2407 Tull 25, Kindreth

Jona's feet hurt from walking all over the palace in search of the people owning the other names on his list. He had been going back and forth for the last two days and it didn't help that he was getting more and more desperate.

The corridors had never looked so narrow and lonely as he went on his way back to his room to grab a new change of clothes. He had just gotten back from his morning rounds with Ixy, his mood as sour as ever. The growth houses in Komery were being hit with the Decay, each wave more severe than the last. The species present in them were among the ones the island couldn't afford to lose and yet, here they were, living that nightmare.

When he talked to Lei Rakrana, she said she was also not able to see how the Grand Queen left the room. She had patted Jona's shoulders in sympathy. "It was an accident, dear," she said in her sweet, sing-song voice he had grown to hate. "She was a great Queen. One of the best we've had in a long while."

Yanda Voldove said the same thing. In fact, the structure of their conversation was so similar Jonadrin might have thought they were following the same script. Which could be the case since the moment they were supposed to see the Queen leave Acosa, that's when they were magically called on by some other people to do their jobs. How in Umazure did they know the Queen left the palace? And why did every one of them say that the Queen was alone?

He reached his room and drew back the branches covering it with his magic. Inside, dozens of boxes of his things were slotted in huge leaves floating over a pond of clear water. It was one of the few rooms with the name nature such as this. His own bed was in the largest pad near the open windows, giving him a full view of the waterfall. Cold wind blew from the outside, shuffling his hair backward on his way to the box containing his clothes.

Soon, he was striding out of his room in a set of simple tunic and trousers, the list with three, crossed-out names sitting in his breast pocket. He had tied his waist-length, dark green hair back with a twine, letting the tail sweep behind him like a ribbon with every step he took.

Myrrin Lora. He was first a stable boy who worked in the reserves of serodi in Acosa. He would stop by the palace to hand in his reports on the herd's behavior, whether they rammed someone in the rear or stampeded down a hill or something. Jona did his research now and concluded that if the script was to be followed, Myrrin would allegedly either be called back to the reserve or some excuse to justify why he hadn't seen the Queen leave the palace.

Jona's footsteps clanged against the stone bridge closing the way between the palace and Acosa's thick forests. Unlike the times he went out of the palace through this bridge, today, he wasn't going out to relax in town.

He took the familiar roads that would take him to the first enclosure, one belonging solely to the efrasix and their distant cousins. The forest was still the same after all these years, with its multicolored hues, noisy atmosphere filled with various calls and the sound of leaves rustling, and heavy scent of upturned soil mixed with freshly-fallen rain.

There were no roads or any hiking trail through the forest, making it hard to navigate without getting lost. Jona summoned his magic and tapped into the network of trees, lowering his vision into their version of the trail dimension. There, the colors turned shades brighter, the trails of everything in existence curling in and out of his vision almost enough to burn his eyeballs should they streak close enough. Then, he exerted a bit of magic into the trails and they parted to reveal the single one he had been looking for.

The one leading straight to the serodi enclosure.

He set off on his way, ignoring every other trail coiling around the one he was following. His eyes memorized its characteristic green sheen. Soon, his vision in the trail dimension was accented with outside noises which sounded a lot like voices. With eye-watering blinks, he snapped away from it, watching the burst of colors fade and return to his normal way of seeing things. Tree. Bush. Leaves. People.

People.

The voices were, in fact, whispering. He ducked his head at them in greeting, forcing most to stop talking to their friends and watch him stride inside. All around him, nature fairies dressed in the same tunic and trousers as him peppered the reserve. There were no fences nor borders but judging from the volume of fairies leading gray-skinned animals void of fur past him, this was the right place where he could find Myrrin.

He approached a couple of nature fairies leaning against a couple of gray-and-white-striped trunks. Each of them held a bottle of ale by its slender nose with three fingers. A fairy with bright taupe hair and pale skin took a swig straight from the bottle. His eyes widened to the side of a kalta dryde when his gaze landed on Jona.

"Hi," Jona said, giving their group a wave. "Which one of you could tell me where Myrrin Lora is?"

The fairy with taupe hair raised a hand. "That's me," he said, the spot in his throat bobbing up and down in a visible gulp. "What do you need from me?"

Jona jerked his chin to a vague direction. "Walk with me."

Myrrin's friends jeered and sent him away with a few pats on the back. He scratched his scalp tentatively, looking anywhere but at Jona. Soon, the two of them walked side by side, shoulder to shoulder. Everyone seemed to know what he looked like judging from how they would stop and stare at him whenever he passed by. It's a wonder Rutoria wasn't able to catch on.

"Do you have something in mind?" Myrrin asked, breaking the silence budding in between them. "What could I help you with?"

Jona sighed. The travel back and forth has been wearing him off. That, and the fact that he literally had nothing else to go on beside the names he had in his pocket. Myrrin was his second to the last hope. "I was hoping you could tell me what you know about the day the Grand Queen died," he said. It was still a sore topic, Jona had figured, but it wouldn't stop him from bringing it up. "Did you see someone with her when she left?"

Myrrin shook his head. "I didn't even see her leave the palace," he said. Jona wasn't disappointed. Of course, this was going to be the case. All his leads were bringing him to dead ends. Was Eldan behind this too? It was too thorough of a job to be done by any of the generals of the Natura. "I was inside my supervisor's office, handing out the serodi reports."

Jona crossed his arms over his chest. The cold weather in Acosa after it had rained the whole night before was getting to him. Thankfully, the ground was used to the bouts of water falling from the sky that it could absorb it quickly, leaving no room for mud puddles or slippery spots in the forest floor.

"I mean, it's already a miracle I was allowed to stay here after everything that happened that year," Myrrin added. It was a deviation from the script the witnesses had been following. Perhaps, there was hope. "Most of my friends from that time were either sacked or transferred to other palaces, never to step foot in Acosa again. Poor Feris had it worse. He was sentenced to a seasonal job."

Jona knitted his eyebrows. A group of nature fairies wrestling a rearing serodi flashed by his periphery. The beast swung its two, curved horns on the sides of its head, almost decapitating one of the handlers. Thankfully, the fairy was agile and quick on her feet. She lunged and tackled the serodi by the neck before twisting and bringing the beast down, holding it in place.

The action almost took his attention away from what Myrrin had just said. "Seasonal job?" he asked. "By Feris...was it Feris Medomon?"

Myrrin's eyes widened. "Yeah, him," he pointed a knowing finger in Jona's direction. "By seasonal jobs, I meant he was only required to come down to Acosa or anywhere else when they have an oncoming major event. He was a planner and a coordinator. I guess the royals didn't want to let go of his talent but he couldn't stay in the palace."

"Why not?" Jona tilted his head to one side. "He seemed perfectly capable of doing palatial work."

"Because he cannot lie," Myrrin revealed. "After the Grand Queen's death, the council thought it best to distance Feris from his duties in Acosa because the man couldn't tell a single lie, for the life of him."

The gears in Jona's mind started turning. "Is there a reason he couldn't lie?"

Myrrin shrugged. "Some say it's because of a sacred oath he swore upon Daexis," he said. "Others claim he suffers a unique symptom whenever he tells one. Something about getting rashes or somewhere along those lines. You get it."

Jona nodded in response. Yes, he did get that. A servant who couldn't lie. Someone who was still registered in the current worker records but wasn't in the palace. Someone who only comes when there is a big event. Unreachable until a certain amount of time.

"Thank you for that information," Jona said to Myrrin. "I'll get going now. You may return to your work."

Myrrin gave a hasty bow which Jona wasn't able to see fully as he was already turning to where the road leading back to the palace lay. Within a few minutes, he was by the lip of the bridge once more. As he walked down the length of the bridge, his thoughts raged in his head as a plan was beginning to form.

Seasonal festivals, huh?

The door to his father's office cleared open once more, the branches retreating to the walls instead of just turning on their hinges. The Grand Monarch didn't have the time to look up from the sheaf of parchment he was reading when Jona got into his face with a wide smile.

"The festival of the Kaluar is really soon," Jona said. "I want to be in charge of planning it. I mean, everything. I will handle everything. It would serve as practice for me before I take on Jered Azerke. What do you think?"

The Grand Monarch massaged his forehead and set his work down at the table's surface with a dull thud. "Slow down, will you?" he said. "The festival of the what?"

"Kaluar," Jona replied, praying to the gods his father didn't know what was going on with that species. "They almost went extinct a few years ago and I just got a report from Telsbury that their numbers are once again good enough to be released to the wild. It's worth a celebration, no? A worthy milestone for the nature fairies. I am thinking of keeping it in the elika keijuis' territory since it just concerns the animals. Then, there was the matter of summoning the plan—"

"Okay, fine," the Grand Monarch blew a breath and closed his eyes. "Make sure you inform the Grand Regal. When will this happen?"

Jona didn't pause for a bit. "Next two weeks, Jyda," he said. "It's kind of sudden and it's happening soon. I suppose now you can understand the rush."

The Grand Monarch waved his hand in the space between them. "Alright," he said. "You have my full permission. You'll have to talk to the accounting division for the funds. I suppose you know the way to Master Dema's office, right?"

Jona bobbed his head a little too eagerly; it brought balck spots in his eyes. "Thank you, Your Highness," he said with a deep bow. "I will make sure to do my best."

He turned and almost ran out of the room in his excitement. Sure, he would do his best for a festival he made up on the spot. The answer to his questions would be in his grip. Soon.