The bath was outside her room, in a small wooden cottage in the corner of the stone building she was in.

She looked around, and the place – it looked like a massive kitchen – was busy with palace maids who were preparing food, washing, and cleaning. The stone building that her room was in apparently was the maid's quarter. There were more rooms like hers, smaller even. Her room was for someone like Prissa, a sort of manager for the maids.

Prissa helped her with preparing for bath, even though Airin absolutely insisted the chambermaid was out of the bath place when she was in the tub. She still wanted her privacy.

Bath was nice. The water was warm, the warmth that helped her relax her muscles a little bit.

She soaked herself in the wooden tub, folding her knees to fit in there, though she definitely could not sink her whole body in there, but she did not mind.

After bath, Prissa had prepared some clothes for her. Some long-sleeve shirts and skirts, from thick material to counter the winter cold. But Airin's mind was too busy to care. She mindlessly wore the clothes, went back to her room with Prissa still close by, the maids who passed by them would slow their steps, stare at her, and keep going again, whispering to one another.

She let Prissa braid her hair to one tail-like braid, while she was busy looking around. Winter was definitely here. The sun hid behind the clouds, and the snow was beautiful. White, gentle, and so quiet.

Prissa went to notify the palace officials that she had awakened, leaving Airin by herself in her room. She scanned the garden, and she saw someone there.

On a bench, in the middle of the garden, was a young woman. She had on her black cape, black dress, which made her quite visible from Airin's window.

The young woman just sat and stared head, her cape's hood covered her head. She looked like one black spot in the middle of pure white snow. She stayed still even when some birds flew around her.

Sitting stiffbacked and staring straight ahead, that was all she was doing. Her hands were clasped on her lap.

Who is she? Why would she just sit and stare ahead like that? The questions toyed in Airin's mind.

"That is Elisthia," Prissa's voice startled her.

She turned and saw her chambermaid had entered the room again, now standing, staring straight at the woman in black whom she called Elisthia.

"Elisthia? Who is she?" Airin genuinely wanted to know.

"She is ... well, was ... an apprentice of Nydda. An orphan whom Nydda rescued from the street when she was a child. Nydda saw a great talent in her to be a sorceress, a successor for Nydda. She trained for years with Nydda on sorcery, herbal skills, medicine. A happy, gentle young woman ..." Prissa stopped to sigh, and continued,"We used to chat a lot. She changed after the war with Myrana ..." Prissa sounded sad, her sentences tinged with a shiver, clearly she was trying to speak normally despite tears that threatened to burst out. She took a long, deep, heavy breath without taking her gaze away from Elisthia.

"What has happened to her?" whispered Airin.

"War, Miss. We do not know what exactly happened. One morning she was fine, then by sunset she had turned ... like that. She must have witnessed something, or many things, that were so callous, so brutal that it broke her completely. She is now broken, lost somewhere in her thought. She never speaks, never does anything other than sitting there on that bench," Prissa's gaze lingered on Elisthia as she spoke again,"The same bench Nydda and her would have their sorcery lessons and talks. Even Nydda had given up trying to talk with her. She did not even seem to acknowledge her mentor, the one who was like a parent to her, the one she loved and respected so much."

Airin nodded.

"Now ... well, now she is alive in her own shell. What kind of life is it? Look. Just sit and stare. All day long. When the sun sets, she will slowly walk back to her room. The next day, when the sun rises, she will come and sit there again. Some maids will come and give her bread and water. Sometimes she eats the bread, sometimes she just throws them away or pretends she does not see them."

"She does that ... sitting and staring ... in all weather?"

"Yes, Miss. Snowy. Rainy. Thunder. She will be there. A sad, sad, end to a happy girl. We used to be friends ..." Prissa sighed heavily, her voice broke, and her brows furrowed in deep thought and concern.

A knock on the door. Prissa opened it. A man in soldier uniform, dark red cape, with silver helmet, and a sword in its scabbard hanging from his belt, stood at the door. "His Majesty King Rovan is ready to receive that girl from another universe," was the message.

Airin sighed. The Halgardian king would see her. Rovan, Xander's brother.

Will Xander be there? she asked herself quietly. She did not wish to see anyone right now, anyone but Xander, and Nydda. She wanted to have a good talk with Xander, about all this. She also wanted to speak to Nydda. It was all her idea to uproot someone from her apartment, her universe, and put her under some sort of hypnotizing spell that pushed her to jump into the well of elegarii.

She did not like Nydda. How could she do this to me? Airin felt a bubbling anger in her.

"Bow your head deep when you meet our king. Address him as Your Majesty. Be polite. Speak gently, and only when you are asked to. Listen well. Do not look him directly in the eyes. Do you hear, Miss?" Prissa fluffed her skirt for one last time, brushed a few strands of strayed hair from her face, and looked at Airin with a slightly cocked head.

Airin processed Prissa's instructions on how to behave in front of a king. The instructions were ridiculous if set in her own world, her own time. But she realized, doing whatever she wanted here could cause her more drama. So she sighed, and gave Prissa a fleeting nod.

Prissa took a thick cape, let her wear it, then led her out of the room. Her wool dress and the thick cape helped her get warmer. But her face was cold, the tip of her nose felt frozen, and her lips was chapped from the dry winter wind.

They walked along corridors made of stone, with paintings of different people, displays of banners with embroidery of the images of thunder and dagger on it, doors that were guarded by soldiers.

They went out of one building, walked in a winding stone path with destroyed posts of guards in some part, and they kept walking to the main palace. The snow had started melting, even though most of the trees and shrubs on their way were still covered with snow and ice.

The whole time, Airin kept herself busy with her own thought, trying to formulate some sort of plan on how to survive here, in Halgard. But she was at her wits' end.

She saw some birds flying around in different trees – she recognized some robins, chickadees, and sparrows. Her ears indulged in the beautiful songs sang by those birds.

Some oak, beech, and birch trees were around the garden. There were also some evergreen shrubs dotted the scenery, providing contrasting, refreshing greenness in the middle of the whiteness of the snow. She took a deep breath, and cold, fresh air filled her lungs. She wondered about her students – how are they now? The school would have to call in a substitute teacher, or put some students in Stella's group. The fact was that she did not know when she could get back to work or if she could ever get back to work, or to her own universe. That thought slammed her like tonnes of bricks. The knot in her stomach felt tighter.

"We are here. The throne room. His Majesty is waiting for you," Prissa announced. They stood in front of a massive, tall oak door with beautiful carvings of gold symbols characters.

Airin recognized a symbol, the same as the tattoo on Xander's forehead, on her fifty-cent coin, and on her cast-iron skillet back home. The symbol of the House of Metiocles, the ruling family of Halgard.

Airin shook her head, trying to claw back some thought, some awareness in her mind about Halgard.

Her body shivered, from the cold winter wind, and from the gnawing fear. She wanted to cry. More precisely, she wanted to cry, sleep, and wake up on her own bed, in her own apartment, in her own universe. She would love to hear the commotion of the metro train outside her bedroom window. Heck she would even say hello to May today, even though she would still rather die than accepting her as a regular part of her life.

Prissa went and talk to the two guards in red cape that stood at the left and right side of the door, their spear in their hand, alert look on their face. The two stared at Airin for a couple seconds, nodded back to Prissa. The two turned to face the door, and both pushed open the heavy door.

The door creaked, and opened. Prissa nodded at her."I am leaving," she said. "Now go in," she continued with a soft push on Airin's back.

Airin sighed, contemplating about making an attempt at running away, realizing it was a stupid idea, then slowly walked into the throne room.