Kayami was meditating with Kaisei in their garden, on a wooden platform in the middle of the pond. All around them were the sounds of birds and the water, and the sound of the fish breaking the surface to eat a foolish bug that landed on the surface.

She opened her eyes when she felt something land on the back of her hand and looked down to see a dragonfly had landed on her, she slowly and gently raised her hand to look at the flying bug. But as she was raising her hand the bug was startled by a loud noise and flew off.

Kaisei grunted next to her and opened his eyes, looking over towards the sound with his student and princess.

They saw Kougyoku and Aaltja walking towards them, Kayami stood up slowly while Kaisei remained seated.

"Your garden always looks to well-maintained, Kaya!" Kougyoku said.

Kayami smiled at them and said, "Thank you...we wanted something to remind us of our home country so we made it that way. Kaisei keeps it up."

Kaisei simply grunted as he crossed his arms over his chest.

Aaltja looked at Kayami and whispered, "Not much for words, is he?"

"No at least only when it counts." Kayami said with a sheepish smile. "Oh, I have been been meaning to ask you but I heard they found you in the Dungeon? What were you doing there?"

"Picking flowers, of course." Aaltja had a big grin on her lips and Kougyoku tried to swallow her laughter but failed terribly, Kayami sent her a feign glare.

"Ha ha, I meant why were you there in the first place?" Kayami asked with a smile small on her face, it seemed like she was opening up to them...little by little.

"Well, long story short: I have a goal to reach and i need power to do that. So I followed the wesp and they lead me to that Dungeon."

The last sentence got Kayami's attention and she tilted her head to the side, asking, "Excuse me, what are the Wesp?"

"Uhm, they are the ones who lead you to your destiny. I believe the rest of the world call them Rukh."

"Wait, if you can see the Rukh, than you are a Magician? But that means you can´t have a Contract with a Djinn."

Aaltja blushed and said a little loud in self-defense, "I didn't know that before!"

"How can somebody not know that you are a magician?" Kaisei finally said surprising the three girls who had forgotten that he was here. "You can't be that foolish, girl."

The blonde haired girl bristled at that and said, "I am not foolish!"

"You mean to tell me that you never once wondered why you could see the 'Wesp' and no one else could?" Kaisei said scoffing. "You are a child so being foolish is a given with girls your age."

Aaltja gritted her teeth before she lunged towards Kaisei, swing her hammer-staff off her back and bring it down to strike but a Ki long sword was there blocking her weapon.

CLANG

Blue meet brown as Aaltja and Kayami stared at each other, Kayami had drawn her sword to protect her master. Their arms quivered at they tried to overpower the other.

"Aaltja, calm down..." Kayami gritted out. "And Kaisei, hold your tongue."

"What? I spoke the truth," Kaisei said. "If she could lose control of her emotions than that proves that she is a child. She needs to go back to her parents."

Aaltja clicked her tongue before she pulled away from Kayami then she turned and ran off, the Ki warrior almost lost her balance but caught herself just in time before she face planted on the ground.

"The hell was that about?"

"She has no home to go to!" Kougyoku said as she glared at Kaisei before she turns and chases after Aaltja.

"...Kaisei, I will deal with you later." Kayami said in a low voice.

Kaisei looked up at her, she wasn't looking at him but he didn't see his student standing in front of him, he saw the rare vision of his Princess.

"Of course, Princess Kayami."

Kayami doesn't say anything else instead she goes after Kougyoku to try to find Aaltja to undo the damage.

Kayami and Kougyoku had meet up and decided to split up to look for Aaltja, they also decided not to bring any one else into their search either. So both girls looked all over the palace for her, trying not to draw attention to themselves as they did so.

It was Kayami that had found her, in the back of the palace...away from the eyes of everyone. She watched her in silence, it looked like she had been crying, before she walks over to her and sits down next to her.

"I am sorry about Kaisei...he's got a terrible way of talking to people." Kayami said.

"Yeah...he'll make a terrible father that's for sure."

Kayami looked up at the sky and said, "I think that's why he never married...he knew he'd make a bad father."

They sat there silently.

"What did Gyoku mean when she said that you didn't have a home to go to? And why isn't it that you had no idea that you were a Magician?" Kayami asked gently.

Aaltja winced at the memory before she swallows and said, "My Island is pretty shut off from the world. Not even Kouen had heard of us before. The only people who know of our existence are the Imuchack and...the Reim Empire." She pauses. "They destroyed my home, killed everybody and kidnapped the children."

Kayami glanced at her from the corner of her eyes and said, "My Island is shut off as well or we used to be until my father made contact with the Kou Empire and I was sent to them with Kaisei because my father didn't want to part with my older brother and who cares if the bastard child of the Emperor and a warrior woman should die during her time here? I later found out that almost all of my mother's clan was wiped out and that the rest had left the Island for the main land." She paused. "I survived of course because I had Kaisei but mostly because I had formed a bond with the children of the Emperor's children and that of his brother's..."

She trailed off before she lifted her hand and gently placed it on the silently crying girl's head, she gently brought her towards her until Aaltja's head rested on her armored chest.

"I know you want to leave, I myself had wanted to leave when I first arrived here but in the end I stayed," Kayami whispered. "Maybe you will find a reason to remain as well..."

Aaltja is silent before she said, "If you say so..." She pulled away from her and wiped her eyes. "You are to never mention this to anyone!" Both girls stood up and dusted themselves off.

Kayami chuckled and said, "Aww but I was so sure that Kouha would want to know about your cute vulnerable side~"

"You better not tell him!" Aaltja shouted.

"Mmm, nope~ he needs to know~" Kayami said with a smirk.

The blonde haired girl swung her hammer-staff off her back and brought it down at Kayami who barely had time to unsheathe her Ki longsword to block the attack.

"Aww, you're blushing~!" Kayami cooed. "So cute!"

"S-shut up!"

They erupted into a very destructive fight that completely destroyed the area that they were in, to say Kouen wasn't happy about it would have been a major understatement of the century. But what he didn't know was that was just the precursor of what would be a friendship that would last a long time.