"Neba is an alternate dimension?"

"We're nothing different from you - Earthians."

"People on earth don't have a specific name, Crypta." I laughed at his unawareness, "That is if human beings don't count."

"Our people don't have a good history with the Zadios. We don't know where they are or what their next line of action is. They attack us, kill our people, and run back to their hiding place." He stood up and bent his head as if trying to forget something excruciating. "They killed my grandparents with no care in the world. I hate them and the last thing I want to do is see them go away with all their evils."

"How do you know that they will be back again?" I went and stood behind him. He let me touch him so I pulled off his coat and threw them on the bed.

"Why did you do that?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. It feels weird, watching you tell me all this, while I'm doing nothing." He faced me, right as I watched a golden liquid run from the corner of his eyes, and down his cheeks. "And you're crying. And it's golden?"

"It's not the best memory, you see." I pushed him back to the bed so that he was seated. "I already told you, that our symbol is a dragon, Neba."

I nodded.

"Every once in a while, he appears and tells us what we should know. He told us a few months ago that a war would ensue much sooner than we can get prepared for, and that the Zadios are coming much more geared up than in the last two centuries. My father was scared; we could all see that." He laughed, "How are you supposed to feel if the one who is to protect you is scared?"

"That would be - earth-shaking. Neba-shaking, I guess." He chuckled, but there was something more behind that smile. "How did you feel?"

"Honestly, I didn't know what to feel. My father was scared, surely."

"Why?"

He stood up again, the astrology book on the bed long forgotten. "Why, I am the fifth descendant of Laiasona Domroyante. After we'd defeated them, they came back to destroy. The next was his son, who was already too old to fight. Then it was my great-grandfather. Then my grandfather, this time, killed his wife alongside. Father knows. They're coming for him.

"How they've managed to remain hidden, I have no idea. They couldn't have gone that far. If they have, it wouldn't have been so easy for them to trace back to Neba."

"A mole, maybe."

"We considered that. Gathered our suspects, and even tried to put words in their mouths. Innocent people have suffered torture at the hands of the Uktamas. I can't let that happen."

"Wow," I muttered even though I had no idea what, or who, The Uktamas were.

"I can't let that happen, being his first, well, the second son. I have to save him. I have to be the one to protect him. For the past twenty years, he'd trained me to fight. And now, I understand the real reason for all that preparation. I think he knew, even before Neba told us about it."

"Because of the killing of his parents?" I stood up from the bed and made to shut the curtains. All that light made me feel like our neighbours could see me. Me talking to a guy, in my room.

"Part of that, maybe. But the council knows something about the Zadios. They've wanted to stop it for so long now, through papers and treaties. I know it's not going to work. I need to overthrow the Zadios. None of them agrees though."

I caught a glimpse of the snow dropping down to the ground and the people moving around the street before the thick purple roller blind covered the window completely.

"They're not aware of your current plan?"

He stopped to take a deep breath and then he smiled. "Neba came to me while I was training. . .And he told me about you."

Finally. Something about me. I made him sit down in the middle of the bed, and then I sat directly opposite him. "How?"

He simpered, much to my surprise. "Now, aren't you egocentric?"

"I'm not!" I bawled, but then figured I did sound self-absorbed at the moment, making him sit on my bed, and having him sit opposite me so that I could also feel him talking. "Well, I guess. But these are rare occurrences. Any normal Earthian would do this." I pointed out.

"So Earthian is a word, then?"

"No. It's just beguiling." I shook my head. There was a scar on Crypta's left eyebrow. He had full brows but the brown long diagonal scar was still so obvious. Crypta was dangerous. "How did Neba put me in the picture?"

He breathed. "I was in my training room, putting together all the skills I've learnt, all the techniques I've been taught. . .Just trying to be ready for whatever was going to happen - and scared too. I don't get scared easily but the look on Father's face was so tremendous I didn't know how to feel, to our people."

I waited good-naturedly, listening to him talk about himself and how he put so much attentiveness into training himself. It felt as if he was only partly talking to me, his eyes only ever glancing back at mine here and there, and then falling again. I kept my head up, and my eyes on him, so that whenever he looked up, we were facing each other, eye to eye.

"With a burning flame, he showed himself at my weapon ledge, with his eyes holding such heavy information." He opened his palm as if holding something heavy. He bent his head and shook them.

And then he looked up at me, and he didn't turn away, not an inch. "He didn't hide it from me, how much I would get hurt. He told me where I would break and how many ribs would end up fractured. I didn't baulk; I wasn't taught to."

The room, although locked, suddenly became too small for both of us. I wanted to get as far away from him as possible. It was all too much, the information he was sharing with me, almost too unbelievable to absorb. It was getting too personal and delicate with him. I hadn't realized the vulnerability in my aura until he stopped talking and exhaled.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have been that bare." He stood up and went to another side of the room, as though he too sought to be far from me. He got his hand busy by taking off a picture on the wall and observing it.

I opened the curtains and the window. I needed fresh air. Leaning on the window side, I watched him scrutinize the picture frame.

Dad and mum were seated on a couch, in the picture. I sat on Dad's lap. His right hand caged my waist and held me in place. My hands held his veiny arms. I was only thirteen years old at that time.

Nora, being only about a year old, was crying in the picture, while Mum made her sit there, on her lap. No one was smiling if my stretched lips didn't count. The picture caught Dad's eyes on his wristwatch. Rowan was at the back of the couch, with his hands in his pockets, and his eyes focused on the camera lens. Well, at least he was focused.

"Four years ago," I muttered and chewed my lower lips, wondering if I should stand beside him. My legs were starting to get sleepy, anyway. "Everything's changed now."

"Hmm."

I plodded to the bed and lay on it, pretending he wasn't there, but aware he was.

"You avoided my question. You didn't tell me how I'm involved in all of this, or how I know you're not lying." I shut my eyes, not wanting to see that look of disappointment when he thought I didn't accept all he said as true.

"Look, Emerald-"

"I'd prefer you call me Emery," I affirmed and sat up on the bed. "And I'm sorry, but I can't take this. You've been doing perfectly fine without me. It won't be any much different, not this year."

The room went silent. Crypta sighed and walked to the spot where he always ended up whenever he stepped out of his portal. It was a spot inches away from the bedside table and almost close to the fitted wardrobe.

His eyes were fixed on the wall but I could tell he really wasn't scrutinizing it, lost in his own thoughts. I shut my eyes. I didn't want to get myself involved, and I didn't want to care, as much as my body reacted differently.

"You don't have to go. I'm not forcing you to, Crypta," I offered.

"Blue tiger crystal," he stated, just as I felt an object landing on the bed beside me. I opened my eyes, and it was the picture. He couldn't have just hung it.

"Uh?"

"Our crystals tell our abilities. It is represented in the colour, shape, and intensity of our eyes. They're supposed to. Mine represents purpose. The battle is mine. You have to help me achieve it, please."

I sucked a breath.

He clenched and unclenched his fists, sighed, and walked toward me. Without that long coat, he looked handsome, and more friendly. He could fit on earth perfectly and girls would drool over him.

Crypta sat beside me. "Esha. Please."

"Esha?"

"That's how we say please," he explained.

"Look-"

"When I told him I would keep my community out of it, and that I would bear it all, as the. . .chosen one, he said, 'Just because you are the chosen one, doesn't mean you have to be the only one.' Then he gave me Merwinian stones and told me to use them. That it was what I needed, but wasn't all I needed."

My eyebrows shot up in understanding. "You made the potion, the one that lets you open the portal, right?"

"Yes. To get to your destination on earth, you have to think about where you want to be, or who you want to see and-"

"Your first thought led you right to me." He beamed and I didn't know what to do with my lips so I stretched them.

"How did you know my name, then?"

He stood up and pointed at a medal that hung on a nail, right beside the place where the picture of me and my family was formerly affixed. "Oh, I saw it on that medal there. You must be very academically gifted?"

I laughed. "We should put that picture back though."

"Right." He seized the framed picture and placed it back there on the wall. He grabbed his coat and put it on. The temperature had cooled at the moment, thankfully.

"Forgive me for being so observant," he turned to me when we were standing close to the wall. "You're hurt in your ribs, I saw that yesterday."

"What!" I subconsciously raised my red flower-patterned sleeved top and observed my abdomen. There was barely any noticeable insinuation. "Where?"

"You want me to show you?" I could swear there was a slight second meaning in his elocution, but I ignored it, just as he began to chortle.

"Whoever's been punching you there knows what they're doing. You need medical attention, or maybe carinian oil will do the trick. But you'll have to come to Neba first. Will you seriously think about it, Emery?"

"I will, Crypta." I sighed.

He gave me a different small bluish-green aerosol can. "Usually, you can get to anywhere in Neba with this. But for more specification, just think about where you want to be, or more precisely, who you want to be with."

"So, you're referring to yourself?"

He bent his body, and brought his arm out, like a gentleman in medieval times. "I'd be honoured, Princess Emerald."

"Emery," I corrected.

"Even more honoured to see you at Neba, dear Earthian." He ignored my correction.

"Are you usually like this?"

"Only to people I respect." And like that, without letting me swallow what he'd just said, he sprayed his potion and left my room.

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A/N

First off, cue the new cover by M-freaking-E! That's exciting for ME! Lol...

Did I just dedicate an entire chapter to a conversation between Emery and Crypta?

Did you know that, by voting, you enlighten Emery's mind, enabling her to make a wise stable decision regarding the whole Neban Fortean Discovery?