Yong Junhyung crouched in the back of the car and attempted, not entirely successfully, to control his temper.

The air was heavy with the odor of sulfur, and thin tendrils of yellow-white fire crackled around his fingertips and puddled on the floor.

He had failed, and while his masters were particularly patient - they often instigated plans that took centuries to mature- their patience was now beginning to run out.

And they were definitely not known for their compassion.

Unmoving, held by the warding spell, Lee Hyori watched him, eyes blazing with a combination of loathing and what might even have been fear.

"This is becoming complicated," Junhyung muttered, "and I hate complications."

Junhyung was holding a flat silver dish in his lap, into which he had poured a can of coke - the only liquid he had available. (A/N: hehehe. Junhyung. coke. HEHEHEHE. LOL.)

He always preferred to work with pure water, but techinically any fluid would do,

Crouched over the dish, he stared into the liquid and allowed a little of his own auric energy to trickle across the surface as he muttered the first words of the spell of scrying.

For a single moment there was just his own reflection in the dark liquid, then it shuddered and the soda began to bubble and boil furiously. When the liquid settled, the image no longer reflected Junhyung's face, but showed a curiously flat image, rendered in shades of purple-gray and greenish black. The viewpoint was close to the ground, shifting and moving with sickening rapidity.

"Rats," Junhyung murmured, thin lips curling with distaste.

He hated using rats as Eyes.

"I cannot believe you led them here, " Fei said, shoving handfuls of clothes into a backpack.

Jung Jihoon stood in the doorway of Fei's tiny bedroom, arms folded across his chest. "Everything happened so fast. It was bad enough when Junhyung got the Codex, but when i realized there were pages missing, I knew the twins would be in trouble. "

At the mention of the word twins, Fei looked up from her packing.

"They're the real reason you're here, aren't they ?"

Jihoon suddenly found something very interesting to stare at on the wall.

Fei strode across the small room, glanced out into the hall, to make sure Soyeon & Seungho were still in the kitchen, and then pulled Jihoon into the room and pushed the door closed.

"You're up to something, aren't you ?" she demanded.

"This is about more than just the loss of the Codex. You could have taken Junhyung and his minions on your own. "

"Don't be so sure. It's been a long time since i fought, Fei. "Jihoon said gently. "The only alchemy i do now is to brew a little of the philosoper's stone potion to keep Hyori and myself young. Occasionally, i'll make a little gold or the odd jewel when we need some money. "

Fei coughed a short humorless laugh, and spun back to her packing.

She had changed into a pair of black combat pants, steel-toed Magnum boots and a black T-shirt, over which she wore a black vest covered in pockets and zippers. She pushed a second pair of trousers into her backpack, found one sock and went looking for its match under her bed.

"Jung Jihoon, " she said, her voice muffled by the blankets, "you are the most powerful alchemyst in the known world. Remember, I stood beside you when we fought the demon Fomor, and you were the one who rescued me from the dungeons of An Chaor-Thanach and not the other way around. "

She came out from under the bed with the missing sock. "When the Rusalka were terrorising St. Petersburg, you alone turned them back, and when Kwon BoA raged across Manitoba, I watched you defeat her. You alone faced down Ivy and her Undead Army. You've spent more than half a millennium reading and studying the Codex, no one is more familiar with the stories and legends it holds- "

Fei stopped suddenly and gasped, brown eyes widening.

"That's what this is about," she said. "This is to do with the legend ... "

Jihoon reached out and pressed his forefinger to Fei's lips, preventing fer from saying another word. (A/N: I'm guessing if this really happens, Fei would go fangirling. hehehe :B ) His smile was enigmatic.

"Do you trust me ?" he asked her eventually.

Her response was immediate. "Without question. "

"Then trust me. I want you to protect the twins. And train them, " he added.

"Train them! Do you know what you're asking ? "

Jihoon nodded. "I want you to prepare them for what is to come. "

"And what is that? " Fei asked.

"I have no idea" - Jihoon smiled- "except that it is going to be bad. "

"Omma, we're fine, honestly, we're fine. " Park Soyeon tilted the cell phone slightly so that her brother could listen in.

"Yes, Hyori unnie was feeling sick. Somethign she ate, probably. She's fine now. " Soyeon could feel the beads of sweat gathering in the small hairs at the back of her neck.

She was uncomfortable lying to her mother- even though her mother was so wrapepd up in her work that she never bothered to check.

Seungho & Soyeon's parents were archaeologists. They were known worldwide for their discoveries, which had helped reshape modern achaeology. They were among the first in their field to discover the existance of the new species of small hominids that were now commonly called Hobbits in Indonesia. Seungho always said that their parents lived five million years in the past and were only happy when they were up to their ankles in mud.

The twins knew that they were loved unconditionally, but they also knew that their parents simply didn't understand them .. or much else about modern life.

"Rain is taking Hyori out to their house in the desert and they've asked us if we'd like to go with them for a little break. We said we had to ask you first, of course. Yes, we spoke to Aunt Miyeon. She said so long as it was OK with you. Say yes, omma, please. "

She turned to her brother and crossed her fingers. He crossed his too. They had talked long and hard about what to say to their aunt and their mother before they made the calls, but they weren't entirely sure what they were going to do if their mother said they couldn't go.

Soyeon uncrossed her finger and gave her brother a thumbs-up. "Yes, i've got time off from the coffee shop. No, we won't be a bother. Neh, omma. Neh, i love you too, and tell appa we love him too. " Soyeon listened, then moved the phone away from . "Dad found a dozen Pseudoarctolepis sharpi in a near-perfect condition, " she reported. Seungho looked blank. "A very rare Cambrian crustacean, " she explained.

Her brother nodded, "Tell Dad that's great. We'll keep in touch, " he called out.

"Love you," Soyeon said, cutting the conversation short, then hung up.

"I hate lying to her, " she said immediately.

"I know. But you couldn't really tell her the truth, now, could you ? "

Soyeon shrugged. "I guess not. "

Seungho turned back to the sink. His laptop was perched precariously on the draining board next to his cell phone. He was using the cell to go online because, shockingly, there was no phone line or Internet connection in the dojo.

Fei lived above the dojp in a small 2-room apartment with a kitchen at one end of the hall and a bedroom with a tiny bathroom at the other. A little balcony connected the two rooms and looked down directly onto the dojo below.

The twins were standing in the kitchen while Jihoon brought Fei up to date on the events of the past hour in her bedroom at the other end of the hall.

"What do you think of her ?" Seungho asked casually, concentrating on his laptop.

He'd managed to get online, but the connection speed was crawlingly slow. He called up Altavista and typed in a dozen versions of Fei before he finally got a hit with the correct spelling.

"Here she is. 27 thousand hits for Fei, the shadow or the shadowy one, " he said, then added offhandedly, "I think she's cool. "

Soyeon picked up on the too-casual tone immediately. She smiled broadly and her eyebrows shot up. "Who ? Oh, you mean the two-thousand-year-old warrior maid. Don't you think she might be a little too old for you ? "

A wash of color rose from beneath the neck of Seungho's t-shirt, painting his cheeks bright red. "Let me try Google, " he muttered, fingers rattling across the keyboard.

"Forty-six thousand hits for Fei, " he said. "Looks like she's real too. Let's see what Wiki has to say about her, " he went on, then realized that Soyeon wasn't even looking at him.

He turned to her and discovered that she was staring fixedly through the window.

There was a rat standing on the rooftop of the building across the alley, staring at them. As they watched, it was joined by a second then a third.

"They're here, " Soyeon whispered.

Junhyung concentrated on keeping his lunch down.

Looking through the rat's eyes was a nauseating experience. Because of their tiny brain, it required a huge effort of will to keep the creature focused ... which, in an alleyway filled with rotten food, was no easy task.

Junhyung was momentarily grateful that he had not used the full force of the scrying spell, which would have allowed him to hear, to taste- this was a terrifying thought- to smell everything the rat encountered.

It was like looking at a badly tuned black-and-white television. The image shifted, pitched and lurched with the rat's every movement. The rat could go from running horizontally on the ground, to running vertically up a wall, then upside-down across a rope, all within a matter of seconds.

Then the image stabilized.

Directly infront of Junhyung, outlined in purple-tinged gray and glowing in grayish balck, were the two humans he had seen in the bookshop. A boy and a girl- in their midteens- and similar enough in appearance for them to be related.

A sudden thought struck him hard enough to break his concentration. Brother & sister, possibly ... or could they be something else ? Surely not !

He looked back into the scrying dish and concentrated with his full will, forcing the rat he was controlling to stand absolutely still. Junhyung focused on the young man and woman, trying to decide if one was older than the other, but the rat's vision was too clouded and distorted for him to be sure.

But if they were the same age ... that meant they were twins. That was curious. He looked at them again and then shook his head. They were humans.

Dismissing the thought, he unleashed a single command that rippled through every rat within a half-mile radius of the twin's position. "Destroy them. Destroy them utterly. "

The gathering crows took to the air, cawing raucously, as if applauding.

Seungho watched openmouthed as the huge rat leapt from the roof opposite, effortlessly bridging the six-foot space. Its mouth was wide and its teeth were wickedly pointed.

He managed a brief "Hey! " and jerked away from the window ... just as the rat hit the glass with a furry, wet thump. It slid down to the alley one floor below, where it staggered around in stunned surprise.

Seungho grabbed Soyeon's hand, and dragged her out of the kitchen and onto the balcony. "We've got a problem," he shouted. And stopped.

Below them, 3 huge Golems, trailing flaking dried mud, were pushing their way through the wide-open alley door. And behind them, in a long sinuous line, came the rats.

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Hehe. Hear comes the ~~ /jengjengjeng

Comments. pretty please <3