Drakos had paused not long after they had left, once more of his men appeared to take his load from him. They continued flying, to transport the young man's remains back to his family home, while Byzan and a dozen or so of his Royal Guards hovered mid air around him. Drakos had stopped to look back towards the forested vale they had just left watching the storm clouds and rain move over the forest. The clouds had not been on the horizon, he had not smelled the rain until it had started falling. The unnaturalness of it chilled him. Vayans had power, it was their main strength in battle, but this was different. They were all blasts of strength or spells and traps, this power smelled of the earth and sky itself.

The rain disappeared with the same unnatural precision, followed by four Vayan forms launching into the air, giving him pause as his eyes searched for the fifth. It took him a moment to realize the small body of the Princess was in the arms of one of the Vayan warriors. From the distance he couldn't distinguish them though he could only assume it was the Queens General, holding the woman. She was being carried or being pulled away from the forest, though the Princess' wings hung listlessly.

With a low growl, Drakos changed direction and started flying closer until he saw her own wings spread and accept her weight. He paused where he was then, realizing he had just about flown after the group with no logical reason. Drakos let out a slow breath and shook his head as he watched Princess Verana spread her beautifully coloured wings and fly north with her guard of her own volition.

That strange woman was fine, it would appear.

Though he pondered long and hard of what little he knew about the power limits of the Vayans, who kept that information tightly under wraps. And then there was the fact that the Princess wasn't completely Vayan. Sure, she had the wings that marked her an heir just as much as the Prince but she had those startling blue eyes, sharp teeth and pointed ears that he had never seen before.

He had fought against Vayan female warriors, who were as strong and fierce as their male comrades and the Princess was smaller than even the slight difference in Vayan sizes between the sexes.

Nor had he ever been greeted in the way she had greeted him, though Byzan had described the same greeting in his report upon returning from Vayana. These differences were not unexpected, Byzan had been quite thorough in his report on the Princess, it would seem.

"Regency?" Byzan had returned to his side, looking off into the northern direction, then back to him. His general and long time friend lifted a brow waiting for him to sort through his thoughts without pressure.

Drakos shook himself, turning to look at the other man and away from the mystery of their enemies. "That was the Queen's Sword, I recognize him from battle."

Rumour was, that that man had planned the assassination of Drakos' father all those years ago, though the assassin had not given much information before he had been executed. And since then, the man's tactics on the battlefield had frustrated most of Drakos' generals for centuries.

Byzan nodded, rolling his shoulders in a shrug. There was a thoughtful smirk on his lips as he murmured. "Father to the Crown Prince. Pharos. I saw him in Vayana, though he spent most of the time around the Princess when I was there. Conveniently keeping her as far away from court as possible, though I don't know if it was only for me. Word was that she was a new addition and she didn't seem to care much for the politics of the place. Didn't follow or know protocol."

"A curious situation we find ourselves in, don't you think?" Drakos looked at the other man, then nodded towards the north. "Why was the Cassaie afraid of her?"

"Simply put?" Byzan offered a thoughtful shrug, then nodded to the forest. "Probably the same reason they're afraid of our Forests. Because we protect them from the Humans and the little ones still live within them, perhaps they don't like the sprites. She looks like a sprite."

That was a surprise, and he glanced to his General curiously. "You've seen these mythical forest sprites you hunters always whisper about?"

"Aye." Byzan chuckled and shook his head. "In little bits and pieces. Not much, they disappear into the trees faster than you can keep up with. Good hunters, though they don't have weapons to speak of. I've been stalked by them for days, and only realized when I stepped out of line. They can hear and smell better than we can, I think."

Drakos frowned at him, glancing down to the trees below them. "You? You've never been out hunted."

"By another Rulin." Byzan shrugged again, then nodded north. "They have those eyes, those pointy ears, light build. But dark hair like us usually, usually smaller and lighter than her. But she didn't come from this side of the ocean."

"She's the one who was on the boat, so we can assume that the Vayans found her with the humans. On the island." Drakos turned to look west then, frowning about that. "She doesn't wear armour either. She has weapons, even if they're smaller than a child's training sword, but no armour."

"Aye." Byzan nodded thoughtfully, his gaze on Drakos, waiting for an order.

He had been ready to kill all four of those Vayan males and not merely because they had been Vayan, though that inspiration didn't hurt either. No, he had caught her scent and for a moment, the Vayans who had stepped in front of her had blocked his view and that had driven him to fury. He had not liked that there were enemies in between him and the odd Princess Veranandein.

One of them had held her back and at the time he had been angered by that and had nearly attacked. But now Drakos searched his brain for what she had been trying to do just before he and Byzan had appeared.

Then the idea came to him. "Do you think she could have... saved him?"

Byzan blinked, then looked back to him, "No."

"Your expert opinion as a healer?" He drawled darkly, pulling his gaze from his General. Byzan was his loyal right hand and most trusted friend, but he was also arrogant and sometimes far more opinionated than most Regents would have put up with. Drakos looked back towards the north, wondering when it would cease to pull him.Wondering if it was the north, or a person who was flying in that direction.

"No. But I read the situation. She didn't try to stop you. If she had thought she could save him, we all would have had a fight on our hands. And don't give me that arrogant look, Drakos, they were training her when I was there and I saw the bruises covering the Queen's sword before I left. I know how skilled he is in battle, I've seen him out fight good Rulin fighters. If she bruised him, then she is formidable as well." Byzan chuckled, then nodded back towards the mountains in the south. " I strongly believe that she would have tried, that she was going to try before they stopped her and we appeared. But the fact that she didn't try to stop you and her lack of surprise at what you did, both tell me that she knew he was not going to survive."

Drakos nodded carefully, taking that in.

When he didn't respond, Byzan murmured. "Regency. The darkness still moves, and we have a warrior to honour."

Drakos growled in response, turning with Byzan and flying into the night.