A/N: Sorry for the late update I hope you'll enjoy this chapter! XD


Chapter 5 - Information

Haru's eyes fluttered open revealing a light room and found her lying on a red couch in what seemed to be a living room. "Oh, you're awake?" A male voice asked politely.

Haru sat up and looked around the room with curious eyes, "you have great taste, Baron."

"Why thank you. Would you like a cup of tea?" he asked back.

"Yes please," she then noticed her wounds were completely gone, "what happened?"

"Oh, I'm an excellent healer if I may say so myself. I have been studying magic quite a while," he sat down in the armchair across from her. "A thing such as magic is real?" Haru suddenly lit up by that. "Well, yes," Baron answered and then chuckled a bit, "I thought you had realised it when you fell down from the sky."

Haru flushed from embarrassment. Of course she shouldn't be surprised that magic exists now. Baron's face then became serious, "Now, would you please tell me what happened?"

Haru nodded and looked at her hand; the ring was still on but it was now a lighter green than it had been before, "I found this ring on the ground and decided it looked pretty so I tried it on, the next thing… puff… and I'm – first soaring actually – falling," then she added wondering more to herself, "I wonder if I really saw it in a grey colour."

Baron looked thoughtful, "I wonder…" he rose from his seat and went over by the bookshelf, searching for a book, "How old are you, Haru?"

"I've just turned seventeen a week ago, why?" Baron didn't find what he was looking for and then went back to Haru disappointed, "I'm just curious, I guess it's not connected then."

"How old are you?" Haru asked simply curious. Baron was brought back from his train of thought and answered, "I'm 22 years old and 1 month to be exact." Then a small knock on the door was heard and Baron smiled, "that must be either Toto with his mulberries or Muta who waits for them." He went over towards the door and opened, "Oh, hello Muta, what a lovely surprise."

Haru looked the man, "Muh-ta?" she pronounced separately. The man's head twitched and Haru saw how his head became red in anger, "What?! Are saying I'm FAT?" the man yelled, making the girl flinch and apologize, "N…. no!" Haru said clearly, "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to – "

"I see you have company," a voice chuckled from the door, "How unusual, Baron, but I think I'll become quite good friends with her." "Haru, this is Toto, another close friend of mine," Baron said. Haru saw a raven-haired man, young – perhaps the same age as Baron. He was slender and carried a basket with mulberries.

"Sit down please, everyone, we need to find out what happened to Haru," Baron said serious. Baron explained the story with Haru's help and afterwards the looks of the two newer men were perplexed, "so you think the ring has something to do with it?" Muta asked him.

"I think it's obvious," Toto said, "I mean what other reason is there?"

"I was thinking it was the ring but I'm not quite sure why it would be though," Baron sat down in his armchair again and took his hand up to his chin.

"What about telling Chicky here a bit about Alderra? Perhaps it could be good information," Muta said while talking some of Toto's mulberries. Haru looked at Baron as he thought about it.

"Well, the first thing you should know is that King Lucifer is the one reigns this country for the moment. He has been on the throne for many years now and the poverty has only become bigger by then. The only one who managed to stand up against him was a witch from the Garden of the Sakura in the east. She walked into the castle and protested against the king's way of ruling. He was a greedy king – and still is. He even killed his own father to get to the throne," Baron let out a grieving sigh, "she had the power to stop him but, you see, as soon as her hands were bound she became powerless, so the king decided to burn her on the stake in front of the entire kingdom to show his power over this country.

"My father told me that on the day of the execution she screamed out a spell or perhaps maybe even a curse… Toto, do you remember how it went?" Baron looked at the raven-haired man.

"Hmm… let's see, I think it was 'May meus animus secui in duos. Suum diligo mos addo pacis... Suum diligo mos iuguolo ... cupiditas' meaning that her soul would part in two and their love would bring peace. But what the king feared was the words that their love would kill the greed," Toto finished explaining and gestured for Baron to go on.

Baron looked at Haru, "The King new this spell and new it meant that every child born on that same day would have to be executed for him to continue to rule in 'peace'. So he ordered his men to kill every newborn child to be slaughtered," Baron's eyes almost had flames and Haru had never been so wrapped in such a story. The Baron continued, "I was one of the children born on that same day but my mother hid me here in this house in the mountains. Both my parents died to keep me safe but they managed it."

"But what has that anything to do with this ring?" Haru asked confused.

"The ring was owned by the witch and no one knew where it went after the execution. And we don't know if your ring is the one but it seems that it's not. I'm afraid that you're not the second part of her soul. Because you should have been the same age as me if you were." Baron stood up and went over to Haru to pour some more tea into her cup.

"Where is Alderra? I've never been good at geography," Haru said looking at the three men.

"Well, chicky," Muta began, "Alderra is actually an entire kingdom. The Castle of sins lies in the north end of the kingdom, the Garden of Sakura to the Far East and between those two corners of the kingdom the Pass of the Dragons is found..." Toto now rose from his seat and moved around dramatically while he started to tell about the other corner of their world – to give the right effect of course, "To the south you find the ocean where merpeople live, in the south the sun never goes down and the flowers bloom even more beautifully for each second that past. And to the west lies the mountains – that is where we are right now, although we are located more to the centre of this kingdom," Toto ended and Haru could see how he enjoyed telling this.

"What is beyond this kingdom?" Haru asked looking at Baron. Baron smiled, "I imagine there're more kingdoms that haven't been explored yet, but enough chitchatting." His face became serious again, "the only way to find the other half of the witch's soul is by finding the scroll of prophecies. That way we'll find the other half faster. And with that we can easily send you back home," he added.

"How do you even know you're one of the halves?" She asked perplexed and curious.

"We've seen it," Muta began, "He can make a lightshow in a blink of his eye. Apparently the witch's emotions were lying right at the surface and her eyes changed colours according to her mood. The same goes for Baron; when he's furious his eyes become orangey-red and when he is himself his eyes are the way they are now – light green."

Haru nodded understandingly, "So this means that the other half should also have this ability?"

Baron nodded affirmatively, "Yes, but let's focus on the scroll of prophecies for now." He looked over at Muta and Toto and said, "I'm sorry, dear friends, but it's already getting dark and I believe that Haru would want a good night's sleep before we start looking for the scroll."

Haru nodded and Muta and Toto headed outside but achieved to wish Haru a goodnight before Baron closed the door.

"I have an unoccupied room right down this hall," he said and led Haru down the narrow hallway. She looked at him; he really was handsome. The girl who was his other half is probably the luckiest girl she had heard of. She would literally be Baron's soul mate. How romantic, Haru thought and sighed but not loud enough for him to hear.

It was very dark in the hallway; they didn't have any electricity here so there were only candles to light up a room.

"There you go," Baron said as he opened the door to her, "I hope you'll find it comfortable enough." He let out a wide smile.

"Thank you," Haru smiled back and as he closed the door she fell down on the bed too tired to even think of taking off her clothes. She started to dream of wonderfully mad creatures and of flowerbeds that consisted of both roses, dandelions, violets and harebells. But her dream became a nightmare; she could feel how the fire wrapped around her slender body and started to tear her apart.


Look forward to the next chapter and don't forget to review this chapter ;D