"No I can not but I can guide you. Find the evil soul and get rid of it else she will be gone before you realise it" Clara replied.

She gave answer but it was not straight and I felt as if she was giving me chance to be with my love. But then the notion of kindness flew out of window when I remembered my encounter with her.

Alex POV

I was upset since the time I got to know that Demon king was one step ahead of us. He had used darkness inside someone to make his presence felt even though he was not supposed to penetrate the protection globe.

I went and called a meeting urgently and when all came. I got up and was about to brief everyone when Chief Minister Dilamond, cut me off "Alex you do know that I am the chief Minister of this Kingdom not you. So how come you without my approval called a meeting?"

"Sir, I do know that you are the authorized person but the situation.." I said when he again interrupted me.

"Situation... what kind of situation? Does that authorized you to have a meeting without my approval? Also I do not see Princess in the court? Tell me what gave you this right huh? Without any authorized person approval you called in all of the officials at the wee hours?" He barked.

"Well... it is an urgent and utmost important since we are planning for Princess's wedding" I said.

"What?? Princess's wedding ? with who? when? how?" He was shocked momentarily and then composed while looking at me for answers.

"Well we are going to sent out invitations to all the neighboring Kingdoms and hold a competition where the princes and Kings will fight for the princess's hand in marriage and the strongest one will be the winner".

"You think you can decide Princess's future without her consent. Are you out of your mind?" He said.

"Sir I will do anything to keep the Princess and our Kingdom safe, because if we do not arrange the wedding soon we will lose our princess to darkness. Darkness has made its presence known and if it engulfs our Princess in it we will all be doomed. Only she has the power to keep the light of truth, virtues and justice glowing" I replied.

"what do you mean by Darkness has made its presence known?" Dilamond asked.

"Princess had a visit from Demon king this night. We consulted the oracle and got to know that darkness persists inside which granted Demon king access to our safe haven" I said.

"And since when you started believing these wannabes Alex. Due to these people our princess was separated from her father for so long that she didn't even saw him for the last time and now you want to believe that oracle and want to get Princess married without her consent?" Dilamond said.

I don't know why he wanted to make a big thing out of this affair as he wanted to delay Princess's wedding. It seemed to me he was hiding something. 

"What's wrong in getting her married Chief Minister? If our Princess gets married with any of the neighboring strong king that would boost our Kingdom's strength and Dark King would need to recede which would allow our kind to flourish. Why are so against it?" I asked him.

"You think I don't want that but we must take Princess's consent" He said trying to hide his real intention.

Princess Astra

I woke up the next day and was surprised by the activity being carried around when I looked out of my window. It seemed as if maids and servants were in a hurry. I ignored and got on with my morning routine and made way to the yards to have my practice. If you ask me I wanted to see Alex to be precise, the way he made me feel protected was something I never felt before. I know I was in a place where I was away from males and though I was sleeping I could still feel the energy around me and knew they were just like me.

Coming out of that lifestyle had been an eye opener  and the adventures that I had since last days were too much and made me wondered whether I made a mistake in coming out of my temporary unconscious state. Mulling over my thoughts I continued to do my practice in order to reinforce my spiritual energy as my powers strengthen the protection barrier.

Suddenly I heard group of officials led by Chief Minister Dilamond coming towards me and bowed when they were mere few feet.

"Her Royal Princess!! How to do you feel this sunny morning?" He asked.

I gave him a once over and asked "Is this the question you wanted to ask after leading the group of officials behind you?"

"My apologies Princess... I .. I didn't wanted to disturb you but the matter is urgent and I needed to bring it to your notice" He said bowing.

"Raise Chief Minister and let me know what is it the matter you wanted to spoke of" I asked.

"Your highness I wanted to report the conduct of one of the officials who is now behaving willfully" He said without raising his head.

His statement made me frown and I asked "Whom do you speak of Chief Minister? What has the person done"

"Your highness, Do you see the decorations, music and preparations going on in the castle?" He said.

"Only a blind would not see it. Are you implying something by bringing in this to my notice Chief Minister Dilamond" I asked.

"Well.. Princess the decoration you see is the preparation for your upcoming wedding" He replied and I cut him off by my yelling "Chief Minister... mind your words". The words infuriated me.

"Pardon me Princess but I just wanted to report to you so that you should know how willful the official is that he started planning for your wedding without even notifying you" Chief Minister replied with a pleading expression.

"Who dares behave in this arbitrary manner with Royals" I asked angrily.

"Princess it's Alex, you guardian warrior" He replied.

I was surprised that Alex would do something without notifying me. I know we didn't get answers to our questions and we haven't figured out a way to defeat darkness but what does he imply by planning my wedding without notifying me. Agonized by discourteous behavior I immediately called my maid to fetch Alex to my chambers.

Alex POV

I knew Princess would be upset with the plan but I didn't knew it would be revealed so soon because I have already got all the officials into confidence and yet someone revealed our plan to the Princess. Pondering on these thoughts I was walking towards Princess chambers, I didn't know how to explain it to Princess.

"Greetings to the Princess" I said bowing when I found that the Princess was seated on settee, she looked so charming while lost in her thoughts. It seemed as if she could not be bothered by my presence and even I wanted no such thing.

But again looking at her for a moment I heard a loud crash and the many heavy footsteps running. Seeing that there was lot of commotion I removed my sword and ran out of the chambers towards the location of noise.

As I came out I found a figure running towards our Royal library and as I chased it, I found as if the figure waited for me to catch up with it before it ran and then entered the library where lot of books of our kingdom and many other important documents were kept. I glared at the guards who behaved as if there was no one who passed by them.

When I entered the chambers I didn't hear any sound and then kept going in circles to find the figure when a book fell near me and I found that there was no person, not a living one around me. I picked up the book when I saw the light glowing and the title " The 9 pieces of the Heavenly Artefact" was highlighted and then with the light there appeared a message on the wall

"Haste Warrior or else Princess will be engulfed in the darkness"

As soon as I read it the message changed again " Bounded by the time, story of the past, fetch the 9 artefact or nothing will last"

And then the message and the light disappeared and it was a normal light again. I held the book and began reading.