Wren was spending much less time with her sister. Most of the time they spent together was having evening walks in the garden or, if not, knitting. Apparently, Odyssey seemed a lot busier than it looked like - Wren was now spending most of her time in the Academy and locked up in her bedroom. Occasionally, she would scroll up and down on her phone and find herself staring at Uncle Hunter's number for ages and then she would drift off to sleep.

It had been a long time since Ethan called. More than a few months, that was certain. She suspected it was probably because the time between them wasn't working again ... though sometimes, she spotted a few messages from him on her phone. Usually, she'd leave them on read when she didn't know what to text him back, and after a while, she'd pick up her phone, go to his contact and write: 'Sorry, haven't got round to using my phone. What's up?'

After dinner, she wanted to round up the library to check if there were any books about splitting souls ... there had to be. The Palace library was as big as Uncle Hunter's house. Just when she entered the grand library, her phone buzzed in her pocket. She pulled it out and it was a call.

A call from someone she had not expected.

At all.

Her uncle.

She stared at the contact for a few minutes then pressed 'accept'. She heard her uncle's cough at the other end of the line. She didn't say anything. She wouldn't say anything. She kept her lips pressed tight as she walked along the bookshelves.

'Wren.'

She didn't stop walking.

'Nice of you to call,' she said after a while.

Her uncle sighed. 'I know you're mad.'

'Mad might be an understatement.'

'I've been busy. Promoted to head manager. It's ... also been very overwhelming.'

'What has?' Wren asked, trying her best not to snap at the person she'd lived with almost her whole life.

'You. Gone. Running away. Them taking you in. Especially when I told you all about Argonian.' She couldn't figure if her uncle was mad, or sad, or happy. 'Said it was safer for you to stay here, didn't I? Told you you could live a normal life here, didn't I?'

Wren exhaled. 'I would think twice about normal. Even if I stayed there, I would still be in danger. And I think you know why.'

'Well, you'd be in less danger here -'

'Well, what difference does it make, now that I'm in Elryzian?' shouted Wren. 'You knew your whole life that somebody was on the run to chase me. To hunt me down. My life is in danger. The whole royal bloodline or Argonian is in danger. This - this witch - she'll stop at nothing to kill me - do you really think staying in - in the normal world would make me a normal person and everything would be normal?'

'You think it's hard for you, Wren?' exploded her uncle. 'You think you're the only one who's struggling? Your headmaster has been asking me where you've been and I couldn't even lie to him! I tried saying you transferred into another school - but there was no paperwork I could show him - no proof - nothing. And I was so damn worried when you left - it was Tanner Blackcut's job to let me know that you were safe - in Elryzian - but he delivered the message late. I rang the police - they wouldn't even do anything! Gave up search after forty-eight hours -'

'Oh yeah?' Wren snapped back. 'Well, lucky you, you've been dealing with the police. I don't want to throw a pity party for myself, thanks - and now you come calling to me after six bloody months to yell at me?'

'Wren -'

'I'm done.'

She shut her phone with extreme ferociousness. She was trying to blink back tears and she glared at a heavy, thick book on the shelf and grabbed it, flipping its pages so wildly she tore a couple of them.

She didn't count how many hours she spent in the library - it felt long enough - perhaps even numbers of sunlit days. She pored book after book, trying to put her uncle out of her mind and focusing on what she was reading instead. And then ...

'Jake,' Wren whispered, 'Jake, I've got to talk to you.'

'What do you think I'm doing?' puffed Jake.

The two sped to the library as fast as they could. Ladislaya was not with them - she had stayed back in class for an inquiry with Professor Alana again. Wren found themselves a nice, deserted table at the end of the library where they were almost hidden by towering ladders and bookshelves then she thumped the book she'd gotten out of the Palace on the table.

She pulled a chair and Jake sat down before she could. Wren glared at him and he grinned up at her, his face saying 'Winners, keepers, loser.' Wren grabbed another chair and flung herself down.

'I wish Ladislaya was here,' she said, opening the book. 'Then we needn't relate everything to her then.'

'Well, she's choosing study instead of friendship,' said Jake, watching as Wren flipped the pages to the particular chapter she'd stayed up all night reading. 'This got something to do with splitting the soul into two, eh?'

He'd said that pretty loudly and heads turned to stare. He looked bewildered - the librarian was staring at him like he was an unusual sort of creature that just stepped foot on Earth.

'You're dark,' a boy called over to him. Jake lifted his head awkwardly.

'Silence in the library!' whisper-shrieked the librarian in a very loud whisper. The ambience of the library was restored. Wren folded her arms and gave a 'What did I tell you?' glare. Jake looked sheepish and tried to put them back in topic.

'So what did you read?'

'I found out a couple of interesting things,' said Wren, turning the book around so he could see. 'Like this. And believe me, you aren't going to believe what you're going to read.'

Jake looked suspiciously at her as he spun the book round to face him. Wren allowed minutes to pass by as Jake read. Wren could see his expression growing more and more disbelieving as he read sentence after sentence. Once he'd finished, he looked up, gazing into the air.

'Wow.'

'See?'

'How did you get these dark, dark information from a book?' wheezed Jake. Wren shrugged. 'I get access to any kind of book in the palace. Royal advantages.'

'Good one.'

Wren took the book from him. 'You do understand what this means, don't you?'

'How could anyone not?' wheezed Jake. 'Bloody hell ... and I thought erasing your memories was dark enough ...'

'Doesn't look like it, does it?' said Wren, scanning the page again. She had read reread this dozens of times to make sure she understood every single detail:

"In the cryptic annals of forbidden knowledge, a sorceress whose insatiable hunger for power defies mortal comprehension. Adept to dance beyond mortal eyes and immortals. It is she who carries fragments of her ominous might. Beware, for Nicaea Valdis is not a mere wielder of dark arts; she is a sorceress who has twisted the very fabric of existence, a mistress of soul-splitting and shadow-conjuring arts that defy the very laws of nature.

Involved in the Dark Arts as well as Necromancy, the prediction of soul-splitting of the She Who Is Feared is not the only dark art performed. In the shadows her mind move, known to be undefying as ever. How can the one known to defeat her last the old prophecy? Not especially when theory says the known Soulstone would be shaped into a weapon by the Feared Witch do destroy the Chosen One."

'What prophecy is this?' whispered Jake silently.

'I don't know ... this is all they say about soul-splitting and whatever this prophecy thingy is,' Wren said, flipping through the pages. 'They never said the prophecy though ... do you know the prophecy?'

'I know there's a link between you and the Faerie Queen,' Jake said. 'We all know that. Even you know that. But a prophecy? There's a lot of prophecies ...'

'Look at that. At the end of the second paragraph, it says Nicaea might want to use the Soulstone into a weapon that can destroy me. Something tells me the Soulstone's that powerful ...' Wren murmured.

'Of course it is! Bet she desires the Stone now.'

'It's fine, this is going to be easy, right?' Wren said, snapping the book shut. 'This prophecy ... it mightn't even mean anything. We all know Nicaea and I have a connection, that's all. The prophecy could easily mean that.'

'I won't be too sure, Carrots ...'