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The royal children led their visitors throughout the luminous city. All the major spots were covered. Derrin and Kayla were first led to the Grand Library, an incredible structure built into a large cluster of coral followed by several museums. At noon, they dined at the Dolphin, the finest restaurant in the city. Derrin found the food amazing but felt that the assortment of hard elbows to the arm and heels to the foot from Kayla for “staring” detracted from the experience.

Their first stop in the afternoon was the marketplace. The stalls were full of goods, trinkets and jewelry they had never seen before. As Derrin was wandering through the shops aimlessly, he found himself at an entirely ordinary jewelry shop. His eyes made their way through the various accessories and eventually stopped at a particular necklace. At the bottom of its silver chain were three gem stones that seemed similar to aquamarines or sapphires in color. The smaller two were equidistant from the middle, larger gem stone with an inch between each gem stone. There was no particular reason it stood out to him. It was quite similar to many of the other necklaces in the shop and marketplace but something about it stuck out to him. Before he had a chance to think any more about it, and explosion rocked the market place.

Derrin’s thoughts immediately went to Kayla. He searched desperately for her in the confusion as the clash of steel filled the air. Quickly, he found that the market was much too crowded for him to locate her. Without a second thought, he materialized his shadow and used it as a springboard to soar into the air. At dozens of feet above the market, he searched for the familiar face. Finally, he found her. His heart skipped a beat as he saw two swordsmen standing before her with their weapons to her neck. Suddenly, shouts echoed from below and arrows ascended towards him. A scowl formed on his face as his shadow formed a diagonal platform behind him. He contracted his legs and then shot downwards between the arrows and towards Kayla. He landed in a roll before grabbing two stars and sending two razor sharp arms of shadow rocketing towards Kayla’s assailants. The pair stopped inches from the men’s faces and hung menacingly in front of them. Despite the fear shining in their eyes, the men refused to relinquish their hostage.

As Derrin’s mind raced in search of a solution to the problem, a clap came from the center of the now deserted market. The clap was followed by several more and then a laugh. “Quite impressive, Derrin, quite. No need to worry; nothing will happen to Kayla.”

In shock, Derrin spun around to face the familiar voice. There stood Orlando and Shalia, surrounded by half a dozen armed guards. “I knew you were weird, Pretty Boy, but what could you possibly hope to gain from this!?” Derrin demanded. He looked desperately towards Shalia but she quickly diverted her gaze from him to a patch of dirt next to her in shame.

“Careful Derrin,” Orlando warned in a mock tone, “if you don’t keep your emotions in check you might lose control of your shadow and kill those two men or, even worse, Kayla.”

Derrin’s shadow quivered as he let loose a shout of anger and began to throw the pair of stars he had in his hand at Orlando. “Stop!” shouted Shalia desperately. Derrin froze at the plea. “We just. . . we just want to talk. I tried to talk Orlando into just asking you to but he insisted that you’d never agree to it and we’d have to force you to. So please, just come with us and listen to what we have to say.” Shalia signaled for the men back away from Kayla and they quickly followed the order. Derrin’s shadow dispersed into the air as he dashed towards Kayla and embraced her in a hug.

“It’s up to you,” he said quietly. “I’d have nothing to do with it thanks to that but it’s your decision.” He felt terrible for ever letting Kayla fall into such a predicament and decided he had no right to accept or refuse their offer.

Kayla stayed silent a moment before replying, “Let’s do it, for Shalia’s sake at least.”

Derrin sighed and turned towards the siblings, “All right; let’s go.” With that, the brother and sister once again became their guides. They led them through a nearby alley and to a wooden door at the end. They knocked twice and waited a moment before the door creaked open. As Derrin and Kayla stepped through the doorway, they entered into an entirely new place. The dark, trash ridden alleyway was replaced with a bright and lavishly outfitted lounge. Throughout the room sat armed men and women. Equipment ranged from crossbows to long swords to fruit knifes. A couch a distance from any other piece of furniture was cleared for Derrin and Kayla and they were then instructed to take a seat their. Orlanda and Shalia then pulled up their own chairs and sat opposite the couple.

“Welcome!” said Orlando, “to the headquarters of the largest rebel organization in Aquarius.” The statement had the shocking effect that Orlando had intended, and he waited a few moments before continuing. “Despite our position as prince and princess of this city, we are in direct opposition to our ruler and father.”

“What my brother means to say,” Shalia cut in, “is that we do not agree with the way he rules this city. What you have seen today was an illusion of prosperity. In case you didn’t notice, we never strayed beyond three hundred yards from the Grand Road or castle in our tour. While the affluent parts of the city thrive, the rest of the city lives in squalor. The tall buildings surrounding the Grand Road and castle prevent any from seeing the state of the lower class areas or Crescent City as some call it. You might have noticed that none of the buildings had windows on the sides facing the Crescent City. It is because our father wants the upper class to forget about the rest of the city as he has. He ignores the plight of the lowly. The dome around the city is in danger of breaking near almost any poor area. If something is not done, things will only get worse for the greater portion of the city.”

Shalia paused for a moment to let what she had said sink in before continuing, “That is why we desire to take the city from our Father. Obviously, the problem is that he would never relinquish his title as King. Despite my distaste for it, force is the only option left to us. Orlando seems to be set upon assassinating him but, as you saw yourself, those have failed. Our father is quite the warrior.”

“Does that mean the assassination attempt today—” Kayla interjected.

“Yes,” replied Shalia. “It was set up by Orlando. However, even if our Father were to die, something I hope fervently does not happen, his advisors would only seize control from us by using the idea of a republic to gain the people’s support.”

“As you can see,” Orlando began, “the only option is a full-out coup d’état. However, we currently only have about one hundred or so individuals enlisted and acquiring them was hard enough. As you can see, we are at quite a disadvantage. That is, before you came. The Guiding Force is famous enough to even reach the depths of the seas. Our traveling merchants have told tales of your defeat of the Dreaded in Henesys.”

“There’s no way!” exclaimed Kayla. “Your father is a long time friend of my grandfather. There’s no way he’d agree to attacking him.”

A smile formed on Orlando’s face, “What if I told you that our father had in his possession the gate for the second Dreaded. And then, what if I told you he intended to use it.”

TBwL is BACK. Well, for the moment at least. Anyways, that picture up there shows the set up of the nacklace since I felt I didn’t convey it very well. Imagine it like that (ignore the crossed out stuff) but with the aforementioned gemstones and silver. Anyways, don’t know how long I’ll keep with TBwL before I switch back to Burst. It’s quite likely that I’ll just go back and forth every once in a while. Enjoy.