Gwyneth hadn't expected her guards to be so forceful with her. They gripped her tight as though if they let go, they'd lose her forever. No matter how much she insisted she wanted to see her parents, they would not loosen their grip.

It was humiliating to be dragged throughout the castle with everyone staring at her as if her presence were foreign. While she may not have put as much time into her appearance as the maids would have liked her to, she always made sure her appearance was kept. Now, her hair was tangled, her clothes tattered and muddied, and her shoes nearly falling apart. If the guards hadn't made such a big deal, perhaps she would have been spared the humiliation.

No — were they doing this on purpose?

She was forcefully seated down in a chair in front of her father's desk. One guard remained behind while the other she assumed called for her parents.

Gwyneth sighed at the show the knights were putting on. She wouldn't be surprised if the one who left took credit for "finding" her.

She looked around the office. This place used to bring her a sense of peace — at least when it was unoccupied. She enjoyed peeking through the many books on the bookshelves directly behind the desk. The shelves to the left and right only held boring documents that were only boring because she could not understand them. Now she knew that this room mostly contained lies, likely devised by her ancestors hundreds of years ago.

"Even when you return, you're still struggling to escape." The sound of her father's dissatisfied voice filled the room. It was only seconds before he took his place across from her. Next to him, her mother had pulled up a chair — blanket wrapped around her as she was easily cold.

Gwyneth waited for the knight beside her to be dismissed before speaking. "I wasn't struggling to leave. I told the guards multiple times I wanted to see you."

"Will you finally tell us where you have been?" Her mother's voice was weak and feeble, sounding completely unfamiliar to Gwyneth who had always been proud of her mother's strength. Had she caused her this much worry? Guilt began to swirl in her stomach.

"Aston wasn't the prophesized hero. I am." Gwyneth summoned a ball of light in her palm, confident she could handle anything her parents threw at her should that be the case.

The king and queen's jaws dropped as their eyes widened. Her father stood as he slammed the table with his fists. "And you didn't think to tell us?!"

"I couldn't. If I had, you would have discovered that our true enemy was the darkness inside Aston. and would have sentenced him to death on the spot."

Gwyneth couldn't remember ever having talked to her parents this directly before. Usually, she would have feared their wrath, stressed over the inevitable disappointment that was to follow, and accepted the inevitable guilt in repairing her relationship with them. Now, she cared not what they thought of her. Not after they had lied to her about Isla and who knows what else.

"And you let him go?!" Her father's voice rose dangerously high as his words seethed through his teeth.

"It wasn't Aston's fault; we wanted to find a way to save him. But now, there's no Aston left to save. I must put my kingdom first and defend it from the oncoming darkness."

"That's what you should have done in the first place! The Almighty must have been half asleep when he chose you!"

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The mere mention of the Almighty's name made Gwyneth's blood boil. "Tell me, does the name Ballard mean anything to you?" Gwyneth studied their expressions carefully. While her mother's expression implied she hadn't the faintest clue what she was talking about, her father's expression briefly flashed recognition.

"It's a name referenced during the first human war involving Aeceria and Zetheria. It is said that the Almighty led the Aecerians to battle against Ballard of Zetheria. Eventually, a nameless soldier slew Ballard, ending the war once and for all. The Almighty shortly departed from us afterward." Ballard instigated a war with himself? That didn't make much sense. "Where did you hear this name?"

"In Zetheria," Gwyneth answered.

"Figures." The king rolled his eyes for reasons Gwyneth couldn't comprehend.

The princess wasted no time getting to her next question. "Did you experiment on Isla?"

Her father briefly sputtered. "Don't be absurd! What sort of lies has she told you?"

"It was Doctor Theodore who revealed as much. He would have killed her had... had Aston not rescued her in time." Gwyneth clenched her fists.

Silence followed and her father's expression revealed he was caught. "It's not what you think. We were testing her abilities, learning more about the Fae's DNA—"

"Using methods that would have killed her!" Gwyneth shouted, losing her patience.

"Gwyneth, do not yell at your father!" Her mother raised her voice, but it came out sounding only slightly stronger than it had when she first spoke.

"You lied to me about my best friend! You ignored me any time I raised concerns about Aston's role as our hero! Our history books are filled with nothing but lies and biases! I'm sick of it!" She slowly backed away, hysteria taking over her as tears fell and light flickered in and out of her palms.

"Guards!" The king called out, and Gwyneth knew she was only wasting her time here. Focusing on her magic, she turned herself invisible, hoping they would believe she had teleported herself out the same way Aston was able to. From then, she waited for the door to be open and bolted to the tunnels.

"I'm sorry," Thea said once they were safely in the tunnels. The door to enter was far heavier than Gwyneth had expected, but she made do.

"I shouldn't have expected anything else." Gwyneth laughed humorlessly.

"The fact that Ares isn't even mentioned in your history is... baffling. Has his name really been lost?"

"It's present in Zetheria. There must have been some reason that he was intentionally kept out of our records." She paused. "What was the first human war anyway?"

"It wasn't much of a "war" anyway. Humans gained the ability to borrow magic from the Elemental Spirits and that kind of pissed Ares off. It wasn't long before he started slaughtering them and they fought back. Eventually, he killed Ballard and I killed him, and that was that."

"Humans can borrow magic from the Elemental Spirits?" Gwyneth blinked in disbelief.

"Do they not anymore? Come to think of it, I haven't seen any humans with magic. I'm not sure how they discovered that ability, when they lost it, or how they lost it."

"But... this was obviously a war against Ares. Why do the records mention Ballard? Did the Aecerians have some sort of relationship with Ares?"

"No. Absolutely not. Their hatred for Ares was unlike anything I had ever seen. There's no possible way they would have wanted to preserve his legacy. Unless... Unless I'm entirely wrong and the war your father mentioned wasn't about Ares at all, rather it was... No. That can't be true. That would be stupid."

"What would?"

"Don't worry about it. Especially not before fighting Ares. Here, I'll teach you a little trick. Try summoning a flower?"

Gwyneth had been using one hand to light her path in the tunnel. Using her other hand, she summoned a small lily. "Like this?"

"Exactly. Notice how it seems to lean towards one direction? That's proof that we're close to the Earth Spirit! Just follow the lean until we find them."

Gwyneth nodded, her steps increasing in pace now that she had a concrete direction.

As they ventured deeper, Gwyneth halted in place. On the ground were dozens of Fae corpses tied down by vines.

"W-What happened here?" Gwyneth shivered, backing away.

"You can't retreat. We must keep going. My guess was that they planned to attack the Earth Spirit and they fought back," Thea explained.

"How do I know they won't attack me?" Gwyneth asked, noticing a couple of human bodies mixed in.

"My guess is that you'll be mistaken for me. After all, you do have my magic."

"I'm... Going to trust you." Gwyneth sharply inhaled before swallowing.

If she didn't hurry, Ares would be the one destroying her.