Rafe kind of missed night tim, he admitted. The darkness, the stars, the benders. As a person who'd left Earth during his teenage years, night life was true life.

They arrived at the capital island under the cover of stars.

The festival, according to Helare, was supposedly a whole week into bloom by then. It was a two month festival.

He was in a new city at night. Just like the cities Rafe was used to back home, the city seemed to come alive at night. There was a white spire at the centre of the city. It rose so high it pierced the sky. And following its length, Rafe saw that at the top, about three flying islands were connected to it by thick chains. He could see the islands simply because the clouds were sparse.

He'd asked Helare why it seemed like the inhabited islands had less cloud cover than the rest of the ocean, and she'd looked at him oddly, explaining how controlling clouds wasn't that big of a deal for thousands of water mages.

The city was white and light blue, like it was built from ice. Almost overwhelmingly so. Which was why the few places with red lights stood out so much. There was a neighborhood Rafe could see even from his ship where a bunch of buildings had red flamed candles, others had green flamed candles, and others had blue coloured flames. The fourth group of candles did not seem to have any kind of flame.

Rafe pointed this neighborhood out to Helare, if only so he could have his curiosity sated.

She shrugged, although she looked a bit hesitant to answer. "That is the temple district," she said. "The red candled buildings are temples to the fire gods, the flameless candles to the air gods, and… you get the picture."

Rafe wanted to ask about her hesitant tone, but he figured they were going to be in the capital for a few weeks. He'd probably find out by the end of their visit.

They retired to their cabins hours later than they did normally. Rafe was sure he wasn't the only one who found it hard to sleep that night, but he did manage to. Close to dawn. Maybe he slept only one hour.

****

Filoria didn't know how she felt about being in the same city with her father, and yet being unable to see him. Not that she wanted to see him after their last meeting three weeks ago.

At least she thought the trip had yielded something for her. She was closer to Rafael. They had shared a cabin for more than a week, and she was the only reason that had been possible, wasn't she?

Ahead of her, Helare - her head covered in a suspicious looking cloak - stuck close to the boy, patiently explaining the sights.

The overpowering smell of the overcrowded city hit her as she followed behind the other two at the docks. There were children standing on the piers, throwing treats to the mermaids as if they were some kind of zoo animals. And the mermaids took it with good cheer, diving out of the water and wrestling over mossels in the air.

A celebratory air filled the city, and the mermaids, who would not be attending the festival on land had their version.

"I haven't seen as many none Ma'la in one area before," she heard Rafe say from up ahead.

"Yeah…" Helare said, although she sounded hesitant for some reason. "Refugees, taken in after the war."

Filoria wanted to snort. Hardly refugees, weren't they? Closer to slaves.

And it was easy to see. Whilst the Ma'la were busy enjoying their festival, all the other Elemenoids were working. Unloading ships, cleaning up the harbour, generally just trying not to get in the way of the festivities. No Ma'la, not even high level supervisors were going to be working during the festival.

The label of slaves was missing on these poor creatures, but it was nothing more than a pretense. They had been taken as refugees when they were young. The Ma'la army killed anyone above a certain age. And the children, the impressionable little children, were raised to obey orders. And the royal family had the gull to pretend these were not slaves.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Rafael did have a negative view of slaves, she remembered. That was probably why Helare was being careful with the whole thing. Filoria wondered if maybe the princess was trying to do her part to make the boy want to stay on Primus long term.

"Don't mind them," Helare said in a rush. "There are stalls in the outer ring of the city."

She grabbed Rafael's hand and the two of them increased their pace.

That casual gesture had Filoria feeling sick, though she fought through it and increased her pace to match the others.

She thought it was a lucky thing Rafael hadn't seen the worst of the treatment the so called prisoners of war were subjected to.

The city was huge. Helare could surely avoid taking Rafe anywhere near the fighting pits, couldn't she?

Three more times, Helare casually touched Rafael again. The boy seemed to lean into the subtle touches, like he wanted more.

It was unpleasant to see. She was losing, and she hadn't yet even made a move yet. She didn't know what she was losing, but she was surely losing something. At least her relationship with Rafael had improved over this little trip, had it not?

****

"I am curious about the demons," Rafael said as he walked alongside Helare.

She evaded Rafe's questions about the other Elemenoids so skillfully that he decided it wasn't worth it. In the end, he chose to talk about the demons.

"They were part of a tutorial dungeon," Helare answered this question carelessly. "Apparently, these particular demons were not like other dungeon demons. They hijacked the dungeon and used it to break into the tutorial sector."

"Ah," Rafael said with a nod, frowning slightly.

"And how did they end up here in the capital, you know, working?"

Helare startled at the word working and moved her head around frantically.

"Ah… well, the chosen proved too much for them. I think he killed their leaders or something. Anyway, the survivors are basically prisoners of war. They can't get back to their worlds until after the promotion event anyway."

Rafe took the explanation in stride. There were more than one breed of demons too, from what he could see. He wondered if this was a problem he would have to deal with on Earth once he reached it.

They rented an inn in the city. At first Rafe thought it weird Helare decided to cloak herself but Filoria didn't even bother. After their walk from the harbour to the food stalls though, he had noticed at least ten different people with hair colour so close to Filoria's, some of the girls could even be confused for her sisters. It was a puzzle how Elemenoids could tell themselves apart.

When they reached the inn, Helare ordered for a single room.

Rafe was profoundly uncomfortable with this new dynamic they had, but he didn't truly object. It would have been better if Filoria wasn't there, but apparently the annoying girl was the one who'd made it possible to sleep in the same room at all, so maybe he owed her a little. Not that he'd ever admit to it.

Helare only took off her cloak once they were in the privacy of their room. Filoria walked off to one of the beds and lay down immediately. But there were only two beds of roughly equal size.

Rafe took the empty one, obviously. Except, not even five seconds later, Helare came and joined him on his bed.

There was a sharp intake of breath. Rafe wasn't sure if it was his or Filoria's from the next bed over.

"What are you doing, princess?!" Filoria said sharply.

"Going to sleep," Helare answered calmly. "Isn't it obvious?"

Rafe sat up and looked down at the princess. He gulped.

"I hate to reiterate," he started, "but what are you doing princess?"

"I'm just sleeping. Don't make a big deal out of it," she complained.

"Get off!" Filoria said, already somehow looming over him, glaring fiercely.

Rafe moved to obey, but then he found he couldn't move. There was a small, soft hand, filled with barely healed blisters, holding him firmly.

"No," she said, her voice muffled as her face was planted firmly in the beddings. "Don't go, Rafael."

She sounded shy and cute, but somehow there was sadness there too. Desperation.

"You can't do this, princess," Filoria protested.

"I can!" Helare shouted, lifting her head from the bed to glare at her bodyguard. "I'd rather not sleep alone tonight, and I can't share a bed with you."

"Why can't…" Rafe started, but then he remembered something.

Even though they had come to his cabin together, Filoria and Helare had slept in opposite corners of the room. The ship crew knew they were transporting a princess, so they gave them large cabins. Now with Helare hiding her identity, the inn's people did not know what an honor it was serving her.

So they received a room with only two beds.

"Then, I'll not sleep," Filoria said, her face turning red in her anger. "I'm your guard after all. That's something I am supposed to do."

"Do whatever you want, Filoria," Helare said, turning her face back to the beddings. "And I will do whatever I want as well."

She pulled on Rafe's hand again, and he found himself unable to resist. Not because she was too strong for him, but because, he was not so against the idea.

If only Filoria didn't stand over the bed, glaring down at them until Rafe was too tired to keep his eyes open, maybe something would have happened.

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