Cyrus sat cross legged on his bed, furrowing his brow. He was consumed with thought about Oga and what transpired at breakfast that he didn’t realize Vanessa placing a consoling arm on his shoulder.

“Look at the bright side, prince,” she said in her accented voice. “At least the steward didn’t think we were suspects in this mess. That would have been right out of your classic mystery books.”

Cyrus released himself from deep thought; his bright blue eyes met Van’s with honesty and compassion. “It’s just, I talked to Oga last night. She was going to let me take care of things. I was going to talk to the king and now she messed everything up.”

“Nothing like a girl who takes matters into her own hands, eh?” Van responded, drolly.

Cyrus raised both his hands forward in protest. “I thought she trusted me…Now I’ll never understand what happened.”

“Aye,” Van said softly before her face changed to a confident expression. “But, it’s not like we still can’t find her ourselves and ask her.”

Cyrus’ eyes reflected brightly in the morning sun and he nodded.

“Of course,” he said. “I love the way you think, Van, and that’s coming from the brains of our team.”

“Just thinking rationally,” Van said as she pointed to her head with a wink. “But I’ll take that as a compliment.”

The two heroes made their way to the door when suddenly it creaked open all by itself. Van drew her sword and Cyrus released a bag of dragon powder from his belt. Both stood poised for combat as it opened further, but they quickly lowered their guard when Antonio stood before them. He was naked except for a white towel wrapped around his head and another wrapped around his waist. Without his loose flowing brunette hair covering his cheeks, both Cyrus and Van got a full view of his chiseled jawline marked only by dark stubble.

”Heck are you muchachos doing?” Antonio asked with narrowed eyes. “I was just coming to tell you that the elven spa is indeed a thing. Archibald and I have staked it out but you’re free to join us.”

Van sheathed her sword and turned her head aside. “I don’t appreciate being called a muchacho. And besides-unlike you-we’ve got something else to do. Something way more important than your scandalous behavior.”

“More important than elven babes helping water flow through your veins?” Antonio said, raising his eyebrows at Cyrus.

“Yes!” Cyrus said. “I’m sorry, Antonio. We have to be going now.”

Cyrus scooted past Antonio and Van followed behind him. Antonio gave a sly smirk. “No problemo, muchachos. I could do without seeing your curves, Cyrus, and your non curves, Vanessa.”

“Get lost, you scruffy rake!” Van exclaimed as she walked away from him.

Suddenly, Antonio was following the two heroes through aquarium-filled hallways with an angry look on his face. He didn’t even seem to care that he was wearing nothing but a bath towel. “Chica, did you just call this handsome, sophisticated man, scruffy?”

“So what if I did?” Van shouted back as she tried to walk faster.

Cyrus could see that Antonio was so inflamed by Vanessa’s defiant attitude that steam could shoot out his nostrils at any second. Antonio raised his voice, “You can slander my good name, drink all my tequila and leave me for the buzzards, but chica, you do not call this elegant example of the male breed, scruffy!”

“I just did!” Van shouted back. “I’ll keep calling you scruffy until the day I die. And before that, I’ll train an army of parrots to follow you around and repeat that word when I’m gone.”

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“You are the cruelest, most scorned chica I have ever encountered!” Antonio exclaimed. “I cannot believe that I actually feel something about y…”

Van placed her finger in front of Antonio’s face. “Can you shut up for a second, rake? I hear something…”

“What do you hear?” Cyrus asked.

Van pressed her ear to a large golden door and Cyrus followed suit. There were two voices bantering back and forth. One was immediately recognizable, but the other one seemed more mysterious to him. The first voice whined through the air. It was snobby and spoiled, while the second maintained an ominous calm to it. As Cyrus listened, he started to feel more and more uncomfortable.

“I can’t believe this. Aya commits a legitimate act of treason and they still don’t have a warrant on her head? She truly is the golden child!”

Cyrus gasped. “Severa…”

“If I were you,” the other voice said. “I would exercise patience and restraint. A coup d’etat is never swift and clean. Sometimes it takes a few blows to sever a head off.”

“You don’t understand how long I’ve waited, and how painful it’s been for me,” Severa responded. “I had to undergo the same exact teachings as Aya and I excelled more than any queen before me. Mother would have been so proud, but when it turned out that I didn’t have the markings, my father dropped me immediately.”

Cyrus could hear the sound of pacing feet shuffling back and forth from underneath the door. He knew it was Severa; her anger could wear a hole in the floor. “I never knew I could hate my own flesh and blood, but Aya makes it so unbelievably easy,” Severa seethed. “I’ve memorized every elven incantation, spoken to every single kind of tree, eaten so many leaves it turned my poop green and even had my ears resharpened and they pick her instead of me. She idolizes the kind of creatures that pick boogers out of their nose with their own clubs!”

“Those are trolls,” the other voice said. “But I digress…”

“Wow,” Van whispered. “I knew Severa was jealous of Aya but not on this level.”

“Aya this, Aya that! They eat, sleep and go the bathroom in the name of Aya!” Severa screeched.

“Complaints are idle talk,” the other voice responded. “We have to move onto the next phase of our plan if you are to become queen.”

“And that is?” Severa asked. “You never told me.”

“I may not look like it,” the voice said, “But customs of other cultures fascinate me, especially forbidden rituals. The Aquarians have one of the darkest shadow rituals of all. One that they’d like the current generation to forget.”

“How do you know something about Aquarian culture that I don’t?” Severa asked skeptically.

“Because…” the voice responded. “I’ve met Aquarian souls in the dark realm who deeply regretted what they had done…but if you are to become the queen, you must preserver with them.”

“Ok…” Severa said. “Your attempts to be spooky don’t work on me. Just tell me what I need to do…”

“Deep down in your catacombs, behind a sealed door, there is a ancient staff carved from black elder wood from the Dark Realm. It belonged to the only Aquarian queen who ever usurped power, Ayne. “

“Ayne…” Severa said in a breathy voice. “I’ve never heard of her before.”

“Her name has been scrubbed from the archives. Like you, Ayne was born markless but she deeply wished to become queen. She ventured down to the Dark Realm, visiting the Anvil Forest and fashioned a staff of cursed bark. With it, she could perform a blood transfer.”

“Blood transfer…” Severa remarked. “And I assume that means…”

“Ayne killed a member of the royal family at the sanctuary and using magic, she siphoned their tattoos off and transferred them onto herself. Much like you will do…”

“Excellent,” Severa hissed. “Now it’s just a matter of who?”

“May I suggest your father?” The voice said. “He is weak and feeble in his current state. I think you will find his markings the easiest to assimilate into your skin.”

“Perhaps you have a point…” Severa said. “Besides, now he can finally understand my pain. He is the worst father ever.”

Cyrus looked at Van with sweat on his brow. “I can’t believe it…” he whispered. “Severa is going to kill the king and…”

Antonio grimaced. “Why are you, muchachos, just sitting here listening to this door. I’ve been standing here so long. Let me hear!”

The not-so-suave swordsman leaned over Van and Cyrus and put his ear to the door, not realizing he had lost his balance. He tripped and pushed the door straight open, causing all three to tumble into Severa’s room.

They looked up and gasped as Severa stood with the masked Everblood from the forest. He quickly vanished into thin air and Severa dashed to a small bell. She rang it loudly and screamed, “Guards, guards! These interlopers have broken into my private quarters!”

Aquarian guards quickly surrounded the three heroes with their staffs pointed at them. Cyrus cringed as the water in his body was held in place by the staffs.

“It seems they’re human spies!” Severa exclaimed. “They were listening in on me!”

“What do you want us to do with them, mistress?”

Severa’s frail expression darkened and she sneered. “Take them to the Water Chamber and hold them there! Reserve the worst tortures for them. No criminal has ever withstood the Aquarian crazy water torture. We’ll find out what they know!”