Raven got up after eleven hours of fatiguing sleep.

She let her eyes adjust to the brightness and waited for a while before sitting up tentatively. She gradually swirled her head to the left and then right.

Where was Akio?

Huddled by the other corner and digging into the ground, was the boy himself.

"What the heck are you doing?" Raven asked with her eyes squinted.

Upon hearing her honeyed and drunken voice, Akio hopped in panic and looked over his shoulder, Raven sitting on her stopgap bed with her back to the wall and her arm in a sling.

"Hey, what happened to your arm?" Akio lifted his finger to point at the sling. 

"Uh, you know, the vrykolakas hurled me around?" It was more like a question to her, was it just her or her once-upon-a-time friend who was back from the land of the deceased and would've annihilated both Raven and Akio if she hadn't set the body on fire?

"Oh, yeah, by the way, thanks," He laughed quietly and lifted his hand to scratch his head. A feeling of gratefulness sheathed his figure.

"Is it possible to have a truce again based on what happened the last time?" Raven asked, looking down as disappointment and humiliation billowed into her.

"I think I'll agree to the truce and overlook last time as long as it never occurs again and also because you saved us," Akio said with a diminutive impression of a simp.

"Sounds good enough, I guess," Raven smiled and slowly got back to her feet. "I have a question for you, though," her characteristics turned complex.

"And what might that be?" He asked with an inquisitive look.

"Why did you send the messenger?" The lass asked with her left eyebrow lifted high enough for a stranger to even notice.

He simply sighed and hung his head, "Do you remember the prophecy we found in the Andavera Caves with your siblings?" Raven nodded slowly and dreaded the rest of the message already.

"A pure motherless scion,
Derived of love and ardor,
A prominent god inhabiting them,
Shall the progeny rise to save,
Or to destroy the empire,
Choose if the scion lives to see the new day?" 

Raven recited the half-torn paragraph she remembered to read and recited repeatedly as a child to remember it. To her it never did make sense, it was more like the poet forgot to put some rhyming words in it, but she still loved it.

"OK, good. So, about 3 days ago one of my subordinate groups found a body near Te Awa O Waho. She looked a lot like Stella's stepsister. What was her name, again?" His face contorted in concentration and determination to remember her name, "Ah, yes, Olivia. Since she is comatose,  we did some psychological research on her too, turns out two entities have been crammed into her body. One is, um, how do I say this without sounding crazy? Still undetermined. We fear the prophecy might be coming true."

Raven's body went slack in fear she realized something: The Empire would fall and The Bandits would rise unless we somehow woke the girl up.

"There's no way we can win in this matter, I have a spy in the castle, and according to her, they're planning to destroy the Argabess Temple down near the Blue Westerns, and you do say you have a subordinate group there, right? One will have to enchant the temple because there's something important in Argabess's chest, I think The Lost Jewel is there," Raven started babbling, something she'd often do when she was panicking.

"Calm down, Sarabeth," Akio said as he started gathering some twigs and such to light a fire to reheat the old can of mushroom cream soup.

Raven froze suddenly, no one had called that since the day she ran away. 

Carabeth was beyond furious that day and little Sarabeth was just walking around with a sumptuous piece of cheesecake on a ceramic plate.
A gunshot rang, the young girl had dropped the ceramic plate and was shrieking, thinking that the palace was under attack.
 She had grown up thinking she was a royal princess her sister was the fair queen and her brothers were princes and dukes and whatnot.
Carabeth swiftly turned with her poison-spraying atomizer now pulled out, ready to shoot.
She bordered leisurely towards the corridor, Sarabeth stood there with her eyes large as saucers and horror encasing her.
Carabeth dropped the atomizer and breathed.
"Sarabeth, why are you here?! You know you aren't allowed to this wing! GET OUT! NOW!" Carabeth barked those words at her, provoking her to wordlessly cry and droop her head, which also caused the girl to see blood seeping after Carabeth and her white wedges had a few specks.
And she did run off that day.
A sixteen-year-old ex-bandit on the run with every man's eyes peeled out for her.

"Please don't call me that," Raven was shutting off again, it was her defense mechanism, shut off when something related to her past (except The Bandits) was being reintroduced. No one understood the fact why Raven ran away from her possible destiny of ruling over all of the countries, cities, kingdoms, and villages as an empress. They'd assume she ran away 'cause she wanted to live in case The Bandits did fall.

"Yeah, okay," Akio simply shrugged, understanding that she was still sentimental about The Bandits, after all, they were still her family, her flesh and blood. "Uh, you can drink cream of mushroom soup, right?" He asked. The boy was squatting while stirring the pieces in the container.

"Allergic to mushrooms, sorry, I can consume the fruits," She said as she rushed over to her bag and searched for her last two tubes of Flintacol, her instant pain reliever.

"You know it isn't as effective, right? And I do have anti-allergens, I can pour one powdered pill in yours, plus it is one of Cami's originals." The brown-eyed boy said, still stirring the soup.

"If it is Cami's then, I can take it." her blue eyes swept the vicinity in search of her pager, in case it got thrown. Her spy was supposed to contact her today at 1100.

There it was, the dull turquoise rectangular box was at the end of the gray sand and the beginning of the red ones. I've never seen that before. Raven glanced at Akio who was watching her curiously. Signaling him to join her, she sprinted and grabbed the pager. She inspected the device closely and observed that there weren't any new scratches that weren't there before.

Good, nothing is broken.

"Uh, what's here so important you had me getting up?" Akio asked with his brows pulled synchronically.

Raven pointed to the red sand, slightly bending to inspect it. It was slightly moist but still dry and glazed, "Something's off about this sand, Farbah Temple's sand melts in liquid contact." 

"Uh, Raven, can you tell me you're seeing what I am seeing?" Akio said with his voice wavering a bit. This is indeed wrong.

She looked up, only to be shocked even more.

It was a lady, probably a Tiqan, hugging a dusky brown cylindrical vase capped with a black diamond knob. The strangest thing about the container was that it seemed as if it was inviting the duo to open it, and the fact that when Raven slid her finger over the beautiful container, it started to hum a beautiful melody.

The girl hugging it tightened her grip on it and muttered something, "Please don't let go, Astra, I won't let you fall again." a silent tear dripped across her chocolate skin.

Akio was just about to shake the girl awake but Raven saved him the trouble by snatching the container, the girl awoke with a jolt and wide eyes.

"WHO ARE YOU?! HOW DID YOU FIND ME!?" The girl raised her voice as anxiety started to pump into her chest, but she started to panic, even more, when she realized that the container wasn't in her arm but in the arms of a redheaded girl.

"Give it back!" She tried to get but she failed as it was wounded on her side.

"Raven, get the first aid quick! And maybe check if there's another horse around." Akio ordered Raven but she was lost in memory already, mesmerized by its sweet melody.

Come, my little queen,
We have the nobles waiting,
For your tea,
Come, my little queen,

The melody being played was enough to send Raven into a deep slumber, full of happy memories and joy. Memories of the times with her parents before The Bandits took away her whole family apart.

Akio tried to shake her awake but she wouldn't stir. This was truly perplexing for the young Blue Western boy.

"She won't wake up, not unless you take Gerro de Memòria away and wrap it in the Drap D'Aversió, it is in my bag I think, or that despicable entity took it." The girl grunted as she tried to sit up properly.

"Wait, the vrykolakas attacked you?" Akio asked with his brows raised high enough to indicate his astonishment.

"No, a cute koala tried to take away Gerro de Memòria before stabbing me. Of course, it was the vrykolakas." the girl rolled her eyes and continued breathing harshly. "Just bring my bag, it is a beige-colored haversack with navy blue pearls adorning the sides and has a golden bottle, and check if you find a grey Tiqan horse."

Akio nodded and rushed off to the other side of the temple, that side usually had bulbous rocks and ruts and fortunately, the platform was ferroconcrete covered with cranberry red South Annesian sheep wool rug, South Annes was well known for its amazingly intricate and elegant sewing and the quality of their sheep's wool.

Akio took off his muddied shoes, placed them at a foot's distance from the rug, and walked to the largest rock near him at the moment. He pulled out the dolabra keychain in his pocket from yesterday's fight.

"Pity that you didn't hurt that feisty redhead as she did you." A strangely sweet yet toxic voice floated in around him.

"And why would I want that...Ianira?" Akio's voice echoed around and a soft chuckle ran around in the ruts.

"My, my. Aren't you funny? Maybe...justice or revenge? You know I am the spirit of Justice, right?" The spirit, Ianira said with an amused lilt in her speech.

"First, no, I am not and wouldn't ever hurt a lady. Second, you aren't the spirit of Justice, your mother was the spirit of justice, you're the spirit of nightmares. Third, I don't do biddings with spirits such as you." Akio said and slashed the only green rock, as the rock crumbled and a few splashed in the ruts they sizzled as if they were doused in acid.

"CURSED BE YOU!" Ianira cried out before silence rained once again except for the sizzling and a neigh.

Might be the girl's horse along with her haversack.

Akio walked towards the horse's cry and noticed that the horse was hidden behind a massive rock. Its black mane was braided with silver beads and golden tassels were tied at the end of each tip.

"There you are, you majestic beast," Akio muttered as he started to climb the massive rock and stopped at the top soon. Jumping from the top, he stood behind the horse and bent down a bit to see that the haversack was there, still adorned with the navy blue pearls and the golden bottle at the side. He then somersaulted over to the room-like structure's other side where the haversack was lying.

Grabbing the bag, Akio turned back to the horse and tried to calm the beast down. "Nice horsie, nice horse, that's a good horse, right?" His voice was secure, calm, and collected.

The horse wasn't as frantic as it was before and calmed down.

"Now, let's get you out of here, shall we?" Akio raised his right hand with the haversack on his back and brushed with a slightly skinned finger over the golden tassel. A cool electric feel surged through this hand. Pulling back his hand, he saw that his skinned finger was as good as new.

"Hm, this is...interesting," He hummed and mounted the beast and slowly rode the horse to its owner and halted soon enough and rushed to get some certain things and saw that the soup had burned.

His face contorted in disgust as the once beautiful aroma had now turned to a poisonous stench. "Not even Cami's potion can fix that monstrosity," he dug a hole in the ground and poured the content in it, cleaned up the vessel, and just took a couple of fruit out, and started munching on a green apple.

He threw the seeds on the ground, poured some water on them, and took off to the Tiqan Lady.

Raven was awake just like the lady was when she saw Akio and Raven. 

"Uh, you okay? Raven?" Akio nudged the feisty redhead on her shoulder.

"They did die, didn't they? Carabeth killed everyone, didn't she?" Her voice was wavering, slightly to indicate that she was deep in shock.

"Yeah, she did, I am sorry, Raven. Here, drink some water," He passed the bottle down to her.

"NO! NOT THAT WATER! IT ISN'T FIT!" The lady snatched the bottle from Raven and kept it aside, she pulled out her golden bottle and passed it to Raven. "Our water is boiled in gold utensils, it has various qualities that aren't abundant in other water sources." 

"Who are you?" Raven asked after taking a long hearty sip of the golden water.

The lady's face suddenly had a bold shine, a look of pride. "I am Roberta Alza Vera Contessa Prince the 5th of the Prince Dynasty. You may call me Bobby if you want, now may I know your names?"