Soul Bound

01 | The In-Between

Slender fingers pressed softly on the piano keys. A sad melody echoed through the vast, empty room. Tender and loving, but longing and melancholic.
It sounded almost haunting in the otherwise eerily silent mansion that was the home of the Im coven. As if a ghost roamed the empty halls whenever the coven was out to attend one event or another in the magick society. Somewhere Narae would never be able to join.

So maybe she indeed was the ghost roaming the Im coven's home. She was dead in a way, after all. And yet not dead enough to have death claim her.
She was frozen in time. Frozen in a never changing state of limbo. Neither here nor there. An in-between that didn't have a name.
No matter how many old tomes Jaebeom read through. No matter how often Yugyeom tried to scry for answers. And no matter how many ancient sites Youngjae visited for clues.
They didn't find anything that could explain what happened to Narae.

Two years ago, Narae had asked them to stop looking for answers. She was content even without knowledge.
Because even though her life was lived behind thick walls in the safety of the Im coven's home, Narae was content. She had family around her, a wonderful garden to stroll through and her music. And that was enough.
Most of the times.

Sometimes a deep longing would rip her unbeating heart apart and the only way she knew how to deal with it was to sit at the piano and play until she felt better. For the first three years of her stay with the Im coven, such moods only appeared whenever the coven wasn't around.
In the recent months, however, the frequency of those episodes had increased.
By now it wasn't uncommon to find Narae in the middle of the night sitting at her piano and playing the saddest music ever heard.
Jaebeom theorised that it was her soul longing for its counterparts, her soulmates.
Narae theorised that she was slowly going insane with being locked up for years now.

It had been meant as a joke but Jaebeom had taken her seriously and had tried to find a solution so she could safely attend college with them. So far his efforts had been unsuccessful.
Or that was what Narae knew, anyway.

The Im Coven themselves were close to a break-through. They hadn't told their youngest coven mate about their tries for months now. Their hearts hadn't been able to see the hope blossom just to wilt away when failure struck.
This time was different, though. They were so close. All they still needed was a rare gem to store magick into.
Which was why they had headed out that evening without anyone staying behind to keep Narae company.

It didn't feel right to Jaebeom to leave their youngest alone when the rest of them were surrounded by sweat and pheromones and loud, blasting music in a club downtown. Something was missing within the bond the coven had with each other.
Her magick missing in the close vicinity and nothing but a soothing cold whisper on his heated skin where usually it was a cool breeze, strong and unyielding.

An uneasiness came with having one coven member alone and all the others gathered together. And Jaebeom saw the same uneasiness he felt in his soulmates too.
There was a certain anxiousness in all their behaviour; in the slight stiffness of their movement and the notable tenseness in their bonds.
It would do well to get this over with sooner rather than later. No matter how much they usually enjoyed the company of the Kim coven.

"May I ask why you needed this?", Namjoon wondered carefully as he handed Jaebeom a black velvet pouch. The comfortable couch in the VIP area that they had reserved for the night almost too comfortable in Jaebeom's uneasiness. And he wasn't the only one either to feel that way.
Jackson's expression was a bit pinched and Jaebeom had seen Namjoon shoot his friend concerned looks over the course of the evening.
But Jaebeom also knew that Jackson simply was missing Narae and feeling guilty for leaving her alone. That he wanted nothing more but for her to experience this. Experience life.
And for them all to experience her joy through their bond in magick. Not the muted content that came from her ever since they had taken her in but a burning cold and bright happiness they could only imagine so far.