Raena could hear the voices before the blackness in her vision cleared, replaced by a blinding light above her head. She winced, lifting a hand to block the illuminous lightbulb – then stopped abruptly. Restraints were strapped around her wrists, and legs too, she discovered, when she tried to move the lower half of the body. One across her stomach too, firmly ensuring she was pressed against the hard bench beneath her.

Panic ensnared her, and Raena kicked and thrashed. She was trapped – like her prey when caught in one of her many, creative snares. Beaded sweat formed at her temples, and Raena looked around wildly, her mouth opening in the beginnings of a scream, when two nurses dressed in mint green surrounded her bed, face masks covering their mouths. One pressed down on her chest, forcing her to remain still, while the other held up a long, menacing-looking needle.

A sob escaped Raena. "P-please. Don't put that... that thing in me."

She didn't understand anything. Her mind was a complete blur of the night's event. She somewhat recalled a boy, about her age, and then a cloth being stuffed into her face and then – Raena began to thrash again, trying desperately to push against the restraints that kept her tied and bound to this gods-forsaken torture bed she had awoken to.

The second nurse, a male, lowered the needle towards her arm, and Raena looked at them both with pleading eyes. The male was familiar. Where had she seen him before? Neither of the two met her gaze beneath their hairnets. The female nurse only gripped her tighter, her knuckles whitening with the pressure, while the male knitted his dark eyebrows together in concentration. The needle's point pricked her forearm ever so slightly, and Raena jolted back as far as her restraints would allow, determined to not let the needle's end sink beneath the surface of her skin.

"Wait," a deep voice rumbled.

The two nurses immediately stepped back at that familiar voice that Raena was so certain she had heard before but couldn't quite place – a vision from the ball flashed in her mind, and her skin crawled as she remembered those piercing dark eyes that had burned into her before exiting the townhall via the back entrance.

Her mouth had already dried before Jasper came into her line of vision.

"Princess Anahita Caedusis," Jasper breathed, as if only taking in her true identity now that she was strapped to a bed like a feral animal before him. "Interesting, isn't it?" he murmured, his dark eyes never trailing from her own blue ones. "How in the course of a week, not one, but two long-lost princesses, have been found once again. It seems the prophecy speaks true, doesn't it?"

Raena didn't dare respond. She weighed the situation like a huntress. He was the predator, his eyes gleaning with both eagerness and savage curiosity at the type of rare animal he had managed to capture. She was the prey, bounded from the stomach and down, leaving little opportunity for escape. Raena gritted her teeth.

"What do you want from me?" Raena demanded hoarsely, her voice foreign in her own ears. How long had she been out?

Jasper only observed her with a tall, erect posture, two hands clasped behind his back in a contemplative gesture.

"You," he mused, his eyes trailing to her flesh-bitten wound on her arm – then dismissing it as he met her gaze again. "Could very-well be the salvation of this district. Or," he let out a sigh through his nose. "At the very least, a very important pawn that could shift the balance of power in this game of war."

"I'm worthless to both you and my own people," Raena spat coarsely. "And anyone else for that matter."

He tutted, eyes grazing over her facial features, no doubt for any hint of fear. She would give him nothing. Raena's lips thinned and her jaw jutted out in defiance.

"Worthless," he said quietly, taking a closer step towards her. "Is definitely not a word I would use to describe you, Anahita."

Raena stiffened at her royal-born name. The name that Grandpa Sage had given up so much for to remain hidden, to keep her safe. And yet she had been foolish enough once again to get mixed up with trouble. "Don't call me that."

"But that is your name, isn't it?"

Raena didn't answer. She had left Anahita behind when the Kingdom had collapsed. She didn't remember the name, wouldn't even recognise it had Grandpa Sage not told her years ago. Sage wouldn't risk using her name aloud in the dark forest where they lived. The wind whispered, and the trees talked, he claimed, and though the Tenebris Forest was a misunderstood place, it also had its shadows and evils that lurked deep within. So, he called her Raena, a name that was but a mere droplet of what she represented, who she once was.

"You promised Iris," Raena said softly. "You gave her your word that you wouldn't hurt us."

A glimmer of lucidity seemed to return to his eyes at the mention of her sister's name but was soon replaced with that calculated and determined glance. "I haven't hurt you, have I?"

Raena pulled her lips back in a snarl. "Giving orders to hurt me is the same thing, you cynical bastard. It just means you're getting someone else to do your dirty work."

"Let's not snap accusations." Jasper's eyes glinted. "Nothing has happened to you yet."

Raena couldn't help recoiling slightly. Yet. Not yet, he had said. A glimpse of red caught her eye, and she shifted her head to the side at the table of medicinal equipment, and the cylindrical containing what appeared to be... The colour from Raena's face drained.

"Is that my blood?" her voice came out in barely more than a whisper.

"Ah," Jasper nodded towards the blood sample. "We had to take a quick blood test..."

"Why?" Raena barked, balling her hands into fists.

Jasper paused, as if debating over whether she was entitled to that information or not. Like it wasn't her blood, her life on the line. "I told you, Anahita," he said calmly, and Raena once again gritted her teeth at the sound of that name. "You might just be what I need. You see," he waved a hand towards the blood sample. "Magic is weakening. Everyone knows this. However, I wonder..." he walked around the bed towards the container. The two nurses, whom Raena had forgotten about up until this point, remained by the back wall, waiting for their orders. "What would happen if we were to... mix two elements together?"

Raena's heart skipped a beat and goose-bumps ran up and down her exposed arms. "That's impossible."

"Yes," Jasper admitted. "That's what I thought too with the first thirty three failed experiments..."

Raena felt her stomach churn, and her throat bobbed as she held back a whimper. Thirty-three... failed?

"But then," Jasper's eyes wandered over her face again, scrutinising. "I thought to myself, what if I had this all wrong? What if, what I needed, was more than just science and magic at work with some random patient. What if the patient I needed, was a purebred... a part of the royal bloodline? An elemental strong enough to withstand the blood transfusion?"

Raena trembled as she spat, "You're crazy."

Jasper shook his head. "Imagine making so many blood samples... enough to feed an army of mixed-bred soldiers. Imagine if Terrans had the ability to not just wield their own element, but their opposing forces too."

Raena gulped, the motion scratching her too-dry throat. "That's against the laws of nature."

Jasper gave her a small smile that sent chills down her spine. "Then I guess the other districts will think twice before facing an army who defies the laws of nature, won't they?"

Raena shook her head vigorously, pressing her lips together to keep them from quivering.

"In all the previous experiments," Jasper went on. "Something was wrong. The experiments ended in..." he frowned. "Failure."

Raena didn't want to know what that meant. Didn't want to imagine the states of the patients by the end of whatever torture he had put them through.

"The scientists aren't sure if it was due to the types of elements that couldn't blend well together, or if it was the patients themselves that couldn't handle that sort of pressure from within." Jasper paused thoughtfully. "Perhaps it was both. But one variable that consistently showed up in the charts was that there wasn't enough of their own element to supplement the opposing one we were giving them. But when you and your sister showed up..." his lips tilted upwards in a cat-like sneer. "What being is more powerful than the magic-wielding superiority encrusted upon your bloodline? By Freya, the almighty queen who managed to rule over all four elements and conceived four children bearing all of Mother Nature's gifts. Fire, wind, water and earth."

"My powers are barely formed," Raena said dryly.

"But they're still there, and still much more powerful than any other Lymphan," Jasper countered, placing two fingers on her chest. Raena momentarily stopped breathing, flinching at the touch. "Your powers are still there, just deep inside. We only have to find a way to provoke them." He tapped her chest as if her element lay just beneath her skin there. "A way to get them out. Unleash your full potential."

Raena tried to not convey the fear that was threatening to swallow her whole. She wished she had her bow here. She'd shoot an arrow right through the sick bastard's head.

"Listen to yourself," she hissed, trying to keep her voice from wavering. "There's no way you'll be able to feed a whole army whatever mad experiment you're trying to invent. What do you think I am, a freaking fountain of blood?"

Jasper frowned removing his fingers and eyeing the blood sample beside her instead. "No," he mused. "Which is why I aim to replicate your sample with an amalgamation of magic-infused science. But firstly," he lifted the container to the light. "I need your powers to become accessible. This blood sample is quite useless without it. Not to mention that the nurses found traces of... some sleeping agent in your bloodstream."

Raena paled. The remaining of the sleeping tablets that Jade had given her. But if they had extracted the rest from her... if she had none left in her system, then the next time she fell asleep...

The draugr's face flashed in her mind, taunting and beckoning. Raena shook her head, turning pleading eyes towards Jasper.

"You can't put me asleep," she said quietly, but not weakly. "You can't."

Jasper raised his eyebrows in intrigue. "And why, pray tell, can't I? How else do you expect me to proceed with the samplings?"

If Raena could have killed him with looks alone in that instant, she would have.

"Because," she shot coldly. "There's this... thing chasing me in my dreams. It'll likely kill me before your gods-damned experiments find any success."

Jasper looked nonplussed, as if he didn't really believe or understand the direness to her words. "We'll keep you heavily sedated, don't worry. It won't hurt." Then he added, "Much."

Raena made to launch at him, not caring for the restraints that held her back. She knew how she must have looked, like a wild, crazed animal, desperate to get her hands around his neck. Jasper only gave an amused smile, infuriating Raena even more so.

"Just you wait," Raena snarled at him. "Braedon's going to find me, and when he does..." she chuckled humourlessly. "You better run."

The threat didn't wipe the smile from Jasper's face. If anything, it seemed to widen ever so slightly. "Somehow, I don't believe that'll be any time soon."

"What are you talking about?" Raena snapped, though even as she said it, a cold, sinking feeling began to stir in the pit of her stomach. How long had she been in this room? Hours? Days? Wouldn't Braedon have noticed if she were missing, even for a few minutes? Where was he? "What have you done with him?"

Jasper shrugged indifferently. "Nothing. I didn't need to. When I sent a few security personnel to... check up on him after the ball, he wasn't in his room. Nobody knows where he's gone. Coincidentally, your sister has disappeared as well. Her room is empty. Neither has returned. Perhaps the two have taken it upon themselves to have a little... romantic getaway." Jasper seemed to growl slightly on the last two words, and Raena eyed him warily.

"I don't believe you."

Jasper carefully took out a folded letter from within his jacket pocket. "You don't have to. But he wrote you a letter. The evidence is all here."

Raena squinted at the letter he held up, and her stomach dipped at the familiar writing she knew to be Braedon's. She craned her neck, attempting to read it, but Jasper was already folding it and putting it back in jacket.

"Face it, Anahita," Jasper took a step towards her. "You have no guardian angel to protect you anymore. This is what war is about. You can't trust anyone but yourself."

Raena's eyes brimmed with tears as she tried to kick out.

"You're wrong!" she screamed, her hands furling into fists by her sides. "He's going to make you pay! We both are!"

Jasper chuckled, the words she threw at him being just that – words. Empty, useless threats. He saw right through the terror and hurt in her eyes. But Raena continued to thrash and scream at him, masking her feelings through rage, all the while wondering why Braedon had left her. How he could just leave her, without so much as a goodbye. Where did he go? Did Jasper have his men chasing after him at this very moment? And was Iris really with him? Then a more terrible thought occurred... his grand plan to rescue Sage... was it possible those plans didn't include her?

No. She couldn't believe Jasper over Braedon. Over her sister, either. She had faith that Braedon would find her. But for now... she'd have to find her own way.

Her blood chilled when Jasper signalled for the two nurses to step forward. And that's when she recognised the male.

"The Commanding Officer is going to have a lot of fun with you."

***

Jasper watched the girl as she kicked and screamed, adamant to stay as far from the needle pointed towards her as possible. He had to admire the rigour inside her, the way she fought and swore at them with all that she could muster.

That was exactly the kind of patient he had needed from the start.

When Iris had practically fallen into his lap, he had considered using her as the experiment... but it was too soon. And he had other uses for her. The main one being that for now, she made an excellent token of false hope for his people. She was the perfect propaganda needed to sway any uncertain Terrans from his rule, to keep them from questioning any commands he may make as the war continued and took a sudden twist in his favour.

Two princesses in his grasp. Perhaps the gods were finally playing him the upper hand in mercy.

Sure, Iris was... difficult. But she was no threat. And if he were to admit it, deep down, he almost enjoyed the cat-mouse game they had been playing. As long as, by the end of the day, she remained the mouse, and he the lion.

But her disappearance was unexpected, and one that was to be looked into, soon. But not yet. Her impeccable timing worked to his advantage. He had been ready to conjure up some story about Raena and Braedon running off, so that Iris wouldn't grow suspicious of her sister's disappearance, and had also planned to keep the boy locked away temporarily, until the experimentations had been completed. But it appeared that Jasper had two less problems to worry about. Yes, the two runaways were no doubt, up to no good. And if Braedon's letter was any indication, then the two had not escaped together. But, for now, all was working to his advantage. And his top priority was Anahita, while he still had the chance to test his theory.

"Shut her up," hemurmured to the nurses. "I want her sedated and a fresh blood sample, asap.We've no time to waste." Then he walked out of the room, her screams echoingdown the dark, underground hallway even as the door clicked shut behind him.