If Nyxis was honest about it, he had hoped that the boy never woke up. A selfish thought—probably pathetic too—but if he regained all his memories and it turned out that he was right about what he thought he was, he wasn't sure how he would be able to live with it for the rest of his life.

Over the past few days, he has grown to like helping around where he could—in the kitchens, in the garden, even in the fishing. Denara had protested about the last one though. He won the argument when he told her he found fulfillment in being able to use what he knew to help others and to make their lives easier.

So, what if in his past life, he had been the opposite? What if, instead of helping people, he ended up dooming them? What then?

He was silent throughout dinner, shoveling soup into his mouth in a distracted haze. He couldn't seem to focus on anything. His spoon tapped in dissonant rhythms against his bowl. He glanced left and right as if the boy would suddenly show up and start yammering about Nyxis's past.

"Would you stop it?" Denara slapped his thigh as she moved to refill her bowl. "It is driving me crazy."

Nyxis raised his eyebrow. The way she said "crazy" sparked recognition in his mind. He set his bowl aside. "The human who taught you Ylanenla," he said. "What was he like?"

"She," Denara held a finger to Nyxis's face. "She made it here after her boat gave up after years of being out in the sea. She is a trader across port cities, bringing goods from different kinds of territories. She taught me the geography of the island after the War. I could not believe how chaotic your systems of ruling are."

Nyxis scratched the side of his face. "It is true that the past High Queen has her faults, but the rest of the territories have enough good rulers among them."

"That right there is wrong," Denara shoved a spoonful of stew into her mouth. "Having a solitary higher figure with a ton of autonomous rulers underneath could pose a lot of problems. I am surprised that no coup had taken place on the island, more so when you said that the past High Queen is not performing as efficiently as she should have had."

"Are you suddenly an expert in politics?" Nyxis narrowed his eyes. If this was Denara's way of distracting him, it seemed to be working. Why was he complaining?

Denara hummed. "The human taught me that as well," she said. "That young woman had interesting worldviews and ideas. She taught me Ylanenla and Keijula. She appeared to also have been fluent in twelve other languages."

Nyxis ran a quick computation in his head. "She knew all that?"

"Seems like it," Denara chewed the meat with care before continuing. "But she had to go back soon so we did not get into the dialects."

Nyxis imagined Denara talking with a faceless girl inside this cave, learning about languages. He didn't need to imagine further. It would probably look just like this moment. "Where do you think she is now?"

Denara smacked her lips. "I have no idea," she tilted the bowl to her lips and took a long sip. "I still wish that every ship that passed by my cave contained her. I miss her dearly."

Nyxis stared at the ground, the realization that Denara had been alive for a very long time still processing. "How long ago was that?" he blurted.

As an answer, Denara emptied her bowl and set it down. Silence coated the air between them after that.

Then, Denara grunted as she stood up. "I am going to check on the boy," she turned back to Nyxis as she paused her walk towards the next cavern. "You are welcome to come with me."

Nyxis swallowed a bitter taste crawling at the back of his throat. Has the stew grown rancid? He met Denara's eyes and picked himself up. "Of course. I will come with you."

In silence, they trudged towards the cavern that once had been Nyxis's. When Denara yanked the curtain away, they froze. The boy was sitting up with clear eyes and head craned up at the cave's blue walls.

Oh, he's definitely awake.

"Where am I?" the boy said in a hoarse voice as Denara stalked closer with Nyxis at her heels.

"You are in my cave," Denara picked her way towards the rock as carefully as she could, as if she learned from her experience with Nyxis. Nyxis did his best to not appear nervous as he followed Denara.

The boy knitted his eyebrows. The color in his skin had returned, even if it's not much. His eyes were still sunken and now that Nyxis had a proper glimpse at him, he was scrawny for a twelve-year-old. "Who are you?" he asked again. His voice shook with something other than fear.

He had not changed his clothes ever since they found him passed out on the banks of the cave. Gray tunic framed his form, covering him up to ankles in one continuous robe. His feet were bare. Tiny, golden bells were tied around his ankle. A rusting pin bearing a rosebud glinted dimly against the water reflected in the ceiling. Nyxis couldn't tell what the boy was. It was something important, something he had never seen but heard of.

"I am Denara," the nymph elbowed Nyxis on the ribs. He winced as it hit a sore spot by his side.

Nyxis cleared his throat and gave a little wave. "I am Nyxis," he managed. "You are?"

"Periot," the boy looked at his hands like he couldn't believe he was still seeing them. "How did I end up here?"

"How much do you remember before this?" Denara closed the distance towards the rock and jerked her chin to Nyxis's direction. "Tell me as I heal you. Talk to Nyxis over there."

The boy pursed his lips. His gaze grew hazy. "I remember running," his tone was nothing more than a harsh whisper. "I was escaping from the army, I think."

Nyxis trotted over and sat beside the boy as Denara did her water-healing method on the boy's arm. "Can you remember the state of things above?" he asked despite the stones of dread dropping down his gut.

"Cardovia and Synketros resurfaced and had taken over the island," the boy said. "With the High Queen's absence, both organizations forced the Seelie Court into the defensive. The organizations divided the island into two opposing sides. They have been going to war with each other over the past month."

Cardovia. Synketros. Seelie Court. The words swirled in Nyxis's mind, along with brand new memories that popped like wildflowers. Cardovia. Synketros. Heiress. The cliff went back to his memory. The Heiress, casting a dangerous spell. Who had she been aiming it at? The Heiress, he remembered now, was the head of Cardovia.

Another memory resurfaced, this time during the battle in the Palace that once has been his home. A monster roared. The butterfly was not just a butterfly. It's a varichria with golden hair and mismatched eyes. What was her name? Reeca. Rikavien Torlin. Banished princess of Narfalk.

The tinkles of glass that he could hear with the memory. The flash of light as a fairy with pale hair and red eyes fought an entity within a magical shield. A shard fairy. Elred. Vikara Sandiega. And the voice. It was his brother's but not quite.

His breathing quickened. The Heiress. She possessed his brother, controlled him, and eventually...

She killed him.

The black-clad army had vanished in a swirl of shadows after that.

More and more faces popped into his mind, faces of the people he had come to share his life with from his past. There was even a boy with hair that was white as snow. June. He was Nyxis's friend until something happened. Something that's connected to the reason why he chose to fall into the cliff, why he had been eager to stop the Heiress from firing that spell.

"Nyxis?" Denara's voice pulled him back to the present. He shook his head and focused on the boy again.

"What more can you tell me?" Nyxis forced his gaze to settle on the healing boy.

The boy rubbed his chin. "It has become even more chaotic than before," he said. "The territories have been enslaved, some willingly like Dwanzeig, but some still have a few revolts which were extinguished as quickly as they formed."

Dwanzeig... that was the last place he had been before here. Nyxis motioned for the boy to continue. "Each town is heavily guarded. The Heiress and the Sovereign have eyes everywhere," the boy swung his legs forward and back. "Nowhere is really safe. Each citizen has two choices—to serve or to die. There is really not a region in between," the boy's face clouded with unexplainable rage. "Executions occur day by day. Both sides of the island make an example out of those who dare defy their rule. Even the royal families have bent according to their will."

"Royal families?" Nyxis averted his gaze as his memories flared once more. He hoped to get some kind of news on Reeca or anyone he was familiar with. "What do you know about them?"

The boy sighed. "I am but a servant in the Temple of Souls in Drodham," he said. "I only know things that the dead whispers and the reports other priests could gather."

"Priesthood?" Denara interjected as she moved to the boy's other arm. It was more broken than the other. "Why would you choose a serious vocation for such a young age?"

The boy hung his head. "The Temple of Souls is one of the last safe strongholds where we could live without being persecuted for it," he said. "The High Priestess and the Rekshais have been doing their best to make sure we see the next morning free and alive."

Rekshais. Drodham. High Priestess. No other memory came.

"How did you end up in the water?" Denara asked.

"I got caught by patrol just as I was sent by the Temple to gather information," the boy answered. "It was supposed to be a safe mission. There are four of us sent to watch out for possible breaches in the barrier. The next thing I know, three blaxis lay at my feet and a witch was attacking me with spears of light."

The boy shivered. Nyxis barely held himself from following. Denara merely pursed her lips. "Then I ran," the boy continued. "I ran and ran until I came to the edge of the island. The patrol mages caught up to me and I decided—it would be better for me to die by drowning rather than by slavery. So I jumped. The next thing I know, I was here."

Nyxis's insides churned. The world above was no better. If he went there without regaining his magic, he would be killed in an instant. Considering that he had grappled with the Heiress before, it's impossible to think that she had forgiven him for attempting to kill her. In short, going up there would be suicide. Perhaps, the gods had led him here to save him.

"I hate the world that came to be," the boy sniffed as light tears brimmed from his eyes. He drew his knees to his chin. "Ever since the Virtakios disappeared, nothing but chaos had reigned on the island," he rested his forehead on his knees and whispered, "It is better to die than experience this madness, this...hell."

Virtakios.

All at once, everything clicked into place in Nyxis's mind.

The Virtakios. The ancient power imbued only to those that journeyed from the World Beyond and into Fantasilia. For the first time in history, a fairy whose flesh and blood was purely a product of Fantasilia had been blessed with this gift. It was purer. It was stronger. It was meant to save the world. The girl with the warm, round eyes flashed back into his mind, this time taking the shape of a familiar person whom his heart had cherished deeply.

Xanthy.

A friend. A sister. Someone whom he had given his heart to.

He remembered everything. Good and bad things about her and about the world he lived in—it all came back to him in an instant. The Virtakios. It was what this war was about, what this hell the Heiress and the Sovereign built had been about. Some nefarious plan they had hatched and that somehow involved the Virtakios.

How far were they willing to tear worlds just to get what they want? They were the worst kinds of people to have ever lived. If Nyxis ever thought he could go against them, he should be giving himself a coffin and a tombstone. There was no way of winning against two individuals who have orchestrated everything up to this point. They attained the exact outcome they envisioned. They got what they wanted, even if it's still incomplete.

With their current power and influence, there was nothing that was going to stop them from snatching the Virtakios. With the authority they placed themselves in, there was nothing that could do anything to them either.

Xanthy. Nyxis remembered what his friend had done to save the one who held her heart. She had undergone a deadly treasure hunt across the island to find a throne that would use her soul to heal a broken one.

Now that this boy claimed that the Virtakios disappeared, he could only assume that she did it. He must have laughed without humor at some point because Denara and the boy's heads snapped up to him.

"Do you know what date it was when you fell?" Nyxis managed to spit the words out of his mouth.

"The twentieth of Xavem," the boy said. "It must have been days since I have jumped so I am not entirely sure...are you alright?"

Nyxis apparently had stopped listening the moment he heard the date. He clutched his head in his hands, trying to steady his erratic breathing. This could not be. It's too long. There's no way he slept that long. "The last date I remember," he croaked. His voice was weak and clipped. "Was the twenty-second of Iclis. I slept for two months."

Denara and the boy fell silent as they paused to look at him with questioning eyes. Nyxis's breath shook. He edged off the rock and strode out of the cavern that's beginning to choke the air out of his lungs. Fresh air. He needed that as well as sorting out his thoughts and emotions into fine threads in a loom.

As he had been sleeping, the rest of the world was getting killed, skewered, and oppressed by the very people he had sworn to fight against. He had fought on the Virtakios's side and yet this was what happened. Without having much memory of having walked there, he found himself staring blankly at the roaring expanse of the ocean from beyond the lip of the cave. How easy it was to throw oneself into its unforgiving judgment and escape?

It was what any of them would have wanted in this situation—escape. When the enemy was too strong, when hope was nothing but a snuffed light in a cave of darkness, people would think that death was the kindest mercy the world could give them. As much as Nyxis loathed it, it was the truth.

No one wanted to fight unless they knew they could win. They needed hope. But their one hope, the only person who may have had the chance to even the battlefield, had chosen herself and fled.

Was it folly or genius to surrender the Virtakios to the hands of the chalice? It might be folly because, without her, the people have lost hope and fought just to survive. Others have given up altogether. It might be genius because now that the Synketros and Cardovia hold the power to the island, hiding the Virtakios was better than waving it around and into their noses.

"Hey, mind if I join you?" Denara's voice cut through his thoughts.

He turned to find the nymph ambling towards him in a set of easy, playful strides. It had been days since he had found himself with this woman but somehow, he still couldn't figure out if he liked her or not. He didn't speak until Denara had stopped beside him. "So you remembered everything, huh?" she tilted her head up at his face. He had never realized he stood taller than her. "Have you figured out who you are?"

"I am someone who is willing to lay my life to save those dear to me," Nyxis said. "But I am not brave enough to go out there and get myself killed for the world."

"All great heroes think like that," Denara said in a gentle tone. Nyxis turned to find her staring at the raging waters with a different kind of longing. It's a look that screamed regret and sadness. "They will fight as long as it directly affects them but once the things they have to save gets bigger—gets more complicated—they just...give up."

He followed her gaze. The sun began setting in the horizon, turning the sky bright orange. The moons that would be watching the night were already faint projections in the sky. "Ceris had certainly thought the same," Denara continued. "He was a brave soul. He always saw hope in the slimmest of places. His light never died until that moment when he realized that he made a mistake, that maybe he had sparked a War that will destroy instead of save,"

"Suddenly, the innocent mission of obtaining a missing child in the pirate's cove turned into a daring one that involves stopping a War from happening," Denara wrapped her arms around herself. "He was scared. I could tell. All of a sudden, the one he had to save has become bigger. He wanted out. I wanted him out too."

Denara's eyes misted. Was it because of the wind? "But he did not let his fear take over him," she blinked faster than normal. "He let his noble heart shine. He found hope in the slimmest of places. I did not see it. Perhaps, I chose not to. I was scared of losing him like I lost almost everyone in my crew," she said. "His noble heart won over. He left me on the harbor and promised that he would come back before dinner. I think you know what happened next."

Nyxis reached out and moved to lay a hand on her shoulder. He paused, hesitated, and dropped his hand on his side. Denara didn't appear to have noticed. She was focused on her story and her point. "Now, I could not help but wonder," she was saying. "What if I had been there? Will he have ended like that? Will we have succeeded and ended a war before it happened? Will we have lived in a different world—one that is not marred with destruction, pestilence, and violence—but one that is freer, more joyful, and more prosperous?"

Denara met his eyes then. Small tears slipped out of her eyes and trailed down her cheeks. "But I can only wonder, for a thousand years and the next thousand more. But you," she pressed a gentle finger to his chest. "You have the choice to try. You have the power to fight now. You have a noble heart inside of you that you can choose to let out. You can control your fear and change the world for the better. You can stop a war and emerge victorious."

Nyxis gripped Denara's hand and averted his eyes. "We are nothing with the Virtakios," he said. "It is only a matter of time before one of them finds out the secret Xanthy fought so hard to keep and all will be over," he glared at the roaring waves. "I want to fight but I faced the Heiress and I lost. If I drag others into this when I choose to fight, will I not be responsible for their lives, their families, and their souls? The enemies are simply too strong and without the Virtakios, it is best to let it go."

"Do you know what I have been struggling against the most?" Denara said.

Nyxis frowned. What has that got to do with anything? "What?"

"It is the act of moving on," Denara reclaimed her hand from Nyxis's grip. "As I said, the world moved on without me but I stayed rooted in the past, waiting for someone whom I still believe will come to rescue me from this place. I know in my heart that he will never come yet I still refused to let him go. I let centuries slip past me in an endless cycle of regret, pain, and anger. It did not help me and it will certainly not help you."

Denara smiled at him. "Move on as the world does," she said. "Have no room for regrets as you do what you think is right. If the world does not want you to move on, go right up to its ass and do it anyway. Do not make my mistake where I let fear blind me to what is most important."

"And that is?" Nyxis raised an eyebrow.

"The world," Denara replied. "Whether we like it or not, the world will always need saving. It is only a matter of choice on who is to be on which end. Are you the one to cause its ruin or are you the one to save it—it is but a simple choice. Right now, what do you think you will pick?"

Nyxis didn't answer, not when there's nothing presenting itself to him at the moment. He shrugged. "Have you considered going up there yourself?"

"I have not entertained the notion since I cannot find a way to free my synnavaim," Denara tucked her hair behind her ear. "As long as it stays locked, I am not going anywhere. So it is pointless to dream about impossible things."

"What if someone is willing to do it for you?" Nyxis blurted. Heat rose to his face even as he tried to tell himself that it was just an honest question.

It didn't get better as Denara laughed. She was so beautiful when she smiled. "Who is that going to be, you?"

Nyxis shrugged against the heart beat pounding against his chest. He had been trying his best to make it seem like he wasn't nervous about this topic. "Why not?" he said. "But if there is ever a way out, would you take it? You could use some moving forward too."

As an answer, Denara looked at him with her intense orange eyes and smiled.