"I read about these metal dragons, but I've never seen one up close." Jihyo whispered in awe as she caressed the leather seat of the van they rode in on their way to Dahyun's shop. 

"Excuse my friends…" The shop owner chuckled at the Uber driver from the front seat. "they're a little out of it, if you know what I mean." She winked with a smile, hoping he'd think she was implying drugs. "They're harmless though, promise." 

"Harmless." Jeongyeon rolled her eyes from her seat, "I've seen battle, I've slain hun-" 

"She spends too much time playing Skyrim." Dahyun interrupted, and was thankful when Nayeon changed the subject with her whining. 

"Chaeyoung, put your leg down, there's not enough room back here for you to have it up like that." She complained, pushing the shortest witch over, but the girl simply opened her legs wider. 

"I am going to enjoy every second I get to wear these… pants." Chaeyoung grinned nonchalantly, looking up at Tzuyu who was at her side, wearing a skirt that only went to her knees, since Dahyun didn't have anything longer for her to wear. "They're so liberating." 

Once the car stopped, the eight women all piled out, and Dahyun apologized before giving the man a tip and seeing him off. Dahyun took a look at the girls who all wore her clothes in various odd ways and sighed. 

“There is no way a group of seven socially awkward supernatural beings wearing clothes that don’t fit them is going to stay under cover.” She groaned before looking after the Uber, hands on her hips. “Lucky for us though, this is New York City, so I’m sure he’s seen worse.” 

“Can we go inside?” Asked Chaeyoung in a whining tone, pulling the large, flashy sunhat over her eyes to block out the sun. 

Once Dahyun unlocked the door, everyone went loose around the store, looking around and getting into things at their will. 

“So, uh…” Jihyo trailed as Dahyun sat at the counter to observe the witches. “What did you know about Yeri?” 

“Not much.” Dahyun admitted. “I mean, she talked about how she’s been in love many times, and that she was a lot older than she looked, which, now that I understand what she meant, she wasn’t kidding.” She chuckled, eyes widening as she thought about how old Yerim must’ve actually been. “I mostly just know what she’s like.” Dahyun’s eyes cast away and looked off into the distance, thinking about the wonder of the enigmatic woman she so grew near. 

“A-and what was she like?” Jihyo asked, her eyes showing something other than indifference for the first time since Dahyun had met her two hours ago. 

The only problem is that Dahyun didn’t know how to read her expression. 

“Oh, well...” Dahyun smiled, hiding a blush, “She’s… perfect. Kind, understanding, passionate.” She sighed as though trying to let her brain catch up with the racing of her heart. “God, she’s so smart, the smartest person I’ve ever met. It makes sense now though, since she’s lived lifetimes long enough to become so smart. She…” She fidgeted with her fingers softly, “She has strong opinions, but she never speeks badly about anyone, or anything. She goes into every situation with an open mind, and somehow, knows exactly what to say, and exactly what to do. She knows how to make me feel like I’ve known her her whole life.” 

“She sounds lovely.” Jihyo smiled softly, and the younger woman grinned. 

“Like I said… she’s perfect.” 

Chaeyoung was poking around the back room of the shop, one that she assumed was some sort of storage room, filled with boxes and books all over the walls, neatly stacked and labelled. There was a desk against the far wall, and atop it was a contraption with a small blade on it, a tool Dahyun used to open boxes. She picked it up and assessed it for a moment before slipping it in the pocket of the leather jacket she wore. In the back corner, there was a door with stairs that lead to the roof. She was met with a large cherry tree sprouting from a planter, coating the concrete in pink petals. 

This was the first time Chaeyoung had seen plant life like this in decades. It thrived, and she could feel the soul of the tree, thriving, happily living in a world where it will not be tampered with, will not be destroyed. 

She looked to her left and saw a small plastic building taking over the majority of the rooftop. She pulled back the plastic flap and looked around, feeling the buzzing of life inside her very core as her eyes fell upon the foliage all around her. 

She saw a patch of sage in a planter on the ground and reached down to pick a handful, only to be stopped by a voice. 

“You should thank the land first.” Whispered Tzuyu from behind, making Chaeyoung groan before turning around to look at the witch as though she were crazy. 

“It’s a box of dirt.” She rationalized, and the tall witch shrugged before making her way inside to stand beside the necromancer. 

“It’s still derived from nature, Chaeyoung.” Tzuyu sighed before kneeling in front of the box, looking up at the blonde as though asking her to join. The short witch rolled her eyes before relenting, and the nature witch smiled before closing her eyes and waving her hands over the planter. 

“On this day, under the light of the scalding sun, we ask for a sacrifice, and we want to express gratitude to the earth for supplying us with this great offering. We thank you, mother, for this gift.” 

Chaeyoung opened her eyes when the prayer ended, and as though she summoned it herself, the herbs uprooted themselves and floated to her open palm, ready to be used. 

Tzuyu gave Chaeyoung a soft, dimpled smile upon seeing the shock and wonder on her face. “Look.” She whispered, Allowing Chaeyoung enough time to turn her head and watch the patch of dirt sprout a small seedling again. “I can hear the plants and animals in this realm call for help.” She admitted, her smile falling as she waved her hand over the seedling, making it grow back to full length. “I think the problem is that these humans aren’t showing it the love and attention they show themselves.” She turned to pick up the wilted petal of a white rose and laid it on her palm tenderly. “They’re neglecting mother earth, and she is getting sick, but all they have to do is pay her mind, and make her feel whole again.” Before Chaeyoung’s eyes, the white petal spread into a rose in full bloom. “Help her feel as beautiful and peaceful as she once was.” 

She looked Chaeyoung in the eyes as she lifted a strand of blonde hair to tuck the flower underneath. Chaeyoung’s eyes cast to the left of Tzuyu’s head to see her reflection in the plastic of the greenhouse wall.

For once she looked… alive. 

The truth is that Chaeyoung knew exactly what Tzuyu was talking about. The plants and animals crying for help. 

Chaeyoung felt souls crying out for her. Lost on this wretched plane, some bouncing around in search for closure, some not even departed from its vessel, but pained and filled with sorry, begging to be released, desperate for peace. 

It made her chest heavy, and when they first arrived, Chaeyoung felt dizzy from all the cries for help that flooded her bloodstream like poison coursing through her veins. 

Strangely, this has been the only sense of remedy she’s experienced. 

Though, she couldn’t let Tzuyu know that. 

“Now that you’re done talking to dirt…” Chae cleared and stepped around Tzuyu in their proximity to leave, “I’m gonna go find the rest of the items I need.” 

“You should take this.” Sana suggested as she handed a pearl colored crystal to Nayeon, who gave her a strange look. “I read that Cerrusite is meant to keep travelers grounded while on the move. It gives them a sense of home, and guides them there during the most dire of situations.” 

Nayeon would be lying if she said she believed in all this crystals and herbs ordeal, but if she believed in one thing, it was Sana. 

Something about her was different from anyone she had ever come across in her life, and it gave her a good feeling. A feeling she couldn’t quite pinpoint, but a good one nonetheless. So, of course she took it. 

“Only because it’s cute.” She lied, waving her hand over it as it laid in Sana’s hand and shrinking it, conjuring a silver chain and socket to turn it into a necklace. Sana’s eyes widened when she saw what had happened, her chest fluttering with pure excitement as Nayeon turned around and pulled her hair into her hand to lift out of the way. “Hook it on me, will you?” She asked, and Sana swallowed the lump of nerves in before lifting it over her head and around her neck. 

“Humans are fascinating creatures.” Nayeon admitted as Sana fumbled with the hook. 

“Yeah? Why is that?” She asked, looking at the girl over her shoulder before finally hooking the necklace and pulling the woman’s hair back over her neck for her. 

“Their connection to things.” She admitted, “I understand people, animals, traditions, but humans just have so many things around them. Like that shop down the path, the one that sells pawns. I don’t even know what a pawn is, but it looks like a bunch of old, useless junk that nobody needs.” Her lip turned up in distaste, causing Sana to chuckle. 

“I think humans think that their connection to this world is solidified through the items they own, rather than the connections they make to other people.” She theorized as she played with a candle between her fingers, making Nayeon hum. 

“I guess witches and humans aren’t very different in that regard.” 

“What do you mean?” Asked the human, to which the messenger shrugged. 

“A witch’s biggest priority, even from birth, has always been power.” She explained, “It’s like they think that their connection to this world is solidified in the amount of power they manifested and showed in their lifetime, rather than the people they influenced with the little power they were born with.” 

“Well,” Sana scoffed, “I’d have been happy being born with any power at all.” 

“You’re funny.” Nayeon chuckled as she walked to the next aisle, only for the human to follow her, looking through a wall of dream catchers and wind chimes to see what little she could of the witch’s heavenly visage. She turned to look at something before turning back around, the sight playing in slow motion before Sana’s eyes. “I’ve spent many nights looking at the stars and wishing that I could’ve been born human.” 

To say she was uncomfortable was a heavy understatement for Jeongyeon. 

She felt a lot of things. 

Anger. 

Bitterness. 

Confusion.

Annoyance. 

Guilt. 

Mostly Guilt. 

Though needless to say, all these emotions were very uncomfortable to feel one at a time, but here she was, experiencing them all at once, along with the ice daggers being stared through her skull from every point of every room she shared air with Mina inside of. 

“What do you want me to say?” Jeongyeon sighed in exasperation as she finally spoke to the girl for the first time since she killed Mina’s father.

“I don’t think there’s a proper apology for killing one’s father.” The ice witch answered after a beat of broody silence. 

“It’s not like I set out to murder your father. I didn’t even know who you were, or who he was.” She tried, and the brown haired girl rolled her eyes. “If I didn’t kill him, I would be dead. We were enemies-” 

“Which is exactly what we are, fire witch.” Mina hissed before putting down a deck of tarot cards to meet Jeongyeon’s eyes. “So don’t be surprised when we find out you’re the cause of this so-called apocalypse and I slit your throat whilst you sleep.” 

And with that, she pushed past a shocked Jeongyeon in favor of being anywhere else in that moment. 

“Do you have somewhere private I can go to perform this ritual?” Chaeyoung asked awkwardly of the shop owner, her arms filled with all the items she needed for her task. 

“This is new york city.” Dahyun chuckled, “There’s no such thing as privacy. I’m sure Nayeon could take you somewhere though, if you ask nicely.” 

Chaeyoung sighed before turning around and seeking out the messenger for help. 

Once she got out her request, she had to close her eyes to brace herself for Nayeon’s excitement. 

“You mean I get to watch you astral project?!” The girl was nearly vibrating with excitement, which made Chaeyoung roll her eyes. 

“If you can take me somewhere to do this, then you can use one of those phones to record it, for all I care.” 

“Sweet! Where do you want me to take you?” Inquired the smiley witch. 

“Don’t messenger witches specialize in inter-dimensional travel?” Chaeyoung asked, slightly hopeful that she may be able to see her beloved Jinsoul in person again. 

“Yeah,” Nayeon sighed dejectedly, “but I can’t access the dimension outside of this one for some reason. I tried when we got here, but for some reason, we’re more stuck here than we thought.” 

Chaeyoung sighed, because, of course fate would not be so kind to her. 

“I’m sure you’ve been here enough times to know the perfect place to perform a blood ritual.” The blonde’s voice seemed bored, impatient, as though she didn’t want to be here. 

She didn’t, and that wasn’t a secret. But that didn’t mean that the reason behind such a fact was obvious. In fact, Nayeon almost felt desperate to find out. 

“Alright, yeah.” Nayeon nodded before reaching forward and placing a hand on Chaeyoung’s shoulder, and before the shorter woman could open her eyes from mid blink, she could feel the air around her change. Her heart was less tense and her mind was less crowded with the cries of lost souls. 

Finally, she opened her eyes and noticed it was dark. They were standing in the middle of an old road, deserted and devoid of souls. 

“Where are we?” Chaeyoung asked as she looked around, the only structure in sight being an old, broken down shack in the midst of a field of dead, dry grass. 

“South America.” Nayeon said calmly, and Chaeyoung nodded, not knowing what that was or where that was, but deciding that it was good enough. 

They both walked through the field to the shack, and the first thing that Chaeyoung noticed when she passed the threshold was the way the boards creaked beneath her boots. 

She sighed before dropping salt in a circle around the dusty, dirt covered ground, then pulling a match out to light the sage, cleansing the area of bad energy before setting it down on an ash tray in the middle of the circle. 

Nayeon watched silently, arms crossed as she leaned against a pillar in the corner of the building as Chaeyoung did chants in a language she’s never heard before.

“I call on the skies, the earth, the sun and the stars…” She uttered, moving her hands in motions to begin the ritual, “I ask that you align and bring to me my beloved. I ask that you bend your will. That you comb the plains for her and send me to stand before them, to reunite two lovers under the cloak of night and meld two broken souls as one.” Chaeyoung pulled a box cutter from her jacket and held it to . “Take my blood as a peace offering: a sacrifice that I offer, willingly.” 

And before Nayeon could stop her, Chaeyoung swept the blade across her corrodid artery, watching as her blood spilled in the middle of the circle before falling limp. 

“No!” Nayeon screamed at the top of her lungs as she watched the woman fall into the pool of her own blood. Nayeon ran to the circle to tend to the witch, but before she could cross the salt line, it became engulfed in flames, trapping Chaeyoung’s lifeless body inside. 

… 

“Chaeng?” Asked a familiar voice from behind Chaeyoung as she opened her eyes to see her old dwelling. She looked around the dark confines for the voice and sighed in relief before running to take her lover in her arms. 

“Jinsoul,” She sighed blissfully as she held her close, eyes closed out of fear that if she opened them, she’d be back in that dingy shack with that annoying messenger witch. “I couldn’t feel you, I was afraid I’d lost you.” 

“What are you doing here?” Asked her lover as they finally pulled away, “And what’s this?” she asked of the rose tucked behind her lover’s ear, only to go ignored when the necromancer sighed, holding Jinsouls hands in hers between them. 

“I’m looking for an oracle named Kim Yerim,” Chaeyoung explained, “I don’t know which dimension she’s in, and you know blood rituals are to tricky for me to perform more than once at a time, so I was hoping I could enlist your help finding her.” She asked, her eyes seemingly pleading with the woman she held so dear. 

“Chae… I don’t know if that’s a good idea.” She sighed, and the shorter woman pulled Jinsoul’s hands against her chest, willing her lover closer. 

“I know you’re afraid, my love. But you’ve been here so long, it isn’t fair for me to keep you here, waiting for me to come back. I don’t want you to wait another ninety years.” Her lip quivered, and Jinsoul’s chest tightened at the sight. 

“I told you before you left,” The taller woman recalled before taking their hands and pressing her lips to the back of Chaeyoung’s hands. “I’d wait nine thousand years if it meant I could hold you again.” 

Chaeyoung’s throat tightened, her stiff body too tired to fight Jinsoul on this again, after having gone in circles about this for nearly two centuries. 

“Well, it’s a good thing nothing will happen to you, isn’t it?” She smiled sadly, “You don’t have to talk to anyone, you don’t have to be seen. I just need you to comb the realms for her whereabouts. If you don’t, there’s a possibility I may never return, and you waiting would be in vain.” 

Jinsouls beautiful eyes filled with worry, and her fingers began to tremble at the idea of leaving the safety of their home. 

“Hey,” Chaeyoung took Jinsoul’s cheeks in her hands and them with her thumbs softy in reassurance. “You know where to find me if it becomes too much. I believe in you, my love.” She promised, pressing her forehead against her lovers and closing her eyes upon feeling her soul drain back into her vessel. “I love you.” 

Jinsoul’s eyes spilled, and she dropped a kiss to Chaeyoung’s lips one last time before whimpering her goodbye.

“And I, you. Forever.” 

… 

When Chaeyoung woke up, her ears were assaulted by the roaring of death’s flame engulfing her. She stood up and brushed off her pants, looking to the floor to ensure that all her blood has been sacrificed to the deities before waving her arms to kill the flame, just in time for it to be witnessed by Nayeon and Joengyeon, who had just arrived and seen the display. 

“I thought you were dead!” Nayeon screeched angrily, crossing the salt circle to slap the necromancer on the arm. 

“I was.” Chaeyoung shrugged before passing the messenger and walking outside to get some fresh air, only for the other two witches to follow. “Astral projecting is less dangerous for me, but only because a sacrifice of my blood binds me to the astral plain, making it harder for me to become trapped. The only way to satisfy the celestials is to spill all my blood and hand over my immortal soul temporarily.”

“So, does that mean you found her?” Jeongyeon spoke up as the three stood in the middle of the road, ready for Nayeon to take them back to the shop. 

Once they were standing in the middle of Dahyun’s shop, Chaeyoung moved out of Nayeon’s grasp to walk away. 

“I’m working on it.” She said simply before sitting down in the corner of the shop behind the desk, dizzy from her trip. 

“What do you mean you’re ‘working on it?’” Asked Jeongyeon, seemingly outraged by the situation. 

“What I mean, is that inter-dimensional tracking is really hard, even for an immortal elder, so I did what I could, and all we can really do is wait.” She assured, and Nayeon took her turn to speak up. 

“So, what? You used this as an excuse to see your boyfriend?” Nayeon asked, her voice taking an air of rage that only Jeongyeon has ever heard. “‘Reunite two lovers under the cloak of night and meld two broken souls as one?’” She quoted, making Chaeyoung’s breath hitch. 

“Y-you understood me?” She asked, breaking out of her hard, cold shell for the first time since they all met. 

“Now it sounds like you’re insulting me.” Nayeon rolled her eyes, “The most basic early ability a messenger witch is bestowed with is the ability to understand any language across any species of creature with free will.” She explained, as though it were the most common knowledge in the world, and Chaeyoung sighed as Jihyo handed her a glass of water. 

“I may not be able to cross dimensions, but my lover... “ Chaeyoung took a drink before finishing her statement, “her species allows her to cross many dimensions on any plain without consequence.” 

“And what species is that?” Sana asked, causing Chaeyoung to sneer. 

“Definitely not human.” She spat, causing the bookkeeper to wince at the low blow. The necromancer rolled her eyes before looking back to Nayeon, who was looking at her expectantly, arms crossed, eyebrows scrunched together. “Listen, I just need you to trust that I did the best I could, and if Jinsoul doesn’t find Yerim, nobody will.” 

“Why should we believe you now?” Asked Jeongyeon, and Chaeyoung rolled her eyes. 

“As easy as it is for me to come back to life, I don’t like it.” She admitted, as though it were obvious, “It hurts, and I just slit my own throat to help find your oracle. If dying for your stupid cause isn’t enough to prove you can trust me, then nothing is.” She sighed before standing up, only to stumble over into Tzuyu’s arms, too lightheaded to keep her own balance. 

Before anyone could lunge to Chaeyoung’s aid, Tzuyu put her hand up to stop them. “I’ve got this.” She assured before helping the shortest witch to the back room. “Sit here.” She commanded lightly, leading her to the chair near the desk on the far wall before moving to clear off a few boxes of books, taking a shall to lay out over them, and her jean jacket to bundle up as a makeshift pillow. After making up a bed, she lead the disoriented woman to it and instructed her to lie down. 

She pulled the chair toward the boxes and sat by her side to keep an eye on her new companion closely. 

“You don’t have to babysit me, Tzuyu. I’m not going anywhere.” Chaeyoung grumbled from where she laid, curled up into herself as she looked up at the nature witch. 

“I’m more worried about you fainting than going anywhere.” The girl smiled, swiping her palm across Chaeyoung’s sweat and soot coated forehead, combing her fingers through her dirty hair, toying with the petals of the rose for a moment, noting the specks of red that coated it from Chaeyoung’s ritual. “Thank you for doing this for us.” Tzuyu smiled, waving her hand over the flower, allowing the crimson to spread over the entire thing, changing it from a white rose to a red one. 

“It wasn’t for you.” Chaeyoung tried to hiss, but it came out more like a whine, making Tzuyu giggle. 

“Thank you anyway.” She admitted, “I don’t really know how we got here, or why we’re here, but I’m glad you’re here.” 

Chaeyoung would be lying if she said Tzuyu’s words didn’t affect her. 

Something about being cared for: about being looked after and wanted was something has had very little of in her very long life. 

“Thank you.” She exhaled finally, to which the taller woman just smiled. 

“Don’t thank m-” 

She was cut off by the word catching in , making her choke. Her hands came to her neck, fingers clawing at the flesh of her neck as though trying to pull something away from it. 

“Tzuyu?” Chaeyoung asked, sitting up in concern, but the skin around the nature witch’s eyes began to turn pitch black from the eyebrows in. “Tzuyu?!” Chaeyoung shouted, rising to her feet as the girl fell to the ground, taking the chair with her as she squirmed around breathlessly. “Help! Something’s wrong!” She screamed, and suddenly, the girl’s body started to convulse on the ground, eyes rolling to the back of her head. 

“Move everything so she doesn’t hurt herself!” Sana shouted as everyone rushed in, and Jihyo waved her hands, making the chair, as well as several boxes fly back into the wall. 

“What did you do to her?!” Jeongyeon screamed as she fell to the knees to check on the woman whose siezing body was turning purple. 

“Nothing, she just started choking, I-” It was Chaeyoung’s turn to cut herself off with a gasp when she felt the jolt of Tzuyu’s soul leaving her body. 

Tzuyu’s vessel stopped it’s quaking at last, and instead of being relieved like everyone else, Chaeyoung dropped to her knees beside Jeongyeon, taking Tzuyu’s neck between her hands. 

“What the hell are you doing!?” Jeongyeon screamed, standing up to try and pull the smallest witch away, but she squirmed out of her grasp to continue her ministrations. 

The fire witch summoned flames into her palms, and the sound alone was enough of a warning for Chaeyoung to know exactly what she had planned on doing if Chaeyoung didn’t stop, but she couldn’t. 

Just as everyone lunged forward to pry Chaeyoung away, the shortest witch screamed at the top of her lungs, a deafening howl whose echos threw the others back, sending them to the ground, into walls, boxes, whatever was behind them. 

She straddled Tzuyu’s corpse and squeezed her hands around . Jeongyeon and Nayeon watched from the ground, winded as Chaeyoung’s pupils turned black, leaking over the whites of her eyes until the two were staring into pools of endless darkness. Her hair fell out, sending the flower inside falling away to the ground somewhere. Her skin seemed to wrinkle, as though decaying until it disappeared from her body and there before them was a haunting sight. Her bones cracked as her form changed, spine sticking up like some sort of four legged animal, her flesh so dark that the bones that stuck out from beneath almost shone through, making her look translucent. Her jaw hung low, mouth open wide, obsidian eyes like crystal balls shining over and showing onlookers of the times of Tzuyu’s life, tending to the sick and talking to the creatures of the forest. A choked sound came from all around the room, pounding against the drums of ears as she sang her death song, tugging the soul from within her to give it back, not willing to lose another person she holds close.

Not again.

Chaeyoung’s muscles are tearing from the inside out, her eyes feel like anchors at the back of her cracking skull. Her bones are grinding against each other and her stomach burning a hold through her as she opened her trembling lips to press the kiss of death to Tzuyu’s lips, pouring her life force back into her through . The fire witch watched in awe as a puff of smoke, so bright it almost glowed, emerged from Chaeyoung’s lips, into Tzuyu’s as they hovered fractions of a centimetre away from one another. 

Once the smoke ran out, so did Chaeyoung’s energy, and the girl fell to the ground beside Tzuyu’s vessel, unconcious. 

The silence in the room was deafening, and everyone watched the two bodies closely, as though waiting for something to happen. 

Almost two minutes passed in complete silence before Jeongyeon crawled to the bodies, checking Chaeyoung’s pulse. She looked up, a haunted glint in her eyes, and shook her head before moving to Tzuyu’s body to check the pulse on her purple, swollen neck, but before she could make contact with her flesh, something miraculous happened. 

Simultaneously, the two dead women took in deep breaths of air, so deep it echoed around the room eerily as the two popped up, Chaeyoung’s body returning to its human form before Tzuyu could finish her coughing fit. 

She held her neck and gasped to bring air back into her empty lungs, but before the color could return to her face completely, she was gasping out a frantic warning. 

“Someone’s in trouble!”