Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight, I merely play in the sandbox. I do however, lay claim to my original characters including Ella and Adrian and the inclusion of the Fey world.

AN: Forgot to post yesterday, forgive me! ~Hannah

Chapter Seventy-Five – There's Something We've Missed

Under the darkened sky of night, a prisoner in the depths of gaol escaped their cell. A perilous journey separated them from freedom, through the twisting tunnels of doom that ran above and below the gaol, terrors lurked around every corner and the possibility of being caught grew bigger with every step taken.

To even think of escaping gaol was a maddening thought and very few escaped or even had the thought to do so. It took a desperate prisoner to attempt escape from this very gaol. A prisoner with nothing to lose and everything to gain.

It was a guards least favourite job to go searching for an escaped prisoner. To view the gruesome ways, they'd died while trying to escape were never images that you could get rid of. There was a reason few managed to escape the gaol, with traps lying around every corner. If you found yourself in gaol it was because you'd committed a crime worthy of being locked up for the rest of your days. The worst miscreants of society were locked in the gaol and the world was a better place without them polluting it.

The search for this missing prisoner had been going on well into the night, usually one or two guard would search but something about this escapee had rattled those higher up on the food chain.

The guard in question had been tasked with moving through the furthest tunnels to the south-west of the gaol. Past the wild wolves and the spiky snake pits. The light here was hard to find, water ran down the tunnel walls making the walk dangerous if you didn't know where you were going. It was unlikely that the prisoner had made his was this far but it still had to be checked.

The glistening sky was beginning to appear the closer the guard walked towards the grate that allowed flowing water to leave the tunnels. The night's sky now lightening with the coming dawn. Unknown to prisoners who made it thus far, there was an invisible door that guards could travel through to get outside.

The lump in the poor guard's throat expanded when he realised in the harsh light of a new dawn, that the rock he was gazing at was no rock at all. Here, the guard was hard pressed to stop from vomiting all over the ground, never did he think his day would take a turn like this.

The prisoner had, it seemed, travelled much further than anyone had anticipated. That the prisoner had manage to escape the tunnels and their danger and find freedom outside the gaol walls before expiring was remarkable. What was less remarkable was the state in which the body was found, which put new fear into the guard's heart. A mere prisoner escaping they could handle, but murder was another thing.

The rock that was not a rock was the charred body of the escaped prisoner. Burned as he fell it seemed, the earth around him had turned a sickly black colour. There was no need for identification, with nowhere else to go, this had to be the prisoner who'd escaped earlier in the evening. Lying just 50km from the gaol itself, it was sympathy the guard felt as he looked upon the prisoner's fallen body.

Besides the body, burnt into the earth words had been spelt. They sent a chill down the guard's spine, instilling fear and worry into his body.

The guard was still paralysed when the Calvary arrived, the words etched into the mind of all that saw it: 'You lose Brother.'

[x]

Adrian's P.O.V

It was with a heavy heart that I arrived at the Cullen's home with a scroll tucked under my arm and the knowledge that whatever laughter was being had was soon to be over. Of all the things that had happened recently, this seemed to be the biggest blip of failure that had fallen on my shoulders. What I carried with me held the truth in a secret that had been buried for years and came as the result of the dead escapee from gaol in the fey world.

I was afraid of the responses I would get once the truth was out. I didn't want there to be any wrong accusations flying towards me. We were a powerful group but could be quite emotional and violate when new unexpected information was handed about. Mostly, I was afraid of Edward's protective and possessive streak and if Bella would slap me for my wrong doings.

Even worse, in my case, I'd arrived during dinner, so everyone was gathered at the table. Whatever Charlie and Christine missed out on would surely be told when they returned, so no doubt I'd get told off a second time for what I was about to say.

"That's a dangerously dark frown on your face Adrian," said Bella once she noticed my entrance.

"I'm afraid I don't come with good news."

"Evidently," said Ella.

"Yesterday, during the night, a prisoner escaped our gaol and was murdered just short of gaining their freedom."

"Why should that concern us? Who was the prisoner?"

"I wonder if perhaps you'll let me read out an interrogation between the prisoner and a member of the royal guard? It will answer all questions you have."

"Of course, please read it and we will listen," said Carlisle.

I wasn't sure how true that statement would be after I began reading. Unrolling the scroll, I gazed at the people gathered around me before I began to read.

Royal Guard: Please state your name, family name and reason for imprisonment.

Prisoner: My name is Tristram from the family of Nikoli and Bess and I have no idea why I am here.

Royal Guard: Tristram you are hereby charged with endangering the life of Ella Swan, sister to the Prince's consort, and intending to commit murder.

Tristram: What? That's absurd, I've only met Ella once and never acted less than a gentleman while in her presence.

Royal Guard: Lies will do you no good here. We wish to know the reasons behind your actions? Your parents expressed concern for your welfare, citing that you were never good with change.

Tristram: Never good with change? Coming from those people, typical.

Royal Guard: Explain what you mean by 'those people'?

Tristram: It doesn't matter, it is not relevant to the matter at hand.

Royal Guard: It is said that you had a younger brother that died, do you blame your parents for that?

Tristram: My brother did not die.

Royal Guard: More lies Tristram? Your records are quite clear, they state your brother's death to being shortly after his fifth summer.

Tristram: Not everything written is true.

Royal Guard: You will explain yourself. Is your brother alive or not?

Tristram: Alive.

Royal Guard: Why was this information hidden? What secrets are you keeping?

Tristram: No secrets, I merely wish to keep my silence on my family. I have no future now I'm being locked up for something I did not commit. I don't have to answer to you.

Royal Guard: Why was this information hidden?

Tristram: I have nothing to say to you.

Royal Guard: You will tell me why this information was hidden!

Tristram: I will tell you nothing.

Royal Guard: Your life hangs in the balance boy, you will tell me what your family has hidden.

Tristram: My family bears no relevance to why you have locked me up without cause. Why would I give you more information that you could use to twist my life?

Royal Guard: If you won't talk I can get your parents arrested in ten seconds flat. Maybe they will talk if you won't.

Tristram: You cannot arrest them, you have no charge against them.

Royal Guard: I can and I will. I have the power to get the information needed by any means necessary.

Tristram: That's disgusting.

Royal Guard: That's leverage. Are you going to talk or shall I send out the arrest warrant?

Tristram: This is ludicrous, I don't understand why it is so important to know what happened to my brother.

Royal Guard: It isn't your job to understand my line of questioning, it is your job to answer the questions I ask.

Tristram: You promise not to involve my parents if I tell you what you want to know?

Royal Guard: I promise.

Tristram: My brother didn't die but he was cast out of the family.

Royal Guard: After only five summers?

Tristram: There was a sickness in my brother that couldn't be sick. He was born with a black heart and nothing we did made him whole again.

Royal Guard: A black heart?

Tristram: The blackest I've known. Yet, my parents couldn't kill him, so they banished him. They were scared I think, of what would happen to our family if he stayed.

Royal Guard: What was your involvement in this banishment?

Tristram: I was young, the choice was not mine. I missed my brother and didn't agree with how they handled him but knew there was something different about him.

Royal Guard: Could he still be alive?

Tristram: It's possible I guess.

Royal Guard: Will you now tell me your involvement with the human Ella Swan?

Tristram: What involvement? I only met her once. Was this your plan? Distract me with family stuff in the hopes that I'd trip up?

Royal Guard: Take him back to his cell, if he refuses to talk…make him.

Tristram: No, wait! You can't do this! I'm innocent! Please.

Royal Guard: Take him away.

[x]

"Well, what do you make of this?" asked Adrian.

"Why was this important enough to bring to our attention?"

"I think that is pretty self-explanatory Edward," I said.

"How so?"

"Well firstly, Tristram wronged me when he pushed me down the stairs but now I think that maybe it wasn't him. It's like we've been handed a golden apple or the answer to a maths problem."

"How do you mean?"

"Please, we can't all be reacting stupidly to this can we? Tristram had a brother who was thought to have died but didn't. His family cast him out because he had a blackened heart, he was evil. Tristram was set up to take the fall and obviously didn't commit the crime we saw him commit."

"What are you getting at?"

"I do not believe that it is a coincidence that Tristram tried to break out of gaol and failed. Nor do I believe that it is a coincidence that Adrian arrived with a report today that should have been showed to us much sooner. What do you imagine, the probability is, that Tristram's brother and the 'Master' are one in the same?"

"I would think it very slim."

"Then I would argue that you are wrong. To me it seems very probable that is the case. Why else would you find the words 'you lose brother', at the scene of Tristram's death. Maybe the 'Master' hadn't counted on us being so interested in Tristram's trial or so intent with your guard's line of questioning. Tristram obviously knew things that could negatively impact the 'Master' and so he was disposed."

"That's rather far-fetched, isn't it?"

"I don't think it is," said Bella. "I think what's far-fetched is not believing the words Ella says. I think we are so busy looking for the extraordinary cause that we forget how simple it could be. That the 'Master' and Tristram's lost brother are the same person makes a lot of sense, and would perhaps explain why he is so against the Fey world where his parents abandoned him. It brings us closer to understanding why he is doing all this and whether it is by his own hand he does it or by the hand of his blackened heart. I think ignoring this or refusing to accept it as a possibility would be the worst thing we could do."

"When did you get so smart?"

"I'm not sure, I think it comes from so many years standing by your side."

"Touché."

"It is very suspect that this revelation should come at this point in time. Rumours about the Master had been in and out of the limelight for a long time now. Does knowing that the Master might be Tristram's brother give us any more advantage over the end goal or are we still fumbling in the shadows with half answers and a dozen more questions?"

"I think at this point in time, it's a bit of both. I feel like we live in a life that moves one step forward and three steps back but I find myself feeling less despair and more positivity. I feel like together we thrive but alone I merely survive. So, whatever happens, if we stick together and fight together, I think we have a good chance against whatever is thrown at us. That might seem mushy or cliché and to an extent it probably is, but it is also my opinion of things," I said.

It was something I truly believed. Every day I felt stronger and stronger and more like a better version of myself. It was true that I trusted my safety with everyone that was sitting in this room with me. It was also true that I believed we worked better as a group than as individuals.

I knew that most of the people around me we sceptical at best. The information Adrian had just given us was easy to write off as a coincidence but I was learning that life was more like the films than I was led to believe. Things could be predictable, they could be coincidental and they could run like a superhero film. I was through with shaking hands with chance, if there was a possibility I could control some aspects of my life, then I was going to take them. Knowing that Tristram's brother and the 'Master' could be the same person was knowledge I was going to fold into my life, living by the rule 'you never know what life's going to throw at you', I knew the knowledge would come in handy.

[x]

P.O.V Change:

As night came, so did the King of dreams raise his head to the sky and yawn brightly. While others were laying their heads down to sleep, the King of dreams was rising for the dawn of a new dream. The King of dreams worked diligently, each dream crafted was a work of art in his eyes and he would never settle for anything less than perfect. On this clear night the King of dreams was given a command. An influential dream that would lead to discovery. So, the King of dreams set off for the bedroom of one Ella Swan, to give her a dream she'd never forget.

[x]

To Ella's point of view, she was dancing across a plain of multicoloured clouds. An orchestra of harps played sweet melodies as she danced across and endless landscape. Calm serenity flowed around her and she felt more relaxed than she had in months.

To everyone else, Ella was sleepwalking with such deepness that no one could wake her. It was collectively decided in the end, that waking her would be detrimental to her health and so, they followed. Where Ella walked, so did Edward, Jasper, Rose, Bella, and Adrian. Where Ella danced across the forest floor, so did the others – though Bella not so gracefully. Where Ella danced with a smile upon her face, the others walked on in confusion. When Ella came to a halt in an unknown cleared field, the others stopped as worry clouded their minds.

As Ella stood tall, swaying to an invisible breeze, the others stiffened with anxiety.

As Ella giggled, pulses of light appeared before the others.

As Ella raised her arms towards the sky, a trill of birds sounded.

As the pulses of light increased, the others had to shield their eyes.