Emily heard Arthur before she saw him. With a groan, she put a hand to her head. It was still throbbing. The more she tried to remember what had happened, the more it hurt. 'I think she's waking up,' she heard Arthur say quietly.

'What's going on?' she muttered as she opened her eyes. She was lying on her side in a dimly lit room. Sitting beside her was Arthur, his back to her, as he spoke to Captain Caldwell, who was lingering in the doorway.

'You're awake,' he said brightly as he turned to face her, a weak smile crossing his face for a moment.

'What happened?'

'We were hoping you would be able to tell us that,' a voice said from her other side.

As she turned over, she looked around the room. It looked like it had been a bedroom at some point before the fall of Arcadia. Now that the surfaces were covered in dust, the walls faded. On her other side was Michael, with an old book open on his lap.

'Where are we?' Emily asked, sitting up gingerly.

'The first habitable house that we could find,' Michael said without looking up.

'We aren't too far from the palace,' Arthur supplied when Michael didn't elaborate. 'What happened back there? You completely freaked out on us,' he asked, leaning forward. As he leant forward, she noticed a bruise around his left eye.

'What happened to your eye?' she asked, reaching out to pull him closer.

'You don't remember?' Slowly, Emily shook her head.

'We were following Michael down the corridor, and you freaked out,' Arthur explained. 'You kept telling us we had to leave, and then you ran off. I tried to stop you, and your arm hit me in the face.'

'I'm sorry,' she muttered.

'Don't worry about it,' he said, waving away her apology.

'Now that that's sorted out, I would like to know what happened,' Michael said as he snapped the book shut, dumping it on the bed beside Emily.

'I can't remember,' she said. Whenever she tried to remember, the throbbing in her head intensified.

'Well, try harder,' Michael snapped.

'Hey! Back off,' Arthur said, getting to his feet. 'If she says she can't remember, then she can't.' For a moment, it looked as though Michael was going to turn on him as well. Instead, he snatched the book off the bed, pushing past Captain Caldwell as he stomped out of the room. 'Are you okay?'

'Fine,' Emily muttered, pushing back the dusty, moth-eaten covers. 'Just a headache.'

'Something happened back at the palace,' Arthur said as she got up. 'You were screaming, and then you just fell to the floor.'

'I don't know what happened. I can't remember,' she said. 'I wish I could, but I just can't; it hurts too much.'

'It's okay,' Arthur assured her, following her towards the window.

'Did you find anything?' she asked, looking down at the broken street below. 'At the palace.'

'We didn't hang around after we found you,' Captain Caldwell said from the doorway. 'I dragged Michael out of there as soon as I caught up with him.'

'George wasn't there?' Emily asked as she caught sight of a faded picture in a frame on the windowsill. Picking it up, she looked at the picture. The boy in the picture looked exactly like she imagined Lewis would have when he was younger. Beside him was a blonde-haired girl, his arm resting easily around her shoulders as they both smiled. 'Why is there a picture of Lewis here?'

'That isn't Lewis,' Arthur said. 'I thought the same thing when I saw it.'

'His name is Arden Vandemark,' Michael said as he reappeared, edging past Captain Caldwell. 'He grew up in Arcadia before he was exiled. After he left the city he founded,

'Tristan,' Emily cut across him. 'I know who he is.'

'Yes,' Michael said.

'Who's the girl? Emily asked as she traced the faded face with her thumb.

'From the other pictures in the house, I would guess that she is his sister,' Michael said. 'Having said that, there is no record of Arden having any siblings.'

'Not everything goes on record,' Emily said. 'Lewis was never on the Vandemark family tree in Tristan.'

'That is Tristan, though,' Michael reminded her. 'In Arcadia, everything goes on record. Place of birth, blood, and hair colour Everything down to the first word you ever spoke Arden Vandemark never had any siblings.'

Why couldn't Michael just be gone? Emily found herself wondering as she stared out of the window. He always had to be the one who had the answer. To him, everything was regimented and recorded to the finest detail. She wished he could see that real life wasn't like that. For the best part of eighteen years, Lewis hadn't existed as far as the Vandemark family tree was concerned. His father had managed to disappear from view for almost as long. Why was it so impossible that in this huge city, one girl could be hidden away?

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Casting her eyes down again, she peered at another of the pictures on the windowsill. Unlike the other picture, the blonde girl was flanked by Arden and another man, one that looked remarkably familiar to George. As she scanned the faded image of his face, she felt a sharp pain in her temple.

'Michael, who's this?' Emily asked, holding the picture out to him.

'That is Tristan Bergstrom; he helped Arden Vandemark find Tristan after he was exiled,' Michael said. 'According to the stories passed down through my family, he turned down the chance to rule the city of the exiles in return for Arden naming the city after him.'

'He looks like George,' Arthur said, peering at the picture over Michael's shoulder.

'That was what I thought,' Emily said. 'Doesn't it seem strange to you that Arden and Tristan seem so like Lewis and George?'

'Well, Lewis and Arden are related,' Arthur reminded her.

'It just seems strange that they could both be so similar to people who have been dead for more than a century,' she said.

'Tristan had no children,' Michael said. 'If that was what you were thinking. Not according to the records.'

'You said he left Arcadia, though; what if he had children after he left?'

'I guess it's possible,' Michael said hesitantly. For the first time, he didn't seem to have the answer to her question.

'Could that be why George is here?' she asked, her question hanging in the air as the four of them exchanged glances.

When no one answered, Emily turned back to the window, looking down into the street. In the fading light, she examined the ruined buildings opposite. For a second, she thought he saw something move.

'Did you say there were signs of people rebuilding, Captain Caldwell?' Emily asked, peering into the dark window of the building opposite.

'There have been rumours for some time, but no one has ever confirmed them,' he said. 'Why?'

'I thought I saw something or someone,' Emily said.

'Those rumours are rubbish,' Michael interrupted. 'No one has been near Arcadia in decades.'

'How do you know?' Arthur asked.

'Arcadia and the surrounding area are the final frontiers of this world. If someone had been here, they would have shared what they found with the world,' Michael insisted.

As Emily looked down at the street below, she saw a young girl with long brown hair emerge from the building, checking to make sure the street was empty. A moment later, a woman who could only be her mother emerged from the building. With one final glance in the direction of the palace, they walked off in the opposite direction.

'What if they never left?' she suggested. After all, who in their right mind would bring a child to a place like this?

'No one survived the fall of Arcadia,' Michael said, bored of repeating himself.

'How do you know that if no one has ever been back here?' Emily asked.

'Look around you! The place is in ruins,' Michael laughed.

'Why don't you look outside then?' Emily said, pointing as the woman and her daughter walked down the middle of the street.

'Impossible,' he whispered.

'We should follow them and see if they've seen George,' Emily said, turning away from the window.

'I don't know if that's a good idea,' Michael said hesitantly. He hadn't even finished his objection before Emily pushed past him and left the bedroom, the picture of Arden and the girl still in her hand. She knew she probably shouldn't have taken it, but then again, she thought Lewis might like to have it.

Despite the size of the castle in Tristan, there weren't many personal possessions belonging to the Vandemark family, at least not that she had ever seen. The only one Sebastian had ever shown her was currently hanging around her neck—the amulet that he had given her before he died. No matter how many times she tried to convince Lewis to take it, he always refused. Sebastian had given it to her; he had told her, and for that reason, he wanted her to keep it.

'Emily, you should rest,' Arthur called after her. 'We can look for them in the morning.'

Pretending that she hadn't heard him, she headed for the sweeping marble staircase. Down below, there was a large rupture in the floor of the hall, as if the ground had been ripped open, with dark rock covering the white floor. What happened here? She found herself wondering as she stopped at the top of the stairs. It looked as though a war had torn through the room.

'It looks like an army charged through here,' she said as she looked at all the broken pots and damaged walls around the room, aware that Arthur, Michael, and Captain Caldwell had followed her out of the bedroom.

'Actually, it was just a battle between two people,' Michael said. 'This is where Oswald Vandemark tried to fight off Thomas Bergstrom. He managed to buy enough time for Arden to escape the city.'

'I thought you said Arden and Tristan were friends?' Arthur said, confused.

'They were. Their fathers both sat on the Precursor Council, although their views often clashed,' Michael said. 'From what was left behind by my great grandfather, Thomas Bergstrom was planning to attack a city called Oldiron. Oswald and several others were working to overthrow him when they were caught.'

'I passed the ruins of Oldiron with Lewis when we were heading to Eraea. It didn't look like it was anywhere near as badly damaged as Arcadia,' Emily said, recalling the ruins amongst the rolling green hills that led down to the sea.

'Thomas Bergstrom won the battle here and went on to destroy Oldiron,' Michael said. 'In the end, he met his downfall at the hands of one of Arcadia's slaves. After that, no one is really sure what happened. Someone else took power and threatened the City of Tristan, and you know the rest. Arden returned to Arcadia and never came back.'

No longer paying attention to Michael's history lesson, Emily hurried down the stairs, heading straight for the door. The woman and the daughter hadn't been in a rush, so there was still a chance that they could catch them. For a moment after she opened the door, she felt completely lost, unable to recognise the street. It wasn't until she saw the palace towering over them, casting a long shadow down the road, that she remembered. They had been in one of the houses along what appeared to be the main street.

'It isn't safe to be out here after dark,' Michael said, annoyed that she had stopped paying attention to him.

'Why? According to you, there isn't anyone here,' she reminded him.

'Well, now that you've proved me wrong on that count, what's to say there aren't more people? he said. 'We have no idea if they could mean us harm.'

'Exactly! They might not,' Emily said, setting off down the street with her back to the palace.

'Emily,' Captain Caldwell said calmly. 'Michael is right. If they do mean us harm, then we aren't equipped to deal with that. There are only four of us. Who knows how many of them there are?

'We can't give up! What if they know where George is?'

'Let's just find somewhere safe to spend the night. In the morning, we can go looking for other people,' Arthur said. 'Who knows who could be watching from the shadows right now? he added with a nervous glance in the direction of the dark houses.'

With a sigh, her shoulders slumped. 'Fine. It looks like they're gone anyway.'