The Kingdom of Thornes

Journey to Rosehaven Pt. 2

Khepri's POV:

The mounts that the Wind Elves had managed to acquire had been flown in from a grand Wind Elf city, named Stars Reach. Apparently, Senu had know it would take them a few weeks to get the mounts and that's why he sent word ahead of our arrival. When Khai had fallen asleep in the carriage on the way over to Sky's Rest, we hadn't thought much of it until we were almost to Sky's Rest and we tried to wake him. His lips were blue, and his fingers and toes were beginning to turn the same color. Solarrys preserve me, I'm glad I heeded Sol'Ra Amon's words when he told me to train as a healer along with my Hunting duties. I could smell the poison still on his lips. It had been in some of the food we had eaten before leaving, and judging by his veins bulging, he had had several doses before now as well. The floral scent left on his lips smelled of poppies, chamomile, and lavender. It was a sleeping tonic that had been brewed in a different manner, making it poisonous. We were lucky to arrive at Sky's Rest in time for me to find an antidote and to let some of the blood from his legs out that seemed to contain the majority of the poison as it worked its way up towards his heart. Remembering it now gave me chills, and made the hair on my arms stand up. Whoever brewed this was talented, but only just experimenting, as if this was one of their own creations that they were testing out before more use. The thought scared me more than seeing Khai's eyes roll back into his head when E'Den had tried to wake him. I watched him today, wanting to see how he had recovered through the night. Most Sun Elves were capable of burning poisons out of their systems within a few hours, and I was curious to see how much of us resided within the boy. He seemed mostly fine today, save for the fact that he seemed embarrassed around Safiyah now. There was a mount for each of us, as well as a spare, that I assumed was meant for Senu initially. We used it to carry everything else, as to not over weight the creatures. They were beautiful, and wildly exotic to me. They were horse-like in the sense that they were relatively of the same size and type of build, but that was were the similarities ended. Where fur would have been on a horse, these creatures had scales and feathers. Their wings were gloriously large, their feathers the colors of the sky, ranging from pinks and purples to blues and blacks. Their scales held the same color pattern, but instead of mixed in like the wings were, the colors were blocked into various patterns along their scales, each one different from the next. Some had simple designs, swirls and arched stars lining them, while others had more complex designs like moons over cloudy skies with shadows dancing over the moon. They had four legs, each ending with a split, hoof-like claw. They had long, reptilian tails that were longer than their entire bodies, and they snaked through the air behind them. The ends of their tails were covered in feathers. Their fronts were almost eagle like, but their feathers were limited to the tops of their heads. Their eyes were surprisingly human-like, but they had four of them, two in the front, two on the side. Judging by their claws, I guessed these creatures to be carnivorous, and was told as much when were saddled into them.

"They need rest once every twenty-four hours. Make sure there is plenty of fresh water and game nearby. They will hunt at your camp, we've trained them to do so. They will also bring back enough game for your party as well, so we've sent you some spices and other things to supplement your meals. If you let them, they'll sleep with you. They prefer the mass huddle nest when sleeping. Keeps them warm. Oh, and mind you, they're intelligent. They'll understand every word that you say. Watch your tongues."

"What are they called?" E'Den asked before I could. Instead of the stablehand replying, I felt them answer us much in the same way we Hunters use our Mindlink.

"We are known as Skylisks, and we are a mixed breed of dracolisk, Sky Eagle, and Elf. Individually, we have our own names."

"Mercury." A mostly dark, indigo and smoke colored Skylisk raised his beak.

"Hermes." A much lighter, almost pale golden Skylisk with pinks and purples strewn about them raised their beak.

"Volucris." The Skylisk that raised its beak this time was more of a mix of the previous two, seeming like a gradient effect on their body, with the light golden on the very upper portions of its body, the lower more of the smoked indigo color. I immediately wanted to ride Volucris if they'd have me.

"Fuga." This Skylisk seemed almost unremarkable in comparison to the other three. They were a solid, sky blue color throughout the entirety of its body, only broken up by slightly darker shades in areas where it was already naturally present. The stare this one gave us unnerved me, like they knew more than they let on.

"Aurora." When I could finally tear my eyes from Fuga, I turned to look at the last of the Skylisks. Out of all present, this one seemed to be the only one that emanated a uniquely feminine energy. Much like her namesake, her coloring matched that of a borealis. I found her to be the most beautiful of the Skylisks, and her confidence told me that she knew this as well, and carried herself with a certain air of dignity. I turned to E'Den, allowing her to choose first. Safiyah next, then Prince Khai, and finally myself. E'Den chose Aurora, who seemed as if E'Den would have been their only choice as well. Safiyah had chosen Fuga, who seemed to find something familiar in them. Unsurprisingly, Prince Khai and Hermes chose each other. When it came to make my choice, I suddenly felt unsure. I didn't want to insult either of them. It turns out I didn't need to make a choice, as Mercury didn't seem to want to carry anyone, and Volucris seemed only to happy to meet my acquaintance. Mercury was saddled and packed with our belongings, supplies, and Companions, and seemed much happier when they realized that they wouldn't need to carry a person. Volucris approached me, and I held out my hand to its beak. I stared at them, having a wordless conversation with them for a moment. When they finally blinked, their pupils dilating slightly, I removed my hand from their beak and climbed into the saddle upon its back. As we started our journey, I learned all about Skylisks from Volucris, who seemed to enjoy my conversation, rather than be annoyed by all of my prodding questions.

"So, what's the deal with Aurora? She feels different from the rest of you somehow." I asked at one point.

"She's a natural born female. The rest of us are more ambiguous. As a species on the whole, we don't have very many females, so the rest of us adapted. If it is necessary, we can mate with one another and have one of us carry our eggs. She however, can only carry eggs. We typically have three to six natural born females to a nest."

"How many is in a nest?" I asked immediately, fascinated by this creature.

"About two thousand at our smallest, and around ten thousand at our biggest."

"And there's only three to six females per nest? That's.... insane." I replied.

"Now you can see why we adapted." I nodded to their response. That made a lot of sense, and I knew a lot of other animals did the same.

"So, wait. If you're this intelligent, why do you allow yourselves to be trained as mounts?" I wondered.

"We enjoy it." The response was casual, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. To them, it probably was. The next question that came to me, made me hesitate to ask, but I had momentarily spaced the fact that they could interpret our thoughts.

"No, I have not had any eggs, in either manner. We are all mounts because we are unmated currently. Should we take a mate, we retire to jobs closer to our nests to ensure we can protect our young, and eggs. Our females, have the ability to partake in the rituals used to create more of us, increasing the variety in our species, hoping to produce more females."

Before I could even ask, I was told that they do not talk about the rituals. And that was the end of that conversation. Along the way, I found out that they could also eat fruits and vegetables, and even some baked goods, but they preferred meat more than anything. The Kingdom of Pegasi looked much different from above. It was more of a series of various smaller settlements dotted along the coastline, with much larger cities sitting on the clouds up above them, with supply lines floating back and forth between the two via Skylisk transport. Mercury seemed like they might prefer to be one of them, rather than a humanoid ferry, and Volucris agreed.

We made camp just after sunset just outside of a small village. There was a forest nearby, and as soon as the Skylisks had been unsaddled, their pupils contracted into slits that looked much more reptilian. A few of them roared loudly and then thundered off into the nearby trees to hunt, leaving us to set up camp for the night. Thankfully, it seemed as though all of us had spent at least one night outside before, and camp was prepared quickly. Safiyah had taken out some of the food supplies and began making something in the pot over the fire. Fuga came back and forth every now and then, supplying her with rabbits, fish, boar, and a variety of fruits, including olives. When the others returned, they too offered us various prizes from their hunts, and Volucris managed to bring back an entire doe. Safiyah started stripping the meats down from their bones, separating the various portions of meat, and leaving the furs in tact as much as possible, putting them into a separate pot to boil. The Hunter in her was showing, not allowing any part to waste, and even separated out the various organs, adding them to the pot she had going, along with some of the boar and venison meats. The rest she gave back to Skylisks, who seemed happy to have more to their meals. The food Safiyah was making was beginning to smell good, and my stomach growled, reminding me that we hadn't eaten since before we left this morning. The rest of the boar and venison that she didn't add, she salted heavily and left it hanging high above the fire, slow cooking it and dehydrating it so we would have a quick jerky for tomorrow. Most of the Kingdom of Pegasi was ocean, and the next day of our journey would be spent traveling over it. There would only be a couple islands that we could stop at to camp for the evening, so we picked the easiest route possible, allowing us two stops before reaching mainland again, versus having to try and scour for a third or fourth island the further out you travelled. When it came time to sleep, we each slept with a Skylisk wrapped around us, Safiyah somehow managing to get Mercury curled up around her as well. She seemed content between the two creatures.

Prince Khai's POV:

At some point during the night, Safiyah and the two Skylisks that were curled up with her migrated closer to Hermes and I, waking me briefly at one point when her head had laid against my chest. I wrapped my arms around her, and pulled her closer to me, and fell back to sleep.

Without realizing it, I somehow had left my mind open to her, and she had at some point opened hers to mine as well. We ended up sharing a dream together.

I was walking through the sands towards an oasis. I didn't know it know, but this would be the place I always met her. In the moonlight, under the vast expanse of the desert's stars, at the oasis. She was already here, despite my trying to leave early to beat her here. She was standing underneath one of the waterfalls, running her hands through her hair. My breathe hitched and I felt my cheeks darken. I turned away from her, but I heard her voice call out from behind me.

"You can look, you've already seen me anyhow." My cheeks darkened further when I remembered the few nights before. I turned back to face her, and began to remove my own clothing to join her. The water was pleasantly warm, but not too hot. I made my way to her and pulled her close to me, ready to enjoy another night of her closeness.

When I woke up again, the sky was still dark, but Khepri was awake. He smirked at me over the low fire, adding more wood to it to keep it going. I shrugged, as I didn't really care that he knew, and pulled Safiyah closer to my chest, my head resting on top of hers before I fell asleep again.

It was Safiyah who stirred next, and I opened my eyes to find her extracting herself from me. My eyes caught hers for a moment, and I watched as her lower lip tucked behind her teeth, as if she were thinking about something. I didn't have long to ponder it because I heard E'Den behind me.

"This time, you owe me a drink, Khepri." I couldn't help but smile as Safiyah turned bright red again, pulling away from me completely.

"Oh come on!" I laughed along with Khepri and E'Den, much to Safiyah's dismay. "You're going to side with them too?" I shrugged at her.

"You're cute when you're angry." The look on her face was priceless, and the others laughed louder. I stretched and stood up, and walked over to where she was standing with her arms folded over her chest. I leaned down and kissed her forehead, then made to pack up camp, and saddle the Skylisks.

Once we were in the air, I got a mindlink from Safiyah.

"Physical or oasis tonight?" She asked me. I smirked.

"Both." I chuckled as I watched her mount dip slightly as she turned back to look at me. "You forget that I'm also Coraldr's grandson too, not just Solarrys's." Coraldr was the God of Justice, and sometimes, Justice required physicality to mete out. In my family, it produce great warriors, but it sometimes also came with so much excess energy, that we had to find other ways to to release it. This was the other reason why my family kept its heirs private. We had numerous. Only some of us were allowed to carry a title. I was one of those few. Among my other siblings, there were four other titled males, and eight titled females. We were supposed to marry with another kingdom to provide a stronger alliance between our nations. I rarely ever saw my brothers, but my sisters grew up at the palace with me. My younger sister, Arinna, and I were the only children our mother had bore, the rest were either cousins, or from one of father's many mistresses. Arinna and I held the titles of Prince and Princess, the rest Grand Dukes and Grand Duchesses. Musfir, Zakariya, Mounira, Sunya, and Abelarda were our half siblings. The rest were cousins, and rank as follows: Akpan, Gunay, Zeinab, Helma, Viyan, Reem, and Yara, who was the youngest of us. Zakariya and Abelarda were both of the same mother as well, and I suspected, was our Father's main consort. Musfir was the only child of his mother, but Mounira and Sunya both had other siblings from their mother's marriages. I wondered if they were alright, considering I had been attacked recently. Perhaps they wouldn't be lucky enough to have a healer nearby. My brief moment of startled panic seemed to make Hermes agitated, and I tried to calm down. When we landed at the next campsite, I was going to make sure that while we stopped for supplies, that a message was sent to my parents and other siblings. I wasn't aware of it, but it seemed that the others had picked up on my distress via the mindlink. I was untrained and didn't really understand how to turn it on and off just yet. I was only aware when I felt part of it break away. Khepri had sped up, pushing onwards ahead of us, while Safiyah slowed to stay at my pace. E'Den was stopped and soon we had passed her. I looked over my shoulder back at her to see that her eyes had turned completely golden, the pupil completely gone.

"She's long distance mind linking. Something that only Sol'Ras, and Eldest can do. And a couple of the priests can do it as well, but they can only do it with other people that have the ability."

"Why can't you speak to just anyone?" I asked Safiyah back.

"It doesn't work like that. Do you remember how it felt when your first mindlink with us broke? I imagine it's much stronger for a Half-Elf. Receiving a long distance mind link is like getting a mindlink that's about twenty times as strong. Not every Elf can handle it. I've tried to do the training for it. It's.... like completely becoming one with another person, only to be violently and painfully ripped apart. It leaves you scarred every time. I've only ever seen E'Den do it one other time, and it was when her father sent her a mindlink to tell her of her mother's passing. Pay attention to her over the next few days, alright? She'll be more than worse for wear."

That made sense, and explained why I had felt so melancholic when the link had broken the first time.

"Is that why you stayed with me, afterwards?" I asked her, remembering that she didn't leave the connection right away until after she was certain that I was okay.

"Yes." I felt the empathy through the link again.

"You said you tried once, why would you? Even knowing what it does?"

"It's sometimes the only difference between the life and death of a tribe." She seemed forlorn now, as if she were missing someone dear to her.

"How many tribes are there? What are they called?" I tried to keep the conversation going, no longer seeing Khepri and E'Den was still long distance speaking with someone.

It took her awhile to answer to me. " Five currently. There is the Sunheart Tribe, of which we are apart of. We spread the warmth and love of Lady Solarrys. The Sun Rider Tribe, which is directly allied with ours, due to a marriage between Sol'Ra Aa and Eldest Aphobis. They are capable of riding great mounts, and are thus, "closer to the sun herself". And I mean mounts that would normally require three or more people, they can single handedly tame, train, and ride all on their own. Their skills with handling animals are legendary. It was said that when Lady Cytuna first created us, the Sunrider Tribe rode on the backs of Firebirds, great birds made entirely of sunfire. The Sunforge Tribe uses their innate abillity to directly control heat and they use it to smelt many amazing inventions, as well as our armor and weapons. Lady Cytuna taught us the art of the Forge long ago. It is considered one of our most sacred knowledges. There is the Sunblood Tribe, those who bleed actual sunfire. They are the closest in nature to Fire Elves, and their blood is mixed with molten sunfire. It's quite astonishing really. I don't know about the rituals required, but I have seen some of them in battle. They're terrifying. There's entire areas in the sands that are blackened from where they have scorched the earth there. They do however, make a fairly decent wage trading glass. There is the Sundancer Tribe. They have the ability to call forth the sun from behind clouds. There used to be a sixth tribe and seventh tribe, the sixth being Sunsleep Tribe. They are our greatest loss. Their abilities were said to be very similar to Lady Lunnaire over Lady Solarrys. They represented the Sun's ability to temper herself, or what would happen when the sun sleeps and moon wakes. They have a sister tribe among the Moon Elves that represent the Moon's ability to be destructive, and are more similar to Lady Solarrys than they are to Lady Lunnaire. They still feel their sister tribe's loss. We do to, but it's a different loss for us than it is for them. We lost only a fraction of ourselves, while they lost their other half. The toll is more devastating for them than it is for us. We also lost the Sunsentinel Tribe, their ability was being able to see anything with incredible detail, but only things that sunlight touched. They were unique, as Lady Cytuna didn't create very many of them. They were supposed to guard Solvess and the Eternal Flames. The last of the tribe died several months ago when one of the Eternal Flames went out. We've tried to relight it ourselves, by splitting the remaining Eternal Flame into two pieces, but we only managed to douse the fire a little bit. Now all efforts towards the remaining flame are to keep it lit, and if possible, regrow the flame back to its former size."

"What happens if the other flame goes out?" I asked, not prepared in the slightest for her answer.

"We die. All of us. We've all felt our powers wane since the first flame died, and it's been steadily waning. And if we die, Lady Solarrys dies with us, and Creth looses its influence over its twin suns, which in turn means that they will likely crash into Otheia entirely and turn this planet into the next Thilia Prime."

"That definitely sounds destructive. How like Grandmother to be overly dramatic? My mother shares the trait, as do several of my sisters."

We began to near one of the islands on our list, and we circled overhead for a few moments until we saw E'Den some distance behind us. Whoever she had been talking to, she had been speaking to them for awhile judging by her distance from. We began our descent, and found Khepri waiting for us on the island in the docking bay. He was pacing, and seemed agitated by our late arrival. By the time E'Den had finally rejoined us, he was sweating profusely.

"Alright. Which one of you is going to go first? You both look like you're going to vomit." I said, looking between E'Den and Khepri. Khepri sighed and offered me a scroll, and I took it from him.

Prince Khai,

I pray this letter finds you safely. The Capitol City of Windstorm has been invaded by Naga-tai. King Ibrahim has fallen. Queen Hadi, Grand Duke Musfir, Grand Duchess Mounira, Grand Duchess Sunya, and the cousins have all be secured to a secret location. Princess Arinna, Grand Duke Zakariyah and Grand Duchess Abelarda remain unaccounted for currently, the latter two were last seen defending King Ibrahim's body before retreating for their own safety. I regret to inform you that Princess Arinna has been taken by the Naga-tai. All current attempts at recovery have been futile thus far. The good news is that Elves of the Sunrider Tribe have been spotted in the distance, and are coming to answer our calls for aid. The city would surely fall without them. I would join you my Lord, but your mother has asked me specifically to lead the search for the Princess, and the Grand Duke and Duchess. If you might send word, I shall inform your mother of your status at the earliest possible moment. May the sands shift ever in your favor, may Solarrys's rage fuel you as you seek retribution, and may Coraldr's strength preserve you. My King.

Senu

Gods damn it all. Father was dead. At least Mother and most of the others were safe. I worried for my sister Arinna, but I knew that Zakariyah and Abelarda were fine. Aside from myself and Musfir, those two were the best war-minds we had in the Kingdom. If they retreated, they were alive. I had grown up the closest with these two out of the rest of my family. Abelarda was a shield maiden, who wielded dual shields, and nothing else. Having been on the other side of one of her bash's, I knew that plenty of the Naga-tais corpses had her name on them. Zakariyah wasn't the type to forget anything, ever. When he rejoined the battle, havoc would ensue. I've never seen him allow himself to get backed into a corner he wasn't explicitly certain he could get out of. I hoped their mother Rihana was with ours. The two were friends, and would likely be a source of comfort to each other right now. I cursed again and then turned to E'Den.

"Well, what else is there? Might as well get this over with now." I said, agitated and wishing that I could go back to help my family.

"I spoke with Aphobis. Windstorm is safe, for now. But he tells me that a larger army is coming. They're working on evacuating the city with the remaining time that they have left. Abelarda is now accounted for. When she retreated, it was to move a child out of harm's way. They were trapped in a building for a few hours, but they seem fine otherwise. She's with your mother now. Zakariyah is still fighting. They hope they can persuade him to leave when the time comes, but for now, they are allowing him to clear out what remains in the city." I saw her bite her lip, and this frustrated me more.

"What is it? Do not keep this from me, Champion." The edge in my voice caused Khepri to snarl at me, but I didn't really care right now. "Is she dead? Is that it?"

E'Den's eyes closed for a moment. "They sent her head to your mother, in a basket full of snakes. Abelarda has been named Princess." E'Den's voice had been quite during the last part, but it didn't matter. I heard it anyways. I threw the scroll Khepri had given me on the ground and I walked away from them, cursing more. Anger welled inside of me, and I could feel my own body temperature rising. I could barely see straight, I was fuming. I felt a sharp slap on my back, and I whirled around, ready to punch at whatever it was. It was E'Den. When I turned to look at her, she slapped my chest hard, pushing me back slightly. I tried to shove her arm away, but she held her arm locked in place, her other coming up to punch me directly in the chin. I screamed at her, and as I came back up to meet her, my own fist uppercut into her stomach. She grimaced, but then smiled at me, giving me a slight nod and raised her fists to her face. I could see Safiyah holding Khepri back out of the corner of my eye.

"What are you playing at?" I snarled at her, my eyes returning to E'Den.

"Hit me." I stared at her. "I said, hit me. Hybrid." She said the last word with malice and I lifted my hand to her again, but she blocked me this time, and countered with her own hit. "Is that all you can do? How do you protect your Tribe?" She was taunting me. A part of me knew this, but I no longer cared. If she wanted me to fight with her, then a fight is what she was going to get. I began yelling as I flung myself back towards her, though she easily dodged me at every opportunity, and by the time the spar was finished, I had only barely touched her. Her lip was bleeding, and her cheekbone was bruised and cut open, but she was otherwise unscathed. I, on the other hand, had at least two broken ribs. When it was over, she helped me to my feet, and the earlier anger was replaced with sadness in her features. I sighed heavily. "Come on, you need a drink. And a toast is in order." I didn't have long to ponder what she meant. We made our way into town, and found its tavern. Inside, we sat down at a table together, and E'Den ordered a bottle of the strongest thing they had available in the house. It was moonshine, but we didn't care. After a glass, everything felt warm.

E'Den turned to us and lifted her glass high into the air. "To King Ibrahim and Sol'Ra Amon, may their souls find peace at the Goddess's side." We all looked at her for a moment, the other two much more shocked and grieved by this news. It took me longer than it should have, but I finally pieced together that Amon was E'Den's father, and the leader of Sunheart Tribe.

"Let's hope our journey is short. Sol'Ra Rehema will be needing you back." Safiyah said, finally breaking the silence. Khepri grunted when she said Sol'Ra Rehema.

"I know it was expected of you to pick her, but why did you? Rehema is an inexperienced Hunter at best, let alone Sol'Ra material."

"Because I had a feeling that a new Sol'Ra would be needed before my return, and none of my other siblings are even old enough, let alone Hunters. Rehema was the only choice. Father had been getting tired recently, and I was wondering when his health was going to begin to show it." This seemed to come as a surprise to Safiyah and Khepri.

"You knew Sol'Ra Amon was sick? Before we left?" Safiyah asked, a bit incredulously.

"Not exactly. I had suspicions that he waived off and wouldn't speak to me about. And any attempts I made to get him into a Healer's Hut were always thwarted. He forced me to sit by and watch him die, knowing that I knew something was wrong with him." The other two were quiet. "My father was a great leader, but a terrible parent." Safiyah and Khepri seemed to squirm in their seats. "I suppose it's a good thing I take after my mother." She finished, and the eyes nearly bulged out of Khepri and Safiyah's heads. I got the idea that the things E'Den was saying about a former Sol'Ra weren't exactly smiled upon in their culture. In fact, she was likely being incredibly rude and insulting to his memory.

I tossed the rest of my drink back, swallowing it quickly and began to feel the familiar burn crawl down my throat. A wench came by and refilled our glasses before leaving us the bottle. Before any of us could manage it, E'Den had already downed her glass and had taken the bottle, beginning to chug it straight out of the bottle, damn the rest of us. When she set the empty bottle back onto the table, I caught her eye. She had the same sadness I saw on Lady Solarrys's face in the vision. I tried to reach out to her, but she flinched away from me.

"Are you going to tell me not to drink anymore, King Khepri of the Sands?" She glared at me, her words already slurred.

"Yep, that's exactly what I'm going to do, Eldest E'Den, Champion of the Sun. You don't need anymore." Unlike when I challenged Safiyah, E'Den didn't retort with words. Instead she slapped me and went upstairs, presumably to sleep.

"You shouldn't challenge her, Halfling. I'm actually more surprised that she only slapped you." Khepri said, coming to look at my face. It was tender under where he touched it, and he had to clean the area, but other than minor damage, I was alright. It was just going to hurt for a few days.

"I'd do it again. I understand that she's in pain, but drinking will not help her. It will only make her depression worse, and I'd like to return to my Kingdom with the Champion, not her body. Isn't this supposed to be your job?" Khepri bared his teeth at me, but didn't say anything. I sighed and held my head in my hands. Just because I was right, didn't mean that I needed to say it out loud. "I'm sorry, Khepri. You didn't deserve that. I think I'm going to call it a night as well. Goodnight." He seemed surprised by my apology, but didn't stop me when I got up to leave. I walked away from the table and headed upstairs. I passed E'Den and Safiyah's room on the way to mine and Khepri's and saw that she was already passed out on the bed, snoring loudly. I shook my head and continued on to my room.

I didn't know if I believed the note from Senu, but my sister was confirmed dead, and I just wanted to sleep an entire night through without visiting gods or being poisoned. I was just tired now.

Once I was in bed and mostly comfortable, I saw the door open and close quietly once more. I assumed it was Khepri coming in to sleep, but to my surprise, Safiyah crawled into my bed, and pressed her body to mine, not in a s****l manner, but rather a need to be close. I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her into my chest a little more and leaned down to kiss the top of her head. She nuzzled into my chest, and it wasn't long before I could hear her breathing deeply. I relaxed much more with her in bed with me than I had alone, and was grateful for her companionship.

Khepri's POV:

Khai was right, and I knew it, but it didn't mean that I liked being told to do my job. I had asked Safiyah to switch rooms with me earlier, because with the two of them getting involved, I didn't want to be right next to them at night. But I was glad that I had already taken care of it after Khai's comment to me. When I went to head to E'Den's room, I found her already asleep, and snoring loudly as she always did after drinking.

"Great.... If I'm lucky, maybe it'll turn into white noise after a few hours." I muttered to myself, and began pulling off my armor. Elven armors were designed to wear like regular clothing to be an ease getting into and out of it when it was necessary. Like Safiyah, I usually wore mine most of the time, the only difference being that I removed mine to sleep, while Safiyah didn't. I was about to sit down on the bed when I decided to stretch my arms above my head, yawning loudly. When my hands came down, one went to absent mindedly scratch over my groin and I hear a tray clatter from behind me onto the floor. I spun around, my hand reaching for my axe hilt before I registered that it was just one of the cleaning maidens that worked for the tavern. Her face was bright red, and she couldn't bring herself to find my eyes, instead mumbling apologies for disturbing us, and clamored to pick up the tray before rushing out. A loud snore from E'Den told me that she missed the entire event, and I let my hand drop from my axe, my head shaking. I crawled into bed, tossing and turning until I could find a comfortable enough position to sleep in.

I didn't sleep much throughout the night, and found myself awake and getting up for the day hours before the sun had even risen. Instead of doing nothing, I spent time packing up our gear, and once some of the shops were open, I replenished our supplies. By the time I had returned to the tavern with fresh supplies, the sun had started to peak over the clouds in the distance. The others would be up soon, and I wanted to eat and get moving. When I walked, I saw Khai speaking to the innkeep about having a letter sent. I raised my brow at him when he finally noticed me. He sighed.

"The message from Senu, I was replying." For someone who had been so convinced his medjay was dead, he didn't seem to happy about the fact that he was alive. I grunted in response.

"Do you trust this information?" I asked him. Something felt off.

"No, that's why I sent a coded reply. If it is Senu, he'll know to respond better next time. If it's not Senu, then they'll try again by post. At that point, I can toy with the suspect long enough for Senu to figure out who it is."

"If he's alive, right? You were convinced he fell at the temple." I could see his eyes. He was hiding something from us. I quickly sent a message to both E'Den and Safiyah. Safiyah's response came back automatically.

"If he was hiding something, I would have felt it." Typical.

"Not if what he felt for you was real. Those feelings wouldn't be faked during your nighttime meetings." E'Den understood.

I walked with Khai out to our mounts. Silently, we saddled them up, climbed onto them and took flight. It wasn't until we were safely away from the village that we began to surround Khai so he couldn't leave. I opened my mind up to him, allowing him to join the conversation.

"What are you hiding from us Hybrid?"

"Back to that again? Really?" He sounded exasperated.

"That doesn't answer my question." I grumbled.

"Senu is dead. He's been dead since the day he became my retainer." That wasn't what I expected to hear.

"What? What does that even mean?" Safiyah sounded incredulous now, and a bit hurt? Hm.

"It means that it's a security measure." E'Den finally chimed in. We felt Khai's agreement.

"What else are you hiding then? Since you seemed to know that he was still alive even before you tried to convince us otherwise." I was trying to get him to answer us.

He shifted on Hermes, and the Skylisk seemed to feel uncomfortable between all of us.

"Is there somewhere we can land? I'd rather just speak to you face to face."

"Why? So you can lie more easily? No, we'll stay in the air." Safiyah said it before I could.

"No, I didn't say to drop the link, just that I wanted to speak face to face. You can still tell if I'm lying then." Why was he being logical about this?

We conceded and found a small island off of our navigated course, but not far, and it wouldn't be hard to get going again without too much loss.

We stood around Khai, and he sighed.

"I knew that there would be an attack on Ra'Staak." He said.

"You knew and didn't defend them?" Safiyah challenged him. He snorted at her.

"That's why I was there with Senu. But our information line was delayed, and we got there too late. We had an agreement, the day I swore him into office. Should we ever get separated during a mission, we are to say that Senu is dead. And that he died ten years ago. Anyone claiming a different date, or claiming that he was still alive was not to be trusted. This is true for every title holder in our Kingdom. We each have our own medjay, sworn to be our retainer. They try not to leave our side for any reason other than necessity. It was necessary for him to go and get you, Champion. But he returned to me, just in time to ensure I got out of the tunnels safely and would be able to run into you. When I asked him to prepare for our trip to Ra'Staak, I didn't know that he made all these other preparations. But if he did, then it meant he suspected someone in the information line, but couldn't be sure. Otherwise, he would have told me who he suspected before he left my side."

"Okay, so who told you about the attack on Ra'Staak?" E'Den asked. He shook his head.

"It doesn't work like that. Everyone has a code name, and only one person knows the codenames for every spy."

"Every spy in the Kingdom?" He shook his head again.

"No, every spy in every Kingdom. The Followers of Xatia protect Elona's Champion."

"Who are The Followers of Xatia? And who is Elona's Champion?" I frowned.

"I mean, I could state the obvious here and say that they're followers of the Goddess Xatia?" He cringed when he saw our faces. "No, okay then. Well, you Xatia is the Goddess of Truth, right?" We nodded, he continued. "Right, so her followers are keepers of truth. And their leader, is Elona's Champion. Elona being the Goddess of Deceit and Xatia's sister."

"Why wouldn't their Champion be of Xatia if they're her followers?" Safiyah's confusion was felt by E'Den and I as well.

"Because they're all apart of the spy network for the kingdoms. Elona elects one Champion to hold the Book of Names. The followers then protect the truth from being found by anyone else. They're like personal guards of the Book." E'Den slowly nodded.

"That makes sense. Give the liar the truth and no one will believe them, but record the knowledge and suddenly the liar is another layer of protection because they alone know the location of the book. If it's in neutral territory, or even say, in their holdings, then it can be conveniently watched, and if anything happens to network, there's either one suspect, or one person who can figure it out. But why are you so precautious?" E'Den was surprisingly good at figuring out what was happening. But I chalked it up to her upbringing.

"Because there's a killer among us. They've been moving extremely fast, and we've had a hard time tracking them. Lord Augustus speaks of an assassin in the Kingdom of Thornes, and yet before we've even gotten halfway there, the assassin has already tried to attack me. I think we have a rogue network. And I think the Followers of Xatia have been compromised. Senu agreed with me before we even left for Ra'Staak."

"So, the Followers of Xatia inform you of a Naga-tai attack on Ra'Staak, and even though you suspected them of compromise, you still went to Ra'Staak?"

"Yes."

"Why?" My head was beginning to hurt. Everyone else seemed to feel it too and we all mutually dropped the link and began speaking out loud again.

"To lure them away from my Father." He used himself as bait. And it had worked. Or at least, they were chasing him anyways. "If the information in the letter was correct, then the plan failed and someone in the inner circle is a traitor and is hunting down titleholders. If the information in the letter was wrong, then it means that the assassin is chasing me and trying to find out where my father is, which means that he's safe. I cannot know who sent the reply until Senu finds a way to message me, or until I get another response."

"Why didn't you tell us sooner? Why didn't you tell me sooner?" Safiyah sounded hurt again, but like she was trying to cover it up.

"If he had told us any sooner, he would have comprised his safety, and by proxy, ours as well. He was trying to protect us as much as he was trying to protect himself." E'Den seemed satisfied, but I wasn't.

"What does it have to do with us?" I asked her, glaring in her direction.

"We are all "titleholders", Khepri. If he told us that someone was watching us, we would have acted differently and not as we would normally. If they're this close to their victims, any small change would have tipped them off and they'd have become wind. We can't catch them if they move on. Khai's right; our only choice is to force them to follow us. By going to the Kingdom of Thornes, we risk running into two assassins, yes, but it also means that they'll be focused on us, which could potentially save others, or buy enough time to figure it out. Show one to hide the many." She seemed cross with me for not understanding sooner, and I sighed. She was right of course. We had been trained since we were young on our Hunting Techniques, and instead of ascertaining that Khai was using something very similar to one of our main Techniques. I had been too focused on distrusting him to allow myself to function like Hunter. I didn't say anything to her, and simply dropped my gaze from her. She knew that I understood now, and didn't push it any further. A lesson earned is a lesson learned. I realized that Safiyah and Khai were still quiet and looked over to see them having their own conversation. Safiyah's arms went from hugging herself to relaxing at her side after a few moments, and she seemed less tense. He was probably buttering her up, I mused to myself. A thought occurred to me a short time later.

"So how would Senu try to message you now?" Khai looked up at me, surprised by my question.

"To be honest, I don't know. We've never been separated this long before. He doesn't tell me a lot about what he does to ensure my safety, and I don't ask. He told me it was easier for me to not know, because it meant that I was safer that way."

I snorted at him. "You should know everything about him. You entrust this man with your life, yes? Yet you know nothing of how he operates, and cannot even have certainty of his identification practices. How do know it's not Senu who is the leak?" He face turned a remarkable shade of red.

"Senu is an honorable man. Don't you dare befoul his name." He snapped back at me. I had apparently touched a nerve.

"But how do you know?" I could tell he was struggling to push aside his anger at my disrespect to give me an answer.

"Because he has had plenty of opportunities to sabotage the kingdom over the last ten years. I didn't trust him in the beginning either, but he's proved to me time and again that he'll always be there to protect me. He's the closest thing to a friend that I have. Why would he suddenly change his mind after all this time? We have been amenable with each other, at least I thought so. We did not find each other's company unpleasant. I chose him because he came highly recommended to me, and he seems to understand that I chose him for his skills, over the skills of the other candidates."

"Hm. Was there anyone else you would have considered?" I asked. Perhaps someone held a grudge.

"Only one other person. I think he became my sister's retainer after I chose Senu."

"Why didn't you pick them?" I probed.

"Because my mother told me to pick Senu." He shrugged off-handedly.

"Do you always listen to your mother?" Safiyah teased him.

"I do when she tells me that she feel can his unwavering devotion to Lady Solarrys, being her daughter and all." That shut her up quickly.

"And did this other person not devote themselves as fully?" He shrugged again.

"She said that they seemed more like someone from my Father's department, which always means that it's something to do with Lord Coraldr. She's been like since I was born. And that she felt like Senu would be a better fit for me due to his abillity to question. The other man is a great soldier, good for giving orders too. He's not really one to be able to think of much on his own." I got the sense that Khai was being polite.

"But could he be dumb enough to pair up with someone who is much smarter and will exploit his knowledge of the inner workings?" I could E'Den's eyes on me and knew that she understood that I was trying to make up for my earlier blunder by using my head this time instead of being biased.

He didn't say anything for awhile, looking like he was giving it some serious thought. After a few minutes, he finally shook his head.

"No, if it were him, Senu would have told me before he left. He'd have been an obvious target Senu would have looked at right away. That means that Senu saw something that erases any doubts about him. Likely, he was f*****g my sister. And men are stupid when they chase a skirt. He'd have slipped up." He stopped for moment, as if having a realization. "Senu said he saw them fighting a few weeks ago just before we left. He overheard their fight and then came to tell me that they were fighting over a name, but I wasn't paying attention because I was busy signing paperwork." He cursed himself. "Of course. She's pregnant and he wants her to name him as the father so that they can get married. But she's already promised to another and refused him."

"Your family arranged your sister's marriage? Gross." Safiyah's nose lifted in disgust and I had to agree with her. Even amongst the Eldest, they had a choice on who they got to marry. A partnership was considered sacred. He looked at her puzzled for a moment.

"She arranged it herself. She and I were groomed to make our own arrangements, and she's much better at it than I am." He looked put out.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"She's the court intrigue, I'm the musclehead. She's always been better at talking with people and being able to work deals in her favor. I've bungled it more times than I care to admit." He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"So, what kind of arrangement did she make for herself?" E'Den asked, curious now.

"She allied us with The Kingdom of the Shield. Then she helped Abelarda arrange her marriage, allying us The Kingdom of Feathers. I suspected that she'd offer to help my cousins arrange their marriages as well, but it doesn't seem like Arinna will be playing matchmaker anymore." I remembered that E'Den had told him that she was dead. We all shifted uncomfortably.

"Do you think someone took offense to her arrangements?" I asked after awhile. Khai looked up at me.

"I don't know, but maybe. I hadn't ruled it out yet." Before I could ask anymore questions, E'Den told us to saddle up. We had already lost too much time and we needed to avoid being seen by most of the other Kingdoms between Pegasi and Thornes.