“Lets go.” I tell Tajjit as he is shaken a bit by my tone of voice. He leads me to the palace as some guards ask a few questions but I let Tajjit handle the talking. We walk in this beautiful place with crystal chandeliers and marble pillars along the wall. We walk up at least two flight of stairs before entering what seems to be the waiting room. I see some couches and chairs along the wall with a table in the center with some old books. I look to my right to see Null passed out on a couch.

“Said he hasn’t slept in days, lets let him rest.” Says Tajjit as we continue down the hall. We walk and bump into a few servants who look, happy, in a hurry, or just so damn pissed off for no reason. Then one of them asks us a question as Tajjit asks for Lord Et’dra, he bows and leads us down another hallway. At the end I see a big door halfway open. We walk pass other closed doors until I see one partly open, when we walk pass it I see Terity in a gown sitting on a bed. I immediately stop as Tajjit turns and looks at me.

“Whats wrong?” he asks.

“Nothing, I just . . . I need to talk to someone.”

“Who?” He looks at me and then his face seems to relax a bit. “I see, il talk to Lord Et’dra first and discuss what is needed first, hurry up.” He walks into the room as I recognize Lord Et’dras manly voice as I see the door closes with a loud bang. I turn to the room where I saw Terity, I forgot what her father said what her real name is, all I know is that it doesn’t sound much different from her fake name. Much like a nickname.

I walk up to the door and I begin to knock on it. I don’t hear anything so I knock again. I hear a few footsteps before hearing a totally different voice, it sounds like a sweet more feminine tone of voice.

“Come in.”

I swallow what feels like my tongue is in my mouth. I open the door to see a very pink room. Pink walls, pillars, floor, but not the bed. The bed is blue and black, and the blanket has stars all over it. I look in the corner to see a desk with a huge mirror. Sitting in front of the mirror is a girl. I just never expected her to be ‘this’. She turns around while messing with her hair.

“Yes, may I help you?” Terity asks me like she doesn’t know me. My throat feels like its being held by chains and a heavy steel lock with a key that can only be made by the finest metal to unlock it for me to be able to talk. “Excuse me, who’re you?” She asks again as I feel a bit more alert, I then realize I still have those stupid golden goggles on. I take them off and I look up at her. For a few seconds she stairs at me. Then out of the silence I see a hairbrush drop to the ground near Terity. She gets up and starts to walk to me, then running, then sprinting. The next thing I know is that I’m hugging her. Ive never hugged a girl besides my family. I start to loosen my grip, but then again I haven’t seen her in 3 years, and she was one of the first friends I ever had. I began to hug hard as Terity does the same.

“Ive missed you Kodath.” She says under a soft voice under my right ear. We continue to hug for a minute before she lets go and wipes a tear from her eye. She then looks at me as I almost forgotten about her multicolored eyes; they look pretty under the light.

She doesn’t have her messy hair no more, now it’s a bit spiky with a long main flowing down from behind her back and over both her shoulders. Shes wearing a gold/pink gown that you’d wear to go to bed.

“What are you doing here?” She asks me. “Did you sneak in here?” Then somehow someone found a key to the steel lock in my throat as my voice is now free.

“No I didn’t I’m here with General Tajjit on some special mission or whatever is going on.”

“I just can’t believe you’re here . . . now,” she sound a bit concerned about something.

“Why didn’t you tell me,” I ask her as she gets a bit confused by what I say but then realizes what I mean.

“Why I never told you I’m the daughter of some great leader of some city, why I lied to you and made up a story of me and Odd being orphans.” I don’t answer; I just nod and stare at her with the night sky passing by outside her window.

“If you don’t want to tell me then its okay if you-“

“No, I need to tell, I want to, so you can trust me again.”

“I never said I didn’t trusted you,”

“But you were thinking it.” Damn, shes good. “When me and Odd lived here a few years ago, our dad went crazy over this shrimstone idea and made it public. Me and my brother wanted to do more, we wanted to leave the palace and do more, like perform magic and hang out with kids. But our stupid leader of a father never wanted that, when I tried to do some spell he caught me in the act and slapped me across the face. My brother saw the whole thing through my door and insisted that we run away. So we escaped our home and took the next airship out of here, and it went straight to your home.”

She looks like she’s about to cry but then there’s an evil look in her eye. “After what happened to your village, I thought we were going to have a new life, until they brought us back to the city and one of the soldiers recognized us from the wanted posters and took us back to our father.” She then reveals a mark on her left shoulder, it looks like a heart surrounded by chains.

“What is that?”

“The royal seal of protection, if I ever leave the palace my father will know where I am and find me now.” She then sits on her bed and thinks for a moment. She then lifts her hand and produces a blue flame in her hand. It first scares me but I relax to know what it is. “He tried to take me away from this, but thanks to Colonel Null, he’s been secretly teaching me about the ways of magic. He says that I have a strong willpower and that I can use it to make myself a better person. The more willpower you have, the better you are at protecting something.” She gets up and starts to make the flame bigger and bigger until it covers both her arms. “At first I could of just made a small flame, but I know enough to bend it, morph it, and move it to wherever I want it to be.”

She then covers herself in the fire as her hair sways up in the flames. It’s too hot for me but it doesn’t bother Terity, she really is something. She seems like a god within that fire, anyone with the ability to control the elements of this world, have no limit to their power, but never does say about their sanity. If Terity can control this strong of enough magic, I wonder what else she is capable of. She then speaks in a low tone of voice which makes her sound like a god-like state.

“My power increases everyday, everyday I learn something new or I increase a powers control I already possess.” She then has a smile before the fire disappears rapidly before giving such a cute face. “Learning is so much fun!” I immediately get stunned by her face and her choice of words as I hear someone approaching her room. I just realized I haven’t even told her why I’m here; I just got caught up in the friendly love game and all of its in-game rules.

I turn to see a servant who looks like he has a furry animal stuck to his face; I thought they were suppose to look classy? Eh, oh well.

“Sir Kodath, is it? General Tajjit and Lord Et’dra will speak to you.” He nods and then leaves without another word. I turn around to face Terity who is now beginning to question herself.

“I was going to begin what you were doing here, but now I’m just a bit confused. What do you want with my father and the general?” I then looked at her then I speak while heading out the door.

“Il explains later, right now I have something important to do, say hi to Odd for me Trathena.” As I said her real name she then bites her lip and sits back down at a desk in her room. The ambiance in this place is strange; I can’t make anything out of it.