'Well, this is different.' Kai looked around the room. Couches and low tables were set in the middle of the room. Along the far wall stood four closed doors. A moderately sized window overlooked the eastern courtyard. While not showered in the splendor of the throne room, the rooms far outshone anywhere else Kai had ever stayed. Granted, when one lived in a decrepit building everything was an improvement.

"What were you thinking saying we'd leave like that?" Nya hissed at Kai as soon as the door shut behind Sky- behind the princess.

"I was thinking that it would look way more suspicious if we tried to fight to stay when the king obviously is not sure what to think about us." Kai shot back.

Shoulders slumping, Nya slowly nodded. "Fine, alright. You've got a point, but what are we supposed to do now? Even if we are 'traveling dignitaries' there's no reason for the king to talk about his prisoners with us, and even less reason for us to ask about any."

And that was the crux of the matter wasn't it? They'd managed to get behind the castle walls, but really were they any better off than when they'd started? The meeting with King Chen, and his freaky advisor, had raised all sorts of red flags within Kai's intuition. Likely they wouldn't be given much unrestricted access to anything in the castle, at least not any time soon.

A small tug on his sleeve broke Kai out of his thoughts. He looked down to see Nelson stepping back - well out of arm's reach- gesturing to his ears. Immediately Kai nodded, and pretended not to notice the naked relief that flashed across the boy's face before he turned to remove the earplugs. Another rush of fury raced through Kai at whoever had treated Nelson like nothing more than a tool to be used.

Shaking away those thoughts, Kai returned to his previous point. "We have to be smart and not draw attention, well more attention, to ourselves."

"But we need to find Jay." Nya clenched her fists. "You know how the guards. . ." She trailed off looking at the younger boys. Both were edging away from the older two.

"We'll figure it out." Anything less couldn't be an option. "Come on," Kai reached a hand out toward Cade, "for now let's look around at our rooms."

Cade perked up. Ignoring Kai's hand he dashed toward the nearest door. "Bedroom. And take a look at the size of the bed!"

The others followed Cade and indeed a bed larger than the floor of their usual residence took up half the room. Two of the other doors led to similar bedrooms. The last door opened to a washroom with a bathtub. Instead of a well or buckets to draw water, metal tubes ran up the side of the bathtub. Nya poked at a lever experimentally and jumped in delight when warm water burst out the tube.

"That's it, I call this first!" In a matter of seconds Nya all but shoved the boys out of the room and shut the door behind them.

Kai snorted but didn't blame her. After the last couple days he'd had, let alone spending time in the dungeon (of the very castle he had come back to and that made his stomach twist), Kai looked forward to feeling clean. Settling himself on one of the couches, Kai kept an eye on the two younger boys as they continued to poke around the bedrooms. After an extended amount of time Nya emerged.

"My turn!" Kai nodded toward the boys. "You two are in line once I'm done."

Cade let out a high pitched, "Do I have to?" but Nelson looked surprised. Sighing internally again at the messed up childhood that was Nelson's existence, Kai ducked into the washroom.

When he returned to the main room he felt more refreshed than he had in a long time. "Cade, you're up next."

Whining, Cade dragged his feet but did as Kai instructed. Less than five minutes later he reappeared. Kai narrowed his eyes at Cade's dripping form, but the younger boy crossed his arms. "You just said to wash up. You didn't say how long for. And I scrubbed all the dirt off."

Indeed Cade's skin did look paler than its normal shade. Thankfully the henna hadn't washed out so Cade's hair still was a vibrant red. Kai frowned. That might be difficult to come by while in the palace. Hopefully they wouldn't be there long enough to need to find more.

"Nelson, if you're not opposed it's your turn."

Hesitantly Nelson inched toward the washroom, closing the door silently behind him. He wasn't in there much longer than Cade, but he also reemerged looking more at ease than when he'd gone in.

Kai glanced out the window to see the back side of the sunset.

"Alrighty it is getting late and it's been a long day for all of us. Bed time."

Cade grumbled, but the fact he didn't out right argue only highlighted how tired he really was. Glancing at the rooms Kai stood a look at Nya, who in turn nodded slightly to Nelson and then one of the bedrooms.

"Cade, you're with me in the first room. Nya if you want to join us feel free, otherwise you can have one of the other rooms. Same goes to you Nelson."

Nelson froze, his eyes bouncing between Kai, Nya, and the third room. "I- I can sleep in the lamp. It doesn't- it doesn't take much space so you can each have a room."

Biting his tongue to avoid saying the first thing that came to mind with that statement, Kai shook his head. "We're used to sleeping together for warmth. The beds are bigger than our entire home. There will be at least one room available because Cade is staying where I can keep an eye on him-" Kai ignored the indignantly squawked "Hey!" from Cade- "and if you want to be in the same room with us you can, otherwise feel free to take one of the other rooms. You don't have to sleep in the lamp unless you actually want to." Kai stressed the last sentence. Silence stretched for several seconds.

Nya took pity on Nelson and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. "How about you and I look at the other two rooms and you can decide after giving it more thought?"

Nodding mutely, Nelson let Nya lead him toward the other side of the room. Kai let out a long breath, and jumped when Cade's head came to an abrupt rest in his abdomen. Absently Kai wrapped his arms around Cade, running his hand through Cade's hair.

"Come on, bud. Bed time." Kai led Cade to the first bedroom, leaving the door open behind them. Inside he set Cade on the bed. Cade let out a contented hum as he fell back against the mattress.

"I could get used to this!"

A zing of regret ran through Kai, stealing his breath away. Feelings of inadequacy at his ability to take care of his siblings threatened to drown him. Not knowing how to respond without his voice breaking, he instead climbed on the bed near Cade.

"Night Kai, love you."

A different emotion shot through Kai and he closed his eyes against the moisture prickling in them. "Night Cade. Love you too." Soft snores met his words.

Kai fondly shook his head. Footsteps approached the bedroom. Looking toward the door, Nya's silhouette drew closer. She climbed on to the far end of the bed.

"Nelson?"

"I've got him settled in the third room and told him again he could join us in here if he wanted. I'll be surprised if he does though."

Sighing, Kai privately agreed. "Thanks for that. There's something just- I don't know. He reminds me a lot of Cade when he first moved in with us."

A quick intake of breath from Nya made Kai wonder if she hadn't been seeing what he had. Granted he'd been interacting more with Nelson and a little longer than she had been.

"Now that you mention it I don't know why I didn't notice sooner. The earplugs and him offering to sleep in his lamp were odd." Nya groaned. "We have no clue what we're doing, both here and with another kid, and we're in way over our heads."

"The only way out is through." Especially now.

"Well, hopefully we make it through. I can't help but keep wondering what's happening to Jay. Or if he's even-"

"Hey, no!" Kai rolled on his side to face Nya. "We'll find him. We didn't come this far to fail."

"And having an Element can definitely come in handy."

"Yeah. . ." Kai wondered if Nya had heard about Prince Cole and Sir Bolobo disappearing. Somehow he didn't think being Elementals had helped them at all. "We've lasted this long on our own just fine. We'll do the same here."

"Different game, different rules."

"Maybe, but we adapt."

Nya scoffed but didn't refute his words. Eventually her soft, even breathing joined Cade's. Despite Kai's insistence they all needed rest, he stayed awake well into the night.

Loud squealing rocked Kai from his sleep. He attempted to jump upright, but his body sunk into a soft surface. Blearily he looked around. After several seconds it clicked where he was, that didn't explain the noise. Kai then realized his siblings weren't in the room anymore. Adrenaline surging, Kai rushed out to the sitting room. He stopped short at seeing Cade jump up and down excitedly.

Look! Looklooklooklook!" Cade pointed to a tray overflowing with fruits, pastries, eggs, and bacon.

Nya stood near the door, rubbing a hand over her eyes. "Breakfast was just dropped off."

Kai's stomach grumbled at the sight. Snagging a piece of bacon he looked around and realized he didn't see Nelson.

Catching his scan Nya nodded toward the shut bedroom door. "Still asleep. I think."

Kai frowned in thought. Hopefully the kid really was sleeping, he definitely could use it. As if in defiance to his thoughts the door creaked open. A shock of brown beheaded hair peeked out.

"Morning." Kai nodded to Nelson. Nelson froze before ducking his head, running a hand through his hair. He muttered something Kai didn't quite catch. "Feel free to grab anything you want," Kai gestured to the tray, "There's enough for a small army."

Although, Kai realized he didn't know if the kid really needed to eat, or drink for that matter. Whether or not Nelson actually needed it he did take an orange off the plate before retreating to a corner with it.

They ate heartily while Kai tried to come up with a game plan. "First thing," he eyed both boys, "we have to sell the names. We're Mira and Mishel, nothing else while we're here, okay?" Nods all around. "For safety I don't want you two to be anywhere without either myself or Mira if you can help it. Or at the very least don't go anywhere by yourself. I don't trust the guards after seeing how they handle people on the streets. " Kai sighed. "We have to be friendly but we can't ask too many pointed questions."

"The problem is not the problem. The problem is your attitude about the problem." Kai and Nya shot Cade a flat look. "Just trying to lighten the mood." He muttered. "Though. . . would any wishes help?"

A thick silence descended around the room. Nelson picked at his orange peel, not looking up at the others. Kai mentally kicked himself but knew he had to ask.

"Would the wishes be able to be used in that way, Nelson?"

"As long as it's not wishing for more wishes, wishing to make someone fall in love, wishing to kill someone or bring someone back from the dead, you can wish for anything you can think of." He replied tonelessly.

"So it would be limited to our imagination then." Nya mused. "And between the three of us we have seven wishes left." Nya looked at Kai, "I could use one to help us find Jay, or at least make sure he's here before we are exposed."

"And why didn't you do that before we actually got in the castle?" Cade snorted.

Fighting back an exasperated sigh, Kai shook his head. "One step at a time. I admit I'm still not sure what I think about the whole wish business."

Ignoring the incredulous look Nelson sent him, Kai drifted to the door. "If we start by being out around others, maybe people will become more comfortable with us. Just don't bring up why we're actually here."

Solemn nods all around. "Well then, let's go explore a castle."

Nelson dug out his ear plugs. Once he finished Kai opened the door. . . and promptly slammed a guard standing in the doorway. Kai stumbled backward, the guard barely flinching. "Ow."

"My apologies, I did not mean to get in your way." The guard bowed, his eyes remained lowered toward the floor.

Kai waved a hand, "I shouldn't have swept out so quickly. We were actually heading out to see if we could get a larger tour of this fine castle."

"Of course." The guard led them from the room.

Cade bounded up to the front of their little procession. "What's your name?"

The guard side-eyed Cade. "Morro."

"Nice to meet you! I'm Cade! How long have you worked here? Do you ever get to see the king? Do you get to go all over the caste?-" Cade kept up a steady stream of questions that he never actually let Morro answer throughout their tour of the dining commons, main hallways, and outer courtyard.

Kai didn't mind. For once Cade wasn't directing endless questions to himself. Still, there was something just a little off about Morro that Kai couldn't put his finger on.

"Ooo what's down there?" Cade pointed toward a large building behind the palace and grabbed Morro's arm to point when he immediately let go with an "OW!"

Kai closed the distance between himself and Cade in two steps. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know." Cade shook out his hand. "My hand just hurt really bad all of a sudden."

Gently taking Cade's wrist, Kai turned it over to look at the underside. Nothing seemed amiss. "Does it still hurt?"

Cade paused for a moment, moved his wrist, then shook his head. "No. That was weird."

That was one word for it. Kai shook his head, "Just be careful with it for a while okay?"

He stepped back, catching a calculating look on Morro's face. The look disappeared when Morro saw Kai looking his way. Frowning, Kai trailed Morro's armor. Maybe his vambraces had poked Cade? They did have dull gray stone or metal intertwined with the leather.

"The stables are next." Morro's bland tone snapped Kai out of his thoughts. He nodded toward the building Cade had initially asked about. "That's where your dragon is staying."

Oops. Kai realized he hadn't given much thought to where Atlas went after they entered the castle. Good to know he was being taken care of.

The stables were a series of massive buildings, but, after ducking into the nearest one, barely massive enough to hold a dragon's stature. A large vaulted ceiling peaked in the center of the building leaving a large open circle bracketed by stalls. The stalls closest to the center had their outer walls removed to better allow Atlas room to sprawl on the ground. Two troughs had been set along the far side of the circle for what Kai assumed was water and food for Atlas. No other animals were in the barn. Kai wondered if it had already been empty or if the animals had been relocated to make sure Atlas didn't use them for snacks.

Upon noticing their approach Atlas stood and ambled over to the group. He nuzzled Nelson and then Cade.

"As you can see he's being well cared for." Morro cast a wary eye on the dragon, but stayed his ground near Atlas. A horn sounded from within the castle. Morro gestured with his head in that direction. "It's time for the noonday meal. I'm to take you to meet with the king and princess in the dining hall."

Kai's stomach flipped at the thought of being near Skylor again. How well would the glamor hold once they interacted together? '

Well,' Kai thought as they approached the dining hall, 'I'm about to find out.'

A/n- I wanted plot, the characters wanted a break with mild sprinkles of plot. We see who won out. But Happy 2024! As always thanks for sticking with me and the sporadic updates 🙃