Dawn rose above the city of Jiron. The skies were tinted orange, and the heat of the sun slowly warmed the desert. People were pouring out of their homes to continue daily leisures when Kiera stood on top of one of the city walls, wearing a white garb and leaning her body on the balustrade and staring into the vast and empty desert.

She held an Opal Clove. A gorgeous blue flower in Volaria that could survive without water, and glowed at night. It was quite peaceful, despite the rubbles and aftermath of the battle, but she couldn't stop thinking about home. Her mother, her father...her brother. She missed them so much.

"They're never going to help my family." she thought. For the entire night, it kept swirling around in her head. What if they're already dead? What if they're tortured for not complying with their masters? All she knew is that no matter how comfortable and safe this place was, she couldn't stay here forever.

"Up early as well, I see?" Kiera turned around at the voice behind her. A girl she never saw before, but she did recognize the voice. A darker tinted girl with black curly hair stood in front of her, wearing the same white garb. She had intimidating black claw markings on both sides of her face.

"You were on the ship.," Kiera said, a little caught off-guard.

"I was." the girl joined Kiera's view. She leaned on the balustrade as well while staring into the distance. "You were in front of me, and you got hit."

The girl was behaving quite strange. She barely made any eye contact with Kiera, and she had a strange accent and manner of speaking. Kiera caught herself gazing at her, but then realized it was pretty rude. She moved her eyes back into the distance.

"Yes...we're lucky Marlock took this city before we came here. I don't know what they'd make us do if he didn't." Kiera said.

"They thought Volaria was still under control of the Emperor. They were planning to sell us, that's what these slavers do. They rip you away from your home and family, then sell you like you're an object. A thing." Kiera could hear a sense of anger in the girl's strong voice.

"Well...all I know is that we're not things." Kiera answered, "We're humans, enslaved by a monster."

The girl remained silent as if she lost herself to the dunes on the horizon. Kiera considered an opportunity to ask about the claw tattoos beneath her eyes.

"Those markings...where do they come from?"

The girl turned her gaze towards Kiera, the sun reflecting into her brown eyes. "They're not just markings. They're Inanhill. A mark that defines a girl into a woman."

"You're from the Volarian tribes?" Kiera asked.

"Melachir to be exact. I was supposed to be a warrior. A dageima. Unfortunately, my initiation got interrupted by unwanted visitors."

"The slavers?" Kiera asked.

"The slavers." The tribal girl confirmed. She pushed herself away from the balustrade and sighed. "Thank you for the talk. I need some time to meditate. My name is Areiya by the way."

Kiera cracked a little smile. "Kiera."

"It was a pleasure meeting you, Kiera of Etheon." Areiya returned the smile before walking towards the stairs leading down the wall. But she stopped at the top of the staircase when horns were blazing in the distance — a long, deep and piercing tone.

"Do you hear that?" Kiera asked with widened eyes. Areiya looked down the wall and saw people running to their houses in a panic. Commotion brewed in the streets.

"Those are war horns," Areiya said, running back up beside Kiera to the balustrade and looking into the distance outside the city.

"Kisu.." she muttered. Noticing Areiya's shocked expression, Kiera immediately joined her in the view. Her heart skipped a beat, and it felt like she had a ball in her throat. Across the entire horizon, an army marched in from behind the hills. Thousands of specks marching closer and closer, with massive trebuchets rolling with them. The horns kept blazing as Kiera tried to see what sigil was painted on their banners.

"I hope you enjoyed your time as a free citizen because it's about to end pretty soon," Areiya said, her voice sounded way more serious. As if the adrenaline started to affect her voice. "Come, we have to go."

"Where to?!" Kiera asked with shaking hands and parted lips.

"Anywhere BUT here!" Areiya yelled, grabbing Kiera's arm and pulling her with her down the stairs into the streets. There it was, Kiera's veins were pumping with adrenaline as well now, pumping with a primal will to survive. She dug into the panicking crowds with Areiya. People were pushing each other; Kiera was being squished between everyone, struggling to breathe. She had to hold onto Areiya's hand for dear life. "Areiya!" Kiera yelped, pushing someone away herself.

Above the panicking screams and chaos, guards were desperately trying to calm them down, but that was a lost cause as they were almost being swallowed by the panicking stream themselves.

When they reached the closed gate, the crowds stopped, but they were only pushed together tighter. People were passing out, being trampled by others. A big group of guards tried to push them back from the gates as the citizens screamed towards them. "Open the gates! Let us out!"

Kiera started to slip away from her grip on Areiya until the trampling forced her on the ground. People stepped on her as she desperately gasped for air, grasping at their ankles. She couldn't breathe at all and was slowly choking. The many times she tried to breathe, people would trample her chest. Countless of silhouettes blocked the sun. She felt herself slowly losing consciousness when all of a sudden, she heard Areiya's voice and a hand reaching through the crowd. "Kiera!" She grabbed Kiera and pulled her up, who loudly gasped in air.

"They're locking down the entire city. We'll have to find another way out!" Areiya shouted, "Come!"

Along with the sound of blazing horns and screaming people, Kiera and Areiya ran through the streets in the opposite direction of where everyone was fleeing to.

"Turn back!" it sounded in the crowd, but Areiya completely ignored it. She headed straight towards one of the sandstone houses along the street. She bashed in the door and gestured Kiera to get inside. "Come on!"

Seeing no other option, Kiera ran into the house before Areiya closed the door behind her. She immediately went for a big cupboard.

"Help me push this!" she groaned, waving over Kiera. Using their combined force, they pushed the cupboard in front of the door. Only then, they both noticed muffled explosions in the distance. With careful steps back and quick breaths, they looked at the surroundings. A small and cozy interior. It had a burnt out fireplace and a little kitchen in the same small room.

"They began the siege," Areiya mumbled.

"What do we do now?" Kiera asked with her shaking voice, looking around restless.

"It won't be long until this city is overrun. Volarian houses usually have a basement. If we can find one, we should be safe." Areiya answered. When she recuperated from running, she sounded way too calm to Kiera's comfort.

"How are you so calm?-"

The next thing she knew or rather remembered was something big and rumbling breaching through the house, and then, everything went black.

"Kiera!"

".....Kiera!"

For a moment, Kiera thought she was dreaming. A voice, calling her name. It sounded exactly like her mother. That warm voice. It's been so long since she heard it. She believed it was her mother until the tone changed. It was Areiya's, looming above her. Kiera woke up with a piercing headache, blurry sight and nothing but echoing sounds. Her muscles were utterly paralyzed.

"Kiera, we have to go!" Areiya yelled. Kiera could see all sorts of blurry silhouettes before her. Areiya kept looking back, but Kiera didn't have the power to do anything...she felt helpless. She couldn't move her body.

She saw silhouettes dropping down behind Areiya. The grunts, the metallic screeches, she was fighting them! When she killed them all, she turned back to Kiera and shook her shoulders. "Kiera!"

She wanted to respond, but everything in her body and mind prevented her from doing so. But not everything was shut down, no. Not her hearing.

"Ma Redi.." Areiya mumbled.

With the explosions in the background, and Areiya's silhouette disappearing, Kiera lost all hope. In an attempt to stop her from leaving, she used all her might to lift her arm, but to no avail. Areiya was nowhere to be seen...

Waves of pain pulsed through her entire body. Pulses so intense that she lost consciousness again.

"Kiera!"

There it was again. Was she having the same dream?

"...Kiera..."

She then saw her mother and stood in a black void. For some reason, Kiera could walk again. She didn't feel any pain at all. Without hesitation, she walked over to her mother. A tall woman with long, auburn hair. The same color as her daughter. Her mother's hair curled at the end, and she was wearing a green dress with a white undershirt. Ocean blue eyes, she was gorgeous.

"Mama.." Kiera said, approaching to hug her. But she phased right through, making her mother vanish in smoke. With a shocked gaze, Kiera starting breathing heavier.

"Nonono..mama! MAMA!"

In the distance of the void, she heard a rumbling. Looking further up, a massive tide of water was approaching her with deadly speed. She tried to run away, but the wave caught her, swallowing her down into its unlimited depths.

She abruptly woke up with a failed gasp as her throat filled with water. Her eyes were wide open as she realized she couldn't breathe and was floating. Instinctively, she swam up as fast as she could until she reached the surface, coughing out all the water before desperately gasping for air.

She felt something nudging her as she dabbled in the water, and when she turned around, she crashed into a panic. Floating dead bodies filled the water. They were all thrown into whatever this pit was. They probably thought she was dead as well. Realizing she shared the same water with all these bodies, she floundered towards the edge like a drowning dog. When she reached the side, she pushed herself out of the water with whimpering moans. She tried to rub off the red liquid, and even though it wasn't helping at all, she couldn't stop trying. Only now she started whimpering tears, knowing in what kind of position she stumbled into. In the distance behind the forest, she saw stacks of smoke.

"Jiron.." she thought. What happened to Areiya? What happened to commander Marlock? Did they all just die? Was this the great rebellion everyone talked about? Gone...just like that. She tried to stand up, her garb completely ruined and soaked to the core. She wanted to leave, but couldn't run away in these clothes.

In a battle with herself, she tried to motivate herself as her hands were shaking. "Come on, Kiera. You can do this." She saw the body of a woman in full leather armor a little further, washed up on the shore. There was a hole in the corset, penetrated by something, but it didn't matter. She got rid of her garb, and shamefully undid the woman of her armor. She wasn't proud of this. She was even surprised by herself that she could do something like this, grabbing the woman's cold hands to untie the cords. She dipped the armor in the water and took a few minutes to try it on.

It fit, surprisingly. She pulled the last straps and took a deep shivering breath while closing her eyes.

"Okay...where the hell do I go?..." she asked herself. It was quiet. The leaves of the forest next to her rustled with the breeze. She looked back, and all she saw was a barren wasteland. The other side led back to the city and the sea. But it seemed she wasn't allowed to catch a break...

"We got a live one over here!"

She darted her head towards the sound and saw four leather armored soldiers with bows running at her. They had to be Valquen...they had to be the Emperor's forces.

Without hesitation, she instinctively turned around and bolted into the forest. She heard arrows flying over her head as she dashed through the vegetation, cutting herself on a lot of branches and sharp leaves. She heard unintelligible shouts of the archers behind her, but that didn't stop her. She hopped over roots, dodged trees and jumped over ridges.

Her sleek body figure made it a lot easier as well. But then she heard barks. Barks? Were they using hounds to track her down as well? That was no good. All she could think was that if this forest would ever end, or if she was running around in circles. The barking sounded closer and closer and made her feel dizzy because her heart riveted fast. Because of the dogs, she kept looking back, which made the evitable, inevitable. She tripped over a root and crashed into the dirt with a loud shriek.

Was this the end? When trying to get up again, her ankle caused so much pain even adrenaline couldn't get rid of. With small whimpering moans, she crawled back while hearing the barks and shouts approaching.

There they were. A group of six, holding chains of fierce brown Volarian hounds.

"There she is. We got her." one of them panted, "Bring the hounds back to Chief Moreyn. Me and Juzo will take care of her."

Three soldiers left with the hounds, leaving it to the two archers. They approached her and grabbed her by the shoulders.

"Get up!" one of them grunted. Kiera tried to get loose by squirming.

"Let me go!" she shouted, barely able to stand with her twisted ankle. Only then she could see the symbol on their chest up close — a golden gryphon spreading its wings, surrounded by a ring of vines.

"Let me-" she grunted loudly. But then one of her captors dropped to the floor like a bag of potatoes when an arrow pierced his throat. The other one looked at it in shock and froze in place, darting around his head. Kiera saw this as an opportunity. She grabbed the archer and wrapped her arm around his neck, squeezing as hard as she could. The man made choking sounds, trying to pull away Kiera's arm, but he drew his last breath and relaxed all his muscles. Kiera dropped him and took a few steps back, looking around cautiously. But she couldn't believe her eyes when she saw who showed up from behind a large cluster of vegetation.

Commander Marlock. He was right there. His dented armor covered in dried up blood, and his hair locks soaked with sweat. But he wasn't alone. The Archhealer Ayska, a bunch of pirates and...Areiya...

Ayska immediately ran up to Kiera and tended to her.

"By the Deities, how do you feel?"

Kiera's adrenaline faded, and the pain increased. She couldn't hold it back, the urge to fall in tears. She started sobbing. "They tried to-" Ayska stopped her from finishing her sentence as she hugged her tightly.

"I know, sweetheart. I know."

Marlock took a few steps forward, nudging Ayska. "We have to go; they will be back."

Ayska nodded and called over Areiya. "Help me pick her up."

Hesitantly, Areiya approached Kiera and helped her up by the shoulders together with Ayska. She didn't dare to look in Kiera's eyes, as she just followed Marlock and the pirates towards the shores. Reaching the beaches, a massive fleet of ships were floating on the horizon. The Angel of Death himself seemed to wait for them with a few rowboats, surrounded by a few pirates.

"This the girl?" Valmir asked.

"Yes, Areiya was right," Marlock said as he approached him.

"Good. We've already wasted enough time here. It won't be long before they notice my fleet. Get her on the boat. We'll be sailing for the Ferronian Islands."

They put Kiera into a rowboat together with Ayska. "Ferronian islands? I thought those islands were swallowed by the sea after the Great Storm?" Marlock asked.

"That's what everyone thinks. The islands survived, and they've become a haven for all my men. We'll discuss our next move there." Valmir said, pushing the boat into the sea.

Everyone pushed their rowboat into the water. As for Kiera, she just stared in front of her. Ayska was saying something, but she wasn't listening. Whatever just happened, it felt like she was in a dream again. There was no way she could've possibly survived all that.

There was one thing she knew. Now that the emperor destroyed the rebellion, she embraced the fact that she won't see her family anytime soon. If not, ever.

It turned into a game of survival then. Only a matter of staying alive. And this was just the beginning...