The trip down the narrow dirt road to the village was tranquil. While Annui wished to know everything about them, both Marked teens wanted to keep quiet about everything.

Days of drifting returned to Fynn and Yue a little silent. Nevertheless, they agreed to accompany the studious boy to the city because they wanted to corroborate what Aliz and Ledger were saying; there, it was likely that no one would take them as monsters but rather as people. It sounded very idyllic. In part, it was.

Fynn and Yue decided to stop for a moment at the edge of the cliff. Rocked by a gale coming from the oceans, they looked at where they had been shipwrecked. The teens saw the planks where they traveled, boxes, and things that may have been from their ship washed up to rocks. Perhaps in the hope or misfortune that someone had survived, they finally realized that they had been the only ones to do so.

At that moment, they had no weapons, they had no protection, and they had nothing. They only had each other.

"We should get going," Fynn said in an atonic voice. "Shall we?"

Yue nodded silently and turned toward the cart, where Annui was waiting for them.

"What do you think of him?" asked Yue.

"What are you talking about?" he asked.

"This is all too strange. We fell into a wonderful town where no one seems to view us with hatred, and a Marked boy just like us lives without knowing that outside they hunt us."

"A matter of luck, I suppose," replied Fynn. "He looks friendly, although peculiar. I know we're not one to judge that, but..."

"You're the weird one out here," Yue said, watching her friend from the corner of her eye.

Soon, she had a smile that was something to take her mind off what they were both going through for a moment.

"I'm not!" said Fynn, smiling.

Annui watched as they walked back to the car with a different face than when they got off. That laughter made her perk up as perhaps she was doing well to take them into town.

"Ready to continue?" asked Annui smiling.

Fynn nodded, "Go ahead."

As Yue settled into the cart, she settled into her work boots that were bigger than her feet. "Hey, were we the only ones you saw at sea?"

The boy turned and nodded nervously to the akajsi girl, "I-It was just you two. It was weird seeing you there. Usually, when I come to this area to study fish and barnacles, I never find things like you guys. Things, People, Marked, you know what I mean..."

"Keep digging your grave," Yue said. "Every word makes it even more so."

"Come on, don't be like that with him," Fynn said calmly. "Thanks for rescuing us."

Annui turned to see the boy smiling warmly at her. The young mage smiled back before focusing on the road.

"You don't have to thank me," the boy said with a smirk. "But, if you want to thank me, you can tell me a little about yourselves and outside the Kingdom of Betheas."

"Like what?" asked Yue.

"Oh, I don't know; what's it like outside here?"

"Shitty," replied the akajsi girl.

"It's not that bad," said Fynn, a little softer in her tone. "There's a lot of danger, but good people are out there too."

"Oh, someone helped them out there?" asked Annui.

"Well, many people. Farmers and common people. And then is Ronan, our mentor. We traveled with him all over Mezenas until we got to Lestral."

Yue watched Fynn with intrigue, "I'm sure that's not what the names were like..."

"You said you came out of a cave; how about you?" asked Annui to Yue.

"A hole in the ground."

"Funny, we always show up in holes or cavities in the rock. "

"Ronan calls them entry points," Fynn said. "He makes it his business to study us."

"And how was the place where you both appeared?" asked Annui, smiling.

To the young wizard's disgrace, both Marked children looked at each other and were silent for a few uncomfortable seconds. Annui swallowed saliva and soon became nervous. It seemed that he had touched on an issue that wasn't very pleasant for them.

"It was... kind of tough," Fynn replied.

"We were hunted," Yue continued, crossing her arms and shrinking back into the cart.

"O-Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that..."

"Yeah, I guess we're not all lucky," the akajsi girl replied. "If it wasn't locals, it was the White Flame doing it."

"What's that?" asked Annui.

The Fynn and Yue looked at each other a little incredulously.

"You don't know who they are?" asked Fynn.

Annui shook her head.

"How long have you been around?" asked Yue with intrigue.

Annui raised her eyes and began calculating, "I don't know, a year and a half maybe..."

"And you've never heard of them?" asked Yue. "No one attacked you? Nothing bad happened to you?"

"I-I don't think so," replied the boy nervously.

Fynn tried to comfort Yue, whose moodiness and anxiety was climbing.

"Sorry, I guess we're still bad about everything that's happened to us," Fynn said.

"Just 'bad,' huh?" exclaimed Yue in her bad temper.

After a brief silence, Annui apologized, "I had no idea things were like that out there. I'm sorry..."

"You don't have to apologize," Fynn said with a smile. "It must be great living here."

"Oh, it is!" replied the Marked Mage excitedly. "I spend my time studying many things of this world."

"Mistress Aliz seems like a very nice woman," said Fynn.

"She is! she is wonderful," said the boy. "From the first day I arrived at the farmstead, she took me in. When I first arrived, Ledger wasn't too happy with my presence, but then he started teaching me things, and since then, he's had no problem with me being here."

"What was that about being 'Unmarked'?" asked Yue.

"Oh, that," the brown-haired boy remembered.

Then, he rolled up the right sleeve of his baggy shirt and showed the back of his hand. The boy wore a golden ring around his triangular Mark, the Mark of the Wizards.

"Shortly after I arrived, they took me to a place, and after passing some tests that Ledger prepared me for, they gave me this. Aliz told me that this makes my Mark less scary. I didn't know we put so much fear into people that we get hunted..."

"The townspeople, they haven't attacked you?" asked Yue, intrigued and suspicious.

"No one had ever said anything bad to me, except when I messed up," Annui noted. "When Ledger started teaching me how to use magic, I tore a house apart from its foundation. Fortunately, no one was there, but I spent a month rebuilding it."

The boy smiled with noticeable embarrassment while Fynn and Yue looked at each other in amazement.

Yue said, "That's..."

"Unbelievable," Fynn finished the sentence. "What about your name? Ronan gave us ours."

"Oh, Ledger named me Annui. Actually, my full name is Annuiareth, but everyone calls me Annui. It's the name of a constellation you can see from the manor after dark."

"Hey," Yue soon caught Fynn's attention. Just like that, she pointed to the small town outlined on the horizon.

The trio of Marked Ones arrived in Vantaigy, Annui's second home. The town was much smaller than Fynn and Yue were used to, with houses at times spaced far apart and others close together by the ocean and the small boat harbors. The mud and wood town conveyed a calm atmosphere that the two did not seem to be able to enjoy.

For the first time, Fynn and Yue felt the fear of their marks and inevitably covered them.

"Annui, dear, good morning!" exclaimed a woman carrying a large basket and hurrying towards the boy.

"Adeline, good morning!" said the boy with a friendly, excited smile. The boy held out his hand, the hand where he carried the Mark to the young woman. The girl quickly placed the basket in the cart and climbed into it.

"Thank you very much; you are so very kind," the girl said. The pale girl wore a simple, bluish dress and covered her head with a white cloth. "Are you here on Miss Dimont's chores?"

The girl soon became aware of the presence of both children behind her. Fynn watched her with a nervous smile and waved her hand at her. Yue, true to form, watched her with folded arms and distrust.

"Who are they?" the girl asked.

"Oh, travelers," Annui soon replied. "They're coming from Mizuna and passed close to home."

"My, an Akajsi girl," said the girl curiously. "Are you coming from Hilree or Aksadrell?"

"No," Yue replied dryly.

The girl watched her, and soon a certain nervousness formed on her face. "Oh..."

"E-Excuse her," Fynn replied nervously. "She's not usually very friendly."

Yue watched Fynn with narrowed, irritated eyes.

Fynn shrugged, "T-That's true..."

"Do you know if Gozbert's store is open yet?" asked Annui to the girl who climbed into her cart. "I have to buy stuff for Ledger right there."

"Oh, if that drunk didn't fall down the pier last night, he must surely have opened."

"Oh, don't call him that!" replied Annui laughingly.

"Oh Annui, you always avoid speaking badly of people," said the girl, taking the boy's cheek with one hand and his basket with the other. "I'll get off here, see you!"

The girl hurried down and grabbed her basket with both hands before ducking inside the small local market.

"They seem to be very friendly here," said Fynn.

"She looks like she has air in her head," Yue said.

"They are very friendly here," Annui insisted. "I've never had any trouble with anyone, least of all my Mark. Several like us live in the area, working on the farms or as merchants and fishermen. I met one in Count Dimont's court who helps out as a translator."

"This all sounds like a very nice place to live," the dark-skinned boy said.

Yue watched her friend, and even with doubts about how beautiful that place was, she knew there must be something wrong.

As they got out of the cart, she looked at Annui's hand; the restraints and the golden ring over their Mark, rather than a symbol to indicate that they weren't dangerous, she saw it as an identification that accused them of being what they were.

The pair of Marked children accompanied Annui inside the store, a small wooden building and one that sported ornaments and a wooden sign outside with the name of the place, The Diligent Sailor.

There, a stout man appeared to be nodding off from sleep before a night of drunkenness. Annui approached the counter and showed him the note with Ledger's supplies.

"Heh, the old man must be preparing something for his employees," the man said with a hoarse sound in his throat.

"Well, last night, the cook's assistant had a fever and was in bed very early in the morning."

The man sighed and scratched his growing beard, "I think I have everything, just let me... Hey, what are you two doing over there?"

Fynn and Yue, curious, were apprehended as Yue observed the contents of a barrel by opening its lid and Fynn snooping through several jars.

"D-Don't worry, they're coming with me!" exclaimed Annui.

"If they break anything, I'll charge you."

Fynn quickly left the jars where he had found and began snooping around another part of the store. There, the boy found a mirror hanging on one of the walls. The mirror was worn, it looked old, but he could still see himself in it. So the boy looked at himself, something he had rarely done.

"What do you see?" asked Yue, approaching her friend. Then, she also caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. That was the first time she had seen her face. "Wow, I thought my ears were bigger."

"They're still huge," said Fynn.

"They're not!" replied Yue with a laugh, nudging his friend.

The boy laughed and turned to stare at the mirror. The whole place had changed.

It took Fynn a while to understand what happened; suddenly, the whole room had disappeared, and there was a huge calm sea in front of him. The boy did not understand what was happening; he did not understand how he was now in that place. He quickly turned around and realized he was on a small island of white sand.

"What am I-"

"In your mind, kid."

The Marked boy turned. Behind him stood Kyrus.

"Hello, Fynn."