Chris had not taken any time to inform the Imparetor of his teams, plus Thor's departure. Monze had thankfully given him enough time to leave Spixan and Anabia before the Mayor and Provincial Minister were made aware.

Imparetor Monze had informed him of this with a not too hidden glee of spite at just how upset the politicians would be made when they found out that he had slipped out without their knowing.

Finding a aircraft was trivial, as before leaving the medical wing, Dolton had told him of a Bee which he had commandeered under the guise of a royal pilot. The Bee in question was painted over with an image of a female elf dressed in a bikini and striking a rather provocative pose.

"Wow, how tasteful." Ursa groaned with a eye roll as they aproached it.

"I will admit that it is crass, but it is the only available aircraft." that was a lie, Imperator Monze had offered a much faster aircraft but this was the one Dolton had instructed him to board so he had no choice but to decline.

And speaking of the spy master, he exited the Bee from its back ramp. He had changed out the doctors uniform and was now dressed like an Asikari's armour with the white wings of the Avalonian Royal Air Force painted on his shoulders.

"Your grace, it is a pleasure to finally meet you," he enthusiastically declared as he got closer and shook Chris's hand vigorously.

Chris was taken aback as he processed just how different Dolton acted and looked. From his tone of voice, his accent and the utterly foreign way with which he carried himself, unless Chris had known that it was Dolton who awaited him, he would have never recognized the man standing in front of him.

"Aris first class, Shaun Flemming at your service," he declared with his right fist over his chest in salute.

"He is in disgues again, " Chris thought.

"And this is my baby, the Burning Tits," he proudly declared, even as Ursa looked ready to jump him in disgust. "Now, shall we be off?"

"Of course," Chris replied and they followed the spy master into the Bee.

As the aircraft's ramp closed, he looked back to the Spixan garrison once more. His feelings over his time here were a mixed bag, he had suffered under the political machinations as well as the unfortunate meetings with Theseus Trozen and Pyrrha Ulster.

But he had enjoyed making new friends in a long time, or at least he hoped that Munale Livingstone considered him a friend. Hell, he had enjoyed his battle with the Dullahan, even after it had almost killed him.

"Maybe I am bloody mental."

XXXXXXX

He joined Dolton in the cockpit while Ursa, Hamanymu and Thor stayed behind in the passenger section of the Bee.

"Shaun Flemming, really?" he said as he sat in the copilot's seat besides Dolton.

"One of my many aliases, nephew," Dolton replied as he turned on the Bee's engine.

"Any more that I should know about?" Chris asked as the the anti gravitational crystals beneath the aircraft began to raise it off the ground.

"If I started telling you, we would be here all day."

"Sure we would." Chris didn't believe him.

The Bee took off with a sound barrier shattering sonic boom. The view of Anabia from that hight was breathtaking and Chris regretted not having a camera or anything else to capture this view of the city before they completely flew over it.

"So, are you finally going to tell me?"

"Tell you what?" Dolton responded and Chris resisted the urge to groan. He knew that the older fae knew exactly what he was asking but rather be serious with him, he was trying to play coy.

"Please be straight with me uncle. Who sent you to pick me up?, it couldn't have been mum, she would have sent you to take me back to the capital and keep me there, not to take to me where the danger is."

"That is true, I suppose that I can't keep this secret from you," Dolton said in response. "It was your older sister, Ishtar."

"Ishtar," Chris muttered his own sisters name and the word felt almost alien in his mouth.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

He tried of to think of the last time that he had spoken his sisters name out loud and he could not quite remember.

"She is one of the boots on the ground in the Greylands. You know, she is worried about you," Doltons usual jovial tone was gone, now replaced with a cold seriousness.

"I am fine," Chris sneered out, he hated it when people showered him in pity like he was some kind of a basket case.

"No you are not. You might have been gone from Avalon for up to five years, but I can still read you like a book," Doltons voice was calm in a way that had a bitting edge. "You are young, brash, clearly desperate to prove yourself to everyone around you as a result of pathological wounds suffered as a child and the general disapproval of your mother. You will do the utterly illogical just to gain the satisfaction of proving everyone who you have perceived to have doubted you wrong, even if it means near suicide."

The avalonian prince was equal parts numb and outraged from what he had just heard.

"Since when did you become a damn Psychologist?" he sneered out in contempt.

"Since I became a spy. In my line of work Christian, You have to be an expert at reading people, and you my nephew are as easy to read." every word that exited the paladins mouth was like a slap to Chris's face.

"And so your quackery reading tells you that I am a suicidal crazy person because I had a slightly sad childhood?"

"Very much so. It's literally your whole motivation to continuously do this."

Chris was now seriously tempted to see if Dolton was as good and strong as other paladins.

"My motivation, that's just ridiculous. And how would Ishtar know that, she dosent even talk to me," he argued.

"Are you sure that it isn't the other way around, Chris. That you are not the one who dosent talk to her or Joan," those words were like spear to the heart. "When was the last time you called them or even called back when you missed their communication attempts."

"I..." he thought about anykind of reasoning but nothing tangible came to the surface. "I have just been very busy adjusting to everything."

Dolton looked at him with a sad smile before softly responding, "you are becoming a stranger to your own family Christian."

Chris simply clumped his jaw, he could not find any sort of clever retort or tangible excuse. He simply slumped within his seat as the cloud of doubt and loathing became a storm within his heart.

XXXXXXX

They arrived to the north within two hours. They knew that they had finally reached the nicknamed province of storms when the clouds became thicker and greyer.

The rumbling of thunder occasionally rang across the heavens loud enough to shake the vessel that they rode in and by now Chris was sure that over thirty lightning bolts had flown past the Bee.

" Now i see why they call it the GreyLands. It looks so depressing," Hamanymu said as he looked out of the Bee's windows.

Hamanymu and Ursa had come to the vessel's cockpit and joined him and Dolton in the front, a thankful turn of events, being alone with the Fae had left him stewing in his words.

"You should see it when it rains," Dolton responded to Hamanymu.

"It's amazing," Ursa whispered in awe as the sight of the many legendary Grey mountains that dotted over this land.

These great natural wonders rose thousands of meters into the very clouds themselves. Their very peaks forever obstructed by a layer of clouds.

"Beautiful place,a little too grey for my liking," Dolton joked and Chris fought the urge to groan at the attempt at humor.

The Bee went deeper and deeper into the GreyLands and as they neared the coast, a great port city was in view.

"Ladies and gentlemen welcome to Kagenhild," Dolton proudly declared.

The city in question was built across the entire coastline with fifty meter high walls that kept back the strong winds of the GreyLands. Multiple large passage ways allowed hundreds of ships from the smallest shipping boat to the sixty meter long battleships.

Dolton piloted the Bee towards a walled fortress upon a island that was twenty metres away from Kagenhild's walls. This was the city's garrison, Mistgurd.

It stood in near total contrast with Anabias garrison. While Spixan was in the sun's warm embrace, this one was a cold, dump and grey place with winds that howeled like a legion of wolves.

Dolton piloted the Bee quietly onto the garrisons air strip. The boarding ramp opened and everyone shivered as a rush of cold air flooded the vessel.

"Leza have mercy, this cold," Chris gasped as it felt like a thousand cold niddles were being driven into his flesh.

"Yes it is," Dolton said with a chuckle as he rose from his seat, the cold winds not even bothering him in the slightest. "Now come on, let us go meet our crown princess."

The cold got even worse when they exited the Bee. Chris and his friends were shivering with each step that they took and from their mouths, puffs of mist materialised with each breath taken.

"How do any of these guys survive this, " he thought as he looked at the other Knights and Asikari walking about.

Everyone of them had wrapped fur cloaks around their bodies and even with that, he could notice their bodies and teeth trembling as their bodies tried to keep warm.

"We ar... e ...are going to... to.... fre.... freeze to.... d.... death!" Ursa snapped through stuttering teeth.

"No you will not, Aris Tudor. Besides, this is a rather pleasant temperature for the GreyLands," Dolton continued walking as if nothing was bothering him. "Just be glad that it hasn't started raining yet."

Ursa cast a sharp glare at Chris with such venom dripping off of it that it was like she was attempting to murder him with her eyes.

"What?" he asked her in suprise.

"When all of this is over, I am going back to Anabia and Runith!" she hissed back.

Dolton led them to the largest tower that stood at the centre of the garrison. It's walls were able to protect them from the savage winds and the internal heating rolled over them.

"Finally," Hamanymu said in relief as the towers door was shut behind them.

They climbed up the tower through its stairs,. They reached the upper most level of the tower where a large iron door stood, with a single receptionist standing between him and his sister.

The walls were old and covered in cracks which had not been refurbished it in decades. This could explain the funky smell that settled through the air, it reminded Chris of coffee that was wet and exposed to the hot sun for a long time, not a good smell.

And the receptionist seemed to agree with him. She was a Fae in her early thirties at least physically from what Chris could tell. Her black hair was tied into a neat bun and a pair of glasses rested upon her face. Besides her table sat a red battleaxe as large as a full grown man.

Her facial expression gave away that the smell had gotten to her and most certainly put her in a foul mood. Chris knew how to tread on thin ice, after all his mother was Natalia Ddraig master of always putting others on edge.

"Greetings and salutations milady," Dolton bowed with his usual charm." I am Aris Shaun Fleming of the first class class. I bring prince Christian Ddraig as instructed by our crown princess."

Dolton reached into his pocket as he spoke and he pulled out a folded document written with the golden eagle of the Knights corps to confirm his words.

The lady took it and she began to read it but her scowl still remained. "All appears to be in order Aris Flemming."

"Of course it is, do I look like a man who lies." Dolton poured evey ounce of charisma within his words and body posture.

The receptionist didn't look impressed in the slightest. In fact, she rolled her eyes as Dolton leaned over and asked her.

"You don't mind telling me your name, for information purposes of course."

"What in the name of all that is good is he doing?" Chris thought as watched the experienced spy master fail to read the social ques given off by the receptionist.

"Arumu second class, Hathor Sycamore " She introduced herself with her scowl deepening further.

She reached for something under her table and she said "And before you ask Aris Flemming, I am the both assistant to the Imparetor and head of the discipline comity, as such, I must make it clear that no you are not the most attractive thing in the world and any further harassment shall see you court-martialed to coast guard duty."

Dolton backed off with his arms raised in defeat. "My apologies Arumu Sycamore."

"You may enter," she said before returning to something that she was reading.

As they walked to the door, Chris leaned next to Dolton and asked, "What the hell was that."

"I was scanning her mind to see if she was compromised. People tend to be less guarded against telepathic scans when pissed off."

"He can read minds,since when?" he thought in shock.

Chris remained dumbstruck, his full attention momentarily taken off his coming meeting with his older sister, the crown princess off the whole realm, Ishtar Ddraig.