The room seemed to freeze in time as Salo stood stiff as a wooden plank, staring at where the man had been a second ago. Both the bags had slipped from his hands, his muscles tense under the heavy atmosphere. Everything was dark, absorbed into a vast shadow that stretched to every corner of the cabin, hungry for more.

He didn't know what came over him then. Maybe it was Nora's desperate hand shuffling around, searching an arm to hold on to. Like an arrow ripping through the air, Salo scurried back and crashed against the door, latching on to the door knob and wiggling it with bared teeth. His palm veered across the metal sphere clumsily, cold sweat erasing every trace of friction when he needed it the most.

"How rude. You're not going to greet your guest properly?" Kage's voice bellowed. The darkness subsided, a dim view of the room visible through the boy's wide eyes. Nora hadn't moved an inch, rooted to the ground with a clenched jaw and her eyes fixed on the prince's palm, where a tiny golden pellet lay.

Silence reigned for several moments. The man's sardonic smile had disappeared, a stern glower capturing his straight face. A dark cloak sheltered his body, with a simple shirt and pants underneath. His neck was wrapped with a thin shawl and thick boots protected his feet. He hadn't come to fight. He was there to compromise.

Salo bit his words back before they mananged to escape his mouth. Kage didn't know who he was or what he knew. The plan was a secret, and he needed to remind himself that. He was safe. As long as he kept quiet.

"Here to cut our tongues with your silver spoon, perhaps?" Nora gibed, poison dripping from her sarcastic simper. Her gaze was filled with caution, ready to dash out of the way if the prince tried anything.

Kage returned the slight smile, teeth clenched shut as he spoke. "Believe it or not, the law applies to me too. If I could kill you in foreign territory I would have done so."

It was true. Were they in Seyal or Frya, they would have had their heads shaved off the instant they were found. Musha was neutral ground, however. Nobody could smother anyone there. Salo felt his heart pump a beat slower at that thought.

"So what is it that you want?" asked Nora.

"How about a deal?" he offered, dropping the shiny pearl-shaped glob in his pocket, never breaking eye contact with the girl.

A short, dry laugh trickled from her throat. "Do I look stupid? How about I waltz in a prison cell myself and spare us all the trouble?" Despite her scathing remarks, Nora's hand fumbled with the fabric of her shirt, searching frantically for a weapon, something to distract him with. She was panicking. It had started infecting Salo, too.

"We found your radio. We also contacted the default frequency. Such kind people, these agents."

The girl stiffened, but achieved a placid hum. "Did you tell them about my excellent performance? I'm sure they'd be delighted."

"They want you back," he replied sternly. "So go back."

"You know," Nora pondered, rubbing her chin, "even if I was delusional enough to think my country would go through all this trouble for me, I still wouldn't believe you. The location was a decoy meant for simple coded orders. They never answer foreign signals there."

Smiling, Kage crossed his arms. "That's smart. I am still ready to propose my bargain."

"Drop the shadows first."

"How about you introduce you friend before I do so?"

Nora turned to Salo almost apologetically, sending a twinge of dread down his spine. He was good at being invisible, but the talking part wasn't ever the easiest. Taking a hefty gulp of saliva down his dry throat, he hesitantly opened his mouth, ready to tell the truth.

"He's just a factory worker," Nora blurted out before Salo said something he shouldn't have. Eyeing the boy wearily, she raised her shoulders into a shrug. "He was just helping me with shopping. Barely speaks any Seyali."

Kage nodded slowly, staring into Salo's jade eyes through narrow sockets. "Is that so?"

For a moment, the thief panicked. He frantically looked back and forth between the two figures. "S-She say right. Honest woman," he stuttered, even himself flinching at his feigned Mushan accent. The prince's eyes bored into his for few more seconds, a rather unconvinced ascend on his left brow. Finally, his strained hands slackened and the shade slumped down the wall, the faint gleam of a fresh moon lustering through the windows.

"I want Ailyn and Ela," the prince said bluntly, picking at a few loose threads hanging from his cloak. "In the Seyali borders, three days from now."

Nora snorted, stifling a laugh. "What could you possibly offer in return for something like this?"

"A pardon," he suggested. "I hope you at least have the sense to realize you will eventually be arrested. You are wanted, little spy. Hand the Ascended over and you will be excused."

"Why not go get them yourself?"

It was something Salo was wondering, too. Nora's cabin was admittedly the closest to the factory, and maybe Kage started his search from there. It wouldn't take long to find the girls in the building just opposite from the one he was standing in, however. The realization dawned on him. He just arrived. The strange sphere preoccupied him.

A tight smile stretched his lips. "I don't suppose my sibling would be too eager to come with me, even if I did find her. You have three days to get them to the border."

"I'm not enough of a dupe to believe I'll get to the other side in one piece," Nora retorted, shaking her head vigorously. "The moment I step on Seyali soil, your minions will have the right to impale me."

"I'm a man of my word."

"Why am I having trouble believing that?"

He shrugged. "Perhaps you have trust issues?"

Raising her hand, Nora rubbed the faint bruise on her left cheekbone. "Trust issues," she repeated, almost mocking the man's words. "No deal. Find another fool."

"Have you heard of your mother lately?"

Nora froze, slowly returning her gaze to Kage. It was the glare that could petrify a man to an unmoving boulder, limbs numb and heart halted. The prince's golden eyes burned with a taunt, a hint of a smile playing on his lips. The darkness seemed to return as the room plunged into the shadows once more, soaked into a jeering umbrage that clang to Salo's skin. It was his turn to scour the blackness for the spy, gripping onto the fabric he found and yanking it close. A few stray strands of hair tickled his neck, and a panicked grasp seized his sleeve.

When the light returned, the boy collapsed on the bed. Beads of sweat rolled down his cheek as he panted shallow breaths. I just saw him. The Prince of Darkness. He's going to kill us all. The few contents of his stomach churned and swirled into a dazed spiral. He didn't know if he was glad to be alive or mad he didn't do anything to stop him. He had lied to one of the most important figures of Seyal. The country that was cooperating with his. The country that had Ascended.

Nora grabbed his forearm, hauling him to his feet. She squeezed his skin and stared at his eyes. "This stays between us."

"What?" Salo shook off her hand, but never severed their eye contact. "Are you crazy? We have to tell the others!"

"Tell them what? That we were offered to betray them?"

"That a lunatic is strolling around our cabins, maybe?"

She shook her head, holding up a warning finger. "Forget it. We should at least consider the deal." With a sharp nod, she span around and marched towards the door.

"Is he going to hurt your mother? Is that why?" Salo called after her.

Nora laughed, pausing at the door. "No, Canbar. It's not my mother I worry for." Despite her light tone, a darker glimmer shone in her black eyes as she turned the handle and burst outside.

Before she could take many steps into the crisp atmosphere, a weary Arden stopped her. He was standing right outside the door, hand hovering in a fist as if he was ready to knock. Spotting the two, a mild scowl occupied his features.

"What was going on in there?" he grilled, eyes snapping rapidly between the two figures.

Nora tried to disguise her evident surprise as amusement, forcing an awkward laugh. "We were just organizing the groceries."

Peeping at the dropped cloth bags, Arden pursed his thin lips and knit his dark brows into an elaborate frown. "Doesn't look very organized to me."

"That's because you're pessimistic."

"Canbar, come along. I haven't had the honor of hearing your yapping for hours."

Salo and Arden had been placed in the same cabin due to a shortage of settlements, and it wasn't particularly fun for neither of them. The former liked to fill the silence with gossip or stories or anything. The latter didn't always seem eager to answer.

"And you," Arden said, turning to throw a glance full of meaning at Nora. "Get ready for dinner. We'll meet at the lake in an hour."

And with that they departed into the thick snow, silence ruling between the boys after days of endless noise.

•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••

The alehouse was full of sweaty bodies clinging to each other, chortling at dry jokes and gulping down alcohol like it was filtered water. Nora was perched on a metal stool, fanning her face with a frayed menu. Ailyn and Ela had been allowed to follow, too, now resting against the table and sulking at the crew with murderous glares. Both their faces were obscured by two black hoods over their hair, casting a shadow on their stern features. Arden and Salo sat on the other side.

"So," Arden said, weaving his fingers into knots and glancing at everyone's empty plates. All the tavern had left was porridge, and most of their crew wasn't too delighted to consume the clammy mush. Hunger seemed to prevail, nevertheless. "How did the walk to the market go?"

Salo flinched. He knew what he meant very well, but he evaded his lethal glance. "Fine. I still don't understand what we need all this camping equipment for."

"Well, while you were gone, we debated on fun recreational activities."

"Please don't leave the planning up to this guy," Ela pleaded wearily. "He wants to take us sleighing. I've endured enough torture here."

Salo frowned at the foreign sport. "What's wrong with sleighing?"

"It involves sliding down a hill," clarified Arden.

"And sweaty armpits. And inevitable death."

"Only if you're a whiny brat who won't shut her mouth."

Ailyn sighed, stabbing the ragged tablecloth with a toothpick. "How is the retrieval of the relic going?" She looked up, biting her lip as she threw meticulous glances at each person surrounding the table. What was it that Salo could sense in her glance? Guilt? Disappointment?

He thought back to the letter he had sent for her. The boy hadn't dared peek inside, despite his curiosity. Ailyn had requested he kept it a secret and never told anyone about it. Who was it for? What damage had it done? His mind couldn't help but travel back to Kage's sudden appearance. Was it a coincidence or a carefully orchestrated plot against them? Searching for an answer in the princess's sea green eyes only spawned a spiral of a million more questions in his mind. But among all those suspicions, the boy saw it clearly, a trait that he couldn't doubt.

It was kindness. Good intentions. That was all he needed to look away.

"Korin says it will be here in less than a week," Arden explained, but even he sounded aggravated at the wait. "Hopefully."

Nora laughed, shaking her head. "You should know 'hopefully' means 'hardly' for diplomats and 'nearly impossible' for people like Korin. If even he's not sure about when we will have the Kingfisher or if at all, then you should be ten times as doubtful."

"I don't trust Korin," Salo exclaimed.

Every head turned to him, either amused or sceptical. He slowly nodded, scanning everyone's expression. "We know where the artifact is supposed to be. I think we should leave here as soon as possible."

"No!" Nora and Ailyn blurted out in unison, twirling to face each other suspiciously.

Salo knew they couldn't stay there any further. The deal Kage had proposed was dangerous, but still tempting. If something went horribly wrong, the boy didn't know what he would do in his panic for his own safety. Besides, the prince couldn't have travelled all this way just to hand out pardons and play around in the snow.

Something was about to happen. Something big. Salo didn't want to witness it.

"We can wait a few days," Arden offered lazily, massaging his temples. "If he doesn't have it by then we can travel to Karahi ourselves."

"You don't get it," Salo warned. He tried to convey some meaning through his glance, yet that only earned him a confused glare. "We need to leave. I have a bad feeling about this."

"I agree," consented Ela eagerly.

"Twitchy teenagers have no voting rights," Nora snapped.

Arden pushed against the table, shoving his chair back. "You can bicker while we're on our way."

Nora scrunched her nose, peeping at the man curiously. "On our way to where?"

"The factory," he said, glancing at the clock hanging from the wall. "Tomorrow, a fun excursion awaits you."

•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••

"Is this your idea of fun?"

The sunlight peeking through the thick clouds caught itself in Salo's eyes as he struggled to drag his feet in the snow. With each step he took he sank an inch further. He latched onto his wooden walking stick for support.

"Yes," Arden retorted, kicking off the snow that had piled on his boots. "Just keep our hike's practical use in mind if you're so boring."

Ela snorted. "Which is?"

"Getting a better look at Karahi." He turned around, sliding the knit cap further down his forehead. "We can't go until the winter festival is over. If there aren't many decorations and fireworks and obnoxious clowns, we can start packing up."

Last night had gone by quickly. Too quickly. Salo was counting down the moments until the final day Kage had offered them. 57 hours. A few thousand minutes. He kept trying to soothe his racing heart, telling himself that as long as he was away from Seyal he would be fine. But who could guarantee that? How would he return back to his mother if angry soldiers spitting fire and flooding the streets with sea water were after him?

"Hey," Nora whispered, jabbing his ribs with her elbow. The whiff of cold air he gasped in seemed to satisfy her. "Why do you look so spooked?"

"Maybe it's because a bloodthirsty shadow manipulator blackmailed us?" he hissed under his breath, careful not to let the others hear his thoughts.

"You mean striked a lawful deal," she corrected, smoothing out the creases on her chunky pants. "And I did my best not to involve you. If he smothers you in your sleep you can blame your awful acting skills."

"How can you be so composed about this?"

She cracked a smile. "I don't need his pardon. They can hunt me all they want in Seyal. After this, I'm going back to Flouorn, so it won't matter."

He nodded. She didn't have a reason to be afraid. Seyal was her enemy. But Frya was allied with the country, and if they were hunting Salo in one, they would surely follow him to the other.

Arden suddenly halted, looking behind his shoulder. "What is this?"

A large icy boulder towered over the team, blocking the path sculpted on the road by wagon wheels. Nora huffed, looking almost relieved. "Does that mean we can go back now?"

"No," Ela muttered, laying her hand on the mass. She battered its surface, turning back to face the rest. "It's hollow."

For a brief moment, Salo's heart stopped. His gut was begging him to leave while he still could . Cold sweat gushed over his skin as he glanced around, his feet ready to sprint.

His gut was right.

A pair of hooded figures dashed out from behind the piled snow, a torrent of violent water flooding the trail their vigorous footsteps left.

***

There's a short chapter for the sake of my poor fingers. Typing is so inconvenient ;-;

That was a ride, at least for me while writing it. And yes, I love cliffhangers. Fight me.

Over 600 reads! I love everyone who took time out of their life to read this mess. Please consider voting and commenting ♡