Kris bent over the twentieth book in the pile he’d collected and pulled his lantern closer, forcing his sore and tired eyes to focus.

“Last one,” he promised himself. “Last one, and then I’ll go to bed.”

He’d been promising that for the last four hours.

It had been six months since the incident in the forest. Kris and Suho had spent hours searching for information on the thing that they’d seen, and so far they’d found nothing. Suho gave up after four months and told Kris to do the same. Kris had refused.

“It’s got to be here,” Kris muttered desperately. “There must be something!”

“You’ve been saying that for weeks.”

Kris didn’t have the energy to be surprised. “If you aren’t here to help me,” he growled, “Then go away.”

Suho sighed. “You can finish tomorrow,” he said firmly. “You need to go to sleep. This isn’t healthy, Kris.”

Kris slammed his fist down on the table. The sound echoed around the library.

“Yeah, well neither is falling into a pit after being hypnotized by an evil black mist.”

Suho put his hand on Kris’ shoulder. “You’re scaring them,” he told Kris. “Chanyeol, Sehun, Lu Han, Kai…Tao’s been beside himself—”

Kris knocked Suho’s hand away and stood up so fast his chair tipped over. “Don’t you dare talk to me about Tao,” he snarled.

Suho finally lost his cool. “Well somebody has to!” He yelled, “Since you’re too busy playing detective to even look at him!”

Kris slapped Suho across the face as hard as he could. Suho barely reacted before he shoved Kris into a bookshelf. Kris grabbed Suho’s upper arms and flipped them around.

“Why do you think I’m doing this?” He demanded. “Because I ing feel like it? It’s because every time I look at Tao all I see is fear. He’s absolutely terrified and it’s all because of that thing!”

Suho kicked Kris in the stomach. Kris let go of him and doubled over. Suho knocked him to the floor and sat on his chest. “And working yourself to exhaustion is how you fix that?!”

Kris kicked his legs but Suho remained unmoved. He stopped struggling and looked Suho right in the eye.

“No,” he said, his voice low and even. “I fix it by learning what it was that did that to him and I destroy it.”

Suho laughed in his face and Kris felt his anger intensify. “You think that’s funny?”

“I think it’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard! What are you going to do, huh? Drop your feathers into it? Get Chanyeol to shoot a fireball at it? Do you think that it will work?!”

Kris finally pushed Suho away and shoved him to the ground. “I’ll do whatever it takes to make it pay for nearly killing my little brother!”

There it was, the words that they’d all refused to say.

Kill. Die. Death.

Could have. Nearly did. Almost.

Kris sat back and let Suho get away from him. They both sat on the library floor and let those words sink in.

“He could have died,” Kris choked, tears burning in his eyes. “He could have died, Suho. My brother. I don’t…I don’t know what I would have done if…”

Suho crawled over and put his arms around Kris’ shoulders. “But he didn’t. Tao and Kai are alive.”

“But they were so close,” Kris sobbed. “We were so close to losing them forever and we’d have nobody to blame but ourselves. Do you know how many times I go back and wonder what would have happened if that root hadn’t been sticking out of the ground? If Sehun hadn’t been able to help me fly them out?”

Kris felt Suho’s own tears drip onto his shoulder. “This isn’t the answer.”

“Maybe not for you,” Kris said. “But I’m out for blood.”

Suho backed away and shook his head. “No, Kris, none of this is right. The constant research, the wondering, the damn obsessive nature you’ve adopted. I want to kill this thing too, but not like this. Not at the expense of your health and not at the expense of our friendship.”

Kris forced himself to take a deep breath and stop crying. “You’re right,” he admitted. He looked at the mark on Suho’s cheek where he’d hit him. “I’m sorry. That was uncalled for. All of it. I’m sorry I hit you, and I’m sorry I yelled.”

Suho smiled sheepishly. “I’m sorry too. I shouldn’t have pushed you. Or said…most of that stuff.” He stood up and held out his hand. “Are we good now?”

Kris grabbed his hand and let Suho pull him to his feet. “Yeah,” he said. “We’re good.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kris didn’t remember his bed being so uncomfortable and cold. He shifted around, trying to find a comfortable spot…where was his quilt anyway?

“Tao,” he mumbled, reaching his arm out to search for the culprit. “Give back the blanket.”

His fingers found rough stone. Had he fallen out of his bed?

Kris opened his eyes and sat bolt upright when he realized he had no idea where he was.

“What the heck?” He muttered. His neck was sore and he was freezing, and he had a sneaking suspicion he shouldn’t be here. Where ever here was. He’d never sleepwalked before, but then again last night hadn’t been an ordinary night, and he was pretty stressed.

He looked on the floor and saw an open book, which he must have been lying on. That would explain his sore neck. He moved to close it and stopped dead when the word “Mama” jumped out at him from the pages.

An ice cold chill worked down his spine and spread through his body, numbing him to the tips of his fingers. The book looked like a dictionary, and a very old one at that. The ink was faded, but he could still read the definition next to the word.

Long ago, Mama was a title that referred to the rulers of this world. It literally means ‘Your Highness,’ and can be applied to both men and women.

Kris slammed the book shut, tucked it under his arm and ran out of that room like it was on fire. He ran for about five minutes before he finally forced himself to stop. He leaned against a wall to catch his breath. He held the book in his hands and mulled his newfound knowledge over. Well, he knew what the word meant now, but it didn’t give him what he needed. A ruler? A King or Queen? There were no such things on this world.

He heard a clatter in the hall behind him and jumped so hard that he dropped the book. Over the resonating thud he heard a curse in a voice he recognized.

“Suho?”

“Kris!”

Suho rounded the corner and practically ran into Kris.

“I’m so glad I found you, I’ve been wandering around for forever, I got so lost…I was sleepwalking or something, this place is huge and…what are you doing here anyway?”

Kris shrugged and picked up the book. “I guess I was sleepwalking too…I woke up in this room and I had this book…take a look at what it was open to!”

Suho scanned the page and his jaw dropped. “You sleepwalked your way to what you were looking for?!”

Kris shook his head. “This isn’t what I wanted though…it’s almost useless. We don’t have Kings and Queens here.”

Suho looked at him seriously. “But why would they have a word for something that we’ve never  had?”

Kris thought about that for a few seconds but brushed it off. “It was a swirling cloud of darkness. It’s completely unrelated. Now, can we talk about you? Where have you been?”

Suho looked like he was thinking hard about something. “I woke up in a hidden hallway. It was behind a tapestry…there was a stained glass window with a tree on it…no, the Tree.”

Suho was clearly getting an idea, but Kris wasn’t following. “What are you thinking about?”

Suho started pacing. “Don’t you think it’s odd? We both sleepwalked on the exact same night, even though we’ve never done it before, and we woke up someplace we’ve never been. You found the definition of the word, I found a picture of the Tree…” He stopped and turned to face Kris. “I think we’re getting a message.”

Kris put the pieces together and gasped. “The Tree!”

Suho grinned. “The Tree.”

~~~~

They banged on all the doors of their fellow Guardians-in-Training and summoned them to Suho and Kyungsoo’s room for an emergency meeting, where they filled them all in on what had happened that morning.

“We’ve decided that we need to go see the Tree,” Kris concluded.

Everyone exchanged shocked looks. “But we aren’t ready yet,” Sehun whispered faintly.

“Yeah…don’t we have to reach Maturity first?” Xiu Min added.

It was true, they had been told they needed to reach Maturity—the time when they stopped aging—before they could go see the Tree.

“There are ways around that, though,” Suho told them. “We’re allowed to see the Tree before that. We can’t stay for very long, but we can go. It’s in The Book of Cannons,” Suho said, narrowing his eyes at the lot of them. “We were all supposed to read it. I thought you read it! You all promised me-”

“Let’s not get into that right now,” Kris interrupted, knowing Suho could go on for hours about this. Suho frowned but backed off and let Kris continue.

“Look, Maturity can take ages, and we won’t all reach it at the same time. We don’t even really know how it’s supposed to work. We could have to wait ten more years before then, and by that time…”

Well, he wasn’t too sure what  the consequences would be. But he was sure—they were all sure—that time was of the essence, and they were running out of it.

“Kris and I are going to see the Masters tonight,” Suho told them. “The worst thing they can do is say no. We just…have to pray that they say yes.”

 

The masters did say yes. They were obviously surprised at the request, but they knew the laws as well as Suho did, and knew that the Guardians in Training had every right to go see the thing they were supposed to guard. But they made on stipulation.

“You have to wait three years.”

Kris and Suho couldn’t keep the shock from their faces. “Why?”

The Head of the Sanctuary looked them over. “Well, to be honest, you’re nowhere close to halfway presentable. You barely know how to control your powers and yourselves. If you want this honor, you’ll need to work for it.”

There was nothing they could do but bow their heads and promise to do so, and inwardly hope that they had three years to wait.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was hard to wait that long. It was so, so hard. There was a constant undercurrent of stress and anxiety in everything that they did. Later Kris would wonder if it motivated them to work even more, because Heaven knew they worked their asses off to be good enough for the previous Guardians and for the Tree itself.

In the end, it all worked out. Three years to the day that Suho and Kris had gone to the Masters to ask to see the Tree, they were on a train to go see the Tree.

They brought nothing with them—no clothes, no books, not even a deck of playing cards. Everything would be provided for them, or so they were told. What they were not told was how long their journey would take. A stern looking woman who introduced herself as ‘Mistress’ greeted them on the train. She lined them up, told them they were expected to behave on the train, and that their journey would take approximately eight days.

“Excuse me?!” Kris gasped as Suho cried “Where exactly are we going?”

Mistress frowned at them and rolled her eyes. “Well we’re taking a very roundabout way, you know. We have to make sure we aren’t being followed. Good Heavens, they told me you were an educated bunch.”

She gave them all scathing looks, her eyes lingering on Chanyeol. After a long silence she snapped at him.

“Stop biting your lips, you fool; Learn to act your age. All of you urchins had better smarten up if you expect anyone to take you seriously.”

Kris barely heard the second part of her sentence. He was looking at the tears in Chanyeol’s eyes and inwardly seething.

Kris stepped out of line and looked her right in the eye. He was seventeen and nearly six feet tall, this woman would not be allowed to pick on his kids on his watch.

“You are speaking to the future Guardians of the Tree of Life,” he informed her. “You should learn to act accordingly.” Then he grabbed Chanyeol’s wrist and motioned for everyone to follow him into the next car over.

“You shouldn’t have done that,” Chanyeol stammered as soon as they were out of earshot. “You’ll get into so much trouble for that!” Behind him the others wore expressions of shock.

Kris shrugged. “Not unless she wants me to report her for disrespect. I don’t care who she is, she can’t talk to you like that.”

Chanyeol looked down and tried to hide his tears. “Do I really act like a child?”

Baekhyun stepped up and stood on his toes to give Chanyeol a hug. “You act like yourself,” he said gently, “Which is all you should ever need to be.” Chanyeol smiled a bit and rubbed at his eyes.

“Kris is right though,” Suho put in. “She can’t get away with that. Maybe we should report her.”

Kris shook his head. “No, because then she’ll have it out for us for the rest of the trip. We need a more subtle way to get her back.”

He glanced at Kai, who had a mischievous little smirk on his face. “I think I can take care of that.”

The rest of their days on the train were devoted to finding spiders and other insects that lurked in the cars under chairs and rugs, and helping them find their way into Mistress’ sleeping car.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The trip ended at the base of a small mountain, the top of which was obscured by a huge wall. It was a very intimidating site, and the twelve of them hesitated to get off the train.

“Maybe we weren’t ready,” Sehun said quietly. Kris squared his shoulders.

“We need answers,” he said firmly. “Even if we aren’t ready, this is something we need to do. This is our job, this is what we were meant to do—protect the Tree and protect our world.”

It wasn’t the best pep-talk he’d ever given, but it got everyone moving.

In front of the wall, about halfway up the mountain, was a huge castle. It had to be 20 times bigger than the Northern Sanctuary, but then Kris figured it needed to be, since generations of Guardians lived there. They were lead up the mountain and escorted into the castle by masked attendants. They were caught off guard when a young woman met them at the front door. She looked very young, maybe even younger than Kris. She had curly brown hair and a wide, warm smile.

“Welcome, fellow Guardians,” she greeted with a slight bow. They quickly returned the bow, a little deeper since she was their senior.

“It is an honor to meet you,” Suho and Kris said together.

The woman laughed. “Oh, aren’t you all sweet,” she cooed. “And so well behaved! So different from my generation…” She paused with the smile still on her face, her eyes roaming over them.

“Anyway,” she continued after a moment, “My name is Kai, and I’ll be responsible for you while you’re here.”

From the back of the group Kai gasped. “Really?! That’s my name too!”

Kai-the older Kai-grinned and clapped her hands. “Oh, you must be a Teleporter then!”

Their Kai nodded. “How did you know?”

Older Kai laughed. “Oh, all of us have the same name. One of the first Guardians was a Teleporter as well, and he was very renowned for his talents. You’ll be the eighth Teleporter to live here…so don’t be surprised if everyone calls you Eight, like they call me Seven.”

Kai seemed alarmed by this statement but he quickly hid it. Older Kai led them through the castle to their rooms. They met only the masked attendants along the way.

“Where are the other Guardians?” Baekhyun asked.

Kai waved her hand. “Oh, here and there. We rarely ever see each other, they all have their own things to do.”

Kris and Suho exchanged looks of shock. They had always heard the Guardian were very close to each other.

“If it’s not too much trouble,” Kris said tentatively, “We’d like to see the Tree as soon as possible.”

Older Kai paused and nodded slowly. “Yes, of course. Well, I see no reason why you shouldn’t be allowed to go today. After all, you’ll be leaving again the day after tomorrow.”

They all gasped and Older Kai looked at them in surprise. “You didn’t expect to stay for very long, did you?”

“Well…a little longer…” Suho said uncertainly.

She gave them sympathetic looks. “I understand that you are eager for the honor of being Guardians, but the truth is that we’re just not equipped to care for children.”

Well, that certainly stung. Not to mention the fact that Sehun was the youngest and he was thirteen—hardly a child anymore. But they couldn’t very well talk back to their senior Guardian, so they all kept their mouths shut. After a brief stop in their rooms to freshen up, they regrouped in the hallway and Older Kai offered to show them to the Tree.

They were lead to the back of the castle, and from there taken behind a false wall and down a flight of stairs. About half way down, Older Kai opened another false wall, which led to a straight hallway lined with torches. She took a few steps into the hallway and stopped dead, whirling around to face all of them.

“One of the first Guardians is coming,” she mouthed. Immediately they all got down on the floor and bowed as low as they could—this sign of respect was reserved for first Generation guardians only.

They heard the Guardian walk past, though he said nothing to them. Kris couldn’t help but to peek up at the man, and he instantly wished he hadn’t. Kris had only seen a dead person once in his life, but the image had stuck with him, and this man literally looked like a walking dead person. He appeared to have had stopped aging in his twenties, and he had clearly once been very attractive. Now his skin was waxen and almost grey from lack of sun, his eyes were lifeless and everything about him suggested that he was unhealthy. Kris made a note to ask Suho to find a way to kill him if he ever got to be like that.

Once the man had passed Older Kai stood up, brushed off her robes and directed their attention back to the hallway. “It’s not that far now,” she said, mistaking their anxious looks for concern about the trip, when the reality was that Kris wasn’t the only one who’d peeked at the Guardian and not the only one who had been spooked.

The hallway ended in another flight of stairs, except this time they went up. Older Kai took them to a wooden door decorated with swirling steel designs.

“The Tree is through this door. I’ll stay here and wait for you to come back.”

“You aren’t coming with us?” Xiu Min asked anxiously. Kai shook her head.

“This is the part you do on your own.” She grinned at them. “Don’t worry, you’ll be fine.”

Kris gulped and looked around. Clearly nobody else was going to take the first step, so he went forward and opened the door.

Briefly, Kris wondered if Older Kai had made a mistake. There was no Tree on the other side of the door, instead there was a huge flower garden. He stepped through the door way and looked around for the Tree. The others filtered in behind him, each one torn between amazement and confusion. Once they were all in the garden, the door swung shut behind them.

“Well, now what?” Kai asked.

Suho shrugged. “I guess we follow the path?”

And indeed, there was a path. Kris almost hadn’t noticed it, he’d been so busy looking up for the Tree. They proceeded cautiously, taking care not to step on any of the flowers or smaller shrubs.

“This place is beautiful,” Chanyeol said softly as a butterfly fluttered between them. It really was a pretty place, there were exotic flowers and plants, small trees whose brightly colored fruit gave the air a sweet smell. It would have been a nice place to explore if they had time.

The path turned and suddenly became flanked by small trees, the branches of which reached across the path to form a kind of natural tunnel. Now Kris could hear his heart pounding in his ears and he swallowed nervously.

“We’re getting close,” he said, even though he was sure the others felt it too. In fact the closer they got, the louder he could hear his heart pounding. It was almost too loud—almost as if it wasn’t his heart…

Then they rounded the bend and they all gasped. There was no question that the Tree before them was the Tree of Life. It was smaller than Kris had expected—it must have been about fifteen feet tall—but it had a wide trunk and broad branches that seemed to reach back to the beginning of the tree-tunnel. It was simultaneously gnarled and smooth, old and new. The longer Kris stood there the more he felt his fear change to awe, until he felt like he might actually cry. This was a magical moment—they were standing in the presence of the thing that had created them, that had given them their gifts. It was a moment none of them would ever forget.

Eventually though they snapped out of their daze and remembered they had a job to do.

“Now what?” Kai asked again.

Kris bit his lip and tried to remember what he’d read, but he really couldn’t think of what to do to talk to the Tree.

“Don’t we meditate?” Suho asked.

Kris looked over at him in surprise. “Really? That’s it?”

Suho shrugged. “Pretty sure.”

Well they didn’t have any other ideas, so Kris suggested they all get in a circle around the Tree and give it a shot. They sat evenly spaced, not touching each other and not touching the Tree. Kris shut his eyes and tried to clear his mind. He slipped easily into his Meditation mode, but he didn’t feel any connection to the Tree. It was then he realized that even though his heart rate had calmed down, he could still hear the rumble of a heartbeat. Kris focused in on it and tried to tell where it was coming from when the strangest thing happened. He felt like he was being yanked forward, but at the same time he could feel his body on the ground so he knew he hadn’t actually moved. Then it was like his vision was flooded with light, but his eyes were closed so he couldn’t actually be seeing anything. It was confusing and frightening and yet he knew he had nothing to fear. After a moment the brightness faded to a soft, pinkish light. it was like it had been painted on the inside of his eyelids, or poured into his brain. It was consuming, but comforting at the same time.

‘Well, hello young one.’

The voice seemed to come from somewhere in front of him. Kris had no idea how it worked but he somehow felt himself being pulled towards it, even though he could still feel his body sitting on the grass around the Tree.

“Hello?” He called, and he could hear his voice and almost feel his mouth move, but at the same time he knew he hadn’t spoken in reality.

“This is weird,” he said, backing away. He felt something reach out to him almost desperately.

‘No, wait, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. Forgive me, I’m out of practice.’

“Who are you?” Kris asked as he continued to shy away.

‘I’m the Tree.’

Kris froze and felt the thing, or the Tree, begin to creep toward him again.

‘It’s been so long since anyone came here…I’m afraid I’ve quite forgotten how fragile my humans can be. And you’re so young! But you’ve grown up so nicely…’

“You’re…the Tree of Life?” Kris asked.

‘The one and only.’

Well, okay then. “How are you talking to me right now?”

The Tree hesitated. ‘Well…I suppose you could call it an out of body experience?’

“But I can still feel my body,” Kris pointed out.

‘Yes, that is true…well I suppose it’s like…your conscious has exited your mind and united with mine.’

If Kris’ jaw could drop it would have. “But…but…how?”

He could almost feel the Tree smirk. ‘I created this world, I can do anything I want.’

This was beyond weird. The Tree could talk to him—inside his own head!—and it was clingy and cracked jokes.

“This wasn’t what I had expected,” Kris said.

The Tree seemed sad. ‘Nobody expects it. for some reason they are all afraid of me. The baby was petrified, poor thing.’

“Baby?” Kris echoed. “You mean Sehun? You’re talking to him too?!”

‘I’m speaking with all of you right now. Just as you can focus on more than one thing at a time, so can I.’

Kris felt more confused than ever. “This is so bizarre.”

The Tree reached out further—it was almost Kris could feel little physical tendrils of it consciousness, like vines extending towards him.

‘It’s been Generations since I’ve met a Guardian who has not reached maturity. Would you mind terribly if I could See your mind?’

Kris resisted the urge to scuttle away. “Excuse me?”

‘I won’t hurt you, I promise. It’s hard to explain, but it’s like…I want to see things from your perspective.’

Kris hesitated for a second. “Um…okay, but…don’t get too personal.”

‘I’ll try not to,’ the Tree said, and then the tendrils seemed to wrap around him and he started seeing little flashes of his life—learning he was a guardian, the day he left his village, meeting Tao and Lu Han and Lay, the day he got his wings.

‘Oh,’ the Tree said, lingering on that memory. It traced his thoughts to that awful night in the Healer’s rooms when his bones were hollowing. ‘Flight and Fire are easily among the most painful Gifts to receive, but they are also the most powerful. You are well deserving of this Gift, as you are of your leadership position.’

Kris felt so happy and proud at the compliment that he almost missed what the Tree said next.

‘I suppose that it’s time to unite everyone now.’

“What?” He asked, still on his happy cloud. That changed when his conscious was suddenly flooded with words and thoughts.

“What is going on?”

“Whoa! Where’d the Tree go?”

“Who said that?”

‘Calm down.’

Ah, there was the Tree.

‘I have united your consciousness’ together so that we may speak as a group.’

“How can this be happening?”

“This is impossible!”

“And a talking Tree is any more likely?”

“I can’t even-”

Kris stumbled through his confusion. Over all the noise, he heard someone crying.

“Everyone SHUT UP!” He yelled. Instantly there was silence but for the crying. In the silence Kris managed to isolate the source as Sehun.

“Baby what’s wrong?!” Kris called, trying to feel his way over. It was the oddest sensation, but he never seemed to get closer.

“I’m-I’m okay,” Sehun gasped. “It’s just…”

‘Sehun and Lu Han have both just had a very emotional experience with me,’ The Tree said gently.

“What happened?” Kris recognized that voice as Suho’s.

It was Lu Han who answered. “We told the Tree that we’re in love, and it accepted us.”

Kris’ brain stuttered to a halt. “What? You and Sehun?”

He heard Kai scream in happiness. “I knew it! I totally knew it! This is wonderful this is incredible this is-”

“I did not see that coming,” Kyungsoo admitted.

Baekhyun scoffed. “You wouldn’t have gotten it even if they’d started making out in front of you.”

“Oh god can we not talk about making out I mean Sehun is thirteen for heaven’s sake-” Suho sighed.

“We’re not!” Sehun and Lu Han yelled at the same time. “Not, I mean, I have boundaries,” Lu Han stuttered. “Yeah, me too,” Sehun put in.

“Okay,” Kris interrupted. “But why were you crying?”

Sehun seemed to hesitate and the Tree spoke up again. ‘Speak, child. They will not judge.’

Kris felt everyone go still in anticipation. Finally Sehun spoke.

“We thought that it would be dangerous for us to see each other. Or, I did. I was afraid that we would split up after some time—forever is a long time, you know? And I thought that it would tear us apart. And so I was afraid that the Tree would say we couldn’t fall in love.”

“And we were afraid that you would all agree,” Lu Han put in sheepishly.

“No!” Chanyeol said immediately. “We would never go against you like that. If you love each other then you love each other, and we still love you too!”

‘That is what I said,’ The Tree told them. ‘Love knows no bounds, that goes for Guardians too. Sehun and Lu Han are perfectly matched, their love will last forever.’

It was a beautiful speech, and everyone agreed that the Tree was right.

‘Now,’ the Tree went on, ‘Perhaps you can tell me why you came to see me? I can think of no reason that you’d be here before your Maturity other than that something is wrong.’

The happy mood vanished.

“Well,” Suho began. “We saw something in the woods.”

“It tried to kill me and Kai,” Tao said. Kris felt the Tree focus its full attention on the pair of them.

‘What was it? Can you show me?’

They both muttered affirmatively. Kris didn’t see what the two of them showed the Tree, but after a few seconds he felt the Tree’s horror and…was that resignation?

‘I had hoped this would never happen…but I knew the day would come.’

“You know what it is then?” Kris asked.

‘Yes,’ the Tree said heavily. ‘And your visions of revenge will do you no good. That thing has no ability to feel anything.’

“But what is it?” Suho asked.

The Tree sighed. ‘It is an ancient force of darkness, created along with this world. You must understand,’ the Tree said, it’s tone taking on the authority of a teacher,‘There can be no pure good or pure evil, because then there would be no balance. When I created this world, I needed to create good and bad, and hope that I could teach my children the difference and to be as good as possible. Unfortunately, that was not always the case. When the human race was still in its infancy, some people thought that the Guardians were not enough to control the population. This group wanted what they called ‘real leaders,’ and so they elected a man and a woman to govern them. These people took on the title “Mama”.’

There was a collective shudder as everyone recalled what the black mist had whispered.

‘For a while, I insisted the Guardians do nothing about these people, for it was only a small group that really listened to them. I thought they would die out, but the Rulers wanted power and control, and they were willing to do anything to get it. Did you all know,’ the Tree asked suddenly,‘That the same power which gives all of you your gifts was once a physical consciousness itself? It was like an extension of myself, and I let it roam free to choose for itself who would receive these gifts. That was a mistake on my part. The Rulers used sacrifice and dark magic to harness this power and keep it to themselves, and it became corrupted by the darkness inside them. Eventually, the power consumed them—literally.’

Kris felt everything in him go numb. “You mean…that thing was a person? Or- was two people? It was a real, living human being?”

‘Indeed. The first Generation of Guardians managed to seal the thing underground, but I knew it had not been destroyed, for part of it broke off and sealed itself away inside the Guardians.’

Chanyeol and Lay swore, Tao and Sehun seemed close fainting and everyone else was in such a state of shock they couldn’t speak. Or, almost everyone.

“How can you tell?” Kai demanded. “If you know, why can’t you get rid of it?”

‘I would have tried if I could,’ The Tree insisted. ‘But very soon after that, my Guardians stopped coming to me. They had found out about the second Generation of Guardians by that point, and they thought I was betraying them.’

“What? Why?” Chen asked.

‘They thought I was throwing them aside. But I knew this was not a job they could have for eternity, I never wanted to replace them.’ Now the Tree seemed to be pleading. ‘I wish I had explained it to them properly. I took so many things for granted, made so many mistakes. Now the only times I see the first Generation is in the thoughts of the other Guardians. You saw one today, did you not? Didn’t you notice how decrepit he is? That’s what this darkness has done to him. To all of them. And I fear it has infected most of the others as well, for they too have stopped coming to see me.’

There was a moment of silence in which everyone’s fear was the only thing that Kris could feel.

“Does that mean that there is no one we can trust?” Kris asked.

‘Yes,’ the Tree said resolutely. ‘Or next to no one. Seven—Kai—she is the only one. She was only fifteen when she reached Maturity, and she has a purer heart than those around her. She still comes, but I fear even she cannot be trusted for much longer. I am afraid we’re running out of time.’

“What do we do?” Suho asked, on the verge of panic.

‘You will do nothing yet,’ The Tree told them. ‘You are too young and your powers are not developed. You will go back to your Sanctuary and finish your training. You will tell no one there of this conversation. The only one you will speak to is Seven. Now, listen carefully. One of the fifth Generation of Guardians was gifted with technology. He built a ship that will be able to leave this planet and travel through space. It is old but it still works. I will instruct Kai that when you come back after reaching Maturity, you will cut the wood of this Tree open and take out my heart. You will split in half—once my heart is exposed it will be vulnerable to the darkness. Splitting it will make it harder for me to be attacked and consumed by the power as well. After that, you will get on board that ship and leave this planet.’

There was another moment of silence before Xiu Min timidly asked, “We’re abandoning the people of this world to that thing?”

The Tree sighed again. ‘I know it sounds awful, but you must understand, that thing has no desire to physically harm this world—it just wants power. It is wicked and dark, but it will not kill unless it feels threatened. We are not running. I will never abandon my people. We are retreating, we will find a safe haven and I will build you an army that will be able to destroy that thing once and for all. I cannot do it here, but it can be done.’

“Do you promise?” Kai asked.

‘I swear on my very existence,’ the Tree vowed.

Kris felt around the circle of consciousness, searching for dissident or reluctance. He found only grim determination.

He spoke for all of them when he said with steely confidence, “We trust you, and we’ll do exactly what you have said.”

 

 

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Chapter 7 will be out either Wednesday or Thursday night....and then that's it! This is the second to last chapter :)