The muscles in Jona's shoulders were tight. Only the sound of his boots clacking against the stone floor on his way to the Grand Monarch's office were the only companion to the dull thrum of the waterfall around the palace. His heartbeat pounded in his head, prompting his steps to go wider, faster. The vine-covered walls, the basins of water, the open gardens, and the servants dressed in almost the same attire as the nobles passing him by blended into a mish-mash of details whizzing by his periphery.

Soon, the doors to his father's office sped into view. Jona clenched his jaw and pored over the questions he would ask the Grand Monarch about his mother and her untimely passing. He stopped in front of the doors shut in his face, the thick, twisting branches in which they were made up of looking more rugged to his eyes. He raised his hand and was about to rap his knuckles against the branches when two distinct voices bled from the inside.

"I can't wait any longer, Grand Monarch," a silky, masculine voice was saying. Who was it again? Jona felt like he knew who owned that voice. It was far too characteristic to be forgettable.

Jona crept to the side and eyed the felmisais lining the walls. One wrong move and these buggers would scream their lungs out and alert the Grand Monarch about someone being suspicious outside his office. What's more, they could emit a whole new set of soundwaves should the people inside instruct them to. However, Jona had other uses for these plants.

His magic flared to the surface and curled towards the thorns lining the twisting branches crawling along its bigger and thicker cousin consisting the walls. Slowly, he inserted tendrils of his magic around the felmisa and with his synnavaim, he spoke to them. Let me hear what is being said, he ordered the plants.

In response, the felmisa crackled and squirmed. Suddenly, Jona could hear what was going on inside the room, up to the lazy beat of insect wings that might have lounged among the multitude of leaves inside the Grand Monarch's office.

"Remember the price you paid for seeking my help," the Grand Monarch was saying. "Only I can declare your debt paid."

The next response was pointed, like it was made from calculated anger. "I have done nothing but serve you, Your Highness," the man with the silky voice said. Now that nothing was muffling the sound, Jona could clearly guess who it belonged to. Eldan Rovalen. A member of the espionage division and reportedly, one of the best ones, too. "I can't wait any longer before I help the others find her."

Jona knitted his eyebrows. "Her"? Who were they talking about? What has the Grand Monarch had to do with Eldan's problems? Moreover, why were they even having this conversation in the first place?

"It would serve you well to be patient, my friend," the Grand Monarch replied. His voice didn't carry any trace of being offended by Eldan's remarks. "Remember what the oracle said? Trust that she will come and find you, herself."

Something thudded, making Jona jump. The felmisa's thorns shuddered but didn't set off. Thank Wikone. From the sound of it, Eldan must have slammed his hand against the Grand Monarch's table. Wasn't that considered insolence?

"How can I trust a fairy's word whose entire race wasn't even supposed to exist?" Eldan hissed. The acid and edge in his voice didn't escape Jona. The spy was anxious about something. "You have to help me, Your Highnesss. At this point, you're the only one who can. Let me leave Dwanzeig."

The Grand Monarch sighed. "One of us has to be able to think clearly," he said. "Marthiaq explicitly told me to never let you out even if you cut off your tongue in begging me. Do you know why?"

A scratching sound characterizing a hand sliding off the table rang inside. Jona wished he could see and not just hear what was happening. "I do," Eldan said. His voice was nothing more than a defeated whisper now. "But I still want to try. What more do you need to have my debt paid? I'll do everything the soonest I can."

"Xenna," the Grand Monarch said, addressing Eldan in the Jolfela equivalent of the word son. It almost drove Jona's saliva the wrong way. His father only ever called Jona that. It seemed to have shocked Eldan to some degree as well, considering the utter silence on the spy's end. "As much as I wanted to let you have your freedom, I don't want you to go out there and kill yourself with your recklessness. I have a responsibility to all nature fairies and I will not let even one be led astray."

Eldan didn't speak. Once the Grand Monarch decided on something, it would be nigh impossible to change his mind. And he seemed keen on protecting Eldan from what the spy was planning, whatever that was. Moreover, it seemed like the Grand Monarch had launched into a full reprimand on this issue. "You have a duty to this palace, to your people," he said. "Would you throw all that away for your own issues?"

"Yes," Eldan's short but heavy reply hung in the air. "Because whether you like it or not, destiny has chosen to mess with me and everyone I loved by tying their fates to the island. I will not have it. I will find my way out of this territory without you."

Jona's eyes widened. Nobody ever did dare talk to the Grand Monarch that way. Besides, what was Eldan trying so hard to get the Grand Monarch's approval of? Was he planning something? Was the Grand Monarch in on it?

"It's not yet time," the Grand Monarch said after a few scratches of what could only have been Eldan's footsteps striding away. The footsteps stopped. "The right one will come. I assure you. Then, you can get out of here and do everything you've always dreamed of doing."

The doors opened with a creaky whoosh. Jona flinched and immediately retracted his magic from the felmisais. Eldan, clad in his dark green robes and the espionage division pin glinting in his collar, turned to Jona with a cornered look.

Jona raised his arms in a placating gesture and did his best to smile, praying to Wikone it didn't look like a grimace. "I heard nothing," he said. "I just got here."

Eldan ducked his head towards Jona's direction and turned away, his face remaining in a passive frown that the fairy seemed to always wear when he wasn't having the best of moods. "I must be off, Your Grace," he said, referring to Jona in his honorific. "I'm sorry for holding up the line in your meeting with the Grand Monarch."

The spy strode away before Jona could say it was fine and that he didn't have to wait long. Soon, Jona stood alone in the quiet hallway, looking after the direction the spy had gone. Eldan clearly knew things and with those, he could devise a way to do anything he wanted.

Information and knowing what to do with it could make a man powerful. With Eldan having both in his arsenal along with his drive and access to the Grand Monarch, he could overthrow Dwanzeig and the rest of the Umazuran territories with it.

And what does a frustrated man do? He starts destroying everything others hold dear just because he couldn't get his.

"Are you planning on standing there until sunset?" a grumpy voice grouched from inside the office.

Jona flinched and turned to the open doors before him. Inside, the Grand Monarch sat behind his wooden desk piled high with stacks of parchment both to review and sign. A pile of decisions to be made, more like. He dropped his head to a quick bow and strode inside.

"I was hoping you could answer one question from me," he shut the door behind him with a final click. Using his magic, he forced the outermost edges of the doors to curl together. The branches answered almost immediately. "I hope it's not a bad time."

The Grand Monarch's eyes flashed to the stack of work around him but he bobbed his head towards Jona and joined his hands together atop the table. "It's not," he said. "What is it?"

"What happened to the Grand Queen?" Jona blurted before he could stop himself or hesitate. In front of him, the Grand Monarch's face shifted from a worried to a guarded look. "How and why did she die? I want to know because..." he cleared his throat free from the lump building in it. "Because I feel like I'm forgetting her."

The Grand Monarch dropped his gaze to his hands. Precious and silent seconds passed by between them. The only sound around them was of the water falling from the ledge surrounding them. It was calming yet succeeded in introducing a sense of doom in Jona's gut.

"An accident," the Grand Monarch said with a sigh. His face suddenly looked older even though they have had the same youthful appearance characteristic of fairies. "It was nothing but an unfortunate accident."

Jona pursed his lips. His father raised his head to meet Jona's gaze. "Don't think too much about it," he said. "It was something we could have prevented but we didn't. It was what it was."

Jona found himself nodding along. "Yeah," he echoed, disappointment curling in his gut and eating away everything he thought he held in regards to his father. "It was what it was."

He bowed once again and moved to walk away. "Thank you for your time," he said. "Wikone's blessings upon the rest of your day."

"Wait," the desperation in the Grand Monarch's voice made Jona pause in his tracks. He turned to find not the head of the territory but a man broken by grief and time. "I mean..." he cleared his throat in an awkward flair. "I wish you wouldn't drop by just for questions like that."

This time, Jona bowed deeper. "I certainly wouldn't," he drew up and met his father's eyes. Dark green against dark violet. "Your Highness."

With that, he strode out of the Grand Monarch's office, his heart heavier than what he could carry. He couldn't erase the strange feeling in his gut—one telling him there was something deeper in this whole thing and that everything that's happening in his recent memory was somehow connected to each other.

Like roots poking through a layer of thick, dark soil in search of water, so must Jona dig through his own past to solve what's happening in his present. The only catch? He wasn't sure how in Wikone's name he was going to start.