"Good luck? You're coming with me, Lucien."

Red turned towards Rei. 'Look at what he's making me, a little boy do.' His facial expressions beautifully communicated childish helplessness in the face of an overbearing older sibling.

"Syryn, neither of you should be going anywhere. I get that you want to help but it's too dangerous in there," Rei reasoned.

"Are you saying that because Riaku asked you to guard us?"

Syryn felt a vibration in the air that had him exchanging a glance with Red. Whatever was happening in the forest did not bode well for the avians.

"Yes. Listen to common sense, Syryn. You'll only get yourself killed out there if you rush in without knowledge of enemy positioning or numbers." It seemed Rei had forgotten how the alchemist had recklessly baited a giant inside the path. Common sense was well and good but Syryn's thought process did not flow normal.

"If Riaku goes down, we might get hit next. I won't sit around here and wait like cornered prey." Syryn said it in a matter fact tone. There was no arguing with him on his decisions and Rei was beginning to understand that. "Lucien, come with me. I'm not fucking around anymore."

"Don't you think you'll fare better without me getting in your way?" The redhead asked.

"I won't be doing shit if I get lost inside there. Can't take Navi either because there are no landmarks I can point out to him. Besides, you're safer with me."

Rei digested those words and put them together with his conjectures about Syryn. He was starting to realise that the escapade inside the path hadn't been a suicidal stunt by the healer. There was more to the brothers than they'd been let on. Rei wondered what they were hiding behind their pretty-faced facades.

"I'm just a glorified navigator for you then. The great Lord Lucien reduced to this." Nevertheless, Red stood up and stretched his limbs. "Hey Rei, watch the cats. The white one can be a real bitch sometimes but he won't scratch you if you don't try to pet him."

"I will come with you," Rei firmly told them. "The prince bid me to watch over the both of you so I cannot let you go off on your own."

"No offence to you Rei but you'll only get in our way," Syryn told him. Rei was an extra pair of eyes that Syryn could use but not at the expense of exposing his secrets. The purple masked avian had to stay here.

"If I die then so be it but I cannot disobey the orders of his highness." Rei stood up and then glanced with worry at the tired-looking Gosan who was leaning against a boulder.

Syryn sighed at the guard's stubbornness. They were wasting time. "What's more important to you? Saving your precious prince or following his orders without flexibility for changing situations?"

"His highness will not easily die," Rei replied but he was wavering. There was something there that the guard was implying. Syryn's curiosity about Riaku's secrets was further stoked by what Rei had just said.

"Syryn, at least leave him with me," Rei said while looking at the youthful Lucien. "He's just a child."

"Hah, you're worried about the wrong person. This kid will survive longer than you and all your replacements. It's the good ones that die first," Syryn told Rei.

"Can't argue with that one," Red replied. "Come on, let's go." He tugged at Syryn's sleeve. "And don't even think about following us, Rei. It'll be the biggest mistake of your life if you do." The redhead narrowed his eyes dangerously at the purple masked guard. "What is your common sense telling you?"

When the guard didnt answer him, Red smiled and it was a cruel lilt of his lips. "That's right, avian. Wait here and watch your back."

Syryn was already walking away as Red skipped over to him. The redhead giggled after exchanging words that Rei's ears could not catch. They appeared to be least bothered about how dangerous the situation had become. And that was what convinced the guard that the brothers were dark horses on the game board they were trapped in.

---

Syryn stepped on a gleaming piece of rock that was letting out copious amounts of smoke. Lucien's eyes began watering when the smokescreen thickened as they went deeper inside the forest.

"If Riaku doesn't get killed by the scarecrow, he might just croak from smoke inhalation."

"You keep cursing him like that and he really will die," Syryn told the redhead.

"Just pushing things along. I dont have high hopes for him seeing as how he's facing the house of shadows."

Sounds of breaking trees reached their ears and the boys knew where the fight was going down.

"You think we'll find a royal dead body?" Red asked.

"Where is this eagerness coming from?" Syryn questioned the boy. "If this has something to do with necromancy, I'm telling you outright, you're not raising his dead body."

"Why not?" More sounds of destruction beckoned the brothers.

"It's disrespectful," Syryn answered.

"Since when did you care about him so much? You're just getting softer and softer." The redhead's dissatisfied grumbling failed to move the teen.

On their path towards the fight lay a body face down. Syryn recognised the veil that was strewn on the ground next to the avian. It was Emi. He ran over to the fallen avian, hoping she was alive.

The alchemist kneeled and turned her over to check for a pulse. Emi's veil was parted just enough that it revealed a slender neck and the edge of a curved jaw.

"Alive?" Red asked Syryn.

The older boy nodded. "A strong pulse. She's been knocked out by something or someone."

"There's another avian over there," Red pointed to their right where Wen was also on the ground. "He's bleeding."

Syryn left Emi to check on Wen. The yellow masked guard had received a wound to his abdomen. A mass of blackened sooty skin surrounded a line of exposed muscle tissue. It wasn't life-threatening but the nature of his injury called for an investigation. Syryn didnt have time for it so he did the minimum to disinfect and staunch the bleeding.

"We're just going to leave them here?" Red asked.

"You can carry them back if you're volunteering."

"And you? Won't you get lost?"

"Not if I can hear what's going on," Syryn answered.

"I'm coming with you."

The boys hauled Wen and Emi up onto the branches of a tree. They were precariously balanced on high branches just far off enough from the ground that they wouldn't get hurt too badly even if they fell.

"It's the best we can do," Red told him when Syryn frowned at the avians. They hadn't taken more than a minute to arrange the slumbering avians. Syryn's wings were tucked back inside after his feet touched the ground.

"What a surprise! Riaku is still alive it seems," Syryn said as he rushed towards the sound of fighting.

Vines and roots got in their way as Syryn and Red negotiated a steep climb. The boys hacked at the branches with their claws and plodded over musty smelling soil.

A destructive energy wave came flying at them when they neared Riaku's fight. Both boys threw themselves onto the ground to stave off a decapitation.

"What the shit was that?!" Red popped his head back up and whispered.

Syryn's eyes were wide with shock. It was a truly funny and unexpected turn of events. The teen scrambled to his feet and pulled Red along with him.

"No way!" Red said when he realised what Syryn had grasped.

"Ri-Aa-Ku! You beautiful demon prince, I am smitten by your wings!" Syryn loudly announced his arrival to the avian who was facing off two scarecrows.

Riaku had twin ridged horns that were thick and wickedly curved from where they emerged on his forehead. His eyes were glowing like hot embers. There was also a pair of beautiful black wings that grew from his shoulder blades and pointed towards the sky. Another smaller set of wings unfurled towards the ground. Syryn had never seen double wings on a demon so it was the first thing that had immediately attracted his attention.

The prince was a picture of complete calm as he defended himself against an attack by a scarecrow. His serrated sword was in hand dripping malice like it hated the world.

"What are you doing here?" Riaku asked them. His voice had also undergone a change. It sounded wilder.

"Rescue mission," Syryn answered with a cocky smile. "You have a lot of explaining to do prince." The scarecrows were unable to hurt the prince who was no longer playing by the rules. However, it was a stalemate where neither could hurt the other.

"Sleep," Riaku whispered and it echoed in the air. The magical compulsion hit Syryn and Lucien but neither fell to their feet as they should have. It would have worked if Syryn and Lucien had been wholly human. It would have also worked if they were weaker demons.

Syryn smiled cheekily at Riaku's surprise. The prince seemed to be doing fine for now so he decided to tackle the important problems first.

"Hey, spirits, I'll be looking for your bodies now. I hope you're hidden cleverly cause when I find them-" Syryn flashed a lascivious smile and licked his lips hungrily, "-I might do some truly unspeakable things tonight."