Much to Yaebin's curiosity and its dismay, Roa's previous words had not been an invitation to follow her. Upon reflection, she couldn't see why it could have been considering she nearly got evicted for trying to get in the first place. It seems for her wonder's sake, Yaebin will remain with Roa with increasing capitulation till she can satisfy it. 

The burning knowledge of Roa doing something she wasn't aware of right that very moment gnawed at not only her wonder, but her ego too.  Hovering around her pool of water again, she finds herself desperate to pass the time. Roa's nightly scavenging has grown longer since her request and Yaebin finds herself staring mindlessly in at the pool to pass time more nights than not.

Tossing her thoughts to the side, Yaebin kicks the rubble from her day's cleanse around, baselessly hoping it would disappear. She misses, and dust flies in the room, twirling about in its gust as Yaebin shuts her eyes closed. 

The number of days to have passed for this much dust to collect since Roa had been with the mage who she seemingly owes a great deal, Yaebin cannot fathom, but is thankful for whoever they were, as she had an inkling that if she were anything else at the time, Roa wouldn't have taken her in so kindly. An injured being of any magical background would have surely been a great find for the night, especially what Yaebin had to offer. 

She walked to the walls and touched the stone bricks whose edges protrude jarringly. They scraped against her hand, scratching off the surface layer of skin, tearing small incisions into her fingers. 

Her footsteps stop, and she may no longer need to have her previous question up in the air. 

She traces a dent in the wall, which reeks of a scent so faint Yaebin had not been able to pick up on until then. In front, her hand hovers just a few centimeters in between it and her neck. 

Ostendare

Yaebin wasn't sure what she was expecting but it wasn't a plain parchment to be pinned on the wall. The edges curved upwards, suggesting it had been once a scroll: a classic mage necessity. Were you a mage if you didn't have spell scrolls at all times? 

Still, it was peculiar to Yaebin. One doesn't simply write anything on a spell scroll, it was a rule embedded into their teachings from a young age. She bends down a bit lower, and squints at the messy contents scrawn, each breath she took shaking.

I hope the time where you see this writing never comes. 

I thank you for the times you have shown me, and for trusting me all those times. It seems like you were doing quite well by the time we finally parted. 

This is my last piece to you

If I'm lucky, maybe many centuries or millennia have passed since that time that you don't even remember me now that this appears in front of you. 

If fortune is on my side, perhaps this appears on your grave with you, but I also cannot stand the thought of you passing before me as it would only mean a terribly unfortunate incident had taken its course. 

Thank you for opening the world to me.

May we meet another time then, Minky. 

Kang Gyeongwon

As soon as her eyes had scanned the letters in succession to one another, cold shock ran through the vessels in her body. But unlike every previous instance, no she feels no power surge through her, only a sick wretchedness laying at her core. She steps back from the wall, unable to recall any word scrawn on the paper apart from 2 names anymore. Yaebin forces herself against her wall again, rereading every single line to remove the ingrained letters of something so personal that she had not intended to know.

The growing unease mixes with discomfort and she finds herself trembling. 

Kang Gyeongwon.

Not anyone Yaebin was familiar with, but with the startling flashes of images through someone else's lenses, she might as well have been. The Kang Clan was whom she was affiliated with, but knowing a stranger's entire name was a lot of power to have been bestowed upon without intending to. 

Her head pounds with unmeasurable pain, like she's been stricken through over and over again unrelentlessly. Pressing her hands against the wall to support herself, she fears her fingers might snap off at the pressure she's applying to them. 
 
Perhaps it was the mage's curse, but never had she read what must have been a parting note, or even had known such magic was possible, and this ignorance of its existence, of so much magic in her world, had both caused her to leave behind everything she knew, and her downfall that night not too long ago when the witch had found her.

In sheer desperation, she forces her eyes open between her muffled groans of pain and tears them to stare at the other name on the scroll. 

Minky 
Minky 
Minky Minky Minky 

Before the suffocation could fully subside, Yaebin has already passed out. 

_______________________
The image her vision provided to her flickered. Minkyeung's body floods with rancorous frisson. The hues of warmth and tinges of familiarity she had come to regard with such sensation lurked only in the depths of her memory as this flame burned and stung, an invasive unwelcome separation of her from her own body. 

Pushing the cauldron to the side, Minkyeung left the door open, curtains flying behind her before they covered the entrance to the forbidden room. She stopped in front of her shelf and without blinking, she grabbed select flasks and tucked them under her arm. 

Minkeyung breaks into the room to find Rena sprawled on the floor, still breathing but face paler than what she had come to recognise as the usual. She closes her eyes, opening and closing them again and again. Was it enough? How far could she go without boring holes through her flesh? For a second, fear and doubt flashes through her mind, but she pushes them down and crouches down beside Rena. 

Beginning her inspection, Minkyeung finds nothing out of the ordinary in her quick scan for anything serious she might have missed. 

She pops the corks of a dark mixture, swirling it round and round until the sediments have found themselves thoroughly merged with the solvent. She stares off at the spot right past Rena's body, struggling to find the usual silhouette to fixate on in the dimly lit room. Biting her lip, she holds the flask in one hand and slides Rena's chin into the other hand with her thumb and forefinger at the sides of her cheeks. She grips them tighter, the image of Rena's lips parting in her peripherals to guide her. 

Minkyeung hovers the flask over her lips, and a drop falls onto Rena's robes. Mind and knowledge found lost in a paroxystic forest, she flings the flask to the other side of the room, smashing against the walls, glass shards flying across the room, scattered all over the floor. The contents splattered against both their bodies, the remaining solution seeping on the ground into the glistening pool of cleansing water. 

The shift in the night's offerings has left Minkyeung alone, reliving the looming tresses of unwanted sentiment. She drops Rena's body on the floor, her neck bending in a stiff unusual manner but Mnkyeun