"If we cut through this wood, we can reach Ylisstol by the end of the week," Raven pointed out, drawing her finger across the map spread across the table between her and her brother. Robin nodded, keeping one eye on the other people milling about the poorly lit room.

The pair of tacticians had stopped for the night at a crowded inn, hoping to avoid any attention that two young people travelling together at night would bring. Both would have preferred to keep moving, but their provisions were running out, as was their gold. Thank the gods that they had found this village.

"Why are we going to Ylisstol again?" Robin asked. Raven had made the decision herself, ignoring his protests and arguments with a firmly resolved mentality. For days they had continued their travels to the Ylissean capital, but Robin had gotten no answer from his sister. She had pretended not to hear him, just as she did now. Robin sighed.

"If we cut through the woods, we may get lost and end up farther from the capital than we intend," he pointed out, circling the marked forest. "The trees don't end for miles and stretch all across the center of Ylisse."

"We'll deal with that when we get there," Raven insisted. "For now, let's just rest; we'll need our strength."

Robin turned away from his sister, watching the inn's other guests talk among themselves. Tomorrow would bring nothing but more travels. Travels that could not distract him from the overwhelming loneliness he'd experienced since his mother's death.


Raven looked at the endless fields, keeping her gaze away from her brother. She worried a bit at the quantity of supplies they had procured from the local merchants-hardly enough to last a week-but did not dwell upon it, focusing on her every step as her strides took her farther from the Plegian border.

"Raven?"

She turned to look at her brother, not letting her thoughts show on her face. He did not meet her eyes at first, scanning the horizon intently.

"Do you get that sense? Like we're being watched?"

Raven was a little startled, but searched the surrounding landscape for hiding places in which someone could remain unseen. A she did so, she realized that part of her distraction had in fact been due to the sense of an unseen pair of eyes.

"I do," she answered. "To arms?"

Robin drew his bronze sword as his answer. Raven readied her thunder tome. The twins stood back-to-back, keeping their eyes open for any sign of their mysterious observer. A cold laugh surrounded the field, chilling both Robin and Raven to their bones.

"I am impressed," a dark voice whispered, so quiet and cold that the siblings could not tell whether it was male or female. "Humans are not usually so perceptive. Then again, you do have the proper blood."

"Show yourself!" the tacticians cried as one. The cold laugh sounded again, and the air to their left wavered. From the distortion walked the cloaked figure who had attacked the bandit camp so many days before.

"Greetings, children of Validar," the cloaked man-or woman-hissed. "So kind of you to come and decide your destiny."

"Who are you?" Raven demanded. Again, the cold laugh.

"I am one of you. Which one, however, is for you to decide."

Neither of the twins knew how to answer. Dark smoke began to rise off the stranger's cloak, curling around each of the siblings. When touched with the energy, they knew it was the same dark power that had obliterated the bandit camp. Raven cried out to her brother as her vision faded into darkness.

"Now we are alone."

The voice was no longer genderless, instead sounding like a twisted rendition of her own. Raven could not see a thing, and almost gave into panic.

"Don't be afraid. Robin would not be afraid, would he? No, he wouldn't. He thinks he is stronger than you."

"Lies!" Raven cried. "You speak nothing but lies! Send me back!"

"Oh no, I'm afraid I can't do that," her darkened voice purred. "We are at a crucial point. There can only be one host to the fell dragon. Now is the time for you to choose. Will you live or die?"