*Sarah*

[Past]

"Fan! Are you here?" big brother yelled as we stood at the entrance of a small brick building. "We got someone who would like to stay."

"Ahh, Prince Qing-Yuan," a woman with gray hair said as she walked out of the kitchen with several kids in tow.

"Qing!" several of them yelled, rushing to hug my brother.

"Princess Sarah is here too," a little girl in a red dress said as she tackled me.

"Hey there Scarlet," I said, hugging the four-year-old tightly.

Fan glanced at Natania. "Hello dear, I take it that you're the one the prince spoke of?"

Natania who was hiding behind me nodded. "Y-yes. I want to stay here. I want to have a family again."

The wrinkly woman smiled. "No worries, dear. You can stay here. Though it can get rather rowdy at times."

"That's an understatement," a young man said as he carried a crying baby while multiple other kids followed him from behind.

"It's the princess and prince!" one of the new arrivals yelled.

"Several of the kids began to pull on my brother's arms.

"Let's go play!" one of them yelled.

"I've gotten better at dribbling the ball in my head!" another boy said.

"I would love to see, but right now I can't," Qing-Yuan said. "Sarah and I need to be at the palace."

"You can afford the time to play with them," a familiar voice called out. We looked up at the stairs and saw a woman descend down the stairs. Her wavy white hair bounced up and down as she walked down the stairs with a grace which would make many gawk with disbelief that she was raised in an orphanage.

"Mom," I said.

"What are you doing here?" Qing asked.

"I decided to pay the kids a visit of course. I was helping my brother and sister out."

The young man from before laughed. "I'm honored that you still consider us your siblings."

"Of course I do, Neil. Like I told you on my wedding day, you'll always be my adorable little brother," she said, patting him on the head.

"All these kids are orphans?" Nia asked.

"Yeah. Most of them are the children of parents who fell victim to the Haki epidemic," brother said, eyes cast to the ground.

"Haki? I've heard that name before..." Nia said, tilting her head.

"It's a drug," Fan said, closing her eyes. "A horrible one. It's awfully addictive. The more one takes it, the less they can breathe. At the end their lungs collapse in on themselves... It's already destroyed numerous lives in both Sera and neighboring Sefa. There have been over seventy-thousand deaths in Sera in each of the last two years alone."

"Each?" Nia asked. "So that means that..."

"Yeah, over one-hundred-and-forty-thousand people have perished in the last two years alone," brother said.

"Seemed many wanted to numb the pain of life away," mother said, sighing. "Ironically their death were anything but painless..."

Nia frowned. "That's... so sad."

"Dad is trying to stop it by raising awareness, but thus far he's only been able to keep the numbers from growing," Qing said. "Haki... it's destroying our society..."

My new friend stared at all the countless kids. None of them had asked a single question during our explanation. They didn't have to, they had seen firsthand what it did to a person.

"W-what happens if no one can stop it?"

"It could lead to the collapse of society. The same drug which now plagues us lead to the decline of the Minan Empire which at the time stretched well into what are now Kyuu Seishinian lands. Thought it appears many have forgotten about those times," Fan said, shaking her head.

"Sadly, Sera might not have long. It's already been weakened by the wars of my generation," Fan continued. "We who are to protect the young have only burdened you with the luggage of our misguided actions. We sought greatness, but in the end, we might get the exact opposite."

"I wonder... if my mom might've been an addict too," Nia said, keeping her head down.

"Perhaps. The epidemic has been simmering in the shadows for the past decade now. Many didn't pay attention it, or rather didn't choose to. There was a lot of money involved, and there still is."

"I think it's best that we stop talking about this," Mommy said, staring at the kids who had their heads head down. Only the babies continued to make sound.

"Yeah," Neil said, gently rocking an infant.

"Uh, how about we go play?" Qing asked.

The kids looked up and smiled. They erupted into a thunderous roar and dragged him away.

Qing smiled at the kids. Usually he wouldn't let them shove him like they were, but he had chosen to make an exception this time.

"Nia?" I said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Want to go play with your new siblings?"

Nia smiled.

"Come play," said some of the kids who had stayed behind them.

"We can play dress up!" Scarlet said, grabbing a hold of Nia's hand. "Miss Shui bought us new dresses!"

"Dress up? But I'll dirty them."

"There's a shower upstairs. Sarah, mind helping her out?" Mom said.

"Not at all," I said, smiling. I grabbed Nia's free hand. "I'll show you to the shower. Hmm, have you ever used one before?"

"No. I've only bathed in a river. The only kind of shower I know is a rain shower. Wait, are you going to make it rain? If so I rather bathe in a river. I don't like being pelted by heavy rain."

"No silly!" Scarlet said, giggling. "A shower gently rains water down. So you don't have to worry about heavy rain."

"Well, it's not rain to begin with," I said, chuckling.

"It's not?" Nia asked. "Then where does the water come from?"

"I..." I stared at mom. "Where does it come from?"

"I'll tell you later," she said, snickering.

"Okay!" I said.

"Come Nia, we'll make you look pretty!" Scarlet said.

"Pretty?" Nia asked, black eyes glistening. "I want to look pretty!"

"You will soon!" I said, grinning.

***

Mom's eyes widened as I descended the stairs.

"Sarah, you're all wet. What happened?" Mommy asked, standing up from the sofa. She was watching an educational kid show with the toddlers.

"Teaching Nia how to use the shower took more work than I expected," I said, shaking my head to dry my hair.

Mommy snickered. "I see."

I narrowed my eyes at her. "it is not funny, mom."

She placed a hand over my hand and drew the water toward her until there was a large blob of water the size of a basketball in her hand.

"There, all dry," she said, smiling. She evaporated the water into the air. "Now, where are Scarlet and Nia?"

"We're here!" a drenched Scarlet yelled as she poked her head out from the corner. She turned around. "Go on Nia."

"Alright... Here goes," Nia said. She appeared out of the corner and walked down the stairs. She wore a black gown which reminded me of the kind that princesses wore in the cartoons I watched with Mommy as a kid.

"Wow, Sarah, Scar, you did a great job! Nia is unrecognizable!" Mom said, smiling.

"She's pretty," one of the toddlers said as he walked on over.

"She is!" a little girl said.

"She looks more like a princess than the princess!" another boy said.

I felt insulted by that last one...

"Do I really?" Nia asked, blushing.

"You do look nice," I said, smiling. I turned to Mommy and pulled her aside. "Hey, Mommy, can we adopt Nia?"

Mom's smiled vanished. "Honey, you know that's not possible," she said.

"Why not?" I asked.

"The nobles wouldn't allow it... Your father and I have tried to adopt some of the kids in the past, but the nobles stonewalled the process. They said that it was bad enough that your father married an orphan..."

I clenched my tiny hands into tight fists. "What? How dare they look down on Mom! Mommy might be an orphan but she's the best person in the world! And why must we listen to those jerks?"

Mom sighed. "I wish we didn't, but given the situation at the moment... we can't risk losing their support. Your brother and you will eventually learn for yourselves that the monarch in this nation doesn't stand by themselves. It takes a group effort to keep the monarchy stable."

"Why? I don't understand why we can't stand on our own."

She sighed. "A monarchy needs its supporters. Many monarchs have fallen in the past by failing to keep a balance between the pleasing the public and the nobility."

"I sort of understand pleasing the public, but why the nobility? They're well off and have their own estates."

"True, but they wield incredible influence. Influence which they could easily turn as a weapon against the king rather than for him."

I furrowed my brow.

"You can still visit her though, dear," Mom said, poking me on the nose. "I'm sure she would love your company."

I smiled. "Okay!"

***

['Present']

If only we could've adopted Nia... then perhaps things would've turned out differently...

It seemed that even in those days the monarch was but a puppet. Though perhaps that was all a monarch could ever be without transforming into a dictator...

"You okay?" a voice called out. I turned around and saw Xue and Nyima.

"Why are you here by yourself?" Nyima asked, taking a seat next to me.

"I wanted some time to think," I said, staring at the waves.

"The tournament is about to start soon," Xue said, holding the hilt of her sword. "I'm off to meet up with Moon and the guys."

I pushed myself up. "Yeah, I better go check up on the twins. Hopefully they've managed to win some medals."

Nyima laughed.

"Is something the matter?" Xue asked.

"It's just... suddenly a sensation of nervousness is washing over me," she said, holding a hand against her chest. "It feels as if it wants to wash me away."

"You need to have confidence like Marina said," I said, holding my hand out to her. "The same goes for Xue and me."

Xue nodded. "Yeah. We can't let nervousness drag us down now. Not after coming this far."

Nyima smiled slightly as she stood up. "Thanks you two."

"Hopefully we'll be able to meet in one of the next rounds," I said.

"I would like that. That way I can have a formal one on one match with you."

I snickered. "I'll be more cautious about your tricks this time."

The three of us headed toward the door, ready to confront the battles ahead. Though none of us knew just how much of a challenge they would truly be...

**Solar Note: Hope that you enjoyed the chapter :). Thoughts? Predictions?**