The sirtya dropped them straight into a battlefield.

Or at least a vestige of it. It didn't take long for Xanthy to realize there was a battle going on based on the sounds of explosion, yells of aggression, and the clash of wooden shields against each other.

Xanthy and June materialized in the middle of the chaos, dodging kicking feet and swinging weapons. Jonadrin. They needed to find Jonadrin. The Dwanzeig heir had been her focus when she transported them via the sirtya. Looked like he was somewhere in this melee.

Xanthy pushed herself up, ducked, and kicked a random armored person on the unguarded shin as she tore through the crowd. Her eyes spotted black-clad figures carrying metal batons clashing against fairies with pointy ears dressed in green armor fashioned from tree barks and large leaves with shields which looked like they were torn from nearby trees.

The black-fitted people pushed the green-dressed fairies south. The green fairies were being herded somewhere...

Xanthy turned, pushing a fairy or two out of the way. She didn't care what side they were on. She tore forward with June's silent presence falling into step behind her. Occasionally blasting a fairy who tried attacking her, Xanthy kept her eyes peeled for a tall, male, nature fairy with long green hair and wicked, killer heels. They were in some sort of a grove leading to somewhere hidden...and important.

Trees have fallen. Some were strewn across a wide, cobbled pavement that led north, serving as obstacles to jump past for the nature fairies and the black-clad people alike. Others were snapped from their stumps and left to lean against the next standing tree. Holes peppered most of the trunks flanking the grove.

Fire, no doubt from cast spells, devoured the forest life from the floor and licked the grass and some fallen branches as it crawled. It's like Seravel's throne found them here. The air smelled of slick blood, soot, and sweat. Xanthy waved her hands in front of her face several times to be able to see clearly because of the thick fog.

Her throat itched and her eyes watered. There's something in the smoke. She coughed into the crook of her arm and pushed forward. Jonadrin. Find Jonadrin. June was silent behind her but he was there. After yesterday, there's something within the both of them which became apparent. Xanthy could now sense where he was, what he was thinking, and most importantly, if he's alive or not.

For now, he was. He was keeping track of her movements and doing his best to follow.

Who are we looking for? June's thought speared through Xanthy's mind much like how Ravalee's once did. That thought twisted her gut more than she let it. Ravalee made her choice. You know that, he added.

Xanthy shook her head, her throat constricting. Yeah, of course, she exhaled through her mouth and glanced northeast. We're looking for Jonadrin. Look for long, green hair or really tall heels.

You sure we're not looking at him now?

Xanthy was about to point out they weren't anywhere near the Dwanzeigian heir when something flashed at the corner of her eye. She dodged too late. A sword point cut a line across her cheek. Then, as she stumbled backwards, a figure stepped in front of her and parried another strike just in time.

"Get behind me," Jonadrin's tone was stern. Nothing like the gentle fairy Xanthy had met before. "We're retreating to Gandirk."

Gandirk? Why did that name sound familiar?

"Didn't you hear me? Go. Run. Straight through the hedges. At the end of this grove is a set of gates," Jonadrin shoved Xanthy further into the path. "I'll follow shortly after."

"Why are you being attacked?" Xanthy backed at the same time as the heir did. June tugged at her sleeve but didn't speak out loud. Stop talking and run, he seemed to be saying with the gesture.

Jonadrin faced her and Xanthy didn't see the fairy she knew. Jonadrin's long hair was gone; his deep green hair was now cropped short to the side of his head. Only a few locks were left to hang to his eyes which he pushed out of his face in a violent shove.

His eyes no longer held calm but instead flashed with unexplained tension and urgency. This time, he was decorated with the same green armor Xanthy saw in the battlefield, along with a sword belt which carried his now sheathed weapon. Gone were the heels and were instead replaced with a pair of simple, leather boots.

"I will explain later," Jonadrin jerked his chin towards somewhere behind Xanthy. "I didn't expect you to turn up especially at a hectic time like this. Run to Gandirk while my men and I round these heathens up."

Xanth's throat dried up. "Okay," she took a step back in preparation to run. "It's nice to see you, Grand Royal."

For a brief moment, the young heir smiled. It didn't quite reach his eyes. "Call me Jona."

Then, Xanthy ran.

Her legs pumped, taking her forward and into a haze of flat, cobbled road framed by a line of tall, thin trees boasting wide, light-blue leaves. Luminescent flowers grew in sporadic patches, their eerie light acting as a guide as Xanthy and June ran for what Jonadrin called Gandirk. What was that place?

The sounds of scuffling faded as they went deeper. As Jonadrin said, a set of grand gates appeared at the nearest horizon. The gates were old but still sturdy. Vines, trees, bushes, and all sorts of plants grew in abundance around the place, the vine-cracked walls shrouding something beyond those gates. Fairies dressed in a different uniform stood guard at the sides of the gates. Uh-oh.

"Halt!" the guard to Xanthy's right shouted. Xanthy obliged, screeching to a stop a few paces from the gates. Her heart pounded in her chest and in her ears.

"They're with me, Jar," Jonadrin said behind Xanthy. She flinched. Where had he come from?

The guard, Jar, gulped. "Of course, Grand Royal," he ducked his head and moved aside to attend to the gate.

"I told you, call me Jona," the heir said as Jar and the other guard began rolling the gates open just enough for the three of them to slip through.

"O-of course, Gr—Jona," Jar said.

Jonadrin bobbed his head at Xanthy. She swallowed the bitter taste growing in her mouth and followed the Grand Royal inside the gate's closure. June was a few paces behind.

"We managed to drive them a few paces from the main hedge," Jonadrin was saying to Jar and the other guards as he trudged past them. "Prepare for direct onslaught either tomorrow or the day after. I'm not sure how long we can last."

"Of course, Gr—Jona," the other guard caught himself. "Any more orders, sire?"

As if suddenly tired, the heir sighed. "How's the Grand Monarch?" he said. "And...his family?"

"Safe and protected," Jar gave Xanthy a brief look of apprehension. Xanthy stuck out her tongue at him. The guard turned his attention back to the heir. "How are you, Your Highness?"

Jonadrin's stare was sure to cut the fairy to shreds. It was that day. "Peachy," he walked away, leaving Jar and the other guard to usher Xanthy and June inside before shutting the gates behind them.

So...this was Gandirk?

More trees with different colored leaves stood tall and short, forming some sort of dome atop the walled place. Some leaves hung so low they almost touched Xanthy's head while some leaves as thin as hair strands blocked her view as they went forward. Trunks—thick, thin, and just right—littered the place, forming some sort of a little forest.

Paths much like the cobbled roads leading to this place swirled and disappeared into the haze of soil and tree roots, winding through patches of various flower bushes and clumps of fruit-bearing shrubs that Xanthy didn't care to try to figure out the names of.

Xanthy and June followed Jonadrin without a word, pushing leaves out of their faces as they went. Then, a glowing something with an ethereal and non-natural light crept into Xanthy's view through the heir's shoulder. Was that...?

"The Dwanzeig Throne," Jonadrin said, confirming one of Xanthy's fears. "The Lifegiver."

Seeing it up close, Xanthy didn't expect she would feel this...sacred awe. The flower stood up to her thigh, its crystalline petals shining pink and yellow against the sunlight filtering through the dome of leaves. Its slender, black stem anchored the flower into a clump of long, blue leaves spreading outward like a skirt.

Xanthy exhaled, her mouth flapping open and closed for a while. So Gandirk was...

"Why have you brought us here?" Xanthy raked her gaze from the flower towards the heir who stood behind it.

"This is the last place where it's safe," Jonadrin's voice dripped with venom which was directed at neither June nor Xanthy. "Cardovia has taken almost everything."

Xanthy exhaled a forceful breath. "Okay, back up and tell me everything, will you?" What has Cardovia done now?

The heir crouched by the flower with eyes trained at a certain petal. When Xanthy squinted at it, she noticed a certain wilt on the petal's crystalline tip. Moreover, now that she's looking at the flower with that certain knowledge, she saw the rest of the disease creeping along the flower's petals, stem, and leaves.

The petals curled inward, a sickly shade of brown devouring the crystals. The stem was peppered with greenish-white dots while the leaves were dappled with dark holes which seemed to eat away at the plant. It was wilting.

What's wrong?

"When we last met, I asked for your help because we have foreseen an incoming conquest through our intelligence," Jonadrin's voice was but a small noise against the brush of leaves above them. "Since you seem to be preoccupied at that moment, we thought we would ride it out with just us. But Cardovia is wily."

Xanthy nodded. Cyrdel told her about this during the rare times the brownie heir went out of his way to talk to her. Jonadrin was forced to ally Dwanzeig to Cardovia in exchange for the organization to never touch the forest. Well, it seemed like the Heiress went back on her word and was now destroying Dwanzeig.

"So the Heiress is doing this because she wanted to destroy your forests?" Xanthy scratched the side of her face.

"No," Jonadrin clenched his jaw. "She wants the throne."

A lump formed in Xanthy's throat. "That's..."

"Impossible? Not right?" Jonadrin prompted. A certain sadness wrapped around his tone. "The Heiress hates the word 'impossible'. She hates the concept of 'not right' either. If she wants something, she will get it. Right now, she wants the thrones."

"Yes, that's why she's bombing Penleth too," Xanthy balled her fists from her sides. How many more of this did she have to live through? "Is this why she was sending her minions to attack Gandirk?"

Jonadrin gave her a weak nod and proceeded to brush particles of dirt from the living throne's leaves. Xanthy pursed her lips. "But how?" she asked no one. "If she makes a move against the living throne, all nature fairies will die and render the throne useless."

"She's not looking to uproot it," June stepped closer to the flower. "She's aiming to control Gandirk and the whole territory by flushing out any form of resistance. Unfortunately, Jonadrin and his men are probably the only ones left."

"Truth," Jonadrin picked himself up and turned to Xanthy. "That's why we couldn't give up Gandirk either. If the Heiress gets her hands on this place, it's over for us."

"Or the Sovereign," Xanthy crossed her arms. "It's not just the Heiress we're dealing with."

"Of course," Jonadrin licked his lips and craned his neck at the haze of leaves and trunks making up the ceiling. "But from our intelligence, it seems like Cardovia and the Synketros are now working together to accomplish something. I reckon, they will stab each other in the back right after they have dealt with the nuisance."

"Which happened to be us," June's tone and expression was grim.

"Right," Jonadrin cocked his head to June's direction.

"You mentioned something about tomorrow being your last stand," June said. Give it to him to pay attention to random parts of the conversation, store it into his expanding brain, and bring it up at the most uncomfortable time.

Jonadrin ran a hand through his short hair. He was tired. "I know we can't defend this place for long. I already lost quite a number of soldiers. I can't bear to lose any more, not when I know where this is going to end."

Nobody needed to say it but Xanthy knew what Jonadrin was talking about. Sooner or later, all of them were going to fall. Sooner or later, the Heiress and the Sovereign would win. Jonadrin...he simply lost hope to fight.

"Will you come with me to Penleth?" Xanthy flicked her gaze just in time to meet Jonadrin's. "I got a plan that will hopefully give us an advantage."

"Of course," Jonadrin ran his thumb at the pommel of his sword. "I should go to Penleth anyway to avenge my people and nature even if it's the last place I'll go to."

Xanthy cleared her throat at the sudden talk of last places and the thing it implied. "I'll do my best to make sure you guys don't have to, uh, do that," she said. She hated how hollow her words and her gut were. "I was just thinking about how we would get the throne from here to Penleth."

Jonadrin raised an eyebrow. "Well that's—"

The canopy above them exploded in a loud blast of branches splintering and leaves crinkling as they burned. Xanthy ducked and covered her head with her arms as explosions began racking the whole place. Something hit the top of the wall and a large section of it broke away and crashed to the ground, flattening a clump of trees and shrubs as it went. What—

"This is...it's supposed to be tomorrow..." Jonadrin had his head inclined at the developing melee. His eyes were wide and was breathless as he stood frozen in his place.

"Come on," June took charge of the situation and gripped the heir by the arm in an attempt to drag him back. "Let's go."

Jonadrin's pale skin was even paler, showing Xanthy a criss-cross of scars and cuts still healing across his face and neck. Sounds of footsteps became increasingly clear as seconds passed. They're coming.

"Yeah. Let's go, Jona," Xanthy said as gently as she could. "We'll teleport out of here. I have a sirtya."

"No..." Jonadrin trailed off. Then, he bit his lip and clenched his fists. His face hardened into an angry expression. "No."

Before Xanthy could stop him, Jonadrin marched towards the flower and drew his sword.

"Whoa, there!" Xanthy laid her palms in the air. "What are you doing?"

Jonadrin didn't answer. He swept his sword at the flower's stem.

"No!" Xanthy screamed.

"Go!" Jonadrin shouted at no one. The wind rustled. Before Xanthy's eyes, the nearest plants to the flower turned sickly, limp, and wilted in a matter of seconds. Oh gods. What has Jonadrin done? "Go!" the heir ordered again. Why wasn't he disappearing? Oh gods...

Someone grabbed her arms and hauled her backwards as arrows began raining down on them. Arrows and...harpoons?

Holy Rudik.

"Xanthy, zap us out of here!" June was saying. He swatted arrows here and there. His fast reflexes were the only ones keeping them alive. Xanthy dug the sirtya from her pocket and summoned her magic. It came as a spurt of warmth that turned cold immediately. Oh gods... not now.

She tried again. More arrows sailed for their necks. Not now!

A surge of heat flooded her veins and she held it over the surface. She turned to June and Jonadrin only to see an arrow speeding straight towards her eye. Oh gods. Her lips barked the spell even before she could understand what she was doing. The arrow changed its course and embedded itself against a brittle tree trunk but the damage was done. Xanthy just spent the magic meant for the sirtya in that flimsy redirection spell. Oh gods...

"Xanthy, any time now," June warned. He cast a shield over them. It's not going to last long. Especially if those arrowheads were made of dwarven metal. Xanthy squeezed her eyes shut and let the darkness be her only companion. Explosions, screams, June cursing, and the sound of arrows snapping with Jonadrin probably swinging his sword against the torrent weren't exactly the noise that would help Xanthy focus.

Come on. Come on. Just a little more.

"Xanthy!"

She screamed as she willed another torrent of warmth flood into her veins. It came weaker than she intended it to be. "Grab hold!" she yelled. Two hands grasped her arms.

She poured her magic into the sirtya and thought of somewhere—anywhere—to escape. She didn't see an arrow aimed at her.

The world rippled and screeched as the sirtya tore their souls from Gandirk and into a new, unknown place.