They rode through The Silver Valley, the place was nothing but clouds of ash, burnt ground and tainted waters. She couldn't help but feel emotional, keeping her hood up as she rode through. The valley was eerily silent, as silent as a graveyard, as silent as a grave. She didn't like the place, it was cold and dark and grey almost everywhere she looked. There were no people, bones everywhere, some that glowed as she rode past, confirming what she feared. This was where her people met their deaths, where they were executed by fearful kings.

She stopped the horse, climbing off as she knelt down, crying over what could have been the bodies of her ancestors, the skeletal head stuck in the soil. She stroked it, crying as it glowed. She shook her head violently as she asked "how can people be so heartless?"

"Because fear makes people do all kinds of things. Athelisa, we have to move" Erneis warned as he spotted something in the distance, someone on horseback, riding towards them on a large chestnut horse.

Athelisa climbed back onto her horse as they galloped into more hidden lands, watching not one but many soldiers racing past. There had to be something going on, something that got them so spooked. He had never before seen a small army riding across the ruins, ruins many avoided, in case of angry spirits, spirits that enjoyed the possibility of luring them to their deaths.

The place was filled with hatred, evil. All Athelisa worried about was the soldiers. Had they seen the glowing of the bones, did they know or suspect there was another Dragon Spirit out there? Did they believe such a thing was possible after centuries? Centuries ago, they were butchered, beheaded or killed in a battle, centuries ago; they were lost to the powers of fear and hatred.

"Look at them, they were not even shown respect, no one even bothered to bury them properly. They were just left where they died, left to rot like common criminals. No one deserves that, not even criminals deserve that!" 

"I understand you are angry, I can understand why but now is not the time, Athelisa. We need to keep you alive; I need to keep you alive and safe. If you want to, I can help you take back this place but we need people on our side"

"People will see my side once they know of my return, why then should I wait until those moments?" she snapped as her horse raced on.

Erneis galloped on after as she rode through, into the city, riding through the city gate quietly. Evithas, the large city stood tall with cracks, crumbling pillars of white and silver, men and women trembling with fear at the sight of the master's whip. It was a place of silence, evil whispers in the winds as tears streamed from her eyes uncontrollably. She had lost enough without losing the one thing she was clinging onto, hope. These people deserved to see better days, to fight with all their strength but the looks on their faces... pure fear, fright in their eyes as if they knew no other life. She wanted to raise her sword to their 'master' and cut his throat, freeing all the people but even then, they would know no other life.

"What is it?" Erneis asked as he rode, his horse and hers stood side by side.

"All these people... slaves. They should not be slaves; they should be free from slavery" Athelisa whispered as she past them.

"My lady, I beg you not to make such comments, not when certain men have ears. You could be hung for such remarks" Erneis warned as his horse stopped at an inn. "We have to stay here and we have to keep your tongue back, you cannot let it lash at every man, woman and child keeping slaves"

"I can when I get the backing I need, I will. These people were once family and friends, I will not leave them to die slaves, die like dogs working for masters"

"They are not your people yet and if you keep talking as you are, they shall never be your people, you will instead be hung by the neck or beheaded, the last of them to be killed. Then where will you be? Then what will happen to Charlotta's line? Nothing good can ever come from war, stop fighting one"

"If this is a war, it is because they have declared it. I have done nothing of the sort, merely retaliated. My father's death, it was easily prevented; I imagine those bandits were not using their weapon merely because it was an easy option. If it is as the king said, a weapon so rare, why then would they have it?"

"That is not our concern right now. Cast aside all notions of vengeance, it will do you no good" Erneis warned.

"I want to see the place they were slaughtered" Athelisa warned, her words like her tongue, rough and harsh. 

"Later" Erneis replied in defeat. He couldn't stop her, he just couldn't but he'd sworn he'd protect her.

They rented a room, a twin bed for them to rest their head on. Sleeping in the forest had most certainly taken its toll on Athelisa, on her temper too. She had the temper of a dragon, a large scaled beast that could easily breathe fire without warning. She wanted to see what life had done to her people, what had become of them. She could very well be the last of her kind, the last of her kin to ever have survived the war somehow. Her great mother, she must have been young, brave much like her child. The battle went on, bloodlines smeared, hidden or lost. Some deliberately hidden from view to protect them and if one of the kings or kingdoms got news of a living line, their forces would seek it out and kill it, no questions asked, no statements given. Another dead line to extinct a once mighty race.

They woke up early, she wore her long black cloak, walking through the dusty winds, down the long path towards the one place she hated and oddly felt she could name 'home' but why did this place, a place she had never been to, look so familiar? As if an old feeling was stirring within her soul.

"Do you feel it?" Erneis asked as she approached, her hood up as she knelt down, touching the untouched bones of her people.

"The fear, the hatred, the bloodiness of the battle, yes I feel it, I feel all of it. I can feel it as if it were me, happening to me. I can feel my soul being... torn out as their lives were ripped out mercilessly by men who feared them and their gifts. They were strong, strong men, women and children who gave their lives for nothing"

"Not all of them died" Erneis whispered as he bowed respectfully.

"Do you know what it feels like to hear the screams of your kin? Do you know what it is like to feel their sweat, blood and their tears as they cling onto hope and onto life? I know. I can feel it, as I stand here, close to my kin, I can hear their cries, feel their tears as hope was cruelly ripped from them. I do not sense a race that lived without fear; I sense one that died in a river of fear"

"One of them at least must have survived. You cannot carry on a bloodline if all that were in it, have met their end"

"Obviously not but is it wrong for me to feel... hatred? They took my family from me; my ancestors here were slaughtered in one bloody battle"

"Several, over several years" Erneis corrected.

"That is no better, if anything, it is worse. To think they lived in fear or lived locked up and for what? What reason other than small-mindedness and fear?"

"Because men and women voted, the kings and queens voted" Erneis admitted with a heavy heart as he looked down at the ground, kneeling out of respect for those who had died, for those who had given their lives fighting and those who were lost to the fight through no fault of their own, it was a cruel way to die, a sickening way to die and Erneis could see the pain on Athelisa's delicate face, the pain nipping at her heels, reminding her of her pain and calling her to fulfil her hidden birth right.

He stood up, drawing his blade as the wind stirred, howled. He stood tall, watching the winds carefully as a face emerged from the winds.

"Who is that?" Athelisa asked as Erneis pulled her behind him.

"I do not know" he replied softly as the winds howled.