Umbra waited in the center of the training circle, expecting my return. "You, Heathen, are my son." From his sheath, he withdrew a blade as malicious as his soul. Embellished with hooks and axe heads, the amber sword was constructed from a thousand nacres. Unbreakable. "You and I are the same."

I shook my head and ruffled my wings. "Violating and murdering innocents. On Elden's throne, no less? Dishonoring mother. Attempting to murder my brother. Twice. I will never be like you." I rushed to his side. He couldn't track my movements. Before he knew I was there, I gripped his arm and twisted it behind his back at a painful angle.

Umbra snarled and jerked, dropping the sword. He cried out and pain, falling to his knees.

Warning: Sixty hours and thirty-eight minutes until maximum destabilization.

"I know you poison mother."

"No! No! I would never--" Father screamed at the wet pop from his shoulder as I wrenched it from the socket. Heaving, he tried again, "She wanted to kill your brother! The insurrectionist--that was her doing. Savis is their leader."

I twisted my fist into his hair and shoved my boot into his back. I didn't stop until his face smashed into the stone. Even then, I repositioned my boot to his neck until I ground his face into a bloody mash. The entire time, he cried out in pain like the girl he murdered. Meanwhile, my counter increased by a week. "Why would mother want to kill Xelan?"

Umbra snarled with blood frothing from his mouth. The counter went up to two weeks when he spit out a tooth. "The Physician. She hates him. She wants Cinder as it was before Li swallowed it. Before the Tritans." Father's breathing labored as if he let exhaustion finally overcome him. "I cannot reach her despite my best efforts. She wants to be unhappy. They fear your brother as the final outcome of our two races, and they laud you as their savior."

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"Mother loves Xelan--"

"She hates this entire world. It is true that you and your brother are her guiding stars, but never underestimate what that woman will do to return Cinder to the Old Ways."

I released him and stepped back. The man curled into a pitiful ball of blood and weakness. I thought I was mistaken at first when I heard a strange sound, but then it came again.

He whimpered. Father wept. "I wanted her so much that I never considered what life would be like with her. In my world. Misery does not suit her. She is capable of far more than I ever anticipated, and now all we ever do together is move against each other." He chuckled. "Mutual annihilation." Umbra's laughter escalated into a shrill hysteria.

I kicked him in the gut to knock the air out of him, and it bought me two more days. "The Physician works with me now. I will ferret out the traitors. If I discover you lied about your motives for poisoning mother, I will break your legs and force shards of nacre glass inside them so you never properly heal."

I jerked him up by the hair to meet my gaze. "Never touch Xelan again. You see, I want you alive. The Tritans need their puppet to rule Cinder. But if you touch Xelan, even once, then you forfeit your life. If I must assume the throne, the Tritans will learn how very different we truly are."

When he spoke next, his voice took on a desperate edge. It embarrassed me. "An accord then, son?"

"Keep that word out of your mouth. Prince Nox will do." Umbra groaned when I lifted him off the ground to meet me at my full height. "Now, debrief me on the battle at Thailea. Why are so many of our ranks dead?"

Karter can recount this for you better than I can secondhand from my father, but I'll make an attempt. The Tritans enlisted the Icarean army in a battle against the remnants of some forgotten race. No one even remembers their name, but they fled to Thailea. Beaten back, they volleyed one Hell of a final effort to prevent their extermination.

As to why so many of our own died? They didn't. Umbra said, "Reality took them away." I thought I'd beaten him senseless, but I hope you can make sense of it, eventually.

Karter told me shortly after, "We fought ourselves. There was no escape." When I asked if she meant the army turned on itself, she only shivered and shook her head.

I know not the motive for their end. Only that the Tritans thought it necessary. I've searched a long time for any history or intelligence on so devastating a race. My efforts produced little aside from the fact that both the Ancient race and Cascading Light originated on Thailea.