Their assault began quickly. They’d left after night had fallen, absorbing moonlight as they went. The destination hadn’t been a cave, but a secluded building of wood and metal. It looked like it was supposed to be grand, but it was so far away that few people could even appreciate that. 

And they were here to rid it of the people inside. 

Jiwoo and Chaewon had gone first, Hyejoo close behind. Chaewon had covered Hyejoo’s swords with moonlight before, giving her another dagger as well. 

Everything else had happened fast. 

The vampires had come into their paths, quick and bathed in a bloodlust so strong even Jinsoul had been able to sense it. 

Then several of them had stumbled, bands of white around their necks. 

Jinsoul turned her attention to the ones without it. She had a reservoir of water at her side. She drew on the first piece, driving it into the hearts of two. They both crumbled to dust. 

In the next moment, another tackled her, breaking several of her ribs in the process. Her water rose up to impale the vampire. She made another part circle her chest, hardening in places to stabilise what’d broken. 

She tried to stand, but the movements still pulled wrong at her ribs. 

A vampire crumbled only a few metres away from her. 

Then Jiwoo was pulling her up. Jinsoul fought a scream. 

“You take the lead,” she said quickly. “I’ll make sure they don’t sneak up on us.” There was a bite on her shoulder, but her skin glowed brightly. 

Jinsoul didn’t have time to question that. She summoned a blade just as the next vampire turned his attention to them. Jinsoul lunged first, letting the water encircle his legs. 

He tried to run, but the water pushed back just as hard. He toppled over his own legs, dislocating something in the process. 

Jinsoul drove the moonlight into his chest, twisting until she found his heart. Then he became dust as well. 

Behind her, Jiwoo was trying to keep one from tearing out her neck. 

An arc of water drove into the vampire’s own neck. She crumbled before her head fell off. 

Jinsoul used the water to pull Jiwoo to her feet, before moving on to the rest. 

And it went on like that, though Jinsoul wasn’t caught off guard again. Jiwoo managed to intercept, or shout a warning before teeth reached their necks. 

Jinsoul had abandoned using the light. As she grew exhausted, it was her old magic that came easier when she called to it. She vaguely registered how her light had still managed to sink into the water as she forced it through the air. 

And then it was over. In the survivors, Jinsoul could only hear their confusion and terror, but she didn’t understand their words. It wasn’t a mortal language she knew. 

She could only see the darkness that clung to her. The water scattered across the ground itched to attack them too. She closed her eyes and turned away. 

She hated when her mind was in this space—when the water became a weapon. When she was only facing one threat, like a spirit, wolf, or vampire, it wasn’t as bad. She could still keep a part of her mind.

But when the only goal was to stay alive, she couldn’t stop to think about what she was doing. She couldn’t stop to consider anything but the people on her side. Tonight, that person had been Jiwoo and vice versa. 

Jinsoul took another deep breath. She could feel her blood rushing through her ears. Her limbs were still ready to move, her magic almost aching to be used. 

She opened her eyes and looked to the rest. 

The one most hurt was Chaewon. She was clutching her leg, her jaw clenched. On her arm was one deep gash and a bite. 

Sooyoung was trying to put light around her leg. Bone protruded from the side. 

Jinsoul went over. “Let me.” She let the water come to them. There was blood in it, as well as light. It took a few seconds until she’d fully separated the dirt and blood from the water. “Make it thinner,” she told her. Then she met Chaewon’s teary eyes. “I need to push it back first.”

Chaewon nodded once. “Whatever I call you next, don’t take it personally.” She closed her eyes. 

As Jinsoul pushed the bone back beneath the skin, a string of curses fell from Chaewon’s lips. It wasn’t anything she’d ever expected the girl to ever say, especially with the voice she had. She also ended up learning a few words of crosesh. 

Then she wrapped some water around each of Chaewon’s injuries, cleaning them. She started to make healing runes in the ground. Already, she started to feel how her thoughts were going away from survival. It happened slowly, but her mind was freeing itself of that focus that only came with violence. This was what her magic was supposed to be used for. She didn’t want to think of how many people she’d killed. Even if it’d been decided that the vampires had needed to die, that didn’t mean she felt proud for being the one to kill them. 

“You’re hurt too,” Hyejoo said. Her face was tight with worry. She held Chaewon’s white-knuckled hand in her own. 

“Not badly,” she replied. There was a small tug at her mind when the healing magic started to work. “Form it into two flat pieces, from here to here,” she pointed to the lower part of Chaewon’s leg, “then bind it with the other bit of light.” 

Sooyoung did what she said, not even questioning it, or saying she didn’t need the instruction. She looked distant. Maybe she was still in that mindset of before. 

Chaewon sighed as the magic started to work properly. She sank into Hyejoo’s side, her eyes drooping as the pain was replaced by exhaustion. 

“Thank you,” Jiwoo was on her other side, “I think you saved my life at least five times.”

“And you seven,” Jinsoul replied. “Thanks.” It was strange to think of how easy it’d been to trust her. She’d let her focus go to what was in front of her, leaving everything else completely open. And Jiwoo had managed to either warn her in time, or take care of the threat herself. She’d seen that in Sooyoung a few times. She’d completely surrendered her awareness of her surroundings in favour of taking down one half of a spirit pair. Jiwoo had taken the other one, blocking it when it tried to defend the other. 

“You didn’t use enough moonlight,” Sooyoung said. “But from what I did see, you can handle herself.” She looked her way and smiled slightly. The far-away look was still there, but it was slowly fading. 

They all looked when they heard the raised voices. 

Heejin and Haseul were standing by the newborns. Heejin kept speaking to them in a gentle voice, in the language Jinsoul hadn’t been able to understand. Blood ran down the side of her face. One of her arms was at an odd angle, but she managed to look comforting and kind. 

Jinsoul watched as the newborns listened, eying the rest of them with varying degrees of distrust and fear. One was being held by Hyunjin, who had a hand on the side of the vampire’s throat. There was no moonlight, but Hyunjin’s skin glowed. It was a simple, but clear, warning. 

The vampire just muttered something. 

Hyunjin looked to Heejin, who nodded once. She let go. 

The newborn sank to the ground, her eyes on the ash surrounding them. She looked as confused as she was angry. Of course she would. All they knew was that they’d been attacked by people with magic over light and water. Those people had killed their creators. Even if they’d been scared of them, their deaths would’ve shaken all of the young vampires. 

And being surrounded by people with sharp ears and strange eyes, all of whom had survived the fight, that was more than overwhelming. 

Yet both Heejin and Haseul were talking to them as if they hadn’t just all been enemies. 

“Chae’s light helped calm them down for this,” Sooyoung said. “Without it, I think we’d still be fighting.” 

“Is she the only one who can do that?” Jinsoul asked. 

“Sometimes we’re able to make light like that,” she replied. “But Chaewon’s natural light is always like that. Jiwoo’s normally lifts your spirits. Mine energises.” 

She just nodded, focusing on tapping her foot. “You can still feel this, right?”

Chaewon nodded weakly. “I was moving it too,” she grimaced, “so I know it works.” 

Jinsoul smiled. “You shouldn’t be moving your leg for at least a week.”

“What?” Chaewon frowned immediately. “That’s ridiculous, I’ve been able to—”

“If you tell me you healed after a few days, that’s not actually true,” Jinsoul told her. “You were able to put pressure on it, but that didn’t mean the bone’d healed, or the rest of the leg around it.” She turned to Jiwoo, now feeling the pain that surrounded her entire ribcage. “How long did it hurt for?”

Chaewon thought for a moment. “A few weeks?”

Immortals were truly stubborn when it came to their healing. “And if you wait at least a week, it’ll hurt for a lot less than that.” She started to heal her wounds, starting with the bite on her neck. “Is the venom still working?” Vampire venom drained their energy. It didn’t stop one’s magic from manifesting, but it did make everything a lot harder. They’d told Jinsoul before that a lot of moonlight could counter those effects, but not always. 

“It wasn’t before,” Jiwoo sighed, “I think it’s kicking in.” Her peach-coloured eyes were dim. “Can I lay down?” 

“‘Course you can.” Jinsoul helped her lean back. The movement pulled at her chest. She swallowed a curse. “How long do you think that’ll last?” She nodded behind them. 

Haseul was talking to a particularly frightened boy, showing him how moonlight formed on her hand. She pointed to the sky and then to the rest of them, explaining something. Somehow, he looked less afraid. 

“Depends on how much they trusted the rest,” Sooyoung said. “Some see they were only there for protection pretty soon. Others panic and deny it.” She moved to Jiwoo’s side, carefully brushing hair away from the cuts on the side of her face. 

Jinsoul nodded. “And how long does it take for them not to see us as their enemy?”

She just shrugged. Then she looked from Jinsoul, to Jiwoo, to Chaewon. “You know you don’t have to do this again, right?” 

Had she given away too much how things like this affected her? Or did they think she’d end up making a mistake in the future? 

Sooyoung shook her head. “I’m not saying you’re not strong enough for it, or anything like that.” She glanced down at Jiwoo. “Because I can see you coming on other trips and not having a problem there either.” 

Jinsoul nearly told her that ‘having a problem’ wasn’t exactly the point of any of this, but she held back. Sooyoung wasn’t always the best with things like this. Jiwoo usually just let her talk through it, while the other two tended to make fun of it. 

“You can’t tell me you don’t find this part better,” Sooyoung said. Then she grimaced. “Maybe not better, but—”

“I know what you mean,” Jinsoul gave her a small smile, “and you’re right.” She moved on to Jiwoo’s sprained ankle. “But that doesn’t mean I’ll sit out while you do this.” She’d had to do that a few times among her people. Sometimes she’d been able to go into the fight with them, if only to be there if there was a fatal wound, but most of the time they’d kept her out of things ‘for her safety’. She’d always found that argument to be idiotic. She wouldn’t let the Astra do the same. 

She also knew that the more she stepped in to heal, the closer she was getting to falling into what she’d always done. 

But was that a bad thing? The alternative was being sent on these trips, getting used to just being sent into a fight, before going on the other patrols, fighting spirits and other creatures that posed a threat. 

Even Jinsoul’s people before hadn’t devoted so much time to that. They’d dealt with threats if they strayed too close, occasionally going into the sea if the elves there needed support. Jinsoul had only rarely been called in to help on the fighting, but she’d always been there to deal with the worst injuries. She’d worked quickly and learned to judge which people needed her help first. 

Jinsoul was tending to the knife wound in Hyejoo’s side now. She didn’t seem to be bothered by it too much, but Jinsoul wondered how much of that was Hyejoo’s worry for Chaewon. That sort of fear could extend your pain tolerance. It had here. 

“She told us you were good,” Hyejoo muttered. “I thought she was just overselling you.” 

It wasn’t hard to figure out who ‘she’ was. 

“I’m not doing much,” Jinsoul replied. “I’m just not the person who’ll let you go through the earth with several open wounds.” She pressed a thin strip of moonlight to the puncture, letting some water coat the edges and solidify, securing it. “Those do get infected, even if we used magic for it.”

Jiwoo laughed lightly from the ground. “I think you’re one of the first elves to be worried about infection in about a century.”

“I know plenty of people who don’t want them.”

“Did you convert them?” Sooyoung asked. 

“Convert?” Jinsoul repeated. “You like to get a fever?” 

“It’s not that bad.” She rolled her eyes.

“She just likes having an excuse to get pampered,” Hyejoo chimed in. Beside her, Chaewon let out a low snort. That she hadn’t fallen asleep was impressive. 

“She really does,” Jiwoo slowly sat up, leaning into Sooyoung’s side, “every time she wants me to make her soup.”

Jinsoul didn’t miss how Sooyoung’s expression softened, nor how her eyes lingered on Jiwoo’s smile. 

“So,” the peach-eyed girl sighed, “be honest now. Would you want do this again? I don’t mean come out with us, I mean that.” She nodded at the vampires and the ash that covered the ground. “Fighting them, not because you’re defending yourself or trying to get rid of a threat to our neighbouring towns.” 

“But others couldn’t do it,” Jinsoul finished. “‘Want’ isn’t the right word for that. Do all of you want to do this?” 

Immediately, Jiwoo shook her head. The other three nodded. 

“Haseul doesn’t,” Sooyoung said. “Heejin’s fine with it. She can actually get out of there for it.” She shrugged. “Hyunjin and Jungeun are good at it.” 

Jinsoul frowned. The last part didn’t really answer her question. 

“I do it because we work best as four,” Jiwoo said, putting a hand on Chaewon’s good leg, squeezing it lightly. “And I gotten them out of messes at least ten times this year.”

Hyejoo tossed a clump of dirt her way. “I saved you just as many times.” She was smiling as she said it. “And I think I saw Jinsoul here save your skin a few times.” 

“We helped each other!” Jiwoo sent Jinsoul a wink. “Defend my honour, please.”

“I owe you two.” 

Her smile widened. “I’m not counting those two, so we’re even.” She tapped her shoulder. 

A quiet argument came out about who’d had the highest count of rescues. Jinsoul half listened, half focused on tending to the cuts along Sooyoung’s arm. They were deep, probably scratches. They weren’t incredibly deep. Someone had probably tried to grab her and she’d pulled away just a little bit too late. 

She’d need to look to how the others were doing. Maybe even the vampires, though they definitely wouldn’t trust her enough for that. They healed faster than them too. That was the trade off. They were vulnerable to a well-placed strike, but stronger and a lot faster than most. 

Heejin would probably be first. Her hand kept drifting towards her back and she wasn’t moving around as she spoke. If she’d gotten a blow to her side, that wouldn’t speak well at all for her organs. Again, she’d survive it, but the healing process would feel terrible. 

Don’t feel like you have some duty to fulfil here. 

It was almost funny. Had Jungeun expected this to happen? Or had her guess just been that good? She’d told her she didn’t need to become a healer, just as she herself hadn’t needed to become the Astra’s weapon. 

While she did other things, like helping the mortals and carrying out other jobs, she still fought spirits and other creatures. She still fought for the Astra. And it wasn’t something she wanted, but something she was ‘good at’. 

Then again, it wasn’t as if Jinsoul was bad at this. If she kept doing this, she wouldn’t be a burden for the rest. She’d be a part of their team. 

And she’d be there if they got hurt. At times, it felt like they were a bit too confident. That was usually when Jinsoul started to worry. Confidence could so easily mean recklessness. 

“I think we’ll be ready to leave soon,” Jiwoo said. Her eyes were still dim, but she looked better than earlier. “A few from another coven will be coming. Then we can go home—I mean,” her smile faded, “back to camp.”

Jinsoul shook her head. “It’s supposed to become my home, isn’t it?”

“That takes time,” Jiwoo replied. “New normals take a while to get used to.” There was an edge to her eyes. It left soon after, leaving only a warm smile. 

Jinsoul wondered if asking about that later would be a bad thing or not. 

She decided against it. Whatever had changed in Jiwoo’s life, she’d probably hear about it eventually. For all intents and purposes, she was here to stay. 

______

Jungeun sat down, letting her weapons fall to the ground. They were covered in blood. Her hands and arms were coated in it. She didn’t look anywhere else, but she could feel where the rest of the blood had settled onto her. 

She sighed. The memories were already settling into her mind. She’d yanked someone off of one of the fairies and dragged them across the ground. 

Then she saw how she’d melted down someone’s sword, using the molten metal against them. Her left hand still felt numb from holding it. She could see small clumps of pale grey across her ruined palm. 

She closed her eyes, trying to still her heart. It pounded away, eagerly trying to keep her ready for another attack. 

“You really do fight like no other,” Seulgi said. Her blade was coated in red, but the rest of her was largely free of it. “So why’re you feeling like that now?”

Jungeun shook her head. “I thought you were learning how to stay out of our feelings.” 

“It’s not something I can easily ignore.” She sat down beside her. “Do you want any help?” 

She looked up, frowning. “How would you do that?” 

Seulgi’s eyes were partially dark blue. Sad. “Pull your calm to the forefront. It’ll help soothe the anger.”

Jungeun looked away. “No need,” she said. “I just need a few minutes.”

“Or you could try tiring yourself out a bit more,” she suggested. “Fatigue weakens the emotions too.” 

Jungeun almost told her how terrible of an idea that was. If someone saw her flames in the distance, they’d come immediately. They were lucky no one was in the area now, but she knew from the Warsa that there’d be opportunists nearby. 

Then Seulgi looked over to the others. 

She followed her gaze. She saw the bodies first, many of them burned. There were still fires scattered around the makeshift camp. Jungeun extinguished all of them. 

Then she saw the fairies. When the fighting had stopped, she'd checked to see if everyone was still alive. They were. 

But they were also hurt. She only saw that now. 

Jungeun felt her own shame surge. She wished her first thought had been to see if anyone was hurt. She wished the thought of healing them would’ve come immediately. 

“There’s still some time, but we do have to leave soon,” Seulgi said slowly. “Your companion is eager to go.” 

“You would be too.” Jungeun got to her feet. “If you couldn’t sense when someone was coming.” Sh’d been exactly like that until she’d gotten the light. If you weren’t expecting a threat, you could still overlook someone’s presence. Other than that, it’d gotten her out of a lot of bad situations. She’d gotten less nervous on jobs like these. 

Jungeun joined the wounded. Someone had found potions, but they hadn’t been enough. And broken bones couldn’t be healed immediately. Or stab wounds. 

“Clean your hands with this first,” a fairy said. She had bright blue eyes. She gave her a waterskin. “Someone else’s blood can be just as bad as dirt sometimes.” Then she looked at her, brow furrowed. "You need me to—" She reached for Jungeun's side. 

She leaned away, shaking her head. A sword had struck her there, but it was shallow. Her ribs were also broken, but she'd managed to numb them with light. 

After washing her hands, she went to the next fairy. He was the one with air as his magic. If she remembered right, he was called Remus. 

“Need a hand?”

He let out a strangled laugh. “I thought you people were supposed to be funnier than us.” Remus lifted his mangled hand. Something had just about crushed it. 

“They exist.” Jungeun summoned a very thin strip of moonlight. “I’m taking this off once we get there.” Moonlight wasn’t always great for people who weren’t Astra or, for some odd reason, emotional fae. At least it was tolerated, even helpful, in small amounts. "This'll hurt." 

Remus shook his head. "I've seen you do worse." It was meant lightly. 

Jungeun just got to work. Carefully, she wrapped it around his hand, ignoring the series of hisses and small cries of pain as she secured the fingers as best she could. 

Then he sighed in relief. Either the light had numbed it, or it just felt soothing. She didn’t always know how it worked. Chaewon’s always drained, but the rest of theirs fluctuated between energising and subduing. 

Jungeun set the hand on the ground and drew the healing rune. 

“Best to do these multiple times, right?” She felt the next surge of magic. It cleared her head slightly, but that ache came back. 

“Never done this before?” Remus frowned. 

“Not enough,” Jungeun replied. When she did it again, she felt another tug on her magic, followed by a light pain. 

“Well then lucky for me,” he smiled slightly, “it works.” 

She shrugged. The third time she cast the spell, there was a sharp pain in her head. Then it faded. 

“Might want to give some light over there,” he said. “Thank you.” He looked a bit surprised by his own words. Jungeun was too.

She spent the next part of an hour straightening broken bones and setting thin portions of the light on the most painful of injuries. She asked someone else to cast the healing runes. She’d tried again, but the pain felt as if it was trying to split her head open. She wasn’t a stranger to overdoing it with her magic, but she’d never actually gotten hurt by it. 

In the back of her mind, she wondered if that was because it was so contrary to her actual magic.

She brushed it aside and tied the next piece of moonlight. This one had gotten a knife to the back. She’d have to be carried down. 

They had a long way to go, which meant that the less pain these people had could have the capacity to be life saving. And they’d also be able to avoid infection a bit better now too. 

She almost laughed. Infection should've been the least of their problems. Even broken bones could be walked on, if you grit your teeth enough. 

Jungeun leaned back, a wave of exhaustion coming over her. She wasn’t sure if it was from the fighting or from the healing magic. She felt drained. Her own magic was almost effortless to call upon if she was using fire, but powering a rune had been exhausting after only a few times of drawing it. 

“We really have to go,” Reyna was telling Seulgi, “any change?” 

The fairy shook her head. 

Jungeun looked to the rest. No one looked as if they were in too much pain. Someone sent her a small smile. 

She looked away and got to her feet. She swayed. 

Someone steadied her. Sekar. 

“Should you be on your feet?” She looked at his leg.

“We’re going now, aren’t we?” His eyes were gold and pale blue. Then they flashed yellow. 

Jungeun felt a burst of energy. It stayed, but wasn’t anything that made her unsettled. Excitement. 

She realised then that the rush from the fight had faded. The memories felt a little bit more distant now too. 

“You’re filthy.” Sekar was frowning at her face. “You do know you’re still covered in blood, don’t you?” 

Jungeun nodded. “I can smell it too.” 

The fairy looked at her, his eyes purely gold now. "Why are you still here?" 

Jungeun frowned. 

"You're too entrenched in this place," Sekar said. "Your emotions are tied to every body you felled, you've—”

"Stop looking at it," Jungeun said, hoping she didn't sound angry. 

“Eun,” Reyna was at her side, “are you okay? What you did,” she started, sounding both disbelieving and relieved. 

“Tired,” she replied. “It’ll be fine.” She let the moonlight flow onto her skin, finding a welcome comfort there. 

Sekar gave her one last look of gold, before going over to Seulgi. 

“Okay.” Reyna nodded, still looking confused. “Tell me if you need a break.”

Jungeun laughed slightly. “Not happening.” She started walking. They’d probably have to take breaks for the rest, but that wouldn’t be for at least a few more hours. They needed distance and speed to make up for any time they might’ve just lost. 

They couldn’t use the earth to leave until they reached the Warsa. It took too long and left most of them vulnerable. They could only do it in the safety of the Warsan tunnels. 

And in the state most of them were, they’d be attracting spirits along the way. Too many. Jungeun wasn’t going to risk fending off that many while the rest sank into the ground. If she was overpowered, that’d mean the rest were as good as gone. Maybe it would’ve been better to take someone else with her. 

The start of the walk was quiet. Everyone was tired, drained from the fear of their capture and then exhausted completely from the fighting. 

Jungeun watched for any presences. She found spirits, most of them benevolent. At least there was that. 

When there were malevolent spirits, she went after them, careful not to let her thoughts slip again. It took longer than it would’ve otherwise, but she didn’t mind. 

Once she’d gotten the light and had to fight spirits, she’d had to take more time. The goal was never to kill, but to turn them. 

There was a lot less deliberation when she was in an actual fight. She jumped from dodging to attacking without much of a plan in mind, but that had always been what saved her.

It didn’t work as much with spirits. They usually fought the way she did, and that was where she’d often ended up getting knocked back, a fair amount of wounds made from the darkness. 

She was still thankful for being able to separate those two mindsets. The shift had saved her life a few times too.

______

Sixteen 

Jungeun’s hands wouldn’t still. She tried to force them, but failed. Even held in fists, they wouldn’t stop trembling. 

“Eun.” 

Two arms wrapped themselves around her small frame. She wanted to push them away. Her skin was still hot. 

“I’m so proud of you,” Leah murmured. 

“I hurt them,” Jungeun said. This was what she'd trained for. They'd told her she was meant for this. 

So this was what she'd keep doing. And she'd as good as failed. Yes, she'd helped kill the ones they'd been sent out for, but she'd also hurt their people. 

Her people. They'd taken burns to their arms and legs. They'd screamed too. She'd hurt them, because the fire had been stronger. 

“Don’t ever blame yourself for the fire.” Her grip tightened. “It wasn’t your fault, and no one got badly hurt except the people who deserved it.” She kissed the top of her head. “No one blames you.” 

“What about their families?” Jungeun asked. “They hate me.” She could still hear their screams. Their parents, their siblings, their children—none would know how much they suffered. Only Jungeun would. 

Leah’s voice hardened. “These people,” she made her look up, “chose their paths. They walked on, knowing they took a risk, just as we do.” She brushed the next tears away. “And one of our paths will always end. Being able to keep walking is nothing you can blame yourself for.”

She wanted to tell her she was wrong, but she knew she’d just be told otherwise. She'd been told to use her flames. They'd tried to kill her before she'd managed it. 

In her fear, she'd lost her grip on the flames. They'd scattered around her, burning everyone who'd stayed too close. Even the people she hadn't been told to hurt. 

“I'll get to cooking?” 

Jungeun was so tempted to say yes. She wanted a warm meal and to stay where she was. Safe. “I need to practice.” 

Leah’s grip on her fell slack, before tightening. “You need to rest.” 

She shook her head. “We keep training my body,” she pulled away, “I need to train the fire just as much.” She made a flame in her hand. Its blades ran freely into the air, going in all directions. She needed more control over it. 

Her mother looked at her for a long moment. There wasn’t disappointment, but she looked sad. “Alright.” 

Jungeun nodded, before leaving the tent. She spent the next hours trying to keep the flames in one steady shape. Then she spent the night trying to send the flames in a perfectly straight line. 

When her father found her, she was surrounded by ash and melted rock. 

______

Author's Note 

So I ended up making another large chapter, but I made it a double one. I figured that since it's been a month since the last update, I could do that. Life has been very busy, but I've finally got a break. The next chapter is already being worked on so I'll get it out this week. 

I hope it wasn't too confusing. If you're completely new to this 'world', these characters feature in a different story of mine. It's set a fair amount of years after this and a small part of this story is also to show how the different characters were before certain events happened (that's putting it very lightly). Again, you really do not need to read any of my other stories to understand this, but if some things stray a bit away from Jungeun and Jinsoul, that's why. 

The snippets of Jungeun's past won't be a constant in this story, but I wanted to show a bit more of how she'd grown up. Some of the exact reasons for it will be better explained later, but this is the first part. 

I also really wanted to explore the stories of Jinsoul and Jungeun a bit more separate to one another. There's a chance this story will be getting a bit longer than I'd planned. These two characters have got a story I really want to explore more and I'll try not to overdo it, but I hope you'll be up for it. 

Do let me know what your thoughts are! I know this was a bit of a beast of an update, but that's why it was split into two.

I hope you're all doing well and are healthy. See you next chapter.