Was there always two sides to every coin? Gabriel could say with certainty that there wasn't - Siadro used a three-sided coin as their legal currency.

The good news was that there was now a sort of organised defense against the razatches on the island. The manor of House Candor had been turned into a stronghold, and prince Raoul had convinced lord Candor to send soldiers to seek Gabriel and the rest. They had succeeded; and that was why Gabriel was heading over to the manor, and further away from Valerina.

The bad news was that he had to rely on Vit to go grab Valerina which was not ideal for various reasons. The news that took the middle lane was that he now has more warm bodies fit to be canon fodder. The prince knew that the Grand Ward shattering was no accident. Since someone had used one of the Oldflames to destroy the divine ships then things were bound to get more ugly than they were now. It was only a matter of when and if he would still be on the island when it does.

He watched Vit weave his way down the street and disappear behind a building and said a small prayer for the avatar. While he was confident he would survive if he dove into a nest teeming with mindless scourgeborne alone, heading into one where they were beginning to regain themselves was a death sentence.

"Hadn't I known better, I would say you don't want to head to the Candor manor," someone by his side commented.

Gabriel turned to find Ellen staring at him, a shadow of a smile on her lips.

"I have no reason not to," Gabriel replied with a smile. "You do give me the same feeling, however."

Gabriel could not begin to fathom what was going through Ellen's head. She had made them leave their sanctuary even with a multitude of fellbeasts around, claiming that it was safe. While it would have benefited him had they not run into the soldiers, her actions were incredibly suspicious. But he didn't care enough to pry since whatever she was up to would hardly make the situation worse.

Ellen chuckled amusedly as she looked at the soldiers leading them.

"Ah. You knew I'd lied," she said.

"I hardly care," Gabriel shrugged.

"You're not curious why?"

He leveled her with a tired stare, wishing that she would go disturb someone else instead.

"I hardly care," the prince repeated.

Ellen scrutinized him for a while, smiled, and hastened her steps to catch up to Camilla. Gabriel trudged on, his hands folded behind his back, his feet hurting, and his mind miles away. Things were not simple but he didn't care.

Far above him the sky turned pink as the sun descended into its cradle.

......

It took them a while to get to the inn and Lynica did not appreciate that one bit. While she was mostly over it, Valerina naively sending away prince Raoul and the griffin he rode still lit a spark of rage in her heart whenever it came to mind and Lynica would forgive her only when they had left Sealarios or she was mince meat in a gutter somewhere.

The sky was pink and rapidly darkening when they clambered through a window a story high and into a room, Voscov slumped over Lynica's back. His wound had worsened so much that he could barely walk and Lynica swore that if Valerina didn't have a veritable abundance of healing salves then she would be sending her to Nether without delay.

Lynica laid Voscov on a bed in the room and turned to face Valerina who was glancing out the door nervously.

"Valerina, salves," she said flatly.

"Are you certain there is no razatche in here?" Valerina asked.

"I scoured the place. There is none," Lynica replied, her eyes narrowed in displeasure.

Valerina's gaze alternated between the dark corridor and Lynica for a while.

"Come with me then," the girl challenged. She met Lynica's glare only wilt under its intensity.

"Hand me a lamp at the very least," she murmured.

Lynica grabbed an unlit lamp from the bedside table and tossed it at Valerina.

"Light it then," the irate girl said. "If you can't, then please waltz off to your room and get the healing salves before it gets truly dark. I do not appreciate your delay one whit."

There was no way to light the lamp hence Valerina took another look down the corridor, tightened her grip on the dagger Lynica had lent her, and stepped out cautiously.

Lynica watched her go before turning to Voscov and pulling a seat to his side.

"Are you hungry?" She asked him as she began loosening the knot of the impromptu bandage over his stomach.

"Very," was his reply.

"Okay then." She palmed a dagger and handed it to him hilt first. "Stay. I'll go get us something to eat."

"I am unable to use the dagger," Voscov pointed out.

She disregarded him, palmed her last dagger, and slipped out of the room. She stalked past Valerina who was scrounging around a room and crept down the stairs carefully. While she had indeed scoured the place and found it empty previously, she was well aware that things could change on a dime.

They intended to spend the night in the inn, however, so she would rather things stay the same throughout the night.

Lynica reached the storage room unimpeded and pulled out three loaves of bread and a filled water jug. She took the items, stalked back up the stairs, and planted herself just shy of the entrance to the room where Valerina searched for the salves. The girl was trying to push aside some broken furniture, in order to get to the closet it seemed, with little success.

Lynica stepped into the room and walked up to Valerina with silent steps.

"Need a hand?" She asked softly.

Valerina started and whirled about quickly, her dagger clutched tight. She sagged in relief when she saw Lynica.

"You scared me," she sighed. Lynica simply nodded.

"Need a hand?" She repeated.

"Yes please. Everything is inside the closet."

Lynica kept aside the bread and water and helped Valerina push aside the upended bed. They managed to move it a few inches to the left and that was enough for Valerina to shove her hand into a gap and pull out a leather satchel. While Lynica took up her previous load, she checked its contents and sighed in relief when she saw that all she had prepared the night before were still intact.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

She hung the satchel from her left shoulder and quickly left the room with Lynica in tow. They arrived at their destination to find Voscov asleep, a fist around his dagger, and his upper body propped against the headboard. He awoke briefly as Lynica gently removed the dagger from his fist, and murmured something unintelligible before shutting his eyes once more.

Lynica waved Valerina over to the bedside and set to eating a loaf bread while she pulled out a bundle of salves and began to tend to the prince's wounds. They sat in silence - Lynica on the bed and Valerina on the chair by the side - as the sun returned to its cradle and darkness proper fell over them. It was a moonlit night, thankfully, and so Valerina could barely make out the extremities of the wound as she applied the salve and wrapped up his wounds with a proper bandage using the light streaming in from the window.

"We would need to reapply the salve every hour or so," she informed Lynica. "He's running a fever but there's nothing I can do about that."

Lynica nodded lightly and pushed a loaf of bread toward her. She stretched out a hand to take it only to hesitate and look up to Lynica.

"I need your help," she said.

"Go ahead," Lynica responded, giving her a tired stare. The few minutes she'd had to sit in one place had made fatigue set deep into her bones.

Valerina pulled her hair to the side and brought it forward. The noble girl's hair was full, straight, and was a waist length affair.

"With this." She gestured at her hair.

Lynica palmed a dagger instantly and Valerina shrank back in horror, clutching the folds of her hair to herself.

"I don't need it cut!" She exclaimed.

"It would simply get in your way later," Lynica explained.

"I am not getting it cut! Just help me weave it into a single braid, will you?"

Lynica gave a tired sigh and put down her blade. She lowered herself to the floor and bid Valerina sit before her. Valerina did as she was asked, taking her bread with her as she sat. Lynica divided her hair into three parts and began to weave them into a single braid silently.

Feeling uncomfortable with the silence, Valerina decided to speak as she ate.

"I reckon you and Voscov have known each other for a long time?"

Lynica paused for a bit before responding: "He's royalty. I'm his aide."

"Oh," Valerina intoned, somehow unable to muster up any other reaction.

"You knew long ago didn't you?" The other girl asked, amusement colouring her tone.

Valerina felt heat rising to her cheeks.

"Yes, I did."

Neither of them brought up Valerina's conduct and disregard of etiquette so far.

"Hey, I heard Maeser Ellen was missing? Was she who you were looking for when the Grand Ward collapsed?"

"Yes. She was abducted last night by some ruffian of a fashion."

"What? Abducted? As in kidnapped?"

"Kidnapped is a synonym of abducted, yes."

Valerina fell silent for a while.

"Then the person with the griffin was..." She prodded tentatively.

Lynica yanked on her hair roughly, causing her to wince.

"Don't even remind me of that," the girl grumbled. "But yes, it was prince Raoul of Mescary."

"Oh, by the gods. He had really been gifted a griffin after the last tournament."

Lynica hummed noncommittally and held a hand out before Valerina.

"Hairpin?" She asked.

"They all fell off," Valerina replied.

Lynica sighed, withdrew her hand, and began to twist the ends of the braid into a knot.

"I fail to believe you sent prince Raoul away out of desire to have Maeser Ellen found."

Valerina did not stiffen or show any signs of discomfort like Lynica thought she would.

"True," she admitted with a coy chuckle. "I came here with my cousin. And while it would be great for the Maeser to be found hale and hearty..." She hesitated as though trying to wrangle her emotions. "I also desire that my cousin is safe and he finds a way back home. I... I'm sorry."

"It doesn't matter. You would serve to buy time if we ever need to flee," Lynica stated matter-of-factly.

Valerina gave an awkward laugh.

Lynica finished the braid and stretched. A palm, hot and feverish, grabbed her arm and she looked up at Voscov to find him awake and gazing at the door intensely. A second later his eyes flicked to the side sharply.

"Move," he warned, before he rolled off the bed and sprang for the window with surprising agility.

Lynica followed his lead without question and Valerina would have been left clueless had the aide's knee not struck her back as she leapt over the bed. She made to leap after the duo but something flashed at the edge of her vision and she lay flat on the floor instead. And not a moment too soon as a razatche soared out of the very wall, its maw snapping shut where her head had been.

Valerina rolled under the bed immediately only for the furniture to go flying mere moments later, slamming into the wall on the far side and taking out a portion of the wooden structure in a shower of splinters. The razatche attacked once more, going for the girl's eyes with its claws. She rolled toward it, grabbed her dagger, and thrust it upward, aiming for the creature's heart.

The razatche jerked back, sinking into the sheer ground to avoid her attack, and she sprang to her feet and ran for the window. She was only three steps away, and could spot Lynica and Voscov on an adjacent roof, when an angry snarl reached her ears. She pivoted on instinct and raised her left arm to her head to block an incoming swipe. The attack landed heavily and her arm was smashed into her head, swatting both to the side and making her see stars for a moment. It was followed by another swipe from her right and she barely managed to duck beneath it. Another came for her neck and she danced just out of reach only for a foot to connect solidly with her stomach and send her flying through the collapsed section of the wall.

She felt a wooden splinter slice open a wound on her neck as she flew past the hole to land roughly on the roof adjacent the inn. Blinking back the pain, she rolled to her feet quickly, dug around within her satchel, and pulled out a roll of bandages before snapping off a section and slapping it onto her neck hurriedly. With a hand keeping the bandage in place she dashed to the edge of the roof and jumped across to the next where Lynica and Voscov stood.

Lynica raced past her before she could get her bearings, wrenching the dagger from her fingers as she went by. The aide cleared the distance between both roofs in a single step and rapidly approached the razatche who was only just alighting on the roof.

She slashed at it before it could gain its footing but her opponent danced back quickly, its footwork light and fleeting. The aide lunged after it, a dagger set to pierce it's heart, but it slapped away her attack, the sheer strength in its arm making her spin, and a fist came flying in. The attack landed squarely on her back, rattling her, and she went flying off the side of the roof and to the streets below.

The razatche sank into the roof without delay and for a precious second Valerina had no idea where it was. Then it sprang out of the very edge of the roof, stretched out horizontally and aiming for she and Voscov.

A dagger with a crystal green hilt shot past her in a blur and in but a fraction of a second was already inches away from piercing the razatche's head. But the creature turned, twisting in mid air and suddenly going vertical as though it had always intended to do an aerial flip from the start, leaving Valerina stunned and restless.

The dagger sailed under its head harmlessly, it completed its flip and landed on the roof without a hitch. Its eyes, filled with intense greed, were pinned on Voscov, and it took a step forward only to scream in agony soon after.

Voscov tsked and flicked his wrist. The dagger with the crystal hilt pulled out from its back, spun to gain momentum, and stabbed down once more. The razatche sidestepped the dagger and struck at the weapon. The dagger spun away, halted in mid air, before diving back in and harrying the razatche.

The creature's attention turned to the dagger and it continued to strike out at the object in anger as it was forced to take several steps back until it was at the edge of the roof.

"You are making use of your manipulation?" Valerina asked the prince as she quickly applied some salve on her wound and tied the strip of bandage over it and across her neck.

"Mm," the prince replied. "Be ready to run."

"Where?"

"Anywhere."

It was at that moment that Lynica came soaring over the side of the roof, a fierce snarl on her lips, and both her daggers broken. She tossed Voscov the crystalline handles and leaned forward on the tips of her toes. Her manipulation surged, the rock making up the roof around her erupted violently, and the aide blurred forward in a stunning display of extreme speed. In but half a second she was before the razatche and leaped, both her feet finding their place on the creature's chest.

She bent her knees, twisted the direction of her feet slightly, tensed for a fraction of a second, and then pushed off. She and the razatche went in opposite directions, with the aide flipping to bleed off momentum and the razatche launching into the streets below at ludicrous speeds.

"Let us get going," Voscov proposed immediately and no one objected. They all knew they would not be able to beat the razatche without bringing their manipulations to bear. Furthermore, their location was about to be a hotbed of slaughter.

"Roofs?" Valerina asked.

"Roofs," Voscov replied and set off.

Valerina brushed a hand across the bandage over her neck as she rushed after him. She could feel her essence leaking out in trickles. She would continue to attract razatches and fellbeasts, she knew that, and being with her was more dangerous than not. However she liked being alive, see, and being with other people was a sure way to increase her chances of staying so.