Tridents, weighted nets, swords, daggers, maces, axes, shields, crossbows, normal bows, and tons of other weapons lined the walls. Crossing to the swords I started searching through all of them, but there were so many of them that I didn't even really know where to begin. Soon after we arrived a man who looked like he was 8 feet tall and was as wide as a fully grown tree came out of the back room to greet us. “Hello. My name is Ari and I am looking for a sword. Do you have any recommendations for me?” Really hoping that he could help me at least get started, I was relieved when he said that he could help me. Introducing himself to me as Jove the Head Armorer in the kingdom of Raetis, I was willingly to bet that there were very few people in this entire world that could beat him in a fight if there was even one person. Picking up one of the swords that he laid out for me to try, I swung it around a couple of times, but could quickly see that it was not for me. It was way too heavy and the grip was way off. Praying that I could find one that was a good match for me, I tried the next one.

Seven swords later I finally found one that suited me. Sinking into a fighting stance I went through several combos and moves until I was satisfied that the sword was indeed the one for me. Facing Jove I beamed at him. “I will take this one. How much will it cost me? Keep in mind that I have no money so it will have to be paid back in either favors, or helping out around your shop.”

He let loose a deep bellowing laugh. “That is okay. I heard that you are going on a journey pretty soon to the eastern lands so you will just have to owe me something. Once you get back I will tell you what you can do to make it up to me. For now just take the sword and become the best swords woman that you can be.”

A huge smile split my face. “Thank you so much for your help and I will be sure to come see you after my journey to repay you for the sword.” After getting the scabbard that went with the sword and having my guards help me put it on, I put my sword away and secured my dagger onto the scabbard as well. Heading directly to the training room, I began to get used to the feel and weight of my sword. My guards called out moves and exercises for me to do and I realized that wielding a real sword is a lot harder than wielding a wooden sword. The only time that I had ever fought with a real sword was the battle against Malick's people and I did not do very much in that battle. Two hours later my arms could not lift my sword anymore and I decided to call it a day. Heading back to my room I quickly showered, changed, and then collapsed into my bed. Before I could go to sleep though, Aeson came into my room. Confusion on my face I asked, “What are you doing here Aeson? My injury is completely healed and no pain came from it all day.”

He nodded. “Yes I know all of that, but it is normal for healers to check on their former patients occasionally for a check up. Not all of them are smart the first couple of days after becoming healed and they sometimes reinjure themselves. I figured I would make sure that you are ready when you leave for your trip around the eastern lands in a couple of days.”

Alex spoke up now. “Do you know exactly when we are supposed to leave? I forgot to ask that in all of Ari's excitement at being able to go and then getting a sword.”

“You will leave in two days at around seven in the morning. They want to make it to the nearest village by lunch time.” The second after Aeson finished examining me and left the room I fell into a deep dreamless sleep. Waking up six hours later the first thing I saw were my maids. Waving sleepily to them I dragged myself out of bed. They helped me get ready for the day in my now usual black pants and white shirt. Sophia and Hazel were already dressed for the day. Their outfits were very similar to mine in both style and color. Splashing some water on my face to wake myself up the rest of the way, I strapped on my sword and dagger. Hearing my stomach growl, I waved good morning to all of my guards and led them all down to the kitchen to grab some breakfast. My mouth started to water as the delicious aromas of today's breakfast started to waft up to where we were. Walking faster now I reached the kitchen in record time and quickly piled up a plate full of the delicious looking food. Sitting down at an empty table, I began to dig in. My maids and guards sat down next to me and started in on their food as well.

Several minutes passed in silence while we enjoyed our food. Done before everyone else, I went to go bring my dirty dishes back to the kitchen. Declining the kitchen staffs’ offers to take the dishes from me, I went into the kitchen and cleaned them myself. Aware that everyone was looking at me in amazement, I smiled to myself. Finished with putting dishes away I went over to the person who seemed to be in charge of the kitchen. “Excuse me, are you the Head Chef of this kitchen?” Startled, all they could do was nod mutely at me. They seemed to be only around ten years older than me, but they had a confidence that far surpassed most people in this world. The way they told everyone around them what to do left me with no doubt that they were the one in charge. “Great! I was wondering if I could come help in your kitchen whenever I am able. It would be really good experience for me and I would not be in anyone's way because I already know some things. I took a few lessons from my kingdom's Head Chef before I came to this kingdom.”

Seeming to overcome his surprise, he grinned at me. “Of course you can help us around the kitchen. We can always use an extra pair of hands and I would never pass down the opportunity to teach a willing student.”

A voice behind me made me jump. “Does that mean that I can help around here as well? We both have to leave on a journey tomorrow morning, but we can help with the rest of the meals today.”

Astonishment on his face again, the Head Chef said, “Yes, just come in to help with lunch around 10:30 a.m and come in around 4:00 p.m. to help with dinner.” Both of us thanked him for giving us a chance to help out before heading out of the kitchen back to our guards. They had all finished eating and were ready to follow us wherever we went next. Looking at Darius I waited for him to make the decision. I wanted to train with my new sword, but if it meant hanging out with Darius then I was fine doing anything. Right as I was thinking that though, Darius noticed my sword for the first time.

“When did you get that? Please tell me that you got it recently and I am not just blind.” The pleading note in his voice almost made me laugh out loud.

“I got it yesterday right after I left you once our guards had both agreed to let us see the rest of the eastern lands.” Laughter was in my voice and it was hard to keep the smile off my face.

He let out the breath he had been holding in. “Oh good. I feel a lot better now. If you want I can go get my sword and I can help to train you since I am sure that your guards and my guards will want to help as well.”

“That sounds great!” A thought then occurred to me and I turned to face my maids. “Do you guys want to learn how to fight as well? I don't want to leave you out or anything. If you don't, then don't worry about it, but if you do then I will help you find a weapon suited for you. Like a bow, sword, dagger, or staff.” Hazel and Sophia looked at each other and seemed to be thinking through my offer. I did not rush them because I knew it was a big decision. For me it had seemed pretty easy because as soon as I had picked up a sword for the first time I had known that it was the weapon for me. However for other people it is not that easy. Sometimes it takes them years to decide which weapon is for them. After a couple minutes of silence I broke in. “Why don't we go see Jove and see if he has any suggestions for you two? Or if you want to be a healer or something then we can talk to Aeson and see if he will take you on as an apprentice.”

Sophia's eyes lit up at that idea. “I would like to talk to Aeson. Becoming a healer sounds really good to me.” Smiling at her, I gestured for someone to lead the way to where Aeson was. Since he had always come to me I did not actually know where his room was or where he worked. Ethan stepped forward and started leading the way. It was a little strange to see Ethan leading the way since it had seemed like he was a person who preferred following.

Darius seemed to understand my confused look and answered me. “Ethan is my analyst on the team. He knows everywhere we have been and knows all the escape routes from the place we are in. Also he has a photographic memory which comes in handy a lot.” I looked at Ethan with a lot more respect in my eyes than I had before learning all this information. Looking around at everyone I realized that I did not know very much about any of them. Their pasts, their hobbies, their likes, their dislikes, it was all a mystery to me. Making a promise to myself to find out more about them later, I brought myself back to the present. We had arrived at a door that was presumably the entrance to Aeson’s quarters. Stepping in front of everyone I knocked on the door. Only a couple seconds passed before the door swung open.

Upon seeing me he frowned. “Did you injure yourself again?” Aeson saw everyone else in the group behind me. “Or did someone else get injured?”

A small push in my side made me step to the side. “We came to see if you were willing to take me on as your apprentice. I want to become a healer and you are the best healer I know. I promise that I will work hard, not waste your time, and follow all of your orders.”

The look on Aeson’s face after Sophia finished speaking was hilarious. His mouth had dropped open and his eyes had gone as wide as they possibly could. It seemed that what Sophia had just said was the last thing he had expected to come out of her mouth. I wondered if he had ever taught anyone before. Judging on how young he was I was guessing that he had not. Slamming his mouth shut and returning his eyes to their normal size he now seemed to be assessing Sophia. She straightened up and tried to exude as much confidence as she possibly could. Finished with his examination now, he nodded slowly. “Alright. You can be my apprentice. I am assuming that you are going with Ari on her journey around the eastern lands.” Sophia nodded eagerly. “Then that will be when I first start teaching you. As we travel I will teach you all about medicinal herbs along the way and show you how to treat any injuries that may occur while we are out there. Hopefully no one gets injured of course.” He added this last part hastily after seeing Liam’s look that he gave to him.

Liam gave an approving nod and Aeson quickly shut the door before he said something else that made someone angry with him. Sophia, Hazel, and I all shared a victory hug before I asked what Hazel wanted she wanted to do. There was no hesitation when she replied. “I want to learn how to shoot a bow and arrow. After all, all of you wield swords primarily with other close range weapons as your secondary choices like maces, axes, or daggers, but we don’t have any far range weapons really and I don’t want to have to kill or injure someone at close range.”

Joshua hugged her and said, “You don’t have to learn how to use a weapon if you don’t want to. You can learn to be a healer with Sophia or you can learn hand to hand fighting where you normally never kill anyone.”

Hazel shook her head. “No this is what I want to do, though it would not hurt to learn some hand to hand fighting as well so if anyone gets too close to me that I can not shoot them then I am not entirely useless.”

“I should learn some hand to hand fighting as well. I mean, what if someone comes after me? I will have to know how to defend myself.” Sophia sounded nervous, but determined. No one objected, so we headed first to the armory to get Hazel a bow and arrows. Jove met us at the door this time and ushered us in eagerly.

“What are you after this time Ari?” He rubbed his hands together and looked really excited to be able to help someone.

I shook my head. “This time it is not for me. One of my maids wants to learn how to use a bow and arrows and so I came to show them where you are and be here for advice if it is needed.” Jove looked around the group until he spotted Hazel who was already looking at the bows with Joshua by her side.

He walked over to her and asked, “What is your name and do you know what kind of bow you are looking for?”

Smiling up at him she responded, “My name is Hazel and I have no idea what kind of bow I am looking for. Can you help me out?”

Jove laughed his deep bellowing laugh. “Of course I can help. It is what I do for a living.” He grabbed a smaller looking bow off of the wall and handed it to her. “I need to know how strong you are first of all though. Please pull that bow string back as far as you can.” Hazel pulled back on the string as hard as she could and just managed to bring it back about halfway. “Can I adjust your stance and help your technique?” She nodded and Jove asked which was her dominant hand. Figuring out that it was her right hand, Jove immediately moved her body so it was sideways and moved her fingers to the correct spots on the bow. When she pulled back this time it went back farther, but it still did not go back as far as it needed to in order to make the arrow go very far. Next Jove told her to use her shoulder blades as well and to remember to pull with her breaths. To pull the string back when she breathed in and then release when she breathed out.

This time when she pulled the string back it went back and she could touch her pointer finger to her nose. Before she released it however, Jove grasped her hand and slowly released the tension from the bow string. “You never dry shoot a bow. Dry shooting a bow means that you let the bow string go when there is not an arrow on it. This can ruin the bow string and cause it to lose some of its tension which makes it pretty much useless as a weapon.” Nodding to show that she understood, we all watched as Jove went over and grabbed a quiver of arrows. Once he had shown Hazel how to carry both the quiver of arrows and her bow on her back, he waved us out of the armory. I was the last one out, but before I left I told him that I now owed him two favors. He laughed again and waved good-bye. Darius and I led the way to the training grounds so that we could start helping Sophia and Hazel learn some simple defensive hand to hand fighting moves. Also so that Hazel could start practicing with her bow.

Once inside I watched as Liam began helping Sophia while Joshua began helping Hazel. It seemed like the rest of us were not needed to help teach them. Shrugging I decided to do my workout for the day and practice with my sword. Asking Darius if he wanted to join me, we first went for a three mile run around the field. Next we picked up some rocks and worked on building back up our strength. Then we got to actually using our swords. We worked on combos and exercises with our real swords for a while before we were ready to fight. Since it was too dangerous to fight each other with our real swords, we put those away and each grabbed a wooden sword. Facing each other we began circling. Assessing each step that the other person took we soon had a feel for the way the other moved. Darius made the first move and slashed downwards suddenly. However I had seen his muscles tense in anticipation of his first move and was ready to block it.

Engaging in a flurry of combos and exchanges, we soon fell into rhythm. Wondering who would mess up first, I smiled. I never felt better than when I was fighting someone. The best times that I had happened to me in Kuli had been when I had fought either Tristan, Carter, my guards, Cayden, or one of my parents. It just made me feel so alive. A slight stumble on my part gave Darius the advantage and he disarmed me in three simple strokes. Wooden sword to my throat, I concluded defeat. Looking down to see what had tripped me up, I sighed when I saw a random rock. Most of the rocks had been cleared off the training field, but apparently one had been missed. Picking it up and throwing it as hard as I could off the training field made me feel slightly better. Glancing around I saw that all of our guards were busy sparring with someone else in either hand to hand combat or with wooden weapons.

Hazel and Joshua had now moved from hand to hand fighting to training with her bow while Liam and Sophia were running around the field together. Even though Liam could have run way faster then Sophia, it warmed my heart to see him staying pace with her and making her laugh. Darius soon brought my attention back to him by saying, “Do you want a rematch? Or are you okay with ending in a loss?” The challenge in his voice made all my focus go back on him. Glaring at him in fake anger, I raised my wooden sword once again. The next two hours passed in a blur for me while I went round after round fighting someone. Half the time we were fighting with wooden swords, and the other half of the time it was hand to hand fighting. Also I switched off who I faced basically every round so that I fought all of my guards, my maids, and some of Darius’s guards.

Sophia and Hazel were getting a lot better, but they were still pretty far behind the rest of us. It made sense because the rest of us had been training for a lot longer than they had. By the end of our training session, I had a new goal. I was going to beat Darius in at least one round of wooden sword fighting and one round of hand to hand fighting. Every single time I had gone up against him, in fact every single time I had gone up against anyone other than Sophia and Hazel, I had lost. Since I wasn’t sure I would ever beat any of the guards, I set my sights on Darius. I would train extremely hard every day until I beat him. Even when we are on our journey visiting other parts of the eastern lands. Putting everything back where it belonged, we all headed back to our rooms to shower, change, head back down to the kitchens to help make the food, eat the food, and then go to sleep. We had to wake up early tomorrow to start our journey and it would be good if we were all well rested.

Getting to the kitchen a little late we apologized that we were not there to help with lunch and that we were late coming to help with dinner. The Head Chef waved away our apologies and put us right to work. Soon I had gotten to know quite a few people in the kitchen and figured out the Head Chef’s name was Barry. By the time we had dinner all ready, I had helped with seasoning the meat, cutting the vegetables, and cutting the fruits. Plus I had learned the names of thirteen new people. Saying good-bye to all of them as I went out to eat the food that I had just helped prepare, I linked arms with Darius as he walked beside me. Sitting right next to each other as we ate, we pointed out all of the foods that we had helped make. Between the two of us we had helped with about a fourth of the food that was served for dinner that night.

Kissing good-night after dinner, we headed back to our rooms with a smile on all of our faces. Alex, Casey, and Tyler were all smiling because they were happy that Liam, Hazel, Sophia, and I were all happy. Sophia and Hazel climbed into their beds right after helping me get all ready for bed. Before I got in bed though, a random memory flashed through my head. Straining to remember all of it, I sat on my bed thinking for ten minutes before I remembered all of it. Whipping around to see Alex and Liam, who were in the room guarding me, I spoke quietly to them. “Liam, I am not sure if this is a dream or not, but did you have a conversation the night of discovering the secret passageway right outside of my room with Casey?” A flash of panic went across Liam’s face before he hid it. Before he could try to deny it though I spoke up again. “I saw that flash of panic on your face so don’t even try to deny it. I know the conversation had something to do with what was done in that secret passageway and I remember that one of you said that if I knew what was down there then I would have gone down there even though I was injured. Can you tell me exactly what was down that passageway? Alex feel free to answer that question as well.”

Alex cast a glare at Liam before he answered. “We did not want to tell you about it for fear of making you do something rash, but I guess it is time that you knew. You are fully healed after all.” Opening the door of my room he beckoned Tyler and Casey into the room as well. He quickly explained the situation to them before telling them to stay in my room and guard Sophia and Hazel just in case someone came in through my door. Grabbing a torch off the wall, Liam led the way into the passageway. The walls were made of what looked like schist. Running my hands along its rough surface, I waited to see what was in these tunnels that would have made me try so hard to find the person who had done it. We went about 100 yards and around several turns before Liam and Alex finally stopped. Trying to peer around them to see what they were both looking at, I eventually gave up and tapped Alex's shoulder impatiently.

“Are you going to let me see it or did you bring me down here for nothing?” Alex turned around to face me abruptly and began dragging me back towards my room. I was caught by surprise and went without resistance for a little while until my brain caught up with what was happening. Then I began to drag my feet and attempt to see what had spooked him so much. However as soon as I began doing that Liam pushed me from behind so that I had to keep up with Alex. Wondering what was going on, I decided to just go along with it, however once we reached my room they were going to have some serious explaining to do. As soon as we were back in my room Liam shut the secret passageway door, woke up Sophia and Hazel, handed me my scabbard with my sword and dagger in it, and then had all of us out of my room and heading down to where Valeria and Jonas's room was.

Whenever I tried to open my mouth and ask what was going on, they would either just ignore me or they would shush me. Getting kind of irritated with them I considered screaming my questions at them, but I resisted the urge for two reasons. One because they were making me a little worried by how concerned they were for me, and two I did not want to wake up anyone in the castle who was getting a good night's rest. My guards were all whispering to each other and so I knew that all of my guards at least knew what was going on, but my maids looked as confused as me. Grabbing each of their hands I tried to convey fearlessness to both of them, but it did not seem to be working very well. They were both trembling and looked so scared and vulnerable in their nightgowns. Grateful that I wore pants and a shirt to bed so that I was more comfortable, I clutched their hands in mine even tighter. Outside Valeria and Jonas's room now, my guards whispered something to their guards that were outside of their room and then we were all were gestured inside. The door slammed shut behind us and Jonas and Valeria shot up into sitting positions in their bed. The guards inside questioned my guards, but soon were turning the lights on and looking even more vigilant in their guarding.

Valeria and Jonas were now looking at me with tons of questions in their eyes. I just shrugged helplessly. I still had no idea what was going on or what had been in that secret passageway that had scared everyone so much. Pointing at Alex to show that he was the one with all the answers, they switched their gazes to him. Alex, knowing that everyone's eyes were on him, began to tell everyone what had happened. “There is a secret passageway right outside of Ari's room that goes throughout the entire palace basically. We used to hear crashes coming from inside of it, but since we discovered and went inside of it nothing has been heard from there. However when we went inside for the first time, it was just Liam and Tyler who went in while Casey and I stayed with Ari, there was a note written on the wall about 100 yards in. The note said that we should not be here and that if we did not leave then this person would kidnap Ari's family and make us leave.”

Panic flashed through me and I looked at Alex with wide eyes. He hurried to reassure me. “Don't worry Ari, your family is safe. They are in a huge fortified kingdom with tons of guards, and defenses.”

I shook my head. “I was taken from there and all of those things were there. In fact there were even more guards there before I was taken.”

“Yes, but you were taken because a huge army came after us and they greatly outnumbered us. The person who wrote that note does not have that.” He was trying to make his voice soothing, but I was still having a mini panic attack.

"You don't know that. As soon as you saw that note you should have told me.” There was a command in my voice that no one could deny hearing. Alex bowed to me and I knew that he would tell me next time unless it put me in danger to hear it. “Please continue now Alex. What did you see this time that caused you to drag me out of that passageway, wake up Sophia and Hazel, take us into this room, and have their guards let us in here? I mean we practically ran the whole way here.”

Resignation and fear for me was clear in his voice. “There was another note there today. However this one was not as tame as the last one was. It said ‘If you don't leave now then harm will befall the one you protect. No matter what you do, they will soon meet their demise.’ The person who wrote the first note knew that we had seen it, and knew that Ari would not be the one to find this second note. They have been watching us and I knew that she could not stay in her room tonight. Plus now we are all ready to leave in the morning to go all around the eastern lands. If we wake up Darius and his guards then we can leave tonight and not have to worry about having someone attacking us.” Valeria and Jonas turned to face one another and began discussing in quiet tones. They were probably talking about whether they should summon Darius and his guards so that we could leave tonight. Before they had reached a decision though, the door to their room opened again.

My guards had their weapons out in an instant and Hazel, Sophia, and I were shoved behind them. As soon as I had regained my balance then I had my sword out as well. Since I could not see anything I just relied on reading my guards body languages. The second they seemed to see who had entered the room they all relaxed and put their weapons away. Now able to see who had come into the room since my guards had moved out of the way, I smiled, sheathed my weapon, and ran over to hug Darius. “Hey what are you doing here?”

He laughed. “I was just about to ask you that same question. Right now I am here because of my overprotective guards. Why are you here?”

“I am here for that exact same reason. What made your guards become so overprotective?”

Darius shrugged. “To be honest I am not quite sure. They entered the secret passageway that connects to my room and came back pretty quickly and forced me out of my room and down here.”

Alex immediately asked what they had seen and Dustin spoke up. “Since we heard that Ari's room had a secret passageway that connected to it, we made sure to find the one that connects to Darius's room so that we could not be taken by surprise. The first time we went in there we saw a note that said that if we did not leave then this person would kidnap Darius's family and make us leave. Darius wanted to see it as soon as we told him about it, and we finally relented and were going to show him that note tonight. Kane and I went in to make sure that it would be safe for him to enter. We reached the wall where the last note had been written and was shocked when we saw a new note on the wall. This one said that ‘If you don't leave now then harm will befall the one you protect. No matter what you do, they will soon meet their demise.’ That is when we went back and got everyone out of there.” Before he could continue Tyler cut him off.

“There is no need to explain anymore. We understand why you did what you did because we did the exact same thing. Those same two notes were on the walls of the secret passageway that connects to Ari's room. That is why we were discussing getting all of you and leaving tonight.”

Ethan nodded. “I think that would be for the best. The other options we have could end in someone getting hurt.” Now that the decision was made we moved quickly. Darius and my guards went to pack up and get all of our belongings from our room. Meanwhile we both went into separate rooms to change into our clothes for the day. Hazel and Sophia helped me change, even though I really did not need them to help me. They liked doing it so I let them help, and then they changed themselves. Deciding that my hair was not looking its best today, I pulled it back into a braid quickly and then grabbed some of my stuff to help bring it out to the carriages. Wherever I went however, at least one of my guards went with me. I was getting kind of mad at who had left those notes because now I had no privacy whatsoever. Not that I really had any before this, but at least my guards were not quite as attentive then as they were now. We were all ready to go about an hour after we started packing. Piling into the carriages, we left the kingdom to go see the rest of the eastern lands.