The snowfall, which had given them a brief reprieve, began to fall again. Hours, that's how long it had been since Luhan was outed, and now it seemed that no one quite trusted his words. By the Maker, even Luhan wouldn't have believed himself, listening to himself stutter and... blatantly lie. He hung his head in deep shame, remembering Minseok's look of confusion followed by deep mistrust. In a deeper pit of the templar's mind, he almost relished in it. Minseok didn't believe his words? Well, how many times had Minseok lied to them?! Countless more times than anything Luhan had said or done. 

It was not the best line of mental reasoning, of course, but Luhan couldn't help thinking it. 

For now they were back on course. Minseok had been forced to share part of his plan, which as only Luhan- and probably Kyungsoo knew- was another lie. Even worse, Luhan was complicit in this one too. 

"Lady Hyori's estate," Luhan had said, all eyes turning to him while silently, Minseok egged him on. "I'm pretty sure I know where it is."

"What?!" Jongdae exclaimed.

"How? Where?" asked Kris with increasing suspicion.

Luhan tried to play up his part. "Something Jongin let slip once. When we were traveling. He mentioned a place in the Dales. I think... I think if we could find a human settlement at least, we could ask around and I'll be able to piece together where it is."

And so they marched, together, for lack of a better plan. Minseok promised there would be villages coming up soon. Jongdae only tacitly agreed. The assassin's usually smug, smiling face was a bit grim but after Suho's words had torn across the party, but that was to be expected wasn't it? Another irony, Luhan thought bitterly, that the man who had once lied about being a 'just a King's messenger', and then lied about his true mission to protect Sehun no matter the costs, would be so mistrustful of Luhan, whose only fault had been knowing Yixing was a shapeshifter. 

Luhan had of course conveniently failed to mention - again - how he'd known. It made for another night and another two days worth of interesting travel. He wondered if it was just their circumstances, but had they not been all bone weary, frozen and hungry, if they might not have stopped completely in their tracks and gotten everything out, cleared the air, argued until there was nothing left to argue. Alas, the act of survival in the midst of everyone's weary mood was the reign of the day. With almost minimal conversation except at mealtimes, together they lugged forward. 

By the time they came upon a small lodge two days later, it was barely dusk. 

"Look!" shouted Tao, "a light!"

There was indeed light up ahead, gleaming through the frosted window of what looked like a small home. Luhan, who'd been about to ask if they shouldn't stop and find shelter for the night, sighed in relief, as did the others. Their footsteps grew lighter in the snow, each hurrying towards the comfort of civilization. Upon closer inspection Luhan saw a handful more buildings, some darkened, some also lit up. Smoke curled out from several chimneys, and better than that: the smell of food. 

They passed a shed housing logging equipment, then another, then a small barn. Then they approached the largest building. The door swung open before they could get there and a large, portly man exited with a swagger, a flagon in his hand that smelled beautifully like ale. 

The man stopped up short when he perceived their presence. "Ho! Who goes there? Strangers?" Intoxicated though he was, his hand nevertheless flew to his belt trstrap. At the first glimmer of a dagger's hilt, everyone froze in his tracks. 

Jongdae was the first to speak. "We are friends!" he said, stepping forward with his arms up to indicate peace. 

"Friends?" the man echoed gruffly. "I know of no friends in these parts like you."

"We are travelers," Jongdae amended with a courteous smile. "And just a bit lost. Might we... if you could lend us the gift of hospitality, we will gladly repay you whatever you ask."

Through the dim light of dusk, Luhan saw the man pause and squint his eyes. What must he make of their party: four humans, a dwarf, an elf, and a qunari, dressed for winter but also armed to the teeth.

"Whatever I ask, you say? Seems you are rough party out to murder me in the night and steal my goods. Why should I listen to any words you say, huh?!" He took a few steps towards them, but stumbled on the last one. Alarmed, he managed to hold himself upright in the snow. The beginnings of panic, however, were strewn across his face. His eyes darted towards the lodge. Luhan imagined inside might be his family, unarmed and in need of protecting.

Before the man could do something drastic, like perhaps attempt to attack them and fall on his , Luhan too stepped forward.

"I'm a templar. We mean you no harm, we just need a place to stay the night if you will let us." 

He did not seem particularly inclined, but Luhan's tactic seemed to do the trick. Armed with Luhan's semblance of authority, the man relaxed his stance and, insisting they just not enter his home with their weapons, begrudgingly let them through the door. Luhan ignored his mumbled sentiments of 'templars, templars, never met a templar who did me any of good' but the man, who introduced himself as logger Seong, said no more. 

There was indeed a family inside. As Luhan, Minseok, Jongdae, Suho, Kyungsoo, Kris, and Tao bowed their way into a remarkably low-ceilinged room, a tiny middle aged woman ran forward fretfully to greet them. At a word from her husband, she then ran to prepare them food. Luhan caught sight of a couple small children flittering through another doorway, their large eyes wide open and curious, but lacking their parents' general fear. 

"This is nice," said Minseok politely, when the logger beckoned them to sit before the hearth. Already the warmth from the fire had made everyone feel better. Luhan shed his outer coat and crept forward. The man said no more. He ambled awkwardly around them as they drew around the fire, belatedly offering ale when Kris offered to pay for it. The qunari then offered to carry it as well as several crates, from which they made into makeshift tables. At this offer of kindness, the logger relaxed further, even allowing Suho to disappear into the other room with his wife when the dwarf offered to assist making the meal. Never fully unguarded, he was at least starting to warm up.

"You've been traveling long?" 

Jongdae, still taking general charge of the situation, nodded. "Yes. We were out to rendezvous with some friends of ours, but... these winter storms did sneak up on us. I'm afraid we ended off course."

"Winter, you say?" The logger snorted. "Eh, the snows did come early this year." He made no further comment about the weather, but Luhan saw he was still sizing up their party. Kris' lumbering height plus the horns on his head would have been a particularly unusual sight this far from a major city. Perhaps that was why, not half an hour into their thrown-together meal, the man's children had both come out of hiding, finally brave enough to approach what they called 'monster' but treated like a puppy. They gathered around him, almost forgetting to ask if they could touch his head. Kris, holding in a grimace, acquiesced enough to lean his upper body down to let them explore. 

"They're real!" shrieked one of the children, a little girl who then proceeded to fall into giggles.

Jongdae laughed. Minseok grinned. The logger's wife paled considerably when she came back into the room, but after a while even she softened up. Tao was by now stretched out on the floor. Only Kyungsoo, holed up closest to the fire with his robes pulled tightly around him, did not seem to partake of the lightened mood. Nevertheless, Luhan smiled, looking around the scene of apparent domesticity. He hadn't been in such a place since... since before he'd been sent away by his family to join the ranks of the Templars. And even then though, family life had always been a little more complicated. 

He caught Minseok's gaze by chance, twin smiles on their faces. Minseok's, however, fell the moment he looked at Luhan. Still, their eyes held for a long moment. Minseok then tilted his head towards the door, a telltale sign to meet him outside. 

Luhan pulled on his furs before stepping outside. They were filthy by now, matted and smelly and forever damp despite having been dried beside the fire just now. It was yet a reminder of how long they'd been doing this: traveling, wandering, whatever this was. And for all that time there had never been a period without some huge misunderstanding standing in between Luhan and Minseok. 

"Well?" Luhan asked him, pretending to keep it light. 

To his surprise, Minseok didn't immediately have anything to say. He stood still and gazed off into the distance, which due to the darkened night wasn't very far. "Walk with me," he said instead a minute later. 

They went only so far as the logging shed. Luhan walked carefully around the large machine until he found a place to perch. The shed was open on one side; snow drifted in but stopped before it reached the templar's toes. Minseok sat beside him.

"When did you know?" asked the mage. 

"About Yixing?" By now Luhan wasn't going to feign innocence. 

"Yes."

"Since Orzammar."

That shocked Minseok. He turned to Luhan sharply. "What? How?"

Luhan stared at his boots and swallowed heavily. "When I was ill in bed..."

"Did Yixing tell you?" asked Minseok incredibly. 

Luhan shook his head. "No, your... brother did."

A whole range of emotions passed over the mage's face before he spoke again. The first one was disbelief, then shock, then confusion. Luhan stared at his feet and bit the inside of his cheek. Unbelievably, he felt guilty for keeping the secret so long. He never doubted that Minseok's brother, Xiumin, was as dangerous as Minseok said, and still he'd kept his mouth shut all this time. For letting the apostate creep in between Luhan and Minseok's relationship, for making him want to doubt Minseok, for still making him doubt certain things...

At long last, Minseok spoke. "I wish you had told me sooner."

Luhan shook his head. "Believe me, so do I."

"Why did he?"

"He said it was a goodwill offering." Luhan laughed. "Well, technically he gave me a bottle of lyrium, but I think it was a bribe."

"What?" Minseok choked, and Luhan immediately dug into the back of his furs where he'd kept the precious liquid. It was the last one he left. The only one. The rest were lost somewhere in the Deep Roads and for every day since then Luhan breathed shallowly hoping he wouldn't need it. Had it truly been a goodwill offering? There was no guarantee Xiumin's potion wasn't actually poison.

"Let me see it," said Minseok. He turned the bottle over in his hands, fingers poring over the stopper until he pulled it out. He sniffed, delicately wafting the air towards his nose. 

"What is it?" 

"It is, lyrium."

"And is it safe?" Luhan hardly dared ask.

"I believe so. Why do you say it was a bribe? What else did he tell you?"

"Nothing." From the slight rise of his voice, Luhan knew Minseok would not accept his answer. He took in one long, deep breath, the bitter cold air staining his lungs. "Well, he also suggested you were keeping some things from me. From us. Are you, Minseok? I think I know you well enough by now. You want to find the others, and you've been leading us thus far. You and Kyungsoo... I don't know what the two of you are about, but for some reason he has your trust even more than I and that makes me feel..."

Luhan sighed, frustrated. Because he didn't know how that made him feel. Jealous? For sure they did not have the same relationship as Luhan and Minseok did, which... whatever kind of relationship they had even Luhan did not exactly know. 

"You're right," said Minseok, cutting off Luhan's inner monologue. 

Luhan scoffed. "I'm right?"

The mage allowed himself to smile, his head tilting sideways. "I mean, that I've been keeping secrets. Luhan, I don't trust you less than I do Kyungsoo, but it was Kyungsoo's secret, and at first I wasn't sure what to do about it."

"What do you mean it was his secret? And it has something to do about why you think we should find the others? How? Is it about Sehun?" Luhan caught himself before he could get even more paranoid. If it was about the boy then who knew anything anymore. Since the beginning of their journey Sehun had gone from being disguised as a girl, then he was a bastard son of an arl, then a hounded heir marked for death. Come to find out he'd had an assassin on his tail all along, there to keep him safe, and not only that but now there was Kyungsoo... silent but desperate to track him again.

"What does Kyungsoo want with him?" For it was now clear that whatever Minseok meant, it had something to do with that tainted man. 

Minseok looked pain. "He doesn't want him necessarily," he softly admitted. "It's what he has..." 

"I don't understand." What could Sehun possibly have?

"There's a necklace," said Minseok quickly, softly. "He wears it around his neck, usually under his robes. It's a family heirloom, I think. Very old. From what Kyungsoo has said, it seems to have belonged to the arl's family, given at birth to Sehun's mother to prove his lineage, bastard or not."

"A necklace," repeated Luhan. "Kyungsoo has been tracking Sehun for months, for a necklace. What, is so special about this necklace?"

If possible, Minseok's voice dropped even lower, and there was a slight tremble about his lower lip. "On its own... nothing."

"But."

"But, together with two other gems... something, incredible. Miraculous, maybe. Something, that may not even be possible, but there are legends. Legends so old they've been forgotten by almost everyone. Even Yixing barely believed it could exist. I certainly didn't until-"

He stopped, mouth gaping, as if trapped in his own incredulous wonder. He looked up, and Luhan held his gaze for a long moment, testing the mage's resolve.

"It's called the Well of Emerald Waters. I have... seen it."

"You've been there?!" 

Quickly, Minseok shook his head. "No. Not in person. In a trance." 

Luhan felt ill. "A trance," he repeated. "Exactly when was this trance?"

The mage shuffled where he perched and stared at his toes. "You know it."

Because Luhan did. For hours he had cried, panicked near until death at the state of an apostate mage, unconscious in his arms, suddenly precious but very mortal. "When you touched the ring," Luhan breathed softly, his voice nevertheless rising. "When you almost died. That ring, it was the second gem? To do what? What is the Well of Emerald Waters?"

Minseok shook his head. "I don't know exactly."

"You must have an idea."

"I do, but... it requires all the gems just to find out. And then to see if it's true, if it's even worth taking that risk. I haven't told anyone but I'm scared actually. Of the well, of those gems. Of Kyungsoo's resolve. He's so determined to find them all to unite them and activate the well, but Luhan, they were cursed for a reason. If it had been anyone else but me whose skin touched that ring, they might have died! Only because I was a mage... but no, not even that. Even if I'd been a less powerful mage, I could have still died."

Luhan remembered all too clearly. "But that ring... Max, or Changmin, whatever his name was... he, he must have touched it right? It even had his initials engraved inside the band."

"They're a cult. They probably worship the well. The fact they even know it exists and probably how to activate it is scary enough. I've no doubt whoever belongs to the cult and to that family has long employed magic in order to wield the gems."

"But they only had one."

Minseok nodded. "Yes, the ring."

"Which we lost..."

The mage hesitated, but continued nevertheless. "And the necklace. It makes sense both the ring and necklace at one point belonged to the arl's ancestors. Two jewels passed down two separate family lines."

The math at this point was begging to be asked. "And the third?"

Minseok sighed. "It's a bracelet. Kyungsoo has it. He found it and touched it."

Pain shot across Luhan's brow, the effects of fear. "He touched it!? Is that why he's... he's..." He didn't know what Kyungsoo was, but diseased unto death sounded about right, and if Minseok had likewise been cursed then...

"No!" Minseok hastily avowed. "No, that's something else. No, but when he touched it he also fell into a trance like I did. And it didn't kill him because he's already... Well, anyways that's how he learned about the well's existence. The vision I... that we had... it beckons you."

Recognizing at least one thing Minseok still refused to explain, Luhan let that go. However, he paled. "Minseok, if you and Kyungsoo both touched the gems and were cursed, then why hasn't Sehun? If that necklace has been with him his whole life-"

"It's encased. I took a good look at it once I realized. Somewhere long ago somebody must have realized it was cursed. The emerald stone is buried beneath an outer layer. It's safe to touch."

"You're sure then that it's the gem?"

"Positive. It has residual power, call it an essence or whatever. I know it's the one."

Another cold gust of wind swept across them both, and Luhan shivered. "The ring, the necklace, the bracelet. And all three together somehow power a mysterious well that you don't really know how it works."

The mage nodded demurely. "Correct."

"But we lost the ring, so why are we still on this track? Unless you just want to make sure Sehun never loses that necklace or Kyungsoo activates the well or-"

"I didn't lose it."

Luhan's heart practically drops out of his chest. "What?"

"I... d-didn't lose it."

"How!? It was on the packhorse that escaped during the dragon attack- when Yixing attacked, but it got away and.. and..." At the mage's trembling lower lip, at the blush of guilt burning now across his face, Luhan knew anger. And fear. "You secured it. You never lost it. You want to find the well. That was the secret Xiumin meant, wasn't it. Makers Blood! I just realized: does your brother know about this?! Is that why he's been after us too?"

"Yes... yes, and yes, everything's a blasted, bloody yes! He found out somehow. Probably after he tried to kill me the first time. But that's why he tried to trap us in Orzammar. He wants the gems, all of them. I've got the ring, though he hasn't been able to get it off me yet. But even in Orzammar, Kyungsoo protected Sehun and kept them both hidden, so both the bracelet and necklace were safe from him. I just worry, without knowing how grave the situation is, how long will Sehun be safe on his own. His protectors only care about his life, which is a good start, but Xiumin doesn't need to kill Sehun to steal the necklace. And then he'll come after us. One way or another, he will come for us."

"Minseok, what is the well that so many people want it?" Luhan probably didn't want to know. Knowing probably wouldn't put him at ease, but now it was a case of necessity. "Minseok?" 

The mage trembled some more. "I don't know the details, but if the legends are true... if the gems are really the key to activating it, then it's said drinking from the well brings about a kind of... new life?"

"A new life?"

"Power," whispered Minseok. "Power and... immortality. At who knows what cost to the world." 

Luhan gasped. Minseok's revelation wasn't even the scariest thing about it. The mage sounded fearful, but he was also in awe. What worried the templar most, was the spark in his eyes just speaking those words. 

3,470 words

WOOOO An update!!!!! Everyone still with me here? Apologies for the long delays. I've had something of a new life development recently and it looks a little like... this: 

I should be back, hopefully not so long this time, with a new update soon! FYI, if you can't tell we are wrapping up some plot events and moving along quickly. Expect some action next chapter!