Maria doubled over, panting.

She held her stomach as an aching pain tore at her kidneys. She didn’t know how far they had run, but it wasn’t far enough to escape the sight of the smoke rising from the theater. Against the night sky, the black clouds of ash seemed to almost stand out amidst the backdrop of stars and pale light from the fractured moon above.

Maria rushed past several people and drew their attention. Their lingering gazes only left a rising sickness in Maria’s stomach that tore at her heart and mind. They needed to get out of the street. Maria made a sharp turn into a brick alley with Chariot and Tanalia. She collapsed against the wall for support. Her legs were aching. She drank a healing potion and tried to calm down. After all the chaos and noise, the sudden drop in sounds left her uneasy. She glanced down the alleyway. What’s to say the Ringleader didn’t follow them? What if he was going to ambush them when they were least expecting it? They barely survived, even with their current gear. It wasn’t enough. They weren’t close to strong enough.

Maria looked back at her party. “Are you guys alri-”

Several thick vines burst from the ground and quickly entangled Maria. She gasped, wincing as the crushing pain weighed her down, and forced her to her knees.

Chariot kept her Crimson Petal aimed at Maria, panting, with an empty healing potion flask hanging between her fingers. Her arm was wobbling. She was struggling to keep her sword up. Blood ran down her neck.

“H- Hey! What are you doing?” Maria groaned, fighting against the binds. It was no use. They were barbed, and resisting only made them dig deeper against her skin.

“Don’t resist,” Chariot said between breaths. “Just… stay down.”

“What are you doing?”

“Is what he said true?”

Maria gulped. Her hands were shaking. There was no way to avoid it now. They had seen the marking. They had seen the Ringleaders too. Maria glanced down, shuddering. Tanalia limped over and knelt beside the entanglement of vines. She grabbed at Maria’s wrist, and forcefully turned it over. She glared at the marking.

“I can’t believe it, you are his spawn,” Tanalia huffed.

“I’m sorry,” Maria said.

“Are you?” Chariot growled. She twisted the sword, and the vines tightened around Maria. “You’ve been lying to us this whole time?”

“No! I wasn’t!”

“You said you had scars under those bandages! You didn’t want anyone to see them!”

“I wasn’t lying about that!”

“You kept the truth from us!”

“You think it would have been a smart idea for me to start telling people the truth? How do you think people would react if they found out who I really am?”

“She has a point,” Tanalia sighed and leaned up against the wall. Her hair was still done up, and she got to work unbraiding it.

“That doesn’t matter. She’s the demon king's daughter… one of them at least. Who knows how many more are still out there.”

“I’m not who you think I am!”

“You’re a liar is what you are!”

“I didn’t grow up here! I never knew him! I didn’t grow up with any of his influence, my mother raised me to be good!”

“And how can we trust you on that?” Chariot asked. She twisted her sword again, and Maria cried out as the barbed vines dug into her skin, breaking through and drawing blood. She gasped for air. There was nothing she could do, the vines had her completely restrained. Any force against her binds was just met with stronger resistance.

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“You’re just using us to get to the demon king's treasure,” Tanalia said, keeping her calm demeanor, though even Maria could see the cracks slipping in her expression. Her lip was trembling, and her gaze averted her own.

“I’m not, I swear!”

“You’re just after that power like he said.”

Maria frowned. “And you believe him? I didn’t know about it until he just told us!”

“You said it yourself, he hasn’t lied to us.”

“How can we believe anything you say at this point?” Chariot asked. “You’re his daughter! Moldark!”

“Look, I’m not from here! I didn’t grow up to witness your war with my father! I was so far away I hadn’t even heard of this place. When I came here though, I was on a mission. Yes, I wanted to find the demon king’s treasure, but that was only one of the reasons. I heard about what Moldark did. I heard that after he died his army scattered, and only continued raining more havoc on Mytharia! I’m here to stop them.” Maria looked Chariot in the eyes, but she wasn’t budging. “My mother wasn’t evil. She was a good person, she raised me to be like her! You have to believe me on that. Look at everything I’ve done! I’ve never wanted to hurt anyone, I just want to help them! Master Eardwulf, Matteo, Lycia, the Oracle, I wanted to help them all!”

“Some good the Oracle did for us,” Tanalia growled. “We wasted our time in those sewers just for him to betray us.”

“We can deal with him later,” Chariot said.

“I wanted to help you too!” Maria said to her. “When we first met in the forest, I could have just stayed hidden and watched the Hallows overpower you, but I didn’t! I don’t… I don’t want to see people die. Just knowing that the Ringleader is out there potentially killing people or ruining people's lives…” her voice trailed off, before falling silent. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I’m telling the truth. I came here to find the treasure and stop the demon king's subordinates. When… when I was told about the treasure, they mentioned that if I found it, I would find a way to stop them.”

“They?” Tanalia asked.

“The… who they are isn’t important.”

“Who are they?”

“I don’t know, I saw them in a dream, alright. It was a vision, or something before I woke up here. The Ringleader said that the demon king's treasure had something that would give his children all of his powers. I don’t know what he could do, but it sounds like that power is what I needed to find.”

“With power like that, you could just take his place,” Chariot said.

“But I won’t. I’m not interested in that! I just want to help fix what my father did, and get rid of the problems he left behind!”

“You would be fine tracking and killing your own family members?” Tanalia asked.

“Normally, no, but I never knew about them! I didn’t know the Ringleader was my step-brother until you found out! I didn’t realize I had so many siblings, that all of my targets were related to me!”

Tanalia drew her elven dagger and lifted the tip of it to Maria’s throat. The flat end of the blade smacked the bottom of Maria’s chin, and she gulped, wincing. “Excuse me for finding it hard to believe you.”

“I never intended on hurting you or tricking you or anything, you have to believe me! I- I’m sorry! Please!”

“Tanalia,” Chariot said, but didn’t continue. She had fallen silent, her breath growing shaky as she stared back at Maria with narrowed eyes.

Tanalia glanced back at her. “What?”

“Just… let her be.”

“Seriously? After everything that just happened?”

“It’s… she’s…” Chariot groaned. She lowered her sword, and the vines around Maria came undone. Maria fell to the ground, groaning. Her entire body ached like a fire had swum its way into her veins and was spreading faster than she could breathe.

“We’re just going to let her go?” Tanalia asked.

“No. We’re… I don’t know.” Chariot glared back at Maria. She sheathed her sword and turned to leave. “I… I need some rest.”

Maria only lay there and watched as Chariot limped out of the alleyway.

Tanalia glanced at Maria, grumbled to herself, and sheathed her weapon before turning, and kneeling beside her. She looked as though she was about to say something, but as Tanalia’s eyes rapidly looked over Maria’s face, she shook her head, and quietly shot to her feet before following Chariot.

Maria groaned. She didn’t want to stand, much less walk. She was covered in blood, and although her bruises and cuts had healed from the potion, they still stung. She just wanted to lay there and cry. The Ringleader was her brother? What was she supposed to do now? Rest? That’s what she needed. A hot bath. And Food. She needed a lot of things. Her head was aching.

The night didn’t go at all like how she had planned it to.

Maria mustered the strength to rise to her feet and lean against the brick walls for support.

What was she going to do now? She was left there, several miles from the guild building, completely, and utterly, alone.