Jayden and Elizah walked silently into the forest’s depths until they had made their way to the pond. They had a fear of being followed, and so they kept their mouths shut.

“So, I know everything you just heard has a lot to process. I know things are hard right now,” Elizah said as she lay in the lush grass and her face had a smile from the life and energy that she felt from her surroundings. It was always both a surprise and an absolute beauty.

“I’m just frustrated by the lies I have heard and all of these new speculations that Jade is telling me. On top of all of this the fact that I’m now the king is even harder to understand. I never expected that I would be king,” Jayden said and laid down right next to Elizah.

“It was bound to happen someday, but it just happened faster,” Elizah said, and she closed her eyes.

There was a lull in the conversation for long moments while Jayden was lost in thought.

“What do you see when you come here? You get such a peaceful smile here,” Jayden whispered, trying not to disturb Elizah’s resting position.

“Life itself. You’ve asked me this before, but there’s no solid definition for what I see. It’s everything and nothing at once,” she said, and her left palm touched Jayden’s fingers.

“Could you show it to me? They say the blood bond lets one see through the other’s eyes,” Jayden said, and he closed his eyes.

Elizah hesitated momentarily before she said, “We could give it a try.”

Her hand moved so that the scar of her blood bond marking overlapped with Jayden’s, and she cautiously willed small amounts of her power into Jayden’s hand.

They closed their eyes tightly until a gentle wave of warmth passed over their faces. Elizah’s face lit up with a smile as she saw the radiating light around them.

To describe it, it was almost an exact replica of the scene where they were. Except now, the only difference was that each object was radiating different intensities of light and darkness. There was a concentration of power around the pond in particular, which was something that caught their attention.

“Wow,” Jayden only managed, and Elizah laughed slightly.

But there was something that Jayden noticed in this version of sight. Every object, no matter how bright, eventually turned dull and dark. It was always on a varying intensity of light from an individual thing.

“I see you’re fascinated by energy flow,” Elizah said. A thoughtful smile came onto her face, and Jayden only nodded.

“To put it simply, not all times will be bright. There’ll be times of light and some dreary darkness. And the darkness can come at any time. It’s just like our lives. The feelings of joy, happiness, elation, excitement and thrill are similar to the brightness of light. But you need to realize, that these are incomplete without the darkness, which are sadness, grief, pain, loss and anger. We can’t live forever, and neither will our lives always be filled with light. Destiny and fate is always a mix of light and darkness. This balance is what makes us whole. We need to learn to accept it. Without one, we’ll always be incomplete,” Elizah said, and she gently touched a patch of grass with her left palm. She looked at the patch of grass and moved her hands gently, in a wave-like fashion, before the bright gold power came out of the grass and the light in the grass grew dark.

“What are you trying to get at?” Jayden said as he observed the area.

“I’m saying that no matter how grim our fate seems, we’ll smile back at all this one day. Even if becoming king isn’t what you wanted, it’s what fate brings to you. You need to accept it. I know it’s hard, but you’ll grow into a great ruler as time goes by,” Elizah said, and she closed her eyes again before the two of them returned to the side of the pond.

“I needed that talk from you,” Jayden said, and Elizah smiled.

“You’re welcome, Your Majesty,” Elizah said with a laugh.

Jayden mock punched her on her right arm, Elizah did nothing less than flinch, and Jayden realized his mistake.

“So you don’t feel your arm at all?” Jayden asked as he regretted what he had just done, knowing that even Elizah found it hard not to think about her injuries.

“Not even one bit. It seems like what Noxaura did either cut through the nerves itself, or has weakened the nerves drastically, and sadly I can’t do anything to heal them,” Elizah said with a sigh as she looked up at the canopy cover above them.

“Um, there is something else I want to speak to you about,” Elizah said, and she tried to divert the topic. Jayden raised his brow and just listened.

“I’m not going to join you on the throne just yet,” Elizah said, “I want some time without everyone judging me. I need to be okay with my injuries before I can hear other people’s opinions about me.”

“Oh,” Jayden said softly, but he understood what she meant.

“I’ll live in the palace though, I can stay there just as some help you,” Elizah said.

“That gives me a lot more reassurance. For a moment I was worried you were going to leave me,” Jayden said softly and kissed Elizah’s cheek and held her hand in his as he relaxed a bit.

“There’s something I need to show you,” Elizah said as she suddenly jumped up, “Follow me.”

Elizah stood up and led Jayden along towards her home.

“Well, you almost killed me,” Noxaura said as she made her way into her comrade’s home.

“I didn’t expect you to come fumbling into my humble abode so soon. I see you realized what true bloodlust is again, haven’t you?” her comrade said with a sigh, and her grin was sharp.

“I’m surprised you let me kill Cyprian,” Noxaura said, and she flopped onto the nearest armchair.

“He was nothing but a hindrance to our plans. It’s only right that we got rid of him,” her comrade said with a shrug.

“Besides, we have to summon the last collaborator back again within the next few seasons. With that nutcase around, bearing Cyprian as king will be impossible,” her comrade said, and Noxaura only laughed.

“I’m surprised that you referred to him as a nutcase. But he is quite a failure in terms of execution of tasks. But who knows, maybe Scintillia did him some good,” Noxaura said, and her comrade laughed.

“How has your power surge been?” her comrade asked, deftly changing the topic before things got heated.

“Good. I can feel it through my blood. It’s like a fierce hum. And even my flames are much more powerful,” Noxaura said as she gently played with flames spouting at the tips of her fingers.

“Careful. You need to master control,” her comrade said and stuck Noxaura’s hands in a bucket of water before saying, “Otherwise you’re going to end up setting ablaze to the forest as a whole.”

With that, the comrade and Noxaura shared a hearty laugh before they opened up a map and began their search for true power.