Queen Elizabeth sat delicately in her chamber’s sewing room worrying a handkerchief in between her petite hands. She sighed heavily, letting her hands fall to her silk and cotton covered lap and rose to pace wearily on the oriental rug in front of the large stone fireplace. Thoughts chased through her mind like a cat after a mouse and no conclusion presented itself to any of her problems. She crossed her arms in front of her then fidgeted them, bringing her right hand up to her mouth in thought. Her dark, mysterious daughter was missing and there was nothing she could do about it. A single bright crystalline tear escaped her eye and it trailed down her cheek in a line that seemed too hot. Elizabeth swiped it away with frustration and stopped her pacing, sighing again.
“What would Jessica say? What would she do? She must be so disappointed with me…I lost one and now I’ve lost the second!” Elizabeth whispered to herself as she sat on the corner of a plush ottoman. She sat there a moment with her head hung and wept quietly before she heard a soft knock on the wooden door and the sound of it creaking open. Elizabeth rose quickly turning her back to the short hall leading to the door, and dried her tears with the wrinkled handkerchief. Marie and Renee, her two eldest daughters, glided slowly into the room in close to matching dresses with twin faces and hair. Marie was the oldest of the girls by a year. Anook was the last in line being a whole three years younger than Marie and two younger than Renee.
“Mother” Marie said with a quite gentleness. Elizabeth turned around to face her daughters with her eyes dried and a brave face painted on.
“Yes? What is it girls?” Marie and Renee exchanged glances before Renee spoke in a shy voice.
“Mother, are you going to be all right?” The concern on the faces of her pale daughters brought a fresh wave of hot tears and ragged sobs to the surface. Elizabeth brought her handkerchief to her mouth and fell to her knees crying. Marie and Renee rushed forward to their mother and knelt beside her.
When Elizabeth was out of tears she laid her head in Renee’s lap, letting both Marie and Renee stroke her golden, unbound hair. Small hiccups of sorrow occasionally escaped her throat and earned comforting noises from her daughters.
“It’s all right Mother, I’m sure she’s fine. She can take care of herself; and plus she has Nadine with her...” Marie’s explanation trailed off as her mother sighed.
“She’ll come home, I know she will Mother.” Renee said timidly.

Anook walked behind the silver woman unable to tear her eyes away from that lustrous skin. They were walking along a very smooth but overgrown path. It was as if there were visitors that walked this path daily, but the dense overgrowth that surrounded the trail told otherwise. Every few feet a branch smacked Anook in the face, causing her to flinch away from the afflicting branch. It was getting darker in the forest and Anook could see the occasional glimpse of red and pink of the setting sun. The once blue sky above her was quickly changing to a pale bluish purple. Soon it would be nightfall and Anook had no idea where the woman was taking her. Suddenly, as if she had voiced her concern out loud, the woman led Anook into a small clearing, one so small that it had only enough room for a small wooden shack and a small patch of land where there was an undersized vegetable and an even smaller herb garden. There was a goat tethered to the side of the house and he was calmly eating the grass at his feet. When he heard the women approach, he started, pulling at his rope trying to get away from the newcomers. Since he couldn’t pull away from the tightly tied rope he cowered, and began to cry out sharply.
“Thornley! Hush up, you naughty boy!” The nymph said in mock severity. She had been here before and obviously knew the goat. She led Anook to the door of the shack and knocked as she entered. The interior of the house seemed bigger than what it should have been. Rough wooden walls framed what seemed to be a cluttered picture. It was dark, and the red and orange colors from the fire echoed its spooky lights onto the wall. A table sat in the corner, dark enough that Anook had to strain to see it. Large pots and small cauldrons cluttered the floor in odd places and bottles, empty and full alike. On the left side of the room, the fireplace was situated into the middle of the wall and a large cauldron was in the fire. In front of the fireplace a plush chair that was falling apart sat, a worn circular rug was trapped under the ratty chair. An old man was crouched in front of the fire, poking at some embers that had fallen from the fire. From behind he looked like he was indeed an ancient man, a man that would be very knowledgeable.
“Sir…” The nymph said respectfully as she stood just inside the dark room; she seemed to glow.
“Yes, you may come in,” said the Wiseman. His voice sounded aged, but not nearly as old as he appeared. His voice was full of humor and laughter. Anook knew even before he turned around that he was smiling. The nymph took a step towards the man, all of the sudden; a bright white flash erupted in the room. The nymph shrieked loudly and jumped back away from the blinding flash. Anook could hear the old man cackle with the glee of a child, but she could not see that he was also rolling on the floor like one because the flash had also caused enough smoke to fill the small apartment completely. A small amount of light was being retained within the smoke and Anook could see the light of the fire, but she was otherwise lost. The once other-wise composed nymph was standing with her back against the door breathing heavily, her hand upon her breast. When she regained her breath from fright, she only lost it again and breathed harder with anger.
“You bastard! That’s the third time this month! Will you please be so kind as to stop?” She said with enough sarcasm and anger to start a fire. Although, a fire wasn’t all it could start, for the old man was fueled by this anger and only laughed harder. This cat and mouse game of profanity and laughter continued on for quite some time until Anook began to worry what her friends back at camp might be thinking. Nadine and Jian would have started to worry by now. As for Finn, she didn’t care; he could rot in that hot spring. Several minutes later, when Anook’s thoughts floated back to the dark room, the smoke had floated away and settled on the floor. The old man was sprawled out on his back on the floor in front of the fire, she got a decent look at him. He was wrinkled and tanned but in a very friendly way; most of the wrinkles were laugh lines. His silver hair was thinning and worn long as if he had merely forgotten to cut it in his days of playing. He was old, clearly, but he was rolling on the floor and giggling like an adolescent.
“Silvia, you are such an easy target for that! You never notice the trip line no matter how many times I tell you that it’s there!” The old man burst into a fresh new wave of laughter and only laughed harder when she protested. Silvia finally shook her head and fought the smile that was trying to sneak onto her face. She managed to talk in a serious tone.
“One of these days old man, I’m going to kill you.”
“Oh stop being such a sour puss and sit down, Silvia!” The old man got off the ground stiffly and sat in the chair. “Now sit down and tell me why you’ve graced me with you presence today my dear.” The old man looked to Anook and seemed to see her for the first time. “Who is this lovely young woman that you’ve brought to me? The wise man got off his chair smoothly and walked to Anook, careful not to hit any trip wires that were hidden around the room. He took Anook’s hand and going down on his knee brushed her knuckles with his lips; a chivalrous and courtly action. “I have not properly introduced myself and I humbly ask your forgiveness. I am Shawn Boyd Salvadori, but everyone just calls me the Wise Man.” Ammon rose smoothly from his knees.
“A pleasure to meet you sir.” Anook replied politely, not sure what to do.
“Please, join me for some tea! Silvia, watch for more trip lines.” He said turning back to the fire. Anook was thoroughly confused. She hadn’t noticed any tea things, where did he expect them to have tea? As if he had read her mind, Shawn spoke with his back to her, pulling the cauldron out of the fire.
“It is off to your right dear, in the corner. Please be a dear and turn the lights up, hmm?” Anook looked to her right and sure enough a small round table that was ideal for tea was set up, three chairs with the proper china all set out. Anook walked to the still dark corner and saw three lamp scones set on the wall. She turned each one up and looked around. The entire room seemed to light up and she noticed even more. A cabinet on that wall, a small desk against another, and shelves were scattered at every height over the walls with no rhyme or reason to their placement.
“Chamomile grown from my own herb garden with a twist of lemon that I found in the forest.” He said as he brought a kettle over. “I thought it was odd when I found the tree; lemons don’t grow in this part of the world. But who am I to argue.” He laughed as he poured the tea. Great waves of steam came off the surface; the tea was far too hot to drink. “Well sit down ladies, the chairs won’t bite you! Would either of you like some fall honey? I have a little summer honey left over from a few months ago, if it interests you.” Silvia and Anook both politely declined the honey. When Shawn finally sat down the tea was cool enough to drink without scalding.
“Now what brings you lovely ladies to my home? No one ever comes by here just to visit anymore.” Shawn said as he kicked his feet up onto the table and tipped his chair back, sipping his tea. Silvia put her tea down and reached out to Anook.
“This necklace, sir, I thought you might have wanted to see it.” Anook drew back from her hand and pulled her amulet out herself. She rose and walked over to the other side of the table where Shawn was sitting. Shawn gave it one moment of serious attention before turning a ghostly white. He looked from Anook to the amulet and back again as he rose slowly from his chair. Suddenly, he turned, startling Anook, and went to a shelf slightly above his head on the far wall near the fireplace. He pulled a book down and flipped frantically through the pages. When he found what he was looking for he read with his finger, mumbling to himself. Finally his head shot up, he stared intently at Anook and closed the book, his finger marking the place. He slowly started walking towards her, almost cautiously as he asked her the next question.
“What do you know about that necklace around your ivory neck?”
“Nothing, sir!” She tried to take a step back, away from his advance, but stumbled on the chair.
“You’ve never had any experience with this necklace; nothing special has ever happened with it?” Anook thought about all the times she had used the necklace to build small mounds of earth as a child, she thought about the incident in the alleyway with Isabelle. Shawn noticed her hesitation and calmly sat back down. He looked at her patiently. “Please, tell me anything; even if you think them to be irrelevant.”   

group travels into desert city where they will meet Edward (but not yet)

The candle in the governor’s room went out bathing the side of his house in darkness. He said goodnight to his wife and went to bed. It was an unusually warm night but pleasant none-the-less and he had left his second floor window open. After some time had passed one could hear the governor’s soft snoring. The sound of a cat crying was heard from an alley nearby. This cry was answered by a single meow and a hiss from the opposite alley. Shadows emerged from the alleys on each side of the governor’s house.
“Kishi,” The shadow from the left whispered almost inaudibly.
“Yeah, I’m coming,” Kishi answered irritably from the right.
“Give me a boost?” The first shadow asked and Kishi moved to meet her twin, crouching down.
“Climb on, Koko.” Kishi said and Koko stepped onto her shoulders. “Ready?” Kishi asked as she grabbed a hold of Koko’s feet on her shoulders.
“Yup” Koko said and Kishi sprang up, vaulting Koko into the air. Koko did a front flip in the air before reaching out and catching a ledge next to the governor’s window. In one fluid second she swung her legs to the window and caught the windowsill with her feet and hung upside down. She let her arms hang down below her head and Kishi jumped to meet her. When she clasped Koko’s forearms, she swung Kishi up above her and Kishi disappeared into the governor’s room. Koko used the force of swinging Kishi to pull herself into a sit-up. Kishi reached out of the window and helped Koko in the rest of the way. This was all done so quickly and fluidly, one could have missed it easily, for they made no sound. The girls set to work right away and began searching the room in silence, lest they wake up the noble couple.
“Hey, Kishi, look at this!” Koko whispered, almost inaudibly and held up a bright, silver and diamond necklace that she had found. It twinkled brightly in the dark room making Kishi worry it would wake the governor. “How much do you think this will fetch on the market?” Kishi looked again at the dramatically pale necklace against the black hands of her twin sister and smiled.
“Oh, that is quite nice. That’ll bring in a nice sum. Maybe some rich gentleman who was caught with his mistress would like to come to terms with his wife and will buy a pretty pale necklace to go around his pretty wife’s pale neck.” The sisters continued to rifle through the mayor’s belongings, taking things of gold and silver and jewels. Things like vases, jewelry belonging to men and women alike, expensive inkwells and fancy clothing, bedecked with glitter and gold. When their hands and pockets and sacks were full they began to stuff their bags with cloth, so the things would not clink together. As they were almost done, a cat’s hiss caught their attention from outside.
“Shit!” Kishi whispered. “Hurry!” The girls sped their work up to double speed and finished quickly. They strapped their bags to their backs and ran to the window, looking out onto the street. They saw no one, but they heard heavy footsteps that were nearing the house at a steady, relaxed pace.
“Constable Evans,” Koko recognized his footsteps “we can avoid him easily.” The girls relaxed and Kishi climbed onto the windowsill, crouching like a small oddly-shaped panther. She hooked her feet underneath the ledge and took Koko’s hands.
“Ready?” Kishi whispered.
“Go for it.” Kishi threw herself forward into the night, Koko following over her. She hung onto Kishi’s hands and dangled above the ground. She found a ledge to stand on and gave Kishi the ok to climb down her body. In no time they were on the ground and split into different directions, melting into the night, minutes before Constable Evans walked around the corner, his hands clasped comfortably behind his back and whistling quietly. He had missed the thieves completely.
Kishi walked alone in the dark alley she had fled to. She was comfortable in the dark, she felt at home. Feeling the heavy pack against her back made her feel happy in her own way. She remembered the first time she had seen this pack. It had been 10 years since the time that Edward had given identical packs to her and her identical sister, they were brand new; only later would the girls find out that they were stolen and the exact reason he had given them their new bags. Kishi thought back to the time Edward had taken them in, they were still very young, but Edward found odd jobs for them to do. He would dress them up in pretty clothes and pile their hair on top of their heads so they could visit rich people. Of course they had to work for the day as two young servants but they would get to hear all the secrets that the powerful men talked of. Now Kishi know that Edward had used their youth and innocent looks to spy on the rich. How his network of thieves and spies was enormous and it spread across the city like a spider’s web, catching the valuables of the rich like they were drops of rain in the night.
Criss-crossing through the alleys and occasionally taking a detour through someone’s house, Kishi made her way back to her home; Ray’s inn. The headquarters for all the local thieves. Just a few more streets and Kishi would meet with Koko again and they would go home together. Kishi found it hard to believe that they had been doing jobs like this almost every night for ten years. When she reached the street corner that she usually met her sister, she sat in a small patch of shadow. Continuing her stream of thoughts she left the world and retreated into her own little world buried deep inside of her soul. She was free there; staying there for hours if she could, Kishi had her own little oasis away from the world of night that she lived in everyday. Although she would have loved to stay in that warm little patch of shadow, she was interrupted by a hand on her shoulder. Kishi jumped up, alarmed and already with a knife in her hand, where she had pulled it from no one could have seen due to speed. Scanning the shadows Kishi could see nothing immediately, but being a princess of the dark herself, she found the tell-tale form from where no light at all came from and knew that it was a silhouette. As she prepared to attack, she heard a voice.
“Now Kish, that’s not very nice to attack your own flesh and blood with a knife.” Koko emerged from her own bit of shadow with a smirk on her dark face. Kishi let a sigh of relief out and sheathed her knife in her boot before she paused to let her heart regain its proper beat.
“No, not very nice, but it’s not like I’ve never cornered you into a knife fight before…and who always wins? Yeah, tell me that miss let’s-scare-someone-who-has-a-knife; yeah, real smart.” Koko laughed quietly at her sister in the dark and followed as Kishi started towards the inn. They walked in silence for some way, an occasional comment about the weather or the night’s jobs; they were exhausted after a long night of thievery and acrobatics.  


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