Chapter 31

[X] indicates dialogue

Nyline

Nyline didn't look over at the queen as she walked the few steps towards her then sat matching her, letting her legs hang over the side. After a moment, she realized that Queen Alice was holding something out to her.

"What's this?" She asked reaching out her hand out as the queen dropped the small grain of sand into her hand.

"This is the last time I saw your mother. You do not understand what I am saying with words so I think just showing you the memory will be best." Her voice was solemn as she spoke

"But why?" Her brows creased together.

"Because you have a right to know what's going on. Yes, there are parts that I cannot tell you without the risk of losing my life. A blood oath is binding. If I go against the agreement my blood will turn against my own body and Nic and I will die." Nyline raised her brow at the queen.

"Wait, what?"

"Blood oaths are only used in very serious situations. Situations in which there can be no error or slip of the tongue. The rules are clearly stated, written down on a special piece of parchment, then each person signs the agreement in their blood, and then the contract is burned. Not only are the people involved bound by their blood not to speak of it, but they also cannot attempt to tell another person in any other way. Then, if someone who has agreed to that blood oath breaks their oath, then it is their life that is the price. Loopholes are not a thing in this type of agreement."

"I don't understand, weren't you friends with my mom? Why would you even have to make an agreement like that to begin with?"

"Yes, we were friends. Best friends, actually. Stephaney and I were glued at the hip for most of our teens and into our late twenties. It was only when we started ruling our over separate kingdoms that we saw less of each other." The smile that had started to creep up her face faltered and faded.

"However, with what we had in mind and ended up going through with, everything had to be perfect. We would all get in, get out, and then everything would be as it should be." She shook her head, "We all agreed. Nori, Stephany, Nic, me, and all of our scouts decided that a blood oath between all of us was the best way to take what we did to the grave. We wouldn't speak of it. No one would know, and we thought that we would get off scot free without any consequences. However, we couldn't have been more wrong. Everything that could have gone wrong, did. We all ended up with punishments that were fitting to the role that we played."

"So, if you tell me what all of you did, you'll just end up dying?" the queen bowed her head.

"We never took into account that there might be a day when we would have to explain this to you. You were never supposed to be a part of this problem and should have never been involved, because of our actions you and Gabriel have suffered much."

"The both of us?" She nodded.

"Like I said, each of us got our punishments." Nyline's brow rose.

"Thaul?" She asked on a jerk. Alice nodded.

"Thaul was the punishment for Stephaney."

"Just mom? Then what about dad?"

"Nori?" Alice's face fell further. "We don't know what happened to him, we just know that their punishments were separate because..." Alice paused before she let out a long breath, "For reasons."

Nyline looked down at the grain of sand in her hand. Her mind was spinning. The more she learned the more confused she was. She could tell, now, that Alice wanted to tell her more and that it killed her that she wasn't able to. This memory, though? Maybe it held some deep dark secret that could help her figure out more. So, without another word she held the memory up to her eye, her mind being pulled into it.

["Alice, Stephaney is entering Vaccoon via the southern gate according to the guard."] Sargis' smooth voice entered her mind and she stopped what she was doing. The paperwork falling back to her desk at the tone that he was using.

["Is there something wrong?"] She spoke back without pausing.

["I believe so, she didn't even check in with the guards and she has only a single scout with her."] She was already running before his words had ended. Knowing that her friend would be landing in the garden, she pulled up her skirts and used her movement which allowed her to land at the front doors before she burst through them. She didn't stop but just kept running until she could hear her dear friend's shouts.

"Alice!" Stephaney's voice shouted and Alice do couldn't anything as she dropped from the sky. She landed hard, her knee buckled but she kept on running, limping slightly. "Alice!" Stephaney looked horrible. Her clothing was ripped, her hair disheveled, fear coated every inch of her, and her wide eyes brimming with tears.

"What's wrong?" She asked quickly looking around. Where had her scout gone? Who had been with her? "Stephaney what's going on?" They ran to each other meeting in the middle.

"They came," She said in a rush, "They knew, and they came." She went to open her mouth to speak but Stephaney continued. "Alice listen to me. I don't have time to explain everything. Jonathan has Aurea. He took her away; it was our only choice. We didn't have a choice." Stephaney shook her head, her entire body vibrated with emotion. "Gabriel can't go looking for her. He can't. She needs to stay with Jonathan. She has to hide, but she will be back. Don't worry I made sure of that. She will come back." Her eyes were wild as she tried to convey everything as quickly as she could.

"You're not making any sense. Take a deep breath and explain to me calmly." Stephaney shook her head once more.

"There isn't time! Alice, you need to listen to me. They came for us and they'll come for you, too. You have to be careful." Tears started to run down her face. "Promise me," Stephaney took her by the shoulders and shook her. "Promise me when Aurea comes back that you'll take care of her. You have to, because I can't. I won't be around."

"I promise Stephany, I'll do everything I can for her, but you need to slow down and tell me what's going on."

"It's too late." Stephaney whispered and when she looked down, she saw that a light was appearing around her ankles. "They're going to take me too, just like they did with everyone else. It's my punishment for what we did, punishment for not letting them have her."

"Stephaney?" her voice hitched, and she watched in horror as her friend was enveloped in a bright light, the weight of her hands on her shoulders vanished and then she was just gone. "Stephaney?!" She screamed looking everywhere, her voice caught right as Nicholas landed next to her. She turned and looked at her husband and the newborn child in his arms. "We have to go to Thaul, now!" She whistled and all of her scouts landed next to her in an instant as she started giving directions.

Nyline pulled her mind from the memory and just sat for several minutes digesting what she had just seen. Her mind was completely blank as she just stared ahead at the lightening landscape.

"What happened to her…?" Nyline finally asked, her voice very, very soft.

"We don't know." Alice responded in a clipped tone. "When we arrived at Thaul, everyone was just gone. We assumed that it had been the same with all of the citizens as it had been with Stephaney. The only thing was that the town and everything surrounding it was just deserted. It looked the same as it looks today, like everyone just closed their doors one day and left. The layers of dust, the destroyed castle, all of it. There were no witnesses, no one to ask what had happened. We knew that you and Jonathan had escaped but we didn't know to where and Stephaney's last words were for Gabriel not to go find you. There wasn't much that we could do." There was a very long pause before Nyline let out a breath.

"Somehow, I feel like this is my fault." She whispered, her mind going back to what she had just seen. "Mom said that she was being punished for 'not letting them have her'. That 'her' was me, isn't it?" When Alice didn't answer Nyline glanced over to see that her face was blank, her hands were wrapped around each other so tightly that parts of her fingers were turning white.

"None of this is your fault." She said finally and Nyline couldn't help but feel like that couldn't be completely true. "There are many people who could be to blame in this situation, you however are not one of those people." Her voice was stronger, harder than before and Nyline could tell that the sentence also held a lot of anger. She also noticed that Alice didn't answer her question.

"I already know that the fall of Thaul was partially my fault." She said softly. "I've known that since I was a baby."

"It's not though," Alice's voice was so soft. "You did nothing wrong, none of this is your fault. It's ours, all of ours. We made the decision that caused all of this; however, it was worth it." Nyline's face fell slightly.

"Do you think she's alive?" Her voice was whisper soft and Alice made a very soft noise.

"I don't know," Alice took one long shaky breath in, "We spent years trying to figure out what happened to Thaul. Where the people and Stephaney went and what happened to Nori. We've come up completely empty handed. I desperately wanted to have something for you when you came back, and we failed…" Her voice trailed off.

"Daemon's attacked Thaul." Nyline said shortly and Alice looked at her. "Specifically, darkling's attacked Thaul and destroyed everything. I have a memory of it." There was a long pause.

"No." Her voice was hard and unwavering. "We did not attack Thaul. No daemons would have been stupid enough to even attempt an attack. There is no way that's what happened." Nyline nodded.

"I know." She breathed out a sigh, "I just want to know who put the memory in my mind that says that they did." Alice looked at her for a very long moment.

"You have a memory of daemon's attacking Thaul?" Her voice sounded disbelieving, and Nyline nodded. "From who?" Nyline felt her face fall slightly.

"I have no idea." She whispered, her eyes going to Alice's ice blues. "I have memories, memories that I don't remember stealing, ones that I don't have a conscious thought of even copying or them being given to me." Her voice trailed off. "I'm a human recorder," She said finally. "I remember everything that I see because I can just go back and review it, even from when I was a very small baby."

"Would you mind showing me?" Nyline paused for a long moment before she pulled the grain of sand from her mouth and handed it to the queen. She'd shown her a memory, so Nyline would show her one in return. Alice took it without hesitation before she looked into the grain, her ice blues dilating as she did so. When she lowered the it from her eye, she handed it back without looking at Nyline then let out a long breath.

"That is a false memory," She growled before she pressed the heels of her palms into her eyes. "We would never attack Thaul or even think of trying to kill Stephaney or Nori. So, you grew up fearing darkling's? Hm, well, this must be more than just a culture shock for you." Her face screwed up. "Everything just keeps getting more and more complicated. You and Gabriel will always have a slightly difficult relationship, the both of you will constantly challenge each other and may even butt heads sometimes."

"But that's not what the tradition says."

"Tradition?"

"The whole mate tradition, you're supposed to meet your other half, have no secrets, that whole thing. I assumed that also meant that there wouldn't be fights." Alice looked at her for several moments before she started speaking.

"Being mated with the other half of your soul doesn't mean that there will never be arguments. You are still your own person, even if you are half of a whole, you have your own thoughts and ideas. There will be times when you do not agree with your mate, but for the most part being able to see mentally where they are coming from helps avoid fights." There was a very long pause before Alice looked at her, her eyes bright. "Why did you run? Is the thought of staying here in Vaccoon so horrible that you would rather risk your life elsewhere?" Nyline made a grunting noise as she pulled her legs up to her chest and hugged them.

"That's not it. Being here in Vaccoon, being treated like a princess, being given closets of clothing that I'll probably never wear, and a room larger than my living room back home. People are bowing to me and calling me princess. I have maids now. I don't know what to do with any of it. When I found out that now I had to stay here, another choice taken from me by force, I just wanted to escape." She said honestly,

"So why did you stop?"

"I don't care if I jump into things that I know I can't handle and come out a little broken and bruised, but Gabriel?" She twisted her mouth before it set into a frown. "I don't want him to be caught up in all of this. I don't want him to fight daemon's constantly just to try and protect me. I knew if I jumped over this wall, he'd come running after me without a second thought and I didn't want that."

"If you care so much about him, then why are you pushing him away?" Nyline's breath hitched.

"He understands me," She breathed, "Sometimes I feel like he knows I'm going to do something before I even know I'll do it. He calms me down easily and he knows all the right words to say." She pressed her lips into a thin line.

"I don't underst—"

"It's unrealistic." She said suddenly, her hand gripping her elbows tighter. "I never, truly, believed in mates. I always thought that the tradition was a fairy tale, something that you tell children at bedtime." Alice was silent for a long time, waiting, as Nyline gathered her thoughts.

"It just can't be true. The simple ideology that the keepers would actually split a soul in half just to have it live by its other half is just so…." She shook her head before she scoffed. "Then the tale says that they will be born at the exact same time. How would that even happen? Pregnancy has a gestation period, in which the fetus has to have time to grow and develop. In humans its ten months. So, being born early would pose risks of ending up with undeveloped offspring. Depending on how early it comes, it could end in death. A baby can only live outside a mother's body at twenty-four weeks, even then they require high amounts of life support and oxygen because the lungs are one of the last organs to develop. Yes, there are many cases of babies being born before then and surviving but twenty-four weeks is a fifty percent chance, and the rate just drops with less time.

"Then on the other hand, where the woman is pregnant for an extended period of time. There would be a point where the baby would simply be too large for the woman's body to hold anymore. At that point the problem would come from birthing the baby. After it gets so large vaginal births cannot happen. Which would lead to an increase of having c-sections. Those pose their own risks and problems." Nyline sighed glancing at Alice who was looking at her slightly shocked. "What?"

"Those are some very specific details," Alice mused with her brow up.

"I've done research on my own outside of school to try and figure out how the tradition would even end up working out. Unfortunately, the more I looked into how babies develop and the birthing process the more tradition just became a fairy tale." She shrugged, her face falling further.

"Nyline, you are forgetting one of the most basic things. This is the Aether World, not the human world." Nyline cocked her head at her.

"What difference does that even make?" Alice's face turned pensive.

["Take her to the birthing center.��] Nicholas' voice said softly.

"Birthing center?" Nyline asked sounding confused, but then she realized that through the entire conversation she hadn't heard the king speaking. Alice seemed to see the emotions on her face.

"He's just been listening." She uttered before she shrugged. "Yeah I guess that would be the best way to show you, then I would have something to explain with."

"But what is it?"

"It is where all of our children are born," Alice said simply as she stood off the wall. "I'll explain more when I get there, if that's alright." Nyline hesitated, her eyes going back out to the other side of the wall before they went back to Alice. "We will never force you to stay here. You can come and go as you please. You are not our hostage." Thinking for just a few more seconds she stood and looked at Alice.

"Why?" Alice made a questioning 'mhm' noise. "If you know my real name then why did you let me introduce myself as Nyline Swift?" Alice's face broke into a small smile.

"I wasn't going to call you out right there on the airstrip." She said shortly.

"But you knew I was lying."

"Have you ever gone by Aurea Bellrose in your life?" Alice asked softly and Nyline shook her head. "When Stephaney told me that Jonathan would be taking you into hiding, I knew that he would end up changing your name. It was rather a given."

"But uncle John never went by anything else." Alice gave her a pointed look. "Jonathan Neverwell isn't his real name is it?"

"You already knew that, didn't you?" Nyline sighed as she nodded slightly.

"Though he took the memory back of what it is. I remember getting it when I was very small, but then I don't have it, so he must have fought me for it." She sounded pensive. Alice rose a single brow at her.

"Fought you for it?" Nyline blushed softly.

"Baby me wasn't the nicest when he tried to take memories back." Alice only laughed before her face sobered and she smiled.

"I���m sure those are some of his favorite memories." Nyline laughed loudly.

"I don't think fighting with a three-month-old over your own memories is going to be something your fond of."

"Some of the craziest things in life end up being the best stories. Now, let's get going before the sun gets any higher." She went to the edge of the wall and jumped, using her movement skill as she hit the earth, rolled, and looked back up at Nyline. Nyline followed suit, following the women's movements with ease. They turned together and started back towards town.

"We should probably run this or we're not going to get back until later tonight." Alice spoke sounding pensive. "I'll shift and run us up to town."

"I can run just fine." Nyline looked slightly shocked at the thought of riding the queen's shadow form.

"I'm not saying that you can't, I'm just saying that it'll make it a little faster." Then without waiting for another response she shifted and Nyline was looking down at the sleek fox-looking darkling in front of her. She was large, though not quite as big as Gabriel, but it was her markings that caught Nyline's attention the most. The queen had electric blue streaks throughout her moving shadow like fur, but the thing was when she moved around the shifting darkness made it look as though she had lightning streaking across her body. The queen nudged her several times with her large nose before Nyline climbed up onto her back. She was surprised to find that the darkling's actually had fur. The moving shadows blanketed over the top of it, as if the shadows were a top layer and the fur the bottom.

When Alice took off Nyline reached forward and grabbed ahold of some of the fur so that she didn't topple off. She was fast, closing the long distance between the wall and the castle in half of the time it took them to get down there earlier. When they reached the west gate, she didn't bother stopping as she walked right through, then turned to start down the street towards town. It wasn't until they were outside of one of the large skyscrapers that Nyline got off and Alice shifted looking up at the building. The piece of wood that hung outside the door had the words "Public Birthing Center" etched in a curly script.

"Follow me," Alice spoke as she pushed the door open and Nyline followed her in. There were two lady's sitting at a counter that set their books down when the bell rang. They both stood before they bowed.

"What can we do for you today, your highness?" They stood and smiled at her. Nyline looked at the two, knowing instantly that they were mates as they started wondering to each other why the queen would show up so early in the morning, their inner conversation bouncing back and forth with ease.

"Is there anyone else inside?"

"No, ma'am," They spoke together.

"Alright we won't be long, I just want to show the princess a few things," Alice gracefully gestured to me and their eyes grew wide.

"Please take your time," They spoke together again and Nyline could hear the frantic chatter between the two. Alice turned without another word and Nyline rushed to keep up.

"So where exactly are we?"

"This is where everyone in Vaccoon comes to produce children."

"So, like a hospital?"

"Not in the way that I believe you are thinking." Alice opened the door to the side and went through it. Nyline stopped in her tracks as she looked around the large room. There were rows upon rows of what Nyline could only describe as some type of pod that she'd seen in a SiFi movie. On the top there was a very large circular glass screen that covered what she could only guess would be a type of bed. The machine had several other different devices on them, but she had no idea what she would even call them. Alice walked up to the nearest one and looked down into it and Nyline looked down for the first time to see a sleeping baby, its eyes closed. She felt her breath pause. It wasn't breathing.

"What?" Her voice was alarmed as she pressed her hand against the glass looking down at the perfect little baby. "Is it dead?" Alice laughed.

"Of course not. Let me explain. In the Aether world we have children differently. As you've probably noticed that we have many different types of mate types: male/female, male/male, female/female. If we were to follow the human way of reproduction, a good majority of our citizens would not be able to have children with the other half of their soul. This was solved a long time ago by birthing pods. You see these birthing pods take the aether of the parents into it and create a child. The Aether of the parents act as their own type of reproduction materials inside, allowing for the features and body to form. As Gabriel told you on the wall earlier, we are all made from aether, formed from aether, and when we die our aether goes back into the world to be recycled. You cannot move a birthing pod outside of the aether world, because the pod sustains itself off of the world's aether and removing it would cause the child's aether to disperse, therefore killing it."

"Okay pause for just a minute," Alice looked slightly shocked. "Do genes not exist here? What about dominate or recessive traits? DNA? RNA?" Alice cocked her head to the side.

"I only know a small amount of human science, so bear with me here. Genes do exist, it is contained within the aether that originally forms the child. I'm assuming the dominate and recessive traits are features as well as any type of special skill that a child is born with?" Nyline nodded, "We do have those, I believe that they simply work slightly different than they do in the human world." She paused, her eyes going closed before Dijana started speaking in the back of her mind. Nyline paused listening as she started reading off definitions from what sounded like a school science book. "Okay, in the human world traits are expressed when two of the same gene appear and match the others. Dominant will always show whereas recessive will only show if both parents give them that gene?" Nyline nodded. "Okay, so that type of thing happens in the human world, only it's different. You don't have to have two of the same gene in order for a trait to appear and in many cases of rare skills, it doesn't even come down the blood line. It is common for people to simply have random skills that haven't been seen in their family before. Those come directly from the Aether world itself. Now, we're half-bloods here, so half of us come from the daemon world. Those skills come from blood in which each of the parents will donate to the new offspring. That brings over more genes and skills. Daemon skills are usually only seen through direct offspring but again it isn't uncommon for a skill not to show up for generations, it just depends on the blood given. As for RNA and DNA…"

"That's alright, I think I understand for the most part." Nyline whispered looking around at the large room of birthing pods. "So why aren't they breathing?"

"The definition of life here in the aether world is the moment that a being receives a soul. You see, when I child receives their soul, then they take their first breath and their heart will start to beat, becoming a living thing."

"So, it's up to the keepers as to when children are born?" Alice scrunched up her face.

"Yes and no, the keepers are just the keepers of the souls, the guards and over watchers. In truth, the soul is who decides who they want to be. They get to decide if they want to be a part of our world or the thousands other's that exist. Here, in the Aether world, they will split into two and it is them who decide their vessels, it's just the keeper's job to deliver them, and the reapers job to retrieve them once their vessels no longer exist." Nyline looked across the large expanse of pods and all the children that they contained.

"Can people of the aether world not reproduce like humans anymore?"

"We can, there are certain problems that arise when a woman decides to physically have a child. Our bodies are strong, yes, however over the generations many women's bodies are no longer strong enough to carry a child for ten months. The child feeds off the women's aether instead of the worlds and it can drain and a woman excessively, causing health issues. Then, there will always be the problem that any child born of the womb will not be born with a mate, they will receive a whole soul. Which isn't horrible, however many children born of the womb face a life of loneliness. Often will never find someone, especially in Vaccoon, the chances of having a half without a mate is very rare."

"Why is that?"

"Mate sickness," Nyline cocked her head remembering what Gabriel had told her about mate sickness just last night.

"That's when one mate dies and the other goes mad?" Alice nodded.

"It is much easier for people of the aether world to survive without a mate, however in Vaccoon with our daemon blood, people lose themselves and never come back." Nyline felt like that explanation was short for the topic that it covered but her mind was also reeling with all the other facts that Alice had just told her.

"So," Nyline started speaking again after several minutes of walking around and looking down into the pods. "Children simply stay in these pods until they are gifted a soul." Alice nodded.

"Then their parents will be notified, you see this light?" At the very front of the pod by the baby's feet there was a small little bulb. "When two children are gifted souls the lights will light up the same color, as well as the time of the soul being gifted will appear on the screen to your left. Making it easy to find the mate."

"What happened when they are from different kingdoms?" Alice paused.

"I think other kingdom's have the same lights; the system was the same in Thaul. Stephaney told me once that it can be difficult to find a mate, in that case the parents generally just wait until their child can connect to the other mate and figure out where they are based off that. Mates are kept together as much as possible growing up so that they can experience the world together." Nyline nodded a couple of times.

"You said mom said that? Is that not the case here?"

"For the most part, half-bloods are only mated with other half-bloods. So, anyone in Vaccoon will be mated to another member of Vaccoon because we are the only kingdom in the aether world that has half-bloods." Nyline scrunched up her face at that looking up at Alice.

"Then how did I get mated with Gabriel?" Her face was set, and Alice smiled at her softly.

"Are you completely human, Nyline?" Nyline cocked her head to the side and looked at Alice with confusion. "Why not think on it and we can talk about this further at a different time." Alice paused her eyes spacing for just a second before she refocused on Nyline. "Does this help you understand why you have to stay in the aether world? Stephaney cast that spell on you before you were even born in order to mask your aether. So, you were never born with the correct amount of aether in your body. With your levels attempting to stabilize your body, leaving the aether world could cause it to disperse--"

"And without aether in my body I'll die?" Nyline finished and Alice nodded. Nyline made a frustrated noise in the back of her throat.

"But why would she cast that spell on me to begin with?" Frustration coated her voice as she spoke.

"To protect and hide you." Alice said shortly.

"And you can't tell me from what?" Alice shook her head, her face falling. "All of this is really frustrating." She grumbled turning her back on Alice as she looked around the room. "Was I born from an aether pod?"

"Yes," Nyline sighed, which meant that she was officially from the Aether world, however what had she meant when she asked if she was completely human? She was from a human kingdom in the aether world, why wouldn't she be human. Then at the same time if she were completely human, then why did she have daemon skills? But she didn't have a shadow form. She had never shifted in her life.

"Do darklings get their shadow form at an early age?"

"Yes, children can shift as soon as they are gifted with a soul." Nyline lifted her thumb and bit down on the skin. She needed to ask the right questions, she just didn't know what exactly they were, but she had to be careful not to end up accidently killing the queen or king.

"Can you answer yes or no questions?" She shook her head, "Can I ask questions and read your body posture?" Alice paused thinking on it.

["That's a possibility,"] Nicholas spoke ever so softly from the back of Alice's mind. ["However, we'll have to be careful because the magic might decide that it is a form of a yes or no question."] Nyline bit down harder on the skin around her nail and tasted blood, looking down at her thumb she rubbed it off on her pants.

"I don't want to put you in any danger, but at the same time I want answers. How do I do this?" She said shortly turning to look at the queen head on.

["Do you need the answers right away?"] Nicholas asked.

"Demanding answers in this exact moment isn't going to get me anywhere. I see that. However, there are so many questions. I have to figure out what happened to my mother, Thaul, and see if I can even track down dad."

"Are you unable to live your life without knowing?" Alice asked softly and Nyline sighed.

��No. It's just, I would rather not go to my grave without ever figuring it out. It would haunt me in my next life."

["We have been trying to figure out what happened to your parents and Thaul since it happened."] Nicholas spoke honestly, ["We haven't been able to find even the smallest hint of a clue."]

"So, then what do you expect me to do?" She whispered.

"What do you want to do?" Alice asked her voice soft and Nyline felt her mouth go dry.

"I don't know," She uttered her eyes looking around at the room again, feeling how still the entire place was bothered her slightly. All of these babies were just empty shells waiting for a soul so that they could come into the world.

["So why not just stay here until you can figure that out?"] Nyline felt her hands ball into fists. A gloved hand landed on one of them and she looked over to see the ice blues that matched her mate so closely.

"Like I said before, you are not a prisoner. You can stay here until you figure out what you want to do."

"I want to graduate from high school," Nyline said in a rush, "I wanted to walk down that aisle with my diploma. I was supposed to be valedictorian." She stressed and when Alice looked at her blankly, she sighed. "It means that I was the top of my class, which is saying something seeing as I'm several years ahead of the kids in my own grade and my class has over two thousand students. I worked hard for that and now it's just gone." She shook her head looking down at her hands. "I understand now why I can't go back, but it doesn't make any of this any easier."

["What were you going to do after you finished your schooling?"] Nicholas' voice was even as he asked.

"I was going to go to college. I'd already applied for so many grants and scholarships."

["Yes, but for what exactly?"] Nyline's face fell.

"I don't know. My marks are so high that I could get into any program that I wanted, but I hadn't decided what to do yet."

"You know that you can go to school here as well." Nyline raised a brow at her.

"Most of the knowledge that I learned in the human world doesn't apply here," She shook her head looking around the room.

"That's true, but you can always learn more." Alice said still holding her hand. "Just because you're in Vaccoon doesn't mean that you have to give up on everything." Nyline looked up into her face before hers crumpled.

"I guess you're right," Her shoulders slumped further, her mind going to her uncle and how she would never get that photo of them with her in valedictorian robes and her diploma, him standing with his arm around her shoulders as they grinned up at the camera.

"Come on. Why don't we head back to the castle before the streets get too crowded?" Alice smiled at her and Nyline nodded, rubbing one side of her face.

Once out into the street Alice still hadn't let go of her hand as they walked up the path towards the castle.

"I know that I've dropped a lot onto you this morning," Alice said as they entered the garden and stopped turning to face her and finally dropping the hand that she'd been holding. "I'd like to discuss one last topic with you before you head to your room. I want you to consider getting a scout team." Nyline's mouth fell open.

"Excuse me, what?"

"Scouts of your own." Alice repeated and Nyline looked at her slightly shocked. "They would not only be your guards, but they would also be your friends. I know that your mother would have been rather jaded about you growing up without them and I also think that you would benefit from having them around you."

"I don't need more babysitters. I already have two that I have no idea what to do with, I don't need four more people." Nyline said shortly, her arms crossing over her chest as she looked to the side. A pair of red eyes caught her attention and she looked at them for several seconds before she turned back to Alice as she scoffed.

"They aren't babysitters. They are your friends, your trusted council. Unsolicited advice usually when you least want it," one of her scouts, Nyline thought it was Ezra, laughed in her mind. "They will give you advice when things get difficult, be there for you during the hard times, and celebrate the good times with you." Nyline shook her head.

"Scouts are people who you grow up with, experience life from a young age with."

"It's true that you will never get the time back that you've lost, however, you can always make new ties."

"Being a scout is a job for life. I would never want to bind someone to me for the rest of their life." Nyline shook her head again.

"But what if they want to?" Alice raised her brow and Nyline's face set in determination.

"No one is going to voluntarily become my scout." In a completely serious tone that made Alice's face turn hard.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that."

"I am. I haven't even been able to make or keep friends in general and you think that I'm just going to believe you that people actually want to be around me?" Nyline said in a final tone.

"That was in the human world."

"The only difference here is my title, and I don't want people tying themselves to me for life just because I'm a princess."

"Why is it so hard for you to understand that people might actually want to be around you?" Nyline raised a brow at her realizing that she'd been listening to the conversation that her and Gabriel had been having.

"Because, no one has ever wanted to be around me." Nyline replied flatly, her arms crossing over her chest tightly. "Not even my uncle." The last part was a mutter and she wasn't sure if Alice had heard.

"You know that isn't true," Alice's voice was soft as she reached out and grabbed Nyline's hand once more. She could tell that the queen was grasping at straws to try and convince her otherwise. It pained Nyline to feel how much she wanted Alice to believe her in that moment, but she just couldn't. After a few seconds she pulled her hand away from the other woman.

"I'm going back to my room." Dropping into a curtsy she turned and headed towards the wall that she'd gone down hours before.

"I'm going to have Gabriel and Janti start looking into potential scouts for you." Alice called after her. "I think that once you have them, you'll be happy that you do." Nyline didn't turn as she just sighed, feeling her shoulders slumping slightly as she kept walking.