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"I'm sorry, what?" Kymalin asked just to make sure she was hearing it right the first time.
Marin swallowed a lungful of breath, putting up a finger like she was silencing Kymalin. "Just you wait," she said. "I'll tell you in a while what I've discovered."
"Why are you even panting?" April crossed her arms.
"They almost got me," Marin looked over her shoulder like she was expecting something to leap out from there. "I stepped on the wrong part of the floor. I ran all the way to the entrance so they wouldn't know I was working for someone by using one of our most well-known transport spells."
"Shadow gates?" April raised her eyebrow at the space where Marin's spell had last been. Kymalin whirled to April to ask a question but the air sprite shook her head sternly at her. The priority was Marin, for now. The half-blood has some sort of information that shook her. It's worthy of Kymalin's attention, at least.
The half-blood staggered to a patch of dirt before plopping down upon it. She ran a hand on her forehead before wiping it on her trousers. The cloth came away wet. "I went into that cavern where the brownies disappeared to," Marin said. "There was a long fall down. Then tons of walls...made from ice."
April knitted her eyebrows, reflecting the growing confusion in Kymalin's mind. "Ice?"
Marin nodded. "Big blocks of 'em," her half-blood accent crept into her tone. She was prone to that when she's flustered or when feeling a surge of intense emotions. "I went further and I discovered that Ice Sprites are still alive and they are below us all this time. They didn't go extinct. They went into hiding and have built their own civilization underground."
Kymalin gestured at Marin's huffing form. "You're like this because...?"
Marin raised her eyes to Kymalin's and Kymalin saw doubt creeping into it. No, not now, Marin. Don't let the doubt cloud her resolve. Not now. "June and the others made it inside," the half-blood licked her lips like it was suddenly dry. "They were welcomed because apparently, the Alkaran heir is with them. Then, I saw a bunch of other people. I saw the Virtakios—"
"Hold up," Kymalin waved her palms in Marin's face. "The Virtakios is right here, with us..."
"Except it's not," April's gaze was somewhere to Kymalin's right. That's the general direction where they propped the Virtakios's sleeping form. Kymalin clicked her tongue. These fools. What was wrong with them? She turned, ready to refute their claims, when her eyes landed on the spot by the tree with an orange trunk. Her breath hitched in her throat.
Xanthy was gone.
Her form was nowhere to be found. When June threw the Virtakios at Kymalin, her first thought was why? Why would the brownies demand that June let go of Xanthy? Why did June let go? Unless...
"Is it an illusion, then?" Kymalin turned back to Marin.
The half-blood rolled her shoulders. "I didn't get close enough to find out," she twiddled with her fingers. "I stepped on a trigger right there and the nearby guards went off at me. Luckily, I was able to dispatch a few of them before any more could join in. They wouldn't remember much of the incident and I made sure to leave no trace of a scuffle."
