The Ring Bearer

Chapter 17

I haven't been able to sleep since I had that nightmare. It's been a couple of days and I was fidgeting around restlessly. I was in the study room, my fingers tapping against the desk as I thought it over over, again. It was weird- abnormal, completely unlike any of the dreams I'd ever had before. For starters, the fact that I didn't know where I was. It was a hallway... most houses have hallways. Then, the lighting that was following me- it was as if I were being chased with that lighting, and not casually followed by perhaps the other mages. Finally, being grabbed. Never in my other dreams had I been grabbed or even touched by another person.

Was it the next mage? Was that the dream that was going to lead me to him? No- that's impossible. Other than the slight fear I felt when finding Chen, I had never felt so afraid of what I saw. If that really was the next mage who I saw in my dream, I was definitely debating against finding him. Perhaps the dream would be different if I closed my eyes and tried imagining it again, but I was so frightened that I didn't want to risk seeing it again.

"Yun Seung-" the door to the study room opened and in walked Sehun. I hadn't told any of them about my nightmare or the lack of sleep I was facing, though something told me that they already knew. The six of them skirted around me and left me alone most of the time unless it was time for a meal.

After checking the wall clock for a quick moment, I agreed that it was time to go and eat, though I felt myself stumble for a second before I got to the door. Sehun caught me as I stumbled, his arms wrapped around my waist and his face pressed against my hair as he spoke.

"Are you still not sleeping properly?" his tone held aggravation, but I could do nothing as he held me up and guided me down to the dining room. We still didn't have a way of getting real food for the seven of us, but we decided to at least eat together since there were so many of us together now.

"I'm fine, Sehun. Really." I didn't say anything more than that, since even speaking that much was taking a lot out of me. As we sat down, I felt all of them looking over at me because even to me, it was obvious I wasn't fine. I was fidgeting again, my fingers fumbling with the bag of food and trying to open it. I don't know when I became so uncoordinated, but I must have sat there for over half an hour just trying to get my food.

Suddenly, just as I was about to burst into tears, someone reached out and opened the bag in seconds, and though I was exhausted, I looked up to see Suho looking back at me with his eyebrows furrowed.

"I don't know what you saw in your dream to stop you from sleeping all these nights, but this is getting ridiculous." he was right, of course, but I didn't want to think of sleeping again so I flinched and looked back down at the bag of food now within my grasp.

"Yun Seung, what did you see in your nightmare?" That was the first time anyone had asked me what I saw, and I was surprised that it was Xiumin who asked, leaning closer to me and resting a hand on my shoulder.

I almost pulled away from his touch when I reminded myself who these mages were. I had no reason to hide the dream from them, because if they knew what it meant, then they could help me figure it out. So, instead of trying to eat the food that had been sitting before me for a while now, I told them every detail about the dream and hoped that they'd be able to help me.

"I've never heard anything like it." Chen muttered under his breath, his eyes then darting over to where Kai was sitting across the table, "Could it have been Baek-?"

"Couldn't be." Tao cut in, his gaze shifting from the coffee table that had the map covering it and then back to us, "He's the mage of light, he wouldn't be inside like she described from her nightmare."