-HER-

As soon as I got some of the senses back in my legs, I tried to get up, but Vittoria's steely grip only solidified around my arm painfully. I found it surprising how she could drag me so effortlessly despite being of diminutive stature.

"Let me go," I hissed as she continued to drag me to the lagoon.

"Why? You wanted to hear us talk. You'll hear us better on the boat rather than hiding here," Vittoria suggested cynically.

"I wasn't eavesdropping!" I defend myself.

"Then why would you need to hide in those shadows?" she shot back before pulling me into the water with a rough, final tug. I winced at the pain. I wouldn't be surprised if she left her fingermarks on my arm after this.

"Vittoria," I dared to hiss at her as she further pulled me into the lagoon water, making my dress wet.

"Just get into the boat," she ordered impatiently.

"I don't want to!" I opposed.

"Get into the boat, Theresa," The Matriarch commanded using the voice. Unwillingly, I found myself obeying her command... or rather, my body obeyed her. But I wanted to run from there as far as possible. Nothing good ever happens whenever I am with these two women, alone.

I did my best not to look the Matriarch in her eyes as I climbed into the boat obediently. Vittoria followed after me. The only place for me to sit was right opposite the Matriarch, which would have me facing her anyway. I glared at my feet as Vittoria settled beside me, sinking in her seat while taking a long drag from her pipe.

"Look at me," the Matriarch ordered with that voice. My head snapped up, forcing me to look into her pitch-black eyes. They almost looked hollow in the pale moonlight. A shiver ran down my spine as my eyes locked with her eerie ones. She studied me intensely, swiping a glance from my head to toes.

"How did you get here?" She demanded, tacking me with her white-less eyes. Sometimes, the darkness in her eyes seemed thick enough to swallow light.

"I followed Vittoria,"

"And why were you following me?" Vittoria asked.

"I was looking for you when I saw you stepping out of the shrine—"

"— so you decided to follow me here and eavesdrop?"

"I didn't hear anything!" I urged.

"Vittoria has been here for a while now. If you've been following her, you must have been here for a while as well. Which suggests that you must have at least heard something, Theresa," the Matriarch prodded. I couldn't even blink even though my vision was blurring due to tears.

"I didn't hear anything," I claimed as my eyes burned with tears, but she continued to study me unblinkingly. Meanwhile, Vittoria continued to get as high as the Lagrifiri volcano.

"You're a terrible liar," The Matriarch remarked.

"It isn't my fault. Vittoria takes the classes on the art of lying and fabrication," I remarked, earning a sarcastic chuckle from Vittoria.

"I can't help if you don't pay enough attention," she responded, tapping the dust off her pipe.

"Tell me, girl," The Matriarch started again, "What did you hear?" The temperature of her voice had fallen another notch, sounding graver and darker.

"I didn't hear anything," I answered with tears running down my cheeks. The burning in my eyes further intensified to a blinding threshold. Meanwhile, the darkness in the Matriarch's eyes further darkened. I could bet the bottom of an ocean trench had more light than the Matriarch's eyes.

"Then why did you try to run away?" Vittoria inquired with a surprisingly gentle tone. She must be halfway to the moon now.

"Because I didn't want to get caught and wrongly accused of eavesdropping," I answered as black dots flocked in my vision.

Vittoria chucked, "Leave this bitch for another day. She's giving me a headache now,"

Instantly, I got back all the control over my body. I rubbed my eyes until the burning sensation went away.

"Why were you looking for me in the first place?" Vittoria inquired. I shifted in my seat to ensure that I didn't have to look at the Matriarch again. I had seen enough for tonight.

"I wanted to talk to you about my brother,"

"What about him?"

"What are you going to do, Vittoria?" I asked, "I'm sure you're not going to sit here and just..." I trailed off as she took another long drag from the pipe, "while he has sent the first company of troops for a quiet invasion!"

"What?" The Matriarch gasped. Vittoria stopped and gazed at the older woman with an indecipherable expression. "What is she talking about?" The Matriarch pressed as Vittoria finished the pipe and tidied up.

"I was about to tell you..." She trailed off and dragged out a small pouch from under her seat. I watched inquisitively as she carefully took out a leaf and some black substance. I couldn't make out what the black substance was as Vittoria started to work with them. However, it looked somewhat like some dried seeds at first.

"Theoron," Vittoria began explaining while she rubbed the black substance in her hands, "has already dispatched a company of troops for a silent invasion,"

"And what are you going to do about it?" I had to ask because I couldn't hold in my anxiousness at this point. This is what had gotten me here on this strange night. Vittoria cast me a quick look before concentrating on doing whatever she was with that black substance. I watched as she rubbed them first before continuously transferring them from one palm to another. "Just getting the dust off of them," she muttered before reaching down and pulling out another small sack, from which she proceeded to take out some more ingredients I didn't know the names of.

"Your brother is doing this..." she finally spoke, "to spite me. Nothing more than that. I don't think he's still fully prepared to take on Alexandros,"

"But what if he has some other plans, Vittoria?" I challenged. Again, she cast me one of her stubborn and pointed looks that could make anyone think twice before questioning her, but not me. Not anymore!

"He doesn't have other plans," she replied confidently, almost too confident for my liking. I was about to challenge her presupposition, but she soon added, "It's the Nobles that have the plans. Don't forget. Your brother cannot think for himself,"

"Whoever made those plans and whatever those are, I'm sure you aren't simply going to sit here and get high,"

"You know me," she smiled as she mixed those two substances before wrapping them into the lea tightly until it was the size of a coin.

"So, what exactly are you going to do?" I asked again. My impatience was audible in my voice.

"Good question," Vittoria commented, taking her time as she examined the result of her labour resting on her palm for a moment longer than my patience's snapping point.

"What are you going to do, Vittoria?" I demanded this time. "I came here for this. It has been keeping me awake at night!"

Vittoria's only response was to hold her palm in front of me and order, "Take it,"

"Huh?"

"Take it and put it in your mouth. Then chew,"

"Tell me, Vittoria!" I hissed.

"Tell you what?" She asked with an odd calmness.

"What are you going to do now, Vittoria? My brother has sent his men for a silent invasion. They should be in Cremieria next week—"

"You're afraid of losing your chance to sit on the throne, aren't you?" Vittoria interrupted.

"Yes," I gritted, glaring at her.

"Hmm," she hummed in a self-assuring manner, "have this first," she ordered. Judging her calmness, I decided that I wouldn't get anything from her this way. I needed to wait. I looked at the crinkled leaf filled with that black substance she'd been preparing earlier.

"What is it?" I asked. The Matriarch was the one to sigh deeply while Vittoria nearly rolled her eyes.

"Just do as I say," Vittoria commanded with a hint of annoyance. Still, I took my time to stare at the thing on her palm before reluctantly picking it up with the tip of my fingers. Vittoria and the Matriarch watched me impatiently.

"You expect me to eat this after you've tried poisoning me once?" I asked with a sneer.

"You'd have been dead by now if that was our true motive," The Matriarch assured. Her words injected me with more hesitance to eat it for some reason.

"It will help you calm down," Vittoria assured, "help you see the bigger picture," she emphasised weirdly. I decided to trust her for this instance. Slowly, I put it in my mouth while looking at Vittoria.

She watched me with a combination of excitement and another unfamiliar emotion. I was half expecting Vittoria to say 'sike' before I'd drop dead as I began chewing on that weird combination, but that never happened.

At first, it tasted musty and slightly salty, but as my teeth dug through the leaf and exposed the black substance inside, an intense stale taste overpowered my tastebuds, instantly making me sick to the stomach.

"Throw up, and I'll shift you to the other mountain," Vittoria threatened casually when I almost gagged. I knew she was serious regardless. I chewed it further before swallowing it to get rid of that nasty taste, but it still lingered. It seemed to have gotten even more potent after I had swallowed it.

The sicking feeling intensified as it went down my foot pipe. I felt the burning gaze of Shrine's two powerheads, I had no other choice but to swallow down the sickening feeling along with whatever was given to me. It wouldn't be wise to cross the duo twice on the same night.

Their eyes lingered on me until I shivered and sat up straight, telling my body to accept that odd feeling for the sake of my life.

"It wasn't that bad," I commented with an awkward smile to shatter the silence, but it further prevailed. Their eyes lingered on me for a moment longer than my comfort zone allowed.

"Hmm," the Matriarch responded as they sunk back into their seats, enjoying their pipes. The tension in my body dispersed slightly to see them return to their previous state.

"What else?" The Matriarch asked Vittoria, who was now preparing a questionable white substance. I watched with astronomical interest as she divided the white powdery substances into small batches before turning them into lines.

"No, I'll have them the other way," The Matriarch instructed with an odd tone. She almost sounded self-conscious. Instantly, Vittoria destroyed those lines and pulled out something that looked like a lamp but wasn't one.

"Not much; I just met the Emperor," Vittoria shrugged. That's when I noticed a huge wooden box under her feet. Under the candlelight, I could only see its faint outline.

"You didn't take the gift I prepared for the Emperor. You must know it's not polite to visit someone without bringing them a gift," the Matriarch said to Vittoria in a nearly scolding manner. Meanwhile, I bent down and squinted my eyes to look better at the box. As the candlelight flickered, I could make out some ink marks on the box.

In the background, Vittoria scoffed before ensuring the Matriarch, "Don't you worry about that. I've given him a thoughtful gift,"

"What was it?" The Matriarch asked while my eyes trailed the ink marks. At first, I identified the ear of an animal. It was then followed by a snout, and then...

"A punch to his eye," Vittoria sighed. I might have almost imagined it, but the Matriarch tensed at Vittoria's response.

"That sign looks familiar," I commented out loud. Vittoria shifted her legs to look down at the box, and that's when I could see the whole picture. I could make out the visible attempts to smear the ink to make the emblem unrecognisable, but it still stood out to me. "Isn't that the Cromarian emblem?" I asked out loud. The boat was plunged into a tense silence once again at my question. I contemplated if I should have asked that.

"Does it look like so?" Vittoria asked, almost sounding clueless. I knew that she was anything but clueless about it. That box had been from which she had been pulling all these things out.

"It does," I insisted, smelling something odd there. "That looks very much like a wolf,"

"It could be a dog too," Vittoria suggested, looking down at the sign at the box again, continuing her acting performance.

"Or a coyote," the Matriarch joined Vittoria. Something was definitely fishy here.

"I've grown up seeing the Cromarian emblem hanging upside down in my mother's study. Do you think I wouldn't be able to recognise it when I see their emblem?" I challenged the two of them. They turned quiet all of a sudden, watching me with such intense looks in their eyes that made my skin crawl.

"Whichever animal it is," Vittoria spoke, stepping on the wolf, "It shouldn't concern you,"

"It very much does, especially of the blasphemous things you two are doing here," I dared to speak up. The Matriarch descended into a much tenser and grimmer silence. The black of her eyes seemed to have turned even blacker.

"You speak too much for someone aware of the grave trouble they're in," Vittoria warned me casually while I felt the Matriarch's eyes focus on me murderously.

Maybe... just maybe, I should shut up tonight.

"I'm curious about how you acquire these things," I told her in a lighter tone.

"I have my ways," Vittoria smiled wildly, drawing a circle around the wolf with her toe, "And just shut up for now. We're discussing more important Shrine matters,"

I sank further into my seat, rested my head against the side of the boat, and closed my eyes for once as hints of exhaustion greeted me. For a moment, I was almost asleep as a dream had begun to play on my eyelids, but then something made me open my eyes only to find myself floating somewhere deep into the ocean.

I blinked several times to make sure that my eyes were working. But even after blinking multiple times and rubbing my eyes, nothing made sense. I watched wide-eyed as a whale swam over me with its calve right by its tail.

The magnificentness of the giant creature made me forget everything for a while. I stared at it in awe as it swam away with its baby with such gentleness and elegance for its size. When it disappeared, I noticed that I was outside the water.

I rubbed my eyes again to ensure they weren't betraying when I heard the sound of several twigs snapping in the distance. I looked to my side to find the ship's sail peeking above the trees in the woods. I watched with bewilderment as the ship sailed through the woods before taking off for the sky.

Behind the mountain, upon the volcano's chimney, clouds of smoke appeared— or that's what I had thought. The cloud of smoke slowly turned into a giant glowing jellyfish that swam further up in the sky to join the bloom of glowing jellyfish that seemed to float up into the sky and turn into the twinkling stars of the night sky.

I watched the bloom of the jellyfish ascending further up in the sky in a gentle rhythm until a giant turtle appeared out of nowhere, going after some of the jellyfish. It chased a jellyfish higher up to the sky before its illuminating shell turned into the full moon.

"What did you give her?" A familiar voice asked. I realised that it was the Matriarch. There was something apprehensive about how she'd asked, "The leaves or the mushrooms?"

I glanced at the Matriarch's way to find a seal instead. This drenched me further into bewilderment.

What was happening?

"The mushroom," Vittoria giggle beside me, making my head snap to her. She was still herself, but oh... her legs were replaced by a huge tail. I could hear my heart pounding in my chest as I studied her tail before glancing down at my legs to find that a long mermaid's tail had replaced them.

"Are you sure she'd be alright?" The concern in the Matriarch's voice magnified astronomically as I tried to flap the tail and see if it was just part of my wild imagination or if it was indeed functional. I almost knocked the candle into the water to test it out.

"I think she's enjoying it so far," Vittoria laughed at me. Silence descended on the boat for a stretch of a moment as I contemplated going for a swim in the lagoon.

"You're pulling her into this now?" The Matriarch asked grimly.

"I'm not pulling her in this, Arrieta. It was decided that she'd be into this..." Vittoria trailed off to take a long drag from her pipe. She sighed while adding, "It's just that she's into this earlier than I had anticipated. But I think the timing couldn't have been perfect. They're already looking for her..."