Touch the Sky (Hyunjin X Felix X San X Juyeon)

|Fifth Act - Where Dark Woods Hide Secrets|

"He lied."

"Are you certain?"

"Positive. Yeosang wouldn't have gotten a vision had Felix not been truly in danger. The assassination attempt was real – I just don't know why he's hiding it."

Hyunjin, Juyeon, and San all fell silent as they mulled over the events that had transpired earlier in the night. They were still quite shocked, not understanding how or why someone would want Felix dead – not only was he the Divine Heir, but he was also the sweetest soul around, so why?

(Ironically enough, they'd once again met by accident at the fountain in the middle of the gardens. They were more worried about Felix than about some petty grudges, which had led them to confide in one another once more.)

Well, of course, the changes he was trying to bring to life weren't going to be welcomed by all, but no one currently in the High Palace would actually wish him harm. The staff adored him, the representatives of each nation were all practically whipped for the boy already, and even the leaders had taken a liking to him.

Whoever wanted to kill Felix, it wasn't someone they knew.

"He probably figured that such conflict would put the financial project at risk," then remarked Juyeon. "He already had a hard time convincing the leaders to agree to it – an assassination attempt would obviously throw their tentative trust in jeopardy."

"There's too much bad blood between everyone for them to see clearly. That's probably why he decided to lie about what actually happened – he was probably afraid the suspicion would become uncontrollable, and more conflict would break out between all three factions," reasoned Hyunjin.

"Well, that's all well and good, but that means the real culprit is still out there, and very likely to try something again," scowled San. "By hiding the truth, Felix is leaving himself wide open for another attempt."

"Would your crewmate be able to tell if another attempt was to occur?" frowned Juyeon.

"There's no way of telling. Yeosang can't control his visions, they come and go as they please. We were lucky he happened to catch that one – we might not be as lucky next time, though."

"We can't leave him alone," stated firmly Hyunjin. "With what just happened, Sunmi will surely secretly employ a taster, so food shouldn't be a problem again. But there's been an... incident, that admittedly worries me."

"Incident?" repeated San, his scowl deepening.

"Mmm. A little over a week ago, Felix and I were putting away some weapons in the armory when one of the sword racks fell off the wall. I managed to pull Felix out of harm's way in time, but the blades would have surely skewered him on the spot. I didn't think of it as more than a freak accident at the time but, now..."

"I also saved his life, a little over a week ago. A strange noise scared the horses while we were out riding, and he almost got trampled. I couldn't explain why his horse had reacted so strongly at the time but, if this was actually another attempt—"

"Something happened with me, too." San gulped as dread spread in his gets like ice. "We were stargazing on the roof when one of the tiles got dislodged, and he tumbled over the ledge. I managed to- to catch him, and we didn't talk of it again, but I always thought it was strange..."

"Once is happenstance. Two is coincidence. But three? No, some sort of foul play is definitely at work," concluded Juyeon, even more worried than before, if possible. "Hyunjin is right, we can't leave him alone until we've figured this out."

The others nodded firmly. They didn't know who could possibly want to harm their little ball of precious sunshine, but they certainly weren't about to let them.