Suwainah pushed the greed out and focused on getting Armad out of her body. It hurt. Her nerves swelled and she trembled. Simultaneously, her body was burning with a strength she hadn't felt before.

After a moment of struggling she let go and allow the pol to enter her veins. There was a moment of thought and her eyes went wide, suddenly realizing if the selection was to be done at that moment she would win. She would get the power she'd been craving for.

"I can give you more than that," Armad told her. "But you will have to do something for me in return."

Suwainah paused for a moment. "What do you want?" She asked thoughtfully. She seemed to be debating unlike a moment ago.

"The soul mend of the Ururu," said Armad.

Suwainah harrumphed. "No one has that except the Ashura. And what do you even want to do with it?"

"That concerns only me. I don't care what you do with your eyes either. Besides, your teacher said every one of the Houses has it written and hidden. If you like my pol then get me this one."

After thinking for a long moment, she nodded. "But I won't make any promises until I see how much energy you can give me. By the end of the year, my Ururu will be activated. If you help me get what I want, I will get you the Bend."

Armad nodded. "I agree."

Using the soul mend, Ururu could heal a soul no matter how fractured it was. And now, for some reason, Armad wanted such a thing.

So on that day, Armad Wilberforce and Suwainah Ururu pledged to help each other achieve their goals. However, Armad didn't know that the girl's only goal was to annihilate all the remaining Wilberforce and Bayajidda. And Suwainah didn't know that Armad - or at least a part of him - wanted to destroy Ururu and their slave trade.

The two young men thus remained in this state throughout the year. Armad strengthen her pol and she became increasingly more determined to achieve her goals, while in exchange she taught some Ururu magic to Armad. All the while planning how to steal the soul mend from the most protected place in the seven worlds.

***

Meanwhile, somewhere in the world, Armad and Babara were falling through the sky after being thrown from the wall.

After they'd fallen for more than fifty seconds, Armad clapped his hands and called out all the tricks he had to defend himself. The ground was just too far away that their bodies could explode upon collision. There was also the strong wind that filled Armad's eyes and nose. But Babara was calm. He was smiling at him.

After a moment of staring at each other, Babara pulled out a red bowl from his bag. Inside the bowl was a pool of water containing animal remains. He splashed the water on him. And that was the last thing Armad saw.

He didn't recover until three days later. He woke up and found himself in a dark tent. The first thing he realized was the cold. A chilling cold that felt as if he had been strapped to an iceberg.

He looked out through the window to see the wind blowing a large sheet of snow. There was barely any cold in the northern hemisphere so Armad hadn't experienced any snow in his life. The cold made him shake uncontrollably.

After checking to make sure he wasn't hurt, he came out of the tent. A gust of wind blew across his face. He looked at his foot in shock. The place he had stepped on had dived into the snow. The whole place was as dark as night with the only sound being the roar of the wind and the howling of the snow.

Armad turned back to the tent almost in fear. But then he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to the side but there was no one there. Armad quickly drew his sword and created a lightning bolt with his other hand.

The lightning shone brightly and illuminated the place, which helped him see through the dark snow, but still, there was no one there. Another invisible hand touched him on the other shoulder. He slashed in its direction, but as expected, he got nothing.

He was about to slash again when he heard a voice. "You can't see me because you can only see with your eyes." It was Babara and he was close but still invisible. "True Benders see and hear even if they are blind and deaf. If you want to live in this prison for more than one day then you have to learn how to hear and see even when you are blind and deaf. This is the first step in your training."

Armad understood what he was saying and he didn't expect to get it easy in the first place, but there was one thing he didn't understand.

"Is it a figure of speech, or are we really in a prison?"

Babara chuckled. "It's not a figure of speech, Armad. This is the largest and most secure prison in the world. It is more than 1,500 years old but no one has ever been able to get out of it. Anything that comes in, comes in forever. Even corpses don't get out of here."