Icarus would admit she was nervous, she'd never been to another realm before. And knowing Izroulia wasn't very safe for merfolk right now, she was also a bit worried about that too. But Aries insisted that if they could stay in hiding for almost a decade then it'd be fine, and they'd stay far away from civilians to not get spotted.

"This is a good spot, no chance of anyone seeing us here" Aries said, taking their book of shadows from their bag.

The two had wandered out into the densely wooded area by the river, where there was no chance of a human spotting them opening a portal.

"It's not like... scary is it?" Icarus asked.

"No, it's literally just walking through a doorway" Aries replied.

Flipping to the page with the portal incantation, they held a hand out in front of them, and read out the spell. The blank spaces in the spell to be filled in with the locations you're travelling to.

"The creations of chaos, primordial and powerful, a path opens its doors for the traveler. From the human realm to Izroulia it leads, with powers most spectacular" Aries announced.

Before them, a glow appeared and tore open a portal from the human realm to their destination. Icarus took a moment of staring in awe to process what the she'd just watched.

"Holy shit-" she muttered.

"Come on, they don't stay open for long" Aries beckoned.

Stepping through, they watched as Icarus hesitantly stepped through after them, the portal closing behind her.

"Wow, that was literally like stepping through a doorway" she said.

"Told you, and this is Izroulia. We're inland, away from the coast where most of the civilians are" Aries replied.

Looking around, Icarus could definitely see a difference between the human realm and Izroulia. It was hard to explain though, things seemed more...vibrant? They just had a different feel too them. The area they'd ended up in was surrounded by woods, and a stream that ran over rock formations was just to the left of them. It was silent, only birds and the sound of running water could be heard.

"I'm got getting too close to the towns but let's go somewhere we can look from a distance" Aries said.

Aries knew the entire island by heart, they'd been everywhere and seen everything. So they didn't even need a map to lead Icarus through the woods and over to a clearing where a cliff and waterfall overlooked a sprawling kingdom in the distance. Each town seemed to have a distinct style, the ones near the coast were suited for water based magic and creatures and the ones closer to the woods looked more suited for earth creatures. Right in the centre of it all, was the castle. It was old, very old. But in good shape and flew a massive flag with a symbol Icarus couldn't quite make out from the distance.

"Alright, better explain everything from start to finish, pay attention because every time I mention a location I'll point it out" Aries began.

"Ok, I'm listening" Icarus replied.

It was a long story, very long. But Icarus needed to know it.

"I can't tell you about the war without explaining the realms first. There's hundreds of realms, maybe even thousands. Each have their one unique magic system and set of inhabitants. Not every realm has been discovered and documented, and not all of them are developed civilisations either. Some are more advanced than others, some have no intelligent life, some have a diverse population and some don't. They're all different. Each realm comes from Chaos, the primordial creator. Not really a god, more than a god. They're not a person, more an entity. And after the Big Bang created natural life, chaos created magic and all the realms.

So Izroulia is old as fuck. Really, really old. The earliest recorded life here was like 3 billion years ago. Like with the human realm it was mainly plants and stuff first, but as life and magic evolved various species of mythics started to pop up. Including merfolk, we're all one kind of mythic but can come in different types. Like I explained with the dog analogy. Wolves and pet dogs are both canines, just different types. Like sirens and a regular mermaid are both merfolk but different types" Aries began.

The way Aries explained the differences between types of merfolk made a lot of sense. Like different types of animals from the same group, they adapted to their environment and evolved from there. And thanks to magic, they got slightly different powers in that evolution. Icarus nodded along, making sure she was listening.

"Merfolk are some of the oldest mythics in Izroulia, we came from the sea so we've been around a long ass time. But despite the literal millions of years of history, there's one mother fucker who wanted to watch it all burn. Agnemetra" Aries snarled the last sentence.

Gesturing to the castle, Aries have it a sour look.

"That bitch of a Phoenix was the one who started the war, and somehow her cult she'd been growing under everyone's noses managed to gain power. The previous queen was a fox yokai and had carried out the rule as it had been for thousands of years. Fair and just, but Agnemetras bitchass had to go and ruin it. She slaughtered her in cold blood, took the throne and sent her silly little cult out to kill any merfolk they found. We tried to fight, but somehow they'd found ways to block us from the water, and if we can't get to the water then we'd eventually die of water deprivation. If one of her henchmen didn't kill is first that is. No one liked what she was doing, but not much could be done. She'd ceased too much power.

Other types of seapeople tried to help us, but they were terrified they'd be next so it all had to be done in secret. Many merfolk escaped, many were killed. The war lasted 4 years, until there wasn't a single known mer person left. Well, there was me but agnemetra didn't know that..." Aries explained.

It was absolutely wild to Icarus that in only four years merfolk could be almost wiped out, after billions of years of history and evolution, gone. Just like that. Some did escape, but where were they now? No one knew. They could be anywhere in the human realm.

"I already explained I was raised by a fae in hiding during and after the war. Eventually rumours of a mer person still being alive started spreading and I had to leave my foster mother behind for both of our safety. She made me promise I'd come back once it was safe, and I intend on keeping that promise. And today, it's been almost two decades and she's still in power because everyone is too scared to oppose her after her literal merfolk genocide. Which is why I'm hoping that if we can find the pod we can maybe start some kind of uprising, kick her off the throne and restore order again" Aries explained.

The human realm had its fair share of wars, but a war without magic wasn't anything like a war with magic. Both were tragic events that should never happen, but magic could be more lethal than a missile in the wrong hands.

"And you know the part that pisses me off the most?" Aries sighed in frustration.

"What?" Icarus asked.

"The reason why she did it. She targeted merfolk specifically because as a teenager, she fell in with the wrong crowd and the people she hung out with turned on her and cut her wings off. Which yes, is horrible, but not worthy of starting a whole war! She chose to hate merfolk because it was one bad mer person that was the one who planned the attack. She ignores the fact there were OTHER mythics involved, she ignores the fact it was ONE mer person and not everyone one a literal criminal. I think she always hated merfolk, and saw the attack as an opportunity to make an excuse to start a war" Aries spat in anger.

Icarus couldn't believe it, that... that was what happened? That was the reason the war began? One person got attacked by someone that happened to have a tail and suddenly all merpeople are evil? Talk about generalising and entire species!

"She had one bad experience, and started a war over it?" Icarus asked.

"Yep. Is being attacked for your wings horrible? Yes. But starting a war and committing genocide, JUST because ONE person involved happened to be merfolk? Fucking ridiculous" Aries snapped.

"This feels very... uh... what's the species version of racist?"

"I know what you mean, it's discrimination there's no other way to say it. She's targeting a whole species just because she had one bad experience with one bad person. And in that war she single handedly spilled the blood of thousands, burnt the sacred artefacts and history of an entire culture and outlawed our traditions. All because of... One. Fucking. Person"

Icarus could hardly believe her ears. All this tragedy and bloodshed over one incident that could have been resolved with a jail sentence and therapy. While being stripped of your wings was a horrible thing to go through, it didn't warrant a war. Agmemetra just hated merfolk, and wanted power and control. That's it, plain and simple. She was no queen, she was a dictator who cares not for the people but for herself only.

She didn't deserve the throne, she stole it.

"I want to punch that FUCKER in the face so bad-" Icarus sighed.

"So do I, but that's a task for the future and not right now. I don't feel like being hunted down and killed, getting too close to civilianisation when she's in charge and has her henchmen roaming the streets is too dangerous" Aries replied.

The truth about Izroulias history awakened a burning flame inside Icarus. She may have only discovered her mermaid side recently, but she was a mermaid. She had a tail, she had powers, she had Izroulian magic in her blood. She wanted to learn about that side of her, the magic, the culture, the history. And to hear that so much of it had been lost and destroyed, and her own kind were slaughtered over a single event that could have been resolved with no bloodshed was sickening to her.

"Aries I swear to every god that exists..." Icarus began.

Aries saw fire in her eyes, the same fire they'd been feeling their whole life.

"...when we have the power for it, we're kicking that old BITCH off the throne and taking back OUR land, history, culture, everything. Even if it kills us" she snapped.

Aries gave her a proud grin, she understood. Thank god, she understood.

"That's always been my goal, as long as I'm alive that hack will have to sleep with one eye open"