Aza stood there, shivering on the bloody battlefield. She was paralized. Frozen by fear as the battle raged on. Suddenly, she caught a glimpse of periwinkle eyes and dirty blonde hair. Her horror increased when she realized the danger her dear brother was in.

As she looked closer she realized that he was fighting against the Trellian army. What was going on? Why would he fight against his own side?

Suddenly, she saw something in her peripheral vision. NO! Why was he not moving!? Didn't he see the soldier behind him!?

Aza's eyes widened as she realized what was about to happen. "No!" she yelled, but nothing came out. No matter how much she tried to catch his attention, to force him to see the warrior behind him, she couldn't.

Even when she tried running to him. When she tried sacrificing herself rather than her brother, she couldn't. She just had to stay there, unable to do anything to save him, as she watched the warrior stab that one fatal sword into his back. She had to watch as he fell onto the ground. She had to watch as the blood seeped out of the wound, creating a seemingly endless puddle of red. She had to watch as her brother's body grew limp. She had to watch her brother die. And when the final breath had left his body she let out a scream. She fell onto the ground and sobbed, letting out horrified shrieks at what she had just seen.

Aza woke up screaming and shaking. Her cheeks were damp and tears were still freely falling off her face. She realized that someone was holding her and turned to see Xavier with his hands on her shoulders and a worried and horrified expression on his face. From the position he was holding her she suspected that he had been trying to wake her up.

Her eyes, which had already seen so many tears, shed more of that unwanted water. Xavier, seeing this, wrapped her in a hug. As he held her close to his chest she realized how weak this must make her look. "Sorry. I-I'm fine. We should g-get up," she said as she desperately wiped her tears away with the sleeve of her dark purple dress, trying to calm down as fast as possible.

"No," he told her. "It's okay to be upset. You've been through a lot and you don't have to hide that from me. I want you to know that I'm there for you and so is Nicholas. You have people to rely on. You can have feelings. Okay?"

"Okay," she gave in, not having the mental energy to disagree with him.

"What happened? You can talk to me. You know that, right?"

"I know," she assured him. Even though they had only known each other for a week she felt like she had known him for a lifetime. "I-I had a nightmare. It was the worst thing I'd ever seen," she confessed as her eyes glazed over with unshed tears as it had so many times before.

"What happened in the dream? If you don't want to talk about it that's okay but I think it might help you to get it out."

"I-I... I watched my brother die." It was like a dam had broken as all of the tears she had tried to hold back came rushing down her face all at once. "I wasn't even there! How is it possible for me to see something I wasn't there for!?" He wrapped her in his arms again, letting her sob into his shoulder.

"I don't know, Aza. I don't know." They sat there, Aza crying into Xaviers shoulder, for a while before she was able to calm down.

His eyes tore into Aza's before she stood up slowly, pulling him with her. "Come on, let's go."

"Okay," he responded as they began making their way back to the camp. His eyes tore into Aza's before she stood up slowly, pulling him with her. "Come on, let's go," she said softly.

"Okay," he responded as they began making their way back to the camp.

When they got there they saw that Nicholas hadn't woken yet. She hoped that he didn't notice that neither of them had been there.

"Time to wake up," she said. It wasn't in an extremely loud voice. It was simply loud enough to where it would hopefully wake him up. Her plan worked as his eyes shot open.

"Where were you?" he asked groggily. 

"Nowhere. What do you mean?" she asked, trying to play dumb.

"I know you left last night. Where were you?" he pressured.

"Is it any of your business?" she snapped.

"I just want to know if you were safe!"

"Is! It! Any! Of! Your! Business!?" she repeated, pausing in between every word as her voice rose to a yell. 

Nicholas opened his mouth but nothing came out. He stood up slowly and walked out. 

Oh no. What have I done!? she asked herself as she ran after him.

"Nicholas! Nicholas, wait!" she yelled.

He continued running. She tried to keep up but she just wasn't fast enough. Eventually, he slowed down and sat on a log. She reached him and sat down next to him.

"What are you doing? Are you going to yell at me again?"

"No. I'm... I'm sorry. I was just scared. I didn't want you to be upset. I... I was upset last night when Xavier found me. I also had a bad dream last night. He helped me through everything. That's all. I was just scared. I should have told you. I'm sorry," she told him.

"It's today," he stated after calming down. What? "Today... today is the last day for the journey," he specified, looking up at her with wide eyes. She'd completely forgotten! Today she would save her father! "I was worried that you weren't safe and wouldn't even be able to save your own father. I was terrified. Don't ever do that to me again. Okay?"

"Okay," she responded. "Now, get up. We need to leave as soon as possible. We're going to need a lot of time. Up! Up! Up!" she ushered. Waving her hands through the air as they began walking back to the camp. Her mind was running a hundred miles an hour as she thought of everything that could go wrong. Suddenly, she wasn't nervous... she was terrified!

She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to see Xavier looking back at her. When she took more attention into her surroundings she realized that they had already arrived back at the camp. "How are you?" he asked, his voice concerned.

"I'm... I'll be okay. I just want to save my father."

***

A few hours later and they were finally there. The palace was large. They made their way to the gates where they hid behind the trees looking over everything. "It looks like they have guards stationed there, there, there, and there." She told Xavier and Nicholas, pointing to places on their hurriedly constructed map. "There are two alarm gongs there, and there. Are you ready?" She got nods from the two boys in response. "We need someone to stay out here. Who is willing to do it?" she asked.

"If I'm being honest I think Xavier should go," Nicholas admitted with a sigh. "I wish I could protect you but if anyone has a chance to do that it's Xavier."

"Okay, then. Nicholas, you stay out here and prepare to help us if we need help. Try and look out for the easiest way to get out of here quickly." She then turned to Xavier. "You and I will cast invisibility spells and run in as fast as possible. The spells won't last forever so we'll have to be quick." Xavier and Nicholas nodded again and she knew it was time.

They counted to three before Xavier and she used the spells to turn themselves invisible. Aza and Xavier made their way past the guards carefully before navigating their way towards the dungeon.

Everything seemed to be going according to plan. They had made their way into the dungeon without a hitch.

When they got in the dungeon Aza immediately noticed the guards. There were two guarding the cells.

"Someone needs to distract them," she whispered as quietly as possible, hoping he heard her. It was silent for a few moments and she suspected that he had not heard her when she heard a crash behind her and noticed that multiple torches had fallen down.

The guards looked up quickly and she saw their eyes widen as they rushed over to stop the spread of the fire. This is it.

Aza grabbed the keys from the wall where it had been foolishly placed. She tried to be quiet as she looked through the keys to try to find out which one would open the cell door. Her invisible hands made it hard to tell where she was grabbing, and she accidentally dropped the key. It fell on the stone floor, and the sound echoed through the dungeon catching the guard's attention. Her eyes widened in fear and her heartbeat wildly as she saw that the fire was out.

She felt paralyzed, unable to move because she worried that if she did, they would get caught. We're still invisible, she told herself, trying to calm down. At that moment the spell that Xavier had cast to make himself invisible began to fade right in front of the puzzled guard.

"Run!" Aza told him. She didn't tell him fast enough. The guard snapped out of his daze and grabbed Xavier's hands, putting them behind his back as he grabbed the keys from the ground and threw him into the cell where her father lay, gaping at them in shock.

"No!" Aza shouted before thinking of the consequences. At the sound of her voice, the guard blindly grabbed her arm and forcefully shoved her into the dungeon. Her spell wore off as she hit the cold stone floor with a thud. As soon as she was visible Nicholas and her father rushed over to help her. The guard glared at them through the prison bars before sitting back in his seat and closing his eyes. She sat up with their help and took in her father's ragged appearance.

His long brown hair was disheveled and his beard had grown since the last time she had seen him. He was skinny and his lips were dry as tears brimmed on his eyes. What had they done to him? She felt her own tears threatening to spill over as she saw her father.

"I missed you," he told her through shaky breaths before pulling her into a tight hug.

"I missed you too."

"What are we going to do?"

"I don't know. I'm so sorry that I wasn't able to rescue you." Aza responded.

"No. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have dragged you into this."

"I'm just glad that you're okay." She told him unwrapping herself from his tight embrace.

She looked around the room and caught Xavier's eye. He was sitting in the corner of the small cell watching the reunion. He looked very uncomfortable and awkward. For some reason when he caught another look at my father his eyes widened. Aza looked at him questionably before shrugging it off and putting her attention back on her dad.

"I have a few questions," Aza's father stated after a few moments of silence.

"Yes?" Aza replied.

"First, when did you meet Xavier?" he asked.

"How do you know his name?"

"He's one of my students."

"Really? Wait, you have students?" she asked. "You have magic?"

"I do. I'm sorry for keeping this from you but I needed to keep you safe. I had no other choice. So, when did you two meet. Also, when did you discover your magic!?"

"Funny story, those are actually kind of the same story," she told him, before sighing. "About a week ago when I got attacked by a wolf."

"You got attacked!?" His eyes went wide as he looked at his daughter.

"It's a long story, but I guess we have a while."

She restated the story calmly, although at the mention of the letter declaring her brother's death she choked up and felt tears stream down her face despite her attempts to prevent them. and saw that her father was in the same state.

At that moment one of the alarm gongs went off catching the attention of the guards with a jolt. They grabbed their swords quickly and ran out of the room towards the sound of the gong.

As they were leaving Aza was able to grab the keys from one of the inattentive guards with her telekinesis. She led the keys into her outstretched palm and unlocked the cell door after the guards had left her side.

Her father and Nicholas looked at her with wonder in their eyes at her telekinesis charm. She didn't see it as anything praiseworthy. It was only a small and easy charm. "Come on!" she ran out of the room with them following closely behind.

They were seconds away from escaping when three people grabbed their arms. She turned around to see people with masks covering their faces.

She tried to scream but Xavier and her father quickly quieted her. Aza was terrified as they dragged her out of the castle. Why weren't father and Xavier trying to escape? further and further into the thickly wooded forest. What was happening? Where was Nicholas?

"Stop fighting. They aren't going to hurt us. We are on our way to The Magicians Assembly of Warriors," Xavier told her in a quiet whisper.

She stopped fighting simply because she trusted Xavier but she was still terrified and unprepared. Xavier seemed to sense this as he grabbed her hand to comfort her.

Finally, after hours of walking they had arrived at the camp. It was incredible. She saw people practicing sword fighting and archery. She saw people making weapons and armor. She even saw people using magic. She couldn't believe her eyes as she stood there with her mouth wide open.

When she looked around she saw Nicholas! She ran over to him as fast as she could and jumped into a tight embrace. "Oh my goodness Nicholas! I had no idea where you were! Do you have any idea how scary that is?" she asked into his shoulder.

"Sorry," he apologized through peals of laughter. He was laughing!

"Stop laughing!" she told him.

"Okay," he said through more laughter before they slowly died out leaving a large smile on his face.

"What happened?"

"It's kind of crazy. So, these people came up to me while I was hiding and told me that they were from the Magicians Assembly of Warriors and that I needed to follow them. I didn't want to because I knew that you guys were in there so I told them that but they reassured me that they'd make sure you were safe. I really didn't want to leave but they didn't give me much of a choice so I left and here I am."

"I'm just glad that I got my best friend again," she said before turning around.

She gasped when she saw who it was. Faye was right there staring at her. "Hello, Azalea," she said.

"Hello, Faye," she said. "What are you doing here?"

"I told you that I'd come back. Who do you think rang the gong? Who do you think showed you the truth of what happened to Matthew?"

"That was you!?" she asked, recalling the moment that they had been saved and that terrible nightmare that had shown her the truth about Trellia; that they were evil, backstabbing murderers who seek only to terrorize others to become the most powerful in the kingdom simply because they feel threatened.

"It was."

Aza realized that people were staring at her with wide eyes. "Why are you all looking at me?" Aza asked.

"It's you! You're the young maiden destined to save us!" a beautiful, tall, dark-skinned woman told her.

"No! It's not true. I'm just a normal girl. It's not... it's not possible," Aza breathed.

"You need to accept it, Aza. You can't keep running from the fact that it's you," Faye told her.

"I can't. Not right now." And with that, Aza ran off.

***

When Aza ran off, she went to a fallen log and let tears fall silently down her face. A few minutes later Xavier was there. As soon as he saw her, he ran over to her and wrapped her in a hug just as he had done what seemed so long ago. In reality, it was only the night before. She cried into his arms for a while until she was able to calm herself.

"Thank you. For everything. I don't know what I'd do without you," she told him. He looked up at her and as she looked into his eyes she realized how much she liked him. He'd been there for her throughout the worst week of her life, and she realized she wanted to be with him.

She saw Xavier's eyes flick down to her lips before returning to her eyes. She realized she wanted to kiss him... so she did.

She leaned forward at the same time he did as an explosion of butterflies went off in her stomach. She never wanted it to stop. His lips were soft against hers and his hands on her waist made her feel safe. As though nothing could hurt her in that moment.

Eventually, they pulled away. She put her forehead against his as she caught her breath. "I really like you, Xavier."

"I like you too."

They sat there together, hand in had.

"What are we going to do? I'm not ready for a relationship."

"We wait. I don't think that this is the right time either but no matter how long it takes, I'll wait for you. I'll always wait for you."

"I'm going to do it," she told him abruptly.

"Do what?"

"I'm going to save them. If I really am destined to save them then I will. I'll do it!"

She knew it wouldn't be easy. It would be far from easy. But with those closest to her by her side, she knew she could do it.