It was a lengthy walk down to the dock. The Prince had to give out a speech that he wasn't excited about. Some bullshit about integrity of the one true God and things like that.

I wished more we could find a way home because maybe I could talk Andor into coming with us. This wasn't a home to him and I would hate to see someone only 20 be swept up into a war against his father.

"Hey loser!", Hope practically pushed me into a random citizens house.

I squinted my eyes at her suspiciously. "You're oddly peppy today. You actually insulted me with no reason."

She shrugged, "I guess my lack of respect for you was to strong-"

"Didn't you have to give that awful Lieutenant a tour with Andor?" I asked interrupting her as well. I guess that's just how we showed how we much we cared about each other. The little demon and I would pick on each other until Sonja told us to knock it off.

"Yeah", she blew her off pink bangs out of her face. I wasn't sure why some of her hair was pink, but I sure knew I wasn't supposed to ask about it, "I guess I just cheered up."

I rolled my eyes, not at Hope, but at the past thoughts of that guy. "He was horrible when Sonja introduced him to me. He even insulted my ship."

"Your ship?", Hope tried not to laugh.

"Yeah", I answered with more excitement in my tone than I had had in a couple of days. "It's like an R.V, but a boat and I'm going to try to make it fly and-"

Hope looked extremely confused. Her math face confused.

"-you know an R.V. Like a camper"

"No Jordan", she answered abruptly, "I don't know."

When we got to the docks the citizens were standing on their porches, waiting for their young prince to say something that would reassure them that their religion isn't hypocrisy.

Andor seemed as annoyed as I expected. Holding a piece of paper between his fingers that probably had some bland speech written on it. He avoided gaze from Hope and moved his eyes up to one of the windows of the castle.

The castle window had a curtain drawn over it as I saw the Kings silhouette move away from the window. I feel like the King didn't expect a normal speech even though he had written a very normal speech out to be read.

"Where's the Lieutenant", I asked Hope.

She shrugged with a distinct noise that was supposed to mean the words 'I don't know' that she didn't care enough to say.

I saw Tom, Tucker, Sonja, and even Wag, who they had been able to get into the town, surrounded by a bunch of other citizens. At least the ones that weren't out trading or fishing.

Andor stood up as strong as the weight on his shoulders of continuously lying would allow. He sighed and with the most detesting and tired voice I have ever heard from him, he started the most important speech of his life.

"Dear citizens of the town of Dagrun. I am here to speak about the oncoming attacks from a follower of different gods-"

I could see how much it was taking Tom to not start screaming from under his hidden cloak.

-"as a young citizen myself with lots of pride for my town and it's riches-", Andor's tone changed from tired to hurt and disgusted as he read line and line from the paper,"-I also see the threat of these infiltrators that are trying to brake the bond of this town. Theses terrorists must be stopped-" He stopped reading abruptly and started to read the speech silently to himself.

He didn't seem to happy about what he was reading.

"I can't say this-", Andor ripped the sheet of paper in half and threw it to the side.

Everyone who was sitting on the porches actually lifted their heads, giving their full attention.

"My voice doesn't matter particularly a lot", Andor spoke up, and the curtain of the castle window opened as the sound of the safe speech stopped. "Maybe only two people standing here right now actually care what I'm saying, and I'm sure of that."

His eyes moved stern to the castle window. It was very easy to tell what he was feeling because the prince held a lot of heart in his eyes, which is why I think Hope is so fond of him. Right now Andor was quiet obviously mad.

"I have a question for my father."

And now the speech definitely wasn't addressed to the town.

"Why do you call the prophecy fake when it's so obviously real? What's so threatening about future peace? I thought the world you were building was justified for everybody?!"

Things were getting out of hand. Most of the citizens were fleeing to their home. They knew that the the fuse to this town, that has been lit for so long, was finally going to blow.

Guards fled into the scene being pushed away from Andor, who I could guess was their target, by citizens swarming to safety from the incoming blow.

"You can't just constantly blame their death on her! Why can't you just get it through your head that it wasn't anybodies fault?! Why does somebody always have to be guilty?!-"

Hope knocked a guard that was on the retreat for Andor on the ground in front of us.

Hope gasped lifting herself up from the guard. Her eyes were horrified, nonetheless at least scared.

The guard who was knocked on the ground had his eyes wide open up at us to a milky white. His veins were now visible, leading up in purple waves to his blond hair that was stained lavender and grey.

"What the hell", I shook.

Chaos erupted from all sides of us as the Lieutenant walked in with more troops.

Tom whipped the black hood off of him perfectly ready to grab his daggers for a fight.

Andor was still glaring daggers at his father. "She might have been your wife, but she was also my mother!-"

The Lieutenant grabbed Andor from behind.

Hope ran over to the rescue before Andor could even try to struggle.

"Grab her, please!", Andor yelled out at my direction.

I had no idea who he was yelling at, but I knew that he didn't want Hope to get hurt.

She's going to hate me for this.

I realized through the conflicting thoughts that his life wasn't mine to bid off. Whatever his decision was, and god was it a decision, it wasn't mine to decide.

I grabbed Hope and tried to hold her struggling.

"What are you doing", She started to try to squirm out of my arms, "Let me go!"

The Lieutenant knocked Andor to the ground.

The Princes nose was bleeding, probably broken. The Lieutenant had his foot to Andor's face, forcing him to stay on the ground.

"This is where you belong!", The Lieutenant hissed just loud enough so Hope could hear. "How would your god feel about this?"

Andor coughed into the ground. His fit stopped and all I could hear was the tension between to opposing teams. The chaos behind me was echo and Hope continuing to try to get out of my grasp wasn't going to make me budge.

"I think Ianite would be thrilled-"

The Lieutenant lifted Andor off from the ground and took a hold of his grey shirt color.

"I knew it", The Lieutenant spat out.

Andor had his face away from the Lieutenant his eyes squinted shut, just praying that this was a bad dream and it would go away.

The Lieutenant threw Andor to the ground again.

"Take him to the ship", The Lieutenant snapped. "A common town jail isn't enough for this prisoner."

And like that the title wave of chaos was gone. The citizens had been watching out of their windows if they were brave enough to watch at all.

The rest of my team was shocked, scared, horrified. Maybe horrified at me.

Hope was still shrieking, pounding and scratching at my arms. "Let me go Jordan!", She yelled through her crying. Her eyes were puffy and her voice was horse from screaming, "Let me down!"

I dropped Hope.

She held her hair that was wet from sweat and tears as she cried on the dock.

Andor was gone. A person she trusted was gone and I stopped her from saving him.

And I had no regrets because it was exactly what Andor had wanted.

"Leave me alone", Hope let out weakly still sobbing on the ground. "Go after him if you want to be any help-" Her sobbing cut her words off.

And me and the team did what Hope wished, but Andor was gone. He was swept away to some prison with god knows what torture.

My gut was set on punching the king in the face, but Sonja told me other wise and Steve said he had sent Martha to get Hope.

That night going to sleep I couldn't think up of anything. My mind was blank with guilt and I had no way to save the prince.

I was worthless.