Morning came, and again, Gemma was woken up by Keylla's noises. The thief was muttering to himself across the small room seated in the chair, seemingly frustrated with the dark gray bandana he was retying around his left wrist. Apparently, it did not want to cooperate with the knot he was trying to tie.

"Damned Kingy woke me up this early…" the knot finally came together. And it seemed that she was not frustrated with the knot so much as she was with Roni. When did the king come in?

Keylla glanced over at Gemma, "Morning Gem, sorry if I woke you up." She leaned down to grab her boots and yanked them on roughly, "His royal highness wants us to meet with him in Aaron's study." Keylla said this with a mocking accent, trying to mimic Roni. Gemma let out a giggle, to which Locke grinned while lacing up his boots.

"Alright, are we going to have breakfast first though?" Gemma asked, pushing back the blankets, and raising her arms high to try to stretch out her tight muscles. She supposed she was tensing up a lot lately…

"Nope, the jerk says he'll have tea waiting for you, but apparently this is 'important,'" Keylla scowled down at her feet. "I don't get why it couldn't wait a bit, but oh no, they gotta talk now."

"What time is it?" Gemma asked, moving to the edge of the bed, and reached for her boots under the table across from her. The room was so small that she was able to grab them easily. She had not noticed the night before how tiny the room was! She must have been more tired than she remembered.

"It's five-thirty! I thought we would be able to get a few more hours of sleep in," she huffed, folding his arms. "I'm going to need more than my normal three cups of coffee if I'm gonna be able to be useful at all today."

Gemma stood up carefully to avoid knocking over the candle placed on the shelf carved out of the rock wall above the bed. She ran her fingers through her hair, and they got caught in a few snarls. Maybe after talking with Roni and Aaron, she could take a bath. Keylla opened the door and held it open for her while she was pulling at her ribbons to fluff them up around her ponytail. She had left her cloak in the room. The hideout was very warm due to the fireplaces, lamps, and candles alight all over the place.

They passed by a couple of Reigniters in the passageway who were arguing about guard duty. One claimed that he deserved a break since he had been doing guard duty for the last week, while the other claimed that she needed a day off from it because she was preparing to travel up north. Their voices receded as Gemma followed Keylla up a few steps and into the dining room. Rene was seated at the bar sipping at a big mug of coffee while chattering away with the young red-haired woman who was holding a tray with a teapot and a stack of toast.

"Lucky bastard…" Keylla pouted, turning her head away and briskly passed through on the outskirts of the dining tables to reach the doorway in the back of the room. She was still muttering to herself about coffee and being starved to death when they entered Aaron's study and led Gemma to a pair of oversized cushiony armchairs.

She dropped herself down into her seat and was glaring daggers at Roni while Gemma took the seat next to him.

"Good morning, Gemma, I hope you slept well?" Roni gave her that gallant smile and handed her a cup of tea from across the small table at the center of their seats. The tea was a pale orange color and smelled like flowers. She thanked the king with a smile and blew across the top of the drink to cool it.

"I slept fine. I hope you did as well," Gemma replied, watching as Roni poured himself a cup of the flowery tea. She noticed that the room was much brighter than the night before due to a roaring fire to their left. Gemma was able to see maps nailed into the stone walls with different things drawn on them, lines linking between the continents, between cities. Above the fireplace was another carved-out shelf with a line of bottles in different shapes containing amber and scarlet liquids.

Somebody coughed loudly from behind them. Gemma turned and saw Aaron emerging from in between the bookshelves, eyes on her as he approached.

"Oh, I doubt you could have slept very well with Miss Treasure Hunter there clucking over you like a mother hen," Aaron chuckled as he entered the circle of chairs and sank down into the onyx colored one next to the king. He was holding a large leather-bound volume with fraying at the spine of the book. He received a foul look from Keylla at this comment, but just shook his head and flipped through the pages for a few moments before coming to a stop at a page that looked like an illustration from what Gemma could see from her place.

"Now, Gemma, I would like to tell you a story," Banon addressed her gravely, "You may have heard it before, but it's important."

The mage nodded slowly, meeting his eyes as she took another sip of her tea. Roni crossed his legs and shifted so he was facing the older man, though he was watching Gemma over the brim of his teacup.

"Once, many, many years ago, when humans were still innocent and pure, the gods and goddesses from above came down from the heavens and placed a mysterious box in their midst. The gods and goddesses explained to the humans that they should never open the box because it was special. They wanted the humans to watch over it for them as a sort of favor." Aaron paused, bringing the book up in his lap, the pages facing his stomach, hidden from view.

"Some time passed, enough time for the humans to grow extremely curious about what the box held inside. Those who had witnessed the gods and goddesses bringing the box from above had passed away by that time, and because of this, one particular person felt that they could take a look inside the box without being noticed. But once they opened the box, all of the evils of the world we now know erupted from within and took hold of the planet." Aaron turned the book around to show the illustration. It showed a man on his knees before a majestic chest from which horrible creatures flew out all around him in a flurry.

"Pride, gluttony, envy, wrath, hatred, disease, war…but" Aaron turned to the next page, "One thing was left inside the box: hope." The next illustration showed a shining star soaring up from the box over the humans beneath a dark, stormy sky. Gemma could not take her eyes off the page. A chill ran up her spine.

"Gemma, the battle we Reigniters are fighting is becoming more and more difficult because of everything that Emperor Erthil has in his power over us, but I believe that if you wanted to join us, you would become our ray of hope, our best chance at saving the world from all of the evils that the Empire is unleashing every moment they're in power," he closed the book and laid it on the table, eyes going between her and Roni.

She felt a knot grow in her stomach around the tea. She did not notice her hands shaking until she splashed a little of her drink on herself. Keylla pulled a spare bandana out of her pocket and reached for Gemma's hand to dab up the tea. She let Keylla clean up her hand without really feeling it. Her mind was too busy spinning.

Roni cleared his throat, "Gemma, dear, I know this is a lot to process right now, but please rest assured that no matter what you choose to do, we completely support your decision."

"And we will ensure your safety regardless of your choice. You don't have to worry about us tossing you back to the Empire if you choose not to help us." Aaron added with a smirk underneath his bushy beard. The leader heaved himself up from his seat with a long wheezing sigh, "Now, I don't expect you to make a decision right now, young lady. Go on and take some time to think, okay?"

He gestured over to Keylla, "I think it might be a good idea to get your mother hen some coffee before she combusts." Aaron barked out a laugh and went to disappear into the bookcases.

Gemma sat her teacup down on the table after gulping the rest and pulled Keylla with her out of the room in a rush before the thief could snap some retort at Aaron. Roni watched them leave with amusement and finished off his tea.

"She's a special one, that girl," Aaron's comment floated out from the shelves gruffly. "From what you've told me, a power like hers could do us some good."

"Yes Aaron, I just don't want to force her to join us. We would be no better than the Empire if we did that," Roni replied loud enough for the man to hear. "I wish Amod would join us instead of staying neutral like Gelid. It could give us more time to work with."

"We both know that time is running out fast, Roni. Their military power would of course help, but brute strength isn't as valuable as magic of our own."

"I know…" Roni gave another sigh, lulling his head back into his chair with a light thud. He wondered for the thousandth time what his father would do since he had to leave his castle.

—

Gemma finally let go of Keylla's hand once they were in the dining room at one of the square tables and dropped into one of the hardwood chairs, head in her hands. She felt like she had heard that story before, but everything was so foggy in her mind when she tried to remember anything before waking up in David's house in Gelid. The dreams that she had been having seemed so far off, and she kept wondering if there was any truth to them. Or if they were just made up.

Her head was starting to ache again.

A hand rested on her shoulder, but it did not feel like Keylla's.

"Hey girlie, want some toast? I got loads here!" came Rene's voice. Gemma lifted her head and saw the prince holding up a plate with a tall stack of toast covered in butter and a small cup of purple goop that must have been jam. She could not help but smile at his cheery voice.

"Sure, thank you," Gemma replied, settling her hands down in front of her, ignoring how the dining room suddenly seemed to be too bright.

Rene sat the plate on the table and grabbed a chair from another table to join the two with his mug of coffee. She looked up and saw that Keylla had been watching them with her eyebrows furrowed.

"That Aaron guy seems to like to get into the serious business before the sun comes up, huh?" The prince slurped at his coffee, "He needs to let people wake up before doling out the heavy stuff."

"Roni told you what's up already?" Keylla asked, picking up a piece of toast and taking a big bite.

Rene nodded, eyes going from Keylla to Gemma. "Yeah, he needs to cool it too. Gosh, he's been like that since we were kids. Always so damn serious." He handed Gemma some toast as he spoke.

Gemma slowly ate her breakfast, enjoying the rich taste of the homemade bread. It was even better than what the inn back in Southwest Vigoreaux served up. She closed her eyes and tried to clear her mind of everything but what was happening in that moment.

She started feeling comfort finally reach her while sitting in the warm dining room with her new friends and listening to Rene asking Keylla about what all they could do in the Reigniter's Hideout. The prince did not seem to like being idle for long.

The Hideout had a large training room where everybody practiced fighting, which Rene was very interested in checking out, a series of bathrooms with nice wooden tubs set up with running water, sleeping quarters, and a storage room where they could find some fresh clothes for Rene since he only had the clothes on his back and a waterskin.

"Will anybody mind me taking a couple shirts and pants? I don't want to inconvenience anybody," Rene asked after a loud gulp of coffee and a satisfied sigh.

"Nah, we're always gathering clothes and shoes since we have to do some undercover work, ya know? I bet we can find some stuff that'll fit over those crazy muscles of yours," Keylla laughed, grabbing another slice of toast.

Rene laughed as well, "Hey, you guys'll be glad to have a bear like me helping out! I gotta put my training to good use after all."

"Yeah, you're right about that. We've all heard about your master. Apparently, he would meet up with Aaron in town every now and then."

The girl from the bar came over with mugs of coffee and a bowl of sugar just then and offered them some.

"Perfect timing Sasha!" Keylla chose a green steaming mug and took a sip, heedless to the temperature.

"No problem, Keylla!" she brushed her long curly red hair over her shoulder, "I know how you are without coffee, and I figured it would be best to save your friends here from your shit moods." Her brown eyes flicked over to Gemma and she gave her a wry smile.

Rene burst out laughing at this, and Keylla shot her a glare, "Jeez, I'm not that bad in the mornings!"

Sasha swept over to Gemma's side, ignoring Keylla's retort, "Hey, would you like to get freshened up? I heard you guys were traveling for a few days."

"That sounds great, thank you," Gemma nodded and stood up from her seat. "I'll go get a change of clothes really quick."

—

Keylla showed Rene where the training room was and helped set up some dummies for the prince to beat up. The guy was so serious about getting his morning workout done after they finished breakfast that he was already doing pushups by the time Keylla left the room.

She refilled his mug of coffee when she passed through the dining room and walked at a leisurely pace down the corridor leading towards the storage rooms. She did not pass by anybody as she went along but heard faint murmurs from inside a couple of the private bedrooms. It was just now getting to be seven, so many of the Reigniters were most likely still sleeping. Some were probably beginning to wind down from a long night of keeping watch outside for any intruders.

She found a wooden ladder propped up against the rock wall partially hidden by an old grandfather clock that had stopped ticking. Holding onto her coffee carefully, she started climbing up the ladder and soon reached the trap door. She used her free hand to heave it upwards and it fell with a clang of metal.

"Hey! Who's that?" Keylla heard a familiar voice call out, sounding angry at the sudden noise. Wincing into the bright morning sunshine, Keylla climbed out of the passageway and was met with a faint breeze and a sighing man shaking his head at her.

"Keylla, you should really give me a head's up before scaring me like that," the dirty-blond man huffed, crossing his arms.

"Good morning to you too, Stanley," Keylla laughed as he got to his feet and made his way over to the cluster of stones near the ledge where her friend had set up her things for a day of keeping watch.

She sat his coffee down next to a pile of books on one of the dusty gray stones, "I thought you were supposed to head to Southwest Vigoreaux this morning so you can spend a week keeping an eye on that Steward guy."

Stanley scowled at this and ran a hand backwards through his messy hair. Keylla was not used to seeing her friend without a hat or bandana on his head.

"Aaron made me stay here for a few more days since Neil and the guys got caught. Those idiots hung around in Amod too long."

The thief let out a sigh, "So the Empire has already started creeping into the kingdom of Amod…jeez they move fast." She turned her back to one of the taller rocks and leaned backwards against it. She saw a flock of black birds riding the wind to the east, letting out caws as they flew.

"Yeah, so Aaron is letting that kid back in Southwest Vigoreaux do some spying on Steward, ya know, letting him prove himself and all that," Stanley snickered. He turned his head to Keylla, "Did you run into that little twerp while you were passing through town?"

"We saw him lighting the lamps in the streets with another kid one night, but he didn't come talk to me or anything."

"Hmm, must not have had anything to report."

"Or he's probably wanting to tell Aaron the news himself," Keylla chuckled, "You remember how it was when we were his age. All excited about being in a secret society and getting to do jobs for the greater good."

Stanley laughed, "I don't know where Aaron finds these kids, but this one was practically hopping up and down when he got his first assignment last month." He reached out and smacked Keylla's shoulder lightly, "Kinda like a certain someone when she first joined." He gave Keylla a crooked grin, "You just couldn't wait to show off to Chester about it either and nearly forgot to deliver those letters on your way back home!"

The thief shook her head, "Oh, don't remind me."

Stanley stood and went to the tall stone next to Keylla and leaned down on her folded arms on the top of the stone, gazing out at the valley below. The view from their spot in the mountains was so perfect that he might not even need the binoculars he brought up with him that morning.

"So, is that girl you brought with you, ya know, that one? The Imperial doll?" Stanley asked, fixing his gaze on some elk trotting through the tall grasses past the main entrance of the hideout.

"I really hate that nickname you guys have given her," Keylla muttered. She looked away from her friend, "And yes, she's the one."

"Blame Flynn for the name. He's the one who saw Fload treating her like some porcelain doll and making her do all of those things." Stanley replied, looking to Keylla's face.

Was she turning red?

Absolutely.

She couldn't stand the thought of a girl like Gemma to be forced under mind control, and to believe that she had been wrong about her all this time made her feel worse.

Keylla needed to recognize that not everyone who came out of the empire was an imperial spy, just like how she needed to accept that not everyone who's joined the resistance is not going to turn their heel like how her own twin brother did.

"Anyways, is she safe or what?"

"Yes, of course!" Keylla bristled and folded her arms roughly. "I wouldn't have brought her with me if she wasn't."

Stanley's eyes went wide. Her friend's face was definitely red now. From anger? Or something else?

A few Reigniters who had been staying in Shenar for the last couple months arrived the previous morning and boy, did they bring a lot of goodies with them. There was a whole crate almost full of medicines, sacks full of fancy looking clothes, some good swords and daggers, and relics that weren't sold in Southwest Vigoreaux. Arcell was especially interested in the gloves and bracers.

One of the odd jobs he liked doing was organizing the different things people brought back to the hideout. Not only because he enjoyed inspecting the objects he had never seen before, but because it was a quiet task that helped clear his mind of some of the more difficult things he had to deal with during his missions. The running around spying on people and getting to do sneaky stuff like tampering with the Imperials' machinery and weapons was fun and exciting but seeing the grisly acts the Imperials did to people was hard to forget.

He whispered a prayer to whoever could be listening that he never had to go to the Southern continent ever again.

He sat one of the parcels his fellow Reigniter's came back with on top of a crate next to his supplies he brought with him so he could start labeling things. With a sigh, he climbed up onto the crate and settled into a comfortable position so he could begin his task.

Light footsteps echoed from the hall and when Arcell looked up, he saw the girl Keylla had been dragging around enter the storage room with wide, careful eyes. She wandered over to one of the many bookcases and pulled a book from the shelf. She saw a smile tug at the girl's lips as she ran her hands over the cover of the old book. How was she not cold in that sleeveless dress?

"You're welcome to borrow one of those if you want," Keylla offered, saying the words loud enough to make sure she heard him. She jumped and looked at him.

What a skittish girl.

With the heavy book still in her hands, she crossed the room to stand before him, "Your name is Arcell, right?"

He gave her a wide smile, "That's right! And you're Gemma, the girl everybody's been talking about," Arcell replied, giving her a wink.

Her eyes fell to the stone floor, probably anxious about what all they've been saying about her.

"Don't worry," Arcell said, pulling her attention back, "Keylla told me that you have no interest going back to the Empire. And if she trusts you, then I do too."

Gemma's eyes fluttered to Arcell's rugged face, biting her lip, her knuckles were white with how tight she was gripping that book.

"Thank you," she replied softly, her mouth turning into a small smile.

"Keylla really seems to like you, Gemma. Despite how sarcastic she is, deep down she's happy to have you around." Arcell laughed. He picked up a glass bottle filled with a sapphire liquid and stuck a piece of paper to the side. It read "potion" in neat black ink.

"Try not to read too much into certain things she does though," Arcell continued, picking up another small piece of paper and scribbled on it with a pencil.

Gemma's eyebrows knit together, "What do you mean?"

"Hmm, let's just say that she has a bit of a complicated past," Arcell looked up from what was in his hands and saw that Gemma's shoulders were trembling. "Hey, how about some treasure hunting?"

His suggestion caught Gemma's interest, "Where?" She loosened her grip on the book in her hands.

"Around in here!" Arcell waved his arm around, "We're always finding interesting and valuable things during our travels and duties and just tuck them somewhere here in storage. Hardly anybody comes back for anything besides medicines and clothes though."

Gemma looked around the cluttered room, "I don't see any grandfather clocks though."

"Ah, so Miss Treasure Hunter taught you that old rule of thumb already?" Arcell chuckled, picking up another bottle which held a bright fluffy scarlet feather that cost quite a bit of gold.

She nodded, eyes on the feather, "Yes, I don't know how to pick locks though."

Arcell shrugged, "Don't worry about that. The only person who locks things up around here is Aaron. Everybody else prefers to share what we find since one person may need the item more than another. Go ahead and see if you can find anything useful!"

"Alright, I'll show you what I find," Gemma sat down the book on a dusty box and looked around at the room, bringing a finger up to her lips in thought. He watched her as she went around a grouping of squat urns filled with shoes and head to the back of the room.

She inspected in between the crates piled on top of each other near where a lone gas lamp glowed softly, casting deep shadows against the stone wall of the cave.

Seeing the infamous Imperial Doll roam around the storage room all wide eyed and so curious about everything, peeking into the buckets and urns shoved in random spots, inspecting the candle sconces bolted into the stone walls, and even running her fingers along the edges of a giant replica of a popular portrait hung on the wall was something Arcell hadn't expected.

The last time he saw her, she had that bejeweled crown on her head, mutely following that crazy general around in the city of Vector surrounding the Imperial palace. Fload had dressed her up in a gaudy maroon and silver dress with flamboyant silks and feathers to match his costume. The wild designs on his red and green attire almost hid how fine the fabrics were. Erthil paid him well.

The one detail about seeing the Doll that unnerved Arcell to no end was how truly dead her eyes looked every time he got a better look at her fragile face. Looking at the girl now, you couldn't even tell that she could ever wear such an expression.

Hearing noises coming from behind him made Arcell look over his shoulder to see Gemma ducking down at one of the hidden passageways.

"Ow!" came a squeak.

"You okay in there?" Arcell called with his free hand up at the side of his mouth to direct his voice at the hole she had crawled into. Scuffling on the rock floor resonated closer and out popped the girl with a bundle in her arms.

She stood up and brushed off her skirt before practically bouncing over to him with an excited smile, "Look at this! What do you think it is?" Gemma held the bundle up high which unfolded and whispered down, revealing that it was some sort of cloak. The fabric was snowy white and looked like liquid silk.

He looked at the item, brushing his hand over it and said, "Wow, this is an expensive relic!"

"What does it do?" Gemma lowered her arms so she could see Arcell.

"I think it protects the wearer from some sort of monster technique. You can wear it like a cape." Arcell smiled at her. Then he had a thought and held up a finger signaling for her to wait a moment. He rummaged around the pile of jars he accumulated and soon found the item.

"Here, you might find this useful too!" It was the bottle that housed the red fluffy feather inside. He held it out to her while making full eye contact with her. Not a hint of the empty porcelain doll he had seen back in Vector to be found there in her bright golden eyes.

"Thanks," Gemma took the bottle from him with a smile and carefully wrapped it up in the cape. Her mood must have improved a lot while treasure hunting. "This was fun, Arcell."

"No problem," Arcell couldn't take his eyes off her, the way she moved, no puppet strings or ball joints. No wonder Keylla was so jealous…

As she turned around to leave, he added, "Hey, if our Miss Treasure Hunter gives you any trouble, you can come talk to me about it."

Her head turned back to him, studying him with confusion, "What do you mean?"

"I mean that I know how to knock some sense into her!" Arcell winked at her again.

Gemma mumbled another thank you, this time with pure befuddlement, before walking out of the storage room with her new possessions. Arcell couldn't help but wonder what was coming next. Ever since losing his doll, they've heard about Fload being on a rampage. How long would it take for that bat-shit crazy general to find her here?

Arcell made up his mind to go speak to Aaron later about how they might need to move her somewhere else if they didn't want the hideout destroyed.