Episode Three, Part 3:
Exiles. 

So you want fears? We still got several.

The Sovereigns returned back to the beach without Dreea, but their hostage instead, and were determined to figure out what their next steps would be. Bas kept watch over Ivy, keeping her wrists restrained with leftover rope from Terra Firma's raid, and made sure she wasn't going to get out of their possession as Wynn, Kodiak and Sol returned to their tent, not sure if they could call their situation 'progress'.

"That didn't quite go as expected," Wynn let out a heavy breath, pulling the journal out of his jacket and chucking it on the propped up tree stumped which served as a makeshift surface area for them.

"Yeah, although I'm kind of glad Dreea's they one they decided on," Kodiak admitted. "I know she'll be able to fend for herself if it comes to it. They won't be able to kill her, even if they tried."

"Yeah, that wasn't a smart decision on their part," Wynn said.

"The whole concept of this is completely unheard of," Sol contributed. "Who volunteers themselves as a hostage? Who willingly allows an opposing clan to take them?"

"I mean... Chessca kind of did that," Wynn pointed out, a little nervous how his words would come across.

"What do you mean?" Sol was puzzled.

"When me, Quill and Elara went to Rider's labs," he said, "and we needed Quill to take her hostage so Rhea and my dad would believe that Elara was out of camp and, well, you guys know the rest..."

"That only worked because Chessca thought it was her chance at escape. She was being tortured by Rhea and your-" Sol cut herself off, pausing to comprehend what she was saying. "You think Ivy wanted to leave?"

"From what I saw, it looked like her and Calvin were pretty important to each other, and Calvin's their leader... Ivy didn't seem as though she was trapped," Kodiak voiced.

Wynn shrugged. "Just a possibility," he said. "None of us could have imagined what Chessca went through in The City before you came along. Otherwise, it's just an interesting tactic for them to figure out if they want an alliance with us."

"I don't know," Sol sighed. "There's so much to figure out. Anything could be possible at this point."

"Well, on the brighter side, we're one step closer to actually having this alliance. At least we can assume there won't be any attacks on our people for the next few days. We just have to worry about Dreea," Kodiak continued, "and, like I said, I'm sure she'll be fine. They're no match for her."

"And I doubt they'd do anything to seriously harm her now that we have Ivy. Calvin completely freaked out when Dreea started to cut her," Wynn said.

"You're right," Sol nodded, glad that both of them always had a way of getting through to her. "It was smart thinking about that journal, though."

"Thanks," Wynn said, reaching down and opening up the pages between them. "I only put a few things in there like some of the maps, some details about who wrote it, sketches of some of the landmarks around here. There's a lot of drawings actually..."

Sol picked up the journal, flipping through it until she reached the end, going through it backwards. Wynn was right; there were a lot of drawings that filled the pages - most of them of certain landmarks in the forest or of particular types of wild fruit that were labelled as safe to eat, but there were also drawings of a person; a girl.

"Hey," Sol caught the boys' attention, interrupting their conversation. "Doesn't this look like..."

Kodiak took the book from Sol, tilting it around to Wynn could see. "Ivy..." He said. "Yeah."

"But it's not from someone in Terra Firma?" Wynn scrunched up his nose. "Calvin's response to it told us that much."

"That's odd," Kodiak said. "The resemblance is uncanny; it's Ivy for sure-"

"But why is it her?" Sol finished his thought. "Why is someone from Exile Allegiance drawing her or... Or writing to her..."

"Huh?" Kodiak shook his head, not seeing how Sol was able to connect the dots. "You think this journal is meant for her?"

"Give me another look," she said, not wanting to answer unless she was sure; hurrying to take the journal from Kodiak and scan each page, skimming her eyes over every word that was written down.

"I think it's possible," she said. "I think that it might have even been used for two people to communicate through."

"Ivy and someone..." Wynn filled in the blanks, earning a nervous nod from Sol.

"Someone from Exile Allegiance," Sol said. "This is a game changer; maybe that's why Ivy wanted to come with us - because she didn't want to be around when Calvin realised this was her work."

"Good job we still have the original," Wynn said. "Maybe we can use this information to our advantage if the alliance starts slipping."

"First, we need to figure out more about Ivy," Kodiak said. "And who from Exile Allegiance she'd be talking with, and why. My guess is we're just scratching at the surface. This could even explain why Terra Firma are at war against them."

"Speaking of which," Sol's tone was full of reluctance, almost wishing Kodiak hadn't reminded her. "We need to get our people ready for this war of their's."

"That's not going to be that easy," Kodiak sighed, dropping his head in exhaustion. "As if being prisoner on Neptunum and having to fight to get out of there days ago wasn't enough, now they're going to have to fight for their lives all over again. We don't even have Dreea to go over our attack; no one's going to want to fight."

"That's not true," Sol argued. "You being here is reason enough for them to want to fight."

Kodiak huffed and shook his head, not even beginning to understand what she was talking about.

"Riv-"

"You give them hope," she refused to let him get another word out, able to read him better than he could read himself, emphasising every syllable she said. She watched as his face softened at her words - a dead giveaway that he needed what was coming, but he was too shy to admit it.

"Half these people thought you were dead! They all saw you at the gates of Basilisk when you and Bas were being controlled by the implant; most of them knew you weren't in one of the bunkers. You don't even realise how much our people look up to you."

"Now you're just being too polite-"

"I'm not, Kodiak," she shook her head. "And I've heard stories from Wynn and Dreea about what everyone was like after The City of Targo took me; they said if it wasn't for you, neither of them would have had the strength to keep doing their job, let alone would any of our people continued to feel safe or protected by us. They looked to you and saw that you had enough strength to keep going, so they did as well. You know, the three of us talked about you every day when you were gone," she told him. "And Elara taught Izzy all those stories about you. We've got a thousand tales to prove to you just how deeply you matter to everyone, and they'd just be the ones off the top of our head. You taught us that it's important to keep on surviving because we have people we love and sometimes, if we fight hard enough; if we hold on long enough; if we keep our hope, the people we love come back to us. And the deepest hurts we endure find a way of making sense in the end. Basilisk are going to want to survive because they've seen their Sovereigns do it every time and we always fight for our people. You always fight for us."

"You're good at speeches, Riv," Kodiak smiled fondly at her, knowing she could see how deeply effected he was by her words.

"I just tell you the truth," she said, slinging her arms around his neck and pulling him into her embrace.

"Think you can go out there and break the news to everyone?" He asked, laughing a little until she pulled away.

"Actually, I can't," she told him. "I have to... I have to do something, but you guys can put a speech together. You were the ones who told them about our alliance with Blood Riders and that they were moving into our camp. I think you two have a pretty good track-record between you."

"What are you doing?" Wynn asked, confused why she wasn't planning on sticking around to help them come up with an announcement.

"I have to do something for Chess," she said, already drifting towards the exit of the tent, hoping they wouldn't push for more questions. "You guys have got this. You'll be fine."

"Sol-" Wynn called out for her, suspecting that she was anxious about something and trying to hide it from them both, but she had already jumped out of sight.

"Chessca must really be worried about Exile Allegiance," Kodiak said. "She probably doesn't want Riv out of her sight until she knows they're gone. I feel so bad for her, especially now that Dreea's gone for a few days... And I'm worried this is exactly how Elara's going to feel when she finds out."

"Well, with any luck, we'll do a good enough job with our speech that our people will be so eager to assist the attacks on them that Exile Allegiance won't stand a chance against us."

"Yeah," Kodiak said. "Let's hope."

/////////

"Riv!" Chessca called out, catching sight of the Sovereign trying to sneak past, not realising that Sol was doing her best to avoid everyone.

"Hey, Chess, what's up?" Sol played it cool, hoping that their conversation wouldn't be long so she could carry on with her plans before every opportunity escaped her.

"How did it go with the proposal? Did you get the alliance?" She asked. "And who's that person Bas brought back?"

"Yeah, we have the alliance," Sol answered. "And that's Ivy - our hostage from Terra Firma. Stay away from her; I'm confident Bas can manage her, but even so, I want you to be careful."

Chessca nodded, a familiar look of contemplation reaching her face as she gazed over at Ivy, trying to figure out how much her presence worried her. "Have you seen Dreea?" She turned back to face Sol. "I've been talking to Atlantis about how I feel after finding about Exile Allegiance, and we talked about some of the things that happened to me when I was in The City... I kind of feel bad that I didn't talk to Dreea about it before, and I'd really like to now. Is she with Wynn and Kodiak?"

"Chess..." Sol sighed, letting out a heavy breath as she looked everywhere but the girl's eyes.

"Yeah?" She asked, a little nervous, but she was waiting on Sol to race in and calm her like she always did. She kept waiting... "Riv, what is it?"

"Dreea's not here."

"What are you talking about?"

"She's with Terra Firma. She their hostage."

"What!?" Chessca's breathing picked up instantaneously and the panic in her voice quickly alerted the attention of the Atlantis, Elara and Aeryn who were sitting nearby, now watching on intently at their conversation.

"We have to go get her-"

"Everything's okay," Sol cut her off, clasping Chessca's face in both of her hands. "It's not a normal hostage situation: Ivy, the girl with Bas, proposed that both clans take a hostage, sort of like insurance. They're not going to lay a finger on Dreea because they know that if they do, we'll kill Ivy."

"That doesn't change-"

"Believe me, Chess, Terra Firma don't want anything to happen to Ivy. Their leader, Calvin, almost lost his mind when Ivy suggested it. He doesn't want to risk something happening to her."

"That's what they want you to believe."

"No," Sol shook her head, hating to see Chessca so afraid and feeling as though for once, there was nothing she could do about it. "You need to trust me," she said. "And you need to trust Dreea; she's the one who agreed to it."

"S-she did?" Chessca sniffled.

"Yeah," Sol nodded. "Because she knows what she's doing, and there's no way she can't get out of there if she wants to. Terra Firma don't realise who they have," she murmured, wiping Chessca's tears away and watching her take a deep, but shaky breath.

"How long until she's back?"

"Just a few days. Once we trade her and Ivy back, our people will have to help them in an attack against Exile Allegiance. Then, once they're taken care of, Calvin is going to allow us enough time to plan our way off of this island. We're all going to be safe."

Chessca nodded, still trying to wrap her mind around how there wasn't a single fear that Sol couldn't calm her down from. "Do you want to come sit with me and Atlantis?"

Sol smiled warmly at her, tucking her hair behind her ear. "I'd love to, but it'll have to be later. I have to do something right now."

"...This isn't what we talked about earlier, is it?"

"I'm just going into the forest for a little while. You won't even notice I'm gone."

"Do Kodiak and Wynn know about this?" She shot Sol a disapproving look. "Because I'm pretty sure they'd have told you the same thing that I have-"

"They don't need to know," Sol interrupted. "Because then they'll be worried for no good reason-"

"For no good reason? I think it's because they won't want you to be killed out there!"

"Keep your voice down," Sol hushed her, knowing that if they were any louder, than the others would overhear. "I can handle myself out there, Chess. I'm the Nobel Sovereign."

"You were also hit with an arrow the other day," she reminded her. "You're not at your best."

"Me being 'not at my best' is still better than everyone else," she said, offering her a confident smile to show that she wasn't afraid. "I will be fine. Go sit with Atlantis until I get back and you'll soon forget I'm not around."

"I don't like this, Riv," Chessca informed her, gradually taking a few steps back as Sol encouraged her away. "And if you get hurt out there, I'm going to be so mad at you."

Sol chuckled, amused that, that was the meanest thing Chessca could come up with.

"I'll be back before you know it." 

Three // Part Three
The deepest hurts we endure find a way of making sense in the end.

Inspired by one of my favourite Bible verses, 'Jesus replied, "you do not realise now what I am doing, but later you will understand."' John 13:7.

This chapter brought the book up to 50,000 words! Yay!!! And it's not even halfway through!!!

I'm excited for the next two chapters and what Sol's going to find out by trying to understand more about Exile Allegiance.

Literally, 3 of my basketball teammates had babies this week which is just crazy because we're 20 years old and I still feel like we're all kids ourselves, but yay for them. Having two host kids is more than enough for me at the moment.

21/02/21.