The Thalassa Isles was an archipelagic nation located in the South China Sea of South East Asia.
Positioned North of Borneo and south of the Luzon strait, it was situated it between Malaysia, the Philippines and Brunei.
The Isles themselves were of medium size and consisted of six main lands and thirty-one islands of various sizes.
Coronis, the smallest mainland roughly located at the center of the nation, and it's six islands, made up the Capital District.
This housed the king and most other ceremonial or landless nobles.
The remaining main lands represented the five states of Thalassa, between which the rest of the islands were divided.
With the mountainous Drakara to the North, the deep-watered Oriens to the East, the sheltered breadbasket of Baratlaut to the West, the maze-like Nusari to the South, and the shrouded Sagari nestled between Baratlaut and Nusari to the Southwest
These five states surrounded Coronis, and placed the capital right in the middle of Thalassa's happenings, both literally and metaphorically.
After their successful escape from Coronis, Eric set his sights on the most secretive state in Thalassa, Sagari.
Hiding in the shadows of Baratlaut and Nusari, this state had the littlest of royal influence.
And due to it's complex and jagged coasts with many coves, inlets, and sheltered bays—perfect for hiding ships— it became the hub of smuggling within the country.
A state overwhelmed with immigrants and elements who did not wish to be found. Sagari was the obvious choice for Eric and Victoria to hide.
Standing on the ship's top deck, he was hit with the cold sea breeze of early morning.
To avoid major shipping lanes, Raz had taken a circuitous route, skirting between Oriens and Nusari before doubling back into the secluded waters of a remote Sagari island.
If not for the capital's chaos and the sensitive nature of the boat's passengers, it was better to head directly for Sagari's mainland through the route between Baratlaut and Nusari.
But they'd then have had to make the rest of the journey on land to reach their true target, the small remote island. This presented its own flavour of risks.
"How are our passengers?" Eric asked Raz, while taking in the enchanting view of sprawling beaches and tropic grasslands beyond.
"Silas and Thea have mostly been docile." Raz replied. "I stuck to your orders and left them untied... though I still heavily plead against it." Raz completed with obvious apprehension within his tone.
Eric chuckled
"You know we're going to need allies for what we plan."
He turned, running his palm through his hair as he faced his butler and the seas behind him.
"No matter how unlikely their origins. We've already shown our capabilities to Raz and Kai, they know what's at stake for them if they defect. Now we need to work on making them willingly help our cause."
Raz simply gave a perfunctory nod at Eric.
The man was still skeptical, Eric could see it in his eyes. But Eric could accept that.
It would do good if the captive duo had someone keeping them on their toes.
"And Thea?" Eric said, in a stark cold voice.
"She's still unconscious. The doctor says she should be waking any minute now." Raz said.
"Good." Eric replied. "We set off at dusk, get everything we need ready."
Raz bowed before excusing himself.
Turning back to face the small island, he became consumed by his thoughts.
"So you still remember father's hidden estate."
Victoria's words startled, Eric.
Snapping his head towards the source, he was met with his sister's face.
Draped in a simple black shirt and trouser, she looked anything but royal.
Neither did he.
But he was nonetheless glad to see her out of Panacea's patient garbs.
Smiling, Eric spoke.
"Why wouldn't I? Mom and dad took us there whenever they could." His smile gained a morose edge. "Even if that meant only once every two years or so."
Their father, Kaimana Laut, had built a relatively small villa at the outskirts of his kingdom. Meant to be a reprieve from all the bustle of royal life for him and his family.
The former king had made his children swear to never talk about the place once they left. A type of family secret that even their most loyal retainers knew nothing of.
Even after their Uncle's brutal takeover, the place had somehow remained hidden from the media and their uncle's grasp.
If it was due to the place already being destroyed, Eric did not know.
But he was about to find out.
"Do you think It's still there?" He asked, after a short pause.
The nagging fear that every treasured piece of his childhood had been tainted bothered him.
Victoria walked to Eric's side, where Raz had previously stood.
She gave a dry laugh at Eric's words.
"Your pessimism is as strong as ever."
"I know it's there." Clasping his shoulder she continued speaking. "Just like we promised to father we'd keep it secret, he promised us it would always remain a hidden place we can turn to for safety."
Victoria's calm words made Eric's tense shoulders relax and his strained smile gain more life.
It was obvious the princess was more than familiar with her brother's gloomy tendencies.
After some time Victoria spoke again. "Eric, we need to talk"
Eric didn't need his enhanced senses to read the tension in her movements and the hesitation in her voice.
"Our family... is special." She began, sitting on a rough metal block jutting from the ship.
"Asides our royalty we also hold a mystical heritage within our blood."
At her words, Eric's mind immediately remembered Jackson's mention of his family's occult bloodline before he had originally died.
He had thought them hallucinations of his last moments but perhaps his captor wasn't simply playing tricks on him.
His interest was immediately piqued.
"I'm sure you've noticed this world isn't as simple as it seems." She continued.
Eric reflexively caressed the strange ring still on his index finger.
"Beneath this veneer of reality is a world beyond our imaginations, filled with people and beings who possess supernatural abilities." Victoria looked down at her thin arms and clenched them tightly. "We were born of that world."
She abruptly raised her head to stare straight at Eric.
Victoria's eyes, usually a void black, now swirled with a faint, bloody crimson at the edges of her pupils.
Eric should have sensed something amiss, but he could only watch in bewilderment as the color intensified, then slowly receded, leaving her eyes clear once more.
"Uncle thinks we're dead." Her jarring words felt incongruous with the mood.
This had been one of Eric's primary objectives behind his complete destruction of the Panacea base. But to hear it said with so much certainty from his sister puzzled him.
Before he could ask further questions she interrupted him.
"I can... sometimes just know things," she whispered. "Fragments of what's true. And I know this: Uncle thinks we're dead."
Eric was familiar with this trait of Victoria's. She had always possessed uncanny luck and intuition.
The princess released a tired sigh as she got back on her feet.
"What I don't know is how long he's going to think we're dead for, so we have to work fast."
Eric thinned his lips. The sibling's locked gazes entering a stale deadlock. He could tell she wasn't revealing everything to him.
Victoria embraced a taunting smirk. "You're not the only one with secrets."
Eric's brows began to twitch at his sister's reply.
"Uhm... Your highnesses." Silas awkwardly called, breaking the silence.
"Thea has woken."
Eric faced the intruder before turning back to his smug faced sister.
"We'll shelve this for later."
Then the trio went to the lower decks and into a damp, cluttered room.
There Thea laid on the floor, hands and feet tied by tight rubber strips.
In her face was the obvious sign of fading grogginess. But immediately they entered her eyes sharpened into focused slits.
"So which one of you is dying?"
Her voice carried unhidden provocation. "Wait...Wait..." She stuttered out.
"Let me guess..." Her eyes swiftly focused on Victoria's straight face.
"It's you."
"What are you talking about?" Eric asked sceptically.
His deal with Thea had been for her to give him information about what Panacea knew about the heaven's loom.
Whatever she spoke of now worked on information he didn't know of.
Information he hadn't accounted for.
"Oh my." Thea said, feigning concern. "You truly do not know."
"The only reason the princess has been alive was because of the immortal core." Her gaze left Victoria's cold stare and fixed itself on Eric. "The same core inside you now."
"We'd tried weaning subjects off it slowly with immunosuppressants and metabolic stabilizers, yet their supercharged cellular processes would still go into catastrophic failure." Thea's voice undulated in a sing-song type of manner.
"Her system is tearing itself apart from the inside out as we speak. Without the Core's stabilizing energy... it's only a matter of time ."
She grew a wicked sneer as she spoke. "Before she dies."