We both looked at the corner of the pub where two men were talking privately. One of them was dressed as a commoner, his dark brown cloak was covering almost his whole face. The other one, however, was wearing the Black Flame's cloak, and although he was standing with his back to us, I recognized the man right away - a lock of unique silver hair was peeking from underneath the hood, revealing the identity of its owner to the ones familiar with him. It was not only the hair that betrayed his disguise, while I was watching two men from my seat, I noticed him reach his left hand to touch the handle of his sword from time to time. The knight was the only person I knew who drew his sword with his left hand instead of the right, receiving a lot of nagging from others because he had to lose an additional second to transfer it to the right arm, so I was certain that habit was unique to Raphael.

- You are right, that's Raphael.

- I wonder what's he doing here? He told me he could not attend the festival.

Dorian's expression became somewhat uneasy. He was staring at the men so intensely, that I was afraid he'd be able to start shooting lasers from his eyes. I felt like something about his overall existence suddenly changed - he became tense, glum, if we were in a comic, his face would have a dark shadow coming all the way down to his mouth.

- Uhm... Prince Dorian? Is something the matter?

He did not respond right away, but when he finally did, his voice sounded unexpectedly cold and distant.

- He's been leaving the palace almost every night for a couple of weeks now. I guess he's been meeting suspicious men in dark corners of the pubs all this time.

"Why is he so tense about Raphael meeting someone? He is affiliated with Black Flame, so maybe it's just one of their members? So what if he's not wearing their attire, I don't think they have to wear it all the time."

While I was trying to figure out where all of the prince's suspicion was coming from, Raphael and his companion started moving towards the exit. Dorian flinched and jumped on his feet but was reluctant to move. I decided to step in.

- Prince Dorian, calm down, please. If you are so suspicious of your own guard, let's just follow them quietly and see what they are up to.

My words seemed to have done the trick. His whole stance relaxed a little and his facial expression became softer.

"I guess he unclenched."

- You are right, miss Yoona. If I confront him right now, it is possible he would come up with some kind of plausible excuse, if he's guilty of something. I just... I have had this uneasy feeling that he was scheming something behind my back for a while, I just did not want to believe it.

- Wow now, Mister Overthinking Everything! We do not know if he is indeed plotting something behind your back, so let's not jump to conclusions here. He proved to be a very loyal knight and a good friend of yours, right? You just told me so, for God's sake! Let's just go after them and see everything with our own eyes.

Dorian nodded quietly and covered his head with the hood of his cloak, I followed his example. We sneaked out of the pub like two spies on a mission and started following Raphael and the other guy. They either did not notice us at all which was quite hard to believe or were simply confident enough that no fool would follow a member of the Black Flame so blatantly. We were following them through dark empty alleys, took a lot of turns, and even had to squeeze in between a couple of walls until they finally stopped.

Raphael and his companion were standing in front of a tall metal door, carved in a big stone building that looked rather like a broken tower where the ghosts would live, than a hideout or a place that can host a large meeting.

- What are they doing? They are just standing there? I can't tell if they're talking, I can't hear anything.

I leaned closer to the prince and whispered as quietly as I could. He turned his face to me and flinched as he saw my face so close to his.

- I'm not sure, it looks like they are waiting for someone. Maybe more people will join.

We went silent again. Everything around us was quiet too. I could not tell how much time we spent sitting behind the side wall of the tower trying to figure out what Raphael was planning to do, but my legs started feeling numb so I stood up and started shaking them vigorously to spread the blood over my vessels.

"Look at him, his eyes are glued to those two, he is not even moving. I guess he really is concerned that his only friend might be scheming against him. If that's true, this is going to ruin a lot of things for Dorian."

When my legs started feeling normal again, I squatted down next to the prince to continue our spying, however, there was still no progress in the matter. Dorian let out a tired sigh, removed the hood of his cloak and rustled his hand through his hair.

- This is driving me crazy. Miss Yoona, I'm surprised you were so brave as to suggest following them together. Are you this adventurous by nature?

I took a moment to think about his question. Growing up in the orphanage, when you are not supervised most of the time, you dare to do a lot of stuff that is actually quite dangerous. We used to climb very tall trees, hanging around dangerous neighborhoods at late hours, one time we even got to an old car scrapyard and were climbing tall heaps of scrap metal, not afraid of getting severely injured or even dying.

"I guess... Nothing is scary when you have people by your side."

- Nothing is scarier than being alone, prince Dorian, and I am here with you.

I smiled warmly at him, the prince was looking at me with a confused expression.

"I hope he is not blushing right now, it's pitch dark, it would be a waste of blush."

The atmosphere was interrupted by the loud noise of footsteps coming from behind the tower. We counted 6 more men, all of them were members of Black Flame. They all stood in front of Raphael, he instructed them something with his gestures, then he nodded and turned around to face the door.

- I guess they are going to go in now. Do you think we will be able to go there after them?

My question did not require an answer, since the knight and two other mercenaries simply ripped the door off the hinges and threw it on the ground next to the building.

- What the?! Did you see that? They ripped the freaking door off!

I guess I was too excited to see such a scene in the real life. I mean, it was a metal door!

"Raphael... Either you were this strong from the beginning or I can take a bit of credit for your strength as well. In any case, at this point, I'm not even sure he needs my help anymore."

The men disappeared into the hole which used to be covered by that unfortunate door, we waited for a few moments and followed them too. As I suspected, the building was a decoy - it was actually a wide dark passageway that lead deep underground. Since we did not have anything to light our way with, we had to follow the faint sound of descending footsteps made by the mercenaries.

- How are they walking down so confidently? It's as dark as a pocket!

- Did you think black in "Black Flame" was just for the heck of it? This organization started its way by operating solely at night. Apart from military activities they also run... errands.

- What kind of errands?

- The ones that can only be run at night.

I almost wanted to mimic his words in a childish manner. What kind of answer was that?

After a couple of minutes, we started hearing noises that sounded like loud cheering and booing. If it wasn't for the fact that we were actually going down, I would assume that we were going up to the soccer arena. The sound was getting louder and louder and as I was already used to it, I started to hear the clanking sound of the swords.

- Don't tell me...

- Miss Yoona, don't look!

I did not have time to react. Dorian's big hand covered my eyes firmly all the way down to my nose, I started suffocating. It was obvious what was going on - a strong stench of blood, loud cheering noises, swords clanking loudly...

I pulled Dorian's hand away and almost dropped my jaw. I was right. It was a sword fight... between two children. I looked around, the spectators were not commoners, they were all dressed fancy, in expensive attire, clenching money and gold in their greedy hands. Some of them were happy, their eyes shining with excitement, their bet was probably winning. Some of them looked upset, disappointed, angry... those bet on the losing child. I couldn't find the courage to look at the stage where the kids were still fighting.

I raised my eyes to see Dorian's face, he was standing silently, clenching his fists, he was looking at the stage, his face was dark again, his body was trembling. I finally looked as well. The stage was smeared with blood - this fight was not the first even this evening. Both children were bleeding, one of them was barely holding the sword in his bony hands.

I remembered the scars on Raphael's body, I remembered the story of how he got them. I felt nauseated.

"Why? How? How on Earth is this entertaining? Why are they doing this? They are just kids... just because they are orphans... does this mean they can do anything they want with them?"

The crowd suddenly changed their sound - it became the sound of surprise, panic and fear. Black Flame enclosed the fighting kids in a circle behind them, drawing their swords. Raphael stood in front of them, gesturing for the crowd to calm down and be quiet. The nobles were reluctant to do so.

- What did the mercenaries forget here? We have a legal backup to hold these fights! Leave the premises at once!

- Oh goodness, it's Black Flame!

- Black Flame?!

A wave of nervous mumbling spread around the stage, it was obvious that people did not expect Black Flame to appear there, and it was obvious that they were somewhat afraid of them. A fat man in his forties stood up from his seat and spoke with a loud but trembling voice.

- Excuse us, but why are you here? We have permission to hold these fights, the house of nobles agreed on it!

Raphael spat in front of him as if aiming for the man and pulled the hood of his cloak down, revealing his face.

- You are all arrested for participating in illegal sword fights. This is an Imperial. Order.

The fat man laughed nervously.

- Imperial? No one from the Imperial family even knows about this!

- It was my order.

I was so focused on Raphael that I did not even notice that Dorian was no longer standing next to me. He jumped on the stage and stood next to Raphael who was surprised by the prince's unexpected appearance.

- P-prince Dorian? But why..? How?!

The crowd became loud again, everyone was equally shocked by the sudden appearance of the member of the Imperial family which only proved the illegitimacy of the whole matter. At that very moment, I was pushed out of the entrance by dozens of people all dressed in black. They were the mercenaries who came to help Raphael.

Everything was hectic, my vision became blurred, my head was spinning like crazy, I did not know what was going on. At some point, I think I threw up and then lost consciousness cause the next thing I remembered was a man's voice calling me from afar.

- Miss Yoona, are you alright? You need to get up.

I opened my eyes slightly and saw a person covered in black leaning over me. His voice sounded really familiar but I could not tell who he was.

"Dorian? I don't think it's him... I can't see his face, is it black? Is it covered with something? Is he one of the mercenaries? But he knows my name... Ugh, I need to get up."

The man helped me sit up and handed me a handkerchief.

"Shit, my face is probably covered in vomit."

I wiped my face and tried to take a better look at the stranger but he was nowhere to be seen. I suddenly felt something tugging my cloak from behind, when I turned around I almost screamed - it was one of the children from the stage. His clothes were drenched in blood, his hands were trembling, grasping desperately at my cloak, he was small, not older than 11 years old, the way he was looking at me carved into my brain forever.

- Please... I don't want to die...

I sprang up to my feet and felt a bit dizzy again. I then took my cloak off, put it around the kid and lifted him with my arms as if I was a groom carrying a bride. The room was clearing up, all the nobles were being escorted by the mercenaries, they were lined up and walking together like ants. I looked around but I did not see a familiar face. I did not know what to do, I was still confused and shocked, I had a severely wounded child in my arms, and my horse was still waiting for me next to the pub. I started panicking.

- Miss Yoona, are you alright?

Dorian ran towards me wearing a worried expression on his face. He put his hands on my shoulders and looked straight into my face.

- Are you injured?

I shook my head and nodded at the body I was pressing to my chest.

- It's one of the children, he really needs a doctor, we need to hurry.

The prince looked inside the cloak and flinched.

- Let's go, Raphael lent me his horse, we will take the kid to the royal physician.

- What about the other kid? And Raphael?

- He is taking care of everything, don't worry. Let's go.

When we came up again, one of the mercenaries handed the reins of the horse to Dorian, nodded at him and returned to the others. The prince put me on the horse facing forward and climbed right behind me, leaning close to me, squeezing me in between his arms.

- I will hold your body from the sides with my arms so you focus on holding the child.

He hit the horse with his leg and we set off. I was silently thanking myself for having strong arms, and even though that child was not heavy, it was becoming harder and harder to hold him close. My head was empty, nothing was important enough to enter my brain at that moment, nothing deserved to occupy my thoughts. Only one sentence was continuously playing in my head like a broken record - "Please don't die. Please don't die. Please don't die."