“What’s happening?? I feel so heavy and weak right now.” Carmen said, lowering her arm as she struggled to grip her Manifest tightly.

  “Yeah, me too. Feels like something is eating away at our Core Energy.”

  “I think it’s this fog or whatever it is. I’ll try to blow it away.”

  Sarah charged up a small burst of wind energy around her bow, but it could produce anything substantial, the energy dissipated and faded. Her arms lowered and trembled, growing weaker and weaker with each passing second.

  “Now that I have you all under the influence of my Manifest, kindly surrender yourselves. Might as well do it now because you won’t last long otherwise.” Trion said from the deep fog, his voice now sounding fairly playful and confident.

  “We aren’t surrendering! Let us out of here!!” Rivell yelled as he frantically looked around, trying to pinpoint where the voice was coming from.

  “Suit yourselves…”

  The shadow soldiers charged in from all directions and started to fight the weakened group. With each punch and kick, they felt more and more of their energy get expelled. To make matters worse, whenever they defeated a soldier, it would fully rematerialize and continue fighting, wasting more of their strength.

  As the fight went on, everyone became incredibly exhausted and could barely muster up the strength to stand. After a few more hits, the group was knocked back and were on the brink of defeat until Rivell suggested a brilliant plan.

  “Guys! The Pendants! Let’s teleport away from here and live to fight another day. We can figure out a better plan to get your family back once we’re safe.”

  They agreed and Carmen quickly grabbed Caleb’s hand, preparing herself to port away from this area. As they poured their remaining Core Energy into the pendants, to their surprise, nothing happened.

  “Huh!? They aren’t working!!” Sarah yelled out, trying repeatedly to get the pendant to activate.

  "That guy's Manifest must've absorbed the Core Energy out of them!" Carmen replied with a panicked cadence.

  Everyone fell to their knees from exhaustion and their Manifest’s began to fade away. Unfortunately, they no longer had the Core Energy to maintain their form. The soldiers swarmed and swallowed up the group, capturing and taking hold of their weakened bodies.

  The fog cleared as Trion walked over to them, placing his ax behind him. Rivell dropped his pendant as a soldier forced his body firmly into the dirt. Trion then placed special cuffs and chains around their hands and necks, making a loud rattling noise as he locked the shackles together. The bindings had intricate runic lettering all throughout that glowed a deep red color, signifying that these had some kind of ability blocking properties to them. Once he finished making sure everyone was bound, he ordered the soldiers to stand them up.

  “Alright children, start walking.” He said, pushing Sarah forward to get her moving.

  The group reluctantly followed Trion and the large posse of soldiers, hanging their heads in defeated shame as they felt unsure of what was coming for them next.

  The group walked for what felt like another hour, struggling with each step to continue forward. Just before they crested a hill, Priscilla looked over her shoulder until her eyes briefly met with Sarah’s. Sarah glanced over and scowled at her, clearly angered by their current situation. Priscilla quickly shifted her attention forward again, feeling scared and startled by their prisoner's menacing glare. Trion guided them further until they finally arrived at the Boundless encampment. However, what the group saw was completely shocking.

  They stared with wide eyes as they gazed upon a massive city, rivaling the size of Ariana in Volaire. Multiple homes, shops, structures of various sizes, immense statues of unfamiliar beings, and in the center of it all was a sandstone colored palace. The size of the building was staggering and towered over all the neighboring landmarks with ease.

  In that moment, they realized that the Boundless weren’t just a group of savages but instead a race establishing a new nation. Boundless soldiers took over just as they got to the entrance and pushed them along, forcing them through the large gates of the city. The shadowy soldiers from before faded away as they absorbed back into Priscilla’s shadow, disappearing completely.

  The group continued through the gates and into the city, marveling at all of the unique and unfamiliar architecture. In such a short amount of time, the Boundless had seemingly been able to recreate and rebuild their previous civilization, not missing a single detail. As they strolled the streets, Carmen saw people of all types everywhere.

  Children were playing and laughing, women and men of all ages were congregating, and overall there was a pleasant vibe throughout the area. It seemed like a normal city with everyday, regular people living their lives, however the people were everything but normal. Everyone was incredibly pale skinned with unique line markings on their faces. Their teeth were sharp and pointy, and their eyes a faded gray. These people were clearly of a different race than Humans and Siestians.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “What is this place? Who are all these people?” Sarah asked with curiosity, surprised to see so many civilians around.

  “This is our home. Thanks to all the abundant sources of Core Energy on this continent, we've been able to rebuild at a rapid rate. Our numbers have already reached over 8,500 citizens with more being revived as the days go by.” Trion replied with a proud cadence, happy about the progress they had made so far.

  Caleb couldn’t help but be angered by his words.

  “You took innocent lives to bring these people back! How can you be proud of such feats?” He asked with a scowl.

  Trion glanced over at him and cocked his head to the side, clearly confused by his question.

  “Innocent? What was so innocent about them? They didn’t own that Core Energy… We simply took back what was originally ours, nothing more. They should be grateful their lives could be used in such a manner.”

  Everyone was stunned by his nonchalant statement and had no response to give, now beginning to feel fearful of their impending demise. They continued down the road and just before they rounded the block, a green colored bouncy ball rolled over and hit Carmen’s foot. She looked to her left and noticed a little girl, looking around for her toy.

  Carmen gently kicked it back to her and after the girl picked it up, she revealed a big sharp toothed smile as she waved. Even though Carmen felt anger towards these people, she couldn’t help but smile back and show kindness to the little kid. A soldier pushed Carmen forward again, ending the warm moment and knocking her back to the reality of their current situation.

  The group finally got to the palace and made their way inside. As Carmen looked around, she immediately recognized the architecture of the building, taking notice of the symbols and large statues decorating the foyer.

  'This place is just like the building I saw in my dreams.'

  They continued down into the throne room and were eventually brought before Briddle and his mistress. Everyone was surprised to see that he looked so young, seeming no older than the age of thirty. He glared down at them from above as he raised his eyebrow, feeling slightly annoyed by their presence.

  “Trion, why have you brought these creatures into my throne room? I have no use for-.”

  Briddle’s statement stopped as his interest seemed piqued by something. His eyes immediately met with Carmen’s and he stared directly into her fiery red gaze.

  “Ohhhh, and what do we have here?”

  He started to sense her Dark affinity and grew increasingly more excited, sitting up in his throne to get a better look.

  “Trion, it seems you have found quite the rare specimen. Well done, well done!” Briddle said, clapping his hands together.

  “Ah, thank you Lord Briddle, I am humbled by your praise!” Trion replied, bowing his head deeply.

  He then proceeded to explain where he found the trespassers and how he came to the decision to bring the kids here, not missing a single detail.

  “Good, good..”

  Briddle shifted his attention back to the four prisoners in front of him and pondered a quick thought.

  “It seems as though you all have quite the amount of Core Energy within you. Not many people can push back one of my generals and for that, I commend your efforts. Rest assured, we will make great use of your energy. Guards, take those three down to lower chambers and prep the ritual.”

  The guards quickly walked over and pushed along Caleb, Sarah, and Rivell.

  “And as for you…”

  Briddle fixed his devious gaze back onto Carmen.

  “Wait!! Don’t hurt them!! Please!” Carmen pleaded with a frantic cadence.

  Just as the guards gathered them all up, Homura held up her hand and motioned for them to stop their advance. She then turned her attention to Briddle with her alluring gray eyes, leaning in and whispering to him.

  “Briddle dear, maybe we could use this to our advantage. If we keep them alive, the girl might be more willing to cooperate.” She softly said, making a good point.

  His eyes widened as he pondered the request.

  “Did you have something different in mind, my love?”

  Homura slowly stood from her throne and walked down the set of steps, holding her pregnant belly gently. She approached Carmen and gave her a side hug, pressing her face close to Carmen’s as she looked up at Briddle.

  “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if our child had a big, strong sister to watch over them? This girl shares our Affinity and would be a great asset to our nation. Surely you can feel her power, my King. Why waste this opportunity?” She softly asked with a kind, yet devious smile.

  “What are you saying? Why would I join you people??”

  Carmen was stunned by the words coming out of this strange woman’s mouth, not understanding what she was talking about. Homura stopped hugging her before taking hold of Carmen’s face, caressing her chin gently.

  “Because you belong with us, not with these worthless humans. It’ll be wise if you quietly follow along like a good little girl, okay?” She replied, showing a smile that was everything but warm.

  Shivers went down Carmen’s spine as she looked at Homura, now understanding that her cooperation was required to keep her friends alive.

  “Very well then, I will leave them in your care, Homura. Do with them what you will. But, before you go, I am curious about something… Does the name Azhane Belouis mean anything to you, child?” Briddle asked Carmen with great curiosity and anticipation.

  “Huh? W-Why do you ask?” She replied with a stutter filled cadence.

  “You bear a similar resemblance…”

  Carmen hesitated until Homura urged her to answer Briddle's question.

  “S-She’s my sister..”

  Briddle’s eyes went wide with terrifying excitement, as though he had just landed the biggest jackpot of all time.

  “I see… You may go now..”

  He motioned for the guards to take away Caleb, Rivell, and Sarah to the cells below. Homura and a few soldiers headed in a different direction with Carmen in tow, having a special location for their new guest. As soon as the room emptied, Briddle leaned forward in his throne with stunned silence. Moments later he broke out into a crazed cackle, unable to contain his laughter.

  “Things just keep getting better and better for me!! I can’t wait to see that woman tremble and worry about her dear little sister, unable to do anything about it. I want to push her to the absolute brink!! Push until she bows beneath my feet! I so badly want to see the face of someone so powerful, become so powerless!! It’ll be a sight to behold and Azhane Belouis will provide that image for me!”

  He leaned back in his throne, out of breath from his explosion of laughter and smiling from ear to ear. His narcissism and ego was tickled to the max from this revelation. Briddle couldn't wait to see where things went from here, chomping at the bit for what was to come.