𝑺𝒐𝒏𝒈𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝑾𝒂𝒓: 𝑬𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑷𝒂𝒔𝒕 (𝑹𝑬𝑾𝑹𝑰𝑻𝑬)

𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝑺𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒆𝒏- 𝑻𝒓𝒖𝒔𝒕

The next morning, back in the depths of the cellar, Tygren was pacing around while he made a plan. Azulis was very worried for both of them- huddling up into a ball and overthinking as he usually did. "Azulis, this is not your fault," Tygren mentioned, looking at the Ardoni. "What?"

"I know you're overthinking. You think this is your fault for being so quick to trust Sentara. I should've been more alert."

"Is my overthinking that obvious? I'm sorry if it–"

"Don't apologize, dumbass, just know for the future that not everyone is motivated by good things- my guess is that Sentara is motivated by money. No one just does what she did."

"Where does that Kaltaris come into play then? He must have a motive."

"He probably wants to protect the Prime Songs. Just like Thalleous did. Probably an asshole. Regardless, we need to find a way out of here. The trapdoor is locked, and there's pretty much no other way to get out."

"Next time they take us up for interrogation, why don't we fight our way out?" Azulis suggested, standing up and looking at the ceiling.

It was morning now, so some light was peeking through the trapdoor. "Hm. Chances are, they're going to only bring you since I've proven my stubbornness. We'll just convince them to drag me along. Have you ever considered using your Song to blind someone?" Tygren's pacing stopped. "No- it would temporarily blind them if I did it bright and quick enough. Good idea, that's very smart of you." Azulis smiled briefly. "I wonder how Apexis is doing...do you think she's alright?" He wondered quietly.

"She'll be fine- I mean, she is my sister. When I was on my own I managed to keep both her and myself alive. And I was much younger than she is now. We'll find her, it'll be fine."

"I can tell you're worried about her too. Why don't you just say it?" Azulis asked, looking him in the eyes. "...Because I don't want to be worried about her. She's a living reminder of the past and I still can't look her in the eyes without feeling immense guilt." Tygren sighed quietly, crossing his arms.

Azulis thought for a moment. "Haviscus told me I'm a good listener- feel free to tell me anything," He offered. "If you want that is, I don't want you to feel pressured-"

Tygren only sighed, before hearing something. "Someone's coming."

Sentara nearly fell off the ladder on her way down. "Azulis, come with me." She grabbed Azulis' right arm. Tygren instinctively snatched his left arm. "Uh..."

"Let go."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Tygren. Voltaris. Let. Go," Sentara demanded. "Oh, I'm so very threatened. Do me a favor and bring both of us." Tygren tightened his grip around Azulis' arm. Azulis would much rather be alone with him than Sentara, so he nodded. Sentara scoffed, begrudgingly complying. The light of the outside was rather jarring. Tygren had forgotten to let go of Azulis' arm. "Uh, Tygren? Can you let go? My arm is starting to hurt," Azulis whispered.

Tygren let go without saying anything right before the interrogation ensued.

****

Apexis had packed up all of her stuff and noticed that Tygren left the Prime Songs with her. "Why would he do that? Precautions? I guess he never trusted Sentara fully."

She decided to backtrack all the way back to Oakendale to see if she could connect Sentara to a weird as hell kidnapping(or hitman) service or something. There was a town board with details of events, wanted posters, and even advertisements. Apexis looked through all of them, eventually finding a few things that caught her interest. First off- wanted posters of the group. The group being her, Azulis, and Tygren. "Wanted for theft, assault, and threats of war? What? We didn't do any of those- well, assault maybe, but threats of war?" Apexis read the poster to herself quietly before moving to the next paper.