~When I woke up the following morning, I'd almost forgotten where I was.

Perhaps I'd dreamed of being in the wilds still, since I could almost hear the birds in the sky, and smell the scent of Jooheon's roses in the air. But when I gained full control over my consciousness I recalled where I really was, and it was nowhere near as beautiful as the place I'd woken up in the day before.

The only comfort I had in the small cell was the sound of my father's breathing- I had missed him more than I'd realized.

It had taken a great deal of time to tell him all that I had discovered about the Aryan's and Jooheon, and while he was shocked and amazed by it all he was able to accept the truth with relatively little in the way of skepticism.

I supposed it was because he'd always believed in the continued existence of magic and wonder in the world- a trait he'd passed on to me.

When I finally saw him stir he looked up at me and smiled, the creases in his eyes squishing together and making him appear much older than he had when I'd last been with him.

"Not the most comfortable arrangement for sleeping is it?" he laughed a little, before the sounds of his mirth gave way to dry coughing.

 I grew worried that his time in the prison had done little for his health, and I wanted to remove him from the place as quickly as possible.

"Not particularly, but any blanket they provided would probably be itchy anyway," I replied in an attempt to sound cheerful.

I was trying to stay positive, since I knew that putting me behind bars was one of the Duke's ways of breaking my spirit, and I refused to let him win.

I shuddered to think of how they would accept leaving the luxury of the Duke's palace though, especially when my plan involved them heading to the most dangerous place they'd ever heard of.

 Both were as stubborn as I was, and I almost cringed to think of the amount of convincing that it would take to make them to listen to what I had to say. But it wasn't as if my father and I could leave them for the Duke to use as hostages.

Yet all of my planning for a future escape was left as pretty useless considering I'd first need to think of a way to get out of the cell. The bars were as thick as my arm, and didn't have a spot of rust on them that I could use to chip away with a stone. I had no tools, not even so much as a spoon to use for digging. On top of that, I was both cold and hungry, feelings which left me unmotivated to work and more inclined to huddle against my father for as much comfort as I could muster.

"Does the Duke ever pay you visits father?" I asked on third day since I'd been captured.

 I hadn't seen hide nor hair of him since I'd been thrown inside and I'd done everything short of threatening my own life to bring him to see me for little reason other than the fact I wanted to yell at him. I'd screamed, I'd shouted, I'd banged on the bars until the guards outside of the door had been driven crazy enough to enter the cell room to shut me up. But still, the Duke didn't come.

"He only came when he wanted information about the wilds, and even then only once. How I regret telling him what I did now. I just hoped he'd be able to save you and I didn't realize what pain my information could cause," my father whispered sadly.

 I placed my hand on his shoulder to try and support him.

"It's alright father. We will find a way out of this, and Jooheon is more than capable of coming up with a plan to save his people," I said, feeling quite assured about that at least.

My father grinned at me a little.

"You have been speaking so highly of him child," he said, a strange tone in his voice that I didn't think I'd ever heard him use before.

I had to ponder an answer to his unasked question, since I wasn't exactly sure why it was my opinion had changed so greatly since our first encounter.

"It's true that I have a great respect for him. He's a competent leader and a good friend. And despite all of the terrible things that have happened to him he still puts others ahead of himself. He could have killed the Duke father, and then all of this would be over."

"Why didn't he?"

"Because he knew that if he did Taehyung would find out eventually, and then he'd bring an army to destroy the Aryan's for the sake of revenge.

For me, seeing him there, ready to sacrifice himself for the Aryan's- it's like something from one of your stories of old when kings still had honor."

"From what you've said he seems every bit the leader he was born to be. I wonder if such a test was what the wilds have intended all of this time," my father mused, but his mutterings struck a chord deep inside of me.

 I was so shaken by my thoughts that I couldn't help but leap up in surprise, grasping the old man by his shoulders and giving him a shake.

"By the Stone, father you're right! The curse on the Duke's family, it's not just a punishment. The ancestors of the Aryan's were angry, certainly. But to blame the old Duke's descendants for a crime they didn't commit seems quite unlike the culture they sought to create afterwards. The Aryan's are an honorable people now, and I can't imagine that would have been any different a long time ago. Jooheon's curse was meant for just as much a blessing as it was a punishment," I exclaimed.

"Daughter, I fear that I'm not following you. How is what was done to him not a punishment?" My father said, mildly amused at my outburst, but still curious as to what I had to say

"It's just, if the Aryan's  really wanted to punish the Duke's family, why wouldn't they curse all of its descendants? Why only the first born? Or for that matter, why wouldn't they ensure that the Kim's never had any children again- put an end to their line altogether? I'm sure they could have if they'd had the intent."

My father looked pensive at my question, as if he couldn't come up with the an