N:   The servant led the Mandorian through the corridors and up a couple flights of stairs,  when they neared the tailor's office, the servant said, "Just a heads up, the tailor could be talkative but the next moment closed off, and has a lot of experience vibe around him, despite looking relatively young, yet his skills are undoubtedly the best."

They reached the door and the servant twisted the knob and added, "One last thing, his eyes may be, umm, different." With that he opened the door, revealing a messy room with sewing machines and a wall storing a range of materials, and the noise of them entering caused the tailor to poke his head above the mess. He had dark brown hair which he kept tucked behind his ears, but the thing that stood out was his eyes, they were silver. Not the cold kind but warm and friendly, but silver nonetheless.

M:   Rowen very briefly paused when he saw the tailor's eyes and for a moment they reminded him of Prussia, but he shook it off, he knew a man back home who had silver eyes, though that was because he was born blind, he doubted that the tailor was.

"Dahver," Rowen greeted, "I was informed that my family and I would need outfits for the Yule ball and was sent here, I hope I'm not interrupting anything."

N:   "No, no, not at all," the tailor assured him, walking over to Rowen to properly greet him, "I'm guessing Sir England asked for this?" When the servant nodded, he sighed, "These countries and their balls, oh well, let's get this done, shall we? And by the way, the name is Prometheus."

"Have fun Prissy," the servant smirked before leaving, getting a loud 'hey' from Prometheus.

"Word of advice," Prometheus said, "I absolutely hate being called Prissy, reminds me of my annoying, but admittedly lovely, sister."He rushed over to a table and was able to pinpoint a measuring tape from the mess, brought a pencil and tucked it behind his ear, and asked Rowen to lift up his arms to measure his waist and chest, writing down the measurements on a piece of paper.

While he did, he tried to start up a conversation with Rowen. "So," he said, "you're from Mandoria, right? How was it there, for I meant to visit there before ... you know who? I've heard stories of how it was before it became an established kingdom so I just want to know if it changed."

M:   "Before it became an established kingdom," Rowen repeated questioningly, "Hmm, I'm not sure, the kingdom had stood for thousands of years so the past is more bound by speculation and myths. The people who lived there revered countryhumans as demigods so they believed that Mandoria was sent down to lead them in their time of need. That obviously wasn't true but it was a well-established myth that everyone settled on it and didn't bother knowing how the kingdom came to be."

"I like your name though," he then added, "If I remember correctly, Prometheus was the Greek god who created humans and then gave them fire after stealing it from the Olympians. Making assumptions off of that, I take it you are Greek?"

N:   "Titan, boy, Prometheus was a Titan, not a god," Prometheus corrected, "and for where I'm from, I try to dissociate myself from a particular people, always traveling around the world, but my name doesn't help, does it?"

He chuckled a bit before continuing, "In all honestly, I don't know where I'm from, but as long as I can travel it doesn't matter, I can be anyone I want. I chose my name and I just found the name fitting, I could have chosen Māui since he also stole fire, but I doubt it was appropriate."

He continue to measure and said, "Well enough about me, now let's talk about you. Egypt if I'm not wrong. How much do you know about it?"

M:   "A bit, my four times great grandmother was full-blooded Egyptian, she lived in Egypt until-", he paused, he didn't want to say that she was kidnapped because it was the English who took her and forced her into slavery, "um ... s-she was kidnapped and forced into slavery, I don't remember where she was taken but I do know that she was being sold at auction and Mandoria happened to be visiting the country and saw the auction, so thinking quickly, he bought all of the slaves and set them free, my great grandmother decided to stay in Mandoria and one thing led to another, here I am."

His face turned down for a moment, "I had an eye of Horus amulet that had been in my family for generations, it was going to be my son's one day, but when we were captured by Prussia he took it as a trophy, leaving me with nothing to connect to my ancestors."

N:   Prometheus frowned, "Someone should never be disconnected from where they are from. Wait here and let me get something."

He placed the tape down and ran over to his desk, pulling open a drawer to search for the item he wanted. When he did, he smiled and brought it out, although it was covered in a cloth, when he walked over to Rowen he uncovered it. It was an amulet shaped like a cross, but a loop replaced the upper bar, and it was out of turquoise Egyptian faience outlined with gold attached to a silver chain.

"It was given to me by a merchant when I was in Egypt a long time ago," the tailor explained, "and I've taken care of it ever since, keeping its luster for as long as possible, look." When he tilted it into the light, the faience reflected beautifully in the light as well as the gold. "It's the letter ankh, to represent long life and the key of life, but I have no need of it but I think it is better if you have it. Although it is not from your ancestors and not the same as your Eye of Horus, at least it's from home, so have it," handing it over to Rowen.

M:   Rowen gingerly took the amulet, rubbing his thumb over the smooth turquoise and shimmering gold. He could feel tears welling up in his eyes, that's how happy and thankful he was. He threw his arms around Prometheus and let out a light sniffle, "Thank you, thank you so much, how can I ever repay you for this."

N:   "No problem," Prometheus smiled, hugging back, "and you being happy is all that matters to me so don't repay me with any material things."

He looked at the amulet and hummed, "Turquoise and gold ... that would be pretty good colors for your mask. I'll forward that to Sir England and see if he agrees." When Rowen finally let go, he did the final measurements and then threw tape over his shoulder, "All done, I'll just get an outfit whipped up in no time and you can check it out later."

M:   "Sure thing, and thank you again, this means so much to me," Rowen thanked him, he waved goodbye, and walked out the door, putting on his new totem and going to show Mandoria.

N:   Over the next few days, the people injured slowly healed, Royal healing enough to return to her duties but not enough to fly without hurting herself. Saxon continued to refuse to answer, ignoring all the pleas from Wales and demands from BE, as he sat quietly in his cell with thick shackles attached to the wall that went around his wrists. Scotland preferred to sleep in the library where he slept next to the warmth of the fire, so England complied and stayed with him, although one night he did catch a whiff of whiskey coming from the Scot.

When the sun was near its peak, the guards watched the horizon, bored out of their minds as they chatted amongst themselves when they heard the galloping of a horse. From a distance they saw a green country approaching, and recognizing who they were, they opened the gates to allow the Celt in.

The moment Celtica arrived, she jumped off Aerion and ran inside, her green cloak flowing behind her as she searched for her son.

"Where is Scotty," she asked worryingly a servant when she searched for his room and found it empty, "I need to know where my son is."

"He has been sleeping in the library for a while now," the servant replied, so she thanked them and ran to the library, finding Scotland lying on the sofa with England sleeping nearby in a chair.

"Scotty," she sighed in relief, and she walked over to the Scot and knelt beside him, "I'm happy you're alright, I thought that you were -" but she cut off when the man opened his eyes to reveal his shattered eyes and her face fell. "My poor boy," she said as she tightly hugged him, "I should have been here, not at Parliament."

"It's alright, Ma," he smiled, England waking up nearby, "It's fine, besides I got so much to tell you."

M:   Edel stirred from his sleep, blinking his one eye open when he heard the voices. Just like with England, Edel had been spending more and more time with Scotland, so naturally, he was close by when Celtica arrived. He jumped up and excitedly hopped over to the country, his bouncing causing a few books to fall off the shelves.

Edel nuzzled and licked Celtica, happy to see her again, though that also meant that he wasn't aware of what he was knocking down with his tail. The noise attracted the attention of Rowen and Askad, who were taking a stroll around the castle when they heard everything being toppled over.

"What the hell is going on in here," Rowen exclaimed when he ran in, Askad came in holding a dagger since he thought there was an intruder.

N:   "Calm down, Edel," England chuckled as he tried to push him off the Celt, and when Rowen asked his question, he answered, "Celtica came."Celtica laughed when Edel licked his face, but as soon as her eye, since she wore her triskelion eyepatch, laid on the dagger, her face turned stony and she shielded Scotland. She examined the naga, wondering who, and what, he is, and why he was there, but she relaxed slightly when Scotland rested his hand on her shoulder.

"It's fine, Ma," Scotland reassured her, "he's not going to harm us. His name is Askad and he's friends with Esha."

"Esha," she repeated quietly, "I haven't heard that name in centuries." She stood up and asked, "Wait, so Esha is here?"

"Yes," England nodded, "but she is in stasis, but when she went into stasis, we thought that she died, hence," and he pointed at Scotland, who looked down and suddenly became interested in the carpet.

"So you saw her after all these centuries," the Celt questioned, and she smirked, "and did you remember the nickname you gave her, Scotty?" to which the Scot smiled at the thought.

"If so," Celtica said, walking over to Askad, "it is nice to see that Esha has other Eternals around her," and she held out her hand.

M:   "Thanks," Askad said in an uncertain voice, hesitantly shaking her hand, "and you are-"

"This is Celtica," Rowen interrupted, "she's Scotland's mother and the one who rescued Esha."

"Oh," Askad said, "well then it's very nice to meet you, and thank you so much for saving her," he put his dagger back in its sheath, "sorry about the weapon, it sounded like there was a fight going on so we were prepared to stop it."

"Edel, you troublemaker," Rowen said when the dragon came up to him for scratches, which he happily gave, "were you happy to see Celtica again, I sure hope you didn't sit on her like you did last time, that's not a very warm welcome." He chuckled to himself before turning to the Celt, "So how have you been, anything new from when we last saw you?"

N:   "Nay, the usual. Wars, family feuds, although I have gotten around to teaching wee Ire how to play the Celtic harp, and he's doing quite well."

"You know that Ireland doesn't like it when you call him 'wee Ire'," Scotland chuckled.

"Says the person who called Wales 'wee boy'," Celtica countered, shaking her head as she took off her eyepatch so she could see with both eyes. She turned to Rowen and said, with a hint of sadness in her voice, "So, how have you been holding up?"

M:   Rowen shrugged, "We're doing ok, definitely much better than the past three years, Johann's been hanging out with his friend from Saxony and Mandoria is slowly getting better each day, his wings are halfway grown back now so that's good, the problem is his eyes are still shattered, which is weird because he seems happy and content, shattered eyes aren't permanent, are they?"

"Very rarely, yes," Askad butted in, "it is possible for an Eternal to experience trauma so severe that they never regain their natural eye color, and from what you've all said you've gone through, I have serious doubts he will ever recover his normal eyes."

N:   Celtica silently took that in and looked worryingly at Scotland, who shook his head, saying he'll be fine. "If he does permanently have shattered eyes," she asked, "what does that ultimately mean? Will he be himself but with stormy grey eyes or there would still be something off about him?"

M:   Askad tapped his chin as he tried to remember, "It's been a while since I knew someone with permanently shattered eyes, which at that point they are simply called injured or wounded eyes; confusing I know, but I have noticed that the afflicted person does become more submissive than they used to be. They won't raise their voice, they step down from whatever position of power they have; whether it be the ruler of a kingdom or the leader of a family, they will not start fights or perform acts of dominance, and all-around become the omega of the pecking order. It can take a long time but they can return to how they were before, but if challenged they will always back down and accept submission."

There was another moment of silence as the explanation sunk in, until Rowen said, "Well, I suppose that explains a lot, Mandoria dislikes being referred to as king or any form of respect being given to him like bowing or lowering of wings. He still calls Prussia king after what he did to us and constantly says that he is the King Wing when he's legally not," Rowen wiped a tear that was starting to form, "I don't know what to do for him, it feels like the longer we are out of captivity the more I'm losing him."

N:   "You're not going to lose him, Rowen," Celtica spoke softly as she gave him a gentle hug, "you've gone too far to lose him."

After a moment of hugging, she let go and held him out at arms reach and said, "Do you know what, you shouldn't have given Saxon that Tamordo, now he thinks he can challenge me to a duel, but we never actually come to it." She turned to England and asked, "Where's Saxon?"

M:   Askad growled in his throat at the mention of Saxon, immediately taking his leave so he didn't have to listen about that man. He slithered back to the room he and Uskaine were given, the centaur was well enough to be let out of the infirmary but still couldn't walk while his legs were healing. Uskaine was sleeping when Askad came in, so he made sure to be quiet to not disturb his mate.

Askad climbed onto the bed and grabbed the plush and blanket he brought back from the settlement, hugging them tightly as the memories returned."How could he do this," he muttered under his breath, "after everything I said, why is he being so stubborn?"

After a moment a thought came to mind, Saxon really just didn't know what happened, even if he knew who the Jacobite leader was he probably never told him what went on in that cavern, what happened to all those innocent Eternals.

With new determination, he quietly left the room, still holding the items, and went to find a servant to lead him to the dungeons so he could talk to Saxon.

N:   The servant walked the Eternal to the dungeon doors, where Wales was also to check in on BE, who went earlier to check on Saxon. He saw the pair and raised a brow, "why are you here?"

"He wants to talk to Sir Saxon," the servant answered for Askad, and Wales hesitated whether he should allow the naga in. The guards saw this so they opened the doors but blocked Askad's path, but Wales stopped them.

"He can come," he told them, and he turned to the Eternal, "Just don't go and kill him. I'll lead you to Geandfather." With that, the servant left and Wales took over and led Askad down, staircase after staircase until they finally reached the bottom.

The dungeons were cold and dark, only dimly lit with torches hung from the sides, the cells themselves were large but were surrounded by walls on three sides with one side being the bars. There were some prisoners already there, looking up at the pair as they walked further in. It took them a couple of minutes until they reached a nicer part of the dungeon, or at least brighter, and against the wall leaned BE, looking into one of the cells.

BE turned to see them and was confused to see the naga, but after Wales explained what he wanted to do, he nodded, "Be my guest, he hasn't responded to any of our questions."

Saxon looked up from where he was sitting, his wrists chained to the wall, and there were dark pools under his eyes from the lack of sleep. He saw Askad with the items, and he sighed and looked back down at the ground.

M:   "I see you are interested in these," Askad noted, his voice calm and unemotional, "well I will be more than happy to tell you about them," he then turned to BE and Wales, "I suggest you two leave if you start becoming uncomfortable."He curled up in front of the cell and set the plush and blanket on one of his coils so they were in full view of the entity.

"Three years ago, I was mated with a different eternal, a female who was half griffon, we paired and tried to have a child, except she was only able to lay one single egg before she passed because of complications. I was devastated but still took it upon myself to care for the egg as best I could, Uskaine pitching in too, which is how he became my new mate. The child was a little girl, she was a spitting image of her mother, she had the flag and the griffon body, though she had a snake tall and reptile front legs, so I named her after her mom, Sofia. On the day of her hatching, she received these from the elder to celebrate the birth of an eternal, and for the next two years life was great."

Askad paused, he was getting lumps in his throat the closer he go to the tragedy, but he swallowed the pain and kept going, "then there was the day the evil Eternal came, he had his mask when he stumbled into the cave while running away from humans that wanted him harm, it wasn't strange to us, eternals that had face scars tend to wear masks to hide those scars, so we thought nothing of it. We took him in, patched him up, and he went on his way, I just wish we never let him go. He came back months later with hundreds of humans, he stood at the cave entrance and watched as we were massacred, men, women, and children were slaughtered where they stood. I tried my best to escape, holding Sofia in my arms as I fought for our lives to make it to a secret exit, only to find that the humans caved it in. We were captured and taken back, I was the only Naga left alive so they spared me for my venom, Sofia wasn't so lucky."

Askad was openly crying now, he couldn't hold back his emotions anymore, but he knew that he still needed to get Saxon to talk, so he told him what happened to his daughter, every gory detail was explained, and nothing was left out.

"And when it was done, they tossed her mangled body in front of my cell and left her to rot there for three days, she was too far away for me to reach her, to hold her one last time, all I could do was look at the remains of my baby girl, stare as flies and rats consumed her until one of the humans got tired of the smell and disposed of her."

Askad took a long moment to just cry, unable to handle the trauma, eventually, he collected himself just enough to say, "Doesn't my daughter deserve justice, doesn't everyone in my colony deserve justice, that Eternal watched and laughed at our suffering, he slew my child right before my eyes." He grabbed the plush hippogriff and set it in front of the bars, making it stare directly at Saxon, "If you're not going to expose them for your family, then please, do it for her."

N:   Saxon stared right back at the plush, its eyes staring into his, and he felt a lump form in his throat, but he swiftly push it down. "I don't know how to tell you this," the entity said, switching his gaze to Askad, "but I cannot do it for her."

"Are you serious," BE yelled, slamming his hands on the bars, "Askad tells you all this and you say no?!" He stayed for the whole story, although his face went paler as it progressed, and Wales left halfway as he felt he was going to be sick.

"You didn't let me explain," Saxon spoke, looking down at the ground, "all insurgents swear allegiance to me before given their task, but so that they don't back out of the agreement, I swear not to reveal who their identities are. They do their job and I will keep their names a secret." BE was about to interrupt him when he continued, "What you have told me, and despite how horrible it is, is not uncommon for an insurgent for you would be surprised what other insurgents have done. The way I keep them in line is this promise, otherwise, they would go out of control and cause more devastation than they would, crossing over borders and terrorizing other kingdoms. The moment I relax and betray one, it is in their nature to go against authority, so in no time the others would find the deal null."

"So if not for Sofia," the empire asked, annoyed that Saxon is still not telling them who the Jacobite leader is, "would you ever?"

Saxon paused for a minute to think and said, "The only way is if he goes back on his side of the deal, then I am free to tell you who he is; however, he is not." His face turned serious as he looked the Eternal in the eye, "his task was to terrorize the English, his main task is confidential, but he has done so. He has killed the people who live in England and thoroughly disturbed the British family, the methods are extreme but it is not unseen."

"You speak as if you're not part of this family," BE pointed out.

"You wouldn't imprison your own family, would you," Saxon replied, "you treat me as a head of insurgents, and you are right to do so, so I will act as it."

M:   Askad was stony, not showing any emotion, "how can he influence the English if the people he kills are unknown to the world? I personally asked the leader why he did what he did, and he said he was bored, that we were merely practice for what he would do to the English, how he would make you and him watch," he pointed to BE, "while he slaughtered everyone, how is that not going against you?"

N:   Saxon hesitated for a moment then sighed, "alright, but let me ask, even if I tell you a name, what would it be useful to you," Saxon asked, "ok, you learn of the name of the insurgent who hurt you, then what? It has no use to you, the person wouldn't magically come here, and you basically returned to square one but with the knowledge of a name."

"So would you tell us?" BE asked.

The entity looked at him and whispered to himself, "I guess Vater is right about me being soft," before answering, "his name is Chrysalis, hence the butterfly you found. I don't know how that would help you, but at least you're now satisfied with a name." He leaned back and his face disappeared in the shadow, although the empire could make out a face of mild anger, although he didn't know who it was directed to.

M:   "Knowing a name means the world to me, believe it or not," Askad grumbled, "when you're a magical creature all you need is a name, there are a lot of spells and curses you can cast on someone with only their name. Luckily for your precious insurgent, I'm not going to curse them, it's not worth causing pain if you can't witness it. You on the other hand, for allowing the near extinction of a species, I have something special for you."

Askad uncoiled from his spot and rested a hand on the bars, the solid metal soon faded away and the Naga slithered forward, leaning down so he was inches away from Saxon's face.

"You look sssso tired, I guessss it issss hard to get deccccent ssssleep in a dungeon," Askad said, laying his snake accent on thick, "let me help you with that, ssssweet dreamssss."He then placed two fingers on Saxon's forehead and muttered a few words, the entity's eyes closed and his head dropped to his chest as he was forced to sleep.

When the spell was cast, Askad exited the cell and the bars reappeared to seal Saxon in." I cast a memory spell on him," the naga explained to BE, "he will now be forced to watch what the humans did to us in that cave and won't be able to wake up until it is over, and he will watch what happened to my daughter. I don't know what you do to punish people, but this is my punishment, and I dearly hope it stays with him till the day he dies."

Now that he had done what he came to do, Askad picked up the plush and blanket and made his way for the exit, but he stopped and said without looking back, "I have no hard feelings for you and the rest of your family sir, I am in debt to you all for taking us in, but you must know that as a father, I will not let my child's pain be in vain, whoever is responsible for it, directly or not, will experience it just like she did, good day." he slithered away without another word.