On the outskirts of one of Balwar Kingdom’s villages, Zuriel and his soldiers were fighting off the invading enemy that had launched a sudden attack toward the village they were staying at. Zuriel shoved his sword into an enemy soldier and then yanked out slicing his sword at another invading enemy soldier. Zuriel was sweating as he swung his sword in different directions toward the enemy, connecting with flesh and blood.

            Zuriel leapt back from an enemy attack and glanced at his other soldiers who were beginning to falter in their movements. Zuriel gritted his teeth and then jumped back again yelling, “Fall back!”

            His men obeyed, running toward the village, but then the enemy began to fire stones covered in flames at them. Zuriel managed to smack one stone away with the flat of his sword, but to his horror, the flames of the stone began to spread along the grass at a rapid pace. Zuriel dashed away avoiding the rising flames as did his men.

As the flames grew closer to him and to the village, he felt that it was coming to an end and that Balwar Kingdom was finished, but then he heard the sounds of horns followed by the feel of a wave of water covering the flames. He glanced back as did his men and saw at the hills closes to the village a whole army of navy blue approaching with swords drawn, magicians with the different elements surrounding them, and archers in the trees. They seemed like heaven sent to the exhausted Zuriel and his men.

At the head of this huge army sat Shuyu on top of his white stallion and armor with the dragon grasping a ruby seal, the symbol of Azseldo Kingdom. Shuyu drew his blade and directed it toward the enemy soldiers with a smirk on his lips.

“ATTACK!”

The soldiers of the army charged down the hills toward the enemy, while the archers fired their arrows from a distance and the magicians summoned the elements to assist the soldiers. In a matter of moments, the army was upon the enemy soldiers.

Screams from the fight echoed throughout the area as Zuriel and his men stared in disbelief. Zuriel heard the footsteps of a horse and glanced over his shoulder, only to see Shuyu riding up to him. Zuriel and Shuyu met eyes as Shuyu descended his horse.

“By the look on your face, I believe that the messenger of your king never reached you,” stated Shuyu. Zuriel shook his head and asked, “You made an alliance with my father’s kingdom?” Shuyu nodded and then smirked adding, “With the promise that I get to marry your sister.”

Zuriel’s eyes widened as he muttered, “A promise of marriage for an alliance?” Shuyu nodded and then mounted his horse again. He smirked at Zuriel saying, “Let’s end this war together, brother-in-law.” Zuriel frowned saying, “You’re not my brother-in-law yet.” With those words, Zuriel and Shuyu charged toward the enemy side by side with their swords drawn.

Back in the castle of Balwar Kingdom, a few days after the turn of the war in Balwar Kingdom’s favor, Yanira, wearing a short sleeved green shirt and brown pants with brown shoes, was climbing up the outer walls of the castle with his bow and quiver over her right shoulder. She gripped the thick stones of the wall and pulled herself up, while pressing her feet firmly on the edges of the stone for support. She soon reached the top of the wall, pulling herself up and sat on the edge with her kegs dangling over the side. Yanira smiled looking across the horizon of the kingdom that was bathed with the rays of the rising sun.

The sun was a reminder to her that the war was finally in their favor since the alliance was made with Azseldo Kingdom. Their army had increased thanks to the support of Azseldo Kingdom and villagers were finally finding refuge for the long war. Her wish for the war to come to an end was slowly coming true.

Yanira noticed a seagull flying overhead and immediately jumped to her feet and loaded her bow. She aimed at the seagull and then released. The arrow whistled through the air before connecting to the heart of the seagull. The death was instant making the lifeless seagull fall from the sky.

Yanira then held two fingers to her lips and muttered, “Irmazu No Kayishu Fibimi Sino.” The wind began to encircle her and then rushed toward the falling seagull. The wind enveloped the seagull and then delivered it to Yanira. Yanira grabbed the dead seagull as the wind began to settle around her. Yanira giggled saying, “The spells of the priestess are really easy.”

Yanira suddenly heard Lucina calling her name and glanced down to the inner wall of the castle. Lucina was glaring up at her with her hands on her hips. Yanira smiled saying, “Hello, Lucina.” Lucina groaned yelling, “Don’t ‘hello’ me. I keep telling you to wait in your chambers until I retrieve you and don’t tell me it is because I took too long again!”

Yanira puffed her cheeks saying, “But I wanted to try some spells and the sunrise was very beautiful today.” Lucina sighed placing a hand on her forehead.

“I know you have mastered some of the spells in such a short time, but please consider that you are still young and still need training.”

“I know that, but it’s fine for me to be a kid sometimes,” stated Yanira. Lucina rolled her eyes and began to mutter the same words Yanira did to summon the wind in her aid. The wind lifted Lucina up raising her up to Yanira’s level. Lucina stepped onto the stone wall before Yanira making the wind disperse.

“Being a child is good and all, but I am old and need you to learn as much as you can when you are still young,” stated Lucina. Yanira sighed and nodded. Lucina smiled and sat Yanira down.

“I thought today’s lesson should be about marriage,” stated Lucina. Yanira tilted her head.

“Marriage?”

Lucina nodded and pulled out a rolled up scroll from her baggy red sleeve. She unrolled it and showed the words upon it to Yanira.

“This is an ancient scroll of the priestess lineage concerning marriage. Unlike the royals, who are engaged by the parents’ wishes, priestesses, such as me, are meant to marry our soul mates.”

“Soul mates?”

Lucina nodded, continuing.

“Soul mates are people who are meant to be together since they are born. This connection is so strong that nothing can split them apart, not even death.”

Lucina pointed at a heart symbol with two dove wings in the center and stated, “This mark will appear on the person meant for you and only soul mates can see each other’s mark.” Yanira touched the mark in the scroll and then looked at Lucina asking, “When will I meet my soul mate?”

“When the time is right. In my case, I met my soul mate when I was seventeen during the festival grain season, sadly he passed away when we were twenty from the black illness, but after him, I have never married again and he is forever my one and only true love.”

Yanira smiled saying, “It sounds really romantic.” Lucina nodded and then frowned adding, “There is a word of caution though. If someone, not your soul mate loves you deeply and true then he will see your soul mate mark as well, but you will know he is not your soul mate since the soul mate mark won’t appear on him. Be careful of this since this could mean harm to you.” Yanira nodded in understanding.

Yanira placed a hand to her chest asking, “Where would the mark appear?” Lucina smiled and pointed at Yanira’s chest where her heart beats.

“Over your heart of course,” stated Lucina and then closed the scroll and stuffed it back into her sleeve. She looked over at the sun rise in the distance and then added, “You’re still young, so you have all the time in the world to find your soul mate.” Yanira nodded with a smile.

Lucina smiled as well, but her smile faded as she looked deeper into the distance. Lucina narrowed her eyes and pointed forward asking, “Tell me Yanira, what do you see in the distance?” Yanira narrowed her eyes looking in the direction Lucina pointed out and then gasped.

In the distance, fast approaching, were soldiers on feet or riding black horses waving a flag that held a silver falcon with an emerald in its talons, the symbol of the Chuluan Kingdom. Wind mages hovered over the army and at the head of this army was the King of Chuluan Kingdom, Neelam Sarari, wearing armor with the symbol of Chuluan Kingdom on the chest plate.

Yanira sprung to her feet with wide eyes saying, “How did the enemy get so close to the castle?” Lucina stood up as well placing a hand on Yanira’s right shoulder.

“I don’t know, but we must warn your father quickly,” stated Lucina urgently. Yanira nodded and was ready to leave with Lucina, but paused when she saw blades made of wind heading directly toward them. Yanira forced Lucina to duck as the wind blade whistled pass above their heads. The wind blade connected to a pillar of the castle and then vanished into thin air. Yanira panted from the rushed adrenaline as did Lucina and then heard a sarcastic chuckle from above. Yanira peeked upward only to see a male wind mage hovering before the wall of the castle facing them.

The wind mage wore deep purple long sleeved shirt with the Chuluan Kingdom Symbol sewed into the right of his sleeve and raven black pants matched with sturdy boots. Unlike the other wind mages’ brown hair, his was a deep blue like that of a cloudless sky and long enough to reach the mid of his back. His eyes were equally as blue and the crescent moon scar on his forehead was affirmation that he was indeed a wind mage, if the wind surrounding his body wasn’t enough. He looked around his twenties based on his young features.

The wind mage smirked at them as the wind increased around him.

“Who would have thought that I would meet others besides the look outs?” mocked the wind mage. Lucina stood up quickly pushing Yanira behind her.

“You are part of Chuluan Kingdom, are you not?” demanded Lucina. The wind mage nodded placing his right hand to his chest as he spoke.

“My name is Erion Bevaluri of Chuluan Kingdom and I have come to end Balwar Kingdom.”

Lucina narrowed her eyes and stated, “This is madness. The war leaned to our side when we made the alliance. Going straight for the kingdom’s castle is cowardly.”

The wind mage, Erion, chuckled as the wind increased around him.

“Cowardly? Cowardly was making an alliance without Chuluan Kingdom’s knowledge. Our kingdom is meant to win this war and if it means doing a surprise attack then so be it.”

The wind erupted from Erion’s form pushing Lucina and Yanira back. Lucina glanced at Yanira and whispered, “I need you to go and warn your father now.”

Yanira nodded and stepped back falling over the edge of the castle wall to the inner castle. Yanira held her hands together tossing her bow over her back and muttered, “Irmazu No Kayishu Fibimi Sino.” The wind wrapped Yanira slowing down her fall and placing her gently on the ground. Yanira then took off running into the castle.