A long, uncomfortable silence followed after Miss Huntley disappeared into the forest. She'd made sure Julia was alright with her leaving, but it seemed she'd been acting braver than she felt. She kept staring at Destan with eyes as big as oranges and flinching every time he opened his mouth to speak – making him quickly shut it again.

In an attempt to make her feel more comfortable, he took a few steps back to lean against a tree. Julia didn't move.

"Are you really my brother?" she finally asked.

"Yeah," said Destan, unsure how she felt about that. "Yeah, I am."

"Like Nero?"

"No! I mean..." he shook his head. "Not exactly like him. Nero isn't a very good brother, is he?"

Julia tilted her head in thought. "He's not very nice to me."

"I know. I will be, I promise."

She frowned, pulling the most serious face a ten-year-old could pull. "So... If you're my brother, does that mean I have magic powers, like you?"

Scrap. She sounded so eager. Could he really disappoint her again? Or did he just imagine her eagerness? After all, from what he'd gathered from Nero, the Inops hated such powers.

"Uhm... Well, no, actually. You were born without them."

She blinked, but the thoughtful look on her face didn't change. "Oh."

"But you have other powers!" he hastened to say, just in case it was not the answer she'd hoped for. "Like, you're really good at drawing. That picture you drew of you and the flowers, it was fantastic!"

"You mean the one of me and you?"

It was as if Elias had set fire to his insides; a rush of heat suddenly warmed him. "Yes. Yeah, the one of you and me."

She nodded, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips. "I like drawing."

Of course you do, Destan thought to himself. You're just like mum. "Hey... I'm really sorry, Julia."

She raised her eyebrows. "Why?"

For everything, Destan thought. Letting them take you away when you were born, not being there for you all your life, letting Nero bully you. Everything. "For scaring you."

Julia raised her chin and puffed up her chest. "I'm not scared!"

Destan chuckled. "No, you're really brave, aren't you?"

She nodded fiercely, then thought for another moment. "My mum and dad told me I'm adopted. Does that mean I have other parents? Do you know them?"

Destan felt a whole whirlwind of emotions run through him. Would she like to have other parents than her adoptive ones? Would she want to meet her real mum? Would she be disappointed if she met her? Destan wouldn't even be able to bring Julia to her, especially now that he was banished.

"Yes, you do. My mum, she... She's your mum, too. Our dad's not alive anymore."

"Oh. How come?"

Destan swallowed the always-present guilt away to answer, "He passed away in an accident." He'd have to tell her the truth someday. But not today.

Julia plucked a tiny buttercup from the ground and rolled it between her fingers. "Nero says they gave me away, because they didn't want me."

His heart burst with sadness for his little sister. If only she understood the rules and laws of the tribe. But she didn't, and she would never understand why she was sent to Grimsby. Ignoring the tears pricking in his eyes, he explained, "That's not true, Julia, of course they wanted you. They love you, they always have. Mum misses you so much, she thinks about you every day."

"Really?"

"Of course! They hated having to give you away. They were devastated."

"Then why did they do it?"

Destan averted his gaze. Good question. "It's a bit more complicated than this, but... They thought you'd be happier in Grimsby. Because you don't have magic."

Julia wrinkled her forehead, as if trying to comprehend what Destan was telling her. "What if I did have magic?"

"Then they would've kept you. You would've grown up with us." If only that were reality. If only...

She opened her mouth to ask another question, but a ruffling of leaves behind them made them both quieten. Destan stepped aside to stand in front of Julia. Just in case.

Miss Huntley emerged, with the old tribe trainer right behind her. Aruna's eyes were red and her face paler than Destan had ever seen it before. She froze as soon as her eyes landed on him.

"What is this?" she said, glaring at Miss Huntley.

"The only people who actually want to make an effort in stopping this war," Julia's teacher muttered.

Aruna had never looked so angry before, not even when Destan messed up and got someone killed in his training. Her eyes shot daggers at Miss Huntley, her face flushed and her jaw clenched. Destan took a step back, not quite ready to face his trainer's wrath. Without even so much as glancing at him, she exclaimed, "This is the boy that started the war!"

Destan stared at the ground beneath his feet. It stung that she would talk about him like that. She was one of the few people in the tribe who used to treat him like an actual person, and now even she had given up on that.

"Ah, see, that's where you're wrong," said Miss Huntley.

Aruna narrowed her eyes. "Excuse me?"

"Destan did no such thing. All he did was step up for his sister."

"His sister who he's not even supposed to know! I made a special exception for him, I stood up for him, and this is how he returns the favour." She took a deep, shuddering breath. "He is banished from the tribe, and you know perfectly well that this means I cannot talk to him."

With an angry frown, Miss Huntley opened her mouth to say something, but she thought better of it. She sighed and said, "Sylvester was banished. What would you do if he was here?"

Aruna paled even further, before turning away and staring into the distance between the trees. "You took him from me," she said. "You took my son away from me."

An awkward silence filled the air. Destan hesitated. The last thing he wanted was to get between the two women, when they were both so emotional. But if they were going to stop this war, they had to do something, quick. There was no time to argue.

"You're right," he told Aruna. "I broke tribe laws and it led to... all this. And I was punished for it, but that doesn't make it right. I want to help make it right. I know you do too, I know you want what's best for the tribe. This war isn't it, you must know that!"

"Of course I know that," Aruna muttered.

"Then help us stop it," Destan pleaded. "Nobody else will help us. The Inops are planning an attack, and they will hurt the tribe. Badly. Too many people, on both sides, are happy to just let this happen. Even Lys refused to do anything." A new wave of anger and disappointment washed over him, making his fists tremble along with his breath.

Aruna raised her eyebrows, sparing him a glance. "You spoke to Lysander?"

"Well, I tried. He wouldn't listen. He was too focused on telling me how he'd been plotting to get me banished all my life."

"He said that to you?" said Aruna, eyes wide with shock.

"Yes, and there's no doubt in my mind that he meant it," said Destan. "All he wants is for Tari to become Chief, and it doesn't matter how."

Aruna grumbled, then muttered, "That man prioritises his own wants and needs over that of the tribe. Remus will hear about this."

"Good. But for now, we should focus on stopping this war. Banished or not, I will not abandon my family and my only friend. Will you help us?"

Aruna sighed. "Alright then. But don't expect to be taken back in, even if this works. Banishment cannot be undone."

Destan nodded once. "I know. I'm not asking for that. I just want my family to be safe. On both sides. We need to stop this war."

Aruna stared at him, her brows creased, making her look a decade older than she was. Glancing at Miss Huntley, he found her do the same. Even Julia looked up at him in wonder, although he wasn't entirely convinced that she wasn't still frightened.

His eyes flicked between the two women. "How are we going to do that?"

"How do we stop two groups of people with grudges that go back to the eighteenth century from killing each other?" Miss Huntley grimaced. "We need to find a way to convince them. To make them understand that it doesn't matter whether or not we have atraments, we're all just people. That the differences between us are negligible. That what they're doing won't solve anything, and will only get a bunch of people killed..."

"Yes!" said Destan. "How do we do that?"

"Simple," said Aruna. "We show them."