After talking to her mother, Amaryllis went straight to her room and prepared to go to bed. But as she was lying in bed, sleep would not come. The events of the day were playing over and over in her head, sometimes distorted, but always clear as day the hunter's words: "I can always threaten ta burn the forest. The Hunter's Association's been plannin' it anyways."

When she heard a bell striking midnight, she stood up. She hadn't planned to visit Nox this night, figuring both of them needed rest now, but if sleep was evading her anyway...

She made her way to the east wing through the empty, sleeping manor in absolute silence. When she opened the door to his room, she wondered if she would find him asleep again and whether she should wake him or not.

Nox had been facing the moonlight when Amaris entered the room. He had known it was her. He's memorized the sound her footsteps made on the wooden floor.

He looked healthier now, compared to when he was first brought into the mansion. His bruises were gone and the weight he lost from the stress and skipping his meals were regained. He still looked like he lacked sleep though.

"Do you think I'll be able to see Ygddra and my brothers again?" He had asked without turning to face her. "I know that I've given up on being free ... but what if?" He turned around to look at her by twisting his upper body. "They want to burn down the forest. I- ... I can't let them do that." his voice broke as he thought about his home burning into ash.

She needn't have wondered. Nox was awake, his back turned to the door, facing the window, seeming to bathe in the moonlight.
He started talking without turning. Ama wished she could see his face when he asked whether he would see Yggdra again, but on the other hand she felt oddly flattered by the fact that he could apparently recognize her without looking. Or maybe he just didn't expect other people to visit in the middle of the night.

The dread on his face when he finally turned and spoke of the hunter's threat was crushing.
"I've been thinking of that as well. I could not sleep, I was hearing the hunter's voice in my head all the time."
Ama sighed deeply. What could they do? Did her father have the power to stop the hunter's association? Was there a way to convince him?
For a moment she felt some hope. He might be able, and seeing how he had refused the hunter earlier, maybe he might be willing as well? If she could convince him that it was best to make sure that no more raven boys were caught, so his would be the only one in a collection?
But the flaw was obvious. His protection would only hold up as long as Nox remained captive. Once she managed to set him free, everything would fall apart.
No. She would not suggest this to Nox, not ask him to choose between his hope of freedom and the safety of his loved ones. She could not bring herself to do that.
"I agree that we must stop them. But I feel terribly powerless. What can we do?"
She sat down in front of the cage sideways and leaned against one of the bars with her shoulder and sighed again.
"I don't understand how people can have such horrible ideas, Nox. Maybe you're right and there's something inherently wrong with humans afterall."
She felt utterly lost and hopeless at this thought. How should they fight the nature of humans?

Nox moved to sit in front of Amaris and he leaned against a bar with both his shoulder and his head, a few strands of black hair falling over his cheek. "We are too weak to fight the Hunters and their weapons. And if they do burn the forest, my brothers will have little chance to escape and Ygddra will surely perish. Ygddra has many sisters scattered all over the earth. My brothers can find a new home and sanctuary, but Ygddra will remain in the flames. Her life essence is intertwined with the forest, there is no escape for her."

He closed his eyes as if to hide away from the inevitable. "But if the fires come without warning, razing everything in its path, my brothers will have no chance to escape. They will ... burn ..." He looked to Amaris, a hopeful smile in his eyes. "You have told me that not all humans are horrible. Perhaps we just have not met them yet?"

The thought of the forest burning was horrible. Whether or not the other raven boys managed to escape in time, the world would be poorer for it. Amaryllis hung her head.
"What if all the not horrible humans are powerless like we are, though?" Ama could think of quite a few that she expected to not like the idea of burning a forest to catch its inhabitants. Mia, for one, although she would probably not go to any great lengths to do something about it. She was a practical person and knew her station, for her there was only danger in interfering with those far above her. Gustavo would probably also disapprove, since he was a gentle and caring person and he would most likely also not be afraid to speak up about the issue, seeing how he refused to take hierarchy very seriously. But still, he was only a music teacher, not someone with a lot of influence in this world.
Ama sighed.
She thought about Nox' words again. "If the fires come without warning..."
They had to at least warn them. Of course, stopping the fires altogether was the real goal, but if they did not manage?
"Can you think of any way to warn your brothers? Could we send them a message somehow?"

Nox thought long and hard before he shook his head. "If it is really what I think is going on, Ygddra would have closed off the forest and made a sanctuary even birds can't get to. They have locked themselves from the world."

He looked to Amaris. "Their only chance is if we somehow warn them ... !" He crawled closer to her with an idea that suddenly popped into his head. "You can warn them! If you aren't trying to harm Ygddra, Ygddra will let you in!" he paused for a bit, pondering if the forest really will let her in. "I hope it'll let you in."

Seeing Nox shake his head made her heart sink. She had hoped that Nox might be able to make a bird find his brothers and warn them.
But his eyes turned at her hopefully again.

"You can warn them!"

A myriad of thoughts streamed through her head at this suggestion. How would she find them? For how long would she be gone? What would happen to him in the mean time? What would her mother think? How would she even survive out in the forest? Would her parents suspect where she was going and why? Would they punish him for it?
She sighed, unable to answer all her questions and decided to ask him about the first and maybe most important one.
"How would I even find the forest, Nox? I've never been anywhere outside of some manor or another or in a carriage on the way in between."
She sighed again, doubtful of her chances of reaching Yggdra at all.
"I really think it would be better if we just got you out of this cage, so you can go yourself."
She thought about that for a moment. She would be sad to see him go, most likely never to return. But was there any other way? Maybe... If she went with him, maybe they could actually win some time. If she left a letter saying where she went, wouldn't her parents object to burning the forest? They would be outraged at what she did, but she really hoped they'd still value their daughter enough to not want her to die in the flames. She just had to arrange for a way that they might find the letter after they had enough time to actually reach the forest so they wouldn't be caught on the way.
"Or maybe, we can go together then. Hopefully my father won't let them burn the forest if I leave a note so that he knows they'd also burn me. That might at least buy us some time."
She looked at Nox expectantly, wondering what he would think about her plan.

"Together?" Nox wore a hopeful look on his face. Leaving the cage to bring Amaris to the forest, to his hope, it excited him. His grin grew wide form ear to ear and he nodded furiously. "I can show you the forest and Ygddra. I will introduce you to all my brothers! And then we'll-" he paused as he remembered the Hunters. His face grew somber before it shifted to determination.

"Will you be okay? If you free me from this cage and bring me to the forest, will they still take you back?"

"Will they still take you back?"

That was a good question. Nox had cut right to the heart of her worries. Would they? Surely, they wouldn't just send her back to the forest to live alone as an outcast, no. But how would her life change? Would she still have any chances at finding a decent husband, at getting in charge of her own home and family? She couldn't tell. She knew of nobody who had ever done something like what she was planning. So how should she gauge the response of her family, of society as a whole?
The gravity of the decision she had to make was almost physically pressing down on her.
"I don't know how they will react, Nox. They will take me back, I'm certain, but I have no idea how they will treat me after."
Probably as an eccentric fool. She might have to live hidden away from any societal gatherings, staying with her parents forever. Or maybe her sister might take her in? Cassy was a "free spirit" as her mother called it herself, more than Ama ever had been.
But then again, who knew? Maybe she would find some people who agreed with her, understood her motives. Wouldn't she be happier for having followed her own judgement and knowing who the good people were from how they reacted to it? She didn't really enjoy the prospect of spending the future with a husband who thought like her father anyway.
"I hope there will be good people who will understand what I have done. But I don't know."

"If ... If they won't take you back, you can live with me." Nox said with a hopeful tone in his voice. He remembered his dreams as he looked at Amaris, remembering how she was with him at Ygddra, and he knew that it felt right. He was sure that his brothers would accept her. They would be able to see that she was not just a human but something more.

What that something more was, Nox didn't know, but he wanted to find out.

(( It's ... It's getting shorterrrrr T_T ))