They counted the hours since the attack. They counted the number of people who had been lost and separated from their small banded group. They counted how long Kenta might have before his beaten body would finally give way underneath the rubble.

His breathing was slow, but he inhaled deep gulps like he wasn't sure which one would be his last. He gagged several times, like he was close to vomiting, but nothing ejected from his brutalized body. Part of him wanted something to discharge - then he'd at least have a reason for appearing so weak.

Calcifer sat calm atop the piling ashes, his fiery arms crossed over each other as his anxiety coursed through his being. They had been in hard times before, and nearly each time fought their way out. Giving up would allow Suliman an easy victory, so it was never an option.

But seeing Kenta in this state, watching him gasp for each breath and not having the ability to help - it reminded him of Gwenda's kidnapping all over again.

A rumble in the sky shocked the three souls. Rain clouds - just Calcifer's luck. It seemed far off, but they weren't any closer to freeing Kenta than they were a day ago.

Had it really been a whole day? Calcifer thought to himself. There wasn't much to do to pass the time as the day rolled into night. Talking helped keep Kenta's mind off of his current situation, but the pressure atop him made it excruciating to continue lengthy conversations. And with Markl's foggy memories of magic, there wasn't much to do but watch the poor boy wrestle with his mind over what he should have already known.

"Think, Markl, think." He lightly punched his head, badgering his mind to jog back to his old self. It was as if a part of him had dissolved, half of his personality dwindling like dandelions in the wind. He felt incomplete and useless.

The movement of his hands as he attempted spells seemed inappropriate. Kenta tried repeating spells to him, but just saying the words wasn't enough. Markl needed the motions to fall exactly into place in order to fully enact the spells. With no recollection of his novice abilities, Kenta was simply waiting for his death sentence.

"You're going to hurt yourself, Markl." Kenta said with exhaustion. Markl peered up to him, his eyes glistening from Calcifer's flames. Kenta's shone as well, though the soul of his gaze was forlorn. "Maybe take a break and try again when you feel like it."

"But I want to help." Markl said, his little fists shaking in front of himself. "I want to get you out of there."

Kenta nodded. "I know you do. But pushing your mind isn't going to do anything but make it harder for you to remember."

Markl attempted a rebuttal until Calcifer interceded. "You've been at this for hours. Please, Markl. You need rest."

Calcifer worried for the boy; he was already showing signs of sleep deprivation, even after his unconscious period. His eyes drooped like small weights bore them down. He was wearing himself out - something to which Howl was often a victim.

Like master, like apprentice.

Since the beginning of Markl's apprenticeship, he had always pushed himself to be the best. Howl taught him a spell and Markl chanted it ten times over until he got it perfect. Calcifer sometimes saw him sneak downstairs late at night - especially when Howl was away - reading through spell books to get ahead of their lessons. Seeing how powerful of a master he had made Markl even more determined to be exactly like him.

Markl finally submitted to his exhaustion. His wobbling legs bent and he dropped to the ground in a depleted state, his eyes immediately shutting. He may not have fallen asleep right away, but at the very least he was resting.

"He's a good kid." Calcifer turned to Kenta, his eyes closed but his mind still conscious. "His perseverance in wanting to help people is truly extraordinary."

"He is." Calcifer said. "He has a big heart."

Kenta nodded. He tightened his muscles and pushed up on the weight, though it made little difference. He had the strength to fight this, but he knew that internal, personal strength was not enough. Without the use of his physical strength and magic, he was helpless. He felt like a part of himself was withheld, just barely out of arm's reach - so torturously close.

"Here." Kenta dragged his eyes to Calcifer. The fire demon stretched his arms out and grabbed the smaller bits of wood. He added them to the pile of ashes below, livening his own being. A fair trade, Kenta thought. Calcifer's own life support had slipped his mind.

Which made him curious of another thought. "Why don't you leave?"

Calcifer crinkled his fiery eyebrows. "Leave?"

"You can teleport yourself out of here. Why do you stay?"

Calcifer breathed a laugh. "Where would I go? I could teleport to another fireplace but that's about it. I'd rather grow arms and legs and help you two out of this mess."

Kenta smirked. "You think you'll grow arms and legs if you stay?"

"It's no different if I leave."

There was a long pause. It was either speak or stay silent. Sometimes they had a lot to discuss; and sometimes there was nothing to talk about at all.

Calcifer's eyes told his story like an open book. Kenta observed how much he felt cheated or restrained from the full potential of life. He had amazing powers, much more prodigious than any demon Kenta had ever encountered. Calcifer could have another thousand years to live - and in his eyes, all he wanted was the ticking clock of a human life.

Kenta cleared his throat. "Do you mind me asking when this... when you started thinking this way?"

Calcifer turned to him, Kenta's eyebrows raised, a sly smirk on his face. His fire blossomed a rosy red. "If you're thinking it's because of Gwenda, then you're a little mistaken."

Kenta laughed, though the weight above him made even the smallest laughter hurt. "It would definitely be convenient, wouldn't it?"

Calcifer rolled his eyes, stopping them when the Palace was in sight. Very far, but the faint outlines of the tallest towers and flags blowing in the wind were very much noticeable. "I've been wanting this for a really long time. Before Gwenda, before Sophie, even before Markl came along. It just took all that's happened in the last year for me to understand the actual misfortune of not being a real person."

"Calcifer, how can you say that you're not a real person?" Kenta said. "You're as real-"

"I've heard that before." Calcifer interrupted. "I'm as real as you and any other human. But that's just something humans say to either make me feel better or stop complaining. Maybe a little bit of both. I'm a very obnoxious complainer."

"So I've noticed." Kenta joked. "What really changed then?"

Calcifer slumped in the broken fireplace, his flames low. "When Sophie became pregnant. Everyone was so eager to hold her stomach and feel the baby kicking. They looked so excited and happy. I knew that if I touched her, my flames would burn her and hurt the baby. I'm nothing but a creature of destruction."

"I know you understand your own strength. I've seen you do quite amazing things."

Calcifer shook his head. "Moving a castle is nothing. Any demon can do that. Any wizard can do that."

"But you share a connection to this castle." Kenta dropped his eyes. "Or did, I guess. When I was moving the castle in your place, I felt like a foreigner. This castle knows you as his guide. He trusts you."

Calcifer frowned. "And look what happened to him. He's as broken as the day we found him in that wretched junkyard."

Calcifer had a habit of beating himself down, that was evident of his personality. For him, it was easy to find his flaws or misfortunes - which made his feelings toward Gwenda hurt even more. If he saw these many flaws in himself, who knew how many flaws she saw.

Kenta searched the rubble for the right words to say. Trying to brighten a fire demon's spirits was not as easy as he pictured. And Calcifer was not easy to cheer up from his character alone. "Being in human form is really not all that it's cracked up to be. There are endless restrictions and necessities in order to just survive - food, water, sleep. And death is not as far away as we like to pretend it is. You could live for eternity as a demon."

Calcifer glanced over with slight annoyance. "You want to talk about restrictions and necessities?"

"Sorry," Kenta said, his cheeks red with embarrassment. "I was just trying to make you feel better."

"I know." Calcifer smiled, though it was short-lived. His flames intensified as another thought crossed his mind. "You know your feelings for Lona, right?"

Kenta nodded. "Of course. I love her more than anyone in the world."

Calcifer kept his eyes forward on the swaying flags at the Kingsbury Palace. "Imagine watching her be taken by someone while you can't even move your own body. All you can do is sit and wait for someone else to be the hero."

It was instinctual. After years of separation, Gwenda finally was able to embrace her sister. She held on as if she would fall through the cracks in the floor. Her heart melted when she felt Lona's arms wrap around her. Something about their last conversation - the yelling, the accusations, and Gwenda storming out - made Lona's sisterly affection toward her much more heartwarming.

"Lona, I can't believe you're here," Gwenda said, her voice trembling. "Where have you been? It's like you just vanished and-"

"Gwenda." Lona interrupted. Her hair was ratty with a number of knots, nothing short of what Gwenda felt in her own long strands. The torn dress she wore was eerily familiar, though it was her fierce eyes that always shook Gwenda to her core. "I'm so sorry."

Gwenda creased her eyebrows. "Sorry? I'm the one who should be sorry. I pushed you away all because I didn't approve of your boyfriend."

"Gwenda?" The sisters turned to the prison cage next to theirs. Another pair of familiar women - rather two friends of hers. Beth and Mari, her fellow coworkers when she had been employed by the Royal Family, stood shaking in the cold, solemn prison. Last time she saw them, she had left her post in the kitchen to attend Sophie in her preparations for the wedding. Although, why they would be imprisoned by the Royal Sorceress was beyond her.

"What are you two doing here?" Gwenda rushed to the bars that separated the prison cells. There were two lines of prisons, about twenty cells total. Each cell contained roughly two to four prisoners. Her friends shivered close to each other, careful to keep the warmth between themselves. It was a frigid tundra, the metal bars icy to the touch and the concrete as biting as black ice. Leave it to Suliman to create an underground arctic of a prison.

And her friends were not faring well.

"Madame Suliman has gone mad." Beth said, her teeth chattering.

Gwenda scoffed. "Well, that's nothing new."

"She's losing it." Mari said, to this Gwenda became more intrigued. "She's losing trust in the people in her own court. Then, she put us in here because we were close to you, even though we had no idea you had gone off with Wizard Howl Pendragon."

Gwenda sighed. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you." She turned back to Lona, her sister listening close by. "I'm sorry about everything. I know I caused a lot of harm to all of you."

"We'd be in here either way," Lona reassured her. "Whether we were associated with you or Howl or even Kenta..."

Gwenda widened her eyes. "Kenta!" She rushed to her sister and grabbed her hands tightly. "We have to find him, he's been looking for you."

Lona nodded. "I know." Gwenda blinked rapidly, though Lona expected her confusion. "I helped him escape from Madame Suliman. I was the dove who sent his note to Howl, but I haven't seen him since they reunited."

"That was you?" Gwenda asked, her eyes wide. "You were the dove?" It had seemed odd that Suliman would request her lackeys to capture a flight of doves, but Lona was one of them. She had been with her in her former prison. If only she had known that beautiful dove was her sister.

Lona looked at the hazy window, but nothing was in sight behind the sealed glass. "I wish I knew he was okay."

"He is." Gwenda said. Lona glared at her sister with a hopeful gaze. "He's with Howl and Sophie and the others. They're in his castle right now; we've been looking all over the country trying to find you."

Lona covered her mouth, her eyes glistening with tears. "You... you've seen him? How is he? Is he safe?" Her eyebrows crinkled as a sudden realization set in. "When did you two start getting along?"

Gwenda laughed. How strange it seemed that not long ago they had been devoted enemies. Somehow, their search for Lona was the one thing they needed to get over their differences. Especially when he was injured, she knew she couldn't just leave him. She truly wanted Kenta and Lona to be reunited.

"I know how weird that sounds," Gwenda said. "I don't blame you for thinking that. I definitely didn't give him any credit when you two were together."

Lona frowned. Her mind relived the moments when Kenta and Gwenda argued incessantly over the pettiest of things. Both of them were too stubborn to quit, and it wasn't until Lona stepped in that they would stop their bickering. When he wasn't around, Gwenda would slip in some crude comments about him, although Lona was well aware of her motives. She knew they couldn't be around each other for much longer, yet she couldn't help her feelings for him, either. She eventually needed to make a choice.

Lona opened her mouth to speak, but Gwenda stopped her, sharing a genuine smile. "He really is a wonderful wizard."

"Wizard?" A hoarse voice came from one of the far-off cells. An elderly man grasped the bars with wrinkled fingers, his eyes narrowed at the sisters. "Where? They're the reason why we're stuck down here."

Gwenda shook her head. "No. That cruel sorceress and the Royal Family are the reason why we're here. The magicians are not at fault."

"We're only imprisoned here because of our relationship with them." A woman said from another cell. "Brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, even parents. Madame Suliman took us right after they agreed to fight in her war."

"That's not true..." Gwenda turned to Lona, her wandering eyes floating to the ground. She caught her sister's gaze, slowly nodded in agreement with the woman.

"The Witch of the Wastes turned me into a dove," she said, "It was the same day Kenta left to report to the Palace."

Gwenda felt the chills quivering up her neck. The clothes on her back were not enough to keep the freezing air away, or maybe it was this new information that someone close to her was responsible for imprisoning innocent people simply based on association. She knew the Witch of the Wastes was a cruel woman before, but she didn't think she was cruel enough to work for Suliman.

Gwenda shook her head. "The Witch of the Wastes is not the same person. She's changed; I've seen it. And so have all the other magicians." Gwenda scanned her eyes over all the imprisoned humans, noting their frightened stares and shivering bodies. They were unresponsive to her pleas.

She held tight fists by her side. "The magicians in your family - they've all been brainwashed to do the things they're doing. Suliman has taken control of their abilities and she's using them for her own selfish purposes. Trust me when I say that they are still good inside."

"Maybe." The elderly man said. "But I'm not willing to take that risk. They're all destructive creatures. That's what I've seen and that's what I know."

Many heads nodded, more than those who agreed with Gwenda. All the trust from before completely vanished the day Suliman had every element of success in the palm of her hand. Even knowing that their actions were not a result of their own doing, the imprisoned humans were completely against helping the magicians.