Levi remained motionless where she stood. Chills crept all over her skin. Casitas gazed deep into her eyes. He saw her golden eyes staring back at him. They didn’t look as bright as before, but dull and faded into a common brown color. That moment, Casitas' eyes glowed intensely. He took a step forward, making Levi jerk her head away. He reached out his bruised hand to her cheek, carefully tilting her head back to him. Her heart was racing as her hands started to tremble. She couldn’t find the courage to open her eyes, they remained closed like they were glued shut.

“Look at me,” he said. His voice didn’t sound demanding or degrading like before, but actually soothing. Levi felt her heart slowing down. Slowly, she opened her eyes one by one. She focused downward. “Levi, look at me.”

She inhaled sharply once again and trailed her eyes up his body. Once reaching his face, her heart started racing again. His eyes glowed bright as a candle but felt as cold as the snow. He bit his lower lip hard as he took another step forward, lifting her head higher to look at him. 

“Levi,” he whispered to her, “How do you know ancient Xyiiux scripture?”

She exhaled peacefully, not looking away from his beautiful eyes once. “My father taught it to me.”

The two remained close as he gazed deeper into her eyes. With her answer, he knew she wasn’t lying. “Is your father going to find you?”

“He’s dead,” she said. Her eyes became heavy as though lost in a trance. Again, he could tell she wasn’t lying. He let go of her face and backed away from her. Immediately, Casitas glow faded away as Levi snapped herself out of it. He reached over and placed the fallen book back on the shelf next to her face.

“You shouldn’t be careless with these books” ordered Casitas.

He began to walk away from Levi. When his back was turned, she came back to reality and reached out for his hand. Levi tightly grabbed his wrist. Swiftly, Casitas pulled his arm away from her grip. He turned to her and glared at her with anger on his face.

“Don’t you dare touch me!” he ordered. The look on his face would make anyone tremble. His mouth snared, his eyebrows arched and his eyes were eerie. His purple eyes were surrounded by his once white around his eye were complete bloodshot red with black veins creeping out. Still, Levi didn’t back away from him.

“I am sorry. I didn’t mean to make you upset,” Levi said. “I just wanted to find you and say thank you. Thank you for the ring, without it I would have died.”

Casitas turned to her, but his face hadn't changed at all. He was amazed to see her smiling at him with such a sincere and admiration radiating from her.

“Thank you Lord Casitas,” she smiled.

Casitas covered his face with his hand and struggled to breathe. He turned away from her. “Why are you here?”

“I was looking for you and I found this library. Is it alright that I am here?” she asked. Casitas wondered why she didn’t question his appearance or show any fear towards him.

“It would be better if you returned to your room,” he said, still facing away from her. Levi didn’t question him and knew she had to follow his orders.

“I would, but I don’t really know how to return back to my room. This place is quite big and I don’t know my way around,” she said as she blushed.

Casitas exhaled annoyingly and turned back to Levi. Now, his face has returned to normal. “I will escort you back.”

Casitas headed to the doors, without waiting for Levi. She hurried by his side as the two left the library.

As the two walked around the castle, there was an uncomfortable tension between the two. Casitas remained detached and stiff as Levi kept looking away by staring out the windows passing by. Each one showed the same, the snow falling. It was so thick, it was hard to see past a couple of feet. As they walked, workers at the castle all bowed and greeted Casitas. He politely waved at them but kept to his task.

“Why were you in the library?” Levi asked.

“It’s none of your concern,” he replied back. He looked at the corner of his eye and saw Levi crossed both of her arms as her hands clutched her forearms, looking as though she was shivering. “Are you cold? Is the stone not working?”

“It is. It is helping me not turn into ice, but I still feel cold. Avan told me, if I overuse it, it will burn out faster. So I asked him to have it lower so it can last longer,” Levi explained.

“If it burns out, I will just get you another one,” said Casitas. She glanced down at Casitas hands. The thought he went through pain for her, was too much for Levi. She started to remain quiet. He noticed the troubled look on her face. “It was no trouble to get.”

“You don’t have to Lord Casitas,” she begged. “I am fine with how I am now.”

Casitas stopped in front of Levi forcing her to stop as well. He leaned forward to grab Levi’s hands. So quickly, her cheeks turned pink. Her hands were cold for Levi, that her hands were shivering. For Casitas they felt warm to the touch. Her skin was smooth and almost looked a shade of blue. He lifted her hands to his face and exhaled slowly, breathing a pleasant heatwave on Levi’s hand. She became completely flustered that she wished she could hide her face within her hands.

“Is that better?” he asked.

Unable to speak, the two of them heard footsteps backing away from them. It was a chambermaid staring at them with a confused look on her face. From her perspective, it looked as though Casitas was blowing on Levi’s hand romantically. The two of them jerked away from each other and started walking in silence again.

When arriving at Levi’s room, she paused before going down the hallway.

“Why are you timid?” he asked harshly.  “Are you feeling cold again?”

“No!” she yelped. Her mind went back to him blowing on her hands. “Why did you do that!?”

Casitas rolled his eyes. “Don’t get flustered over something so childish. I was just making sure the stone was working properly. The best way to check is to heat it up. What did you think I was doing?”

Levi looked at him and noticed his face was still the frustrated, scowling face like always. Nothing romantic at all. She hid her hands behind her back and this time felt a different level of embarrassment.

“What is it now? I have things to do today” he asked again.

Levi exhaled softly and spoke, “Lord Casitas. Why are you keeping me alive? I figured you would have tortured me by now.”

“Because I am a Xyiiux, you think we are all monsters?” Casitas growled.

“I do not think that; but you think that about me, right?” Levi hushed. Casitas snapped out of it and saw the hurt look on Levi's face. He knew things would be so much easier if he blindly hated her, like when he first found her.

“Are you tired?” he asked. “If you are not going to sleep now, I will show you something.”

He walked past her bedroom door as she followed. As they walked, Levi remained more confused but also worried he would take her to jail. The two went up a long spiral staircase, which was a tower near the center of the castle. As they climbed, the air started to feel thinner. Casitas remained unfazed by this, but Levi felt her vision becoming blurry with lack of air. There were no windows, only a tall stone wall that looked like it reached the sky. Once at the top, there was a weak door that struggled to stay closed by the breeze of the wind. Casitas opened the door and a gust of icy wind hit them both. Levi wrapped her own arms tightly around her. At that moment, Casitas draped his cape over her. Already, she felt herself getting warmer.

Once able to gain focus, Levi was able to see outside the door was a small balcony. The balcony was the highest building in the castle. It overlooked the entire snow land and the village that surrounded the castle. Below, Levi could see small dots of people wandering slowly in the snow. On the horizon, there were only thick dark clouds cluttering the sky and pouring soft white snowflakes down below. As cold as it was, Levi's face lit up being about to enjoy the view.

She turned to Casitas and saw him looking below at his people with a soft smile on his face. Easily showing how much he cares about his people.

“Lady Levi,” he said. “I come here because I can see the entire kingdom from here. I can see over six hundred thousand Xyiiux living their lives. The outside world sees myself and my people as monsters. They see us as dangerous and would kill us by questioning it. So many Xyiiux have died because of narrow minded, privileged outsiders who want us dead without getting to know us.”

Levi gazed below. It was hard to see because of the fallen snow, but she saw many people wearing animal pelts walking around, talking, smiling and living their lives. She softly smiled down below.

“They look happy,” said Levi. “Baellons don’t find joy in everyday tasks. They rather have others do it for them.”

“Baellon sound lazy,”

Levi softly chuckled underneath her breath. “Yeah, they are.”

“Tell me. If Baellon came here, what would they do to my people?” he asked. Levi lifted her chest up, breathing in the harsh icy air and exhaling quietly.

“They would think Xyiiux is disgusting. They would try to lock you all up and make you all servants or kill you just for being beneath them,” Levi explained. Her hands clutched tightly on Casitas' cape. He could feel a powerful energy radiating from Levi. A soothing golden stream floated in the air around her. Amazed just by the glimmer of power, Casitas almost gripped his hand to the sword strapped by his belt; but it vanished so quickly. He saw on her face nothing but bottled up anger wanting to escape.

“You hate your own kind,” Casitas realized.

“Of course I do,” she said as she grit her own teeth. Casitas remained stiff with her. “I left to get away from them. Nothing good comes from the Baellon clan. It would be better if all of us died…”

Levi stopped herself and turned away from the kingdom below. Instead she looked up and stared at the dark clouds above. 

“So, why are you keeping me alive?” she asked. “You can easily get rid of me, but instead you gave me this ring so I can live. You could let me rot in a prison, but you gave me a room in your home. I want to know why.”

Casitas looked up as well. “Who is your father?”

Levi looked to Casitas who stared at her once again, waiting for her answer.

“Why do you need to know my father?”

“You said your father taught you ancient Xyiiux, correct? He must have been an intelligent man.”

Levi softly smiled. “He was.”

She placed her hand by her heart, softly feeling it beating as she remembered her father. A faint memory of her father reading to her as a child and him carrying his daughter on his shoulders. Levi couldn’t help but to show a small sign of sadness, missing her father. Casitas gazed at Levi once more and could easily piece clues together. 

“Your father is Lord Rauf,” he said. Levi’s eyes widened with amazement, unable to speak and unable to look away. Her eyes began trembling.

“Yes,” she admitted. “I don’t care what you think of me but if you insult my father-”

“Your father has been here yearly. He helped my people countless times,” said Casitas as he turned away from her and looked down below. “In the past, we were struggling. My people didn’t decide to live here, we used to live in the common land like the rest of the world. Sadly, the rest of the world didn’t accept us and banished us here. It was hard for us to survive, many of us perished but we learned to adapt to the cold. Now, we can only live in the cold and the heat hurts us. We asked other countries to help us but all said no. Until your father came here. Lord Rauf came here yearly just to see us. Your father helped us by giving us supplies to help us survive. Once he died, it stopped. The reason I am keeping you alive is a debt to your father. Also if he can be a good Baellon, maybe you can be too.”

“You remember my father?” she asked.

“I actually met him a few times. Every time he came, I wanted to meet the person who didn’t think of myself or my home as a waste. He was very kind to everyone.”

Levi loved hearing Casitas show admiration about her father, still it didn’t change what was on her mind.

“Casitas,” she whispered. “If you knew my father, does that mean you remember me?”