I jumped out over the boulder and crouched down, getting ready for the truck to pass us. The big wheels rolled past me and I quickly slapped the explosives on it. Dy crouched down next to me, the trigger in her hand.

"Ready?" she asked and looked at me with a mischievous smile.

"Blow it up," I said and nodded.

She pushed the button and there was a second where everything was silent. Not even the wind moved. It was as if the whole world just held its breath until the explosion finally disturbed the silence. It was very loud, and I was pretty sure I was going to ruin my ears if I kept staying this close to them. Not that my hearing had been stellar since my first explosion.

Dy had slapped her arm around me and pressed me to her body. She knew I sometimes didn't do well with the explosions. Not since I had lost my arm.

"You alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." I rose to my feet and checked out the wreckage. "Reckon we can salvage anything?"

"Nah, we don't need anything they have anyways. It was a food truck."

"Gods and spirits, we need less gunpowder in there, next time," Huck said and waved some of the smoke from the burning truck out of his face. He pulled the round goggles up to his forehead and replaced them with his regular glasses. "This is overkill."

"They'd shoot us on sight," Dy noted and looked down at her friend.

"So? We're not them. We're supposed to be better." Huck sent Dy a pointed look. "We don't have to blow up the drivers."

Dy shrugged and left us by the boulder, going to investigate the truck.

"She's so angry lately," Huck muttered.

"I think she's tired," I replied and glanced at him.

"We're all tired. That doesn't make all of us bloodthirsty."

I didn't reply to that. I had no reply because honestly, he was right. Dy was very angry lately and I could understand why. We had been out here for months, not getting closer to figuring out why the spiritual energy was so weak in Andaheim. What was blocking it.

I joined Dy by the truck as she scooped out some stuff from the boot. "What did you find?"

"Medicine, it seems. Gonna be good to take back to camp."

I nodded a bit and ran my hand through my hair. It made Dy smile for the first time in days.

"Still getting used to it being so short?" She ran her hand through it too, grabbing a fistful of it.

"It's so light and easy. Why didn't I cut it off before?" I grinned up at her.

She snorted and tipped my head up, bending down, placing her lips on mine. Being goofy still made her smile, thank the spirits. If I could just keep her this mellow for the rest of the day, I'd be a winner.

"It looks great too," she murmured against my lips.

We travelled from village to village. Most of them were empty and abandoned. Some were slowly working their way back to normality, the ones closest to Paamut. When we weren't sabotaging convoys, we were helping people back to their lives. It was a slow process. Some of the villages had been totally demolished.

We were still not closer to figuring out how the hell Andaheim was blocking out the spiritual energy. It was getting harder and harder to pretend we weren't just travelling around the different nations in the hopes of finding something.

"Maybe we should go to the spirit world again?" Dy suggested. "Maybe someone there knows something."

"That'd mean travelling through Bursaaq though," Huck pointed out.

"Yeah and last time it didn't go particularly well." I shrugged a little and scratched the back of my neck.

Dy grunted and rolled her eyes. "Then what?"

"I don't know, Dy. No clue."

She sighed and rose to her feet, pacing back and forth in front of the bench we had been occupying. The village that surrounded us had a small town square. It was cute. I liked this village. It had the traditional grass roofs and was built meticulously with stones that fit perfectly together.

"How do they fit the stones together so well for the houses?" I asked.

Dy glanced down at me. "They use smaller stones in between the big ones."

"That's pretty smart."

"They've been doing it for centuries. Keeps the wind out pretty well too."

"Huh." I frowned. "What if they've done something like that to keep the spiritual powers out of Andaheim?"

"You think it's something man-made?" Huck asked, perking up.

"Yeah. It has to be, right?" I rose too. "So what if it's something like a wall?"

"There's no walls surrounding Andaheim though," Dy said and shoved her hands in her pockets.

"There's that massively long wall that was used to keep sheep in back in the day. It's like a tourist attraction. You follow it from one end of the country to the other. It also shows the border between Andahavn and Paamut and Aatskina."

Both Huck and Dy frowned at me.

"My job was literally to know everything about Andaheim and what made my country interesting. So I could sell it out to potential business partners in the future."

They still looked at me like I was mad.

"What did you think a queen did?"

"Uh, ruled? Made new laws? Held balls?" Huck tried, making Dy snort.

"The council rules. And this isn't a regency fantasy book." I grimaced at them. "Do you know how the country is run and which role each individual has?"

"No," both snorted at the same time.

"Right. There's the council. They propose laws, make them, and make sure that new law isn't breaking an old one. I, as the queen, go over the law, get them to argue for or against and ultimately, I'll sign it, making it an actual law. I can also propose there are some changes made if I don't like certain clauses."

"That's not what we're told at all," Dy said and frowned. "We're told the throne runs the entire show."

"Yeah, it's better for the people to think that."

"Why?" Huck asked and folded his arms over his chest. "Are we too dumb to understand that there are several people running this country and not just one?"

I took a deep breath. "No. Back in the old days we did run the country on our own. But with modern laws, the economy, foreign politics and business... It's too complicated to run for one person. So, there's one council member that's in charge of all the business. One is in charge of taxes and what they're spent on. One is in charge of culture, like the temples' maintenance, music, art, theatre and the radio. And one is in charge of transport with everything that entails. Like better roads to the other tribes. The harbour, the navy..."

They both looked wide-eyed at me this time.

"So yeah, the monarch can't do it all on their own. It's simply impossible in our day and age. But letting the people think the monarch is still all-knowing and the sole ruler looks better. It makes the people trust in what is done by the throne, because otherwise they'd question the council members. And their origins."

"Let me guess, they're all from Andaheim?" Dy asked drily.

"Except Islo Charred. I'm surprised you didn't know about the council at all though. They're kind of celebrities in Andahavn."

"We kind of know about them? But I had no idea what they did." Huck shrugged.

"Basically they help the monarch run the country."

"So that's what they're doing with Quinn?" Dy asked.

"No, I don't think so. When they refer to Charred on the radio, they no longer refer to him as councillor Charred. They did in the past. I don't think he's a councillor anymore and I don't think the rest are either. The rebels are running the country on their own." I shrugged a little. "Or that's what I'd do if I were them. Controlling only Quinn is easier than controlling four councillors on top of the king as well."

"You are... So smart," Dy said and smiled, walking up to me and taking my face in her hands.

"You say it like it's a total surprise to you," I muttered a little defeated. Did she think I was a moron? Just because I didn't know a lot about the mountain tribe culture, that didn't make me a moron.

"It's not a surprise. You just don't show off your knowledge that often." She softly kissed my forehead and I no longer felt like a moron.

Dy was fantastic like that. She taught me so many wonderful things and I might've felt like a moron for like a second, but then she'd say something that actually made me think I was smart.