The low wooden gate of Juno's garden greeted us with a rusty creak when Kaelen pushed it open. Peering out from my new uncle's broad frame, I saw Juno hunched over the well at the center, peering inside. Her gnarled staff pulsed with soft white light, and a bucket of water floated out, drifting toward her hut. Her garden always reminded me of home—of Mama's garden. The same dry, clean air. The same swathe of colorful flowers.

  "Oh... Guardian," Juno's voice drifted across the garden like a breeze over fallen autumn leaves. "The sun isn't up yet."

  I stepped out from behind Kaelen and approached her.

  "Ah...Welcome, little Prince."

  Her gentle eyes glistened in the soft light. A slight tilt of her head. A warm smile.

  She was waiting.

  "Grandma Juno... I..." My hands gripped my weathered royal pajamas, "Want to ask you something."

  Juno hummed softly. Then she tapped her staff against the grass. A breeze arose, passing me in a gentle caress before parting the bead curtains of her hut's entrance.

  "Come inside, my dear," She turned and padded inside, her tail swaying with grandmother-knowing.

  The explanation about Nathan... About what it is between Natalie and I awaits me inside. I glanced back at Kaelen. He stood with arms crossed, but gave me a nod. We entered together.

  The hut was as I remembered—an alchemist's domain and a shaman's sanctuary. Racks of potions and ingredients. The cauldron. Messy tables.

  I sat on the pillow mound in the corner, near the table where Natalie and I had ground Alistaff. Kaelen rested against the wrinkled bark wall. Juno poured water from an old copper kettle into a small porcelain cup.

  She handed it to me. Inside, pale greenish liquid.

  "Drink, dear. It's tea. It will prepare you."

  I obeyed. Slightly bitter, but soothing.

  Another tap of her staff. A chair floated over. She sat.

  And waited, holding me with that same gentle gaze.

  My chest knotted. I glanced at Kaelen—he gave a faint smile and nod. But opening my mouth felt impossible.

  I swallowed hard.

  "Nathan..." My jaw trembled. "I asked Natalie about Nathan... And she..."

  I couldn't finish. The image of her climbing away from me, desperate to escape, flashed through my mind. I squeezed my eyes shut.

  "Natalie's older brother," Juno said softly, sadness threading through her words. "He was a bright cub, full of energy. But... he died of fever two years ago."

  "How...?"

  Juno shook her head. "A fever swept through the village. Many children fell ill. Nathan was fine that morning—carrying Natalie on his back, playing at their secret waterfall."

  The sadness showed plain on her face. "Then he said he felt tired. Went home to rest..."

  The air thickened. I breathed harder.

  Juno gazed out the window, gripping her staff close. "Most of the children recovered. But Nathan..." Her voice caught. "We did everything we could. Natalie and Ollette never left his side."

  She closed her eyes. Her lips quivered. I heard Kaelen take a deep breath.

  "But he never woke up."

  "No...!"

  A painful vision seized me—Natalie crying over my body. Ollette beside her, face buried in her hands.

  Then Mama's face flashed.

  Her voice echoed: "Mommy love you."

  Natalie...

  Natalie's voice came after Mama's.

  When I grow up, I want to become a healer.

  So no one will have to suffer anymore!

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  We'll go on adventures together! We'll help people all over!

  This was the core of her pain.

  "I saw him," I breathed. "In a dream."

  Juno's head lifted.

  "We were standing in a flower field." My hand drifted unconsciously to my heart. "He... he had my face."

  "Did he speak?"

  I shook my head. "He smiled at me. But I could see he was sad."

  Juno stared at the ground, then past me to Kaelen. Her tail swished. No one spoke.

  After a long silence, she drew a breath.

  "You two look exactly alike, dear prince." Juno's silver tail flicked softly. "When you came to Ibis, everyone was frightened. We thought Nathan had returned in a different form. We didn't know what the jungle meant by it."

  The pieces crashed together in my head. Natalie lost Nathan to sickness. I lost Mama and Papa, and Lumina, to Helel.

  Two worlds meeting.

  Not knowing what the other held.

  Two children... reaching out...

  The knot in my chest morphed into a wave of fear. I looked like someone dear to everyone in Ibis.

  "Did..." The words stuck in my throat. It hurt just trying to speak. "...Did you all let me stay because of who I look like?"

  Juno's eyes drifted to the window, to the distance beyond. Her shoulders rose in a slow breath.

  "Without a doubt, yes, dear." She kept her gaze outward. "Ibis is closed off. We were wary of the outside world."

  Kaelen shifted. His vest rustled against bark.

  "Everyone was afraid of what you represented. But a wailing child covered in blood cannot be ignored."

  All I could feel was the warmth of tea in my hand and the roughness of a chip on the cup's edge. But it didn't help the abyss opening inside me.

  I was tolerated...

  I couldn't look at Juno. Not even Kaelen. So I stared at the ground. At the tea.

  "So..." My jaw shook. "When Natalie came and sat with me on the rock... it was Nathan she was seeing. Right?"

  A very long silence.

  Juno's ears flattened against her head.

  "Natalie carried a grief too big for someone her age." She turned to face me now. "Dear Herald, we know yours is bigger. But when we're drowning in grief, everything gets swallowed up until only that monster remains."

  A gentle wind entered from outside, stirring the bead curtains. Juno's eyes held mine—the weight of the past and truth in every crease.

  "Yes. Your face was what started it all."

  I clenched my teeth to stop myself from flinching.

  "So if I didn't have—"

  Juno raised her palm. It was so hard trying to bottle the pain. It hurt so much.

  "Listen, my dear."

  Her voice returned to that gentle autumn breeze—not sad or heavy anymore.

  "What made her return with the potion?"

  "My... Nathan's face."

  "What made her stay with you for so long? Letting go of Sylvester and Moy to be with you?"

  "What—"

  Juno, are you trying to hurt me more?

  "It's his face, what else?!" I nearly shouted.

  "But did she try to make you like Nathan?"

  I jerked back, staring at the old Felid shaman. She leaned forward, holding me with that unwavering gentle gaze.

  "What... what do you mean?" My voice shook, uncertain.

  "Nathan loved to climb trees and swing on vines. He climbed higher than any other Felid boy—even Sylvester. He explored the forbidden parts of the jungle, much to Ollette and Morgan's dismay."

  She smiled. "Did Natalie ever ask you to do any of that?"

  I blinked.

  No...?

  Natalie never asked me to climb trees. Instead, she carried me. She walked with me on the ground when she could have been up in the branches.

  I shook my head.

  "Did Natalie ever tell you stories about Nathan? Or hope you would become like him?"

  I shook my head again. "N-no. She never told me about Nathan."

  Because you're my friend, Herald.

  Natalie's tearful voice echoed in my head.

  "I tried to ask her once... When Sylvester threw fruit at us because she kept hanging out with me... She cried, but..."

  The cup rattled in my hands.

  "She said I was her friend."

  "I didn't ask further. I was scared... scared I might break whatever good I'd found..."

  Juno rose from her chair and knelt before me. She set the rattling cup aside and placed her wrinkled hands over mine.

  "Dear prince." Her voice reminded me of Mama's comfort. "Your face may have opened the door. But who was it that she called to?"

  All the times I played with Natalie. Her infectious laughter. When she sat beside me after nightmares. When everything became too much...

  Never once did she call me Nathan.

  She called me Herald.

  If you won't have him, then I'll be with him!

  My eyes burned.

  "When you threw yourself at the Wolf, who were you thinking of?"

  I opened my mouth. Nothing came out. Then, with difficulty:

  "Natalie."

  Not Mama. Not Papa. Not Shana.

  Natalie.

  Juno's smile deepened, her ancient eyes warming.

  "You have chosen her, just as she has chosen you."

  She looked beyond me to Kaelen, sitting against the wall with arms crossed. He held our gaze briefly before looking away. Juno chuckled.

  "Just as Kaelen has chosen you."

  An embarrassing sound escaped me. Before I could control myself, tears poured and my body stopped listening, breaking into sobs and hiccups. I wanted to curl into myself, but instead I buried myself in Juno's embrace. She held me like Mama would whenever I cried. And I felt Kaelen's rough hands on my back too.

  All I could hear was my own crying.

  A feeling I hadn't felt in so long began returning.

  The feeling of home.

  Home.

  Here, in this nowhere.

  When I'd calmed down, Juno spoke again.

  "Healing is a messy journey. There will always be Nathan's shadow when Natalie looks at you, and your Mother's shadow when you look at Ollette. But what matters most in love is not how it started."

  Juno's hand rumpled my hair.

  "It is what it becomes."

  The words hung in the air. The golden morning light seemed brighter suddenly, and I could see every speck of dust drifting through it. Even the smell of her hut became sweeter.

  It gave me hope.

  Juno returned to her chair, wood creaking softly. "But now, what will both of you do with the truth? Now that you both know?"

  "The choice rests in both your hands, Herald." Kaelen's voice was quiet but resolute, his arms resting on his knees.

  I looked from him—my newfound uncle, my father's best friend and most trusted right-hand—to Grandma Juno, the kind shaman who'd been quietly looking after me since I arrived. Who gave me the potion that healed my voice. Who was now my guide through this sea of ghosts and confusion.

  "I understand... Grandma. Uncle."

  "You'll make a fine king one day, Little Prince." She rose slowly with her staff's help, lips curving into a smile. "But now, you have a quest before you."

  "A quest?"

  Juno didn't answer immediately. She merely chuckled.

  And I could tell she was up to some mischief... from the way she laughed.