June heard the whispers before his eyes registered what was happening.

He groaned and pushed himself up. Pain speared through his gut, sending a gasp out his lips. His cheeks puffed out as breathed for a few minutes. He needed to get his mind to stop spinning and his insides to settle down.

He vaguely remembered waking up to a view of a white sheet above him and then a dark room. And now...

June's eyebrows creased. What was he looking at? Instead of the dim ceiling he's expecting to see, a light pink sky towered above them like a fuzzy blanket. Cold seeped through his skin as his back pressed against a hard surface. When he fully opened his eyes, he realized the wall was the same thing as the sky. So was the floor. In fact, now that he had blinked a few times, there was nothing to see except the pink sky all around.

"Look who joins us in nowhere," a jovial voice speared through June's ears. His head swiveled until his gaze locked in on Cyrdel. The Alkaran heir had never looked worse than he did now with his light brown hair swept to one side and his brown eyes half-open and bloodshot. June didn't know if his senses were already working but he thought he smelled a whiff of sweat-soiled clothes on the brownie.

On all of them, in fact. Gods, they needed a bath.

June tried sitting further up and succeeded in plopping to ground helplessly. "Careful, you're still healing," Nyxis grasped June's elbows and helped him in an upright position. He looked at the ex-human and frowned. How come Nyxis didn't smell of blood? How in the world could he manage to make his hair look perfect despite the adverse condition they were in?

"What happened?" June's voice was hoarse. Understandable since there was a patch of dryness sitting in his throat.

Cyrdel cleared his throat. "Short story of long story?"

"Is something going to kill us in the next instant?" June craned his neck up at the sky again.

Nyxis looked around and June followed his friend's gaze to where all the other heirs making sense of the place. "We don't know," Nyxis jerked his chin in June's direction as he crossed his legs. "Though I suppose if you're already spitting jokes then you're already considered healed."

June rolled his eyes at Nyxis's poor attempt at matching his humor. "Yeah, short story, it is," he turned to Cyrdel. "Where's Xanthy?"

"Well," Cyrdel mussed his hair and a few bits of metal shavings fell from it and into his lap. "After you got stabbed and everything, Xanthy surrendered Penleth against Reeca's refusal. We're still pretty angry about that, by the way," he brushed the dirt off his trousers like they're pesky insects. "And uh, we were thrown into a stinking cell. You're much out of it for the most part. Rutoria's dead. Cirasa's seized by the Heiress's men. Apparently, he's the last oracle, which is fine and all. Trix is apparently a traitor and a mole. And now, we're here."

June blinked. "Wow."

"Yeah," Nyxis rested his head against the pink sky wall behind them. "Now we're here for a few minutes and so far, nothing's happening," he glanced at June. "Are you sure Xanthy didn't tell you anything before she went crazy?"

June scratched at his scalp. "She went crazy?" He coughed into his fist and sucked in a breath. "No, she didn't tell me anything."

Cyrdel scoffed and plopped against the wall. He inclined his head up to stare at the endless ceiling above them. "Seems we're both duped by Vivenca women."

June exhaled through his mouth and followed Cyrdel's gaze. His heart clenched and his stomach tightened. Was this what anger was supposed to feel like? The urge to punch something racked his gut. He clenched his jaw to contain it. He probably didn't have any strength to do it anyway.

Xanthy surrendered Penleth? What for? Why hadn't Xanthy consulted him about this? Where was she? What was she thinking?

She could have told him and he would've gone with her. Was this because she was angry at him for refusing to go along with her throne unification plan? Was that it?

A curse bubbled up his throat. Xanthy promised she wouldn't do anything reckless and now, they're all here. Damn, was this what being lied to felt like?

Guilt gnawed June's heart. All those years, he had lied to everyone about everything. Was this how they felt when they realized the truth and the fact that June had been lying to them? His hand rested atop the stark white bandages holding him together. Everything was sore and his insides would never be the same even after they healed.

The memory of April plunging her sword through him not only brought residual pain back to his gut but also the inexplicable horror. Life was as fragile as glass. Just one slash, one calculated move, and everything could be over. Fleeting. Life was fleeting. Death...

Death now hung over June's form like a cloud. Any time, it could drop its poison rain and there would be no stopping it. Was it the same for all the people he had killed? Did their lives flash before their eyes before their blood drained from their necks?

By the gods.

June closed his eyes and breathed twice to steady his nerves. There's no use in acting up during this time. Even in the dark, the faces of his victims flashed into his mind like they're imprinted at the back of his eyelids. He wrenched his eyes open just as quickly.

It's so ironic how everything June had done to other people was now being done to him, one by one. He blew a breath, his lungs rattling at the strain. A cold breeze blew past his skin, sending shivers up his arms. Where did that draft come from?

"Where's Xanthy?" June asked again as Cyrdel hadn't really answered the question.

"The last we've heard of her, she was in a cage and was wheeled to a separate containment," Cyrdel reported as if this was another briefing and not about his friend. "Cirasa was the last one who saw her."

June squinted in the distance. "Then what's he doing over there?"

True enough, the shard fairy wandered in from nowhere looking lost. Then, his eyes rolled back to his head and fell to the pink ground. Nobody moved.

Reeca was the first to run to the shard fairy. June raised an eyebrow at Nyxis. The ice sprite shrugged. "You're out cold but we heard the grandest confession of all time," Nyxis turned his attention back to the action unfolding beyond them.

Cirasa groaned, saw Reeca, then burst to tears. All heads turned to the shard-slash-oracle fairy. June counted the heads present with him inside the room. They're all heirs. Ariden. Nelnifa. Seravel. Canelis. Kymalin. Reeca. Elred. Jonadrin. Kennen. April leaned against the opposite wall from June with limbs splayed out like she was just thrown there. His throat closed up as the memory of the sword going through his gut resurfaced in his mind again. A whimper escaped from his lips which Nyxis didn't miss.

"Don't worry about her," Nyxis followed June's gaze towards the air sprite. "I pumped her full of oshella so she's going out of the loop for a while. I won't let her go near you or anyone."

June raised an eyebrow. "How noble." Wasn't Nyxis ready to skewer June with his fist just two months ago?

Nyxis massaged his temples. "I don't want to be treating any more bodies if I can avoid it," he heaved a breath that seemed heavier than his satchel. "This war. It changed us in ways we didn't even know of."

Reeca's boots appeared by June's line of sight. He leaned over to find Cirasa beside Elred and the Helinfirth heir calming her brother down. Why was he crying in the first place?

"I'm not saying this because I care the least bit about Xanthy," Reeca started as she dropped in front of him and mirrored Nyxis's crossed legs. "But I think you should know."

June's throat constricted as his heart started pounding against his temples. Was Xanthy dead? Was that why she wasn't here?

"They hurt her," Reeca looked everywhere aside from him. Her fingers picked at the laces of her boots. "Then they took control of the Virtakios. They're heading to the Arbotro as we speak."

June didn't need to know who "they" were. Then, something clicked.

"Arbotro?" June narrowed his eyes. That was supposed to be a myth. There were no Arbotrois and this pink place couldn't be Parkane. This was...

Reeca crossed her arms. "I struggled to believe it as well," she said. June raised his eyebrows. How was Reeca admitting confusion as casually as this? Usually, it involved a lot of condescending looks and squared shoulders. But now...

The war changed us in ways we didn't even know of.

Oh. "Do you know why we are here?" June scratched at the rim of his bandages. Ugh. How could one keep this on for long periods of time?

Cyrdel tapped his chin. "If I can guess, it seemed like we're still connected to our thrones," he stared at all the heirs striding towards them as if they sensed something important was going on in their meager circle. "Perhaps, the thrones are calling to us."

June pursed his lips. That made sense. Then again...where were their thrones now?

Reeca ruffled her hair that had only grown longer from the first time June saw her in the forests of Carleon. "So, what do we do?"

It took June a moment to realize that Reeca was asking him out of all the natural-born commanders in this pink sky room. "Um," he licked his lips just as blood rushed to his face. "We could start saving our thrones and defeating the Heiress and the Sovereign. What do you want to do?"

Reeca clicked her tongue. "I want to leave Xanthy to rot on her own after what she did," she looked down at her blood-stained boots. "But then...I think about the time when I had just lost Rhys. It was hard. It still is now, by the way. But Xanthy was there. With me."

"I don't know her well but I feel like she's a good soul," Ariden piped up, apparently listening in into the conversation. The earth sprite heir shrugged. "I mean, she broke into the Temple and got me out of house arrest and all..."

"No one wants your input, Ari," Seravel, the fire sprite heir, slapped his friend upside the head. Then, he smiled as he turned to the other heirs. "Xanthy came for me and offered to help me with the fires in my territory. She was able to show me that there's so much to this island outside my home. It's...something I'd like to pay her back for."

"She restored my memory of Ravalee," Cyrdel muttered from beside June. He folded his hands together. "She may not know it but she helped me come to terms with Ravalee's choice."

"Xanthy believed in me," a soft voice emanated from the back of the crowd. The heirs parted to reveal Nelnifa, the water sprite heir, twiddling with her fingers. "For once, someone believed that I could do something for this war. I-I'd like to be there for her this time."

"Xanthy still had to restore the Living Throne with me," Jonadrin ran a hand over his green locks. A brief frown at how short it was now passed across his face. "I can't have her dying on my watch."

Kymalin growled in frustration and mussed her unkempt blue hair. "If only she didn't save me from Brittlewood, I wouldn't have this much guilt."

"Xanthy had been a dear friend throughout the months," Elred raised a finger. "I'm glad she didn't claim the budget for tomes because there's no way I'd be able to pay for that now."

June, Nyxis, and Reeca broke into light laughter. Oh, June remembered that day. A day that seemed so long ago now. It was the start of their journey.

"Xanthy wanted to genuinely help the Pixies," Canelis's hands were propped on her knees as she sat in a strange cross-legged way as she spoke. Her eyes were closed. "She may not have succeeded but I want to honor her heart."

"She destroyed the Ice Capital," Kennen said, his calm smile still hasn't faded from his face even after all that happened. "But she did save my race from obliteration. So, I owe her one."

June turned to Nyxis. "You want to add to that?"

Nyxis snorted, hung his head, and lifted it back again. When he did, there were tears shining in his eyes. "Xanthy is a dear friend."

Reeca was grinning when June dragged his gaze back to her. "Let's save her this time," Reeca said. "Maybe we can get our revenge some other way once we get out of this. It would be fun."

It was getting hard to tell if the varichria was joking or serious.