Lucas startled awake when he was very roughly jerked to his feet. It was still dark around them, and he couldn't see anything beyond the flashlights pointed directly to his face.

"Hey! What is going on?" he protested. "I haven't done anything wrong!"

His words were ignored, but at least the lights were lowered and he could take in the entire scene. At least five grown men, all wearing similar uniforms in light blue and pale yellow. There were solar guns strapped to their belts and they all wore protective vests and helmets.

The ruckus had woken also Mrei, who was quickly on her feet and glaring daggers at their assailants. "What are you doing?! Let him go this instant!"

"Are you unharmed, young highness?" one of the men asked. "Did he hurt you?"

"I'm fine, lieutenant. Now let him go."

"I'm sorry, young highness, but we can't do that. Kidnapping is a federal offence, even more so kidnapping a princess."

"He didn't-"

"Sir, chancellor Varlon is on the wire," another soldier held out the communication device to his superior.

"We found her," the lieutenant reported.

"Good. Bring her back to the palace as soon as possible."

"What about the culprit?"

"You found the culprit?"

"Apparently it was a heathen boy who kidnapped her." Who else than a heathen would commit a crime against the royal family anyway? "He was still with her."

"He didn't kidnap me!" Mrei all but screamed. Why couldn't adults ever -listen-?

"Then what happened, young highness?" Varlon's voice over the communication device was almost scary.

"Um...I..." Would she dare to say she ran away? Chancellor would be mad, and Tamaris would be disappointed and daddy...would probably also be angry.

Meanwhile, one of the soldiers searched Lucas's pockets and another his backpack. "Sir, he doesn't seem to have an identification card."

The lieutenant frowned. "You, take princess Mrei back to the palace. I will deal with this."

What? Did he hear that right? Was Mrei really a princess?

"What's your name, boy?" the lieutenant asked.

"Lucas."

"Are you registered as a citizen?" Heathens rarely came to public hospitals to give birth and sometimes they "forgot" to register their children as citizens. He couldn't fathom why, since that meant forgoing all public healthcare and other services. All sensible people either let the hospital staff deal with the paperwork or even took advantage of the royal family's generous offer to at the same time register the newborn and to hold a small-scale party for their closest relatives - all free of charge.

"Um...I don't know." Honestly he wasn't even sure what that soldier was talking about.

"Where is your identification card?"

"I don't have one. I think."

The lieutenant resumed speaking to the communication device. "An unregistered heathen, chancellor. Shall we take him to the guard station to wait for trial?"

"Don't. Bring him to the holding cells in the basement of the palace. Unseen. This could look really bad on the royal family."

"Understood, sir." It would be handled quietly and the boy shipped back to where he belonged. It was probably better for him than the other option - years in the rehabilitation facility in Aselan - too.

Quickly - and none too gently - Lucas was handcuffed and half-dragged, half-carried to the car waiting at the side of the road nearby. Like all solar-powered vehicles in the kingdom it started quietly, and in the closed-off, windowless back compartment he could only tell they were even moving whenever the car turned left or right.

Once they stopped he was again grabbed roughly and dragged out of the car by men in different, plain white uniforms, through a steel door - if this was the palace where the king lived, why were there steel doors anyway? - and into an elevator going down. He tried to voice his protests again, but a heavy hand covered his mouth to silence him.

The elevator doors opened to reveal a narrow, brightly lit hallway, and as they walked along it they soon came across another steel door. One of the soldiers "escorting" him opened it while the other unlocked his handcuffs and gave him a hard push inside.

Lucas couldn't help cringing as the door slammed shut behind him. This was definitely not what he had thought would happen when he came to Delavia.

This room was more dimly lit, and it had two beds placed at opposite walls, a small toilet and sink and...that was about it. No chairs, tables or even windows. Only a ventilation shaft at the ceiling. Even the mining tunnels he had sometimes walked delivering messages hadn't made him feel this closed-in.

There was someone lying in one of the beds. There wasn't much visible under the covers except the back of head covered by white hair. And the person wasn't moving.

"Hey..." Lucas carefully moved closer. "Are you alive?"

"What does it matter to you?" came a gruff reply. The voice didn't sound like an elderly person's, though.

"You don't need to be so rude!" he huffed. "It's normal to be concerned."

The other was quiet for a moment before rolling to his back and sitting up. Pale turquoise eyes looked emotionlessly at Lucas. This boy couldn't have been much older than him. "A few months here and you'll see that nothing matters much."

"A few months?! But I didn't do anything!"

"Sorry, this isn't a rehabilitation facility. It doesn't matter what you did or didn't do. There will be no hearings, no trials. Nothing that happens here ever makes it to public ears."

Lucas was stunned. "But why?"

The boy looked his sudden companion up and down, noting the brown skin unlike his own pale one and the choice of jewelry. "I could say it's because you're a heathen, but that doesn't' explain why I'm here. Maybe there isn't a reason. Maybe they just take people at random."

Something was tingling against his chest, growing itchier by the minute. Puzzled, Lucas fished out the pendant his father had given him shortly after his mother and sister had been taken. Ripples like heat waves ran along the surface of the triangular piece of metal.

"What's that?" the other boy asked.

"My father said it's one of the keys to the land beyond the clouds. But it's never done this before."

His companion was quiet.

"He also said it would show its bearer those blessed by the Sky spirits!" His eyes darted from the pendant to the other. "You're one! You have to be!"

"That's ridiculous. I'm not even a heathen, nor do I believe in your spirits." The other boy sighed and pulled a similar pendant from under his own shirt. It was also exhibiting the same behavior. "It's probably some property of the material that it resonates with other pieces of the same."

"Wow..." Lucas breathed out, then seemed to suddenly gather his wits back and held out his hand. "I'm Lucas, nice to meet you. I'm 12, how old are you?"

The other boy stayed sitting where he was, not moving an inch to meet the gesture. "Kress," he finally said. "I'm 14. Do you know how to make this stop? It's getting annoying."

Lucas had to agree on that. His hand holding the pendant was having miniscule muscle spasms, like something was constantly poking into his flesh. Now what had father said...

"I think...they seek to be joined together. Wanna try that?" He held out his own piece.

Kress slowly moved out of the bed and pressed his own against Lucas's. They fit together perfectly. The ripples stopped. For some reason the smooth sides were glued together, not even a seam remaining, but they came loose with a little harder tug. Kress quickly hid the pendant under his shirt again. Then he fell back to his bed without a word.

"How did you get that?" Lucas asked, curious. "You don't look like my people. No offence or anything."

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Maybe your father was from the Skyfall tribe! Your mother wasn't, so that's why you have fair skin. Her parents didn't approve of their love and-"

Kress couldn't help laughing. "No. You've read too many stories. I'm not a heathen, not even a little bit. Neither of my parents is from borderlands." Then he sighed. "Just forget it. We're never getting out of here, so it doesn't matter."

"Why are you here in the first place?" Lucas asked.

"I don't even really know where 'here' is. I don't know why I was taken here or why my parents haven't done anything to get me back all these years. All I know is that they test some really strange medical stuff on me. And in case you don't know, human experiments are highly illegal, so I doubt they're ever planning to let me go." He turned his head slightly to look at Lucas. "What about you?"

"They accused me of kidnapping the princess, but that's not true."

Kress shrugged. "It doesn't need to be. I'm kind of surprised they even bothered with an excuse." He leaned down to reach under his bed and withdrew a book from there. Books and newspapers had been his only companions in this small room for a long time. "Never bothered to tell me why me of all people."

Lucas slumped down to sit on the floor. "All I wanted was to find my mother and sister and to go back home with them. I didn't want to get involved in anything like this."

"Why would you search for them in the capital? Are you half-heathen or something?"

"No. They were taken by the king's soldiers years ago."

"Hmph. If they broke the law, you're looking in the wrong place. There's no rehabilitation facility in Delavia."

"Rehabilitation facility?"

"A fancy name for a prison. There's several in more remote cities."

"How do I find out which one they've been taken to?"

"You don't. It's not public information."

But...how could he find them then? This required some rethinking.

"Just out of curiosity, was your mother involved in all this 'blessed by the spirits' stuff too?" Kress asked.

"She prayed every day and told me about the spirits and sky people. What about it?"

"Soldiers usually turn a blind eye to personal faith, but all old religions are banned by law."

"Well, she did lead the prayers and...stuff."

"That's probably the reason she was taken then."

"Only our tribe knew about that." Lucas twirled his pendant around in his fingers. "Do you think it was because she had one like this? Father said there's only a few of them, and being the keys...well, they would be very important in our beliefs."

Kress tensed completely at the other boy's words, but quickly forced himself to relax. "I doubt it. More likely someone told on her."

"But..."

"Look, I don't know! I'm only guessing."

Lucas remained quiet for maybe half an hour and let Kress read in peace before saying, "You know, we're at the basement of the royal palace. The soldiers who arrested me said so."

"What?!" Kress couldn't believe his ears.

"We're at the basement of the palace," Lucas repeated.

Now Kress dropped his book to the floor and sat up quickly. "Are you actually telling me this all is sanctioned by the king?"

"I have no idea. But that's where we are."

"Urgh..." So that was why his parents had never come for him. What could they have done against the king? What could he do? Nothing.

"Kress, are you alright? You're even paler than before."

"Just...leave me alone."

"You sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure. Just let me think this over."

"Okay..." So Kress didn't want to talk with him anymore. He eyed the other bed. It was starting to look very inviting now that the adrenaline rush over being dragged across the city and tossed here was wearing off.

It wasn't awfully uncomfortable either. Very soft, actually, for someone used to camping outside when needed.

Kress cast one look at the younger boy when he dozed off within minutes of hitting the bed. Lucky kid to be able to sleep in any circumstances.

He slowly reached to touch his own pendant. He could have asked. One simple question and he would have known for sure. But if he was right...if also Lucas was to die here, he could at least die while still holding on to some semblance of hope.