Naem flew east. The darkness of the sky before him was slowly starting to push back the light from the setting sun behind him. And with the growing darkness came the chill of the brisk winter air that cut along his face, shoulders, and the leading edge of his white and black speckled wings. He squinted to try and ward off the stinging from the rushing air, but the tears building in his eyes only made his face that much colder as they streamed toward his ears.

  He brushed away his tears with the hem of his clothes, trying to clear his head and forget about what had happened, and tried to look only forward. Though, he could not will his mind to drift to something else.

  Why? Why is this world so cruel…? Why is it that a race with no power rules over races with great power!? He thought angrily, “And why is it that I'm the one STUCK between both…!? What sense does that make?”

  Naem flew for a short while across the open plains of Veltra’s third ring before coming to a less-than-ideal landing. The frozen snow that blanketed everything crunched beneath his feet as he started his short walk toward the large entrance gate separating the kingdom’s middle and outer rings. Typically, Naem would rather there be no snow—it reminded him too much of Vega—though today he saw it as a silent blessing. For what it’s worth, the cold numbed his body enough that the pain was not overwhelming in the parts he had not allowed Veyra enough time to heal. He could manage that for a little while.

  Naem looked up and saw soldiers high atop the wall, stationed at specific points as far as the eye could see in both directions. He watched two of the stationed guards near the top of the entrance walk toward each other and meet in the middle of their posts, and after a second, he watched the one on the left heave himself over the top of the wall and spread his giant brown wings.

  Every time… Naem thought as he watched, the Vegan soldier glided down toward him and came to a thundering stop a couple of paces in front. His iron boots crashed into the snow to avoid slipping, unlike Naem, who had neglected to do so earlier.

  “It’s pretty late, kiddo,” Akiby stated, assuming a more formal posture before Naem, retracting his wings, and sliding off his pearl-white helmet that matched the rest of his armor. His blackened hair was cut shorter than most Vegan men’s—it was long enough to pull up into the signature Vegan topknot but did not leave much behind.

  It was a haircut Naem swore he would one day have. The traditional long hair of Vegan command that he was forced to wear—alongside the rest of his family—always got in the way as he sparred or engaged in other fast, reflexive activities. The shorter hairstyle still kept with tradition and culture but was far more practical, in Naem’s opinion.

  If the man’s towering stature was not enough to show his strength, his sharp facial features and gruff-sounding voice—which greatly betrayed that he was only the same age as his sister—were enough for Naem to imagine the man being able to wrestle a horse and win. Akiby was a prime specimen of a man wielding the Tank skill, a skill Naem often dreamed of having.

  Akiby tucked his helmet under his arm; his arm held a large shield, which he then drew closer to his chest. He then looked down at Naem. “I had assumed you wouldn’t be coming today.”

  “Training went a little longer today, and then there were other matters I needed to be present for,” Naem said as he tried to hide his limp.

  Akiby cocked an eyebrow. “Damn, sir. Vlad put you through the wringer, didn’t he?”

  Naem’s frown deepened. “It wasn’t my brother…”

  About that time, both Naem and Akiby fell silent for a moment, listening to the slowly growing roar of hooves approaching the entrance to the kingdom’s middle ring. They looked back to see a convoy of around a dozen horses thundering up the trail.

  Soldiers clad in Veltran silver armor from helmet to boot rode atop the horses that were not pulling the covered carriage in the center of the group.

  Naem had no doubt that this was the group that had just left his residence. Even though the curtains on the carriage were drawn closed, he knew that was where the two officers were riding.

  Naem and Akiby both watched as the convoy barreled past them, with the handful of guards stationed at the base of the gate all clearing out to the sides to let the convoy pass through without ever needing to stop.

  “I see…” Akiby said with a nod, quickly building a mental picture of what exactly had happened. “I guess that old captain wasn’t too happy this time around. Are you all right?”

  Akiby looked Naem up and down before starting to lead him toward the gate. “Did Lady Veyra not heal you up?”

  “She healed the wounds that crippled me,” Naem said as he followed behind Akiby as strongly as he could, “but she was taking too long, and it really doesn't hurt too much right now... I just wanted to get out of there.”

  Abiky nodded slowly, “Hmm... That’s understandable.”

  Naem bit his tongue for a moment, debating whether he should say anything else, but eventually gave in.

  Abiky and Brother are friends. I bet he knows exactly how he is... He thought. He probably knows more about Brother than I do anyway...

  “He didn't do anything...” he murmured under his breath.

  “Huh?” Abiky asked, hearing Naem enough to know he said something but not enough to understand what.

  “Brother... He just sat there like, Father.” Naem explained, his words shy as he second-guessed himself for saying this. “He didn't do anything to help Sister and was just going to let them take her away.”

  Abiky let out a boastful laugh, throwing Naem for a shock. “Now, do you really think that he would have let them do that?”

  “W-Well, he didn't do anything!” Naem said. “Even when they got me, he didn't do anything until they were about to kill me...” Naem thought back to see Vlad’s face filled with anger as he looked down at him through the legs of the guardsmen beating him. “If anything, he looked angry with him as he sat and watched.”

  “Oh, I guarantee you he was angry. Though, I doubt it was with you,” Abiky said. “You must remember the situation, Sir. Vlad and Sir. Valric would have been in. As badly as they might have wanted to, standing up and fighting against those bastards would have been the wrong thing to do. Honestly, it was probably what they were hoping to happen...”

  This was where Naem really bit down hard on his tongue. No way am I telling him that.

  “For him to stand up to them in the end meant that there was no other way around it,” Abiky continued. “If there was another way, I am sure he would have rather gone down that path. But I know that Sir. Vlad would have never let anything happen to you or Lady Veyra. Hell! You know him—he was probably using it as some sort of test against the both of you or something... He would have had his reasons. That's just the way he is.”

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  Naem watched as Akiby gave an understanding nod but said nothing further. For as long as Naem had known Akiby, that was how he had always been. He had always seen him as the third wheel to Vlad and Veyra in their friend group. Veyra had the smarts, Akiby had the bronze, and Vlad dominated them both in their respective categories.

  However, even though he knew Akiby was from a higher-ranking and well-respected house like himself, he never showed a sense of pride in himself or did things in a way that suggested he wanted to outshine them. The only thing he ever saw Akiby take pride in was whenever he talked of Vlad and Veyra—and occasionally when he talked of his younger sister.

  Even when it came to his current position in the Vegan Empire, he was placed directly under Vlad’s command, yet he always came down and greeted him each day with a smile. Naem knew that he should realistically be commanding his own group of men, not simply guarding a wall where there was no action.

  “Ehh, cheer up, kiddo,” Akiby said as he placed the firm grip of his hand around the back of Naem’s neck and jerked him as if waking him from a trance. Naem hadn’t even realized, but the man had fallen back a few paces to walk side by side with him.

  “They only hate us because they fear us. Sadly, though, they only pick on you because they see you as weak.”

  Naem’s frown returned as he looked up at the man beside him. “I'm sorry, but in what way is this supposed to make me feel better, Abiky?”

  Abiky smiled. “Most people only look at and judge another by what’s on the surface level. Rarely do they ever take the time to break through the ice to see the life that teems underneath it.”

  “Humans are the worst at this, but beasts like ourselves are not innocent either,” he continued as they drew closer to the group of guardsmen stationed at the base of the gate. “You might be weak in some aspects, yes, but I don't need to know that Lady Veyra is teaching you to see that you are a very smart young man. It’s very apparent in the way that you talk and think. And Sir. Vlad talks highly of you and how much you have progressed in swordsmanship…”

  “Having book smarts and a deep knowledge of the sword alone will get you much farther through the academy than you may think.” Akiby tightened his grip around the back of Naem’s neck, and both of them stopped as they got within earshot of the human guardsman at the gate. “But on top of both of those things, you also have friends here and back in Vega… The rather unhealthy relationship you have with humans right now doesn’t help much either. My sister, for example—she is very smart, she's excellent with the sword, and she does have very strong manacontrol—but she lacks the other two things that you have. And for that, I worry about her.”

  “Knowledge, combat, and magic. That is what the academy is all about,” Naem protested to Abiky. “What good is it to be great at two of the core subjects if you need all three to graduate like your sister?”

  “Magic is nothing more than a spiritual divider that separates us from them,” Abiky stated as he jabbed his thumb back in the direction of the human guardsman. “Some see it as a status quo or a way to label different races based on the gifts that the Spirits gave them, but that's just pathetic. Just trust me when I say that as long as you stick to the same morals you have now, I believe you will be more likely to graduate than most everyone else.”

  Naem narrowed his eyes in confusion, but Abiky patted him hard on the back with a smile and began to lead him again toward the guardsmen before he could say anything else. “Come on. Let's get you to your friends before it gets too dark.”

  Naem walked patiently in silence as Abiky checked him in through the gate and then led him into the city. Even with it being rather late in the day, the city still bustled with an activity that was drowned out rather well by the walls.

  Naem took off as fast as the pain throughout his body allowed him toward the crowd that cluttered the street and waved back to Abiky behind him. “Thank you, Abiky!”

  He watched Abiky bring his free hand up and place it over his heart with a bow of his head before turning back to the gate.

  Vendors here and there, who had set up shop on either side of the wide, snow-covered, stone street, hollered out to passersby as they proffered some of the goods they were selling. Food, jewelry, weaponry, and armor were only a few of the things that Naem could make out in their stalls.

  “What a great choice, my Lady!” one of the vendors cried out, drawing Naem’s attention. “That there is a, uh, Bellion Red apple. The sweetness of them is so good, it tastes like it was grown in the King’s backyard itself! Trust me, it is well worth the ten bronze shekels...”

  Another scam... Naem thought, turning away. I bet it is just a normal apple, probably with wax on it as well to give it the shine.

  Most of the buildings around this part of the city were designated more for trade, with the few odd shops here and there. It was a good spot to have places where farmers from the outer ring would come and sell their goods, or where hunters could sell their catches from outside the outer wall to the guilds—whether it be beast or demon—all without traveling too far into the city... something that all the vendors clearly tried their best to exploit.

  Naem weaved his way around the people who clumped together in little social units of both humans and Greater Beasts. Saiyakins and Trojans mingled in great numbers, with the occasional civilian Vegan in their mix, but rarely did Naem catch a glimpse of a Greater Beast and a human tangled up in conversation. At first glance, it would look as if there was a sense of fellow camaraderie between the Beasts and humans, though if you looked closer, the little things were always easy to pick out.

  The Beasts always shuffled out of the way of the humans and tried to avoid eye contact for fear of retribution. Not only that, but for the most part the humans always dressed in much finer clothing than any of the Beasts, whose clothes were usually much duller and shaggier by comparison.

  That was something the entire city seemed to adopt. The buildings that lined the main road cutting through the heart of the city to the inner ring were all kept well maintained, slowly starting to look more and more expensive the closer they got to the inner wall where all the high-ranking officials lived.

  That, however, was not the direction Naem was heading. He cut to the right down an alleyway and into another side street. It was far less crowded than the main street. The snow that covered it was not beaten down so much that it had nearly turned to ice like the other, making it much easier to walk on.

  They are all probably down at the river by now. Naem thought, and he jogged as fast as his body would allow him to. He cut down several other alleyways while heading in the same general direction.

  Each street he crossed felt like he was stepping further and further into another city entirely. The buildings became noticeably older and more run down, along with the streets. Missing stones created large holes that collected water that was not frozen. But it was not just the infrastructure that got worse—the humans and Beasts that wandered around before dark looked more and more miserable as well. Many groups outside huddled together around a small fire to keep warm and converse, while animals ran free here and there.

  Naem stopped in his tracks as a group of little Saiyakin boys chased each other with sticks, running right in front of him as if he were never there. He watched them run further down the street before a group of men sitting around a fire drew his attention. All of them sat on crates with blankets draped over their heads or shoulders to block the cold, and they were all staring right at him.

  It took him a second to realize why he was attracting the stares. He looked down at the black and gold uniform he was wearing with regret.

  I forgot to change back into my training uniform. he thought before looking back in the opposite direction. In the distance, he could see the river where his friends usually played at the end of the street. Should I just go back home...?

  The training uniform he usually wore served several purposes. It was one of the few pieces of clothing he had that he did not fear getting dirty or accidentally tearing when he played. Also, it was not nearly as expensive looking as the Soren House Uniform he wore now. His current clothes did not stand out as much back on the main street; however, here in the back alleys, they made him stand out... a lot.

  Naem looked over to see a bundle of cloth on top of a few crates further down the street. I would probably hide my uniform there, or cover it up...? What good would that do? It would get stolen for sure if I left it there, and covering it up would be too annoying...

  After a moment, Naem sighed with closed eyes, his breath forming a puff of steam in front of his mouth. “I will just meet up with them tomorrow.”

  He turned back the way he came, grabbing his left arm, which began to hurt more and more. He did not want to show up in front of the others wearing the clothes he had on anyway.

  Naem opened his eyes to a shock, his body jolting back a painful step with white wings flared. The blue eyes of the Saiyakin girl a few steps in front of him were drawn wide in surprise. Her wolflike ears stood straight up on the top of her blonde-haired head; however, the rest of her hunched-over body refused to move. Her hands were drawn up with claw-like fingers and knees bent just enough to send her flying forward into a powerful leap.

  All the characteristics of a hunter that had been spotted by her prey.