Daniel couldn't understand why the Golden Knight cared so much about Grace. He had been sending a lot of letters, making immediate decisions to start search parties and even sent to Sam to keep an eye on Quenria and Alorema. 

On the other hand, there was Queen Elena, who had been very quiet after she found the broken pieces of the pendant. She seemed like she didn't want to make an effort to look for the very same person who destroyed the only relic that could save the world from an impending danger. Still, she listened to the panicking voices of Daniel and Rachael and helped them. Not to mention, she was treating Daniel coldly, for he was another human, aware of the existence of Aneroma. All because of Grace.

What they were unaware of, and probably won't notice because of their panic, was that Grace wasn't in North Aneroma. She was somewhere in the south. The realm of all that was mysterious and dangerous. The realm of the dark, as Aneromians called it.

Grace lied on the cold hard ground, in a cell, shoved in the dungeons. 

Grace was unconscious, but what woke her up was her aching body, especially her back, where she felt something tug it. After hours of complete silence, she let out a groan. Her eyes fluttered open. 

With great effort, she sat up. She found her distorted image in the reflecting rocky walls of the cell. She was glowing. Glowing so much she couldn't see any distinctive feature of hers. Just blue light. 

She felt her back heavy. She felt it with her hands until her fingers touched.. a pair of small wings. Grace flinched as soon as she touched them. She caressed them again to grasp their shape. 

They were small butterfly wings. Grace wondered if they were still growing, since their tiny size was nothing she had ever seen in Aneroma. Grace breathed in and out, trying to regulate her fast breathing. 

"Oh, my God." She whispered. It all clicked. 

When she absorbed the magic of the pendant, it merged with her human body. She wondered if she could summon her sword, but she was already weak enough. She decided to wait before she could try. 

However, the idea of her merging with fairy magic was rather cool yet scary. She trembled as chills ran down her spine. 

Is it me, or is it really really cold here?

She fiddled with her mother's bracelet on her wrist and thought of an escape plan. 

With one decisive look at the bars, she got up and banged on the cells, the gold bracelet in her hand emitting a great sound when hitting against the metal rods. 

A guard came and sneered, "What do you want?" 

"Get me out of here." Grace said calmly, yet with eyes full of fury. 

"No, though, I shall tell the Queen you have awoken for interrogation." 

Interrogation?

The guard turned and proceeded on his way to the doors of the dungeons. "Wait!" Grace called for him, "There is a mad.. unicorn in my cell!" He looked at her skeptically. "Come on! It wouldn't hurt to come and help me!" Grace pushed. 

The guard approached with a look of deep distrust. Once he was close enough, Grace stuck out her arm and gripped his armour, then pulled him hard until his head slammed against the bars. 

Grace did it again, and again until his head lolled to the side, resting on his shoulder, then rolling back. He dropped to the ground. 

Her heart was beating hard and fast as she looked at the fallen guard. Her lips twitched into a proud smile. She took a look around before she pulled his limp body towards the bars. 

She reached for his belt, which did have the keys hanging from it. However, much to her dismay, there was a huge number of identical keys. She groaned at the thought of having to try every key. 

Well, no time to complain about it. 

The thought of having the key, which is going to save her, in her hands, comforted her. But then again, she thought: 

What if it is not one of those keys?

She quickly brushed away the thought and hoped her luck didn't go bad when and where she needed it the most. 

She tried key number fifteen.. perhaps sixteen and then the strong door of the cells faltered. Grace bolted outside of the cell, stepping over the limp body of the guard. Her rapid steps were forced to a halt. Grace turned around to face the unconscious guard. 

She kneeled beside him on one knee and felt his belt and his pockets until she found two daggers in their scabbards hanging from his belt. She wanted to curse her luck for finding daggers instead of a sword, which was what she was better at using, then again, she didn't even imagine escaping the blasted cell and even carrying any weapon of sorts in her hands. 

I wouldn't have thanked God for a bow and a bunch of arrows, though.

My aim is so bad I think the arrow would ricochet and stab me.

She dragged him in her former cell and closed it before throwing the keys in another closed cell. She chuckled.

Good luck getting yourself out.

She roamed in the endless corridors. The cells that she passed by were empty. One cell, however, had a young boy, almost her age if not older, sitting in one corner, his knees pressed against his chest. Grace and him locked eyes before she decisively walked away. 

She wandered at a fast pace, looking for a way to find the exit to this dark and mysterious place. She ended up going past her cell again, then past the cell of the fairy boy she had met before. 

I am running in circles!

The boy looked at her with a knowing smirk. "Are you lost, mate?" He asked in a weird accent. It sounded almost British to Grace. She was fascinated by the fact that fairies had accents even in their own limited world.

"It's none of your business." Grace sneered at him and continued to walk, taking different turns and paths. She eventually found herself in front of the boy's cell. She cursed her luck. 

"Would you like assistance? There is a charming fairy at your service if you say the magic words." He stood up, leaning against the bars and wiggling his eyebrows. Grace took a step backwards and took out a dagger from its scabbard. The fairy looked at her with annoyance. 

"I believe you are a sword fighter?" He asked, but he continued when he found no answer, "You tilt the dagger a bit to your right, so if you want to kill me, please, do it right, mate." Grace didn't take her eyes off him. She carried on with his advice, feeling the dagger getting less awkward in her hand.

"Who.. who are you?" Grace asked. 

"The name's Clover, my dear. I am from Quenria, I suppose you are?" Grace eyed his peculiar appearance. Half of his head was shaved, the rest was long hair that covered his left eye. He was wearing a dusty attire of puffed up pants, like Aladdin's and a leather chestplate on a green sleeved shirt. 

Grace weighed her options, realizing that she had better chances telling him who she was. After all, he was a fairy kid in a cell in the home of her enemy.

"The Guardian. I am Grace." Clover's eyes widened. 

"For real?" Clover asked. Grace felt like it was a rhetorical question so she didn't bother to reply. He added, "I thought Guardians were more.. intimidating than that. You are nowhere near intimidating, if you are wondering." 

"I will be intimidating to you when you find this in your neck." Grace raised her dagger. Clover winced at the harsh blackmail.

"Easy, my dude. How did you get out of the cell?"

"Killed the guard, took the keys and now, you are slowing me down." Clover nodded slowly, holding the bar and leaning against it. 

"I can help you get out of here. I know this place, inside and out." Grace perked up an eyebrow. 

"How so?" 

"Various escape attempts." Grace looked around Clover. 

"All which I deem unsuccessful?" 

"I was unarmed. They confiscated my daggers." Grace felt many questions get answered, including how Clover had his knowledge on fighting with daggers. "I have been here for two years, mate. Think you have room on your escape plan for one handsome dude like me?" Grace frowned at his pitiful sight. 

"How do I know you won't hurt me or bail on me?" Grace questioned, her hand tightened on the dagger.

"I can swear you my old life by the river that I am just here to escort you out of this stupid place." 

"But what do you gain out of all this?" 

"Isn't the answer obvious? I get to have my freedom!" Grace shot him a skeptical look. "Please, I need to see my sister and my father." Grace sighed. She grabbed the dagger and stabbed the lock. It didn't budge. Clover laughed at her. 

"You think stabbing the lock will—" Grace stabbed it again and again until she started to glow a deep blue. With one final hit, the iron lock shattered. She fell on her back, taking her breath. Meanwhile, Clover was covering his eyes, huddled upon himself in the cell. "What.. did you do?" 

"I broke the lock.." Grace sat up, still catching her breath with difficulty. Clover, when his eyes adjusted to the darkness of the unknown place they were in, came out of the cell with a look of triumph on his face. 

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Clover said, helping Grace on her feet. She was still holding her chest, near her core, in great discomfort. Clover couldn't help but notice how small and undeveloped her wings were. "Are you okay?" He asked. 

"Less talking, more walking." Grace bolted. Clover followed her, sprinting. 

"That's running, for the record!" Clover exclaimed. 

"Shush it, it rhymes!" Grace whisper-yelled. Clover didn't dare argue, since he found the point she stated fair. Grace was about to go left when Clover advised her to go to the right. She obeyed, treading behind him to allow him to show her the way. 

"We are close to the exit. Can I have one of your daggers?" Grace threw him one with its scabbard, which he caught expertly. He got it out and threw it in the air before snatching it from the air. Grace rolled her eyes. 

"Okay, stop bragging." 

"Sorry, it is kind of my thing." 

"I noticed." What Grace had also noticed was why Clover wanted to have a dagger. There were indeed two guards in an animated conversation, standing in front of the exit. They didn't seem to notice the two escapees. 

"You take the one on the left and I—" A deafening sound of a bell emerged out of nowhere, grabbing the attention of the two guards to the two fairies in front of them. 

Grace immediately stabbed the guard on the left in its core then turned to the guard on the right and their weapons collided. Clover immediately sprung into action and grabbed the guard from his neck and stabbed him in his chest. 

The two fairies exploded into red fairy dust, one after another. 

"I hate dark fairies." Clover muttered. Grace grabbed his hands and dragged him outside, where they stood upon a dozen dark fairy guards. 

Grace felt helpless, surrounded by the guards. With the small dagger in her hand, she felt unarmed— vulnerable. Her anxiety sparked something in her core. She felt her hand grow heavy with a strong light. Her fingers stiffened around the hilt of her sumptuous sword. She smiled. 

Some guards cowered away at the sight of the deadly sword, some hesitated. They didn't want to know what it would look like, covered with their ash and blood, yet they feared that their queen would separate their heads from their bodies. They stood, shaking in fear.

"Give me that other dagger, mate!" Clover demanded and Grace threw him the dagger. They both advanced, slicing and dicing until there was nothing blocking their way. 

Just when Grace gave a look of pride and satisfaction, it vanished when she saw the huge amount of fairies trooping towards them. Clover turned to face them fearlessly, but Grace pulled him and ran. 

"We are severely outnumbered, Clover. Pick your fight!" Clover swallowed thickly as he eyed the mob of dark fairies flying behind them. The distance between them became smaller and smaller. Grace managed to fit in a moment in her escape plan to look at how far the mob had gotten. Her heart skipped a beat of how close they had been. 

"Can you fly?" She asked. Clover hesitated.

"I haven't used my wings in a while. I am not sure." Clover replied with a tone laced with guilt. Grace said nothing. 

When she looked in front of her, she found an old wooden bridge. Based on its missing steps and its torn ropes, Grace deemed it unstable, probably dangerous. She prayed it would hold their weight long enough to pass. 

Under the bridge, was nothing but a great void, filled with white smoke. Needless to say, Grace did not want to end up missing a step from her hurry. 

"Are we seriously walking over that thing?" Clover asked. 

"Scared?" Grace countered with a question.

"Yes! We are going to plummet to our doom!" 

"Don't jinx it!" Grace took one step on the bridge, which shook with the unforeign weight. Grace started to feel sick.

"Don't look down, alright?" Clover advised. Grace nodded, but she couldn't help but steal a glance at what lied under her. She was attacked by immediate dizziness. 

Clover noticed her jittery demeanor and held her hand tightly. 

"You looked down, didn't you?" Grace gulped nervously. 

"I don't do well with heights." She admitted. Clover looked towards the other end and found another mob of dark fairies, this time, guided by a dark fairy with different attire and an eye patch. 

"Exer." Clover whispered, but it was vengeful. 

"Who's Exer?" 

"That eye-patch guy." Exer gave them both a sickening evil smile. 

"Say, Clover, don't you think it is foolish of you to bring your girlfriend here?" Exer tormented. Grace wanted to reply, but she was too busy forming a plan to escape that blasted place. 

"Hey, check your facts, buddy. She is not my girlfriend." Clover said. 

"Of course, no girl would date an idiot like you." Exer laughed. Clover was too stunned to think of a comeback. 

"In my opinion as a girl and all, I know no one would like to date eye-patch idiot right here." Grace said. 

"Oof, that was good." Clover said. Grace's eyes remained at the drop beneath the bridge. 

"Clover," Grace whispered, "We are going to jump. You have to fly us to safety, okay?" 

"No, no, no, no, no—"

"One."

"Grace!"

"Two." 

Clover managed to steal a glance under him. His face grimaced and he started to panic.

"Three!" Grace clutched her sword tightly and sliced the ropes. They both screamed as they plunged in the darkness. 

Clover grabbed her and started to flap his wings in panic, hoping to create any sort of friction with the air to slow them down. 

"Relax! You need to relax to fly!" Grace screamed at him, "Stop tensing up your muscles and extend your wings!" Clover took a deep breath and started to flap his wings less and extend them. They started to slow down, but it was too late. 

Grace's dangling feet made contact with the ground first, scraping her knees. Clover, in panic, dropped Grace and rolled on the dusty, rocky floor beside her. 

Both coughed and groaned at their hard landing. Grace managed to get her arms to support her weight enough to sit. She inhaled sharply. 

"I hate you." She announced once she saw her bleeding knees. Clover sat up with a groan. His eyes widened when they noticed her hurt knees. 

"You— You're human! Your blood is red!" Grace furrowed her eyebrows.

"Your blood is not red?" 

"No, it is purple." Grace nodded. "Hey, don't shift the subject. You are human?" Grace chuckled nervously. 

"Surprise, surprise."

"But how? You have wings and a sword. Can the pendant even choose humans?" 

"I don't know." Grace shook her head. "Look, I have been a Guardian for I think a month." Clover helped her up and they started to walk aimlessly. 

"A month? You fight like an experienced warrior! How?" Clover complimented. 

"Thanks. My mom and dad used to teach me sword-fighting since I was seven, so I still remember a good deal of it. Dad continued after my mother's death for a little while, but he stopped because he couldn't bear teaching me without my mother." Clover was silent for a short minute. 

"When.. did your mother die?" 

"When I was twelve." Grace replied, "It was.. a roller coaster, to say the least."

"Yeah, mate, I wouldn't be surprised." Clover said, but it seemed like his mind was somewhere else, "That answers a lot of questions." 

"How?" Grace slowed down and looked at him to elaborate. He suddenly became anxious. 

"About.. the.. the whole fighting thing!" He hesitated.

"Oh," Grace became quiet, "You did pretty great, too." She smiled.

"First, stop being so modest and accept the compliment, you make it hard to be nice." Clover rolled his eyes. 

"Hey! I am trying my hardest here!" 

"And second, where are we?" Grace opened her mouth to reply, only to recoil in hesitance. 

"I don't know." She admitted. "I don't even know how I ended up in this world." 

"Aneroma?" Clover asked.

"No, no. This world." 

"Oh," He said, extending it to show his understanding, "This is the realm of the dark, or the dark realm. This is not a different world, that's just south Aneroma.'' Grace arched up her eyebrows in surprise. 

Clover elaborated, "Don't act all surprised. This was a battlefield of a war that broke out between Queen Elena, Queen Helen and Murdhellous a thousand years ago. This is why the ground is all cracked up from the explosions; they made bridges to cross those giant cracks in the ground." 

"So, we are walking in a giant crack in the ground right now?" Clover nodded. "Is there any way to go up?" 

"Well, I was hoping to find an uneven rocky side we can climb on, but those cracks are so clean." Clover brushed his fingers against the rocky wall beside him. 

"What do you think did this? Do you have bombs that cause.. this?" Grace asked. Clover laughed. 

"I think you mean who did this. Darling, this is the doing of none other than Murdhellous." What he said was followed by a long surprised pause. 

She eyed what was above her carefully. No matter how much she concentrated, she could barely see the end of the crack. She clutched her sword tightly until her knuckles were white. Her sword was the only source of light in the deep ditch, and perhaps, the stars in the navy blue night.  

Grace didn't want to think about what would happen to the world if Murdhellous awoke. 

"What happened to—" Her question was interrupted by a deep threatening growl. Clover immediately slipped his daggers out of their covers and stood guard. Grace walked closer to the sound, which led to monstrous darkness. 

Grace felt herself grabbed from behind. She turned around with her sword aimed at the hand that gripped her and found Clover. 

"Don't you ever do that again." She hissed at him. No matter how much Grace tried to be, she was not intimidating to him at all. He was rather amused by her attempt. 

"Sure, mate. Want a tip from me? Don't ever start the fight. Wait until the predator approaches and then show him who is boss." Grace nodded. "And you are still not intimidating. You won't be able to scare anyone that way." 

"I am cute, I get by." Grace shrugged. Immediately, a huge monster came out from the shadows and roared at the duo. He jumped at Clover, pinning him to the floor and trapping his head between his long curled nails. 

A huge dragon-like monster with reflective red scales snarled at the fairy boy. It had a long wide neck with a big head of scary teeth and a pair of dark fury-filled orbs. Grace didn't dare grow closer to it.

"Grace! Do something!" Grace was broken out of her reverie by his screams. She launched herself at the dragon and stabbed it in its back, standing on it and trying to pull her sword back out. 

She grunted as she pulled while the monster screeched in agony. It left Clover and started to frantically dance around to get Grace off its back. It threw itself at the rock surrounding them, slamming Grace's head in the process. 

Her hands slipped off the sword and she fell on her side, her vision doubling and her ears ringing like the bell of a church. She heard screaming but she couldn't make out anything from her pain. 

She felt herself pulled up on her feet and dragged around, her feet stumbling upon itself. She felt her vision clearing enough to find out that Clover had been running away from the monster, with her in the equation. 

"Grace! We have to move faster! Grace!" Grace looked behind her and found the monster approaching. 

"Can you fly me up and drop me on that thing?" Grace proposed.

"What? Are you trying to die, or did that hit make you lose your mind?" Clover asked. Grace wanted to reply that she didn't actually think she was that sane either, but she had to focus. The task was so hard when her brain was hammering in her skull.

"Just do it." Clover carried her and flew up. With the monster's incredible speed, it was able to go just under them. Clover dropped Grace and she managed to land on her sword that was engraved in its skin. The sword went inside further and the monster exploded, making Grace fly back with her sword. 

She landed harshly on her back, so hard she managed to let out a moan as her back made contact with the ground. She was left gasping at the pain. Clover flopped beside her, taking deep breaths. 

"We need a break.. from all of this." Clover said. Grace couldn't bring her tongue to move. "We can't lie here and wait for the Angets to come and eat us. We have to move." Grace groaned. 

That.. thing was called an Anget? This angets me." Grace wetly chuckled, "Daniel would have loved that joke." She sat up slowly. It was a hard process with her shaking arms. 

"Who is Daniel?" 

"My best friend. He really likes puns and jokes." Clover nodded slowly. He also sat up. 

"Do you have other friends?" Clover asked, "Just asking out of curiosity." 

"Why don't we make it alive to Syndioma then I will introduce you to them?" 

"Sounds like a great deal."

~●~