I was glad I got to hold a fluffy snow leopard cub on our hike, because the tension was damn near unbearable!

With Freya leading the way through the rugged mountainside, the other three of us followed in excruciating silence. For as chatty as Titania had been earlier, now she was surprisingly tight-lipped. Viela wasn’t her usual self either with an uneasy expression across her face. Even the young cub in my arms could tell that something was up. Arwen glanced around at each of us, like she was trying to figure out why we were all acting so strange.

As much as I wanted to trust Alice, I couldn’t shake off the feeling that Titania was right to suspect her. For a while now, I had been wanting to know more about her and where she really came from. And to think that she might have been from Earth all along, just like Titania and me…

What would happen when we found Alice? What was I supposed to say?

I caught Titania glancing at me again. “There’s still something I’m wondering about your theory,” I said. “We don’t have any of the Demon King’s soul fragments. We don’t even know where exactly to find them. If Alice really was hiding the fact that she’s an Outworlder for some reason, how would she be planning to betray us?”

“Yeah, I’ve been thinking about that,” Titania replied. “Alice is supposed to be out gathering those murkthistle herb seeds you need right now, isn’t she?”

“Right.”

“Those are really hard to come by since the plants only grow out here in the Dourland. That makes them incredibly rare and expensive.”

“Right.”

“And that bag was getting full, like this might be the last day she needed to be out here gathering. And now she’s all by herself.”

“Right… Wait, are you really suggesting that she—no, that’s not like her! Not at all! I can’t imagine Alice would ever do something like that!”

Titania frowned. “I’m just saying it’s a possibility,” she sighed. “And… I didn’t want to admit this, but I’ve been cheated before. I can tell when something is up. That’s why we need to find her, because if she’s already run off…”

“Do you really think she could make it back to the city on her own?”

“Well, we don’t know what else she could be hiding from us. If Alice is an Outworlder, that means she has a Divine Gift, too. We have to be prepared for anything.”

Damn, she just brought up another scarily good point… “Then we really have to find her, and fast.”

Would Alice really try to escape back to the capital and sell those seeds—or make her own deal with the wicked witch Evelina? I still couldn’t imagine she would try to betray us like that! But then again, if she really had been from Earth this whole time…

Who could say for sure? Maybe anything was possible.

If we found her—no, when we found her, maybe we wouldn’t have to bring this up. Maybe Alice would run up to us smiling like her usual self, and we could just pretend like everything was alright, and Titania had just been way too paranoid about all this.

I found myself hugging Arwen a little tighter anyway.

We all nearly jumped when Freya suddenly froze in place, holding up a hand for us to stop. The snow leopard spirit quickly motioned for us to take cover behind a nearby bush, her other cub Sasha still in her arms.

My heart skipped a beat when I spotted a distant speck of raven-colored hair and familiar robes that I knew belonged to Alice. The young witch was busy harvesting seeds from a leafy plant with a dark, inky flower.

“Wait, why are you hiding too?” I whispered to Freya. “Shouldn’t you go up and say hi or something?”

Freya blushed. “I don’t know, you just wanted me to bring you to Alice and I did! Aren’t you the one who wanted to talk to her?”

“That’s… forget it. Titania, you’re up.”

“Wh-What?” she stammered. “Beryl, you’re the party leader! You can handle this.”

“Oh come on! After all that talk earlier, you don’t know even what to say either?! Okay then, what about you Viela? …Ugh, don’t just shrug at me!”

We all fell silent at the sight of Alice finishing her job with the first murkthistle plant, now moving closer toward us and a much bigger plant. The four of us—well, six including the cubs—had decent cover at the moment. But if Alice looked a little too closely at the bush in front of us… this was going to get even more awkward.

The tall plant with its giant, prickly green leaves practically dwarfed the young witch standing before it. With a small knife in hand, Alice leaned closer reaching up to its flower overhead—then recoiled as if struck by something.

“I told her to be careful around the big ones,” Freya grumbled.

Alice sucked on a finger like she was nursing a bleeding wound from a thorn, or maybe one of those dangerously prickly leaves.

“This doesn’t feel right,” I whispered, setting Arwen down. “We should all just stand up at the same time, and gently ask her to come back with us.”

“Wait, just another minute!” Titania said.

“Why?”

“…Call it intuition.”

I gritted my teeth and went back to watching. This doesn’t feel right!

Alice stared up at the big inky flower above, her indigo eyes practically burning with a new determination. Try as she might, even standing on her toes, her small knife could barely reach the flower and its precious seeds within.

Suddenly, Alice looked all around like she was trying to make sure no one was around watching her. A moment later, she shifted her rucksack on her shoulders, rummaged around inside it for a while… and pulled out a much bigger knife.

No, it was a dagger. A beautiful, flawlessly smooth, obsidian dagger.

Titania startled me with a hand on my shoulder. “Beryl, that’s—!”

“Yeah, I know.”

My heart sank. I didn’t want to believe what my eyes were seeing. Since Alice had one of those, that could only mean one thing: if she didn’t get it from an Outworlder, then…

I found myself standing up and walking over. I heard Titania calling out to me in a harsh whisper, but I ignored her.

Alice had sliced off the head of the plant so her harvesting job would be easier. She was so preoccupied that it took her a minute to notice my presence.

“B-Beryl?” she gasped.

“Hey, Alice.”

Alice looked around again, confused and worried. “Why… What are you doing here?”

I took a deep breath. “Listen, I have to ask you something. That dagger, did the Demon King give that to you?”

She fumbled with the dagger in her hand for a second, like she was trying to hide the blade. In the end, she relented.

“Yes.”

I gulped. “Are you really an Outworlder too?”

Her eyes fell to the ground.

“Yes.”

Damn…

“Why?” I asked as gently as I could. “I don’t care whether you’re from Gadea or Earth; it’s fine to me either way! Why didn’t you tell us? We could have talked about so many more things together! Why didn’t you tell me?”

Alice bit her lip, silently mulling over how to respond.

“Not you too…” she whispered, then raised her voice. “Why does it even matter? You wouldn’t understand.”

“Hey, come on! I thought we were closer than this!”

All at once, her cheeks flushed red, her eyes flaring up with anger I never knew she had.

“Are we?” she nearly shouted. “That’s not fair. You never told me what happened that one night, the second day we met! Or the night after that! You never told me how you got your dress, or your new clothes, or how you really got to meet Viela, or… or…!”

Freya spared me from having to scramble for a response by stepping up beside me.

“Freya, you lied!” Alice cried. “You promised me!”

“I was worried about you!” Freya said, crossing her arms. “The sun is going down soon. You should have been heading back by now!”

Alice shrunk back. “I was just… this was the last one…”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Titania had joined us, giving her lance a good slam into the dirt.

“Alice, I’ve met all kinds of different people,” she said. “In this world and on Earth. What kind of person were you before?”

When Titania didn’t get a response, she clenched her lance even harder with one hand and thrust out the other.

“You still have that bag of seeds, don’t you? Hand it over.”

Alice fidgeted with the straps of her rucksack. “No.”

“Why not?”

“Beryl… Beryl trusted me with this.”

“Well I don’t!” Titania snapped. “Hand over the bag, Alice.”

“Titania, just calm down,” I said. “We can talk this over.”

“You still don’t get it. If she can’t explain herself, how can we not expect the worst? I don’t trust her!”

I could feel the tension from our standoff in the air. How did this happen?

“Alice, I won’t judge you,” I tried saying calmly. “I just want to—we just want to know. What are you after? If this is about your previous life, what happened back on Earth?”

It hurt to watch the storm of emotions darken across her face.

“Why is it always about this ‘Earth’ with you people?” Alice finally said. “How should I know? I don’t know! I DON’T KNOW!”

Her voice grew frantic the moment she lost it.

“I don’t know anything about Earth, and I never will!”

Alice took off running into the woods, tears flowing from her eyes.

What? She… wasn’t from…?

“Titania, why the hell didn’t you tell me there are Outworlders here… who aren’t from Earth?”

“Do you know how rare that is?!” she fired back. “And that’s no reason to hide it from us!”

No, maybe that was exactly the reason why. Fuck!

Viela rubbed my shoulder. “Beryl, you should go after her. You’re the one she will want to see.”

I had some doubts about that, but I wasn’t about to back down now.

“She’s already out of sight,” I sighed, “and I don’t want to get lost chasing after her. What should I do?”

Viela wiggled her fox ears at me. Really…?

A second later, I shifted into my half-fox form. Even with my newly-heightened senses, I didn’t notice anything unusual—at first.

Breathing in, I caught a scent that was different from the normal forest smells around us. There was something else in the air that smelled like fresh berries and cream… just like the aroma of Alice’s perfume potion.

Of course!

“Beryl!” Titania said. “I… Uh, I guess we’ll clear things up later. Right now, you have to hurry. It’s seriously getting dark, and the dourlings are going to be out soon. The monsters target people who are alone!”

“Don’t worry, I came prepared,” I replied before taking off running. “I brought my own dagger with me!”

“No, wait!” Titania shouted after me. “If you see the pitch-black scales and yellow eyes, don’t try to fight them! Just run!”

I couldn’t blame her for underestimating me; I never did tell her about my cloak’s enchantment against sharp attacks or my dagger’s killing curse! But there was not a second to waste now.

I needed to find Alice one last time.