How Sophie loved this memory, a sweet memory full of endless clouds and rocking seas. Young Amalia was draped along the ship's rail, watching the endless horizon with a sleepy smile on her face. A gentle hand brushed aside her hair, her father's calloused and rough hands gently rubbing her back. It was a massive ship, the Endeavor they called it. It used to be a merchant ship but was then pirated but some Carianan vigilantes. Allesandro turned out to be good friends with the captain, and easily got passage for Sophie and Alexios.

"You aren't feeling sick, are you Candessa?" Allesandro asked. Young Amalia shook her head, her eyes still fixated on the gentle blue of the horizon.

"No, papa, just enjoying the view." She said, her gentle, sweet voice having no traces of hoarseness from screams and crying. A voice from a time when things were simple, happy.

"You should see where we are heading!" Alexios's boyish voice called out from behind them, his arms full of maps. He laid them out on the deck, his sleepy sister lazily looking over and his uncle just smiling at his antics.

"They say that the Carianan sunrises are unlike any other, just like our night skies! They have even more palm trees than us, along with creatures we have never seen before! And coconuts!"

"Why are you so excited about coconuts?" Amalia blandly replied.

"Mom was talking about making coconut *torrone! We've never tried coconut before, or Ackee, or Jackfruit, or-"

"Jeez! What are we going to be doing the whole time, eating?!" Amalia snapped at her brother.

Alexios blinked at her, "You say that like its a bad thing."

Amalia groaned, thumping her head back against the railing. Allesandro chuckled, patting his daughter on her head.

"My contract is going to take very little time, so we will have plenty of time to eat and explore. I promised Maria we would all be back in two weeks' time." Allesandro explained.

Amalia leaned against her father's arm, "Where are we going to be staying? Are we going to be staying at Nyoka's house again? She tells the funniest stories!"

Allesandro shrugged, "I brought all of the camping stuff, actually, I thought I could teach you how to set up and break camp properly while we are here."

"What? Boooooo, let's stay with Nyoka! Her house is so cool!" Alexios complained, tugging on Allesandro's sleeve.

"Learning survival skills is just as important as the regular training, you two. What if you were stalking an enemy who was on the move? Or what if-"

"But Nyoka-"

"Nope. We are gonna camp, and we are gonna enjoy it." Allesandro objected, the children deflating.

Sophie smiled at the memory... but as she looked over her father, she felt so... hurt. She was angry that she couldn't ask her father to see Nyoka anymore, she was sad that she wasn't going to be able to feel his gentle hands brushing aside her hair. Sophie looked away as if she were an outsider looking through their eyes, knowing this was all of the memory she could truly remember. She tried to remember other parts of it before, each time turning up empty.

"Father? What is that?!" Young Amalia's voice called out. Sophie froze, her mind reeling. What? She doesn't remember this...

"What are you talking about, Lia..." Her father sputtered a gasp.

"MAN OVERBOARD!" Allesandro called out.

No, this isn't how her memory goes. Sophie tried to look over the railing to see what they were looking at, to look in her own memories at what she doesn't remember. But just as she leaned over the edge, her mind cut out.

The voices flicker in and out, even though Sophie was in a blackened abyss.

"He has a pulse!"

"What the hell happened to him?"

"Does he look familiar to you, Allesandro?"

"Somewhat, yes, but I can't place it."

"Quick, Lia, go grab blankets! Alexios, go get the doctor!"

"Father, he is my age!"

"Go, Amalia!"

The voices cut off, leaving Sophie in panicked confusion. But she started to feel again, feel her body, and she opened her eyes.

She was Sophie again, she was 19, she was hurt... and the only thing she understood was that everything hurt like a bitch.

But she stared at the stone ceiling, noting that she was no longer in the medical bay, but in an entirely different room. She could feel the tips of her ears, she could wiggle her fingers. She was no longer violently shaking, though her body still ached. She slowly sat up, observing her room.

Stone archways outlining paned windows, the blizzarding outside filling Sophie's room with white rays of light. The floors were dark hardwood, complimenting the stone walls. It was simple, a bay window, a dresser lined with medical supplies, a dirty rug at the foot of her bed, a creaky bedside table matching the dresser, and a few folded sheets and blankets resting on the cushioned seat near the corner of her room. The bag window was the most comforting thing out of the entire room, and it was just a small alcove with a sheet acting as a cushion to look out the window to the frozen tundra outside.

She had no idea where she was.

She must have gotten captured at the Conference. Sophie peeled back her sheets, noting that her golden dress was gone, and she only wore bandages covering her abdomen, legs, arms, chest, and really all parts of Sophie's body. Sophie scowled, checking the drawers for any form of clothing. Sophie bit her cheek as she snatched a dark blue sheet from the chair, wrapping it tightly around her. She was still cold, though, still shivering slightly.

She was in enemy territory, she needed to find Maha and Ricin, and get out.

She has escaped enemy cells, forts, and camps plenty of times. She creaked open her door, scanning for enemies and escape routes. Ricin was pretty small when it came to dragon size, at least as far she knew, so he might be in a large holding cell or maybe even a stable. Maha is going to be harder, she could have been moved to another room like Sophie was.

Sophie carefully held the sheet so it wouldn't drag on the dusty wooden floor, prowling through the halls. She heard the mutterings of guards walking up a staircase, murmuring to each other. Sophie ducked behind a column, hiking the sheet closer to her body so they wouldn't spot it.

"Have you seen the other one? Apparently, the gods picked the New Vatarians, not Old Vatarians." They quietly muttered to each other.

The other one... the other Heiress. Maha.

"They say she bent the earth to her will, but Byzanthar doesn't represent the earth, at all!" The other one whispered. Come on, give her some sort of her information, some little slip of the tongue on where Maha or Ricin could be-

"The dragon was pretty stubborn; apparently, he doesn't like being underground." One of them laughed. Basement, down, that is where Sophie needed to go. They didn't even hear her as she sprinted out from the pillar and down the steps they ascended, her bare feet near silent. She flew through the halls, looking for more stairs, down and down she went. These guards were peculiar, not wearing armor or battle wear, but robes or casual tunics. Sophie didn't take any risks, however, maneuvering out of their sight as she continued downward.

Sophie reached the floor level it seemed, which was much more popular. It seemed priests were the most popular on this level, tending to their little tasks around the various rooms. So Sophie was being held in a temple, so maybe she was being held by Vatarians? Possibly a Vatarian splinter group, perhaps a Neverseen base that was using a temple?

Sophie spotted a staircase in a small room across the hall, waiting for the opportune moment.

"The Heiress is gone!" One of the guards called out from one of the stairwells.

Well, shit.

Sophie sprinted into the small room, locking it behind her and ducking under the door as people rushed upwards to start searching for her.

"Well," A grumpy female voice started. Sophie whipped around, gaping at Sanaa, sitting at a small table, sipping on tea.

"Took you long enough." The old woman grumbled, swishing her tea around in the cup. Sophie gaped, her eyes wide. Then she looked to Sanaa's tea partner.

Maha gaped at Sophie, crouching against the door, a blue sheet covering her, and just smiled.

"You're alright!" Maha exclaimed, rushing up and throwing herself onto Sophie, wrapping her arms tight. Sophie hugged Maha back with on hand, the other used to keep her sheet in place, looking around in confusion.

"Uh, we aren't in an enemy camp?" Sophie shyly asked.

"I thought the same thing when I woke up, but no!" Maha cheerfully answered.

"You are in Kynareth's temple located at the Throat of the World," Sanaa called from the table.

What?! No, she was falling through the sky in the lands of Egypitnat, how on earth...

Kynareth.

"She teleported us here, didn't she?!" Sophie snapped at Sanaa.

Sanaa shrugged, knowing who she was talking about, "Probably. Don't know anyone else capable of teleporting two heiresses and their dragon in the blink of an eye." Sanaa used her cane to point out the window to the front of the temple, where the outline of a skid mark could be seen in the snow.

"That lizard of yours crash-landed right in front of the temple, sheltering two frostbitten and bleeding woman in his wings. We were barely able to get you inside in time before the frost fully took you. We had some of our healers address both of you, but Maha was the first to wake." Sanaa explained. Sophie didn't know if she should thank Kynareth or hate her more.

But Sophie finally turned to Maha, to her bare hands. Where the beautiful design of a brownish-black and red anvils was inked into her each of her palms. Maha noticed Sophie staring, and she sighed.

Sanaa noticed the atmosphere change, and she grabbed her cane, groaning as she stood up.

"I'm going to get you some proper clothes and a physician to look at your wounds. It seems you two need to catch up on a few things." She breathed, hobbling out the door, and quietly shutting it behind her. Sophie stared at Maha a little while longer before taking Sanaa's seat.

Maha was an heiress.

"I should've told you... I should've told the Inner Circle." Maha sighed. Sophie was still silent, not really knowing what to say.

"Why did you think we wouldn't understand?" Sophie quietly murmured.

"The same reason you didn't tell them either," Maha whispered.

They were both keeping the secret, after all.

Maha looked at Sophie's distraught face, and she sighed, clutching her teacup tighter in her hands.

"But I owe you an explanation." She admitted. Sophie didn't make any movements, she just waited in silence as Maha gathered herself.

Maha's lip quivered, but she got up and paced around the room, her golden tipped braids swishing behind her. The swirling designs in her palms moved as she nervously flexed her fingers.

"I was dumped on the steps of the temple of Byzanthar when I was merely a few weeks old, left behind by my parents." She started. Sophie clutched her blanket tighter, her heart saddening.

"I was found and brought inside, a letter tucked in blankets I was wrapped in. All that was written was seven words." Maha held up fingers as she counted them off.

"Not my daughter. Not this immortal beast."

Maha choked a little laugh at that but continued to pace.

"But the temple took me in. I was raised by the priests and priestesses of Byzanthar. There were two priests there; the ones who I say are my fathers. They were so kind and understanding, they tried their hardest to give me the best life they could."

Sophie sucked in a breath. Her fathers were... priests?

"Aren't priests and priestesses-"

"Not allowed to have romantic relationships? Yeah. They had to keep their relationship secret. I think it is what inspired me to find the love of my life myself! The concept of being in a secret steamy romance with the love of your life always called to me, even as a child." Maha chuckled.

Sophie was mostly focused on beating her brother at wrestling, snatching the best pastry before anybody else did, and trying to build the biggest sandcastle before the tide washed it back into the water during her childhood.

"When I was a child, the last thing I focused on was love. But I guess... I didn't really believe it when I was young. My father claimed that he fell in love with my mother, and look where it brought him. I kinda thought it was some hoax made up in the stories." Sophie snorted, taking a sip from her cup, "Gods, was I wrong."

Maha smiled at that.

"Love. I think that was what powered me when I was little. But, as much as I loved the Temple and my fathers, I wanted more. I don't know why, but the world called to me. I told my father about what I wanted, to move past Avrima and see the world, following my dream of fashion and discovering who I truly was." Maha shuddered, "At first, they seemed hesitant with it. I was merely 13 at the time." Maha looked at the symbols on her palms, "But then, when I was merely sleeping in the chambers with all of the other adopted children, I was contacted." Sophie's face dropped as Maha whispered that.

"It wasn't a normal dream, and the voice whispering to me wasn't anything of this world. It was-"

"Godly," Sophie answered for her, Sophie's golden tan paling out of her face. Maha nodded.

"It was only a few words, whispers of me fulfilling my destiny, and I was meant for more than this. It repeated over and over again that I need to find out what truly happened. The voice was a man, a strong, burly voice, but not scary, like gentle embers crackling in the fireplace. But when I woke, I ran to one of my father's rooms, pounding on the door. I told him everything, incoherent through my sobs. He only nodded before caving and telling me everything. My fathers went looking for my biological parents, and once they found them, they got the real story." Maha hugged herself.

"The reason my parents dropped me off and never looked back? It's because I died. I should be dead." Maha sighed.

Sophie didn't make a sound, her entire body stiff and her hands shaking as she gripped the arm of her chair.

When one is either born or makes a deal with a god or goddess, they can be marked as an heir. Sophie was marked as Kynareth's Heiress when she died during the fall of Inalia, Kynareth saving her life and therefore calling in the life debt Sophie owed her to claim her as her Heiress.

"I was a little baby, my biological parents were traveling merchants. There was a flash flood when we were all on the road once, and though they managed to barely get out alive, I was washed away, drowned in the currents. They were heartbroken, but a few days later, I was found outside their camp, looking as healthy as ever," Maha held up the palms of her hands, showing the marks, "The only change? These were now imprinted in my skin. My father was a little bewildered, but happy to see me. But my mother was terrified. She believed I was a little devil, a monster reincarnating as her dead daughter to make her mad. So she brought me to the temple, and left me behind, refusing to even acknowledge me as her real daughter." Maha explained. Maha traced one of the symbols with her other hand.

"My fathers did some research into what these symbols were, and they learned that whenever a god claims an heir, they mark their skin, claiming them. This is the mark of Byzanthar." It took every inch of strength not to reach back and trace the lines of Kynareth's imprint on her back.

"You're the heiress of Byzanthar," Sophie stated quietly, her shock quieting her voice.

Maha nodded.

Another... another chosen child... Sophie wasn't alone.

"Once I started to get dreams of Byzanthar begging to 'Figure out what happened' for multiple nights in a row, my fathers realized that I needed to leave, to answer Byzanthar's calls. But the temple had other plans."

"Did they not approve of you being Byzanthar's heiress?" Sophie asked.

"Quite the opposite, actually. They revered me. I was paraded through the streets as one of the chosen Heiresses of the gods. People prayed to me and worshipped me as if I was Byzathar himself. But the dreams didn't stop, and he didn't want me to sit on my ass being heralded. I needed to carry out his wishes, to reveal this great conspiracy he insisted on. The dreams started to drive me mad, I would break down and scream at him to leave me be."

Maha took a deep breath, "But the King insisted I remained. He kept me secret within Avrima. The fact that a new heiress being selected never traveled past Avriman borders or into outsider's ears. He would invite me to the castle. He would suck up to me, hoping that he would please the gods enough to bless him with fortune through me."

Oh, that slimy son of a- Sophie should've killed him at the Conference.

"My fathers knew that I needed to leave Avrima, I needed to leave and never come back. So one night, they woke me up, dressed me in clothes as if I were a peasant, and snuck me out of the city. On a little cart, heading towards... gods I can't even remember, packed with other stowaways. Anywhere but Avrima, and that was all that mattered. I still remember my fathers' worried faces as I whispered them my final goodbye through the cart's doors." Maha shuddered again, "But then I was gone, I was out of the city and out to fulfill Byzanthar's wishes as his Heiress. But I had no idea what he wanted."

A cart, leaving Avrima...

"Was this the cart that the Neverseen intercepted?" Sophie asked, leaning forward.

Maha nodded. "They pulled everyone out, telling them to empty their pockets. I didn't have anything on me, and as they were about to shoot me through my head, I told them I could clean. I was spouting nonsense, but my fathers sacrificed too much for me to die there. I told them I could clean, sew, cook, all of the skills I learned in the temple. By some mercy, they decided to not kill me, but I was taken to that base." Maha smiled, "The one where I met you."

Maha glanced at her symbols, "After I was taken to that Neverseen base, Byzanthar just went quiet. That is when I started wearing hand wraps and gloves. The times I couldn't do either? I would cover Byzanthar's marks with as much makeup as possible. He didn't appear to me in my dreams, my sudden need to uncover and explore the world just vanished. My sole priority was just to survive. So I waited, I did what I was told, stayed quiet." Maha crossed her arms, chuckling, "Until this really handsome guy, his name is Ruy Ignis, I don't know if you know him, told me that I needed to dress one of the prisoners for one of Vespera's balls that night. I was hoping I could have snuck into the ball myself, hoping to maybe cheer myself up, but I did what I was told."