Chapter 37: Childhood sweethearts
[Mythiopia]
For the next few hours, Lawrence and Dexter spent time in the study discussing the recent incident.
"Might be the coin has stayed with the man for too long that it's essence rubbed on him too?" Dexter made a wild guess.
Lawrence frowned. Then shouldn't something similar happen to him too. He had that coin for more than 20 years now.
"What do you think about the black miasma surrounding the portal?" Lawrence asked for Dexter's input again.
"Definitely not from the magical realm. And something that dark wouldn't possibly exist in heaven too. Human realm has no streak of magical essence. So something or someone must have escaped from hell."
Dexter logic was clear and sound. The king agreed. He just hoped that dark aura was not related to Isabella in anyway.
"But the man was talking about some pale lady. What do you think about that your majesty?" Dexter asked curiously.
The elf prince was quite intrigued looking at the human realm, so he paid attention to each and everything Dylan said.
"And he also kept alerting Isabella about this woman." The king added.
Dexter nodded. It is okay if it is some normal teenage fights. But it would be problematic if it was some dark force targeting their crown princess.
"The dark witch is still missing. Is it possible that she managed to find the portal too?" Lawrence muttered gravely.
That dark witch was the root of all this. Had he killed her when he had the chance, Stella wouldn't have been kidnapped right after birth, and Isabella wouldn't have been swapped into the human realm when she was five.
"That aura doesn't belong to the dark witch. And I don't think she is powerful enough to even survive in that void space" Dexter commented.
Lawrence would have agreed to it before. But now, after they passed through the coin using all kind of cheats, he didn't think it's completely impossible for someone so cruel like the dark witch to come up with something creative to cross the void.
While both the men were discussing this here, the queen went to see her eldest daughter and give her this good news herself.
"Mother.." Stella walked towards the queen as soon as Aliza entered her chamber. The princess was little shocked seeing her mother's eyes red, indicating that she cried.
"Mother.. What happened?" Stella asked worriedly. Aliza didn't reply and embraced her eldest daughter tightly. She was both happy and sad.
"Stella.. My daughter.." Aliza kissed Stella's face lovingly. She couldn't wait anymore to share this good news with Stella.
Noticing her mother losing her usual composure, Stella silently gestured all her maids to leave the chamber. Soon it was only the mother and daughter in the chamber.
"Mother.. Have a seat first.. What happened?" Stella asked again. She didn't know what could make her mother cry? Aliza was herself very powerful, so no one can bully her.
"Stella.. We found her. I saw her. Your sister. We found her.." Aliza almost shouted in excitement. She badly wanted to hug Isabella and shower her with all the love she missed in the past years.
Stella was shocked hearing this. She actually thought her sister must have been dead. Why else would her father not find her all these years?
"My sister?" Stella asked to confirm, to which her mother nodded in response.
"Your sister. Our Isabella. We found her. You both look alike Stella...." Aliza went on and on about everything that happened.
Stella sat quietly hearing her mother. Her mother kept telling her that that found her 'sister'. But all she could hear was that they found the 'crown princess'.
She was slightly surprised to know that this sister of hers was about to get married in a day or two. This made her impression on Isabella drop a few notches.
According to her, only incapable people get married so early and become a burden to another man. She forgot the fact that even her parents married very young because they were sure about their love.
"What does she do?" Stella asked after a while? From whatever her mother told her till now, she figured out that human realm has no magic. She also heard that Isabella was a magical void. So she was curious to know how the crown princess is surviving there?
Aliza frowned and pursed her lips. The conversation between Dylan and Isabella didn't answer anything about what they do for a living. But looking at the small cramped room they were in, life didn't seem easy for their daughter.
"I don't know. But I know that she is still studying." Aliza answered with a slight heart ache for her youngest daughter. Had she been here, she would have been raised among all luxuries in the world. Even the floor on which she walks on would be made of gold.
Stella nodded. Still studying? Stella had been given top-notch education too. Magic, Politics, Warfare, Arts, Literature, and many more. She didn't know what would be there to study in a boring world like human realm?
"And the man she is about to? What does he do?" The princess asked again. Aliza shook her head. The queen made a mental note to know more Isabella's life later.
"I don't know. His name is Dylan. And seems like both he and Isabella know each other since childhood." The queen replied remembering the tender affection between her daughter and Dylan.
Love, passion, attraction and desires can come and fade away like seasons. But tenderness has to be nurtured with no expectations in return. It doesn't happen in a day or two. And she had seen that in her daughter's eyes. And it was endless.
'Childhood sweethearts' Stella thought. She tried hard to remember anything related to the human realm but failed.
Unlike Isabella, who tightly held onto the little memories she had with her parents here, Stella didn't have any outstanding memories she made in the human realm. The life she spent in the human realm slipped away as she settled in her princess role here.
"How is father going to bring her back?"
"He is figuring it out. But he will make it possible. We won't have to wait for long." Aliza excitedly answered. She had planned on decorating the crown princess's chamber, ordering beautiful clothes and jewellery, and also a welcome party.