“It’s nice to have someone in that seat again,” Queen Laianna whispers to me. “I’m sure you will do wonderfully, Sentinel Shirene.”

The king speaks before I can respond, but I nod my thanks.

“Esteemed ambassadors,” the king begins. “I thank you for your time and will not waste it with minced words. Last week, I called you here to discuss a sickness that has since killed several Leonodai children, with no signs of stopping. The only cure known to us is a flower that grows deep in our enemy’s lands.”

“It would have to, wouldn’t it?” Freanna mutters. “My grandfather kept journals. He said humans stripped the land at Garradin. Who knows how many miles of destruction there are, now, a hundred years later?”

My hands clench. Everyone in the Four Kingdoms, from child to elder, knows the story of the fifth magical race: the fox-kin.

Since the beginning of time, the fox-kin had thrived on Balmora while the other four magical races lived on Vyrinterra—it’s how we all spoke the same tongue, though on the Heliana we simply refer to it as Leonodai. When humans first made their way across the continent, they didn’t present an immediate threat. But years turned, and the humans wanted to settle the coast. The fox-kin refused to share the land, and the tensions rose. The fox-kin called on the other kingdoms for aid.

Only it came too late. The fox-kin weren’t armored and didn’t have means to defend themselves. The humans attacked in the daytime, when most fox-kin were sleeping. They poured water, sand, and refuse into the tunnels of the fox-kin’s underground city.

In that horrible act, Garradin became a tomb, and our war with the humans began. The first king and first queen used all their magic to split the Heliana from rest of Vyrinterra, raising her to the skies to fight and defend against the threat. We’ve been fighting ever since.

The king, however, doesn’t need a history lesson, and he ignores Freanna’s whispers. “Together, we agreed to offer the humans a lasting peace in exchange for the cure, or at least safe passage to where it grows.” The king pauses, and I feel the blow before it comes. “The humans have refused.”

Princess Freanna lets out a groan. “Typical. We shouldn’t have attempted to bargain with them in the first place.”

“Indeed, Princess Freanna,” Hammond cuts in. “We put too much faith in the humans’ desire to reach Vyrinterra. Now they know that the Leonodai are vulnerable. And they will expect us when we go looking for the cure.”

“You have already decided?” Rhys says inquisitively. “I thought we were called here to give our opinion.”