[Rumplestiltskins cottage]

“Sit, sit,” Rumpelstiltskin said nervously and for someone who had a bounty on his head for conceiving a child and putting him to sleep for thirteen years, Rumpelstiltskin seemed much tamer than what people made him out to be. Wooseung dragged me to sit in on the chair and I followed my brother's deathly grip, sitting down beside him.

Rumpelstiltskin’s cottage was simple, with working things here and there and I could see him trying to reach for a glass before climbing up a chair and grabbing it before filling it with water from a bucket. He handed it to Wooseung who looked at it suspiciously and Rumpelstiltskin wiped his sweaty hands on his shirt. I recognized that he had the cuff on his arm, the cuff that was used on Sehun when we were both kidnapped. It was a cuff that stopped magical creatures or mages from using their powers. Rumpelstiltskin sat down in front of Wooseung, thinking.

“I’m a leprechaun but I was made by the Elves when they still existed in Exodus. So I’m.. I’m a special type of leprechaun,” Rumpelstiltskin said suddenly and Wooseung nodded, gripping my hand. I know he was nervous with what he wanted to hear. “I—Where do I start?”

“From the beginning,” Wooseung replied and Rumpelstilskin’s face wavered as he nodded.

“Back in 1998, the Jung family asked for a son,” Rumpelstilskin began and I frowned, wondering why he was telling us a story from another family. “The Jung family is one of the noblest families in Exodus but their mother could not conceive a child until they asked for my help. The thing is, young boy, that to create life in Exodus, you should be able to take one.”

He was talking about Jung Jaehyun, and how Jaehyun was conceived with his help. But what did Wooseung have to do with all of it?

“That is the rule of life,” Rumpel said and I saw Wooseung look down as he listened. “So, I began a ritual. It’s the yin and the yang—”

“A mix of light and dark magic,” Wooseung replied and I looked at him surprised. “I read it in one of the books in class.”

[Yin and Yang]

“Yes. To create light and life, you must be able to able to sacrifice someone to the darkness,” Rumpelstiltskin said. “And that is where you come in.”

“Your parents were a small family that resided in Soul City, merchants of a small stall. They barely got by, day by day when your older brother went into The Locked Lands,” Rumpelstiltskin said and I remembered that someone told me about The Locked Lands and how it was used for prisoners.

“The Locked Lands, if you don’t know, is a place where no one ever wants to go to. It makes your nightmares come alive and you’re haunted constantly by your fears. The souls that reside in the locked lands are souls of lost travelers and those who were left behind. You see, it’s called the Locked Lands because the only way to come out of the lands is to kill someone,” Rumpelstiltskin said and he sighed.

“What did you do to save my brother?” Wooseung’s voice was shaky.

“I went into The Locked Lands and killed someone,” Rumpelstiltskin said, a look of sadness washing over his face. “I took a life and saved your brother and because of that your family was indebted to me and I told them that if I ever needed something, I would come back for it and they would have no choice but to give it to me.”

“I lived my life, doing favors for people and stacking them up. Getting gold from the rich and taking advantage of the poor.” Rumpel looked ashamed of himself before continuing the story. “So, when the Jung family asked for a child, I gave them an ultimatum. I told them that I’d let them conceive a child but if they couldn’t guess my name, I’d take that child away.”

“You’re talking about Jaehyun, right? Why would you want to take Jaehyun away?” Wooseung asked, frowning. I also didn’t understand why. Rumpelstiltskin didn’t seem like someone who would want a child.

“Because the Jung family’s child would be a product of light magic. To have a child with powers would already bring you to the top of the social ladder in Exodus. People worship mages here. I wanted that child for my own.”

Well, he wasn’t wrong. Mages did have everything a normal person didn’t.

“So, when I gave them an ultimatum; knowing that they wouldn’t be able to guess my name they agreed anyway and that was when I did the ritual. I came back to your parents, and you were just born.” Rumpelstiltskin paused. “And I decided to take you and kill you.”

Wooseung let out a soft breath.

“I had to sacrifice you into the darkness, making a ritual of dark magic so I could go on and make a ritual of light magic so the Jung family could conceive a child.”

“So that’s why my soul was in The River of Lost Souls,” Wooseung said, almost to himself. “Because my soul went through dark magic. I was wondering what a baby did to be in The River of Lost Souls.”

Well, that made sense, I thought to myself.

“I recognized your soul the moment I held your hand. I never forget people, souls, and memories that I have dealt with. It’s a blessing and a curse from the elves,” Rumpelstiltskin said to Wooseung who had his head buried in his hands. “But I believe there is a reason why you’re in this body. I believe that you’re special.”

“Can I ask you a question?” Wooseung asked softly, Rumpelstiltskin nodding. “Did I have a name?”

“Yes, son. You did.”

“What was my name?”

Rumpelstiltskin smiled, answering Wooseung’s question.

“Kang Daniel.”

[TIMELINE]

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

[Meadow in Centaur gap]

After the talk, I decided to leave my brother to digest everything. Whatever happened, it seemed as if Rumpelstiltskin had become a good leprechaun and was away from all the bad deeds he had done in the past. I sighed to myself, watching my brother rock himself back and forth on Rumpelstiltskin’s chair and when I asked him if he wanted to be alone, he nodded. I took it as a sign and stepped out of the cottage when I was greeted by a familiar face that had been gone for almost a week.

“Xiumin!” I yelled out, running to him and giving him a hug to which he returned warmly. There was something different about Xiumin now, he was more confident; more relaxed… as if a heavyweight was lifted from his shoulders. Behind him, I saw Eunwoo who had followed his brother and somehow he also looked different.

He looked sad.

“How was your trip back to your father’s mansion?” I asked Xiumin who told me that it was rocky. The talk with his father was rocky, not the trip. He then told me that he had successfully gotten all of his assets back and will be making the mansion into an orphanage when he had time.

“After the war is over. I want to be able to house children who aren’t needed,” he told me and I smiled at him. “I think I have finally found my calling.”

“I’m proud of you,” I told him and he patted me on the shoulder.

“I have to thank you for taking care of Eunwoo for the past few days. I brought a few of his things back and he actually got his memory back just now.” He said happily and I gave a sigh of relief.

“That’s great to hear!” I exclaimed, turning to hug Eunwoo who patted my shoulder. There was something wrong, I could feel it. I dragged myself away from him and Eunwoo gave me a soft smile.

“I’ll leave you two be,” Xiumin suddenly said and I watched the older man walk away silently. I was afraid of what I was going to hear. I turned to Eunwoo who told me that we should talk, and he silently led me to the woods, his cold hands in mine.

“What’s wrong?” I asked him and he chewed on his lip in front of me.

“I just want to thank you for everything, Harin,” Eunwoo said softly, squeezing my fingers and my heart dropped. I know he wasn’t going to stay forever, but why did it seem like he was going to go away now?

“Why are you acting like you’re leaving?” I asked him, my voice breaking. I wasn’t one to get attached easily, but being in a place where you were perceived as different and to have someone who made you feel safe would do wonders to how fast you felt like you needed them.

“Because I am,” Eunwoo said softly and I blinked at him, already feeling the tears coming. “When Xiumin brought me my things, he gave me a book. It had pictures of my mother, events from my childhood, and her.”

He let go of my hand to open the book and my fingers felt so empty without his. I curled my fingers into a fist and slowly retracted to see him show a photo of him with a girl beside him. I wasn’t jealous, I wasn’t hurt, I was just sad and it was an emotion I couldn’t help but feel.

“I remember her from when I was little. I used to vow to find her one day. She was one of our servant’s daughters.” Eunwoo continued, and I saw the yearning in his voice. “You remind me so much of her.”

“Eunwoo…” My eyes pricked with tears and I felt them slide down my cheek. “It wasn’t long but you made me so happy and I—”

“I’m happy I met you.” He finished my sentence, a hand going up to brush against my cheek to wipe away the tears. “You deserve nothing but the best, you beautiful girl.”

Why did it hurt so much, so suddenly? Human emotions were one of a kind. To meet someone and to grow to enjoy their presence just to have them ripped from your side was something I never experienced before. I sniffled, looking down on the ground, my tears flowing.

“I’m going to find her,” Eunwoo told me and I nodded knowing that I could do nothing but wish the best for him. “And when I do, I’ll tell her all about the girl I met in SM who would sit by my side for days and take my loneliness away.”

I couldn’t talk, keeping my head down until Eunwoo pulled me closer, a hand wrapping around my waist just to rock me back and forth. We stood there for the longest time in silence, Eunwoo and I dancing in our last moments together until it was time to say goodbye.

“Thank you, Harin, for everything,” Eunwoo whispered in my ear as I buried my face in his chest, sobbing. This was Eunwoo, I could cry to him. He wasn’t like the rest.

“I’m going to be so lonely without you,” I whispered back but knowing that he had to do what he had to do. He was on a quest for love and I wanted him to know that I supported everything he put his mind to. But for now, I had to cry it out. “The room will feel so empty without you.”

He then pulled away, cupping my face with that angelic smile on his face.

“You can always ask Sehun to come over,” he said, teasingly.

“Eunwoo!” I blubbered and he laughed, tucking a hair behind my ear and leaning down to kiss me on the cheek.

“Goodbye, Harin,” he said and I swear my heart broke a little bit as he took a step back, a hand in the air as he waved.

“Bye,” I called out, trying not to burst into another set of tears. “Eunwoo.”

And with that, he trudged out of the forest and I stood there, watching his back disappear into the trees.

Life, I thought, has a knack for giving you good things and taking them away.

Life.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I really wasn’t in the mood to go back to the rest to train, my cheeks still stained with tears. But I had to join the rest and I sat by everyone in EXO as they talked loudly about war formations and things galore. I stared dully into the space in front of me when Chen tapped me on the shoulder.

“Harin?” He asked and I looked up at him, questioningly. “We were asking you about the duel. You know, when Sehun got hurt and you got hurt too? We wanted to ask you for quite some time but—”

“I asked Sehun already. He said she was just being dramatic,” Kai told Chen and I flickered my eyes over to Sehun who was just quiet. “You were, weren’t you, Harin?”

“Huh?” I asked, absentmindedly. I had no energy to talk to anyone, and I had no energy to even glare at Sehun. “Yeah. I guess.”

“See? I told you. She’s a girl. She feels differently from some people. Sometimes it’s one of those…” Kai lowered. “… bleeding days!”

“You mean, my period?” I asked, raising an eyebrow and Kai blushed furiously. Ah, of course. Being brought up with only men, they would all feel uncomfortable. “Yeah, I was on my period.”

“Ong Harin! Don’t say it!” Baekhyun said it out loud as if it was a forbidden word. I didn’t want to know why they couldn’t say it but I guess they were just shy at the discussion of it. Thinking to myself, I realized that I hadn’t gotten my period yet after I got my powers.

Weird.

Shaking my head, I saw Suho yell at everyone to begin to go into formation. We were to go on centaurs and train with the peacemakers in front of the mages. I saw all the centaurs trudge into the field, their hooves and structure intimidating when Suho began to tell us the allocation.

“I want the tanks beside their designated front liners,” he barked, and I saw Kyungsoo immediately go up to stand beside Sehun. “Kyungsoo and Sehun; you lead EXO. Johnny and Jaehyun; you lead NCT. To the centaurs, you go.”

I saw Kyungsoo struggle to go up the centaur but he finally did and while everyone was in their designated place, I stood there like an idiot waiting for Suho to give me instructions. He paused when he saw me, and I knew he had no idea what to give me. My passive was a backliner but my basic power was basically out souls, so I had to have direct contact with people.

“Ong Harin.” He sighed, scratching his head as he stared at the piece of paper in front of him. “How about you join—”

“I’ll take her.” I heard Sehun’s voice come up and Suho looked over to Sehun who was brushing the centaurs coat. “She can just learn more from the allocation today, besides—Maximus here...” Sehun pointed to the centaur who thumped his hooves onto the ground.

“I’m the strongest here,” Maximus, the centaur said. “I can handle two people.”

“Well… If you say so.” Suho kind of looked grateful that Sehun had offered to have me with him. “Ong Harin, off you go.”

“Yes, Senior.” I bowed slightly to him and going to Sehun who was speaking to Maximus. He stopped when he saw me and I moodily stood by him.

“I want you to remember the formations for me,” Sehun said, his eyes skating over my face.

“Yes.” Of course, Sehun just wanted to make sure I wasn’t useless. I didn’t even look at him, not being able to help myself from feeling down to the pit of my stomach. I missed Eunwoo already and Sehun wasn’t making it better.

He didn’t say anything after that but before I knew it, he had wrapped an arm around my waist and heaved me up; catching me by surprise. I yelped and flailed in the air, Sehun pushing me so I sat on Maximus. Maximus turned and gave me a wink and I stiffened, sitting on his back.

“Is everyone ready?” J-hope yelled out to the peacemakers who had shields in front of them as well as weapons in the air. When he got a yell back, he turned to Suho who yelled out the same thing, earning a yell from my classmates and juniors. Sehun heaved himself up and sat behind me, his arms circled around my body as he held the reigns that were on Maximus.

“Forward!” Suho said into an echowomp and Maximus surged forward. I found my body pushed backward at the sudden movement, the back of my head slamming against Sehun’s chest. I could feel him slightly flex his biceps to regain balance.

“Move forward,” he told me and I slowly edged forward as we rode down the strip of land. I looked around us and, on my right, I saw Kyungsoo riding in front of us; his hands in the air as he began to create a wall at the further end to protect the peacemakers who were also on centaurs.

“Fire!” Jin yelled out as the peacemakers shot out arrows in the air, over Kyungsoo’s wall to hit the ground where the enemy was supposedly going to be. “Nice!”

“Kyungsoo, I want the wall to be a bit higher,” Suho said, his voice booming.

“If that’s the case, the peacemakers should aim a bit higher,” J-Hope interjected, wielding his sword and shoving it down on the sword case around his hips. “It’s time to retreat.”

“I want everyone to retreat in three seconds,” Suho ordered, raising a hand with a yell into the echowomp, everyone began to retreat with Suho counting the seconds. I blinked, trying to focus but my heart felt heavy and it may be the sudden dawn that a war was indeed approaching and I was part of it mixed with Eunwoo’s sudden departure. It was hard to try not to cry even though I knew my problem was minimal compared to everyone else.

At times like this, I usually cried it all out and face the next day with a smile but with people around, I couldn’t do that. I rapidly blinked my eyes, trying to keep the tears back when a lump filled my throat. I saw Kyungsoo look over to me and when my eyes caught him, he frowned.

Why was it so hard to breathe?

I was battling emotions I didn’t want to feel when I knew the best way was to allow myself to be engulfed in it. But no one would understand, not when we were on centaurs with swords in our hands. I saw Kyungsoo look over at Sehun; jerking his face towards me and I turned away, focusing on the space in front of me. If I stared a bit harder, maybe I’ll be able to diverge my thoughts to something else.

Suddenly Sehun’s hand came up and covered my eyes, his fingers blocking my vision from everything else. His voice was smooth and he rode the centaur calmly, pressing his hand against my eyelids. I didn’t know why he did it, but when he did; another wave of tears rolled down my face and I gulped. Sehun sighed behind me, keeping his hand on my face. I felt him lean against my back, resting his chin on the top of my head as we both raced down the field.

“Cry it all out, Gaian,” he said in my ear. “I won’t let anyone see.”

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

After my episode with Sehun, I felt a lot better and he seemed much quieter. He didn’t speak much, he didn’t try to say anything to me, he just stood behind me as we all listened to our Advisors talk. I learned that ‘Advisors’ were what you called those who taught mages and ‘Mentors’ were what you called those who trained the peacemakers. Even Xiumin was being extra nice, helping me down from the centaur and giving me a hug that didn’t need words. I think he felt guilty that I was suffering from the departure of his brother even though it wasn’t his fault.

“If you ever need someone to talk to, Harin. I’m here. I’m not Eunwoo, but I’m related to him,” Xiumin said to me, jokingly and I couldn’t help but chuckle. I felt a whole lot better already and it wasn’t long before I was able to smile with the rest of them. I saw Wooseung exit Rumpelstiltskin’s cottage and when he walked over to me, he smiled and jogged over. He too seemed so much better than before.

“Hey,” he said, winking at me and patting my head. “I heard Eunwoo left and you were feeling pretty down.”

“Nothing compared to finding out your past,” I answered and Wooseung shrugged. His eyes were still a bit red from crying but he seemed relieved from the information he had gotten.

“I cried it out and now I’m feeling better,” Wooseung told me and I nodded, taking his hand.

“Me too,” I admitted and he chuckled, ruffling my hair. “Emotions, am I right?”

“Right,” Wooseung replied, smiling the smile that I loved seeing on his face. “Anyway, I realized one thing when I was crying that made me cry even harder.” He told me and I looked at him worriedly, Wooseung frowning.

“What?”

“Well, since Seungwoo was already four when Ahjumma bound my infant baby soul into his body… Seungwoo is actually four years older than me. So, it means—”

“It means you’re the same age as I am. But I am probably a few months older than you so…,” I quickly said, doing the math and Wooseung made a face. “Really? That’s what made you cry?”

“You kidding me? I had Seungwoo tell me to call him “Hyung” if we ever go back to Korea. Not cool, man,” Wooseung complained and I burst out into laughter, wrapping a hand around his shoulders.

“Call me Noona,” I teased, winking at him and Wooseeung tackled me, making me screech.

“I’ll always be your Oppa,” he warned, tickling my sides until I fell onto the ground, trying to get away from his evil fingers.

“I love you, Oppa,” I said, pulling myself up with his help and he smiled at my attempt at making his issue with age go away. “I grew up with you being the older one, that’s not ever going to change.”

“Now that’s the only thing that matters,” Wooseung answered, patting my cheek. “I guess it’s time for us to take a break? I missed the first training, didn’t I?”

“Yeah, but it’s alright. We just road on centaurs and tried to see how the formation will be with the peacemakers,” I answered and Wooseung walked alongside me as we reached EXO and NCT who were resting at the sides. Suho seemed stressed, counting everyone over and over again. I wondered where Kris was but then he was hardly around anymore and I think the Order had him included in their errands that were needed to be run.

“I also heard that we’ll be spending three nights here on the field. Tents and all. Uncle Rumpel told me so. It’s to—”

“You’re calling him Uncle Rumpel now?” I asked, raising my eyes at my brother’s lack of ability to hold grudges even to the one who killed him. Wooseung nodded, shrugging.

“He’s actually really nice. Besides, if I was born Kang Daniel, I would probably have lived a life of poverty and hardship. Because of him, I grew up in a mansion with an air conditioner and two siblings,” Wooseung answered and I nodded, realizing that it was true. My brother really was good at living in the moment.

“Three nights on the field?” I asked, plopping down beside Baekhyun who automatically put his head on my lap and closed his eyes to rest. “Is that some kind of simulation training so we get used to sleeping with tents and all?”

“Yeah, we will also have a bunch of drills I think,” Chen responded to me, fanning himself. “So, we might be sleeping and we’ll suddenly hear everything and we’ll have to pretend war is actually here.”

“It’s intense,” Luhan sighed, pushing his fingers against his hair. “Though I’ll be lounging with our Advisors, Suho and Lay are literally lost without Kris.”

I agreed with that, Suho and Lay in deep conversation in front of us as they pointed in different directions on the field. This made me appreciate Kris more, the older male always seemingly able to control the situation better than his coworkers. I sighed, leaning against the tree bark slowly, careful to not wake the sleeping Baekhyun was already snoring softly. I saw Sehun on the field, holding a sword and going in combat with J-Hope who was instructing him how to fight—except he was already very good at it. Kyungsoo stood by Sehun, his arms crossed.

Sehun was good at everything, wasn’t he? I watched his eyes glower at J-hope, his tall and lean body swiftly turning to wield the sword against his opponent. J-hope blocked it, but barely and Sehun kept g