—Bailey—

After my mom and Scarlett stopped freaking out about my return, the both of them wrapped me in a huge welcome back hug. It sure was great to be home and see my family again. Scarlett had definitely grown since I had last seen her. She was turning into quite the beautiful young woman. She didn't look quite like mom or I, with dad's red eyes and crimson hair, but that was what made her unique. I chuckled as I imagined her even older, possibly married and with kids. I shook my head. Man, I was weird.

Scarlett and mom then sat me down and bombarded me with question after question. Where had I been? Why hadn't I been posting on social media? What had I done after I had graduated from Eternal?

I ended up telling them about how I travelled the world in search of stronger materials to make weapons out of. I also filled Scarlett in on how weapon making had been a hobby of mine. Along my travels, I had met many other different Scale Children from all walks of life that had helped me strengthen my powers even more. I even made my own weapon, which was a beautiful red glaive that I had forged in India. Everyone's eyes filled with wonder as I told my story, and there were even a few gasps as I ended it.

I sighed as I looked around at the room of people. Apart from Madia, there were two boys that I didn't know. One was smaller, with messy black hair and vibrant violet eyes. He seemed very timid, as if he didn't talk much, or rather, was too afraid to talk. The other one seemed to be his polar opposite. His eyes were bright gold, and his hair was shock white. He was very tall and scrawny, a sure sign of a teenager's powerful metabolism. He seemed like the type to stay home most days and play video games.

I smiled and laid my hands in my lap, setting my bag on the floor. I stretched out my neck for a bit, then after a short while, I spoke up. "Now that I've spent the past thirty minutes talking about myself, I think it's time for some introductions of your own. Now, I already know my own family, and I ran into Madia on the way here, so that would just leave you boys over there to introduce yourselves."

Scarlett quickly spoke for them. "Bailey, these are two of my very close friends."

The white-haired scrawny kid narrowed his eyes as he looked at my sister. "Woman! I'm a little more than your friend! Don't friendzone your own boyfriend!"

Scarlett's face almost turned as red as her hair. "I was getting to that part!" After clearing her throat, she looked back at me. "This is Luc D'Ange. I'm kinda sort of dating him."

I chuckled at my little sister's reaction. I decided to tease her a little. "Well, which one is it? Kind of or sort of?"

This made her blush even more. Suddenly, Scarlett took an interest in the shoelaces of her red converse. I looked back to Luc and smiled. "So, how did you two meet?"

Luc shrugged. "Kallan and Talia decided it would be fun to try and drag me to a classical concert, and on the way there I ran into her at the bus stop. She helped Kallan up after tripping and yelled at Talia for being a jerk. Normally, people didn't do that because we're all the heirs to the Crown and such, so she caught my attention at first. And since Talia was in such a rush to get to her concert, she completely forgot I existed and ran off with her best friend. Long story short I got treated to a free meal, she invited me to watch her DJ, we danced, accidentally kissed, and then she incinerated a Shadow Creature. The rest is history."

He held out his wrist to reveal Scarlett's name written in ancient Vistra script. Luc smiled warmly and looked to her with a softness that I hadn't seen until now. "She is quite literally the best decision I have made in my life, and I plan to stay with her forever."

Scarlett looked back at him with a small smile on her face, biting her lip lightly. Those two sure did make a cute couple. I'd tease them more about it later. I saw a bit of fidgeting out of the corner of my eye and was reminded of the other boy in the group. He hadn't said a word this entire time, which concerned me a slight bit. I turned my attention to him and gave him a warm smile to show him that I meant no harm. "And what about you? What's your name?"

The boy jumped and started to stutter a bit, trying to say something, but either to shocked or nervous to do so. Scarlett interjected and spoke for him as well.

"That's--"

"Give him a chance." I gently chided. "Don't assume he can't do something for himself. I believe in him."

The boy hid his face under the hood of his oversized sweatshirt and took a deep breath. As he spoke, his voice was rather soft, but I could still clearly understand him. "M-My name is A-Adrian S-Skalanias."

I smiled, holding out my hand for him to shake, which in turn caused him to flinch. I frowned and wondered what was wrong. The way that he was so nervous and flighty pointed to maybe past abuse, and he might be afraid of doing something wrong. I thought for a bit, and then finally said, "I like the sweatshirt that you're wearing. Where did you get it from?"

Adrian nervously played with the gray strings, looking at his fingers to avoid my gaze. "I got it at a convention." He replied.

"Convention? What kind? I know I've been to a few before, mostly for comic books and stuff like that."

Adrian lifted his head slightly so I could see his eyes just a little bit. "Um...I-I like Medieval live action roleplay."

I smiled. "That sounds like a lot of fun. Have you ever been to a renaissance fair before?"
Adrian nodded. "Those are my favorite. I went to one in Tuxedo Park not too long ago."

"I remember that one! Mom took me there when I was six or seven and I got my picture taken with a princess. I also got to eat an entire turkey leg while I walked, so that was a lot of fun." I recalled.

Adrian's smile grew. "That's not even the best part, though! I got to go see a reenactment of a jousting match, and I got one of the knights to sign my sword! I also learned how to ride a horse, and I even battled against an ogre!"

Madia's jaw dropped as she looked between the two of us. "Okay, how did you get Adrian to open up that fast? He never said anything to me until Sophomore year!"

I shrugged. "Just luck, I guess. Besides, I genuinely like meeting fellow nerds such as myself." I smiled at Adrian. "I think the two of us are going to get along just fine. He seems like an amazing guy."

"T-Thanks." Adrian stuttered.

I sat back in my chair and relaxed. Now that I had been familiarized with everyone, it was time to give them the news behind my sudden appearance. I took a deep breath and began to speak.

"Now, you're all probably wondering why I've appeared now of all times." I started, cracking my knuckles habitually. "There's a simple answer for that. While I was in Peru, I was contacted by the Academy telling me that the Prince had found and removed a Shadow Creature from an innocent host. They also told me that the Prince and seven other Scale Children that had topped the charts in their relative element were looking for the legendary artifacts left over from the War of Existence.

"I was confused as to why they were calling me, but they asked me for their help. Being as my magic in Fire has shown more promise than any in the years since Eternal was founded and have still been unchallenged. When I asked them what for, they finally answered and told me that they wanted me to join this quest as a sort of adult chaperone and the key to help in case she couldn't obtain the Fire artifact, since it is unknown if Dragon Soul really does count as a Fire magic.

"Of course, I knew exactly who they were talking about, since not only am I the King's first born daughter, but had witnessed the Prince's birth first hand. That would be my one and only little sister, Scarlett Seraphina Kaida. I booked a flight to New York after making a few preparations and decided to come home to ask my mom if she knew about where she might be. That's when I ran into Madia and the rest is history.

"The artifact we're looking for is called The Phoenix Feathers. They're hidden somewhere in New York, since it's both Scarlett's and my birthplace. In my research of this artifact, I was led to a series of ruins in Mexico where I found some ancient script written on the walls. It was extremely archaic Spanish, but luckily I was able to translate it. It said: Deep below, where colors decorate bone, there marks the door graced by the mutilated corpse."

I looked to all of them as I continued. "I've done a lot of research, but I still don't know what any of it means. I mean, color on bone could mean decaying bones, so I tried looking for catacombs in New York, but I had no such luck. That went for deep below as well, I looked up deaths in sewers and subways, but nothing seemed to match the qualifications that I was looking for. Since I've had awful luck trying to figure this out, I wondered if any of you might have any clue."

Nobody said anything for a while. I had no idea if this was because they were lost in thought or if they were just too busy trying to process what I had just said to them. Possibly it was a mixture of both. After a bit, Madia looked at me with a serious look, which I guessed was probably rare for her. She pointed to me and began to speak.

"Hey, by any chance, you wouldn't have happened to take a picture of the text, would you?"

I nodded. "Yes, actually. Here, let me pull it up." I pulled out my camera from my bag and turned it on. I scrolled through the photos until I finally found the picture that we needed. I then handed Madia the camera so she could look at the ancient writing for herself. She took off her glasses and squinted at the picture, reading carefully.

Her eyes then widened a bit with surprise. She looked at me with a bit of worry on her face. "The word used for 'graced' is actually the Spanish word 'adornado', which means 'to adorn' or 'decorate'. In fact, if we were to translate this entire line, it actually means, 'there is a door, decorated with the bones of innocents where the colors of their soul drench their bodies."

"Hold on a second." Luc interjected. "That sounds a lot like that one local legend that's been getting a lot of attention lately."

Scarlett gasped. "Oh! You're talking about the murders of the Iris Underground, right?"

Adrian's eyes widened. "Murder? There are killings in New York? Why hasn't anyone told me about this?"

"Iris Underground?" I asked, confused as well.

Luc nodded. "Back in the seventies, there was a serial killer that was known to commit gruesome murders in New York. They usually involved the murder of beautiful women being dissected, all of the bones being removed from their body and the flesh and organs being dissolved in acid. The bones were then displayed in a decoration in the same spot in the subway system like a wreath of some sorts, each individual bone painted in a group of colors that depended on the victim.

"No matter how many times the bones were removed by authorities, another group would always appear within mere hours of them being misplaced. The weirdest thing was that even if the police were there when they were replaced, they had no idea how they got there or no recollection of what happened. Eventually, this caused most officers to go insane and they closed the case ever since. The bones are still in the same place, and lately it's been a dare to remove one of the bones and keep it in your house overnight. Why, I have no idea."

I nodded. "This serial killer seems like they had some very serious issues."

"Don't they all?" Scarlett justified.

"True, but still, this clue has given us a great lead." I looked back at Luc. "You wouldn't happen to know where these murders happened, would you?" I asked him.
Luc nodded. "Yeah. The bones always appear in the subway in 14th Union Square."

Adrian's eyes widened. "You really want us to go there? No. No. I will not be going down into the subway systems where people have been murdered."

"Get over it, wuss." Madia snapped. "It's not like the subway is going to have heads on poles or anything like that?"

"How in the name of the Eternal Flame is that supposed to make me feel better?" He asked, raising his voice in a panicky fashion.
I couldn't help but chuckle as I listened to their banter. Scarlett had some pretty good people surrounding her. She was lucky to have more than one person by her side supporting her. I was also happy to see that they viewed her as just another girl instead of bowing down to her just because she was the Prince.

This sight made me reminisce on my own school years, and how everyone was convinced that the reason I was so strong was because I was the King's daughter. Everybody naturally assumed that I was going to be the Prince in middle school, but I knew the truth.  Dad had chosen Scarlett moments after she was born. I was a little angry at this fact, which caused me to act out--and by act out, I mean burn down half the trees in the courtyard whenever I got angry--but eventually I accepted the fact and moved on with my life.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized how much I would actually hate the role of being King. I didn't like to be tied down or told what to do, or telling other people what to do. I wanted to be free, discover who I was. I wanted to travel and see new things. I wanted to experience new things with my own eyes. That's who I had always been, a free spirit that loved to explore the world around her.

However, nobody at Eternal really got to experience this side of me. They always assumed that I was some awesome, unapproachable big shot that they were unworthy of talking to. The only person that I ever was close with was a quiet girl named Liliana. The first day we had met, she threw a book at me while I had been complaining about how boring my life was and told me to read it.

From then on, I had become addicted to reading them. I could explore different worlds without having to go anywhere. It didn't matter what the book was about, I just loved the experience of flipping through the pages and reading the ideas that another individual had come up with. Liliana would recommend about ten books to me and I would finish them all within three days.

Of course, since Liliana was my senior of two years, it wasn't long before she had graduated. That day had nearly torn me apart. Naturally, after she had received her diploma, I had begged her to stay in the area, telling her how lonely I would be without her. On that day, she had given me a stern look and told me that she had a dream to pursue.

Of course, I had known that Lily wanted to become a teacher at Eternal, and she had been given a scholarship to go study abroad in England. If I was as wise as I was now, I would have more than likely respected her decision. But since I was an insecure sixteen year old with no idea how to make real friends, I cried and asked her what I was supposed to do without her.

Liliana's expression had softened. She patted my head and wiped away my tears with her finger like an older sister might do to her sibling. What she had told me next would forever stick with me.

"What you will do," She had said, looking me in the eyes. "Is follow your heart. Do what you love to do. Be who you really are, and don't get caught up in things you don't care about just so you can fit in. Once you've accomplished all of that, find your dream and chase after it with everything you've got. Don't let anybody or anything stand in the way. Then, maybe someday, you can teach the same thing to someone younger and guide them in the right direction." She then placed a book in my hands, the very same book that she had thrown at me the first day that we met. She wrapped her arms around me in a tight embrace, patting my back a few times. "Take care, Bailey."

That had been three years ago, but I had somehow managed to fulfill Liliana's wish. The last part would be accomplished as I helped these kids.

TWO UPDATES IN ONE WEEK! We're getting back on track here. So Pokémon Sun and Moon comes out tomorrow so I highly doubt I'll be updating Friday-Sunday but if I do then that's great. Next chapter is from Talia's point of view and the one after will be in Adrian's point of view. I hope you're all enjoying this book so far because I have big things planned for our favorite characters. Also how do you all like Bailey? Answer in the comments below.

Signing off, Kiera Savage.