"I've been given an ultimatum." The king of Discord explained to us as he led us out of his office. "This old alliance you speak of, I'm aware of who you mean. My father warned me about them and about what they can do." The king spoke with a solemn expression.

He took us down the hall at a hurried pace,"He accepted their help during the great war and paid the price afterwards. He warned me to never make the same mistake. I decided to take his advice. I cut ties with them, they seemed to accept it till now." His voice trailed off.

"I'm sure you've noticed the lack of people moving about." He said, looking between us. Luca and I nodded, following him through a door to the outside. "After I sent their envoy away yesterday, people have been dropping in mysterious trances. Randomly they just become unresponsive. The number of people we have left is barely enough to care for them, not to mention deal with anything else.” He heaved a sigh, “And this morning we discovered a new threat." He said leading us out onto the terrace.

Against the north wall stood an army. The landscape, dark with soldiers, marching towards the city. I bit back a gasp. There were so many of them.

"It won't be long till they overwhelm our men and lay our city to ruin. Vitriol is taking advantage of our weakness. I suspect they were led here. The group has given me a choice, give in to them and my city stands or defy them and my city falls." He gave a weak smile. "I was leaning towards realigning with them, for my people's sake, but if we're going to fall anyway. I might as well burn with my pride in tact." He concluded leaning on the railing.

"I mean no disrespect sir but you give up too easily." I spoke, biting my tongue after. What was I saying?

He dropped his jaw, gawking at me, "What?" He chuckled at the perceived absurdity. I frowned, tightening my fists. What was I trying to say?

"You act as if you only have two options but you don't." I thought aloud, staring down at the cold unfeeling city, "Where is the mighty Discord who fights all the more ruthlessly when their odds are slim?"

The king dropped his gaze, "That Discord was never real. The Bloodgate battle, that was them." He said frowning. I shook my head, "You can’t tell me all of it is. Are you going to let them kill you without a fight? Where’s your dignity? " I challenged him.

He stared at me in disbelief, “It’s not that simple." He said. Sighing, he turned back towards the door. I looked to Luca for help. We weren’t convincing the King.

Luca stared at the world below, lost in thought. A dim light across his eyes, his face expressionless. Was he...dreaming?

Luca lifted his head, a determined look in his eyes, "Why can't it be?" Luca called, stopping the King in his tracks.

"If you give us some help we can give you a fighting chance." Luca offered confidently. I looked back at him, surprised by his assertion. I had no idea what he had in mind.

The King stopped, slowly walking back."What do you suggest?" he asked.

"If we can break the trance spell, will you guys be able to take Vitriol?" Luca asked, in a serious tone. The king frowned, pondering. "I don't know, but we'd be in much better shape than we are now." A glimmer of hope in his grin.

A smile grew on Luca's face, "That's all I needed to hear."

He turned to me with a smirk,"Phyn, we have a city to save." Marching for the door, I walked after him, excited by his confidence.

"Wait." The king echoed. Hesitating, he walked over, slipping off his ring from his finger. "Don't abuse that power or I'll have your head when it's all over." He warned placing it in Luca's palm. His signet ring. "Understood." Luca nodded, stepping back.

"I wish you luck, for all our sakes." The king echoed.

I followed Luca soaking up the energy. This is what I'd always craved, a real chance to play hero.

"So how do we go about breaking the spell?" I asked as we went back inside the palace. "I know enough about their spells that I should be able to disrupt it. We just need to find the source." He explained. “Back there...was that?”

“Ya, my gifting, I got vision. I think the source is somewhere dark, damp. There's something evil in the city.” Luca frowned.

The greenish gray floor tiles patterned across the floor as we marched."What sort of source are we looking for? Is it a physical place, a person, or some sort of contamination?" I asked trying to deduce where this thing could be. "It's probably a place I guess, something that affects a large portion of the population. Not everyone was affected by the spell so it must be somehow limited, whether that's intentional or not." Luca answered.

I nodded, "We should check their water source." I suggested, as we clambered down the hall. "It would be dark and damp. It might be a different source than the palace, that could explain why some people weren't affected."

"That's a good start." Luca said as we went around the corner, "Do you know where that is?" He asked, warily. I shook my head, "I don't."

The two of us stopped, realizing we didn't know where we're heading. "Well." Luca said, hanging his head. "I'll find us some directions." He muttered, as Regius the king's advisor turned the corner.

"Hey Regius, is it?" Luca asked, strutting up to him. "Do you know where the city's water source is located?" He asked. Regius twisted up his face in a sour frown. "Who do you think you are to ask me that?" He fumed. His eyes alite in a flame, "A couple of outsiders force an audience with our king and they have the audacity to ask me-" he stopped, Luca holding out the King's Signet ring, "Yes, go on." Luca smirked. Regius gawked at the ring, shocked that he possessed it. "How did you-"

"The water source." Luca interrupted, ignoring his question. Regius's face went red in rage. I feared his head was gonna burst. "We don't mean to undermine your authority, we're just in a hurry." I butted in, noticing Luca was having too much fun pushing the guy's buttons.

Regius heaved a sigh, "If my King trusts you." He spat defeated, "There's an entrance in the lower square, there are few wells coming from it throughout the town." He huffed, storming off.

Luca raised his eyebrows, "Friendly." He mumbled. I shook my head at him, "You enjoyed that, too much."

"I gotta have some fun in life." He retorted, with a joking expression. I sighed, putting my hand on his shoulder, "Should we take a shortcut to town?" I said, offering my ability once again. He put his hand atop mine, "Sure." he said, his gaze softening for a second. His joking smirk disappearing. I blinked, overwhelmed by his big brown eyes.

"What?" He said smirking at my reaction, "We're gonna go or are you going to stare at me funny."

My cheeks burned red. What was I doing? I closed my eyes, doing my best to ignore him, I put the center square image to mind. Jumping from the palace hall we appeared in the square.

I stumbled back, overwhelmed with a dizzying headache. I took a quick gasp, trying to gather myself. I dropped to one knee, feeling weak. I didn't realize how little energy I had left. Luca frowned, staring at me with concern.

"Are you okay Phyn?" He asked, kneeling beside me. Luca made me look at him, studying my eyes in an analytical fashion. He held my gaze moving his finger back and forth in front of them. "Follow my finger."

I did, pulling my eyes away from him. He was too close to me, the butterflies in my stomach going crazy. Why did I react like this to him? No one else sent my heart racing like this. I didn't need this right now. I tried to keep my face neutral.

He lowered his hand, seemingly satisfied with whatever he was looking for.

"It takes a lot of energy sometimes." I mumbled creating more distance between us.

"I'm okay." I assured him, Ignoring the pounding headache.

"Good. Stay that way." he gave me a slight smirk before he rose to his feet. He started looking around, surveying the square. I stood up myself brushing the dust off my clothes. My head started to hurt less.

The buildings standing quietly around the square. My hands were shaking slightly, I did my best to steady them. I couldn't tell if it was from the last jump or Luca.

"Lower square, that would be down there, wouldn't it?" He pondered, pointing to where the street dropped a level. "I would expect so." I added, hoping to avoid embarrassing myself further. I needed to get my head back into this. I didn't have time to dissect what was wrong with me.

Luca wandered towards it and I took up the following. Stomping down the stairs to the lower square, I was overwhelmed by an ominous feeling. It suddenly felt deathly quiet. Luca slowed in front of me, lessening the distance between us. "I think you might be right about the waterways. You feel that right? Something's off here." He whispered carefully. I nodded in agreement, shivers running down my arm. The air was thick with it, whatever it was.

We found the opening Regius talked about, we both stopped in front of it. Luca looked back at me, hesitating before he slowly opened the cellar like doors. They screeched, clashing loudly against the stone. The rusted metal making the horrific sound. I heard Luca gulp before he tiptoed in, very cautiously entering the dark space.

"Do you have a light?" He looked up at me. "Ya I should have some left." I said rummaging through my bag finding a lone match. "That's all I got." I muttered, handing it to him. "Let's hope this match shines brighter than all his previous friends." Luca grinned briefly, striking the match. We wouldn't have much time till it went out. Not that it helped much lighting just our hands in front of our faces.

"Should we get another light?" I asked, following him in. "Probably, but I want to see how far we can get before we spend a bunch of time finding one." He echoed, his voice bouncing off the cave-like walls. "I guess I can get us back If we need it." I offered, the dampness in the air, sticking to my skin.

"Are you sure that's a good idea, you looked pretty rough after the last jump." Luca said. I frowned at his observation,"I don't usually get worried about it till I start throwing up." I said, realizing how bad it sounded.

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"That can't be good for you." He replied, raising his eyebrows."It's not, but I don't always have a choice." I muttered.

"We'll keep using your ability for emergencies and getting back home. I don't want you to hurt yourself." He said in a serious tone.

We reached the end of the first hall, it opened up to an underground river, the waterways constructed to flow where it was needed throughout the city. A little light poured in from above, making our match useless against it.

"We might be okay light wise." I stated, looking around the larger space. "Ya I think you're right." He agreed, he threw it down, snuffing it out with his shoe.

Luca stepped forward looking for our next direction. It seemed obvious though which way we should go, a pungent smell wafting through the carven, taunting us to go after it. I could hear the buzz of flies, and that only meant one thing. I prepared myself for what we might happen upon.

Turning the corner we almost tripped over the source of the smell. Two dead cows lay next to each other, both gauntly pale, the flies circling around them. I could tell their blood had been drained, probably for whatever spell had been used here. I covered my nose, stepping back from them.

Luca twisted his face at the sight of them. "Unfortunate evidence that we're close." He remarked, stepping around them. I hesitated, staring at their gauntly forms. Luca already ahead, I jumped over. I wasn’t going to get left behind.

The smell lifted as we went past them, a serious relief. I caught up to Luca, a glimpse of fear in his eyes, as he surveyed the surroundings. He hid his fear quickly but I noticed it. It scared me worse than the dead cows.

"What are we stumbling upon Luca?" He kept his eyes on the pathway, "I don't know, not really." He muttered. I stopped walking, waiting for a real answer.

"But you have an idea."

He turned, with a sigh "I've only ever seen Merle's spells, and surprisingly he didn't even use them that often." He reluctantly answered.

"What are we going to find?" I reworded my question. "It could be a number of things, a weird pattern of blood, something burned in the ground, or even a sacrifice." He replied, putting his hands in his pockets nervously.

"A sacrifice?" I asked, feeling a shiver in just repeating it. "Another corpse, flooded with the blood of others and who knows what else. It's not going to be a sacrifice." He decided abruptly.

I bit my lip and followed. As much as this place was giving me the creeps I wouldn't let him go alone.

"Besides, I'm more worried that the place will be guarded." He mumbled as we walked further. The possibility hadn't even crossed my mind. New terrors captured my imagination.

It was so quiet you could hear us breathing, the only other sounds echoing through the cavern was the weak sound of running water. I clenched my fists, fighting back the chill in the air.

Luca's expression grew more serious the further we went.

To my dismay something lay on the ground at the far end of the tunnel. I couldn't see yet what it was, but it increased the odds of it being a sacrifice. Dread filled each step as we walked towards it. It was hard to breathe, everything felt more difficult and heavy.

Luca stopped a couple feet away from it. He turned around, choking back a gag. "You don't want to look at it, it's pretty gruesome." He said, with a horror in his eyes. I caught a glimpse of a cow's leg, bloated and bruised and I turned away before I could see more. I didn't want that image in my mind.

"So how do you go about disrupting it?" I asked, trying to control my breathing.

"It would be easier if it wasn't a sacrifice." He echoed distraughtly. "If it were one of the other methods I would just break up or destroy the symbol but in this case the symbol is the cow, it's in his veins." He said, his hands shaking. A sick look across his face,"I have to cut it in half."

"Oh." I turned back for a split second, realizing how awful that would be. It wasn't a small cow and it certainly would be a messy business.

"I just have to work up the nerve." He mumbled. "People are counting on me." Luca resolved, with a focused expression.

"And some people are counting on you to fail." A voice on the other side of the cow growled. I turned to see the owner of the voice, a bald very muscular man with a strange tattoo wrapped around his arm ending in a clawed paw. He was the assassin in Euphoria, the one Wren drew me away from. How was he all involved in this? I frowned, hiding my growing panic. "Have you really expected that they haven't been watching you boy? This plan of yours is futile. You can't interfere with what will be." The tattoo man stated, swinging around a mace intimidatingly. "What do you know?" Luca stood antagonistic to him, weaponless.

The tattoo man stepped forward, "You would think someone who dreams of the future would understand how this will end. You're making powerful enemies." The assassin hissed at him. "Yet, I'm not worried." Luca spat back.

I darted my eyes around us trying to figure out how this could play out. The goal being keeping the two of us whole and the cow not. We didn't have anything to cut the cow with anyway.This was horrible.

The tattoo man smirked, hoping over the body he charged Luca with the mace. He jumped out of the way, the mace clashing against the wall. The sound rang out, as Luca stumbled back. Stumbling up again he ran, the tattoo man shifting his force to charge him again.

I bit my lip, watching the commotion, Tattoo man wasn't interested in me. I could just grab Luca and get out of here but we'd still have a problem with the spell…

I hung my head in frustration realising what I must do. It was different when it was Luca, but now it was in my hands. I ran down beside the cow's body, trying to block it's bloated and discolored image from my mind.

The closest thing to a knife I had in my pack was an arrowhead. I pulled it out, staring at it in frustration. This wouldn’t work.

Nevertheless I knelt it by the cow and started hammering the point into its side. I shut my eyes, ignoring the mess I was creating. I kept stabbing at it, knowing I wasn't getting very far.

"That's not gonna do it girl." The assassin mocked, pausing from chasing Luca.

My heart wretched as I noticed the small gash on Luca’s arm. He defensively stood, out of breath ready for what the tattoo man would do next. I looked up at the assassin with a scowl, I didn't need it to.

He smirked, running back towards Luca. I pulled the last flare from the bag, shoving it in the little hole I made. I didn't have another match, but I still had my sheer will power. I pulled out my flint, striking it till I made a spark. I lit the flare with it, getting up quickly at the sparks of my success. Tattoo man’s eyes wide. I laughed, jumping over the cow.

"I know exactly what's gonna take, creep!" I hissed, running away from the cow and unfortunately right towards the scary man. The flare erupted, splicing up the cow in a splattered mess. Plastered across the room, the corpse torn to pieces.

Both the assassin and Luca gawked at me in shock, Luca snapping out of it quick enough to run after me. "Phyn!" He called, grabbing my arm. I knew what he meant.

We punched out of the waterway, appearing on the ground of the center square. I gasped, collapsing, covered in cow blood. I clutched to the ground, my limbs failing.

"Hey, hey Phyn!" Luca crawled over, turning me around to face the sky, the sun through the clouds too bright for my eyes. "Are you okay?" He asked, his voice bouncing around cloudy in my head. I nodded feeling dazed.

He gave me a half smile, "You're insane. In the best way possible but,"

"Your shoulder." I pointed to the gash, bleeding through his shirt. He looked at it, briefly, looking back up to me, "It’s fine." He said, holding me up. I shook my head with a frown, "No, you need to get that dressed." I pushed, frowning at his lack of concern.

"I will but I'm more worried about you, maybe we should wait to get back, if you are not well." He said, helping me up.

"I'm fine." I muttered. Luca gave me a skeptical look. "Okay I'm not but I will be." I huffed. Luca shook his head at me. "That sounds much more like the truth." He said, helping me stand. He supported my weight for the first step or two before I managed on my own.

"Did it work?" I asked, realizing there was a bigger goal in mind. Luca paused, "I don't know. It's still so quiet-" he said bubbling noise interrupting the end of his statement.

Someone walked outside, blinking groggily. "I'll take that as a yes." I smiled, looking around as more followed. Luca gave a laugh of victory.

"We should let the King know." He suggested, starting towards the palace, pulling me along with him. I grinned, forgetting what a terrible state I was in. We broke the Remedy's spell. We did the impossible. I couldn't believe we actually made it out alive. Wren's warning about the tattoo man came to mind. He was still below the street.

"That assassin guy is it a problem to leave him?" I frowned, remembering our loose end. "If he’s smart he'll get out of here quickly. It will take too long to create another blood spell and everyone here is armed. We'll have to trust him to others." He frowned.

The grey streets seemed much brighter. They were filling up again, people were running to and fro, the seriousness of their situation beginning to be spread. Guards shouting things out, they fell into formation as if they had never been asleep.

I was impressed with their tenacity. Watching their resilience, I felt an overwhelming feeling of hope well up inside of me. We could do this, Luca and I proved that. The king of Discord was actually willing to hear us, and these people didn't know the meaning of giving up. We actually had a chance, and I believed that whole heartedly. They were preparing for battle but it felt as good as a victory parade.

We reached the front gate, hobbling victoriously all the way. Luca showed the guard at the front gate the ring. He reluctantly let us in. I could imagine why he hesitated, two sweaty blood covered youths, we looked far from ordinary.

Climbing stairs and wandering halls we found our way back up to the floor where we met the king. He wasn't in his office, so we began to look into other rooms. After asking a guard or two, we found ourselves ushered into another room. It was large like the general's meeting room but emptier. There were no tables or chairs in here but it was decorated in the same fashion.

They had us wait here, standing in the middle of the room. After a couple of minutes the door suddenly swung open, both me and Luca standing to attention.

The King of Discord rushed in, a broad smile across his face, "If it isn't Discords great heroes!" He boomed, announcing it to the room. His various advisors, the ones from the meeting and Regius, filtered in less excited to see us.

"We owe you a great debt. If it weren't for your mysterious entrance, Discord would lie in ruin." He stated, forcing his advisors to nod in agreement. "It was really no trouble." Luca offered, handing him back his ring. "I hope you take this as an extension of friendship. If we want to avoid what's coming, I'm going to need your help."

"Yes we have much to discuss further. My first concern is kicking Vitriol right back to oblivion but, right after you will have all my attention." The King promised.

Regius walked up behind the King, looking ready to protest as soon as we left the room.

Luca nodded, "I look forward to working with you." He said, turning to confer with me.

"You as- '' The king started, he stopped, his eyes bugged out in shock. I stared at him in confusion. He collapsed to the floor in a heap, a knife in his back. I blinked in horror. Oh no.

Regius stood over his body, coldly, blood on his hands. I clenched my fists, anger building. The war generals stood stunned, no one moved an inch.

"Don't tell me any of you were buying his crap." He spat, sweeping his gaze across the advisors. "I'm saving all of us! They'll only keep coming until we remake the alliance. My brother was far too naive to think we could do anything but accept their offer." He remarked, stepping over his corpse. His Brother. Regius smiled, looking our way, "You have good intentions but your efforts are futile. Better to go with the flow than against it."

I gulped looking at Luca, we're not surrounded by friends. We were caught up on the wrong side of their politics. I grabbed Luca's shoulder, ignoring his fury aimed at Regius. Luca moved his eyes to mine, his rage suddenly replaced with desperate worry.

Thinking of the cottage, the forest, and Broc. We disappeared from Discord. Regius's cold smirk sitting in my mind.

I crashed onto the forest floor, falling on my hands and knees. A sick feeling deep in my gut, making me shudder. I couldn't think. The world was blurry.

I found myself being led to the door by Luca. He was talking to me but I couldn't hear him. Why did he look so scared? My head was pounding but all I could see was the dead king. His body bleeding on the floor invading my mind's eye. He didn't deserve to die, betrayed by his brother. What a horrible way to die.

I did my best to keep my breathing steady. Why was it hard to breathe? The world was spinning worse. I somehow ended up on the floor. Had I fallen? I couldn't remember. My head hurt and I didn't want to move. The weight overcoming me, I fell into blackness, unable to resist it's pull.