Avan carefully wrapped his arm around Levi and helped her to the otherside of the room to the dinner table. Casitas sat down at the head of the table while staring daggers at Levi. Galen and Conall couldn’t help but to admire Levi.

“Sorry for being tardy,” Avan said.

“Why is she here?” Casitas asked coldly. Avan glared back at his brother.

“Because I invited her, is that a problem?” Avan scolded. Casitas ignored his brother and just turned his head away. “Levi, this is my husband Sir Galen and our son Conall. Galen, Conall, this lovely woman is Lady Levi.”

Levi politely bowed to the two of them.

“You don’t have to bow to us,” Galen said as he sat up. “It makes more sense for us to bow to you.”

“Please don’t,” Levi worried. “I don’t deserve it.”

She noticed that Conall stared at her lovingly with his big bright purple eyes. “Are you a princess?”

Levi shyly smiled. “No, I am not.”

“Uncle Cas, is Miss Levi your wife?” Conall asked.

Casitas' eyes almost bulged out of his head, he sharply turned his head to his nephew and shouted, “Of course not!”

“Then, you are missing out,” Galen teased.

“Can we just eat now,” Casitas groaned.

Avan escorted Levi to the opposite end of the table, facing Casitas directly. With Galen and Avan sitting across from each other and Conall sitting between Casitas and Avan.

Soon, a chambermaid placed a food tray on the table. It was filled with freshly cooked meat with steam coming out of each piece, a mouthwatering soup with cut vegetables soaking inside and lastly sweet bread that was soft to touch. The men didn’t hesitate to start eating. Conall being just a child was already messy with his food. Galen noticed how Levi was only staring at her plate.

“Lady Levi, is the food not to your liking?” he asked.

“That’s not it. It smells amazing. I am just a little confused,” she explained. “I thought Xyiiux doesn't like heat and this food looks like it was freshly cooked.”

“Food isn’t as effective as being around constant heat. We usually have fire but it's normally at such a low temperature that it cannot hurt us. So it takes us longer to cook things,” Avan explained.

Conall raised his hand and waved it furiously to get anyone's attention.

“Conall, you aren’t in school. You can talk,” Avan patted his son's head.

“Miss Levi, why are your eyes not purple?” Conall asked.

Everyone was quiet for a moment, but Levi politely answered him. “Well, I am not from here. I am a Baellon.”

Conall stopped in his tracks and his expression changed into complete confusion. “Uncle Cas told me Baellon are all bad and they are don’t care about anything other than money and being better than everyone else.”

Both Avan and Galen stared daggers at Casitas as he kept his head down at his plate of food. Casitas didn’t show any sign of regret, instead he glared at Levi, expecting her to say something to defend herself. Instead, all she showed was complete sadness and unable to show her face to anyone.

“You’re uncle isn’t wrong,” she said as she faked a smiled at Conall. Levi quietly picked at her food, unable to stomach the courage to eat anymore.

For a moment, everything was in unbearable silence. Clearly, Casitas did not trust Levi that he kept staring at her with so much hate in his eyes.

“You are too pretty to be evil,” Conall smiled. Levi weakly smiled back at him but she felt her heart sink hearing what others thought of her kind.

‘What is your home like?” asked Galen. “I’ve never been outside the kingdom before and I would love to know.”

Levi inhaled sharply. “Well, it is almost never cold where I am from. You can feel the warmth of the sun, even at night. Where I am from, the cold makes it hard to do work and it isn’t as pretty as it is here. The snow here is pure white and looks like it is shining. I cannot get passed how beautiful it is.”

“Sounds like you like it here,” said Avan.

“It is quite nice here. I like seeing the snow fall everyday,” she nodded.

“Can you see the moons there?” asked Conall.

Levi happily replied. “Yes, I can see all three moons every single night. I’ve noticed with the constant snowing, you can’t see them here.”

“We can, but only around spring and fall when the snow slows down,” said Avan. “We even have a festival just to celebrate seeing them.”

“My favorite are these black sugar sticks at the festival,” Conall smiled.

“That sounds really good. I hope I get to try them,”

“No,” Casitas answered coldly. Everyone looked over at Casitas sitting at the head of the table. “I cannot allow a Baellon wandering outside the kingdom and expect my people to welcome her with open arms. It is better that none of the villagers know you are here.”

Avan glared at his brother. “You don’t have to be-”

“No, he is right,” hushed Levi. “I don’t want to cause conflict so it would be better if I am out of the public eye”. Levi kept her head down as she began eating her food. Everyone was silent for a moment, unable to know what to talk about. Deep down, Avan wanted to scold his younger brother for the way he was acting, but he bit his tongue instead. Casitas gazed out the window and watched the snow fall, just to avoid everyone glaring at him. 

“Casitas,” said Galen. “I wanted to speak to you about the scouting mission by the mountain peaks.”

“Not right now Sir Galen,” ordered Casitas.

“Well, we need something to talk about because this is just annoying,” Galen whined. “You still want my group to leave in four days right? Well, we need more healers for such a long trip. I request that Avan come with us.”

“No,” said Casitas. “Avan is needed here in the castle. Besides, both of you cannot leave Conall alone.”

“Yes, they can! I am a big boy!” Conall cheered.

As they bickered, Levi looked upon them with a warmth flooding her chest. She has never seen such a heartwarming family. They were cutely teasing, protective and smiling when they could. Inside, she compared it to what her own family was and wished hers was like this.

Avan glanced over to Levi and then smirked back at his brother. “Exactly, why am I needed here so badly. It isn’t even the cold season yet and we have more than enough healers already in the kingdom.”

“This isn’t the cold season!?” Levi gasped.

“Not at all. Remember it is summer right now. The winters here, the fallen snow is all ice. For an outsider, your body won’t turn white like snow but black and blue. Like your body was bruised from the inside out. Right now, our weather is around -13 degrees, but in our winters it gets to around -150 degrees.”

“That is amazing,” Levi questioned. “And all of you are able to survive that?”

“Well, for us the colder the better,” Galen smiled. “But when it gets that cold it is hard to hunt; farm, gather supplies and so on. So we have to use the warm weather now to do what we can. That is why Casitas wants a group to go to the mountains. There are herbs there used for Avan and the healer's medicine that can help those who need it. When winter comes, the mountain will be all ice and unable to harvest.”

“What can be found there?”

“It's a rare flower that blooms in the mountains. It is an orange saxifrage flower,” said Avan.

“That sounds beautiful. I would love to see it.”

“I can go and get you one Miss Levi,” Conall volunteered. Levi politely smiled at the young boy. Casitas noticed the heartwarming smile Levi had. The first honest one she has had since she's been here.

“You are much too young to go Conall,” Galen scolded. His son quietly pouted and went back to talking mindlessly to Levi. It was adorable how quickly he was infatuated with her.

“Why can't you go, Sir Avan?” asked Levi.

“Because he is needed here,” Casitas groaned. Avan glanced at his brother and still gave him a devilish smirk.

“How are your hands brother?” he asked. Casitas glared back at him. “You know Galen, Cas recently left to get a Pyre Crimson stone.”

Galen nearly stopped in his tracks. “How were you able to do that!? That terrain is so intense!”

Levi held onto her own hands and remembered that Casitas was the one who got it for her. Still feeling guilty by not properly thanking him. She noticed his hands, the knuckles looked bruised and faint pigment of burns. The stone obviously hurt him, still he did it for Levi. She opened her mouth but Casitas aggressively stood up from his seat, making everyone stop speaking. He kept an expressionless look on his face and stared down at his family and Levi.

“I will be retiring early to bed tonight,” said Casitas. He politely bowed to everyone at the table. “Thank you all for coming to dinner.”

The moment he started to walk away, Levi stood up as well.

“Lord Casitas!” she shouted. “Thank you!”

He acted as though he didn’t hear her, because he didn’t look back at her and slammed the loud chamber doors shut causing her to jump. She stood there feeling disappointed about not properly thanking him for the stone. Avan lightly patted her arm, trying to ease her pain.

“Don’t worry, my brother is a hard person to gain his trust,” said Avan. Surprisingly, Levi clenched her fists tightly and charged right after him. “Wait! I don’t think you should go after him!”

She left without hearing a word. Galen and Conall just focused on eating their meal, then Galen said, “I cannot see the downfall of Levi being here. If Casitas truly hated her, then why is he going so far to keep her alive?”

“Knowing my brother, it is probably all strategic,”

Galen sipped his wine and said, “I do not think that is it at all.”

Levi marched around the castle, looking for Castias. Doing so, she managed to see what was outside of her room. The castle was so quiet, you could hear your own footsteps on the black marble floor, along with anyone else from across the room. Every wall was as high as three story buildings. Everyone in the castle was very quiet and stuck to their duties. The castle was so large, it was hard to find a single person. Still, Levi kept wandering around aimlessly.

After a long time searching, she managed to find the library. It was like a crooked maze with shelves of books at every corner. She carefully maneuvered through the room and saw at the center of the ceiling was a glorious chandelier that looked freshly polished but no candle was lit. As she stared, she stumbled as her back bumped into a bookshelf, causing a few books to fall. A loud thud hit the ground, she cringed hoping not to alarm anyone. She carefully put the books back and noticed one of them was on the ice mountains Galen and Avan mentioned.

Levi flipped through the book and noticed it was written in ancient Xyiiux language. Her eyes began to flicker a hint of glitter gold as she started to understand the writing.

“What are you doing here,” scolded a voice. Levi slightly jumped as the book fumbled out of her hands. At her feet, the book fell and a pair of black dress shoes approached her. Nervous to look up, she knew who it was. Quickly, she made sure her eyes stopped glowing before he could notice. Casitas picked up the book and stood in front of her. He noticed what she was reading.

“I am sorry, I-”

“You can read this?” Casitas questioned. He turned his face back to her, with such a haunting irritated look on his face. He stepped closer to Levi, making her step back again. Forcing her back to press against the bookcase. Before she could move, he slammed his hand next to her face, forcing her to be too scared to move. Her eyes didn’t look away as he inched closer to her. So close that she could feel his icy breath touching her face. “Tell me why you, an outsider, can read ancient Xyiiux.”