It has been several months since Aon and Bahattar began their cold war, and during this time, both parties have remained eerily silent. However, their ally families have taken advantage of this void in power and selected new leaders within their ranks to fill in this gap of power. These actions caused the neutral families to become suspicious, but as they have no evidence to act upon, they have chosen to remain silent.

After the sudden change in leadership and the disappearance of Aon and Bahattar, the war situation became uncertain and skirmishes between the opposing siblings and their families occurred frequently. Some of these battles ended without a sound, while others resulted in significant resource losses and no survivors. As a consequence, both sides were weakened and had to seek more allies from their neutral siblings by using either cooperation or coercion.

Due to the ongoing battles, even neutral families were forced to take sides, resulting in a domino effect of increasing intensity. This led to fractures in relationships on both sides, creating smaller factions. These factions sought benefits in every situation and only agreed to battle if their demands were met, intensifying the tension and further dividing the sides and factions.

While all the other siblings and their families fought Aon and Bahattar and their families remained silent, this caused more fissures on both sides as only a few knew of the secret war that was happening between both brothers.

Loud screams echoed out of one of the rooms of the large building that the three brothers had been staying in for the last few months, hidden away from the civil strife that was plaguing the land.

“Fushin, Why are you screaming?” Aleister asked, opening a door to a ruined room, “What happened to the youngest room? Did someone take him?”

Fushin turned to his brother in rage before realizing the situation that he was in, “Uh right, it was like this before I got here.” Fushin said to his brother, his face straight and void of emotions.

Aleister rubbed his eyes, “Why did you not just leave things the way they were, so we could find some kind of clue as to what happened? Now what are we going to do?”

“What do you mean there are probably some clues in this mess that was left by whoever took him,” Fushin said trying to avoid his brother

“Oh, Father will love this.” Aleister shook his head

Fushin screamed again and started rummaging through the mess that was the room, trying to find any little clue as to where his younger brother had disappeared to.

Light cascaded down, showing the scene of bodies strewn around collapsed and burning buildings. A figure in a gray cloak, a mark of Bahattar’s family could be seen pacing back and forth in front of the outer walls of Aon’s family's citadel.

With a short sigh, the figure spoke, “If only you had listened to me, brother Aon. Then none of this would have happened.” a tear could be seen falling from the shadow of the cloak, soaking the ground that the figure stared at.

“You are still a fool, Bahattar, This pain and grief fall not on me but on your shoulders.” Said a figure in white standing on the walls above as they looked down at the figure in gray

“No brother, my hands are clean of this… All that I wanted was to bring your child the glory that he deserved, and this is what you chose by denying him his destiny. So brother who is the real fool, the one who denies or the one who accepts.” said Bahattar as his eyes glared at the figure in white.

The figure in white stared at the one in gray, “Neither… It is those who can make their own, just like my youngest will someday do.”

The figure in white slowly walked away, his pace steady as the one in gray stared silently at their disappearing figure.

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“Why?” Bahattar said with a sigh before talking to the group next to him, “Bring me the child, He should be located in the citadel somewhere.”

Across the citadel, a small figure in tattered rags hid in the shadows of a still pristine building. Their violet eyes darted nervously around them as they swiftly rushed to the next shadow.

“Destroy that building next.” A scream of command echoed from a distance away, “They cannot hide if there is nowhere to hide!”

The figure’s shallow and haggard breath stopped entirely as they stiffened from the scream, it sounded so close. The footsteps grew closer and closer to the figure, their already stiff breath grew worse with every step the other party made.

“This one next, brothers and sisters.” the voice screamed again.

The figure peeked around the building and locked eyes with what he could only assume to be the leader. Lightning flashes through their body as all their instincts told them to run.

“There, Get him!” The scream of the leader echoed out once more.

The figure dashed at two of his would-be captors, clumsily evading their grasp and falling on their hands. They shuffled desperately to get to their feet and run, but only managed to kick up dust and rubble luckily blinding their would-be captors, they push themselves off the ground and ran toward the inner sanctum of the citadel. A cry of a horn and the beating of drums sounded from behind them. The figure’s face scrunches in anguish, they had been found.

Running mindlessly through the streets, they could hear yelling from the inner sanctum’s gates they passed only a short time ago. They were close on his heels, and those trying to protect him were decreasing as time went on.

“Well… hello… child,” a calm and lazy feminine voice echoed from behind the boy.

His body yelled at him to run from this voice, but before he could finish his thoughts and plans, a sharp pain radiated out from his lower back.

A hiss of air sounds from close behind him, “I… missed. How… unfortunate… at… least… you… will… not… die.”

They did everything they could to keep standing, and soon the pain started to disappear faster and faster until their body was numb, so they started to run once again.

“Oh… he… is… running… well… not… my…problem… anymore… time… to… go… home… I… have… better… things… to… do.”

The figure ran through streets, buildings, and dimly lit halls until they finally saw it. It was the room that was left in a note that he received when he was living with his brothers, Aleister said it was from their mother, Silrose. He knew nothing of this name, mother did he really have one, he could not remember, but at this point does it matter he just wanted to survive and be free like he was now, and if this Silrose could do that then.

“You are finally here,” a figure draped in white said, tears forming in their violet eyes.

The figure in white silently stared before grabbing the figure in tattered rags, throwing them, and locking them in a room. They then ran to an onlooking room that looked into the room where the child was. The figure in white behind a glass window pulled levers and pressed buttons, occasionally glancing at the silent figure that stared their eyes full of sadness and betrayal. The figure in white suddenly stopped and looked inside the room one last time, their mouth slowly moving tears falling from their eyes as they pulled one last lever.

Golden light enveloped the room as the figure in tattered rags that silently stood just seconds ago, was now gone. The only thing left was the figure in white, whose tears flowed like a never-ending river. Loud explosions, the sound of crackling fires, and the screams of death echo outside the door. The figure still standing, tears still falling, as the door slammed open.

“I see, The boy is gone then… What a waste of time,” a calm voice said as a figure in white entered the room.

“I should have known that you would be involved in this. I must have been blind to think that you would not have a hand in this,” the figure draped in white said as they looked at those filing into the room.

“Oh, Silrose, you should have listened to us in the first place. Now you have made everything so complicated, but it is fine. We will get him back, it will only take a little effort.”

“No,” Silrose, said with a smirk on her lips, tears still slowly falling. “It will take a lot of effort and more time than you think.”

“What have you done, Silrose?” the figure in white screamed as he looked around the room.

The room appeared pristine and new like no one had touched anything. But the figure knew that something was wrong, and so their face warped into one of rage.

“Take her away! Fix this room and find that boy!” The figure screamed at those around them as they went off to complete these tasks, leaving the boy some time to be safe, but how long would that safety last?