A/N As some of you may know I'm also on the SQ fandom and I spent last week and a half finishing a collab with the amazing misslane so I couldn't write down this chapter until the start of this week and exams and real life happened so until today I haven't had the opportunity to end up the last lines of this chapter. (So, so sorry)
I know that I'm taking it slow and you want as much interactions between Eretria and Amberle as possible. I promise that those won't be taking long, I just need a few more chapters to settle everything I imagine could be going on after the season finale happened. But I will be writing things about them soon enough ;)
However, if you don't want to wait I'm open to short princess rover prompts over my tumblr (shadowdianne) in case some want to see sweet fluff or lewd smut from these two ;)

Three

The place was as empty as the druid had asked the servants to be and just the barely there sunlight of the first hours of the evening illuminated the room as Allanon stood in the middle of it, eyes downcasted to the bed where Bandon had been until a few days ago.

Sighing, the druid walked towards the mattress and sat at the edge of the bed, his hands hanging limpidly between his ankles as he let his mind wander, trying to find the connection of the one who had been his disciple. The effort made him frown, the tattoos and marking on his neck and temples becoming more pronounced for a second.

"Are you still trying to find him?" A feminine voice broke his concentration, making him blink away from the speck of magic he always felt before his conscience turned up empty. Turning and looking at the sleep-deprived looking elf that stood bravery at the other side of the bed he found himself shaking his head once, strength drained from him.

"More like trying to sense him" He finally said as Catania fully entered the room and sat next to him, the clothes she wore hanging around her body in the same way her eyes seemed dull and lacking of energy. "But I was never able to read his mind and that's making the task even more difficult"

"Perhaps is for the best" The young elf replied, skin between her eyes creased as she enunciated the words, the skin around her lips equally wrinkled and the druid closed his eyes for a second as the words of Pyria came back to him. A second time in too few hours for his liking "He said he needed to go"

The druid hummed at that and eyed the blonde elf once again, noticing the signs of lack of sleep along with something that shone on those eyes, regret.

"You aren't responsible for what happened to him" He said slowly, his voice echoing through the empty room as it reached Catania's ears. The elf smiled sadly before taking a gulp of air. Her voice the next thing that followed Allanon's.

"I helped him"

"So did I" The druid replied and the two of them let silent fall between them, not knowing what else to say about the young elf boy.

Catania was the first to speak, her voice soft and tired and yet full of a barely contained sadness that made Allanon want to close his eyes. "I found King Ander on the Ellcrys room, I wanted to be with…" A second, doubt ebbing between the words "Amberle, but he said that he wanted to talk with her"

"He is waiting for her to talk to him" The druid replied and his clothes felt much more heavy than what they were, constructing his chest for a second as he feigned ignorance.

"She won't, will she?" Catania replied just as quickly, her body finally facing Allanon who found himself speechless with the amount of loss that shone on the woman's pupils, the carefully braided hair of the servant glowing like a halo with the aid of the last ray of sun that seemed to bath the room. "That's why he seemed upset when I asked for you"

"You asked for me?" The question alone seemed strange on the druid's lips as Catania nodded once, eyes still trained on his.

Allanon eyed the woman for a long second before nodding to himself, his carefully selected words filling the air between them. "Ander and I… had a talk a few hours ago" He admitted "And what I told him wasn't something he wanted to hear"

"She isn't coming back" Catania whispered, her hands hugging her midriff, her back now slowly bending, the posture she had so thoroughly learned during her times as the princess servant gone. "Is she?"

Allanon found himself questioning if he should really keep lying, the words pushing between his lips after the way Ander had reacted. "Only time will tell. The Ellcrys is a powerful being, one that needs to be intertwined with an elf subconscious. There is no way of telling how much of Amberle will be back once she finally… returns"

Catania stared at the man for a long moment, eyes turning from dulled to angry as they sparked with recognition only to settle back on hurt as the druid kept silent in front of her, eyes glowing on their own with tiredness. "You knew that"

"I had my suspicions" He provided "The Ellcrys is not something that we know much about, no records had been taken from it ever since we first created it and even the magic that involved the whole process is something that today I can't really comprehend, not like the druids before me did"

The elf hummed at his only response and played with her fingers, words still visible on her eyes as she eyed him. "A few days ago" She finally admitted "I went to… her and I talked. There was…. Something for a second. As if she had heard me"

"Perhaps she did" The druid provided, not knowing what else to say. There were too many things that he could though, but most of them were prepared to kill however hope the young woman in front of him may harbor. And for what he had already done he refused.

"There you have Pyria" He found himself thinking "Not playing anymore"

"Bandon will sooner or later do something that will make him vulnerable to my tracking spell" He finally said instead "When that happens I will be able to tell you where he is"

Catania blinked slowly at the revelation, standing and approaching the door once again, the room divider shuddering when she touched it as she steadied along it. "Good" She whispered quickly. "Thank you"

Allanon nodded at that, unsure if he had said the right thing for the blonde elf.

"The king also told me that you are supposed to attend the next meeting with the Council" The girl informed him and her voice had grown tired and far older than her years. "He said that if I was able to find you, you were due to report back to him as soon as you were able"

"I will be there then" The man allowed with a curt nod, standing as tall as he was and approaching the elf who just nodded and exited the room, casting one last glance to the bed where the two of them had been seated.

The druid just followed her, not wanting to think once again on the losses that he could feel in the air every time he walked down the castle's aisles. Darkness settled on the room behind them once the door was tightly closed.

Amberle frowned, the beach in front of her far too bright for her mind. Mind that didn't seem as fuzzy as it had been before.

With a start she turned to look around her, an endless projection of salted water and sand the only thing that welcomed her.

"There you are" She heard at her back, her own eyes staring back at her when she turned, naked feet taking a step backwards when she realized what she was looking at.

"Ellcrys"

The other elf nodded as she casted a soft lopsided smile, eyes lost now on the horizon in front of them, the perpetual light of the beginning of the day, violet and cold gold grazing her skin.

"Is quite a relaxing place here" She answered after a few seconds of silence, the sound of the waves seeming to caress her words as she spoke. Wind blowing softly between the lose- fitting dress both Amberle and she seemed to wear; white and with an infinite amount of pleats.

"Is that why we are here?" The princess found herself asking, her voice strange as she work with her vocal cords, something that seemed to have been too long since she had last tried them.

The Ellcrys hummed and sighed, taking her gaze away from the water and back to the elf, one brow arching in a movement that seemed to have been taken drown from one of Amberle's mirrors as perfect as it was.

"We are here because your mind seemed troubled" She finally answered truthfully, her words laced with a strange accent the princess didn't seem able to recognize "We couldn't remain merged and so I thought that you would need the perspective of time"

"Merged?" The word seemed wrong and Amberle tilted her head to one side, the memories of what had happened before the battle floating inside of her mind. Widening her eyes she felt a jolt cursing down her bones, the same feeling she had felt back when she had first met the Ellcrys.

"Merged" The Ellcrys repeated succinctly "Your mind seems more at ease now. Is always a complicated moment for the subconscious to accept the fate you took"

Amberle frowned at such words, feeling once again the same strange bubbling thought she had grown accustomed to be clouding her judgement. More of herself being suckled by the girl who looked like her but still wasn't.

"Please" She found herself pleading, the dark abyss of nothing returning, her, she, the other one grinning as their minds turned once again into one.

"Just a little more time" The Ellcrys whispered.

The words made the princess swallow in fear, years and thoughts scrambled now, bubbles of thought forming behind her eyelids, closed for some reason. Names losing their meaning.

Except one.

"We promised that we will be back" She found herself thinking, the connotations of the "we" lost on her.

"Wait!"

A scream that fell voiceless, a last pull that seemed to made the leaves at the other side tremble.

"Amberle?" Ander whispered glass on his left hand, liquor sloshing as he moved quickly towards the tree's trunk, the bark as warm as usual but as silent as well.

"Run!"

The scream echoed on almost every trunk of the forest as two elves found themselves running while trying not to fall on the slippery slopes the hill they were in had. Mud and dirt splashed beneath their boots and as Wil tried to keep breathing steadily he soon found out he was starting to feel tired, her lungs asking for a recess.

"Perk!" He exclaimed as the other boy at his side fumbled with the many pockets he had, extracting one object from one of them as they kept running. Behind them the scream and grunts of trolls swallowing their voices

"Just give me a minute!"

The forest was still dark enough for them to feel unsure on where they needed to step, their eyes not seeing anything else but the quickly passing shadows of forest and what the blond half-elf hoped to be just mere rocks. Licking his lips while clutching the bag he usually had hanging around his neck he felt the weight of the stones against the palm of his hand, wishing once again to be able to command the power at will.

"We really don't have a minute!" He asked glancing backwards where the stench and heavy footsteps of the trolls made him swallow.

They had spent almost one day and a half trying to find the clearing and structure that signaled the beginning of the tunnels, Wil's intricate yet more or less spot on description about the place having led them to one extreme of the forest, two hours away from where the half-elf calculated Utopia had stood once. They hadn't flight close enough to actually see if the city was intact but considering what had happened the blond had been reluctant to be apprach the place. Just in case.

The rest, as the forest had just thickened around them, had been decided by Perk to do it by foot. The young rider heavily interested on seeing such a great structure of what undoubtedly was something from the Old days.

Wil hadn't had any problems, thankful that he wasn't doing the travel alone anymore. Thoughts about both Amberle and Eretria filled his mind and even if he had tried to get a hold on Amberle's subconscious, like Allanon had hinted he would be able to, just silence had come back from that connection.

Nervous, he had led Perk to the entrance of Safehold, looking morosely at the place where the remains of the fire they had lifted just a few days ago were still visible, ash and now cold dark pieces of tree's bark looking back at him as he pointed at the stairs that would eventually led them to the corridors he had last seen the rover girl in.

"We would need to walk to the left" He had started to whisper, the map he had created on his mind as best as he had been able while running away fresh on his mind. "Then we will just need to…"

He hadn't been able to finish that sentence, the roaring sound of a troll stopping both him and Perk on their tracks and making both the rider and himself share a look of pure terror.

"Damn it"

And there they were, his horse had been left out next to where Perk had asked Genewen to wait for them and without it or the roc they had been forced to run, the quickly dimming light added to the fact they barely knew the place around them making it too easy for the trolls to spot them.

Fighting against the feeling of tiredness that threatened to overcome him and the beginning of what he was sure were going to be painful stabbing on one of his sides, he eyed the young elf at his side as the boy kept looking between the trees, waiting, expecting, for them to arrive at a point where the forest would open up enough for Genewen to heard them and flight towards were they were.

"There!" Perk screamed, his face lighting up as he pointed at one place at Wil's left, the light that shone there slightly less dark than the one that surrounded them. "There is an opening, if we can arrive there Genewen would be able to fly and..."

Wil opened his mouth to thank whatever karma or magic that seemed to have decided to be kind to them when he heard the troll's roar stronger than ever being responded for another that seemed to be slightly louder.

"They have asked for help" He realized, wheezing. He had become accustomed of running during the last weeks but the irregular floor of the forest was nothing but making everything harder and as he stomped on the leaves thick and soggy from the dampness that could be breathed on that part of the forest he found himself having troubles to keep with the slightly fitter elf at his side.

"Just a few more meters" Perk promised, his words lost when a screeching sound was heard and a shadow hovered over them just as they put a foot on the clearing, Wil almost falling but Perk quick enough to catch him.

Just as the roc soared Wil looked at the trolls at their feet, the creatures growling and screaming at them.

"Is strange" He found himself muttering "How quick they were"

"Trolls aren't as stupid as people think they are" The boy in front of him answered as he adjusted himself to Genewen's back, his hands falling comfortably at both sides of the roc's head.

The half-elf said nothing as he regained his breath but as he looked at the now far away figures he found himself nodding, the shadows of something that seemed to be the remains of a city illuminated now by the moon and making him look away in bitter regret.

"What are we going to do now?" Perk asked him sensing the dark mood the blond seemed to be immersed in.

Wil blinked at that, a part of her admitting somberly he hadn't thought to be possible to even be able to find Safehold once again.

"We could wait until day arrives and try to go inside" He offered, remembering that the beasts had seemed to be much more awake during nighttime. Perhaps they could try to use that to their advantage.

Perk, however, seemed uncomfortable with the idea and sighed, the back of his head the only thing Wil could see but enough for him to realize that what the rider was going to tell him wasn't going to be something he was going to probably enjoy.

"Perhaps we need help"

The words, screamed due to the wind that run around them reaching Wil ears as he moved forward on the roc's back.

"We can't leave her there" He argued but he knew that the rider was probably right; there was no way that having so many trolls down there entering and seeing if Eretria was still inside would be even possible.

"We won't" Perk argued "But you aren't useful to her dead"

Wil sighed and nodded, hoping that his silence was taken as his only answer. Apparently it did because the rider softly let Genewen move toward her left where a second clearing, bigger than the other one and far enough from the trolls to not be smelt by them, stood.

"We will see on the morning, yes?" The elf asked softly making Wil nod and close his eyes as the roc landed, his whole body trembled as he descended from it due to the brusque movement.

"We will see"

"Prove it"

The words were light, soft, full of banter, full of something she couldn't remember how to name it anymore.

And yet the memory of lips, of fingers grasping the back of her head, of slowly tightening clothes, making her fight against the fuzzy thoughts around her.

"Prove it"

Amberle frowned, she, no, the other her fuming inside of that part of her mind she didn't know she still had with her.

"We need to stay merged" She heard, a fact, a truth and as much as she understood that, the debt she had with the Elvish reigns as their princess there was another voice echoing there. A voice of a rover girl.

"Prove it"