Tarot wakes up to the distant sounds of cawing ravens outside their bedroom window, they get up from their bed with resistance and quickly dress themselves, a grey-coloured tailored undershirt with a black vest on top of it, and a necessity belt with pockets for gear. An outfit fitting for a disguise.

 They walk all the way down the very long hallways of the palace to the dinner hall and see the royal staff setting up their breakfast, the king sits at the end of the dinner table with a sneer and a stressed-out grimace, Tarot avoids his gaze and sneaks around leaving the room before their presence is known, they sigh in relief and finally make their way out of the palace with minimal attention. 

"Sorry Dad, I'm on a mission" They whisper to themselves before getting into a carriage.

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-The same morning at the Varis residence-

Rayne and her mother pace around the house searching for something, "Where is it?? I swear I had it on me just last night." Says Ilma. "Are you sure? I don't remember seeing it on you when we walked home. Maybe you just left it at home and it's laying on some random shelf here." Rayne tries. "No, because I remember having it, I'm sorry darling I know you said you have to be somewhere right now so you can go, I'll find it on my own, don't worry" Her mother shuffles around a cabinet, huffing with frustration.

 "Okay but mom, don't stress yourself out, I know the necklace you got from dad is important to you, but I'm sure it's here somewhere, and if not, I'll help you find it later, okay?" Her words of support manage to calm her mother down. "Okay, okay, just go already, you'll be late to your, whatever you're going to that you won't tell me," Ilma said with compliance.

"Thanks, Mom, love you, see you later!" Rayne waves to her mother with a smile on her face before closing the door and leaving the house. "Sorry Mom, I have a mission in hand" She whispers.

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-Hours later at the battle ruins of the Unwanted Kingdom-

Standing in the middle of a large ruin of what used to be an elegant and majestic building is the Unwanted royal heir Tarot, on one end and on the other end, the young and occasionally clumsy demon residing in the human world, Rayne. They walk towards each other in silence before stopping just two meters apart, one of them speaks.

 "Hi." Says Tarot.

 "Hi." Rayne smiles responding. 

There's silence until they both start giggling to themselves. 

"Why did we make this so awkward oh my god...." Rayne settles her giggling.

 "I don't know! I feel like we're pretty bad at this whole team" Tarot responds with a laugh. 

"Yeah, I guess we kinda are" Rayne chuckles. "Anyway, shall we start?" She asks. 

"Let's do it, I 'borrowed' this map from Keli, remember the Advisor?" Tarot says. 

"Yup, the stern guy with a pretty face," She remarks.

 "Umm- sure, yeah" Tarot shakes their head with a chuckle and continues. "So, this map is supposed to show the entirety of the Kingdom of the Unwanted but I tried to check for the building where the fire happened and for some reason, it's not here." They say with a puzzling look and look up to Rayne. "What do you think?" 

"Hmm, well..." She thinks for a moment. "Either this map is wrong, or, it's not there on purpose, now I'm guessing the chances of The Royal advisor with all his knowledge tolerating a defect of a map in his library are pretty slim, no?"

"Right? Keli has always been annoyingly thorough in his research and accuracy of the library, but I don't understand, if this map isn't flawed, then why is the building not on it?"

"Right, I don't think this map has any clues for us but just keep it, we might use it later, and besides, I have another clue in mind" Rayne quiets and her mouth curves into a smile.

 "...Don't keep me waiting Rayne, I hate cliffhangers." The royal heir says with frustration and nudges her. 

She laughs at them. "Alright, Okay!" She exclaims smilingly. 

"As I was saying, I was looking through the house with Mom today, searching for her lost necklace and even though we couldn't find her necklace, I still found something interesting... There are letters from refugee camp leaders all across the human world addressed to her, some spoke of rescue missions and tactics, except for one leader." She pauses for a moment and continues speaking.

"The letters received from this particular camp leader talked about mysterious fires set all across the world, they went on and on about 'finding proof' of them happening, but to the tone of the letters, it seems like they never found any." She ends her speech with a sigh. 

Tarot's eyes widen. "Rayne! That's huge! All we have to do now is to find this camp leader, no? What was their name?" They set their hands on Rayne's arms, shaking her with excitement.

 "Right...Well, that's sort of the problem, they didn't actually sign the letters, the only clue I have of them is in the last letter they sent, it says,

'Hope this letter finds you well, unfortunately, we can no longer work together, it has become much too dangerous for you Miss Ilma... However if you ever find yourself near the town of Windrip, please do let me know.

I sincerely hope this is not the end of our story. -Your loyal friend.' 

And that's the end of it. I think Windrip might be a good place to start if we're going to want to meet this friend." She glances at Tarot. 

"Well, gotta start somewhere and considering that's our only clue at the moment, I'm in.

 How the hell are we going to get there though?" Tarot raises an eyebrow. 

Rayne also raises an eyebrow at their question. "What do you mean? Don't we both have wings?" She says with confusion. 

 "Ah, shit, I forgot to tell you... I-- My wings don't work." Tarot mutters. 

"HUH!?" Rayne exclaims. "What do you mean they don't work??" She continues in surprise.

"I mean they do not work, it's like I don't even have them--They haven't come out ever since my mom died and besides I don't even know if I could use them even if they did, I've lived my whole life without the use of wings," Tarot explains.

Rayne looks at them with a dumbfounded look on her face. "...Oh" She quietly mumbles.

"Sorry..." She says with a sigh. "Well, guess we'll have to take the World train then, always wanted to see what that was about."

Tarot looks at her with a bewildered look. "What's the 'World train'?" They smile awkwardly.

"...You don't know?"

Tarot looks at her with a blank expression. "No?"

Rayne sighs. "Uhh...Okay--It's like this flying train for the beings who don't have flight powers, goes through all the kingdoms, they have a flight permit and everything, there's actually a hidden station not far from here.-"  She stops and looks at Tarot's face,

 "Have you, the royal freaking heir, really never heard of this before?-How is that possible." She asks them with a frown.

"Dude, I don't know what you're talking about...I mean...A flying train? Are you hearing yourself right now?" Tarot looks at her, eyes narrowing with suspicion.

"What's so weird about a flying train? We fly, don't we? Well, I do at least." She crosses her arms and looks to the sky with a sly grin.

"I guess...Whatever, if you say this is our best option for travelling to the human world, I'll come to see your 'magic train'." They say giving up with a shrug.

 "Right...Well, let's go then." Rayne turns around and sees Tarot way off in the distance.

"I'm already going!" Tarot yells out a response from afar. 

"You don't even know where the station is...Idiot." Rayne mumbles to herself with slight amusement.

Rayne and Tarot travel to the nearest World train station on foot which takes a couple of minutes.

"Well, we're here, I don't see your train around" Tarot looks around and scoffs.

"Be patient Tarot, it'll come, just wait." Rayne sits down on the side of a concrete block, rolling her eyes at them.

Tarot sits next to her with a frustrated sigh. "Fine."

 A few minutes go by and silence fills the air around them.

They sit in silence for a while until finally, a distinct sound of a train horn is heard. The sound gets closer and closer with every passing second and the two stand up to look for the source. 

"It's here!" Tarot screams with glee seeing the train lights at the station's end.

"I told you so." Rayne gives them a full smile and a warm hug. Tarot pats her back and slowly pulls away--maintaining eye contact, their shoulders slumping. 

They stay like that for a few seconds before pulling apart.

Rayne smiles at them and runs up to the train doors, Tarot soon follows.

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-to be continued-