I woke up the next morning and stared at the ceiling above me, thinking about what happened yesterday. Less than a minute passed before I was pacing in my room. Sylas peaked his head in.  He must not of got much sleep either.

“I thought I heard you get up.” He said.

“Where's Alex?” I asked as I stopped pacing.

“Still sleeping.”

“Has Ken always been like that?”

“I've been told that he was different before all this, then I came along and apparently made it worse because I am stronger then him without a doubt. Now some people are saying he's only so harsh on me because he thinks I will take his leadership. It's a load of crap if you ask me. I think he just hates that someone came along that everybody just says is stronger without a question.”

“So basically he hates you because you're stronger then him?”

“Yeah. Well it might be because I'm stronger then him, but refuse to fight, or maybe he thinks I'm not strong enough for us to win this war.”

“If that's the case, then if he were to find out that I'm a Riaka as well then he will definitely resort to war.  I don’t mean to discredit you or anything, but you alone wouldn’t be able to win this war.”

“You’re right, and we will be forced to fight in a war if he does find out.”

“Or be killed.”

“Exactly.”

“Luckily your mark is on your left arm.  He probably won’t look for it there.”

“Yeah.”

This made it hard to place Ken as a friend, or a foe. Forcing someone into a war doesn't exactly give off friendly vibes, neither did fighting them for answers, but he did let us stay here, and when we first got here he seemed pretty nice. I looked at Sylas who was now on the other side of the room because I paced again.

“You would be taller than dad now.” I said randomly because I just noticed how tall he was.

“What?” He asked. I did kinda half mumble.

“You would be taller than dad.” I said again.

“Yeah. I was catching up to him quickly before I left.” Sylas said.

“Yeah.” I said remembering the last time I saw Sylas before he found me out here. He was telling dad how one day he would beat dad, joking around. Times where good then. We were a close family then. Able to joke around with each other and laugh about it. I sighed. “Everything changed after you left. We laughed less. Most of the time I was shut up in my room, I didn’t even know what Tony was doing. He had no siblings to play with anymore because I was so distant.”

“I'm sorry.” He said and I could tell he really was.

“Don't be. You had to leave.” I said. “Maybe if things happened differently we could have tried to fix that bond. He would have been really happy to see you again.”

“Yeah I bet.” He said. Suddenly his face lit up a little as if he had an idea. “Where is Tony now?”

“In a cave in the forest in between the wall and the town.” I answered. “Why?”

“I heard something about a Riaka being able to heal a person on the brink of death. Maybe two can bring them back to life.” He explained.

“Well supposing he isn't decayed.” I said.

“For some reason Potentia and Riaka have a very slow decay rate.”  He replied.

“So we have faster responses and stuff, but our rate of decay is slower.” I commented.  “Isn’t that ironic?”

“Yeah, now that you mention it.” He replied.  “Tony probably hasn’t even started to decay yet.”

“Then what are we waiting for?”  I asked, starting for the door.

Alex walked in.

“Has anybody told you guys that you wake up way too early?” Alex asked rubbing his eye.

“Yes.” I said.  We all walked back into the main room.

“Alex we have to leave you here for a couple days.” Sylas said. “Can we trust you not to cause any trouble?”

“Yeah.” He answered. “Wait why are you leaving me?”

“We have something we have to take care of and we can get there faster if we go by ourselves.” Sylas explained.  Alex frowned.

“I can keep up with you guys.” Alex protested.

“Normally I couldn't argue with that, but we are set on this and it needs to been done soon which will make us leave you in the dust. Trust me.” Sylas said. “Besides, it's safe here as long as you try to stay away from Ken. He's the only one who acts out like that. Plus we need somebody to keep an eye on him. He wouldn't think you would be doing that. After all why would you?”

“Ok.” Alex said seeming happy that at least we gave him something to do while we were gone. “You guys should get going then.”

“Thanks for understanding Alex.” I said as Sylas opened the door and started walking out.

“No problem.” He said before I closed the door and Sylas and I started speed walking out through the building.

Half an hour later we were running full speed, the city far behind us.

“If this does work, won't that kind of give away the fact that I'm a Riaka as well?” I asked.

“Yeah I didn't really think about that.” Sylas said.

“Well if it does work we get our brother back, so I guess the risk is worth it.” I said.

“Yeah. We both kinda need to make it up to him. All those years we weren’t there for him.” Sylas said.

“Only thing I'm really worried about is if this leads to war.” I said.  “Be forced to bring people back to life and stuff.”

“Yeah.  I don’t think Ken will go that far.”

“If he leads us to a war that we can’t win because too many have died he might.”

“Yeah I guess he might try to do something like that if things get that bad.”

“Then let’s make sure it doesn’t get that far.”

“Do you honestly think we can stop something like that?”

“No, but we can try.”

“You can be very optimistic sometimes.”

“I’ve been told that before.”

Sometime later it was getting dark, but we ran on without breaking a sweat.

“You think you can run through the night?” Sylas asked.

“Yeah.” I replied. “Can you?”

“Yeah. If we keep this pace then we should be able to get through the town before sunrise.” Sylas said.

“Have we seriously made it that far?” I asked.

“Yeah.” Sylas replied.

We decided not to talk anymore so we could use our energy on running, and sure enough before sunrise we were out of the other side of the town and into the forest. I took the lead and assumed Sylas would be right behind me.

“Jordan slow down.” His voice broke through my concentration. I quickly stopped to see him lagging behind.

“You ok?” I asked.

“Yeah. That just took more energy than I thought.” He said through pants.  It’s been a long time since I’ve seen him like this.  He hardly ever got this out a breath.

“We can walk from here. Maybe take a quick brake.” I said. Sylas took this as an opportunity to fall to his knees before leaning to the nearest tree, which was to his left, before unfolding his legs and rolling over. I walked over to him and slid down a tree to his right.

“I never thought I would tire out before you. I've been running longer then you.” Sylas said still breathing hard.

“Same here.” I said.

“You just might be stronger than me.” He said.

“How can I be?” I ask. “I thought Riaka where all had the same strength.”

“Well there's never really been a time where that theory could be tested, except for now, and I'm telling you that you are probably stronger than me.” He explained his breathing leveling out.

“How? You've been A Riaka longer than me.”

“True, but you got your abilities before me age wise.”

“I might be able to run longer, but that doesn't mean I'm stronger then you over all.”

“Your reaction time is faster than mine. What you did with Ken, I wouldn't be able to react and do that as fast. Almost as soon as I was on him you had a plan, or you were acting on impulse, but that whole go behind his back and twist his arm to force him to lose his grip, I never would of thought of that. I would have tried to fling him across the room and hope he let go in the process.”

“Still doesn't mean I'm stronger then you.  You tend to be more aggressive than me.”

“I still think you’re better than me.”

“And I still think you’re wrong.”

I stood up. Sylas stood soon after and we started walking towards the cave where Tony was.