It was a long journey and it could be longer if they didn’t use the teleport scroll. A ride on a mount from Marama to Ursa could take them four days and three nights just to reach the border. With the scroll, it’s only around one day and a half. It could be faster but Zeke needed to take a couple of stops and rest. The whole teleporting drained his magic energy more than once. To use the teleporting scroll one needs to have an amount of magic energy just to carry one person and he must carry the two of them. Yurika would love to offer hers if only she knew how to use the scroll, the distance the scroll would allow them and the stops that they need to go. But then again she was still mad at him, they haven’t been talking much so far, and it has been a day trip.

A red, orange and yellow ball of rage roared upward eating its way through the wooded pyramid at its base. Plumes of grey were buffeted into the night sky, carried aimlessly by the chill Novrem wind. The second last month of the year. Eyes reflected the flickering fire. While the crackling and the woody fragrance of smoke tingle the ears and the noses. This was their seventh stop of the day. It’s getting late so they both decided to settle a camp and rest. They would need to do a few more jumps tomorrow and should arrive at the border of Ursa by afternoon.

Her eyes glanced at the sleeping man. His long elongated body sprawled near the bonfire. The cold fall air didn’t seem to bother him at all. He directly fell asleep the moment they finished their camp. Teleporting must have exhausted him a lot. Yurika pulled out her bag and took out a loaf of bread. She was glad she had decided to pack that along.

‘Should I wake him up?’ She glanced up the red-headed guy once more. His face was now facing her. His thick brows gathered on his forehead.

‘Scowling while sleeping? I wonder if he had a bad dream.’

Yurika pinched her bread and started eating the pieces. The forest was dark and foreboding, but there was peace in its sullen ambiance. Her eyes flickered over the thick, dark trunks of the trees that rose steadily into the sky. Its branches interlocking with its neighbors like giant’s arms linked together protecting their home. She put down her bread and breathed in the scent of the forest. She has lost her appetite. Agreeing on the meeting didn’t mean she had her heart prepared. She only figured that it would be more suspicious if she decided to not. Rising up suspicion from the young king was the last thing she wanted.

The wind ruffled up the trees. A leaf fell, not knowing that this was its last dance. Its last chance to play in the air. She shivered. Part of her thinking that’s how her fate would be. That tonight could be her last time to savor tranquility. Tightening her coat, she tried her best to shake off the ever-growing grim that coiled and grew like the deathly Euphor Lauu. The thorny shrub was evil all the way through, as its sap would irritate and toxic to skin.

“I can’t believe this,” Zeke's voice startled her from her reverie.

Turning her attention toward the man, her eyes questioned his statement.

“Are you that angry? How could you eat by yourselves?!” Zeke sat up and pointed at the barely touched loaf of bread next to her.

She took the bread and offered it to him, “you can have it. I’ve lost my appetite.”

He took the bread with his eyes on her, “are you okay, Yuu?”

The girl stared at him as if he had asked her the funniest question ever.

“Should I be?”

Zeke took a bite of the bread and didn’t answer. His eyes stared at the fire in front of him. He always wanted to ask her on what had happened between her and Jace, also Scry. What made Eireen decide to take her life. He wished to know and understand what was really going on when he wasn’t around. What made her so frightened. He knew a little bit when Eireen telepath him a couple of times a long time ago, before his almost dead experience at the front-line. He woke up to the news of her death; the death of the chosen heroin.

“What did actually happen back then?” he braved himself to ask the question. His garnet eyes glanced at the girl.

“What have they done to you?” He pushed forward, “Tell me Yuu, so I could understand the baseline of your fear.”

“Do you need to know everything to be on my side?” her voice rose up, “I am not scared of them. I-I’m just avoiding them. The lesser I am in their perimeter, the lesser chance of them knowing who I was.”

“You know I would still be on your side no matter what.”

“Would you?” There was doubt leaking from her fuschia eyes.

“What do you mean would I?!” Zeke stood up; flared because of her doubt, “I will take your side no matter what! Because I lo—“

He gulped the last sentence down. This was not how he planned to admit his feeling for her. Not in this situation or way. He wanted a better and maybe romantic setting for that.

The girl brows slightly rose up, “because of …?”

“Because I will always look after you. Back then when you were Eireen and now,” he diverted his garnet eyes to somewhere random, anywhere but her eyes.

“Isn’t that what a best friend does?” he added.

Another brash autumn gust disturbed the air. Falling leaves tumbled from the interlocking branches above. The silence tiptoed between them, poisonous in its nothingness, cruelly underscoring how vapid their conversation had become.

“I… I should rest up. Tomorrow is a long day,” Yurika said finally. She tightened her cloak and curled up on a flat surface of a stone near the bonfire, “you should rest up too. There’re still a couple more stops you need to make before we reach the castle. I don’t want to waste more time. The sooner the meeting is done the sooner too he would stop being curious of me.”

“I’ll stay up for a bit more,” Zeke answered. He knew that the girl refused to continue their discussion. He decided to not pursue any further.

“Maybe, I will tell you all about it someday, Zeke, “ she muttered, “but not tonight.”

“I understand…” he mumbled back.

“Goodnight Zeke.”

“Goodnight.”

---

They left early just right before the sunrise touched the sky. After a few more jumps they finally reached the border of Ursa land. Zeke decided to rent two mounts from a nearby village. He said he was still too exhausted to do one last jump. So they ride toward the castle and reached the gate right before sundown.

The fortress of Ursa was a fine castle, built with a panorama of the surrounding land. From the towers once stood watchers, quiver, and arrow ready to fly. Steadfast walls were built for defense, past the iron gates that trapped would-be intruders, lives of servitude were eked, safe from battle-ax and ballista alike. This castle stood to inspire awe in realm run on deference to royalty, to title and social status. From cloister rooms, lands parcels were given to lords for promised service.

Yurika’s eyes befall the grandeur of the weather-beaten stone. The once smooth rock was pitted and scarred, how soon the present became the past and the importance becomes irrelevant. She turned her head to the breeze and stood near flowers barely weeks old. Walls stand mute, water awaits the call of the wind to ruffle and move as a molten glass of deepest green. Gravity has mastered this place, grey stone rose from the land unapologetic and bold to defy entrance and protect what has been entrusted to their care. Below the uneven patches of grass were arrowheads of old, hilts of the broken swords and amour that failed to protect.

Her eyes stared at the broken fortress gate, gaped open like a hungry giant. It had been sturdy when it was made. It was solid cedar wood and held together with great iron nails. But it had not been varnished for many years so the rot had set in and the hinges and nails had become rusted. Fear and dread coursed through her as she put her first step entering the premises, but at the same time, the rush of déjà vu and yearning feeling spiraling inside of her. This was the Palace of Ursa, the lost kingdom. Inside awaited the forgotten young king. One of the people her fate decided to tangle.