The next morning I am awoken by the rising sun seeping in through my window. But before I have the chance to properly wake up I have someone knocking on my door. I raise an eyebrow, get out of bed and open the door.

The lady from behind the bar stands in front of me.

'I am sorry to come this early in the morning, but I just got a note from the messenger and I had to bring it to you immediately,' she says handing me the note she was holding.

'Thank you,' I reply, confused. She nods and walks off.

I close the door behind me and break the seal on the note, it looks familiar but nothing comes to mind immediately.

"Larimar,

It seems that fate is on my side once more, for you see there is something I need your help with. I have consulted all the mages in the lands to no avail and suddenly you show up.

Would you be able to help an old friend out one more time?

-Xyeang"

Word sure does travel fast around here, Xyeang is an old friend from the last time I came here. Head of the royal family, rich and secretive. He never even told me his full name. Unfortunately, I can't help him just yet, I need to help the boy first. But I know that he won’t take no for an answer so I'll just go over to hear him out and tell him I will help him after I am finished. If I remember correctly the palace in which he lives should be about 4 days of travelling by horse. It might be better if I just send him a letter. I look at the note once again and see that the once red seal is slowly turning green. 'I could have known,' I say out loud and let out an annoyed sigh. A teleportation seal. Once the seal is completely green I'll be transported to the place where the spell was cast. I quickly walk downstairs to tell the woman I'm checking out.

'Best of luck on-' I don't hear the rest of her sentence because I'm teleported by the spell.

I stand in a big hall right in front of Xyeang who has a big grin on his face.

'Larimar, been a while. How are you?'

'Nothing to complain Xyeang, what about you?'

'Not great, not great,' Xyeang repeats. 'I need your help Larimar.'

'I'm sorry, but it will have to wait, I have an important task that needs to be completed first.'

'No, it can't wait. Please, Larimar, we are in grave danger,' Xyeang begs.

'We?' I reply confused.

'Yes, my family and I,' Xyeang replies.

'You got yourself a family?' I ask surprised, last time I saw him he was talking about how he would never settle down.

'Yes, we all need your help Larimar.'

'Well, what is it that you need my help with?' I ask intrigued.

'I'll show you,' Xyeang says and walks past me to the door on the other end of the hall and I follow suit. I follow him further down the palace to the deepest point in the basement. Along the way, we have to stop many times for all the locks he needs to open.

'Here we are,' Xyeang says opening another door.

'The tree of rinse,' he elaborates and we walk into the room and he closes the door behind him.

'Shouldn't it be emanating much more light?' I ask, puzzled. From the three emanates light green light but the books I've read about it described it as a bright emerald green light.

'Indeed it should, but the three is sick, and I don't know what to do about it,' Xyeang says and I nod.

'I'll see what I can do, but I don't know if I can completely cure it immediately, but my other mission has to come first,' I explain and Xyeang nods understandingly.

'Thank you, my friend.'

I hold out my hand and from the ground, a portal opens up and a bag flies up. I open the bag and take out the books one by one. The annoying thing is that the order in which things come out of the portal sack is the opposite from the order you put them in. And my book on mythical plants was one of the first books I put in since I didn't think it would be that important. By the time I finally reached the book I have two stacks of books piled up beside me both almost the same height as me.

'There we are,' I say opening the book and finding the chapter on the tree of rinse.

'It's spiritual and yet still a tree, makes for an interesting mix of magic, let's see if I can find anything.'

A couple of hours of searching through my healing books and casting spells to no avail, all bouncing off the tree like their bouncy balls, has gone by and I let out an exhausted sigh. Xyeang has been by my side reading through a book as well, it takes him way longer since the old language is very different and harder to understand.

I grab a new book and open it at the part where they are talking about the spells. I don't need to read someone's life story about how they came to the spells.

I quickly read through the descriptions of the spells when one catches my eye.

'This one could work,' I say standing up and handing Xyeang my book.

'Hold it so I can read it.'

I crack my knuckles and wave with my arms for the blood flow. I say the incantation and from my hands, a wave of green smoke emerges and makes it wave over to the tree. The tree immediately starts to illuminate with emerald green light, yet it remains a dim light.

'That's better,' I say and Xyeang arms fly around my neck.

'Thank you, that's already way better. I can already feel it in my bones,' Xyeang speaks happily and carefree.

'Come, it must be close to dinner time, you have to join us for dinner. I'll introduce you to my family,' Xyeang says pulling away and with a big smile.

'Sure, let me just clean these books up first,' I say grabbing the books up from the floor and putting them back in my sack.

A minute later I toss my sack to the ceiling where a portal opens and the sack disappears into it.

'Must be nice, not having to carry anything,' Xyeang says amused.

Like he doesn't have servants that do that for him, I joke in my mind

'Perk of the profession,' I say and walk towards the door.

'Sir, there you are,' a servant rushes over to him as soon as we are out of the basement. 'We've been looking all over for you. Dinner was served like 10 minutes ago, your family is waiting for you,' she explains and Xyeang nods.

'We'll head over there now thank you,' he replies and the servant bows and walks off.

'Follow me,' he says picking up the pace towards the dining hall.

He opens the doors to the dining hall and the noise quiets down and all the eyes are focused on me.

'Been a while,' I hear a familiar voice and see her sitting in the middle of the table.

'There is no way, did you guys really? But last time, I can't believe it,' I reply flabbergasted. It the middle of the room sits Maie. Last time I was here Maie was in her early twenties. Her and Xyeang were good friends and had been for a long time. And I never thought I would see her again.

'Living forever has its perks, you know,' Maie replies and I crack up.

The tree of rinse basically freezes whoever is connected to it in time. Making them neither age nor grow sick. But they are far from immortal.

'Let me introduce you to my children, some of them have already left the nest, but I have invited them back as well,' Xyeang explains.

'If teleporting us back with just enough time to tell our spouses is inviting then yes,' the lady who sits on the edge of the table says.

'That is Maieing, my oldest daughter, it's lovely to see you again,' Xyeang starts and goes down the list of names of his daughter, they one by one stand up and bow when their name is said.

'And the youngest one and my only son, Yinu,' Xyeang says and an awkward Yinu stands up and bows. I have to do my best to keep myself composed. Because the boy bowing is the boy from my dreams.

'It's a pleasure to meet you all, my name is Larimar, it has been a long time since I have been in this kingdom but not much has changed,' I reply and Xyeang makes his way over to the dinner table. I walk to the empty seat beside him, counting the heads as I walk past. In total, my friend has 8 daughters and one son. For the Xyeang that doesn't want to be tied down, he sure did it right when he did.

The doors open and servants and chefs walk in holding plates or rolling in trolleys filled with food. Everything is placed neatly onto the dinner table until there isn't any space left, the servants and chefs bow and close the doors behind them.

'You went all out, didn't you?' I ask mockingly.

'Oh no, this is what they do every day,' the lady across from me says and Xyeang pouts.

'Its fine darling, let's just dig in,' Maie says and the dinner table turns into organised chaos. Bowls, plates, bottles and cans get handed around to the left, right, across and diagonally. I get all kinds of stuff handed to me and when I'm done with it somebody else reaches out and I hand it to them. The chaos disappears and I notice that I have a pile of food on my plate more than any person should eat in one go.

I get some glances from the people around me and I give them an awkward smile causing the son who sits diagonally from me to gniffle. Maie sends him a glare and the smile on his face immediately disappears and his eyes focus on his plate. I glance from Maie to the son and notice that the boy has a white circle in the middle his face, that ranges from the middle of his nose to the middle of his forehead. I can't tell if it's painted on or otherwise but it is strangely majestic.

I look back at my plate and I start to tackle the huge mountain.

The room remains quiet for a while until a voice breaks the silence.

'Larimar, may I ask you what you have been up to, I have heard various stories of you and Dad. So, I'm curious.'

I look up in the direction of the voice.

'Liang, that's-' Maie starts and I cut her off. I don't know what has gotten into Maie but she seems to be a lot more strict than what I remembered.

'Sure Liang, I am flattered by your curiosity,' I reply and the second oldest daughter sends me an excited smile.

'Not too long ago I was in Sequbox, I was involved in what went down there. I don't know if you've heard what happened there?' I tell and suddenly all eyes are on me.

'You, were with the angels?' Vyin chimes in, the youngest daughter seems to be in disbelieve.

'Yes I was, I didn't do much though. Because it wasn't my fight, nor did I feel right to partake. I just protected my closest friend.'

'So there were angels, amazing,' Vyin says and my eyes wander around the table.

'Are they still on earth? Yinu would die if he ever met one,' Svin asks and just then my eyes land on Yinu.

His eyes quickly return to his plate but I can see the sparkle in his eyes.

'Well that's quite enough girls, let us eat before the food gets cold,' Xyeang says and we return to our plates.

The dinner continues with conversations and a homely atmosphere. It's nice to hear other people around you. It's different from Victoria and me. But during dinner, I can keep feeling eyes on me from all sides, like I'm a wonder to behold.

But it might also just be from me trying to eat this pile of food on my plate.