Their trek into the forest stayed silent as Kazeel eyed Falaina. She had remained silent, making it obvious that her hatred for humans were from her past when the incident occured. Soon the group came to a lowland clearing, enshouded by the tress and blanketed by the stars above them. Cyrus stopped and turned to everyone else. "We'll stop here for tonight. Kazeel and Zalora, I'll need you two collecting firewood, Falaina and Katanya, you;ll be helping me set up camp. Once we have established that, I'l take first watch."

Kazeel and Zalora nodded taking off into the brush away from the camp.

Katanya nodded and joined him as he pulled out a few small pouches that Katanya took setting them around certain parts of the area of the clearing. Falaina stared at her, keeping her distance as she walked over. Katanya simply carried on with her duites, ignoring the obvious distance that Falaina decided to uphold.

"You're seriously too cautious girl," Cyrus said as he brought up one side of a tent. "If Katanya meant you any harm, simply put, she would've just lopped off your head earlier today. Surely you should recognize that now."

"What makes you think she won't still?" Falaina retorted.

"What makes you think she will?" Cyrus responded back.

Falaina remained silent, then sighed. "You speak of humans as if they're all good. I've seen the responses of your kind. Imperialist at heart."

"That is your own mistrust due to something that you might've have experienced," Katanya replied, settling up one side of the tent that was adjacent to Cyrus. "What makes you so critical is simply your own perception. That is why you lost to me earlier. Anger is good when it is needed. Uncontrolled? That means you wll never master Magick."

"Who are you to tell me how to use magic?" Falaina spat back. "You humans think you are something. You lack so much, yet just go ahead and take from others."

"I utilize magick as any other person who understands the fundamentals," Katanya replied, going to the other side of the side she propped up. "Perhaps you are ignorant due to your pride of being elven. All you have over other races is the easier task of utilizing magic in a faster form."

Falaina then screamed, conjuring flames, sending them forth at Katanya, who had sighed. placing her hands forward. "Porak ith shul."

Out from her hands came a gush of water, dousing the flames that surged at her, causing Cyrus to glance at the both of them, standing adfrit from their position. He sighed and walked over, placing a hand on Katanya, making her nod. He then unsheathed his sword and showed it to Falaina.

"Do you know what this is Falaina?"

Falaina glared at him her chest heaving from her exertion of using magic, coupled with her anger that was laying deep inside her. "Why should I care?"

"This is the blade that is a relic passed down from Lord Cragier, Dark Warriormage of the Southern Isles. Sound familiar?"

"That name has been mentioned in Elder Elven Clan circles. Why? Did you kill him?"

"Hardly," Cyrus said, tossing it to her. Her reaction, surprised at the sudden toss caused  her to jump back as it fell near her feet."It was passed down from my father."

Falaina glanced down at the sword on the ground. It emitted a dark dank feeling that even she could senses, making her look at him. "What's your point?"

"Lord Cragier , if you didn't know was a master of the Dark Arts taught by the Higher Magi in Korseck ," Cyrus replied stepping forward coming to a complete stop to at the sword. "My father was a brazen man in his youth. He was a warriormage as well. Power hungry. You see, Cragier wasn't elven. He was human. Most people assumed he'd was. They ever saw him as he always was shrouded in dark elven armor. He mastered the arts many times over, that he even rivaled the Elder Elven Clans."

"So even if this true how did your father acquire this blade. It reeks of pain and sorrow."

Cyrus chuckled. "You have empathy after all, for it requires one to feel energy in a different way that many mages lose in their initiation into magic. Impressive."

"So what is the point? How did he get it?"

"Cragier passed it onto a male student that learned the arts from him. His student by the name of Dragmir Blade. He had passed it onto that man who later had found light in a world of darkness he was shrouded in, a light he begun surrounding himself with. An elven woman of incomparable beauty. She fell in love with my father who had followed evil as any other dark warriormage has. It was forbidden love as these two species were never to mix. Yet they did. And before you is the very product."

"You are still a half-breed." Falaina hissed.

"Yes," Cyrus replied, picking up the blade, wind gracefully blowing his hair as it flew behind him, majestically in a warm flowing manner. " My common name is Cyrus Alteri Sundarli Blade , son of Dragmir Korvis Blade and Ritanali Quinmälr of the Doramim Elves."

Falaina stared at him, then laughed doubling down to the ground. "You almost had me there Cyrus Blade,"

"That wasn't a lie, Katanaya replied. "Dragmir was a gifted warriormage that had fought against Cragier, his own teacher. The blade that you see there is only acquired by killing the previous owner in battle. In other words Dragmir had to kill his own teacher in battle."

"If that be true, how was it passed down to you?" Falaina asked, frowning at him.

"Passing down in my family meant death by the sword." Cyrus replied. "I'll let you guess the rest. You see, this blade is something that like you has a past of darkness."

He then went back to the tents setting them up while staying silent. Katanaya then nodded and the went back to pitching the tents with Cyrus, with Falaina to then walk over and help. Her silence for the moment was necessary as she processed what Cyrus had spoke of. Darkness.

"What other darkness do you keep Cyrus Blade?" Falaina muttered lowly.

"Darkness that you should never know," He replied drawing her attention to him, as he had glanced in her direction. "We all keep our secrets, and I'm not here to judge. So too that we must learn to overcome them in some time in a different age or current state of affairs."

"On that we agree," Falaina replied. "For the record I may have been rude earlier with my words to you about being a half breed elf."

"Facts don't hurt me at all," Cyrus said, getting up as he had finished his side, coming over to Falaina's side, settlng beside her as he placed his hand on a large nail, it rusted color as the darkened earth benath the brush grass. It slid in to the soil with ease as no extreme effort was required to put it into its descent. "Besides, truth only hurts those who cannot accept it in its totatlity. Not to say that one should go out of their way to speak one's mind, but rather read the area of their surrondings and decide on that. I believe you understand that now."

Falaina shifted onto her right sole as she kept silent from his words. She reminded him of her father. It was remarkable that such difference existed yet of the half elven next to her and of such similar understanding as her own father. "I appreciate your words Cyrus Blade. I hope I may learn more in the long term of my lifespan."

Cyrus chuckled, while Katanya glanced at both of them, sighing as she rose up and then sat by the fire pit. It was finally dark, and she kept her eyes onto the stars above. Midalan Moon was going into eclipse. That didn't bode well for them. They better keep an eye out as the days went forward. She notied out the corner of her eye that Kazeel and Zalora had returned with firewood dumping it to the side of the cratered pit that she sat next to.

"Good to see you guys came back, Enjoy your searching?"

"Seems like you rather enjoyed yourself," Kazeel sighed. "Perhaps you should go next time since you seem so cheereful."

Katanya smiled. "Nay Kazeel. That would not be honorable of me. If I were to rob you of your resposibility, then that is dishonoring your contribution."

"How does it work as knight anyway?" Falaina asked as she and Cyrus had finished the other tents, placing herself aside Kazeel, who had leaned against her.

"There are simple steps in reaching the knight status, as each comes with a price," Katanya replied. "One gives up on family and home to serve the Order and uproot all evil. Of these steps they require one to lose themselves and build anew a different persona. It's grueling and very difficult. On must go through trials and these require constant will to survive."

"How did you survive?" Falaina asked.

Before Katanya could reply Cyrus had set down beside her, placing the firewood in the midst of the crater muttering a few words that seemed like the older tongue he spoke of. Soon the wood began to smoke and fire began to produce from its wooded exterior, leaving the others to sit around it, while he placed himself on a rock that lay away from them, his sword on his lap as he looked out to the unending darkness.

"I was saved by this half elven man," Katanya replied. " I was near my end, my body was to the verge of death as the last trial consisted of being able to be one with the dual natures of the universal energy. I was alone in a tower and he happened to come out of nowhere. He saw me and smiled."

"Smiled?" Zalora asked. "This is something I must know. He never smiles, he smirks alot especially when he's in a sour mood."

"True," Katanya laughed. "But he does have a kindness beneath his sarcastic cold attitude. He gave me counsel and wisdoom, telling me that my soul would never break as long as I had the innermost desire to learn."

"You had begun to lose hope in your progres," Cyrus replied glancing at them momentarily.  "It made no sense to just give up when you had come so far."

Kazeel glanced at Cyrus then directed his sight to Falaina who had had begun to fiddle with a doll he recognized from their village. One of the elven girls, Drista had made it for her as a gift when Falaina had first come to their village. She wasn't from their forgotten, destroyed village like him but the elven people welcomed her with open arms due to the fact she was an oprhan. She was given to a family of elven elders that taught her basics of magic, while Zalora taught her the most difficult and most desructive ones in self defense.

"That doll. Drista gave it to you long ago." He said, drawing her to glance to him. Smiling bitterly, she nodded.

"Seeing what Cyrus said made me think of what it means to not give up the will to live," She said. "Despite earlier when I at multiple times snapped at him without a care in the world, I failed to see what was the importance of the lesson."

"Wisdom is carved into ones heart and mind," Cyrus said, once more glancing out into the darkness. "If one surely wants to become better, stronger, one must ensure they dont make the same mistakes. Wisdom is the surefire way to enable true change. Recoginition of one's faults are a symptom of such wisdom. "

"You've surely changed since then Cyrus," Zalora replied. plopping down next to Katanya. "But what have you seen in your meditations that has made you change?"

"I was a bit vague in what I saw when I explained it earlier," Cyrus said, his eyes glazed over as he stared even deeper into the abyss. "What is the object of our power known as magic? I always wanted to know. I learned that the object of our power is us in the totality, but we use a marginal amount thus increasing our limitation. This way of understanding also helps with recognizing the way to use ones power in the manner that benefits oneself and others. So my way of thinking is universal and objective, while I may judge in some areas subjectively."

Zalora nodded to him, rising up and headed to her tent. "You two, Kazeel and Falaina. It's best you get to sleep. While we are traveling, I am your guardian. Your parents gave me that resposbility."

They both nodded to the keeper and joined her in the tent. Katanya glanced at Cyrus. "When you are finished takng your watch, wake me up so I can take over."

Cyrus nodded to her as she also went into the adjacent tent, while he sighed glancing at the moon. It was already one day in and the enemy was already too close to succeeding if he hadn't got there sooner.

"Pyramus, you bastard. I will find you and finish what I started." He muttered.