A forest. Xaleyp was sitting in a forest, or, at least, something that looked and sounded and smelled like one. None like he had ever seen, though. In the sky above were a pair of white stars just beginning to hide behind a gas giant with swirls of oranges and blues. The trees around him were tall and thin, their branches bare of leaves and pine needles. Snow ran along some of them, weighing them down and causing them to bow slightly. Six medium-sized rocks, all different shapes, jutted out of the ground in a hexagon. In the center was a shorter, wider rock with a crack the size of his hand in the top. The sound of rushing water came from somewhere out of sight. In the distance, he heard the distant shouts and laughter of children growing ever softer.

He stood, putting his hands out underneath him to steady himself. The dusting of snow on the ground surprised him by not feeling cold on his fingers, but instead somewhat soothing. He picked it up and played with it, letting it dance across his hands and watching as it powdered and crumbled beneath his touch. He and Rach used to have so much fun with it, even on that fateful day when he was just ten years old.

Rach. He had given up on her so easily at Vertyn. After not finding her the first few weeks, it was like he didn’t care whether she was there or not.

How did he even end up here? Where even was here? He couldn’t remember how he would have gotten to the forest. His mind was blank, like beach sand after a particularly strong wave.

He shook his head. There was a strange peacefulness to the forest, like nothing could go wrong, like everything was okay. Leaves and needles crunching underfoot, the gentle roaring of the river, there was even a light rainfall. It coated his face, streaming down onto his naked body. He walked to the nearest tree and rubbed his hand over the bark. It was soft and springy. Everything in the forest was simply soothing. But there was something more. Something he couldn’t place his finger on.

“I can feel it too,” a girl said from behind him.

Xaleyp spun around. Standing a few meters away was a pale-skinned, freckly girl that looked to be his age, maybe slightly older. Her eyes were a piercing, icy blue, and she had platinum hair that came down to her chest. She wore black pants and sweater overtop a white dress shirt and red tie, almost like a school uniform from when Xaleyp went to an actual school. Her sleeves were rolled up to her elbow, revealing more of her pale skin.

He hurried to cover himself, not wanting some stranger to see him naked, but found he was already wearing a sort of jumpsuit. The girl took advantage of his confusion and stepped towards him, her head cocked to one side. Studying him? Sizing him up? Deciding how much of a threat he was?

“The feeling of death. It’s everywhere here.” Her voice was somewhat ethereal, as if she were only half there. She walked over to the tree he was next to and felt it herself, rubbing it up and down. She looked up at it, a longing in her eyes. “They call this the Forest of Sorrows. It’s quite renowned for its serenity and beauty.”

“Where are we?” Xaleyp could barely form the words. He never heard of the Forest of Sorrows.

“An ancient world.” She laughed. It was soft and musical, seeming to come from everywhere. “One that has been abandoned and forgotten for generations at the edge of the galaxy. It’s known as Eratu. Ciovyr visited here in the early days of the Terran Empire. It is here that the Sword of Razeph was forged. You know about the Sword of Razeph?”

Xaleyp nodded. The girl sat on one of the rocks, crossing her legs as if meditating and staring at him. There was something about her that seemed… familiar. Comfortable. As if he had known her for a long time yet also like he just met her.

“Do you know how the sword was made?” she asked. “What it’s for?”

“I was told it’s to defeat Ciovyr, but why would a god create something that would destroy them?”

“That’s a good question. One that many don’t think to ask.” She leaned back and placed her hands behind her. “The answer is somewhat simple: it’s because Ciovyr is not a god. It is also rather incorrect to say the sword destroys it. Not entirely false, but not entirely true either.”

“What do you mean not a god? What is it then? What’s the sword for?”

“You’ll find out in time. And when you do, you’ll know what to do.”

“What if I don’t?”

He felt a lump in his throat as he asked the question. What he had worried about for weeks felt so much worse when he actually said it out loud. It made it feel so much more possible, that he would fail when it actually mattered.

A minute of silence followed his question, both of them staring at each other. Xaleyp lowered his eyes, unable to look into hers any longer. He could still feel them boring into him. Finally, she spoke.

“Why are you here?” she asked. One eyebrow was raised at him. “What brings you to this forest?”

“I… I don’t know.” Xaleyp’s mind suddenly went even blanker than it had been. Why was he here? How did he get here? One moment he was on Arcadia, the next he was on some far away planet? “I don’t even know how I got here.”

“Curious.” She stood and walked over to him, looking him up and down. She circled for a moment, then stopped. “Perhaps it’s time you were sent back.”

“Wait, no!” Xaleyp stopped her just as she raised a hand. He didn’t want to leave yet. He wanted to know what this place was and how he ended up here.

“You don’t want to leave?” Her voice seemed to drift further away. “What do you seek?”

“I want to know why I’m here.”

“I can’t answer that.” She shook her head then shrugged, her hair bouncing with each movement. “You’ll have to look within yourself for the answer.”

The girl paused for a moment and appeared to be mulling something over, her finger on her chin and staring at him. “We’ll meet again. I’m sure of it.”

With a snap of her fingers, Xaleyp’s vision went black. He felt the ground underneath him shift, then he was suddenly falling. Falling impossibly far. Darkness surrounded him. He waited for a thud, to be able to feel ground again, but it never came.

He woke feeling like mud bound his tongue to the roof of his mouth. He gasped and stuttered as he attempted to grope around blindly, trying to find something to drink. In the effort, he found that his hands were tightly bound together behind his back. He sat up, flailing slightly as he did so. Some sort of cover was over his eyes. All he saw around him was darkness. To his right, he felt and heard movement.

“Who’s there?” he asked. His voice was hoarse, and he coughed with the words. “What do you want with me? Where’s the forest?”

Something hit him hard in the side of the head. He yelled out, toppling sideways. Whoever struck him spoke in a language he didn’t understand, talking in a series of what sounded like clicks and trills. What he did understand though was that the tone did not sound happy.

What had happened? Where did the forest go? The ground beneath him felt cold and smooth, like metal. The last thing he remembered was going into ArcDefense with Mian. They had found the file. Grimaldus. He was behind the attack. He was on Stariek. How did Xaleyp know that though? It wasn’t in the file. Tober. Tober showed up. That’s how he knew. Tober showed up and told them. And he told them that he was working with Ciovyr. But how did he end up here? Stunning rounds. That was it. They were hit with stunning rounds. He and Mian both.

Mian. Where was she? She had hit the desk on the way down. Was she okay? He knew it was a bad idea for her to go with him. He knew that she should’ve stayed behind, left it to him. It was his mission of revenge. It was his fault she got wrapped up in this mess. If she was…

No, he couldn’t think that. He had to hope for the best. She was fine. She had to be. She couldn’t be hurt. The Arcadians wouldn’t hurt her. Or would they? Tober had shot that technician right in front of them. He had blown up part of ArcDefense. He had firebombed Avalon in an attempt to kill Xaleyp. Why wouldn’t they kill a teenage girl? They killed so many already, what was one more? There was nothing they wouldn’t do.

Mian had to be okay. She just had to. She was strong, and resilient, and a fighter. But there was so much he didn’t say to her, how he felt about her. Now, he may never get the chance.

He mentally kicked himself as he tried to pull his arms apart. They were tight. Too tight. He couldn’t move them. The familiar jumpsuit he had been wearing was gone. Now, he was wearing some sort of cloth that felt tattered in places. Nothing was covering his feet, the cold metal stinging slightly. He tried to send a message with the CAM, but it was disabled. He was trapped.

A door hissed open nearby. Someone spoke in the same unfamiliar language. Another voice answered. There were at least two of them. A hand wrapped around his upper arm like a vise. He yelled out in pain as he was pulled up, his legs flailing underneath him. Another hand grabbed his other arm. They half dragged him away, and he heard the door close behind him.

“Where are you taking me?” His feet stumbled underneath him as he tried to find his footing. “Who are you?”

A harsh word from one of his captors was swiftly followed by a blow to the side of the head. He staggered, his legs failing. They kept dragging him along. Wherever they were bringing him, he knew he didn’t want to get there.

Xaleyp managed to plant one of his feet on the ground and lashed out with the other, aiming for one of their knees. He connected with the hard plating of their armor. A tingle went up his leg, followed by a wave of pain. He wanted to shout out, but he kept his mouth shut, hanging his head to try to block out the agony. How did he actually expect that to work when he didn’t even have any shoes?

Another shout in the unknown language preceded a sharp blow in the side of the head. He groaned as some liquid began to run down his cheek. His legs refused to cooperate, and he gave up on controlling them. The two captors were dragging him anyway. Why work harder himself?

After several minutes, another door hissed open in front of them. He tried to lift his head but couldn’t find the strength. As the door hissed shut again, he was roughly shoved into a chair. His hands were unbound and tightly held against the arms of the chair. Chains rattled around his wrists and held them in place. The cold metal was sticky, as if some liquid had not completely dried on. Someone said something in a gentler voice, and the cover over his head was taken away.

A single light hung above him in the otherwise dark room. It was almost blinding after being in dark for so long. When his eyes adjusted, he saw only a single man standing in front of him. Tober Delargivic. He leaned against a table with a sly grin. Xaleyp wanted to reach out, grab him, smash his head, anything to cause as much pain as fast as possible to the man.

“Glad to see you’re awake.” Tober folded his arms and stared at Xaleyp. “It is nice to finally meet you.”

“We met already in ArcDefense.” Xaleyp flexed his arms as subtly as he could, testing the strength of his bindings, but they were too tight and strong to break out of. “Or did you already forget?”

“Oh, no, we didn’t. That was an experiment. A success, I daresay. Just some sort of robot or something that was supposed to look and act like me. It really seemed like the real thing, didn’t it?” He moved forward and slammed his hands into the chair just above Xaleyp’s shoulders. Xaleyp could make out every pore in the man’s face as they looked at each other. “But enough about me. We’re here to talk about you. You and your future.”

“What did you do with Mian?” Xaleyp could hardly think. There was a dull roaring in his ears from the hits he took. “Where is she?”

“She’s gone. Long gone. It happened right after we brought you here, but that’s all in the past now.”

Mian was gone? Dead? What happened? How did things go so wrong so quickly? He resisted the urge to cry, instead looking Tober directly in the eyes.

“What do you want with me?” Xaleyp blinked away the tears, trying to will them to disappear, but realized he failed when a hot streak ran down his cheek. “Where am I?”

“You’re about a mile under the surface of Arcadia.” Tober looked around as if seeing the cell for the first time. “An old, unused secret prison. At least, it was unused until I became governor. You’re here, because you’re a prime candidate for our prisoner exchange program.”

“What are you talking about?” Prisoner exchange? There was no way Seth had any Arcadian prisoners to exchange for him, that is, if Seth would even want to trade for him. “Who wants me?”

“He’s known as the Director. Part of some covert organization based off Siatia. They managed to get their hands on some of our soldiers, they wanted you and were willing to give them up. Such is life.”

“What was going on with the creepy smiling?” Xaleyp was tired, and he asked the first thing that came to mind. It took too much energy to put his thoughts together. “The technician, those people in the park? Did you brainwash them or something?”

“Now, now.” Tober smiled and wagged his finger at Xaleyp. “I can’t just reveal all our secrets. Besides, you may not like the answer. Some things are better left unsaid. Any other questions?”

“Why didn’t you just kill me and be done with it?” Xaleyp pulled harder on the chains. Rach was missing and probably dead, Lina was gone, Mian was gone, each and every one of his friends vanished before his eyes. What was even the point of fighting anymore?

“You happened to be more valuable to us alive than dead. Consider yourself lucky.”

He rammed the cloth sack back over Xaleyp’s head. Xaleyp tried one last time to get free of his restraints, but another hit to the head dazed him. The two soldiers undid the chains and rebound his hands, forcing him up and out the door.