EDEN 5/??
Title: Eden
Author: tikibuddy91
Characters: EXO, SHINee
Word Count: 3700
Genre: AU, adventure, hurt/comfort
Rating: PG
Summary: Joonmyeon and Yifan, co-captains of Angel and Dawn, are sky pirates of the New World. With their crew, they go on series of adventures of searching for their pendants before they find themselves deep into a chase for their lives. A chase that involves a new Eden, their Tree of Life, and a Time Machine and its portals.
Author Note: It is inspired from one of my classic favorite fics from SHINee, Stranded, years back written by the wonderful pikagyu and then I came across these fanarts by Adamasto. I loved the concepts of the Old/New Worlds and sky pirates, so I decided to do something about it. :)
“Okay…so now that we’ve got the ages figured out…what about the pendants? And what does Aithyr have to do with the prophecy?” Key inquires. “You never wrote anything about this in the letters, and we’re finding out so many things about you guys right now… How the hell did Novae Alliance know so much about your pendants before we did? And wait, how is it that you guys were able to just stop aging?”
“Whoa, don’t get your panties in a twist,” Luhan says, who would have sounded indignant if it wasn’t for his weak chuckle. “One at a time, Key…”
“The heart of the elemental powers lies within the eternal offspring relative of a burning star…” Taemin mutters to himself, staring at the giant, silver flaming metal rock behind the glass wall. “Aithyr is a meteor, isn’t it?”
“In a basic sense, yes; it’s more of an everlasting burning meteor.”
“Everlasting? The flame doesn’t burn out?”
“Nope, it never has. We found it at the crater of Mont Sol, a dormant volcano in the Old World.”
Key whistles low. “And who’s your goddess that protects you? Or god?”
Zitao looks a little disdainfully at Key. “We don’t have a deity to protect us, if that’s what you mean… We have a divine superior being, whom we call Mama.”
“The same name you called out earlier?” Onew questions Suho, in which he gets a nod in response. “Okay…who is this Mama? She’s…the mother of…?”
“Not exactly; she is the royal divine queen of the universe.”
Silence befalls the room.
“Of the…of the universe, you say?” Key sounds flabbergasted.
“Mhm,” Zitao says calmly, with assertion.
“And who’s her husband, the king?”
“None, she alone rules the universe herself.”
Now the whole Lucifer crew looks astonished, but not long before Minho speaks up. “…And she can hear your prayers from way out there?”
“…Not exactly prayers? I mean… there’re not really any routines or rituals done to communicate with her. We just…call her for her aid when we need to, or talk to her for answers.
“Well, this is the first time I’m hearing something like this,” Key mutters. “A royal divine being, watching over the universe? We have a goddess who watches out for us; and she never intervenes unless it is for a good reason, which almost never happens.” He chuckles.
“So now, since you all have this ‘superior divine queen’”- Key does the air quotes with his hands -“surely you guys should have some kind of deity associated with this ship? Our allies, they have their deities… Shock with Coincidence, ours with Fate, New ABO with Truth…”
“…Uhm…” Suho looks around, not knowing how to respond to that. “We…uh…”
“…Are you serious? It’s just Mama?” Key gives a look of disbelief.
“Well no not…exactly…” Suho hesitates. “We actually have minor deities, though they’re pretty ancient…”
A moment of silence befalls the room for the umpteenth time.
“…what?”
“Annnd we’re digging more deeper to this legend about the twelve of you…gee whiz,” Key mutters. “This is kinda a lot to take in, you guys. But let’s just keep going at it. What is it about these minor ancient deities that isn’t really considered for this ship?”
“The deities…they’re more like protectors of the chosen ones with the corresponding pendants. These pendants, they each have a name, but the locations where they are hidden, often has a temple, shrine, or monument dedicated to the deity.”
“So the names given by Mama herself, are the names of the ancient deities?”
“No, the names are of the pendants themselves, the power is from the deities. When we summon our powers, we call the names of the pendants to awaken the powers within.”
“The deities not only protect the locations where these pendants are held, they protect us too. They had created riddles for anyone to solve, in order to gain access to the pendants. That’s what the prophecy meant by ‘Where they are hidden, they must be solved.’ Riddles are one of the highest protections that the deities can offer to the pendants, because they usually require deep logic and sometimes…sacrifice.”
“Sacrifices, including lives?” Minho asks.
“We don’t know… We may live to be only twenty-two years old for eternity, and we aren’t exactly immortal; we are prone to death…and pain. I almost drowned under the sea not too long ago after discovering the pendant in an underwater temple, and I thought that was the end of it. But somehow, I don’t know if it was the deity or the pendant that rescued me and willed me to live. Giving ourselves to the pendants and deities, we earn protection from them.”
“These pendants…as well as the other eight of them, were devised by Mama long before the Great Divide happened. She gave them names, and scattered them across the Old World.”
“And the names of the pendants…? What are they?” Taemin studies Kris and Suho’s pendants resting on their chests.
“And don’t mention the deities’ names, please, for our sakes. Just the names of the pendants would suffice,” Key interrupts.
“Vitaquæ, Water of Life.”
“Draconi, Dragon.”
“Ge’Qan’Dong, Telekinesis.”
“Qanik, Frost.”
“These are indeed ancient languages…languages of the Old World.” Taemin marvels. Suho nods.
“Anyway, when the solar eclipse happened, Mama came to us in our ethereal forms. She didn’t expect to find out just before the solar eclipse that the gods of this world were planning to break up the Old World due to the magic overdose on the lands. And so, still in our ethereal forms, we were told that Time has decided to pass on much slowly for us than it would in the physical world. We had witnessed the transition of the Old World to the New World, the breaking up and the creation.
“That delayed our search for the pendants, or rather, the calls’ of the pendants to us. When the lands broke up, it messed with the connection between the pendants and us, the supposed masters. The four pendants we’ve found, each of them had been displaced from where they had originally been in the Old World.”
“I’m sorry… Displaced?” Jonghyun asks.
“Remember Velspar, Jonghyun?” Onew reminds him. Jonghyun remembers with an ‘oh!’, nodding with understanding.
“Hang on,” Jonghyun starts, “Jinki, you met them before the Great Divide, and all of you, you had your hometowns… When the prophecy said ‘When the twelve are gathered under a total eclipse of a burning star’, how did you all come together in the first place?”
The crew of Angel share looks, hesitant on how to narrate the story.
“Well…” Xiumin starts, as he makes his way to the screens. “Let us show you.” He stops before the middle screen and says, “Activate Old World map. Homeland: Ghondwan.”
The middle screen turns on and a map of Ghondwan is shown, with its coastlines and geographic features, and its neighboring lands. A giant crater is placed to the northwest of the land, in the middle of the desert.
“Whoa…this is the Old World?” Jonghyun breathes, awed at what he sees.
“This was where most of us came from…before you came along, Jonghyun,” Onew watches his lover with sadness in his voice. “I had not realized just how long it had been… You can see Velspar here,” - he points to the area on the map on Ghondwan that has the familiar woodsy environment and the Velsparian Temple - “and the temple… My stars, I’ve forgotten how close we were to the bay before the Great Divide…”
Suho nods. “We came from a city south of Velspar, called Jondr.”
“Sehun and I came from Gyndr,” Kai voices out.
“…Gyndr?” Taemin breathes. “But…that’s where I was from…”
Kai gives Taemin a pointed look. “You came from the New Gyndr. We came from the Old Gyndr.”
“We came from Zang’ria,” Zitao quickly intervenes, as he indicates himself, Chen and Lay, “which is to the north of Velspar.”
“Zang’ria? Isn’t that where the m-“
“The monks, priests, shamans, and almost every religious figures reside? Yes,” Zitao nods. “And Zang’ria is not just a religious center of Ghondwan, it is also the center of intellectually advanced civilizations. Faith and science work separately but they coexist together by putting aside our differences.”
“And we just hail from a small seaport town called Ghondwanjementum,” Baekhyun says almost half-heartedly.
The crew of Lucifer looks at Baekhyun as if he said something atrocious.
“…Say what now?” Key shoots a look on apprehension. “Ghondwan-ye-man-thumb?”
“Ghondwanjementum,” D.O and Chanyeol echo.
Onew and Jonghyun stare hard at the three of them as Taemin and Minho try to repeat what they had just heard. Some members of the Angel crew are giggling.
“It literally means, ‘the mouth of Ghondwan.’” Baekhyun chuckles as he rolls his eyes. “Lame, I know…”
“Uh…wow. Such a long name for a small town…” Onew looks back at the map to study it further. “All of these locations seem pretty far from each other… Did you all gather at one point or you accumulated as you travelled across Ghondwan?”
“Don’t be silly, Jinki. We met in one place, Jondr. Our…parents had something to do with the prophecy, actually…”
Only Kris, Luhan and Xiumin are able to catch the sadness in the younger captain’s voice. The rest are oblivious to it.
“How so?”
Suho sighs. “For many generations, our parents and ancestors have been a part of this cult that keep watch for the solar eclipses. Our bloodlines trace back to the time when the prophecy was born. My ancestors discovered an ancient cave in that area,” he points to the meteor crater on the map, “and there were drawings on the walls. Activate right screen, photographs from Ancient Ghondwan Cave.”
As Suho commands the screen, the center screen zooms into the northwestern area before an inset appears on the screen and moves over to the right screen, dispersing into many images of the cave’s interior.
What appears on the right screen makes the whole crew of the Lucifer gasp.
“That’s where we got the inspiration of our wall designs from.”
Patterns of hexagons, big and small, are spread about on the earthen walls. The twelve symbols lined up in continuous rows on the top and bottom edges. One wall has a female hooded figure suspended in midair with the sun and moon on either side of her.
“That’s Mama?” Jonghyun points to the screen, looking at Suho. The young captain nods.
“Okay, but how did you come together anyway?” Key mutters. “Did your parents just said, ‘My child, the time has come for you to be on your merry way and meet our friends’ children, for your purpose is to gather under a solar eclipse before you can become masters of the elements’ and b-“ He is silenced by Minho and Taemin’s glares. “Right then…”
“Our parents gave us letters…or at least,” D.O spares a glance to Suho and Zitao, “we were given letters written from our parents, a couple months before that last solar eclipse prior to the Great Divide.
“The letters told us about the prophecy and that we were to meet people in Jondr. There, the eight of us met Xiumin, Luhan, Kris, and Suho. We all didn’t know one another; I mean, at least the small groups we came in didn’t know the other groups. Captain Kris here had us all convene in his family’s house.
“Few weeks later, the solar eclipse happened, and when we had gathered under the eclipse, Mama came to us. She told us that we were destined to find the twelve pendants but we were not of age yet. You see, Xiumin, Luhan and Kris were only sixteen at the time, and Mama told us that the pendants will reveal to us when we reach the number reversed in all of us.”
“Twenty-one…because it’s twelve in reverse,” Taemin breathes in realization.
D.O nods. “She then asked us for our blood vow, in exchange for longevity, so I guess, in a sense, immortality.”
“But weren’t you guys in ethereal form though?” Key interrupts. “Souls don’t have blood…”
“Our ethereal forms came after the blood vow. At first, we were hesitant with the decision because who wants to live forever stuck at an age? When we gave her our blood vow, we did not feel any different from before the solar eclipse, but we knew something changed within us.
“Mama had whispered to us the names of the pendants that we were chosen to claim. None of these names could ever be found in books of the Old World, not even from our ancestors themselves. The only source of information was Mama herself, and she could not even tell us until it was time for that person to be summoned by the pendant. Xiumin was first with Qanik, then Luhan with Ge’Qan’Dong, then Kris with Draconi, and recently Captain Suho with Vitaquæ.”
“The elements must not be easy to master, I don’t doubt…” Onew muses.
“For those who have pendants, at first, it does seem challenging. But eventually you get the hang of allowing your pendant to work with you to command the elements. Suho here’s only just begun a few weeks ago, and he’s having some difficulties mastering the water around him,” Xiumin comments. “I’m the master of frost, which isn’t so bad; it is just solidifying the water.”
“Mine wasn’t too bad, either.” Luhan pipes up. “I started with small things and then moved on to bigger things. I don’t necessarily command the air around the objects or myself; I manipulate gravity, I guess. It’s like guiding the air molecules to move around. And the communication thing, that just happened naturally.”
“Hmph, Luhan had it easy. You didn’t have to necessarily work on yourself at first. It was awkward for me at first to get the hang of flying, but it didn’t take me long before I could fly like it’s the most natural thing for me to do,” Kris remarks.
“Yeah, sure…what was pretty funny though was that you started out with flapping your arms,” Luhan jokes as he flaps his arms, earning some laughs from the Angel crew and some smiles from the Lucifer crew. “You and your long limbs, you’d thought you were gonna transform into a dragon or something, just because your pendant was named Draconi.”
Kris glares at his friend, pink flushing his cheeks. “…At least I’m flying now without flapping my wings!” Even with that retort, Kris pulls Suho closer to him with his arm around the younger captain’s shoulders. Suho giggles softly and glances at his co-captain, looking almost apologetic.
“I see…no wonder Novae Alliance is eager to get their hands on them,” Onew rubs his chin thoughtfully, staring at the map of Ghondwan.
“Yeah…”
“Well, hell, this is gonna be an adventure…” Key says bitterly.
“…Why?” Suho looks warily at him.
“Joonmyeon, remember earlier, I mentioned about the Novae Alliance and how they were in search for your pendants? And that we had a misfortune in running into one of their groups at a pub?”
Suho looks at Onew, still wary. “Yes, what about it?”
“It was the crew of One-shot. One of the most deadliest groups anyone would wish to never cross paths with.”
- - -
Suho’s eyes widen at the name, his body stricken with horror. “O-one…shot?”
Onew raises an eyebrow at Suho’s reaction. “…You know someone from there?”
Suho lowers his eyes to the ground, looking forlorn. “…Himchan…one of my neighbors from home…”
The captain of Lucifer slackens at the name, nodding in confirmation. “Aye, Himchan’s in that crew… The captain of the ship is Bang Yongguk. Ring a bell?” Suho shakes his head.
Taemin speaks up. “There are other groups in Red Moon, such as the crews of Hyde and Bimil. In Blue Sun, there’s Pandora, Fire, and such.”
“…Wait, did you say Bimil?”
Everyone looks surprised as they turn to D.O, whose face is aghast and his eyes wide.
“…Yes, I did say Bimil…” Taemin answers calmly. “The captain of that ship is Se-“
“Seo Eunkwang, first mate is Jung Ilhoon, and their pilot is Lim Hyunsik.” D.O huffs, as he is about to fall to his knees. Kai immediately grabs hold of him to keep him steady. “I can’t believe you guys…”
“…You know them, D.O?” Onew asks concernedly.
“Hyunsik was my neighbor back home… Ilhoon and Eunkwang were my brothers’ friends… They were good people… Why did they hide this from me? I knew Eunkwang was going to be a captain back then, and they had also founded Bimil, but they never told me that they were in some sort of alliance!! I hadn’t heard from them in so many years, and it has come to this that I find out they’re our enemy!”
“Wait, wait…” Baekhyun says, “You mean to tell me, that these guys were in our hometown? Chanyeol, did you know about this?!?”
“No! Kyungsoo, how come you knew them and we didn’t??”
“Uh, because he just said they were neighbors,” Jongdae retorts.
“Well, yeah but Kyungsoo, Baekhyun and I went to the same schools! We should’ve met them at some point!”
“Hyunsik…was home-schooled,” D.O explains weakly. “They all were…”
“…Oh.”
An awkward silence ensues as everyone share glances, most looking amazed at these startling discoveries. The captain of the Lucifer swears under his breath as he takes in these details.
“Anyway, how long has it been since your last pendant retrieval? They’re also looking for them too. And even if they get some, they’ll want to snatch yours too before they can enslave you.”
Suho glances at the holographic globe and map, looking completely desperate. “We can’t force the pendants to reveal quickly…” He says sullenly. “The pendants reveal to us in their own time… They call to us. I had recently acquired mine a few days ago… Yifan received his a few months ago. Luhan, at least six months before Yifan had his. And Minseok, he received his not too long before that. There’s no such thing as a pattern in time. It’s all random.”
“Are you serious?” Taemin snaps sharply, an expression of shock clearly written across his face. “We don’t have much time before they get to you all, and the pendants think it’s okay to just wait until they’re ready, or that you are worthy to heed their call? How do you even know when and from where will they call you?”
“With that, smartypants,” Kai says sarcastically, as he points to the table and the globe. He does not make eye contact with Taemin; rather he seems to be talking to the objects themselves.
“That’s why we have every geographic and oceanographic scan readings up to date on these holograms. The mast up on the ship serves as a signal transmitter and receiver, attuned to the magic of the pendants, thanks to Aithyr.” Kai refers to the rock with a nod of his head. “When the pendants send out signals, we can pinpoint accurately to the minute degree and location where it is on the globe and on the table. The map on the table is a zoomed out version of an inset on the globe. Thought you’d figure out by now how this room operates with that book of yours, genius.”
Taemin watches Kai with a miffed yet studious look, as though he is searching for some kind of flaw in Kai’s expression. D.O has sense enough to pull back slightly from his boyfriend’s embrace and scold him softly to stop being so bitter already, emphasizing with a soft punch to Kai’s shoulder.
“So you’re saying that the next eight pendants, you won’t know the names until the time comes? And we won’t know where they will be?” The crewmembers of Angel shake their heads. “And who’s next now?”
“Me, sir,” Lay raises his hand, a small smile on his face. “I’m next.”
“Ahh…Lay, right? The Healer… We haven’t heard one sound from you since we’ve arrived on the Angel.” Onew chuckles as Lay smiles genuinely, showing off his dimples. He then sighs, his eyes scanning the room as he looks onto the faces of Angel’s crew.
“Okay…alright…we’re gonna need more time, and I’ll buy you that. As captain of the Lucifer, I swear to protect you all. We have allies too, and they can help fend off the Novae Alliance for some time. But we don’t have any sky animals quick enough to send letters and be evasive enou-“
“I can call the eagles, Jinki.” Luhan steps up. “I’m also a telepath, so I can communicate with the animals, if needed.”
“…My stars, you can communicate with the animals?” Onew cannot hide his amazement.
Luhan nods. “Whether by mind or verbal communication.” The captain of Lucifer raises his eyebrows.
“Well, then, we can definitely do this. Let’s get your eagles so I can send out letters to our allies.” The Lucifer’s captain lets Luhan lead the way outside the Cordius.
“Wait, Jinki…” Suho stops him with his hand up. Onew stops, turning his gaze on his younger friend.
“Hmm?”
“Thank you, for coming all the way here, to forewarn us. And thank you, for being able to come to our aid, when we didn’t know we needed one.”
“Don’t thank me, actually. Thank Taemin here.” Onew looks to his youngest shipmate. Taemin tenses on his spot, as if Onew’s soft gaze can petrify him. Minho gives his lover a one-armed hug, smiling at him. “He’s the one who wanted us to come here as soon as possible. He wanted us to come to you guys, because he feared for his dear friend’s life, now that he knew where Jongin was and who he was with, according to our letters…” He looks to Kai.
“’Jongin’s my dear friend… Not a day goes by that I don’t even think about him,’ he said,” Onew concludes with a small smile. “’I’d rather die than let him be enslaved…’”
Heads are slowly turning to Kai, as the shipwright stares back at the captain in shock. Taemin averts his eyes to the ground, unable to bear the expression on his friend’s face.
Kai turns his gaze to Taemin, and a wave of shame washes over him.
Author: tikibuddy91
Characters: EXO, SHINee
Word Count: 3700
Genre: AU, adventure, hurt/comfort
Rating: PG
Summary: Joonmyeon and Yifan, co-captains of Angel and Dawn, are sky pirates of the New World. With their crew, they go on series of adventures of searching for their pendants before they find themselves deep into a chase for their lives. A chase that involves a new Eden, their Tree of Life, and a Time Machine and its portals.
Author Note: It is inspired from one of my classic favorite fics from SHINee, Stranded, years back written by the wonderful pikagyu and then I came across these fanarts by Adamasto. I loved the concepts of the Old/New Worlds and sky pirates, so I decided to do something about it. :)
“Okay…so now that we’ve got the ages figured out…what about the pendants? And what does Aithyr have to do with the prophecy?” Key inquires. “You never wrote anything about this in the letters, and we’re finding out so many things about you guys right now… How the hell did Novae Alliance know so much about your pendants before we did? And wait, how is it that you guys were able to just stop aging?”
“Whoa, don’t get your panties in a twist,” Luhan says, who would have sounded indignant if it wasn’t for his weak chuckle. “One at a time, Key…”
“The heart of the elemental powers lies within the eternal offspring relative of a burning star…” Taemin mutters to himself, staring at the giant, silver flaming metal rock behind the glass wall. “Aithyr is a meteor, isn’t it?”
“In a basic sense, yes; it’s more of an everlasting burning meteor.”
“Everlasting? The flame doesn’t burn out?”
“Nope, it never has. We found it at the crater of Mont Sol, a dormant volcano in the Old World.”
Key whistles low. “And who’s your goddess that protects you? Or god?”
Zitao looks a little disdainfully at Key. “We don’t have a deity to protect us, if that’s what you mean… We have a divine superior being, whom we call Mama.”
“The same name you called out earlier?” Onew questions Suho, in which he gets a nod in response. “Okay…who is this Mama? She’s…the mother of…?”
“Not exactly; she is the royal divine queen of the universe.”
Silence befalls the room.
“Of the…of the universe, you say?” Key sounds flabbergasted.
“Mhm,” Zitao says calmly, with assertion.
“And who’s her husband, the king?”
“None, she alone rules the universe herself.”
Now the whole Lucifer crew looks astonished, but not long before Minho speaks up. “…And she can hear your prayers from way out there?”
“…Not exactly prayers? I mean… there’re not really any routines or rituals done to communicate with her. We just…call her for her aid when we need to, or talk to her for answers.
“Well, this is the first time I’m hearing something like this,” Key mutters. “A royal divine being, watching over the universe? We have a goddess who watches out for us; and she never intervenes unless it is for a good reason, which almost never happens.” He chuckles.
“So now, since you all have this ‘superior divine queen’”- Key does the air quotes with his hands -“surely you guys should have some kind of deity associated with this ship? Our allies, they have their deities… Shock with Coincidence, ours with Fate, New ABO with Truth…”
“…Uhm…” Suho looks around, not knowing how to respond to that. “We…uh…”
“…Are you serious? It’s just Mama?” Key gives a look of disbelief.
“Well no not…exactly…” Suho hesitates. “We actually have minor deities, though they’re pretty ancient…”
A moment of silence befalls the room for the umpteenth time.
“…what?”
“Annnd we’re digging more deeper to this legend about the twelve of you…gee whiz,” Key mutters. “This is kinda a lot to take in, you guys. But let’s just keep going at it. What is it about these minor ancient deities that isn’t really considered for this ship?”
“The deities…they’re more like protectors of the chosen ones with the corresponding pendants. These pendants, they each have a name, but the locations where they are hidden, often has a temple, shrine, or monument dedicated to the deity.”
“So the names given by Mama herself, are the names of the ancient deities?”
“No, the names are of the pendants themselves, the power is from the deities. When we summon our powers, we call the names of the pendants to awaken the powers within.”
“The deities not only protect the locations where these pendants are held, they protect us too. They had created riddles for anyone to solve, in order to gain access to the pendants. That’s what the prophecy meant by ‘Where they are hidden, they must be solved.’ Riddles are one of the highest protections that the deities can offer to the pendants, because they usually require deep logic and sometimes…sacrifice.”
“Sacrifices, including lives?” Minho asks.
“We don’t know… We may live to be only twenty-two years old for eternity, and we aren’t exactly immortal; we are prone to death…and pain. I almost drowned under the sea not too long ago after discovering the pendant in an underwater temple, and I thought that was the end of it. But somehow, I don’t know if it was the deity or the pendant that rescued me and willed me to live. Giving ourselves to the pendants and deities, we earn protection from them.”
“These pendants…as well as the other eight of them, were devised by Mama long before the Great Divide happened. She gave them names, and scattered them across the Old World.”
“And the names of the pendants…? What are they?” Taemin studies Kris and Suho’s pendants resting on their chests.
“And don’t mention the deities’ names, please, for our sakes. Just the names of the pendants would suffice,” Key interrupts.
“Vitaquæ, Water of Life.”
“Draconi, Dragon.”
“Ge’Qan’Dong, Telekinesis.”
“Qanik, Frost.”
“These are indeed ancient languages…languages of the Old World.” Taemin marvels. Suho nods.
“Anyway, when the solar eclipse happened, Mama came to us in our ethereal forms. She didn’t expect to find out just before the solar eclipse that the gods of this world were planning to break up the Old World due to the magic overdose on the lands. And so, still in our ethereal forms, we were told that Time has decided to pass on much slowly for us than it would in the physical world. We had witnessed the transition of the Old World to the New World, the breaking up and the creation.
“That delayed our search for the pendants, or rather, the calls’ of the pendants to us. When the lands broke up, it messed with the connection between the pendants and us, the supposed masters. The four pendants we’ve found, each of them had been displaced from where they had originally been in the Old World.”
“I’m sorry… Displaced?” Jonghyun asks.
“Remember Velspar, Jonghyun?” Onew reminds him. Jonghyun remembers with an ‘oh!’, nodding with understanding.
“Hang on,” Jonghyun starts, “Jinki, you met them before the Great Divide, and all of you, you had your hometowns… When the prophecy said ‘When the twelve are gathered under a total eclipse of a burning star’, how did you all come together in the first place?”
The crew of Angel share looks, hesitant on how to narrate the story.
“Well…” Xiumin starts, as he makes his way to the screens. “Let us show you.” He stops before the middle screen and says, “Activate Old World map. Homeland: Ghondwan.”
The middle screen turns on and a map of Ghondwan is shown, with its coastlines and geographic features, and its neighboring lands. A giant crater is placed to the northwest of the land, in the middle of the desert.
“Whoa…this is the Old World?” Jonghyun breathes, awed at what he sees.
“This was where most of us came from…before you came along, Jonghyun,” Onew watches his lover with sadness in his voice. “I had not realized just how long it had been… You can see Velspar here,” - he points to the area on the map on Ghondwan that has the familiar woodsy environment and the Velsparian Temple - “and the temple… My stars, I’ve forgotten how close we were to the bay before the Great Divide…”
Suho nods. “We came from a city south of Velspar, called Jondr.”
“Sehun and I came from Gyndr,” Kai voices out.
“…Gyndr?” Taemin breathes. “But…that’s where I was from…”
Kai gives Taemin a pointed look. “You came from the New Gyndr. We came from the Old Gyndr.”
“We came from Zang’ria,” Zitao quickly intervenes, as he indicates himself, Chen and Lay, “which is to the north of Velspar.”
“Zang’ria? Isn’t that where the m-“
“The monks, priests, shamans, and almost every religious figures reside? Yes,” Zitao nods. “And Zang’ria is not just a religious center of Ghondwan, it is also the center of intellectually advanced civilizations. Faith and science work separately but they coexist together by putting aside our differences.”
“And we just hail from a small seaport town called Ghondwanjementum,” Baekhyun says almost half-heartedly.
The crew of Lucifer looks at Baekhyun as if he said something atrocious.
“…Say what now?” Key shoots a look on apprehension. “Ghondwan-ye-man-thumb?”
“Ghondwanjementum,” D.O and Chanyeol echo.
Onew and Jonghyun stare hard at the three of them as Taemin and Minho try to repeat what they had just heard. Some members of the Angel crew are giggling.
“It literally means, ‘the mouth of Ghondwan.’” Baekhyun chuckles as he rolls his eyes. “Lame, I know…”
“Uh…wow. Such a long name for a small town…” Onew looks back at the map to study it further. “All of these locations seem pretty far from each other… Did you all gather at one point or you accumulated as you travelled across Ghondwan?”
“Don’t be silly, Jinki. We met in one place, Jondr. Our…parents had something to do with the prophecy, actually…”
Only Kris, Luhan and Xiumin are able to catch the sadness in the younger captain’s voice. The rest are oblivious to it.
“How so?”
Suho sighs. “For many generations, our parents and ancestors have been a part of this cult that keep watch for the solar eclipses. Our bloodlines trace back to the time when the prophecy was born. My ancestors discovered an ancient cave in that area,” he points to the meteor crater on the map, “and there were drawings on the walls. Activate right screen, photographs from Ancient Ghondwan Cave.”
As Suho commands the screen, the center screen zooms into the northwestern area before an inset appears on the screen and moves over to the right screen, dispersing into many images of the cave’s interior.
What appears on the right screen makes the whole crew of the Lucifer gasp.
“That’s where we got the inspiration of our wall designs from.”
Patterns of hexagons, big and small, are spread about on the earthen walls. The twelve symbols lined up in continuous rows on the top and bottom edges. One wall has a female hooded figure suspended in midair with the sun and moon on either side of her.
“That’s Mama?” Jonghyun points to the screen, looking at Suho. The young captain nods.
“Okay, but how did you come together anyway?” Key mutters. “Did your parents just said, ‘My child, the time has come for you to be on your merry way and meet our friends’ children, for your purpose is to gather under a solar eclipse before you can become masters of the elements’ and b-“ He is silenced by Minho and Taemin’s glares. “Right then…”
“Our parents gave us letters…or at least,” D.O spares a glance to Suho and Zitao, “we were given letters written from our parents, a couple months before that last solar eclipse prior to the Great Divide.
“The letters told us about the prophecy and that we were to meet people in Jondr. There, the eight of us met Xiumin, Luhan, Kris, and Suho. We all didn’t know one another; I mean, at least the small groups we came in didn’t know the other groups. Captain Kris here had us all convene in his family’s house.
“Few weeks later, the solar eclipse happened, and when we had gathered under the eclipse, Mama came to us. She told us that we were destined to find the twelve pendants but we were not of age yet. You see, Xiumin, Luhan and Kris were only sixteen at the time, and Mama told us that the pendants will reveal to us when we reach the number reversed in all of us.”
“Twenty-one…because it’s twelve in reverse,” Taemin breathes in realization.
D.O nods. “She then asked us for our blood vow, in exchange for longevity, so I guess, in a sense, immortality.”
“But weren’t you guys in ethereal form though?” Key interrupts. “Souls don’t have blood…”
“Our ethereal forms came after the blood vow. At first, we were hesitant with the decision because who wants to live forever stuck at an age? When we gave her our blood vow, we did not feel any different from before the solar eclipse, but we knew something changed within us.
“Mama had whispered to us the names of the pendants that we were chosen to claim. None of these names could ever be found in books of the Old World, not even from our ancestors themselves. The only source of information was Mama herself, and she could not even tell us until it was time for that person to be summoned by the pendant. Xiumin was first with Qanik, then Luhan with Ge’Qan’Dong, then Kris with Draconi, and recently Captain Suho with Vitaquæ.”
“The elements must not be easy to master, I don’t doubt…” Onew muses.
“For those who have pendants, at first, it does seem challenging. But eventually you get the hang of allowing your pendant to work with you to command the elements. Suho here’s only just begun a few weeks ago, and he’s having some difficulties mastering the water around him,” Xiumin comments. “I’m the master of frost, which isn’t so bad; it is just solidifying the water.”
“Mine wasn’t too bad, either.” Luhan pipes up. “I started with small things and then moved on to bigger things. I don’t necessarily command the air around the objects or myself; I manipulate gravity, I guess. It’s like guiding the air molecules to move around. And the communication thing, that just happened naturally.”
“Hmph, Luhan had it easy. You didn’t have to necessarily work on yourself at first. It was awkward for me at first to get the hang of flying, but it didn’t take me long before I could fly like it’s the most natural thing for me to do,” Kris remarks.
“Yeah, sure…what was pretty funny though was that you started out with flapping your arms,” Luhan jokes as he flaps his arms, earning some laughs from the Angel crew and some smiles from the Lucifer crew. “You and your long limbs, you’d thought you were gonna transform into a dragon or something, just because your pendant was named Draconi.”
Kris glares at his friend, pink flushing his cheeks. “…At least I’m flying now without flapping my wings!” Even with that retort, Kris pulls Suho closer to him with his arm around the younger captain’s shoulders. Suho giggles softly and glances at his co-captain, looking almost apologetic.
“I see…no wonder Novae Alliance is eager to get their hands on them,” Onew rubs his chin thoughtfully, staring at the map of Ghondwan.
“Yeah…”
“Well, hell, this is gonna be an adventure…” Key says bitterly.
“…Why?” Suho looks warily at him.
“Joonmyeon, remember earlier, I mentioned about the Novae Alliance and how they were in search for your pendants? And that we had a misfortune in running into one of their groups at a pub?”
Suho looks at Onew, still wary. “Yes, what about it?”
“It was the crew of One-shot. One of the most deadliest groups anyone would wish to never cross paths with.”
- - -
Suho’s eyes widen at the name, his body stricken with horror. “O-one…shot?”
Onew raises an eyebrow at Suho’s reaction. “…You know someone from there?”
Suho lowers his eyes to the ground, looking forlorn. “…Himchan…one of my neighbors from home…”
The captain of Lucifer slackens at the name, nodding in confirmation. “Aye, Himchan’s in that crew… The captain of the ship is Bang Yongguk. Ring a bell?” Suho shakes his head.
Taemin speaks up. “There are other groups in Red Moon, such as the crews of Hyde and Bimil. In Blue Sun, there’s Pandora, Fire, and such.”
“…Wait, did you say Bimil?”
Everyone looks surprised as they turn to D.O, whose face is aghast and his eyes wide.
“…Yes, I did say Bimil…” Taemin answers calmly. “The captain of that ship is Se-“
“Seo Eunkwang, first mate is Jung Ilhoon, and their pilot is Lim Hyunsik.” D.O huffs, as he is about to fall to his knees. Kai immediately grabs hold of him to keep him steady. “I can’t believe you guys…”
“…You know them, D.O?” Onew asks concernedly.
“Hyunsik was my neighbor back home… Ilhoon and Eunkwang were my brothers’ friends… They were good people… Why did they hide this from me? I knew Eunkwang was going to be a captain back then, and they had also founded Bimil, but they never told me that they were in some sort of alliance!! I hadn’t heard from them in so many years, and it has come to this that I find out they’re our enemy!”
“Wait, wait…” Baekhyun says, “You mean to tell me, that these guys were in our hometown? Chanyeol, did you know about this?!?”
“No! Kyungsoo, how come you knew them and we didn’t??”
“Uh, because he just said they were neighbors,” Jongdae retorts.
“Well, yeah but Kyungsoo, Baekhyun and I went to the same schools! We should’ve met them at some point!”
“Hyunsik…was home-schooled,” D.O explains weakly. “They all were…”
“…Oh.”
An awkward silence ensues as everyone share glances, most looking amazed at these startling discoveries. The captain of the Lucifer swears under his breath as he takes in these details.
“Anyway, how long has it been since your last pendant retrieval? They’re also looking for them too. And even if they get some, they’ll want to snatch yours too before they can enslave you.”
Suho glances at the holographic globe and map, looking completely desperate. “We can’t force the pendants to reveal quickly…” He says sullenly. “The pendants reveal to us in their own time… They call to us. I had recently acquired mine a few days ago… Yifan received his a few months ago. Luhan, at least six months before Yifan had his. And Minseok, he received his not too long before that. There’s no such thing as a pattern in time. It’s all random.”
“Are you serious?” Taemin snaps sharply, an expression of shock clearly written across his face. “We don’t have much time before they get to you all, and the pendants think it’s okay to just wait until they’re ready, or that you are worthy to heed their call? How do you even know when and from where will they call you?”
“With that, smartypants,” Kai says sarcastically, as he points to the table and the globe. He does not make eye contact with Taemin; rather he seems to be talking to the objects themselves.
“That’s why we have every geographic and oceanographic scan readings up to date on these holograms. The mast up on the ship serves as a signal transmitter and receiver, attuned to the magic of the pendants, thanks to Aithyr.” Kai refers to the rock with a nod of his head. “When the pendants send out signals, we can pinpoint accurately to the minute degree and location where it is on the globe and on the table. The map on the table is a zoomed out version of an inset on the globe. Thought you’d figure out by now how this room operates with that book of yours, genius.”
Taemin watches Kai with a miffed yet studious look, as though he is searching for some kind of flaw in Kai’s expression. D.O has sense enough to pull back slightly from his boyfriend’s embrace and scold him softly to stop being so bitter already, emphasizing with a soft punch to Kai’s shoulder.
“So you’re saying that the next eight pendants, you won’t know the names until the time comes? And we won’t know where they will be?” The crewmembers of Angel shake their heads. “And who’s next now?”
“Me, sir,” Lay raises his hand, a small smile on his face. “I’m next.”
“Ahh…Lay, right? The Healer… We haven’t heard one sound from you since we’ve arrived on the Angel.” Onew chuckles as Lay smiles genuinely, showing off his dimples. He then sighs, his eyes scanning the room as he looks onto the faces of Angel’s crew.
“Okay…alright…we’re gonna need more time, and I’ll buy you that. As captain of the Lucifer, I swear to protect you all. We have allies too, and they can help fend off the Novae Alliance for some time. But we don’t have any sky animals quick enough to send letters and be evasive enou-“
“I can call the eagles, Jinki.” Luhan steps up. “I’m also a telepath, so I can communicate with the animals, if needed.”
“…My stars, you can communicate with the animals?” Onew cannot hide his amazement.
Luhan nods. “Whether by mind or verbal communication.” The captain of Lucifer raises his eyebrows.
“Well, then, we can definitely do this. Let’s get your eagles so I can send out letters to our allies.” The Lucifer’s captain lets Luhan lead the way outside the Cordius.
“Wait, Jinki…” Suho stops him with his hand up. Onew stops, turning his gaze on his younger friend.
“Hmm?”
“Thank you, for coming all the way here, to forewarn us. And thank you, for being able to come to our aid, when we didn’t know we needed one.”
“Don’t thank me, actually. Thank Taemin here.” Onew looks to his youngest shipmate. Taemin tenses on his spot, as if Onew’s soft gaze can petrify him. Minho gives his lover a one-armed hug, smiling at him. “He’s the one who wanted us to come here as soon as possible. He wanted us to come to you guys, because he feared for his dear friend’s life, now that he knew where Jongin was and who he was with, according to our letters…” He looks to Kai.
“’Jongin’s my dear friend… Not a day goes by that I don’t even think about him,’ he said,” Onew concludes with a small smile. “’I’d rather die than let him be enslaved…’”
Heads are slowly turning to Kai, as the shipwright stares back at the captain in shock. Taemin averts his eyes to the ground, unable to bear the expression on his friend’s face.
Kai turns his gaze to Taemin, and a wave of shame washes over him.