This chapter will be doing something new - the first half is in Kaetar's perspective and then it will switch to Syrin about halfway through. I still wanted them to be separate for now and I don't think between both of them, there was really enough to be separate chapters. Additionally, I think the final chapters will involve perspective jumping so I wanted to try it out here.

Kaetar had plenty of time to think, so that was what he was doing in his room. He was just... thinking. First, he gave some time to think over what happened last night. He didn't know what Loiya planned on doing. He didn't think he would out him danger but he felt like Loiya was trying to take him somewhere and where that was, he no idea. It felt odd to be suspicious of Loiya because he never thought he would have to be. Something in his mind was screaming that there wasn't something right with his behaviour. There wasn't something right. He couldn't put a finger on it though.

When he decided that thinking of Loiya got him no where, he started thinking of his father. It was something he was thinking of ever since Duma and Rylar had their little spat. He never gave it a lot of thought since his mind was often on the more current events and Syrin's memories than it was on something he left behind temporarily. But maybe that was also because he just didn't want to give it a lot of thought. He didn't leave with the best relationship with his father and it bothered him. Though he was confident that he would survive, he was sure that the rebels wouldn't let anything happen to him, the possibility the something could happen to him with words unsaid to his father wasn't lost on him. It was a reason to make sure he survived in the very least.

"Hey there," Duma's voice said suddenly as he walked into Kaetar's room, where Kaetar stayed for the most part. "I just wanted to say sorry about what happened with me and Rylar. Nasir was right when he said that we needed to figured it out on our own."

"I wasn't too bothered. It's fine," Kaetar said, but he knew that it wasn't exactly true. If he wasn't bothered, he wouldn't be inside his room while everyone else spent their day outside. It looked like it was a nice day – even Rylar seemed to be in a good mood when Kaetar saw him. Arum was outside duelling Loiya and they both seemed to have a good time doing it.

"And that's why you're in here and not out there, right?" Duma asked quietly. He sat down beside him with an apologetic look on his face.

"It had me thinking. It's not that I'm upset about it happening with you two it's just that it reminded me that I'm not the best terms with my father right now. If something happened to me, I''ll never have resolved my differences with my father and well... I would hate for him to live with words like that stuck in his head. You know, what it could have been."

"I highly doubt anyone will let anything happen to you. There is not one person here who dislikes you. You're well liked by everyone. I think you're the only one Joel likes right now," Duma said with a grin.

"What about Liam?"

Duma's grin faded pretty quickly. "I wish I could say something, but I don't know if I can. He's truly not right in the head and that makes him pretty unpredictable. I'm worried but I think he's wary of Nasir. Dragons are truly something else – there's a reason why Nasir hasn't needed to act yet."

"I suppose I could always stick around between Loiya, Joel and Nasir," Kaetar thought out loud. Joel was the one who was able to get Liam off of Kaetar in the first place and he was also stopped by Nasir. Loyia did well, Kaetar liked to admit, but he didn't get the chance to truly fight Liam. Loiya probably lacked the time to get his weapon between Kaetar and Liam, so that was the probably the reason why he allowed himself to get bitten and why he followed Liam's movements with his arm.

"We can always think about Liam again when the time comes up... I also came here to ask you if you if you knew anything about Ema's family. Does she talk to you a lot?"

That was an odd question to ask, he thought. Kaetar shook his head. He got along with Ema and there was no anger between them, but they also just hung around different people. Ema like to hang around the other laguz and Misha. "You might want to Misha about that. They've been friends for a while now. Is it important?"

"Well... yeah but it's just a hunch right now. I figured I would know for sure if I just asked her myself but I'm nervous about her reaction so I held off on saying anything about it but..." Duma sighed before continuing. If Duma was hesitant about telling Kaetar, then he can only imagine how he felt about talking to Ema. Actually, Kaetar didn't think she would care that much about what he had to say. She calmed down a lot since Kaetar first met her. "I think she might be my daughter. She's from the same village and she would be around the right age."

"Really? You made it seem like you had no idea when you told Rylar yesterday!" Kaetar was kind of shocked but in hindsight, it made sense. That explained why Duma wanted to patrol with Ema and the fact that they their similarities in appearance. That probably made him a large cat laguz then.

"I don't want to tell Rylar until I know for a fact that she even is my child. I don't think Rylar would take to having a laguz sibling very nicely. I'm sure Ema wouldn't mind at all, she might even be excited because Taelug is all about family... but Rylar would mind a lot," Duma mumbled, burying his head in his hands. Kaetar frowned. He never saw Duma so distressed before but he had good reason to be stressed – he was right about Rylar. Kaetar had a feeling that Rylar didn't like to share, and according to Duma, he was sharing his father with other branded children. That could be tolerable except Ema was a laguz and proud of her roots. "I just don't know what to do! I know I would have to tell them both eventually but it's not like Rylar would really accept her. I don't even know if Ema would really accept me. She's gone this long without me and now I feel like I'm suddenly intruding on her life."

"You said that Taelug is about family right? Then I don't think she'll mind that her family has expanded. I think she will try her best to at least get along with Rylar and I think she'll accept you too. I don't think you need to worry about Ema accepting any of this. You should tell her what your feelings are and then work with Rylar later," Kaetar said as clearly as he could, trying to sound overly emotional. He felt oddly excited for both Duma and Ema but he knew that one person was emotional, then the other person had to be more objective. It won't help Duma if Kaetar couldn't keep a cool head about it and think things through without those emotions.

It was a lot easier to think when it wasn't happening to you though. It was easier to look in then to be inside.

"I suppose. I think I'll find Misha first – it shouldn't be long before we meet up with the rest of them."

"Has Darius checked their position relative to ours?"

Duma shrugged. "I'm not sure. I haven't see much of him – I think he's been sleeping his boredom off."

"That's not like him," Kaetar said with a frown.

"I think everyone hasn't been like themselves since being separated from everyone. I think Nasir is the only one who seems unaffected by it but he told me he could communicate with his family all the way in Goldoa," Duma mumbled with a sigh. "We're all... stressed."

It was probably true. Kaetar stayed holed up in his room for the past day and he had little interaction anyone everyone else, so he never really noticed. He was stressed out from the thoughts of his father and with Loiya, but he could see where Arum and Darius could be stressed about their loved ones. Duma was stressed about his family problems and Loiya was stressed about his job. Without the others, it was like someone lost a little bit of something. There was someone in the other group that someone was worried about, with the exception of Rylar who only seemed to care about his dad.

"Do you think you they'll be long?" Kaetar asked.

"Maybe a couple of more days at the most."

Kaetar nodded. It couldn't be much longer.

"You should probably go outside then. It might not be this nice for long" Duma said, patting his shoulder. He had a feeling that one way or another, Duma wasn't going to let him stay inside. He followed Duma outside, where Loiya was the first to notice him. In the brief moment that he turned his back, Arum whacked him the side with the flat part of his blade. Loiya hissed in pain.

"You turned your back on me. I thought you were supposed to be a professional," Arum said with a slight grin. It was like he was joking and Arum didn't do very much that. He had to be comfortable.

"But Kaetar just foot outside!"

"Truly a monumental event," Chibuike laughed. Kaetar didn't exactly appreciate being the centre of it all but it looked like everyone was having fun. He could smile at that. It didn't last for long though, when he felt the familiar wave of dizziness that came with the necklace's unpredictable pattern of showing him things. He could briefly see the confusion on Arum's face before the vision took over.

Kaetar was first welcomed to Soren sitting beside a flame with a tent on the other side. Kaetar could tell that was probably sometime after the war and perhaps even some time before Ike decided to settle in that one place for a while. Or maybe after? He suddenly looked behind him and shot out of his seat with a tome in his hand. With Soren's eyesight, he could see some figures moving behind him.

"Don't you know it's dangerous to be alone?" one of them asked. Bandits. There were about ten of them, Kaetar guessed, but Soren didn't answer them. Instead, he began chanting and blasted the one who spoke to him back. The bandits surged forward and Soren retreated back, trying to chant as he did so. However, just as he raised his arm, there was a flash and suddenly a lot of blood. Soren cried out as the weapon was pulled out of his arm and he collapsed to the ground, holding his arm.

It felt too loose. Soren held is arm in a death grip and Kaetar had a feeling that if the grip had been an looser, than the arm could easy be pulled off. If Kaetar had been watching in his own body, he knew he wouldn't be able to look at the sight without becoming dizzy. Though his tolerance for blood has gotten better, he was sure that he couldn't watch someone almost lose a limb. Soren on the other hand, though his heart beat picked up and he seemed to be trembling slightly, seemed relatively calm and moved little while on the ground.

"Not much here," one of them mumbled.

"Just take everything!"

Suddenly, there was a loud scream. "What's going on?" someone shouted, and though Kaetar couldn't see since Soren was understandably more focused on keeping himself together and preventing more injury, he could tell that those three words where their last. In just a few moments, there was complete silence until Ike came into Soren's view.

"Soren! What happened?" Ike asked but that was when Soren fell unconscious, perhaps partly from the blood loss but Kaetar had a feeling that relief took him over.

And it was done. Thankfully. Kaetar didn't know how Syren could stay conscious for as long he did but it was a clean cut. Why did he end up healing as twisted as it was/ Though Kaetar was out of the lull that resulted after the memory, the content of the said memory made him a little dizzy. It was more blood than Kaetar was comfortable looking at it.

"It happens a lot. I don't know how you guys haven't really noticed before! But I swear, he's fine," Loiya shouted. Kaetar picked this moment to open his eyes. Someone decided to hold him and he soon realized that it was Loiya.

"Really? Passing out randomly is normal for him?" Rylar asked with a shrug. It didn't sound condescending. He seemed genuinely unsure.

"It is. I'm fine," Kaetar said. No one looked convinced, though Chibuike seemed a little amused by it. Loiya frowned but he helped Kaetar to his feet. Arum sighed and Aletta looked really concerned, almost sad for him.

"It's empty," Zeke said when he poked his head into Syrin's tent. He was trying to plan for their entry in the next two towns and inevitably, he needed Zeke's skills. Syrin didn't know what to make of his report though. According to his map, that middle village was by no means a small one and was more of a town than it was a village. It wasn't uncommon that a map became outdated, as they took time to design and anything could happen to a village before a new map came out. Things could very well change in times of war as well. It seemed unlikely that an entire town would pack and leave so it struck him as odd.

"Does it appear that has been empty for a long time?"

"No. You can still see where people set their clothing out to dry. It doesn't look right," Zeke said his face neutral.

"You may leave," Syrin stated. He needed to think about the information alone, so he got out of the tent and walked to the outskirts of their campsite. He usually had no problems with Stefan being in the same tent as he was when he needed to think because Stefan was smart enough to know when he appreciated silence. It was times like those where Stefan did mundane tasks, such as polishing the sword he hardly used, while Syrin was mulling over details. However, their last conversation made it difficult for it to work like that. He still felt suffocating tension around Stefan and he had a feeling that until they were reunited with the rest of the team in Toha, things would be awkward with Stefan for a while. He was too busy to talk to him.

The village worried him. The best idea would to be skip over it, but at the same time, that left a wide gap between the two towns, so it wasn't difficult for Crimeans to just go through the empty village and attack Toha. He had to do something with it, but it felt like a trap. It was too suspicious. If it was evacuated, there would have been time for everyone to pack their essentials so he doubted that people would leave clothing to dry if that was the case. And if they were evacuated, where did they go? Where do you take that many people? The rebellion would not have missed anyone going to the town they just left and surely, the other village couldn't handle everyone that left.

Should they investigate? Maybe they should send in their fast people – the ones who can get in out of a situation. Ema, Chifee, Zeke and perhaps Elli. He couldn't deny Elli's speed. If she was in trouble, she didn't need Arum's help to get away. He would also go and drag Stefan with him. Everyone else would make their way to the last town.

"Why did you want to come here again?" Stefan asked. The rebellion split a while ago with the first group leaving much earlier under Joel's care, and while Syrin was not exactly confident in his plan, he was sure that everyone he chose could get out as soon as he needed them to get out.

"It's suspicious and difficult to leave alone," Syrin answered, not daring to look Stefan in the eyes. He was still annoyed with that conversation and he was annoyed by the fact that he was still annoyed by that conversation. Why was it so hard for him to leave that conversation in the part of his memory he left most of his conversations? "I've thought of setting the place on fire but that would leave Toha open for attack and the goal is to build defence and supply routes."

"But it looks like people could come back. There's hardly any dust here," Ema stated.

"Where do you think the people are? They're not here and they weren't in the other town, which is closer than the place everyone else is going. The other place can't fit everyone even if they tried to go that way. There's something not right here," Syrin muttered.

Ema's ears flattened and she shook her had. "I can't smell blood so if anything happened, it happened outside of the village." Just as she finished, there was a loud crack of lightning and Syrin saw that one of the houses immediately to their right as beginning to fall. Syrin quickly threw his hands in his tunic and pulled out a tornado tome. Though his arm hurt from the effort, he chanted and aimed the spell inward, concentrating the spell towards the other rebels.

He had a long time to figure out out to efficiently cast and learning what additional uses some spells had. For instance, he figured that if he cast tornado towards himself the strong gusts of wind created an effective shield, which in the case of the collapsing building, it blew all of the debris away due to its strength. Learned concentration and complete focus also allowed him to es keep the spell around for longer periods of times, so he was able to hold the spell steady until the tornado was blowing dust around. Of course, he supposed part of this ability came with the fact that he was favoured by the wind spirits. He had yet to replicate the same effect with fire and thunder tomes to any meaningful degree, not that his arm allowed him to practice all that much. His arm immediately fell limb to his side when the tornado vanished.

Fortunately, no one needed to be told to leave. Stefan picked Syrin up, and he knew that he had no time to protest against such an action, and everyone made the mad dash towards the outskirts of the village while other buildings met the same fate as the first one, all due to thunder spells. As soon as they were a safe distance away, Stefan gently let Syrin down. The buildings that weren't collapsed were set on fire from a fire spell, though where the mage was, Syrin couldn't see.

"They were waiting for us," Elli said with a frown.

"Are you alright? That was a fancy trick there," Stefan asked.

"It's nothing that can be helped," Syrin said with a sigh. He knew something was odd, but he didn't expect Crimea to try and collapse the village on them. If he had brought everyone else with him, the results would have been catastrophic and that was probably what Crimea had been hoping. He wouldn't have been able to project the spell far enough to have protected everyone and even if he could, he probably wouldn't have been able to hold for long enough. In fact, that was the first time he was able to protect a group of people instead of just himself. He never tried it on anyone else before and the results, while pleasing, left him feeling dizzy.

Suddenly, Chifee burst into tears. "I miss Darius! That... that was scary!"

"Come here," Zeke mumbled. It was the first time he spoke since the group separated and it was slightly unusual for him to be so quiet. When Chifee complied, Zeke brought him to a close embrace. "It will be alright. We'll meet up with him soon enough. He'll be proud of you."

"There's no time for this. Those spells didn't come out of no where. Somebody had to cast them and they're still around. Be prepared and don't underestimate them," Syrin stated curtly. He bought up his tome with his good arm, the wave of dizziness and the pain in his arm did not subside. Normally, he was fine with letting everyone else fight but if the mage, or perhaps a group of them, could knock down a building with magic, then they weren't novices. Mages were frail but if they were not careful they would pose a problem. He was the only magic user and the thought of using his body as a shield came to mind. He figured most spells wouldn't hurt him too badly.

"They're here," Elli said suddenly, jumping out of the way of a dark ring that suddenly manifested itself. A blast of dark magic hit the centre of the ring where Elli was moments ago.

"Fenrir," Syrin hissed. He had little experience with dark magic and the extent of his knowledge was simply recognizing spells when they were used. Dark magic was the least practiced of them all, particularly because they were difficult to use. Syrin didn't trust the spells to attempt to use one himself. He had a bad feeling, like the spirits were more malevolent when it came to the dark tomes and he didn't like it. Pelleas didn't seemed to have a bad character and he used dark magic, but he couldn't bring himself to trust it.

Zeke sprang into action first, drawing both of his daggers and surging forward. There were five thunder mages, and Syrin could spot a fire tome on one of them, that made themselves known and began casting. Zeke collided into one of them, kicking them in the chest before thrusting the dagger into their throat. Ema, following his lead, transformed and dug her claws into another. Between Ema and Zeke, the mages were dealt with before any of them could finish casting.

However, the dark mage was no where in sight. Why would they cast the spell and then just leave? It made no sense to waste a tome like that. Syrin then noticed that Fernir was aimed at him and he shut his eyes, taking the blast of the magic. It wasn't that he couldn't dodge, but when he was dizzy and any movement would jostle his arm too much, he felt like it would be less painful to just endure the spell.

"Are you done playing yet?" Syrin asked out loud.

"Hardly," a voice from the side muttered. Out from behind some trees, someone who wore a dark purple cloak came out. His dark coloured hair was long and that was all Syrin could see from the distance. He closed the gap between them and for a moment, the dark mage stared at him. Stefan drew his blade and pushed the stranger out of the way.

"What do you want?"

"Out of the way," he scowled, sending Stefan to the ground with a blast of magic. It wasn't any spell in particular but rather a straight forward command to just get Stefan out of the way. In the very least, it was a sign of a practiced mage, but the fact that he could use dark spells in the first place was a better sign for that. "Don't trust your luck. Eero didn't really want rebel causalities at the moment, because he's boring and soft, but he wants something here."

"Syrin-" Zeke started.

"Stay down," Syrin muttered. The longer he entertained the guest, the longer he had to come up with a plan out of it. "Was it you who made all the people disappear?"

"The good thing about dark magic is... it doesn't spill blood," he said with a grin. Syrin, in the mean time, took a deep breath and began casting, whispering his spell as quietly as he could. The dark mage was obviously pleased with whatever he did because for the moment, he was distracted. His grey eyes were closed, and Syrin figured he was reliving his moment and relishing in it. It helped that Syrin didn't need a tome for low range magic because Syrin was sure he would notice that too soon. The spirits materialized around his feet. "I got to wipe most of the village out and no rat from anywhere else will ever know any better. Those who survived will be used as live test subjects for our experiments."

When his opponent opened his eyes, Syrin chose that moment to strike. With a flip that he didn't know he could still manage, the green blades formed around and cut deeply into his opponent's skill. Normally, the simple wind spell wouldn't be able to do much of anything against someone who was practiced with magic but with the help of Flare, he could make it hurt a lot and draw blood, hopefully enough to make the man retreat. The mage hissed and feel to his feet, and Syrin was aware that he was picked up again before he suddenly lost consciousness.

Syrin came to just as the sun was rising. He was in a tent and he was thankful in the very least that at least their supplies weren't left behind. Being in a tent told him everything he needed to know – they got away from the mage, so his plan actually worked, and they settled somewhere they deemed safe. Since Ema was in the group, he assumed that he was the only that had nothing to eat the previous night. Fine by him.

He sat up and felt a sharp pain from his arm. He gritted his teeth but he made out of the tent nonetheless. He was greeted by Elli's curious stare. She was using one her swords to poke the kindling in the fire. "How are you feeling?" she asked.

"Terrible," Syrin admitted. He took a seat near the fire.

"Would you allow me to help but your arm back in a sling?"

"If you know how to," Syrin muttered. Usually, he wouldn't have let anyone really touch him with the exception of Stefan and Peter. At the moment though, he was in so much pain that he couldn't bring himself to care. The sling would help in the long term and would prevent more pain. Without a word, Elli retreated back to her tent and pulled a roll of bandages. In a manner similar to Peter, she carefully prepared the sling without hurting his arm too much and was done quickly. Syrin could tell she done it before and he assumed that it came from her life with Arum.

"Stefan is still sleeping since he took the first night shift and Zeke is sleeping in but everyone else is out looking for food."

"Why? We can't be far from our final destination."

"We ended up going west through some trees and up a hill to lose them. We all agreed that if anyone was following us, then we wouldn't lead them to the others," Elli answered. Syrin could assume that her rather monotonous tone was a way for her to not think about her emotions and probably the fact that she was so far away from Arum. Syrin done it himself enough times to know. He knew she was much more animated when she was around Arum. He supposed it could be from the fact that she was also shy.

It was also around this time that Zeke finally left his tent.

"Oh, it's good to see you're awake now. The others were worried," Zeke mumbled with a smile.

"And you weren't?" Elli asked.

"Pain alone wouldn't kill anyone. He pretty much walked out of that unscathed like the rest of us. He just exhausted his body."

"Don't talk about me like I'm not here," Syrin said. Zeke merely shrugged.

It was silent for a few more minutes until Chifee and Ema came back with some picked fruit and two rabbits. She skinned them silent and cooked them and Zeke went and woke up Stefan. When it was time to eat, Syrin found himself oddly hungry. Stefan grinned when he caught him.

"Your exhaustion must speak volumes for you to eat so much in front of everyone else," he said with a teasing grin. Syrin glared at him.

"At any right, I believe we have much to discuss. I would prefer to wait until everyone is together again but at the moment, it appears that may take a while" Syrin began. "First off, the village itself – with no one from the village to be able to say anything, Crimea can spin whatever tale they want."

"So basically, they can make us look bad," Ema stated.

"Exactly. It's our word against theirs and they will win."

"I have a question! How can you use that amazing magic?" Chifee asked, his eyes wide.

"When you live for a long time, you get bored of conventional uses of magic, so before my arm was injured and even sometime afterwards, I set out to test what could be done with magic and to test the limits," Syrin answered.

"So that's why you could shield us and use that spell without a tome?" Stefan asked.

"Yes. I discovered that tornado could effectively be used as a shield in such a manner, so not only can it harm the enemy but it can also serve to protect, depending on how well the user in question can cast. But at the moment, it seems as though hardly anyone is willing to stray from what's written in a tome, so the uses of certain magic goes overlooked," Syrin said, shaking his head. He hated how he could go on and on about magic whenever someone asked. It was strangely exciting but at the same, it may very well go over their heads. He also didn't like to ramble but for some reason, talking about magical research seemed to make him unaware of just how much he was saying.

"What about the whole thing about going without a tome?" Ema asked.

"A tome is not entirely necessary but again, that depends on the skills of the magic user. The tome acts as a medium between the user and the spirits. The tome makes it easier to channel your inner abilities into something that has an outward effect. It's entirely possible to cut out the tome and contact the spirits directly on your own but for many, this is extremely difficult to do and it gets more difficult as the spells become complex."

When no one questioned him further, he knew he went to far. He should have refrained from speaking about magic to such extent, at least without the other mages.

"So the other guy can do that too?"

"Presumably. Dark mage is difficult to cast, so it's best to be wary of any that approach," Syrin sighed. "But if we're done, we should continue this conversation on the road."

Stefan shook his head. "Are you well enough? You weren't unconscious for a couple of hours. You were out for a whole night. You won't instantly be better because you ate more than usual."

"We can't wait around for my arm to get better because nothing can help it. If we want the best chance against that dark mage, then we need the rest of the mages with us. Once we have the entire group back together, then we can began to capture the forts around the area. We can't afford to wait!" Syrin hissed back.

"I'm sure the others will find us eventually. We can even send Ema or Zeke out to fetch them later. You need to rest or it will get worse. This is one of those times where you can't ignore what your body is telling you!" Stefan shouted.

"We already promised each other we wouldn't leave until all of us are well. It's clear that you still need more rest. The rest of us could use some more too," Elli said. "I'm... the only beorc here. I don't exactly tire easily but I don't have the same strength and endurance. I feel like I'm the one hold the rest of you back."

"Awww, but you do keep up well," Zeke said with a smile. "Honestly, Syrin, I can leave tonight and make it to the village quickly. We won't have Aletta but Megan and Nicholas being around should help with our magic problem. Just stay here and try to relax!"

They were all turning their back on him. He knew he lost. He couldn't convince any of them to leave with him – all of them could hold him back with his body in such a state. Syrin also knew that his body couldn't handle using any more magic at the moment, so he would be useless when it counted. He sighed. "I... fine. I'll entertain you. We'll stay here until Zeke can come back with everyone else. Ema, you might as well go find more food."

So yeah, new villain and him and 'creepy girl' are submitted characters. Originally, I wasn't going to take them because I thought I need to work on Arkit but then I realized I count my antagonists on one hand so I decided that I could use a little bit more variety.

Also, if you guys haven't already done so, go reread the prologue and the first chapter (new since this update!) since they have been rewritten and have new details. I have someone making sure that I don't screw that up too badly and add in any major surprises accidentally. You won't miss a lot and you won't miss anything important (that's the goal), but there's more if you please.