Gabrielle woke up back at Elega, strangely not feeling sleepy at all. Her bed was warm from her body heat, and was so comfortable that she didn’t want to get up. Reluctantly getting up from her cozy bed, a pair of white slip on shoes sat at the foot of her bed. Smiling warmly she slipped the shoes on. She got up and walked out of her room and into the hallway. Fira noticed her and stopped mid-walk to talk to her.

“Oh, good morning!” she said, giving her a wave.

“Lunara said that before I went to sleep, I think she was trying to confuse me.” Gabrielle put a hand to her head - even though she said the right thing about being asleep on Earth while being awake here, it still hurt her brain a bit. She hadn’t gotten over it quite yet. “By the way, what do you think about this?” She held up her hand and showed Fira the markings on her finger.

“Wow, I didn’t see that before, it’s so small.” Fira looked closer “I’d have the Mystic check it out, she’s better at these kinds of things than me, I just hit stuff with a sword.” she shrugged, then walked away.

Walking downstairs, she confronted the mystic with the markings. “Oh, my, I didn’t see that before. It seems to be Zoriyan magic, that’s a very rare sight, I know very few users of it since it’s so ancient. Where did you get this?”

“N-nowhere.” she mumbled, her face turning red.

Looking closer at the markings, the Mystic grinned and gave her a knowing look. “Who’s the lucky man?”

“W-what are you saying?” Looking for any other person in the room to help her situation, and finding no one, her face became even redder.

“A mark like that means you belong to somebody.”

“What?! He never told me-” Slapping her other hand over her mouth, she realized she may have just said something that could be easily misunderstood. “N-no this isn’t- We’re not- I’m not- Ohh.” Groaning, she threw her hands onto her head, confused and angry at the whole thing.

“It’s ok, you don’t have to kiss and tell, darling,” the Mystic cooed, batting her eyes at her.

“He’s going to get a piece of my mind when I see him again!” Balling her hands into fists, she angrily stomped the ground.

“What’s going on?” Fira peeked out from behind the corner of the staircase.

“Gabrielle has a boyfriend, those markings are basically a promise ring,” the Mystic said haughtily.

“No!” Gabrielle squeaked, throwing her hands in front of her. “Don’t tell her that! Now she’s got the wrong idea too!”

“Boyfriend? Sounds nice, I’m jealous,” Fira said wistfully.

“Everyone cut it out, there is work to be done,” Shai said while walking down the opposite staircase. She carried a large white flower-like bulb, about as big as an orange. She went up to the two girls in a brisk pace, tossing the bulb at Gabrielle. Fumbling and then getting a hold of the bulb, Gabrielle looks up at Shai, confused.

“What am I supposed to do with this?”

“You are going on a scouting mission. Parliament said it was safe enough for you to go in alone, but I convinced them to let you have the shielding device I just gave you. The carriage to take you to the border is outside waiting.”

Taking the bulb into her arms, she looked at Shai reluctantly. “Are you sure about this?”

“I’m not, that’s why I gave you that bulb, good luck,” Shai said, waving goodbye and walking back up the stairs.

Turning around and going out the doors, a horse drawn carriage waited for Gabrielle outside. She awkwardly walked past the driver and got into the vehicle. The carriage rocked into action and rumbled along the road. She peered out the window as the town rolled past. Noisy pedestrians walked closely around, sometimes casting a short glance inside. She had her hands pressed to the glass, she stared blankly out the window, watching the crowds pass by.

The town slowly faded away into the distance, and nothing was left to look at but white ground and bleached, leafless trees. What came into view made her worried, the ground beyond the white landscape was completely black. She turned away and looked to the white bulb sitting next to her. Why a bulb? She didn’t know if it would work, and she wasn’t even told how to use it.

Reaching the edge of the border, the carriage slowed to a stop. She stopped to wonder why it was only her that was chosen, and if Fira and Lunara had to do the same thing when they first arrived. Grabbing the bulb and stepping out of the vehicle, she looked to the driver, who gave her a nod and gestured towards the dark landscape that laid only yards in front of her. She took in a deep breath and squeezed the bulb tightly to her chest, she went over the border. Overwhelmed with worry, she felt stiff from bracing herself so hard, her heartbeat pounding heavily in her ears. Going deeper into enemy territory, even her own footsteps made her jump.

Scratching noises pierced the silence, she only noticed now that the ground had man sized holes on the edges of the main stretch of land, though the ground was so dark, they were hard to see. Many short creatures with black skin crawled out of the holes. They were nose-less, with black eyes that had no pupils or irises, they had claws on their hands and feet and were extremely lankey. She heard the horse drawing her carriage neighed loudly in fear, the driver started shouting for the horse to calm down. She looked back just as they turned to run

“Wait!” she shouted, turning around and trying to run away from the strange creatures. One of them twitched its long black antennae that rested backwards across its head.

“Fresh meat!” One of them said. They all turned towards her, and a few of them lunged at her at the same time.

Gripping the the bulb even tighter, she prepared for the shield to activate. Cold fear ran through her and her heart raced. A low boom rang out from her left, flinging the strange creatures back and knocking her over, the bulb slipping out of her grasp. Rolling over to get up, Skyler was standing next to her. He turned towards a group of the small imp-like creatures and his arm morphs into a long black blade. With one sweep, he cuts through one swathe of the creatures, who screech and dissipate.

“It’s The Forsaken One, get him!” One of the creatures squeaked, the rest then started screeching and crawling towards him.

“How did you do that with your arm?” Gabrielle called out to him.

He took a forward swing with his arm blade, cutting through another chunk of creatures.

“I’ll explain later,” he said, turning towards the creatures that gathered over to the right that were hissing and chucking little black rocks and bits of dead tree roots in their direction. The rocks lightly bounce off of him, and he stares at them with disapproval. They stopped tossing whatever they could throw, and looked at each other.

Skyler kneeled down and took one step forward, digging his foot into the ground, the blade his arm turned into grew, and with one sweeping motion, cut through the entire wave of enemies in front of him. The rest of them looked on in shock as they heard the death cries of their brothers and sisters.

“He’ll kill us all, run!” They all scattered, most frantically stampeding and pushing over each other to get to the holes in the ground to escape, some ran into the distance. Skyler gave a sigh of relief as he stood back up, his arm morphing back to normal. Gabrielle reached for the bulb that was lying on the ground, only for him to pick it up instead.

“What were you doing out here? You just woke up yesterday, those Darklings could have killed you,” he said, crouching down to his knees and handing her the bulb.

She quickly took it. “That doesn’t matter. I need to talk to you!” She demanded angrily.

“The markings, the Mystic said they meant I ‘belonged’ to you, why didn’t you say anything?” she shouted, rolling over onto her hands to get up.

She wondered why he kept such important information from her, she felt betrayed, anger was welling up inside her again like before.

“They attacked me anyways, and they attacked you too! Why would you lie to me like that?” she said, turning towards him and gripping the bulb for dear life.

“I wasn’t lying, I just didn’t expect some very sudden things to happen,” he said remorsefully.

“If I had known the old Dark Centaur clan teamed up with the most dangerous Warlock in the multiverse, I wouldn’t have said that. I was sure that everything was going to be fine, but they took the throne. Now I’m afraid the war is going to start up again”

“What? Wait, don’t try to change the subject! You… You should have asked me first before putting those markings on me,” she said coldly, still spurned by his decision to not ask her first.

“And how would I have asked that exactly? You were asleep, that was the best way I knew how to at least assure your safety until you were powerful enough to hold your own out here,” he said, stepping towards her.

“On earth, I saw you at the hospital, you could have done it there, why didn’t you?” she asked, stepping away from him and making her body rigid, a strong feeling of resentment welling up in her chest along with anger.

“I didn’t want you to worry about me,” he mumbled, gripping his chest.

“What?” Her body softened, worry about him? Why? Was something wrong? He was gripping his chest, did he get hurt? Her anger and resentment all but disappeared, she didn’t want to be, but she was instantly worried about him,.

“I was at the hospital for a reason, not because you were there, either,” he said, throwing off his trench coat. Pulling his shirt up all the way and unraveling the blotchy black bandages underneath, she gasped when he revealed two black marks that went across his chest, one large, traveling diagonally down the left side of his chest, and a smaller horizontal one on the right, both had stitches in the middle and were weeping a black liquid.

“What’s that black stuff?” she said as she leaned closer, a look of concern on her face.

“Blood, my blood is black, not red.” he mumbled, turning away and re-bandaging his wounds.

“Oh, my god,” she said, walking up to him and putting her hand on his shoulder. She thought he was just there to see her aunt, she didn’t know that he was there for himself. Feeling instant regret, she grasped his shoulder firmly, she hadn’t thought about how he was doing until he showed her his wounds.

“It’s fine,” he murmured. With his back turned to her, she could see more black markings with stitches down the middle, two long parallel ones that went down each side of his back, stopping at his waist, and then two faded gray scars that cut across each of his shoulder bones.

“I don’t believe you,” she said sternly, once he finished bandaging himself up, she raised her hand away from him, dropped the bulb, and placed both hands on each of his shoulders, pushing down firmly. “Sit down, you shouldn’t be standing when you’re hurt like that.”

“I told you, it’s fine, I’m fine, it’s alright,” he tried to assure her, she wasn’t having any of it though. She needed to take him with her so he can find a place to rest. “What are you doing?” he asked as she pushed down harder, making him get down to his knees.

“You’re wounded, and I’m going to get you to safety whether you like it or not,” Gabrielle demanded, grabbing his trench coat, putting the bulb in it, and put it on him. She turned around and kneeled down, grabbing his arms and pulling them over her shoulders, she then grabbed his knees and lifted him up, giving him a piggyback ride.

“You don’t have to do this, put me down, I can walk I swear,” he pleaded, she shook her head in response, and started going towards the border. “No! I don’t belong there, you have no idea what they’ll do to me if you take me there!” he warned, trying to get his legs free.

“I’ll tell them we’re engaged, then they’ll have to take you in. The markings on my finger will be proof enough,” she said, grabbing his legs even tighter.

“You’d be lying to them, and you aren’t the lying type, remember?” he said, his face turning a light gray as he blushed.

“It’s not lying, technically, just trust me. I won’t let them do anything bad to you,” she said assuredly, they can work out the kinks later, right now, getting Skyler to safety was her primary concern.

“A-alright, fine, but don’t say I didn’t tell you so,” he said worriedly, and stopped trying to wiggle free.