The prison room was small, only a little bigger than Airya. A slanted scratchy flooring with grits of sand in the stone grinded into her legs when she sat down. If she stood, the floor was at such an angle that she was pushed to lean against the metal bars at the bottom of the slope.

When she was led away, they had brought her downstairs deep into the bottom of the pyramid.

Hethei was still asleep in her arms. She was beginning to worry that he might not wake up at all. She stroked his softest, most delicate grey feathers near his closed eyes as she sat with her feet against the bars and her body trying to lean back on the deep incline. Her stomach muscles were starting to cramp, trying to keep herself up that way. The guards had said that if she had to go to the restroom, that she was just to go and her waste would run off and away out of the prison bars. They had people to clean the floors.

Airya had tried to use her powers to call up a portal to Ausrine multiple times, but it didn’t work. She blamed the stone that was sitting on a table outside her prison, unreachable. It glowed green each time her magick tried to fulfill her needs.

She was trapped and alone.

A failure to her parents, to her people, to her Kingdom.

How could she let this happen? She had the shackle that could have brought her to her people in her hands, but then she let it be taken away. Her parents would have been able to keep a hold of it. Her parents, who had been brave, resourceful, and heroes to their people in The Place of Yellow Dust, had gone into an Eysology camp to risk their lives and save them. Why couldn’t she be like that? Why couldn’t she find a way to save her people too?

Because they were already dead…

She let the thought sit in her head for a moment. No. There was no such thing as dead, not in Ausrine. She did not care if death existed in other parts of the world. Her parents had found paradise. They had found a way to beat the odds after the horrors they had seen. They had found a way around it. They could not be dead. They could not be lost forever.

She wouldn’t let them be.

It took her a moment to realize that golden eyes were staring at her. Only when she looked back to the stone that prevented her from using her powers did she see Aesha with her muscular arms crossed over her chest and full lips lifting into a smile.

Aesha examined the floor she was standing on beneath the bars, “I see you have not peed yet. Good.”

Airya’s teeth ground together. She waited for the mockery to continue. It had to be a real treat for the Queen of Nokia to capture another queen.

“Why do you have yellow eyes?” the Queen asked, coming closer.

Airya looked away from her, “Why do you have gold?”

“The Brother King and Sister Queen always do. Is yours part of your power?”

Airya scoffed, “All my people have yellow eyes. We were called Yellow Eyes.”

“And do all your people have your power?”

Airya didn’t say anything. Hethei stirred, drawing Airya’s attention away from Aesha. Her irritation was forgotten when Hethei perked up and fluffed out his feathers while shaking his head. He looked around. Once he spotted Airya and saw that she was holding him, he seemed to calm until he turned his head again and saw the bars more clearly. Then he flew right into them and started flapping his wings and screeching when he realized he couldn’t break through. He took flight in the other direction and was stopped when their cage ceiling narrowed into another wall. The spot where Hethei had landed away from Aesha and Airya was someplace that Airya could not fit at all.

“Look at that. He’s fine.”

“He hates being trapped,” Airya seethed.

“What kind of bird is that?” Aesha studied him. “We don’t have birds like that here.”

“An owl. They are all over our kingdom…. What are you doing here?” Airya asked, although she was sure it was to irk her.

“I’m interested in this power of yours,” she answered, sliding a finger from her cheekbone to her chin. “I want. I need you to take me someplace.”

“Where could you want to go? You have a whole kingdom,” Airya looked to Hethei, who had perched himself up in the corner, cowering away from them both. She didn’t blame him since the Queen was the one who had knocked him out.

“I’m not allowed to leave. And the sands around the Kingdom stop me from leaving on my own. I have a chance with you. If you take me anywhere, I will set you free and ensure you aren’t imprisoned again.”

The Queen wasn’t allowed to go anywhere? Why not? She was the Queen. Although, if Airya thought about it, she wouldn’t have been allowed to go anywhere either if her mother had more control over her.

“What about your brother, the King?” Airya guessed that he was the one who wasn’t allowing her to leave. “What would he think?”

“I could care less what Sedeth thinks. I want to see more of life that isn’t just our small kingdom. He won’t leave either, so if you’re worried about him coming after us, he won’t. This is your only way to get free.”

Airya didn’t think that their kingdom was small at all, but the desperate need for an adventure was playing across Aesha’s gold eyes. It kept Airya from arguing with her. In a way, she reminded Airya of Lilla, which opened up that aching hole in her chest. Lilla had the same want for an adventure and had wanted to leave Ausrine. Airya had never been able to give her that even after she had been planning to.

“I want the Shackled Eye of Brillia,” Airya stated.

Aesha looked amused, “I don’t think it’s what you’re looking for.”

“It’s exactly what I’m looking for.”

Sighing, Aesha twirled a black curl falling over her shoulder through her finger, “We used it before. To try to get to our dead parents not long ago. Sedeth went. But it didn’t work. It only sent him to a land of black ice.”

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Airya’s hope started sinking, “Maybe it will be different for me.”

“There was nothing there. No spirits, no dead. There was nothing. You would only be trapped.”

It looked like Aesha wanted to say something else. Airya needed to find out what, “He wasn’t trapped when he went or he wouldn’t be here,” Airya said. She didn’t think she needed to add that she had the power to take herself away if there really wasn’t anything wherever it took her.

“The only reason he was able to come back was because of our golden bands,” Aesha pointed to her ankles. A gold ring surrounded each one above the golden material covering her feet. Airya thought she remembered seeing the same golden bands around Sedeth’s wrists.

“The Shackle was made to trap and imprison,” Aesha continued, “Not to let people come and go to a destination. These were made and are stuck onto us into our skin. Coursing with our blood until we bore new siblings of the Brillia line. They were made by a preacher of magic so that the newest set of siblings can always find the other. His golden bands called to mine and brought Sedeth back home when he was trapped.”

For a moment, Airya wondered if the Shackle would keep her from using her magick the way the stone that was keeping her here did. But if Aesha’s magick worked in the golden bands, then maybe hers would without a problem.

She glanced at the golden bands again. A want for a sibling fluttered across her thoughts. Maybe then she wouldn’t be so alone. She had always wanted to take someone else with her to other worlds, well before everything had happened. She had always wanted to take Lilla…

“Where would you want to go?” Airya asked.

Aesha didn’t take a second to think, “Your kingdom.”

“What? Why?”

“I want to see if I can trust you. If your people really are gone. If you weren’t just trying to steal from us just because.” She eyed her tunic again, “And if you even have a kingdom. If it turns out you were lying, then I can tell my brother about it. He might actually let me leave knowing I can handle myself.”

“What if you can’t trust me? I could drop you off somewhere dangerous. I could leave you anywhere…” Airya wanted to say, or even kill you, but the thought of death still made her ache. She couldn’t imagine taking someone away from someone forever like what had been done to her.

Aesha pointed to her bands again, “My brother would call to me and my own magick. I would also be fine because I know multiple languages and other things. You have no idea the type of damage I can cause. You cross me, I will cross you.”

The Queen stood straighter as if trying to compose herself and hide the threat behind her pretty face, which only made her look more threatening. Airya couldn't refuse to take Aesha to see her kingdom, not if she wanted to escape this prison. Not if she needed to find something to bring her people back and she only had six months to do so. The Queen was desperate for something. She was hungry to see the world.

Airya had a gift and she couldn’t blame Aesha for wanting to use it. The memory of her dad and his encouragement to not hold herself back when it came to her mom wanting her to stay in Ausrine ran through her, giving her chills. She had to look to her father's words and know that it would be wrong to deny Aesha's wish when she finally had a chance to go somewhere and see more than just her own Kingdom.

“I’ll do it,” Airya whispered.

There was a click, and the bars swung open, now unlocked. Before Airya moved to get out, she watched Aesha tuck some key into her short golden dress.

“We leave now.” Aesha demanded, “Before a guard tells my brother.”

Airya stepped through, trying to rebalance and get her body used to standing on flat ground again. Hethei landed on her shoulder. She raised her hand to pet him, a part of her ready to go home.

When Aesha had led her through a few halls away from the stone, Airya reached out to the particles in all the universe to call out to Ausrine, her kingdom. A hole opened up, and Airya smiled when Aesha gasped in amazement. As it continued to grow bigger, Hethei left her and flew through. Airya then held out her hand for Aesha to hold onto it. Aesha's strong warm palm found hers, and their fingers locked. They stepped together into a calm and chilly air and onto the grass before Airya's temple.

Airya let go of Aesha's hand and watched her as she spun around and looked up at the alien world. Airya grinned at the excitement the god-like queen carried of a young child. Her heart warmed when a small breeze ran over her shoulder to lift her hair before it swept around Aesha, welcoming her too.

"This place," Aesha said, "Feels so alive."

Airya's mood sank slightly. She did not feel the same. Not with all her people now in a lifeless pit.

"What can you show me first?" Aesha asked, turning to Airya.

"What do you want to see?"

"I want to see your village."

Airya took her to the small ghostly hollow of a village where no one was running around. Airya was confused by her own emotions. It felt lonely bringing someone to her Kingdom to show them how empty it was, but at the same time, it was comforting having anyone here at all.

Aesha walked a little ahead of Airya, her hands crossed and resting on her shoulders as if she had finally realized the chill. She walked home to home in silence, judging each one, taking it all in, "This village is so small. It’s like the size of The Vizen."

Airya nodded even though Aesha couldn't see her as they walked on.

When they got to the bridge crossing over to the other side, Aesha turned back to look at Airya. Gloom was in her shining golden eyes, "I'm so sorry," she whispered.

Airya held back her tears. It was hard to see pity on another queen’s face.

Airya showed her the throne room and then her room. She refused to show Aesha where her parents had died. Now they sat by the calm flowing river in the temple, where Airya pulled out some swalak for Aesha to try.

"I'm sorry I don't know how to catch rats very well at all. Otherwise, I would have had some boiling and then would have been able to let you try one of those."

Aesha made a disgusted face, " You eat rats! No. No, thank you! You would never catch me eating a rat!" She took the swalak that Airya handed her and examined it before putting a little in her mouth and biting down. Airya waited for her opinion as she chewed, "Not that bad, but not that great," she put the rest in her mouth, "I would definitely prefer the food brought into Nokia."

Airya nodded.

"Where is your bird creature?"

"Hethei is probably off finding his own food right now," Airya said, eating some swalak herself.

Aesha looked around the quiet temple, "This place is so dim and quiet. After living in Nokia my whole life, I couldn't imagine living here alone,"

Airya nodded again, biting back tears, "It wasn't always dim. It wasn't as bright as Nokia, but it was usually warming and full of love and laughter."

Aesha dipped her hand in the water, "A river that boils at night. How amazing. And a breeze that welcomes you home. Stone that dampens the harshness of your world and cools your feet. It’s a beautiful place in its own way." She looked up to Airya sitting in front of her, "You know you don't have to stay here if you don't want to. You don’t have to be alone. I have a place that you can in hide in our city.”

Airya looked away down into the river trying not to feel a thing because she had been trying to deny that it had felt good being around someone that wasn’t just herself.

Hethei flew in from outside and landed next to her on the stone. He had a tiny rat's tail hanging out of his beak, and he gulped the rest down by bringing his head back and letting the tail slide in. Airya looked at Aesha and laughed when Aesha yelled out in disgust and scooted away.

"Ready to go back home?" Airya asked Aesha.

Hethei puffed out his feathers.

"I wasn’t talking to you, Hethei," Airya laughed.

Aesha looked around once more, "Yes," she paused, "Thank you so much for this. It was truly amazing."

"I'm sorry that it isn't much."

"No. It’s magnificent. It fills up my dreams of what parts of the world are like. I would love to see more one day if you wouldn't mind showing me. I… I could be your companion to travel to other worlds with."

Airya nodded, thinking about how nice that would be to have someone to share experiences with, almost like she had gotten to do with her dad, but someone who would and could experience them with her. She reached out, craving the hustle of the world they had just left. They both got up and walked into the portal hand in hand, the sand instantly burning Airya’s feet. They looked up at The Vizen before them.

Airya had no idea where she would go now or what she should do. She still wanted the Shackled Eye, but she didn’t think it was right to steal again, especially after she was starting to gain Aesha’s trust.

Clapping her hands together, Aesha turned to her and brushed some of the hot sand over Airya’s feet making Airya hiss, “Let’s get you some clothing fit for a queen.”

Then she retook Airya’s hand and ran up the stairs to The Vizen.