"Chapter 5 - Home in the Sky

“It can’t be!” Yin struggled to speak. She was speaking to the best blacksmith in Lotis, Jung Chan Hoon. She brought her broken sword to him, in hopes of him being capable of repairing it.

“I’m sorry, miss. I cannot restore your sword without its missing piece. According to sword law, blades cannot be fixed when there is no part to complete it.” He sadly replied. “Furthermore, the metal used to shape this sword is a very ancient metal. There is no compatibility to mend it.”

Yin lowered her head in sadness. She was disappointed in herself that she had already broken a gift from her trusted master. “Forgive me, miss.” He bowed and went back to work.

When everyone returned to the hidden society, she was completely distressed about her broken weapon. She wanted to do whatever it took to use her sword again. She spent a significant amount of time training again. D.O had woken up earlier today and was still spunky and sarcastic like usual. 

Kai was waiting for her at the residence entrance. When she spotted him, she stopped but avoided his gaze.

“No luck?”

She shook her head and gripped on the hilt.

“But, you knew that there’s nothing you could do.”

She nodded.

"What are you?" he suddenly asked. "You're not like any other Argents here."

"Excuse me?" she narrowed her eyes at him.

"How can you even have a Crux of your own when you barely have about ten percent of your full power with you? It doesn't make sense."

"How do you want me to explain it? It's not like I wanted to have one."

"But you didn't have a choice since it came to you. With your health, just summoning the Crux would have killed you!"

"What are you trying to say to me? Do you care for me or not?" she snapped back at him, which she nearly regretted when she saw that Kai was rendered speechless.

They were silent for a while until she sighed. "That's what I thought." She gripped on her hilt tighter and walked past him, roughly bumping her shoulder against his. The impact was unnotibly painful, since Yin nearly disclocated Kai's shoulder with just one push.

That night, Yin stayed in the library pouring over books about rocks and minerals and swordsmanship. She even printed out past articles about different sword craftsmen and blacksmiths. The place was dimly lit and only a few lamps were still blazing. She had four open books in front of her while skimming through the fifth. She stopped reading and pinched the bridge of her nose in dizziness. She flinched away, remembering Kai’s advice when they arrived in Caladron. She shook her head rapidly, trying to get Kai out of her mind.

She saw a mug of a hot drink placed on the table and an orb of white light. The owner sat down on a chair on the right side of the desk.

It was Baek Hyun in warm and comfortable clothes.

“Here. Green tea will help you calm down.” He smiled and gestured his hand to the cup. She thanked him quietly and gingerly took a sip. The hot liquid soothed her mind and her cold hands thawed at the warm temperature. 

“Feel better?”

Yin gratefully nodded.

“I heard what happened to your sword. I’m sorry. It must’ve been very important to you.” He said with sympathy. He glanced at the books and articles sprawled across the desk and nodded.

“You were trying to do research to find a way, right?”

She nodded again.

“Any luck?”

She sighed.

“Jung Chan Hoon couldn’t do anything, I see. Don’t give up. We’ll help you in every way we can.”

Yin smiled and closed the book she was holding. She covered while yawning but he caught her actions. He looked out at the window and saw the city lights glowing through the night.

“It’s late. The library is going to close soon. Come on, I’ll you back to the residence.”

He offered his hand and she took it. With her mug in her hand, they left the empty resource center with the books abandoned. One of the articles she haven’t read, it said, “Bang Yong Guk, who discovered a way to regrow broken swords, was confirmed to be engaged with Rovanian Missionary Rookie Song Ji Eun.”

The next day, Yin got out of the shower and put on her normal grey shirt and black jeans. While she was wrapping her bandages around her Origin Arm, she glanced at the sword on her coffee table one last time and went to her door. Right when she opened it, Kai was standing in front of her, waiting.

“Baek Hyun’s looking for you.” She raised an eyebrow. Before she could ask, Kai added, “He sent me to get you.”

She sighed and nodded in approval. He held her arm and teleported to the room where the light-user and D.O, who was back in perfect health.

“So what’s the deal? Anything up?”

“Nope, just an invitation.”

“An invitation?” Yin repeated.

“An invitation to come with me to my hometown. I figured you guys would need a big break from your near-death experience so I decided to give you guys a new sight to see.”

“What kind of country is it in?” D.O asked, curious.

“A First World Country: Faria.”

D.O gasped loudly and Kai’s eyes widened in interest. Yin remained oblivious.

“You’re from Faria? The famous city in the sky?”

“Faria is a country known for its vintage and victorian architecture. It’s older than the opera houses in Notro. You’ve been there before, Yin and Kai.”

They nodded. Kai still had that memory of him as a Daemen fresh in his mind. Yin felt guilty for leaving her friend Ji Eun without a word. She reminded herself to pay a visit and give her a proper apology soon.

“So, when do we take off?” D.O excitedly asked.

Baek Hyun grinned. “Right now.”

D.O’s eyes were threatening to pop out of their sockets and land on the floor, along with his jaw.

“Kai? If you don’t mind?”

On cue, he grabbed Yin’s wrist, dragged D.O and Baek Hyun put his hand on his shoulder. Kai teleported everyone to the roof of the building. Baek Hyun placed his hand on his right wrist and held out his clear eight-point star crystal. He let it burst using his power and summoned out his eagle, Michael before them.

“See?” Baek Hyun gave a cheeky grin.

D.O couldn’t stop staring in awe and Kai said, “A fly is gonna buzz into your mouth if you keep it open.”

Yin rolled her eyes but they all couldn’t help but chortle at his comment.

As the four faction members approached the Crux, Baek Hyun instructed, “So here’s what we're going to do: Kai and D.O, you go on the left wing while Yin and I will go on the right. Michael is able to split itself into two smaller eagles.”

Kai gave Baek Hyun a suspicious look, wondering why he wanted her to ride with him. His thoughts were interrupted by D.O elbowing him in the side, causing him to flinch.

“You’re thinking, ‘Why does that bastard get the girl and I don’t,’ huh?”

“Say that again and I’ll kick your dirty .”

D.O stifled his smirk and got on the left side. Baek Hyun helped Yin onto his Crux by keeping a firm grip on her hand, making Kai’s eye twitch at the scene and D.O snicker. 

They were all ready to fly: Yin with her hands perched on Baek Hyun’s shoulders; D.O’s arms around Kai’s waist as a joke, though she found the sight very amusing and shook her head.

“Hang on tight! Don’t pluck out any of the feathers because eagles really don’t like people doing that!” He warned while the large eagle took off.

When they left the barrier of the society, Michael finally split into two smaller eagles with two Argents riding on each.

“We’ll rendezvous in the heart of the city! See ya there!” The right eagle soared into the sky first. As she and Baek Hyun got higher, she felt her grip slipping away from his clothes until he took her arms and wrapped them around his torso.

“Don’t worry. Kai won’t know.” He winked and she froze at Kai's name as she leaned her head against his back. She watched as she passed through the clouds and felt the cool breeze brushing her short hair.

“Beautiful bird-eye view of the world huh?” He asked.

“You must’ve memorized the entire geography then.” She mused.

“I forgot some parts because I haven’t been home since last year. My parents will probably jump out of their skin if they see me now.” He chuckled.

“Didn’t you let them know?”

“Nah, I want to surprise them. It’s more fun that way.” He grinned and she meekly smiled. She began to wonder who her parents were, whether she had a small or a large family, whether they were alive. She couldn’t fathom the longing in her heart because the frustration of her memory loss was starting to fill her emptiness.

Meanwhile on the left eagle, D.O kept on bothering Kai during the ride to Faria. He was almost at the end of his patience to the point where a vein was on the verge of popping.

“Would you shut the hell up and just enjoy the flight?”

“Hell no! It’s so much fun picking on you!” D.O stuck his tongue out.

“Don’t make me kick you off.” He warned.

“You won’t do that to your best friend, will you?” He pouted which made Kai grimace. D.O stopped and exclaimed, “What’s with that look? You’re supposed to give in! I practiced this face while I was in Caladron and yet you choose not to succumb to it!”

“Well, my face says I don’t want to give in to you.”

“But would you give in to Yin if she pouted to you?”

His cheeks turned pink and choked on his saliva. D.O caught him off guard and started to mercilessly poke his sides to probe in further. Kai yelped in surprise.

“Come on! Come on! Come on! Admit it: you got it bad!”

“That’s it! I’m knocking you off!” He started pushing D.O off the eagle while the earth-user panicked and accidentally pulled off one of the feathers. The eagle squawked and picked up his speed, thinking that something was attacking them. The squabbling Argents stopped arguing and held onto it for their lives.

The right eagle gracefully landed on the eastern edge of the city and Baek Hyun helped Yin down. She instinctively reached for her knapsack until she realized that she didn’t bring anything with her. She felt vulnerable yet free.

“Welcome to my hometown, Yin,” he introduced the beautiful city. She smiled in awe and he was satisfied with her reaction.

“C’mon! I want to show you around before we meet up with the others!” He took her hand and led her to the lively streets. Yin took the chance to wonder where Baek Hyun’s energy came from. She always knew that he was one of the most compassionate and caring members of Faction Twenty Four but she never thought that he could have a childlike persona within. She wondered where he got that carefree smile, because she admitted that she envied him.

He pointed out the places he used to go when he was younger such as his favorite restaurants, cafes and parks. Each architecture in the city was indeed victorian and they were intricately carved and detailed to each fold of clothing. Fascinated, she let him pull her along to wherever they needed to go, including his house.

They stopped in front of Baek Hyun’s home and Yin grew nervous. Before he opened the door, she grabbed the hem of his sweater and he turned around.

“I don’t think I should come in.”

“Why not? My parents aren’t that scary. They won’t mind you coming in with me. In fact, they’d probably tease me about that.” He joked, which made her feel a little better.

“Feeling okay?”

She nodded.

He opened the door with the spare key hidden under the mat and entered together. While taking off her shoes, he called through the hallway, “Mom! Dad! I’m home!”

She heard ruffling and scurrying in different rooms. Yin looked and saw an older woman in an apron with a hurried expression on her face. It was quickly replaced by a tearfully happy smile as she approached her son.

“Baek Hyun!” They embraced and laughed heartily. “Welcome home! You could have sent a message.”

“I wanted to surprise you and dad.”

“Well, you gave us quite a scare. I see you brought a guest.” She eyed on Yin. She bowed.

“Honey! Come in here! Baek’s home and he brought a guest!” She called her husband from the study and an elderly man with glasses and a book in hand came out of another room.

“Baek Hyun! You’re home!” The three family members were so immersed in a touching reunion that Yin felt a bit left out. She felt happy for them nonetheless and wondered if she could ever have a warm homecoming someday.

“Yin, come here. Let me introduce you to my family.” He waved her over and she stepped next to him.

“Mom, dad, this is my friend in the society: Zhang Yin.”

“It’s an honour to meet you.” She bowed on a ninety-degree angle. Baek Hyun’s mother giggled and said, “Wow, such a well-mannered girl! Please, make yourself comfortable. Lunch is almost ready to be served. Baek Hyun, if you don’t mind, show her around the house. Honey, will you help me?”

Her husband followed her to the kitchen and the two Argents were left on their own for now.

“Let’s go to my room first.” He led her the way upstairs and opened a white door at the end of the hall. Yin peeked in and was greeted with a clean room with tints of grey and white. He tried to turn on the lights with the switch but the light bulbs didn’t illuminate.

“Figures; The lights in my room were always broken.” He created two small orbs of light and let them float around. “That’s more like it.”

“Are both your parents Argents too?”

“Only my mom. I inherited her powers and I lost my memories when I was four. It wasn’t that bad because I just started kindergarten back then.” She looked at a picture frame of him and his family smiling.

“How did your father take it?”

“He wasn’t surprised. He took in the news well.” 

“Did anyone at school know?”

“Of course. I went to an academy for Argents here. There are many Argents who used to live here until the Daemens rose to power.”

She nodded in understanding when one of his lights floated to her. She opened her palm and let it land on her hand. She smiled in wonder.

“You have a really gentle power.”

“Thank you, but they’re not as gentle compared to one of my friends. She had the power of nature, so she used to grow flowers all the time before I joined Faction Twenty Four.”

He had a tone of longing lingering in his melodic voice that Yin figured that something was off.

“What happened to her?”

He didn’t answer.

“Forgive me, I shouldn’t have asked.”

“No, it’s alright. She was the reason I went to Lotis. A few years ago, before graduating from high school, we were in a relationship. She was a year younger than me but we didn’t really mind that. I was walking her home from school late at night. We decided to take a shortcut but,” he stopped and took a breath.

“It was the first mistake. Daemens appeared in the alley and we had to run. My abilities weren’t very strong and hers weren’t used for battle. I tried to hold her hand until we were safe but she slipped out of my grasp. She created a wall of plants but it was too weak to stop them.

“She told me to run but I didn’t want to leave her alone. She kissed me and pushed me into a flower’s bud and transported me away from the fight scene. I woke up here the next morning and I saw the news of a murder from the previous night.”

“Was it her?”

He nodded. “You must know that Argents who are killed by Daemens are turned into one themselves. The night before my first day in university, her Daemen form nearly killed me. Instead of giving life to nature, she had the power to take it away. I was literally a few seconds away from death until Lu Han and Su Ho saved me.”

“Lu Han and Su Ho?”

“Before they finished her off, I stepped up and did what I needed to do. I killed her and she disappeared into ash in my arms.” Yin lowered her head in sympathy.

“I’m not sad anymore because if I hadn’t loved her, I wouldn’t have joined Faction Twenty Four and the society. I wouldn’t be here helping you like a brother figure should.”

Yin softened when he said he was doing his best helping her. “I don’t know how to put it in words but, I’m glad you are a part of the faction because, if that never happened, your smile would not have been so beautiful and sincere.”

He gazed at her for a few seconds before commenting, “You know, you’re very interesting. You seem to know how to open someone’s heart.”

“Baek! Yin! Lunch is ready!” His mother called from downstairs. They looked at the door and then at each other.

“Let’s go. We can’t make her wait, can we?” He joked and she laughed as they went downstairs. The orbs he emitted faded away.

The dining room was filled with a delicious aroma and animated conversations. They talked about a variety of topics from the situation in the society to Baek Hyun’s embarrassing childhood memories.

“So, tell me Yin. Have you two been getting close?” The woman raised her eyebrows in interest while both faction members choked on their food. Yin patted her chest lightly and Baek Hyun downed his entire glass of water.

“She just joined our group last week. Besides, I see her as a little sister than whatever you think she is!” he blurted and cleared his throat.

“Lighten up, son. You know your mother likes to tease you. It’s her job.” His dad said. Baek Hyun sat up straighter and tried to cool down his red face.

“Where are you from, Yin?” He asked.

“I’m from Nomun, Ha Jung.”

“Fascinating. Ha Jung is a very peaceful country. You must have liked it there.” She took a spoonful of rice as her husband continued.

“How old are you?”

“Eighteen.”

“When did you discover your Argentic abilities?”

“It’s complicated.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve lost my memories a year ago and they are slowly returning to me.”

“I see. Your abilities have also been returning along with your memories, am I right?”

“Yes.”

“I thought so, because in the Argent anatomy, memories and abilities are connected. They are the power source of each other. One cannot exist without the other.”

Yin nodded as she remembered Lay’s similar explanation back at the orphanage.

“We are sorry about your condition but we do wish you all the support for your recovery.” Baek Hyun’s mother smiled and Yin mirrored her actions.

The young Argents left the house with goodbyes and promises to visit again. While they were walking, he wondered, “I think the other two are gonna think we were on a date, don’t you?”

She didn’t answer. He left her to her thoughts until she felt a new surge of power coming from somewhere. It came to her like a slap in the face and she regained her composure. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

“A Rune ... there is an Origin Rune here in the city!”

Baek Hyun’s eyes widened and muttered, “That’s impossible.”

Yin took off running, leaving him behind. Up ahead, she heard shrieks of fear and panic. They were followed by roars of familiar creatures. Daemens were attacking the people here. She pulled on her leather gloves and started to kill off the malevolent creatures before more casualties occurred. She felt the ground rumble subtly. D.O, she thought. He and Kai must have come across them too.

She followed the strong pulse of power while a few Daemens chased her. She turned around, leapt backwards and threw her strong punches at them. They took three strikes each before they disintegrated into ashes. The trail led to a museum and she burst the doors open before running through the marble halls.

Meanwhile back at the crime scene, Baek Hyun, D.O and Kai met up. “Where’s Yin?” The teleport-user frantically asked.

“She went there!” He pointed at the museum.

“What did she say, Baek Hyun?”

“Apparently, there is an Origin Rune here.”

“Are you serious?”

“We got to go in after her. If the Daemens got here before us, then she’s going to walk into a trap she might not escape from!”

Kai’s heart clenched and took off. “Don’t die, Yin. Don’t die! If I find out that you’re her, then I won’t forgive myself for not being able to defend you!” He said under his breath. His lungs burned and his muscles ached but he didn’t give up until he saw her still standing.