Ember's POV-

I wake up suddenly to the sound of a beep. I check my watch aka the hologram thing (which I'm now calling the Future FaceTimer) and see that someone is trying to call me. I click the button and Ari appears.

"Hey!" I say happily. "How you doing?"

"Not so good," she says seriously. "Aralynn stopped by."

"What?" I ask, confused. "Is she still there? Does that mean we can go back?"

"She left after talking with us," she says and looks over. She nods quickly and says, "She wants Aaron and me to find that spell. I have no idea where we can find it. And, there's something else."

"What is it?" I ask, concerned.

"Uh, you're mother is poisoned," Ari says quickly. "If we find the spell, she will be healed."

"What?" I ask. "What if you don't find the spell in time?"

"She will . . . die," Ari says, swallowing. "We have five days to find the spell."

"Only five days?" I almost shriek, but control my volume.

Jade steps next to Ari. "Ember, it's going to be okay," she says. "I know the library like the back of my hand. I'm sure I'll find it."

"Tell me when you find it," I say. "Please. And if you don't, tell me as well. I want to know if Mom died."

"Okay," they both say. "I'll find her and Kade and make them pay."

"Ember!" I hear Rafi yell.

"I gotta go," I tell them.

"Okay. Love you Em," Jade says.

"Love you too."

We both shut off the Future FaceTimer and I look out the door to where I heard Rafi's voice. I get up and walk to the blue room. He isn't in there so I go to the deck and I see the back of his black head. "What are you looking at?" I ask him.

"That," he says, pointing to the sky. I look up to see white dragon flying through the sky.

"What in the world?" I mutter. "I didn't know Didian had dragons."

"That's the problem," Rafi says, turning to face me. "They died off thousands of years ago."

"Really?" I ask. "Are we hallucinating or what?"

"Well if we both can see it, I don't think we're hallucinating," he says.

"I think I stashed some books from Mom's library in my backpack so let me go investigate," I say and run back down to my room. I pull out all the books and can't find the one I'm looking for. I must not have brought Magical Properties. I feel like I should remember something from it, some sort of property that has to do with dragons, but I can't.

I go back to Rafi and he says, "You find anything?"

I shake my head. I look up again and see that the dragon was gone. "Where'd it go?"

"Away." Rafi also looks up at the sky, squinting. "Oh well."

"I have to tell you something," I say, suddenly remembering the conversation I had with Ari and Jade. "Aralynn paid Ari and Mom a visit and poisoned Mom."

"What?" Rafi asks. "Why would she do that?"

"Because she wants this one spell to split her . . . I don't know, soul so Light and her can be split from each other," I explain. "Mom has five days and if Ari and Aaron don't find it by then, she's dead."

"Ember," Rafi says, "I'm sure they will find it quickly."

I nod slightly. "I just hope they do," I whisper. "Anyway, where are we? Are we even close to our destination?"

"Kinda," Rafi says, checking the built-in compass. "A couple more hours and we'll be there."

"What will we do once we get there?" I ask.

"Um, I have no idea," he says grinning. Even though a few butterflies race through my stomach, I frown instead.

"We need a plan, Rafi. We need to at least find Kade and bring him back to the castle," I tell him.

"I know," he says and sighs. "Okay, how about this: once we get there, we both go in and then separate to try and find him. If we do, use the--what do you call it?"

"Future FaceTimer."

"We use the Future FaceTimer to say if we found him or not," Rafi explains.

"That's the best we have," I say. He nods.

"Its the only plan we have as of now so it'll have to work," he says.

"Do we have any food I can eat?" I ask suddenly. "I'm starving."

He laughs and says, "Yes, we do. What do you want, m'lady?"

"Oh, what do you have, fine gentleman?" I say, going along with the joke.

"I have some tasty fruit tarts, some dried meat, some PopTarts," he says, rummaging through the box of food that we have.

"I'll take the . . . fruit tarts," I say. "Is there some strawberry ones?"

"Yeah," he says, taking a package out. He hands it to me and I open it up, taking the food out of the package. I quickly eat that and I walk over to look at the horizon. A sharp pain stabs my chest as I look at Cordania. The last time I was here, Shun was still alive.

I shake my head, dispersing the memories.

"I'll be in my room," I tell Rafi. "I have . . . some things to think about."

"Okay," he says and I walk back to my room. I click the button on my Future FaceTimer and Annie appears.

"Ember!" she says. "How are you?"

"Good," I say. "Did you leave Didian yet?"

"Yep."

"Well, Aralynn paid Ari a visit and poisoned Mom."

"What?" I nod. "How is she?"

"She will die in five days unless Ari and Aaron find the spell she so desperately wants."

"Oh my," she says softly. "Hopefully they find them."

I nod yet again. Damien pops up next to Annie. "Hey Em!" he says, waving. 

"Hi." 

He whispers something to Annie and she nods. "We have to go do something Ember. If you need anything, just call me on this thingy," Annie tells me. 

"Okay. Bye," I tell her. I end it and sit back on my bed.  
(:)(:)(:)
I walk back up to deck to see a table set for two. "What-"

"Hello, fair maiden," Rafi says. "I just prepared a special dinner for two."

"Really?" I ask, surprised. He hasn't shown any interest in me.

"Yes, of course," he says, grinning, which set butterflies flying in my stomach. "I made us some dried meat, fruit on the side, and chocolate  pudding for desert."

"How did you make those?" I ask.

"Oh, they were just in the box," he says sheepishly. Then, he pulls my chair out and I sit down in it. He sits down in front of me and we dig in. I start thinking back to Shun and I suddenly stand up.

"I-I can't do this," I say, surprising myself and Rafi. "I'm sorry."

I grab my food and sprint to my room. "Ember!" Rafi yells.

I break down crying in my room. Why does Shun always do this? Even after he is dead, he's always on my mind. Always. And he will never leave.

Rafi knocks on my door. "Come in," I say in a small whisper.

The door opens and in comes R-

Its not Rafi. I gasp because its Light.

"Hello Ember," she says pleasantly.

"How'd you get past Rafi?" I ask her

"Oh you know," she says, twirling a finger around her hair, "I used my powers of course. Gave him a little jolt to put him out for a bit."

"How are you here?" I ask.

"Oh, I put Aralynn away for a bit," she says like it is no big deal. "I have a poem for you," she says suddenly.

"Um, okay," I say, kind of confused.

"I have it written down and I want to talk first," she says.

I grab the knife on my plate and put it behind my back just in case she attacks me. "Okay?" I comes out more as a question than a statement but I didn't care.

"So, Aralynn wants to destroy you guys," she starts off nonchalantly. "Like, tear you guys apart, make you fight each other. I know what she wants to do to me. And you know what? I think that's the best because I've read somewhere that the only consequence of using that spell is that we have to stay near each other. That means I could always watch her and stop her."

"That's good."

"Yeah. And you know Zarika, the girl that came in the casket sent by my other half? Well, she has more to her than meets the eye; meaning that she has more information that what she gave our friends."

I nod. "I knew I should've interrogated her," I tell her. "Mom was so angry at me then."

"And there's more to Kade that no one knows," she says, ignoring my comment. "I don't even know it."

"Great," I mutter.

"Ooh, Rafi is waking up," she says. "I've got to go. Aralynn is wanting to come back too, so I better get as far away from here as possible."

"Thanks Light," I say, setting the knife down secretly. We both get up and hug each other. "Bye."

"Bye-Oh wait! I almost forgot to give you this!" She pulls out a piece of parchment and hands it to me. "You can read it anytime you like, by the way."

"Okay," I say, my eyes already skimming over the page. She leaves my room and I hear a moan. I put the paper down and head out into the hall to see Rafi on the floor. "Rafi." I gently shake him until his eyes open.

He suddenly jumps up, nearly smacking me in the process. "Where is she?" he says. "Where is Aralynn?"

"Calm down," I tell him. "It was Light who saw me. She gave me this."

I hand him the piece of paper and he looks at it. After reading it, he says, "This doesn't make sense."

"I haven't read it yet," I say, grabbing the poem. I read the poem aloud. "People could be in trouble
Or even grave danger

Didian can be lost
If a spell isn't found

Someone is missing
Though she might not be found

Two dangerous people
Are playing a game of
Hide and Seek

They might be in
The town called
Jivin

There are more to people
Than what you may see
These people include
Zarika and Kade

Figure all of this out
And you could save
Many people."

"See, it doesn't make sense," he says and I agree.

"Are we almost to the castle?" I ask, setting the poem down. He nods. I look at the poem again.

"Maybe she is tricking us," I tell him. "Maybe it was Aralynn all along."

"Or maybe it was just for fun," he says, smiling. We head back to the deck to find Scarlet's old castle underneath us. Rafi lowers the ship and we land. I grab my sword and he grabs his as well, and we head into the castle quietly.

"Thank goodness it isn't huge," I whisper.

"We have to split up," he says after a while. "If we want to find Kade, we have to split up."

"Okay," I say, my confidence building. "Its been a while since I've been in some action."

"See you back here in an hour?" he says and I nod. He took the left corridor and I take the right, following the twists and turns. I search quietly and find nothing. I go downstairs to the dungeons. I gasp as I see a dead body. I run to the body, and gasp once again.

Its Olliar. I hear a sound behind me and turn around with my sword raised. A mouse scampers by, unnerved by the pointy thing. I turn once more to peer at the dead body of Olliar and vow to put him to rest once the war is over. I head back upstairs and go to the dining room. Something clatters to the ground and I whip around. A rat comes scurrying out from under the table.

How many rats does this place have? And if someone lived here, why would rats be running around. Then, it dawns on me. Kade isn't here. Light was right. In her poem, it said that they might be in a town in Jivin, wherever that is. I run back to the front of the castle to see Rafi standing there.

"He's in Jivin!" we both say at the same time.

"When did you figure that out?" I ask.

"When I was looking around, I saw no sign of a person that lived here," he states.

"Same," I say. "I saw Olliar's dead body and many rats scurrying around and I thought why would someone live with rats and dead bodies everywhere."

"Okay," he says. "We have to go to Jivin."

"Obviously," I say. "Where is that though?"

"Back in Didian." I face palm and we rush back to the Zodiac. We wasted time coming here. Why didn't we believe the poem that Light wrote? Rafi raises the Zodiac into the air, sending us back to Didian.