Corrin took a few steps away from the mirror and fell on the bed. If he were half-Anees, the other half could only be one thing: Shem.

  But that would have to mean that Lukas was dead. Lukas couldn’t be dead; Corrin knew that Lukas was alive. He was alive last he checked. But who knows how much time had passed since that moment? Corrin instinctively checked to see if the shard was there, but his hand passed through where it would normally be. He began to frantically check everywhere.

  Corrin stood up quickly from the bed and walked over to the door. He saw only now that he was wearing a slightly small tunic and trousers as they rubbed against parts of his skin. Corrin reached and swung open the door quickly. Ahead of him was a brick hallway, which Corrin envisioned was beyond the door.

  Doors stood only on the left side, but Corrin was more interested in the double doors at the end of it. He started walking quickly and meaningfully. Yet, the hall stretched on, and he quickly began running. He wanted out of wherever he was; he felt trapped. Just as the thoughts got worse, he got to the double door and banged it open, hurting his shoulder slightly in the process. When the door boomed open, dozens of faces suddenly turned towards it. In front of him was a large main hall with pillars on either side. To his right was a double door twice the size of that which he had just opened, with dozens of soldiers walking through.

  There was silence for a few seconds too long before a man Corrin hoped to never see again walked past the guards, Axel.

  “Corrin, it’s good to see you awake.”

  Axel set a hand on Corrin’s shoulder, which he instantly pushed off. He hadn’t seen Axel since he started his training all those months ago. Corrin looked around and at all the faces. Not a single one looked like Anees; they were all Erthari. Somehow, Corrin was back in the Holy Realm.

  “Why don’t you walk with me? I’m sure you’re hungry.”

  Axel turned and gently pushed Corrin alongside him, but Corrin was not allowing that. He pushed away. He had learned so much in such little time that he needed to get to Tutsoi.

  “Where am I? How did I get here?”

  Axel smiled weakly and coldly; his patience was running thin.

  “Well, you’re… here. In Vrebathia once again.”

  Now it was Corrin’s patience that was running thin.

  “Give me a straight answer, Axel. How did I get here?”

  Axel sighed quickly and sternly.

  “Alright then. Since it cannot wait ten minutes for you to eat, I’ll tell you now. After the battle of Avitou, you fell unconscious. Soon after, Tutsoi killed Nevarii and ended the battle. But, in the process, he destroyed the bell tower. Under that bell tower was a… stone pillar. They called it a ‘warp gate’. Due to so many injuries and starvation, I led them through to the other side. We reappeared a few miles away from this castle, the strongest keep in Vrebathia. Soon, they found us and brought us here. This is where we’ve resided for the past two months.”

  Corrin clenched his right fist.

  “Where is the shard, Axel?”

  Axel shook his head.

  “Sorry, Corrin. It’s already made its way to the Vrebathian Capital city. It’s already nearly a thousand miles north of here. You won’t be getting it back. We can’t trust you to keep such a powerful item anymore, not with your recklessness.”

  The color drained from Corrin’s face, and he stumbled into the wall. He clenched his heart.

  “Your part in this war is over. You proved to me that you only do what you think is best when you directly disobey my order for you to steal the Shard of Realms from Tutsoi. Speaking of which, he’s locked in the dungeons for assaulting numerous Vrebathian soldiers in an attempt to take the shards back. You’re lucky, normally, anybody with your record would be there too, but I decided to be nice. Cherish your freedom, Corrin. I’ll allow you to stay one more day, but tomorrow morning, you’re being shipped to a small village five hundred miles west of here, where you will stay until your death.”

  Corrin was speechless for a moment; the weight of what Axel had just said weighed heavily on Corrin’s shoulders. Even though he knew that Lukas was dead, he had to check.

  “What about Lukas…?”

  “Who?”

  Corrin gritted his teeth in anger.

  “The boy who shared a soul with me. He looked like me- but he was shem.”

  Axel laughed.

  “Oh, that’s right! I had forgotten about him. Tutsoi was bellowing some crap about how he’d die after we locked him up. He tried to fight back after he recovered from his poisoning. We pinned him down, but the damn kid was too resilient, kept trying to kill us. So I put him out of his misery.”

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  Corrin looked up in fury at Axel. Without thinking, his fist was flying through the air towards Axel.

  “Dammit!!”

  Axel easily dodged the attack and kicked Corrin in his stomach.

  “I could charge you for attempted assault, but I’ll give you one last chance. That Lukas kid had what was coming for him. He killed one of our soldiers, a family man. Think of it, Corrin. Somewhere in Vrebathia, some children lost a father because of Lukas.”

  Tears began to fall from Corrin's face. So much death had occurred in his life.

  “Even now… I can’t save anybody… how am I always so useless…?”

  Axel kneeled to Corrin’s level.

  “Oh, you were very useful to me, Corrin. Until you decided that Avitou was more important than Vrebathia.”

  Corrin punched the ground in his crying.

  “I hate you.”

  Axel sneered and turned away.

  “Take him back to his room, make sure he has absolutely no way to escape.”

  Corrin stopped crying and stood up, wiping his eyes. Two soldiers walked over and grabbed Corrin by his arms.

  “Make sure… he has absolutely no way to escape…?”

  Corrin repeated the phrase out loud. Axel turned back to him.

  “Why would it be so important, Axel? You really think I can get out of- what did you call it? The strongest keep? No, you and I both know that I’m not strong enough right now to get out on my own. Tutsoi’s in the dungeons too, which are likely deep underground and far away from my location, meaning he wouldn’t be a problem either. So tell me, why is it so important that I don’t escape?”

  Axel stared at Corrin for a moment before breaking into a nervous laugh.

  “I just wanted to make sure you wouldn’t cause more of a problem. My soldiers have gone through enough already; they shouldn’t need to worry about a hyperactive elite soldier walking around.”

  Corrin saw right through Axel’s lie, and Axel knew it.

  “Just take him away.”

  Now Corrin had confirmation, the shards weren’t gone. They were right here in the castle. They were here because this is the strongest keep, it's the safest place in the nation for them to be. And Axel was afraid that Corrin would take them and become strong enough to escape. The soldiers led Corrin and threw him into the room he had woken up in before and closed the door abruptly.

  Corrin stood up and looked around the room, wiping his face of the tears. The bed was simple and pushed against the wall facing him. To his left, there was a vanity table with a mirror atop it. Past the table was a slim stone window. To his right was an old wooden seat like a bench. Above it were shelves with random assortments of books. Past them was an old wardrobe.

  Corrin quickly passed all of these and went to the window, peering out of it. He was high up, with a staircase below him that surely led to the large double doors to the main hall. Across from the stairs was an identical window. He couldn’t turn far enough to see beyond that.

  Corrin hit the wall in frustration and turned back. He quickly opened the drawers of the vanity, hoping to find anything of use, yet he found only hairpins, jewelry, and other random items. He turned back and looked into the wardrobe and found nothing but lavish dresses. But an idea suddenly sparked in his head.

  He took one of the dresses and ripped off a brown lining around one of the collars. He ran to the jewelry and took some of the necklaces, finding any that were yellow and plucking them off the string. He took the brown lining and weaved it around a small yellow gem before putting it around his neck.

  I can use the Ani in the air to make it seem like I have the shard.

  That was what he was thinking. He wasn’t strong enough currently on his own to fight against an entire legion, but if they feared that he had the shard, perhaps it would be easier. He knew he was strong enough to break out of this room, but his energy and power were still returning from his coma.

  He raised his leg and screamed aloud as a golden power surrounded him and his foot. He kicked the door down, and it exploded outward. He tried to concentrate the gold around the shard to obscure the fact that it was poorly tossed together.

  He knew this was his only hope at this point.