Van and the group were escorted into a large chamber, what must be the throne room. It was packed full of hundreds of fairies, crammed into the sides of the room, most likely refugees and others who fled here. Considering the large columns filled with runes that made up the room, it wasn’t hard to see why this was probably the safest place in the entire tree.

As they walked up the carpet towards the throne, the unmistakable presence and dignity of high queen Gloria Viridia was clear, as they drew nearer to the throne at the end. Beside Gloria were several generals, one of which was particularly closer to her than the others with one of those, resting bitch faces.

As the group was pushed towards the end of their walk, a messenger flew forward and whispered something into Gloria’s ear, to which she only nodded, as if the information did not surprise her. Van took this time to also look around and was surprised to see Elena in the crowd, her eyes widening when they saw each other.

“So, Van… we meet again… though I hoped it would be under… better circumstances…” Gloria said, addressing the group, her tone restrained but with the barest hint of... irritation? Anger? An emotion that was hard to place.

Van straightened his back, then gave a small bow of his head. “Queen Gloria… I couldn’t agree more…” trying to figure out how to say his next words as carefully as he could. “When last we left we-”

“HOW DARE YOU NOT KNEEL!” the general nearest Gloria yelled. “Get on your knees this instant!”

Van froze and the rest of his group tensed up. The soldiers surrounding him did the same, ready for anything. He didn’t know what to do, should he kneel right now? Or was it too late? And even if it wasn’t, should he? His hands gripped the empty air where his bag used to be, the guards had taken anything that could have been deemed a weapon or hidden one, plus the runes of this place seemed to prevent him from accessing his soul realm. Making him very uncomfortable.

“Calm down Saline… I’m already well aware of their rudeness, and we have more important matters to discuss…” Gloria intervened gently, her hard eyes never leaving Van and the group.

Van swallowed, feeling the tension of the room build-up and being very unnerved by it. He did his best to play off what just happened as if nothing happened at all. “Thank you…” with another small bow of the head. “As I was just about to say… we parted on bad terms… something I wished to remedy when next we meet again, if ever… I didn’t learn about how rude I was until… Evergreen…” carefully using Amie’s old name at this moment. “Explained my error…” looking around quickly.

“Where… is she by the way…” using his most polite voice, but genuinely worried and hoping that she would come to his rescue of this strange development.

“That…” Gloria said, now leaning forward, her eyes turning harder. “Is something ‘I’ would like to know…” steepling her fingers together and looking for all the world like a mama bear that had someone mess with her cub.

Van’s face lost some color, he knew now that something was definitely wrong and wasn’t adding up. “I… do not understand…” he admitted. “The whole reason why we are here is because we couldn’t get in contact with her. Nor has she returned when she should have…”

“Just another thing to blame on that traitor Lyn!” the general Saline said. “And now you come, pretending like you don’t know what she’s done!? You should be executed and-”

“Enough!” Gloria said, cutting Saline off with a sharp move of her hand.

Van froze once more, trying to make sense of what the general just said. “Lyn? A traitor? That’s impossible!? What the hells is going on!?”

Gloria took control of the conversation. “Sadly… what Saline said is true… until further notice, Lyn… is to be considered a traitor, and anyone who is associated with her, a suspect and accomplice in her crimes…”

Van’s mouth hung open, he literally couldn’t believe what he just heard, it was just too fantastical… forgetting himself, he spoke out of turn. “Lyn! A traitor! That’s crazy! There's no way she would betray all her friends! She fought too hard! Sacrificed too much! And doesn’t have the heart to betray anyone for anything! She would rather die than let her friends down! What in the world could she have done that would label her a traitor!” he exclaimed.

Saline looked like she was about to come down and wack Van something fierce, but was held off by Gloria.

“I understand your confusion…” Gloria began. “But sadly… we have unmistakable proof…” she then stood up, come with me… there is something you must hear…

“Your majesty!” Saline exclaimed, “you can’t be seriously thinki-”

“Enough Saline. It appears he too is just as lost and confused by all this when we first were… he deserves to know before we decide on a punishment.” Gloria said, slowly walking away from the throne and motioning to the guards.

Van, and only Van, was escorted once more and deeper into the tree. Once into a private room, Gloria stood behind a large table that displayed a three-dimensional map of the surrounding area and began to explain everything.

“As the war continued, Lyn became more and more aggressive and bold with her tactics. Throwing herself in suicidal charges in the hopes of turning the tide of battle. But it seems she has become disillusioned with the war at some point. And took it on herself to end it. We have confirmation from one of our generals, that it is Lyn, who decided to unleash the red knives onto the forest, and was planning to switch sides and join the horde…” Gloria said, showing images of Lyn being in restricted areas and more.

“Wha-!? No!” Van said, looking concerned as he watched the images on display. “Lyn would never…”

Gloria then played a voice-recorded clip of Lyn talking about surrendering to the horde and how it wouldn’t be so bad with an unknown second party.

Van was at a loss for words… that genuinely sounded like Lyn… something he could not deny…

Gloria paced around the table. “She spoke of treason within these very walls… unleashed the red knives onto the forest… and…” her voice becoming harder. “Kidnapped my daughter… and now we don’t know where they are…”

Van was just about to hang his head, at a complete loss of what to say or do next. He still believed in his Lyn… but with all of this… what could he do? But when he heard Gloria’s confusion of where Lyn was…

He looked back up, then around at the guards, his heart speeding up. “Gloria… Can… I have a word with you in private?” knowing full well how much he was asking at the moment.

Gloria stopped her pacing and looked up towards him with a piqued look, wondering what this sudden change was about and why. General Saline on the other hand looked incensed by this.

“How dare you! If it wasn’t enough that traitor took advantage of our trust and backstabbed us, now you think we would do it all over again for you!?” she yelled, looking ready to cut Van down at a moment's notice.

“I… think… I have an idea on how to fix all of this… but… I can only talk about it with you…” his eyes never wavering from Gloria’s interested ones.

Saline now was very crossed and was just about to pull her sword when she was stopped by the raised hand of Gloria.

“And why should I trust you?” she asked, curious.

Van swallowed, staring right into her eyes. “I suppose I don't have a good reason for you to trust me… but ‘you’ are the only one ‘I’ can trust…” he took a deep breath. “I… swear on my power… that I mean you no harm, and only wish to talk…”

The room went silent, and Gloria looked at him thoughtfully. “...alright… for everything you’ve done to help the alliance, and considering you have sworn by your power, I will give you but one minute to explain yourself… just me… and you…”

“But your majesty!” Saline exclaimed

“Go! All of you!” Gloria commanded, not even looking their way.

With some hesitation, the guards and general Saline left the room, leaving Van and Gloria all alone.

“Gloria…” Van began after a few moments of silence. “You said that you did not know where Lyn was correct? Was that statement true… Can you swear by your power?” he asked.

Gloria looked slightly offended, but also now very curious, staring deep into Van’s determined eyes. “...yes… I swear on my power that I genuinely don’t know where she is…” now waiting for Van's point in all this.

“Gloria… not many people know this but…” Van took a nervous breath. “I’m soul bonded to Lyn…”

Gloria’s eyes went wide, being soul bonded to anyone was a huge deal.

Van let that sink in for a few moments before continuing. “Gloria… Lyn’s here… right beneath our feet. I can sense her, somewhere down below us… she never left!”

“Gloria…” he looked her right in the eyes. “I think… I think she’s in the dungeons.”

Gloria looked lost, looking into his eyes, trying to figure out if he really was telling the truth or not. “That’s… that’s impossible. If she was still here I would know…”

Van did his best to calm his nerves. “I swear… on my power… on my very soul bond with Lyn! That what I said is true… Lyn… is here…”

Gloria’s eyes furrowed in confusion before taking a hard turn and looking back into his. “Can you take me?”

Van nodded. “Planned too all along…”

Now it was Gloria’s turn to sigh. “This better be worth it…'' she muttered, then turned to the door that the guards left through, probably giving a silent order for them to return.

Except… nothing happened… Gloria frowned and seemed to try again. Van picked up on what she was trying to do and also expectantly watched the door. After a while, the two shared a look of confusion, it had well been over a minute and no guards had come to check up on them.

Finally, Van couldn’t wait anymore and walked over to the door and tried opening it. “It’s locked…” he said, then shared an even more confused look with Gloria.

Then something fell from the ceiling onto the table. The two looked at each other then moved in to see what fell.

“A… bug?” Van said, looking at the very small creature smaller than the size of his thumb. “It’s… dead?” now more lost than ever looking at the insect’s corpse. “How did it die?”

Gloria stared at the bug until it dawned on her. “A spy mite!” she whispered to herself, shocked to find such a thing in the room. A room that was daily vetted for such things…

Then Van’s question on what killed it finally got through and she looked around in a panic until she became suspicious and started searching the airflow for the few air vents that the room had to allow air to circulate. Moving around she found one releasing a small red mist…

Van was watching her and his eyes went wide when he saw what she found. “Shit…” was all he said before creating an air bubble around him and Gloria to protect themselves. “Gloria!” he shouted, snapping her out of her daze, probably completely blindsided that such a thing would happen to her in the middle of her own home and the implications that it would entail.

“Most of these Vents should not be here!” Gloria said, still in a state of near shock. “When this room was converted into a war room, most of the vents were sealed off to prevent things like this from happening!”

Van whirled around, not even bothering to think, gave himself a running start, and tried to jump kick the door open with all his might. He bounced off it hard, and flew backwards a few feet, landing safely on his toes, though his legs were a bit numb…

“That's not going to work,” Gloria said. “The war room is one of the few most heavily guarded and enchanted rooms in my castle. It won’t budge unless you have the key, passcode, or registered to open the door.”

“Aren't you registered to open the door?” Van asked, confused.

“Yes. but something else seems to be blocking the door. I don’t know what though…” Gloria answered

Van looked around until his eyes landed on a few of the vents. “Are there any Vents that we could use to get out? Big enough for the both of us?”

Gloria also looked around. “I don’t think so… most of the vents here, to begin with, are on the small size, it would be weird for one to…” her eyes went wide. “Actually… there is! Back when the castle didn’t have the enchantments it did and required large vents to help transport air around. But… it’s completely sealed up… there's no way for us to-”

An explosion rocked the sealing and Van rushed to cover Gloria, strengthening the bubble around them to protect themselves. After a few seconds, the two of them blinked and they couldn’t help but look surprised by what they saw come out of the large opening above them.

“Hiya! Glad we came in time! Man! Ren is really smart about this kind of stuff huh? He gave us a bunch of explosives, ‘just in case’ and it really worked out! Good thing we came here in time!” a certain red imp said with her night vision goggles on.

“How-!? Wha-!? How did you find us!? How did you come from the vent! How did you-” Van asked, completely lost, then stopped himself from asking anymore since they didn’t have much time on hand.

The imp took out a pendant that pointed towards Van. “Ren gave us something to help track you down should we get separated, he’s a very paranoid person after all. Now, are you coming up or what?” putting the pendent away and scooching back up the vent.

Van and Gloria shared a look and both silently agreed that any more questions can be saved for later. The two then jumped up on the table and looked up at the exposed Vent that thankfully wasn’t spewing any red spores.

Van looked down at Gloria, noticing her large dress and wings. “You should go first, though you might want to do something about your wings and dress.” wondering how she was going to deal with the problem.

“It’s no problem, we fairies learn at a young age to fold our wings.” She said, then her wings did just that, folding once, then twice, and once they were pressed against her back, folded again inwardly. Then looking down at her dress, she took out a knife that Van had no idea she had on herself and began pragmatically cutting off her dress below the waist. Letting the many layers of clothing fall off her body.

Van stared. “Wow… those are some legs…”

Gloria then turned to look at him when she was done. “Do you mind?” she asked.

“Huh? Oh. sorry.” turning his head away.

“Not that!” she said, annoyed but with a hint of amusement. “Help me up!”

“Oh! Right…” he said with some embarrassment. He then got under the vent and helped Gloria up. Using him as a platform, she was able to jump up into the vent, her ass wiggling as she tried to find purchase before pulling herself the rest of the way.

Van watched a little red-faced as her lower parts were exposed and shaking, then jumped in after her when he got the all-clear. He quickly scrambled up after her, hoping to find a flat stretch of vent to rest in, and accidentally smashed his face into Gloria’s ass when he went too fast.

“Watch yourself!” Gloria shouted behind her. “You can do that later once we survive this!”

Van wasn’t sure if she was teasing or not. Either way, once they got out of this predicament, they had another one lined up for them. Such as what the hell was going on, and what they were going to do about it. At least he knew what he was going to do first when they got out of this. “Don’t worry Lyn, I'm coming for you!” his thoughts becoming razer focused on his wifes rescue.

“Hey! Pay attention!” Gloria shouted again as Van crashed into her once more.

“...lucky” one of the imps murmured from the front.