2407 Rab 3, Reshpe

"Do we really need to share?" Canelis clicked her tongue and crossed her arms, staring the dagrine up and down. Its honey-gold coat was a poor consolation for her current situation.

They were currently in what the renegades treat as the stable. It was still well under the ground, surrounded by rough stone walls and darkness but judging from how the corridor sloped earlier, they were in a higher level. How the renegades kept track of these tunnels was a mystery Canelis didn't have the energy to think or care about.

The stable was just another dingy cave, filled with low quality straw, stale water, and the putrid smell of manure. Someone could light a fire in this place and the air would combust. Still, having spent all her time scrubbing stables back in Yin-Alora, she could take the sight and the smell in stride.

Beside her, Cailen raised his yellow scarf to his nose, tightening its coil around his neck. Canelis rolled her eyes. Amateur.

Inside, past the rotting planks of wood nailed together to form some sort of partition to give the animals their own cubicles, only two dagrinis were present. Each had their heads stuck into a bucket of grains, barely sensing Canelis and Cailen's movements. Canelis moved to the one to her left while Cailen moved to the other.

She was about to grab the saddle hanging on a nail by the dagrine's stable when Cailen cleared his throat. "What are you doing?" he said.

Canelis paused, her fingers mere inches from the saddle. She turned to the boy with a frown. "I'm saddling the dagrine," she snapped. "Isn't that obvious?"

"Yeah, we're not doing that..." Cailen circled a finger in the air, no doubt referring to her face. "Sarcasm thing."

Finally, he shook his head. "That's Tarmis's steed," he jerked his chin to the dagrine he's saddling. The buckles clinked and clanked against the peeling leather as he moved his fingers in a familiar and quite expert manner. "He wouldn't let any of us touch it without his explicit permission. We couldn't even lead it out of his sight for five seconds. You can't ride it out of here."

Canelis strode out of the dagrine's stable, kicking a few isolated strands of dried straw. "Fine. I'll ask him," she said. "There's no way we're taking only one dagrine out of here. I refuse."

The boy clicked his tongue. Now that Canelis was thinking about it, he might very well not be a boy anymore. She turned and studied the frown etched in his face. Well, he certainly looked like a child now. "It will take longer that way," he matched her stance, crossing his arms over his chest as well. "Tarmis is off in his duties this morning. You won't be able to catch him."

Canelis narrowed her eyes. "So it's morning?" she said. "How long have I been here?"

"Nice try. I'm not revealing anything more than that," Cailen turned back to the dagrine and continued his work. The straps snapped into place and the animal barely stopped eating its grains. "We'll lead Ludio out of the ruins. We'll only start riding until we're well into the middle of Xai-Ren, after we emerge from the tunnels."

"Do we really have to share?" Canelis asked.

Cailen pushed his hair off his forehead. It didn't take long for Canelis to note it must have been a habit. "If you want to fly and walk all the way to Xai-Ren, be my guest," he said. "I wouldn't want to share anything with you as well."

Canelis balled her fists. This little witch—

"We don't have much time," Cailen pushed past her, yanking at the dagrine's bridle. The animal gave a soft whine before nuzzling his arm. "Yeah, I know, buddy. She's not going to make it easier for us," he said in a soft tone.

"I can hear you," Canelis snapped. "Are you going to ignore me?"

Cailen's head peeked over the dagrine's flank. "Well, you seem content in minding your own business," he said. ""Suit yourself. I don't want to do this with you either but I will. The faster the better. Who did I even hear that from, hmm?"

Filthy defector. Canelis had no choice but to march after the boy as he dragged the dagrine through a series of turns. It's like a maze, this whole underground cavern. It's amazing how people here were able to memorize certain paths.

Canelis craned her neck at what's supposed to be the ceiling. It hovered over their heads in a higher level than what she had gotten used to in her cell. She drew closer to the walls and ran her fingers on its surface as she walked. Their footsteps echoed in the darkness beyond and behind them.

A rough surface greeted her skin. At random times, she was able to feel an etch but it would disappear as quickly because of the rate they were going. Cailen wasn't the type to look back and check if she was still following.

She blew a breath, feeling her humid breath tickle her nose. Just what was this place? Cailen did mention something about ruins earlier. "Hey," she called. The figure walking briskly a few steps away from her didn't flinch or turn to regard her. "What do you mean when you said 'ruins' earlier?"

"That's exactly what it is," Cailen said. His voice was neither scathing or annoyed. "We're inside the ruins of an ancient city."

Canelis swallowed against the lump growing in her throat, suddenly feeling conscious of her surroundings. "What city?" she asked, wrapping her arms around herself. She might be standing on sacred ground and she wouldn't even know it. "I've never read about this in the scholarly tomes."

"That's because it was gone before fairies thought to record any history," Cailen replied. He reached out and ran a hand over the dagrine's flank. "Our knowledge of history started after the Hundred Years' War. This city thrived and fell before that."

"How did you know?" Canelis said. Hearing her own voice echo and reflect back to her was such a strange experience. "How can you be so sure it wasn't a city after the Hundred Years' War?"

"Because none of us could understand any of the writings we discovered in this complex. They are not in any of the kosetis we have in this island. We even compared it to the ancient Keijula known to have existed during and after the Hundred Years' War and haven't had much luck," Cailen said almost like he couldn't wait for this conversation to be over. Well, she's the same. If there was anyone else she could ask about it, she would. "The best we can conclude was that this city existed way before the War broke out and the documents we found might have been written in a long-extinct language called Maijenla."

Canelis raised an eyebrow. She didn't expect for Umazure to hold so many secrets.What in Umagi's name was Maijenla? How did they even know what that thing was called?

"I've been here longer than you. I know some stuff," Cailen said, disrupting Canelis's thoughts. She stared at the back of his head and, coincidentally, at his yellow scarf. In the darkness, it looked more amber or brown. "Does it bother you that we've taken refuge in a fallen city?"

For the first time, Canelis felt genuine emotion in her gut, prompting her to shake her head. "No," she admitted. "In fact, it makes me curious about the knowledge you guys have been able to excavate here. If you could share it with the rest of the island, we could learn more about our history as an island and as a race."

Cailen snorted. "Our own people couldn't even accept us," he said. "What makes you think the whole island will?"

Canelis didn't answer. She couldn't, anyway. Silence permeated in the space between her and Cailen as they walked further. Hours passed and soon, he led her to a sloping incline where a square light shone in the distance. Was that...?

The square turned bigger and brighter until at some point, Canelis was shielding her eyes with her hand to avoid going temporarily blind while her vision adjusted to the sudden brightness. Cailen's frame was swallowed by the brightness so much that he almost vanished into it. Canelis had to jog to catch up.

They emerged in between two cubical pillars holding up a huge, triangular roof. Canelis's eyes widened when she regarded the mess of bricks and quarry behind them. It's like someone had taken a proverbial rod, smacked a building in the middle, and bent it there like it was made of slush. Then, the earth must have swallowed the rocks resulting the building to be half-sunken with only what looked like a gate and lobby visible above the ground.

Canelis shut her jaw which she hadn't even noticed to be hanging slightly open. Cailen walked past the mass of crumbling pillars, stone buildings with caving roofs, and algae-infested bunch of rocks that could have been anything like they were everday site. Was this...was this still Ok-Sa?

True enough, looking at the ruins they walked through, it made sense for one to think this was once a city. A sunken city but a city, nonetheless. She looked behind her. The sea was just a mere line against the landscape of dark earth. Now that she thought about it, yeah, the earth was as black as her hair. Was this the effect of the plague? How come the renegades weren't touched by it while being under the ground?

Cailen told her they'd resurface in Xai-Ren. What were they still doing here? "Hey, I thought we'll resurface in Xai-Ren?" she asked her companion who had begun to climb aboard his dagrine.

"Change of plans," the boy said, flicking the reins to encourage the animal to a fast-paced trot. Canelis had to jog just to catch up. There's no way she's getting on that thing with the witch still on it. "The plague has touched our only way out into Xai-Ren so now we're going to have to tackle the last bit of Ok-Sa on the surface before be could avoid the outposts by going underground once again."

Canelis rubbed the back of her neck which was beginning to become sticky with sweat. "How long would it take?"

Cailen tapped a finger against his chin. He seemed oblivious about the fact that she was already beginning to huff as she ran alongside his steed. "A little bit over two days? We'd need to camp on the road."

That's just great. She needed to sleep on the journey. Would she risk showing her vulnerability to a stranger she met weeks ago? He's a renegade too, if she was starting to forget. It wasn't a far-off possibility for him to pull a blade out on her while she was knocked out.

They didn't trade any more words during the time it took for them to enter another dark tunnel in between sunken pillars. It's a miracle these rocks hasn't still caved. Canelis didn't know what she would do if they were trapped in the darkness in case one of the corridors became blocked. She didn't trust Cailen to know his way around each and every turn.

Nothing notable happened when they emerged into the light again. This time, the familiar busy streets of Xai-Ren greeted Canelis. She looked behind her, past the stream of merchant carts and ordinary pixie civilians. The tunnel they emerged into blended with the sewage system implemented in the city. How many renegades have let themselves into this city and how many the Army wasn't able to catch?

She'd never been played for a fool but this realization came close to it. All this time and none of them had thought of the possibility the renegades had been rooming in Ok-Sa all along? Rudik's breeches, they hadn't even discovered the sunken city. How could they entertain the possibility of the renegades using its winding roads and mysterious allure to their advantage?

The cobbled roads and lines of brick houses changed into silhouettes of trees and one of the mountain peaks looming beyond them as the sun started climbing down in its cycle. Sooner or later, the moons would take its place and declare another day to be over.