The snow continued to fall. With the constant clouds, it was rare to see a small ray of sunshine to determine if it was day or night. The woman kept herself wrapped up tightly in a thick blanket as she stared out the window. It was so cold that it looked as though the glass were about to break. The woman could see her breath every time she exhaled. Inhaling, it felt like ice stabbing at her lungs. Still, she remained where she stood.

The bedroom was quite small, but had a fireplace that constantly burned to make sure she didn't freeze. Time went by and knights came in just to bring more firewood to keep the flame burning. Constantly, she had to hurry back to the fireplace before she felt her body's temperature drop.

There was a knock at the door. The knight kept his helmet on and didn’t show his face at all. In his hands were more firewood. He ignored the woman and just put firewood in the fire, then left.

“Excuse me,” the woman said softly. “How much longer do I have to be here?”

The knight didn’t take but a moment to acknowledge the woman then just left the room. There was a faint sound of the door clicking to lock.

The woman sighed and stumbled over to the fireplace. She sat as close as she could and stared deeply into the fire.

She carefully held her wrist and felt her pulse rising. The heat of the flame immediately evaporated her fallen tears. Voices echoed in her mind as she felt as though they were creeping up behind her, getting louder and louder. So hard, she tried to cancel out the voices but it was no use.

Suddenly, the door swung open. The woman immediately wiped away her tears and stood up. At the door was a chambermaid holding onto a long dress and winter coat.

“Hello, my Lord ordered for me to bring you this and wants you to go to his study,” said the chambermaid.

The woman glanced over at the chambermaid and noticed she had purple eyes as well. She took a step closer to the chambermaid but she jumped and then started to shake. The woman stopped in her tracks and knew why she was so afraid of her.

“Thank you for the clothes,” she bowed back at the chambermaid. The chambermaid looked so stunned to see someone bow to her and then placed the clothing on the bed. Once she was gone, the woman glanced at the clothes and noticed how extravagant they appeared to be.

“How does he expect me to leave this room without turning into ice?” she questioned. When picking up the dress, she noticed a beautiful red stone in a silver ring band. She gazed at it closer and it looked as though there were a small fire dancing inside of it.

Meanwhile, in the main hall Casitas patiently sat down at his desk. His eyes kept staring at the door waiting for the woman to appear. Impatiently, he kept tapping his foot and thought of different ways to speak to her. None of which seemed like the proper way. He took a deep breath and clenched both of his fists. Deep down, when thinking about the Baellon clan and their kingdom. Wondering why there was one of them even here.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. Casitas sat up from his seat and tried to appear intimidating like before. He went back to his scowling look and stopped moving all together.

“Come in,” he ordered in a monotone voice.

The door barely peeked open and there was the woman. She was wearing a long dark blue Victorian dress with a large black fur shawl wrapped around her shoulders. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail, completely exposing her face. Still, her cheeks showed a shade of pink and she kept her fingers locked together as she remained still.

“I said come in,” Casitas ordered again. “And shut the door.”

The woman closed the door behind her and slowly approached Casitas. He didn’t look away from her once and saw how she avoided eye contact. When reaching at his desk, he gestured his hand for her to sit across from him. The woman sat down and managed to look directly at him. He remained silent, leaving her to think the worse. Wondering if he planned to execute her or lock her away forever.

“I have a lot of questions to ask you. Now that you are recovered, I can ask you whatever I want, right? It is the least you owe me for saving your life,” he said.

The woman nodded. “Thank you for saving me; but why did you?”

“You don’t get to ask me anything,” he said sternly. Already the woman's heart sank making her act obedient to him.

“I’ll start off first. What is your name?”

The woman cleared her throat and answered. “My name is Levi.”

Casitas eyes slightly squinted and he felt his stomach turn into knots.

“Then you are exactly who I thought,” he mumbled. “You are Levi from the Baellon clan. I can tell by your eyes. You came a long way to get here. My next question is why are you here?”

“I am sorry for intruding onto you sir…”

“My name is Casitas,”

“Casitas?” she questioned. Her eyes looked deeply into his. Not realizing her face was leaning more forward, almost over his desk. Her face looked as though she was having trouble piecing a puzzle together.

“Stop staring at me like that,” he ordered.

“I'm sorry Lord Casitas,” she bowed. Her face tilted up and exhaled loudly. “I ran away from my kingdom and the forgotten lands were the last place anyone would look for me.”

“You could have died here.”

Levi's face turned into an expression of sorrow and regret. “I know…”

Casitas could tell from her expression that she wanted to die. Still, he stopped himself from questioning on this topic.

“Why did you run away?”

“It was my only chance to escape and it was an opportunity I couldn’t let get away,”

Casitas rested his back on his seat. “Why would a Baellon run away from home? Isn’t your home full of gold and luxury? Isn’t all Baellon living their best lives?”

Levi tried to hide her anger from him, but failed easily. “Not everyone is happy there.”

“Having a Baellon here is nothing but trouble,” Casitas said harshly. “Your kind will come to my kingdom and kill everyone here just to get to you.”

“I will leave right now. I don’t want anyone to die because of me,” she announced. Casitas looked amazed to see her offer. In his mind, Baellon are nothing but royal who look down on anyone who isn’t their own kind and kill those who oppose them. His prejudice is clouding his mind.

“You wouldn’t last more than twenty minutes outside,” he said. Levi glanced over by the window and saw how thick the fallen snow was. Not once has it stopped since she awoke in this kingdom. “In this weather, my people adapted to the cold. We can survive easily in this harsh climate. So much so, we don’t need fire. Still for someone like you, you need heat to live otherwise your entire body will turn into a frozen corpse.”

Levi glanced down at her hand and looked at the ring on her finger.

“Is that why you gave me this ring? So I wouldn’t freeze?” she asked.

“I only kept you alive because I need to know if any Baellon will be coming to my kingdom and to see if you were a threat.”

“No Baellon will be looking for me. Everyone thinks I am dead,” she said softly. Casitas saw that her face was starting to tear up. Not from sadness but from anger. His eyes slightly flickered and began to hauntingly glow. Levi looked at him and noticed he was staring at her hard. In his eyes, he could see a calming aura surrounding her body.

“You aren’t lying,” he said as his eyes changed back to normal.

“You can tell if I am lying!?” she asked. “How could you do that!?”

Casitas remained with a stern look on his face, making Levi stop talking. Both of them were silent for a moment. He kept wondering if he let her leave, she would die and his problems would be over. Still, if he kept her here he could get more information about the Baellon and use it against them when given the chance. Even if that worked out, he would feel like a hypocrite keeping her in his home.

“I don’t trust you. In fact, I hate the Baellon clan. They are untrustworthy, selfish and cruel. Should I believe you are any different?”

“I AM different,” she said as her hand went to her chest. “But I don’t expect you to believe me so easily.”

Levi sat up and bowed respectfully to Castias. “Lord Casitas, I know if I leave I will die. Either by the snow or by my own people. If I do, I’d rather it be by your own hands. I hate my people as well, which is why I ran. I’d rather be here and be your prisoner; but I will do what I can to help you.”

Casitas could tell she was very honest with her words, but he didn’t give her an answer just yet.

“I’ll have someone escort you back to your room. Until then, you will remain here,” he announced.

That little gesture was enough to make Levi smile so brightly to him. His eyes widened because he’s never seen someone show such appreciation so much, it was overwhelming. Levi politely bowed to Casitas before leaving.

When alone, Casitas pressed his hands to his head and felt his stomach turning. Inside, he felt like a hypocrite and another part felt something so unfamiliar before. He kept asking himself, ‘why didn’t I just get rid of her’ or ‘why am I being so soft’? Nothing led to an answer he could understand. Instead he just sat alone in his study, repeating the same questions in his head for hours.

Meanwhile, Levi returned to her room and stared out her window again. She kept thinking about Casitas’ purple eyes and how familiar they are. She held onto her own hands and looked up at the sky.

“You cannot see the moons here,” she whispered.

“Casitas…” she said as he looked at her hand. “I wonder if you remember me…”