Undercover Royals

 The winding path they took was riddled with weeds as it led them deeper and deeper into the heart of the forest located next to the village.

A clearing soon into view as they got closer to their destination, it was the backyard of what seemed to be an abandoned farm.

 "This was one of the closer batches that my men found before they left." He explained to the confused Roseabelle.

We sneaked around the building and hid amongst the bushes to get to the front and there it was, glowing red in the hundreds under the midnight sky. 

 "... Is this the flower?" Zeya asked as she stared at the majestic red petals that seemed to glimmer despite there being no light.

 "Beautiful, isn't it?" He confirmed her suspicions from beside her. "Who would've ever imagined that such a pretty little thing could do so much harm?"

 "Reminds me of someone I know..."

 "Funny." Zeya retorted, not appreciating Varen's teasing.

 "This is just one of the many others hidden around these woods." He explained as he and Zeya stared at the field. "And poppies aren't supposed to glow like this."

 "Unless they were infused with magic."

 "... Exactly."

 "But we can't be too sure that it is in fact magic." He tried to give the theory the benefit of the doubt. He would have a bigger issue at hand if these plants were in fact modified.

 The Kaxarenes were born from nature, and each one of them had a special kind of jewel that represented their element but there were two types: the Gifted and Ungifted.

 Like the name suggests, the Gifted were Kaxarenes that held great power using the elements that they were born from whereas the jewels of the Ungifted did not.

 Only a high ranking Kaxarene would be capable of doing such alterations, the jewels of the Ungifted were simply not made to hold such power after all.

This gave Varen a very small circle of culprits to choose from.

The only Gifted Kaxarenes capable of doing this were the Royal Family and its closest councils, so if these flowers were in fact magical...

 He didn't have time to finish his thought when a sudden ruckus close to them caught his attention, causing both him and Zeya to duck down.

 "They must here to check the area." Varen thought out loud, watching the group of men closely.

 "We should get out of here before they find us." Zeya urged, getting a bad feeling from the current situation and Varen agreed.

 Just as they turned to walk back to the path they came from, Varen accidently stepped on a twig, creating a loud snap.

 "Who's there?" One of the men shouted towards their direction. 

 Without a minute to hesitate, Zeya dashed into the woods with Varen close behind her and the group of men followed after them too. 

 'Shit.' She thought, starting to realize that the men were catching up.

 'I have to find an opening.' She thought as she looked up into the trees, trying to run where the trees weren't blocking the sky. Her wings were already out closed tightly behind her in order to not slow her down.

 Luckily, there was a big enough opening coming up and just as she was half-way in the air, Varen grabbed her leg, hoping she'd take him with her. 

 "Thank the gods for your wings!" Varen exclaimed dramatically, still dangling by her feet as she tried her best to get away as far as possible.

 She somehow made it back to their hideout, the both of them crashing into the ground as Zeya lost her balance because of the fatigue that came with using her abilities.

She had not yet fully recovered it seems, but that was currently the least of her problems.

 "Fuck you, Varen." Zeya struggled to even curse as she shakily stood up, heading for the door. "That... that was far too close for comfort."

 "It was quite fun if you ask me." He disagreed with Zeya cheerily, resulting in Zeya's anger towards Varen to grow.

 "We'll scope the area out at noon so for now, we should just stay indoors-."

 Varen smiled in amusement she slammed the cottage door shut before he could even finish his sentence, leaving him to sit by himself in the cold, hard soil.

=================

 The day shined brightly on the first day in the village.

The roads were heavily crowded with both Kaxarenes and humans alike.

They were far too busy to care for the two new faces that had arrived last night, nor did they care really.

It was a common sight to see a couple of strangers in the small and once homely village. 

 Humans were starting to come in large quantities, buying off most of the properties to be their vacation homes.

It did help with the Kaxarenes' businesses, but it was also equally disruptive but how could they complain when it was entirely legal.

 Zeya made sure to take in her surroundings, it was somewhat nostalgic for her to be there, reminding her of her younger days when she used to wander the markets back at her own homeland. 

 The village was surprisingly larger than she had initially thought as many of the area was hidden in the nooks and crannies of the alleyways.

More humans came into view as they went into the lesser-known parts of the village which was surprising to Zeya.

Many of them were obviously wealthy, wearing only the finest clothes and accessories despite being in the middle of nowhere.

 "Apparently, the members of this organization are everyone, they'll approach anyone that seems interested." He whispered to Zeya as they casually walked through the bustling morning market that spanned out throughout the entire village.

The streets bustled with people trying hard to buy produce that were sold under a great deal.

 He sneakily placed his strong arms around Zeya's waist when the crowd seemed to grow, making sure that she wouldn't be swept away from him.

 "What do you think you're doing?" She tried to remove his hands of her, but he was far too strong for her.

 "Relax, dear. I'm just doing a little bit of acting." He smiled as he spoke, a tinge of playfulness dancing in his eyes. "Slowly turn your head away from me, will you? And look directly at the group of men over at the other end of the road."

 Zeya was hesitant at first but eventually obliged and did as she was told, trying to find what caught Varen's attention amongst everyone else in the road.

 "I see them." She confirmed quietly, noticing the suspicious men bundled up together at a nearby alleyway, looking around their perimeter with extreme caution. "They look like the same men from last night."

 "It seems like they were Kaxarenes after all." He stated with his tone an octave lower to express his distaste. "Looks like they're in the middle of an exchange."

 "They don't look too well." Zeya frowned, noticing their dark circles and red eyes. "How much are they getting paid to do this?"

 "Clearly not enough." He confirmed as the men's clothing was obviously worn off and dirty. "But they need the money, especially after the economy is suffering from the wealthy humans moving into Exousia."

 After a few more minutes of awkwardly loitering around that corner they were in, the group started to move away from the pair. 

 "Should we follow them?" Zeya asked once their backs were completely turned towards them. "See who their customers are?"

 "Let's not waste our time with small fries like them." Varen decided, turning the opposite direction. "Besides, it's only the first day, we should get accustomed to our surroundings for now."

 "Come on, I know a great place to get breakfast." He tugged as her lightly, walking towards a large diner. 

 "But I don't even eat this kind of food-" She tried to refuse but it was already too late as they went inside and sat down.

 The entirety of the day went by with Zeya pretty much getting dragged around by the excited and lively emperor.

Zeya doubted that there was any place that they didn't go to, but their last destination was a rowdy bar god knows where in the village, she was far too tired to know or care.

 "Too bad we didn't find anything today." Varen looked fairly disappointed, but the look immediately disappeared once he looked at her. "But at least we had a bit of fun, didn't we?"

 Zeya felt far too sick to even respond, trying her hardest to keep herself from retching at the millions of nasty scents present inside the bar.

Her stomach threatened to spill out the breakfast Varen forced her to eat earlier that day but the beer she downed a moment ago somehow helped ease that urge.

 "Slow down with the alcohol, will you dear?" Varen spoke out of concern, but Zeya was a heavy drinker.

In fact, she was probably a better drinker than most of the men present at the bar.

The stress inflicted by the close proximity she was to Varen was not helping her drink less either as she felt all of it melt away with every gulp.

 Unbeknownst to the both of them however, there was someone watching the two quarrel closely, clearly aware that they were a new pair in town.

The unknown figure had found a new prey to get his next paycheck from and just the thought was enough to put a large smile across their face.