Forests. 

Something Nevenia was filled with. 

Large, spacious pine forests draped all over the continent, where snow would coat thickly every winter.

That’s where Seoyeon, Baekhyun, Seulgi, Chanyeol and Kyungsoo were currently standing, frowning at the sigh of what looked like an entrance to a cave. There was a path of dirt stemming from it, which she assumed had been used when the passage was still active. 

”This is it?” Seulgi asked. 

”I’m pretty sure...why do you all look so doubtful?” Kyungsoo complained. 

”Because we’ve been walking for the past two days and this looks like an ordinary entrance to a cave. Are you sure you remember correctly? I mean it was eleven years ago after all.” Baekhyun reasoned, shrugging with a slight wince. 

”I am sure.” Kyungsoo pressed. 

”How long will it take us to get to the other side?” Chanyeol asked. 

”When I passed there, I was both hurt and exhausted, so I stopped along the way multiple times. It took me four days, but I assume it is only around a day and a half of walking. Considering that we will stop for food and sleep, it should take us two days in total.” 

Seulgi shuddered. ”That’s a long time to be walking in pure darkness.”

”We’re just going to have to take it and power through, I guess.” Baekhyun sighed. ”Make way, your majesty.” 

Wordlessly, Kyungsoo started leading the way as they stepped inside  the dark cavern. Her first impression of it was quiet. Like it had been the night of the grand fall when she had woken up. 

Quiet. Just like death. 

This tunnel, like many gateways to the palace, was dead. Nobody passed by there anymore. 

And that death reflected itself perfectly onto the deafening silence, and darkness around them, and the smell of dry, untreated soil. 

That was until Chanyeol spun his hand around, forming a flame before him, a flame big enough to light up the nearest path before them. 

And that was the only source of light they were going to have available for the next two days. 

The passage was smaller than she remembered it, which was given because the last time she’d tried to step into it was eleven years ago. 

While it was cramped—three people in a row would fit, but not more—as they walked further into it, she noticed that the walls faded from the uneven stone of the cave, to smooth, bright limestone bricks, much like the ones one would find at the palace. It made walking a bit easier, and the surroundings lighter too. 

And the closer they got, the more Seoyeon’s mind would wander...there. And the more she’d think about exactly where she was heading and what she was going to have to face, the more she had the urge to repress it all. 

But then again, why? Seoyeon was well over the grand fall. She had long ago accepted the death of the king and the queen, and the disappearance of Chen. The palace was nothing but a ghost town filled with ruins. Chances were, she wouldn’t even recognise the pathways and halls, so who cared if she’d be to go back there? 

And yet, her inward chant did not help the anxiety creeping in her stomach as she proceeded along the gravel path. Neither did it subside when her thoughts landed on Kyungsoo, and the fact that he did not yet know about what really had happened that night. He was going to have to face the death of his parents once they arrived there, that was for sure. But something told Seoyeon that it was not possible until she told him the truth. 

The stream of her thoughts was cut off by Seulgi, who peered curiously from behind her. ”Something on your mind? You look very pensieve.” 

Her first reaction was to frown in confusion. Why was Seulgi talking to her in the first place? Why was the girl interested in what she did? 

But Seoyeon didn’t want to seem any more rude than she already was, so she stuck with shaking her head awkwardly. 

”It’s nothing.” 

Seulgi nodded at her reply, though mostly to herself. She then turned to her again, without any intention of giving up. ”So...are you ready to cross the border to the second world? It’s not directly an easy task.” 

Seoyeon stepped over a small rock, crushing it with her heel. ”What do you mean?”

”I think Baekhyun forgot to tell you and Kyungsoo this,” The girl started. ”But the portal to the second world isn’t just a door you walk into. It has its own measure of safety in order to keep anyone without powers outside of it.” 

”What is it, some kind of test?” 

”You could say that.” Seulgi mused, shrugging. ”In between the gateways between the two worlds, there is a dimension that every one of us crosses once we step into it for the first time. In this dimension, you get to face someone with powers. It’s a projection, so it’s not really real - in fact, none of it is actually happening in the real world. If you have powers, then you will easily beat the person and step into the second world. If you don’t, it will recognise you as an impostor and kill you.” 

Seoyeon nodded, silently thanking for the important piece of information. So, what, she was going to battle someone in order to get in? 

”Who is it that we face, exactly?” She couldn’t help but ask. 

”As I said, it’s a projection, so not a real person, think of it more like a spell. It usually takes the form of someone close to you, a relative, a lover, or maybe a dear friend. It’s a way to test your limits and powers in life threatening situations, and if they work even when you’re faced with someone familiar.” 

Seoyeon in a breath. Who would she encounter once she stepped in the portal? Would she see her deceased brother? The queen? Kyungsoo? 

No. 

She was sure Kyungsoo wasn’t part of her life in that way anymore.

”I saw my late mother, for example.” Seulgi said, and broke Seoyeon from her trance, who looked up at her with wide eyes.

The latter smiled. ”You thought I was going to see Chanyeol, didn’t you? I thought so too, but apparently a part of me has never forgotten the loss.” 

Strange enough, those words seemed to only amplify the fear within her. 

Apparently a part of me has never forgotten the loss. 

Was this the case for her too? 

No. No. 

It couldn’t be. 

It wasn’t. 

”I’m sorry.” Was all Seoyeon could come up with. 

Seulgi shrugged. ”It’s okay, don’t worry about it.” The girl then halted for a couple of seconds, seemingly hesitating before she spoke again, this time with more caution. ”I know you’re not one much for talking but…It’s nice to have another girl on the team for once. It was getting tiring with all those men, you know.” Seulgi ended her sentence with an embarrassed laugh. 

Seoyeon almost joined her delight, because if there was something she could agree on was that men were tiring, especially the ones she’d been forced to deal with for the past eleven years. But a tug in her stomach stopped her from doing so, the same tug of insecurity that had coursed through her when Baekhyun offered to help her back at Im Changkyun’s facility. And so Seoyeon refrained from laughing by simply nodding in agreement with an attempt of a smile that came off more as a grimace. 

The pair then fell in silence, walking quietly side by side. Whether it was an uncomfortable or tense one, she couldn’t really tell. Nonetheless, Seoyeon finally felt like she could finally let out a breath she didn’t know she had been holding. Talking with other people made her painfully self aware of the fact that her socialising skills were an absolute failure, and that she was much better off not speaking to anyone at all. 

She needed a break from human interaction. 

*********

It was fairly easy to lose the sense of time in the passage, given there was no way to tell the time of day or how many hours exactly had passed since daybreak when they’d entered the cave. Instead, the team opted for resting whenever the majority of the group felt exhausted. 

Food was distributed carefully and equally, and so was the water, which was an even more precious supply. 

It was now one of the occasions where everyone had decided to sit down and rest. 

Gathered around a hovering flame with the help of Chanyeol and Kyungsoo, the team was attempting their best at a wink of sleep.

It was not working out well. 

Chanyeol and Seulgi had started bickering over the food, Baekhyun had been yelling for them to stop because he wanted to sleep, but eventually ended up joining the red sibling’s discussion until it turned into a culinary argument between which food of the second world was better. While Baekhyun strongly stood by the opinion that Dunosan food—where he came from—filled with rice and dried fruits, was much better than the, quote on quote, rocks Igneans  consumed. 

”Rocks?! Do I look like I have teeth to eat rocks, Baekhyun? You’re the only one here who likes dates anyways.” Seulgi yelled. 

”Dates are amazing and can be used for many purposes!” Baekhyun argued.  ”You simply don’t have taste buds, red two! Ever tried doing rice with dates and charmara? Exactly, so don’t speak!”

The latter frowned in confusion. ”What is a charmara anyways?” 

”It’s a Dunosan spice made from herbs that can only be found there, and I assure you it’s a lot more tasteful than whatever you guys eat there.” 

”Have you not seen the giant palm forest on the Ignean peninsula?! There’s loads of fruits and animals to feed off