It was a roaring party by the time River found the children at the sitting room next to a brick-stone fireplace.

Me'ren had offered them cups of endless hot chocolate, and bowls of savory porridges they received with disbelieving awe.

"It's huge." Lann'a noted, holding a large bowl of porridge in her hands. She looked around, watching everyone have their own large bowls, too.

Each kid began sharing doubtful glances to each other, not knowing what to make of it.

"Eat up," Me'ren encouraged, "We're not having any of you sleeping on an empty stomach."

The kids shared confusing looks, "Isn't that bad for us?"

They explained that they get food during lunch hour and nothing after that. The lady had told them eating during night-hours was bad and eating during their unallocated time would invite unfortunate events to happen.

River had to deviate them from their misconceptions, introducing that it was actually fine to eat during nighttime and that other tribes call it dinner. Me'ren offered explanations, too, after hers was received with dubious attention. But, once again, it was U'tu who swayed the children into eating, encouraging them to fill their stomachs with more chocolate than they could handle.

Me'ren whispered to her, "They're biting off more than they can chew."

River beamed with an expression of tenderness. The kids were indulging in their food and drinks, while U'tu regaled them with stories about him pranking the sun tribe with his wits and bravery. "Let them have this. It might be their first time having a feast."

"What do you mean?"

"You said the snow tribespeople were all celebrating in their central square last night. Prisoners, most of the guards, and every Ensign but one were at the festivities." Her gaze directed at the children "They were left behind."

After the kids had a laugh at what U'tu said, he shot up on his feet, raising a mug of hot chocolate that was too big even for his two hands. "Galiyo Luna!" he cheered. The kids mimicked his toast with a victorious cheer. "Galiyo Luna!"

Na'reem appeared in the archway, following the toast with more enthusiasm that seemed to brighten up the children's spirits.

When Lann'a continued to share stories amongst themselves, River finally asked. "What does 'galiyo luna' mean?"

Na'reem tipped his chin up at the direction of U'tu. "It means glory to sun tribe in their own dialect."

"Dialect? I didn't realize they could have been speaking a differently."

"It's mostly in courtesy to you. Usually we speak the universal tongue in situations relating to inter-tribal trade. We learned it ourselves back when we used to live in the sun tribe."

"Right. Because sun tribe is a school. A teaching village." she said, remembering how strange it seemed to her at first that a village could only comprise of elders, children, and warriors. Wit no visibly family unit around.

"You know," Me'ren murmured, "It was a behagthi who invented the universal language. Huge innovation, it stopped wars in less than a decade."

"Wow." she breathed, suddenly feeling dizzy. "That's a lot to live up to." Moving to the plaid-cushioned chair next to the fireplace, she took a seat and sipped her mug of hot chocolate while listening to the stories being told.

Beyond the archway, she heard Na'reem enlisting Me'ren once they stepped out of the room, "Help me out with the bedrolls, hurry. Before the wolf gets to us."

"What sort of bedrolls?"

"The sheepwool bedrolls we keep on the basement cellar."

Me'ren's tone grew heated, "But we stack them up to a hundred on purpose because the sun tribe won't travel for less. And we're due next week. Don't we have any other bedrolls? How about those plume feather blankets, they could use those."

"They need bedrolls to sleep on, not blankets. Besides I'm giving them the dawn feather blankets, and Sul'ahvi's favorite pillows."

"Not the silk ones. I've recently begun our silkworm farm months ago. We're in short supply." he hissed.

"Listen to me." Na'reem said gravely, "U'tu and River are the ones standing between us and a certain type death that will last for months. I will not put it past Aidan to inflict the decree of 1000 Battle Trials upon us. Now move, and remember to go around the ellipses hallways once or twice, then backtrack once more to confuse him of our tracks. Maybe do it three times, to be sure. It's our lives, Me'ren. Don't forget we're dealing with princes who are at the prime of their powers."

"Like I'd forget about Brumcia's damned prophecies." he said, disappearing into the hallway with Na'reem.

River noticed that their hallways were built like a maze, a secret pattern that only the brothers were privy to know. Earlier, it took a long while searching in their greystone hallways. The rolling green carpet she stepped on was rough, rugged like it hadn't been cleaned for decades. And unlike in the stronghold, the brother's hallways were naked bare from artistic commodities. It was moss, stones and growing mushrooms in the corners.

The sight of endless stones upon stones that looked the same to her after spending several minutes walking had sent her a sharp sudden feeling. Almost claustrophobic. It was a sudden pressure in her chest colored by a cold emptiness that shook her to the core and before she knew it, irritation got the best of her. She had been cursing expletives and threatening bodily harm to the brothers in rage, not caring if she looked like a lunatic from shouting at the open air.

It wasn't even a full minute before Na'reem appeared looking guileless and surprised of her arrival. He was the oracle of the present. He damned well knew. She knew without a shadow of a doubt that the brothers were well-versed of their arrival. They let her stray on purpose. And this was a grudge she wasn't about to let go with a smile or an "Oops, my bad" from a charming Na'reem.

She sighed into the chair, resting back with a warm hot chocolate in her hands and grew riveted from listening to the children exchange stories as they sit cross-legged on top of a Persian rug next to the fireplace. Then, she recalled the cold emptiness feeling from before, it was a sharp chilling sensation that bit into her core giving her violent shivers.

It wasn't the first time she felt that. Before leaving for the snow tribe, it was the same way with Aidan. With the growing distance, it triggered an acute disconnect from his mind and it was a physical jarring feeling that she was able to shake off before then. Perhaps, it was the trouble of disconnecting from both Crow and Aidan that made it oven more weird. It could be the disconnect from both of them had triggered an icy bone-chilling sensation that wracked through her body. Either that or she was finally experiencing the infamous poison from the snow mountains.

But then again.

Looking to U'tu, she knew that he couldn't mind-speak to Crow. Then, she looked to Lann'a, and she knew that she can't mind-speak to Aidan. So, why in the hell can she hear them both?

Why in the hell is the mind-speaking ability so selective?

U'tu and Lann'a turned to her after she called them and asked, "Have you ever felt something weird before arriving here?"

"Nope." they said at the same time, grinning to each other from ear to ear before bursting into giggles. Oh boy, these kids must be high on a sugar rush.

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She called to them again, grabbing their attention "Do you guys ever feel something when mind-speaking?"

Lann'a replied with absolute confidence, "Painful." she shrugged, "But I got used to it. Crow would only ever mind-speak to me when he knows he's in big trouble."

U'tu's straightened, "Do you mean he was using his powers during his captivity?"

"A few times. He never meant any harm. We came to learn to open a mind-speaking connection. It was painful at first but after a few, I didn't mind it so much."

"Is that true?" River asked, "Is it really painful for you, too, U'tu?"

"Of course. I imagine it's the same for you. Mind-speaking is the one defining trait of Brumcia's princes, and pain is the slight burden we bear when communicating to royalty. Which means, Crow is royalty, isn't he? But that's crazy. We already know the snow tribe prince, he's the one setting battlegrounds for war."

River couldn't help but ask, "I think you're missing the important question. If Crow had his powers, why didn't he use it to escape the stronghold?"

Lann'a went quiet, growing sobered at the thought "It isn't that simple."

"I'm sorry. I was being insensitive." Then, she sighed in relief when she saw the brothers coming in with piles of blankets and bedrolls with Sul'ahvi trailing behind them carrying heaps of pillows. River was on her feet, rushing over to help them set up the beds.

The chestnut-head boy tugged Sul'ahvi by his sleeve when he was rolling open the bedroll, capturing his attention then pointing to the spot next to the fireplace.

"Do you want to sleep over there?" Sul'ahvi asked.

The boy nodded, "It's really warm."

The oracle of the future sitting on his haunches, slid a curious glimpse to River.

She raised her brow at him, crossing her arms.

"How could I say no to that?" he said in a rush followed by a devoted grin for the boy.

"I'd like that too, please." said Lann'a in a small voice.

Setting them up was no big deal. Once the children saw how Na'reem was setting up the bedrolls with blankets and pillows, they quickly followed suit, eager to assist.

After they finished setting the beds side by side next to each other so it came close the fireplace, Me'ren announced, "This here is where you will sleep."

Encouraged, the kids laid down on their backs on top of the bedrolls, humming as they turned to the side curling and rolling over their cheeks against the pillows. Giggles erupted as they burrowed into their blankets. Then after the initial novelty has passed, they fell fast asleep, sighing deeply into their beds.

River exclaimed, "Wait! Does anyone want to go use the bathroom first?" But it fell on deaf ears as they were fast sleep.

Na'reem rubbed a hand over the back of his neck, "Children. As soon as they get into bed, they go out like a light."

"For their sakes, they should be." Crow said, leaning his side against the archway entrance that divided the sitting room between the dining room.

"Ah. Sun prince and you must be the god prince." Na'reem greeted them, "Sul'ahvi said you weren't arriving until later tonight."

Sul'ahvi bowed down in earnest, looking apologetic. "My future visions gets blocked in some ways whenever it has anything to do with an alien entity like a behagthi. Please, have some seats. I'm sure we will have lots to talk about."

"You haven't told us that before." River muttered, taking a seat at the head of the dining table so she can have a view of the fireplace with the children resting next to it through the open archway entrance.

Immediately, Aidan and Crow flanked on both sides from where she sat. They stood on attention presumably to have a complete view of the brothers and the children.

"Explain yourself." Aidan said, "Make no mistake of my leniency. The only reason why you're alive owes to the fact that we don't want to pose stress to the children any further than what they have already endured."

It was then that River realized she was grinding her teeth tight when she eased her jaw to take sips from the hot chocolate that wasn't getting any warmer. Somehow the sudden appearance of the princes made the brothers tense. And that wasn't all. Something cold and biting was pressing in the back of her head, it had been slowly increasing in pressure ever since she had arrived in the greystone.

Na'reem took a seat on top of the dining table and gave an easy smile that pressed his dimples in a breathtaking way that flipped her stomach to a somersault. She didn't figure the guy had it in him to take it to the next level but damn isn't he mesmerizing. He had that sweet good nature charm. A stark contrast to his devil-may-care attitude, a spellbinding combination that would have invited thousands of attention from curious young girls. "Our vision didn't come out as we expected it to be." he said, "Had we known that you were bringing the exiled god prince, we would have told you why that would have been a terrible idea."

Me'ren took a seat on her right, canting his head to the side to face her. She had to tip her head up to meet his half-mast gaze when he looked down to her under his nose. "Not only have you chosen to bring him back, but you, the behagthi, has instead brought the Tribal King's children. A clear-cut treason for war if not for the fact that we aren't actually from the dark tribe."

"What is this?" Aidan said with a growl, his arms uncrossing to rest his hands on hips.

Sul'ahvi slouched in his seat, he was perched on the left of River's. Stray locks of brown hair fell past his forehead, giving him the signature rackish look that every gatekeeper brothers seemed to possess. "The tribal king died a long time ago. Poverty is forcing his illegitimate children to come to the forefront and the Ensign counsel aren't worried too much about them so they get sent to the stronghold for a fine education under guised as orphans. They didn't like sullying the name of a dead man by revealing his illicit affairs."

"What about the snow prince?" said River "Aren't they related to him, can't he take care of his siblings?"

His eyes darkened, "The snow prince is fixed on a warpath. He won't be free of it. He can hardly make a fitting guardian." he turned to Crow, "You should know that he has spent ages deciphering your research back at your castle in peak snow mountains."

"I thought as much." Crow replied, "Otherwise, they won't have known about designing restraints that limits my magic."

Sul'ahvi said. "We've been keeping an eye on him and it's not looking good. For the past century, he has successfully mastered the bestial arts of summoning."

"You must be joking. Bestial arts are naturally born to female sorceresses. And summoning?" Crow laughed, "Your visions might truly well be broken."

Na'reem shrugged, "I don't know what to tell you. I've watched him training crows day by day. Thousands of crows. He works with them like a man obsessed."

He clucked his tongue, "If what you say is true, then this could be a great deal of trouble. Crows are by far superior in intelligence, especially when trained. The texts in my library are encoded to secrecy for this very reason. It must have taken him ages to undo my linguistic bindings."

Aidan slammed his fists down on the dining table, leaning his weight into it. "You've been lying to us?"

Me'ren skimmed the pads of his fingers across his forehead in rubbing motions, revealing deep lines of wrinkles. "It was our hope to influence the future in an outcome that saves casualties and a lot of heartbreak. If you can only but to see what wars ruin, the costs of it, how it has shaped our present, and how it ha—" he closed his eyes, shaking his head. "I'm sure you've noticed that Brumcia is doing something different. Nothing like we've ever seen before. She's using surges of power she has never been known to use in the past. Ever. We can only assume that any changes she has in mind for our world would cause more deaths, more wars, and endless suffering. Besides, my link to the knowledge of the past spans ages upon ages and I've seen every behagthi's attempts in patching up Brumcia's madness. I know well enough to know where to put you on a fixed road that will lead to a restoration with less difficulties."

"Are you kidding me? You've been lying to us for hundreds of years. Don't think that we will ever trust you after this. Besides," he mocked in derision, his wolf fangs growing bigger. "What need do we have for broken oracles? You can't even see clearly with a behagthi. Your eyes are broken."

Me'ren let out a scathing dry chuckle and for the first time, she saw laugh lines on the sides of his face. Then he drew an iron bracer from each of his wrists. It was hiding underneath his loose cable-knit sweater. Propping it down on the table, he slid it over to the front of Aidan. "Take it as a sign of my gracious defeat."

The chair made a violent sound when she shot up to stand. "The champion of ages! It was you this whole time?"

"Most certainly." he said, giving a heart-stopping smile. One that didn't reach his eyes.

Suddenly, River had the wild urge to tuck tail and run. It was beginning to dawn on her that she was being surrounded by larger-than-life men that went beyond the levels of gorgeousness than she was used to. Sometime or someday she was going to embarrass herself in front of them and it's going to be another whole thing that Dr. Malia will have to fix.

Me'ren continued, "It has become well and clear that the makings of the future is completely out of our own hands. You see, behagthis have a special exception when it comes to the natural magic of our world. It is safe to say that we have no power over the future no more than any regular tribespeople. This is why we are putting our lives and whatever we have to give on your hands, River."

She bit her lip, steeling her spine and tapping into that grudge she was holding over them. "You made us go through all this trouble when you could have saved us fro—"

"We can deny you nothing." Sul'ahvi said, cutting her off and making her wish for a feminist ally to suddenly pop inside this damned room overflowing with testosterone. A homegirl better hold me back before I punch a hole in this sexist pig's guts.

A heavy hand rested on her shoulder, holding her back. Easy there, starlight.

Then, coming from her right, a possessive hand clutched over the back of her neck. It gave a reminder for how her grandfather used to clutch her neck the same way. Back when she was younger, it was her tendency to rush over headlong to any fun pursuits in excitement and the old man have had to hold her back many times over. She stiffened, her grandfather used to dig his fingers deep into the skin until she bled. It was a punishing reminder for how little and weak she was, the old man never failed at the chance in reminding her that she was only a girl and not some boy who can make far more ambitious pursuits like climbing mountains.

Crow's voice bore down like steel, "What do you mean by that?"

The brother looked to each other before Sul'ahvi explained, "You have our resources. Whatever we have to give. It's yours. Whatever you would have us do, we'll do it." a smile graced his lips but something about these brothers' good nature didn't really reach their eyes. "I admit it is quite a strange move. None of our forefathers would ever stoop down to the level of a behagthi but the gravity of Brumcia's increasing power surges got us thinking that it should be in our best interest that you must finish your task as soon as possible. "

"I'm trying not to get offended by that." she said, realizing that a behagthi is just a glorified maid.

Sul'ahvi stood, opening his arms wide. "Whatever you want as long as it is in our capacity to give, it is yours. If you ask us to make a lockpicking set of tools when we already have a universal skeleton key, then we will not miss a beat and do as you request. If you tell us that you want to travel to the snow tribe based on your rough assumptions of a thousand-year old prophecy, then we will happily guide you on your way."

River uttered a long-suffering sigh before giving a biting remark "And you left out this convenient details, why?!"

They shrugged in sync.

Finally, it was Me'ren who said "It is historically known that a behagthi achieves their greatest victories when they set out with fool's chances."

The grips holding her back tightened as she began to crack her knuckles. Those bastards.They sent her and U'tu out to a dangerous unknown territory with the barest necessities on purpose.

With every fiber of her body and all the way to down to her bones she knew that this grudge she was nursing over these damned brothers wasn't going to go away very soon.

She will bide her time, she thought to herself. No one tears away at River and gets away with it.