"Now," Tyrian says enthusiastically. "Let's start with a tour, shall we?"

He walks out of the room leaving us shocked by his arrogance. The whole reason we left in the first place was to find our missing piece; a secret weapon, and now all we have is a haughty run-away dream teller to... what? Now come back to an empty palace?

He didn't even tell the queen... his mother has no idea what kind of situation her son and niece put themselves in.

"I don't know if—"

"He's the best we've got," Lucy interrupts me, shaking her head disappointed by saying it herself.

"Lucy... I really am sorry. This..." I throw my hands in the air, "It's all my fault. I shouldn't have left that note."

"He cares for you... deeply, you must know that," she says very calmly. "That is your greatest blessing and curse." She looks out the window at where I had been staring. The rolling hills catch the gleam of the sunlight making a golden haze. "You both want to protect the other so badly that at some point you'll be forced to collide. Don't start fighting each other."

She whisks out of the room, her dress flaring behind her. I look out the window again at the haziness. It's something to think just a few years ago this weather made me absolutely giddy. It was the perfect disguise. Nature itself hid me in plain sight. Now it chills me to the very bone to not know what's on the other side. What could be waiting? What could be hiding? Who could be watching?

Slowly closing Crisa's door, I begin to walk down the hallways, but it feels different. Half the royal family is missing and the other half has no idea about the disappearance... or at least he thinks that...

"There you are!" the queen meets me around the corner and rushes to hug me. "Finally, one of the little ones. I was starting to worry you guys ran off."

Laughing nervously, I hug her back. Not an embrace. The guilt is way too heavy on my heart for that. I can tell she feels the difference by the look on her face when she pulls away. "Is something wrong, dear?"

I hesitate. What might she think of me if she knew where her son was, all because of me? But I think back to his note. Lucy said not to fight each other.

"Lucy and I have just gotten back from a trip to the Spring Equinox Festival," I tell her trying not to be too awkward. "We came back with a guest." Her eyebrows raise as she inspects my face for any shortcomings. "He's alright," I say briskly. I think. "He thinks he can help us with some of the threats from Malaka."

"Really?" She questions her voice going higher. "Who is this guest?" she asks gesturing for me to walk with her.

I take a deep breath, changing my direction. "His name is Tyrian." I'm not sure whether to mention his background of being Fae, so I leave that part out. "He and Lucy have some sort of magical... connection."

"Connection? How so?"

The queen's questions always find a way to make my heart skip. Like being interrogated in the kindest way possible.

"He has seen some of the same visions Lucy has. He's seen her. He's quite sure he will be able to find something within the Lumbridge territory that will aid us."

Her pace stays the same, but her voice becomes slower. "What is he hoping to find?" she asks suspiciously.

I shake my head. "I'm not too sure. He says some objects have a certain calling to him. They can trigger a vision. He thinks a vital one might be here with Lucy. That's why he's been seeing her."

She nods, contemplating all I say. "What does Axil think about all of this?"

I pause in my stride and a second of hesitation is all it takes for her to catch on. "He's gone. Isn't he?" she asks looking at me wishing it's not true. But as I look into their identical eyes I can't hold back any longer. I nod.

She inhales slowly letting her shoulders come all the way up to her ears. "I knew a day like this would come," she says almost muttering. "He's way too young to have the kingdom on his shoulders. I've told his father it's all too much, but he just won't reason. I didn't think he would run away." Hugging her arms, she goes to turn in the opposite direction.

"Run away? He hasn't run away from Lumbridge."

She pauses, turning back around. "Zaria," she says my name carefully. "Where is my son?"

"I..." I falter. "I don't know."

Her shoulders slump.

"Not exactly," I add quickly. "But I have a pretty good idea where he's heading off to."

She keeps her mouth shut, only raising her eyebrows waiting for me to continue. I don't know which I hate more. The questions or the wordless stare.

"I had left a note for him. When Lucy and I left, I had told him we would be gone for a while and to not come looking for us. Lucy had thought that maybe we would find something at the festival, and she was right... but she wanted to make sure that Lumbridge was still secure, so she didn't want to go all together." She listens without blinking, her posture a bit too upright. "I didn't want him to worry so I told him not to follow us and I think he thought we went to Eden because of the slave mark." I slap my hand over my mouth as I realize what I have just said.

"Sla... slave mark?" She looks like she might go into hysterics. I take a few steps towards her to make sure she won't faint. "What slave marks?"

There is no point in hiding it anymore. I shiver and the words just start coming out.

"Lucy was first. She has a slave mark. Giant crow wings on her arm. Crista next. Lucy and I went to see Mr. Griffin. He's a tattoo master so she thought he might have some answers on the slave mark and how to get rid of it."

The whole time her eyes pierce into mine and she looks as though she'll cry at any second. Her hands clasp together, her pinkies shaking.

"He couldn't tell us much. Nothing more than Lucy already suspected. He did give me a book and I've been trying to read anything I can to stop this. Since that didn't work, she wanted to go to the festival. There's a stand called Crow's Point. That's where we found Tyrian."

"Lucy and Crista have slave marks," she says half as a question.

"She's gone, too," I tell her.

Her shoulders slump even more. "They're trying to find that woman because that's where they think you two are." She pauses. "But, you two aren't there." She looks at me, her eyes set. "Come with me."

She starts down the hallway and I struggle to keep up with her long strides. She walks so fast that her dress billows out behind her without even grazing the floor. She takes me all the way up to a part of the palace I haven't seen much of and knocks on the door. It's only now, standing in the hallway in complete silence that I remember why I had seen this bit of the castle so little. This is where Mom and Mika stayed when they returned. I had just become accustomed to seeing Mika in Crista's room, I had almost forgotten she had her own chambers.

Mika opens the door slowly and it takes only a second for her to look from her sister to me. Her eyes narrow in like a bullet. Her face hardens into a stiff frown. "You." She says widening the door.

The queen steps in between us holding up her hands. "No. This is just some misunderstanding, and Zaria needs your help to fix it."

Seeing her in the light I can notice the small details of her fatigue. The dark circles around her eyes, the frizz in her curls, the same outfit I had seen her in before we left. She looks straight at me and her dark aura is suffocating.

"This is why I wanted Crista with me and not you," she says bitterly. "Do you have any clue of what kind of danger they are in?!"

"Lower your voice, Mika," the queen says sternly. "Now if you would please let us in so we can speak calmly."

She huffs. "Calmly," she repeats, shaking her head.

"You are not the only one missing a child," the queen says looking her straight in the eye. Mika does the same and for a moment I think I should run for it but the second my foot moves an inch her gaze falls directly on me. She scowls even more and steps aside.

"Thank you," the queen says stiffly.

Walking into her room the air automatically becomes freezing. I look over at the fireplace, but there's no fire, not even logs of wood.

The room looks as bare as mine. White walls and a picture of her and Crista when she was a baby. There's another man in the photo standing beside Mika and I swear he looks familiar.

She closes the door behind us and whips around. "What did you do to my daughter?"

"Nothing!" I whisper trying to hide my face from her. "Lucy and I just got back and they were gone."

"She kept talking about wanting in on your little games," she spits at me.

"Maybe if she didn't feel so isolated, she wouldn't have gone to extreme lengths—"

"Excuse me!"

"Silence, both of you! We are not here to argue," the queen says pleadingly.

"You're just like your mother. Poking your nose into things that don't involve you. Look at where that got her."

"It got you killed as well," I say without even thinking.

"I'm not talking about her being Chosen. I'm talking about your father. That rascal of a man, if you can even call him one."

I stay silent. It feels wrong to stick up for my father, but just as equally wrong not to stick up for him. "My father has nothing to do with this."

"Mika, please," the queen says softly. "Please, I don't know how much time we have and we need to find them. You," the queen says addressing me. "You gave Crista another necklace after her other one was broken. Is that correct?" I nod my head. She looks up at Mika. "Is there any way for her to call out to Crista? Find where she is and maybe even communicate with her?"

"Yes," Mika says with malice. "But I don't know how much it will do. She doesn't have magic anymore," she says, again looking daggers at me.

"We have to at least try, sister. What else are we to do?"

She looks past both of us with her arms crossed. I'm starting to understand why Lucy wasn't all that keen on her. I say the only thing that comes to mind.

"She took it. The book." Her eyes dart to me. She raises her eyebrows and I nod.

"How do you know about that?"

"Doesn't matter," I say quickly not wanting to explain that I had been snooping around. "But she took it with her. She took a part of you with her. She loves you."

"Does she?" she says questioningly. "Does she love me as much as she says she does?"

My heart aches as she speaks. Look at all Crista has done for her; all Crista is doing for her. "You can't possibly mean that. She gave up everything for you."

She takes a deep breath and I brace for her wrath to come down upon me but it never does. Instead, her voice is dangerously soft which makes my skin crawl more than the yelling.

"Why did she bring me back?" she whispers, broken.

"What?"

Sitting down on the bed she puts her head in her hands. "If she had no intention of wanting to be with me... if she was just going to run away and get herself killed... why did she bring me back?" The queen kneels at the edge of the bed resting her hands on her sister's lap. "I turned my back on her and now I'm living my punishment."

"Mika," the queen says forcing her sister to meet her eyes. Crista didn't bring you back to punish you," she says most kindly. "She didn't sprint to the ends of the earth to get revenge; she willingly walked off the edge to give you another chance. We all wish we could go back in time and change what we've done but we can't." She grabs Mika's hands in her own, holding them tight. "You have been given a miraculous second chance. Don't throw it away."

"I don't deserve it," she cries almost inaudibly.

"No," the queen says. "You don't. None of us deserve a second chance." She squeezes tighter. "But her love paid the price. She sacrificed herself for you because she thought you were worth it." She shrugs her shoulders gracefully. "If that's not love than I don't know what is."

"She wore your necklace," I cut in. "She never wore her own. The ball is the night people feel the most beautiful, and she decided to wear her mother's necklace because having a piece of you is what made her feel beautiful."

She stays silent and the aura in the room shifts. Not completely, just a different hue. Lighter and clearer. I go over to the fireplace, stacking logs inside. With a flick of my hand, I set sparks to the wood starting a tiny flame.

"So please, help us make everything right," the queen says stroking the back of her hand.

She sits up a little higher, rolling her shoulders. "Give me your necklace." I reach for the clasp and take it off handing it to her. "You forged this yourself from the crystal cave? It wasn't given to you by Eden?"

"No," I say trying to keep my voice even as the conversation replays in my mind. That's where Crista must get all her emotion from. What a double-edged sword to feel as deeply as the Norwoods.

"Crista's as well?"

I nod my head.

"Good," she says clearing her throat. "It's hard for anything to be anonymous these days. Eden could track you very easily with a necklace she made."

I hadn't even thought of that. I start to think of anything else within the castle that could be a tracker for Eden. Perhaps it could strike a chord with Tyrian.

"Now, hold this in your hand." She places the jewel back into my palm. I kneel with the queen and watch as Mika recites the spell. "The spell won't work if there is an interference. Either physical or mental, you must concentrate as hard as you can."

I nod my head grasping the crystal, feeling its smooth edges in my hand.

"To find a friend, that's all I need. We walk the earth unbound and freed.

Cross our paths, make two lines one. Align our fates, our journey begun."

I repeat after her, cupping my hand firmly around the crystal. I imagine everything I know about Crista. Her joyful laugh and bright smile. Her carefree style with a heart of gold. I think of her clanging bangle bracelets and her obnoxious purple skirt. I think of the way her floating hat bobbed up and down and the way she skipped up and down the hallways.

"You stripped that from her."

Eden's voice creeps back into my mind. All of a sudden, the fire seems too warm, and the crystal too hot. I drop it and inside my palm is black dust as if the crystal turned into charcoal.

"Wha—what's happening?" I yell.

Pulsing my fingers in and out the back of my neck starts to sweat and my vision gets blurry.

"What is going on in here?" a voice calls while busting the door open. Seeing the silvery silhouettes is enough to recognize that it's Tyrian and Lucy.

I can feel Mika stand up abruptly, scooting the bed back a little from her force. I wobble for a bit, regaining my balance just in time to see Mika practically strangling Tyrian.

"Who are you? What are you doing in the palace? Who sent you? What is your business here?" she asks in a flurry of angered fits.

Lucy looks to me on the floor and I know the worst comes to her mind. She looks back infuriated at Mika. And it's now that I understand exactly why Lucy doesn't fancy her. Lucy has thrived her whole life on stability. Even when she was stripped of her crown she didn't feel broken. She just changed her way of living and something beautiful came of it. I can only imagine with the random outbursts of energy from Mika, she would be the exact thing to get Lucy's skin crawling.

"No," I say to her as she steps between Mika and Tyrian, my body regaining balance. "We were trying to see if we could form a connection with Crista. That's all. Nothing more."

"Lucy, darling," the queen says rushing over to embrace her daughter. She hugs her back and I realize how perfect they are together; carbon copies. "You had me worried sick." She looks down and rolls up Lucy's sleeve without her being able to react quickly enough. "Lucy," she whispers her name in desperation, "Why didn't you say anything?"

I see Lucy's piercing stare go directly towards me and it's like deja vu of the last few minutes. I had to tell her, I try to communicate through my eyes.

"Don't you worry, darling. We are going to do everything we can to fix all of this." She cups Lucy's delicate face in her hands, sighing. She then looks over at the extremely tall figure in the room. Out in the open, he started to appear normal, but back within the confines of walls, he towers over everyone like a giant.

He genuflects on one knee and she barely has to look down at him. "Your Highness," he says and his voice is so different, it's startling. All of his snarkiness has left and I can only imagine this was how he was trained to be in the Fae Realms.

I watch the queen's eyes carefully. The hesitation is clear on her face, only a fraction of a second, but a pause nonetheless. A bit of her breath catches as she whispers, "And who might you be, sir."

"Tyrian," he says standing. "Tyrian Burne." He extends his hand to her and she does a good job of hiding the fear that is radiating off her. She looks at him, clearly seeing everything he is. A Fae.

He did nothing to conceal himself like he said he had done at the ball or how he did in the forest speaking with us just last night. Last night. How has it only been last night?

"You can say it," Tyrian says with a bit of a chuckle in his voice that doesn't sound all that authentic. "I'm Fae. I'm not supposed to be here." His hands clasp together, his fingers fidgeting back and forth.

He's scared.

Who could ever be scared of the queen? But quickly it pops into my head, You. You were scared of the queen.

"Not at all, sir. The Fae are always welcome in Lumbridge," and I can tell by the look Tyrian gives her, that he can smell the lie on her tongue. "I hear you might be able to help our Kingdom. Is this true?"

He looks away, glancing out the window. His eyes glaze over. Not like Lucy when she sees a vision, but the look of... peace. Slowly he strolls over to the window and rests his hands on the rail, looking out into the world like a little boy.

"Doesn't the morning dew look so spectacular up here?"

Lucy and I both look at each other silently saying what-the-heck-is-he-doing?

She shrugs and keeps her eyes on his back. He slumps against the side of the window still lost in his own little world. "I came here once as a little boy. Different kingdom, but the same beautiful land."

"What brought you here?" the queen asks. She tries her best to keep her voice even and calm.

"A dream," he says turning to face Lucy. He cocks his head to the side with a tiny smirk. "It seems history is repeating itself."

I avoid Lucy's gaze as does the queen. The aura of her embarrassment fills the room with a thick fog that makes even me feel self-conscious.

He looks back at the queen straightening up. "I intend to do everything within my power to help aid your kingdom. I don't know how and I certainly don't know why the Spirits are leading me to this land." He looks out again and sighs. "Something here is important. Something worth standing for."

"This kingdom you visited when you were a boy... it wasn't Malaka."

He laughs for real this time and the vibrations clear away the foggy embarrassment replacing it with something sweeter. An allure.

"No, no," he laughs shaking his head. "You must forgive me, but I am much older than that. If I am correct, Malaka is a new kingdom. It used to be much older. After all, Eden is a Hill.

A Hill?

"Yes. The Malakan lineage is the same, but her stance on the world caused her to break away from her family. Quite unfortunate really. The Fae and the Hills got along quite well."

"You remember the switch?" she asks.

"Oh, yes," he says, his voice brightening. "Eden," he pauses looking awkward. "Please tell me you don't mind me just saying Eden. She's no queen in my book and I will not stand here and call her one."

The queen raises her head but doesn't say anything. It would be wrong if she did, but he understands and smiles.

"Eden was an only child. While her friends all had sisters and brothers running around, she was always the odd one out. Never able to fit in. Never able to seem to make any real connections. It's hard to compete with the bond of blood."

"I'm sorry," Mika steps in, her annoyed tone ruining the story. "How do you know anything about this? And why are we all gathered in my chambers?"

"Let the boy speak, for Heaven's sake," the queen snaps.

Tyrian, however, stays very calm like he's used to the arrogance. "It's alright," he says holding a hand out to the queen. He turns and faces Mika. "You don't have to like me, but I am here to help you. I know your daughter is in danger." Mika gasps, the scowl on her face widening. "Let me help her," he says calmly.

She doesn't say anything but blows him off. Stalking out of the room she slams the door.

"Don't mind my sister. She's been through a lot."

"I understand," he says and I can see the truth in his eyes. Lucy does as well. I don't think she even knows but she steps forward, closer to him.

"I know this from my studies. You may believe the Fae think themselves above everyone else, but that's not all of us. There are many back at home who study the histories of the other Realms." He pauses again, but this time he has to clear his throat before he speaks. "We do what we can to learn and grow."

"I see," the queen says, her walls breaking down a little. "Please, continue."

He takes a deep breath. "Eden, right. She was a lovely girl. Kind to anyone and everyone. It's what she did to try and at least make some friends, but no good deed goes unpunished. She was six when she found out she was a witch. She harnessed powers no one could imagine and all at once. The people didn't know what to do with her. A little girl with emotional damage and magic is a danger to everyone around her, especially when her parents were too busy running a kingdom."

"That's when she got transported to the Fae Realms," the queen says, following.

"Really?" Lucy says, and her intrigue means so much more now that I know what she hides under her hair.

"Really," he says. "She came to train with the Fae, but it was just like her life back at home. She was alone. The only human child. Not to mention her powers were far beyond some of the Fae which made her an easy target for jealousy."

"She became very involved in her studies. Keeping to herself and her books, she lived inside her head, and this is where most believe it all started. She read about the war."

"Oh," I say, the pieces starting to fit together.

"She wanted her revenge. It was all just child's play at first. Lighting a kid's boots on fire, making it rain in school, erasing children's memory right before an exam. All very tame."

"Lighting a kid's boots on fire is tame?" Lucy asks sarcastically.

We all chuckle and the air around us calms even more. "None of it seemed good enough for her. The pranks she played only aggravated the kids to single her out more and that's when she read about the Crystal Cave."

"See, to her what Evander had done was an inspiration. Here were all of these kids calling her a freak and right in front of her was a solution to all of her problems. The only thing that stood in her way was figuring out how to lure her classmates into the cave. It's all common knowledge to the Fae to stay as far away from it as possible."

"But the Crystal Cave is safe now. Right?" I ask quickly. The anxiety bubbles in my stomach.

"Right you are," he says pointing at me. "It's almost as if the cave knew about her plan. The whole mysterious part of the story is the Crystal Cave itself."

"It's gone," Lucy says for him. Not a question.

He nods his head once. "It just disappeared." He takes a deep breath. "The teasing and insults got worse. Life threatening. In a different lifetime, I could almost feel bad for her. She was just a sad lost princess in the wrong world."

My eyes dart over to Lucy and I try not to think of the comparisons.

"Eden is a treasured demon in her own sense. She acquired even more power through her studies and then once she returned to the Kingdom Realm it was believed that she would move on... and she did."

The queen watches him with an intensity I've never seen before. Not judgmental, no, I can feel the admiration shining through her eyes. She holds onto his every word like they are pure gold.

"That is until it was time for her to reign. She was a fit queen when she first started. Her coronation was packed. Everyone came to see the girl who survived the Fae Realm. For years it was like the little girl inside of her was ruling. Kind and caring.

"Her story was an inspiration to others like her and she formed an allyship with other Chosens."

My heart aches as he says that last part. Mom.

"She had everything she had once dreamed of, and then she fell in love, and with that love, she bore a son."

My heart aches even more. Twisting and throbbing. John.

But this love was not bound, nor was it the appropriate love for her status. She was a queen fit to marry a royal, not some commoner."

And now all I can do is look inward at my own situation. Not some commoner.

He sighs. "She had worked so hard to get where she was and her reputation meant everything to her, but she couldn't shake this love she had." There is a beat of silence and I feel even more sick than I did even before stepping into the room.

"She hid. Until she delivered the baby, she was a ghost only seen by her family and maids and once the baby was born a depression hit her kingdom. She had begged her Chosens for help and told them about her baby and the stain on her name. They did everything they could, but their magic shut off."

This had always been the part that confused me. "Shut off? How can the magic just shut off?"

He presses his lips together tightly. "I wish I could tell you, Zaria," and I can see the genuine honesty in his eyes. "It was just like the cave itself. Just as it once disappeared, so did their magic."

"The gods," I say. "There has to be someone. Higher powers... But why? Why shut it off?" He shrugs and fidgets his fingers once more. "So," I say, pulling myself together. "What happened after that?"

"That's when the kingdom changed. I guess she had thought that her friends betrayed her just like the students in the Fae Realm. She got rid of her baby, destroyed her love and took her revenge."

"She forgot the beauty, she forgot love, she forgot her happiness... and she crumpled."

"She named her new kingdom Malaka, meaning queen. The kingdom was no longer a land for the people but a throne for its ruler. She now has a daughter. Just one. Just like her."

All of this was so recent. It makes my head spin just thinking about it. But whereas my head feels like it's about to explode, the queen looks very satisfied. I think back to the timeline. She knew all of this; she was just doing her homework. She was aware of the history but just wanted to make sure she and Tyrian were on the same page.

"Tyrian," the queen says resting her hand on his shoulder, though it looks a bit awkward with his height. "You believe you can lead us through the darkness."

He looks her in the eye and his face changes. It's not a smile or even a smirk, but there is a brightness to his face like he has accomplished something he's been waiting decades for.

"I do."

The queen smiles. "Tyrian, welcome to Lumbridge."