The One after my Heart

Ten minutes later, Kyra found herself with Nisa and Maya in a large spacious bedroom that had been lavishly decorated within. Two personal maids had been assigned to them by Fiona earlier. The two maids stood there assisting the two sisters as they helped them out of their clothes currently, after which they would also help them bathe.

Nisa dragged a bickering grumpy Maya along with her as the latter threw a small tantrum, refusing to take a bath.

There were three dresses picked out for them that had been laid out on the wide bed. And from the looks of it, it seemed to be of their sizes perfectly. For the Dartwoods to arrange everything at such short notice, they had surely seemed to have gone all out and were surely capable.

But Kyra didn't have time to notice the dress that was laid out for her. Because right now, she was busy staring at a map that was sprawled open across on a wide bed in front of her with a pale face.

It was an old dusty map that Fredrick had retrieved from his study along with a random book he found lying around and delivered it to their room just a few moments ago through the maids.

Next to the map on the bed were two books. One of them looked like an encyclopedia bound in a grey hardbound cover and titled "History of Ethra: Dark Ages by Mckenzie Walruse".

The other book was much thinner and more colourful as it seemed more suited for children. A pair of a man and a woman were drawn like superheroes in capes on the cover in a funny action pose. It was titled 'Adventures of the Super Warlock and the Incredible Witch by Margerie Irislane.'

This was what Kyra had requested earlier from Nisa. A map and a random book to read. Though she felt amused when she saw the comics and was even intrigued to read. She had to make sure this wasn't a dream for the last time unless she was going insane. Wasn't it said that one couldn't read in their dreams or even see the colours in the dream world clearly?

Kyra looked at the old atlas map in front of her and saw there were 5 huge continents apart from the oceans and islands that majorly stood out. Four of them had words written in bold capital across them.

Kyra slowly mumbled the names of the four under her breath. Spratia, Creden, Valraine and Savage lands.

Spratia lay almost centered covered in green, while towards the east lay Savage Lands coloured in brown.

In the North was the Valraine continent on which the words Sanguine was written spread out in huge faint red letters in its background. While in the West was the Creden domain on which scars were drawn.

The Spratian continent seemed to be the one that roughly neighboured almost all of the other three continents. The fifth continent was much smaller compared to the other four and was separated from the four by a vast ocean. The name on it had been torn out at the bottom, so Kyra had no clue what it was called.

Kyra stood there in the large bedroom with a pale face as she hoarsely whispered in a low voice to herself, "It's all real. Oh God, so it was all real after all! So that old creepy old witch,typical bandit called stragglers, that annoying man who took advantage of her, that glowing tree, taser stags and everything else …...it was all real!?! But how is this even possible?!"

She could clearly read every word on the map, had seen all the vivid colours around her through her eyes. This was no dream. Her pitiful, useless hopes and the last shred of her stubborn reasoning and theories were torn apart by the reality she was facing now around her. Even though Kyra didn't want to, at this point, she 'had to accept that the things happening around her were indeed real.

This was not Earth, but apparently an entirely whole new different world!

At the top of the open map were the words' Ethra" written in huge faded block letters.

"It's your turn, Sister Kyra. Hurry up. Showing up late will be considered rude since they'll be waiting for us. There's a difference between being late and showing up fashionably late you know. Besides both Maya and I are starving", chastised the teenager as she pulled on Kyra.

One of the maids carried Little Maya in her arms, who'd turned all glowing and pink, bundled up in a towel as she followed Nisa back towards the bed.

A dazed Kyra was pushed towards the bath by an impatient Nisa who had a towel wrapped below her arms as water dripped from her wet hair down to her white shoulders.

'It seems we need to get sister Kyra fixed as soon as possible. She seems to be getting worse as time passes', mumbled Nisa to herself. She shook her head with a worried expression as she saw the beautiful brunette muttering to herself with hows and whys. She wondered to herself whether her spell back in the cell while they were imprisoned at Kethran mountain, went wrong and made Kyra's amnesia even worse.

Kyra undressed and got into a wide tub filled up to the brim with warm water and had flower petals and herbs floating on top.

The two maids who had earlier helped Nisa and Maya were now helping Kyra scrub and wash her hair patiently.

Kyra couldn't help but shudder as she looked all around taking everything into her sight like a newborn chick as if she were a blind person who had just gotten her sight for the first time. She could hear the voices of the duo sisters in the next room across her.

And she then looked at the maids who were helping her bathe as if she were some sort of medieval princess or noblewoman. The two maids kept complimenting her beauty but also complained at the same time good-naturedly, saying she wasn't taking care of herself well enough. Kyra's face had long turned beetroot red since she was naked and exposed in front of two random strangers for the first time in her life.

As Kyra sat there in a daze with her eyes wide and mouth slightly open inside the warm tub, she couldn't help but think as she pursed her pink lips with a frown appearing between her eyebrows,

'What kind of world is this?! How did I even arrive in this bizarre place filled with these weird people who all seem to have crazy powers?"

Even though she was in a tub filled with warm water, her lithe naked body shivered slightly due to the thought of feeling vulnerable in an unknown place. Suddenly, Kyra felt like she was having a panic attack, as though she couldn't breathe properly.

"Take deep breaths. Inhale..exhale...inhale...exhale...Deep breaths that's right. Panicking won't get you anywhere, Kyra.", she consoled herself in a stern tone as she muttered to herself with a serious expression on her face.

The two maids on her either side were startled to see the young woman's chest heaving up and down all of a sudden as Kyra began to breathe in and out heavily. They wore worried looks, wondering if they'd done something wrong as they looked at each other with a confused expression.

Kyra had to pacify and calm the two anxious maids as she let out nervous laughter and explained that she was absolutely fine. She even thanked them for assisting her tonight, to which the maids shook their heads and said it was their duty to do so.

Kyra made a small mental note about putting in a good word for them before leaving here.

She slightly massaged the bridge of her nose between her shapely eyebrows as though trying to ease the stressful thoughts bothering her.

Her eyes slowly raised towards the high ceiling, where a chandelier-lit up with candles hung from as she continued to ponder within.

'The girl's mother , Nihaiya , back at the forest seemed to have recognised me. And from the way she said it, it seems that she knows Lianna Walker quite well.'

'Then does that mean my mother, the woman who had never showed up all my entire life is here?'

---

Two figures stood under a trees shadow, a mile away from the compound gates of the Dartwood manor currently as they scouted the place.

"Are you sure, she's here? I don't want to get into a fight the wooden blockheads unless necessary. Are you positively sure it was that skank? Are you really sure she was imprisoned?" questioned a cloaked figure to her neighbour as she pulled back her hood to reveal an attractive yet aggressive looking pretty woman in her mid-twenties with sharp features. She had a very stylish asymmetrical styled red bob hair with a few freckles on her face.

"I'm positively sure it was her, sister. Trust me, there's no way I could be wrong about her, especially with that face. I caught sight of her anxious face peeking out from the windows within. There seemed to be others along with her too.", replied a slightly overweight younger woman in her early twenties as sweat rolled down her fair chubby baby face.

"Also, can you please turn the heat down!?", continued the chubby plump girl as she glared at her companion with bitterness in her eyes. Because the air around them for a few meters had suddenly warmed up. It was as though it were a mid-summers day all of a sudden, all due to this crazy redhead woman who stood next to her. 'Why did I have to partner up with this crazy woman!?', she sighed within.

"Well then, seems like we have to take that runt back with us at any cost. The Dartwoods better know what's good enough for them and be obliging or else I wouldn't mind turning them into charred firewoods. Hmmph!" , said the redhead with a menacing sneer.

She looked at the iron gates manned with guards and the manor beyond in front of her and slowly walked forwards step by step taking her time with her companion in tow.