Minho found it very hard to fall asleep that night, and when he did finally nod off for a while, he fell into a fitful, dreamless rest that felt as if he was floating somewhere on an aiternate plane of existence. Tossing and turning, he finally got out of bed at 5 AM, starting at the ceiling and trying to remember what could have caused him to become so drowsy and unfocused. Once he did remember, an hour had passed, and he could hear someone else out in the hall. Cocking his head to the side, he realized that he could feel the other man's presence, something that he had been curious about the day before. Now, however, he knew he had a bigger issue to take car of, so pushed his covers back ad made his way to the door. Peeking his head out, he spotted Chris at the end of the hall, pulling on his thick tunic. Minho knew this would be the best person to talk to, since Chris was quite reasonalble and would listen to him with an open mnd. 

"Hey, Chris? Do you have a moment that we could talk, after a run to the restroom real quick?" Minho grinned at him, shrugging. He didn't have any problems being real with the other man, so hoped he would agree. 

"Uh...sure," Chris smiled at him, motioning towards the kitchen. "They have a setup here that makes coffee automatically with magic, so I'll go get us beoth a cup," he laughed quietly, his eyes crinkling at the corners in a very cute way. "Unless you're afraid of magic systems or something." 

Minho shook his head, smirking. "No, I'm not. We have coffee makeres you can set to brew automatically where I'm from, so nothing surprises me. I'll be right back and will see you in the kitchen." 

"Okay," Chris nodded, smiling at him again. "I'll see you in a minute," he answered, making his way to the kitchen. While waiting on Minho, he had time to think about what he had felt the night before, trying to make sense of it all. Feeling prrotective towards him, he had the idea that whatever Minho had to say was going to be important, so he got the coffee ready and set it on a tray to go outside. Once Minho walked in quietly, Chris turned to him, motioning towards the door. "Do you want to head outside for a moment? I was about to go feed our horses, so you could go with me." 

Minho stared at him, noticing how good he looked this morning, with his black tunic and steel grey pants, and his dark, unruly hair swept mostly to one side. "Yeah, that would be nice. We can leave the tray here, if you want to. I don't think we need it, unless you were planning on sledding down any hills," he grinned at his own joke, happy with Chris grinned back at him in uderstanding. "No, we won't be sledding down any hills, so yeah, let's leave it here." 

Minho nodded, happy that the other man could appreciate his sense of humor. "Thanks for the coffee," he said quietly, glancing at Chris before making his way to the door. Opening it for Chris, he followed him out, but didn't speak until they were at the barn. Glancing around the cold, drafty structure, he glanced around to make sure no one else was in the barn. He noticed that the horses were awake already, so he set his coffee cup down to help Chris feed the hungry animals before they got a chance to neigh at them and alert anyone else to their presence. 

"So, what's bothering you?" Chris asked, sitting down on one of the wooden barrels against the wall. He knew that he coud feel tension coming from the other man, but didn't mention that to him. 

Minho took seat on one of the other barrels, shaking his head as he tried to organize his thoughts. "Chris, you said you've known these people for a long time? Have they ever given you any chances to not trust them?" 

Chris seemed to be surprised by the question, but didn't shy away from answering it. Making eye contact with Minho, he cosidered the question seriously. "I do, to an extent. They have never given me any reasons not to, but somehow, walking into Levanter was different this time. There was a different air about it when I walked in, but I don't know what it was. Is it the same thing you felt? You seemed nervous about Mage Minjun especially." 

"Yeah." Minho took a drink of his coffee, setting the cup down on the barrel he was sitting on. "He was giving off strange vivs, and I also heard him talking to Mage Wooyoung about something last night. I just don't know where to begin, but it had to do with these rings, and Minjun's nephew getting killed." 

Chris' face became serious, and Minho could feel a lot of emotion coming from him. "Yugyeom got killed, huh? That's sad to hear, since I trained with him for a while, and we were also in some of the same academic classes," he sighed deeply, smiling in a way that came out more of a grimace. "Did they say what happened to him?" 

Minho's face scrunched up as he tried to remember how the conversation he had overheard the night before had gone, and did remember that Mage Minjun had men