Getting through the mountain pass was a lot easier than what I thought it would be. And then we were finally in Paamut. There wasn't as much snow here and it was like it was much warmer too, despite it being full-blown winter here.

"We're getting a car," Dy said as we made it to the first border village. "And uh... Yeah, we're going to steal it."

"Dy!" I growled and frowned up at her. "We're not stealing someone's car!"
"Do you wanna walk all the way to Aatskina?"

"No but-"

"We don't have any money, Al. We'll just send the car back once we make it to Aatskina. Okay?"

I rolled my eyes and kept walking. The village was one of those small cute ones on the side of the mountain. Black little houses with grass roofs. I loved those. If I could live anywhere and not choose the stronghold, a little village like this would be ideal. It was so quiet too.

Eerily quiet.

"Where is everyone?" Barr asked and scratched the back of his head.

"I have no idea," Dy murmured and frowned. She walked up to a house and knocked on the door. It popped open and creaked loudly. She looked inside before shrugging back at us. She closed the door again and buried her hands in her pockets.

"There's something off about this," I said. "Why would a whole village just leave?"

"If there was a risk. Like if the weather threatened to keep them blocked from the bigger cities and supplies. Or, in case of war."

I felt blood drain from my face. "War?"

Dy held up a finger and went back to the house. She was inside for a moment before she returned with a radio in tow. "If there's a war, there would be something on the radio about it. Or if there was a natural disaster." She turned the knob and the radio slowly tuned itself in on the station.

"... Announcement. Vacate your homes and make your way towards the big cities. Paasmut and Naasmut will take in any refugees from Aatskina and the villages of Paamut."

We all widened our eyes, staring at the radio.

"This is a national emergency announcement..."

Dy turned on the knob on the radio, changing the station. Three others had the same message playing on a loop.

The fourth had Quinn.

"I have declared war on the Aatskina tribe and the Paamut tribe for conspiring to assassinate me, and for succeeding in assassinating my sister, Queen Alvina av Stál. It is with a heavy heart we as a nation will have to fight our brothers and sisters in the mountain tribes, but with the help of our good friends from Bursaaq and Skyen, we will succeed. We will quash the rebellion and bring the rebels to justice. My sister's murderers will be brought to justice. Thank you. May the spirits bless us all."

"What is he doing?" I whispered, covering my mouth with my hands.

"Was that Quinn?" Barr asked and glanced up at me.

I nodded.

"He sounds sad," Barr murmured. "Very sad."

"He sounds like a fucking lunatic," Dy growled. "Aatskina and Paamut weren't behind the bombing. He's being lied to."

I couldn't deal with this. War. We were at war.

"We have to get to Paasmut as fast as possible. Hopefully the leaders are all there." Dy dropped the radio on the ground and it broke. She stalked towards an abandoned car and almost tore the door off its hinges.

I followed silently. Quinn, what are you doing? He had to be forced to say that. He had to. Charred knew the truth and would've told Quinn, right? There were Aatskina tribe members in Andaheim. And they had been helping us. Not the actual rebels. This was a nightmare.

We listened to the radio in the car, but no one could tell us anything new. In Andaheim they barely talked about the war. Except for when the news came on, they gave quick updates of how the nation of Andaheim was persevering and winning each battle. How Paamut and Aatskina were evil. They were so aggressive in their propaganda, no one could actually be believing this. Right? No one believed this bullshit.

The further into Paamut we got, the more people we saw. People on foot, people with fully packed cars, even people riding small mountain horses, all going the same way. To safety. From an invasion based on lies.

We didn't stop for anything. We needed to get to Paasmut as fast as possible. We had to get to someone in charge and figure out what the hell was going on with all of this madness.

I kept having this feeling of me being able to stop it. I just had to do something and then it'd all stop. I could stop it all from going completely off the rails. I had to save my brother. Even if that meant saving him from himself.

We made it to Paasmut after having driven through the night and most of the following day. I was so thankful we were finally there. I couldn't wait to get to talk to someone who knew what the hell was going on.

There were people everywhere. People from Paamut, people from Aatskina... And they all looked so hollow. Tired. Exhausted.

"Dy!" someone screamed from behind us.

Dy turned and then she ran. She circled her arms around Huck so fiercely I was afraid she'd accidentally break his slim body.

"I thought you were dead. We all thought you didn't make it," he panted and pulled back, taking her face in his hands. "Don't ever fucking go to Bursaaq again!"

Barr stepped forward and held his hand out. "Hi, I am Barr." He was back in his dark-skinned, but naturally dark-skinned, form again. And the bird on top of his head chirped loudly.

Huck arched a brow at him, his eyes darting from his hand and up to the bird. "Uh, hi. I'm Huck."

They shook hands very awkwardly and Barr looked back at me. "Did I do it right?"

"Yeah, you did fine," I said softly and shifted my gaze to Huck. He marched forward and gave me a hug too.

"I'm so glad you kept the big idiot in one piece." He pulled back and smiled, showing off that gap between his teeth. "Come on. We gotta go find your parents, Dy. They're worried sick."

She choked up and nodded. She grabbed my hand on her way past me and clenched it. I put my metal hand on her arm and patted it slightly. Just to show a bit of support. Her parents were alive, and they had made it out too.

We made our way through the clutter of people. Some were wounded, bandages wrapped around their heads, arms or legs. What had happened while we were fucking about in the mountains?

"Dina," her mother cried out. She had been tending to an old man, but he smiled and motioned her to go to her daughter. She hugged Dy fiercely.

"I'm sorry I didn't make it sooner," Dy said with a shivering voice.

"No, Dina. You did what you were asked to do. You went to Bursaaq." Her mother pulled back and smiled at me. "It's good to see you again, Alvina. It's so good to see you both. We have to talk with the tribe leaders immediately. We need to know what happened in Bursaaq."

Both Dy and I nodded, trailing after her mother with Huck and Barr on tow. We met the town elders in the temple. Barr stopped in the door and put his hand on the old wood. He closed his eyes and smiled.

"Faith is strong here," he murmured to himself, making Huck arch another brow at him. He looked to me for answers, but I just shrugged. I really didn't have time for Barr's weirdness right now.

We followed Dy's mother further into the temple and found the tribe leaders surrounding a table with a large map on it.

"We've heard back from Naasmut and they can't take in more refugees. We'll set up camps around Paasmut for them instead, so we'll see another steady flow of people coming our way soon. We've reached out to our allies across the sea and they'll come with provisions and military aid," Halla, the leader of Paamut said. I met her a couple of times before and she always struck me as someone made of iron. She came off as a very strong lady.

She glanced up and then her eyes widened. "Oh mother of all spirits, they told me you were alive, but I didn't believe it!" she exclaimed and walked around the table. She held her left hand out and I grabbed it with my metal hand. She looked down and frowned, before she met my gaze again. "My queen, you could not have come at a better time."

"I'm sorry to have kept you waiting," I said and touched my forehead. She did the same and smiled.

"I spoke with your brother. He..." She hesitated.

"Did he at least look well?" I asked with a tiny voice.

"No. He didn't. He looks thin and sickly. His face is scarred. And some of them didn't look old enough to have been from the explosion. There was a man from Bursaaq there. King Quinn kept looking to him before he'd answer any of our questions. I believe he's getting controlled by the Bursaaq tribe."

"It's not a farfetched thought," Dy chimed in.

"It's them," I murmured and joined the others at the table, offering the leader of Aatskina a nod. She smiled warmly back at me. "When we were in Bursaaq, a man said, I wouldn't get away from them a second time. Bursaaq is behind everything."

Halla clenched her fists and placed them on the table. "What do we do? We can't do anything as long as we don't have the aid of our allies across the sea. And who knows how long it'll be before they make it here."

"I need to connect with Quinn," Barr said from behind us. He was stood in the middle of the temple, looking up at the ceiling.

"Who's this?" Halla asked and glanced at me.

"In Bursaaq I connected with the spirits. My own spirit is named Nila. I have her power. Barr is Quinn's spirit and we need to get Barr to Andahavn. He needs to connect with Quinn. Hopefully that could turn the entire war on its head."

"That'll be impossible. Andahavn have shut down all traffic in and out of the city," an Aatskina man chimed in. Tattoos snaked their way up his arms looking much like Dy's.

"I need to connect with Quinn," Barr said again and looked at us almost angrily.

"We know Barr, but we have to figure out how to get you into the city and close to him."

"And that'll be another problem. The King is heavily guarded. He never leaves the stronghold without at least twenty guards. Not to mention, if they just catch the whim of Aatskina tribe members in the city..." The man stopped and clenched his jaw. "They've flung up tribe members. Twenty of them. Cut off their hands and put spikes through their stomachs. They all had signs with the word 'traitor' hanging from their necks."

"What?" Dy growled. "They can't do that!"

"They can. And they did. They were hanging in the town square. We still have members of the resistance in the stronghold, but we're unable to come into contact with them. Even Islo Charred is out of our reach. The entire operation has met a dead end."

I took a deep breath and looked down at the map. There had to be a way in. There had to.

"I need to connect with Quinn!" Barr more or less hissed.

"We heard you!" I growled back and whirled around. "How in the everliving fuck do you want to connect with him, when he's literally impossible to get to?"

"Al, he is not well. I can feel it. He is not well. He is breaking." Barr clenched his eyes shut and crouched down on the floor. "He is unlocking his powers without me. He can hear thoughts now. He moves things. He is gonna get consumed and I need to connect with him. Or he will destroy himself."

"I know, Barr! I know! I can't work miracles!" I crouched down in front of him. "Look at me."

He opened his eyes and met my gaze.

"I'm trying as hard as I can, okay? I will get you to Quinn, but I don't know how. Help us."

Barr bit down on his lip and nodded. He rose to his full height and strode towards the table, looking down at the map. He changed forms, showing off his true self. All around the table except for Dy took a step back, their eyes widening.

"Quinn is here," he said and pointed to Andahavn. He looked up at Halla to get her confirmation. She nodded her eyes wide as teacups.

Barr nodded back and looked back down again. "We need to break down the city."

"How?" the leader of Aatskina asked.

Barr shrugged.

"Skyen," Halla chimed in. "If we can get Skyen on our side, we could turn this whole thing around. We need to somehow stop Bursaaq from moving weapons from the north to the south. And without Skyen they lose all of their access to natural minerals they'll need for this war."

"Except they took Aatskina," Dy's mum said and stepped towards the table. "They'll exhaust the mines."

"Not if we stopped them," Halla said and rubbed her chin. "What if we blew up all of their caravans and looted them. We know which way they'll take, now when Aatskina has fallen. The main road is the fastest way to travel down to Andahavn. Cut off all supplies from both the north and the south."

"And blow up their fleet," Dy said and pointed to the large harbour in Andahavn. "If they have no ships, they cannot get to Skyen."

No one objected and Dy nodded.

"Then that's settled," Dy said with a fierce passion burning in her eyes. "Let's get to work."

"Another thing," Halla said and smirked at me. "You've been dead for too long. Let's revive you."