🖤💜: Stuck in the maze of choices; tired of dead ends and chaos; we were wandering around looking for the right answer. 💜🖤
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This place have always had a beautiful allure in it.
No matter how many times she visits here, her mind and body, both feel rejuvenated. Her insides always fills up with some unsung lore of another world - calling out to her. It can't be heard, it can only be felt from within the soul.
She has asked the learned lady about this feeling long ago. And she has gotten an answer she couldn't understand back then but now, after all these years, she can read it like a language. She had to work hard for this but turns out that practicing chakra control with the help of the witches here didn't go in vain.
On their way towards the Ancestor's Tomb, the siblings had not exchanged a single word between them. It took her a good thirty seconds herself to process the information. Sun knew, they have all been waiting for a miracle to happen. In between overwhelming despair and recollecting themselves with hope over and over again, somehow, the idea of getting into anywhere near a solution had started to seem impossible. And then one day, the dam broke and it was suddenly too much to take in. Sun may or may not have made up countelss scenarios on her head about what she's going to do when Lady Serena wakes up, but now that it has become reality, she couldn't think of anything except getting to her and question what the hell took her so fucking long if she were to pull the stunt all by herself, all along.
Her insider were squirming and hissing furiously like hungry Titanoboas but no one could understand that looking at her calm, solemn face.
"Has everyone else arrived yet?"
"They took off the moment they heard the news. I only slacked behind to bring you with me."
They jumped down from the trees and and walked rapidly towards the area which seemed to be restricted by strong magical barrier.
"You believe this yet?"
"Not until I see with my own damn eyes."
"Hobi had nothing to do with it right?"
"Nope."
They were all a little edged and it was completely normal provided the circumstances they were in right now. As soon as they reached near the barrier they noticed the pale, tall vampire too.
"Hobi!"
"Sun! Yoongi! You guys are finally here!"
"You were waiting for us?"
"Kinda. She said I need the linked daylight rings to enter." Hoseok pointed towards the witch who was guarding the barrier. "I was hoping you could tail me with you."
"I told you it doesn't work that way!" The witch said in an annoyed tone.
"Then remove the barrier!" Yoongi barked, "this is no time for things like these!"
"We can't compromise the Lady's safety!"
"No one needs to do anything!" Another voice came forward from the other side of the barrier.
"Genevieve!" Sun banged her fists on the barrier. "Let him in."
"Take this and come inside." She pulled a ring out of her left hand and handed that to Hoseok, her arm piercing out of the barrier seamlessly.
"Thank you."
They all entered altogether, following Genevieve while the other witch complained, "I thought the number of links were limited!"
".....Which needs to change!" She completed her sentence.
Lord Jonghyun with a few of the clan elders was already there. As she entered the room, her heart practically beating out of her chest, Sun wondered for a moment if this was all a dream. If she was just too deep in her slumber and this will all be gone once she wakes up. While she took grave steps into the room, and saw her mother sitting up on the bed..... Yes, sitting up instead of the image her mind was used to, she still couldn't believe with her own eyes. Unless the Lady smiled at her and her brother's direction and said the words, "You look good dear!"
They locked eyes and it took everything for her not to lounge forward and wrap her arms around her mother's neck, but seeing everyone there she controlled herself. It felt as if a century worth worry and frustration lifted off her chest and right now, she just wanted to scream her lungs out at the void and curse as well as thank the universe at the same time.
"Come here." She called her.
Sun inertly walked towards her and Lady Serena took her palm into her hands. Her sparkling eyes shot up and met her own, an amused smile decorating her ageless beauty.
"You've been practicing chakra manipulation!"
"Yes, mother.... " Sun smiled back, probably stretching her cheeks that much for the first time in a while in front of everyone. And God, how good it felt to be able address her mother once again. "Genevieve has helped me with that."
Everyone looked at the witch who was struggling with tears and snot, pretty much with every other member of the Wallflower coven.
"This is a miracle! Mother nature has finally listened to our prayers....!" She walked towards Lady Serena, kneeling in front of her near the bed. "We had almost given up hope milady! Thank God you are here with us now! We can't do anything without your guidance! We were lost!"
Lady Serena kindly caressed her chin, "I'm here!"
A witch came stumbling from the next room.
"I've done every examination. The Lady is in her prime health!"
"That's an assuring news." It was Lord Jonghyun who spoke this time. "We were almost about to take extreme measure for your resurrection Milady; going to the length of ingathering Minho's blood.... "
"Sabrina couldn't free herself from his grasp at all... " A grimace fell on her features.
"Milady.... " The witch who checked Lady Serena's health approached her with glass of herbal mixture. "You need to drink this."
"Thank you."
She drank the potion and the place got draped in a thick silence. Since the moment she arrived here, Sun couldn't take her eyes off of Lady Serena. She was just as before the incident happened. Not even a single crease was to be seen on her skin; more like she had returned to the buoyant youth of a mid twenties judy. Did she do something while she was out? Or is it just her eyes playing tricks with her?
Before she could ask that herself, Genevieve snatched away her words. "Milady, as much as we are glad to have you back, we are also curious about how you did it! None of us has sensed anything from your core!"
"O dear.... " She smiled mysteriously, taking another sip.
Sun wanted to punch the wall on her side and break it.
Genevieve stared at Lady Serena for a good five seconds and then her eyes widened, earning an involuntary gasp from her.
"Milady, don't tell me.... "
"Exactly." Her smile widened, "I still haven't achieved perfection although seven years were never enough to begin with.... "
"Gen! What is it?" Sun shouted at her and she replied dumbfounded -
"Milady has unlocked the secondary core!"
"WHAT!" All the other witches in the room said in unison. Lord Jonghyun let out a heartfelt laughter while the siblings and Hoseok kept looking around.
"It's a hidden source of magic a witch harbors inside her", Lady Serena explained, "The core we use is only a channel for the natural energy flowing through us, bound by spell. But the secondary energy comes directly from the soul. There's no possibility of running out of energy when you are using your secondary source."
That's ridiculously tempting.
"And I'd do the audacity of adding another information." Genevieve was now smiling ear to ear, "In the whole history of witchcraft, only the Elder Witch was able to unlock her secondary source! THIS IS A HUGE ACHIEVEMENT!"
"Oh.... " Sun couldn't even express her surprise. "That's.... Wow... Okay. Great. Of course. Wow..."
Shoving her hands into her pant pockets, she turned at Yoongi, who was smiling showing his gum and that calmed her down.
"I've started to store energy inside the secondary core long ago, even before all these. Genevieve, you said that you didn't sense anything from my primary core did you?"
"Yes milady."
"That's because I've been channeling the regeneration towards the secondary one."
"All this time?" Sun couldn't help but ask, "which means you've been conscious! I mean, unconscious but conscious..... "
"Somewhere between the line. Sabrina had completely drained my primary core that day despite what she had said. But she didn't sense my secondary core. And that's what saved my life."
"That means.... Milady, you also know everything about our affairs. I have no doubt."
"Observing from quiet is not everyone's cup of tea."
She suddenly exchanged glances with Hoseok, and he tensed up a little. That didn't pass above Sun's head.
The evening went by quite beautifully. After Lady Serena concealed her magic, the witches put down the barrier. They lit up the whole coven with scented candles and decorated with their magic. Lord Jonghyun uncovered his centuries old wine collection which Sun had no idea about and she made up her mind about stealing a bottle or two from there. While sitting on the high rock, she looked around with a pepero stick in between her lips. It wasn't that she didn't enjoy being there; knowing everyone in the coven as well as her clan was happy to have the Lady back to them, assuring their safety once again.
Most of her clan members almost thought that Minho is going to lick dust now; from what she overheard from their conversations. She may or may not have laughed a little thinking about how people can still hope for the tables to turn. And seeing that, her fate written by the upper hand, also, may or may not have laughed a little at the courses of events in her life she couldn't fathom coming, yet.
Hoseok was suddenly standing at ground near the rock.
"Let's go. Lady Serena has summoned us."
So, it's finally time for the talk.
Jumping down the rock, Sun took a final look at her surroundings, unable to make sure if this feeling of gratification will last after what's Lady Serena is going to discuss with them.
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There was no one else in the room except the people directly involved in her life; not even the clan elders. The vampires were out for hunting and the witches got busy with their own affairs. They gathered up in Lady Serena's old chamber like they used to and the small circle brought a sense of comfort in her but at the same time, Sun wondered what could possibly be the reason that needed this level of privacy.
Genevieve was the only witch there; helping Lady Serena with some of her stuffs.
After lighting up the lamps, Lady Serena took her seat by the table and put her palm on the book.
"Where do I start..... "
"How about the tomfoolery of that prophecy we all believed in?"
Sun regretted those words immediately after it came out of her sharp tongue like that. She noticed her father glaring at her, Hoseok looking at her hopeless (how ironic) and that son of a bitch she doubted as her brother, trying to supress his laughter behind his palm.
"Have some respect, dear.... " Lord Jonghyun crossed his arms.
"I'm sorry..... I'm a little.....grrrrr.....edged...... " Sun pursed her lips, "sorry mother."
"It's alright dear..... " There was a mysterious smirk on her lips that said there was more to it than Sun thought. Suddenly Lady Serena put her palm on her biceps and said the words, "After all, you've been through the worst amongst all of us."
She felt like Lady Serena was looking into her soul with those hazel orbs, searching for the ugliest demons that reprimanded her loneliest moment. She felt so bare under her gaze that she had to jerk her hand away, trying to get over the awkwardness by running her hand through her hair.
"The secondary core is a powerful weapon if one knows how to use it."
"..... Or whom to use on." Sun completed her sentence.
Lady Serena did nothing but chuckled sweetly. Then suddenly she was all serious and everyone knew it was business now.
"We have stumbled upon a roadblock but that doesn't mean the path ahead doesn't exist."
"What else could be there?" Lord Jonghyun asked, "Milady, Minho had already consumed the Sacred Blood."
"No, he didn't."
All the heads turned towards her in unison.
"Minho drank the blood in front of our eyes!" Sun immediately retorted, "None of you did but I have seen him transform into the monster!"
"He did but that wasn't the whole story. What he drank wasn't the real Sacred Blood. It's something I had derived from that, unbeknownst to you all in the past."
There was pin drop silence in the room. The wind outside rattled the windows and shook the candle flame a little. As soon as the words enter her ears, thoughts like swarm of locust tried to paralyze her brain. But with the instinctive reflex of a warrior, she prevented that from happening.
"But, mother.... He was crazy strong.... You're telling me he had the artificial one and it made him THAT?"
"Eight drops of the Sacred Blood and he's ruling over the whole vampire race now. I assess you can already imagine what the real blood is capable of doing.... "
"So where is the vial now?" Yoongi broke his silence after a while.
"It's in a safe place. I've kept it hidden."
Her eyes widened for a single moment and then her jaw clenched; her windpipe trying to fight against the knife being shoved into it, which others around him had no idea about.
"So you're saying that.... " Crimson flased in her eyes, "....All this time, we had the vial with us and you decide to sleep on it for seven years and now you're claiming that THIS WAS ALL FOR NOTHING! ALL THE SUFFERING..... THE PAIN... ALL FOR NOTHING!"
Sun jumped up from her seat with her true form completely exposed. Lady Serena too, stood up sternly; her hands flashing up with a blue hue.
"I had no choice Youngsun! I manipulated with the force of nature and I had to pay the price! You think it was easy for me? To see you suffer? To see your significant other go through all of that.... "
"..... We are not including him in this conversation!"
".... But it has everything to do with him!" Lady Serena looked at Sun, her eyes holding the kindness of the whole universe.
"No, no, no...... " She stumbled backwards, tripping on her toes but Hoseok was quick enough to stand up and gather her in his arm.
She understood now, that she should have known better. The way Lady Serena was chosing the words carefully, treating her with her grace, Sun should have seen this coming long ago.
Her significant other. Is there still something like that in her life? Or had she closed the door permanently long ago at that doomed night?
"Youngsun, please.... " Lady Serena approached her again, "Listen to me first. You need to know. Everyone here need to know."
Hoseok made her sit beside Yoongi and Sun felt her brother's hands stroking her kneecap under the table. It has always been his way to calm her down, his love language to his sister. Letting out a deep sigh, Sun rested her head backwards on the chair and closed her eyes.
She wanted to cry. She wanted to scream. She wanted to blow things up. Seven years ago, she had already committed an unforgivable crime in a delusion of protecting him. But now, all the sacrifices as well as the pride of playing God.... It all blew away like a puff of celestial dust.
Nothing. All these years of suffering and yearning.... All for nothing.
"Before you judge me any further.... You need to know why I did that." The learned Lady took her seat again. "Have you heard of the bootstrap paradox?"
"Bootstrap paradox?" Lord Jonghyun who was sitting gravely this whole time, tried to take it in. "A causal loop, hypothetical though, where you travel backwards in time, make an event happen and that results in giving you the reason to travel time in the first place. The origin of the event or the reason is lost here. Am I right?"
"You are, my lord." Lady Serena sat up straight. "I have told you that the vial was in my possession seven years ago. But more precisely, I had that with me for the past fourteen years to the..... I think you're losing me here."
"Yeah milady... " Yoongi spoke casually, "Please speak English."
"I'll provide you with timestamp. The incident regarding Minho happened in the year 2015. Before the attack, I had figured out a spell to dilate the blood and make something out of it, which he consumed because I kept that with me. Sun, you remember I told you it can only be opened by your handprint?"
"Yes." Came her monotonous reply.
"That made them believe, and you too, that it was the original vial. But actually, I had travelled back in time before all that and handed the vial to myself in 2008. I still remember that moment when my future version, which is me from 2015, came to me and told me about everything that needs to be done. So, basically, I have had the vial in my possession from year 2008 to 2015. My future version gave the vial to my past self and that's how it came to my hand in the first place. Even I don't know the origin of the Sacred Blood."
What the actual chickenshit fuck.....
"Wow.... " Yoongi sighed, "this is crazier than a sci-fi movie.... "
"Mother.... You.... " Sun finally opened her mouth, speaking like she got over the initial shock, "you could have sealed it or hidden it in some chamber.... "
"I couldn't. Sabrina could have easily found it using dark magic. I had to chose a timestamp where she still hadn't associated herself with the dark forces.... "
"..... Which could have been just a year or two! Not seven freaking years!"
"..... Let me finish. Sabrina had started using dark magic five or six months before the incident... "
"...That's even better..... "
".... But that was not the only clause. Do you remember the White Tiger spirit I told you about?"
".... Yes... What about it?"
"I had to break the separate the spirit from the case to break the seal and prepare the fake blood. Then I had to connect them again and take it back in time where it would be safe. But, in this loop, something different happened."
"A variable?" Lord Jonghyun asked.
"Yes. And it was you, my dear.... " Lady Serena turned her head towards Sun, "You fell in love."
She shifted very uncomfortably on her seat.
"A variable is an applicable data that can be put in an equation, resulting in two or more different outcomes. When I travelled in past, I had two choices. One..... " She created a hologram in the air with her magic, "I could have given my past self the case associated with the spirit and returned to my intact timeline in 2015 or.... I could have given myself just the case and hide the spirit within your lover boy in 2008. I made the second choice."
A scoff escaped her lungs and "You practically included him in this mess for nothing!"
"You actually think that, dear? And by that you also mean you're okay with not associating him in your life at all?"
She couldn't answer that.
Lady Serena did nothing but smile fondly at her, continuing her explanation, "I had to go seven years backwards because that was the most appropriate time to hide the spirit in him. His mother had passed away not so long ago and he was vulnerable; making it easier for me put the spirit without much resistance. Because I made the choice, my 2008 version would now reach the year 2015 without the spirit. And when she would continue her loop, she would visit her past with the spirit missing."
"Which basically eliminates the spirit from the timeline completely."
"I thought that too, but time is the strongest force of nature. It will find it's way back to the main stream by adjustments. I changed the reality of the seven year's loop and that's why I had to pay the price. Seven years were taken away from my life too."
"So where is the spirit right now?"
"It's exactly where I put it."
"And how will we retrieve the vial?"
"I'll extract the vial from somewhere between 2008 to 2015. And it will erase the loop permanently from the continuum along with all the split realities created by it."
"You don't have to pay the price this time milady?"
"No. I'll be putting everything back where they are supposed to." Lady Serena stood up and circled the table, standing behind Sun and putting her hands on her beloved daughter's shoulder. "The awakening of my secondary core has also happened for the first in the loop; along with you receiving the greatest gift in the world.... "
Sun lowered her head, her ears burning in embarrassment.
"....So, let's make it right, shall we?"
A heavy silence pregnant with hope fell on the room. Sun suddenly stood up and halted for a second at the door.
"I'm going out for some air."
Once she stepped out of the room she suddenly realized that the world didn't look the same as it did even an hour ago. The sky was still black, the air was still invisible and the firewood burning in front of her eyes glowed with the same red hue.
Only, now, there was beauty in everything.
The world and every tiny element in it, which she grew tremendous hatred towards, suddenly started rythming with the timid music erupting from her heart and she felt connected, grounded.... After a very long time in her 40 years of lifespan.
She suddenly remembered what it feels like to be loved, again.
Closing her eyes, she let the two drops of tear she had been holding all these years, glide down her cheeks and she smiled... feeling like the juvenile woman all over again who fell for that wingless angel for the first time.
Among all the overwhelming feelings, there was a teeny tiny doubt in her mind. She could sense Hoseok approaching her already so when he jumped down from the tree beside her and brushed the dust off of his clothes, she couldn't help thinking out loud.
"Could it be the tiger spirit in him? Dis he get attached to me because of the loyalty bond?"
The wind picked up a little, dropping some dried leaves on their form.
"I don't think so." Hoseok shoved his hands inside his coat pockets. "You haven't comsumed the blood yet, Sun. You have no trace of the Original inside you. So I think he genuinely loved you for who you are."
"I'm scared Hobi." Sun nervously fidgeted with her fingers, "He needs to know the truth and I'm the one who has to do it. I can fight ten of you in my sleep but I'm scared of facing him!" She let out a broken laughter. "Why the fuck is this so difficult?"
"That's because you're still madly in love with him."
Without uttering a single word, Sun took of to feed on animals.
So much to reveal; so much to face; so much to reconsider.
So much to write in their story.
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💜: I have watched DARK and completely understood it. Bwahahahaha.
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