So why was Cecaelia so brazenly assaulting her former Queendom with such a pitiful army? Surely she would have known the outcome? Phantasia didn’t like it. This was a battle of minds, not strength. Was Cecaelia bluffing the king? Was Nereus double-bluffing her?

Phantasia didn’t want to think about the complex thought patterns of water faeries. All she was worried about now was Dionysus. He had already vanished from the battlefield with his companions. What if Cecaelia knew he was coming? What if he was walking into a trap? What if he was already…?

She stood up and dived off the continent, keeping herself hidden in the rushing waters. Once the battlefield was behind her, she looped around and headed back up towards the rotting island. She touched down at the rear of the fortress without incident, feeling the darkness of the Underworld reaching for her like a mass of hungry tentacles. Ignoring the abyss behind her, and the possibilities before her, she hurtled forward towards the unguarded citadel. Instinct would lead her to Dionysus.

Cecaelia’s fortress was a dark twin to the Water Palace, as if her home had been consumed by demons. The water was black like tar, which clawed at her feet the one time she tried to step in it. Whereas her home was decorated with coral sculptures of the various sea creatures of the world, here they were ferocious monsters, their pure nature corrupted by greed and jealousy and hate. Spiralling shells were now spiked and shattered, while beautiful sea flowers had become withered weeds, their roots grasping towards her like the Underworld itself.

Just follow the light, she told herself as she danced through the labyrinthine corridors. A moment later, as she was flying through a spiralling passage, she felt a sudden tension in the mana around her. Then the corridor ahead exploded in a pyrotechnic display of sparkling energy. Prince Inari struggled to pull himself up from a crater of rubble as Phantasia sped over to him. He was too weak to speak, but Phantasia could follow his gaze downwards, through the hole his impact had created, into the gaping chamber beyond. Phantasia was at the ruined heart of the fortress, a battlefield torn apart by power she could never hope to wield. Her first instinct was to find Dionysus, but her senses were drawn to the pulsating mass floating at the centre of the room.

The Cecaelia she remembered had been tall and slender, with seaweed hair and turquoise eyes. The monster before her was bloated and slimy, with eight slavering black tentacles whipping the air and a torso drenched in sweat and blood. Cecaelia’s hair was now mangled with moss and filth, while her neck had disappeared entirely. Only her turquoise eyes remained, but they were now dark and bloodshot. As Phantasia was drawn in by the monstrous octopian, she realised there was absolutely nothing she could do, and that her arrival had brought nothing but ruin to her Queendom’s carefully crafted plan. The only one who stood to benefit was the demon herself, and she was laughing. Phantasia wanted to find Dionysus, to at least know he was safe, but something came at her. A bolt of black. Darkness.

Before it could strike, something dived into its path.

Then Dionysus’s body exploded into a million blue sparks.

Phantasia screamed.

Unable to hold herself back, she leapt towards the dissipating form of the prince, her hands grasping feebly at the fading lights. Then something struck her through the chest, and she looked down to see one of Cecaelia’s tentacles wrapping itself around her.

Chapter 1
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