Genia's steps moved in no discernible direction, but the green Gia mother crystal on her chest seemed to guide her like a magnetic pull. The crystal's soft green aura filtered through her dress, illuminating the dark path.
As they walked, the palace's gleaming marble floors were left behind, replaced by a rough, black stone corridor. The air smelled of dampness, old ashes, and years-old dust. This was the western part of the palace, considered completely deserted and cursed. Not even a bird flew here, and James himself, haunted by the fear and pain of his mother's memory, never set foot there. At the end of the corridor was a massive, heavy wooden door, hung with thick iron chains and ancient tribal locks.
As Genia touched the door, the green crystal in her chest throbbed. A warm wave radiated from Genia's hands and penetrated the door's chains. The centuries-old, rusty chains melted like wax and fell silently. The door creaked open halfway.
The room inside must have been beautiful at one time. Faded silk curtains hung from the walls, guarded by cobwebs. A carved wooden table sat in front of a broken mirror. The crystal light fell directly onto a distinctive stone embedded in the floor beneath the table.
Genia knelt and touched the square stone with her fingers. The stone bore the symbol of a tigress, wearing a leaf-shaped locket identical to the one Gia had given Genia.
Genia placed her locket in the groove of the symbol without delay.
With a soft clatter, the stone slid open, revealing a small, secret drawer within. Inside that drawer lay an old, yellowed leather bundle.
Genia opened it with trembling hands. Inside lay an old letter written on birch bark and a dried, frozen stain of blood. Aditi began reading the letter in the dim torchlight. It was from Shantanu's mother—Nina. As Genia's eyes swept over those trembling letters, her hair stood on end, and the ground beneath her feet began to slip.
The story Gia told Genia in her final breaths was the greatest pain in the clan—years ago, Shantanu's mother, Nina, had mysteriously disappeared. At that time, the rumour spread like wildfire throughout the clan that Rexon's mother, Vira, was behind this terrible conspiracy, so that her son could become the clan's sole leader. But just a few months after this accusation, Rexon's mother suddenly died in agony under suspicious circumstances. Panic spread through the clan. Then, one by one, Alex's mother, Gia, and then Kevin's mother, Mara, also succumbed to an unknown disease and poison.
All four brothers—Rexon, James, Alex, and Kevin—had lost their mothers. Their hearts were filled with hatred and a desire for revenge, as each believed the other's mother had killed theirs. This hatred had turned the four brothers into sworn enemies. Until their very deaths, the four mothers themselves were unable to understand what invisible death was chasing them.
But this last letter of Nina had shattered that centuries-old lie. The letter read: "If anyone gets hold of this letter, know that the deaths of the four females of the Black Tiger Clan are not a result of tribal rivalry, but a planned massacre. I was not removed by Rexon's mother... Rather, the shadow that is destroying us is working within our own walls, in secret alliance with the White Tiger Clan. The former chieftain of the White Tiger Clan and a traitor to our clan together created a slow, invisible poison that only saps the life force of female beasts. They chose me first because I recognised the scent of this poison. They knew that as long as the four of us were alive, our four sons would never thirst for each other's blood. By killing us, they wanted to sow such a seed of hatred in our sons' hearts that the entire Beast World would be destroyed by mutual conflict... and the White Tiger Clan would become king of the entire jungle without firing a single arrow. After my death, Rexon's mother would be the next target, then Mara and Gia ... no one would survive ... "
At the end of the letter were traces of Nina's tears and blood. Genia's breathing became heavy. Her mind went numb. The bloody war that had been raging between the four brothers for years, the hatred that had led Rexon, Kevin, and Alex to lead their armies toward James's palace...was founded on a single, horrific lie! Rexon, James, Kevin, and Alex—these four brothers were thirsty for each other's lives because they believed their brothers' mothers had killed their own mother. The reality was that they were all victims of a single conspiracy, the real mastermind of which was the White Tiger Clan—the same clan whose leader was Arthur today.
Genia clutched the letter to her chest. Outside, the howling of the wind and the ferocious howls of wolves echoed from the distant hills. So far, the atmosphere was calm, but there was no telling how long this peace would last. Whether Rexon would come looking for her in James's territory, or whether Alex and Kevin would come looking for her. If Genia didn't reveal the truth of this letter to the four brothers in time, the entire land would be red with the blood of innocents in the coming days, and the White Tiger Clan's murderous plot would triumph forever.
Genia sat there, stunned, on the floor, clutching the old birch bark in trembling hands. The truth that had been revealed to her had shaken her entire thinking. But as the words of the letter sank deeper into her mind, a terrifying and profound question began to hammer through her mind. If all this was true, then a crucial link was still missing.
Behind her closed eyes, Genia recalled the moments when she had met Gia and Mara. When the souls of Alex's mother, Gia, and Kevin's mother, Mara, had appeared before Genia as their magical shadows and spoken to her, they had no paper or letter. They had entrusted Genia with a fragment of their living energy, the direct voice of their pain, and that green crystal. They had appeared in their own reflections and shown Genia the way. Then James's mother—Nina... where was their reflection?
Why didn't she appear before Genia in her own reflection? Why did a mother, watching her son break down, trust only a lifeless letter? The green crystal of Gia in Genia's chest warmed once again with a slow heartbeat, as if confirming this confusion. A terrible fear arose in Genia's mind—was Nina Maa's reflection not there in this room, or in this palace?
According to the ancient rules of the Beast World, the reflection of any high-level female could only appear where her body rested or where her last breath fell. Nina's room contained only her hidden letter, and no spiritual presence of her energy. This meant that James's mother hadn't died in this palace! Her reflection was somewhere else... in some unknown, desolate place, perhaps imprisoned or quietly killed. Finding that reflection and learning the truth directly from it was still to be done.
And an even more poisonous thorn was a name not clearly mentioned in the letter—the traitor of the Black Tiger Clan. Nina had written that among our own people lurked a wolf who, in collusion with the White Tiger Clan, had injected this slow poison into their veins. Who was that traitor who sacrificed all four mothers? Was he some courtier who was still poisoning Rexon or Jmaes? And was that traitor's plot still alive, its strings now in the hands of the White Tiger Clan? A whirlwind of questions raged within Genia, but a deafening roar from outside jolted her back to the present.
The sound of war bugles echoed off the palace's massive ramparts. The roars of hundreds of ferocious beasts from the hills could be felt all the way to the floor of this desolate room. Time was slipping away like sand. No matter how tangled the layers of questions, no matter where Nina's reflection lay, and no matter what mask the traitor's face hid behind—the first and greatest fire needed to be extinguished right now. If the armies of Rexon, Kevin, and Alex surrounded James's palace and played a bloody Holi, no one would be left to know the truth.
James had lied to Genia, tricked her into forgetting her, and Genia's heart wasn't ready to forgive him for that betrayal. But at this moment, duty was greater than hatred. For years, James, considering himself guilty of his mother's crimes and an enemy of his other brothers, had been burning in a fire that wasn't his.
"I must reach James..." Genia clenched the letter tightly in her fist.
She wiped every trace of confusion and fear from her face. Combing her dishevelled hair, she ran out of the desolate, dusty room. Her steps were no longer faltering. She knew this wasn't just a letter, but the only shield preventing the four brothers from becoming bloodthirsty for each other.
The palace's main armoury was filled with the sharp clang of iron and the smoke of torches. James was tightening his heavy black armour. His eyes were intent on drinking blood, and his jaws were clenched. Outside, war drums were beating, and James's warriors were sharpening their bare swords. They were already preparing for the coming battle.
James felt that Rexon, Kevin, and Alex were coming to take his life and take Genia, and he was determined to fight to his last breath. Just then, the heavy doors of the armoury swung open.
James, startled, reached for his sword, but his hands dropped when he saw Genia standing before him, panting. Genia was out of breath, her face dusty, but there was a determination in her eyes that stopped James. "Genia? What are you doing here? I told you to come from the basement—"
"Sheath your sword, James!" Genia interrupted him, stepping forward. Her voice carried such authority that even the guards standing nearby recoiled in fear.
Genia took out the old, yellowed birch bark with trembling fingers and thrust it straight into James's chest. "This war is not yours. And neither are those standing outside on the border your enemies. Read this... and remove the veil of hatred that has covered your eyes."
James looked at Genia in disbelief, then opened the old birch bark with trembling fingers. As soon as he saw the writing, his whole body turned to stone.
That handwriting... it belonged to his mother, Nina. As James read each line of the letter, his face turned pale. The horrifying truth—how his mother hadn't been killed by Rexon's mother, but rather by the mothers of the four clans who had been slowly poisoned one by one as part of a conspiracy hatched in collaboration with the White Tiger Clan—struck James's mind like lightning.
The same White Tiger Clan, whose leader was Arthur, whom James had until then considered a neutral pawn in the tribal feud, was actually the root of that poisonous snake. The fire that had burned James for years, the hatred that had led him to consider his own brothers—Rexon, Kevin, and Alex—as his mother's murderers, was merely a scheming conspiracy.