For three days and three nights, Fiao and I lied unconscious on the hard stone ground, mentally and physically destroyed. Yet why did nobody come in to take the two of us away? Why would they just leave two very important Tetsudo injured and out in the open like that? Well, I found out a little later, that it was because of me.

Soon after I collapsed, I began emanating fire. It should be impossible to properly utilize Tetsu when unconscious. The brain just doesn't have the functional capacity to do so while it's resting, but when people tried to get close to us. They were met with a searing ring of fire. The heat was only directed outwardly as well, so Fiao was completely fine. The flames were like a living being... Like an eagle mother, trying to protect the babies in its nest. Holding them under her wing, lashing out at whoever dares get close, and for all my years of research at the front of my field. I could not tell you why it happened. Especially with how little Tetsu I could utilize at that moment.

I rest on the ground, a small cushion underneath my head, a blindfold tied between my eyes. And of course, I was completely restrained. Heavy leather buckles strapped around my body.

Oh yea... I did attack my sister, whom is a pretty important ally didn't I? No wonder I wouldn't be... can't be trusted. I aimlessly stare off into the dark expanse of my blindfold, my eyes completely open.

I wanted to avoid having to reveal my powers, I wanted to see Bythem and the others live, I tried to kill the only person who trusts me, my sister who didn't even fight back at first. A lingering empty feeling opened up in my chest. That enemy soldier... Thi. She's also dead as well.

I didn't feel sadness, I didn't feel anger, I didn't feel anything. Hollow, that was all I was.

"Can I go see my sister." I say out loud to no one in particular. Perhaps there were a few people keeping close tabs on me right now.

...

I solemnly accept the silence as their response. This was the third time I've been put in this situation, the last two times I regretted my decision to escape. So this time, I'm just going to stay here.

A finger lightly taps my nose a couple seconds after I say that. It was a very nostalgic feeling.

And somehow, I manage to smile because of it.

"Let's pretend this is our first time meeting each other again alright?" Fiao says.

I immediately think back to what she did to Thi, but somehow, this wasn't a very difficult decision. "Let's do just that, and also I'm sorr-"

"Nah mmh." Fiao places her finger on my mouth. "You don't need to apologize for anything, it never happened... Also, I'm sorry as well."

"Seriously... You're such a strange person." I smile.

"Hey, you've never called me strange before!" Fiao says in a jokingly lighthearted manner.

"Are you going to deny it?"

"What if I do?"

"I— Uh..." I stammer for a bit, but couldn't think up of a witty remark to respond.

"You're so awkward haha!" Fiao immediately laughs at me.

"Hey, you know father, neither of us are social butterflies."

"True, true, I definitely shouldn't be talking either."

We sit in silence.

"Cain, you can definitely escape those binds pretty easily." Fiao says.

"Are you sure you want someone as dangerous as me out loose?" I reply, then instantly regret saying it.

Fiao doesn't respond for a couple of seconds, I tense up my lips, she's probably doing that annoying thing again where she tries to read my body language.

"That wasn't sarcastic was it?" Fiao says, immediately bringing up the incident after suggesting to not bring up the incident.

"I thought we were going to forget about that incident?”

“You know, we can play pretend all we want but the truth of the matter is that it happened, we can’t erase it.”

“Only a minute later we make that agreement and you already bring it up, you’re quite forgetful.” I feel a light punch on my shoulder.

“If you ever do something again that you would hate yourself for, I will come over and stop you.” Fiao says. “So don’t worry, you’ve got your big sister back.”

“Even if it means killing me?” I ask.

“I’ll never go that far.” Fiao says. “However, if it means cutting your hands and feet off and stitching your mouth shut, I will do it.”

“Fiao, you have to be willing to kill me.” I state with a finality in my tone.

“Come on… Don’t put me through this…”

…

“Alright. I’ll do my best. Don’t expect too much though, after all, I just lost to you.” Fiao finally says.

Awkward silence fills the air once more.

I clear my throat. “This probably should have been the first thing I asked, but uh… Why are you here?”

“I just happened toooo…“ Fiao trails off mid-sentence.

“Did you follow me? I didn’t see you in the rift chamber when I crossed over.” Fiao wasn’t lazy, but she had no ambition whatsoever. I could not imagine someone like her running off to fight in a war of her own accord.

“Huh, how should I answer this…”

“Embarrassed or…?”

“C-Can a girl not go out of her way to see her little brother? I can’t believe you’re being so cold!”

“No, no, you can, but, what would you have done if we ended up fighting against each other? We could have just met each other when we were still back on our side.”

“All I can say… Is that we both have our personal problems, and I came here to have some fun, not talk about this depressing stuff.” My pupils constrict as light suddenly floods my vision, I immediately squint in recoil having not seen light in what feels like forever. I look up to see Fiao hovering over me, clutching my blindfold. I feel pressure suddenly alleviate itself from my chest as Fiao then slices all the leather buckles in half with enough precision to completely avoid cutting me along with them.

I sigh. We were close to each other, but there was always this tiny distance between us that prevented us from truly opening up to each other.

“What are you doing!? That man is dangerous!” I look to the side to see a middle-aged looking balding man point his spear at me.

“You should be considering me to be a bigger threat than my brother right now.” Fiao glares at him.

“B-b-but…” The man stammers under the gaze of two Tetsudo. Well, I wasn’t particularly trying to intimidate him, just my reputation alone was probably enough to scare him.

I slowly get up off the ground until I was standing eye to eye with Fiao. She was quite the tall girl as we were around the same height. “How are your injuries?” I ask her.

“Gone! Anku is really marvelous, all my burns, everything, even the patches of hair that were burned off grew back somehow!” Fiao ruffles her hair.

As for me, I hop up and down, physically I felt fine as well.

“If you report back about this to your superiors, I ask that you tell them that I was the one who broke myself out. Fiao did nothing. At this point, nothing I do here can fix my reputation so I don’t care.” I address the bald guy calmly.

“Let’s go Fiao, you’re right. I want to have some fun as well, can you do the honors?”

“Sure, my treat.” Fiao raises her hands up and concentrates.

It was something I could do myself, but Fiao was the wind expert and was less likely to mess it up. I look down at my body as my shadows begin shifting in unnatural ways. “Did you do it?” I ask as Fiao lowers her hands.

“Mmh, we should be pretty hard to see us now.” Fiao says as the light around us now refracted through the air, never making contact with our skin. Kinda like how light curves through water. However, as we needed to be able to see too, Fiao allowed light through the air above us.

“We’ll be back.” Fiao says as we leave the tent, walking right past multiple soldiers standing at the entrance.

“Geez, this place is pretty heavily locked down.” I remark, our voices also being contained in our small bubble… I assume.

“They’re keeping a guy like you here after all.” Fiao’s feet leave the ground as she begins floating. “Hurry up, I can’t keep this up forever.”

I nod my head as my feet leave the ground as well. “I can always take over if you get too tired.” I say.

“I’m joking, I can maintain this for a week straight.”

“Oh? Then I guess I’ll take my time.”

“You don’t need to do that…”

I slowly begin floating up high into the sky. Fiao lazily flies around me as I do so, clearly holding back for my sake as she was much better at letting the wind carry her. Although… It was strange, this felt too easy.

“Fiao wanna race to the clouds?” I say haphazardly.

“You sure? I’ve still got my pride you know, can’t hold back just for you.”

“Don’t be shy, I’m not a particularly sore loser.”

She looks at me for a couple seconds before shrugging. “Alright, then on your marks…” I lighten my body further than I already had, until I believed that my weight wouldn’t exceed a feather.

“Get set…” I open my palm towards the ground, contorting my body until I lied flat horizontally, taking advantage of as much my body’s surface area as possible. “Go!” The two of us shoot into the sky, propelled by fearsome currents of wind.

I turn my head to the right, my eyes widen in surprise. Despite years of her proving to be much better than me at wind, for a moment we simply hang side by side, both of us shocked. I had kept pace with her, no… I was a little bit further ahead of her.

Fiao eyes flare up for the first time since I’ve seen her, and she immediately turns her head back towards the sky. The air before me shimmers like a heat wave before she disappears from my sight almost instantaneously. I look up to see her rocketing upwards similar to the speed of a falcon who was diving down. At that moment I decide to give up.

“Didn’t even know you could move that fast.” I muse as I catch up with Fiao. We were completely above the clouds at this point, it was a scene I’ve seen many times, but the endless expanse of sky still drew my breath away every time I came up here.

She averts her eyes away from me.

“Fiao?”

“Nothing, let’s get going.” Fiao grabs my hand rather unexpectedly and lightly tugs at my arm, not before I hear a booming but slightly rattly sound of a horn from down below.

“That’s the sound of an emergency, something must have happened!” I try to turn away but Fiao continues to tug at my arm.

“We’ll deal with it when we get back.” Fiao says. “Just trust me.”

I tilt my head confusingly but decide to accept it nonetheless. “Do you know what happened?” I ask. Fiao doesn’t respond and begins dropping through the clouds.

As we begin diving down, a thought runs through my mind. Did they somehow… See me?

I spread my arms open like an bird, changing my momentum forwards as we begin soaring through the air. I look back down at the ground, squinting at the tiny figures scuttling across the ground. “Of all the things you choose to lie about…” I murmur angrily.

“Did you accidentally drop the illusion?” I say, immediately causing her to flinch. She then slowly turns her head towards me, winks, and sticks her tongue out in an extremely annoying way.

“Think of that as payback for giving me those burns.” She says.

“You know, we promised to never bring that up again and you’ve brought it up when it’s convenient for you twice already. I’m starting to think you didn’t actually mean what you said.”

“Hey, I gotta keep my reputation as a liar up somehow.” She says, although she never really had that reputation, she just made it up, because that’s just the type of person she is.

I smile then look back. Oh well. Like I said, my reputation is already so horrible that this doesn’t make much of a difference.

“Man this is so nostalgic, when’s the last time we did this?” Fiao says.

“Back on my seventeenth birthday I reckon, although that wasn’t a particularly fond memory.”

“Oh yea…”

“Remember that thief that we—“

“God you’re such a mood killer, can’t we find better things to reminisce about?”

I laugh. “Guess you’re right about that.”

Then the both of us go silent for a good five minutes.

“Your hair got longer.” I say.

Fiao looks up and fingers her hair. “I guess it did, why?”

“I’m just curious as to the last time you cut your hair.”

“Huh, that’s a good question… It’s been a while, I never really thought about it I guess.”

“You know, if you want to find a boyfriend you’re going to have to clean up that hair a bit.” Fiao laughs. “What a strange thing to talk about, you got love on your mind?”

“I’m just saying, we’re both going to have to find a way to live the rest of our lives out after all this is over.”

“Alright, then I’ll just follow you around, how’s that sound? ‘A sister who could never let go of her brother’”

“You must want a pretty boring life then.” I say jokingly.

“Why, what are you planning on doing?”

“I’ll just… I’ll just do whatever I’m told to do. We’ll simply serve Lyster forever.”

Fiao goes quiet as soon as I say this.

“Fiao?”

She looks at me and smiles; however, I could notice a hint of bitterness in her smile as she did so. “Now that’s a shame ain’t it. We’ve become so similar once again.”

An incredibly thick awkwardness suddenly forms between us. We wordlessly fly around the landscape for 15 more minutes.

“You want to go back?” I ask.

“Mmh.”