Trapped in a daze of bewilderment, Beanni watched Genelle hurry up the stone staircase, her mauve cloak flapped chaotically behind her. She then stopped and looked over her shoulder with a dangerous look in her eyes.

"Follow me!" she barked, making Beanni shake out of her reverie. As Beanni neared the steps she watched the Fiosolim sister disappear through the archway.

When she also got to the top of the stairs, a sleek, yet strong hand, grabbed a handful of blue velvet at Beanni's chest and dragged her to the centre of the circular room above the catacombs. A subtle, white glow lit up Genelle's hand and lit up her eyes as it grew to match the size of her palm. She then, without saying a word, drew on Beanni's chest with her light magic. She drew a large circle, then a thin oval going through it. The light turned orange as it sank in, just as it always did with the family symbol protection spell - Samhun Tealia. She then returned her orb to her pouch and lifted her hands towards Beanni's shoulders, making her flinch.

"Relax, Beanni, I will never hurt you," Genelle said gently, as she draped the teen's dark blue, velvet hood over her messy, auburn curls. "You must trust me, I am your mother."

Hearing those words being said so casually clawed at Beanni's chest. She wasn't ready for that. Her mind began to plummet into deep, dark depths of confusion and despair. Where did she truly belong? Where can she possibly fit in now that her life so far has been nothing but a lie?

Salty tears stung her eyes, causing her vision to blur.

"Pull yourself together!"

Beanni's breath got trapped in her throat and she swallowed hard as she rushed to wipe her wet cheeks.

"We must get going, I want to reach the other gazers as soon as possible."

"Where are they?"

Genelle looked at the teen for a beat, sucked in a deep breath and rolled her eyes.

"Strelle," she answered impatiently. "So we have a fair distance to go." She then grabbed Beanni's wrist and pulled her out of Petra Marbh, closed the Àrdurum wood door with a heavy bang and guided her through Night Forest's trees. No words were exchanged as they navigated the many roots and fluorescent flowers that grew at their feet; they began to glow brighter as twilight shadows began to grow amongst the tree trunks.

They got to the edge of the forest, somehow managing to avoid Luna Lake entirely; this made clear to Beanni that her Fiosolim captor knew Night Forest better than she did, despite her Draoicis-Lus upbringing.

They stood staring at a large, murky field.

"We're not going through Central City?" Beanni asked, her brow pulled into a scowl.

"No, we are following the shore," Genelle responded, pulling on Beanni's wrist again, making her step into the tall grass. However, this time, after only a couple of steps Beanni pulled back and forced Genelle to halt mid-step. "What are you doing?" she snapped.

"We can't go that way! We'll pass Na Dean Oblivi." Beanni could not hold back how horrified she felt at how little this woman seemed to care about Natanstrellean law. Na Dean Oblivi, also known as the Dark One's cave, was only allowed to be visited during Thalla-Noir; any other time of the year all Natanstrellean citizens had to stay clear - a law decreed by Queen Astrid the First herself!

Genelle scoffed, then squeezed her hand tighter around Beanni's wrist, not at all worried about how uncomfortable she was making her.

"We are going this way!" she hissed, the dangerous look returning to her eyes.

Beanni didn't dare say another word after that, she walked alongside the Mauve clad woman through the swishing, tall grass. The cold, salty breeze bit at her cheeks and the tip of her nose as they neared the choppy sea. Before they stepped upon the sandy dunes leading to the beach, they turned northwards and began to make their way towards Na Dean Oblivi.

Fear crawled its way along Beanni's skin as she felt the shadows of the Noir Era loom in her surroundings. Her mouth clamped shut, she was terrified to make a sound. She even tried to hush her breath, it felt like it echoed loudly in the empty and lonely night air.

Beanni felt Genelle's gaze on her and looked up to see that the stern look the Fiosolim had so far had softened.

"Everything will be alright, Beanni. One day all of this will make sense, you'll see," Genelle said in a gentle tone. "We may be breaking some rules but it is for a good cause."

"What cause?"

"Ending the war, once and for all."

"What?" Beanni coughed in disbelief, "The war against the Trolls?"

"Yes, a group of us thought that if we could just find out what the root cause of the Trolls' anger was, we could put things right somehow. We decided to gaze, for there seemed to be no other way." A look of worry returned to Beanni's face as she took in such rebellious ideals. However, she couldn't bring herself to argue, in stunned silence she let her captor continue.
"Illuminare-Trabem had stopped speaking to anyone for decades. We had to gaze to find out answers, and through smoke Illuminare-Trabem had finally shown us visions." Genelle paused and slowed her pace, the tall trees of Strelle Forest were in sight, merely yards away now. After a minute of silence, she stopped entirely and turned towards the bewildered teen.

"Are you not curious? Don't you want to know what we saw?"

It felt like Genelle's stare was piercing into Beanni's soul. "I-I..." Beanni began to stammer, hoping that if she spoke up that Genelle would stop looking at her like that. She let out a long sigh to steady her nerves and tried again. "Sure, what did you see?"

"The Smoke showed us none other than Joseh Draoicis-Lus," Genelle said with an enthusiastic smile, as though she was sharing the juiciest of gossip.

"What? The Joseh Draoicis-Lus? As in the father of Pugnum the..."

"Face of Noir-Astra," Genelle finished Beanni's sentence for her, eager to share further. "It turns out there was more to your Draoic mother's ancestor's story, which has been hidden to all who knew him and all who have come after him - until now."

"Wasn't he banished for poisoning cattle under Noir-Astra's trickery?"

"That's what they wanted everyone to think," Genelle said with a wink, and dove into her tale.

Thump, thump, thump, thump.

Joseh's echoing footsteps were all that he could hear beside his chaotic, desperate breathing. He darted through the streets of Eartem away from the Palace, in those days named after King Lux - the Crown King who reigned before Astrid the First ascended the throne. He slammed his light orb into the surrounding white wall and watched it grow along the brickwork, opening a gaping archway for him to step through. He entered Central City with no hesitation, then took his orb back in a perfect, swift movement. Not stopping for longer than a few seconds to catch his breath, he began to run again along the cobbled streets until he got to a white and gold house that was adorned with the Draoicis-Lus family symbol. He fumbled with the door handle, went in, closed the door behind him and collapsed against the varnished wood.

"Joseh! You're back!" his wife rushed to his side. He turned to her and the look in his amber eyes wiped the smile from her face. "What is it? What's wrong?"

Joseh didn't answer, he had not yet caught his breath. Instead, he reached under his dark blue cloak and took out a severed tree branch.

"What is that?" She scowled at the thick, wooden stick. A spark of light magic lit up one end and followed the grooves between its bark with a quaint flurry of movement.

"The King, he sent me to Troll Land, he heard of a magic tree there, an ancient tree, a tree that holds the mysterious power of prophetic smoke. It holds the essence of Illuminare-Trabem himself." Joseh, paused to gather his thoughts. He shook his head, then continued. "The King sent me to take a sample so we can research more into the Troll's way of life."

"Why didn't you take it straight to him?" Fear spiked his wife's eyes and her bottom lip trembled. "Joseh, what were you thinking bringing that here?"

"Josella, I went to Lux Palace. But when I got there I overheard the King's true plans - he doesn't want to simply understand the Trolls more, he wants to have dominion over them. This branch is now the key to having full control of their land's magic."

"How can that be?"

Joseh barely managed to open his mouth to answer before a loud knocking crashed into the front door.

"Come out Draoicis-Lus! We know you're in there!"

"Quick, take this!" he said, handing the branch to his shivering wife. "Hide it! Quick! Go now!" He pushed Josella further into the house, waited till she was out of sight, then answered the door.

"Joseh Draoicis-Lus, you were ordered to come straight back to the Palace once you've retrieved what you were set out to take," the emerald recruit recited what he was sent to say from the King. "Did you not succeed in your mission?"

Joseh shook his head.

"I couldn't," was all he managed to respond with.

"Then, it is under King Lux' orders, stars shine upon him! That I take you into custody. You have to come with me and await a hearing."

Joseh kept his mouth shut, he didn't dare fight it. As long as they believed that he simply failed to follow through with orders, he knew they wouldn't have reason to search the house. He held out his hands and let them shackle him without a struggle.

"Joseh!" Josella ran back through to the corridor. "Where are you taking my husband?"

"He is under arrest, Ma'am."

"No! Please!" she pleaded, tears springing to her terrified eyes.

"It's alright, Josella. It's just a misunderstanding. I'll be back before you know it," Joseh said through the best smile he could muster. Of course, he did not believe a word of it. He got dragged from his home and taken to Lux Palace to come face to face with the corrupt King.

"The King let him go later that day, to his surprise. His guards followed him through the streets of Eartem, but grabbed him just before he got to Central City's surrounding wall. He was dragged to a dark alley, where the King waited - he had pitch black eyes." Beanni gasped at this revelation. "Yes, the King was possessed by Noir-Astra."

"Is that how Noir-Astra got Joseh?"

"It was indeed, Noir-Astra left the King and entered Joseh, then influenced him to play a cruel trick on the Sprèintis by feeding their animals poison. This of course was a set up, for the King could only order Joseh's banishment if he committed a crime with black eyes."

Beanni couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"It was all a set up?" A scowl etched its way into her brow as she contemplated all she ever knew on the topic and what this truly meant. "But it was Joseh's banishment that caused Pugnum to get bullied by the Sprèintis and become angry. It was..."

"Indeed, it was all King Lux's doing. He brought about his own destruction, the Noir Era and not only that, it was his fault that the Troll war started." Genelle paused, and with a smirk added, "Of course it is Joseh's fault the Troll war continued."

Genelle started walking towards the trees of Strelle, knowing she had the teenager hooked on her story. Her smile widened when she heard Beanni's footsteps pick up as she jogged to catch her up.

"What do you mean? How is it Joseh's fault?"

"Well, before the royal Fiosolim carried out his banishment to the non-magical realm, he managed to sneak home and hide the Troll's stolen tree branch under his cloak. Not only did he get sent away, so did the missing piece of Troll land's core magic." Genelle looked down at Beanni's wide, blue eyes as she walked by her side, then added, "The Trolls' land is cursed and they blame it on us."

That was the last thing that Genelle said before silence fell between the two of them. Beanni was overwhelmed, she kept opening her mouth to speak but no sound came out. She followed the mauve clad Fiosolim through the trees of Strelle Forest until they reached a quaint hut that Beanni had never seen before; not in all the years she spent in that forest for Strellemarè Festivities. Goodness knew whether she'd ever be found at this hideout, for it was clearly well protected.

The faces of those she missed the most all popped into her thoughts as she watched Genelle open the hut's door.

Oh, Oslac, Dillan, Dad... somebody... come and find me.