotions.

After all, they can lie through their teeth all they want and even fake it convincingly, but it would be hard to hide their real feelings completely.

Sojung was against it at first, but realized that Eunha had a point. She hated to admit it, but she needed help. Their realm was vast and her spell can only do so little, but Eunha could sense emotions of an entire group. Pinpointing certain emotions that shouldn’t be there would be easy, especially in a collective populace.

“I’ll permit it.” Sojung nodded, causing the fairy to jump in glee, “But will you be alright? You’ll be dealing with people who you trust…”

“The only ones I trust are this council.” Eunha told her, surprising the woman since the fairy seemed to get along with everyone and was close to all of them, “Sure… I might not seem wary about anything at all, but emotions don’t lie. At least one out of ten people I meet bears hatred against me, but I don’t bother with them because doing so is just a waste of time.”

“You didn’t say anything about this because…?”

“It’s also not worth your time.”

“Oh.”

“But they pose harm to us now. So let’s go deal with these haters and put them to rest!”

Sojung stared at the fairy pumping her fist in determination, “‘Haters’? You have a weird choice of words.”

“You just don’t hang around in the human world enough, Sojung. You’ll learn a lot more than those spells of yours.”

“I don’t think I need to learn anything like ‘Stan Gfriend’–”

“You should!”

While this was going on, Yuna took her paws off her drooped ears when the explosions finally ended and she watched Sinb sprawled on the archery range grounds. The elf’s eyes were no longer glowing silver, her breathing looking calmer than earlier and so the shapeshifter assumed that it was safe to approach.

Yuna bounded up to her on all fours before shifting back to human as soon as she was within earshot, “The elders will be mad.”

“I don’t care.”

“Are you okay now?”

“No.”

Yuna could only sigh at Sinb’s dead tone in answering. The elf might have belted out her anger in the most dangerous way possible and finished just a few minutes ago, but her eyes still screamed utter rage.

“I…” Sinb spoke up again, garnering her attention, “I announced it didn’t I, Yuna?”

Yuna stared in curiosity, “Announce what?”

“That if they do anything to Yerin, they’ll answer to me.” Sinb sat up, “It wasn’t just words. It was a promise and I hate that I can’t do anything but sit here and wait.”

“And blow things up.” Yuna added, ignoring the glare the elf gave her, “Well, I know one thing that can calm you down. I was about to suggest it but then you went all super saiyan on us before I could get a word in and went all hadoken on those targets…”

“I don’t understand what you’re going on about but I felt like I was being insulted there.” Sinb said as her eyes furrowed in confusion at the shapeshifter’s choice of words. What is Yewon teaching this woman?

“You should watch more stuff.”

“I don’t think I want to watch it.” Sinb refused, “What was that about you telling me to calm down anyway?”

Yuna tossed her an item that she had been holding onto, surprising Sinb who nearly dropped it if not for her quick reflexes. Upon seeing the item, her eyes widened.

“The order said you can’t be in the same realm.” Yuna explained, smiling slightly, “But they didn’t say anything about no communication.”

Sinb’s face morphed from a blank, disbelieving stare, to that of a look of realization before a huge grin broke out of her features. To Yuna’s surprise, Sinb ended up bringing the shapeshifter in for a tight hug, thanking her profusely before bolting off in a random direction.

Only to come back after a minute.

“How do you use this?”

Yuna rolled her eyes before instructing the elf how to operate the device. Sinb was, impressively, a quick learner and got the hang of it in just a few minutes and was already on the way to making her first phone call. Yuna felt so proud of her teaching skills in that moment.

“Hello?”

“Oh? Yewon?”

“Oh, Sinb-ssi! Hi, I was expecting you to call sooner. Never mind that though– wait a moment, I’ll give the phone to Yerin-unnie.”

Sinb waited as Yewon instructed, with slight anxiousness as she was unconsciously tapping her foot on the ground while Yuna decided to spend her time in her pup form running in circles around Sinb’s feet because she felt like it.

Sinb’s foot tapping stopped as soon as she heard Yewon speaking again.

“Yerin-unnie! There’s a phone call for you.”

Sinb could hear Yerin humm in a questioning tone, it was slightly faint, but the elf could hear and recognize her voice anywhere, “For me?”

“Yep!”

“I– but I have no knowledge… on how to use that…?”

“It’s okay unnie, you just take it and hold it against your ear like this. Then you say hello.”

“I-I see…” Yerin whined a little in nervousness, “It won’t break if I touch it?”

“You just have to hold it, unnie. Relax.”

Sinb couldn’t resist the smile on her face as she continued to listen to Yerin sounding so unsure, confused and nervous. Emotions that were certainly unbecoming of her at first glance, but a select few– few meaning the council– knew this side of her that they found adorable. Sinb found it appealing no matter how many few times she witnessed it and it made her fall for the nymph all over again.

“Yuna~” Sinb stared at the pup at her feet currently chasing her own tail.

“What? I’m a little busy.”

“She’s so adorable.”

She stopped what she was doing. “Who? My Yewon?” Yuna quickly shifted into her human form, “Sinb, I said talk to Yerin, not flirt with Yewon.”

“What? What is this I am hearing concerning you and Yewon?”

Sinb’s eyes widened as she finally heard Yerin’s voice speaking through the phone.

“There isn’t anything like that! Yuna’s just misunderstanding things again.” the elf quickly said as she tried to shush Yuna up, “I just thought you’re adorable.”

“Yewon, how do you end this call?”

Sinb panicked, “Yerin~!”

She relaxed upon hearing the sound of a chuckle on the other end, knowing immediately it was coming from Yerin, “You took your time to finally establish communication with me.”

She left out the fact that she was too busy thinking of a hundred ways on how to murder the Queen and settled with saying, “I’m sorry.”

“Forgiven.” Yerin said, causing another smile to break out of Sinb’s face, “And also, I should be the one apologizing for disappearing without a word.”

“You did it to save me.” Sinb replied, “I should be thanking you instead of forgiving you.”

There was only silence on the other end, Sinb understanding that it was just Yerin running out of words to say to her. However, Sinb understood what that silence meant. She knew that there were many things that she wanted to say, but it felt like words were not enough. Words were never enough.

“I’m happy you’re okay, Sinb.”

Sinb felt her heart burst at the rare moment of affection that Yerin showed. She wasn’t there for the elf to actually see her say those things, but Sinb could almost imagine the woman standing before her, looking at her with the softest gaze she’s given anyone, staring at her as if she meant the world to her and Sinb just couldn’t keep her emotions at bay.

“Yerin?”

“Yes?”

“I’m about to say something you probably won’t like, but bear with me for a bit.”

“…What is it?”

Sinb breathed in deep, mustering up her courage that she’s gathered for the past hours– no, for the past years. She has always wanted to say those words to the nymph, but feared that they may be rejected. It was a different story now. Anytime soon they will be plunged into battle, with no preparation whatsoever because of the presence of traitors and there may be a chance that she would never be able to say those words to her anymore.

Closing her eyes, she imagined Yerin before her, feeling her gaze on her, feeling her presence by her side even if they were realms apart.

“I love you.”

Sinb’s hold on the phone tightened.

“So much Yerin.”

Sinb felt tears prickling at the corner of her eyes, threatening to burst at anytime.

“When you disappeared, I felt like everything of me disappeared with you.” she continued, “But now I know you’re okay, it felt like a sword stabbed deep in me has been taken out. You just… mean a lot to me Yerin.”

Not waiting for a response, she went on, “And I made a promise that anyone who would hurt you would answer to me. So I swear on my bow, no matter what it will cost, I will fight for you, so that they can’t take you away from me again.”

Sinb thought it would have been better if she had said the words in person, that way the silence on the other end wouldn’t be making her look like a nervous wreck. At least in person she would be able to see Yerin’s expressions and could at least give her a clue on what the woman was feeling or thinking, but the silence gave her nothing. She almost feared that the communication had been cut off in the middle of her confession (that would be both devastating and embarrassing) but it was soon washed away when Yerin spoke.

“They can’t take me away from you, Sinb.”

The elf’s eyes widened at the overflowing honesty in her words.

“Because I have always been yours.”

Sinb opened to speak, but was cut off by Yerin’s words as she continued.

“So you don’t need to fight for me because we are always together. And so we do this together.” she could see the small smile on the nymph’s lips from the tone of her voice, “Fight alongside me.”

Sinb smiled as well, her grip on her bow tightening as her eyes burned a bright silver in determination.

“Always.”

Yuna watched from a distance. She had given the elf some space to talk with Yerin privately, also so that she could say what she wanted to say without feeling embarrassed, it just so happens that Yuna has sensitive hearing so she might have heard everything because of it. She chuckles a bit.

However, the happiness was short-lived when an eagle swooped down from the skies and shifted into human form as he stood before Yuna, the same time an elf rushed forward to Sinb’s side.

The both of them had the same message to deliver.

“Outside forces from the North and East are closing in!”

Sinb and Yuna shared a look and a nod, quickly commanding the messengers to have all the civilians evacuated and for the fighters to start preparing for battle which the two were quick to receive and both left for their respective tasks.

“That damn Queen doesn’t waste her time.” Sinb growled as she spoke on the phone once more, “Sorry about this Yerin, I have to go… I will stay safe, we’ll buy some time for you.”

“The order will be lifted in two days, let's hope we can hold them off until then or better yet finish this by that time.” Yuna remarked as she watched the sun begin to set, “Figures they’d attack us at night.”

Both leaders knew the dangers the night posed for them. Not only could they be caught off guard, but there was also the existence of the enemy entities that spawned during the dark. Their problem wasn’t just the invading forces but this as well. They could only hope that Eunha and Sojung managed to take care of the traitors. The last thing they would want was to be attacked on both sides in a pincer attack.

“Stay safe Sinb. I will never forgive you if you die on me.”

“I promise.”

🥰🥰