The moment she entered the portal, Enya felt it was different from what happened before. But, the long-term exhaustion made her dizzy. She stumbled out of the doorway and felt Eiden's hand steadying her as she leaned on him for support. It was a chaotic battlefield.

Eiden guided her hands with the key to activate the closing sequence, and she struggled to keep channeling her magic to the portal. Entering the home dimension had relieved them of the heavy dark presence that burdened them, but it was also making her feel lighter and sleepy. Yet, she concentrated hard and saw it was completely powered up. When his hand dropped hers, dazed and confused, she tried to call her son. Until, she heard a shrill command.

"Ivar, go,"

A strong arm wrapped around her and whisked her away, and what she last saw was Eiden's blurred figure in the middle of a dimly lit field of green and blue, with a magical ring of fire burning around him.

Enya and her captor landed on grassy, soft ground. It was cold and windy, Enya smelled the water, the air was clean and she felt at home. Then, she sensed more people appearing left and right and front.

"Eiden?"

Enya finally managed to open her eyes, and it wasn't Eiden holding her.

"My lady,"

She was supported by an unknown young man and Eiden's friend. Looking around, she saw a group of armed men and Eiden's friends holding Hadrian, and others. Everything happened so fast and her tired mind needed a moment to arrange the thoughts.

"Eiden?"

She looked around for her lifeline, her savior, her boy who suddenly appeared in the shadow dimension with some unusual people when all hope was lost, and without a word of explanation brought her back home.

"My lady,"

An armed soldier stepped in front of her and saluted. She thought she knew him.

"I'm Mashu, the young master ordered us to leave the place immediately when he retrieved you. We will stay here until my commander, Lord Stravros, and young master come here, and we leave for the safe house," he bowed.

"My son organized this?" Enya felt a surging pride and a surprise that her boy was doing such a thing.

"Yes, my lady," he answered. She felt her strength slowly returning and her legs seemed less wobbly.

"Let me see Hadrian and others."

The crowd of armed men parted, and Enya, still leaning on her supporter walked to her husband who was now laid on a mat spread on the ground. They were on the bank of a lake, a secluded location with fairly dense vegetation around. Ravik also was sitting down there, trying to catch his breath. He tried to get up, but Enya held her hand to stop.

She knelt and touched Hadrian on the forehead, hot and sweaty, fever was a good sign. She checked his pulse to find it was as steady as it could be in an injured man. Hadrian being magically strong and physically fit, could fight a dark magic injury for a long while, what they need now was to cleanse him. Two old men would be harder to nurse back to health. But they were safer with Eiden and their people.

Suddenly, two men landed in a heap. Others rushed to help, and there was blood on their clothes.

"No, it's not that bad, only a cut." A man who bore a striking resemblance to Hadrian's father, but taller, looked around distressed.

"Where's Eiden?" his voice was deep and grave. The other man, a heavily armed soldier stood there silently still for a moment and turned to Enya.

"My lady," He saluted her.

"Our position was greatly challenged, the young master ordered me to leave with the lord.” Then he turned to the tall man.

"In the young master's absence, I am to take orders from you, my lord. However, for now, he earlier commanded me to take everyone to the safe house at once, when we assembled here."

He called Eiden's friend, the creature girl.

"You have the portal sequence, miss Nub, please prepare it here."

Enya, who stayed frozen as he spoke, managed to break through her shock. "Noo" came as a mixture of a loud sob and a protest. She felt her world crashing down on her. Everything around her became a blur. The months of fighting with darkness, watching her husband torn into a bloody mess, still trying to keep everyone alive and finally, finding her lost child only to lose him again in a few hours of a time were too much for her.

Lying in a soft bed and rich aroma of food, ah another dream. Enya was sick of these beautiful dreams that the darkness was imposing on her. She tried to shake them away from her mind to wake up into the eternal night of fearful reality. But, the warmth of the soft bed didn't vanish. She was groggy and her body was in pain, yet she was alarmed and tried to open her eyes, at the same time to sit up. Her thoughts were jumbled and her magic felt weak.

"My lady, please calm down,"

Enya blinked a few times and the surroundings came to focus. A roof, wooden roof. The soft light of a scented candle illuminated the room in a warm yellow glow. Then, she noticed a middle-aged woman sitting beside her. Enya remembered this face vaguely.

"My lady," she lovingly touched her hand.

Enya couldn't sense the darkness, nothing around her screamed of danger. A fleeting image of Eiden entering their cave came to her mind.

"My son?" she choked back a sob, struggling to sit up.

"Let me help you." The woman held her hand and shoulders and helped her to sit. Oh, she knows her.

"I..Ierma, is that you?" Enya stammered.

"Yes, my lady," Ierma replied, her eyes shining with tears.

"My..my husband, and others. Where are they? My son, Eiden, where's Star?" Enya tried to get up from the bed and failed.

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"No, my lady please, stay on the bed until you have dinner. Everyone is taken care of.” Ierma held her hand to prevent her from getting up and took a dinner tray, which Enya recognized as the source of the rich smell of herbs, from the little table beside her. Enya absentmindedly watched as Ierma set it on a short stand and set it on the bed.

Was Eiden a dream? Enya had lost the count of times the dark shadows took Eiden's form and tried to drive them all into chaos.

"Ierma, Eiden, my son?" she tried again, desperately.

"Young master didn't return" Ierma's face was a mixture of sorrow and love. Enya stared blankly at her.

"Didn't..didn't return?" Enya stammered again. What's wrong with her, why's she feeling so weak?

"Please my lady, you need to be strong for others, Lord Hadrian needs to be cleansed and healed as soon as possible. Have this meal and this medicine," Ierma pleaded.

"Lord Stravros is also waiting to talk to you," she added.

Enya looked at the meal and it didn't seem appealing, yet she was hungry. Staying strong for others wasn't a strange thing to hear, as it was what drilled into her ever since she was born to be a monarch.

"Papa's brother, right?" After taking a deep breath and throwing the bubbling pain of loss to the corner of the mind, she asked Ierma.

"I'll ask him to come." Ierma stood up and left.

Enya stared at the meal for a moment. She was thoroughly confused by this turn of events. She heard the door creak and a man entered the room. He looked haggard and walked slowly like he was in pain. Then, he smiled affectionately at her and sat beside the bed.

"Don't bother to stop eating, my daughter. We can talk while you're having dinner,” he said pointing to her meal which sat untouched.

Enya started eating, soon engrossed in the task. After having rationed bits of close-to-nothing meals, the hot soup and homemade bread were like a luxurious feast. She finished the last crumb and the man offered her a potion, which she recognized as a strengthening elixir. The portion was well made and the effect was immediate, she felt refreshed, and her limbs flooded with energy.

However, the months of near starvation and battling with dark energy couldn't be cured with one hot meal. Enya still felt exhausted and after the filling meal, she was almost sluggish. She blinked a few times to get her mind focused on the important matters at hand and realized the stranger was taking the food tray away. Then, he kindly spoke which she heard coming from a distance, and didn't even protest when she was helped to lie down.

Enya awakened with a start. The room bathed in sunlight and cool fresh air was coming through an open window. This time, she remembered their flight to the light vividly. It was time to find out what was going on. She sat up on the bed and looked down to see that she was wearing a worn-down long robe.

Ierma walked in with a wide smile.

"My lady, how are you feeling now?" she asked, settling a stack of folded clothes on the table.

"Still a little tired, but much better. Ierma, I have a thousand questions to ask and don't know where to start. I'd like to see Hadrian, please." She stood up a little shaky at first, clutching the table. She stayed still for a moment to balance.

"Of course my lady, let me help you to have a bath first. We don't have many robes, but I got clean clothes." Enya gladly accepted her help and the hot bath with medicated water revived her.

She asked where this place was and Ierma laid out some information about this as a small cabin of an old hermit in the woods. Enya expressed her surprise for a hermit to have such a bigger place, for that Ierma laughed and told the group of men that Eiden organized, had expanded this place to be a safe house.

[https://i.imgur.com/x4NKwJH.jpg]

Expanded safe house in the Silver Mountains

"Ierma, how did my Eiden find you? What happened to my boy after the explosion? Please, we didn't have time to talk, and I know nothing," Enya asked.

"It's a long story my lady, but you need to check on Lord Hadrian and others first. Besides, his friends will be able to tell you that better than me," Ierma said, helping her with the clothes.

Enya understood the urgency, and considering what Ierma described about their treatments of patients, Enya thought they had done much better than experienced healers. They went to another room, hastily fashioned as an infirmary, where Hadrian, his father, and the master were sleeping, and Ravik was sitting on the fourth bed, talking with Mashu and Marcus. They all stood up and bowed to Enya.

"Please sit. Ravik, how are you feeling? I'm sorry, I took a long time to get up." Enya sat beside the bed and started the diagnostics on Ravik.

"I'm good, my lady. I was told the spreading of the dark magic is halted now," he said and smiled.

"The food and sun were enough to get better." It was good to see Ravik smiling after that ordeal.

"It is, Ravik, for me too. The wound is cleaner than it was and has already started healing. I should do another round of cleansing for all of you."

Enya turned to Ierma.

"Do we have a ritual room Ierma? Hadrian's wounds are much bigger and infected very badly. I wouldn't do a deep cleansing without a protected space."

"My lady, we already made a protected outhouse for cleansing, according to Ierma's instructions. We were told, you might need one." Instead Ierma, Mashu said showing outside the window.

"We laid many protective wards, my lady, there's also a temporary bath house." Marcus added as Ierma handed over a collection of crystals, and potion ingredients that would be needed for the medical procedures.

"Oh, this is a very extensive collection, Ierma. I can't thank you enough for getting everything ready." Enya felt like she was at the Palace, not like she was isolated in the woods, as she browsed through the items.

"Most of these are from the young master, my lady. He brought some of this and asked us to be prepared." Ierma's words were full of emotion; pride, love, and warmth. Enya felt as if a painful grip was squeezing her heart. She looked up and saw everyone had mirrored expressions of sadness.

Enya was quite busy the next two days, as both her father-in-law, Uncle Ray, and Master Alfred were able to stay awake for a while and to take healing potions and meals. Hadrian also woke up a few times and was feeling much better, and started asking questions. Enya knew the moment Hadrian was well enough to stand up, he was going to try to search for Eiden. They need to share each other's stories to plan the next course of action.

They got together in the living room, and Ierma arranged snacks and tea. Enya greeted everyone and thanked them for the immense help they received over the past few days.

"Ierma, before explaining what happened to us, please tell us what exactly happened to Eiden?" Enya asked Ierma when Hadrian interrupted.

"What, Star was here? You know where he is?"

"Dray, please. We're going to hear that in time." Enya touched his hand.

He grunted, obviously displeased, but let others continue. Hearing Eiden's friends and Ierma's stories of how they met and their time together was bittersweet for Enya. Simon revealed some changes that happened in the Palace during Enya's absence. But, the most shocking fact was Eiden might be trapped in the shadow dimension with Evan.

For a moment Enya was oblivious to the outside, as her heart screamed with pain blocking everything around her. Then, she felt Hadrian's warmth enveloping her, she held onto him.

"Shh..love, breath, it's okay,"

Enya didn't want to let go. But, her son had given them the opportunity to fight. She was not going to fail Eiden. Enya lifted her head and looked at others, who had grim expressions. Nub was openly crying, held in Ivar's arms.

"Enya, my daughter, this is our side of the story. We need to know what happened to you. Hope for Eiden is not lost, he, on the other hand, knows more about shadow dimension than you. Please tell us what happened from the beginning." Lord Stravros spoke in a kinder, softer tone. His sunken eyes and thin face were full of pain.

Enya took a deep breath and looked at Hadrian's face. His arm around her tightened as he kissed the top of her head.

"You tell the story,"