Four swift months had gone by since King Briddle’s meeting with Gabriella Ramos and thanks to her information, his Boundless revival had rapidly sped up. The amount of progress they had made was staggering and their numbers had grown to almost seven thousand Boundless citizens.

  As Summer quickly turned to Fall, their seemingly humble establishment ballooned into a fully fleshed out city with a variety of homes and shops. The sandstone colored buildings had domed roofs and were fairly wide in stature, fitting together in perfect rows. The overall aesthetic was incredibly foreign in comparison to modern Alairan architecture, showcasing a style that was certainly from a different era. As Briddle walked the streets of his newly established kingdom, he admired the multitude of people that were comfortably dwelling in the city.

  “I’ve missed my people so much. There's nothing more beautiful than seeing their smiling faces enjoy the spoils of this world. Truly beautiful…” He remarked, feeling nostalgic as children played together in the adjacent street.

  “Indeed, my Lord. It is time we give them the life they deserve. The life that the Humans and Siestians took from us.” Trion replied as he walked with Briddle, following closely behind him.

  Briddle nodded firmly, fully agreeing with Trion’s words. Moments later, he stopped his approach once the children took notice of their king, rushing over to his location. He gave them a kind smile as he knelt down to their level, appreciating their forwardness. They were incredibly thrilled to see the Boundless King out and about, eagerly wanting him to show them some affection. He patted one of them on the head, brushing their messy jet black hair while hugging another.

  “I promise I will give you all the world. Just you wait.” He softly whispered as the kids showed big, sharp toothed smiles.

  They ended their embrace and he motioned for them to run along, giving them a friendly wave and smile.

  “Let’s head back to the palace, Trion. We have work to do…”

  Trion bowed his head and quickly followed after Briddle, eager to continue their terrifying crusade.

  Deep inside of the Boundless palace, Homura slowly stepped down some stairs to get to the inner chambers. As she went through the entrance, she gently gripped her swollen belly while walking along the path. Her pregnancy had made just as much progress as the city, growing substantially over four short months. She approached the large pool and saw Karris standing there alongside a few guards.

  “How are things looking, Karris?” She softly asked, announcing her arrival.

  Karris turned around and bowed his head to her.

  “Ah, how are you Lady Homura? Things are moving along swiftly. A new shipment of Strands will be here shortly.” He said through the darkness of his hood.

  “Good, good. Keep it going. We want to hit ten thousand before the winter comes. The more people we have, the less likely it will be for anyone to come and stop us.”

  Karris agreed with her, but before he could reply, their conversation was cut short. A group of Boundless soldiers made their way into the chamber, carrying big wooden boxes filled with multiple reflective, silver strings. The Strands were various sizes but none were any longer than two inches in length.

  "Oh my, that's a pretty big haul." Homura said with an impressed smile.

  "Indeed, Lady Homura. We raided a fairly large village earlier this morning and thankfully, the humans we killed had quite a decent amount of Core Energy. The Boundless we revive with these Strands will be quite formidable!"

  "Good to hear, especially considering how weak the last batch was. Since the revival exchange is only a one to one trade, we need as many powerful Strands as we can get."

  Karris nodded his head and crouched down, sifting his fingers through the Strands resting inside one of the boxes. After his brief examination, Karris lifted the box up and poured the little silver strings into the black water. They rained down into the pool, shining like icicles as they splashed into the depths below. He repeated this process until all of the boxes were empty.

  Karris then carefully aimed his palms at the pool and began chanting in an ancient dialect, switching up the cadence after every pause. The water flexed and rippled about in an intense fashion, as though someone were shaking the pool from underneath. He chanted louder and louder, causing the dark water to glow and pulse even more violently than before. A few moments passed and Karris stopped his incantation, allowing the water to become eerily still.

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  Suddenly, pale skinned beings emerged from the water and started walking out of the pool slowly. Their naked bodies were dripping with black water and as they stepped further, their features became more defined and pronounced. Hundreds of men, women, and children of all age groups came out of the pool, looking around and wondering where they were. The guards instructed them to form a line and after they did so, Homura greeted them all one by one.

  With the help of a few soldiers, she gave them all fresh linen to wear and pointed them in the direction of the chamber exit. As she assisted the last individual to emerge, she wiped sweat from her brow before sighing.

  “Lady Homura, should you really be putting in so much effort? As the bearer of Briddle’s heir, you shouldn’t exert yourself too much.” Karris remarked, showing rare concern.

  “I appreciate the concern Karris, however I must do what I can to help out. Our people need to see a smiling face to put them at ease after being asleep for all these years. Briddle will understand.” She replied, gently rubbing her belly.

  Karris nodded as he bowed his head to her, not arguing against her logic. Once their conversation ended, Lovi walked into the chamber and gave Homura a brief report.

  “Lady Homura, we're ready to move on to the next location. With your permission, I will take some soldiers and head there now.” He requested with a bow.

  “Permission granted. Bring back as many Strands as you can, leave no one alive.”

  Homura's reply was sharp and incredibly direct, showing that she did not want to waste any more time. Lovi agreed and swiftly exited the chamber, making his way to the next village on their list.

  Later that night, within the upper sleeping quarters of Castle de Belouis, laid Sarah in her overly large and expensive bed. She had a lot on her mind and couldn’t quite fall asleep. She rolled over to her side and rubbed her hand gently across the soft, satin sheets. Sarah sighed as she pushed them aside, getting out of bed. She walked to her window and opened it up, looking outside with a fairly bored expression. As she admired the city off in the distance, she averted her gaze over to her right while pondering a question.

  'Hmmm, I wonder if Carmen is still up.'

  As soon as the thought passed, Sarah swiftly jumped onto the sill and leapt out of the window. A gust of wind wrapped underneath her feet and stabilized her, suspending Sarah in the air. She floated over to Carmen’s open window and peeked inside.

  She saw Carmen fast asleep with wet drool coming from her mouth, looking like a child that hadn’t slept in days. Sarah chuckled at the sight, finding her appearance to be quite ridiculous. She gently closed Carmen’s window before floating over to Rivell’s room.

  To her surprise, his light was still on, and he was wide awake. Sarah softly knocked on his window, slightly startling him. Rivell turned around with a surprised expression and noticed her waving at him. He rushed over and opened the window, allowing her to float inside.

  “How did you get here from outside?? We’re so high up!” He asked as he looked out the window, gazing at the massive drop off down below.

  “I can fly, dummy. Er, well, can kind of fly. It’s more like floating and hovering, but anyways, what’s up?” She responded with a soft laugh, not wanting to explain her wind abilities further.

  “Ah.. I see. Uh, nothing much. I was just doing some studying.”

  He nervously laughed as he looked over at the stack of books littered across his blanket. Sarah took a seat on his bed before grabbing a book, quickly thumbing through the pages.

  “Rivell... Do you ever miss home?” She questioned, closing the book and reaching for another.

  “Do I miss home? Hmm… No, not really. I was kind of the black sheep in my family, so I got teased a lot back in my hometown. It wasn’t anything too serious, but it still got rather annoying. I don’t have to deal with that here and I get to read as many books as I want.”

  Once Sarah saw how unbothered Rivell was about their current situation, she stopped thumbing through her new book and sighed at his response.

  “I see.. Well, I’m glad you’re happy.”

  Sarah forced a smile as she stared at the ceiling, clearly not feeling good mentally. Rivell, noticing that she seemed down about something, gently took a seat next to her and posed a question.

  “What’s the matter? You okay?”

  “I... I just miss my family... I’ve been away for so long and I want to see their faces again so bad. Don’t get me wrong though, I’m grateful that the Belouis family allows us to stay here while everything is going on, but.. ugh, I think I’m just getting tired of being in one place, it feels like we're in an expensive prison here.” She responded with a saddened expression, not knowing what to do about the situation.

  Rivell silently nodded as he understood where she was coming from, placing his hand on her shoulder.

  “Yeah, that makes sense. You especially have been gone for longer than I have. It’d definitely be cool to travel a bit more, but I don’t think it would be smart to do that right now. If you run into another guy like the one we saw in Siestro, you’re done for. Sadly, we just have to keep waiting until things are resolved.”

  Sarah had no reply for him as she continued to remain silent, lost in her own thoughts.

  “Uhh, but hey! I bet your family is fine! If anything happened, we would've heard something by now. Don’t worry too much!” Rivell said with a bright smile filled with hope and optimism.

  Sarah eventually agreed and returned the smile, feeling a little better after talking through her issues.

  “Yeah, you’re right. Thanks for that, Rivell.”

  She stood from the bed and patted his head, ruffling his already messy blue hair.

  “Well, good night!” She said with another half smile before heading to the window.

  “Ahh, yeah. Good night!”

  Rivell watched as she leapt out the window, floating quietly out of view. He got up from his bed and turned out the light, trying to get some rest as the previous conversation raced through his tired mind.