US Air Date: 16/11/2007

Writer: Gillian Horvath

Director: Mick MacKay

Baylin, Flash and Dale travel to the Verden cloister and find it devastated by Ming’s Patriots. Most of the Verden have been taken prisoner but Flash finds one survivor, a Verden named Nokwen, caught in trap. While a doctor treats Nokwen’s wounds, he explains that Verden are being sold as slaves, which will continue until Barin – who has been missing since his attempt to kill Ming – is found. Baylin is determined to buy back the Verden. Leaving Dale and Nokwen behind, he and Flash go to the slave market, where they learn that a Turan has been buying most of the Verden. They soon learn that the Turan is actually Barin in disguise, and that he has been hunting celetrophs to pay for his people and hiding them in the north.

While Flash is away, Dale and Nokwen are captured and taken to the slave market. Flash and Baylin are forced to hunt celetrophs in order to buy them back, but by the time they have captured enough, Dale has already been taken to Nascent City to be one of Ming’s concubines.

Disguised as Patriots, Flash and Barin ask Aura for her help, which she gives in exchange for Barin’s knowledge about her mother. Dale manages to escape on her own; she finds Flash and Barin just as Ming announces that he will kill ten Verden every day until Barin turns himself in. Barin gives himself up and is locked in Ming’s dungeon. At first Ming plans to have him executed, but Flash disguises himself as a monk and gives a false prophecy, changing Ming’s mind. Rankol sees through the ruse, but says nothing.