“We are ready to depart.”

The two of them were greeted by Idith.

“Are you worried?” Aden asked Ilyn quietly. Ilyn glanced out the window. Before she could lie and reassure him that she was fine, he cupped her face. His hands felt nice and warm, she didn’t realize how cold she had become until then.

“Are you worried?” He repeated. Ilyn knew that Aden was asking this because he knew she was avoiding her father.

“I am worried.”

“What are you worried about?” Aden’s strong and steady voice was always so reassuring.

“It might be too cold,” Ilyn joked.

Aden didn’t seem to have gotten the joke since his gaze turned to the window. Aden was from the winter region so this – a snowstorm in April – was normal for him but Ilyn was from the warm region, she wasn’t used to such cold conditions.

He stretched out his hand and took off the shawl which was wrapped snugly around Ilyn’s neck. Before Ilyn could even feel the cold air against her exposed skin, Aden opened his hand, and his palm shone a mystical blue. He was using the divine power. The immediate rise in the temperature of the carriage was evident and the wind that was viciously blowing outside seemed to have lost some of its power.

“How about now?”

“It’s okay now,” she smiled. It really was. Ilyn held Aden’s hand tightly. The warmth that emanated from it was reassuring.

***

The Delrose carriage headed to the warm region was now well on its way. The snowstorm that had previously stopped the carriage in its tracks was no match for the divine power. While his power was not strong enough to warm up the entire region, the current master of the winter region had the strongest divine power out of all the previous Dukes combined.

“Your Highness, are you okay?” Idith questioned.

He was worried that Aden was using too much of the divine power. No power came without consequences and while Idith did not know much about the power Aden held, he had heard stories of how the former Dukes who abused the power grew weaker the more they used it.

“I’m okay.”

Idith searched Aden’s face for any sign of distress but could not find any, he seemed okay. It was the four of them in the carriage, but Idith and Etra were so quiet and still that one would even forget their presence after a while. Ilyn was the only one who shifted occasionally in the quiet carriage. Her closed eyes were covered with the Blue North’s silk.

Aden constantly checked Ilyn’s temperature to make sure she wasn’t becoming cold. Thankfully, it seemed as though the divine power was doing a good job at keeping the carriage warm as Ilyn drifted deeper and deeper to sleep. Just as Aden was about to touch her forehead to feel her temperature, Ilyn suddenly grabbed his hand.

“Ilyn?” Aden was startled.

***

It was winter but Ilyn could tell by the soil and lack of snow on the treetops that she was somewhere in the warm region. This was a dream and, in this dream, Ilyn was on a horse.

“Hold on tight, Ilyn,” came Aden’s strong voice.

She found herself constantly checking to make sure her feet were on the stirrups, so she didn’t fall off the moving horse. Ilyn suddenly felt a chill down her neck and instinctively looked around.

A fight had broken out. She noticed that people wearing black masks were armed with bow and arrows. Behind them, barely visible in the distance was a wrecked carriage. It was the same carriage that she was on.

“Your Highness, at this rate we cannot escape them,” Idith spoke, fighting off the arrows shooting his way.

“Can we hold them off until we reach the winter region?”

Ilyn realized that by winter Aden meant Biflten. From what Ilyn could see, the group was struggling to hold off the masked men and they were nowhere near Biflten.

Usually, the border separating Biflten and the warm region was quite visible; the warm region bright and colorful and in stark contrast right next to it was Biflten which was cold and gray. However, in front of her right now, the warm region seemed to stretch on forever with no sign of Biflten.

“It’s too–” Idith was stopped mid-sentence by an arrow flying straight at his chest which he deflected using his sword.

“Even if we reach Biflten, the divine power still won’t be of any use to us. I won’t harm them even if they cross over,” Etra intervened. He was fighting using a dagger.

“We will–”

“Your Highness!” Idith let out a loud cry.

Ilyn’s eyes widened, as Aden’s body fell to the ground with a thud. The blood spread quickly throughout his thin shirt, slowly turning to a bright red color. Aden had an arrow sticking out of his back. He had been hit.

***

Ilyn opened her eyes and discovered that her neck and forehead were covered in a sheen of sweat that made her shiver whenever a breeze blew past.

“Ilyn?” Aden’s voice was laced with concern. Ilyn then realized that she was squeezing Aden’s hand. Startled, she immediately tried to let go but Aden tightened his grip around hers. Ilyn was shaking.action

As the cold air nipped at her skin, she finally felt awake and brought back to reality. Outside her window she could see that there was still a light snowstorm. This meant that they were still in the Winter Region. They were in the warm region when Aden was hit by an arrow.

When are we reaching? she thought, This means the dream hasn’t happened yet but—

“Ilyn.” Aden’s calm voice interrupted her train of thought. “What’s wrong?” he caressed Ilyn’s hand reassuringly. “Seems like you had a foresight dream,” he whispered.

Ilyn flinched. Her eyes instinctively turned to Idith and Etra but found that their gaze was fixated on the window.

Did they hear what Aden said? she thought, more importantly, did they know that I was dreaming a foresight? The thought of it made her heartbeat quicken and her chest tighten. Ilyn let out a strangled breath.

She then thought of the people of Red Delrose. Everyone who had worked so hard to protect and serve her. Everyone from her guards Idith, Etra, Milia and Niss to the maids who catered to her every need. There was no one in Delrose that wanted to harm her.

She wasn’t sure about Blue North or the other two houses, but she trusted Delrose completely. She didn’t need to be nervous. At this thought the tightness around her chest loosened and she let out a shaky breath.

“What did you see?” Aden asked again. His voice was always calm and steady, even under immense stress.

Ilyn tried to recall the dream as precisely as she could, “The people in black masks attacked us. They had bows and arrows. It looked like the carriage was destroyed. I-I couldn’t see anyone else.”

“I see,” Aden said, “What else?”

Ilyn didn’t know how to say the next part, “You got hit. You and Idith were discussing about making it to Biflten when it happened.” The words left a bitter taste in her mouth.

“Destroyed carriage, only four people in the group,” Aden seemed to be in deep thought, “Do you perhaps remember how many masked men there were?”

Ilyn tried to think. With all that was happening, counting how many of them there was the furthest thing from her mind. She shook her head.

“I think we were pretty similar in number though.”

“That should be enough.”