A/N: I want to thank everyone for the reviews. I'm very sorry I haven't responded to most. I just don't have the time, no patience to email everyone. Anyone is more than welcome to speak with me through my livejournal account, though. It's soo much easier just to click reply to comment on my account than deal with going back and forth between windows. But please PLEASE still review if you talk to me on livejournal. I write for people, not for myself. Each review just gets me more excited about writing--usually makes me write faster. Thanks again.

Bad Dreams

By angelwings1

Chapter 15

Jade eyes blinked sleepily in the shards of lantern light. When the remnants of sleep evaporated from her hazy mind, Hitomi inspected her surroundings. Her memories were scattered and fragmented, slipping between her fingers like sand. How had she gotten back to her room? She was certain she had fallen asleep here. How could she have fallen asleep after endless nights of visions disrupting her chances?

Shifting uneasily in her tangled sheets, the seer realized her body felt amazingly refreshed. Barely moving her limbs, she could tell her joints still ached and there was dull throb in her temple, but hardly anything to compare with the torture she had endured recently. Her brow pinched. What had happened?

The muscles in her legs were jumping with energy, hungry for a good run in the fields. Hitomi knew it was unwise to consider the thought. She guessed the moment she tried to stand, her movement would reawaken the awful pain her hours of sleep had pushed down. Could her short slumber actually given her back some her strength? Part of her whispered a resounding 'no,' but since she couldn't recall what had happen up to this moment she couldn't be sure.

Allowing her head to sink deeper into the pillow, the seer carefully began to retrace her steps. The throne room flashed vaguely through her mind, along with random faces from the horde of delegates. Her body jerked into fully-awake-mode when she reached the doppelganger. 'He's going to die!'

Pulling up into a sitting position, her hand subconsciously covered her heart. Confusion tugged at her. 'But why do I care? He's a monster…'

He had nearly gotten her killed. The vision of black liquid swallowing her began to violently replay through her system. She could almost feel her bones breaking. Her chest began to heave as the air disappeared from her lungs. She remembered Millernia's voice. 'You nearly died…'

Grinding her teeth together, she pushed back the images. It would be a violent death, one of outrageous pain. She cringed. In the vision, he had gained only a small taste of his future. Whenever he was killed in the near future, it would be ten times worse.

Hitomi shuddered. She couldn't wish that on her worst enemy, let alone a hired assassin. The temple would have seen the man's future death as divine justice. To Hitomi, she cringed at the idea of someone getting away with murder. Maybe the doppelganger deserved to die for his sins. Maybe he deserved torture for an unknown past, but that didn't give a random stranger the right to kill him. The stranger deserved justice for their sins as well as the doppelganger.

'Besides…' Hitomi's eyes slid close as she swamped with a blushing shame. 'I don't…wish for his death.'

She could imagine the temple's reaction. The idea that she would stand in the way of divine justice was unimaginable to her people's narrowed minds. The Elders would furious and might even go so far as to strip her title from her. Not that she cared. She had never asked to be taken into the temple, to be torn from the arms of her family. Actually, in truth, she had already been stripped from the temple the day she left the valley.

Hitomi gingerly thought of the doppelganger, her thoughts straying to the man's unknown past. She wondered what had pressed the assassin into Dornkirk's servitude. Her third eye shifted dramatically as her powers seeped into place.

..

'I shall live and die in battle. A thousand faces are mine, but there is no place for me.' A hunched figure on the floor sobbed. The dark cloak that covered his back bled into the vastness. The doppelganger whispered of hushed secrets and bloody battles. Sobs broke through his whispered narration.

His memories from wars of old crept in her mind and her chin trembled. The red field was torn with hundred of shredded flags stuck into the ground like pins. Faces pulled in awkward expressions of fear and pain were half buried in the windblown dirt. It was a graveyard.

Her bare feet drug behind her as she slowly passed through the land. There were no words to express the magnitude of death strung out before her eyes. Pushing her weak legs up a small hill, she took in the horizon shadowed with sinking bodies. It was not the remains of a battle she witnessed, but a war.

Was this the past of Gaea her people had fought so desperately to separate from? Her people lived in isolation to escape the temptation of the world, but perhaps this was an overshadowing fear. But what war was this?

'I will forever trudge through blood and corpses. It is the curse of my people's destiny.' She looked down at the solitary person alive in the field, watching sorrowfully how he cried over one of the thousand lifeless bodies. 'Oh, brother…How could I not know it was you!'

Hitomi's eyes widened. 'He killed his brother?'

Her eyes darted at the bloody soldier he knelt over. She hadn't noticed before with so many in the field, but this corpse had the same pale skin and dark lines covering his face. He was a doppelganger as well.

' To transform, we must take a life to become that life. It is the only way we know how to live. We were destined for this life. Why else were we given such a gift of masks?'

"No!" Hitomi snapped, her face twisting into the nastiest scowl. "I refuse to believe someone's purpose in life was murder."

Mamoru's face briefly flashed in the back of her head. How could she ever believe that someone was destined to kill their own beloved family?

The sun hastily dove behind the smoky horizon and smothered the field into shadows. In that same blink of an eye, lines of white light stretched upwards, creating dark bars. Hitomi realized they were no longer standing in a field, but on a covered walkway. A new man walked forward, his identity concealed beneath a robe, 'Zongi, do you despise your destiny?'

The doppelganger slowly lifted his face, the pain in eyes the only needed confirmation. The stranger knelt, his hood leveling with the creature's eyes. 'I have a proposition for you. Follow me. Together we can rewrite world.'

Hitomi's anger boiled. 'Dornkirk!'

The doppelganger's face split into a wet smile and his hand reached forward. 'Yes! Thank you, Lord Folken—'

..

Hitomi was startled back into her bedroom by the name. She knew that name, but the recollection was vague. Had she read it, somewhere in the history book of Zaibach? The name had to be connected to the country because the doppelganger said he had been sent by Dornkirk.

Frowning, the seer ripped back the covers. 'It doesn't matter. I have to—'

The walls shifted, and Hitomi froze with the bare pads of her feet brushing the cold floor. The frigid sensation in the stone beneath her feet couldn't compare to the stabbing ice in her spine. Her eyes quickly darted over the room, ignoring the sleeping cat-woman slumped in the nearby couch. Magic was pumping into the room and swallowing the control of the light. Hitomi could tell that this illusion spell was similar to the doppelganger's, except instead of casting a false identity this spell was shifts the view of the room. Shadows were extended and sunk out focus. The colors framing the darkness glowed brighter, tempting her attention. Narrowing her jade eyes on the shadows she noticed shadow dart from the door to behind the dresser. Hitomi's heart galloped into her throat as she realized the shadows were trying to move unseen because someone had intruded into her bedchambers.

Carefully, the seer edged towards the couch, placing her body between the spell and the cat. Whatever energy she had felt in her bed had disappeared with the sinking dread in her chest. Hitomi guessed the short comatose state she had been in had refueled only a little of depleted energy. She would have to be careful or else she would risk falling back into a coma. Forcing her mind off the throbbing in her head, the seer tried to decide if she had enough strength to perform the revealing spell she had used in the throne room. The seer irritably decided against trying. If she guessed wrong and lost consciousness, she'd be putting Merle in danger she was incapable of defending against.

"Zongi?" Hitomi called softly, watchful for further movement. "If you've come to kill me, then all I ask is that you spare the girl."

The heavy darkness froze under her gaze and Hitomi wondered if the intruder knew how to pass through the shadows network. It was a hard skill to master and took a great deal of energy, but it was possible to transport oneself from shadow to shadow without ever daring the exposing light that divided the dark corners. Hitomi grew edgy with each passing second, her head whirling every which way for a possible attack.

Then the nerves in her left arm began to burst into flames. Hitomi recoiled in surprise clutching her arm protectively. The spell was invisible, even to her eyes, but with the way her arm began to grow numb, the seer identified the spell. Merle's soft sigh in her ears got the seer to snap her head to the side and see the cat pressed her nose deeper into the crook of her arm. It was definitely one of the many Sleeper Spells, a very heavy one. She guessed Merle would be out for a solid three hours.

"Excuse me for my intrusion," a female spoke hoarsely. Hitomi carefully turned, preparing for whatever she was about to find. She forced herself to remain impassive as she faced the black tower. The sentinel didn't step from her spot in the darkness. Hitomi could easily tell that the woman was working diligently to keep the illusion up while simultaneously allowing the seer to see her.

"I mean you no harm," the woman whispered firmly.

"You'll excuse me for not believing you." Hitomi ducked her head lower, hoping to see the woman's features below the lowered hood. Unfortunately, the darkness pressed against her face, allowing only a smooth chin and thin, pale lips to be exposed. 'I guess I should be happy I can even see that since she has the ability to be basked in shadows.'

"I must be brief so I will waste no time," the unidentifiable woman began to speed up her words. "You are a seer, correct?"

Hitomi cocked her head and leaned back slightly.

"Yes," she replied unevenly.

"You must go to the forest," the woman proclaimed, her tone demanding her obedience.

Hitomi took an involuntary step back. "I'll do no such thing."

"You've foreseen things," the woman persisted. "I know are else you wouldn't have dared to challenge Dornkirk as you have."

"So?" the seer squeaked like a cornered child.

The sentinel shifted her gaze towards a random point to her left before returning her shadowed face to the seer. "I don't know what you've dreamed, but I will tell you, it is more than a simple country that Dornkirk wants!"

"What are you getting at?" Hitomi scowled. The wheels inside her head began to turn with frantic haste. If she could confine this woman, she might have a chance at getting some answers. The only problem was that it would have either be a strong ward or a tricky one, neither of which she was a particular good position to perform.

She watched attentively as the woman's hands slipped deeper into her enormous sleeves as they curled into fists. "You must hurry. There is no time for questions."

"I'm not leaving!" Hitomi growled each word with cold emphasis. "Besides I'm in no condition to be running around in a forest."

Rubbing her fingertips together, the seer settled on a spell and measured how long it would take her to say the needed enchantment. She had to be careful when she spoke the syllables, else she might burst open a different spell. She had caused more than one accident in the temple when she had been younger. "Best tell me something quick before I call in the guards."

The sentinel's hood shifted and Hitomi guessed the woman had noticed her fingers writing invisible patterns at her sides.

"Don't," the woman warned with pure steel in her voice. "You will ruin everything if you do."

"Then tell me something other than riddles," Hitomi grounded, the syllables of the spell echoing in her head. "You're on the edge of a dagger, but you're giving me nothing."

"The doppelganger," the woman quickly cried, freezing the seer in the middle of the spell pattern. "He's in the forest!"

Her heart skipped, but the seer stared at her distrustfully. "Why would you come to tell me that? You're with Dornkirk."

"Will you risk a man's life?" the woman asked, her tone growing high with desperation.

Hitomi wanted to rush forward and yank back the woman's hood. The woman was stupid to believe she was just going to take flight. "I'm not going to fall for your trap."

Hitomi whipped up her hands. The first few syllables of the spell had rolled off her tongue when the sentinel had yelled out a world-stopping-name. "Celena!"

Her fingers stiffened in mid-sweep, her jade eyes widening. "What?"

"I'm Celena!" Her hand reached up and yanked back the hood. Steel, blue eyes connected with the seer's green ones. Hitomi studied the face framed in golden curls. This was the girl from her visions. This was Allen's sister.

"I know you," Hitomi mumbled numbly, drifting closer to the beautiful maiden. Celena fidgeted under her gaze, conscious of the wasted seconds passing. "B-But I don't understand."

"This is my proof," the woman exclaimed, stepping to the edge of the shadow, but refusing to leave its protective darkness. Hitomi guessed whatever spell she had going would break if she left the shadows. "If Dornkirk finds out I've come to you, I'm dead."

"But—"

"Listen!" The woman commanded sharply, her wide eyes darting towards another random point. "You're running out of time. My brother is about to kill Zongi to keep Zaibach's involvement a secret."

Eyebrows rose. "Allen?"

"Dilandau!" Celena cried, exasperated. "King Fanel is relying on Zongi's capture to free him from the royals' fury. If he reveals Zaibach treachery, then he can bring the alliance to focus on Dornkirk instead of him."

Hitomi anxiously reached for the woman, but Celena recoiled. "Don't touch me! Else you'll break the concealing spell I've place and Dornkirk will know I'm here. Even now, his eye could be working to break the curtain that hides me!"

Billions of thoughts and emotions were racing through the seer, freezing her feet to the floor. Celena's eyes glittered with tears, something flashing in their watery depths as she watched the seer. "Go!"

Hitomi's reaction was instantaneous. She dug her heel into the floor and crashed out of the room, leaving only a sleeping cat inside. Hitomi slid and slammed into the stone wall outside her door, accidentally knocking one of the tapestries to the dusty floor. Clenching her teeth together, she steeled back a pained whimper and pushed down the hall. She had barely made the first corner when her muscles began to burn, another result from her recent bad health. She was going to need a miracle to reach him in time.

Her feet scrapped against the rough floor as she stumbled into the main corridor. Ignoring the sharp feel of stone ripping into her padded soles, Hitomi locked onto the pair of back doors and fueled every ounce of her reserves into her legs. 'Run like you've never run, Hitomi!'

She distinctly heard the click of many boots behind her and she wondered if they would see her before she burst out into the gardens. Her palms slapped loudly like a clap of thunder against the pair of doors. Her arms screamed as she shoved the massive doors open. Even if she had been in top condition, she wouldn't have been able to swing them completely open. She was lucky they had even pulled apart.

"Hitomi?" Van's voice was full of wonderment, but she ignored his call as she squeezed through the thin opening. Her robe ripped on one of the silver handles and threw off her balance. This time she couldn't hold back the cry as she fell to the pavement. A strong wind blew across her bare shoulders and she blinked back the white dots that danced before her eyes. Pushing off the ground, she broke into shaky spurt and nearly faltered when her feet sunk into frigid white. The white dots hadn't been from her fall. When had there been time for snow?

'Keep running, stupid!' She immediately flung her shoulders into the howling wind and kicked up shovels of snow. She didn't even notice her feet were covering the white world with red footprints. The stone path had been easy enough to get through, but when she reached the edge of the white field, she fell into a knee deep drift. The coldness pierced straight up her spine, rattling her teeth. Hitomi cursed her thin apparel and shoved her left leg forward. Her resolve almost broke when it moved three times slower against the heavy snow. Panting lightly, she brought her other leg forward, trying to add nonexistent energy into her leg muscles. A blast of white air escaped into the air as gave a frustrated cry. She would never make it in time at this rate!

'Dear Lord, help me!'

With raw determination, she began to trudge through the white landscape towards the dark line of trees. Each step forward might as well have been in an ice covered lake. She had never felt so cold in her life. Snow wasn't new to her. It was just that normally she was more prepared to be traveling through it. Soon her blocks-of-ice-called-thighs were hidden beneath the snow and she was quickly loosing sight of her surroundings due to the increasing bad weather. She wanted wrapped her arms around her for warmth, but she needed to keep them outstretched in the freezing wind to help her delicate balance. Unfortunately, her sacrifice gave very little when her leg got caught in a drift and she fell forward. Hitomi shivered. Her stiff body was beginning to feel like its outer layer had become ice. Spitting out hair, the girl stared along the line of snow, searching for the trees she had so vividly seen from the garden. It was as if the wind was boxing her in a world of white. She guessed if she walked in any direction, there would be nothing to find in this wild prison. She needed to keep moving. If she stopped, the snow would bury her. Her fingers were already turning blue.

Her head whipped left and white, hair flying in her eyes. She couldn't be sure which way to go. Her entire intention was to reach the forest. Except with her slow pace, she could destroy her chances of reaching the doppelganger if she went too far in the wrong direction.

Clicking her teeth together, she closed her eyes and leaned her head into the wind. In almost the same second, her pendant appeared in her mind, swirling delicately from its long gold chain. The pale face of her killer pressed to the forefront and she concentrated. She began to trace the point of his ears and the length of his hair. 'Show me to him.'

The doppelganger's voice pierced through his head completing the image and the pendant swung out. Hitomi's powdered face rolled to her right. All she could see was whirling snow. She felt her energy drop dramatically as she stared hopelessly at the white wall in her path. Depression quickly switched to fury, recklessly pumping adrenaline into her blood stream. 'I won't let you stop me. I have to save him.'

She wasn't even sure who she was talking about, Van or the doppelganger. Screaming against the needles stabbing into her legs, she began to half walk, half crawl through the field. She prayed Zongi wasn't too far into the forest.

'Just keep moving…' her inner voice encouraged feebly. 'Keep moving or you'll both die.'

Her body collapsed barely three feet away from her previous position. Adrenaline wasn't enough to keep her moving. She was lucky she had made it this far. Her eyes fluttered dangerously close to closing as her heart began to slow.

"Help me…" she pleaded to the loud heavens, her fingers sliding through the frost for an unseen image. She could see him. His body was a blur from either the snow or her weakened state, but he was there, kneeling in the hand of the red guymelef. Maybe it was a vision, or maybe she had drug herself close enough to the forest. Either way she was unable to stop the captain as he used the liquid metal in the guymelef's hand to wrap around the doppelganger. The creature's pain flew through her head and her mouth flung open in a silent scream.

"No!" She hissed, pulling her body vainly up two more feet. "Don't."

Red eyes burned with vicious thrill as the metal slowly tightened around its victim. The doppelganger pleaded for mercy, but he and Hitomi knew there would be none received. Her pleas were stolen by the roaring wind and her head throbbed as she felt something dark constrict around her heart. With one last desperate lunge, she stretched out to the moaning doppelganger. There was a flash of red and then blackness.

..

A full day later, Hitomi was hanging her head shamefully as Millernia wrapped the final gauze over her foot. "You foolish, stubborn girl! What were you thinking?"

Hitomi tried to mumble an explanation, but she was quickly interrupted. "I mean you were unconscious in your bed, but that wasn't enough? Are you trying to give us all heart attacks?"

"I'm sorry," she whined for the tenth-time, wringing her hands in the blanket that pooled in her lap. She anxiously glanced up through her lashes at the king standing at the window, his eyes hard as he watched the snowfall. He hadn't spoken since she had pulled out of her second episode of unconsciousness. She hoped he wasn't too furious with her.

Unfortunately, her shame had only grown when she asked about the doppelganger. When they had pulled out of the snow, half-alive, there had been no sign of Dilandau or his guymelef ever being there. The tracks had been covered in minutes. Only the heavy color of red was any hint of foul play.

"You could have gotten one of us, for goodness sake!" Millernia continued to rant as she yanked Hitomi's other bloody foot forward by the tender heel. Hitomi didn't have the energy to complain. The doctor's hand gently pulled off the old bandage. "You of all people shouldn't be out in a blizzard!"

Hitomi gave a slight nod, letting her unfocused eyes drop. The doctor glanced up at her and huffed. Hitomi knew the princess was only angry because she had been frightened. As Merle had explained so bluntly, she had nearly died a second time yesterday and had riled up the rulers. The seer knew she was missing something, especially when she tried to catch the princess's evasive eyes.

"How did the meeting go?" the seer murmured uneasily. Merle kept her eyes down while Millernia sped up her work. Hitomi slumped when Van didn't speak up. "That bad?"

Van shifted awkwardly. His body was so tense that it appeared like it would burst from the pressure. The meeting definitely had been gruesome to darken his mood so greatly. Throwing out her previous attitude towards the meetings, Hitomi eagerly wished she had been there. When several more minutes provided no answers, the seer softly pleaded for answers.

"Folken has returned." His tone was dead of any emotion.

The name echoed in her memory and Hitomi swiveled in surprise, her eyes glazed with weariness. "Folken? That name…"

"My brother," he answered curtly. She could tell he was furious with the way his jaw clenched. "He's one of Dornkirk's men."

Hitomi didn't respond as the king thought she would. He had expected shock or an immediate question. When he heard nothing, he glanced over at her. She was sitting quietly with a thoughtful expression on her face. Something dangerous stirred in his chest. "Did you know?"

Millernia stopped in the middle of wrapping the seer's foot and looked curiously up at the silent woman. Hitomi shook her head. "Not until yesterday. I had a vision of the doppelganger. He spoke of Folken and so I guessed, but I had little time to think on it."

His eyes narrowed uncertainly on her. "He's come to challenge my crown."

If she had known, then she hardly acted like she did as she looked perplexed at him. "How could he do that? More so, I thought he was dead."

"It was ruled years ago that he was," Van stated dryly, turning back to the windows. Hitomi cursed herself for not learning more about the invasion and his family's deaths. She had read up on the country rebuilding and Van's rise into power. She never considered looking deeper into the murders.

"What do you mean 'ruled'?"

He opened his mouth, intending to reply to the innocent question, but his jaw slowly closed with a gruff exhale. It didn't take long for her to figure out he wasn't going to answer. She anxiously looked to the cat-girl for help and saddened when she saw her drooping ears. Merle blinked sorrowfully at the seer. "When Zaibach invaded years ago, they had intended to kill the entire royal family and take over. Folken had saved Van's life, but ended up captured as a result."

"He gave up!" Van snapped loudly. The women stared uneasily as the man's hands clenched white as his sides. "He surrendered his life to th-those monsters!"

Merle's ears flattened against her scalp. This wasn't the first time she and Van had spoken over his forgotten sibling, but she was never eager to converse on the topic. She went rigid when she heard the innocent question leap from the seer's lips. "Surrendered?"

Immediately, an old fire burst into the king's ruby eyes. "I don't know how he did it, but he convinced the ruler back then to take him in exchange for the kingdom and my life. We never heard any sure word, but we had hoped he had been killed."

Hitomi flinched. "You can't be serious."

Van turned away, jaw set. The seer gentle pushed away the doctor's hands and stood on wobbly legs. Hitomi frowned as her stomach rolled. "I don't care what the circumstances were. There is nothing in this world that would make me want the death of my brother."

"You don't know anything." The king thundered, whirling on her with overwhelming ease. Hitomi knew she had stepped on lethal ground when Merle cowered into the plush armrest of the couch. Unfortunately, it was too late to take back her words, and even, if she knew how, Hitomi wasn't quite ready. She wanted to know what laid in the dark confines of his heart. That's why she was here. She was here to help him through this. So with a wavering stare, she lifted her chin from her chest and refused the temptation to step back.

He was in her face faster than expected, seething with the fires of Hell in his eyes. This wasn't the first time they had been so close and furious, but she had never witness the level of anger that was burning holes into her.

"He was my brother!" The king whispered with disgust. "He was my last link to my family when he burst into the throne room that day. He could have fought. He could have begged. I don't care what he did, but he shouldn't have left me!"

Hitomi's heart sobbed when she saw the little boy shining in his face. In the two months she had known him, he had never pulled back the curtain as he was at the moment. He was vividly torn between the adult understanding that his brother had left so he might live and the young bitterness of being left behind. Van might have been able, years ago, to deal with the loss of his brother, if he hadn't been in the center of crumbling kingdom.

"He did it for you" she replied fiercely, trying to convey all the sorrow she could in one look. "He loved you! He probably wouldn't have been able to live with himself if you died!"

"Yet, here he is again." Van threw back his hands, marking the entire castle in the sweep. "Ready to step up after years of silence to take back everything he's abandoned, everything I have sweated for!"

He almost chuckled a heartless laugh. The man he had worshipped in his youth had solidified into his enemy. Before he had held a faltering bitterness and soft adoration for the man, but after Folken pulled back his hood, there was nothing that could express the young king's empty feelings. That small shard of love he had clung to through the battles of his reign had crashed to the floor.

"There's something going on," Hitomi replied firmly. Van rolled his eyes and turned, but she quickly grabbed his shoulder.

"There has to be." She persisted louder. "It's the only way to explain it."

"No, there's another way to explain it." He stated coldly as a shadow crossed over his face. "He's waited for this day. He spent his years working towards this moment to take power."

"For what?" she exclaimed, totally surprised by such an illogical statement. "What would make him want to do this? Or believe there was a chance Fanelia could one day grown back into its old glory?"

Van was already ignoring her. "I've always wondered how Zaibach so effortlessly moved into the city. They had taken over secret tunnels and had known the backup strategy when the castle is overtaken. Then in a heartbeat, they took Folken and left without a word. They had us both and with us the kingdom, but they left with only him as a prize."

"Why don't you ask?" she interceded, grappling for any way to capture his focus. The way he was ranting to himself reminded her of the time in the garden. If he had somehow relapsed, she didn't know what to do. She was too weak to remove any vision or offer any energy through the spiritual link between them.

"Call on him." She commanded boldly.

"There's no point," he stated evasively. "By challenging the throne, Folken has to explain himself to the High Priest. By Fanelia's law, a monarch is divinely chosen by our God, Escaflowne, and so the kingdom shall turn to the Priest's judgment on how to proceed."

A cold warning flared in the back of the seer's mind. She was still bitter with the Temple back home so when he talked about turning to his people's religious figurehead, she became nauseated. Then a random crossed her sinking defeat bringing her shoulders up. "Millernia, could you call Allen in?"

The princess, who had been quietly watching from sidelines up to this point, blinked in surprise at the question. "Huh?"

"Call him in, please."

After a confused glance exchanged with the others, the blonde woman hurried to the door. Allen had been kept outside in hopes of keeping unwanted ears away as they spoke with Hitomi privately about what had happened. They wanted to get the story first before it was taken and thrown out of proportion by the hungry nobles. Walking in, the knight bowed respectfully to the seer and awaited her command.

Van watched her curiously, his anger still present, but only simmering now by her sudden turn of action. Hitomi smiled pleasantly. "Allen, tell me what happen to your sister."

The knight's blue eyes widened marginally. "My sister?"

"Yes." She repeated gently, expecting his reaction. "Your sister, Celena."

"You know of her?" he asked, astounded.

Millernia's blue eyes darted between the two. "I wasn't aware you had any family left, Allen."

"She's gone." He replied to them both, his voice serene as if haunted by the mere thought of his sibling. "She was spirited away when she was very young."

Hitomi faltered. "You never saw her again?"

The knight's sad eyes connected with hers, and a cold sensation passed between them. "Never."

The seer half-turned away, lost and confused. "And your brother? Her twin?"

He stiffened in the corner of her eye. Biting her lower lip, she pressed, "He disappeared shortly after his birth, didn't he?"

"What are you getting at, Lady Hitomi?"

The seer's eyes had drifted to the windows, the slow downfall of snowflakes catching her attention. "Van, is it common for snow this time of year?"

The king scowled. "What?"

Hitomi stepped up to the glass, her breath foggy up the windows. "I'm just curious."

His face was bewildered. "There hasn't been a blizzard this time of year for decades, but it's not impossible."

The seer nodded, her instincts whispering dark things to her. Everyone shifted nervously, thrown off balance by the seer's odd questions. The blanket of mystery that had hung over her people fell over the woman once again before their eyes, making the hair of the back of their necks stand upright.

"What is it, Hitomi?"

Taking in the whiteness covering the kingdom, the seer felt a dangerous shadow pass over her soul. Shaking her head lightly, she whispered hopelessly, "I don't know."