The silence of the room following the water show was suffocating as all three of them stood with gloom on their faces. However, the silence was eventually broken by Rayne's voice. 

"So...Where did she go?" She carefully asked the room. 

Tarot looked at Rayne before letting out a long sigh. "She went to war Rayne...She knew she wasn't coming back." They said with grief in their eyes. Rayne approached Tarot hoping to give some consolation only to be pushed aside as Tarot quietly thanked Melimisia and left the cavern with heavy shoulders. Rayne stays behind with concern on her face as she watches them walk away. "I should give them some time alone, right Mel..?"She looks back at Melimisia and asks.

Melimisia looks back at her and nods in agreement. She then retreats back to the depths of the cavern pool as Rayne walks back to the main hall, glancing at the cavern exit before leaving the room and sighing.

.

.

.

A day passes and Tarot has returned to the cavern and is now quietly sitting on a chair in the main hall, Rayne watching them from the side of the room.

 Agnus enters yelling out, "Alright team! Gather up, I have a plan, Gin might you go and fetch Aina please..." Agnus requests. Gin sighs, obediently getting off their console and leaving to go get the healer.

 A few minutes go by as everyone gathers around the table in the main hall. Agnus takes a sip of his coffee before beginning, "So, my wonderful team--I have come up with what I believe to be a solid strategy for our mission, I have assigned each and every one of you a role for this endeavour," He pauses and continues, "Gin, you will use your skills to find out the schedule of the ship moving between the two cities and figure out where and when the ship will be leaving for Valoport. Rayne, you are the only one with flight abilities as my mechanical wings would make too much of a ruckus so you will scout ahead and inform us of the amount of Eternals guarding the area, Tarot will join you on foot. Corey and I will make up some disguises for you demons to use to enter the ship without alerting the surrounding guards and rescue the unwanted inside the ship. After you have succeeded you will use this whistle specifically made by Melimisia that will mimic her singing and distract the Eternals so that you may be able to sneak past them and regroup with Aina who will be on standby in the nearby forest area, in case any of us get hurt and to guide the unwanted to our camp. As soon as the last unwanted have been rescued, Corey and I will join you and knock out the ship guards, once this has been achieved, Aina will use one of her elixirs to wipe the memories of the eternal guards and you are free to leave, but remember, as soon as you reach the shore of Valoport, you must keep your disguises on until you find the Warden..." He pauses again and warns. "If your disguises fail and you get caught by an eternal, then I cannot guarantee you will survive, as we will be unable to lend you our strength when you have crossed the border." 

The two demons nod understanding the severity of the mission. "We will commence the mission tonight, work as a team and we will all stay safe." He ends his speech, everyone nodding in agreement and starting to prepare for the operation. 

.

.

Rayne glances at Tarot who is searching through their shoulder bag. "Hey, Tarot." She quietly says, standing further away than usual. Tarot turns to her and responds with a distant expression, "Hey." Rayne walks a bit closer, looking at their bag. "You have everything you need for tonight? It's gonna be a tough time..." She asks them. Tarot gives her a contemplative smile in response handing her a small knife. "This is for you, I brought extra in case I lost mine." Rayne looks at the knife with a pensive expression on her face and speaks, "...No I'm good, weapons aren't really my forte." She chuckles nervously.

 Tarot watches her face and puts the knife back in their shoulder bag. "...Alright then, it'll be here for emergencies." They give her a pat on the shoulder. The two stand in brief silence, Rayne once again breaking the quiet, "So Tarot...What happened earlier?" She awkwardly pauses and continues. "Well...Are you okay? You seemed down after what Mel showed us..." She carefully lays down the question.

 Tarot looks at her feeling sombre but quickly regains their composure and answers with a trying smile, "...I'm fine, you don't need to worry about me, I just went for a walk to clear my head." Rayne looks at them lips thin and firm with concern and speaks with a stern tone, "No you're not Tarot, I saw the way your eyes looked when you pushed my arm aside, you were angry--And it's okay to be angry, hell if this was about my brother I would be angry too..." She puts her hand on Tarot's shoulder and gives them an empathetic smile,

 "-We're friends, sure we haven't known each other for long but we decided to do this together, so don't lie to me, shouldering everything on your own...It's not right, we're a team after all--you can lean on me when you're feeling overwhelmed." Tarot meets her eyes tightening their jaw muscles with anxiety, scanning her face for a moment, they let out a breath giving in, "...Alright...You win--I was angry. I was angry at the world for taking my mother away from me before I could even get to know her properly- I was angry at the fires and whoever was responsible for them- Angry at my dad...And most importantly angry at myself for not being able to convince her to stay with me--I'm sorry for leaving you in the dark; I really am, sometimes it just feels like I can't keep it together, it feels like there's something inside me that will take control if I let it and I'm scared of it hurting the people around me that I care for..." Tarot looks at Rayne with compliance who's facing them with wide eyes. "-But I'll try. I really will...I appreciate your friendship Rayne-- More than you know." They say holding eye contact. 

Rayne looks into Tarot's eyes for a moment taking in what they told her, feeling all their emotions at once, tears build up in her eyes and she pulls Tarot into a tight comforting hug, shutting her eyes so as to not let the tears fall, Tarot lets themself be pulled into the hug and calmly holds onto her, listening to her voice; 

"...Thank you for telling me about this Tarot, I'll be here to lend you my shoulder anytime." She sniffles out. Tarot smiles into her shoulder tightening their grip on her and giving out a responsive hum. 

A moment goes by before they pull apart from each other's arms, Rayne rubbing her eyes with a small giggle, "So, you ready for our quest tonight?" She asks.

"Sure am." Tarot smiles in response. 

.

.

.

Night comes and the refugee camp is bustling with the now 7 members of the team about to start tonight's mission. Gin had researched and located the ship to be leaving Windrip within the hour and Rayne had scouted ahead and confirmed a handful of Eternal guards circling between the pier and the ship heading to Valoport with Tarot watching out for her on the ground.

.

.

 Agnus and Corey enter the cavern pool room where everyone is waiting with the disguises for Tarot and Rayne, "Here you are demons, one half-eternal disguise and one full-eternal disguise, both tried and tested--Well at least twice, good luck!" Agnus hands them the disguises.

 "How do they work? And why is one just half-eternal..?" Rayne asks him with confusion.

"The disguises function by merging with your body as soon as you press this button on the side of the briefcases, once you are safe and want to reverse the transformation, you can just press it again and it will morph back...As for why just one half-eternal disguise, well, we ran out of materials..." He pauses and sighs before continuing, "-But do not worry! As long as you look like you have some eternal in you, you should not come across anyone who has a problem, just do not let them look at you for too long..." He finishes with a bright smile and a supportive pat on both of their shoulders leaving them stunned. 

"...Which one you wanna be?" Tarot questions Rayne. "Uhh...I guess the full one? I mean I do have blue hair which would be difficult to hide with the other disguise..." She responds after considering. "You're right, I'll take the half one then, should we put them on now?" Tarot asks the room. 

"Anytime you're ready," Aina responds with a small smile. "Okay..." Rayne mumbles under her breath and presses the button. Her appearance transforms, her horns disintegrating into thin air and ears becoming less pointy, her hair changing colours into a reddish-brown as well as her sharp teeth becoming less so, plus some added details such as the shape and colour of her headpiece and jewellery changing to a warmer tone. "Woah..." She looks at herself through the reflection of the pool water in awe. "This is so weird..." She mumbles. 

Tarot does the same and presses the button on the side of their briefcase, their horns also disappear but their hair colour remains the same as well as their ears stay normal, their clothing palette changes to a neutral colour palette rather than the darker colours they were before and their crown now morphing into a ring on their right-hand thumb instead of on their head, followed by their eyes becoming brown instead of the striking yellow they were before. They join Rayne by the water, studying their new appearance,

 "Woahhh...Wait why did my eyes change but Rayne's didn't, Isn't this supposed to be the unfinished disguise?" They ask confused.

 "...Since yellow eyes are considered to be quite of an abomination in the Eternal Kingdom, not to mention a sign of a higher ranking non-eternal being and well...Blue eyes are not, in fact, blue and brown eyes are extremely common amongst the Eternals these days, it is no surprise it would choose to substitute your eye colour with a more common one," Agnus responds with a shrug before gathering everyone around for one last speech.

 Rayne and Tarot give each other a glance before joining him. Agnus claps to gain everyone's attention, "Okay team! This is the real deal, in just a few minutes we will start our expedition to get back our people from the clutches of the Eternals, as well as cooperate with our temporary teammates to allow them a safe journey using the ship to Valoport, I expect everyone to be alert and careful tonight, do not stray from each other and keep each other safe, you are dismissed!"

The room clears in a swift movement, Gin being the only one staying at the camp to provide support through comms.

.

.

Rayne and Tarot are hidden behind some shrubbery near the ship with a few Eternals guarding the entrance, "Are you ready for this Rayne? You have to take the lead." Tarot expresses with a supporting hand on her shoulder. "Yeah I'm ready, we got this." She answers determined to succeed.

 They begin calmly walking towards the ship's entrance, passing some unsuspecting guards along the way, and reaching the pier. Tarot leans towards Rayne quietly whispering "Be cool..." Rayne gives them a glance and nudges their shoulder with hers, "I am being cool." She whispers back. They reach the entrance, meeting two, blue-eyed eternal guards with warm-toned and white-coloured wings staring down at them with cold expressions, one of them speaks. "Pass please." She says holding her palm out. 

"Shit," Rayne whispers under her breath in panic. "You got this..." Tarot pulls on her hand shuffling closely next to her. She looks up at the guard and starts mumbling, "Uhm...Well--The thing is, we uh lost ours- On the way here, it was terrible! Really! What happ-" She raises her voice but the guard stops her before she can continue. "Yeah whatever, I don't care, just go on in." The guard sighs, "Young ones these days...Spoilt by their parents..." The guard turns to her partner who agrees with a shaking head.

.

 "Alright we're in, we should find where they're holding the Unwanted...Gin said the holding cells should be below the deck, do you wanna split and search?" Tarot asks Rayne whose heart is still beating fast from the guards. "Rayne..!--You'll be okay, take a deep breath..." Tarot brings her eyes towards them with a hand holding hers. "...Yeah--Sorry, yes let's split, but remember what Agnus said, meet back here once you find anything okay?" Rayne reminds them and requests. "Yes, sounds good, see you in a bit." Tarot gives Rayne a quick squeeze of her hand and leaves to explore as Rayne does the same in the opposite direction. 

The ship is filled with citizens of the Eternal Kingdom, Eternals, Elves and Seaborne, each bearing gloomy expressions aside from the children who are beaming with joy, it being the first time they've been on a ship. 

Tarot enters the deck below through the west end of the ship. The halls are long as the ship sways slowly with the water, they look around trying to not draw too much attention to themself, checking different doors and hatches leading to storage rooms and spaces, a few minutes of this go by as they have yet to find the right one and are becoming increasingly frustrated. "Seriously..? Still no luck--What time is it..?" Tarot whispers to themself checking a nearby clock. "HALF!?-Oh no." They accidentally yell out in surprise and quickly quiet down after receiving some suspicious looks from nearby citizens. "I gotta find Rayne-" They turn around to go back upstairs but get stopped by two seaborne passengers, a tall one with lighter scales and a shorter one with darker scales, "What's with the ruckus little eternal..?" The tall one of the seaborne hisses at them asking. "Yeah, what are you sneaking around for?" The shorter one asks with a menacing tone. Tarot grows anxious as the seaborne questions them and tries to swiftly exit the situation, "I uh- I lost my friend..." They say making up a not-entirely false lie. "Uhuh...Never seen an eternal with ears like yours." The shorter one comments with a leer. "So...Where are you and your 'friend' off to?" The taller seaborne presses and circles around Tarot like a snake. Tarot jumps nervously watching his slithering movements, eyes darting towards the staircase to the deck before answering with a slightly trembling voice. "...We're going to see an acquaintance in the capital, I-I really have to go...I'm sure you're nice people and all bu-" They get cut off by the taller seaborne grabbing hold of their face with his long sharp nails, "-I heard the heir to the unwanted throne had left the palace..." They pause, slowly tracing the scar with their nails, "Weirdly enough you seem to share their unique scar...Well~" He remarks with a chuckle."-Must be a coincidence...We won't keep you any longer little one." He says with an unsettling look in his eyes and lets go of their face, leaving a slight cut on Tarot's jaw from their nails. Tarot winces avoiding his eyes and backing away, "R-Right..." Tarot anxiously responds and hurriedly leaves up the stairs, wiping away the drop of blood running from their jaw down their neck. 

.

. 

TBC