Tenebrae still celebrated Yuletide while the rest of the world had commercialized it into a one day holiday of gift-giving. Keeping with traditions, it was a week-long celebration that started off with a performance by the Oracle as she sang hymns and offered prayers to the gods.

Lunafreya had performed beautifully, as she did every year since ascending. She did not even notice when the two white chocobos harnessed to her carriage caused a disruption.

Ravus had noticed, however. He observed a dark-haired woman mounted on one of them, sprinting for the forest. How hadn't anyone been paying attention? He ordered a troop to assemble as the performance ended, and for another chocobo to be brought for the carriage.

While he waited, a loathsome figure approached: Ardyn. Ravus scowled, immediately having the suspicion that he was somehow involved with the theft. Ardyn never made an appearance if he wasn't involved in some way.

Having any Imperial in Tenebrae always put Ravus on edge. He had done everything to gain their trust—and therefore convince them to entrust him with keeping Tenebrae under their control. It kept the people and Lunafreya safe from any more devastation. The price, of course, was the ever-growing distance between him and his sister.

"The thief is your doing," Ravus acknowledged as he narrowed his eyes at the Chancellor. He couldn't recall whether Ardyn had ever come to Tenebrae before.

"I'm afraid so, and I'm truly sorry for the incident," Ardyn gave a slight bow. "My charge managed to slip away from me."

Ravus wasn't aware that Ardyn had a charge, but there was a more pressing question. "Why have you come?"

"To enjoy the holidays, of course! Gralea's have gotten too materialistic. Nor did I want to miss the Lady Lunafreya's performance. She was truly bewitching. Do give her my regards." Ardyn smiled. "Fret not about the thief. She's my responsibility. I will go after her. Stay and enjoy time with your family."

The prince had no intention of doing two out of three of those things. "The thief has stolen from my house. As we are in Tenebrae, I will handle it."

He could not have Niflheim involving itself in something so small. The Imperial Army would scour the country, and worst incidents would occur. They were not subtle, nor careful. It was only one woman that they were searching for; it wasn't worth the involvement.

"Tenebraens know the forests better," Ravus added. "The longer we dawdle, the further away she gets."

Ardyn relented, his shoulders relaxing. "Of course. You have authority in these parts." He gave another bow. "Do let me know of how I can be of service. I'll pay for any damages."

He walked away as a mounted troop arrived. They brought two extra chocobos with them, handing one off to the carriage driver. Ravus mounted the other as Lunafreya and Gentiana approached. The thief only ran further away.

"I will bring back the chocobo," He told his sister, reading the curiosity in her bright eyes. She had many questions, but there was no time for a conversation about it. "Continue on with your duties."

"Be safe." Lunafreya frowned, stepping away. Whether she believed it or not, he did not take joy in shooing her away so brashly. Her disappointment was obvious. As distant as they were, they didn't loathe each other. Lunafreya was incapable of that.

Once she was a few steps away, Ravus urged his mount to run into the forest. The troop followed close behind. The trail of footprints made it easy to follow the trail in the snow.

The further into the forest the troop traveled, the more obscure the trail became. They fanned out as they continued riding north. Earlier tracks had gone in only that direction.

They came across a village by evening and had to stop. The chocobos were exhausted from the hard ride through snow. The men were less so, and sent to every house to ask the locals about a mysterious dark-haired woman and a white chocobo. No one had seen anything.

The troop stayed at the inn for the night. It wasn't a huge loss; the white chocobo would be more exhausted than the troop's mounts and wouldn't be able to run from daemons through the night. The white chocobos bred for the Nox Fleurets were mostly for show—they were not known for their speed or strength. If she was a little smart, the thief would have found a haven to hide on for the night. She would not get further ahead during the night.

Forced to stop, Ravus considered who the thief was. All he had seen of her was her dark hair as she sped into the forest. She was Ardyn's charge. The only woman he knew that was connected to him was that girl he had been coerced to take to a ball months ago.

She had been incredibly naive, yet she was supposed to have information on Lucian forces. She was too young for that, and Ravus had quickly realized she did not possess the intel. For most of that night, and some time after that, he had tried to find the real reason the Empire was so interested in the girl.

The twisted, waxy scarring on her arms had startled many of the other guests at the ball that night, but there had been something dark that went much deeper than the scars did. Even Lunafreya, who had annoyingly enough taken an interest in the girl, had admitted to sensing it as well. Her curiosity that night had more to do with her hope that Ravus was seeing someone. He had quickly squashed that hope. They had never spoke of her again, forgetting her.

Glauca had also made one of his rare visits to Gralea, and his appearance at the ball was even more of a surprise than Ravus's attendance. Though the two men actively avoided each other, Glauca made a point to warn Ravus that Ardyn and Verstael were not being truthful. Not that Ravus needed to be told that. The commander seemed to know more than most, mentioning that the Lucians had been searching for the girl as well. He didn't offer more than that, but it was all the more complex to know that both sides of the war had an interest in her.

Ardyn had forced the girl to put on the guise of an informant, but in a spat at the end of the night, she—Andrea—said things about herself that countered what she and Ardyn had been leading everyone else to believe about her. The naive Lucian girl facade finally fell when Ravus had her cornered. She had been quite the insulting spitfire, but she was not the first to hold such a hatred towards him.

What had caught his attention (once his temper had settled) was her claim that her parents had been loyal to his mother. Andrea wasn't Lucian at all, but Tenebraen. How could a Tenebraen have gotten all the way to Lucis, after Niflheim had forced Tenebrae to close its borders years ago? And then what had she done to warrant so much attention from both Lucis and Niflheim? She had also claimed her family did not do things the same way as the Nox Fleurets did, and that was most confusing to decipher. Ravus only assumed it meant that her parents did not serve in the army.

Andrea had been Ardyn's charge months ago, and most likely was still under his watch. She had had dark hair just as the thief did. It had to be her. Once Ravus caught her, he would get the truth out of her, without Ardyn around to interfere.

Her trail had been going north. A Tenebraen would know that the northern territory was home to the Gauls—people as loyal to the throne and as Tenebraen as anyone else in the land, but they did not quite honor the Six as the rest of the country did. They were secretive and somewhat stuck in the past. Rarely did one venture south near the Manor. Likewise, the rest of the world left them alone, hardly even knowing anything about them.

The north had also been home to a lot of rebel activity. Ravus could recall how his mother had been sympathetic to their cause. As he had understood it growing up, they had fought for freedom, while Tenebrae's army had been closely watched by Imperials even then. He hadn't seen where it was the people's business to involve themselves in unnecessary combat. They weren't soldiers.

The rebellion had come to an end at the same time that Niflheim had attacked the Manor. The Empire had bombed a hub of rebel activity, killing many Gauls. Much of the northern forests had burned that day.

Ravus suddenly realized where Andrea was going. Andrea's parents had been rebels. She was actually a Gaul, and she was going home.

The trail was completely cold the next morning. A wind had shifted the snow around, and that snow had frozen in place. The footprints were long gone. The troop fanned out again as they pushed on northwards. They rode at a slower pace in search of any sign of a new trail. Ravus did not think she would stray from her direction.

Much of the day passed with no success. As much as he didn't want outside involvement, he couldn't help but think that Aranea and her men could have been some use for something like this. She might have been a part of the Imperial Army, but she wasn't as callous as other officials. This search would end much faster with her help, but there hadn't been time to summon her and explain everything.

At mid-afternoon, one of the men finally found something. The rest of the troop gathered at his position.

Dark splotches of blood in the snow were the most noticeable details of the scene. Larger splatter spots were indented into the snow's surface, its heat having melted and dyed the snow before the cold finally froze it. Much of the snow in the small area had been disturbed by a tussle.

What had most of the mens' attentions was the lame coeurl lying under a large tree branch. Its back had obviously been broken from the impact, keeping it pinned in place. It watched them all with bulging eyes, and it seemed to be a great effort for it to just lift its head. It remained silent, breathing heavily. It was barely alive, having used all its strength to try to get free.

Across from the coeurl laid the white chocobo, its throat and chest a bloody mess. The coeurl had ripped the bird's throat out. The blood had either dried or frozen; it died at least a couple of hours ago. Ravus recognized it as the stolen chocobo. He frowned at the thought of having to tell Lunafreya what had happened to it. He couldn't think of its name (because of course she had to name them).

Andrea, however, was nowhere to be seen, but she did not leave unharmed. All of the blood on the ground couldn't have come from just the chocobo for how few gashes were on it. In the attack, the coeurl had gotten her good. All of the blood on the ground suggested that she was bleeding steadily; she couldn't have gotten far with such a grievous injury.

Ravus approached the coeurl and pulled out his rapier from its sheath. He pulled its head up even higher and slit its throat, putting it out of its misery. The head fell limply into the snow.

As he wiped off the blade, he glanced up at the tree, quickly realizing that it was too healthy to have dropped such a large branch on its own. It was too convenient that it happened to land on an attacking coeurl. The trunk did not bear claw marks, nor was the coeurl facing the tree; Andrea could not have climbed it and forced the branch to fall. She didn't look to have the strength to even pull it down. Yet the branch did not fall on its own. It didn't make sense.

There was no trail to follow; the snow surrounding the larger area had all been disturbed, as if a storm had come through. The troop would have known if there had been one. Yet another detail did not make sense here.

Ravus remounted his chocobo. "We keep going north."

"My Lord, she could have gotten confused in the attack and changed direction," One of the soldiers said.

"She knows the way better than that. She can't have gotten much further on foot," Ravus explained. They were already so close to the northern territory. Once they crossed into it, villages were fewer and farther in between. Andrea wouldn't have a place to hide.

He had the troop fan out again until nightfall, then they closed their ranks again to fend off daemons. Once the daemons appeared, it became less likely that they would find Andrea at all. They would have found the haven she had taken refuge on, if there had been one around at all.

When they did come across a haven, it was vacant. Ravus allowed the men to set up to stay there for the night. Andrea would not have survived in the forest once the daemons appeared, and it was not worth it to risk his mens' lives for answers.

Once morning came, they continued north in search of a village, although Ravus considered giving up the search entirely as it seemed more and more likely that Andrea was dead somewhere. His men already felt that the search was futile. The most important objective of their search had been to retrieve Lunafreya's chocobo, but it was already dead. Most likely, the thief had met a cold and grisly end. The men were content with that. As it was, they hadn't brought many supplies with them, as they hadn't expected the search to take so long.

Late in the afternoon, Ravus finally gave the order to turn back. They hadn't come across any villages as they entered the northern territory. Andrea couldn't have made it to one in time.

The troop camped out at the haven again after dark, with the plan to run back to Fenestala Manor as soon as the sun rose. The overall mood improved as the men realized they wouldn't completely miss the holidays after all.

Around midnight, the lookout roused everyone, but hardly needed to explain why. They could all see the orange glow that had suddenly erupted in the darkness, off to the east. Daemons or not, the whole troop immediately mounted their chocobos and ran towards the fire.

The entire village was aflame, the heat hitting the troop well before they entered it. Every building had gone up in flames, and so suddenly that no one had managed to escape. The men called for survivors throughout the village, but heard nothing over the flames. Nothing could be done to put them out.

"Keep searching!" Ravus ordered, then rode ahead through the village to find the source.

A whole village would not have gone up so quickly like this. The only cause he could guess at was magic. Perhaps even a large group of daemons, but towns and villages were established on ground sanctified by the Oracles long ago. They would not have been able to come near the village.

He found no such source in the village. Beyond the burning village, the night was calm and still. As he came out on the other end, he noticed a hulking shape not too far away in a small clearing. An Imperial airship.

His chocobo crossed the distance in very little time. A couple of figures stood outside of the ship, and as Ravus got closer, he could recognize the Chancellor in the moonlight. Two MTs lifted a stretcher and began to take it into the ship.

"Halt!" He ordered the MTs as he stopped his own chocobo and dismounted. The MTs listened, and Ardyn turned to him. He quickly masked his displeasure with an apologetic smile.

"I'm terribly sorry, Your Lordship, but I could not let this go. It's my responsibility after all," Ardyn claimed.

Scowling, Ravus glanced over at the stretcher. His theory was proven true. Andrea laid unconscious, pallid—but not as pallid as he would have expected. She must have found a healer in the village. Her face was thinner than he remembered. The rest of her was wrapped in blankets. She certainly wasn't dead.

"Why has the village been set on fire? What of the people?" Ravus demanded. He wanted nothing more than to charge at Ardyn with his sword, but he didn't dare. There was too much at stake. One village was already burning. So long as he remained loyal to the Empire, Niflheim would not return to molest Tenebrae further.

"I'm just as appalled by it as you are. It wasn't my doing. That was Andrea," Ardyn answered without much horror. "And after someone went through the trouble of tending her wounds. I suppose she was trying to cover her tracks. I'm afraid there are no survivors."

He turned back to the MTs and ordered them to continue taking the stretcher into the ship. They disappeared into the dark hull. "Don't worry. The Empire will punish her to the fullest extent for her crime."

In Niflheim, the fullest extent usually meant execution. Considering everything Ravus had discovered so far, he didn't believe the Empire would dispose of her so quickly. She had disappeared as suddenly as she had appeared months ago.

"You've been withholding information this whole time," Ravus accused. He knew it was Ardyn who set the village on fire—there was something about Andrea that he didn't want anyone to find out about. Her own scars had come from the fires ten years ago. "What is the truth behind her?"

Ardyn was only more amused by his tone. "She's nothing special at all."

With a slight wave, he turned his back to Ravus and boarded the ship. Its door closed behind him, and the ship lifted off a second later.