I couldn't do this. My feet had moved by themselves, leading me to demand answers from Trik, but now that I was face to face with him, I couldn't find it in myself to be angry with him. The blacksmith had been nothing but kind and caring since we had met, he'd given me a home and raised me. How could I be frustrated with him? Did I even know what answer I was expecting?

Auron stood beside Trik, his hands placed casually in his suit pockets. Where had he gotten a suit from? I knew his wardrobe pretty well as I occasionally "borrowed" some of his clothes and I had never seen this in there before.

It was a simple black and white suit with a matching cravat tied loosely around his neck. His jacket remained unbuttoned to reveal the belt around his waist with a metal buckle he had made himself.

Trik, on the other hand, wore something a little more extravagant. He wore a full suit — tailcoat, waistcoat, cravat and all — which appeared to be a deep plum shade under the light of the chandeliers. It clashed horribly with the ball's theme.

"I never expected this in the slightest," he shook his head with a chuckle. "I knew something was going on between one of you and the prince, but you could have at least told me."

I nodded to Auron, giving him a weak smile before turning back to Trik. "We need to talk. Alone. I'm not the only one who's been keeping secrets."

His brows switched from raised and joyful to serious and confused. "Is everything okay? You look like you've seen a ghost."

Ignoring his question, I spied an open balcony and motioned my head towards it for Trik to follow me. Before we made our way towards it, I gave Auron a look that I hoped told him that I would explain everything to him soon.

Outside, it was cold, quiet, and alone. As I leant on the stone railing, I could see hundreds of carriages below us all waiting to take their passengers home. I'd never seen the castle so busy before, even when a large meeting was being held by the nobles to discuss important issues.

Trik joined my side, watching me with a protectiveness I had seen throughout my life. "What's troubling you, kid?" There was a sincerity I hadn't seen in his eyes since I had cried because I'd messed up a customer's order when I was fourteen.

This was what I liked to call his "father mode", a version of the blacksmith that I could never be angry with. I loved him so much, but I still couldn't believe he would lie to me.

"For the past few days, I've been helping the prince with completing some research about Icrodeia and why they might want to start a war." As soon as I mentioned the last word, his face darkened. "We haven't found an answer, but I found something else instead.

"I didn't mean to pry into your affairs, we had to look through every record that was being held in the archives between Icrodeia and Racaea, but I found the record of me being traded. Two people were in the column for the people you traded with, not just the one man I remember." I couldn't meet his eyes, to search for an answer I didn't know if I wanted or not. "Are they my parents? What's going on? Is Sephiran my surname?"

"Hey, slow down." He stopped me from asking any more questions. "I truly have no idea what you're talking about. I'll forget about the fact that you mentioned we might be going to war for now, but it was just like how you remember it. I traded with that one man and took you back home to look after you.

"I never wrote any of the official documents, so the trader most likely did that, I only gave him my name." Trik leant towards me, trying to get me to look into his eyes.

I almost wanted to cry with relief. He hadn't lied, he'd been in the unknown as much as I had. Trik was still the loving and caring man I knew him to be. My sigh was shaky as I held back tears of joy.

"Kid, I would never keep information like that from you. I'm not that cruel, am I?" He chuckled and pulled me in for a hug, one I gladly accepted. "You're my daughter, I would never do something like that to purposefully hurt you."

"Thank you," I murmured into his chest. Though I had dealt with the conclusion that Trik had possibly lied to me, it still didn't answer if they were my parents or not.

"Come on." The blacksmith tugged on my arm as he pulled away. "Let's go and enjoy this engagement ball being held in your honour. How did that happen, anyway? An engagement to the prince? I'm impressed."

I paused before replying, considering my words carefully. "I've been seeing Kayne for quite a while now and he doesn't want to marry someone he doesn't love, so we managed to get the High Fae Queen to approve."

It wasn't because I didn't trust Trik, but I didn't want to tell him the truth because I didn't want to involve him. If he got caught up in the beginnings of a war, who knew what would happen to him. I didn't want him to get hurt.

His chuckle was deep, a merry sound. "I should have known something would happen between one of my children and the prince as soon as I saw him sneak in for the first time."

"So you approve?" He'd sat Auron and I down before to have a discussion about romantic partners and to not get involved with them, so I didn't think he would be too fond of my sudden engagement.

"Of course I do. As long as you're not getting hurt emotionally or physically, I will approve of anything you do." The cheerfulness from his tone vanished in his next words. "Just let me know if that prince breaks your heart, I'll do the same to his."

"Trik!" I nudged him with my elbow. "You will do no such thing!"

"Fine, fine." He shook his head with a smile. "But let him know that he'll make an enemy if he hurts you."

A silence enveloped us, letting the information that had passed between us settle. If Trik didn't know who those people were, then I needed to find out myself somehow. The first idea that appeared in my mind was to head back to the archives and search up their names, but the thought of sitting amongst stacks of papers again curled dread within my stomach.

"What were the names in the column?" The blacksmith asked, breaking the quiet. "I can try to find out who they are as I've got some trusted people in Icrodeia who can get me information quickly."

"Carmin Sephiran and Jasper Sephiran," I replied, my voice merely a whisper. It was also possible Jasper was the man who had traded me and Carmin was a partner of his. Perhaps they weren't my parents after all.

Trik placed a hand on my shoulder and squeezed it gently. "Alright, I'll get to it tomorrow. That explanation about this war can wait until then too. For now, let's get back to the free food and enjoy the evening."

"I'm going to stay out here for a little while longer to brace myself for the people I'll have to talk to." I forced a smile to my face, assuring him I would be okay.

"Fair enough." He grinned back, opening the balcony door. "If you need me, I may be getting arrested for eating all of the food."

Laughter bubbled in my chest and spilt out of my mouth as he left. I doubted I could ever tire of his jokes and light-hearted nature.

He had mentioned that he would approve of anything I did as long as I wouldn't get emotionally or physically hurt. But was I truly safe? There was a war about to happen and I didn't reckon the fiancé of the prince would be safe in the slightest.

Sighing and slouching as I leant on the balcony railing, I held my hand out before me. The emeralds of the ring Kayne had given me reflected the moonlight, giving it an embellished appearance. Of course, it was in Racaea colours: deep green for the forests that made up over half of the land and gold for the people.

I wondered how he had gotten ahold of something so beautiful at such short notice. Maybe he had been planning to propose with this ring to a suitor for quite some time now.

The balcony door opened again, pulling me out of my thoughts. Auron walked over to stand next to me, placing his suit jacket over my shoulders. I hadn't even realised I'd been shivering.

"I didn't know you had a suit," I teased, reaching over to flick his nose.

Unfortunately, he skilfully dodged my attack. "Oh, it isn't mine. Trik let me borrow one he wore when he was younger." He pulled at the shirt. "It's a bit old and still quite big."

"How did the two of you even get into the ball?"

"Trik overheard you were Kayne's fiancé from a maid. Then, all he had to do was announce he was your father and I was your brother and we were let in." Auron shifted where he stood. "What's been going on? I haven't heard anything from either you or Kayne in days."

A wave of guilt shot through me. We hadn't intentionally kept him in the dark about what was going on, but we hadn't had a moment to stop and catch him up on everything. Usually, it was always the three of us inseparably together. Auron must have felt so left out.

"Well, the queen just barely approved of the plan and then we started to search through every interaction Racaea and Icrodeia have ever had together. We still haven't found anything that they might use as a motive to attack us. Now it's just waiting to see if the plan will work," I explained, being careful to not miss out any details. "Also, I found some people who could potentially be my parents, but Trik said he was going to look into that for me."

"What?" A grin grew on his lips. "Sabre, that's great news! I-"

The balcony doors burst open, nearly falling off their hinges, revealing a distressed prince. Sheer panic shook him, but that seemed to relieve a little once he saw the two of us.

"Kayne, long time no see," Auron greeted, a hint of sarcasm laced in his words.

"Now is not the time." His breaths were heavy, as if he had run to get to the balcony. "The prisoner has escaped and we need to get somewhere safe."

"How?" The prisoner had escaped? The tower was renowned for being the most inescapable place for several kingdoms around. How had one spy managed to escape from his chains and navigate his way through the ever-changing maze?

"I don't know."

"It's just one prisoner, right?" Auron asked to receive a nod in return. "How much damage can he cause by himself?" He had a fair point, the Icrodeian spy was outmatched greatly, but if he had escaped the tower, who knew what he could do. Was he even alone? Did he have assistance escaping from someone?

"Are the guards looking for him?" I was tempted to begin searching for him too. If he got back to whoever he worked for and informed them he'd been held captive and beaten for information, the prospects for peace didn't look likely.

"Yes. Nobody is allowed to leave or enter until everyone has been searched, aside from the royal family that is." Kayne wrung his hands to attempt to stop them from shaking.

"Okay, well, the spy can't have gotten far. The guards will catch him soon and everything will be fine," I assured both myself and the prince.

"I hope so. When I couldn't find you, I thought the prisoner had captured you or worse."

Auron could only laugh at his distress, slinging an arm around my shoulders. "No, I'm her captor instead."

Kayne sighed deeply, unquestionably running through different scenarios of what could happen in his mind. "Everything will be fine."

Then, making us all spin round to look at the balcony entrance, a loud crash followed by several screams sounded from within the ballroom.