"I'm sorry, what?" Kymalin asked just to make sure she was hearing it right the first time.

Marin swallowed a lungful of breath, putting up a finger like she was silencing Kymalin. "Just you wait," she said. "I'll tell you in a while what I've discovered."

"Why are you even panting?" April crossed her arms.

"They almost got me," Marin looked over her shoulder like she was expecting something to leap out from there. "I stepped on the wrong part of the floor. I ran all the way to the entrance so they wouldn't know I was working for someone by using one of our most well-known transport spells."

"Shadow gates?" April raised her eyebrow at the space where Marin's spell had last been. Kymalin whirled to April to ask a question but the air sprite shook her head sternly at her. The priority was Marin, for now. The half-blood has some sort of information that shook her. It's worthy of Kymalin's attention, at least.

The half-blood staggered to a patch of dirt before plopping down upon it. She ran a hand on her forehead before wiping it on her trousers. The cloth came away wet. "I went into that cavern where the brownies disappeared to," Marin said. "There was a long fall down. Then tons of walls...made from ice."

April knitted her eyebrows, reflecting the growing confusion in Kymalin's mind. "Ice?"

Marin nodded. "Big blocks of 'em," her half-blood accent crept into her tone. She was prone to that when she's flustered or when feeling a surge of intense emotions. "I went further and I discovered that Ice Sprites are still alive and they are below us all this time. They didn't go extinct. They went into hiding and have built their own civilization underground."

Kymalin gestured at Marin's huffing form. "You're like this because...?"

Marin raised her eyes to Kymalin's and Kymalin saw doubt creeping into it. No, not now, Marin. Don't let the doubt cloud her resolve. Not now. "June and the others made it inside," the half-blood licked her lips like it was suddenly dry. "They were welcomed because apparently, the Alkaran heir is with them. Then, I saw a bunch of other people. I saw the Virtakios—"

"Hold up," Kymalin waved her palms in Marin's face. "The Virtakios is right here, with us..."

"Except it's not," April's gaze was somewhere to Kymalin's right. That's the general direction where they propped the Virtakios's sleeping form. Kymalin clicked her tongue. These fools. What was wrong with them? She turned, ready to refute their claims, when her eyes landed on the spot by the tree with an orange trunk. Her breath hitched in her throat.

Xanthy was gone.

Her form was nowhere to be found. When June threw the Virtakios at Kymalin, her first thought was why? Why would the brownies demand that June let go of Xanthy? Why did June let go? Unless...

"Is it an illusion, then?" Kymalin turned back to Marin.

The half-blood rolled her shoulders. "I didn't get close enough to find out," she twiddled with her fingers. "I stepped on a trigger right there and the nearby guards went off at me. Luckily, I was able to dispatch a few of them before any more could join in. They wouldn't remember much of the incident and I made sure to leave no trace of a scuffle."

Kymalin bit the inside of her cheek. Nice thinking.

"We shouldn't go there," Marin said. "They don't deserve to get dragged into our mess."

"What do you mean they don't deserve it?" April pushed past Kymalin and got into the half-blood's face. "They are in my way. Of course, they are going to get involved."

"But they're minding their own business," Marin met April's eyes with defiance. "The ice sprites went underground to avoid any kind of war. They did nothing to us and to the island. In fact, it's the island that did something so wrong to them that they decided to choose to go into hiding just to build their lives anew. Do we really want to destroy that?"

The same feeling when she saw the struggling brownies now crept into Kymalin's stomach. She shouldn't be feeling this conflicted. She should have been like April who was so ready to topple nations to get what she wanted. What has changed?

Marin shook her head. "I won't be a part of this."

Kymalin felt her eyes harden at the half-blood. "You have a mission to complete, girl," she said in a low snarl. Why was she even using that tone? "The Virtakios is right there, right under our noses. We've come this far. Are you really going to throw that away?"

"If I have to!" Marin's eyes shone with...were those tears? She sighed and averted her eyes. "I just...I don't want this life anymore."

April shook her head. "You don't have a goal. That's the only reason why you can say that," she said. To Kymalin, it wasn't fair that the two of them were ganging up on Marin, a mere child, like this. Besides, it irked Kymalin that she and April agreed upon a point.

"Look," Kymalin said to Marin as gently as she could. She needed to break the truth to Marin as well. "If we go back to the Heiress without anything to present, she'll have our heads. This is the best placation we could offer."

"By using the lives of innocent fairies?" Pain danced in Marin's eyes.

"This is war, kid," April glanced up at the remaining canopies above them. "Innocent lives will always be used to further an agenda. If you can't handle that, then you're not fit for the battlefield."

"And you are?" Marin shot up and faced April. "This is beyond cruel. I didn't know I'd be expected to make this choice. I shouldn't have told you."

Kymalin stalked closer to Marin and leveled her eyes at the half-blood. "Then we would've found out either way, either through your lips by a drop of a truth potion or through an extensive night of tortures. The Heiress will always find out what we know. The best thing we could do is to not lie."

Marin looked away. "So what?" she said. "You're going to bring the whole army upon them? They wouldn't stand a chance."

Kymalin's blood ran cold. "The weak are the first to die, Marin. Remember that."

April threw the locks that escaped her braid off her shoulder. "I'll head back to the Sovereign tomorrow to report these. Perhaps we'll be able to achieve two things with one stone."

Kymalin met the air sprite's eyes and grinned the wickedest smile she could muster. "Perhaps Cardovia might beat you to it."

"You work for the Heiress? How nice," April smirked. "See you on the battlefield, then."

Kymalin returned the gesture. Her own gut sparked with anticipation. It felt nice to be able to smile like that again. It felt like she was in control again. Because even if Kymalin had to trample thousands of lives underneath her feet, even if she had to take blood after blood to her own hands, she wouldn't back down. Close. All this time, she was growing closer. She would not falter. She would get what she wanted.

She would see to it even if it's the last thing she ever did.