SORA

Timber is an elevated area in the mountains filled with trees that surround the mountain paths and cliffs. Kit and Clea lead the expedition through the mountain path while Shae, Sekai, and Gambit guard the front and middle while Merrick, Isabella, and I guard the back.

According to Kit and Clea, we should be reaching one of the outside walls of Aurora in about three more miles.

"Once we reach the outside walls, we'll begin our plan to sneak in by using one of the runestones," Kit says.

"Right," Isabella nods.

"Am I the only one who thinks this seems too easy?" Shae frowns.

"No," Gambit sighs. "Nothing's ever easy when it comes to bearing the weight of the world, but we do it anyway."

"You don't think Aria would already be here, do you?" Merrick asks as we walk side by side. "I mean, would Aurora give them a free pass to enter if it meant keeping us from reaching their strategist?"

"I don't know," Isabella frowns. "If Aurora is as wise as they appear to be, I somehow doubt us sneaking in will end easily."

"I fear that you're right," I sigh.

"Whatever the case may be, at least we're together," Merrick smiles softly, glancing between Isabella and me. "We can face anything if we have each other."

"Yeah," Isabella smiles sadly, her smile falling after a few moments and a frown forming on my face when I realize she's probably thinking about her mom.

"Hey," I say softly and place a hand on her shoulder. "That wasn't your fault, you know. Your mom would've wanted you to be safe. If you had been there, you might've been hurt too. I promise that we'll find her justice."

"I know," Isabella says softly. "But sometimes I wonder if it's all worth it. I mean, are we all just pawns sacrificed in Carmin's game? He says he wants for there to be peace, but all he's doing to get that peace is kill innocent people. How is that peaceful? I understand that sometimes you have to fight for peace, but why fight those who are innocent, who want to make things better? Why not work with them instead? Slaughtering people simply isn't right. Why is it such a crime to be able to understand both sides of the story? I simply don't understand. I don't think I ever will."

"I won't either," I frown.

"I think, the way Carmin sees it, he has to fight for the peace," Merrick starts. "And like you said that's how it has to be sometimes, but there's no reason for him to be killing civilians, to be killing his allies to get a step ahead, to have such a one-track mind that he refuses to listen to anyone else. That path he's heading down, the path where he's the only one that's right, it's going to destroy him and everything around him in the end."

"Yeah..." Isabella trails off, her eyes sad as she looks at the ground ahead of us while we walk.

"Hey," Merrick says softly, gaining Isabella's attention. "Don't worry. It'll all work out somehow."

"Let's hope so," Isabella smiles sadly back.

It takes us a short while until we reach the outside barrier to the city, which appears as a barely visible clear dome that surrounds the tan castle walls. Knowing what to do, I make my way through our group as they step aside to make room for me. I slowly pull out the runestone Niktia gave me from my pocket and hold it up to the barrier, watching in awe as the barrier momentarily flickers where the runestone is presses, creating an opening a few feet wide for us to fit through.

"Come on, let's go," Kit says and runs through the opening, followed by the others.

Once everyone is through, I remove the runestone as I roll through the opening, barely making it through just before the barrier closes once again.

"Everyone, stay still for a moment please," Isabella asks as she opens her spell book and white light begins to glow and swirl around her hands.

Within a few moments, a small white flash goes off and I look at my hands to see that I'm shimmering with white sparkles, almost as if someone spilled an entire bucket of glitter on me. I look around to see everyone else doing the same and Isabella smiles as she closes her book and plots it against her hip.

"Now, to the townspeople, we'll be invisible," Isabella says. "It won't last forever, though, so we should get moving."

"Clea, lead the way," Gambit offers and Clea nods, using her abilities to lead us to the next runestone.

We walk around the outside walls until we reach the open gateway that's behind the barrier and we walk through easily, almost as if we were citizens of the castle itself.

"Wow," Isabella gasps as she looks around, her eyes wide in awe at the town. "It's beautiful."

"Yeah," Sekai breathes out in agreement. "It is."

Just after walking through the gateway, it's clear to see the giant fountain in the center of the square, brick roads made of cobblestone making up the square itself and the roads. Brick houses and shops line the streets and the area itself seems full of life. In the square, there's a man handing out flyers for a musical performance, a grin on his face, and his grin only widens when a young woman stops to take his flyer. He tips his hat to her after she takes the flyer and she smiles before she walks off, mirroring the smile of the man.

We pass through the square and make our way down one of the streets, and we even pass by what seems to be a shopping mall, music floating out into the street from the building with glass double-doors. The streets themselves are lively, full of children running around and playing and people riding bicycles, ringing their bells as they ride along.

"Everyone seems happy here," Isabella comments as she looks around. "It's...a nice change."

"Aurora is one of the richest places in the world," Gambit says, "but they don't show it through extravagant statues or grandiose golden streets and walls. They spread their wealth to the people. The rulers of the kingdom are just as rich as its citizens are. In fact, most of the citizens have more money than those who live in the castle. That being said, the people in the castle certainly aren't poor either. Aurora is one of the most peaceful, most secure, happiest places to live. It's why so many people try to move their families here, especially refugees, and Aurora opens their doors to them."

"Aurora is also known for their hot air balloon rides," Sekai adds. "Aurora's night skies in the winter are some of the most beautiful skies ever seen. They're full of northern lights, and they set up hot air balloon rides for anyone who wants a view of the kingdom or a closer look at the sky."

"No wonder they're wary about Arias coming here," Clea breathes out.

We follow Clea until we come to the end of a road that has a cement pathway at the end of the road and a pair of open golden gates. Through the gates, multiple people are milling around in yet another square, and in the distance there's a set of stone stairs that leads up to a set of giant glass doors, which must be the main entrance to the castle.

As we walk through the street, I watch as a girl with a white hood over her head that connects to her cape, her long and wavy blue hair visible from underneath the hood as she keeps her head down, accidentally bumps into Clea's shoulder.

"Oh, sorry," Clea apologizes.

"It was my bad, really," the woman says apologetically before she continues on.

As she walks by me, the world seems to move a little slower as she glances up and meets my eyes, her blue ones almost calculating.

"Ambush!" I shout, the word barely registering in time just as the woman's hood flies down as she pulls a chakram out from underneath her cape and her white and light blue flowing dress, her white combat boots kicking up dust as she slides around and swings her arm at me as she moves in an arc.

I counter the woman's strike, sliding backwards and nearly toppling over Merrick in the process. Merrick goes to help me as a spear flies through the air and lands in the ground right before Merrick's feet, stopping him from running further. Merrick looks up only to be met with a white and black shield flying towards his face, a beautiful blonde haired, green eyed woman with her hair pulled up in a ponytail flying towards him through the air, having jumped off of a nearby building.

Merrick faces off against the woman with the spear while I fight the against the woman with the chakram, and I raise a brow whenever I realize that she's using a Swiss knife in her left hand despite using a chakram in the right. My opponent swings her right arm in an arc as she spin, which I deflect with my longsword, before she lunges forwards once she's finished with her spin and throws her weapons up in the air, switching them in lighting speed so that her knife is the weapon driving towards me instead.

As I fight the blue haired woman, I see out of the corner of my eye the blonde flip before she lands to grab her spear out of the ground and immediately lunge towards Merrick, who catches her spear between his chakrams.

Gambit, Isabella, and Sekai go to help us while Kit, Shae, and Clea focus on guiding the civilians to safety and out of the area.

Gambit gets stopped by a man with dark brown hair and icy blue eyes in a grey fedora with a salmon stripe around the brim and a grey overcoat over his blue shirt and salmon tie with the sleeves to his coat rolled up to his elbows, white gloves on his hands and a dark brown staff in his left hand. The man winks and waves a finger at her before the two begin to fight, the man disappearing and reappearing in flashes of blue smoke.

I manage to send my opponent flying in Sekai's direction by summoning a circle of flames that makes her leap backwards to avoid them.

"Sekai!" I shout as a warning, watching as the woman turns her focus to Sekai and he raises his shield just in time, turning his attention from helping Gambit to fighting the blue haired woman instead.

I glance around to see where Isabella went when I notice she's fending off against a woman with long straight white hair who is shooting arrows from one of the rooftops, a katana strapped to her side showing that she's not afraid to go with close combat either. As I finish the sweep of my surroundings, I sense a familiar presence and my breath hitches when my eyes land on Aikaterina, who is standing in the middle of the street further down the road, her emerald eyes sorrowful.

"I'm sorry," I manage to read the soft movement of her lips before she races towards me in a swarm of teal and black energy, her arm drawn back with Raciel's greatsword forming in her hand as she speeds closer.

And all I can think when our weapons clash and I see her sorrowful emerald eyes up close is that I'm sorry too.