Hi guys!

This chapter has been one of the central points in the creation of this story. I've been imagining and rewriting these scenes in my head for years, and to think that I am finally at this point in the story is both incredible and a little emotional. Thank you to everyone for sticking with me for so many years. We're getting very close to the end, so excuse me if I take a little bit of time to make sure every last detail is perfect.

Anyway, this is a long one, so I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!

Happy Writing!

xTAx

X

The trader was thin and elderly, but his eyes shined with the glee of a young boy. He led Yumi through the musty stables, showcasing each horse as if they were luxury jewels up for auction. Yumi tried to steady her breathing, but if one of the beasts would so much as sneeze, her skin would attempt to jump from her body.

When she was a young girl growing up in the Lucian court, she was required to spend a certain amount of hours training in the equine yard. Her mother had loved the creatures, so her father had sanctioned a whole acre of land to serve as a sanctuary for the best horses money and power could buy. Yumi recalled vivid memories of her mother seated on an old, wrought iron bench, still adorned in her riding gear, drawing sketches of the animals running through the verdant field.

Yumi, however, had never taken to the creatures as her mother had. They were too big, too powerful, especially for such a small girl. Though she was forced to spend hours mounted atop the beasts, she almost always demanded that her mother ride with her. Being at sea for the better part of a decade didn't help to ease her anxieties. Her sea legs had far replaced the ones that longed for the hard Earth and its inhabitants.

"-and this old girl here is the gentlest of them all. She's birthed nearly twelve foals in her lifetime, and I'm afraid they've taken a toll on dear Annie. She doesn't ride like she used to, but she can make a day's journey no problem; it just might take her a little longer to get there than some of the stallions near the front."

"She'll be perfect," Yumi interrupted. Though slower travel wasn't ideal, she would sacrifice some daylight to not be trampled by the mare.

"Excellent choice, my lady. Annie has been with me for many trips around the sun, and I can promise she'll get you to Kadic safely just as I can assure you the moon to arise after sun-fall." The man unlatched the bolt of the stable, reaching the lead to Yumi with a smile as if the two were the closest of friends. "Take her as long as you need. You can pay for the days she's gone once you return her home."

Yumi smiled, feeling refreshed to actually meet a Staphirian she didn't want to kill at first glance. "Many thanks, sir. I should have her back before sunrise tomorrow."

The man nodded, his smile growing bigger, if that were even possible. "Don't limit yourself with time, my lady. This side of the country has many beauties to explore. Set your adventure wherever you find, and just return her home when that adventure ends."

Yumi smiled politely as the man returned to mending to his charges. Yumi looked at Annie skeptically. She looked well stocked and healthy; the only indication of her age was in her back leg that seemed slightly weaker than the rest.

Looking up at the creature, Yumi suddenly felt like a seven-year-old again, starring up at an unclimbable mountain: a mountain that could run off and leave you crumpled amidst the dirt and whatever bones remained unbroken from the fall.

"Don't tell me that you have never ridden a horse before?"

Yumi turned on her heels to see a figure shrouded by the shadow of the stables and dressed in a mangy hood. Though he appeared a lanky stable hand, she would have recognized the subtle arrogance in his voice from a sea away. "I thought my orders for you to stay on the ship were abundantly clear," she crossed her arms.

"That they were, but as I understand it, pirates do not follow orders," he approached her, keeping his hood low on this forehead and slouching, ever so slightly, to give himself the appearance of being shorter. Yumi was impressed with the lengths he went to hide his appearance. Not that she could blame him; she had passed countless secondhand portraits of the former soldier pleading for information on his whereabouts, offering a mighty reward for such knowledge. Despite his disguise, Yumi couldn't help but ponder all the things the sketch artist had missed: the amber specs that colored his irises, the way his jaw was nearly always clenched, even when he was laughing, the way that no matter how long or disgruntled it may be, his hair always fell over his right eye.

"They do when they're given by their captain," she bit, trying to steer her attention away from his face and onto the bigger picture. "Why did you follow me?"

Ulrich stood near her side, tilting his head so that only she could see his face. "I thought you could use some backup."

"I can take care of myself. Regardless, I don't anticipate there to be any violence on this mission."

"Not like that. I know this is going to be hard for you. I just wanted to be here in case you needed someone."

Yumi was taken aback by his notion, but she could not help but feel grateful to not have to continue on her own. As much as she wanted to believe her journey would be simple, she couldn't deny that the idea of having someone there if things were to go south was comforting. The horse beside her began to stir and neigh restlessly, causing Yumi to flinch away from the beast. Ulrich gave a low chuckle to which Yumi glared. "Besides," Ulrich continued, "who else is going to guide this thing? If I hadn't come along, she may have just taken off without you."

"And I'm supposed to thank you for coming to my rescue?" the sarcasm spilling from her mouth like blood from a beast.

Ulrich maneuvered around her, effortlessly jumping onto the horse as if it were nothing more than a barstool. He extended his hand to her, "we can save the thank you's for later, if you would rather."

Yumi rolled her eyes, but took his hand, nonetheless. He hoisted her up behind him, and she cursed herself for the small squeal that arose from her throat. Ulrich chuckled under his breath, but before Yumi could chastise him, he kicked his heels against Annie's side. The horse sped off with purpose, and as the trees began to blur and the ground began to move beneath them, Yumi couldn't help but feel like her world was standing completely still.

X

The journey lasted just under a quarter of a day, but Yumi swore she spent years on the mare's back. She all but kissed the ground as Ulrich helped her down from the beast. They were nestled in a small forest outside the limits of Kadic. She could see the small town from their vantage point on the hill: green rooftops and chimney smoke kissing the horizon while small children danced the streets and farmers shared their seasonal spoils. It was such a pleasant and quaint town that it was hard to imagine that it belonged to the same country as the municipal they had just ridden from.

The hill before them was dotted with cottages, all spread enough apart to allow for vast gardening space and horse stables. The homes were all similar in design, but they were each distinguishable by the subtleties surrounding them. One home was littered with toys on the grass: wooden carved soldiers and makeshift swings tied to a tree with twine. Another was completely encompassed by shrubbery and rose bushes bloomed with reds and pinks.

"If I ever decided to leave the sea behind, I think I could enjoy it here," Yumi said. Admiring another home who seemed content on building its own forest around itself, she couldn't help but reflect on the permanence of living on the land. Whoever owned this home was nurturing trees, some just fragile twigs at the beginning of their lives and some massive with ripe apples hanging from their branches. The thought of living in one place long enough to see a tree grow to such lengths astounded her. The caretaker of these trees would have a mark left on this planet decades after their passing. She couldn't say she would have anything to leave once she was gone.

The two took another moment to take in the beautiful countryside before the task ahead of them began to settle into their minds. Yumi suddenly felt her chest tighten as the realization that she would soon find her mother settled into her blood. All the questions she had asked herself for years would finally be answered.

"It's hard to imagine someone as cruel as my mother's captor living in such a pleasant place," Yumi said.

"Things may not be as pleasant as they appear," Ulrich added, tying Annie to a nearby tree and feeding her a pear from his cloak. "The real problem is determining which of these cottages she could be in. Theremustbe four dozen on this mountain side."

Yumi continued observing the homes around her. It was quite overwhelming how many houses there were. It would be impractical to simply knock on every door, but that might be their only option.

The wind blew a gentle breeze, the long grass flowing like the waves of the ocean. As the breeze kissed Yumi's face, a sweet lemony scent assaulted her senses. She fought the urge to stumble back as she frantically began scanning the houses for the red flower.

"Yumi, what's wrong?"

"Tsubaki. It's a flower that's only native in the East. My mother use to pick them for me when we would take walks through the gardens. They are a symbol for love."

As if her body disconnected from her mind, Yumi began walking aimlessly through the grass. The scent of the flowers transformed her into a young girl again. She could almost feel her silk dress against her body caked in dirt as she bent over to pick another tsubaki for her father. She could almost hear her mother's humming and feel the warmth of her hand in hers as they walked back toward the castle for family dinner. The scent brought her mind to a safety that Yumi had not experienced since the night her father died. The scent felt like family, like love.

She continued walking, only semi-conscious of Ulrich following ever so quietly behind her, until she saw the small red flowers. They were seated in marble planters underneath the windows on either side of the cabin's door. The home was near the end of the hill, neighbored only by a stable house and a small coup of chickens. A small porch held two wooden rocking chairs and a small table with what appeared to be a pot of tea sitting on top. It seemed like such a normal, pleasant home.

Yumi made to move, when Ulrich suddenly grabbed her wrist, quickly running for the side of the stable.

"What are you-" Ulrich used his hand to silence her as they crouched in the shadows of the setting sun. He pointed to the house where Yumi could now see the door being opened.

A man in the middle of his life emerged. He was skinny with brown hair tied in a knot at the back of his head and a thin mustache that tickled his upper lip. He adjusted his round spectacles atop his nose and dusted the front of his casual tunic as he entered the orange glow of sun.

"That's the man who took my mother," Yumi growled under her breath, reaching for the pistol at her side.

Ulrich placed his hand over hers, willing her to release her holster. "We don't want to make a scene. We'll just wait for him to leave; then, we'll rescue your mother."

A distant voice called, and the gentleman, who Yumi assumed to be Mathieu Pichon, turned back toward the door with a smile.

Yumi's heart plummeted to her stomach, her breath losing itself in her chest. On the porch now stood an Eastern woman, her waist adorned in a stained kitchen apron, and a small child nibbling on a piece of sweet bread bounced at her hip. She couldn't help but notice that the child had hair as dark as the night and almond eyes that were eerily similar to her own. The woman approached the man, handing him some sort of dish wrapped in parchment. They exchanged words that she couldn't hear, and then the man brushed his lips against her mother's before making to leave the porch again.

"Follow me," Yumi faintly heard Ulrich whisper. As he took her hand and began stalking around the back of the stables for more shelter, she felt almost as if she were underwater. Her head was swimming in an ocean of confusion. Her body felt limp, as if her mind had taken on too much information and now it could not handle even the basic function of moving her legs. She allowed Ulrich to guide her behind a stack of hay, and her body collapsed against the golden fodder.

Ulrich crouched down next to her, listening for the sound of Mathieu mounting his horse and leaving for town. As the sound of the mare's gallop began to fade in the distance, Yumi became aware of her breathing, short and jagged. As if noticing the same, Ulrich turned to her, a positive gleam in his eyes that Yumi had yet to see before.

"Yumi, this is great! Your mother isn't a prisoner. She must have fallen in love with Mathieu while under the charge of his brother. He didn't flee the country to abduct her; he fled so that they could have a life together. They came here because the simple people of Kadic wouldn't know she was once the Empress of Lucia."

His words flowed over her like a ripple. She felt them against her skin, an attempt to coax her into a feeling of easiness. But her brain refused to understand his words. She could feel it shutting down inside her head, blowing out the candles of all the emotions she knew she should be feeling but couldn't. Ulrich took her hands and helped her to her feet, his smile growing wider by the second. "Come now, let's go meet her. I know she'll be elated to know you're alive."

Ulrich turned and walked only a few paces before he noticed Yumi was fixed at her spot, her feet just as planted as the roots of the trees around them. Her eyes were fixed on the cottage, but it almost seemed as if she was looking at something beyond the wooden walls. "I can't do this," she whispered to herself.

"What do you mean?" Ulrich blinked back his surprise as he starred at his captain, usually full of strength and confidence, shrinking beneath his gaze. "Yumi, we've come all this way. Everything that's happened to you for the last decade has led you to this moment; it led you back to your mother. You deserve to get to talk to her. She deserves to know you are alive-"

"She deserves peace. She deserves happiness. She's made a new life for herself: a better one from the looks of it." She crossed her arms over her chest, as if recoiling from a cold wind Ulrich couldn't feel. "I'm just a reminder of the pain and loss she's already moved on from."

"Shouldn't that be her decision to make?" He approached her, forcing her arms to uncross so he could take each of her hands in his. "Whether she has moved on or started another family doesn't change the fact that you are her family, too. Did your father and mother suddenly become removed from your heart when you met Odd and Thomas?"

"You don't understand." Yumi slipped her slender fingers from between Ulrich's. "I used to be her innocent little girl who enjoyed picking flowers and twirling in pretty dresses, and now I'm a pirate who wears slacks and shoots down men who oppose me. All I have ever brought is pain to everyone who gets close to me. I won't do it to her, too."

"You haven't brought me pain," Ulrich's gaze was intense as he starred into her eyes, silently pleading for her to awaken from her daze and heed his words.

Yumi slowly began to back away from him. "It's only a matter of time." She turned and began walking back in the direction of which they came. "Leave it alone, Mr. Stern. Take me back to my ship at once," she called over her shoulder, not even glancing to see if he was following.

X

Ulrich took Yumi immediately back to Serious. Their journey was silent, and she gave nothing but a slight nod when he said he would take Annie back to the stables himself. Before he departed, he pleaded with Theo to not leave the dock unless he hadn't returned before dawn and to not give Yumi any indication of where he was going, to which he reluctantly agreed.

When he arrived back at the stables, he exchanged the elder horse for a lean stallion, capable of making the ride back to Kadic in half the time. The wind bit his face as Ulrich kicked the beast, willing him to move faster. The sun was beginning its decent toward the horizon, and he knew it was only a matter of hours before Mathieu would return home. He held tightly to the reigns as the steed pushed himself further and faster.

In a matter of an hour, Ulrich was back on the hillside of Kadic, slowing the beast down to a trot as he casually made his way through the cottages and toward the house with the red tsubaki. He tied the horse to the porch of the home, not wanting to waste time walking from the forest, and bound up the stairs while the courage was still warm in his veins. He gave an urgent knock, adjusting his hood to hopefully not appear menacing.

The door opened, but nobody appeared. Ulrich looked around cautiously, then noticed the small boy from earlier, standing only as tall as Ulrich's kneecaps. He smiled big, his dark hair falling over his eyes as he craned his neck to look up at him. "Hiya, mister," the child attempted to say in his infantile speech.

Ulrich smiled down at the child, crouching down to his eye level. "Hey, buddy. Is your mom home? I'd really like to talk to her."

Before the child could reply, a woman's voice called from somewhere inside the cabin. "Hiroki, what have I told you about talking to strangers? Go to your room at once!"

The child hung his head, giving Ulrich one last half-hearted smile before retreating as his mother demanded.

A moment later, Akiko Ishiyama appeared at the door, and Ulrich was surprised at how his breath hitched in his throat. The resemblance between her and Yumi was unbelievable: same dark, mysterious eyes, raven hair the color of the night sky, and a scowl that could bring the mightiest of men to their knees. "Can I help you?" she asked, friendly but also guarded. Given both her and Mathieu's positions, he doubted they were one to host much company.

He slowly brought himself back to a standing position, forcing himself to focus and take a deep breath to ease his nerves. "Hello, Queen Ishiyama?"

The Eastern woman looked taken aback. "I am most certainly no queen, sir. I'm afraid you have the wrong house," she gave a tight smile before beginning to close the door.

"Wait, please, my lady." Ulrich caught the edge of the door with his hand. "I promise I mean you no harm." When she opened the door slightly more, Ulrich removed his cloak from his head. "I've traveled a long way to find you, and I'm afraid I cannot leave until we speak."

She examined his face carefully, "I recognize you. You're the boy from the posters all over the city: the boy who ran away with the princess."

So that's the story, Ulrich thought to himself. "Yes, my lady, but my business does not concern the princess or the crown or even myself. It's about your daughter Yumi."

The former empress' face turned horrifyingly pallid, as if she were standing before a ghost. Her expression was troubled, torn between distrust for the words he was saying and elation that they could actually be true. She took a moment to peak at the houses around her, before stepping hesitantly to the side. "Please, do come in."

X

"If I may be so bold, sir, this is awfully cruel," Mrs. Ishiyama scolded, pouring herself a cup of tea. She held the pot toward Ulrich, but he declined politely. He sat on the edge of a leather chair across from the oriental settee where Mrs. Ishiyama sat. "My daughter died ten years ago, as I'm sure you know. So, what is it you desire: money, information? I can promise you I have neither."

"I can assure you my intentions are not cruel." He reached into his trouser pocket and produced a folded piece of parchment. He turned the paper over in his hand several times, remembering the day on the beach when Yumi gave it to him. "The princess and I found ourselves aboard a pirate vessel called Serious. The ship was captained by a young Eastern woman who went by the name Yumi Della Robbia."

"Della Robbia," she whispered softly. "That was the name of a man we once knew. My late husband would sometimes engage in other business ventures not permitted by the crown. Thomas was one he spoke of fondly."

Ulrich nodded, "Thomas made a mission for himself in adopting lost children and giving them a place to call home. Your daughter was one of those children. He became a surrogate father to her after the siege in Lucia and upon his passing named her the captain of his ship."

"I'm not sure you have the right girl." Tears were beginning to brim her dark eyes, the same eyes Ulrich had stared into just a few hours ago. "The soldiers searched for her for weeks and said they found notrace. Yumi was a rather common name in Lucia at the time, and after the invasion I'm sure several young women were relocated."

Ulrich sighed, turning the parchment over in his hand before reaching it across to Lady Ishiyama. Without a word, she gently unfolded the sheet revealing a penciled sketch of herself. The tears began flowing freely down her face, her hand laid delicately across her gaping mouth.

"Yumi drew that picture as her memories of you began to fade. She thought you dead for the past decade until a man on one of our missions told her you were alive and living in Staphiria. We've been searching for you for months."

She dapped at her eyes with the sleeve of her dress. "If all of this is true, then why is she not here with you?"

Ulrich's eyes fell downcast. "She was. We arrived a few hours ago, but I think her nerves got the best of her. I cannot speak for her, but I think she was afraid of ruining the happiness you've build for yourself after the tragedies you've endured. I think she believes she would only serve as a reminder of all that you have lost."

Lady Ishiyama sat still for a few breaths, folding the paper back as gentle as one would hold a newborn baby. Without another word, she retreated from the room and out of Ulrich's line of vision. A few moments later, she returned with a wooden crate, sitting it down in the space between herself and Ulrich. Inside were several leather-bound journals. Some had a thick layer of dust on them, as if they had sat for quite some time. Others were frayed and their spines destroyed from frequent use.

"There has not been a day that has passed in the last ten years that I have not thought about or missed my daughter with every ounce of my being." Queen Ishiyama took a shaky breath, holding together the pieces of herself that were threatening to crumble. "Every day, I have written to her. Even though I had lost faith in the dream that she was still out there, I needed to feel a connection with her. Writing to her has given me hope in the hopeless, though I never thought she would one day read them." She bent over, picking the newest looking journal from the stack. She looked at it for a moment, as if saying goodbye to an old friend, before reaching it to Ulrich. "I just finished the last page of this one merely moments ago. Please, give it to her. Tell her she will have to come see me herself for the rest."

X

Waldo Schaeffer sat behind his large mahogany desk. The sun had long set: the flickering candle the only source of light in the large room. He continued signing more and more security ordinances, but he had lost all hope that they would prove any use. The naval borders and wilderness patrols could hardly stand to become any stricter, yet his chief of security assured him that the tighter the regulations, the more chance they stood of finding Princess Aelita. He could feel the people of Staphiria slowly turning against him, frustrated by the sanctions they were now forced to adhere to. Meanwhile, they were no closer to finding his daughter than they were nearly half a year ago. Waldo was sure if something was not resolved soon, he might very well lose his family and his crown.

A sharp knock pierced through the night, interrupting his thoughts. "What business could there possibly be had at this hour?" he called out, frustration dripping from his tired voice.

"My apologies, your highness," his security chief Lord Morales' voice called from the other side of the door. "I know it is late, but I have a citizen here who wants to speak with you."

"Since when do we allow private assemblies between citizens and monarchs at such indecent hours?" Waldo was becoming increasingly frustrated. The lack of sleep and sparse appetite weren't helping to simmer his mood.

"Please, your highness. They claim to know the whereabouts of Princess Aelita and Ulrich Stern. They say the two are in Staphiria as we speak."

Waldo sat upright in his chair, nearly knocking the dwindling candle. His heart raced. Had the two been under his nose this entire time? Had they spent all this time combing the oceans and searching the woods when the two had been within the city all along? "Please, do come in."

X

"Where in the hell have you been?" Yumi tried to suppress her anger, containing all her venom in her whisper just as powerful as any scream. She wrapped her arms around herself to shield herself from the chill of the sea as her thin robe shifted with the wind. "You should have been back from the stables hours ago. I nearly banished Theo to the sea for keeping your little secret. You could have been spotted or taken back to the palace or arrested-"

The rest of Yumi's ramble fell from her throat as Ulrich wrapped his arms around her. Her anger still bubbling under her skin and the confusion of his affection caused her to freeze in his arms. The gesture was gentle, but the contact between his skin and hers sent an electric pulse throughout her senses. Before she could begin to comprehend what was happening, he pulled away, dropping the cloak from his face. "I'm sorry I ran off and didn't tell you where I was going. There was something I needed to do."

"Ulrich, your cloak. You shouldn't be uncovered out here-"

"I don't care about that. The bloody royal guard can come take me now, if they wish. There's something I need you to have."

From his cloak, he retrieved the leather-bound journal. She took the book from his hand cautiously. Even though somewhere deep inside she knew, she asked, "what is this?"

"When I went to the stables, I returned Annie in exchange for a faster horse. I went back to Kadic and spoke with your mother."

"I directly ordered you to leave it alone," Yumi could feel her emotions rising in her throat, but she forced them back down with a hard swallow.

"I told her everything. I told her who you are and what you do and that you've been searching for her for months-"

"That wasn't your place-"

"And she didn't care," Ulrich stared hard at her with pleading eyes. "She said that there hasn't been a day that has gone by that she hasn't thought of you. She's written to you every day, Yumi; I saw the evidence. Journals, just like this one, filled with letters from your mother. She said you could have the rest of them if you would come see her yourself."

Yumi turned her blurry eyes from Ulrich to the journal in her hand. With shaky fingers, she opened it to the front page. To my Dearest Yumi was written in lovely cursive atop the first line, followed by passages upon passages in her mother's delicate handwriting. She couldn't swallow her emotions any longer as tears began to stream down her face. It was one thing to imagine it or to even be told of its existence, but to actually see the words her mother sculpted herself was overwhelming. In that moment, the world fell away, and she did not care how vulnerable or emotional she seemed. She continued flipping through the pages, her vision too blurry to discern more than a few words at a time. She flipped to the last page where the ink was slightly smudged as if it had been written recently and with haste. It read:

To my Dearest Yumi,

I so hope the words of this young man are true. For so long I had thought you dead, and the joy of knowing you are alive and well is the most overwhelming feeling I could have ever imagined. I love you with every breath in my soul, no matter what it is you have done since we last saw one another. I know you are good. Please come to me, my darling. I'm afraid I cannot bear another moment being apart from you. There is much we need to talk about.

Your always loving mother

P.S. Ulrich must care for you deeply to risk being seen to come to me. Don't let a love like that be taken for granted. You never know when it will be ripped from your very hands.

She continued to stare at the words on the parchment before her, still trying to convince herself that this was real. "Why would you do this for me? You risked everything."

Ulrich searched her face, as if it contained the answers he needed: the moonlight reflecting golden flecks in his dark eyes. He stepped toward her, lifting his hand to her face, wiping away a tear with his thumb. His hand continued to rest on her cheek, and they were now mere inches apart.

"Permission to speak plainly?" he asked, his voice barely above a whisper. All Yumi could do was nod, too afraid that any further movement would break this moment between them. "You are absolutely incredible," he smiled. "You are so strong and intelligent and so full of compassion. I've genuinely never met anyone like you in my entire life. I can't help the way I feel when I'm around you or the way your presence is like a magnetic force that pulls me this way and that. As chaotic as the past few months have been, I'm not sure if I would trade any of it to go back to my normal life. And I..." he hesitated.

Yumi lifted her own hand to cusp his cheek, the rest of the docks and the outstretched ocean falling further away. "You what?"

He swallowed but kept his gaze steady on hers. "I love you, Yumi."

Her heart began to pound as loud as the tide slamming against the side of the ship. Before she could control herself, she forced his lips to hers. He wasted no time in responding, sliding his hand to her hair and wrapping the other around her waist. There was no differentiating where one ended and the other began. The electricity Yumi once felt before now spread throughout her entire body. Their lips crashed passionately together like opposing tides fighting for the same shore.