"You have the most beautiful smile," commented Xylin, wiping away a tear.

"And the next thing you're going to tell me is to do it more often, right?" I asked, placing a hand on my hip. Xylin smiled, and I might have stared in awe at the way the sun caught his light brown hair, making it creamed in gold.

"I was," he scanned the area distantly, "we should probably head back inside."

"You always lock me up so early," I complained, wiping away the rest of my tears.

"Oh quit whining, you said it yourself that you're escaping in a few days."

I shifted uncomfortably, refusing to look him in the eye, "tomorrow, actually. We're... leaving... tomorrow."

Xylin jerked his attention to me and froze, "tomorrow?" he whispered weakly. I released a shuddering breath and faced him full on. I hated seeing him so broken.

"Xylin, I-I never should have—I never should have approached you. I'm so sorry, I didn't want you to miss me. I-I didn't want you to fall in love with me, I'm so sorry I—" curse my loose tongue, I was standing there gawking like an idiot while Xylin stared at me like an emotionless statue.

"Raila," he whispered breathlessly. "Raila—" he tried again.

I let out a sob and glanced towards the hidden palace entrance, "we should go back in." I started forcefully walking towards it, quickening my pace as more tears filled my vision, and I roughly wiped them away. A hand suddenly gripped my arm tightly and pulled me back, taking ahold of my shoulders and whirling me around.

I gasped as the world spun, and then a pair of lips were on mine, kissing me desperately as Xylin's hand came up to cup the back of my neck gently. I leaned into the touch, knowing this would be the last time we were ever in our own separate world as I dug my fingers into his hair. He groaned as I opened my eyes and stared at him, watching a single tear slide down his cheek and stop at his chin.

I pulled back slightly to catch my breath and gently wiped away his tear like he had with me. I smiled sadly and pulled back even farther until a foot separated us.

"I'm sorry." We both said at the same time. I suddenly couldn't stand looking at him, my mind was splitting in two. I was supposed to be letting him go, not encouraging him. I sharply turned and ran back towards the palace, feeling Xylin drape a shield over me and making me invisible as I ran back inside and leaned heavily against the nearest wall.

I sank to the floor as servants passed by completely oblivious to my presence and wept with my head in my hands. It wasn't supposed to be like this. Love wasn't supposed to be like this. Not at all.

"What do you know about love, girl?" I snarled to myself.

Footsteps suddenly sounded and stopped right in front of me. I rolled my eyes and looked up, expecting it to be Xylin, but Captain Sandrien blocked my view instead. He couldn't see me, but shadows wrapped furiously around him as if telling him where I was. I gulped and slowly got into a crouched position, staring up worriedly as he placed a hand atop his sword hilt.

He tilted his head as if listening to something and then looked directly at me on the floor, squinting his eyes and then surprisingly let out a dramatic sigh, "Xylin, what are you doing?"

I quietly let out a sigh and rose, "No, don't move," he snarled. I froze, how could he sense me when I was invisible?

And then I understood why a second later. Xylin appeared beside me out of nowhere, also half crouched on the floor, "Hey Quintus." Xylin said casually.

Quintus sighed again and the shadows retreated, "Xylin, you better have a very good reason why you were sitting on the floor, by yourself."

"I needed a place to think alone. Without anyone disturbing me," Xylin shrugged, and quickly nudged me with his foot. I blinked and quietly slinked past the captain, using the footing technique Kalinier had taught me to keep silent during a heist.

"A place? To think alone?"

"Yes. You're not going to tell father are you? You report every single move I make anyways."

Quintus laughed, but it sounded far from amused. I shivered and glanced over a shoulder before silently opening the prison door and disappearing from their sight.

A prison guard passed by whistling, completely oblivious to me as I froze and waited for him to pass before snatching the keys off his belt and locking myself back in my cell. Prison guards were sadly the easiest to get pass. Kalinier had once told me that they were the lowest ranking in the Royal Guards system which also meant they were the easiest to take out. I patiently waited for the next guard to pass before looping the set of keys back on without him noticing as he walked away with a straight back.

I snickered under my breath, "Let's see how straight your back is when the confusion starts."

"What did you do this time?" An impatient voice sounded.

I rolled my eyes. And then I had to deal with this, "I locked myself back in since the guards wouldn't do it for me."

"Mm, you know, usually when people steal a set of keys, it's to get out and escape." Kanin commented without a drip of humour.

I sighed, "How long are you going to be angry with me?"

He pretended to think about it, "I'm not. Really. Sort of." I gestured for him to go faster, "I'm slowly forgiving you. I know you didn't really mean what you said, and, what I said about your father wasn't right. I knew you were hurting, and I just didn't want to admit to myself that I am wasting away in this cell. I didn't want to admit to myself that while the other rebels are out there saving lives, I'm stuck in here with a petty thief."

"Petty?!" I exclaimed. I knew it was hard for him to confess anything, but calling me petty. He was going to pay for that later.

The barest hint of a smile tugged at his lips, "yes. As long as you're in this cell, I'm going to call you petty."

I crossed my arms and harrumphed, "then it's a good thing your rebels friends are coming to save us tomorrow."

"Rebel friends... yeah, they're not exactly friends, more like accidentally-adopted family."

"You're good at this."

"At what? Making up complex names for things I can't describe?"

"Yeah. It reminds me of my father." I don't know why I said that, but Kanin was moved into shock.

"Yeah. And your sass reminds me of a rebel I use to know."

"Really. Tell me about them."

He looked around, "now?"

I lowered myself gracefully to the floor, "yes, there won't be a better time. And I'm bored."

He laughed and sat down as well, "can't argue with that logic. Anyways, I don't remember her name, but she was the best rebel and spy we had. She could infiltrate any base we gave her, and that's saying something because she did better than a rebel with the power to take anyone's form. Eventually, when the leader of the rebels noticed the tide turning and something was up, he sent her to Arien to be our eyes and ears in the capital city."

"What happened to her?" I felt like a little kid again, leaning over when the story got interesting.

"I don't know. She was twenty three when she disappeared, stopped sending encrypted messages all together. We sent team after team to find her, but she never surfaced again. May I remind you though, she disappeared twenty years ago. I was sent with a team once to go and find her, if not, her body, but no trace. Nothing."

"Until three weeks before I was captured. She had sent a very secretive letter to the leader of the rebels, admitting that she had found the supposedly dead arkryllian warrior after all. That had been her mission all along. We don't know what happened after that. Judging on the timing, I'd say she was saying goodbye and leaving the rebellion behind her to start a family of her own if she hadn't already."

Something about the timing didn't sit well with me either, a theory came to my mind, but I refused to believe it, "twenty years ago you said?"

"Yes. Anyways, the story kind of faded into legend."

"It was only twenty years ago Kanin. You're twenty four." I said in an amused voice.

"Yes, I know, but it's kind of cool in a way. She's more like an inspiration to the rebellion now."

"Yeah, inspiration, that's exactly what I need right now." I heard Kanin talking to me again, but that was all background noise. The more I thought about it, the more the theory actually made sense. I was twenty. My mother never talked about her past, and three moons, my father had been an arkryllian who had known how to fight. What were the chances that my mother was the missing rebel spy? Pretty high.

I gulped and stuttered out something that sounded like: "I–sleep, think. Need." I didn't wait for Kanin's reaction before dragging myself to my corner of the cell and closed my eyes hurriedly, pretending to fall asleep, but the possibilities kept swarming my head like wasps.

"You are one strange woman." Was the last thing I heard before I surrendered to the darkness.