Nortze found himself out of his thin sleep at the middle of night. Nightmares had become a common thing ever since he had seen Wernh'An for real. Though the sleep terrors didn’t consist of Wernh'An, every fear he witnessed anytime somehow got linked with him.

He pushed his blanket and dropped his legs from the edge of the bed where he remained like it till his heartbeat slowed down. Old Calajhan lit the matchstick then threw it inside the lantern.

Light had given him some relief. At least it assured him he was not dreaming right now.

I should apologize to Gisella and Rikilda in the morning. It took a nightmare for him to realize how wrong he was. Should I tell them why I don’t let them leave this place? No! They already know the main reason. There was still room for conflicts in his mind.

He thought he should apologize to them when he was feeling to do so. Nortze doubted if he would ever get this sensation or not so he walked for his wife's room.

Nobody other than Braden was allowed to lock the doors of their rooms so he stood infront of Gisella's room and gave the door a gentle push.

"Gisella." Nortze whispered, going towards the bed.

But she wasn’t in there. Her blanket lay on floor with her possessions scattered around the room. Nortze's heart came to his mouth.

He leaped for Rikilda's room and entered while being loud enough to break her sleep, "Rikilda! Where is your mother?" Nortze wanted her to answer him as quick as possible.

Devastation hit him after finding he was taking to an empty bed there as well. The only difference being the blanket which wasn’t even touched.

He didn’t make much noise from there and went to check Braden's room. It was locked like he had expected. Nortze found no need of telling him about the missing family members.

Nortze carried his sword from his room and climbed down to the attic where he saw the door half open. He removed the sword from his sheath, taking himself closer to the opened door.

A quick peek outside gave him no idea on what was outside. As far as he knew, bushes and trees were nothing to get scared from. Neither were his sensitive ears giving him hints on anything moving outside his residence.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Calajhan stepped on something. He regained his balance before he could hurt his knee caps.

Nortze picked the paper which almost had brought him to the ground and read the thing scribbled on the other side of parchment:

NO ONE OF YOU IS SAFE THERE.

The paper slipped out of his hands in devastation.

Rikilda held the lantern in the chilling night of the woods. Breeze was strong enough to make the flames inside the glass betumble. Though she had something to lighten her way, she found herself struggling to decide if she was going to step on twigs or thorns.

Twigs were harmless and did nothing other than getting cracked by the pressure of feet, the thorns were not gentle by any means. Either they scraped blood out of her feet or caused tear on her dress. But she was fine as long as she was accompanied by the lantern.

Pebbles and bushes almost got her grounded on many occasions during her walk.

Somehow she was enjoying this moment. It wasn’t something less than an adventure for her. She could not remember the last time she had been out of the house for this long. Rikilda didn’t have any memory of her walking with her father.

After some tears on her dress, she thought of ending her journey. Rikilda didn’t want to reach to places in the forest from where she couldn’t figure her way back.

Wounds on her father's body weren’t to be taken lightly. She was matured enough to understand it. Yet she thought she did a mistake.

Someone was standing behind a tree near to her. The tree obscured the figure behind her so she was unable to see physical features of the person. All she knew was that the person wasn’t facing towards her.

Being a powerful girl, unaware of how to perform sorcery, Rikilda didn’t think of any other alternative than to flee while praying this was just a hallucination.

In the moment of fear she remembered her father – for not allowing her to take magic lessons from mages or anyone.

She gyrated and stepped on twigs. Without even glancing back, she knew how much of trouble she had put herself in. The temptation of knowing the person bit her and she spun herself back to potential danger.

A purple jet of light knocked her down.