Strider and I are talking strategy one how we are going to question these prisoners more. We are waiting for Theon to come back with books about the origin of the great division and how healers have tried to cure followers of Darkness in the past. We are hoping that those book can give us an idea on where to start with our experiments. Hopefully, we can add a little but of our magic into whatever potions and find a cure to save the world.

  Theon comes down the stairs and leads to the prison. Strider bounces on his feet, “Great, you finally made it. Now let’s go save some civilians.”

  Strider walks ahead and Theon falls behind with me. “Did you know that Xavier doesn’t believe in Light and Darkness?”

  I stop in my trail. “How do you know that?” I give him a look that demands and answer.

  “He told me himself.” Theon puts his free hand up in the air as if he is surrendering.

  “When did you talk to him?”

  “Just a little bit ago. I saw him in the library while I was doing my research and we got to know a little bit better. I also find out that you haven’t told him that you have siblings so I let him know that I am your younger brother. It’s no big deal really.”

  “No big deal? Brother, you could have ruined any trust that I was starting with Xavier. I could have gotten to him and have him spill the truth about Darkness to me.”

  None of that is true. I still think Xavier and his friends are innocent but I don’t want my brother to see the feelings I have for Xavier. At least, not how many feelings I have for Xavier.

  “If he says he doesn’t believe in Light or Darkness, what makes you think that he would be a follower of Darkness?”

  “He could be lying, you idiot.”

  Theon opens his mouth to respond but Strider cuts him off. “You two want to save the world or not?”

  I turn to Theon one more time and glare at him before storming off towards Strider. How could he tell Xavier that I am his sister? Next thing he might tell Xavier is that we are the children of Light and Darkness. Of course, Xavier might will probably not believe a single word. Doesn’t matter, though, Theon can’t going around telling people facts about ourselves. They could put two and two together and then the chaos of centuries ago could rise up again. We would be asked to do so many things and people will fight about who gets priority and then start to kill each other just so they can get in front of the line.

  I’m not angry with Theon because he stated a fact about me to Xavier. I am angry with Theon because he is being reckless about information and if it gets to the wrong people then a lot of people could be in even more danger.

  Theon and I meet up with Strider at Juniper’s cell. We haven’t talked to her since she told us the reason she went to Darkness in the first place. I have been trying to this of many ways I could help Juniper that doesn’t involve my family and I could only come up with one solution. And that solution is not even a guarantee solution. I told Theon to bring down a book or two about medicine in hopes that it could give us a start to our experiments but there was another reason I told him to bring a book about medicine down. I was hoping that I could sneak the book Juniper and help her find some sort of medicine that could help her daughter.

  Her story is something not unusual. Most of the people who go to Darkness is out of desperation, but when I saw the heartbreak in her eyes as she was telling me about her daughter, I couldn’t help but try and find sometime that could help her.

  We arrive at her cell and I say, “Juniper, we appreciate your cooperation. We were wondering if there was a solution to help your baby without turning to Darkness, would you take the opportunity?”

  Juniper looks up at me, her eyes puffy from constantly crying. Probably from missing her child. I can’t help but feel a sting in my chest for her. I would be devastated too.

  She nods eagerly and then stands up from the ground. “I would do anything for my daughter. If I could avoid Darkness while doing that, then I would gladly do that. Anything for my baby girl. Anything.”

  I nod at her with a slight smile on my lips. “Perfect, we will come back to you later today.”

  We walk over to the next cell where the man with the gray beard is still sitting in the far corner, rocking back and forth, and muttering something that I still can’t make out.

  “Sir, we need you to answer us, otherwise you won’t get the possibility to leave this cell,” I state to him.

  He rocks back and forth still, no sign of him hearing me. But then I see a slight jerk to him and I hear a crunch and a scream. My brothers and I look at each other before we rush the door open to help him. He isn’t moving as he is slumped on the ground.

  “Sir,” I say while trying to shake him, “Sir, are you okay? We need you to wake up and answer us. Sir? Sir!”

  I continue to shake him slightly, trying to get him to wake up. I see his chest go up and down in a rhythm, telling me he is alive. His body jerks more and more and I can hear the joints in his arms crack at the sudden movements. Is eyes roll back before his body starts violently shaking. My brothers and I try to hold him down, but then he all of a sudden stops.

  My brothers and I let go of his body and look at each other. Theon asks the question we were all thinking in our head. “What the hell was that?”

  “I would get out of there if I were you,” the older lady in the next cell says.

  I walk over the entrance of her cell and look at her, “What do you mean? What do you know?”

  “Nothing, other than what he told me last night while you all slept in your warm beds while we slept on the cold stone ground.”

  “What did he tell you?”

  The older lady is silent, with a slight smile on her face, she looks up at me.

  I sigh before saying, “If you answer my question, I can get you a mattress to sleep on.”

  “With a blanket?”

  I am about to say no but something tells me that this lady will not budge if she doesn’t get what she wants. “Fine”

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  The older lady chuckles before she looks my directly in the eyes and says quietly, “He told me that he was already on a tight schedule with Darkness. He was on his fourth week and if he didn’t complete his task then he would turn into one of those fowl creatures that everyone is terrified of becoming.”

  I step back a little, thinking about what she is saying. We have to either kill him or keep him in his chambers in misery.

  “So, I would tell those two handsome men in there to get out of their unless they want their pretty faces to be ripped into shreds.”

  And right after the older lady is done with her sentence, as if on queue, the older man groans and I hear banging and yelling. I run back to the older man’s cell and see that he is trying to attack my brothers. My brothers can handle him on their own but the sense to help them overcomes me as if I feel like their lives are on the line.

  I run into the cell and hold the man down. He screams and gnashes his teeth. I hold his arms but he is kicking like there is no tomorrow. Theon gets out of the way just in time or his ribs might have been cracked. Strider jumps in and holds his legs down while I yell to Theon to get out his glint and kill the man.

  “No, don’t do it Theon,” Strider demands.

  Theon’s hands are already holding onto the handle of one of his glints and just pauses in his tracks looking back and forth at Strider.

  “What the hell do you mean don’t do it? There is no use trying to keep him alive. He is already gone,” I grunt. The man is not going down without a fight and it is clear that he has plenty of energy to keep fighting if he has to.

  “What is the whole point of keeping prisoners down here?” Strider asks me.

  I think about how I want to find a cure so bad. People who are about to turn and have already turn should have equal fight when it comes between life or death.

  I sigh before commanding, “Theon, help us take this man to the chains on that wall. We can keep him alive but there is no way we are letting him roam anywhere anymore.”

  Theon nods at me and puts his glint away. He then goes towards the man’s torso and picks it up. We drag the old man to the chains that are hanging on the walls and the man tries to worm himself away from us. I tighten my grip even more, not caring is I am going to leave bruises on him or not.

  We get him chained up and I look closer at him. The foam coming out of his mouth that is full of yellow teeth, looks like he is a rabid animal.

  “So what do we do now?” Theon asks.

  I look to Strider. “It was your idea to keep him alive. You come up with a plan on how we are going to get him out of this misery.”

  Strider looks at me, opens his mouth, then shuts it as quick as he opened it. He shakes his head, silently telling me that he has no idea what to do with this man.

  I groan, “He is in misery now because of you. We have no idea what to even do with this man and you want to keep him alive and let him live the rest of his days like this?”

  “Well, we were going to experiment on people in this condition anyways, right? So, why not start now. We can postpone the other experiment for now, since they don’t seem to be in immediate danger. Let’s start with-”

  “Hey, what about us over here. We have to stay in these smelly cells and rot until you decide that we are important enough to try and cure?” the bald man with the mustache interrupts.

  “Why does it matter to you? You won’t even show a slight sign of cooperation. You are going to rot in this cell anyways,” I snap.

  “Sister, calm yourself. No point in using your energy to antagonize this man,” Theon whispers towards me.

  Deep breath in, deep breath out.

  “If I cooperate, will you let me go?” the man asks.

  “No,” I say again.

  Strider glares at me, and I give him a glare back. He gestures for Theon and I to huddle in with him to make a game plan. “If we lie to him, we could get him to cooperate and then experiment on him. That way, he can start to trust us and we can potentially find a cure and maybe free him in the future.”

  “And if he finds out that we are lying to him?” I ask.

  “Look at him,” Theon snorts. We all look towards him. “The man is obviously not the brightest and we can use that to our advantage. I think Strider is right and that we should lie to him so that he can cooperate with us.”

  Another groan comes out of me, “Fine, but if he tries anything, I will kill him on the spot.”

  Strider and Theon nod their heads in agreement and we all turn to the bald man with the mustache.

  “Fine, we will let you free if you give us cooperation with no questions asked and no attitude either. Oh, and if you even think about doing any funny business, I will kill you on the spot with no hesitation.”

  The man looks at me with wide eyes when hears that last sentence. He gulps before he nods and then I turn around to the old man who is still screaming and gnashing his teeth.

  “Strider, figure out where we are going to start with him, I need a break.” I storm out of the cell and up the stairs which leads me to the castle and head to my room. As I am heading to my room, I bump into someone.

  “So sorry, Your Highness,” a familiar voice says.

  I look up at the face, the very one that I kissed.

  “Xavier, what are you doing out of your room?” I ask.

  “I was bored and wasn’t allowed to see June so I asked to go to the library,” he responds.

  “Are you still bored?”

  “Uh…” Xavier seems hesitant on his answer.

  “I need some air if you would like to go on another walk with me.”

  “I’m sorry Your Highness, but I should really get back to Pierce. He is freaking out not being able to comfort his girlfriend. I should go back and see if there is anything I can do.” He bows and then starts walking away without awaiting my response.

  “Oh, okay,” I say quietly to myself.

  I wonder why he was so eager to get away from me. Did I do something?