Nilsa shut her eyes, waiting for the impact of a thousand waves to crush her all at once when she found nothing. Instead, when she opened her eyes, she found herself on top of Ronan on the shore of the palace surrounded by the other disoriented gods and two green-faced scholars who held onto their books with a death grip.

Nilsa let out a sigh of relief and rested her head on Ronan's chest. His hands held her against him like she was suddenly going to disappear out of his grip.

"I feel sick," Czarin stated.

Nilsa did too, but she wasn't the one poisoned.

"They killed that entire lake," Thorin whispered in shock. Nilsa lifted her head to see him sitting on a rock with widened eyes. Caspian got up from his position on the sand and rushed to his brother before hugging him. Thorin could barely register the movement, and neither of them moved.

"If I'd known-" Gideon started.

"It's not your fault," Ronan stated. "That lake was poisoned for who knows how long. We don't know how many of those monsters are still waiting for us."

"There's nothing," Thorin answered. "It's all dead."
    Czarin shook her head. "Then those monsters knew where we were going to be."

"I didn't tell anybody," Gideon said. "I've been planning it for a few days now, but all the papers have been locked inside my office."

"Kielle," Nilsa found herself saying. "Velpavane poisoned the lake, and who's to say they didn't send Kielle into your office while they did so? I don't know how long she was looking around the palace before she found me. She could have been looking for war plans-"

"-but found something else," Rieka finished.

"Where could they have found those monsters?" Alaeca asked. "Any living thing should have perished after being in that water for too long."

"Unless it's not living," Chryseis stated. "Unless it's a puppet from a certain Velpavanian group."

"The Witches?" Czarin asked. "Can't be! They've been off the grid since Velpavane betrayed them."

"Even Witches will come back if Velpavane has something they want," Ronan reminded them. "Who else do we know that could concoct a poison like that?"

Alaeca made a sound that could have been horror or surprise. "You think Corvina used the witches to poison the Bronx?"

"Corvina doesn't give a damn about Velpavane," Caspian stated, not separating from Thorin as he did. "The only thing she cares about is our demise."

Nilsa shook her head. "What kind of queen would do such a thing to her kingdom?" Nilsa mumbled.

"One that will do anything to kill us," Ronan answered.

"We have their poison," Rieka mentioned, looking back at the lake behind her. "Lot's of it. Corvina has just given me everything I need to kill her with her own medicine."
    "We're going to kill them once and for all," Alaeca stated. "We're not killing off the head, we are killing everyone around her as well. Kielle, Witches, her council."

"And you're going to bring back innocents," Nilsa declared. "Give them proof that their queen will not hesitate to kill them for her own selfish purposes. Do what she will try to do to us: tear apart her kingdom from the inside out until her own people are clawing for her crown."

Ronan swept a piece of her hair behind her ear. "I'm glad you're with us," he mumbled. "You could bring down any kingdom you wanted to."

***

"Nilsa!" Ronan called from the bathroom that night.

After they'd gotten back to their room, Ronan had collapsed onto the bed and slept through the entire day, not bothering to get out of the tight bottoms as he did so. Nilsa had spent most of that time cancelling both of their plans for the day, and spent the rest of it sleeping beside him.

They'd been sharing the bed since the day of training that had gone terribly wrong. They didn't do anything but sleep, although sometimes they got very close, and Nilsa saw it as a safe haven to escape her nightmares. That sofa hadn't been touched in days.

Nilsa looked from over her book towards the bathroom. A section was parted off to the left for the toilet, and that must have been where he was hiding. "Yes?"

His head peaked from behind the wall. "I need your help. I can't get them off."

Nilsa rolled her eyes and continued to flip a page. "Sure you can't."

"I'm not kidding. I've been trying for ten minutes. They won't budge."

After a moment of silence and a silent realization that Ronan was not lying, Nilsa started to laugh. Oddly enough, that was just the thing she needed after that day.

"I get it. Very funny. Please, help me."

"I am not pulling your shorts off," Nilsa stated. "I'll get Caspian."

After a few minutes, Caspian strolled into the room. "I heard my big brother can't get his pants off!"

Nilsa pointed to the bathroom which Caspian strolled into like it was his own. When he found Ronan behind the wall, he doubled over in laughter. Ronan cursed his name multiple times before Caspian was able to regain his posture and wipe tears from his eyes. "No wonder why you almost fainted."

The next five minutes was full of bickering with little to no context from behind the wall.

"I think the shorts are a part of you now."

"Not an option. Pull harder."

"I'm pulling as hard as I can!"

A yelp of pain. "Ouch, Caspian!"

"Well how else am I going to pull it off?"

"I don't know, preferably with my leg still attached!"

Three minutes after Nilsa had talked to a palace worker outside Ronan's room who'd been concerned with the amount of screaming, Gideon and Thorin entered the room.

"We heard Caspian was trying to kill Ronan," Gideon said with a concerned look before he was distracted by Ronan's screaming in the bathroom.

"Close," Nilsa corrected. "They can't get Ronan's shorts off."

Gideon mumbled a curse and followed the string of yelling into the bathroom. Thorin stayed behind in a state of concern.

"How are you doing?" Nilsa asked him.

Thorin gave her a polite smile. "I'm better. I've had time to process."

Nilsa nodded in understanding. "I get it. Took me days to recover from the attack on Yurobrouv. It gets easier."

"I'm glad to hear that." His head turned to the bathroom where another fit of yelling broke out. "I should go help before you get Ronan back in several pieces."

Progress didn't change when the four of them piled in there together. Nilsa still heard the same frustrated yelling and curses, even more now.

"I think we have to cut it off," Gideon said.

"Ronan's never going to let you do that!"

"He means the shorts, Caspian."
    "Caspian, don't touch it!"

"Ro, we have to push it down while Gideon tries to slip it off of you."

"I don't care. You're not fondling me!"

"Fine. Thorin will."

"If you got it on, why can't we get it off?"

"Maybe you're not pulling hard enough."

"I think his thighs got thicker?" A hard smack was followed by a loud yelp.

"Gid, are you sure you didn't give him Rieka's?"

"Positive. I gave the lady the right size."

"Well, get the lady over here!"

"Why? Do you think she can help?"

"No, but I don't think we're getting these off and he might need a matching top."

They finally got the shorts off after Nilsa helped them stick the blade of a pair of scissors through the waistband and then left them to it.

"Is it supposed to be that red?" She heard once she'd got comfortable on the bed.

"I don't think so."

"I can't feel anything."

"Maybe that's a good thing."

"Maybe we should call in Rieka? I think she needs to check that."

"I'm scared it's going to fall off," Caspian agreed.

"Nobody else is coming in here or looking at anything!"

The three brothers walked out of the bathroom and stood by the door.

Nilsa raised a brow. "Is everything okay?"

Caspian held up a thumb. "Perfect. Removal was successful with minimal casualties."

Nilsa nearly chokes on her spit. "What do you mean casualties?"

"He's not walking in a straight line anytime soon," Thorin clarified.

"We don't have to worry about him impregnating anyone for a considerable amount of time," Gideon added.

"He's going commando for the next few days," Caspian finished.

Nilsa was sure they would have kept going but she held up a hand with a cringe. "I get it. Please don't continue." She nodded to the bathroom. "You guys cut it off and left him there. Is he-"

Caspian opened the door. "Naked as the day he was born? Indeed. Bye, Love!" He exited the room and Gideon and Thorin followed him with a small wave.

Nilsa rolled her eyes and got up to fetch a pair of sweatpants from a dresser in the corner. She covered her eyes before she moved around the corner and held out the pair of sweatpants.

Ronan grabbed the sweatpants, and only the sweatpants, from her hand. "I'm glad we didn't have to discuss that."

She giggled as she heard him putting them on. "Caspian's orders."

***

Mostly due to Ronan complaining that he couldn't dance, neither of them made an appearance at Rieka's party the next night, not that the goddess would notice. Nilsa started to wonder if she'd even be there after their new discovery of the poisoned lake. Nilsa spent four hours outside with the goddess, reading some scripts while Rieka was collecting buckets worth of poisonous water.

Luckily for Ronan, Rieka's game didn't require much movement either. It was a game of riddles, one that Chryseis won with surprising ease, so much that she had to pretend not to know the answers to give her siblings the slightest chance. It was later revealed that Chryseis had spent a decade torturing a man in her Nether realm who only spoke in riddles, and she'd gotten quite good at deciphering them.

The next few days consisted of training with no end, and that applied to Nilsa as well. She got two days of each week to rest from her training with Caspian, and she hadn't reached them yet.

To avoid any more disasters, the gods trained independently. That meant Nilsa's training somehow turned into Caspian's training as well. It was longer in length, and got more difficult with every session. Now, Caspian threw bolts of lightning at her to dodge, and in multiple instances, her slowness would result in the bolt stopping inches away from her face, crackling so loud she felt goosebumps on every limb.

At the end, he'd keep her just to talk, which she further learned was also part of his training. At first, he'd ask her to tell him ten things about herself, and one thing would be a lie. He'd find it instantly, and with little effort, he'd manage to correct it. Later, he'd ask her to tell stories of her past, only one detail would be a small lie. That was supposed to be harder, but he was able to pick every lie she threw at him.

Nilsa remembered the exact instance where her face flushed at the realization that he'd been able to tell every lie she'd ever said.

Even though their sessions had gotten harder, she didn't feel herself improving. Caspian promised her that she was very much doing so, and that he never lied, but Nilsa still felt like anyone could shove a dagger into her throat without trying too hard.

Nilsa was browsing through a book that Rieka had recommended when a palace worker rushed up to her in the study. "The gods request your presence, Miss Maistell."

Nilsa raised a brow. "Why? Are they in a meeting?"

The palace worker shook their head. "No. Gideon is waiting at the palace entrance. It appears you have some unexpected visitors." They rushed out of the study after that, leaving Nilsa to make her way to the palace entrance by herself.

Caspian met her side in the hall on the way down. "Have any idea what this is about?" he asked her.

Nilsa shook her head. "I'm clueless. Something about some visitors?"

Both of them quickly realized what the messenger had meant when they found Gideon and the rest of his siblings at the entrance, staring out at the stone road that led all the way into the capital a mile away. Hundreds, maybe ever a thousand, men and women in grungy clothes marched down to the palace while flooding the roads, shocked Lords and Ladys moving out of the way to let them walk.

"Are they the troops that you ordered from the borders?" Czarin asked Alaeca.

The goddess shook her head. "No. Those don't come until later this week." Her red-painted lips broke out into a wide grin. "These are volunteers."

As they got closer, Nilsa recognized some of their faces from the villages she'd visited. Surprisingly, there was a great amount from Belleviewn, a village she'd thought could care less about the war. She must have thought wrong.

"This is amazing," Ronan said with a bright smile. Nilsa's hand found his.

"All because of you," Gideon whispered to her.

Nilsa smiled back. "I know it's odd, but sometimes I'm right." She turned around, letting go of Ronan's hand as she re-entered the palace with a giddy feeling inside of her.