“Are you okay, sister? You looked like you saw something noteworthy. Something like that handsome guy who helped us get our food,” Theon chuckles.

I punch him in the arm harder than I intended. He out of all people should not be joking about me finding a mortal attractive.

“Leave her alone, Theon. She is falling in love with someone. Can’t you see the red in her cheeks?” Strider laughs with Theon. Theon I would have predicted would tease me, but not Strider. This is a whole new side of my brother that I have never seen before.

“In case you morons forgot, I have fire powers. I run warmer than both of you combined, therefore my face grows redder than yours,” I spit out.

“Yeah, sure,” Theon says.

“What you say,” Strider teases.

I hit both their shoulders as I ran past them. I had to hide the smile on my face. Moments like these are the best, but a monarch must always look put together.

We walk as we enjoy the tasty treats from the tent and the deserted roads. It’s nice that we don’t have to stay in our disguise cloaks in this sweltering heat. I think I would have died and it is literally impossible to kill me or my brothers. We are immortal and forever will be.

People have hired assassins to try and kill us before. Their arrows pierce into our chests. If we were mortal, we would have easily died. It stung for a little bit but we were nowhere near the sweet release of death. They claim they were ordered to do so by Darkness himself but my brother and I aren’t so sure if that were true. Wouldn’t Darkness know that the three of us can’t die? We are just as immortal as he is.

As we are heading down the street, I see a man I recognize. His tall figure is hidden beneath an army green cloak with his pointed hood up on his head. His brown pants are tucked into his traveling boots. I can feel the heat just by looking at him.

He turns towards us and that is when I confirm his identity. Vlair Preston is one of our most trusted spies. Trained well in combat and sworn into secrecy, his job is one of the most important jobs in the kingdom.

Vlair spots my brothers and me and subtly gestures to meet him in the alley. I wonder why he doesn’t talk to us and then I notice a group of people in the distance walking somewhere. They aren’t close enough to hear anything we would say but Vlair is right in asking to meet in the alley. Never know if any of Darkness’ vultures of people are spying on us and if Vlair wants to talk to us that means he found something. Possibly something that could get my brothers and me ahead of this cruel game Darkness has forced us to play.

When I see that the coast is clear, I usher my brothers to go into the alley that Vlair was gesturing to. When I see the green cloak, I find the courage to speak.

“Vlair, how has the spying been? Got anything for us?” Theon cuts me off.

I softly groan in frustration but he asked the same thing I was going to but I would have worded it more professionally.

“Your Highnesses, I have some news to bring to your immediate attention. I have found another illegal temple. They call it the Pure Pub. When you walk in it seems to look like a regular pub but…”

“That’s how they get you to drink the Black Truth,” I finished for Vlair.

The Black Truth is one of the most common ways Dark Recruiters get you to join their cult. They have you verbally list everything you have ever desired and then drink Black Truth. That’s when Darkness will appear at the temple and you can have the Dark Lords rely the message of your desires directly to Darkness. Darkness would grant those desires if you do something he desires in return.

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The people who drink the Black Truth are mostly innocent. Most of them are followers of Light and would do nothing to sabotage that. When they find out, a lot of them have claimed to have felt physical pain for the rest of their life. It was the light leaving their bodies. I get sad evertime I think about it.

“The Pure Pub is not so pure after all,” Theon whispers.

Vlair, Strider, and I stare at him. Not sure how to react to his joke on such a serious topic. Vlair and Strider stay silent but I let out a little chuckle. I don’t know why, it’s not even that funny, but for some reason it makes me laugh. Sometimes Theon’s comments get on my nerves but other times they make my life and job a little bit lighter.

“Can you tell us where this pub is?” Strider asks. He’s trying to stay on point. I love Strider but sometimes he can be too serious but it does help with our missions.

“Yes, but I can only show you and not go with you. One of the waiters discovered I was a spy of Krosla and tried to kill me. I barely escaped with my life.” Vlair pulls down the opening of his cloak and shows the long, deep gash on the side of his neck. He’s lucky they didn’t hit an artery or something else serious, otherwise he would have bled to death.

“Okay, after you take us to the pub, go back to Chopver’s castle and ask Amelia to use the portal to take you back to Krosla. Tell her Orien sent you and needs you to recover. You did good, Valir,” I say.

He nods and then leads us to Pure Pub where there is a supposed illegal Darkness temple. I feel pressure pulsate in my head making my vision beat like a heart. I haven’t encountered an illegal temple in a while. The last time, I saw my father for the first time in decades it made me feel like my stomach was going to push things up my throat. I was so nauseous it was hard to fight him. I sometimes think, if I somehow kept it together, Light and Darkness could have been balanced by now.

We walk up to a building that looks like it has been run down for years. Windows are broken and the cloth that once shaded the building is torn and ripped everywhere.

“Are you sure this is it?” I ask Vlair. “It doesn’t look like anyone has been in here for years.”

“Not in the building, Your Highness. Look over there.” Vlair points to the ground by one of the corners of the building. In the dry dirt ground, there is a man-made opening. The edges are too straight to be natural.

My brothers and I thank Vlair for the work he has done and send him on his way back to Chopver’s castle. We walk up to the edge of the stairway noting how deep into the ground it is. With it deep into the ground it has to be nice and cool down there. I haven’t noticed how heated my blood was making me. If only Light and Darkness weren’t unbalanced, Darkness would be able to provide shade for the people of Chopver.

My brothers and I all silently nod at each other indicating we are as ready as we will ever be to enter the temple. We carefully climb down the solid clay steps into the pub. When we walk into the doors we notice how packed it is. Are all of these people followers of Darkness? Chopver is in trouble if this how busy one illegal temple is.

I look around to see my surroundings. We have to burn this place down, it’s the only way we can help restore Chopver to being followers of Light. I make eye contact with an old lady who is glaring at us with her deepened eyes as she walks to the bathroom. From the looks of her, she doesn’t seem harmful. Those are the perfect people to lure others into becoming followers of Darkness. They look like they would never hurt a fly and yet they lure you into Darkness and end up hurting you and everyone you have ever loved.

I ignore the old lady and look around the pub more. That’s when I notice people I have seen before. People we just got the most delicious baked goods from. How did they make it here before we did? More importantly, why are they here in the first place? Are they followers of Darkness? Did the followers of Darkness find a way to help you talk to Darkness through food now?

I make eye contact with the boy who I couldn’t stop staring at earlier. The handsome stranger that I am not allowing myself to fall for. When our eyes meet, his eyebrows furrow. He says something to his friends and then walks very fast towards my brothers and me. If he is going to try and convince us to turn, then he is surely mistaken.

“What the hell are you doing here? Are you following us?” The handsome stranger sppedwalks toward my brothers and I.

“I’m sorry, what are you talking about?” I respond.

“I don’t know if you are some kind of stalker or if you have something wrong with your head but you need to stop going near me. First, you were staring at me for too long, and now you are following me.”

“Do not talk to my sister like that. We aren’t following you and she has nothing wrong with her head,” Theon cuts him off. As Theon and the handsome stranger fight, I see four Black Truth drinks being carried to where the handsome stranger’s friends are sitting.

“You need to get you and your friends out of here right now,” I command.