Word had lost its power at that moment when Aurora was requiring for an answer. Fear overpowered his words, strangling them till death before they even had the chance to be born to light. The fear, if you were as a good observer as Armond was, you would've found out that it was well built by his conscience.

He feared Aurora might have a second opinion to him which was a rather bad one if you would even ask. And why would he think she might have a second opinion to him? Because he knew what he was doing was well cursed. Then why would he possess such an idea? If it was not given by his conscience, I would really lose my words.

It was a difficult task for our hero to fall as sleep after such an incident, and so as our heroine. The night would be forever long if you couldn't rest your eyes.

The castle was still a strange place for Aurora. The people were strange, the fashion was strange, the words people spoke were strange, the realistic world was strange, everything around her was strange, so utterly strange!

The realistic world was a wall withholding secrets that people abandoned. Every day, the voice of conscience rang through the realm but her voice gradually faded away.

Aurora didn't understand. Why people were miserable to travel? Why the sky was so melancholic with a shade of grey every day. And why would it appear to be painted with ashes of bones and filled with a smell of burning flesh? She didn't understand why people could live in such gloominess and never thought to alter it. As honourable as their identity proved, why would the life of human so miserable?

All those questions were suffocating her mind. Couldn't breathe, she quietly went into the garden, as silently as a raindrop falling to a rose petal, soft and elegant.

The moon in the night was round and welcoming who had a tender aura as a mother. Looking up at her, somehow, Aurora missed her parents even more. 

The wintry wind reminded her of the tiny fairy sugar plum in the Fantastical Realm. It was a traditional festival that celebrated the coming of winter at the beginning of December. At that night, all the sugar fairies would scatter candies and sugar plums down the sky and dance around and around. Ice lily and crystal lilac, which were the winter species, would sing lovely tunes and beautiful melodies. When all the spring and summer creatures laid in their nest, humans would dance with the wintry fairies and sing along with music in the cold air.

With all the exquisite pictures knitting in her mind, Aurora picked up the familiar steps and danced round and round in circles as if she was in the royal forest celebrating the grand festival with her family and people once more.

“Aurora,” Hubert casually greeted, pretending that it was all coincidental and that he definitely didn't happen to hear the clattering noise in her room and followed her all the way down here in the garden.

“Herr Hubert! I hope I didn't wake you up.” Aurora smiled to cover her embarrassment, hoping that he wouldn’t think her move any less of a lady. At least, she remembered how her mother used to tell her, “Aurora, as a Crown Princess, do not dance unless you are attending a ball or a festival. Royals dance for purposes, in manner.”

“Oh, no, you didn’t. I just,” with a good long second he pronounced the word, “wandering.”

The night was tranquil, the only sound was the howling of winds. Nobody was strong enough to stand against the dark, they feared. It was the era of night, the light was long gone that people almost believed dawn would never come.

Hubert came closer to her direction, his bulky wear of big coat and pyjama made him more associated with a Russian bear instead of a German hawk. Perhaps it was the quietude and absence of other people, she took the chance to have a better look at his presence.

There was something quite peculiar about Hubert that she couldn’t put in words. Her heart always felt his pain and the blue which he never shared with her. Perhaps she didn’t gain his trust to share intimate secrets just for a week of encounters.

“You see, a good breed lady should never get alone in the dark at such forbidden hour.” Her diving in his blue ocean, the search of his secrets, was interrupted by his sudden judgement which was for the purpose of humour rather than a true accusation.

Aurora gave another embarrassing giggle and replied, “Pardon me, but mother would have scolded me for such behaviour. I just, it’s quite hard to sleep after......I just don’t perceive this world I am living in.”

The drop of her tone in the last part of her sentence gave him a surmise that she was somehow, despite all the shopping they did in the morning, was grieved. Immediately, the pictures of the unpleasant disturbance during their walk rushed into his mind. Apparently, though she didn’t say much and so as Armond, she was having difficulty to cope with her feeling in the situation.

And, everyone knew, it was dangerous to have such a mindset under the rule of Nazi Germany. But he didn’t blame her. He gave her rebellious act to the result of her memory loss and not that she still honoured the truth set in her heart. Carefully and gently, he preached, “Remember, Aurora, the people we met today, they are not one of us.”

He was looking at the cosmos, escaping the sight of his conscience. For that sentence would not be formed if he had cast his sight onto the truth.

“Pardon me, why would they not be one of us?” Aurora asked without truly understood his meaning,

“They are Jews. I may know you but others may not. So you need to be very careful not to say anything that you are not supposed to say.” His words were stern but not his voice.

Didn’t get the latter part of his sentence, she continued to ask, “Do they have a body?”

“Yes, but it’s not the problem. By us, I mean we share the same Aryan blood but not them. You have to be careful, if….”

“We have a body. They have a body. We have a soul. They have a soul. We have a spirit. They have a spirit. We are scared. They are scared. We are human. They are human. So, do tell me please, where is the difference? Where is the superiority? Why it should be us and them?”

Her reply shocked him for nobody dared to say these words in front of a Nazi officer, let alone to say a lieutenant whose brother in law was the General appointed by the Fuhrer.

“That, my dear Aurora, regarded to our friendship and intimate childhood, I would pretend those ridiculous words of yours never be fallen into my ears.”

There was so much more to ask. She hadn’t asked for their destination on the trip and the reason they were so fretted at stepping into the journey. However, his reply, though mild and calm in tone, gave her a fright to continue the conversation. He appeared to hate the going of their chat and, to be polite, she chose to let her attitude speak for herself.

“Thank you for your kindness, sir. Shall we call it a night then?” She said plainly without looking at him or any smile.

Withstanding not a single more second, she turned and walked away in a rapid pace back to her room. Clearly, they shared a different political viewpoint, he believed thought it was not about politics at all, but his view to her was never changed. She was still that same sweet angel he met in the orphanage despite an extra growth of politeness and elegance.

When she was gone in his sight, he looked up at the night sky again, like the way he used to do back in the orphanage. At dark, he liked to sneak out to watch the stars and the moon. They were beautiful and far too magnificent for a young lad to perceive. “How great was His work!” he used to think.

But now, he was struck at such thought for he knew he would never be forgiven.

The countenance of the night, the same one who witnessed wars after wars and the launch of bombs after bombs, how brave she was to be able to stand the scenes. How could she survive with a sane mind after all these years?

Did she still remember those peaceful years when humans were far from inequity and selfish desire? Do you remember? Do I remember?

She must be comforting herself by teasing humans for what they had done to each other and to themselves. But then, tears might fall when she saw a child sitting on a large piece of meadow and looking up to admire her beauty. For she knew how this would end when the aeroplanes scrolled through her face and cast down the hard lifeless fireballs onto the smiling face of that child and of so many more children.

“When will these people learn? How many shall be lost until they receive the lesson? Isn’t it all enough? How much does a life cost? And how much do they still want?”

The night chill getting colder as his heart got colder, closer to the truth, closer to his conscience and then he pulled himself back to the gate of hell.