Once in her room, Hallie couldn’t help but feel regret for how she talked to Luke. She didn’t want to be the hero and had never dreamed of being one. The knowledge that she could have that kind of power, that kind of influence scared her. She was a mere 5’4 in a world full of people no shorter than 6 feet. Everyone and everything here had been incredibly tall. She was relatively normal size for an earth woman. But here in Gladus, she was like an ant compared to some of them. The thought that they could be scared of her terrified her, because she would have to be an absolute monster if she could scare these people. She didn’t want to have the power to save them, because it was too tempting to stay. Without family, friends, or any real reason to return home, Hallie thought about staying here with a fresh start and friends. 

As she drifted off to sleep, she decided that she would have a talk with Luke in the morning about staying and to apologize for her behavior. 

In the morning, Hallie woke up to a loud knock on her door. “What?” she asked. 

“Did you forget that we are supposed to meet the king this morning? I wanted to see you before we had to begin the day.”

“Come on in” Hallie mumbled as she began to brush her tangled curls. 

“I’m sorry if I woke you up.”

“It’s fine, I’d much rather you wake me up than me oversleep.”

“I’m sorry about last night. I know that you really want to go home, but part of me hoped that you’d decide to stay, I guess. I thought that even if the prophecy wasn’t true, it could make you stay long enough for me to convince you to stay here. It was really selfish, but I haven’t really let anyone close to me in a long time. I think that I really needed to meet you to learn that you don’t always have to hide all of your emotions and feelings and bottle things up. It’s okay to feel things. So thank you.”

“Don’t thank me, you’ve taught me much the same. I used to be the exact same way except unlike you, I pretended to have a ton of friends which is easy if you pretend to be a people person. Also about last night, I decided to think about staying. I don’t really have all that much for me back home, and I have a feeling that Warlen really has no idea how to get me home, and I’d rather not end up somewhere random when he does something wrong.”

“You are really thinking about staying!” Lukes jumped up and gave Hallie a hug. 

She immediately returned it and said, “I have never seen you this excited since I have met you. I thought you were excited to see this place, but compared to the grin that was just on your face, the one yesterday was nothing. It seems that you might actually care a little more than you like to admit,” She teased. 

“Hey, don’t go making fun of me now, or I might just stop telling you things. And you sure won’t be getting any more hugs from me if you keep it up.”

“I was just joking, besides I think that it is nice that you care about me. I care about you too, if it makes you feel any better. We are in this together at this point.”

There was a knock on the door followed by Warlen shouting, “We meet with the king in 1 hour. Make sure to dress you best. He doesn’t like anyone being late either so we go down in 45 minutes. Understood?”

“Okay, Warlen. Good morning!”

Warlen didn’t even bother to respond as he walked away from the door. 

“I guess I’d better leave you to get ready then. I’ll meet you outside in thirty minutes?”

“ Yeah, thirty minutes sounds good.”

Hallie quickly finished brushing her hair and then got dressed in one of the dresses that Alice had helped her pick out and she quickly grabbed the jewelry and went out into the hallway to meet up with Luke before Warlen came to collect them. Luke was waiting outside, looking down at the floor as Hallie exited her room.

“Took you long enough” He mumbled jokingly

“Hey, this dress is very difficult to put on, I’ll have you know. Do you mind helping me get this necklace on, I can’t get the clasp.”

Luke quickly clasped the necklace and Hallie finished putting in her earrings just moments before Warlen showed up. 

“Are you two ready to meet the king? This will be a momentous occasion for the two of you. Many scholars don’t even get the pleasure of meeting the king until it is time for them to become a Great One.”

“We’re ready,” Luke answered for the both of them. 

All three of them headed downstairs and into the dining room where a number of other people were already waiting. Warlen left them to go mingle with some of the others. Hallie watched as many people stared at her and even began whispering about her amongst each other. 

“Ignore them. They don’t matter anyway,” Luke said. 

“Yeah, I’m trying, but nobody likes to be stared at and made fun of.” said Hallie sadly. 

“Well then, what do you say we talk about them. Let's take her for example,” Luke said, looking pointedly at the woman that had been pointing and giggling about me amongst her friends since I walked in, “She seems to be the type who has built her idea of self-worth on the destruction of others. Now isn’t that just sad.” He said loudly enough for quite a few of the people around us to hear and now they were all staring at her.

“Thanks for the help, but it still feels really wrong to hurt others just because they hurt me. It’s like the saying ‘Two wrongs don’t make a right’. Maybe I can just be nice to people and fight them with kindness or something.”

“That works sometimes, but sometimes you have to make people realize how they are making others feel…”

People began to scramble towards empty seats and Warlen quickly came up beside us and said, “Find a seat now, the king is coming!” 

They all managed to find seats close together. Luke and Hallie were on one side of the table and Warlen was on the other side of the table. As the king entered, they were all expected to stand to show their respect and sit only after he had sat down.