The throne room was a cavernous hall with tall, round stone pillars on both sides, a long walkway in between the pillars, some characters were painted in gold on the floor. Banners, big ones, hung on the left and right stone walls.

The room was dim, with some torches hung in some of the pillars.

The throne room gave a charismatic vibe, an ambience of power, of resilience with a good dose of darkness and callousness, anything that came with a kingdom who had spent millennias protecting the elegarii, and their military might had ensured no evil, no madness of Ares, or whoever the gods or goddesses in mischief, escape from here to wreak havoc on the universes on the other side of the well of elegarii. The kingdom that served as the portal for orbs of imaginary creatures to flow, tumble down into the well of elegarii, only to rise again, spreading like pollens in the spring wind, and enriching the imagination of those human beings in another universe.

Prissa gave her a wool cloth shoes that warmed her feet well, but made weird noise when she walked on the stone floor.

The throne was a seat made of silverish metal, something like platinum, with dark armrests made of some sort of dark metal, and carvings of thunder and sword on the backrest.

King Rovan sat on the throne, eyes fixed on her. She stopped walking, as if she knew what the safe distance was between her and the man on the throne. And from that distance, she could see him clearly.

He did look like Xander.

He had light blue eyes, strong jaws, and solid-built body. His lips seemed to half-open in a curious questioning mode, his hair was not dark like Xander, but platinum blond almost silver, wavy and short. His face was much more pale than Xander, clean-shaven, without rugged stubby moustache and beard like Xander. His clothes were silver-white, a combination of a jacket and tunic. He wore a gold crown in the shape of a ring with thunder on the front of it, and a weaving of platinum threads on its surface to look like the weaving of roots.

"Airin," he called out to her. A curious tone, nothing menacing.

Airin nodded and rushed a bow in front of the king.

"Very good. Now, I heard all about you of course. I would like to extend my welcome to you here. A friend of my daughter Lyanna is a friend of mine!" he extended his arms, stood up, and Airin realized he was maybe a head shorter than Xander. "Lyanna has talked so much about you and your kindness to her. I, as her father, would like to say I appreciate that." His voice is warm, and his demeanor is quite calming for Airin who struggled to keep her calm.

"How is Lyanna?" she asked.

King Rovan walked closer to her. "She is still shaken by the whole experience, she is still a young girl afterall. But she is getting better, today she is starting her lessons with her tutors again." The king smiled at her, and added,"Thank you for asking about my daughter, for making her so happy while she was in your universe."

Airin felt slightly lighter, the thank you seemed genuine. She managed to smile back a bit.

Suddenly the throne room door creaked open with a loud noise, as if someone had pushed it hard from outside.

"Airin!" a voice she recognized.

She turned around and saw Lyanna ran into the throne room. Her silver dress flew lightly around her, her hair was in a braided ponytail, and her smile grew bigger the closer she got to Airin. She was followed by two staff – a middle-aged man, and an elderly woman who ran too but stopped at the door. They looked stiff from fear.

"Lyanna!" Airin could not help but feel a sense of relief that now she saw a more familiar face to her, and that the little girl seemed to be alright.

She kneeled and extended her arms, and Lyanna flew into her embrace. "Airin! I am so happy to hear you have awakened! I saw Prissa and she told me you are here!" Lyanna did not hide her excitement, and the girl hugged Airin. "I am sorry that you are now here, Airin, I am so sorry ..." she whispered directly in Airin's right ear. Her little voice shook like she was holding back tears.

Airin pushed the girl gently away, caressed her cheek, and shook her head. "It is not your fault, sweetheart," she whispered back.

"Airin, I ..." Lyanna was going to say something, before King Rovan called her. "Lyanna! Enough for now."

Lyanna turned around to face her father, she was unhappy. "I miss Airin! I want to talk more with her!" she stomped a couple steps closer to the throne, and lifted up her chin as she spoke with her father.

The king went to his little girl, extended his arm to hug her and caressed her cheek. "I am sure your tutor is waiting for you. Your nanny too. You can see Airin again next time. Is that a good plan?"

"No!" Lyanna sighed loudly. "You used to let me skip classes with tutors to build a snow castle when there was a lot of snow, like today. But no more now. Why, Father?"

"Go to your class, Lyanna. You need to catch up on a lot of lessons," King Rovan stood his ground, clapped his hands twice, and the middle-aged man and the elderly woman who stood next to the door at the back now rushed to Lyanna, bowed their head at the king with fear that was more evident in their eyes.

Lyanna screamed in anger as the two took her hands and led her away. Airin stared at Lyanna, nodding her head at her, reassuring her that she would see her again, that classes could be fun too.

Airin quietly admired the steadfast determination of a father that she saw in Rovan. Gentle but assertive. Though on the other hand, Airin felt pangs of sadness in her heart for Lyanna. Building a snow castle for a child that age must have been so much fun!

"Couldn't you just let her play a bit with the snow? It's such a beautiful snow day," Airin sighed.

Rovan did not answer that particular statement, but he came closer to Airin and smiled. "I heard from Xander you are a teacher of young children in your world. But here, in Halgard, you are not. I hope you will respect our ways. Lyanna will be a queen in the future. There is so much for her to learn."

Airin was going to counter that with some other child psychology argument about the benefits of play for young children, but she cancelled.

"Where is Xander?" she asked something else that had been in her mind since she awoke.

"Why do you want to know?"

"I ... I want to ask him questions. Is he alright?"

Rovan sighed, he seemed to think hard about the answer to the question, then,"Xander has not been alright for a long time," a barely audible sigh again at the end of the sentence. "You do know he is the assassin of Halgard, don't you? The most fearsome killer in this kingdom? He burned an entire village to find a couple spies before."

Airin grew cold. The assassin of Halgard. No I do not know that.

Rovan looked somber. "That's why I said to you. Xander has not been alright for a long time. He does his duties well, he serves Halgard well. He is feared, but that also comes with a price. He has not been alright, darkness seems to grow and shadow him more," Rovan sighed with a forlorn look on his eyes.

"You may go now, Airin."

Airin blanked out, failed to process what Rovan had just said. Xander? An assassin? Has not been alright? Burned an entire village? Who is he?

How could someone with such beautiful gifts like Xander could also be an assassin who burned an entire village?

Unanswered questions swirled in her mind. The most fearsome killer in this kingdom repeated in cycle. Over and over again, and each time it stabbed her with fresh doubt and fear.

She mindlessly nodded, bowed to the king, and went out of the throne room, retracing back her steps with Prissa just now to go back to her own room. Airin tried to piece her thought together of who she thought Xander was, but could not put a coherent picture yet.

Her stomach felt like there was a large knot in there, punching her over and over again. She took a deep breath, focused her gaze on her steps, on nothing specific. She was exhausted, a splitting headache started creeping in.

Nobody paid her any mind, even though she knew the watchful eyes of the guards were on her every move.

When she got to the garden, she saw Elisthia and Nydda. Airin stood next to a snow-covered birch tree, just watching the two. Elisthia still sat stiff, Nydda seemed to try to talk to her, the sorceress bent her body, her hands on Elisthia's shoulder, and whispering something to her. No response from Elisthia.

Nydda was still for a moment before finally straightening her back, and walked away from Elisthia.

She walked for a few steps before suddenly she stopped on her track, turned around, and caught Airin's staring at her. Airin's heart skipped a beat, and she turned colder when Nydda walked toward her.