[ ARE THEY THAT CLOSE NOW ]

The two noble ladies were expecting to hear someone calling, but not the voice they heard. They wondered if the owner of the voice they heard was actually there or it was someone else. "We've been cought." was written on their faces as they turned slowly to see the one who called and walked to them.

" Lady Pearler?" The noble lady asked, looking surprised.

" It's me Lora. What are you doing here Your Majesty?" Pearler asked respectfully.

" I guess it non of your business." Azura answered in irritation and Lora giggled.

" I don't see your carriage or any guards around. How did you get here?" Pearler asked as she looked around, even though she knew she wasn't going to get any positive answer.

"As I said earlier, it's nothing you should know. Will you tell me what brings you here?" Azura said sarcastically, thinking Pearler wouldn't answer her truthfully.

"I asked a friend to get me some herbs from my home town, so I came to get it since he works here." Pearler said as she pointed to the inn.

"Herbs? To make a poisonous potion I guess?" Azura said nonchalantly, giving Pearler a doubtful look.

"Your Majesty, we white witches aren't bad as you see us. Making poisonous potion means killing someone, and that can make you a black witch. I don't want to become one." Pearler said calmly.

Azura felt she had been unfair with her and needed to do something about it. "Am here to meet someone as well, maybe he can help me find out who it was that attacked me and kidnapped the princess." Azura said nicely this time.

She noticed the calm look on Pearler's face changed, but she had no time to waste on her. "You can get going, we'll follow soon." She said and Pearler nodded her head, before leaving with her guards following her.

"I know white witches aren't bad, so why do you say she is?" Azura asked Lora when she saw Pearler's carriage leaving.

"Your Majesty, I said she's bad because she's never been good to you, and she follows His Majesty's every order, even if it's means hurting someone." Lora said with her head bowed, as they entered the inn.

"Do you still want to stay? You known I'll be fine here?" Azura asked Lora, trying to send her back to the palace.

"I'll be waiting for you here." Lora said and made herself comfortable on a sofa next to the door, which was opposite to the care taker of the inn, who sat behind a desk with a questioning gaze. She had a face that said; 'Am going no where'.

Azura ignored both of them and went up the stairs, hoping to see who she came to meet on the way but didn't. "He might be inside." She said to herself when she got to the door to the room, which she had memorized it number in her head as room four.

She wondered why anyone would choose a room, with the number four as his favorite. To her the number four was a bad luck, and she didn't like it one bit. She wondered why the fourth room was upstairs whilst, room one to three, five and six were downstairs.

She opened the door slowly and entered the room, but didn't see anyone inside. "Am I in the wrong room?" She asked herself and went out to check the numbers on top of the door before going back into the room.

She searched every corner of the room but still couldn't find anyone in there. She sat on the king size bed and moved her bare feet along the fluffy mat in front of the bed, as she bowed her head in disappointment.

"I have a lot to tell him." She said after a while of waiting, and lay backwards on the bed as she looked up to the ceiling. She was astonished to see a portrait of herself and a boy of the same age as her, painted on the ceiling. They looked within the ages of fourteen to fifteen, or even less.

"Is that Azura and the boy she kept sneaking out of the palace to meet?" She asked herself and sit up on the bed. From the colour of hair, she could clearly tell that, the girl in the portrait was her. But the boy in the picture, look nothing like the commoner Lora said he was. He looked more like a noble.

The boy held the girls right hands with his left hand, whilst his right held her cheek as they looked into each others eyes with a smile. They looked as if they were happily returning from somewhere, and the caring in their eyes made it clear how much they loved themselves.

Behind them was what she could tell was the colorful magical boundaries, and they were standing on a bridge, which looked the same as the forbidden bridge in the Kingdom. "How did this portrait get here?" She asked herself as many questions flooded her mind.

"Is Enoch the boy in the portrait? Am I really the real Azura? What about the other life I remember? Was that really a dream? Who is this boy in the portrait?" She kept thinking and asking herself question she couldn't get answers to, till she heard someone.

"I hope you are not here for me to send you back?"Abesselom, now Enoch, said from the corner of the room, interrupting Azura from her many thought.

"Enoch, you came?" Azura said as she stood from the bed and run to him for a hug, which was something she usually did in the life she remembers.

Even though Abesselom was still angry with Azura, he opened his arms and carries her into his embrace and petted her head. It was something he usually did in the life Azura remembers, but they were living a different life and needed to abide with the rules in it, so he brought her to a stand in no time.

"Are you still angry with me?" Azura asked when she noticed how fast she was brought down from his hag.

"Just a little." Abesselom said, using his fingers to gesture how small his anger was. "But I'll forgive you if you don't insist." He continue talking when he saw Azura's sad face and bowed head.

"You threaten to get me away from the King, how are you going to do that?" She asked, proving to him she wasn't going to insist.

"Don't worry, am already on that." He said with a smirk as they sat on the bed.

"You promised to come to my royal ball as the prince from the other side, but you didn't show up." She said with an accusing face.

" I was there, you just didn't notice me." Abesselom said with a smirk playing on his lips, and he positioned himself well on the bed to face Azura.

"So what did you find about the king? Do you even know I was attacked, and the princess was kidnapped but someone saved her?" Azura asked, looking at Abesselom's face as he nodded to say yes before talking.

"I'll tell you about the king and then about your attackers." He said and Azura nodded for him to continue.

" I can say the King is not from the other side as he says. When he talked about himself and his family, it was as if they are all here in this kingdom." Abesselom said and Azura gave him a questioning look, so he explained himself.

"He said he's the last and only one, with the strongest dark supernatural powers in his family. He also claims to have saved you from the hands of an enemy during the last war, which I know is not true." Abesselom might have spoken calmly, but his anger could be felt.

" Why do you think he's not the one who saved me, when everyone says otherwise?" Azura asked, looking at Abesselom doubtfully.

" He's not the one who saved you, because I.... I know the one who saved you." Abesselom said and stood from the bed, he was getting angry and needed to calm himself down. He almost revealed to Azura he was the one that saved her, but he didn't think it was the right time.

Azura cought Abesselom's statement clearly, and knew he was the one who saved her. She needed to ask him to confirm her thoughts, but she also knew he wasn't going to answer her if he restrain himself from doing so earlier.

"Would you even believe me, if I tell you he's the one behind all the attacks on you?" Abesselom asked as he turned to look at Azura's face, but all she did was to stare into his eyes doubtfully without saying anything.

"What? You don't believe me? Would you rather believe that the masked man who saved the princess is a demon as that King and his people says? Abesselom asked angrily, almost shouting.

" I don't believe so okay? Am even here to ask you to help me search for that masked man. I want to know why he keeps protecting me, and who he is." Azura said with her head bowed, so she couldn't see the unwilling look on Abesselom's face.

"Why me? Are there no more guards at the palace." Abesselom asked, trying to find a way out of the work Azura was giving him. How was he to join her in search for himself.

"The guards were there when I asked you to find out about the king. Why do you think Marcus is the one behind all the attacks on me?" She asked as she tilted her head to the side.

The calm face Abesselom was showing disappeared, replaced with anger and pain. He felt as if his heart just dropped into his stomach, and his volcano-like anger captured it in whole. Azura just address the King with his first name, that too in front of him.

"Are they that close now? Was it because of the attack on her, or because she saved him?" He kept thinking till he heard Azura prompting him to talk.

" The attack wasn't to hurt you. It was just to distract you so they can kidnap your daughter, and it was the King's order." Abesselom begin to talk.

He told Azura all the information he got on the day the princess was kidnapped, starting from when he had gone to the clearing in the forest till when he returned with the princess. He even told her about Marcus's conversation with his second wife, Pearler.

But in all he talked as if he was narrating something that another person did, using the masked man as his cover up. Azura noticed all that he was saying was actually what he did and was saying the masked did so. From time to time, he had mistakingly used 'I' in place of 'He' in his statement without knowing.

"I want to see the masked man now, else am not leaving." Azura said strictly. pretending to be angry.

"Now? How?" Abesselom was surprised to hear her. He knew there would be trouble in the kingdom if Azura doesn't go back to the palace. They might think she's missing, and he knows someone saw her entering the inn earlier. He'll be in trouble.