The sky was a deep, dark navy blue, glimmering with glowing dots throughout. Swirls of white filled the air- gusts of icy winds dancing around them. Turning in awe, Rory observed the trees around them that seem to be made of a sleek, silvery material. She gingerly touched one, the icy metal causing her to flinch back slightly. She lightly danced her fingers along the tree before the ground caught her eye. The ground was a bright white blanket. As she leaned down to take a better look, she saw the small details that made it even more extraordinary. Tiny snowflakes floated above the ground, moving just slightly around. Rory placed her hand in the middle of the small snowflakes, watching as they began to levitate towards her hand. They stuck to her hands like a magnetic pull.

Laughing out breathlessly, she turned her hand to observe each snowflake. She gently rubbed the snowflakes off her hand. Standing up, she saw a black panther with striking, glowing green eyes in the tree in front of her. She froze for a moment before the animal dipped its head down. This was when she noticed the line of white spikes down its back. They got longer as they trailed down its neck. Wide, red lines spread from the spikes down to its stomach. The lines got thinner as they approached its stomach. It locked eyes with her one more time before leaping up to a higher branch.

Rory stood up, welcoming the cold air as it nipped her skin. She turned back to the group, a smile painted on her face. The setting was quite the opposite of Fantamia, but no less beautiful. Eliphas seemed to be overjoyed to be here as he lifted both his hands up. Snapping his fingers, lights appeared in a path among the trees. Looking closely, she saw floating lanterns just next to the trees.

"This place is beautiful," Rory commented in delight as the amicordas roamed around, exploring their new environment.

"It is," Eliphas agreed smugly, "it's where I live. Many warlocks and witches reside here."

"Don't tell me this is the classic 'all the evil people are herded into one place' cliche," Rory begged with a sweet smile, using air quotations around the last bit, which caused Eliphas to scoff. He opened his mouth to speak before Channing interrupted him.

"There are evil people everywhere, just as there are good people," Channing commented next to a tree, one of the panthers nuzzling against him lovingly. He smiled at the creature, gently stroking its head.

"I'm from here as well," a voice piped up. They turned back to the bridge to see Eira approaching them, her long, thin swords in her hands. She seemed unbothered by crossing the bridge, making Rory even more curious as to who Eira hears there. "We moved to Fantamia after my family stopped fighting in wars."

"What took you so long?" Maximus asked curtly.

"After I saw Iris and Birch, I had to go to my house. You know how my family is; I didn't even have to mention the possibility of a battle for them to tell me I can't go. Then, of course, my sister was just doing her usual rambling," Eira ranted, her face full of annoyance. Malakai gave the girl a look that Rory couldn't decipher. He stared at her before turning his head to the ground and sucking in a deep breath.

"I didn't know you had a sister," Rory commented, ignoring Malakai's actions.

"Yeah..." Eira trailed off uncomfortably, causing Rory to become confused.

Aidan sighed, licking his dry lips. "How is she?"

"You know, her usual rambling of how she doesn't belong here," she responded with a shrug, clearly not enjoying this conversation.

"We should get going," Channing interrupted, pushing himself off the tree. He touched the bottom of Eira's back comfortingly for a moment before he started down the path. The others quickly followed as Eliphas sauntered to the front to lead.

Rory walked alongside Maximus, who glanced around wearily. The pathway was made of silver stone, snow outlining it. Glimpsing over at Eira, she relished in the joy that the girl got from being around snow. She thought back to this morning and remembered something. "What did Eliphas want?"

"Pardon?"

"Before I passed out earlier, he said he would tell us the location if you guys have him what he wants, what was it?" she questioned worriedly.

"Don't worry about it," he told her shortly, shaking his head.

"That usually always means it was something bad," Rory pointed out before gently taking his arm to get his attention, "Maximus-"

"He just wants our protection," Maximus interrupted her, "Eliphas has gotten in trouble with some people in the past, which probably isn't hard to guess. Plenty of the leaders of the realm are looking for him. So, now... he's under our protection."

"Are you sure that's safe?"

"I'd do anything for my sister."

"I can tell," Rory commented fondly, nodding once in admiration, "Family is everything; we need to do everything we can to preserve it."

Maximus observed her, hearing a hidden meaning behind her words. "I hope we can get you back to your family, Rory. You didn't deserve this."

Rory smiled sadly, shaking her head with a sigh. She swallowed thickly as she bit her inner lip. She glanced around the magical area, feeling calmed by the way the sky glimmered like diamonds. "It's not so bad here, I s'pose- company's all right."

He cracked a grin in amusement, flicking his eyebrow up. "Glad you think so, because I believe you may be stuck with us."

"Certainly wouldn't be the worst news I've heard," she taunted as she nudged his arm with her elbow. He immediately turned his head to her in confusion, glancing between his arm and her elbow. Pausing in his steps, he didn't understand why she hit him. She didn't seem mad at him. Nevertheless, he hit her back with his elbow in frustration twice as hard. Due to his superior strength, the force of the hit sent her flying.

Falling to the ground, she clutched her arm as she stares at him, completely taken aback. "What the bloody hell was that for?"

"You hit me," he told her merely in defense, a monotone expression on his face. She scoffed, shaking her head frantically.

"It was- it wasn't meant as an attack! It was a friendly nudge! People do it all the time on Earth," Rory gushed in pure confusion, standing up as she brushed the snow off herself. Aidan showed up next to them, tilting his head in wonder.

"What about hitting someone is considered friendly?" Aidan quipped with a tilt of his head.

"I... forget it," Rory exhaled in exhaustion, rubbing a hand down her face.

"We should stop here for the night, we'll need our strength to save Aurora," Channing intervened alongside Eira. He placed his bag on the floor of the area they were in. It was a relatively empty clearing just off the path they were walking on.

"Don't suppose there are any Marriott's 'round here?"

"Any what?"

"Forget it."

Rory plopped her bag down against a slick black tree, white leaves above it. She gently danced her fingers along with the leaves, grinning at how soft they were. She turned her attention back to everyone else, watching as they all made themselves comfortable. Sticking her hand in her bag, she absorbed energy from a star for a few moments as a precaution. A part of her was worried about sleeping alongside Malakai or Eliphas, but she hoped with her energy blasts and the others around that she would be safe.

With that, they each laid down in their makeshift beds and closed their eyes. They slowly drifted away into an oblivion of dreams that lead to a world nowhere near as magical as their own. Rory dreamed of an empty room with a single man in it. He stared at her with a monotone expression, tilting his head at her. Each time he turned around, the dream restarted... and she was left staring into the cold man's void eyes.

Rory inhaled sharply as she jolted awake from her neverending dream. She immediately began to hyperventilate, her chest tightening with every passing second. The mysterious man's steel-blue eyes pierced into her soul. She had never seen this man, but he seemed to know her. It didn't feel like an ordinary dream, but she couldn't figure out if it were one of her visions or if the man had created the dream himself. He seemed to be in constant control of the dream, trapping her in her own mind. She decided to lie back down and stare at the sky, feeling relaxed as she sucked in more of the cold air.

She could feel herself calming down as she focused all of her attention on the beautiful sky instead of thinking about the man in her dreams. Pushing herself off the ground, she noticed everyone was still asleep. She knew she wouldn't be able to go back to sleep, so she began to wander off to explore. Noticing Aliya sleeping peacefully with the other amicordas, she decided to let her rest. She tiptoed away from their campsite, thinking no one had seen her leave.

Malakai eyed the girl wearily, watching her leave the group. Suspicion filled his body, worried that she was up to something that could hurt them. He pushed himself off the ground quietly, stealthily sneaking behind her. He prepared his hands to make shields just in case, not trusting Rory in the slightest.

He followed her footsteps in the snow, curious as to where she went. Hearing someone let out a joyous laugh, he frowned in confusion. Malakai turned a corner and saw Rory standing in the middle of a field of flowers. Strings of glowing pink flowers hang from the trees, circling all around her. She stood in awe, arms spread out slightly as she turned to take in every aspect of the garden. She gently touched one of the flowers, and it immediately wilted, she jumped back as if she had been burned.

"What-" she gasped in confusion.

"It's how some aspects of nature work here," Malakai informed her, blowing his cover. Rory jumped slightly, jolting away from the dead flower. "Some aspects of nature deserve to be untouched. So, when a person touches one of these things, they die."

"Were you following me?" she accused coldly, her eyes narrowing to slits.

"Not at all, I simply happened across the same garden as you."

"You're not funny."

"And you're not to be left alone."

Rory tilted her head, she understood the reason but hated that it had to be done. She turned away from him, focusing her attention back onto the flowers. "Feel free to stalk me from a distance, then."

"I'm not stalking you! We have no reason to trust you-"

"'We'? It's 'we' now?" Rory taunted, nodding her head in the direction of the others. "It seems as if you trust them more than me, which is absurd. They tried to kill you, and I saved you. I have given you every reason to trust me!"

"How do we know this isn't a trap? Maybe you did have something to do with Aurora's disappearance and you're just leading us into the hands of the coven?" Malakai accused, storming towards her with a thundering step. "You get to leave your dismal world for this one and become a queen- doesn't seem like too bad of a situation for you."

"I don't have to explain myself to you anymore. I know who I am. And while you're busy wondering who you can and can't trust, I'll be saving Aurora," she told him firmly, spitting her words at him in frustration.

"Why do you care?"

"Excuse me?"

"Why are you helping Aurora? Why save her? You don't even know her."

Rory never thought she would pity the man in front of her, but as soon as those words left his mouth, she felt deflated. He appeared to be genuinely confused, not understanding this concept of helping people. For Rory, she never had to second guess helping someone. She couldn't help but wonder if anyone had ever saved him when he needed it. "I know that I don't know her, but when someone is in trouble, I can't just sit around and watch. Besides, technically, she is me. I would want to be saved- so, I can't just leave her. "

Malakai just stared at her, not reacting to her words. His eyes flickered to the floor, unsure what to do next. He gulped slightly before locking eyes with her once more. "Just know that I'm not falling for it."

"For God's sake! Do you even hear yourself?"

"I don't have to trust you!"

"No, but some room to breathe would be nice!" she groaned with exasperation, frantically moving her hands around.

At this point, the two began to yell at each other without stopping for a single second. Neither was interested in hearing what the other was saying. They both bickered right in each other's face, going off about the other one. Malakai eventually groaned loudly, running his hands through his hair roughly. "You are infuriating!"

"You know," someone interrupted, both of their heads turn to see Channing standing near them, looking utterly exhausted, "just because you're louder than the other one, doesn't make you any more right."

"It makes me not hear him being an absolute idiot," Rory replied immediately, huffing out as she stomped away from the beautiful flowers. She went back in the direction of their campsite, leaving the three standing around the garden.

"I like her," Eira commented to Channing with a crooked grin, raising her thick eyebrows at her friend. He let out a chuckle, nodding slightly in agreement. Watching Rory walk away, he gave her a loose salute with his fingers, a dashing smile of approval on his face.