2407 Tull 23, Daleth

Jona raised a hand towards the sky and sighed.

"You've been sighing since we sat here," Rutoria said from beside him, jarring him from his thoughts. "Anything going on?"

He brought his hand down and crossed his arms over his chest, his tunic digging against his skin. How in the world was he going to tell Rutoria about everything that's happening in his life?

First, his memories of his mother and her death were hazy, with nothing but a few snippets and half-filled scenes in his head. Second, Eldan, their top spy and quite possibly the best one, was planning something outside of the Grand Monarch's control and permission. Third, nature was dying and there wasn't anything Jona could do to stop it.

Would it spread away from Dwanzeig and consume the rest of Umazure? Would it bring the end of fairy life as they know it?

He regarded Rutoria from his periphery. She was munching on a sack of kolrie nuts she bought from a passing vendor selling roasted ones. Her fingers had already come away dusted with orange due to the nuts' thin, flaky skins. He still couldn't be sure if she was a pixie or entirely something else. Looking at her trail without her permission didn't seem like a thing a Grand Royal would do.

Besides, did it really matter if he didn't know what she was? As much as he wanted to be alone with his thoughts, he was grateful Rutoria bumped into him earlier in town. Jona wasn't in the mood to be cooped up inside the Acosan palace. He wasn't up for going on his rounds with Ixy, either. He knew he'd just be seeing the same things he saw the last time. Maybe they've gotten worse and he'd only feel bad about not knowing what to do and ease his people's concerns.

So, he had busted out his boots and cloak and had fixed his hair so that its waist-length strands wouldn't get in the way of his face, and the next thing he knew, he was in the lip of the only town he came across inside the thick forests of Acosa. This time, he didn't step into any krou doing their business nor did he get lost in the middle of the busy streets.

Then, Rutoria called him from the other side of the road on her way to shop for vegetables or some errand just as bland. "It's amazing how we kept bumping into each other, no?" she had said, to which Jona had given the driest replies to. She invited him for another drink but after being duped last time, he refused.

Rutoria scratched the side of her neck. "How about a seat?" she had nodded to a spare bench jutting from the forest floor at the edge of town. Why someone bothered to put a bench in this spot was beyond Jona. For now, he was grateful for its existence.

Thankfully, the bench was free of splotches of mud stirred from the ground, of dry leaves from the canopies above them, and from spilled food or critter droppings. Without exchanging a word, they had sat down and haven't gotten up ever since.

The silence around them was accentuated with the various animal calls and the sound of leaves rustling with the blowing breezes. It was both foreign and familiar to Jona, for some reason. After a while, as his thoughts began crowding for attention in his head, the sighing began.

"Lately, I've been suspicious of everyone around me," he said. How in Wikone's name was he admitting everything so easily? "My father. His...close friend. Even the employees in my father's business. I think every one of them has something to do with the other problem I'm having now."

Rutoria arched an eyebrow. "Which is?"

Jona scratched his chin, feeling the blunt end with his fingers. "Something about research," he said, kissing his teeth and leaning his weight against his wrist propped against the bench's rim. "About the world around us and why it's dying."

It took everything in him to make all he's saying to never look anything close to being the problems in Acosa. He couldn't exactly go around town, announcing he was the Grand Monarch's right hand man to every random fairy he would meet, even if it was someone as bubbly as Rutoria.

"Are you working for the palace?" Rutoria asked.

This time, Jona's saliva really did go down the wrong way down his throat. A sharp pain and the unstoppable urge to cough overtook him. He had to double over, cupping his fist into his mouth to get rid of the sting.

"Wow, what a reaction," she snorted and sucked on her fingers, eating the remnants of the kolrie nuts. In her other hand, the crumpled parchment bag the nuts came with sat inside her fisted palm. "I'm guessing that's a yes. A noble?"

Jona nodded, a little vigorously than necessary. "You could say that," he said. "Or rather, my father is."

"Have you given up on your other research?" She tilted her head to one side.

He knitted his eyebrows. "What other research?"

Rutoria hummed. "Your mother's death."

Jona narrowed his eyes. "You seem to know an awful lot about me," he said.

To this, instead of bringing up her guard and defending it, she chuckled and tucked her hair behind her ear. "Not everything," she met his eyes and smiled. "But enough."

That made sense. If she was somewhere in Dwanzeig despite being a pixie, she would know some things about the royal family, at least things disclosed to the public. It wasn't certainly everything but it was bound to be enough. Did...did Rutoria know he was the Grand Royal, then?

He looked at this mysterious friend he made, not having the energy to ask her about his suspicions. If there was anyone he wouldn't want to be suspect right now, it was this woman who was still virtually a stranger and who didn't have anything to do with his mess.

"I'm serious about your mother, though," Rutoria smacked her lips as she ran her tongue over them, smudging what's left of the paint she smeared over. Perhaps, Jona ought to try cosmetics next. "If you really want to know what happened, you owe it to yourself to find out, even if you feel like everyone is lying to you."

Jona regarded Rutoria while she kicked her legs back and forth absently below the bench. "Did you have the same problem?" he said.

Rutoria smiled. "Kind of," she said. "I wouldn't want to sound nosy but really, for her sake and yours. Find out the truth."

He tore his gaze away from her and looked to his boots instead. The dark leather covering his feet blended right in with the compact soil the whole forest rested upon. How much more of this mystery was left uncovered? How much was forced to be hidden?

How much was Jona supposed to find out before he found the answer to everything? What's more, how much more was he supposed to know until he was certain there was someone or something else to blame for everything happening in the world around him?

That night, as he got back to his rooms, he glanced at the bright moonslight tearing past the open windows and heard the rush of water curtaining the endless void underneath them. That's when he decided it was time to be smarter with his approach. If everyone took the effort of hiding it from him, the truth wouldn't be easy to uncover.

Then again, Wikone made sure nothing buried stayed that way. Everything would be revealed at its proper time. Jona hoped with all his heart this was the right one for him.