Old Souls

A/N: Ok, So this is where the story gets really interesting. I hope you like it!

Chapter Song: Sing Me To Sleep - By Alan Walker

And In Death Sleep

Suren wondered just how something like this could happen. They were always so careful when choosing the routes to take from town to town that this had never really happened before. The dark-haired young woman watched in dawning horror from behind a cliff as the caravan that her uncle owned burned as bandits mealed around it like lions to a wounded animal. Soft shuffling near her made the woman turn slightly and look down frowning softly at the young boy beside her. The child was maybe a seven years old and looked like the world had just ended around him. Well, perhaps it had in a way. Suren glanced back at the cavern with sad eyes knowing that the boy's mother lay in the wreckage of one of the turned over carts. The poor woman had been a bit ill that morning with sun fever and had gone to lay down for a while in the back of the cart, she had probably not even known when the rickety old thing had fallen off the short cliff and smashed against a particularly large group of rocks that lay alongside the road.

The boy who at that time had been talking to her uncle was spared both from harm and the horrific sight of his mother's body as it was crushed against the rocks. Her uncle had quickly ushered the two of them away and into a small cave where they now hid before going to try and save who he could. She knew that he too was probably now dead.

"We- We need to go." A small voice came from the boy as he shook his head just the slightest as light came back into his eyes. A sort of look of stubborn determination slid onto his face as he glanced back at the bandits and then up at her. Gold eyes held a glint of what she was hesitant to call rage but was too observant to call it anything else.

She nodded slightly in a jerky motion and picked up the small bag that held all she had left in this world, She knew that they had to move swiftly or else the bandits might just come looking for those who had fled only to find them trying to get away.

Meanwhile, Barak glanced back once more at the burning wreckage that held the only family he had ever really known and closed his eyes for a moment in silent prayer. His mother had been everything he had ever wanted when he was still Harry Potter and now she was gone. A dark part of him wanted to rage against the injustice of it but he knew deep in his heart that she was truly in a better place, where fear, pain, and anger did not exist. Opening his eyes once more Barak ran a hand through his long messy dark amethyst hair and turned away from the scene, he did not want to look at it any longer.

Giving the young woman, who was really only perhaps fifteen so not yet a woman by his old worlds standards, a slight pained smile he started up the small slope outside of the tiny cavern hidden in the cliff where they were also hidden by the outcropping of rocks. If they made it to the top of the cliffs they had a good chance of making it far away before the robbers ever came looking for any stragglers.

They just had to make it to the next town.

~~~~~~ Several Days Later, Oasis of Nile ~~~~~~

Barak sighed as he stared out into the desert a slightly detached look on his rather androgynous face. His normally bright gold eyes where more of a muted bronze as he watched the sun set into the sand dunes. He and Suren for what it was worth had made it to the next town without running into any bandits. It had taken them all of that night and into the next morning to get there but they had made it without stopping once. Now though with the time to truly think about what happened Barak was understandably uncertain about what would happen now, not to mention terribly upset at his mother's untimely death.

Chinatsu had been her name and she had been from Kou before moving to the desert planes after finding out she was pregnant with him and her family ordering her to eather abort him or leave. She had been kind, sometimes to kind really and had loved telling stories along with singing more than anything else in the world, save him. Hell, she had even made a living out of it, being so good at both that she had been invited to the palaces of nobles and in one very odd case a king.

Barak paused in thought as he remembered that. Narrowing his eyes slightly as he bit at his lower lip the boy vaguely recalled that the man had looked at him for a good long while before going off to talk to his mother who had looked greatly distressed when she had come back to get him. Balbadd, He was pretty sure that the man had been the King of Balbadd. What had the man said again? He had told his mother something about help if she or her son ever needed it.

Barak's eyes widened as he suddenly remembered.

"If either you or Barak here is ever in dire need of help go to any person with my personal sigal and give them this," The tall blond man handed them each a silver bracelet that held a single amber set into the band with an odd carving etched into its surface. "They will get you to me somehow. Be careful Chinatsu-san if some people catch wind of little Barak's existence here they will do anything to get ahold of him."

The boy looked closely at the bracelet around his right wrist and gave himself a short nod. Tomorrow he would go find the person in this town who held the King's Sigal and hopefully he would also get some answers, as he was rather certain that those bandits had been looking for someone and he had a bad feeling that he knew exactly who they were looking for.

~~~~~~ Meanwhile In Kou ~~~~~~

"- There was no boy matching that description in the caravan. We did find out that a woman's body matching Ren Chinatsu-Hime's discription was found amongst the rubble of a cart." A man in a checkered mask and a white cloth hiding his lower face related to someone sitting on a raised dais in a dark but grand room.

A slight titer came from beside the throne where a woman looking to be in her early thirties sat on an elaborate cushion on the left side of the wooden structure.

"That woman was no Hime, after all, she was disgraced and disowned almost eight years ago now." The beautiful woman said with a certain amount of disdain in her voice. A few servants passing by would note that she sounded almost bitter, which could be explained by the fact that Chinatsu-Hime had been a daughter of her first husband by a pretty concubine who had actually been the man's first choice in queen. She would have been too if her family had not suddenly lost there estates in a rather odd fire some years before they could finish the betrothal.

"Yes, Yes the woman was a whore but that boy of hers, if he truly is that man's child, must be found!" The rather fat man on the dais exclaimed as he pounded his fist against his heavy wooden chair. Several nearby servants carefully hid flinches, the emperor was rather well known for throwing things when angry enough and with how red his face was becoming that point was rapidly approaching. "If that man finds him first… well, I don't have to explain how bad that would be for us now do I? So FIND THE BLASTED BOY!"

The empress however was ignoring the below that her pig of a husband released as she hid her face behind her sleeve a small frown playing about her lips. Yes, It would be bad if he found the boy before they could take a hold of him. After all, if the singularity found out that his child was also a Prince of Kou by bloodline if nothing else than that gave him a foothold that he could use against them before the time was right.

Bright silvery blue eyes narrowed as a swell of anger flared in the woman's chest. Damn that Solomon. He just had to stick his nose in where it clearly was not wanted. However, it was not like everything was lost, if they could find the two little ripples that Solomon had introduced into the game why they might just be able to win it all that much faster. A slightly insane smile played at the empresses lips as she ducked her head slightly.

Yes, They just had to find the two first. Then it would be all the more sweeter when they won.

A/N: Bet you weren't expecting that! I hope you liked the little plot twist there, as far as I know it's never been done before so I thought that It may be interesting to see how that would play out. Anywho I hope you liked this chapter, please favorit and review!