Chuu checked how much water she had. A good amount. Enough light too. She put the cap back on. 

The curtains parted and in came Sooyoung. 

The sight of her made Chuu’s stomach twist. She averted her eyes. 

The way the bond worked, Chuu always felt at ease when Sooyoung was near. It had never forced her feelings, nor had it blinded her to the disagreements they'd sometimes had. It also hadn’t blinded either of them to their mistakes. 

A lot to the time, the bond had encouraged her that she what she felt for Sooyoung was right. 

A few times, Chuu had wondered if that was true—if Sooyoung would also feel that way if she learned about the bond. 

And always in those times, Chuu had needed to remind herself that the bond was only a suggestion. And that Sooyoung would hate to have it. 

Those reminders had helped to let her hate the times when she felt the most comfortable. They’d stopped most of her nerves when Sooyoung was near. They’d made her stomach stop fluttering when Sooyoung smiled or laughed. They’d let her distance herself from the bond. 

But not enough, she thought. They still stayed in the same tent with Chaewon. Chuu had been able to put some literal distance between them a few times, taking each opportunity she had to go off with Jungeun when she contacted other elves or fairies. Each time she hoped that the people she met there, the ones who charmed her and were charmed by her, would somehow help the bond to fade. 

They never did. 

“Ready?”

Chuu looked up and immediately dropped her gaze. Sooyoung had her back to her, thankfully, but she was in the middle of changing. 

Not enough. 

Once again, Chuu hated how her face flamed. 

“Yeah,” she lied. They shouldn’t have been going, but the path out of the tent shone brightly. Sooyoung was very set on going. 

It’s better when you’re there, Sooyoung had once said. You know where we need to go. Then I know what we have to do. 

“I’m not ready.” 

To say Chuu was surprised to hear that was an understatement. 

“But you want to go.” Chuu checked the knife strapped to her waist. While the light was almost always her main weapon, Jungeun had insisted she have alternatives—something you can’t lose. 

“And you don't want to.”

The tone of voice made her look up. 

Sooyoung had properly changed. And she was standing directly in front of her. 

Once, Chuu would’ve shrunk from beneath her gaze. Most did, but she’d learned not to. 

Instead, she got to her feet. She might not have felt shy anymore around her, but she still took one step back. 

Sooyoung pursed her lips. “Why didn’t you go with them?” 

Chuu was almost relieved. This was a question she could answer. Not completely, but a bit. As much as she lied to those she loved, she still liked to tell the truth. 

“I wasn’t the right person for that,” she said. “None of us are.” 

Sooyoung flinched, but she nodded. “Was it hard?” 

The question surprised her. “Which part?”

“Not looking for her.” The words were gentle, softened by understanding. 

Chuu shook her head. It really hadn’t. It might’ve hurt, but she’d known it was the right thing to turn away. It also hadn’t been her path. She hadn’t had the strength to change that. 

The taller elf looked surprised now. “How?”

Chuu frowned. “We’re going anyway. Why’re you asking me that now?”

“I wasn’t there,” Sooyoung said. “I didn’t see how you took the news. I didn’t hear what you told Jungeun before you came back.” Her eyes softened. No, something else had fallen away. “Because you didn’t tell me any of that. You still haven’t told me how you knew something was wrong.” 

There’s a lot I don’t tell you, Chuu thought. Immediately, she felt ashamed. That was another reason why it was better if the bond disappeared. Chuu had become too good at lying. Sooyoung hated that more than she did seers. Luckily enough, Chuu did both. 

“She doesn’t want to be found,” she said. “Least of all by us. And I don’t think we’re ready to see her, we—we’re not ready to see her hate us.” Chuu didn’t think she’d ever be. 

A muscle in Sooyoung’s jaw tightened. “So you were protecting me.”

There it was. Now Sooyoung had forgotten to ask about yesterday. Now Chuu could say the next wrong thing. It’d be another shard to drive into a seemingly unbreakable bond. 

“I tried,” Chuu admitted. She tried to ignore how Sooyoung scowled at that. “But we have to go. I need to see how Jung is doing first.”

She didn’t expect Sooyoung to react to Jungeun’s name. She definitely didn’t expect to see hurt appearing in the other’s eyes. 

“Then we’ll see the witch.” Chuu continued. She could handle Sooyoung’s disappointment and her anger. She couldn’t bear to see her pain, let alone cause it. “And you can ask her to track Hyejoo.” The witch was also unsubtly fond of Sooyoung. That flirtation would help. 

It’d at least be a distraction. 

______

The cave was starting to look like she’d wanted it to. The days spent carving away at the walls and ceiling had made sure that she didn’t have to crawl in. In a few days, she’d be able to stand. 

Olivia wouldn’t be able to walk around in it. That was work for the next few weeks. 

The wolf had continued to lay around, watching either Olivia or the outside world. There was never a sound from it. Olivia didn’t actually mind it as much as she had at first. The only real problem was the colour of its eyes and how it chewed or anything coated in shadow. 

Once, it’d looked at her carving knives with something close to hunger. She’d tossed it the pieces of one when it’d snapped in the rick. The spirit had eaten each of them. 

And it continued to stare at her with infuriatingly endearing green eyes each time she summoned any darkness. 

“You weren’t starving before,” Olivia murmured now. “Why act like it?” She set down a chunk of shadow in front of it. 

It began to gnaw at it like it was a piece of flesh. Its eyes closed. Now the thing was content. 

She cursed it and kept working. 

As she smoothed down the walls for what seemed like the twentieth time, she went through what she still needed. 

Since fighting Taegen, her skin still hadn’t healed. If anything, it might’ve gotten worse. Once, she’d considered going to find a witch to help her. Twice, she’d inspected the wounds in broad daylight, her skin prickling as the sun bore down on them. Seeing the sharp, black lines in her skin and the horrific looking black scab, Olivia had decided against getting help. 

There was magic to conceal the black veins, something she’d used a fair amount of times. But for a witch to see the injury itself, while also having heard of the man murdered by darkness, it was hardly the best idea. 

No, she had to figure that out herself. 

Darkness could heal, a lot like light could, but Olivia had barely been able to get a stab wound to heal. All the help her own magic was able to give her was a numbing effect for the pain. 

It also ensured that she was mortally freezing for most of the day. 

That was what she needed next: firewood. It hadn’t rained for some time. She hoped she’d find decent wood for a fire. Fire sigils could overcome most limits of normal kindling. It’d probably work here. 

Had Jungeun been there, her magic would’ve burned through a wet log in seconds. 

Just the thought gave her a wave of homesickness. 

Olivia kept working, trying to work against that tide. The longing for home was a lot stronger now that she’d seen two people from it. 

Jungeun and Yerim had both seemed tired the day she'd seen them. It was a small wonder why. The pale spirits that attacked anyone could be warded off by the Astra, but not fought. Other dark spirits needed more light to turn. 

At least she assumed so, because they held increasingly higher amounts of darkness now. 

Even the wolf spirit held a lot of it. From what she could tell, there was anger, but a lot of fear, as well as melancholy. And yet, Olivia didn’t feel afraid or sad around it. She almost felt comfortable. 

But that might’ve been because of its eyes. As much as she hated how familiar they were, that very same familiarity reassured her. How could they not? 

Again, the homesickness rose. Again, Olivia shoved it down in favour of planning the next hours. 

That was the weird thing about being alone, time flowed very differently. In a group, she’d often lived through days at a time without thinking much of it. There’d been moments where she’d felt each passing second, but those’d been rare. 

Now she had those sorts of days almost constantly. They were both nice and overwhelming. They made her wonder about the future. How was eternity going to look if she spent it alone?

At that thought, Olivia looked at the wolf. It’d eaten half of the chunk she’d given it. It looked at her with half-closed green eyes, very content. 

“How long will you be here?” Olivia murmured. 

He blinked. 

Olivia started. There were spirits that took on the form of deer and stags. She’d never stopped to wonder if they were actually female and male in those cases. Was there supposed to be a difference here? She didn’t know anything about wolves to be able to tell the difference. 

And yet, she was starting to think that the wolf was actually a ‘he’. It was a gut feeling. 

If these spirits were once a part of someone’s soul, then it was possible to know that, wasn’t it? 

Olivia shook her head. While she had a lot of time to think, there was little chance she’d spend said time wondering about how spirits came to be. That was the calling of fairies and only fairies. They spent their time devoted to uncovering all they could about the world and its magic. 

All she needed to know was how to use the darkness to fight and heal. She didn’t want to learn more. She certainly didn’t want to know why she’d gotten said magic either. The moon had willed it. She no longer cared about why. 

She just hoped that it'd helped Yerim. She'd seen enough of her light to know she'd survived, but she didn't know what else had happened. She'd run away as soon as she'd seen the other Astra. 

When she fell asleep, she dreamed of lightning crawling along her arms, searing the blood in its veins as it went. She dreamed of filling grey eyes with darkness. She dreamed of screaming and then silence. 

_______

Vivi loved being alone. She’d come across two spirits, but had turned them surprisingly easily. They must’ve not been the serious ones. The ones who’d gotten to Jungeun or Elre. 

She felt a pang of guilt then. The Astra needed numbers. They needed everyone who could summon some sort of light, either to fight, or to help the healers.

Jinsoul was one of them, and Vivi could easily say she was one of their best people. It wasn’t just how she acted, but how people looked to her and even talked about her. Despite the prejudice against non-Astra, she’d never heard a bad word said against the blonde healer. 

She couldn’t say the same for Jungeun. There was a begrudging respect there, because Jungeun seemed to have done a lot in her time here. Enough to at least be acknowledged that she was useful to them. Still, people still put a lot of emphasis on Jungeun and her magic of fire. 

Vivi wondered if she’d end up like her in a hundred years. If the peak of her position would involve reluctant respect. She’d been like that in her clan. It hadn’t been so terrible. Not great, but not bad either. 

Not for the first time, she debated not going back. Some people lived well on their own, sometimes even coexisting with humans. Vampires, if not rabid by bloodlust or made completely ruthless by immortality, could be excellent company too. Witches were similar, once you overcame their pride and penchant for mischief. 

Then again, Vivi wanted a place to call home. She wanted to be around others like her and people she respected. The Astra shared her magic and had some worthwhile people. Vivi knew only three people who’d shared her stone magic. One of them had been a fairy, a delightful one with whom she’d spent a few days, as well as nights, every now and then. 

And this was an entire society, one where she could learn even more, and one where she had seen people who had good minds and even better hearts. 

Green eyes flashed in her mind. She shook her head. Haseul wasn’t the one to dwell on. She had everything else colliding in her life. Her great ability to lead put her in a place of responsibility. Haseul took everything upon herself to do what was right. Vivi wondered when that'd become too much for her. She didn't exactly want to help her with that, or be there when Haseul's limit was reached. Vivi had fulfilled many roles in her life, but a leader had never been one of them. 

So was she supposed to be of any help to Haseul? Especially now? 

She sensed more spirits then. Vivi fought a sigh and summoned her light. 

It was a badger, deep red. She saw in its eyes that it didn’t want to hurt her. It just eyed her sword. 

She let it disappear. 

The badger then looked somewhere behind her. It looked both cautious and curious. 

Vivi followed its gaze. 

The pink deer emerged from the trees. It looked from side to side, before finally looking at Vivi. 

She was struck by the colour. Emerald green. Had they been that same colour before? Or had time changed it? 

“Hello.” She knelt down. 

The deer neared, slowly. It was slimmer than ones she’d seen. Or was it because it was just thinner? 

She squinted at its sides. She saw the outline of its ribs. 

The deer was staring at her hands now. Her skin was glowing. Did it want the light? That’d make sense, especially if it’d been turned by said light already. 

“I can’t give you much,” she muttered. Then she stretched out a hand, letting a small chunk of moonlight appear. 

The spirit came closer and took the light into its mouth. There were a series of crunches. It closed its strange green eyes, looking extremely content. 

Vivi smiled. “Does that help?”

The deer swallowed. 

She watched as its light became a bit brighter. 

It made her wonder, if the spirits could feed and if they were capable of feeling emotions, how did they differ from animals? The first time she’d seen them, Jungeun and Jinsoul had told her that it wasn’t normal for the spirits to be physical entities. And now they could eat off of people’s hands and sink their teeth into others. What was that supposed to mean? 

Vivi wondered if she could actually do it. If she asked the right elves, as well as the right fairies, maybe she’d figure it out. 

Then again, did figuring that out matter? What would the reasons matter if no solution could be found that way? The Astra, as flawed as they were, just focused on turning the right spirits and giving others the means to do it. That took care of the problem pretty easily. 

She kept walking. The deer sometimes scampered off, before returning to her side. She wondered how the spirit saw her. Was she its caregiver? Or just an ally? Did it even know the difference? 

A distant roar took her out of it. 

She saw the deer straighten, before sprinting away. She watched its light flicker between the branches. 

Not a guardian, she thought. 

Then she looked to where the deer had whipped its head. She also saw light between the trees. Just looking at it, she started to feel ill, as if what little food she’d eaten had turned foul. 

The sound of heavy footfalls began. The light moved quicker through the branches. Vivi felt even sicker. 

She started running in the opposite direction. In the back of her mind, it was almost funny how she was running again. 

Haseul’s last words to her filled her head. 

You run. There’s no fighting one of those. 

She supposed that if the information saved her life, she’d have to go back and thank the girl. Even if it was common sense to run if the sight of something made her want to vomit. 

She could feel the spirit nearing. It was a lot faster than her. 

Vivi cursed. She erected stone outcrops behind her, hoping to slow the spirit. It was all she could do. The light wouldn’t help her here. 

______

When Olivia awoke, she heard a scream. 

Olivia got up, bashing her head against the roof of the cave in the process. Then she scrambled outside. The sun was setting. Olivia barely stopped to consider how long she’d slept. 

Her skin burned as she ran to where the sound came from. 

She stopped when she saw the light. 

They were Astra. 

They were being attacked by bright spirits. 

They’d already been hurt by one. 

Should she let the rest happen? 

Olivia saw pink in the distance. Was that the colour of their hair? 

There was the sound of rock scraping against rock. 

Olivia looked to the source. Before her eyes, a boulder melted. 

Melted. 

The grey soup shot past Olivia in the next moment.

She blinked, still stunned. Then she heard the next set of crackling. 

She snapped out of her stupor and forced her feet to move. 

As she neared, Olivia saw that the elf did indeed have pink hair. One of the spirits had been impaled by a spear of rock. The elf held a large piece of rock, wielding it like a normal sword. 

Another pair was approaching. Two pairs of bright spirits were rare, almost unheard of when it came to the aggressive bright ones. But they'd come for this girl. 

Olivia took that one on. She called on the long shadows the setting sun had made. They came to her slowly. 

In that time, she kicked one spirit away. She swung her blade at the other one. It dug into its entire side. It yowled and immediately began to turn. 

Olivia tackled the first spirit. It was a slim lioness. Her hands burned where she touched it, but the darkness in her skin was stronger than the light. It hissed at her, but soon began whimpering. Her pale blue coat turned midnight blue. 

She stood. The one the pink-haired elf had impaled was slipping away from the rock. Its body reformed as it broke away. 

Olivia lunged for it, a dagger forming in her hand as she moved. She drove it into its head. Darkness flooded its body. 

Another cry entered the air. 

She turned to see the elf trying to wrestle her foot away from the clutch of a tiger. Her side had already been clawed at. 

Olivia pulled on the shadows. The air around them darkened. She sent it to wrap around the tiger. 

It didn’t let go of the girl’s leg, but it did whine. She made the darkness solid and drove the shards into the tiger’s body. It roared and let go of the elf. It tried to go for Olivia, but dodged. 

Then it fell still. 

______

“She was in Huyeo.” 

That was close. Gowon glanced back. The thought of Hyejoo always tugged at her. There was pain, something Gowon constantly felt. Time hadn’t dulled it. 

The witch spoke with Sooyoung, her expression serious, but her eyes betrayed her interest. Gowon was quite sure her name was Doyeon. 

They’d seen her before. Sooyoung had gone to her to try and find a solution to Gowon’s pain. She hadn’t known the real reason then, but she’d tried to solve it in spite of her ignorance. 

“There’s some sort of connection to meat and a few pieces of silver,” the witch’s eyes glazed over, “probably sold something to get some sort of profit.” Her magic involved a lot of scrying and tracking. 

Meat and silver. Was that really all she wanted? 

Briefly, Gowon wondered what Hyejoo might’ve done to get the money. Was she stealing for it? 

“Did you,” Sooyoung began, “hear anything else?” Her tone was getting a bit desperate. She leaned forward. “Was she hurt? Did she—”

“I can’t see that,” Doyeon said. “But if she’s eating, that usually means you’re not that sick.” 

Beside Gowon, Jiwoo had taken to inspecting the ceiling of the house. She wore a false mask of peace. 

“It’s alright,” Sooyoung sighed, “thank you for this.” She flashed her a warm smile before turning away. 

The smile immediately faded. 

The witch looked after her. Gowon had to fight the urge to tell her that any affections she might’ve developed for Sooyoung were very much in vain. 

“Come on,” Sooyoung said. “We’ve been gone too long.” She stalked away, several paces in front of them both. The mortals still out stopped in their tracks, gawking. 

Jiwoo put a hand to Gowon’s shoulder. “She’s alright,” she whispered. 

“She just bought food,” Gowon replied, ignoring a vendor trying to sell her his last catch from the river. “That doesn’t mean she's safe.” 

She’d been sent here by someone. Alluin. The name only Hyunjin knew. Naturally, no other explanation had reached their ears. Gowon still thought them lucky that Heejin hadn’t tried to forcefully keep them from the search. 

Wouldn’t be the first time, she thought. That memory didn’t sting. It was just a reminder that those bridges would never be fixed. And rightly so. Jiwoo might've done enough to earn a bit of respect, Sooyoung as well, but Gowon had done nothing. 

And now they had another. She could still see Viian’s look of disdain and disappointment. The newcomer hadn’t come back. It'd been a few days already. Gowon hoped she was safe. 

There’d been two questions about Viian's whereabouts. No one else had seemed to care. 

They reached the others. 

Teveril looked up the moment Sooyoung was within sight. He was watching her, eager to meet her eyes. 

Gowon couldn’t see Sooyoung’s face, but she knew she’d not pay him much attention. 

“She’s going south,” Sooyoung said. 

Huyeo was in the east. 

“I’ve already seen spirits coming our way,” Kolina said. “Over there.” She pointed south-east. She was a seer, but not completely. She couldn't see bonds between people and usually only saw the paths of spirits. It was definitely more useful on hunts and patrol than anything else. Naturally, Kolina went on hunts, not quite stooping to patrol or guard duty. 

“Wear them down.” Sooyoung looked at each of them. When she met Gowon’s eyes, her own gaze softened. Reassuring. 

It didn’t work. 

Jiwoo nodded then. “Rather than have one person expend all their light, just use a portion of it.” 

Teveril scoffed. “That takes too long. You want to cleanse one while the rest of us get three?” 

The other three with him nodded, sniggering slightly as well. 

"And then three of you get sent home, while we keep going?" Sooyoung raised a brow. "We have to ration the light." 

He shrugged, a bit of playfulness still in his gaze. “We can always compare numbers after.”

Sooyoung didn’t respond. She only strode south-east. 

Jiwoo and Gowon had no choice, but to walk faster. The speed she was using meant she wanted to tell them something. 

Sure enough, as soon as they were out of earshot, she broke the silence. 

“Teves still wants to go to the villages together,” Sooyoung muttered. “As if that’d be his opportunity.” 

“He’s trying to help,” Jiwoo replied. “And it might be useful to have more people asking around.” 

Sometimes, Gowon wondered if the girl enjoyed digging herself into a place of no return. Jiwoo had been the one who’d insisted that Sooyoung have a one-on-one meeting with the witch. And now she wanted her to do more with Teveril? Gowon didn't know how she did it. 

“He’d never ask the questions we want.” Their leader summoned a long curved blade of light. “None of them care about anything, except where she is. And even then they just want an excuse to drop by a tavern." 

Now Sooyoung turned a bit further east. 

“Faster,” she said. “They’ll follow quite soon.”

Gowon gritted her teeth. These kinds of hunts were always hard. 

Brighter spirits flit between the trees, used to the elves’ presence as they passed by, almost as if they were attracted to their light. Some still moved in pairs. She still didn't know why they did that. 

Gowon pushed the thought down. They needed those numbers to be strong. They didn’t need to wonder why they existed, nor what they were like. 

“Teveril would be better company than Kolina,” Jiwoo muttered. Why she’d insist such a thing, Gowon didn’t understand. 

Digging the hole. 

Sooyoung didn’t share her confusion. Instead, she just flashed a smile over her shoulder. “Don’t lie, you couldn’t stand either of them for long.”

Jiwoo smiled, but didn’t respond. Instead, she sped up to catch Sooyoung. She looked between them and nodded. 

Sooyoung fell back to Gowon’s side, while Jiwoo led them. Gowon still didn’t know how she did it, but Jiwoo was able to sense the variations in light even better than Sooyoung could. She had a feeling that it was related to how she'd known Choerry was in danger, but she hadn't thought much about it. 

Gowon herself could barely find spirits, let alone track them. She was a lot better at fighting them. 

Now that they were further off from the rest, Gowon felt a difference in the shadows. Some had extended, as if pulled in a different direction, while others seemed blunt—almost as if someone had carved away pieces. 

Hyejoo. 

Just the thought clawed at her. Gowon saw dark eyes looking down at her, sprinkled with light. 

Then she saw how that light vanished, swelled by two blocks of coal. Those same eyes were filled with pain. 

Jiwoo stopped. In her hands, she now held a spear. Its end was a round ball. She looked back and nodded to the base of a thick tree. 

She held it at her shoulder, ready to throw it. 

Gowon drew on the light she’d absorbed during the walk. 

She spotted the spirit. It was dark red, like the bark of some trees. Its eyes were purple, bright like Choerry’s eyes. Its form was that of a slender feline. It was beautiful. 

Sooyoung stepped forward, blade in hand.  She’d leaned forward, her steps that of a predator creeping towards prey. 

A low hiss left the spirit, eyes narrowed and focused on the sword. 

Sooyoung was only a metre away. The spirit was poised to leap at her. If Sooyoung didn’t react quickly enough, it would tear out. The spirits could physically hurt them now. And they never hesitated. If you stumbled upon the wrong spirit, you quickly realised that it didn’t have survival instinct. It just attacked. 

Then Sooyoung’s blade fell to the forest floor, glittering where it lay. 

The spirit jumped, but its eyes went to the ground. It backed away, its gaze going to Sooyoung and then back to the blade. Had it understood? Could it understand? 

Then Jiwoo threw the spear. It struck the tree beside it with a sharp crack. 

The spirit ran off, its form blending in with the darkness. Within seconds, it vanished from sight. It was going east, not south. 

Sooyoung picked up her blade and sighed. 

They’d done it. 

Jiwoo brought the spear back to her hands. The point sharpened. 

Gowon released the light. The trees’ shadows returned. 

Then they heard a high yowling. Gowon felt the fear of the sound dig into her chest. 

She ran for it, hearing Sooyoung curse, but both her and Jiwoo followed. 

The next clearing held Kolina and her group. They surrounded two dark spirits. One was black, the other a deep grey with blue streaks.

The black spirit was already turning white, but it trembled as it did. Gowon heard it whimper. 

Both were benevolent spirits. This was exactly what they tried to avoid. 

The other spirit looked between the elf who had impaled it and the spirit itself. Gowon swore she saw pain in its eyes. It should’ve been impossible, but it was there. 

Kolina had seen them. She brandished a large club embellished with curved spikes. She swung it once and it caught the grey spirit’s legs. It looked like a lion. 

It let out a high roar and threw itself against the nearest elf. Its claws struck her as it tried to get out of the circle. 

Priad sank a blade into its chest. A whine left the lion and it collapsed in front of them. Its chest was a pale blue. 

The elves jeered, while the lion tried to put its paw to its chest. The darkness in it flowed from the wound like blood. A cry of frustration left it as it tried to roll around on the ground. It just wanted to get rid of the blade—to get rid of the burning. 

Gowon was reminded of how Hyejoo had tried to escape the spirits when they’d attacked. Much like that day, she only watched. Her stomach twisted. 

Now the elves backed away, waiting for the transformation, while Jiwoo had gone to help the injured elf. 

Gowon looked on as well. She wanted to turn away, but the sight of suffering was nothing she could shut herself off from. Not this time. 

The light had completely changed its legs. It looked around, weakly clawing at its chest. It still whined, as the agony from the wound, from the light, hadn’t stopped. Its eyes locked on Gowon then. They were a glittering black. They weren’t filled with murder, anger, or emptiness, but desperation. The transformation was happening too slowly. It was only now reaching its neck. 

Gowon summoned a blade and threw it at the beast’s eye. It sank until the hilt. The head turned blue immediately and the spirit sighed. Its dark form was dead. Now it would become its light equivalent. Free of the pain. 

Its companion had risen, its head lolling to the side. It limped. It went straight to the lion and sat at its side, but not by the person who’d struck it. It was a small white wolf. Now it looked expectant, waiting for its companion to wake. 

“Good shot!” Priad clasped Gowon’s shoulder. 

She only nodded, watching as the lion’s eyes opened. They were fully calm, bright green and not black. Did it remember what had been done to it? Did it know how it'd been hunted and nearly tortured? Did it count as the same spirit?

So many questions, none of which should have ever crossed her mind before. They did now. 

Then Sooyoung took her hand. Gowon let herself be pulled away from the newly turned spirits. The blade she’d made had held more light than it should’ve. She felt tired. 

Jiwoo gave her a waterskin. Gowon drank from it gratefully. 

Again, they were silent until they were out of earshot. 

“We’ll find more,” Sooyoung squeezed her hand, “and then near the village as we go.”

“There’s a true dark one coming now,” Jiwoo murmured. 

One they could attack. One that truly suffered and needed to be given light. Unless that wasn’t true either. 

All she knew was that certain spirits would always attack them, and that they would attack mortals, while others didn’t. They took down those who attacked. 

Gowon would gladly strike those down. They never looked at her with pain in their eyes. They never seemed to plead with her to relieve them of that agony. 

______

Author's Note 

So a bit of a change from before. Now we're finally back with Vivi and she's finally going to meet Olivia. How do you think that'll go? 

Also, I wanted to show a bit more about what the rest of yyxy do. They still go on hunts for dark spirits, but they have a different goal in mind compared to the rest. 

Would love to know your thoughts so far. Writing as a whole has been getting harder for me. I'm preparing for both an interview and an entrance exam, but I'll try my best to update when I can. 

See you next chapter.