10 Missing Pieces

It was a beautiful day outside. Clear skies as far as the eye could see. The sun was shining and bathing the beings beneath it in its warmth. Happy chatter could be heard amongst them as they went about their day. Solis was one of the people walking under the sun. He looked at his companion as they exchanged banter between them.

"Anyway, are we going to do some more training today?"

"Really? We just ate and you want to go and train already?"

"Yeah, of course, I do! I have a lot of pent-up energy after watching yesterday's Solar Fair!"

The figure beside him let out an emphatic laugh.

"I love your enthusiasm, Solis. After we digest our meal for a bit, we can grab Tenacity and train if you want to later."

"Make sure you don't forget, Father! Last time you said we would train but you ended up going out to fight instead!"

Phaedros "Aurelios" Arcana, the patriarch of the Arcanas and father of Solis.

"If you forget then I'll have no choice but to force you to, Father."

"Big talk for someone so young, Solis."

"Hmph, so you say, but I know I'll be greater than you someday. Just you wait! Soon enough, you'll have to look at the sun on my back as I become our family's leader!"

"All those compliments our family has given you have finally gotten to your head hasn't it, Solis?"

Phaedros let out another laugh as rubbed his son's head violently. Solis knocked his father's hand away and took a step away from him. After walking for a few more minutes Phaedros closed the distance between them.

"Son, I know you'll be better than me someday there's no doubt about it! I'll be right alongside you as you step up and take the mantle of 'Aurelios' and when that happens, just know that I'm proud of you."

"Of course, I'll make sure that space is reserved for you and mother. I want you guys front and center when I take the mantle."

"I look forward to that day, son. As for right now though, your strength is nothing compared to mine."

"Well, that's because you're full-grown!"

"Hah! That's an excuse weaklings use."

They laughed as they continued to argue with one another. While they did, both of them could be seen with a huge smile on their face. They loved each other's company and cherished every moment they spent together.

Solis talked with his father and as he did, his father's smile started to fade.

"Hey, father, what's wrong?"

His lips moved but no sound came from them.

"F-father? W-what's happening?"

Solis walked up to his father and tried to touch him but saw his hand go through his body. He looked around him and saw that the landscape was disappearing as well.

"Father! Tell me, what's going on?!"

He looked desperately at him for an answer but his father continued to talk without a sound coming from his mouth.

His reality continued to fade and soon, his father disappeared, along with the people around them. Solis continued to look but noticed that the ground beneath him was fading away as well, that too completely disappeared. Solis fell through and plummeted to the ground? But there was none. He continued falling through an empty abyss and closed his eyes hoping for someone to save him. A tear escaped from his eyes as he opened them and saw a familiar ceiling above him.

He sat up on a couch that was all too familiar and realized where he was.

"Damn, what was that dream?"

Solis started rubbing his eyes and let out a yawn as he did. He turned to a clock on the wall and saw that it was half-past seven.

"Too early to be up. I'll head back to sleep then."

Solis looked down from the clock and saw Elise come out from her room.

"Oh, you're up? I didn't think you were a morning person," Elise said as she saw Solis on the couch.

"I'm not," Solis replied bluntly.

"I'm assuming you need something from me though since you're up."

"Yeah, I was wondering if you didn't mind coming with me to get my mask."

Elise let out a nervous laugh as she said this.

"I don't mind, but why so early in the morning?"

"I'm not a big fan of the heat plus I'm a morning person anyway so…."

"Is that the case? Alright then, I'll get changed."

Solis stood up from the couch and walked upstairs.

Elise took a seat on the couch Solis slept on and waited for him to come back down. A few minutes later, Solis came out in a black t-shirt and black gym shorts.

"Solis! You're going out in that?!"

"What? Is there a problem with what I'm wearing?"

"Won't you be hot later in the day wearing that?!"

"Before I answer, you don't have to scream since everyone else is still sleeping. No, I will not be 'hot' later today, so no need to worry."

Elise stood in front of him still in disbelief. Solis didn't have anything else to say to her and headed toward the door. Elise had no choice but to follow him out.

They had been out on the roads for a little bit and was now a little before eight. The sun had fully revealed itself and started beating down on the Arizona landscape with its heat. Elise had pulled up a map on her phone and instructed it to lead them to a mall close by since, of course, Solis didn't have a phone.

"Hey, why do we need to go to a mall? We can just go to a nearby costume store and get one."

"I would like to get some other stuff besides a mask, and I don't want you to go around multiple stores when we can just go to a huge mall with all the stuff I need."

"If that's the case then it makes sense."

Solis stopped talking and continued listening to the voice coming from Elise's phone that told him where to go.

After the numerous times that Solis either took the wrong turn or just didn't pay attention to the GPS's voice, they had arrived at the mall.

"Geez, Solis are you that bad with technology?!"

"I am and always will be. I thought we established this."

"You didn't! I just know you don't deal with techn--oh now that I think about it, yeah it makes sense."

"See?" Solis said with a slightly cocky tone.

"Then next time, I'll make sure I'm the one behind the wheel," then she muttered beneath her breath, "...should've known Solis wasn't great with technology...I'm so stupid."

She looked back at Solis and said, "Well, first on the agenda is getting my mask so let's go find a place that has some."

Solis nodded and was the first to step out of the car.

The two of them walked over to the massive sign which they assumed marked the entrance.

"'Mall beneath Two Suns' a little on the nose don't you think, Solis?"

"I see no problem with the name."

Solis was the first to take the lead again as they walked into the large establishment.

"But 'Two Suns?' There aren't two suns in the sky so where…."

As she talked, Elise saw where the 'second' sun came from.

"Oh wow! That must've taken a long time to make."

Above them was an artistic model of the sun suspended, by steel cables, beneath a glass dome. The sun appeared to have been made of multiple sheets of meta,l which were all an array of colors. Some were a dark brown, deep orange, bright yellow, so on and so forth. It gave the sun a very rugged look as the real sun's rays shone down on it.

"Elise stop standing there and get moving. We're doing this for you know?"

"S-sorry! This model of the sun caught my attention."

She pointed to the object high above them to reference what she meant.

Solis looked up at the model sun, but quickly averted his gaze and continued walking. Elise sped up a bit in order to catch up to Solis.

As they walked around, the roles between them switched. Solis trailed behind Elise and waited for her to choose a store they would go to. Unbeknownst to him, Elise forgot about why they were there and kept looking at the variety of stores around them in awe. The malls in Florida were impressive, but it never hurt to explore a new area, which is what Elise was doing.

"Elise, we've been here for ten minutes. How come you haven't chosen yet?"

"Oh u-uh...over here then!"

She led him into a smaller store, compared to the others, that was full of exotic costumes and designer clothing?

"That's an odd selection of products," said Elise.

She ran up to the woman who manned the front of the store and asked her if they had any masks. The woman nodded and pointed near the back of the store. Elise said her thanks and walked to the back with Solis in tow. Now in front of them was a wall full of crazy, exotic masks. Some had peacock feathers as side ornaments while some had snakeskin lining the rim of the masks to everything in between.

"Now that we've found a place, pick what you want and be quick about it."

Elise didn't budge and instead, asked him, "Are you okay, Solis? You've seemed kind of irritated since this morning."

"I said I wasn't a morning person, didn't I?"

In the mornings, he had a surprisingly short temper and Elise could tell she was pushing Solis over the edge so she decided to stop talking.

She started scanning over the selection of masks and picked up one she liked. It was a white, half-mask that could cover the top half of her face. The right half of the mask was laced in gold and specks of, what seemed to be, diamonds. The left half had intricate designs around the eye socket of the mask and had a line that came from the corner of the eye socket, which gave it the appearance of something that came from Egypt.

As she picked it up, Solis had a few words to say, "Too flashy, put it back."

"W-what? Why?"

"Look at it, it's too flashy," repeated Solis.

"That shouldn't matter! If it can hide my face it's fine right?"

"We're not trying to draw any attention either, so will that flashy mask help with that?"

She looked down at it and realized he was right. She went over to where she found it and put it back reluctantly. After that setback, Elise searched for a mask that Solis could approve of. She scoured the wall for something that caught her eye, and there was one that did.

"This one, Solis, this is the one I want."

Solis took the mask that she handed him and inspected it.

It was a jet black, phantom of the opera style, mask. Where an empty eye socket would usually be, was instead, a black lens that had a reptilian eye in the middle. Reptilian scales were also scattered throughout the mask, and some of those scales had gold accents on them. The feature that Solis found most interesting was the fact that at the top of the mask was a horn that came protruding out.

"So? What do you think?" She asked as he continued to hold it in his hand.

"This one is good."

Solis handed her back the mask and the two of them went over to the register.

They gave the item to the woman behind a glass table full of expensive items and waited to hear how much they would need to pay.

"It'll be $4,367.88," the woman behind the table told them.

"What?!" Elise screamed in confusion.

"You see, darling, the eye of this mask is made from a three-carat emerald, and the pupil itself," the woman stroked the black sliver of the pupil, "is made of black opal. Both of these gems are very expensive, so we hope you understand why the price is what it is."

"Oh...I-I see. Sorry for shouting."

"So, how will you be paying?" The woman continued.

"By card," interrupted Solis.

"Perfect! If I may," she said, asking for his card.

Solis handed it to her without hesitation.

The woman used his card and waited for the transaction to finish.

"All done! Thank you for your purchase, Mr. Arcana. We hope to see you here again someday!"

Solis took his card back and walked out of the store with Elise.

"Wait, Solis! What about the evidence that we've just left behind of our presence?!"

Elise was talking about how they had just purchased an expensive mask and used Solis's card to pay. Meaning, they had left an impression, and evidence of Solis's existence, on the woman's memory, which supernatural beings could exploit if they wanted to find Solis and them.

"I've already prepared for that," he replied.

Elise looked behind him and saw as his Essence crept into the store and wrapped around the bodies of the occupants of the store while simultaneously erasing his name from the machine's history.

"What are you doing to them?" Elise asked.

"I've done it many times before. I'm just altering their memories."

The people in the store paused for a moment but once Solis retracted his Essence, they started to move. He let a little bit of it out and held the mask they had bought in the Essence hand.

"Let me hold onto the mask while we walk. My Essence will act as a veil, hiding your mask from bystanders."

"That's convenient. Thanks for that, Solis," Elise told him.

"Now that we have your mask, we should head back to the house," Solis suggested.

"Wait. I said I wanted other things as well, so tag along with me for a little while."

Solis let out an annoyed sigh which irritated Elise.

"Don't try it, Solis, just cooperate with me."

He didn't say anything and kept walking toward the parking lot.

"Alright, so be it."

Elise turned the other way and went back to exploring the mall.

Solis heard her footsteps get progressively quieter as she walked away. He turned around and hesitated on following her.

"I don't want to go with her, but I have a sinking feeling that something will go wrong if I don't," he thought to himself.

Going with his gut, Solis forced his feet to walk in the direction of Elise. It didn't take long for him to catch up to her.

Once Elise knew Solis was beside her, she said, "I thought so."

"Keep it to yourself," said Solis, "I decided to follow because it's not a good idea for us to split up while we're being hunted."

Elise didn't show any signs of reacting and kept walking.

The two of them found a set of stairs that led to the second floor of the mall and took it up. There they walked around for a few minutes when Elise stopped at a store she wanted to go into.

"Yes! They do have it here! I've been looking for some new ones ever since we left Fortress!"

Elise ran hastily into the lingerie store.

"'For Your Eyes Only' huh?" Solis said aloud.

He went into the lingerie store as well and looked at their selection.

He walked through rows of underwear, bras, and many...mature items. Some of them intrigued him and as he went into another row full of bras, he looked closely at the letters on the racks. AA, A, B, C these letters confused Solis greatly and wondered what they meant. He took a random bra, one that came from the C section, and took it with him.

He weaved through the rows again in search of his lady companion. As he walked, he did receive odd stares from the women in the store, but it didn't bother Solis. In his mind, he had questions that needed to be answered and wanted nothing more than to know.

He circled around one more time before he spotted Elise.

"Elise! I have something I want to ask."

She turned around and saw him approach her. She had picked up a pair of underwear and bras that she was going to try on, but was forced to hide them because of Solis.

"What do you need?"

"This right here," he lifted up the bra he brought, "it was hung under the section labeled 'C' I just wanted to ask what the letters meant."

After hearing his question, Elise's shoulders slumped a little.

"Oh, you don't know? It's simple, the letters just indicate the size of the bra."

"Oh, that's it?"

Solis held up the bra and twirled it around. He noticed how more concave it seemed to be compared to the others he had looked at. Once he understood that, he put the bra back down to his side.

"What letter would yours be, Elise?" He asked abruptly.

"SOLIS!!"

She dragged him off to the side of one of the fitting rooms.

"Solis...y-you can't ask women that question. It's sensitive stuff you see."

"I didn't know that, sorry. Next time, I won't ask."

"That's good that you understand."

Elise let out a sigh and escorted him out of the store so that he couldn't come to her if he had any more absurd questions he wanted to be answered.

"Stay here until I come back out," she demanded.

"Whatever you say."

Elise disappeared back into the store and went back to looking.

One of the women that came out of the store, a beauty of wavy blonde hair, said something to Solis.

"Your girlfriend seems to be quite the feisty one."

"I don't know what that means exactly, but yes, I agree."

"You take care of her now, she looks like a keeper."

"Of course," Solis responded.

The woman walked off and left Solis alone.

Solis had been there for another twenty minutes and had yet to see Elise come near the exit. The time he had spent waiting had caused his appetite to grow, so he decided to go out and get himself some breakfast. If Elise was going to keep up her shopping habit, then he wasn't worried about not being there when she left. He knew that it wasn't a good idea to split up so he just went to a fast food place just across the lingerie store. At least, from there, he could observe and rush in if anything bad was about to or going to happen.

"Welcome to 'Til Your Belly's Full!' What would you like today, sir?"

"Everything on your menu that has meat and if it comes with vegetables, don't include those please."

The employee inputted Solis's order into the register in front of her and when she finished, she asked him to find a table and that they would deliver his order to him.

Solis took a table to himself that was situated next to the railing that also overlooked the first floor of the mall. As he sat there, he kept his eyes glued to the store and watched for any suspicious activity.

"Excuse me, sir, would this be your order?"

The boy back at the register had brought him his food while also breaking his focus.

Solis gave him a nod and took the tray of food. He peeled back the wrapping of one of the breakfast burritos and ate it in one bite. He continued to gorge while his attention was still on the store.

It didn't take long for him to finish his food but once he did, he just went back to sitting at the table and waiting for Elise to, hopefully, finish shopping. As he sat there, nature decided to give him a call. Solis wanted to finish his business quickly, so he walked over to the bathrooms...that is if he knew where they were.

He asked the boy who had brought him his order where the bathrooms were. He gave Solis some quick directions and then he was on his way. He had to go back down to the first floor, so he broke into a brisk walk to ensure he wouldn't take long.

Once he was there, he did his business as quickly as he could. While Solis walked over to the sink to wash, he noticed a man enter the bathrooms as well. Solis turned off the sink and shook the water off his hands.

Solis quickly turned around and thrust his forearm into the man's throat and slammed him up against the wall, which cracked it.

"Aureliossss," said the stranger.

Solis took the man's arm and sent him crashing into the stalls. Solis ripped off one of the sinks as he walked over to the man. Solis stood over his body and saw him try to get up. He brought down the sink hard onto the man's face and knocked him out. Solis picked up the man by his collar and saw that the skin on his cheek was coming off. He looked closer and saw a scaly exterior hidden beneath. Solis grew wide-eyed and dropped the man onto one of the toilets as he ran out of the bathrooms.

"Why are they here already?! I was sure we at least had a few days before they found us!" He thought to himself as he ran through the mall.

Solis bolted upstairs and dashed into the store to find Elise.

"Oh, Solis, good thing you're here. I was about to finish but realized--"

Solis took her hand and pulled her out of the store, which caused her to drop all the things she was about to buy.

"Solis? What's wrong?"

"I'll explain the rest when we're on the road, but just now that our enemies have found us already."

Both of them sprinted out of the mall and quickly got into their car. Solis backed out and got onto the road.

"Alright, tell me wha--wait, why are you driving?! You don't know where Tenacity's house is!"

"That's true, but I can smell him. I'll just let my nose guide us to him."

"Oh, yeah, I forget you can do that. Alright, Solis, tell me what our situation is."

"The Serpent Pillar has sent out their brood to come get us."

"'Serpent Pillar?' Who are they?"

"Influential figures, and our enemies. By their title alone you should be able to tell what makes up their group."

"Yeah, I get it. Why do you think it's weird that they found us already though, Solis?"

"Because Tenacity and I, along with everyone else, decided to hide our energy signatures."

"I'm still not sure why you're worried."

"I'm worried because this sudden turn of events means we'll have to, inevitably, face the Serpent Pillar. We can't do this since we're not ready yet."

"Okay I understand that part, but they can just smell you right, so it's useless hiding your energy signatures?"

"You'd be right, only if that were the case. Their noses are fine-tuned to their species, the same goes for ours. If I could smell when one of our enemies were nearby, then things would be a lot easier."

"Then how can you tell who our enemies are?" Elise asked.

"I usually know they're enemies by the tempo of their energy signatures, but by then, it would've already been obvious they were hostile."

"Then what if they have someone who could detect you guys by smell?"

"That's impossible," said Solis," all of our people were killed...except for…"

"For what?"

"I know Kalamati made it out alive, but I assumed she had died because of her injuries."

"Who's Kalamati?"

"She's a member of the Three Suns."

"I thought it was your father that was part of the Three Suns?" Elise asked with a confused look on her face

"Of course he was, but it was during HIS time. Kalamati earned her right to be a Sun through her feats, but most of the things she did, she did in secrecy. My people wanted a face to go along with such amazing feats but could never find Kalamati, so they resorted to using my father as the one who did those things. From there I'm assuming the Mages heard our stories and continued telling until it became truth that my father was still a Sun, instead of Kalamati."

As they drove down the road, Solis stopped the car to take a right, but, in a split second, something came crashing down onto the hood of the car. Solis looked at the creature in front of them and saw that it was the serpent from the bathroom, obvious since the skin on his cheek was coming off.

"Found you, Aureliosssss."

The serpent thrust his hand through the windshield. Solis ducked to the right and countered by taking the serpent's arm and pinning it to the doorpost. He pushed it up against the post in a quick fashion and snapped the serpent's arm. It tumbled off the hood of the car in pain, which allowed the two of them the chance to escape.

"Solis, what do we do? There's a lot of people here!"

"Here put this on! At least they won't be able to see your face!"

"What about you?"

"I have to lure it away. If you can, try and warn the others, but be careful, these serpents never go into a mission alone."

Elise's mask revealed itself as Solis unfurled his Essence fist. He tossed it to her, which she put on, and she started running in the other direction.

Solis tried to think of a way to make sure he couldn't be recognized. He ripped off a piece of his shirt to use as a temporary mask and walked over to the front of the car, but didn't see the serpent's body.

Suddenly, a hand appeared from beneath the car and grabbed his ankle. With the hand on his ankle, Solis yanked his foot quickly to the left, which brought the serpent out from beneath the car. Its body flew across the intersection and into the pole of a traffic light. The people around were confused by the commotion and had started to gather.

The serpent got up and held the arm that Solis had broken, and put the bone back into place. It proceeded to walk back over to Solis with a menacing aura. Solis turned the other way and ran, so that the people around them wouldn't have to get involved. The serpent gave chase and was on Solis's heels. He made a sudden left that found him in an alleyway. Solis jumped over the wooden fence and continued running, while the serpent broke through the fence. Solis kicked off the surrounding walls and managed to get behind the serpent. On his way down, he grabbed the serpent's hair and slammed its head into the ground.

As Solis walked over to the serpent, he felt something cold wrap around his ankle. The serpent yanked its tail and dragged Solis over to it. The serpent looked at Solis as he was dazed and on the ground. It brought a hand up and straightened its fingers, extending some of his claws, and tried to stab Solis's head.

Solis kicked the right leg and made it miss. As the attack failed, Solis punched the serpent into the wall, causing a huge crack to form. He leapt up and pinned the serpent, against the wall, with his forearm.

"You will tell me how you found us," he demanded.

The serpent laughed in his face and continued to struggle. To stop the serpent, Solis took his right hand and dislocated its arm. He let it scream in pain as he kept its hand against the wall.

"Stop your screaming, you never needed it in the first place."

The serpent gave him a smile in return.

Solis stopped hesitating and decided to use force.

The serpent broke free from Solis's grasp and kicked him into the opposing wall. Solis fell to his knees as the sudden impact jarred him. The serpent shed all of its remaining skin and embraced its true form.

Its lengthy, without limbs, twenty-foot long body was a gunmetal gray, with its underside being a pearly white. Tough scales ran along its body and ended at the tip of the bladed tail. Near the head of the serpent, was a hood, much like a cobra, with jagged edges. The hood excreted an ever-flowing poison that the serpent could fling at its opponent. The serpent hissed and revealed its four-foot long fangs, followed by multiple rows of teeth like a python.

It lunged at Solis, who rolled beneath it, and crashed into the wall subsequently causing it to collapse. As the wall fell onto the serpent, it flicked its tail and hit Solis in the chest. Solis was launched out of the alleyway and back onto the street where all eyes were on them. The serpent freed itself from the fallen wall and tried to swallow up Solis. He dived out of the way but was caught when it wrapped its tail around his body.

Solis was then flung onto a hood of a car in traffic. The driver panicked and quickly tried to escape. The serpent slithered over to Solis and brought its mouth down onto him. Solis fought hard to stop the terrifying jaws before him from clamping down completely. He elbowed the large fang and broke it off. He took one hand off of the roof of the mouth and used the broken fang to stab the serpent in the bottom jaw.

Solis heard it roar as he drove the broken fang into the ground, pinning the serpent. He rolled out of its maw and back onto the road. The serpent jerked its head upward but was met with Solis's fist when it punched the top of its head. The car beneath them flattened as the blow from Solis managed to penetrate the lower and upper jaw. With its mouth secured, Solis walked onto its face and was ready to deal the finishing blow. He cocked his left hand back but was stabbed in the chest by the tail of the serpent.

The serpent took Solis's convulsing body and slammed it into the ground beside it. Once it freed itself from the broken fang, it looked dead into Solis's eyes. It drove its tail further into Solis's chest cavity, which made him bleed more. It drew back its tail and into his thigh, and proceeded to continually stab Solis until it thought he could bleed no more. The serpent closed in on Solis and opened its mouth once again. With a loud crunch, it clamped down on Solis's head and made the rest of his body go limp.

It drew back its head and let out a loud cackle toward the sky. As it basked in its glory, it looked back down to check on Solis's lifeless body? But found out it had gone missing. All around it, the surroundings got increasingly brighter, which hurt the serpent's eyes. It looked up toward the sun as it appeared to get closer. The sun sped up and looked as if it was going to crash into the earth. The serpent looked away in hope of avoiding the seemingly horrible fate.

After a few seconds, without anything happening, the serpent looked back up but was shocked at what it saw.

"A-Aureliossss, what did y-you do to me?"

The scene before it was when Solis had pinned it to the wall. The serpent wracked its brain and tried to process what he was seeing.

Its thoughts were broken when Solis spoke up, "I see, so that's the reason you found us so quickly."

The serpent looked at Solis's face and a shiver went down its back. A dark aura surrounded Solis's being as the light in his eyes disappeared.

"The serpents should've never been created," Solis had a look of disgust on his face as he talked, "to think that my ancestors bred to make you, my distant cousins. Such disgusting creatures. You have no right to share blood with me, serpent."

"My ancestors should've erased all of you eons before. I'll do them a favor and erase their mistakes, starting with you."

Solis took his right hand and jammed it into the serpent's gut. It let out a bloodcurdling scream, but was quickly silenced when Solis pushed his forearm into its throat. Solis searched for the spine of the serpent and crushed it with his hand and pulled down, splitting the serpent in two. He took the lower half of its body and threw it into the wall behind them. The serpent was still conscious but this didn't last long either. Solis changed up positions and choked the serpent. A swift movement of his wrist, Solis snapped its neck and waited as its body grew limp.

Once it died, Solis tossed the upper half over to the lower half and turned both of the body parts into particles. His head tracked the particles as they were blown away by the wind. Before he left, Solis let his Essence repair some of the collateral damage they had done to the alleyway.

When he was done, Solis decided to take to the rooftops. He found his way back to the intersection where all the commotion had begun. When he arrived, he saw that a large crowd had formed around his smoking car and around the bent traffic light. He sneakily hopped to a rooftop near the commotion and let some smoke out of his nostrils. After he properly erased the memories of the people who saw the fight, he left the scene.

After a twenty-minute walk, Solis found himself back at Tenacity's house.

"Solis?! What's this I hear about the serpents?!?!"

Tenacity rushed to Solis as soon he had walked through the door.

"It's as you heard from Elise, we've been found."

"So, how were they able to track us down?" Tenacity asked.

"T-they have Kalamati..."

With such a serious statement, disbelief took over Tenacity's face.

"W-wait...K-Kalamati? T-they have her?"

"It makes sense, Tenacity, after the Fall of Sol Regnum, she was badly injured, remember? She was weak enough to have overpowered by the weaker serpents."

"Then we attack the Serpent Pillar first!" Shouted Tenacity.

He tried to walk out the door, but Solis held him back.

"What are you doing?!"

"Tenacity, calm down! I'm as mad as you are, but we can't rush in!"

"Why is that, Aurelios?!"

"If we do, they'll kill Kalamati!"

"We don't know that! We'll just have to kill all of them before they can touch her!"

"But if they find out what we're doing they'll ask Kalamati to just sniff us out then they'll kill her! Don't you get it, Tenacity? Whatever we do, we risk losing her."

With such sound reasoning, Tenacity was forced to calm down. Solis was equally as heated, but he knew the danger that entailed if they acted brashly. Kalamati was someone they couldn't afford to lose.

Solis put a hand on Tenacity's shoulder and said, "I understand how you feel, so rest assured that the Serpent Pillar will be our first target."

Tenacity looked at Solis and nodded.

"First, get everyone and get them to pack their things. We'll have more serpents on our tails if we don't leave."

Tenacity ran up the stairs and spread the news to the others. In a matter of a few minutes, Tenacity and the others were back downstairs with their bags in tow.

As they went out to the driveway, Elise asked how they were going to fit everyone in the car.

"You guys have the seats, I'll be in the trunk."

"But-"

"Elise, would you rather be in the trunk then?"

"Ahh, you're right. Besides that, how do we fit all our bags?"

"I'll just hold all of it with my Essence."

"You can do that?" Elise asked in awe.

Solis didn't say anything and instead, just stared at her.

"U-uh yeah, I should've expected that."

Elise sunk back a little bit from embarrassment.

"Come on everyone, let's get in. We have to leave," Tenacity ordered.

All of them got into the car, while Solis took his place in the trunk.

There was just enough space for Solis to lay down in a semi-fetal position. It would be pitch-black for a majority of the time, but he didn't mind. Solis's head slammed into the side of the car as he felt Tenacity pull out of the driveway.

"I hope the ride isn't this bumpy," Solis hoped.

After a few moments, Solis could tell that Tenacity had pulled out onto the main road and was headed in the direction of California. Once there, they would need to take a flight to Engano, Spain, which was where the Serpent Pillar resided.

Soon, all three Suns would be together once again.