"Keep your face always toward the sunshine - and shadows will fall behind you." -Walt Whitman

Luxa didn't say much after the realization, she just kept her eyes in the direction of Regalia. I felt for her if everything we just theorized was true. "If the Warrior here is right and you have the cure in your labs, Your Highness, I want your first action to be to send it to us." Ripred prompted her, his voice serious and defensive like he expected her to fight back immediately and was preparing for an argument.

Slowly, Luxa turned her head and gave him a single nod. "On my word. The gnawers will be served first. I only hope we are incorrect." She trailed off, glaring back at Regalia.

"Alright then." Ripred nudged her shoulder with his snout either in an attempt to comfort her or simply to just hurry us along. "Fly back to Regalia and straighten this mess out. I expect to hear from you soon, Princess." Nike opened her wings but neither Luxa or I moved to mount her so Ripred rolled his eyes. "What are you waiting for, get on that flier and go!"

I paused and glanced back at the battlefield. "What about Hamnet and Frill?"

The old gnawer shrugged. "They belong to the Jungle now. The Starshade will grow back here, most likely, so they'll be in a good place, right?"

"I guess." I sighed and put a hand on Luxa's shoulder. She took a few moments looking at her fallen family member before glancing up at me. I wasn't sure what to say, how in the world I could comfort her right now, but Ripred was right and we needed to get going.

"On your bat now." Ripred encouraged again, corralling us towards Nike again. "And don't forget the crawler, he may have saved us all."

I swung up onto the zebra flier, a small grin forming as Temp scurried onto her back as well. "It wouldn't hurt to spread that info around, you know."

"If he did, I will become the biggest crawler lover in the Underland. I will speak of nothing else, everyone will think of me as a bore." He nodded at us once Luxa was situated behind me. "Fly you high, boy. Princess."

"Run like the river, Ripred." I said back with a nod. Nike opened her full wingspan and we lifted into the air, over the vines, and out of the Vineyard.

As soon as we got high enough, Luxa fell forward against my shoulder blade and gripped the sides of my t-shirt. I couldn't say anything to her that would help, not on such a short flight, so I tilted my neck back a bit to touch the top of her head with mine and tried to be her shoulder to lean on. I could feel her shaking her head lightly but all I could do was let her think her frustrated, betrayed thoughts and support her during a rare weak moment.

We got to the spring quickly and we had barely landed when Hazard was at Nike's feet. He looked back and forth between us. "Where's my father? Where's Frill?"

Luxa met my eyes for a moment, her violet irises were sad with the coming talk. She had to tell the young boy his father was dead and I realized there was no one else that could relate to him at this moment than her. She took his hands and he immediately frowned in confusion. "They are not coming back, Hazard. We were attacked by cutters trying to destroy the Starshade. Hamnet and Frill died fighting, I am so sorry."

The young man's mouth fell open slightly and his eyebrows relaxed from the tense frown they had been in. He looked six, not thirteen; the same way Luxa had when she finally broke down to her uncle, their facial features were so similar. "They...they couldn't. They wouldn't...I'd-I'd be all alone."

"They did not wish to, I promise you that." Luxa gripped his shoulder. "They could not help it, and sometimes you cannot help the things that happen."

"Oh." He cast his big green eyes down and they quickly filled with tears. "Just like when my mother left me. She didn't want to, either, but she had to." Tears streamed down his cheeks and Luxa brought him into a tight hug. He wrapped his arms around her torso immediately, burying his face into her neck.

Luxa put one hand on the back of his curly black hair and they cried together; smaller tears pricked the edges of her eyes and didn't fall but their presence alone spoke volumes. "The same thing happened to my parents. They both died, too." Hazard gripped her t-shirt at her shoulder blades. "Your father and my mother were brother and sister, did you know that?"

Hazard pulled back in astonishment, fallen tears smudged against his face where they were smeared against her shirt. "No. I don't have a sister."

Boots ran up to me and I swung her around into my arms. "Greggy, they're crying." I nodded and held her close.

I wasn't sure Hazard understood what she was saying, but Luxa rolled with it. "I do not have a brother, but I was thinking, if you would come to Regalia with me, it would be as if I did." She wiped his cheek with a kind smile, different than anything I had seen out of her.

"To Regalia…" He trailed off, glancing to the foliage, looking lost. "I live in the Jungle."

Luxa nodded and wiped the other cheek gently, turning his attention back to her. "I know, but there is no one to look after you, take care of you."

A new wave of tears poured out of his eyes and I think he finally understood. "I want my father and Frill!"

The princess held his face and smoothed over his ears, patting his hair down. "I know, I know." Hazard clung to her again. "Please say you will come with me, Hazard."

He sniffled. "My-my grandfather...lives in Regalia. He said...I could visit if I wanted to."

"Oh yes. Vikus would be very glad to see you." Luxa nodded, running her hands through his curls. She obviously didn't know about the dramatic reunion we had at the Arch of Tantalus but I don't think she cared much.

"Will you be my sister?" He pulled back, glancing at Boots and I. "Like she's his sister?"

The future Queen sent him a caring smile and stroked her palm over his cheek again. "If you will have me."

"Alright." He rubbed his nose on his shirt and nodded, a weak smile forming. "Can I ride your flier?"

"Any time you wish, and when we get back, you may meet a flier of your own to bond with. Would you like that?" Hazard nodded and she pulled him into a smaller side hug. "Let us all go home, then."

We washed up in the spring but we didn't have anything to wrap our wounds in since everything had been destroyed in the fight, so the inflamed, irregular cuts stayed open. The only plus was the weird goo the ants used to dissolve the Starshade didn't burn the way the acid from the yellow pods had and washed away easily.

I grimaced when I slipped my shirt on after washing it through the water, the movement stretched my slashed skin in a way that didn't feel good. "Are you alright?" Hazard appeared with our waterskin to refill it.

I shrugged. My arms looked more like lunch meat and certainly felt that way, but I didn't want to worry him. Hamnet wanted us to keep him away from violence. "I'll be better when we get back to Regalia. I need to go to the hospital."

He nodded and played with his shirt. "Did my father...say anything to you? You know…"

I leaned back on my heels and sighed. "He said he was proud of you and your languages, and he'd love to see you keep learning."

Hazard's face lit up for a moment and he nodded. I stood and put a hand on his shoulder to lead him back to the main group. Luxa was kneeling in front of three nibblers who had brought us a few plums for the road. "Thank you. I will never forget your kindness to myself and Aurora. Know that while I have breath, you will always have a friend in the Underland."

She took her golden band off her head and laid it in front them. "If you are ever in need of my help, present my crown to one of our scouts, and I will do whatever is within my power to come to your aid." Luxa put a hand on their heads in turn and they gave out some high pitched goodbyes.

I was a little amazed. I could only imagine the impact of what giving her crown to the nibblers could possibly mean. Everything in the Underland was so backward and old-fashioned, it was hard to keep up with, but I imagine quite a bit.

Nike and Aurora insisted they could make it to Regalia despite both having their own injuries and even though they should rest, we couldn't really afford to lose the time it would take for them to heal. Temp, Boots, and I rode on Nike while Luxa and Hazard were on Aurora.

I took a long breath and couldn't help the small ping of adrenaline that came with flying back. Back to Regalia, where the cure was this whole time, to my bond who was hopefully still alive, my mother, and my girl.

The image of Serenity's giggling face, carefree smile, and flour covered cheek burst its way into my mind. For a moment, I even felt giddy, happy, excited in a whole world of negativity. I couldn't wait to get back to Regalia.

About an hour passed when my anxiety was getting too high to just sit still in silence. "So Nike, what did you do up here, while you waited for us to catch up?"

"I went in circles, both in the air and in my head." She responded. "I was trying to understand the prophecy."

"Do you think we got it? That the humans started it?" I asked. She had been pretty shaken up by it earlier.

"As Ripred says, I must hope we are." She said after a moment. "But Gregor, when the rest of the warmbloods learn the plague was the humans' fault, it will be very ill received."

I sighed, expecting such. "What will they do?"

"Most of the humans' allies will be ashamed, their enemies will say it only confirms what they have thought all along; that humans will do anything to get what they want." Nike sighed. "The awful thing is, no one will be truly surprised."

I sighed and we fell into a silence, well, semi-silence with Boots chatting to Temp in broken crawler. I was so distracted by my own thoughts that I almost didn't realize we were starting to land somewhere that wasn't Regalia. "We're stopping here?" I asked, my lip up turning as I recognized the clearing. The Arch of Tantalus.

"It is only for a brief time, but Aurora and I must rest." Nike apologized and I immediately shook my head.

"Oh, yeah, definitely. Rest up." I reassured her. I had no place as a passenger to force either of them to overexert themselves while already injured. We came together in a circle and snacked on some plums. No one said anything, it was too creepy here.

I kept a hand on my father's sword. The Arch, full of skeletons, made me uneasy.

Luxa on the other hand, was dead to the world as she stared at the plum in her hand, not really seeing it. "Luxa, you should eat something." I told her gently so I didn't startle her too badly.

She blinked and looked around as she came back to reality. "What? Did you want it?"

I shook my head with a small smile ghosting over my lips. "No, I said you need to eat."

The princess nodded numbly and took a bite, chewing slowly as she thought. "I have been thinking of what Ripred said." I resisted the urge to roll my eyes and waited for her to elaborate. "The value of such a weapon...he was correct. To have a plague at our command would give the humans total control over all warmbloods."

I nodded, the heaviness of the possibility was intense, just like the Holocaust or the A-bomb. "You think Neveeve started it then?"

"If she has produced a cure while the quest was occurring, then you cannot be wrong; for the cradle and the cure will be one and no other cure will exist now that the Starshade is gone. There will be no argument." She turned the small fruit over in her hands, face scrunching up with distaste, however, I had a feeling it wasn't toward the plum. "I wish for it to not be, for it to be impossible, but my people…"

Luxa shook her head and stared harshly at the vines. I almost warned her they might get offended and attack her. "They are scared. More than necessary for their own good, and it is destructive. We cannot continue forward with a mentality like this."

I could feel her frustration, her anger at Neveeve and whomever else was behind the plan; her pain at not knowing or being able to stop it; and most of all, the determination in her voice. Immediately, I knew that she was going to change as soon as we landed in Regalia. I bumped her shoulder in an attempt to ease the emotion coming off her in waves. "Good thing they have a queen like you to set them straight."

Luxa tried to keep a neutral expression but a smile leaked out when she shook her head at me. "There is much work still to be done, Gregor."

"Maybe." I shrugged, tracing circles in the dust with the tip of my father's sword. "But it'll get done with you there. Everyone misses you."

She gave a harumph but didn't comment further. Not long after, Aurora and Nike were awake and we were up in the air again. Nike suggested I get a few hours of shut-eye so I pulled Boots into the crook of my arm. She quickly dozed off but I was having a harder time. My stomach did calm down a bit with the pitch black ceiling not moving like the dimly lit jungle below us, but my thoughts were plagued by things I hadn't been able to process before now.

The battle came back to me, roaring in my ears against the calm of Nike's quiet flapping. There had been plenty of events that flashed behind my eyelids for years before this, but I was so preoccupied with surviving, living to the next day, that I couldn't think about them.

Visions of my sword slicing through abdomens, spraying liquid, a new soldier stepping up only to get catch my backstroke in the same spot. Who were the ants, the cutters? Ripred said they were smart, going into the Vineyard with a plan, and a good one at that. Did they have names? Friends? Who exactly did I kill?

Those thoughts had run through my head before, and it was no different now with those insects. Something had to change. Hament, a good man who wanted nothing to do with war, who ran away from his home to the unknown because he believed so truthfully in it, died to save what was said to be a cure. Lied to, by someone in power, for nothing but a suicide mission.

It made me angry. We thought so fully that fighting to the death for the Starshade was the best, the right thing to do, so the innocent people in Regalia and dozens of other warmblood species would live, even if one or more of us didn't. But no, it was pointless.

No wonder Hamnet ran away. To have more than one of these betrayals, I'm not sure I could handle staying either.

I was still awake when a light ahead of us made me sit up. Boots stirred and sat up slowly, rubbing her eyes with her fists, happily sitting up on Nike's head to watch Regalia come up in the distance. A squad of guards appeared out of nowhere, blocking our path. Though, I wasn't sure why there was no one on a flier that wasn't a friendly to Regalia.

They saw Luxa. "Queen Luxa!" One burst in obvious disbelief but also in relief. "You live!"

"Yes, Claudius, I live." She stood from Aurora's back, trying not to let the agitation of our progress leak into her voice as she portrayed a confident, commanding Queen. "I must have immediate access to the council regarding the cure to the plague."

"By all means," He, Claudius, stuttered as he tried to please her. "But there are several checkpoints to screen those who may bring the plague into the city."

"We must bypass them in the interest of time. If I carried the plague, that would pale in importance to the news I bring." She said, pausing. "Believe me."

Claudius looked to the other three guards but they were too busy staring at Luxa, transfixed. "We have very strict orders…"

"That I overrule. Clear my passage to the city." Luxa said sternly. "That is a direct order."

The guard hesitated for only another moment before he pulled his flier toward Regalia. "Clear the Queen's passage to the city!" He bellowed, flying quickly in front of us.

As we flew, the gentle lights of Regalia flickered underneath us, illuminating both the fliers. The citizens must have recognized Aurora's stunning golden fur, pointing and shouting out. Claudius seemed to get wrapped up in the excitement, waving guards along our path out of the way. "The Queen! The Queen returns!"

We finally swooped through the open roof of High Hall, the absolutely exhausted bats couldn't even land, skidding to a stop on their bellies. Guards ran up to us to help but hesitated when Luxa landed gracefully next to her bond. "Get Aurora and Nike to the hospital at once, both are injured. Is the council in session?"

"Yes, Your Highness. They have only just convened." One of the women nodded, bowing lightly and she spoke. When she straightened, she covered her mouth with a hand, tears welling up in her eyes. "Oh, Luxa. You are back."

"It is good to see you, too, Miranda." Luxa returned, putting a hand on her shoulder with a small smile just as more people rushed in.

Vikus was among them, rushing forward as fast as his elderly body would take him, slowly coming to a stop as he took in our party. "Oh...oh. Luxa. Hazard."

He stopped, looking between us for a silent answer. Hament had died, the way his old violet irises seemed to become hollow confirmed it. Solovet appeared and a few moments later, and even Duclet appeared like she too had wanted to see Luxa with her own eyes.

The news must have spread through the palace just as fast as the city. I waited for a few moments but my baker didn't show up. "Can we send for Serenity?" I asked Vikus.

The old diplomat, and everyone else that had entered since we arrived, cast a sad expression toward me. I frowned in confusion. "She is in the palace, Gregor." He sighed. My eyes darted over his face, searching for an explanation but all I found was sorry and apologizing expressions. "She contracted the plague."

I was out of the door in a dead sprint before he could lift his hand to my shoulder in support.

Sorry for the long absence, the new college semester has been crazy to get used to especially at a new university and the first time away from home. It's hard to find free time with a job that is a second shift, but I do my best when I get a free minute I swear haha.

I had to post because yesterday was my 21st birthday so yay lol. I decided to wait until I had a few chapters lined up before I posted again, so we have at least next week together before I drop off the grid again, lol.

That's probably not funny, okay I'm leaving now. Please leave a review. Thank you, I love you.

Yours,

Artemis.