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Wooyoung softly hit his head against the white wall of the ballroom, mentally cursing himself for the unwarranted show had put on. The other silver children who hadn't been affected by his slip up were lined up in front of Lady Jeong, listening to whatever words that were falling out of her pretentious mouth. He was one of only a handful of silver children that were with them, sitting on the sidelines and watching them complete the rest of their lessons for today.

Usually Wooyoung would take this as an absolute win seeing as he wasn't obligated to follow along with the others anymore. But the boy just wasn't feeling it anymore, all the energy he had from earlier drained from his body.

The fall he had taken was a lot worse than Wooyoung had expected it to be. Sure, it started out with him simply tripping over his own two feet, but when Wooyoung went down everyone went down. As soon as he felt himself begin to tumble to the ground he grabbed a hold of Ryunjin's wrist much tighter than before and dragged her down towards the floor with him. It didn't help with the fact that not far behind them was another pair of dancers who were a little closer than anticipated, resulting in Wooyoung and Ryunjin crashing into them as well.

After that it was like a chain of dominoes, everyone scrambling out of the way in a desperate attempt to not embarrass themselves in front of Lady Jeong. There were mumbles and grumbles, small little whispers of confusion as to what exactly had happened for all the silver children to have a messed up in such a way.

Wooyoung thought it was a little funny at first, a soft chuckle escaping his mouth as he turned to see the carnage he had created. But when he turned back to Ryunjin, expecting her to giggle the same as he was, he was met with a wave of emotions he hadn't predicted. The girl sat down on her knees in a pool of shame, keeping her head low and trying to make sure her face was out of sight. It was then when Wooyoung realized everyone was watching not just him, but Ryunjin.

Wooyoung was a prodigy and one of the most powerful silver children in the room, sure but Ryunjin? There was the unfortunate possibility that she might become the next queen of Norta. That she would take Yeosang's hand in marriage in just a month from today. They were watching her to size the House Han daughter up and to debate on whether or not she was true competition or if they could simply crush her under their foot like a red.

Now, it wasn't funny to Wooyoung at all anymore.

After the awkward fumble Lady Jeong had decided to be a little generous and patient with them all after witnessing the disaster in front of her. She simply told all those who had slipped up from Wooyoung's accident to take a ten minute break. No one was injured in the process but it was overwhelmingly embarrassing and disappointing to have watched each silver elite child crash in such a way. She needed a little break from them.

Everyone else who hadn't been involved in the fall were instructed to keep dancing so that she can continue to monitor and tutor their steps and skills. Those who had the option to sit out did so, many leaving the ballroom to indulge in other activities before their ten minute break was up.

"Are you feeling better?" Ryunjin asked the silver boy crouching on her knees to be at the same level as him. Wooyoung looked towards the House Han daughter, an unspoken emotion swirling within his chest at the sight of her. He was the reason she had gone through that embarrassing fall, why was she asking him if he was okay? It should be him asking that question because who knew what would flood out of his mouth if he tried to answer truthfully.

"Yeah, I am," he responded after a moment, giving her the best smile he could. "Honestly, I feel like I should be embarrassed by what happened but it's a little too funny to take seriously," Wooyoung lied, sitting up to match her height with his fake grin plastered across his face, "I mean did you see the way that Joochan panicked when I fell into him? He was so shocked that he sent a gust of wind blowing everyone behind him back!"

Ryunjin rolled her eyes at his statement, her eyes traveling towards the House Hong boy. The boy was still up on his feet, determined to save himself from the momentary humiliation by continuing to practice with the rest of the silver children. "This isn't funny, so many people could have gotten seriously hurt," she told him, turning back towards the silver prodigy. "You could have gotten seriously hurt if you didn't use me as a cushion from the fall."

Wooyoung snorted, not able to retort her argument. She was right, he did grab a hold of her and used the House Han daughter in order to soften his fall. Either he did or not though, he thought they would still be fine. "Well... I guess you're right. But at least you were the one to catch me instead of the floor right? Isn't it made of marble or something?"

"Exactly," She hissed at him, shooting him a glare for a second. "You could have gotten seriously hurt had you not used me as a cushion. Which means I'm the one who had a high chance of getting hurt."

"Well," the boy thought for a moment before giving her a genuine smile in return, "you didn't get hurt. So I'd say this is a win for both of us don't you think?"

Ryunjin rolled her eyes at him, responding to what he said in some sort of cheeky tone and gave him an expectant look for a reaction. Wooyoung wasn't really focused on it though, suddenly zooming out of the conversation and reality to let his mind run wild. It was crazy to him how Ryunjin could just hold a conversation like normal with him, as if the girl hadn't shared the most important information of their lives to him. She simply continued forward as if in a month she wouldn't be given the chance to elevate her status and become princess, soon to be queen, of Norta.

Wooyoung couldn't just let that information slide, there's no way his brain was just going to let go of it like a feather to the wind. That was two of his close friends now who had lives ahead of them that the boy just wasn't ready to face. They were sprinting towards a reality he didn't want to experience, a reality he didn't know if he would ever be ready to live in.

He should be happy knowing that even though Yeosang was going to be the first to walk into the light of responsibility, he'd at least have Ryunjin by his side. That is if she managed to impress the current king and queen so much that they picked a shadow over a whisper or oblivion. Plus, the silver prince was currently crushing on the House Han girl anyways, it was the perfect match and worked out perfecting in the boy's favor!

So why in the world was Wooyoung so hung up on Ryunjin participating in the Queenstrial? Why was he so hung up on the fact that the king and queen or Norta could pick Ryunjin as Yeosang's betrothed? Why was he so hung up that one day Ryunjin could become the queen of Norta, all eyes on her with Yeosang right beside her?

"Knock knock, you still there?" Wooyoung blinked his eyes a few times, clocking back into the world of the living and making eye contact with the House Han daughter. She gave him a skeptical look, her eyes scanning the entirety of his face to try and find out what he had been thinking about.

When Wooyoung's facial expression didn't give away anything that was on his mind, she spoke instead. "Have I gotten that boring to you, now? I didn't expect you to take this long to finally realize I wasn't worth the time."

"What?" He quickly reacted, "no, it's not that at all! If I wasn't interested in being your friend I would have dropped you long ago."

"Sure," Ryunjin shrugged, a teasing smile on her face. "If that's what you say then I'll believe you, I guess."

There was a comfortable silence that fell between the two, letting the soft classical music fill in the space they left empty. All that they could hear for those few moments besides the music was the almost in sync tapping of the silver children dancing with each other around the ballroom and Lady Jeong voice calling out words in a rhythmic fashion to keep everyone on beat.

"Ryunjin," Wooyoung asked, glancing over towards the girl whose eyes were stuck on Lady Jeong. In her lap she tapped her fingers to the beat, following along with the silver elite's words and taking small notes of everything the woman was saying. It was odd to see the House Han daughter so focused on a lesson like this, when he knew Ryunjin wasn't really one for dancing. He guessed having the potential to become queen would call for the need to know how though.

"Yeah, Wooyoung?"

He thought about his next few words for a second, trying to make sure he didn't say the wrong things. "How do... how do you feel about possibly being queen? Do you even want to become queen, to be betrothed to Yeosang?"

The girl stopped tapping to the beat, freezing in place upon hearing Wooyoung's question. Instinctively she began to play with a strand of hair, her body phasing in and out of sight just slightly as she spoke. "I guess I'm fine with it. It's not what I was expecting, but seeing as my brother is going to be the representative of my high house when he's older, they needed me to do something. They didn't want me to send me off to the Lakelands and never know if and when I'd come back."

"Ryunjin—" he tried to interrupt.

"—I'd rather become a queen then be sent off as a spy." Ryunjin declared. "I think my best option is to try and become queen. Plus, it's Yeosang! I'd rather get picked to marry Yeosang than marry some man I don't care for."

"Ryunjin!" The two looked up from where they were sitting, catching the sight of one of the silver children urging her to join the rest of them in whatever lesson Lady Jung was putting them through. It seemed as though they were missing a partner, and since Ryunjin was the only other girl in the room who didn't seem to have one either, they called upon her.

"Ah... I should go," She cautiously spoke, letting herself off the ground with a nervous huff. It had only been about five or six minutes since their tumble and Wooyoung could still feel a hint of shame radiate off her body. "They don't seem to have a partner and everyone else took off so—"

"—you know you don't have to, right?" Wooyoung pointed out. "You were the one who took the brunt of the fall after all, you should be the one getting all this time to rest, not me."

"I'm fine," the girl insisted. "Besides, I need to learn all these stupid dances anyways whether I get picked or not to feel more comfortable with it. So I might as well take the chance, right?"

"You're growing up fast," He mumbled, his heart twisting at the words that came out his mouth as she hummed in reply. Though Ryunjin didn't seem to catch its negative connotation, waving off to Wooyoung as she hurried away. His friends were all growing up without him, beating their own personal struggles faster than he could count to ten while all he was doing was sitting around and waiting for the silver adults to give him their approval. Who knew how much longer it would take before San decided he was finally going to mature without him?

Did his own friends really have to be the people he gave up in his childhood just to become the silver adult that everyone was looking for? To become the talented prodigy representative of House Jung that stood side by side with the next king of Norta, with the next queen of Norta?

"I'm not ready for this," Wooyoung mumbled, watching both Ryunjin and San as they waltzed around the room with their respective dance partners. His mind wandered to Yeosang, the silver prince that no one could get a hold of these days thanks to the Queenstrial drawing ever so closer to them. "I'm not ready for things to change yet."

Everywhere he went within the walls of the palace, within the city of Del Mundo, was going to change for him and he wasn't ready. He needed a place that wouldn't change on him when he wasn't prepared, he needed people who weren't going to leave him behind for greater things, but where would he even go?

And then, a light turned on in his mind. There was a place that could provide those needs, to stabilize him until he was physically and mentally ready to finally grow up and discard the persona of Jung Wooyoung, the troublemaking silver prodigy from House Jung.

Moon River Valley, the dead river, home to the red village, Twilight.

"Ah, Lakelander," the old woman's voice echoed in the night, making Wooyoung turn on his heels. He hadn't even noticed that she was behind him, her footsteps as light as a cat as she crept around Wooyoung and joined him at his side.

The boy let his shoulders fall, the tension that had built up inside of up from standing on the edge of the dead Moon River eased with the presence of the woman. The only reason he has gotten through seeing the river the first time he was here was because Yeosang was there to console him. He wasn't good at it but the silver prince's presence alone was enough to make Wooyoung endure whatever pain was coming to him.

"It seems you've returned to Twilight, but alone this time. Tell me, did you and your friend ever find a place to stay?" She asked him, a curious eye trying to peer into the life of their facades.

Wooyoung let out a deep breath, shrugging his shoulders and keeping his eyes in the channel below that used to hold a glistening pool of water. "No," He answered, "I don't think there's ever going to be a place like home again."

The woman nodded her head slowly, a gasp of understanding escaping her mouth as she held her hands behind her back. "Ah yes... there's truly no place like home, isn't there? It must be hard, transitioning from your normal Lakelander ways of life into the Norta thinking, isn't it?"

Wooyoung only nodded. "You'll get used to it," she knowingly encouraged him, "Despite all its faults, Norta is probably the best place a silver could go to prosper without any repercussions for their background."

"Silver?" He repeated, turning towards the woman with a bewildered face. The old woman only laughed at him, wrinkles crinkling up at the edge of her eyes as she found amusement in Wooyoung's confusion. How did she know that he was a silver? He didn't spill any blood when he was with Yeosang and the two tried their best to conceal themselves with the dark colors of their cloaks blend in with their surroundings. "How did you—"

"It's not that hard, young man!" She exclaimed, a grin adorning her lips as she looked up to him. "When you've lived as long as I have and you've seen as much as I've seen, all you need to do is take one look at a person to determine whether they're a silver or a red. I can even guess what your ability is! Here boy, give me your hands."

Cautiously Wooyoung held out his hands to the woman, his head tilting with curiosity as she took a hold of them with a gentle grip. "You've been worked to the bone," She commented. "Your grip is so dainty and gentle, but your hands are big and firm compared to mine. I can feel the years of dedication and adoration, the pain and the aching, the toughening and strengthening of its power. You must be a magnetron, aren't you?"

Wordlessly the boy snaked his hands away from the woman, digging in his pockets for any metal object he had on him and holding it out for the old woman to see.  Like liquid the metal began to splash around his fingertips in its unhinged state, twisting and turning as he commanded it to his will. He tensed up, his hands stopping in place as the metal formed into a ball of spikes, showcasing just a small portion of the deadly power he held.

"I'm a pretty good guesser, aren't I?" The woman joked as Wooyoung turned the spiked ball back into a transportable sheet of metal.

"I guess you are," He chuckled, hiding the sheet of metal within his black cloak once again as he looked up to meet the woman's eyes again. "Tell me, does that... thing... that was near the mouth of the river still pop up sometimes? Transporting people back to their homes once they've gotten a little closer than wanted?"

She nodded her head, a deep sigh escaping her mouth. "Yes but... recently there haven't been many people returning from the mouth anymore." All it took was Wooyoung's curious glaze to keep the woman talking. "People would go up there and return, but recently the children have started to try and find what's up in the source. Instead of returning like the others, they disappear up there and cannot be found again."

"You know why this is bad for our people," the woman asked, "don't you?"

"Reds don't have abilities, therefore cannot truly defend themselves from an attack that might be caused by a silver," Wooyoung answered.

"My heart aches for those boys and their parents. If my son had never returned home without a trace of whether he was alive or not?" The old woman gasped, her mind racing for all the possibilities that could have happened. "I don't think I could stay sane."

One rule he had learned as a silver elite child was that silvers do not help reds. They are to stay cold and calculated around them, as a red's most powerful strength in the unbalanced fight of this world was their words. Their words were seeping with manipulation, ready to take advantage of any silver who dared to break their cold shell and display a moment of kindness. The reds would exploit it and attempt to lead the silver to their untimely doom.

It was the one rule that stuck with Wooyoung for so long because it went against who he was as a person. He was one of those kindhearted silvers who just wasn't able to create a shell of ice to keep out any incoming evils his way. When he was a child, the silver adults said it would lead to his doom but they quickly kept their mouths closed right upon learning that the warm-hearted House Jung son was the prodigy of his generation.

Maybe they're right that one day Wooyoung's melted heart would bring an end to his reign, but until that day showed itself he would simply have to prove everyone wrong.

"How long does it take to get to the river source from here?" Wooyoung questioned, glancing down the dead river with curious eyes. "I cannot stay in Twilight for long, but I do want to try and find this evil that's plaguing the children of your village."

"You do not have to, Lakelander," she insisted, "in fact, I do not even recommend trying to walk that path!  We've lost too many young and bright children in the path that leads to the river source and I'd hate for the same to happen to you. Isn't that other Lakelander waiting for your return?"

"He'll be fine," the silver boy answered, taking a few steps away from the woman and glancing up ahead of him. "Plus, the children who had left off on their own are young and have no means to defend themselves. I'll be able to hold my own if I go, with it without help from anyone by my side."

The woman huffed, a small hint of regret evident on their face but conforming to Wooyoung's demands either way. She must regret giving all this information to the silver prodigy now. "Where Twilight stands now is the river channel. If the Moon River wasn't gone it would only take about an hour or so for you to ride up the river to get you to the river's source... but by foot? It'll take much longer to even reach its source? At least three hours at the minimum, but it could take longer."

If Wooyoung wanted to go check out the river source, he'd be walking the entire way there. He had come into Twilight after following a group of reds who were leaving Del Mundo before the sun fell, hitchhiking onto their vehicle without them knowing. Wooyoung had no ability that would make him walk or run faster and he didn't have a boat to take him up there, so did he really want to risk walking for several hours on end?

"That's fine," He declared, completely ignoring the fact that he was on a time limit for how long he could stay out of the palace. "Just point me in the direction I should be going and I'm off."

The old woman pointed north of Twilight, her age-worn fingers pointing straight towards the high hills and mountains that made up the Moon River Valley. "As long as you keep North and follow the dead river's remnants, you'll be fine. There may be a few times you get off the original path for your own safety, but sticking as close to the river as you can is your best option."

Wooyoung took note of her words, ingraining them into his mind before finally setting off and making his way towards the river source. With his metal earrings jingling along and throwing the hood of his cloak off of his head, he was mentally prepared to encounter some sort of fiend on his way to his destination. He had to, there was no way children were voluntarily disappearing the moment they walked the trail up towards the river's source!

He also had to be hasty in his movements, because if he didn't return to the palace in a fashionable time people would start to get worried. Not for the silver prodigy, no, but for his father, Lord Jung as this would be the second time he had disappeared without anyone's knowledge. What excuse could his father make this time for him, what sneaky tactics or presentation of power could he make to get House Park's whispers off of his back?

One could only imagine how they'd all scowl and scoff when they realize what Wooyoung's been doing, running around the Moon River Valley and even daring to interact with the red people who lived there.

What did we tell you? They'd ask him. The reds will take advantage of you and try to kill you! They'll do anything to see your silver blood spill whether it's by then or another entity!

What would Yeosang say if he found out he left the palace again to go to the same place they swore they weren't going to go back to until after the Queenstrial? Would he have expected Wooyoung to break their promise? Would he be disappointed in him if didn't? And god forbid that Ryunjin found out where he had gone after all the trouble he had caused just a few hours before.

The boy shook his head as he walked through the forest that followed the Moon River, unwanted thoughts creeping up in his mind now that he was alone with himself. Wooyoung was a rather confident and rowdy person, it was in his personality to be one of the more major extroverts out of all the silver children who lived within the high houses. But the boy had his times where he'd fall into an unwanted slump, his usually unmatched energy bringing him into the deepest parts of his mind to keep him occupied for the time being.

So he tried to focus on other things, but there wasn't much to look at that would make him feel better. Because the Moon River had died off and all the glistening water was gone, the forest that had grown beside the river was dying as well.

Without the water source, it had been using to keep itself lush and strong, the trees had begun to wither away and perish. The once tall and green trees that could be seen from miles away were now brittle and bare with not a single leaf to be found on its branches.

There was almost no grass left on the ground floor, only dirt that had hardened into a stone-like state. The grass that was still standing was yellows and crunchy, making the sound of leaves being stepped on in the winter whenever he walked into a patch of it. Don't even get him started on how he had seen almost no wildlife since starting this journey of his either, only catching the sound of a crow screaming into night or a vulture soaring above his head to find its next meal.

"Is the trail like this for the entire walk to the river's source?" Wooyoung mumbled to himself, his hands fumbling with one of the metal earrings he had taken out and begun to play with. "If I knew it was like this the whole time I wouldn't have agreed to go..."

Wooyoung stopped in his tracks when he heard crow's caw into the night, louder and deeper than the ones he had heard beforehand. He turned his head to look behind him and was greeted by a murder of crowd scattering into the sky, shrouding the boy in darkness as the flock flew past the moon. "If crows are flying away from something, that definitely doesn't mean anything good for me."

The silver boy stood in place for a second, watching the area the crowd were flying from carefully for any movement that could be seen. It was hard, seeing as his only light was the moon and the birds were covering it with their jet black wings, but he did see something. It was like a small spark of red light shining in the middle of the darkness and the closer it got towards Wooyoung the more wild and out of shape. It was... unnatural. Clearly, that wasn't just the flickering of a flame or the waning of a lantern's light.

Wooyoung's breath hitched when he began to hear the humming of electricity get louder as the spark of red light and he knew this was not a friend nor bystander coming his way anymore. He didn't have time to pull out the metal sheet he had used earlier in the night, simply going with old faithful and running his hands across his metal earrings and forming a big enough shield to hold in front of him.

The boy was just in time, as soon as he placed the shield in front of him a streak of red lightning bolted straight towards the silver boy. It slammed straight into the metal shield he had created, forcing the boy to skid back against the ground from the amount of force. Wooyoung gasped when he felt the shock of electricity stick to his body anyway, the metal of his shield transmitting the electricity to him for holding onto it. He dropped the shield and fell to his knees trying his best to shrug off the aching of the shock he endured. It didn't hurt as much as getting hit with a direct bolt of lightning, but that didn't mean it didn't hurt at all.

"Holy shit," Wooyoung mumbled, twitching slightly as he got up on his feet. He glanced down at his hands to find them hot and angry with a severe burn, his hands oozing with silver blood. He was surprised that that was all the injury he endured and that the lightning hadn't completely paralyzed him but he wasn't hoping for it to happen either way. "Am I... at a disadvantage for the first time in my life?"

The crows were all gone now, frightened by the bolt of lightning that had shot out what felt like nowhere. The boy held out his injured hand to the metal he had dropped, bending it into several sharp blades that he could control from afar instead of holding it in his hands. There was no way he was going to try and get up close and personal to a lightning controlling beast.

"Uh oh, silver boy," a voice spoke, their footsteps getting closer and closer to Wooyoung as they spoke. He glanced up to catch the sight of a stranger, standing tall on the other side of the field with red lighting crackling at his fingertips. The stranger smiled down at him with a condescending doggish smile, running his lightning coursed hands through his peachy colored hair. "Seems like you've come to the wrong side of Norta."

Wooyoung didn't need to see any more of the stranger's powers to know that he wasn't red nor silver. Reds didn't have any supernatural abilities in the first place and the only thing close to controlling lighting a silver could get is if he were a storm. But storms could only control the weather in a sense, not shoot lightning at the boy with such precision that he could strike him in the heart if he accurately aimed his hands at it. "Newblood," the silver prodigy realized. "This guy is a newblood."

The stranger smiled upon hearing Wooyoung's words, pointing two fingers finger towards with as he spoke. "Born and raised. I'll be your first and last sight of a newblood in Norta, so hold still while I take aim."