If there was one thing Ronan was sure of, it was that this was not where he was supposed to be.

The marked man gazed out over a vast sea from the top of a white stone cliff as the only choice he had to make at that moment. The man with long blond hair was subtly leaning on the cliff edge, questioning how high he was from sea level and how long it would take for something to fall down there.

"I don't recommend jumping."

Ronan recognized the voice and soon smiled. "If you didn't show up, it was my way of corroborating that this was still a dream or something."

The trickster turned to see his good friend Kyrus. The Infernal wizard made his way to the edge of the cliff, where they could look out over a fictitious ocean view; for a moment, they silently immersed in the atmosphere, listening to the waves crashing on the rocks or the seagulls in the distance.

Ronan was the first to speak, "Kyrus, the kids..."

"Alive," Kyrus said. "Both of them."

Ronan's lower lip trembled, and deep within him, a painful emotion made all those days of tension worthy.

With a sharp pain in his chest from all the anguish, he could barely whisper, "T-Thank you..."

"Don't mention it. Honestly, it was nice for me to finally meet the kid," replied Kyrus, who watched his friend mockingly with both hands behind his back. "My, you look like shit..."

Ronan held back his tears, his eyes had reddened from a sob trying to get out, yet he couldn't help but laugh at his friend's words.

The Infernal wizard let out a light, hoarse laugh as his words and laughter eased the situation so they could both speak about more serious topics.

"Are you in Thronstone?" asked Kyrus.

Ronan nodded, "I rode my horse until he was exhausted. Poor creature, perhaps I should leave it here. What about you?"

"In southern Adwar, bedridden in my tent," replied Kyrus.

"Again?"

Kyrus noted Ronan's smirk that accompanied that question.

"I had to use a Primordial Sphere to communicate with Fynn. The last thing I remember is the mess we made with Xindal to get out of there."

"Rawani and Peck are with you?"

"Yes, they are with Xindal and me. They guarded the gates of Narazah's magical academy while Xindal and I searched for the sphere to communicate with your children that way."

Ronan looked away at the insistence of that name. The akajsi and he had a professional deal. Still, Ronan didn't look kindly at the man.

"Where are the children?" asked Ronan.

"In a fishing village in Betheas; Vaintaigy, I think was their name. Apparently, a family with a marked child is protecting them."

The marked man breathed a sigh of relief at hearing that; Ronan knew that at least in Betheas, the chances of being lynched were almost nil.

Kyrus continued, "The children have shipwrecked atrociously, Ronan. There was a fierce battle on the ship. There was a storm and something I'm still trying to discern, but their transport was destroyed."

The marked trickster squeezed his eyes shut as his imagination ran wild at what Kyrus described to him. He pressed his lips together guiltily as he let out a heavy sigh.

"Things got so bad on Lastrel and only got worse on the high seas. I should have traveled with them. I should have..."

"You look like lightning struck you," Kyrus replied bluntly and honestly. "I'm pretty sure that instead of helping them, you would have been a limitation. You would have died, and those children would have let their guard down because of it and died too."

The infernal wizard spoke with much truth in his voice. But nevertheless, the guilt would continue to gnaw at the trickster.

After a few moments, Ronan got those words off his chest, "Tyloh was in that city as well."

Kyrus showed slight astonishment on his typically neutral face. The Infernal expected him to keep talking.

"He died," Ronan said sententiously. "I killed him with my own hands."

The wizard lowered his gaze to the rocky ground, "I'm so sorry it had to have been you."

Ronan exchanged glances with Kyrus; the trickster knew those would be the sweetest words the wizard would ever devote to his late apprentice. Unfortunately, the trickster didn't even have time to mourn for that student who fell into madness and committed heinous acts, situations Ronan blamed himself for not stopping.

"How are we going to do this?" asked Ronan, returning to the main topic to divert his mind from those memories. "Can't you get them with a magic hole or something?"

"We're talking I should rip the cloth of the universe to move there. I could do that, but with how tired I am and my immense magical overload, I'm sure I'd die in the first few steps of the spell. Xindal also doesn't possess the ability to conjure such a spell..."

"I wouldn't want you to either," Ronan replied. "This is something you and I have to do. Of course, I wouldn't want Rawani and Peck involved, but I know well we don't have much choice."

"I know. I'd like us to do this independently, but I'm currently stuck in Adwar until we cross the borders. If I tried to open a hole to move at will, I'm sure I'd find a cell at the end of my road.

"What the hell did you do that you can't move freely?" asked Ronan, incredulous.

"Someone gave my location, and the mages closed the borders with magic," Kyrus explained. "Using holes to move leaves too much resonance, so it would be the same as leaving them a golden path to where I am."

"So? You want me to use Thorstone's portal to get to the capital of Betheas?"

Kyrus shook his head, "I thought you should go to them by land or sea. Unfortunately, the portal to the capital is a long way from Vantaigy, not to mention you'd be moving under the nose of the local Mordian ambassador, a Cardinal of the Order..."

"I must cross four kingdoms to get there. It won't be easy, and it will take me several days," Ronan replied, trying to plot a route in his head. At this point, his knowledge of maps was essential. "Part of the way on land, part on water."

"A very simple feat for someone like you," Kyrus complimented slightly teasingly.

"I lost some of my spark this month, let my guard down too much at times, and nearly died on a few occasions."

"I'm dying for you to tell me that,'' said Infernal. "Once I get back on my feet, we will travel west to the city of Miankanarim and cross over to Dunden.... Now that I know Fynn it will be easier for me to send letters to him."

"We don't have to waste much more time than we did," Ronan replied. "I ran across dream wraiths in Mizuna."

"I thought those only proliferated in Baeria," the Infernal mage pointed out.

"I thought so too," Ronan explained before continuing his arguments. "Then, we came across a group of marked Efran who were trying to ingratiate themselves with the Order. Now, you say they got shipwrecked horribly. Someone really has eyes on Fynn; someone wants to get rid of him at all costs."

Kyrus pondered the words of the battered man at his side. Finally, he lowered his gaze as he was lost for a moment in thought.

"The boy has the mark of the warrior," Kyrus indicated, catching Ronan's attention with that obvious clarification. "However, the boy possessed a demense, a mind palace."

"What... are you sure...?

"It was a small island in an infinite sea," the Infernal wizard pointed out. "You can see that despite everything that happened, that boy just like the ocean. But, on the other hand, the fact that he has a mental palace is unique; only mages can create one, and he seems to have even been aware of that..."

Ronan muttered, "The essences..."

"There's reason to think they want him dead," Kyrus replied. "Hurry up; even if they are in Betheas, and there are those dogs called 'Unchecked,' the White Flame has enough power to pull them overnight from their comfortable beds and send them to the chopping block to be decapitated..."

Ronan nodded vigorously, determined to get those children to safety.

"I must go..."

Kyrus' last words brought him back to himself, and it was then that the pain returned to his body. Startled, Ronan found himself back in that room of the inn he had rented. His body still ached like hell, but that, once again, was a secondary thing he had to tolerate. Knowing where both children were, he had to get going.