That woke everyone up very quick. 

"What do you mean, they got Baekhyun?!" Jongin was the first to cry out. 

Minseok huffed and his body slumped over from the exertion, hands resting on his knees as he told them what happened with Baekhyun, and being caught by Lord Yibo, and the direction in which they'd dragged the squirming elf.  "Nobody followed me," he panted in conclusion. "And they didn't know I was there. Which means, they won't know that we suspect anything is wrong other than-"

"We have to get him back," Jongin interrupted. 

Minseok almost laughed, except that he was too tired. "I know, I know. Also, I'm also absolutely certain this is a scheme cooked up by my brother. Lord Yibo doesn't even know what's going on or what to do with us. He's just holding us here until he gets further instructions."

"Which means?" Chanyeol demanded.

"Which means," Minseok repeated slowly, "that we have an advantage." 

No one had entered the room since Jongin had come in and subsequently left. Luhan laid very still on the bed, listening. The walls were solid stone and almost nothing penetrated through them. It was starting to drive him a little mad. He missed Minseok, but then he was also wary, burdened with another tale - lies of course - told to him by Minseok's brother. He didn't want to believe it, but pieces of it made sense, almost against his will. The reason Yixing was here, the reason he'd tagged along. The way they obviously knew one another well, and how they'd kept that part secret, or tried to. Why! Why though?! And if Xiumin was going to tell Luhan only the half, why couldn't he just tell him the whole story? Was it to keep him confused, to increase the rate of his impending insanity?

He kept the bottle of lyrium clutched tightly in his grasp, under the blanket, inside his robes. 

"Tao, don't tell anybody," he'd told the boy, and Tao agreed. 

When the door opened up to the adjoining room, Luhan expected to see another curious intruder like Jongin or Chanyeol. Instead though, it was Minseok. 

"Luhan." The mage shut the door and hastened across the room. Unbidden to him, Luhan felt relief. 

"You're back," he whispered, smiling.

"Yes."

"Where's Baekhyun?"

Minseok hesitated for a moment. Then he spoke. "Caught."

Luhan only blinked and Minseok climbed halfway up the bed. "Don't worry. We have a plan to get us out of here, starting soon. How are you feeling?" He put a hand on Luhan's forehead and frowned, concerned. "You're still burning up. Lord Yibo has your lyrium, but he's holding it hostage. That's actually good for us though. Kris drew the short straw is about to make a big fuss over why it hasn't been delivered yet."

"A diversion?" Luhan asked weakly. 

"Yes. Something like that. How do you feel?" he asked again.

"I had dreams. I think."

"That's not uncommon. You're probably having some hallucinations. What did you dream about?"

"Dragons." Luhan tried to smile, a half-hearted chuckle. "I dreamed about the dragon attack. Remember? When I was a boy in Nevarra I used to play champions and dragons with my brothers. I always wanted to be the champion, but I was the youngest, so I was always the dragon. They made me dress up in leftover curtains and never gave me a fair head start. I wanted to be the champion. I wanted to slay dragons."

"Poor Luhan, and then you joined the Templars and still didn't get a chance to slay a dragon."

Luhan smiled. "I never thought I'd see a real one... I thought they were just stories. Or that they lived so far away from people. Imagine my luck, I finally see one, a real one, and I end up stuck under a tree with a mage instead." 

Minseok laughed, softly. It warmed Luhan's heart, that noise, that expression. "And was it a total letdown? Me, instead of a dragon?"

"There were a few perks..." Luhan happily admitted. 

But then he frowned, and a shivering waved passed through his body, sweat beading on his forehead. Minseok would never know, but Luhan was fighting his conscience harder this minute than he ever had in the past. His body was suffering, craving that potion. He could have been better by now. He could have taken the lyrium out, uncorked the bottle, and poured it down his throat. It would have been an end to this misery. He didn't have to continue this struggle. 

But then Minseok would know. Minseok would know that someone had visited him, had given him lyrium. 

"A goodwill offering," Xiumin had said. 

He lost consciousness for a few minutes, still thinking dangerous thoughts. About dragons, about Xiumin, about him and a mage under a tree, and why of all the people in the world, Luhan had fallen for an apostate mage like Minseok. 

When he opened his eyes, Minseok was sitting by his side with Luhan's head cradled on his lap. He was speaking to Tao who perched daintily on the edge of the bed not making eye contact. 

"Is he going to be able to move?" Tao was asking. "W-When he leave here, we're not leaving Luhan behind, right?"

Luhan heard a warm rumble emanating from Minseok's tummy. "Of course not," Minseok murmured. "We're not going anywhere without him."

A warm palm played with Luhan's bangs, fingers straying as low as his cheek and in any other situation, Luhan would happy to roll over and bury himself in the blankets with that person by his side. He groaned instead, making his presence known. "Is it time to go?"

"Soon," Minseok assured him. "Very soon. In fact, let's get you up and into the other room. Jongin just said everything is going to plan, so we need to be ready to move."

"I can't... I can't walk though."

"That's alright. We've got you."

Minseok came back into the middle bedroom, Tao following him with the templar held between his arms. Kris had just returned from his meddling in the hallway, belching out for a servant to bring them food, and 'where was that damned lyrium potion anyway?'

And that's when they got the message, a hint of help. It was working, just like Minseok said it would. 

Jongin and Chanyeol had overturned everything in three rooms looking for tools that could be used as weapons, meager or not. Jongdae had a couple forks tucked away between his bootstraps. Yixing's bunny dissolved into mist, and all stood around on edge, waiting. 

Suho adjusted his wig one last time and nodded at his reflection furiously in the plate metal mirror. 

"Are we ready?" asked Minseok.

"Ready!" called out everyone in return. 

"Alright, Junhee," said Jongdae. "Your turn to shine."

Once upon a time, Suho's presence was shiny enough to command attention. He may have been the younger half-brother to Lord Namjoon, but that tenuous blood connection had been powerful enough. Until his fall. Until he tried to live up to the family name and failed so badly. He wasn't a warrior, that was evident enough, but as the unfavored son of a powerful clan, it was the only option remotely available. And he'd failed. Suho had no doubt people still talked about it in the Commons. It was all they had spoken of then, his disgrace. 

And that disgrace had led to him being ousted, his mother and sister degraded and cast back 'where they came from'. Dust Town. Minseok said it was their best way out, and how he knew that, Suho had no idea. But the very thought of having to visit there, seeing his family, seeing how they lived...

But they had to make it there first. And after that was accomplished, if they were still alive, maybe then he could find them. To see if it was even possible to take them away.

He opened the door first and poked his head around the corridor. It was empty. 

"Ready," he said, and lumbered out. 

He walked gracefully, as ladylike as it was possible to be for a short dwarf in an ill-fitting dress and a wig which made his head itch. Behind him, the others would be assembling, but Suho needed to be the first.

His brain worked fast, retracing the corridors through which they'd come. It wasn't unlike the household he grew up in, but even if the layout had been tremendously different, he would still know which path to take. Stone sense, they called it. The dwarves were just born with it. To any other humanoid, the earth and the stone were devoid of sound or calling. But to a dwarf, that sense of navigation, from the distant chiming of unmined lyrium in the vein, was what kept them alive. How he'd missed it, being on the surface now for so long.

He turned a corner daintily, pretending to wonder at the carvings on the wall when he came upon the first house soldier. "Oh! I'm so sorry!" he cried in surprise. 

The stocky sentinel seemed to draw up taller when he caught sight of him. "You uhhm... shouldn't be here."

Junhee smiled coquettishly. "I was looking for my friend. I must have gotten lost."

The dwarf frowned and shifted uneasily, slinging his one-handed axe from one arm to the other as he looked around. "What's your friend's name?"

"Baekhyun? The elf? I think he must have gotten lost looking for food."

The sentinel whistled for another, and a second dwarf rounded another bend in answer to his call. Suho kept on speaking. "You know those elves just can't find their way around unless there's a tree to pick out-" 

But then the second soldier was wonked on the head by a candlestick, Jongin standing behind him looking vaguely murderous. The first dwarf gasped in surprise and sprang into action. He too was sprawled out a moment later, rushed by Jongdae and and Chanyeol before he ever got out the call to alarm. Suho stepped back as the body fell and felt a hint of sympathy. Then it passed by entirely. 

"Which way," Jongin whispered. Minseok appeared by his shoulder and pointed. Suho caught his eye and agreed.

"Then let's get going!" Jongdae spoke gleefully. He took Suho by the elbow and the party tip-toed hurriedly through the stone passageways with Jongin and Minseok in the lead. Chanyeol and Tao came just behind Suho, followed by Kris who was carrying the sick templar, and Yixing swept silently behind them, covering their rear. 

They met only one other soldier standing guard by a set of heavily barred doors, and this one too went down like a feather. 

"There should be two standing here," said Suho worriedly. 

"Is it locked?" Minseok asked.

Jongin tried the door, and to their surprise it opened. The stone scraped against the flooring. Suho winced, sure that the sound would bring about the second guard. However, when it fell open they were surprised to see the second guard already laid out on the ground. 

"What!"

Baekhyun sat on top of him, his thighs twisted around the man's thick sputtering neck. 

"Baekhyun!" Jongin uttered harshly, still keeping his voice low, but it was impossible not to be shocked at the scene.

"Well! Took you guys long enough."

The elf's arms were still tied behind his back with ropes and knots, but the dwarves had unwisely not done the same with his feet. 

"How did you..." Chanyeol looked down, obviously impressed.

Baekhyun let up a beaming smile. "I was flirting with this one, and well... I think I won. Too bad the door was locked from the inside."

"F-Flirting?" Jongin stuttered.

"More like fighting," Baekhyun clarified. "Just that this guy didn't know the difference." He giggled. 

He rolled off the struggling soldier just in time for Chanyeol to drag him back and tie up his arms instead, giving the dwarf one good thump on the head. Jongin unhooked the knots holding Baekhyun's arms together. 

"Now to find our confiscated weapons," said Yixing, who had pushed on forward to peek around the next corner. 

"The armory will be close," said Suho. 

But they wouldn't be able to get in without further aid. And nor would they be able to leave unless Minseok's plan actually worked. Everything was riding on someone within the household helping them out.

That someone happened to be Seungyeon. They spotted the servant girl standing nervously before another set of heavy doors, the armory. Suho approached her first, and fast. "Seungyeon... you're..."

She smiled apologetically. "Forgive me. I didn't know you earlier. Lord J-Junmyeon." 

He hushed her softly. "I don't go by that name now, but thank you." There was no reason for a servant of his friend's household to think Junmyeon would ever return to these parts. For all they knew, he was gone top, to the surface, which meant he might as well be dead. And he hadn't even known the girl very well. She was a loyal retainer to House Zygmunt. She had been loyal to Lord Yixuan. And all she had to offer now, as Kris had deduced on his outing earlier, was a brief moment of aid on behalf of her banished former master.

Minseok rushed forward now. "You have the keys?" 

"Yes."

Behind the locked door were their supplies and weapons. They quickly pulled them on, swords and bows, staffs and packs. 

"Lord Yibo is in his rooms," Seungyeon added nervously while they worked. "If you go now, he won't realize for at least ten minutes that-"

"We left a few guards knocked out in the hall," Suho interrupted.

She frowned. 

"Will this get you in trouble?" Minseok asked.

Seungyeon wavered for a moment, but then she shook her head. "I can handle it. Don't worry about me." 

Suho wanted to ask if she wanted to go with them, if she needed rescuing as well. 

"Which way to the front door?" Jongin asked instead. 

"This way, hurry and someone will meet you outside."

"Someone?" Baekhyun quipped. "Who?

"Someone who will help you reach Dust Town," she answered. 

They scampered quickly behind her steps, Yixing still checking their rear but they moved so softly and no one came out to accost them. Seungyeon pulled another key from the set of rings she carried and inserted it before a large engraved door. The mechanism worked slowly, but the door pulled away and they got a glimpse of the twinkling darkness of the Diamond Quarter once again. 

"Thank you," Suho told her before he could step out. 

"If you see.... oh, never mind." Seungyeon closed and then nodded, but she had nothing more to say. She stood watch as they filed out one by one and closed the door behind them with a resounding clamor. 

Step one to freedom, Suho thought.

And then they were met by another party of soldiers.

"Sungjoo of House Kondrat!" spat the leader of this new group. Everyone froze. 

Baekhyun reached back for his bow, Jongin, Jongdae and Chanyeol for their weapons. Tao put up his fists and Yixing spread his palm to grab for his staff. Only Minseok and Suho had no reaction, except to hold up their arms to steady the rest. 

Sungjoo was short, and muscular, and he wore the colors of Suho's old household. By law he should be here to arrest Suho, or Junmyeon, on the spot for disobeying his banishment orders. Instead, he held a steady gaze and stared through the wig and the dress, and his lips turned from stoic expression to a smile of delight. 

"Lord Junmyeon. It's been a long time," he greeted them swiftly. "Please, allow me to you away. Dust Town, isn't it? I've had word of a friend of yours down there. He sent a messenger, a go-between, but his name, I believe, is Kyungsoo. Is this correct?" 

The longer they spent underground, the more Sehun hated it. From the shop in the Commons to a similar hold in the much-famed slum, Dust Town, there just wasn't anything fun about it. As if his world had gone dark, there was no sun, there was no green. Nothing even grew, except strangely fluorescent mushrooms  in pots which Kyungsoo warned him not to touch without the proper gloves. Sehun sat stoically in the corner of the room and for the fifth or fifth hundredth time traced the cracks in the stone up the walls and over the ceiling. There was no way this place was structurally sound, everything reeked of filth, and true to its name, a thin sheen of dust covered every single thing. Sometimes thickly too. He'd swept his seat, a stone bench, before sitting down, and now half the dust that had been resting on it was stuck instead to Sehun's sweat-slick skin. He could never win.

Kyungsoo came and went several times. He said he paid the donkey peddler a lot of gold to get them down here, but Sehun no longer believed it. 

Kyungsoo was way too comfortable underground. He moved and acted more like the dwarves than anything Sehun had seen before. Stone sense, he'd read in a book once. That was how dwarves were able to live like this and not go mad. And if he could make a bet or if indeed he had anything to bet with, he'd bet that Kyungsoo had this stone sense as well. And Kyungsoo was very much not a dwarf.

"Why are you doing this?" He asked once or twice.

"Doing what?" 

"Helping us," said Sehun.

So far, Kyungsoo hadn't given him a decent answer. Yet he interacted with all the dwarves they met like a man with a purpose. Part of that he shared with Sehun. "If all goes well, they'll be here soon. Sungjoo just sent a message that the plan is underway."

"Who is Sungjoo, and why would he help them?" 

Kyungsoo had chuckled and chided Sehun for his whining. "You really didn't know a thing about that dwarf you've been traveling with this whole time, did you?"

"Who, Suho?"

And Kyungsoo had nodded. "You should take a sleep. When they get here, we'll have a long day of traveling ahead."

Sehun had obeyed, but only after an elderly dwarf woman brought them something to eat. Then Sehun coaxed Alistair into staying still and being his pillow. It was warm, and the animal was about as covered in dust as Sehun, but there was comfort there. Something familiar. Sehun had been the first to open up and trust the strange man who called himself Kyungsoo, but Kyungsoo was still a mystery, and growing more mysterious by the hour. 

"You could have just left us," Sehun mused tiredly, his eyes already slipping, sleep on the horizon. 

Kyungsoo crouched by his side and he wasn't wearing his gloves now as he hummed. Again, he wouldn't answer directly. 

"Maybe I have other motives than that?" 

"Like what?" Sehun yawned.

He closed his eyes, and Alistair shifted restlessly from underneath his head. Then he felt something trailing delicately against his out-fallen arm. Something light, a finger press. Kyungsoo was tracing a heart-shaped pattern on Sehun's wrist. He smiled wickedly, the corners of his lips up-stretched and for a moment Sehun felt himself quit breathing. His eyes fluttered sleepily from Kyungsoo's hazy grayish face to the smoky dark imprint left on his arm. Then he shuddered and pulled it back, cradling it closer to his body. 

Kyungsoo laughed, softly. 

There was a girl there when Sehun opened his eyes. Alistair had rolled over onto his belly, and one paw stuck awkwardly to Sehun's forehead. He yawned and sat up, looking around. Kyungsoo wasn't there, but that wasn't what had gotten his attention. The girl was a dwarf, short like all of them were, but her shoulders weren't so broad and her face was lovely. Sehun thought for a moment that he was dreaming. He sat up.

"Who... are you?" he asked. There was something about her that looked familiar, although he knew that couldn't be the case. He'd definitely never met her before.

However, her smile, it appealed to him.

"I'm Yoona. Your friend told me to stay here in case you woke up. Your name is Sehun?"

Sehun nodded. He felt like a mess, his clothes were disgusting and his hair was matted to his forehead, caked there probably with the combination of moisture and dirt. And here he was stuck in a room with a pretty dwarf girl, a commoner obviously by her garb and the way her face was smudged with dirt. In some ways, he felt more threatened than if he'd woken up in captivity or at swordpoint.

He cleared his throat and stood up. She did too, and it was then he realized that she barely reached up to his waist, even more disconcerting. He had no idea what to do or say but it seemed that she was waiting for him to speak. 

"So... where is... Kyungsoo?"

"Your friend? He's gone to inspect the tunnel."

"Tunnel?"

"Yes, to the Deep Roads."

"Oh, right. The Deep Roads."

Kyungsoo had mentioned such, but in all honesty, Sehun didn't really think that was going to happen. No one went willingly into the Deep Roads. There were darkspawn down there, cave-ins, monsters. Unchecked lava flows, dwarves driven mad by the taint. Perhaps he was making this up as he went but, surely it was possible. 

"Are you alright?" Yoona took a step forward, her face racked with what Sehun believed might be genuine concern. He wasn't expecting it.

"Yes. I think so. It's just... this is all very strange."

"You're a noble," she said, just like that. 

Even stranger, that she could tell. "How do you know?"

"By the way you carry yourself." She smiled sweetly, and there was something about her posture as well that Sehun should have recognized. "I used to be like you. I was born greater than this," she swept a hand around the room, "but now this is my existence."

Sehun felt taken aback. "I'm... I'm sorry." 

"Oh, it's alright. I'm used to it now, and it's not as bad as it might be. I could have been sent to the surface, like my brother, and then I would have been lost. Stranded. This is not such a bad life as that."

"Your... brother was sent to the surface?"

"Yes. You know him, actually."

"I-I do?"

She laughed, and it was such a beautiful sound, it was almost unimaginable that it could belong to a girl who had fallen so low. "Yes, you do. Kyungsoo tells me he goes by the name of Suho now, but before he was called Junmyeon. Junmyeon is my older brother. I never thought I would see him again, ever... but now I will get that chance. Thanks to all of you." 

3,820 words

Did you think I'd forgotten this fic!? :D By the way, look at this picture of Yoona and Junmyeon, aren't they just super cute together! They'd make the best siblings. Just make them about half this tall hehe

♡ Rosie

LiveJournal | Twitter | Tumblr | Exo Tumblr