"He's refusing to talk, my lady." 

Sofia scowled, "Not even the truth potion you fed him could get anything out?" She had ordered Letitia to obtain one of those concoctions from the Grimm Market while Abel had tied up the boy, who was now kept hostage. Kim Hongjoong, the boy's name was found after thorough searching. The punishment she had given Abel was not gone to waste after all and indeed, he had done a meticulous job at gathering the relevant information. 

"The one we need is his sister, if he still refuses to tell us more - " Sofia rose from the velvet couches of the living room, breaking dawn was only a few hours away. "-force him to speak - the hard way."

The space they had kept him was damp and cold, similar to the empty space where Jeong Yunho slept. But unlike the crystal island spread out for him, Hongjoong had been tied against a post erected from the ground, wrists bounded by thick rope as he stood in an uncomfortable position. The moment Sofia entered the area, she had a feeling it had been used ages ago by someone else, far more unpleasant and definitely not of her kind. 

The space was built as a prison, and was left to rot over time. Until now it was once again, put to use. 

She gestured for Abel to wake her prisoner. Hongjoong was jolted awake by the violent splash of ice cold water across his face, he in a sharp breath. Sofia raised an eyebrow and approached him. His shirt and jeans were wet, hair dyed a dark blue that could have rivaled the outlandishness of the water nymphs in Faerie, and of course there was a particular quality to his face that people could admire, if they looked closer. 

Looking at the unnecessary yet again, Sofia thought to herself. 

Her ringed fingers clutched Hongjoong's face, to which he responded with a scowl and deadly glare. Still he said nothing.

"It's a shame you can't cooperate and want me to do things like this, I've never liked violence," she careened and let out a low chuckle. "If you would just give in and tell me all about your little sister who's getting in my way, I would have let you go without a scratch. So tell me, darling: Where has your sister gone?"

Surprisingly, Hongjoong's lips were tightly shut, he had resisted the truth potion - much to Sofia's annoyance. He's not as much of a mundane weakling after all, she thought with detest. She waved a nochalant hand at Abel, "Very well, that is your decision."

On cue, she turned away, suddenly admiring the cracks on the rough walls - when she heard the rippling crackle of the whip, followed by a scream of agony. It had been long since she heard that - and the hint of a smile creeped onto her face. At the corner of her eye, she saw Abel with the leather whip ready as he waited for his mistress' next order. Even from afar she could sense Hongjoong in no doubt excruciating pain - and yet his lips were sealed. 

She gave her nod, and Abel proceeded for the second lash, and the third and the fourth and the fifth-

"THEY WENT TO FAERIE!" at long last Hongjoong blurted, a mixture between a painful yelp and cry. 

Sofia turned back on her heel and she saw him, and wondered to herself: How much longer was he trying endure it? Eyes wet with burning tears, heavy and desperate breaths, she didn't need to look at his back to know how much of his skin had been torn. 

She clicked her tongue, "Tsk-tsk..." out of spite, she wiped away his tears tenderly before planting a kiss on his head. "None of this would have happened if you just told the truth, I hate to see you suffer like this."

But that wasn't true, not really. With every second the pain increased in Hongjoong's body, the harder it was for him to conceal the agony - the brighter the glee was tucked in Sofia's heart. 

The more the nature of Serafia awakened. 

Sofia paid a visit to her sleeping boy shortly after. 

He was still unmoving, static in his slumber and constant breathes. In some way, she had grown attached to his still, silent beauty that had bloomed over the years where she had the privilege to witness alone. Abel and Letitia had been here once, on the night they had to move his body onto the island, the rush of events to save him before it had been too late. 

It had been messy, everything almost out of her control. 

Letitia had reminded her just that morning, when Sofia clearly didn't need reminding. The time was almost due, for Jeong Yunho to awake from his slumber - and to finally give her her greatest desire. In fact with the information Kim Hongjoong had given, albeit involuntarily, it almost seemed like the world was ruling in her favour. Studying Yunho now, she wondered whether his soul had been lost?

Not that it mattered to her, she just needed him to wake. 

"Araminta Kim," she uttered that name to herself and pondered - why would a silly human girl get involved in such business like hers? Humans thought and did stupid things all the time, that she knew, wasting their efforts for rubbish like heroism or love. Was there something more to her recklessness than expected? Running off into Faerie was the biggest clue, that she was very much aware of the importance of the ring and necklace. 

I won't let you get what you want, that was what Jocelyn had said. Of course she would hide it in Faerie, the only place Sofia could never search. With that pest Song Mingi nonetheless, Sofia regretted not killing him off from the very start. 

But that meant the girl was somehow interconnected with all this, for reasons unknown, and she was more than average. Her brother had been able to endure the pain and the potion for so long, it was no easy feat and it made Sofia curious - what made them special?

"Or have you been hiding secrets as well?" she asked Jeong Yunho, who naturally did not respond and continued sleeping. She smoothed out the collar of his dress shirt, touched his soft cheeks, where the rosiness was most prominent, the light feather of his lashes, the ebony silk of his hair-

And Yunho moved, startling her.

Sofia gasped. It happened in a split second, a sudden jerk of his shoulder and the boy had let out a clear grimace - the first sound he had made since his slumber. And immediately he returned to his still state, as if Sofia had been imagining it all along. 

But she knew what she saw, her sleeping boy had moved. 

She didn't know why she cupped his face, eyes studying him intently - now much more intrigued as to whether he was merely sleeping with his soul trapped in his body, or had it truly been somewhere out there - a wayfarer haunting the world all these years?