Waterland, Open Sea, Sunken Castle, 9:05 am.

“Our contractor Ningning managed to find your girl,” Yixing says over the phone, rolling his eyes at Minseok’s attempt to get his attention. “They are on the right path, but I need them to move faster. If your lackey doesn’t get rid of their companion soon, this will be a tragedy.”

“We already discussed this. Wendy’s just a shapeshifter, there’s nothing she can do against Winter and Karina, even less if they are both in cahoots. And if you attack them, that would alert them. We need to have them located at all times.”

“I don’t need her to kill them, just to leave them behind.” He grabs his nose bridge, annoyed. “If The Queen of Winterland and The Crown Princesses of Dimland and Sproutland (both who were presumed dead) get inside my land together, that will be seen as a military incursion and there will be bloodshed. We are already full here, Jisoo is trying to fix the situation in Sproutland. We are on the verge of a Civil War in Waterland since Tiffany’s death, and we are also losing the battle at the frontier with Dimland. I risk Winter getting to him if I wait too long to attack, or not finding it if we attack too soon. My hands are tied.”

“Wendy will make sure they make it into your land. She will deliver, but catching them before Winter can flee with The Purple Warlock is your job. It’s your land after all, just have your contractor follow them everywhere. We don’t even know if this warlock really has all the knowledge in the universe or if he’s even alive. We are basing all our victory on an imaginary man no one has seen in thirty years. He has lived in your land all this time and you don’t even know who he is.”

“We are millions of people here, Jongin. You won’t expect us to know each one of them right?”

Yixing is far away from being calm. The turn of events is worse than what he could have expected. Minseok insists again, throwing bread crumbs at him.

“Finish the call.”

Yixing rolls his eyes, half listening to the other side of the line.

“You know what?” Yixing interrupts Jongin. “If my contractor has to double the effort because of your inept lackey, you can say goodbye to your secured future. I won’t waste resources because of you. Call me back when you have results or don’t call me at all.”

•••

Waking up is a lot harder when you know you’ve done something you can’t go back from. Minjeong doesn’t exactly regret it, but it feels like cruelty. And she doesn’t want to be cruel to Jimin, at least not too much. They are adults, after all. She didn’t force her. But, somehow, she feels like she did.

She pushes the guilt down, trying to disentangle herself from the black-haired girl. She’s , with an arm over Minjeong’s stomach. There’s nothing ual about it, but it’s still possessive and Minjeong feels sudden arousal because of it. Shaking her head, she slides away from Jimin, and the girl doesn’t even move.

is sore but on the bright side, she doesn’t have the flu, which is the last thing she needs today. They overstayed their welcome already, and they are so close and yet so far from crossing the border. She would never admit it out loud, but it makes her anxious. It’s like being touched again makes her feelings go out of their hide. Fortunately, she’s a master at keeping appearances. She just needs to come up with a plan, soon.

“Where are you going?” a sleepy Jimin murmurs against the pillow.

“We need to keep going. I’m going to wake up the others.”

She’s already dressed in her stinky clothes because they didn’t dry off well. Fortunately for her, her hoodie didn’t get wet at all.

That seems to wake up Jimin completely, supporting her weight on her elbows, and suppressing a yawn.

“Shouldn’t we talk…?”

“There’s nothing to talk about. This was a one-time thing. Pff. Forgotten already. See?” Winter says, mimicking an explosion with her hands. “Are we clear?”

She doesn’t know if it’s out of fear or relief, but Jimin nods, and that’s enough for her, pushing the door open. She doesn’t look back again.

•••

Joohyun wakes up to a surprise on her nightstand. She’s not sure if Jennie really thought about the placement, but it doesn’t seem like it. She’s thankful she’s sleeping with Seungwan (well, she’s sleeping on the bed and Seungwan on the floor after what happened, but still) and not Winter.

It’s a small black box with no labels. She opens it, revealing her favorite candy: a simple heart-shaped candy with chocolate on the inside covered with strawberry-flavored caramel. The gift is nice, but it’s rare. It can’t be just a gift. She puts the candy in the palm of her hand, and looks at the box again, revealing this time two words. Eat me, it says. It could be dangerous, she knows, but we all go some time, so she pushes the candy into .

It’s as delicious as she remembers, but she doesn’t feel any different than before. But maybe it’s not supposed to change her. It’s just a gift.

•••

The sun is at its highest point in the sky when they continue their path. The dirty, wintery clothes are starting to attract people’s eyes which is an inconvenience for Joohyun. She’s always loathed eye contact and the fact she was a princess was the perfect position to be for someone as anxious as her, but now without the protection of her title, it was just annoying.

Everything feels annoying suddenly, and she wonders if maybe she has been repressing her feelings in some way because it is like her emotions compartment just cracked open.

She wants to turn back time and go back to when Kyungsoo was alive and Minjeong was the person she loved most after him.

Jennie’s words made her think. She was still thinking about it, about how she couldn’t really trust anyone anymore.

She wipes the sweat off her face, cleaning her hand against the hot hoodie. She thinks she’s going to faint if she has to walk the desert wearing that.

“So,” Winter starts, looking at the map again. “There won’t be a next stop until we get to the border. We should be able to find the entry right about two kilometers past the desert.”

“I’m not sure if I’m the only one aware of this but how are we going to find this warlock? How will we know if we should look for him in the island zone or the submerged one?” Karina asks, stealing the marker from Winter to draw a question mark in the margin of the map.

“The sunken city is just for rich people. He’s probably on the highest part.”Joohyun speaks for the first time that day, and she seems different, her naivety replaced with irritation, or maybe it’s because she’s not keen on participating with clever remarks. That’s usually Winter’s job.

“Why? One would think a warlock that powerful should be rich.” Wendy says.

“There’s no way he’s kept hidden all this time if he’s rich. They don’t know how to keep secrets.”

“That still doesn’t solve our main issue. Who is he? Waterland is a big land. That’s like half of the Quadlan population.”

“Maybe we should ask around? Blend in with the population for a few days?” Wendy suggests.

“No, that would be too suspicious. There are indeed more than twenty million people just there, but they still have their districts. People just know each other in their circle.” Winter responds, her voice barely audible after she disappears around the corner. “You can’t trust people.”

“You can only trust your blood,” Joohyun murmurs, remembering her mother’s words.

Just around the corner, the landscape changes, and it’s suddenly a different town, or at least that’s what Joohyun thinks. She doesn’t remember that part of the town from when she was younger. There are no candy houses, just old, rusty houses made with clay and wood and concrete blocks. Bamboo acts as the support for the aluminum sheets used as the roof. She’s not that innocent. It looks a lot like Forvalley back in Sproutland.

Joohyun stops before hitting her head with a sign.

The Oasis. Population: one thousand.

Not far from there, The Oasis Market—the well-known black market—begins.

“I thought you said you had your land controlled,” Wendy says, passing her hand through her hair. “This doesn’t look controlled to me.”

“Believe me,” Winter adjusts her sunglasses. “Everything serves a purpose.”
 

“Which purpose?” Karina asks.

“My purpose. Everything I do has a reason. You don’t need to worry about it.” She says, shrugging. “What you need to worry about is right in front of you. We need to make it through the market without being identified and then we can eat something at Ivory Town before crossing the desert.”

“What are we waiting for? Let’s go.” Karina says, and the rest follow.

•••

The Oasis, Black Market. Outskirts of Cotton City. 11 am.

“Fangs! Buy your vampire fangs! Buy one of the last real tusks of the extinct elephant just for fifty flakes.”

“Do they know vampires didn’t exist, right?” Wendy whispers, marching behind Winter.

“They don’t know better. They believe everything that comes out of these scammers’ mouths.”

“That’s a sad way to live,” Wendy says.

“Ignorance can be a gift, sometimes,” Karina says. Then, she switches to whispering, talking to Winter instead. “We have something like this on Dimland, but far more dangerous I would say.”

“I can imagine,” she says in the same tone. “But I would never allow something that could be used against me. This is just the way I keep informed about the underworld's whereabouts. They have tried everything to kill me, it’s quite entertaining.”

They are close to the market now, which makes Winter stop walking.

“Okay, listen. You need to act like these rats. Your niceness and nervousness will only get us killed. Understood?”

Karina looks both sides before shrugging. “Don’t look at me, I move around these circles.”

“Same for me,” Wendy reminds her. “But with the difference that I don’t have to act. This is who I am.”

“Okay, you, stop with the whole Edward Cullen act.” She points at Wendy. “And you, do you think you can handle evil?” She asks Joohyun this time.

“So I just have to act like you?”

“Ha, ha, nice punch. That’s exactly what I need you to do. But less confident. Just blend in and don’t show your face.”

Joohyun murmurs something that Winter doesn’t hear. She follows her, with Karina and Wendy ahead of her and Winter leading the way. There are a lot of people there, most of them talking and eating, and others buying and selling merchandise.

She pushes people away, making an effort to not lose sight of the girls, but it’s hard, she’s never liked multitudes and has never been in one. Most of the time she observed them from afar when their parents held events to pacify the people. A man that doubles her height stands in front of her, blocking her view. She manages to go around him, but when she looks ahead she can’t see the girls anymore, not even their hair.

“Wendy?” She tries as normally as she can without attracting attention. “Guys?”

“Jimin?” She looks around frantically, looking for any sign of them.

She keeps walking, hoping that she will find them at the other end, but someone pushes her and she falls backward into a sitting position. Her hoodie comes off her head, revealing her face. She’s disoriented for a second too long because when she reaches to put the hoodie back, a voice calls her out.

“I know you,” he says. This time it’s a much more skinny, b