King Arthur knew about my birth. He knew that I was going to be the savior of my people. How did he find out about this? Did the Mother Goddess tell him? Did he make some sort of deal with the time god? I guess not, because I heard that the Time God is a very strict and difficult person to deal with.

I’m at a loss for words.

He knew that I am supposed to defeat the Death King, my cousin Hametsu.

The prophecy didn't say if I'm supposed to kill him, which means I probably won't have to, and I don't want to. But, I'm wondering if that's the only way to end the war.

I cautiously close the book and fly away from the archives.

I zoom past the murals of my family and out of the halls that lead to the archives. I don't know where I’m going, but I land in front of a temple. It's very large and has vines growing on the pillars and seems very well kept.

I walk inside. Someone is in there crying and praying to a large statue of the Mother Goddess.

I can't exactly make out what she's saying, but she sounds desperate for her prayer to be heard and answered.

I walk up to her. Only then can I hear what she says.

“Why is he like this? Why does he think that war is the answer?” She weeps. “He’s never like this.”

I touch her shoulder. She jolts a bit and faces me.

I am taken aback by her appearance. She looks like the female version of Hametsu except her eyes are a different shade of green. Her eyes are emerald green. Her face is more innocent looking than Hametsu's. She looks like that type of person who is still innocent to the harshness of reality.

How does she live with someone like Hametsu? This must be her sister that the spy talked about.

“Are you Lilly?” I ask her.

She nods. Her eyes are all red and puffy from crying.

“You must be Kallan. Right?” She asks.

“Yes.” I reply.

She starts to cry again. I got really worried, thinking that I made her cry.

“Please stop my brother from destroying everything!!!” she begs, “I know he cares about his people, but he also suddenly became more mentally unstable. I don’t know how to help him!”

“I know. He wants everything he can get his hands on,” I state, “his filthy, murderous, torturous hands.” I shut my mouth. I’m 99.9% sure that I just insulted her. I quickly apologize.

“No, no. You’re right. He has an unhealthy love for torture. I thought it toned down though,” she says between sobs. “ He used to be so nice and loving.”

“He did?” I ask, dumbfounded and extremely surprised.

A lunatic like him used to be nice and caring of others?

She calms down before she continues to talk.

“It’s hard to believe, but when we were little kids he used to love everything,” she starts, “then he saw our dad get killed. He closed himself off to everyone, especially our mother.”

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I pity him now. A kind, loving boy turned into a sadistic, hateful maniac.

There’s more to this story.

“You’re not telling me everything,” I said.

“Hametsu was bullied a lot by his peers because he’s half fairy, half death spirit.”

“So Hametsu is the Spirit of Death?” I asked, confused.

“No,” she tries explaining to me about what reapers are and how they bring souls to the afterlife. She calls them “death spirits” a few times which confuses me even more. This whole death spirit and reaper stuff makes my head hurt.

“So that means Hametsu is half reaper, half fairy?” I ask, trying to clarify what she’s saying.

“Yes, and so am I.” She says.

“So that means, the entire family from your dad’s side are reapers?”

“Yes.” she says. “Reapers and fairies don’t like each other. So when my parents got married, there were a lot of disapproving looks from both sides.”

“I can imagine,” I say.

We stop because we hear someone coming. Lilly got a little nervous.

“Kallan you have to get out of here,” she says urgently.

“What?”

“My brother’s guards are looking for me. You have to get out of here,” She urges some more, “Now!”

“But what about-”

“Never mind about me,” she says, “I promised him that I’d be back when the moon comes up. He gave me an escort of guards so he could protect me because I’m not a fighter. He really does care for me a lot, but if they find you, they’ll kill you.”

The guards start coming closer.

“Bye Lilly. It was nice meeting you.” I say as I fly out. She waves at me and smiles slightly.

I fly out of there as fast as I can and make it home safely.

I land in the courtyard and make my way to the dining hall.

“Welcome back Kallan!” mother calls.

“Hey.” I say rather glumly. I’m not in the mood to talk, that is, until I see a large platter of chocolate cake on the table. My mouth starts to water. “Pass me the cake please,” I say. Aidan passes the cake to me and I cut out a large piece for myself. Adair just stares at his piece. He’s still upset about what he heard about Juliet marrying Romeo. I’m just secretly glad that he doesn’t know that she’s our aunt.

“Mother, is it true that Juliet is our aunt?” He asks. I nearly choke on my cake when he asks that. How and when did he find out?

“Yes. It is.” mother replies.

“Then that means that lunatic Hametsu is our cousin,” Aidan says, very annoyed. “Just great.” He shoves a bite of cake into his mouth

“I talked to his sister,” I say. Aidan chokes on his cake. Adair just glances at me with angry eyes.

“How did that encounter go?” Adair asks, clearly annoyed and angry.

“She’s actually pretty nice. She told me that Hametsu used to be a nice person when they were little.”

“That’s hard to believe.” Adair says, unamused.

“I know,” I say. I proceed to tell them about everything that Lilly told me about Hametsu. They’re reactions are different.

Aidan chokes on his cake again.

Mother's eyes grew wide.

Adair, just sighs angrily and mumbles something rude.

Father stares at me.

The room gets awkwardly silent. It’s really uncomfortable.

“I don't believe any of that,” Adair spat.

“Well you don't have to say it like that.” I grouch back. Adair growls a bit and slams his fist on the table.

“Adair!” Mother scolds, “mind your temper!”

Adair gets up from the table and storms off to his room. I don't think this is going to end well.

Something isn't right with Adair.

“How long has he been acting like this?” I ask.

“All evening,” Aidan replies. “He hasn't stopped. I have a bad feeling about this. A really bad feeling.”

I thought back to the prophecy:

The second will fall and rise again

I have a vague idea on what it means. But I'm not exactly sure.

I was thinking of two things:

Adair might get killed and somehow come back to life, or, Adair will betray us and come back begging for forgiveness or something similar.

I’m seriously hoping that he wouldn't betray us. But I can't control fate. It’s not up to me what happens to my brother. I just hope he doesn’t make a bad decision.