Sun Fueled Rage

by PhotonicCyclone

Two years after the Battle of the Storm Spire, Azymondias has taken on the role as King of the Dragons and together with Ezran, has been helping relations improve between the two halves of the continent. However, no change is without opposition, and trouble begins to brew when a certain Sun Dragon begins to take action against the growing unity. Alternate Universe: Older Zym

8. Hide and Seek Part II

THANK YOU AGAIN FOR GAGABALL88 FOR BETA READING THIS CHAPTER!

Rayla inhaled a lungful of crisp, moist morning air as the gang continued to make their way through the endless labyrinth of trees in silence. The sun was just high enough that its rays had begun to breach the canopy ceiling, exposing the mild fog around them in a vibrant orange glow.

No one had said anything to each other for quite a while. Each person was occupied in their own mind by their own thoughts. For Rayla especially, the lingering fear of their encounter two days ago still hung thick in the air, forcing her to go through the scenario repeatedly in her head.

Had the people they encountered just simply moved on?

The stillness over the past couple of days did not provide as much relief as she would've hoped, only stifling her nerves further.

What was waiting for them ahead?

"Sooooo…" She jumped slightly, ejected from her thoughts by the voice of a very annoying but admittedly likable Crownguard. "When are we stopping for food?"

"What?" Rayla's head swung around in surprise, but not without a slight smile of amusement. "We literally just got going about an hour ago. How are you hungryalready?"

Soren pulled his hands out in front of him in surrender. "Hey hey… I'm not saying I am hungrynow…Just… Well, you know what they say! You can never be too unprepared when it comes to food."

"Uh huh…" Corvus chimed in, a mocking tone present in his voice. "Sure…. So those jelly tarts I catch you chowing down on all the time back at the castle are just for preparedness's sake, huh?"

Soren's head fell slightly, and he scratched the back of his neck, somewhat embarrassed. "Well, you see, those are for…" He then found his spirit once again and proudly placed his hands on his hips with a broad, beaming face. "You see, those are for GAH!"

In the middle of Soren's grand display, he seemed to have lost his balance and began slipping off the edge of the moonstrider, forcing him to frantically flail his hands around in an attempt to catch himself so he could prevent his face from gaining an unfortunate acquaintance with the soil below.

Nyx immediately burst out laughing behind the crownguard, and for the first time, Rayla actually joined her after struggling hard to hold it in herself. "Those are for falling off your mount?" Rayla jokingly added in between laughs.

Everyone else had soon joined in, laughing at the spectacle in front of them, Soren included. It was… nice… at least… to have a small moment of hilarity to relieve some of the lingering tension Rayla was feeling.

Rayla's laughter was severed with a harsh gasp as they reached the edge of the forest, however, quickly bringing her mount to a halt. Her smile had vanished completely, and her mouth hung open slightly with an expression resembling a mixture of shock, fear, and awe as she looked on with wide-open eyes at what lay ahead.

Rayla didn't turn around, but the sudden silence from Corvus gave her the indication that he had a similar feeling.

At the bottom of the slope in front of them lay the ruins of a large city, packed between two hills. It was vast, appearing to span the entire width of the valley it found itself in. The once tall, proud buildings had been reduced to broken spires with jagged and uneven spikes of rock lining the walls at their top, signaling the absence of more that had once been there but had fallen off long ago.

The sounds of the forest behind them appeared too still almost immediately, becoming as dead as the city in front of them looked, allowing a subtle deep groan of wind to make itself known from down in the valley as it wafted silver dust from the decaying stone structures, blanketing the place in a thin but visible ominous cloud.

"Hey, what happened? Why'd you sto-Oh…wow…" Soren said as he and the others pulled up next to her.

"So that's it, huh…?" Corvus said gently.

Rayla sighed. "Yup… that's Elarion…"

"Creepy…" Soren remarked, an unreadable expression on his face.

Rayla looked back at Soren with a raised eyebrow but said nothing. Creepy? Sure, but that was not exactly where her mind was right now…

Of course, however, as was typical, Nyx decided she was bored of the present conversation. "Yes, yes, looking at all these pretty buildings is very interesting… Can we get a move on now?"

Rayla sighed in frustration at Nyx's typical display of indifference but decided to let it go. After all, as much as Rayla hated to admit it, she…did…make a decent point. There wasn't much purpose in just looking at it from afar when Rayla knew they would have to go through it anyway. In fact, considering the current lack of leads, they would probably need to search the place. Not that she expected it would turn up anything, but right now, it was best not to leave any stones unturned.

And so, they began their short but slow journey down the hillside, descending ever closer to the ruined city. A dark feeling, which had started at the top of the hill, began to settle within Rayla as the soaring buildings towered further and further above them. They were quickly encompassed by the blanket of gray, dusty fog as they slowly made their way deeper into the valley, depleting the visibility, imbruing the horizon with the same gray tint, and turning what lay farther away into mere dark, sharp shadows bleeding through the gloom.

The floor beneath them cried out with severalcracksas their mounts traversed the once proud roads of the deserted city. Now, years and years of weathering had reduced most of them to dirt trails, splintered with pieces of rock that had broken off the road or fallen from one of the crumbling buildings a long time ago. The low groaning wind they had heard from above began to howl through the empty streets and alleyways, whistling, crying, embodying all that remained of the city's lost spirit, carrying the small lofted dust clouds seen from the top of the hill. Rayla and the rest could now watch as these particles flew, swirling in the wind without aim before wrapping themselves around a building, falling to the ground, or simply settling as the weeping winds no longer contained the energy to carry them.

Occasionally, the dust would be blown towards the group, staining their uniforms and armor with a distinct gray, or it would get into their faces, forcing their eyes to fill with water and blink to discard the intruding particles.

However, this was not the only thing wetting Rayla's eyes. As she looked from building to building into their decayed interiors, she saw the remains of chairs and tables, or other furnishings, left to rot, as if everybody had just suddenly vanished without a trace, leaving behind a still image of a city, completely frozen in time. It was no secret what had happened;

The judgment of the half moon.

Though, alone, even calling it ajudgmentwas blatantly erroneous and an awful misrepresentation of what had happened. Due to the crimes of a few, one day, out of nowhere, dragons declared that humans were no longer welcome in Xadia. So, without any forewarning, every human was forced out of their homes, with only what they could carry on their backs, to make a long trek to the west of the continent, never to see their home again.

Rayla had never been to this city before, but two years ago, she would've thought she'd be thinking far differently on her first venture here than she was now; she used to think about the ruins with fear and disgust. Like many other elves at the time, she believed that humanity had somehow deserved it all. They had paid the price for their crimes and got what was coming to them. The ruins of this city stood as nothing but a dark reminder of humanity and its evil influence on Xadia and its creatures.

Suffice it to say, she didn't believe that anymore.

Now, all she saw or thought of when she looked at these ruins was how hundreds of thousands of innocent people had their lives upturned overnight, forced to make a journey they had little chance of surviving. The only dark reminder this city gave now was the echo of a gross and disgusting injustice framed as a righteous course of action.

Rayla was left to her own devices, dwelling on these thoughts until she was eventually snapped out of it by Gren's voice. It took a good one or two seconds before Rayla realized it, but after a while, Soren and Nyx's mount seemingly split off from the group, much to Nyx's dismay. Amaya and Gren were the first to notice, as they were traveling right next to them, and Amaya eventually signaled to Gren, who relayed the message to Rayla and Corvus.

Soren had diverted to enter what appeared to be a short, narrow building with an exposed roof, though most of the walls were still standing. Several lines of stones, the remainder of what must have once been seats, stood on either side of a center aisle, running down the entire building length with stairs leading up to a raised floor at the front, an altar—an old place of worship.

Soren had abandoned his mount at the foot of the stairs and had climbed up to the altar, staring motionlessly at the wall in front of him.

"Soren?" Rayla said carefully but got no response.

Corvus, behind her, immediately stepped off the moonstrider and slowly walked towards the crownguard. The ground crunched under his feet with every step he took. Slowly, the rest of the gang followed. As they drew closer, Rayla noticed that the wall Soren was staring at was filled with multiple splotches of what appeared to be graffiti, consisting of an array of lines and drawings harshly thrown across the entire surface.

Different amalgamations of words and phrases and an odd circle with an x through it were also present, but most of it was rather hard to make out.

Scribbled diagonally on top of everything with large black letters was a phrase.

"Proditus in tenebris morior"

Corvus stood alongside Soren, looking at the weird drawings with him before he put a hand on Soren's shoulder and asked with a somewhat concerned expression, "Everything alright?"

The others inched in closer to hear his response.

Soren closed his eyes and sighed. "This is Claudia's handwriting…"

Everybody was silent for a moment, looking at him with stunned eyes. Rayla impulsively felt a slight tinge of worry in her chest and unconsciously reached for her blades at the thought that she might be here but quickly shook her head and thought better of it. It was a force of habit, given the encounters with Claudia she was used to, but she knew from her talk with Soren the other day that treating her like the enemy was not what he needed right now.

"Soren…" Rayla started gently, "Are you sure?"

Soren quietly nodded his head. "Yeah… I've seen her writing thousands of times… this is unmistakable."

Soren sighed, closed his eyes, shook his head, and pinched his nose with his fingers. "Of course, she'd come here… she always loved the ruins…"

Rayla walked up to Soren's other side, smiled, and laid her hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry… if she's out there, we'll find her."

"Oi guys! Ya done having your sap session because I'd like to get going!" Nyx yelled out impatiently from her strider.

Rayla and the others shot back a death glare, but Soren simply sighed and said, "No, no… she's right… let's go."

---

A couple of hours passed as the gang and their mounts slowly and silently trodded through avenue after avenue, poking in building after building, trying hopelessly to find some clue in the lost, desolate city before the silence was violently cut by what sounded like a loudSCREEECHof an animal. Everybody immediately craned their necks upward just in time to see the silhouette of a hotcat rapidly approaching from the distance.

"Everyone take cover! Now!" Rayla yelled, steering the mount to quickly dive into the nearest building.

After they were all encased by the dark shadow of the roof, Rayla quickly got off her mount and ducked behind the large door frame of the entryway. She poked her head out from the cover just enough to see the shadow of the creature pass silently overhead.

She breathed a small sigh of relief. Nobody saw them.

"Okay… guess some others have decided to show up here too… Let's be a little more careful walking around… until we figure out what's going on." Rayla tugged on the reins of her moonstrider. "I suggest we go the rest of the way on foot…. It will give us a bit more visibility around corners and such…."she said before poking her head out of the building and nervously checking each side of the road before giving the rest of the gang the go-ahead.

And so they continued, even slower than before, carefully making their way along the walls of various ruins on the left side of the street. Their guard was on high alert. Rayla led the pack as she anxiously peeked around corners, the tension building within her each time she found nothing but a bare city street. Their route had taken a rather unconventional turn, making several changes in direction, ducking and moving through several different alleyways and completely broken down, hallowed structures, all to avoid a perceived threat the gang wasn't even sure was real.

However, they would find out soon enough when the gang routinely approached another intersection a few minutes later. Rayla motioned for the gang to stop as she always did before slowly sliding herself along the wall; She just managed to crane her neck around the corner before barely stifling a gasp and darting her head back behind cover.

Everyone looked at her with curious and slightly worried expressions.

"There's four people… in the street… armed… coming towards us," Rayla whispered.

The rest of the team nodded and slowly moved their hands toward their weapons. Rayla could feel the time slowly slipping away as the footsteps of what had appeared to be knights in golden armor had now become audible, echoing through the passage and slowly growing in volume.

This was not good… why thehellwere they here? This place was desolate for the past thousand years; no living soul except for them should ever be wandering around here…unless…

The memory of the incident in the forest two days ago surged back to her all at once. "They knew we were coming… the hotcats Nyx saw… they laid a trap for us-oh my stars-" Rayla glared at Nyx. "You led them right here!" she whispered harshly.

Nyx narrowed her eyes and glared back, seeming ready to retort something before Corvus bumped in. "Now's not the time for this; we need to figure out what to do," Corvus whispered, the footsteps creeping ever closer.

"Right… right…" Rayla sighed, letting her anger subside. She looked around in desperation for a moment, before "Let's hide in here," Rayla decided determinedly, gesturing to the building they were next to. It was their quickest way out of the conflict.

They hastily turned back to begin their run to the entrance, just in time for two more knights to round the corner at the far end of the street. Rayla's heart jumped.

They had been seen.

"Hey!" a stern male voice yelled.

"Run!" Rayla commanded, hastily getting on her mount with Corvus behind her.

Rayla felt the wind of a red hot spear whizz just by her as they launched into the road.

Crossing the intersection, she caught a blur of the original four knights they had seen, running back down the street they had found them in, presumably to get onto their mounts and give chase.

It wasn't long before they heard the screech of another hotcat; one was on their tail. This was quickly followed by two additional ones joining in from the side, pursuing them in a well-organized triangle formation.

Suddenly, another hotcat, flying just low enough to graze her horns, blasted out of the street to the right, giving Rayla barely enough time to steer out of the way. The shock and the force of such a creature in such close range and at such high speed disoriented her and also startled the mounts of the rest of the gang, causing them to have to hold their reins tightly as they tried to get the scared striders under control. They all managed to get back on track just in time for Rayla to look back and see a hot spear thrown from one of the closer hotcats whizzing toward the two moonstriders behind her.

"Look out!" she yelled, giving Soren and Amaya just enough warning to yank on the harness and evade further to their respective sides of the road, leaving the spear to impact directly between them, hissing, as its point sunk deep into the stone street.

It was then that Rayla made a grave realization… hotcats were fast flyers… and with the amount they appeared to be surging from each corner… they wouldn't be able to outrun them. At this rate, getting caught was a matter ofwhen, notif.

She looked around desperately for a solution as hotcat after hotcat took off from somewhere in the city or emerged from above and joined the pursuit.

Finally, up ahead, she saw what appeared to be a larger building in the distance, still looking relatively intact.

Rayla considered her options. It wasn't a perfect solution, but that place would be big enough to take refuge in for the time being; perhaps if the interior was still mostly intact, they could find a spot to hunker down and plan their next move.

At last, with the structure drawing closer and knights above leaning in for another attempted strike. She made her choice.

"In here!" she yelled.

The moonstriders galloped up the building's wide (and thankfully not steep) entry stairs, with Rayla apologizing silently for making them do so. As Rayla's eyes adjusted to the sudden darkness, the shadow of the structure now having encompassed them fully, a large open corridor that appeared to split off into many different rooms and hallways on either side immediately greeted her.

However, she didn't have time to take in the scenery, hearing the first knights touch down outside. Rayla began to think quickly about her next move. There was simply too much heat on them right now. With all of their pursuers, it would be too tough to sneak around this place with six people and mounts. There was no way they could make it to an exit like this. Therefore, although she didn't like it, only one option remained.

"Split up!"

Immediately, Amaya and Gren split off into a passageway on their left. The remaining gang continued to gallop ahead until they came to a crossroads at the end of the corridor, with Rayla and Corvus taking the path to the right and Soren and Nyx running down the path on the left.

"Duck!" Rayla yelled to Corvus as she steered the mount into the first doorway on the left. On the other side, they discovered a mid-sized empty room that led into another hallway breaking off to the right. After entering this hallway and once again taking the first entrance on the left, they were immediately assaulted with a musty humid smell. Looking around, they found themselves in a relatively small, narrow, empty room that extended quite a distance. The remnants of a stone table lay at the front, while several small wooden tables in various states of decay and rot were placed from the front to the back of the room.

The source of the smell.

Rayla got off the moonstrider and looked around for a moment, staying clear of the windows that lined the back of the room. Despite this, however, she still saw enough out the window to see the occasional passing shadow of hotcats that flew over the building. More were arriving…

"Ooooh great…." Rayla said as she took in the gravity of their current situation. "This is peachy, real peachy… what are we supposed to do now?!"

Corvus grunted silently as he disembarked the strider and began walking over to Rayla with a slight limp. Though his leg injury was not as bad as they had originally thought, it was still sometimes a little painful to do things that put a lot of pressure on the foot, like, for instance, jumping from a mount. Corvus was just happy that he used a ranged weapon which allowed him to do less running.

Rayla sighed and sat down in the back corner of the room. She hugged her knees and looked down toward the floor. "They're going to start blocking the exit… no way we're leaving the way we came in. Windows don't seem to work either… too small to get the striders through"

She wasn't even mentioning the shards of broken glass that still remained on the window frames, which would surely not only injure the moon striders, but also startle them… attracting much unneeded attention. As comical as it was to seemingly have a way out right next to them, they were stuck.

Rayla planted her face into her hands and shot her head upwards, her horns nearly banging on the stone wall behind her. "UGH! If only I-"

"-Rayla"

Her eyes shot up to meet Corvus' as he gently chimed in. "Remember what Amaya said about what-ifs?"

Rayla sighed. "Yeah, yeah…"

"This is a big building… there has to be another way out of here… We'll find the others and figure out what to do next," Corvus suggested.

"I hope they're okay…" Rayla sighed.

Corvus smiled. "I'm sure they're fine… this isn't their first rodeo, you know."

Rayla returned his smile and was about to say something snarky in response when her ears perked, having picked up something. It was distant and muffled but certainly there. It had a distinct rhythm to it that no other thing could match. Immediately, Rayla knew precisely what it was.

Footsteps… coming ever closer…

"Corvus…." Rayla whispered, but it seemed like now he had heard it too.

The two looked at each other for a moment and Rayla's heart began pounding as the footsteps entered their hallway; from the sounds of it, they were coming from just to their right. It seemed like they were investigating that one room they had passed before they took cover in here. They didn't seem to be particularly quiet about it either. Screeches and scratches echoed through the hallway outside as they violently shoved objects aside; they were saying something to each other, but Rayla didn't exactly know what it was.

"Get the moonstrider out of sight," she whispered, and the two worked to do just that, slowly pulling the moonstrider away to the far corner of the room, out of sight of the entryway.

The poor creature, feeling the tension, started snorting and whimpering in a growing panic, causing Rayla to gently but hurriedly pat its snout in hopes that it would calm down.

Finally, and without further complaints from the moonstrider, they got it out of harm's way. At that moment, they heard what seemed like a shout from one of the people searching outside. They couldn't hear what was being said; the walls in the way muffled the sound far too much, but one thing was clear: time was running out.

Rayla wordlessly pointed at one of the sides of the doorway, and Corvus nodded understandingly. Quickly but quietly, the two made their way to either side of the room's entrance, their backs up against the wall, out of sight. Rayla quietly drew her blades while Corvus cocked his chain launcher.

Their breathing became heavier as the footsteps drew closer and closer. Rayla's grip on her sword tightened as she listened to what now seemed to be a pair of knights. Rayla hoped, against everything, that they would walk by or take a glance and not see them. But she knew in her heart that that would never happen. They were going to check every room in the hallway, and theirs was the first.

It was time.

The footsteps were right in front of the door; Rayla watched as a shadow on the floor crept through the entryway and slowly extended into the room. A blur of yellow caught her sight and Rayla reacted on instinct; she immediately slammed the hilt of the blade into the knight's helmet, causing them to clutch their head in pain and stumble into the room dazed. The sudden commotion caused the other knight to rush into the room for assistance, but not fast enough to avoid Corvus popping up in the entryway and shooting a chain out of his launcher, wrapping around the legs of the other and sending him flying into the room, slamming with the back of his head into one of the wooden desks, instantly splitting the furniture with a deafening crash.

The first knight, barely grabbing his bearings, attempted to throw a spear at Rayla, albeit very poorly in his still dazed state. Rayla dodged the spear with ease and caught a glance as it pierced the wall behind her, slowly melting its way into the stone with a harsh, sizzling sound.

This stuff must be made out of the same stuff as sunforge blades

Immediately, Rayla jumped with a frontflip behind the offending knight who had thrown the spear, ripped off their helmet, revealing what looked to be a female sunfire elf, took the hilts of both of her swords this time, and slammed them into the opposing sides of the knight's head, knocking her out cold.

At the same time, Corvus picked up the piece of the split desk and hammered it down on the other knight, the half of the desk finally saying its final goodbyes and busting into several splinters which bounced and flipped over in several different directions as they dispersed themselves across the room.

Corvus and Rayla looked at each other, eyes wide, communicating a thousand words but unable to say much through the adrenaline still slowly simmering down within them. So, instead, they just settled for an astonished nod.

The two made their way back over to the moonstrider, stepping over the unconscious bodies of the knights they had just fought, reassuring the mount, and making sure it wouldn't panic. Corvus then made a suggestion. "I think we should keep on our feet for now. We'll have the moonstrider with us, but it might be easier to sneak around here like that."

Rayla couldn't help but agree, and so the little band of three made their way to the doorway, listening closely for any more footsteps that could be closing in. At the entrance, Rayla signaled for Corvus to wait before just barely peeking out of the doorway.

The hallway was dead silent, a stark contrast to what they had just experienced, and after seeing nothing coming down either side of the hall, she breathed a sigh of relief and nodded to Corvus, who slowly moved ahead to take a small look of his own.

Rayla had already begun slowly and carefully sneaking out of the room. Feeling way too exposed, she was getting ready to dive into any nearby doorway, should anyone pop up from either side, when she heard Corvus' voice behind her.

"There's nobody down this side," he whispered, gesturing to the side of the hall to their left, which they had yet to explore.

"How can you tell?" Rayla inquired.

"The ground… there's a lack of disturbances on the floor, and those that exist are all too irregular to be man-made."

Rayla took a survey of the ground herself. It was made up of a red stone floor piece with an odd pattern resembling that of flowers but it was hard to see due to having been washed out over many years. Large cracks spread through the entire sheet, breaking off whole pieces and exposing the dirt below. However, she couldn't find what she was actually looking for, or rather, what Corvus was looking at. The dust sheet was too thin, and the loose rocks too sporadic for her to see many traces of people if they were to be left, even after checking the other side of the hall, where the knights had come from, for reference. The only obvious signs of disturbance were right at the doorway where the struggle had begun.

Being a tracker helps, I guess.

Rayla silently nodded and, without looking at Corvus, whispered. "Alright… why don't you take the lead for now then? Might get us moving quicker."

And so, the pair slowly made their way down the hallway, with Corvus scanning the landscape ahead of them for any changes. At the same time, Rayla stayed behind, towing their mount and keeping her ears peeled for any signs of any visitors approaching behind them.

Rayla had to admit that, despite being surrounded by endless amounts of cover to dive into on each side, it was tense. She didn't hear anything, but she found herself continuously looking over her shoulder as if something would magically appear behind her. She always hated this part of stealthing, where they had to somehow get from A to B while obscuring 180 degrees of their vision. She never truly got over the way it made her heart slam.

If somebody came behind them right now, would they hear it? Would they have enough time to duck into one of the rooms before being seen? She tried to distract herself from the thought while remaining vigilant, but that was rather hard given their situation, eventually deciding to take further notice of her surroundings to get her mind off things, but it didn't help improve her mood. Glancing into each room they passed, she noticed unnerving similarities in how they were laid out, all in varying degrees of likeness to the initial room they had entered. It was a layout she was decently familiar with.

And the sheer number of them…

A knot started to grow in her stomach as she thought about the building they may be in. Still, she couldn't think about that too much because before she knew it, they had rounded a corner and stood face to face with another doorway, leading straight back into the larger hall they had initially turned into when they split up.

The two immediately took cover on either side of the doorframe while Corvus peaked into what had appeared to Rayla to be a crossroads.

"There is a squad of two to the left, and they seem to be searching those rooms," Corvus whispered. "The other side of the hallway extends to the other side of the building, so I'd be careful…I can't make out if there has been anybody straight ahead, but-"

Corvus immediately swung back inside the doorway, an expression of shock on his face as he sucked in a large amount of air with a distinguished TSSSHHHH noise. "Well, that seems to answer that question."He said with an exasperated exhale.

"What did you see?" Rayla whispered

"Two of those knights…they just crossed the hall ahead…" Corvus breathed. "What do you want to do from here? Either way we go, we'll probably have to encounter someone."

Rayla deliberated on that for a moment. Neither option was great; however, if they went left, they had a greater chance of being seen by someone from across the building, given the hall's length. If they went right, they carried that same risk and ran the higher risk of being seen by those on the left side of the hall. As she thought long and hard about it, she realized there was one option that seemed the most sensible in this scenario.

"Let's go straight," Rayla suggested. "We'll go when these knights to the left finish searching whatever room they're in so we have a fresh window."

Corvus nodded.

And so the two stood there, ready to run with their mount in tow while they waited for a sign of life from one of the knights. Rayla's impatience grew steadily; she didn't want to outrun the clock so much that they risked being found by others. How long would it take for them to clear a room? As she grew increasingly fidgety, however, glancing out to her side, she finally heard footsteps and saw two golden figures pass by, crossing the hallway into one of the rooms on the other side.

Rayla waited for a moment, then nodded at Corvus, who nodded back, and so the two made their way straight ahead down the hall. Quick on their feet but slow enough so their mount behind them wouldn't make too much noise. This moonstrider, being that of an assassin, was well trained in stealth. Despite that, however, there was still the unmistakable lightclackof the paws as they passed the intersection; she just hoped that the knights were too far away and/or too preoccupied to hear it.

Finally, with a sigh of relief and no sign of the knights emerging from that room to pursue them, they made it to the other side. Corvus promptly suggested pursuing the two knights while they still had the element of surprise, and Rayla agreed, ducking into the same door that Corvus had seen the other group enter.

They emerged into a cramped room with a narrow corridor and walls bearing a yellowish tint. Up ahead lay a sharp turn to the right, which, by the looks of it, led straight into two passageways that were split by a large wall in the middle.

Crouched, Rayla began slowly walking forward before Corvus stopped her."Wait! Perhaps we should leave the moonstrider here while we go investigate,"he whispered.

Rayla looked back with a raised eyebrow.

"We don't know what's waiting for us on the other side of those walls; it might be easier to deal with it when it's just us two. I don't know if that's a possibility, but…"

Rayla nodded, understanding. She walked up close to the moonstrider and looked at it with sympathetic eyes, gently running her hand along its snout. Leaning in close, she whispered something in what appeared to be elven. Immediately after, the moonstrider looked at her with an unintelligible expression before looking back at the entryway.

Rayla smiled, whispering. "She'll stay… unless she gets startled, of course, but let's hope it doesn't come to that."

With that settled, the two slowly slithered around the bend, staying out of sight from the two entrances up ahead. Rayla looked at Corvus and gestured her finger toward the one on the right.

Corvus nodded and slowly crept toward the indicated doorway while Rayla took the one on the left. Peaking into the doorway revealed another corridor much like the one they had just come from. However, this one seemed more intact than the other; remnants of a floor consisting of tiny little brown tiles dotted the passageway while two rusted and decaying metal cylinders stuck out of the ground in the middle with sharp-looking edges at the top where the metal had broken off.

Looking further down the corridor, Rayla observed as she spotted… Corvus's peaking face…

The entrances led to the exact same place.

One mental facepalm later, the two quietly met up in the middle, before metal footsteps, quiet but definitely there, became audible from the adjacent room.

The two slowly crept over to the doorway tucked away into the room's far corner, gliding along the wall to stay out of sight of any would-be attackers. The knights seemed to be just behind the doorway, from the sound of it. Rayla and Corvus tensed, hoping that their footfalls would be overshadowed by the knight's own.

Tap, tap tap tap

Rayla's blood froze as she heard the noise ring out from below her. She had been so focused on the pathway ahead that she hadn't looked at the floor. If she had, she would've seen a small loose tile that had found itself in her path, one that she had just accidentally kicked without realizing it.

The footsteps on the other side of the wall stopped, and Rayla looked up at Corvus with panic, and he looked back with a similar expression. The two stood there for a moment in complete silence, hearts pounding. They held their breath and slowly positioned their hands over their weapons prepared for anything to come through that doorway.

However, nothing ever did, and the footsteps resumed as normal.

Rayla and Corvus breathed a sigh of relief before finishing their journey to the door.

Once there, Corvus took a quick peek inside the room.

"There's another group of two here." Corvus turned back to Rayla and whispered. "One is in here, and the other just entered the adjacent room. I reckon we split up? Each of us takes one of them?"

Rayla pondered it for a moment. Splitting up came with its advantages and disadvantages; on the one hand, they'd be alone; on the other, they'd only need to deal with one attacker at a time. Being on the offensive also provided the advantage of being less trapped; if one needed assistance, they could quickly regroup; the more she thought about it, the more sense it made. Not to mention they were in a pretty advantageous position right now, they could easily get the jump on them.

Rayla nodded.

"Alright then, I'll take this one. Then you should be able to slip past the commotion relatively easily and go get the other."

Rayla gave Corvus a small smirk. Her training as an assassin had made her more than ready for this.

Corvus closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and immediately rushed in as fast as he could. Rayla did not see much of what was happening as she quickly followed, only hearing the sound of the chain launcher deploying and loud banging to her right.

She rolled past the blur of fighting as quickly as she could, and leaped into the doorway ahead, only to gasp in shock as she quickly came face to face with a flash of gold.

The knight coming to check on their partner.

Rayla dove and slid through underneath them, narrowly avoiding a hot spear to the face, and pulled out her swords.

Immediately, the knight turned to face her as she hoped he would. She had only a brief moment to take in her surroundings, another room similar in layout to the previous two; however, dividers of some kind lined the wall, each in varying degrees of disrepair.

Interesting…

Her time to take in the scenery ended immediately, however, when she caught her opponent sprinting at her from the corner of her eye. She quickly evaded to the right with a cartwheel but almost lost control as she felt a harsh burning sensation which caused her to wince in pain. She had not taken into account the uneven, shattered, and rocky ground that was now digging minor cuts into her hands.

Coming out of her wheel, she only had a moment to hold onto her hand in pain before she caught the sight of a spear flying straight at her head. She ducked out of the way at the last possible moment and the spear missed her to her left by just a hair. Feeling the burning as it sizzled into the wall next to her, she grimaced as the tiny chunks of red hot debris, ejected from the stone, landed on her neck and shoulder with such intense heat that it felt like it would burn through her armor.

Despite the pain, she cracked out a sardonic smile. "You guys really… gotta stop losing these things."She said between breaths.

Immediately, she ducked and rolled, slipping between the two dividers to her left. She waited briefly as the knight went to pick up the spear, using the small amount of time she was allotted to slip up and over the divider and into the adjacent space. She watched as the knight walked over to where she had been and stopped, confused at her absence.

As quietly as she could, she snuck up behind him and swung. However, it didn't seem she had been quiet enough as the knight spun around at the last second and parried her sword with a harsh clash. The impact almost made her lose her balance. Even worse, she heard a distinct, dreaded, sizzling sound emanate from her blade.

A glance at her weapon revealed a small nick in the metal, the area around it glowing a harsh orange, slowly fading back to normal.

Right… glowing hot spear. Well, this isn't good.

Thinking quickly, Rayla dropped her swords and ran full speed at the knight; before he could react, Rayla had become an airborne projectile and slammed into him at full force. The impact sent them both catapulting backward into the wall behind them.

Well, this seems familiar.Rayla thought before immediately wrestling the knight's helmet off his body, he attempted to put up a fight but couldn't do much in his dazed state, making audible gasps for breath after the impact squeezed all the air out of his lungs. Having wrestled the helmet off, Rayla threw it across the room and immediately got to her feet. The knight, a male sunfire elf, tried desperately to do the same but she provided a swift kick to the forehead, rendering him unconscious before he was able to gain any ground.

She took a moment to take a quick sigh and grab her bearings before picking up her swords and going to check on Corvus, who had made similar progress, judging from the knight lying on the floor with Corvus calmly loading his chain launcher nearby.

With the threat out of the way, the two ventured into the nearby room, searching everywhere for a possible exit; however, at each corner they checked, they only found wall after wall after wall. Walking through another doorway put them back in the large hallway, which ended in a dead end.

"Ergghh…No!"Rayla exclaimed, seeming as if she would start patting the wall for any hidden passageway at any moment. "I can't believe this; there's nothinghere!We did all that for nothing!"

"Not for nothing," Corvus added. "They're down two less of those knights now… let's head back and see where to go from there."

Rayla looked at Corvus as if she was going to say something before eventually sighing, "Good idea…" still disappointed, but in hindsight, she remembered this was the only way that would've made sense to go at the timeanyway,and at least now they had ruled out a possibility for an exit. She didn't know what exactly had come over her there. Just… the longer she was here, the more she really wanted out, and not just because of the knights…

there was something else…

Returning through the many empty rooms and corridors, they eventually rejoined with their moonstrider. They began the trek back into the main hall, checking their surroundings and making sure to duck into the many rooms every so often to stay out of sight. And with each room they ducked into, a larger and larger pit grew in Rayla's stomach. Her suspicions about what this place was had grown tremendously since then, fed with each and every room they visited.

At some point, Corvus must have noticed because, on one of their stops, Corvus met Rayla's eyes with a sympathetic expression as he lightly asked. "Hey, is everything okay?"

Rayla's gaze snapped to meet him with a somewhat surprised expression, not expecting to be spoken to before she took a deep breath and finally let it out… "I don't know… this… I've been thinking about this for a while and… well… all these rooms, the way the wooden tables are laid out… I just can't shake the feeling that…." Rayla sighed again. "This place was a school, Corvus."

Intuitively, she knew that the city of Elarion would have a school and that, just like everything else, it would've been forcefully abandoned as the judgment of the half-moon cast out everyone who went there but…toseeit… it was a whole different feeling.

Corvus looked around at the apparent classroom they were in and hummed thoughtfully. "Yeah…" he agreed.

"I just…" Rayla tried. "I just can't stop thinking about it for some reason… I mean… Children went here!"

Rayla got down on one knee and crossed her arms over her lap, looking sullenly at the floor. "I can't imagine what that must've been like, one day everything is normal… you're going here, learning the secrets of the world… and then…"

Rayla choked slightly, she would have never expected to have these thoughts upon finding a setting like this, but now her past experiences, and everything she had seen leading up to this, made it inescapable, assaulting her all at once. "And then your door gets kicked down and an army tells you to get moving… that you're leaving… to some unknown place…that you're never gonna see home again… that your life will never be…" Rayla gestured widely with her hand "this… anymore."

That last part, Rayla could relate to that last part. She remembered the pain she had felt when she first witnessed the blank faces of her fellow kin as she and Callum walked into the Silvergrove for the first time, how her soul was crushed when she had seen that same blank face on Ethari and how she was destroyed when she thought she might never be able to see her home again. That feeling, she knew how it felt, and that ability to empathize with what had happened here, even if it was a thousand years ago, made it all feel so much worse now that she was realizing all this basically for the first time.

"Rayla…" Corvus started, but he cut himself off

"They must have been… so scared" Rayla stated bluntly "Not knowing what was happening…"

At least she knew immediately what had happened to her, at least she got to see her home again, they didn't get any of that.

"And it's weird…because I feel… partially guilty about it? Like…" She closed her eyes, slapped her hands to her face, and made a grunt of frustration. "My entire life I've been told humans were a plague and that whatever they got was justice… and… and I believed that, but now I know all that was a lie, and I know that what happened here was one of the most horrible injustices I know of. And it was Xadia that did that! Us! The same ones that put ourselves on a pedestal and said 'No, we're better than those… those humans… we would never be as evil as them…' Tch… go figure."

"Rayla, listen to me." Corvus had gotten down on one knee as well, now, and held Rayla's shoulder tightly, looking her straight in the eye. "What happened here was terrible, yes… but you do not in any capacity have to feel guilty for it. It was a thousand years ago, Rayla! You weren't even alive! You are not responsible! Remember that. Human dark mages are the reason we don't really see unicorns nowadays but am I going to feel guilty about that? No, because I was never involved. I wasn't born back then. I would find it unfair for you to hold me responsible for something like that and so it would be unfair for me to hold you responsible as well."

Rayla sniffed and rubbed her right eye.

"We can't change what happened all those years ago, nor did we have anything to do with it… It's unfortunate what happened, but dwelling on all of that forever isn't going to help anyone. Remember it, learn from it, and make sure it never happens again. But don't feel guilty about something you never took part in. " Corvus smiled. "Instead of dwelling on the past and worrying about what we can't change, why not focus on the future and see the positives we can bring to this world now."

Rayla smirked and rubbed her eyes one more time, a new spark having been reawakened within her, "Like kicking Sol Regem's tail?"

Corvus chuckled, "Pretty much, yeah."

They both stood up and after a quick stretch, Rayla smiled in a much more relieved manner. "Thank you, Corvus… that helped a lot."

Corvus laughed. "Hey, tracking isn't the only thing I know my way around."

Rayla chuckled as the two quietly made their way towards the exit of the room.

As they reached the familiar crossroads again, Corvus immediately ushered for Rayla to stop.

"What is it?" Rayla whispered.

"Those two knights we saw earlier are in the room next to us; I can see their tracks…I think they may be coming back soon."

Just then, they heard two harsh pairs of metal footsteps exit the room and slowly begin drawing closer to them.

"Get ready…" Corvus whispered.

Rayla immediately put her hand on her blade's holster and tucked herself further towards the wall as she waited for the inevitable confrontation.

Unlike some of the previous encounters, this one was refreshingly not too bad; the element of surprise as the two knights crossed their paths gave Rayla and Corvus the edge. Blindsiding the pair, they were quickly able to tackle and take one knight each, finishing them off with relative ease and storing their unconscious bodies out of sight in what looked to be a nearby classroom.

With all apparent obstacles out of their way, Rayla and Corvus, along with their moonstrider, made their way down the left hallway, back towards the entrance of the building as quickly as they could, ducking into nearby rooms every once in a while for safe measure.

The two hung back behind the corner that led into the gaping maw of what appeared to have been a main commons area, the same one they had run into as they first entered this place. Already, Rayla could see the light from the outside casting a soft glow on the pillars in front of them.

It was frustrating; an exit; freedom was so close. But Rayla knew they couldn't go out the way they came in; who knew who was waiting outside? Besides, they still had to regroup with the others; wherever they were. No, they had to cross it, to the other side of the building. All she could hope for now was that the stairs they climbed on their way in and the darkness of the rooms around them provided enough cover so they wouldn't be seen crossing over the large expanse. It was risky, but unfortunately, a risk they had to take.

"I can't see much from here; the wall is at an angle." Corvus quietly complained. "There seems to be a room we can slip into just around the bend; if we can get into it, we might be able to see better."

Rayla nodded, got herself ready, and tightened her grip on the mount's harness. On Corvus' signal, Rayla briefly thanked the stars for giving moonstriders claws instead of the louder hoofs, and they quickly and quietly slipped around the corner into the safe cover of what seemed to be a long, extended room with its entire interior having been long cleared out.

On her way around, though, something had caught Rayla's eye, a glint that flashed briefly in the right corner of her vision, bearing a specific metallic nature.

The glint of armor.

And not just any armor, unlike the golden armor they had grown used to (and very tired) of seeing, this one was silver. Only three people in this building wore that kind of armor, and she wouldn't mind either of them.

Struggling to get a better look, she clambered to the entrance.

"Hey-what are you doing?" Corvus asked, a hint of shock finding its way into his voice.

"Shhhhh!" Rayla said sternly. "I just wanna see something."

As she poked her head out of the doorway, Rayla's suspicions were immediately confirmed. Amaya was in the room diagonally across from them to their left, closer to the entrance, shrouded in shadows but still close enough to the light to barely be visible, with Gren just behind her.

A wave of relief flooded through Rayla as the two locked eyes. Amaya and Gren were ok. After all this time being split up and fighting hostile after hostile, she was elated to finally reunite with someone from her side.

Amaya appeared to share the sentiment as she smiled warmly at the sight of her, a gesture which Rayla returned in kind.

However, she could only begin to wave "Hello" before the sudden sound of a multitude of footsteps made her ears twitch.

Immediately, she snapped her head over to the source; two pairs of knights were walking out of two adjacent wings on the far side of the commons.

Great…

"Find anything?" she overheard the conversation between them.

"Nah, we searched the whole place, top to bottom, but no sign of anyone."

Rayla let out a sigh of alleviation. So, at least, to her knowledge, they hadn't found Soren yet.

However, the good news ended there as the conversation started up again. "Alright, you want to tackle this last wing together, then?" They gestured at the last doorway on their left.

The precise wing Amaya and Gren were in.

Rayla's heart raced as she watched Gren tap Amaya on the shoulder, filling her in on the situation. This was not good. It would only be a matter of time before they were caught, and there was little chance they could take four of those knights with just the two of them.

Rayla's eyes raced around the room as she thought of something to do. If it came to it, perhaps Rayla and Corvus could storm out into the open hallway, and then they could all face them four-on-four, but she didn't like that plan. There were still too many variables. She kept it in the back of her mind as a last resort but there had to be something better.

"What is it?" Corvus hissed, bothered by Rayla's sudden change in behavior.

"Amaya and Gren are in there."

"What?"

"Yeah, just… hang on a moment."

Time was running out, and she could already hear the knights drawing closer. She hastily scanned her surroundings but found nothing besides pebbles and debris littering the floor. Rayla groaned, frustrated, before suddenly, she had an idea.

With no time to explain to Corvus what she had in mind, she picked up one of the pebbles and walked over to the doorway; seeing Amaya and Gren slowly drift into the shadows, she threw up a quick hand signal to alert the two of them. This would be her stupidest or most genius idea ever, though she didn't have much time to think about which one it would be right now.

She took a deep breath in preparation and threw the pebbles against the wallin Rayla and Corvus' room hard.The hall rang out with many small clacking noises as the pebbles crashed against the stone surface and immediately recoiled, slowly rolling and bouncing across the floor before coming to a dead stop on a piece of debris.

"What are you-?"

"Shhh-"Rayla hissed quietly to Corvus.

Amaya and Gren threw similar surprised expressions, but there was no going back now; the knights in the hallway had surely heard her little commotion, and she could hear them talking to each other in hushed voices as their footsteps slowly approached.

"I hope you know what you're doing…" Corvus whispered.

If she was being honest with herself, she did, too.

Rayla desperately signaled Amaya and Gren. Gesturing rapidly, she pointed to a larger piece of rubble sitting just by the two, big enough to fill the entire palm of a hand, and made a throwing motion while pointing to her left.

Rayla didn't know exactly what room was there, but she knew it appeared to be some sizeable open hall with open entrances, which she had seen when they had first arrived. She just hoped Amaya and Gren could fill in the blanks.

Rayla and Corvus waited patiently on either side of the doorway as the knights drew in. They were hard to hear this time and rather slow-moving, obviously trying to be stealthy. But from where Rayla was, she could just barely see them slowly making their way closer.

She took several quiet, shaky breaths; from where she stood, Amaya and Gren were no longer in view, so she couldn't see what they were doing right now, making the tension and the doubts fill her mind.

Seconds ticked by, and she silently wished that the knights would move just a bit faster because she didn't know how much longer she could keep her breathing quiet.

The four knights soon crossed the entrance to Amaya and Gren's wing; with the doorway behind them, Rayla began pleading.

Anytime now….

Come on…

She was just about to close her eyes and brace herself for one hell of a confrontation before she saw a flash of gray out of the corner of her eyes. A large stone rocketed out of the distant wing, becoming a blur as it sailed across the hall. It disappeared from view just before she heard a largeCRASHbursting from somewhere just out of sight. The sound tore through the air violently as it reverberated throughout the entire space, immediately causing the four knights to spin around in shock.

Rayla breathed a sigh of relief as she watched the quartet look at each other, a few shaking their heads and shrugging their shoulders as if to say, "I don't know, wasn't me." She just knew that there were wide, aghast expressions behind those visors, and the thought of it almost made her chuckle, bringing back some much-needed humor into the tense situation.

They eventually began whispering, with words too faint for her to hear, but she could see them as they gestured to each other, the two in front pointing towards the room the rock had landed in before pointing back to the room Rayla and Corvus were in.

The two knights in the back nodded and began walking back, out of view.

They're splitting up… good.

Rayla grabbed Corvus' attention and held two fingers before pointing to the floor, mouthing "Two… Here" Corvus seemed to get the message, put a hand on his chain launcher, and nodded, a strong sense of determination flowing through him, a gesture which Rayla returned in kind.

It seemed Amaya and Gren had other plans; however. Just as the footsteps of the pair of knights were approaching the entrance, she heard the galloping of a moonstrider rapidly getting closer.

Rayla raised an eyebrow and briefly turned her head to look out the doorway just in time, to see the flash of Amaya's shield slam into the head of one of the knights. A hugeBANGrang out as metal collided with metal, the impact of the collision sending the knight flying into the room.

He hit the floor hard on his back, his head snapping backward from the force and impacting the floor harshly before he bounced slightly and then came to a sudden stop, unmoving.

The other knight tried in haste to spin around and pull out his spear but was quickly met with a swift kick to the stomach by Gren, destabilizing him and causing him to drop his weapon.

Smiling, Gren used the moment of instability to tear off the knight's helmet, revealing a male sunfire elf bearing long curly hair that ran down to his shoulders. He barely had a moment to react before Gren hit him with a swift and strong punch to the face.

The knight's body seized up momentarily before falling to the ground right in front of Gren as he held his wrist carefully, softly flexing his knuckles, nursing it from the pain of the impact.

Rayla only got the chance to smile briefly as Amaya and Gren stood before the room to greet their allies before the sound of a new, rapidly approaching pair of footsteps caught her ear—the sound of two knights emerging from the large hall, most definitely alerted by the commotion.

Right…Rayla sighed.They're still a problem.

The knight on the left hastily threw a spear as they approached; it whistled through the air, spinning as it flew with a perfectly straight trajectory right toward the back of Amaya's head. Reacting quickly, Rayla sprung into action, leaping at the general with full force and tackling her to the ground just in time for the spear to sail past.

Corvus immediately stepped in, launching his chain at the one who had thrown the spear. The knight barely ducked and weaved out of the way; however, using the moment Corvus needed to reload to charge at him.

Gren moved to intercept, but the second knight was already on the way to block him. However, before he could do so, Rayla had managed to rise from her little rescue maneuver and threw one of her swords. It fluttered as it spun through the air, hitting the unsuspecting knight in the side of the head.

He let out a quick groan of pain and stumbled, allowing Gren to intercept the first knight just in the nick of time. Gren initially charged with his sword, ready to attack, but a quick warning from Rayla about the heat of the spears had stopped that idea at the last moment. Instead, Gren opted to dodge the swinging spear to the side. The temporary distraction allowed Corvus to charge his weapon and fire again, hitting the target perfectly.

The knight flailed about as Corvus hit the reload trigger on the launcher, dragging the knight along with the chain as the gun hastily sucked it back in. Its chain unraveled around him, spinning the knight as it transferred its momentum, leaving him on the ground and dazed.

This allowed Amaya to join the action and finish him off with a quick smack of her shield, Gren and Rayla, in turn, took this time to finish off the other knight, finally rendering him unconscious.

After taking a breather from the conflict, the four smiled at each other. Rayla quickly wrapped Amaya into a hug, one that the rest of them quickly joined in.

"I'm so glad you're okay," Rayla said as she separated from the embrace, ensuring that Amaya could read her lips, but Gren still interpreted for safety's sake. Though Rayla had been trying to learn sign language to communicate more efficiently, progress was slow due to many factors over the two years, including a lack of a fifth finger, among many other things, and she only had the bare essentials down right now.

Amaya grinned snarkily and began to sign. "As if we wouldn't be," Gren interpreted for her.

"Did you guys manage to find another way out of here?" Corvus inquired.

"No… me and Amaya spent most of our time sleuthing through the wing you found us in…" Gren sighed. "It was quite small, only a few dozen rooms or so. We looked through it all, but we didn't find anything."

"No sign of Soren or Nyx either, I'm guessing…" Rayla sighed.

Amaya and Gren both shook their heads solemnly.

Rayla groaned… "Figures… well, let's get moving then… the sooner we get out of here, the better."

Rayla grabbed the harness of her moonstrider and began to make her way towards the large commons area; she took a quick peek at the massive entrance doors on the other end of the great hall, trying to peer through them as best as she could but due to her ill-adjusted eyes and the fact that the first floor still stood a decent height above ground level, considering the stairs they galloped up on their entry, she could only make out the whiteness of outdoor light as it flooded into the hall.

She knew, however, that even though she couldn't see much now, there were probably a multitude of knights out there, blocking the entrance, hidden in different locations so as not to be seen to intercept them if they tried to leave. She was just happy that due to the angle and lighting, they hadn't been seen.

The gang crossed the great hall without much issue and soon found themselves in the hallway opposite to where Rayla and Corvus had first gone, on the left side of the building. For all intents and purposes, it was an exact copy except for a decaying stairwell sat to their left, leading to an unseen second floor. There was no way Soren and Nyx could've gone up there, though, as the stairwell was too small and too steep to get the moonstrider up without a significant struggle. Plus, the thing didn't seem remarkably stable. One misstep and everything would come crashing down.

They had only made it a couple more steps before a series of high-pitched screams rang through the corridor.

"Sounds like Soren…" Corvus stated bluntly.

"Yup…" Rayla chuckled.

At that moment, a gray outline of a moonstrider blurred past them. On its back, laying down on his stomach, hanging on for dear life and nearly falling off, was a distressed and flailing crown guard trailed closely by a flying Nyx throwing a boomerang blade at something behind her. If Rayla were to judge by the boomerang's rebound, she apparently missed.

Rayla hardly had any time to ask, "Soren, wha-" before the pair ran through a door on the right, Soren just barely having adjusted his body on the mount in time to avoid becoming mush on entry. They were followed quickly by a pair of two golden armored knights, locked so heavily in pursuit that they didn't appear to even notice the gang standing there.

"Come on!" Rayla yelled out to everyone, gesturing towards the door.

Rayla and the others followed quickly behind and were greeted with a large open room. Their noses were filled with the same familiar stench they had been "blessed" with many times in this building. A large, seemingly random assortment of rotting, breaking wooden chunks, having been desks and tables before, were laid out across the area in front of them.

It was definitely an old classroom, but far larger than any of the ones they had seen before.

"OH HEY GUYS, HOW HAVE YOU BEEN?!" Soren yelled as he ripped a decaying table from the floor and smashed it as hard as he could over a knight's head. It tore apart on impact with a deafening crash, leaving the knight to fall over as the many splinters crumbled and fell around him.

Nyx, still in the air, attempted to throw a metal boomerang at the other knight but immediately gasped, clutching her torso tightly in pain. She fell to the ground as the blade left her hand, missing the knight and rebounding without her to catch it, landing somewhere on the floor behind the Skywing thief.

The stasia must be beginning to wear off…Rayla thought,Great…

Immediately, although she wasn't pleased about it, Rayla began moving to Nyx's aid, attempting to intercept the knight, who was now slowly approaching her as she struggled to get up.

Just then, a multitude of footsteps thundered into the room. Rayla spotted four more knights barging in behind them from the corner of her eye. The sight sent a slight tinge of fear through her body.

Oh no….

But she couldn't worry about that now; she had a job to do. The knight attacking Nyx did not see Rayla approaching and quickly fell over with a kick to the side, knocking off the knight's helmet. It revealed a male skywing elf seemingly in his thirties. Rayla promptly brushed off the shock that it wasn't just Sunfires under the armor and finished him off with a hard knock with the hilt of her sword to his head, sending him unconscious.

"That's two you owe me now…" Rayla said emotionlessly as she helped Nyx back up to her feet. Nyx looked up at her with a mix of astonishment, confusion, and…. Was that a hint of gratitude?

She couldn't tell because it faded away immediately as Nyx moved to retrieve her boomerang.

Catching a piercing hissing noise in her ear, Rayla looked up to see Amaya, a grit on her face with a glowing spear stabbed right into her shield, slowly sinking farther in as the knight pushed it deeper into the metal. Gren immediately moved to assist but was cut off by another knight who hit him with a firm kick to his side, momentarily knocking him off his balance.

Rayla immediately moved to help the situation but was forced to drop to the ground and roll under a nearby table to avoid a spear hurtling towards her. She was forced to let go of her swords in the process and could do nothing but watch as they clattered in the distance. The spear pierced the floor right next to her, the stone bubbling and sputtering as the tip sank into the ground, with tiny pieces leaping from the constraints of the stone and landing in a random assortment around the impact site.

Rayla felt a panic begin to build within her as she watched the golden boots of the knight pull closer and closer. She started to make an effort to roll out from under her table. However, the knight had already retrieved the spear from the ground and thrust it into the furnishing with an ear-shatteringCRASH. The wood around her immediately burst into flames as the construction split in two, with fiery chunks cascading down behind her, blocking her only small pieces and embers collided with her face and through force of habit she clasped her mouth shut with her hand to stop herself from yelping.

Distantly, she heard the ensuing screeches as the sudden explosion of fire frightened the nearby moonstrider, and the creature began running around the room in a panic. Rayla looked, afraid, at the knight towering over her as he prepared his spear for one final blow.

There was nothing she could do now.

Time slowed to a crawl as the sounds of the conflict roared around her; she closed her eyes tightly and let a single tear slip as she waited for the single shock of piercing pain followed by the embracing void.

I'm sorry, Ezran…

It never came, however, and the loud clang of metal on metal startled Rayla's eyes open just in time to see the knight in front of her fall to their knees and tip over on the floor with none other than Nyx standing behind them, holding one of her boomerang blades tightly up towards her shoulder as if she had just swung with all her might.

Rayla gazed at the skywing thief with astonishment as she shot back with a slight grin. "What was that about owing you two?"

"T-thank you…" Rayla said as she hurriedly got up and retrieved her swords, unable to believe that she was thanking Nyx of all people.

The sound of the launching chain immediately brought her back into the action as she caught sight of Corvus who was standing side by side with Soren. The two were engaging a knight who seemed to manage to dodge to the side of the incoming chain, throwing his spear in the process.

Soren and Corvus were able to duck out of the way, but the spear rammed into another rotting table just behind them. This time, it caught fire just as the panicked moonstrider flew past it. The flames latched onto the being's tail, sending it into a greater alarm as it galloped across the room more disorganized than before, shoving aside tables and chairs which burst into flames as they made contact.

Soon, the room became engulfed with a fiery glow. Rayla was finding it harder and harder to get her bearings as she tried to peer through the now-billowing smoke. The two other moonstriders were now backing up into the corners of the room, briefly springing up to their hind legs every now and then as the panic within them grew.

Amid the confusion, the knight delivered a firm kick into Corvus's chest, immediately snatching Soren's attention. The crown guard swooped in to protect the tracker as he struggled to get up, the injured leg making it difficult to get on his feet.

The fight was over fast as Soren, with his sword, made quick work of the knight who still lacked their spear. Soon after, Corvus was up too, and the two ran up to help Amaya and Gren with their situation, which did not seem to be going as smoothly.

"Someone's gotta go get that moonstrider under control," Rayla said after verifying that Soren and Corvus would be okay.

After a quick scan around the room, Rayla spotted the moonstrider running along the wall in the back corner, fire still trailing behind it. Rayla followed it with her eyes for a moment before ordering Nyx to help the rest of the gang. She then began cutting a straight line to the strider, leaping across the burning tables and feeling the heat building up through her soles each time her feet made contact, desperately hoping she was light-footed enough that the wood wouldn't snap under her weight.

Finally, however, she managed to reach the moonstrider and, not wasting any time, she leaped onto the back of the panicked being and held on for dear life as it initially tried to throw her off as a primal instinct. Rayla immediately snuffed the fire on its tail and began trying her best to get the beast to relax.

After a slight struggle, she regained control of the strider and immediately moved to regroup with the others.

Soren and Corvus had apparently not fully finished the job with the knight they were fighting, as he was still awake and, albeit shakily, moving to retrieve his spear. However, his plans were cut short as he was immediately trampled by the strider, knocking him out for good.

"Whoops, sorry!" Rayla chuckled as she looked at the carnage she had left behind.

In front of her, Corvus managed to launch his chain and wrap it around a knight still fighting Gren. In a spur of the moment, Rayla leaped off her moonstrider, catching the knight in mid-air as he was being yanked by Corvus' chain recall, and slammed him into the ground, finishing him off.

Corvus and Rayla looked at each other with astonishment about the fact that this had actually worked before looking towards Amaya, Nyx, and Soren, who, now having the three-on-one advantage, managed to finish off the final knight with relative ease.

Rayla smiled initially at seeing everyone okay but gasped in shock when she saw Amaya. Although she was smiling determinedly, a large river of blood was flowing from a gash in her forehead.

Amaya seemed to notice Rayla and the others' concern because she began signing, and Gren interpreted for her. "I'll be fine… I promise… it looks worse than it is. It just bleeds like a mother-" Gren hesitated momentarily before finishing, "-lover."

Rayla pulled everyone into an embrace. "I'm so relieved you're all okay."

"Awwww… I knew deep down I was so charming you couldn't help but like me," Nyx commented snarkily.

Rayla simply sighed, the relief of the situation too great to damper her mood right now.

"By the way, we found a way out!" Soren added.

Rayla took a step back. "You did?" additional relief swelling in her face.

"Yup! Just down this hallway, Virtually none of… those guys… there, we should be able to slip out with no issue. We had started looking for you before… well…"

"Well, what are we waiting for then?" Corvus said. "Lead the way!"

Everyone cautiously navigated their way through the still-burning furniture, delicately retrieving the two cowering striders that were still pinned against the wall. After a lot of snout pats and reassurance, the two striders finally began to calm down and the group was able to lead them towards the entryway.

"Let's get the hell out of this burning room," Soren said eagerly, stretching his right arm over his head.

They had all begun mounting their moonstriders before Rayla suddenly stopped, a thought growing inside her head.

"Wait!" she called out.

The others looked at her, confused.

"Let's take one of them with us," she said, gesturing to the knights.

"What?Why?"Corvus asked.

"Moonshadow over here wants us all to die in our sleep, I guess," Nyx sighed.

Rayla narrowed her eyes at her for a moment but sighed and said. "We've been wandering around here with no lead for days now… we're not going to find Ezran like this…"

At that, Rayla's face became more resolute as she stared down the unconscious bodies of their adversaries. "If they work for Sol Regem, they might know something."

"Oh, I see…" Soren said with confidence as he pounded his palm with his fist. "Good ol' make 'em talk routine." he chuckled evilly.

"Yeah… well… maybe actually give them achancefirst…" Rayla retorted. However, the hint of a smile was beginning to catch the corners of her lips as well.

Corvus sighed. "It will certainly be a risk… but… if it gets us closer to Ezran, I don't have anything against it."

Rayla briefly surveyed everybody else for a possible comment, but they all seemed in agreement. Soren was still evilly grinning while Amaya had her arms crossed. She looked earnest and nodded when Rayla looked her way. Gren had a mainly neutral expression, not seeming to know what to think but agreed nonetheless, while Nyx seemed to be going along with whatever would get them to leave the fastest.

Thus, the small party of five, with their new prisoner laid over the back of the saddle of the front moonstrider, slipped out of the building just as the golden rays of sunset began to flood their way into the city. Undetected, they snuck through street after street before disappearing into the shadows of the forest from which they had come.

---

Sol Regem took in a large breath of cool, dry, night-time desert air as he lay on his perch. His front two claws hung loosely over the edge as he listened carefully to the sounds of the arriving crowd. He breathed slowly, calmly, always observant. A familiar rhythm that helped keep him in a state of zen as the hour of his speech grew near.

Though he would never admit it to anyone, hewasa little nervous about what would come. In a few minutes, he would be telling his citizens the truth.

The truth about Azymondias.

Although he knew he couldn't keep the lie going much longer, and even though Azymondias' survival was irrelevant to Sol Regem's status as dragon king in the grand scheme of things, he wasn't sure how the Xadian public would take this. If they felt betrayed enough, and some still somehow believed in Azymondias, it might stir up conflict and confusion within Xadia, distracting them from what was truly important. And in a time as critical as this, there was no space for petty squanders such as that. Now more than ever, Xadia had to remain one united power if they were ever to extinguish the evils of humanity. It was why he didn't want this information to be public until now, and… truth be told, he still didn't.

There was no denying that the dragon's survival complicated his plans. But things would get much worse if he didn't say something now.

"Your Majesty," Irida said emotionlessly. "Everyone who could make it is here as requested."

Sol Regem let out a long, internalized breath.

It was time, then.

The large boulders and stones of his perch splintered and groaned, bearing the weight of the mighty dragon as he slowly rose from his lying position. The crowd below him seemed to notice and immediately hushed right on cue. Even the wind seemed to still as he stood up, the only sound remaining now being the breathing of the mighty creature as he paused and stood there momentarily, his gaze piercing into the crowd despite his lack of vision.

Finally, he took a deep breath and began. "Elves and Dragons of Xadia!" he bellowed in a commanding and mighty voice, which shook the air as it echoed through the desert. "I have called upon you today to share some most distressing news." The mighty dragon inhaled deeply once more. "Unfortunately, I have not been entirely honest with you in my previous statements."

The crowd remained silent, but an uneasy atmosphere began building ever so slightly. It was almost as if Sol Regem could hear their thoughts, emotions, confusion, interest, and anticipation of what came next.

"Ever since I rose to power, you have all been informed that I struck down King Azymondias… This… " Sol Regem sighed "...is false…"

Immediately, the tension broke, and a wave of murmurs erupted through the crowd, gradually increasing. In the back of the crowd, barely audible from where Sol Regem was standing, a couple of dragons had begun growling.

"SILLLEEENNNCCEE!" Sol Regem yelled.

Slowly, the wave of murmurs began to quiet themselves once more until nothing but the occasional whisper remained.

"While itistrue that I emerged victorious over Azymondias in a challenge to the throne, the fact of the matter remains… Azymondias is alive."

Sol Regem took a slight pause to gauge the crowd, but they were all still hushed into silence, so much so that, had Sol Regem not known they were there, he could've suspected he was alone.

"I know many of you must feel betrayed by this information, and yes, those feelings are valid. It is not an action that I have taken with pride…I only hope you will give me this chance to explain myself… Back when I first had defeated Azymondias… humanity had made Xadia… unstable.

"Azymondias had allowed humanity's grasp to slip into Xadia such that their lies and false promises had successfully deceived the masses. When The Knights of Sol Regem and I took control and began restoring Xadia to its former glory, we feared that if information about Azymondias' survival was released to the public prematurely, it could upset the delicate balance we have worked so hard to build. Those who were deceived, through no fault of their own, would begin to seek out the dragon or begin publicly opposing our values through misinformed and confused critiques that would only threaten to increase the instability we felt.

"It would turn us against each other, threaten to tear Xadia apart, and leave us vulnerable. The news would reach humanity, and they would use both this and our newfound vulnerability to their disgusting advantage and rise against the natural order!"

Suddenly, Sol Regem shifted from apologetic to confident and deeply threatening. "But now… now you know the truth. Throughout the short time I've been at the helm, I've shown you their lies, I've shown you their malpractices, I've shown you that, despite it all, despite all that we've done for them, despite all that Queen Zubeia and King Azymondias had tried, humanity has. Not. Changed. And never will.

"Their greed manifests inside human blood; the more you give, the more they take in an endless cycle that will never stop until they've consumed everyone and everything. I have unified Xadia and our beliefs under the one thing we all hold dear: our safety… And our security. I've protected you from their evil hands and will continue to do so, so that our magical lands may thrive and burst into a bright future, free from the dark forces of humanity."

Sol Regem took a moment to sigh.

"Elves and Dragons of Xadia, I give you this information today because two days ago, I received the most unfortunate news…we had discovered that five of our very own Knights had been slain just north of the storm spire."

Whispers began to build once more; they were subtle and quiet but just loud enough to be caught by Sol Regem's ears.

"The wounds discovered on these knights are consistent with those inflicted by a storm dragon… It is becoming increasingly likely that these five knights, our brothers and sisters, were brought down by Azymondias himself!"

Several gasps and sounds of shock and disgust rang out throughout the crowd.

"My heart goes out to the families of those fallen knights. Rest assured, their sacrifice will not be forgotten. You will be compensated, and you will receive justice…

"Due to this unfortunate turn of events, I have realized that our dear Azymondias is no longer just misguided, but a dangerous, rogue threat to our people and our wellbeing."

Strong energy was beginning to build itself in the audience, the power of emotion rising high and spiraling into a magnificent vortex that thundered through the desert, only getting stronger by the second, forcing Sol Regem to raise his voice above the shouting to ensure the crowd heard him.

He knew he had to end this now.

"It is because of this, with a heavy heart, I impose a bounty on the life of Azymondias. Anyone who manages to bring down this threat will be awarded a hefty sum of 3 million Xadian!"

The building vortex finally burst as a wave of mixed uproar, and cheers swept through the crowd like a tidal wave. A disorganized cacophony of chants, shouting, and cheering to a level that any one phrase or sentence was hard to make out.

"It brings me no joy to stoop to such an extreme course of action… but Azymondias has forced my hand. I willnotlet the likes ofanyonetear apart our empire.I will not put those we love at risk… rest assured, wewillemerge victorious. Wewillconquer this threat!"

Sol Regem stood tall above the crowd, spreading his wings as he finished. Although he couldn't see it, a wave of fists shot up through the crowd as they released one last "Hurrah!"

"Act with haste! It is imperative that the humans do not learn of Azymondias, such will only bring dire consequences to our people and our mission!"

Listening to the commotion, Sol Regem couldn't help but let his face slowly turn into a grin. The shouts and cheers for him filled him with a sense of euphoria that he had thought long lost to time. The sun was finally rising once more…

---

A searing fury built inside Zym's chest as he struggled to force step after step on his journey up a steep hill. The surrounding forest wasn't making it any easier; this side of the slope had been completely overgrown with tall, towering trees and roots that stuck out of the ground, threatening to trip him at any opportunity.

Usually, this sort of terrain wouldn't be an issue for a dragon such as him; it was only a steep hill, but his tired, broken body could only carry him so far on flat lands, and on an uphill streak like this where the summit seemed to drift farther and farther away from him as he ascended, he was really pushing it.

He was beginning to have second thoughts about climbing up this stupid thing in the first place when he could've tried going around, butnooooo, it would've added too much time to his journey. Plus, it was only a hill; what could be the issue?

How much Zym would've liked to slap his old self in the face. This wasn't better. And even worse, the sun had risen, beating down on him with the harsh rays that somehow managed to burn their way through the thick canopy.

There was no use in turning back now, though, and Zym knew it. So as much as he hated it, he just needed to tough it out.

And so he continued, slowly slithering forward until suddenly, a jarring pain seeped through his left front claw; shocked, Zym tried to step forward, but the foot had lost traction on something round and shot back behind him, ripping away the dragon's balance and causing him to fall flat on his stomach, lucky that this little fall didn't send him tumbling back down the hillside.

Zym pinched his eyelids together and let out a long, weak groan of pain as he heard the culprit, a loose pebble, gently roll beside him, bouncing its way down and past him before finally being caught by a bush out of sight.

Of course.

Zym slowly and heavily returned to his feet and erupted with a frustrated grunt as he commanded a step forward.

Finally, almost at the top, Zym was about to celebrate his victory when he felt something small and light smack into the side of his head.

"Ow!" He exclaimed involuntarily, his head snapping to his right.

His eyes caught the shape of a tiny stone sitting patiently beside him.

Another one?... But… How did it?:

That's when he saw it; peeking out from behind a row of trees and bushes, he saw a familiar mask lock eyes with him.

"You…" Zym exclaimed in a rather hushed tone.

However, before he could do anything else, the masked figure began extending their arm with a finger outstretched. It took Zym a moment to figure out what they were doing, but eventually, he realized…

They were pointing at something…

Following the direction of their finger, Zym didn't see anything at first, just a wall of shrubbery and trees blocking his view… but as he focused on it for a little while longer, he heard something that made his heart drop.

The sound of metal on rock, of leaves crunching… footsteps…armoredfootsteps.

Immediately, Zym sprang into action and dove into the vegetation behind which the masked figure had been hiding. Zym wanted to say something, but the two only got the chance to pass a glance as the footsteps began closing in.

Looking through the small holes in the shrub, Zym watched as three of Sol Regem's knights slowly, idly walked by up the hill, their armor occasionally flashing in the gaps of the trees. His heart racing, Zym tried to get down as low as possible to avoid being seen. He considered running for it, but that would only attract attention.

No, no no no….Why… WHYare they here?!

He held his breath as the small band of knights walked onward, just to the left of where he had just been mere seconds ago, and breathed a sigh of relief as they disappeared over the summit.

Zym turned to the masked person, who looked back at him without emotion. Typical enough for them, he supposed…

"Thank you," Zym mouthed without speaking.

He never thought he would be thanking the individual following him throughout the continent for what seemed like two weeks at this point… perhapslonger…

He mentally shuddered at the thought.

Still, they had helped him outtwicenow and never made any sort of aggression towards him, unless you counted that time Zym tried to rip their mask off… they didn't seem to like that.

They were undoubtedly a fascinating individual.

After giving it one or two more minutes to ensure the knights were well and truly gone, Zym finally poked his head out of the bush and stepped out into the open woods, the masked figure doing the same.

They momentarily acknowledged each other before Zym continued up the remaining small piece of the hill. He didn't even notice that the one in the mask was still following him. He was too preoccupied with his own thoughts at the moment.

What were those knightsdoinghere? Had he been tracked? He thought he had covered his tracks pretty well, but then again, that masked one found him, so maybe not-

However, his line of thinking was abruptly halted as he finally poked his head over the top of the hill. A cold sense of dread swept through his body, and suddenly, all his questions were answered.

In front of him, at the base of the hill, shimmering in the morning sun, was the gleaming city of Lux Aurea.