NoGift

ARGENT looked outside the window. It was still raining heavily outside. Harsh wind blew and lightning and thunder cracked the already dark sky. It's been a whole morning with nothing but heavy rain and thunderclouds. And Argent was inside one of the rooms of an inn in Qingxin.

When the rain started to fall heavily earlier, both she and Lei Feng ran towards the village as fast as they could and rented two rooms at the nearest inn. If the rain didn't stop today, they decided to go to Hangzhou tomorrow. Since no boatman would send them there in this weather. Argent was fine with that. Because she still needed time to completely analyze the decoded words from the cipher her mother left.

'Don't come. Trap. Blackbourne blood needed to unseal dragon treasure.'

'Don't come' meant that her mother already expected that Argent would come looking for her. That was not surprising since Argent told her about the GPS function of the bracelet she gave her. Argent also told her that she could search for her location using her sPhone. Her mother might have thought that once they couldn't contact her, they would immediately search for her last known location. And when they found that both her bracelet and sPhone were destroyed, that would push them into looking for her.

That's why she left that code as a warning. Because she knew they would discover it and that Argent would be able to solve it. Her mother probably wanted for the code to serve as a warning to both her daughters. That that should be the end of their search and that they should stop looking for her. Because just as she said, it was a 'trap'.

If it was indeed a trap, wouldn't it be much easier to just contact Argent and threatened her with the life of her mother? With just one message from them, Argent and Aurum would probably do any of their bidding. But then again, they might not have done that because they thought Argent would come up with a number of countermeasures to fight them. However, if her mother just mysteriously disappeared, Argent's mind would constantly be filled of ways on how to find her instead of plans on how to fight her abductors.

In short, it was a ploy to let her guard down. In some way, they were right. Of course the first thing Argent would think of was how to find her mother. But that didn't mean that Argent would not be able to think of other things. She frowned. It's irritating, being looked down upon. It's almost like they're questioning her intelligence.

But what really concerned her was the last part of the decoded cipher. 'Blackbourne blood needed to unseal dragon treasure'. Why? What was so special about their family's blood? She asked Jaxon earlier when she told him that she already decoded the message her mother left. But he didn't give her anything of use. All he knew was that the Blackbournes were an old ducal family in Albion.

That was also the extent of Argent's knowledge regarding the original body's ancestry. She never really put any effort into finding more since it didn't really interest her. Though she heard something like how starting at her great grandfather's generation, the main family only had one offspring. Her father had no siblings, as well as her grandfather. It only changed in this generation when her mother gave birth to twins. But could that even be considered as important information?

Instead of helping Argent solved the mytery, Jaxon suggested that she went back to Albion together with Aurum. Of they could just simply return to her island. If this was really a trap, then it would be safer for them to just leave everything to him. Of course she refused. How could she leave now when they've gotten this far? She couldn't just leave everything to Jaxon. Especially when it's now plain obvious that her mother's abductors took her because of something related to their family.

Argent's conversation with Jaxon ended with them not agreeing with each other. Oh well, he'd probably come around. It's not like he could drag them away from here anyway.

She sat down on the bed and looked at the ceiling. The only good thing she could think of right now was that her mother was still definitely alive. Those people wouldn't kill her, not unless they got their hands on either her or Aurum. But because of that, she now had to worry about her sister being alone in the capital. It's probably not the right idea to separate. Good thing Black was with her. That kid would definitely do everything to protect Aurum.

Just then, Argent felt the familiar vibration from the diamond stud on her earlobe. She immediately opened her light brain and saw her sister's beautiful face on the screen.

"Brother!" Aurum excitedly greeted. "Wait- is it raining there?"

"Yes, quite heavily in fact."

"Then you're staying at an inn? That would slow your travel then."

"Not entirely. We're just one village away from Hangzhou. We're probably arrived there tomorrow once the rain stopped."

"Eh? Brother, don't tell me- did you ride on one of your flying vehicles?" Argent nodded. "Was that really alright? I mean, you went there with that serious faced general, right? Was it really okay to show him one of your inventions?"

Lei Feng's serious face flashed in Argent's mind. "It's probably fine if it's that guy."

Aurum's brows furrowed. When did her brother started trusting that general? She shook her head. It's not the right time to think about something like that. She'd just ask Argent about it later. Right now, it's more important to tell her brother what she found in the Empress' memories.

"Brother, could you show me the video of that white-cloaked person we saw from mother's sPhone? And could you also enlarge the image, please?"

Not sure why her sister suddenly requested that, but Argent still did what she asked. It didn't take time, since she already enlarged that image quite a number of times to see that white-cloaked person's face. But to her utter disappointment, they were wearing a mask with some kind of symbol drawn on it. It covered their entire face. Once argent sent the image, she saw her sister staring intently at it.

"It's him. This is definitely him." Aurum raised her head and looked at Argent. "I looked into the Empress' memories today, specifically looking at anything related to the Apostles of Gaia. And then I saw this guy wearing the same mask as that white cloaked person. That kind of mask was definitely custom made, especially with those weird symbols on it. He couldn't possibly have the same mask. Unless they're the same person or they belong to the same organization that used the same mask."

"Wait- backtrack a bit," Argent said, cutting off whatever Aurum was saying. "You went to the palace again today?"

"Yes. The Empress invited me again. Of course I have to go. But that's not important right now. Didn't you hear what I just said? The people who took Mother was definitely from that Apostles of Gaia group."

"I heard you." And she also agreed with her sister's deduction. But this turn of events was definitely worrisome. Especially after confirming that them being here in Xing was the enemy's trap. "The person you saw from the Empress' memories, was it a man?"

Aurum nodded. "I can tell from his voice."

"What did he and the Empress talked about?"

"That guy suddenly appeared in the Empress' chambers and told her that he was an Apostle of Gaia. The Empress asked if he could prove his identity, then the man showed a small crystal ball emitting a purple light. Inside it, I could vaguely see the image of a girl. And that was enough for the Empress to believe that he was indeed what he introduced himself as. Then they proceeded on doing their transaction.

"The guy wanted for the Empress to give him one of the maps hidden in the Emperor's chambers. He said that it should be a map that the Emperor took back 15 years ago. Based on what she was thinking at that moment, she probably had an idea what map the man was talking about. If she succeeded, then the Apostles of Gaia would make sure that her eldest son would sit on the throne of the Emperor.

"I jumped from there to the point when she already gave the map to the guy. So I didn't know how she managed to get it. Though it was probably not that hard. Since what she gave was only a picture of the map from her sPhone. Considering her identity, she could easily go in and out of the Emperor's chambers without anyone questioning her. That job would certainly not be that easy if another person, other than her, had to do it."

Argent collected the information she heard and piled it up on the things she had to think about later. "Did you see why the Empress thinks that this Apostles could help her son become the next Emperor?"

Aurum shook her head. "I didn't have enough time so I only focused on the memories that I think would be important. But don't worry, I can just look into her memories again."

"No. Stay at the Zhang household for now."

If this was indeed a trap, then there's a huge possibility that those people - those Apostles - took into consideration the fact that the Empress would try to pair Aurum with her youngest son once she found out that the Blackbourne twins would be coming to Xing. They probably already knew about Aurum's Gift. If she used it on the Empress, then the possibility of her remaining in the capital would be greater. They probably even thought of using the Empress to feed Aurum information which she would in turn give to Argent. Which only meant one thing. They already picked which twin they would use to unseal whatever treasure they were looking for.

They picked her - Argent.

Aurum remained in the capital, while she was the one directly looking for their mother. And since she's already looking for their whereabouts, all they have to do was to wait for her to find them. It's almost like she's directly delivering herself to them. But that's fine with her. At least now Argent didn't have to worry that her sister would be suddenly kidnapped while she was not with her.

"Okay. But I have to attend the seventh princess' hairpin ceremony in just a few days."

"Then make sure to always be surrounded by a lot of people." Just in case her conjecture was not right and one of those Apostles did try to kidnap Aurum.

"I understand," Aurum said, she didn't question her brother that much because she knew Argent was probably just worried about her. "Oh, I almost forgot. I got a good look at that map. I can draw it for you, Brother. Once I'm done, I'll immediately send it to you."

Argent nodded. That's another good news. "Then I'll be waiting."

Once their call ended, Argent stood up and walked towards the window. She opened it and let the cold wind hit her face. A menacing grin appeared on her face.

[Let's see who's going to win this game; You people calling yourselves Apostles? Or me, Argent Blackbourne?]