Nefaaya stayed scared inside the cage, her fingers tightening on the wooden bars of the cage where the three of them were held, high atop of a gigantic tree that also serves as a platform for tree houses where this tribe lives.

She slowly turned at Nelrue, the man was busy at fixing his flute and his harp than he said he only used on special occasions. Ettran was now sleeping too far from any of them, but peaceful at least. Nefaaya was thankful on thhat, the boy hadn't been sleeping that much in the last four days that they're held captive. And when he did, he dreamed of things that made him groan and wake up in cold sweat.

"Why don't we just escape," she said. Nefaaya Merge with the Creation and looked around her. She wasn't sure how many people live in this tribe but she was confident that Nelrue alone could overpower them.

Renaeril, she needs to protect him and Ettran too. Not because she knows that in truth she was much older than two but because they're part of the same village. It was something that she didn't feel before, but as she saw the villagers head to the war that they didn't want, a cord was struck inside her—forming a bond that she hadn't expected.

"I could have burned them all," she whispered to herself.

She was caught off guard but what happened next. Everything before her eyes happened so fast that all she could do was to groan as Nelrue pulled her and slammed her on the ground.

"What are you saying!" He shouted, there were no guards around to see what he had done to her. Beside them Ettran stirred.

She looked at his deep green eyes, there was agitation there.

"I'll burn them, if it was what needed to be free from this... Renaeril we need to get him and Ettran he has to go home," she said.

Anger flashed on Nelrue's eyes, he shook his head, "Nefaaya, the path you're choosing was not a path at all."

Nelrue sounded disappointed at her, he slowly loosen her gripped on her arms. Eyes looking somewhere far.

"Then you! You could have escaped here," she said. "But what are we doing? You sang while I was listening like a fool! Ettran was groaning to death and Renaeril! Where was he?"

Tears escaped the corner of her eyes. It was what she had been thinking all along when she was waiting for Nelrue to play any music. Every new day, he was expecting that the musicteller would Pulled something, and devised a plan on how they could get to where Renaeril was. But everyday she felt betrayed as the musicteller started singing. The anticipation for his plan was agonizing, expecting something to happen was what makes it hard for her.

"We could have escaped from this... mess," she said, wiping the tears from her eyes.

Somewhere in the cage, Ettran had stopped groaning. She raised her head and saw him looking at her worriedly, all the hostility that he was shooting Nelrue in the past four days had vanished. There was nothing there in his blue eyes, but worry for her. And she felt stupid for receiving pity from him. She didn't hate him, but she hated herself at that moment. Perhaps not just in that moment, it might as well have started when she realized that she had wasted so much time learning Pulling or slacking somewhere when she could have read and done her job in learning about this world where she was thrown.

This was the result of her failures. And ever since she had saw Nefri, Reina and the bones of the villagers that day, she had blamed herself—hated herself even more as she realized how stupid she was in this cruel world.

"This is why I fail," she said in between her sobs.

Nelrue put his hands on her shoulders and enveloped her in his arms. The gesture had only made her feel more miserable about herself. He touched the top of his head and patted her head. All the while whispering her words that he hoped to soothe her.

But Nefaaya was already dead at that time, so she didn't remember anything about what he had said.

"We all fail, that's the truth. But it doesn't mean that your efforts were not enough. The fact that you have the courage to acknowledge where you lack was proof of it," he said. "Nefaaya, I want you to always remember this. Failing at something doesn't make us weak, giving up is. Winning doesn't make us strong, it comes from acknowledging our mistakes. Regretting and striving to filled that regret that's how it is."

She nodded against his chest. Nefaaya believed him. Her tears slowly subsided as the sun started setting towards the mountains of Adral. She pulled back from Nelrue and wiped her tears.

"You still don't explain why we stay here for too long," she said.

Nelrue looked at her and sighed, the fire from the nearby torch played on his placid face.

"I got a feeling that the Flow was saying that we should stay," he said

Nefaaya looked at him worriedly. But before she can even speak Nelrue shook his head to her.

"Trust me, when the Flow was like this I learned to trust it. We trust it for now," he said. "And you already said it, we could do what you want if time comes that I had mistaken the Flow's Will."

She nodded. It was enough to reassure her that Nelrue would do something when this trial with the White Guardian comes. She looked around, Ettran was now sleeping, but something about his posture told her otherwise.

"What is this White Guardian? Was it that white centipede that kept following us?"

Nelrue nodded and sat close to his things.

"The White Guardian was a Supreme that had existed in the days of Araolinar and Adrina'lanar. This forest also has its other name. The Forest Of Intentions, because the White Guardian was someone who could know someone's deepest desire."

"It was said that those who entered the Forest Of Light in the old days were often tried, the White Guardian observed them and at the end it judged if his or her intention was good and inline with the Flow's Will. There were many kings who had been trailed in this forest, not just kings but also common men who wanted to prove their innocence. Kallin was one of them, a captain of the guards who had been accused by the Whore of Oressa of being raped by him."

Nefaaya butted in, "was it true?"

Nelrue shook his head, and said angrily, "she accused him for the Whore desired him. Kallin passed the trials and judge by the White Guardian as truthful."

She noted that Nelrue's tone on saying the word 'whore' was intense with anger. She decided to tried diverting his attention about their near trial to this White Guardian, "and this being would trialed us... for what?"

"Perhaps on our own innocence on burning this forest or about our true intention in crossing the Forest Of Light," he said.

Nefaaya blinked almost in surprise, "we are guilty in burning this forest."

Below, Nefaaya saw that something similar to a platform was being pulled by the villagers. This night the tribe was much brighter than it had been in the last four days, as if the four of them being trialed was something to be happy about.

The anticipation just like what she had expected was the most agonizing of it all. Waiting for how unknowable would unfold was the reason for her fear. And the longer she waited inside her prison the more she became agitated. But the sounds of scuttling moving around had completed her fear. She fluttered her head from time to time, trying to descern where the sound was coming but to no avail she didn't see it.

The guards head towards the door and open it, Nelrue submitted to them without a fight. His instruments being left behind him. Nefaaya noticed how the guards eyed it.

They had dragged them not so gently in the wooden pathways that surround the trunk of the forest. They passed on empty and lightless houses. The path creaked behind their feets and the rope bridges shook in their steps.

Ettran who was afraid of fire and it seems of height had to trudged the way slowly. But the guards were not forgiving even if he was not a child.

"Can't you see he's afraid of that fire and he doesn't want the heights," she said, glancing back at the guard.

"He has to walk nonetheless," the man said.

"Then walked him gently," she said and stared directly at the black eyes of the guard. That was all she could do in preventing herself from Merging in the Creation. The guard met her look, their staring contest stretch far too long. The group was stuck in the middle of the bridges staring at one another.

"Vanse, stop it, the kid you see was not doing fine," a man who had just arrived on the other end of the village had said.

The man called Vanse glared at the newly-arrived.

"Don't call me Vanse, cause I am not one of yours," he said and urged Ettran to walk. This time with much more care than the last.

"Vanse, please forgive my brother Linro," the other man who was guiding Nelrue said to the other man.

What! Why are they calling one another with Vanse!

But she didn't dared ask. Their winding walk towards the platform continued. And when they reached the ground below, Nefaaya felt she wanted to lay there ang hugged it. How much she missed the feel of the ground below her feet. Its familiar cold dirt, almost wet feeling.

The people in the tribe welcome them with hard stares. Renaeril was already on the platform, sitting in a wooden chair with his hands tied tightly. He immediately looked at her when she saw the three of them walking. Renaeril was much more presentable than the rest of the three who had looked old and rugged.

The same procedure was done to them. The three were tied.

The tribe leader ascended the platform and stood facing them. He raised his hand that silenced the murmurs going around.

"These strangers have seen fighting and burning our sacred forest," he had announced immediately.

Nelrue's eyes widened as if he was shocked with the accusation toward them. But the people thought differently, upon hearing the tribe leader saying this they immediately shouted their discontent.

"Punish them!"

"Put them to the fire! Singed slowly to death."

Nefaaya found it so cruel that they asked him to singed them to death. The tribe leader shook his head.

"We cannot people of Narthon. For we have no authority over this land but the White Guardian. He was the judge of the people's intention. If the Path they had taken was what the Flow wanted or have they strayed to the Flow."

"Strayed to the Flow, they're!"

As if on cue, the wind picked up around them. The fire danced on the wind and someone was even shut off by the wind.

The Scuttling sound started, inching closer and closer to them.

"The White Guardian would decide the fate of this captors. White carapace for innocence and black for those who had sinned."

On the top of trees in their front, a shadow emerged, zigzagging as it trudged its way towards the clearing where the tribe was. It rose to its end, and the light of the torch around had shown its many white feet moving, creating the terrifying scuttling sound. The Wise Guardian descended on the ground but only half of its body was able to land.

The monstrosity inch closer and closer to them. Nefaaya felt herself being consumed by the Creation.

"Nefaaya," Nelrue said. She nodded in fear and focused her eyes somewhere else.

The Wise One climb the stair that led to them and raised its head, he looked at Renaeril who had gone pail at the sight of the montrosity. Ettran tried to avert his gaze, but one of the many hands of the Wise One reached to its face, urging her to look.

When it come to Nelrue, the musicteller stared at the monster completely, without hesitation and any fear. Then it turned to her and stared, beneath the shadows that covered its face an eye blinked open. An eye that was similar to the first form of the Eye that he had seen when she was three years old.

Then the Wise Guardian pulled back. Neffaya was already eager to Merge with the Creation the moment the carapace body turned into black, and sighed when it turned white.

But the carapace had turned red.