The girl had an eerily calm touch, as if the simple contact of her fingers brushing against Braedon's forehead had sent a warm, tingly sensation down his beaten spine. He had been in so much pain and grief, yet when her lips met his skin, it sent a surge of warmth and calm across his bruised and battered body, his throbbing head but a faint pang.

It wasn't until he awoke, did the pain in his head start again, but this time, for an entirely different reason.

"What...?" he groaned, shielding his eyes from the bright, artificial light coming from the ceiling above. He was in a small, white room, spread out on top of a bed, bandaged, and surrounded by herbs and naturalistic medicines on a table to his right, a medicinal cabinet to his left.

The room was bare, save for a small window on the opposite side, situated too far up for him to see through while lying down. He wrinkled his nose at the smell that suddenly hit him, unpleasant and off-putting. It came from the small bowl closest to his bed.

He threw the thin, white covers off, sitting up and then instantly regretting his rapid movements. He groaned, holding his head, his body pulsing in pain.

"Raena?" he called out, wincing.

He scanned the room twice-over. He was utterly alone. He stood up – slowly this time, and with some effort – only to realise he was completely naked beneath the sheets, bandages and gross-looking ointments covering his stomach, shoulder, arm and chest. He looked around for his clothes, for Raena's bow. She was going to go berserk if he lost her favourite weapon.

He went to call out her name again before thinking better of it. Perhaps she was hiding from these people. But who were these people? They were not Lymphans, that much he was certain of.

Braedon slowly made his way to the window, at first only able to see his reflection due to the illuminous lightbulbs above. He had a cut on his upper lip and a swollen eye. The rest of his face looked cleansed and his hair also washed and left to dry messily. Dark, solemn eyes stared back at him as he remembered his grandfather's outcries while he was being beaten.

As Braedon edged closer to the window, he began to notice the twinkling city lights below, shining through wooden huts and illuminating like little fairy lights on trees that scattered the large district.

He froze. An icy chill spread across his body and his heart leaped into his throat. This wasn't the forest. This wasn't anywhere near the Tenebris Forest. This was a hidden place, an underground district... The Terra District.

Braedon swivelled around for the door just as it opened, revealing a flabbergasted girl, eyes wide and mouth slightly agape. The folded clothes she had in her arms dropped to the floor, and Braedon had to wonder why she was staring so horror-stricken before remembering his nudity.

Braedon snatched the white boxers from the floor and hurriedly slid them on.

"Oh gosh," the girl's bright hazel eyes were wide and unmoving, as if she were scared they might wander further south.

"Get out of my way," Braedon huffed, pulling up the olive-drab trousers and heading for the door.

The girl – who upon closer inspection seemed oddly familiar – remained stock-still, her expression still one of shock.

"Let me see Raena! Where is she?" Braedon went to move past her when the girl placed a hand on his bare shoulder.

He tensed, then instantly relaxed, and Braedon suddenly took in her features, recognising that calm touch. Her sandy-brown hair framed her heart-shaped face and cascaded in waves around her shoulders. The turquoise dress she wore matched the flecks of green reflected in the girl's eyes, mixed with soft browns. She stared up at him, almost a head smaller in height. But that calming sensation she was giving off was blocking something, an uncomfortable memory that wriggled to get through.

"Where have I seen you before?" he loosened a breath.

The girl dropped her hand, appearing a little overwhelmed. The calm sense instantly vanished, only a lingering trace of it remaining where her hand had been moments before. And that's when he saw her. Or parts of her, at least. The hair was exactly the same colour, her eyes almost identical and the shape of her face...

"You're Queen Freya's other daughter. The third one. The missing one," Braedon stated blandly. The girl looked almost taken aback.

He narrowed his eyes at her. Why was she showing her face now, in this moment? Where had she been all this time? But more importantly... his thoughts wandered to Raena once again, and he made to move past the doorframe, past her.

"It's okay," the princess reassured, shifting slightly to block his path. "You're safe now. I promise."

Braedon's eyes darted to the black ink on her arm, confirming his suspicions. This was the long-lost Volterra.

Braedon crossed his arms. "I insist on seeing Raena."

"Of course," the princess nodded. "She's been by your bed all evening, you know? Didn't want to talk to anyone until you woke up, she said. She literally only just left now to go use the bathroom but she should be here any moment."

Braedon remained unmoving, a long, awkward silence stretching between them. The princess of Terra spoke a little strangely, her accent, her lingo... he couldn't quite place his finger on it, but she spoke as if she had been living on a different continent entirely. She cleared her throat sheepishly, and Braedon bent to pick up the trousers she had dropped on the floor, and he slid them on as fast as his aching body would allow. They were slightly loose-fitting, but they did their job, at least.

"I, um," she stumbled over her words, looking flustered. "The nurses tended to your wounds. They had to remove your... your clothes so they could stitch some of the deeper cuts made by one of the arrows. She said you'll recover in a few days though. You got quite a beating, but nothing is broken." Braedon didn't respond. He imagined that Grandpa Sage got a much worse beating. The thought made him tense in rage.

Iris seemed to sense his dark mood because she hurriedly continued, "They had the maids find the proper sized garments for you, and well, I was curious to see how you were doing, so I offered to take the clothes to you and I was just going to leave them by your bed, honestly. Never thinking that..." Her eyes wandered dangerously low before she shook her head, cheeks flushed. "Sorry, I didn't know you were awake."

Braedon didn't say a word. He was too shocked by the events that just passed, all the minute details that were beginning to replay in his head now, starting from the accursed draugr creature that began this whole mess and left Raena vulnerable, to the soldiers who ransacked their home and took away his Grandpa Sage. And now he was stuck in the gods-damned Terra District.

Braedon's lips became a thin line. "What are you going to do to her?"

The princess had the audacity to look confused. "Do to her?"

Braedon's eyes narrowed further. "You saved us just so you could try and form some kind of an alliance, right? You want to use her in this gods-damned Elemental War, complete the prophecy and all that nonsense. She's fifteen and she does not need to get involved in all this."

The princess shook her head, a small frown on her face, eyebrows knitted together. "Listen, I've barely made a friend here, I'd hardly say I'm forming an alliance with anyone any time soon. I just want to help my... sister." She seemed to say the last word as if it were foreign on her lips.

Braedon tried to move past her again without touching her, in case she used her Terran element to calm and dull his senses once again. "If you truly want to help, you'll leave us alone."

The comment hardly seemed to faze the princess's optimism. "What's your name, anyway?"

Braedon didn't answer, nor did he grab the shirt when she offered it to him.

She let out a sigh and held out her hand instead. "Well, I go by Iris."

Braedon briefly looked down at her outstretched hand before meeting her gaze again, unblinking.

"Oh," she put down her hand sheepishly. "Is that not how you greet people here? I could have sworn I'd seen people in the streets shaking hands but maybe it's different in other districts? Which one are you from?"

Braedon raised an eyebrow. What was Princess Volterra – or Iris – on about? Was she playing dumb on purpose? And to what end?

"Okay," Iris exhaled slowly. "I'm probably making a mess of things, aren't I?" she laughed hesitantly. "I don't really know the protocol for these kinds of things. I just know I'm not really supposed to be here, I think. And I don't mean in this room, I mean, here. Like, in Caedus."

It was now Braedon's turn to stare in dumbfounded confusion. "What?"

"Oh shoot," Iris bit her lip. "Did I pronounce it wrong? Is it not Caedus?"

Braedon opened his mouth to reply when an all-too familiar voice cut him off, and he turned his attention to the bundle of arms that desperately pushed past Iris and wrapped around his waist.

"Braedon!" Raena cried breathlessly. Tears brimmed her eyes and she took in a shuddering breath. "You're okay!"

Braedon wrapped his arms around her, squeezing her shoulders, warmth and relief flooding into his veins as he kissed her hair, the familiar scent of pines and trees filling his nostrils.

Raena suddenly twisted around, glaring at Iris. "How long has he been awake? Why didn't you say anything?"

"I'm sorry," Iris apologised quickly. "I promise, he must have only woken up moments before I came in to give him his clothes." She blushed once again, her cheeks turning a warm pink. "Um, here." She handed the garments still in her hand to Raena instead, who glanced between Braedon and Iris with a questionable look.

"I'll give you two your space." Iris went to exit but Raena reached out to stop her.

"Wait," she bit her lip, as if pondering hesitantly over her next words. There was so much unspoken between them. Braedon could almost taste the buzzing curiosity and apprehension in the air that coursed between the two sisters. The thought only seemed to hit him now as the two girls looked at each other. So different in appearance and yet there was something there. Something familiar. Th glance they exchanged between each other, like a secret so special that could only be shared between two sisters. Braedon watched the silent interaction until Raena finally shook her head and murmured a thank you.

Iris nodded kindly, a small smile on her face. "Let me know if you need anything. The people here are actually pretty chill. Most of them, anyway."

As she left the room, Raena glanced quizzically at Braedon. "What on Caedus is 'pretty chill'?"

Braedon bent so that he was eye-level with her, holding her face and scanning it for injuries. He didn't care for the Terran Princess's strange manner of talking. His mind was currently on the two most important people in his life. Grandpa Sage and Raena. "Are you hurt?"

Raena barked out a laugh and swatted his hands away. "Me? What about you? I saw the nurses tending to your wounds. An arrow had grazed you pretty badly, and your bruises... what happened?" The colour had drained entirely from Raena's face now, as if she were answering her own questions already. "My element. They were able to track my scent, weren't they. Who did this? The Terrans? Where is Grandpa Sage?"

"With the Lymphans."

Those three words were enough to make Raena stagger backwards, gripping the doorframe in shock and horror. "Stercore."

Braedon didn't feel like scolding her for her foul language. He felt the same way. Absolutely shit.

"I never should have used my element." Her voice was but a bare whisper has she ran a hand through the roots of her hair – a habit she had picked up from Braedon.

"You would have died," Braedon said, much calmer than how he felt. It was hard to keep his cool right now. Hard not to charge out of this gods-forsaken underground district and recklessly seek out Grandpa Sage. But he had to keep it together. For Raena. For Grandpa Sage.

"He might be dead now!" Raena hissed. "Because of me, Braedon."

"He's not."

"You don't know, Braedon!" Her eyes brimmed with tears. "You don't know for sure."

"You have to have more faith in him, Rae."

"Shit, Braedon!" Raena hit her palm against the wall. "The Lymphans have him. Do you hear yourself? This isn't about faith! This is about what they are willing to do to him to get to me. If he's not dead, then they're torturing him right now—"

Braedon grabbed her wrist as she went to hit the wall again, his arm shaking as he gripped her tightly. "You don't think I know that," he whispered harshly, his eyes scanning the corridor beyond for any eavesdroppers. He pulled her into the room and closed the door after her.

"We will find him, Rae. Promise to Messorum that I will find him and get him back safely if it's the last, gods-damned thing I do. But we need to keep quiet, and we need to be stealthy, or else we have no shot. We're in Terra now, Raena. This is no longer the forest. You have to be careful who you speak to. You can't trust anyone, Rae. I mean it."

"You're talking about Iris." Raena's voice was still bluntly angry, but she had lowered it, at least.

Braedon inhaled through his nose. "This is war, Rae. Everyone has their own agenda."

"You don't trust her, do you?"

Braedon briefly glanced at the closed door. "Where has she been all this time, Rae? Why is she choosing to show her face now, right in the moment you needed her most? And she just happened to find you?"

"It could have been a coincidence."

"Nothing is a coincidence," Braedon fired back coolly. "Only fools believe in coincidences."

"Then perhaps it was fate," Raena replied evenly, chin held high.

"Or planned."

"You don't even know anything about her yet and you're assuming the worst. She promised she could help us, and I felt she was telling the truth."

"You felt that or the bond influenced you to think that?"

Raena's jaw jutted out in defiance. "Perhaps both. But my instincts have never failed me before."

Braedon closed his eyes for a moment and rubbed them, taking a few breaths. Fighting was useless, is what Grandpa Sage would say. They were stronger together, not apart and bickering.

"Look," Raena said, with an effort to sound gentler. "I had time to think while I was waiting for you to awaken. And I get what you're saying. Really, I do. You're right. We know nothing about her except that she is my sister. But her past, where she has been all this time, her possible agenda... if she's willing to help us, Braedon, we could really use it right about now. And who better than the Terran princess? She probably has a heap of Border Patrol guards to spare, and we could use her resources, if only we ask for her assistance."

Braedon looked her over one last time as he considered her words. There were no signs of injuries other than the few cuts and grazes she had gotten from twigs while running from the draugr. The cut down her thigh from the thorn bush looked to be healing, as it was now turning a crusty brown – almost a scab. He noted Raena's left forearm, which she must have allowed one of the nurses here to bandage up, for a clean, white bandage was wrapped around it tightly.

He cursed under his breath. In all this ruckus, he had forgotten to ask her the most important question. "The draugr... were you able to—"

"No," Raena pursed her lips in disappointment.

Braedon cursed colourfully once again. "What are we going to do? You'll have to sleep eventually."

"I'm considering telling Iris. She might have those caffeinated strips Grandpa had."

"Or she might use the information against you."

"I had a feeling you would say that," Raena replied with some annoyance. Then with a sigh, she added, "But I didn't tell her anything yet. I haven't even spoken to her properly." Her olive cloak was dirty and crinkled, the hood limp on her back. She wore none of her fighting gear, which was no surprise. After she woke from her slumber in the cave, he highly doubted the Terrans would have let her go back to pick up her supply of weapons – that is, if she'd even be able to find them after the ransack that had occurred.

"I lost your bow and arrow," Braedon said quietly.

"I lost us Grandpa Sage." Raena's sea-blue eyes were an ocean of rage and shame as she added bitterly, "So, I think we're even."

"Don't say that," Braedon swallowed the lump in his throat. "You didn't lose him. We haven't lost him." He was well aware that his words sounded more like fake assurance, than fact. Braedon's heart ached more than his beaten body, his mouth drying at the painful memory of his Grandpa's tortured screams. He couldn't dare to think for a second that seeking out Grandpa Sage might just be hopeless. He was the only family he had. Of course, Raena was like the sister he never had... but him and Grandpa were the last two members of the Slate family. After that, it would just be Braedon. And then once he was gone... his lineage, his history, his family... it would all be forgotten – erased from existence.

"And the worst part?" Raena continued hollowly, "I hate that I didn't listen to him. None of this would have happened if I hadn't been bitten by that hellish creature..." Raena bit her lower lip, eyes glistening as she met Braedon's solemn gaze. "If I hadn't used my element to save my sorry arse, you two would still be safe in the Tenebris Forest." Her lips quivered and Braedon shushed her, drawing her closer, and she sobbed quietly into his chest while he stroked her hair in reassurance, muttering sweet nothings.

Because he felt just as lost. Just as empty. Grandpa Sage meant everything to him. He had been there to raise Braedon after his parents died. He cared and nurtured for Raena as if she were his own, and he didn't feel like telling Raena that even if she hadn't used her element, Grandpa Sage would never be able to live with herself if something happened to her. To either one of them. And neither would Braedon. Raena was the reason they grew up in the Dark Forest. There is nothing Grandpa Sage wouldn't do for the two of them, even if it was at the cost of his own life. Somehow, it didn't seem fitting to tell Raena any of this. He knew it would only make her feel more guilty, more resentful. And it wasn't what he wanted for her, nor what they needed right now. They needed to keep their heads on their shoulders and find a way to get him back. That was all that mattered right now.

Braedon's mind wandered to calmer days in search of some grounding and determination. He remembered how Grandpa Sage would read them stories and sing songs by lit fires during colder nights. How they would all go star-gazing by the cascading waterfall while snacking and pointing out constellations, which would somehow eventually land them in debates about the most nonsensical things like herbs and weapons and animals and flora and bizarre topics like fashion through the ages and myths and legends and favourite foods... anything and everything under the sun and moon and stars – everything, that is, except politics and the war-ridden reality they escaped. Grandpa Sage had created a sanctuary for the two of them. The three of them, really. In the only place the Elemental War had not yet tainted. Their own little fantasy world, where they were safe and happy and their life was simple – if even a little boring, sometimes. But now that was all ripped away. His reality. Their fake reality. It was ripped from them the moment Grandpa Sage was taken away, the moment the Lymphans had broken the reality they had grown up to love and cherish for fifteen years.

So now Braedon found himself murmuring encouraging words into Raena's ear while she stifled her sobs, and he wished desperately, uselessly, now more than ever for Grandpa Sage's words of wisdom, of logic and reasoning and hope.

But Grandpa wasn't here anymore. And Braedon could feel the cold, foreboding hands of fear gripping at his heart and lungs and throat, and his eyes glistened with tears while doubt crawled like a spider through his mind, and he dared wonder if they would ever see him again, if he was even alive anymore.

He shut his eyes tight, breathing in slowly, imagining what words Grandpa Sage would say to him in this instant, what he would want Braedon to do in such a situation. What would Grandpa Sage do?

He would tell him to place his emotions to the side. Emotions often scrambled logic. And right now, he needed his mind to be clear, to be sharp.

When Braedon opened his eyes again and noticed the window off to his left, with the view of the Terra District below, he was aware of the only logical move he could possibly do next.

He squeezed Raena's shoulders in newfound determination. "We need to get out of here."