"So what is it that you're proposing?" Seviah asked still holding onto the bed post.
I looked at the group and then back at Seviah, "I am proposing that you come with us on our adventure".
Seviah let go of the bed post and cautiously walked past us towards the open doors of her bedroom. She stood as close as she could to the border of the outside of her room without actually crossing over.
"Seviah" I began, "You just finished telling us that you have lived your whole life up in this room, the only time you have seen the sky or the stars is when you look out your ceiling window".
I stopped as she took a few steps away from the door and went to sit down on one of the couches.
"Trust me" Felicity began, "It was so hard for me to actually grasp the fact that I was actually about to leave my own palace, but believe me when I say it's for the best".
Seviah sat quietly on her couch and looked at the wall.
"Seviah, freedom is literally right there". I added in.
"I can't". Seviah replied softly.
"Can't what?" I asked.
She stood up and faced me, "I can't leave this room! I can never leave this room. How do I know you aren't here to try and hurt me, to mess up my family, to destroy the palace?".
I looked at Seviah a bit confused and was about to say something back but Jarom pulled me into his chest.
"I got this" He said rubbing my shoulder. He turned and faced Seviah. "Seviah" Jarom spoke with his deep voice, "What is left for you here? What has there ever been for you here? You told all of us that you have siblings that don't even know you exist, you have a mother you've never met, you haven't any idea what it is like to step foot outside of that door. Why do you persist on staying here?"
"Because...Because what if I don't like it out there? What if my father is right and people out there only want to hurt me?".
"Then why isn't your mother or your siblings up here?" Dax chipped in.
Seviah stood quiet and didn't say a word.
Something was different, something wasn't right.
I gently removed Jaroms grasp from me and walked to Seviah, "You know something don't you?"
Seviah looked up at me and seemed a little shocked that I would try and point something out, "I don't know what you-"
"Yes, you do". I stated. "what do you know?"
"I really don't know anything" Seviah once again tried to defend.
"You know something" I said back quickly.
"Ëthia!" Felicity said walking up to me, "Stop, I don't think she knows anything, she's been up here her whole life".
"I doubt that" I said simply, "For how much she has told us that her father loves her I would doubt that he wouldn't ever let her out. Besides, she is supposed to know how to get us to the gardens".
For a brief moment Seviah's eyes went wide.
"Ha!" I said catching her instantly.
"What!" She said back.
"You do know something about the gardens, meaning you've been outside of this room before!".
"Get out!" Seviah demanded.
"Or what?" I said walking closer to her, "Call for help? After all, nobody besides you and your father knows you exist, correct?".
Step by step I got closer to Seviah until she cracked.
"Fine! I admit it! I've been outside of this room before"
"Why lie?" I instantly questioned.
"Because my father warned me that someone someday might try and convince me to leave this place, and if I did bad things would happen.".
"Like what?" Ivan asked.
"Just bad things" Seviah responded.
I rolled my eyes a little, "Alright, well, even though you wasted a big chunk of our time we have got to go".
"Then go" Seviah said sitting back down on the couch.
"With you." I responded.
"Not going to happen" She snipped back at me.
"Seviah!" I shouted, "We are giving you an opportunity to finally get rid of this place!"
Seviah stood up and faced me, "And this is an opportunity that we end up getting me killed! Or hurt! Or it will change me for the worst!".
"Maybe it will change you for the better!" I yelled back.
"My father has protected me my whole life, has given me everything I wanted, I will not betray him".
I looked at Seviah as deep breaths entered and exited my body, I had to calm myself down, Seviah didn't know exactly what a monster her father was and I shouldn't have gotten mad at her for it.
"Your father isn't the saint you think he is. He is a monster." I said in quiet words.
Seviah walked closer to me trying to intimidate me, "Don't you dare talk about my father that way, you don't know him!" She said loudly.
"But I know what he has done. I know about the innocent people he has killed and I know the lives he has ruined".
Seviah took a step back and seemed to be caught off guard a little at what was said.
"Your father has done some awful things, things to people who have done nothing to him".
Seviah looked at me with confused eyes, "What are you talking about?".
"Just like you, Seviah, I have never met my mother. But I also have never met my father, or grandparents, or cousins, or aunts, or uncles. You know why?"
Seviah stood there silent.
"Because your father sent assassins to kill my entire family. Your father was so worried about some stupid prophecy that he actually sent assassins to kill my mother, but they didn't stop with her, they made sure that every single person, anyone who basically shared the same blood as me, was killed".
Seviah looked at my watery eyes, "My father would never, I know him".
"Know him? You only see him when he is up here in this room with you, other than that you are completely clueless".
"That's not true" Seviah said turning away from me.
Felicity stepped in front of me and continued the conversation for me, "Seviah, I know your father has protected you and wants what is best for you, and that's wonderful, but your father has hurt countless innocent people. Please, just tell us what you know".
Seviah looked at each of us and her tone of voice completely changed, it seemed like we were actually talking to a real person.
"I truly don't know what you mean when you say my father has done awful things, but I do know where the gardens are".
"Show us" Dax added in quickly.
Seviah looked worried and started running her fingers through her hair, "I'm not sure if that's possible".
"Why not?" Ivan asked.
"Because there are too many guards walking all over the place, the only time I've been out of this room is when my father was with me. If I go out there without him, especially with you all, I will get caught."
"Your father is the Emperor, I'm sure he'd let you go". Ivan added.
Seviah turned her attention to Ivan, "One might think. My father is a good man, truly he is, but he does have strict rules. He told me if I was ever caught or turned in than I would be judged just like any other person, which getting caught on palace grounds could result in death".
"Death?" Dax replied, "Isn't that a bit harsh?"
Seviah ignored Dax's response and continued speaking, "Honestly what you're asking me to do is impossible, I just simply can't."
Listening to Seviah complain made me want to water whip her in the face ten times, but knowing that I had to try and let her know we meant only good was extremely hard.
"Seviah!" I yelled.
Seviah and everyone else jumped a little.
"I can tell you're tired of being up here in this awful place! I know you want to get out and explore the world! And yes, I can tell that you're worried about what might happen, but we are all relying on you, we need you.".
Seviah stared at me with uncertain eyes.
"Is that what scares you? Being needed?" I asked.
Seviah nodded her head.
"Well, come with us and I promise you'll find you are much stronger than you think".
Seviah stood there thinking about the words I told her. She was worried, but we all are worried, especially here in this moment. If she said no we had to find the garden all on our own, a quest in which we wouldn't be able to do in time, and who knows what could happen to us then.
Seviah took a deep breath, "I'll go with you, let me pack a bag quickly". Seviah darted over to her closet and disappeared.
The rest of us looked at each other with big smiles on our faces.
"Wasn't so hard" I said brushing imaginary dust off my shoulders.
Everyone rolled their eyes and went to go sit on the couch.
"What? I totally had that one in the bag, and you know it!" I continued.
Seviah took a little longer than we expected but we held ourselves over with conversation of getting back to the captain and figuring out our next move.
"Ready" She said carrying two big sacs with her.
"Wow, think you could do without one?" I asked her.
She looked at me, shocked I would even ask the question, but dropped one.
"Better" I replied with a smile. "It's all you, lead the way".
Seviah handed the sac of clothes to Dax expecting him to willingly take it.
Dax hesitated for a moment but figured it wasn't worth the fight.
Seviah quickly shuffled out the door and stopped before she began descending the staircase. "Close the doors and put the piece of wood back over".
Jarom and Ivan quickly did as she asked and soon enough we were at the bottom of the staircase.
"I don't know how to get passed this" Seviah admitted to the dead end we came to.
"Don't worry" Ivan said as he stepped forward putting his hands on the wall. Slowly he moved his hands apart and the walls once more began separating.
"I've never seen someone control rocks before" Seviah said with an amused look on her face.
Ivan smiled.
"Quickly" I said shoving everyone through the little passage way.
Once more we were standing in the hallway in which we had just been chased not too long ago.
"This way" Seviah said wasting no time.
We continued down the hallway keeping a look out for any guards who were pursuing us and yet we didn't run into a single one.
Seviah eventually led us outside to a gorgeous courtyard that was lighted by floating lanterns and windy, curvy, trees.
"This is stunning" I admitted out loud.
"Thank you" Seviah said, "But we are almost there, keep up".
We were on a straight stone path that led into a little miniature forest which wasn't too far from us.
"Just through the little forest and it lets out to the-"
Instantly a streak of lighting went across our path and caused all of too stop in our tracks.
"WHAT WAS THAT?!" Felicity screamed.
"Stop right there! In the name of the emperor!"
I turned my head to the left and saw a group of men slowly approaching us.
"Make one more move and the next lightning bolts will go straight to your hearts" The man in front said.
"What do we do?" Seviah whispered very nervously.
"I'm not sure" I admitted, "But we will figure it out".
"Why are you here?" The man asked not to far away from me now.
Without warning Ivan lifted up a huge wall of earth and created a tall wall in between the men and us.
"Run!" He yelled.
Without another word to be said we all bolted off towards the forest that Seviah said we needed to go to.
"This is madness!" Seviah yelled as she ran with us.
"This is normal!" Jarom yelled back.
We rushed into the forest and everything went dark.
"Hold on" Seviah spoke.
"To what?" Ivan asked.
Suddenly two flames appeared and caused a soft glow to be cast on everything.
"Hurry" Seviah said and continued running forward.
"Wow, it really helps having a firebender on your side" Dax commented.
It wasn't long before we came into a clearing that had fountains, trees, little streams, and statues all around. Once more there were floating lanterns that lit up the place and I was caught up in the moment of the beauty of the place.
"This is it!" Seviah said with worry, "This is the garden! What was so important about getting here?".
I was snapped out of my admiration of beauty for the place and quickly looked around, "A friend. A friend is supposed to meet us here with a way for us to escape!".
We all looked around and couldn't find anything.
"They better hurry before those guards find a way around that wall!" Seviah spoke desperately, "There is no other way out of this garden besides the way we came in".
"What!" Felicity yelled, "Are you serious?"
Seviah nodded her head, "Your friend must know something".
"There has to be another way!" Ivan said.
Seviah started thinking out loud, "Well if we go the way we came in than we will for sure run into those men, on the other hand there is a huge wall that would be impossible to climb, I don't see what we could do".
Instantly I looked at Seviah with unbelief. "A wall?! What kind of wall?!"
"A stone wall, why?" Seviah asked.
"Because, we have an earth bender with us". I said pointing to Ivan.
"I forgot! Wonderful!" Seviah said running through the garden and some trees.
We came to the tallest wall I have ever seen in my life, it was covered in vines and seemed to reach up forever.
"Move" Ivan said to us all.
In the distance we could hear the running steps of the guards getting closer.
"Hurry, Ivan!" Felicity said patting him on the back.
"I'm trying! This wall is incredibly thick, thicker than that wall we had to take to get to her secret room".
Slowly a little entrance started to appear but the men were even quicker.
"Ivan, you don't have to get us all the way through, just in the middle of this wall so we are closed off from them".
Ivan nodded his head. He made a little room in the wall and we all stepped in.
"Quick! Shut it!" Seviah yelled.
The guards heard her scream and instantly darted towards the wall.
"Stop them!" The leader of the guards said.
Slowly, slower than before I'm sure, the stone wall started to close in front of us.
The men got closer and I knew we had failed.
One of the men threw a fire ball at us and Seviah deflected it away.
"Ivan!" Jarom yelled, "Come on!"
Soon the wall was practically shut but one of the men was able to get his arm through the small crack.
"What do I do?" Ivan asked freaking out a bit.
"Close it all the way!" Seviah demanded.
The man screamed in pain as the wall came together crushing his arm.
We all stood in the darkness and listened to the muffled screams and shouts of the men outside of the wall.
I patted Ivan on the shoulder letting him know that he had done a good job.
Without anything being said Ivan turned to face the other side of the small space where we were in and he opened up a large enough space for all of us to get out of.
Once we piled out we continued to stand there without any words being exchanged.
Ivan turned to face the newly formed exit and closed it.
I realized that we were on a dirt path that seemed to follow the wall all the way around, I looked up and down the path to see if anyone was still chasing us, but I'm pretty sure Ivan had taken care of them all with his earthbending.
"What now?" Jarom asked me.
I took a deep breath and faced Jarom, "The captain is supposed to be here, or in the garden, or somewhere near here... I thought he would have made things a bit clearer".
All of us continued to stand there in the dark hoping for something to happen.
What was the captain thinking? Did he just unknowingly send us in the palace hoping that there would be a way out. We almost got killed about five times not to mention we were lucky we even found out where the princess was, we could have been looking for the longest time.
I sighed in frustration and sat down on the ground, "At least this can't get any- ".
"Don't!" Felicity said quickly, "I know exactly how you were going to finish that sentence and it would have only given fate a reason to do exactly that".
"Sorry" I mumbled. "It's just that this evening didn't go exactly as planned".
Dax, Jarom, and Ivan began laughing and it completely threw me off.
"Why are you three laughing?" Seviah asked being very puzzled.
The three continued laughing until it eventually built up to where Seviah, Felicity, and I too began laughing with them.
Tears started pouring down our faces and we were leaning on one another for support.
"I don't" I tried saying but the laughter was too much, "I d-don't understand why w-we are laughing!"
The laughter continued for much longer than it should have until we heard something in the distance.
"Quiet!" Dax whispered loudly.
The laughter was still there but we were able to hold it in.
In the distance you could hear the sound of horses trotting quickly towards us and it seemed as if they were being directed with purpose.
"What do we do?" Felicity asked, all laughter leaving her.
"We hide in the bushes!" I whispered loudly as I darted to the bushes.
All of us hid behind bushes and waited for the horses to appear.
Surely a carriage appeared and slowed down right in front of us.
Felicity and I exchanged a quick glance and then looked back at the carriage.
The man riding on the carriage hopped off and began scanning the bushes not too far off from where we actually were.
"Ëthia?" The voice whispered.
"Captain?" I spoke back.
Instantly the man looked over in our direction and bent down to get a closer look, "Ëthia, Is that you?! Are you alright?"
Knowing it was safe now I got out of the bushes and went towards him, "We are fine, all of us, where were you?!"
"There are guards patrolling the area and I was just sitting here, it looked incredibly suspicious, I had to make my way around the whole palace to get back to here".
"Let's not discuss this now!" Ivan began, "Remember we are being sought after!".
The captain nodded his head and opened the carriage door, "Get in, quickly, we must get away from the palace.".
Without another warning each of us quickly got in the carriage and took a sigh of relief.
"That wasn't so hard" Dax commented.
All of us glared at him with unbelief.
"You're right" Felicity said sarcastically, "We almost died a few times but truly it was probably the easiest thing I've done".
Dax smiled, "That's the spirit".
The carriage jolted forward and soon we were off to somewhere.
It didn't take long for everyone besides me to fall asleep and I was soon left with my thoughts.
I didn't know how my colony was doing, I didn't know who was taking control of it and if they were doing a good job.
In the dream I had with my mother she warned be about Xrin, but I already knew he was wicked, I already knew he wasn't worth settling for, and yet I hadn't seen him. Had he given up? Is there something to this puzzle that I am missing?
I looked around at my friends and realized that I had gotten pretty far in such a short amount of time, although awful things have happened to us I still feel as if we are on the quickest path to peace.
Jarom gently wrapped his arm around me and pulled me close to him. I looked at him and his eyes were still closed. I smiled and gave into the comfort that Jarom gave me.
I closed my eyes and let sleep take over.