Elara had always impressed Kaelen.

Not that he had ever told her, and there was plenty that still bothered him about his younger sibling, but her thirst for knowledge, her striving for perfection, and her commitment to do good were qualities he deeply admired. And she had always been like that, even from an early age. Kaelen had never bothered to ask himself what had shaped her personality in such a favorable way, especially with their parents never being the best role models. But then again, it might have been exactly that — their cold, distant parenting showed Elara that she needed emotional warmth in her life, which she also wanted to give to others. Intellectually, the siblings' parents always held their children to the highest standards, and since young Elara wanted nothing more than approval from her strict parents, she had tried her best to please them. And thus, her quest for perfection started.

Despite their many petty fights, Kaelen had always tried to protect his sister, even if she didn't really need protection. On the surface, he always played it off as an act, but deep down, he wanted her to be safe and happy. It was what she deserved, he thought. And even when she started to steal his thunder at every occasion, he never actually blamed her — instead, he just tried to be better himself, do more to achieve his goals, just like Elara had shown him. Buried under thick emotional calluses, she had been the closest thing to a role model Kaelen had ever known. It was one of Kaelen's best-kept secrets, but now, he wished the entire world had known — especially his sister.

But it was too late for that, and the realization made his mind drown in thoughts of despair and sorrow. Kaelen wanted to scream, but his lungs were empty. He wanted to cry, but the tears were not coming.

When the guard finally let go of Kaelen's head, he slowly opened his puffy eyes. Through a hazy blur, he tried to take in his surroundings. Right in front of him lay a human body, limbs stretched out and twisted unnaturally. The head was close to Kaelen's, eyes wide open in shock at their sudden death. Kaelen blinked once, then again, but he could not make sense of what he saw — the body in front of him was not Elara's, but Althor's. The big, muscular man lay in a fresh pool of blood, fed by a long, gaping wound at his meaty neck. It was a clean cut, facilitated by a delicate throwing dagger. It was half-way burrowed in the man's flesh, only exposing a short, ribbed grip.

Kaelen's ears were still ringing from panic, and the screams he started to hear were muffled, like they were trying to breach a cotton wall. Someone was shouting, possibly at him, and the guard that had been holding him down jumped to his feet. A moment later, the ground shook as he met the same demise as his leader, slamming onto the cold stone, with a trail of blood in his wake.

Trying not to aggravate his injuries, Kaelen slowly rolled over to observe the rest of the scene. He winced in pain when his spine brushed a sharp-edged stone, but then the sight of an unharmed Elara filled his body with adrenaline, numbing all his scratches and aches.

Elara looked just as shocked as Kaelen. She was still kneeling on the ground, her hair all kinds of shaggy, cheeks still glistening from half-dried tears. With wide-open eyes, she was staring at the two dead men on the ground, mouthing a silent scream. Kaelen did not want to take his eyes off of her, but he couldn't help notice what was playing out a few feet towards the cave entrance. Lying on the ground was the guard Kaelen had elbowed in the chest earlier, and a young woman, roughly their age, was standing next to him, one of her hefty boots resting on the man's spine. She was leaning forward, putting most of her weight onto the guard, making him wince in pain. Her fingers were fidgeting with two small daggers — the same kind of weapon that had ended Althor and his compatriot moments prior.

"Please!" the guard wheezed, but the woman only increased the pressure and tossed back her dark hood.

She was about Elara's height, but a lot more muscular. Her short orange hair was playfully weaving around her ears, but her broad jaw and strong cheekbones gave her a tough appearance, matching the bruises and scratches that adorned her hardy skin.

"Not so tough anymore, big guy?" she sneered at the man, seemingly enjoying the groans of pain.

With her dark, worn-out clothes, she looked just like the many Fateless they had seen on their way to the palace. But Kaelen had not expected them to be fighting among each other. But then again, he thought, they were probably just like any other society, with factions and agendas, intrigues and plays for power — and a healthy amount of murder and thievery. Clearly, Malvorn's rule was not as uniting as the man had led them to believe.

The Fateless woman blew a strand of hair out of her face and looked around, without letting go of the guard on the floor. Her gaze met Kaelen's, and she studied him skeptically.

"What are you looking at?" she barked.

Kaelen closed his wide-open mouth and tried to think of something to say. When he couldn't come up with anything, he instead chose to check on his sister.

"Are you okay?" He whispered in her direction.

His sister still looked horrified by everything around her, but she responded with a stiff nod. It seemed like she wanted to say something, but instead she just pointed at the bodies in front of her. Then, after a brief moment, she stammered: "They are … dead."

It was somewhere between a question and a statement, like she was trying to tell herself more than anyone else. Kaelen looked at the dead men, whose clothes were already drenched in blood, then back at the orange-haired woman.

"Who are you?" he asked carefully.

The stranger scoffed, then started spinning a knife in her hand with astonishing skill.

"By the looks of it, I'm the one who saved your peachy skin," she retorted in a sarcastic tone. Then, looking back at her current victim, she added: "I'm also this one's worst nightmare."

"Please," the man begged, "I won't say anything, I swear!"

The woman chuckled. "No, you won't. It's hard to talk without a tongue."

The man wiggled like a worm on a fishing hook, but to no avail.

"Don't hurt him!" a trembling voice next to Kaelen said.

Elara was back on her feet and had taken two steps towards the woman and her prisoner.

"Don't hurt him?" the orange-haired Fateless rebuked, looking at the two dead bodies on the floor. "Oh, I think we're past that point, sweetheart."

Elara looked offended and terrified at the same time.

"Besides," the stranger added, "I don't think anything useful has ever come out of this one's mouth." She gave the man a kick in the side, making him wince.

"Please don't take my tongue, I'm begging you," he wailed, parting with the last of his dignity.

After a moment, the stranger laughed, and the sound of her voice echoed across the lake.

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding," she said and gestured playfully. The man seemed to relax slightly, resting his head on the cold stone.

"Obviously," the woman continued, "you've seen way too much. Your tongue won't do it, I'm afraid. Besides, that's always messy business." She shrugged and added, "Sorry. Sort of."

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And with that, she brought one of her knives down on him with impressive speed.

At the same time Elara's horrified scream escaped her mouth, the woman's blade pierced the guard's neck. It was a clean cut, opening a gaping wound next to his spine. The man gulped and wheezed, blood shooting from the hole in his throat. His body twitched and twisted, but the woman's heavy boot was firmly holding him in place. Kaelen was stunned as he listened to the death rattles of the guard, watching his limbs slacken one after the other. Elara's scream had broken off, and the silence that followed was long and deep.

Then, the stranger slowly pulled back her knife, wiped off the blood on the guard's gown, and put it in a pouch on her belt. She swiped back her short hair and turned to face the siblings.

"The name is Nyu," she said casually. "Pleasure to meet you."

"What is wrong with you?" Elara hissed once she had regained her composure.

Nyu seemed unfazed by the question.

"You can thank me later," she brushed off Elara's question and bent down to grab the guard by his armpits.

"You going to help me or what?" she asked, as she started dragging the body across the rocky ground.

"Help with what?" Kaelen asked warily. He had a bad feeling.

"We gotta dump them." With the back of her head, she nodded towards the lake. "Bad look if anyone finds them here."

Kaelen and Elara exchanged glances, both struggling to process their thoughts and emotions. Nyu had saved them from certain death, but her methods were not something they were used to. Their sheltered life in the library had kept them from experiencing violence outside of self-defense class — they had never even seen a dead person, let alone witness murder. When the rush of adrenaline would eventually fade, Kaelen thought, he would probably spend a considerable amount of time vomiting on the ground, and he took comfort in the fact that Elara would most certainly join him.

Neither of them moved. Instead, they just watched Nyu as she dragged the man she had struck down moments earlier across the ground and towards the lakefront, leaving a trail of dark blood on the jagged stone. When she noticed the lack of help, she stopped and looked at the siblings.

"Are the two of you deaf or something? Or just slow?" She gave both of them a scrutinizing look.

Kaelen ignored the insult and instead asked back: "Why did you save us?"

"Slow then, I see," she concluded, then sighed.

"The two of you are Dor family members, are you not?"

Kaelen immediately knew where this was going, but he let Nyu continue.

"I'm sure your family would pay your combined weight in gold for your safe return," she said, and let go of the guard's upper body. It met the cave floor with a thud.

"I wouldn't count on that," Elara growled and looked away.

Nyu frowned theatrically. "Oh no, do we have issues with our mommy and daddy?" She asked mockingly. "Well, I wouldn't pay that much for a nuisance like you, either, but parents are parents. I'm sure they would love nothing more than for their sweet baby birds to find their way back to their gilded nest, without your precious little wings getting hurt." She examined them dismissively and made no effort to hide her disapproval.

"Besides," she continued, and pointed at the three bodies in front of her, "I never liked these idiots anyway."

After another moment or two, Kaelen and Elara reluctantly started helping Nyu dump the remains of their captors into the murky, dark lake. When their pale faces slowly vanished under a film of red and brown discharge, they both had to gag, much to the amusement of Nyu.

Kaelen picked up two of the swords that were lying scattered on the ground and handed one to Elara. Briefly, he considered turning on Nyu, using her own methods against her. But something told him she'd be a tough opponent, and by the looks of it, she didn't take prisoners.

"We need to get the two of you back to the surface," Nyu said after tossing the last sword in the lake, sending ripples across its smooth surface.

"You are not safe down here, and it won't take them long to notice Althor and his men are missing. It will take them long to find them, though," she added with a satisfied smirk.

"In any case, they will start looking for you. Malvorn is not the kind of person to back down. And next time he gets his hands on you, I doubt you will be granted an easy death."

"Death is death," Elara murmured, staring at the dark lake.

"Oh, little bird," Nyu sneered, "you have no idea."

Elara turned to face Nyu, her eyes heavy with anger.

"Stop calling me that, you psychotic murderer!" Elara yelled, clenching her fists.

Within the blink of an eye, Nyu had crossed the distance to Elara, grabbing her by the neck and twisting her around. Pressing Elara's back against her chest, Nyu had made a dagger appear out of nowhere and was gently pressing it against Elara's ear.

"Listen to me, princess," Nyu hissed in Elara's ear, "I'm sure you are used to people playing by your rules, catering to your spoiled needs, and pampering you with compliments. I'm sure you have a perfectly pretty life topside, but topside isn't here. And I'm not your servant, I'm not your protector, and I'm definitely not someone you want to mess with. Maybe I didn't make myself clear earlier: you are my prey, and I'm going to take you back for a nice ransom. None of that is optional. What is optional is whether you return with both ears and all ten fingers."

Kaelen had taken a step towards them, but was keeping a cautious distance, not to give Nyu a reason to do anything rash. Reaching out with his palms in an appeasing gesture, he tried to speak as calmly as possible.

"Easy there," he said slowly. "We won't cause any trouble, I promise."

"The two of you have trouble written all over you," Nyu snarled.

"What happened to unharmed wings?"

Nyu shrugged. "Sure, that might lose me some of my earnings, but it would be well worth it if it shuts you up while we're on our way to whatever palace your parents reside in."

"We're sorry, okay?" Kaelen pressed. "Could you please let go of my sister now?"

Nyu snorted.

"Are you sorry, little bird?" she whispered in Elara's ear.

Kaelen gave his sister a pleading look, saying with his eyes that this was not the time to pick a fight.

Elara grumbled a silent curse.

"Sure, whatever," she spat out, and pushed away from Nyu, who had loosened her grip.

"Excellent," Nyu exclaimed. "With that out of the way, let's get this show on the road. The faster we reach the surface, the better." She put her knife away and started moving towards the cave exit.

"Actually," Kaelen said with a forced smile, "we can't leave yet. There is something we need to do first."

Nyu stopped mid-stride and slowly turned around. Her demeanor had gone sour, and Kaelen was already bracing himself for the repercussions of his words. But to his surprise, Nyu just studied him with distrustful eyes.

"Oh yeah?" she asked provocatively. "And what would that be?"

"There is a … book. Malvorn had it stolen, and we need to bring it back."

Nyu's eyes narrowed. "What kind of book?"

Kaelen hesitated for a brief moment. He didn't want to disclose more than necessary, but at this point, it probably didn't matter much anymore.

"It's a fate tome that was taken from the Great Library of Amareth, the home of our order. Malvorn keeps it in his throne room. We believe it contains the fate of someone very important."

"That so?" Nyu asked pensively, and let her eyes wander.

"We need to get it back before your crazy ruler uses it for his twisted schemes," Kaelen urged, but Nyu seemed to be caught in thought.

"As if she cares," Elara scoffed and crossed her arms. "All that matters to her is gold."

"If that's the case," Kaelen interjected, "we can make it worth your time."

Nyu turned her head to face him. She looked less smug than before, but it was still hard to read her mind.

"Guess you've got me all figured out," she said facetiously. "But as much as I do like me some extra coin, stealing from Malvorn is suicide."

"After killing a couple of his guards, I don't think stealing from him will make it much worse," Kaelen offered.

"Wanna bet?" Nyu murmured.

"Didn't think you were the type to scare easily," Elara growled, and Kaelen wondered if she was trying to make Nyu cut off her ear.

Picking fights was usually his domain, while Elara remained the voice of reason. But this particular encounter seemed to strike a nerve with her.

Nyu studied Elara for a moment — Kaelen was relieved to see that she seemed more amused than upset.

"You really don't know when to shut up, do you?" she said with a smug grin.

Elara shrugged. "Takes one to know one, I guess."

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