Jacques Elrak arranged for the three children to be overseen by one of his knights, and he and Zhu quickly entered into the palace to talk about more pressing affairs. Soon enough, the trio started to walk in the garden quietly. Solkyr was not very talkative, and it seemed the other two weren’t either until the girl finally spoke up.

“I am Kasla, nice to meet you !” the young girl said joyfully. She had long brown hair and beautiful yellow-green eyes.

“Me and my brother are twins, as you can see, we look nearly the same, but I think I look better” she continued with a playful smile on her face.

“What are you saying, stupid sister? I’m definitely better than you, you know father compliments me more than you, right ?” Varion answered with a smug face. His appearance was nearly identical to his twin sister, except his hair was way shorter.

“I am Solkyr, nice to meet you,” he said calmly and politely, making the twins stop their fight.

“I would love to visit the garden and see the flowers. I would like to know more about everything here, so maybe you could help me ?” he continued.

“Sure, our mom taught us all there is to know about the garden,” Kasla said excited to show her new friend around.

The whole group continued to walk without a worry in the garden, stopping here and there so that Kasla could teach Solkyr what was the name of each flower, where it came from, and all other kinds of things Solkyr didn’t totally understand, but was happy to learn about. Solkyr had a fondness for learning new things, perhaps because everything was new and exotic to him, or because he was deeply curious about the world around him.

“Where do you come from Solkyr ?” the Young girl asked while they were walking to another flower bed.

“I … I am from Armithris, well I was would be more precise I guess” he answered her.

“That is where there is the war, right ?” said Varion. “Were you able to see knights fight ?” he asked in a strangely admirative tone.

“I guess I saw knights fight, though I don’t think it would be the right word either. I saw the knights burn everything in their way, including my face” he said while pointing one of his fingers toward the cloth hiding a part of his face.

As Varion started to open his mouth to ask another question, the knight guarding the trio stopped him, as he either didn’t want Varion to hear awful things, or awake bad memories in Solkyr.

“You really are a stupid brother !” Kasla said a bit more seriously this time. “Don’t mind him Solkyr, look at these flowers, my mother called them Rainbow Dreams”.

These flowers were indeed beautiful, with seven petals, each one representing a color from a rainbow.

“My mother told me that they only grow in our Rainbow Islands, and nobody has ever been able to grow anywhere else,” she said with pride. “I can give you one if you want,” she asked to Solkyr.

“I would love to” he answered her with a tint of excitement.

Kasla took one of the flowers and directly gave it to Solkyr. When he held it in his hand, he felt kind of strange, as If it was reacting with him, and with his wound. When he brought it closer to his face, the feeling intensified. The flower had a familiar aura, but he couldn’t pinpoint exactly what was familiar.

As he was admiring the flower, something strange started happening.

“Why is there smoke coming from your face ?” Varion asked.

“Smoke? What do you mean- “ he said, as he touched the cloth hiding his wound, and finally felt the heat coming from under it.

Immediately, the knight approached Solkyr to remove the piece of cloth that was slowly starting to burn. Under it, one could see Solkyr’s horrible injury. This part of his face was red and brown, the flesh was out in the open, and there were some cracks from where the smoke was coming. From what was once his right, one could see some kind of red fire coming out of it.

Solkyr surprisingly felt no pain, he only felt very strange. The Knight took the flower away from the hands of Solkyr, and slowly, it stopped burning.

After the crisis was over, Varion was visibly scared by Solkyr’s face, and Kasla was also affected, but she kept a friendly look toward him.

“Thank you for helping me,” Solkyr said to the Knight.

“That’s what I’m here for, I’m sorry for what happened to you,” he answered in a respectful tone.

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“You don’t have to be sorry, you didn’t do it, and those who did are dead anyway. I would love to know more about this Rainbow Flower, Kasla. Maybe we can find out what happened to me ?”

“S-Sure” Kasla said, distraught by the seemingly undisturbed tone of Solkyr. “Now that I remember, my mom used those flowers for potions, It might be why it reacted with your wound? My dad might know more about it, we should ask him when he has finished his discussion !”

“Let’s do that then,” Solkyr said, as the group continued their visit to the garden, though the ambiance was slightly more somber than before. Varion distanced himself from Solkyr, while Kasla and the Knight were worried about him.

After around thirty minutes, the group finally made its way back to the entrance of the palace. A few servants glanced at him on the way back, but nothing major happened, and Solkyr was happy enough to have learned all kinds of things about flowers.

While they waited for Zhu and Lord Elrak to finish their discussion, Kasla talked to Solkyr about the kind of things she loves to do, how she loves reading, drawing, etc. Solkyr mainly listened to her and spoke sometimes. After all, he had been a commoner his whole life, there weren’t a lot of interesting things he did. As far as he remembered, he didn’t really have any friends, and he mainly helped his mother with daily work.

Finally, Zhu and Lord Elrak finished talking and went out of the palace. When they arrived in front of it, they saw the three children and the knight, but something was clearly different. The knight quickly explained to them what had happened and Kasla asked her father if he knew something.

“I see, you have been burned with magical fire I presume ? This flower tends to react with magical elements, but it is usually not this strong. Maybe you have some affinity with magic ?” Lord Elrak wondered.

“I don’t know if I have any affinity with anything, but it felt familiar, this is all I remember. I felt no pain or anything like that, it was almost relaxing” Solkyr told the Lord.

“Well, I will give Zhu some of these flowers, maybe Qiuren magicians will be able to help you once you arrive at Xiliu.”

“Thank you, my Lord,” Zhu said. “Sadly, as you know, I won’t be able to stay here for long. Once the refugees are off the ship, I will immediately set sail to Xiliu.”

“Sure, no problem. I will have a servant deliver you a package with these flowers.”

Lord Elrak ordered one servant to go get some Rainbow Dream flowers, and the other servants were ordered to accompany Zhu and Solkyr, to manage the refugees and lead them toward their new habitations.

“Well, it seems it’s time to say goodbye,” Kasla said.

It was time for Solkyr to say goodbye to the twins. He didn’t really talk with Varion, but he was certainly grateful for what Kasla taught him.

“Indeed, I want to thank you once again for what you showed me. Even though there was a little accident, I’m now very interested in learning about flowers !” Solkyr said in a delighted tone.

“I’m glad you liked it! My father often goes to Xiliu, maybe we will meet once again there in the future.”

“It would be nice. Well, see you soon I guess !” Solkyr told her, as he walked away towards Zhu who was talking with the Elrak household servants.

“See you soon !”

After this little trip to the Elrak palace, Zhu and Solkyr started to make their way back to the boat. On the way, a lot of people looked at Solkyr, some recoiled at the view of his face, some seemed disgusted by it, some were curious, and others didn’t care.

“Does it bother you ?” Zhu asked.

“Why would it bother me? Do I really have to care about what they think? I was scared of removing the cloth because of the pain, but now that I feel none, I have no reasons to hide it.”

“I guess you are right. You won’t have this kind of problem with Qiurens, we are not as aesthetically focused as humans” Zhu joked.

“I can’t wait to see how everything is there. I think I love to learn new things, it’s so stimulating. I think this is what I want to do, learn. At least for now.”

“Well, I think it’s a very nice goal to have. Moreover, you will have to learn a lot of new things, your life will be totally different at the Xiliu clan. You will have to learn our language, our way of life, our history, … a lot of things to sum it up”

“I would also like to learn how to fight, maybe you could teach me how to use a spear ?” Solkyr asked.

“A spear? I am more of a sword person, but why not.”

“You don’t use a spear? Didn’t you use one when you killed the knights who did this to me ?” Solkyr said while pointing at his head, visibly confused.

“When I found you, these knights were already dead, I don’t know who or what killed them, I didn’t have time to check their wounds,” Zhu answered, with the same surprise as Solkyr.

“So, someone killed these knights and left me for dead ?”

“Maybe he thought you couldn’t be saved? Anyway, there is no reason for you to think about this, the most important in the end is that you are alive. Also, how was it with the twins, except for the little accident ?”

“I don’t know about Varion, but Kasla is a nice person, she showed me around the garden, and she wasn’t as scared by my wound as Varion. I hope I will be able to see her once again in the future.”

“Great, It’s always important to have friends your age, It can often be a source of motivation” A friend, huh”

Zhu and Solkyr finally arrived at the boat. Zhu and the Elrak servants took charge of the refugees, while Solkyr went to his room to think about everything that happened today.

He tried to remember this familiar feeling he felt earlier when holding the flower, he looked at his hands and tried to move them, but nothing happened. He felt something on the tip of his fingers, but couldn’t materialize it. He tried, tried, and tried with no success, but he felt that if he continued, something would happen. He decided to stop for today, and went back to the bridge, to see if everything was fine on Zhu’s side.

Zhu spoke one last time to all the refugees, before the servant took over his place, and started to lead the group into the city. Zhu’s work was finally done, and he went onto the boat.

“I hope you are ready Solkyr, this is a one-month trip at sea.”

“I hope you are ready, after all, you told me you would teach me more about Qiuren's history.” Solkyr joked.

“You are right” Zhu smiled “But don’t take it lightly, you will have to adapt quickly or it will be very difficult for you at Xiliu.”

“I can’t wait.”

A few minutes later, a servant came with a box she gave to Zhu, and he finally ordered the crew to set sail toward Xiliu.

End of Chapter 3