I refused to give up looking for clues, no matter what Ianite might have said. I needed to find out where Mot was. There were so many unanswered questions, and it pained me that nobody was as interested in discovering the answers as I was. At least Jeriah supported me in my searches.

"You can't just accept that we don't know where Mot is?" Spark asked, irritated, when I went to ask Ianite.

"Nope," I replied firmly. "This isn't a thing that I can just forget about, Spark. My only family disappeared, and we don't know how he disappeared or where he went. You're telling me that you wouldn't care if the same thing happened to Ianite?"

There was a second of silence. "Alyssa, this isn't the same. It's not that I wouldn't care, obviously. I don't expect you not to care. But we even had a meeting discussing this. We came to a conclusion, and that's that. What more could there possibly be?"

"It's not enough for me. There's still a lot I don't know. We know that there's a higher being controlling this, right? I need to learn more about them." I wasn't going to give in to Spark. Not now. This was far too important. "I think there's more than any of us know."

Sparksnorted. "Really? Like what? Where are you planning to look?"

Ignoring him, I turned to Ianite. "Please, don't you understand? I need to do everything I can to find him. I can't just accept that he's gone! I won't just let..."

"Calm down, child," she said softly. "I'll help you to the best of my ability, but you need to accept that you probably won't find anything."

"That's fine!" I snapped. "I just can't give up, not now! I have to assume that Mot needs help, and this is the worst time to abandon him."

"Well, where are you going to start looking?" she asked. I had already planned what I was going to say, in case this question came up.

"The gods were born in Ianarea, right?" I had to make sure before I did anything further.

"It... it wasn't called Ianarea back then, but yes," Ianite stuttered, not sure where I was going with this.

"And what do you know about your parents? They must have been powerful beings to give birth to three gods, right?"

"I don't remember my parents," Ianite answered in a quiet voice. "I don't have any early memories. The first memory I have is of Mianite, Dianite, and I, when we were the joint rulers of Ianarea. That's it."

That was news to me. "Oh... okay. Then maybe I should search Ianarea!"

She shook her head. "Alyssa, do you think we haven't already? We scoured it long before it was blown up. Now there's nothing in it."

"Well, you can never be too sure!" I knew it was a lost cause, but I needed somewhere to start. Something. Without waiting for Ianite or Spark to respond, I dashed out of Aethoria. Let's see, who had been to Ianarea before that would be willing to take me? Redbeard, maybe, but the last thing I needed was to take care of a drunk pirate. And then I remembered.

"Hey, Jeriah?" I asked, poking my head into the house to where he was cleaning. "Can you help me search?"

He looked surprised. "Me? Why do you want me to take you? I'll be of no help."

"I need to go to Ianarea," I added, determined. "You've been there before, so I want you to come with me. You'll know the way around."

He sighed. "Fine. I don't have anything better to do, anyway. I might as well come along." He sounded reluctant, but I figured that he was probably more excited for it than he was letting on. I knew how bored he got just sitting in the house doing nothing.

We took a ship and set sail. I stood in the front, watching the water below us. Jeriah, on the other hand, went straight to the hot tub. He had warned me that the journey would be long, but I didn't care. I was used to boredom. I could handle this trip.

When we finally did arrive, I jumped onto the dock as quickly as I could. Jeriah followed, but much slower and with less enthusiasm. "Alright, Alyssa. Don't run off, okay? In case you do find something, I want to be with you to make sure nothing... goes wrong, I guess. I don't know."

"I brought a sword," I reminded him. "But I'll stay with you anyway." We walked down the path where all of the old houses were. I had stood here before, in my dream with Bella. Which one was her house again.

"Where are you going?" he asked as I started examining all the doors. "Whose house are you looking for?"

"Someone named Bella's," I replied. "She lived somewhere around here. I don't remember exactly. Can you help me look?" Jeriah looked surprised and confused, but he helped me anyway. It didn't take long before I found half of a door laying in a pile of rubble, Bella's name printed on the top of it. Parts of it were charred, but it was still very clearly hers.

"What do you expect to find in here?" he asked, following me into her house. "You think that Bella is linked to Mot's disappearance?"

"No," I answered. "She couldn't possibly be. I just want to look through her house for... other reasons. I'm not sure what I'm hoping to find, but I hope I find something."

Jeriah looked around thoughtfully. "You know, there might be something important about her. Dianite showed her to you, after all. He could easily have shown Capsize, who was also your age. Or any other person, for that matter. I wonder why he chose Bella."

He had a point. "Well, it's not linked to Mot. Dianite was the one who showed me Bella, and he couldn't possibly know about Mot's disappearance. He's just a god, like Mianite and Ianite. Plus, he can't control anything in the overworld. But, maybe you're right. Maybe she has some other significance."

Jeriah shuddered as he looked around. "This place is creepy. I saw Capsize and Redbeard's house the last time I came, and it didn't look like this. And I don't think it's the damage from Dianite's attack, either. It seems like it was a strange place even before that. I don't like it."

It was giving me the chills as well, but I assumed that was just because I had spoken to Bella before. Shattered pictures of her lay on the ground. Burnt books were thrown all over the floor. I tried to read the titles, but they were in such a bad condition that it was impossible to make out what the title was.

"Hey, is this like an old-fashioned safe?" Jeriah asked, his voice muffled. I turned to see him prying open a metal box, which had apparently been left untouched by the attack. When he finally managed to get inside of it, all he pulled out was a small book.

"What's the title of that book?" I asked from the other side of the room.

"It's... her diary," he replied. He flipped it open and began to read, and his eyes grew wider and wider with alarm as he continued. "Oh... my... gods..." Suddenly, he dropped the book, and almost fell backwards in an attempt to get away from the diary.

"Jeriah? What's wrong? What was in the diary?" I cried.

Complete terror in his eyes, he looked up at me and opened his mouth to say something. But, before he could say a word, he collapsed onto the ground. Was he dead?

I didn't have time to find out, for my vision was suddenly filled with darkness, and a voice began to speak.