It didn’t take long before some of the mercenaries had dragged out Chanyeol, Seulgi, Baekhyun and Kyungsoo up to the forecastle of the ship, where Seoyeon and Seulgi were tied with a large shard of ice that captured their bodies up to the waist. Her limbs were starting to feel really numb when Hannes froze the rest of the group as well. With the tail of her eye, Seoyeon admired Kyungsoo, who—unlike Chanyeol and Baekhyun—made no sign of resistance against being captured. In fact, his gaze was empty and apathetic, as if the current situation wasn’t affecting him at all.

It was with a shiver travelling down her spine that she realised that the events that had taken place that evening in Ventias would have a much longer impact than she’d thought. 

Kyungsoo was finally, after all these years, grieving the loss of his parents. 

Seoyeon’s gaze travelled further, fastening curiously on Baekhyun who was releasing an indignant string of curses upon being placed in the middle of the row. His gaze was stricken with an unusual amount of venom as Hannes stopped right in front of him with a ferocious smile. 

”My, what a sight. You’re more worn out than I expected. But then again, everyone expected you and your wife to be dead, so this is a win for me, really,” Hannes leaned forward, inspecting the male. His gaze too—albeit hidden with amusement—held a hatred she had not seen him wear. 

”Take a step closer and I’ll kill you, joculto,” Baekhyun sneered, fighting against the ice caging his arms and legs. 

The chief flinched in surprise, and Seoyeon heard Seulgi yelp beside her. 

”What?” she asked. 

”The word joculto is a really, and I mean really nasty word for the jökul. It’s created and used by dunosans to express their hatred against them.” 

”Why, though? Are they against each other, or something?” 

Seulgi laughed. ”Oh, they’re against each other all right. Dunosans and the jökul have despised each other ever since the midi-secular war three-hundred years ago.” 

Seoyeon opened to ask further questions, but her attention was instead driven back to Baekhyun and Hannes before she could start. 

”You’re being a little mean now, don’t you think?” 

”What do you want from me?” Baekhyun replied, ignoring the male’s past statement. 

”Well, it’s quite simple actually,” Hannes began pacing around, but froze right in front of Chanyeol, as if something urgent had suddenly caught his attention. ”I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” he told him. ”My ice may not permanently hurt your limbs because I’m holding it back, but using a heat source as extreme as fire when your hands are damaged by the cold will completely paralyze them, I’m afraid. And just so you know, I can feel it when magic is tampering with my ice.” 

It was a clear statement, but Seoyeon knew the chief meant don’t dare try anything funny with his words. 

Chanyeol immediately stopped his attempt at melting the ice, and returned the male’s gaze with an infuriated glare. 

He had felt Chanyeol using his magic. 

Seoyeon hadn’t even noticed him doing it in the first place.

Hannes turned back to Baekhyun. ”I’m sure it is old news to you, but the Dunosan governor wants your head on a silver plate, after you defied his orders,” at the mention of the familiar story he had mentioned to them, the male tensed up considerably. ”He’s desperate to find you, and offers a very precious price for those who hand you over to him alive. Now, imagine the shame and degradation of his reputation if a jökul—an enemy, brings him another enemy. You dunosans love to gossip, don’t you?”

”So what, your plan is to bring me to Dunosa and hand me over so he’ll be forced to give you an even bigger supply of whatever he’s giving out, for what—to keep you quiet?” 

”Precisely,” Hannes' expression turned dark. ”That blonde djävul* managed to capture two of my spies and keep them hostage, so I only did what I needed to do to have my own share. I already knew you had escaped to the first world so it was only a matter of time before you showed up by the main portal in Ventias, since your Chaeyeon wasn’t with you.” 

So that was why the boat was waiting in on them that evening. The jökul had already been there for days waiting for Baekhyun to come back. 

Baekhyun turned pale. ”How do you know she wasn’t with me? How—How do you know her name?” 

Hannes' expression was rather bored as he flicked his fingers, uttering something in his language to the wind harnesser, who nodded and stalked off. 

A short moment of tense silence passed, before one of the doors that led to the forecastle slammed open and Sehun returned, though this time he was dragging someone behind him by the arm. 

Once they were starting to near and they all got a better look on who it was, it seemed to be a beautiful woman, whose shoulder-length hair cascaded gently by her shoulder as she struggled against the wind harnesser’s grip. Her clothes were very similar to the one Baekhyun was wearing, but the look on the male’s face was what made her realise that it was in fact his wife, Chaeyeon. 

Baekhyun started immediately struggling even more, his expression morphing from angry to downright terrified in less than a second. ”Chae—Chaeyeon! Let go of her! What did you do—I swear if you even touched her I’ll kill you—” 

”Calm down,” Hannes cut him off abruptly. ”I don’t find pleasure in hurting people I don’t necessarily have anything against, so there was no reason for me to excessively mistreat her. If you keep running your mouth though I’m afraid you’ll be the one ending up without a finger or two.” 

Chaeyeon said nothing as she was placed beside Baekhyun and tied with a shard of ice that sprung up from the wooden planks of the ship. The woman’s gaze was fastened on Baekhyun and vice versa, and Seoyeon soon looked away, feeling rather out of place and