The thread led him steady through the maze, tugging faint at his palm whenever he drifted too far from whatever path it actually intended, and Jin followed it without question, too exhausted to second guess the one clear direction he'd been given all night. The corridors around him blurred together the further he walked, every turn indistinguishable from the last, but the thread never once wavered, pulling him on with quiet, patient certainty through branch after branch.
He found Areum first.
She was crouched behind a fallen support column when he rounded the corner, flame flickering low and defensive at her fingertips, and the moment she spotted him, the tension in her shoulders dropped away entirely.
"Jin," she said, breathless, pushing herself upright. "Oh, thank god. I've been walking in circles for what feels like an hour."
"You and me both," Jin said, and something in his own chest eased just seeing her, whole and standing, even as battered as the rest of them.
