By now Samuel had realized those strangers were Elvas, Elesil's people. Two men and three Elvas women quickly boarded the ship to assessing Emma's condition, and a look of great concernment took no time to appear on those elegant faces of them. It was hard for Samuel to describe the group of Elvas, 'extremely and ethereally beautiful' were all the adjectives his brain could conjured up at that moment, fair skin and tall, but the most striking feature of them was their hair, long, silky and each of them have very distinctive hair colour that not of the nature hair colour. One of the men's hairs have a pale pink shade and graduating turned into a scarlet hue at his hair ends, while the other was cyan blue, and similar for the three women as well, with various shade from red to purple. Their hair reminded Samuel of those Japanese cartoon characters he used to saw his sister watch.

As one of the Elvas' eyes turned milky white, an invisible force gently lifted Emma's tub off of the deck and kept it floating on the air. They gently removed Emma's tub and headed toward another vessel, waiting at another wharf. A beautiful vessel with elegant curves, painted in white and with stripes of blue and green, and somehow Samuel had an impression that the Elvas' ship, perhaps, was made of metal instead of wood like any other ship.

"Challenger" –Elesil's voice snapped Samuel off of his entrancement toward the group of Elvas.

"Uh... huh... yes," Samuel replied

"If you do not mind," Elesil asked, "Would you kindly fetch me my rucksack in the cabin?"

"Uh... right" -said Samuel, and quickly he made his way back to the ship cabin and swiftly returned to Elesil with his rucksack.

After bade a word of gratitude, Elesil headed toward the Elvas ship alone and had a word with his people in the privacy of the Elvas ship cabin. Inside the Elvas' ship, shielded from all prying eyes, Elesil presented the biological sample box that he collected from lord Urdin's victims.

"Very well, I shall send these samples for examine and present your findings and concernments to the People's Council when we arrived to the Eternal Forest with utmost urgent" -The Elvas with Cyan hair received the sample box and bowed.

Afterward, ELesil leaved the Elvas' ship and she cast off moment after he left.

"Worry not my friend" –Elesil gave reassurance, as Samuel watched the Elvas' ship speedily vanishing behind the city gate- "She is in good hand now."

"Will she be ok with..." –Samuel hesitated- "...Well, with what'd happened to her?"

"I do not know" –Elesil sighed- "I wish I could do more."

After Emma's send-off, they received a warm welcome from the lord of Kienov, Zukiaz Ulichoska. A peculiar thing about the way the Dwarf organize their society, difference from any other folks on Varlaurea, as Elesil explained to Samuel when they were on their way to Zukiaz Ulichoska's keep. The Dwarfs were a loose confederate of city-states that scattered around the continent mountainous regions, they didn't have any centralized government body like any other folks. Each city was autonomously rule by a "Zukiaz" which roughly translates to common speech as "Great Prince" or "Grand Duke" who was elected from the nobility rank of each city, although, occasionally these "Great Princes" would gather and elect a "High King" to help coordinated the Dwarfs collective effort in time of great crisis, but such position was only temporally and would dissolve as soon as the crisis had passed.

While their carriage leisurely trolled through the buzzling street of Kienov, Elesil drained by the effort of keeping the Celgealian princess alive and quickly sank into deep slumber the moment his weary body rested on the comfy seat of the carriage. Outside the carriage's window, the view of the Dwarf's settlement unfolded before everyone and drawn the full attention of Samuel's eyes, where the short statue of Kienov's citizen pacing up and down the street to go to where their business be under a gentle blue light, but what drew Samuel's awe the most was the street they were on.

The street or more precisely a giant tunnel with many big columns and archways that ran along its length and held up the tunnel's ceiling. Not just simple as a support column to withstand the weight of the mountain above their head, they also acted as a kind of giant streetlight that provide the main source of light for the city's inhabitants. Samuel's eyes practically glued at each passed by column, and fascinated by the light emitting from the top of those column while his mind had trouble to fathom how such structure was being constructed. To his eyes, those columns looked like a giant lighthouse than a simple support column, with decorative carvings, painting and a stone staircase spiralled up to the top of the columns, that Samuel guessed maybe for maintain worker to access the place where the giant glass-panels of really big windows at the top of the column were emitting a gentle light and cast it upon an area few dozens of lias diameter around each column.

Their light washed over the terrace-like structures of the tunnel's wall, carved from the mountain's stone, floor upon floor they stacked upon each other till the top floor reached the tunnel's ceiling, and ran along the tunnel-street's length, that was where the citizen of Kienov created their living place. Those stone terraces were like a sort of apartment complex with staircases and rams ran up and down everywhere gave the inhabitant easy access to each floor, wide walkways on each floor for the pedestrians, with beautiful masonry fence made of hexagon-shape stone rings, and decorative potting plot on the fence where strange glowing mushrooms and ferns were planted. Each of apartment had a geometric shape, some apartments were just bare stone showed off the pattern of the cut rock, while some were painted, depended on the taste and the pocket of its owner. And dotted between the apartments were many portals of smaller tunnels led deeper into the mountain like that of an alleyway in the cities of the surface-folks.

"My sir, can you hear me?" –a heavily accented voice pulled Samuel's attention back from the street view.

"Uh... yes?" –Samuel turned his gaze toward the voice's owner

"Was what lady Hi said is true? That's you possessed a kind of magic that can make your hand shine like the Hand of Quelas'Airuth on the heaven?" –with an eye of great anticipation, Zukiaz Ulichoska waited for Samuel's answer.

Quickly gave a glanced at the Aulacian princess, Samuel tried to catch up to the situation and comprehend the Dwarf Zukiaz's question.

"Uh... ya... yes," Samuel answered.

"That's most miraculous!" -Zukiaz Ulichoska exclaimed- "I never heard such feat ever in my live."

"Neither do I, lord Ulichoska" –Princess Hi chimed in- "Until I witness it with my own I when he rescued me and my men from the clutch of lizardmen and the madmen in Ceicirton not so long ago."

"Is that true? What'd happened?" the Dwarf's Zukiaz curious.

And so, the Aulacian princess retold their ordeal in the past few weeks before the amazement of Zukiaz Ulichoska.

"Such incredible tale, such strange coincident..." –leaned back to his seat, the Dwarf's Zukiaz stroked his beard in contemplate- "Do you think this is some sort of sign?"

"Indeed, I am," the Aulacian princess nodded.

"You can't be serious, Highness" –Samuel chuckled.

"You don't think so my sir?" –Zukiaz Ulichoska surprised before Samuel's reaction- "But the coincident is uncanny to be just simply coincident, don't you think? I do believe this is a sort of sign from Quelas'Airuth, and if you don't mind, could I see that magic of your?"

"Uhm... uh... of course, if you insist." Samuel answered.

Not long afterward, every face in Zukiaz Ulichoska's great hall were fixed with a great amazement as the light from Samuel's right hand washed over them. After Samuel's demonstration, Zukiaz Ulichosky'd threw a banquet in welcome of their arrival at Kienov, and of course after heard of Samuel's miracle the noble rank of the city flocked to the zukiaz's hall. Most of them approached Samuel with scepticism, some others were downright distrust and subtle hostilities were thrown at Samuel from the highly religious and some of clergymen. But after another demonstration, they were all speechless and whispers were quickly passing around, with it was the attitude of the Dwarf noble toward Samuel, they stated to proactively approaching and made themselves acquaintance with Samuel. Had no idea how to deal with the high society people and his sudden popularity Samuel simply froze when the nobles came to make small talk and asked him all sort of question. Luckily for the man, the Aulacian princess had come to the man rescue and became a sort of spoke person for Samuel the entire banquet. With a charming demeanour of a person well versed in dealing with high society, the Aulacian princess skilfully steered Samuel off of some awkward question of the Dwarf's noble.

"Wow, I must say you handled those noblemen really well." –Samuel gave his compliment when they were leaving after the banquet ended.

"Ah... that was nothing, it's everyday business for a person of my status" –with a charming smile Princess Hi continued- "My advice for you, master Challenger, you better get used to dealing with the high society because you'll be encounter them a lot more from now on."

"What? Really? Why? I'm not a noble, why would I keep meeting them after this?" Samuel shrugged.

Stared at the young man for seconds, with a somewhat surprise look in her eyes the Aulacian princess continued "Hum... you clearly have no idea about the significant of your strange ability, aren't you?"

"Er... well, I'd heard that... it has some religious meaning about some god, I think... I'm not a religious man so I didn't really care much" –Samuel awkwardly shrugged- "And... does what I did really that weird? It just a glowing hand that's all, it all magic isn't?"

"And I never heard of any kind of magic could create such feat like what you did with your hand and even could ward off those madmen at Ceicirton, and I considerate myself very well informed" -Princess Hi curious- "Aren't you a mage yourself? Of all people, you should be the one who wondering about your own ability the most."

As soon as the Aulacian Princess ended her sentence, a minute long awkward silent was the only thing came out of Samuel as he just realized that the conversation was leading toward his otherworldly circumstance. Clumsily he tried to redirect the conversation but his attempt only drove more suspicion into the Aulacian princess's head.

"Er... so now... er... we return to Dunharling to re-join with your convoy or we just continue from here to the eh... forest, what is it name... uh..." –Samuel scratched his head tried to remember the name of the Elvas's homeland.

"The Eternal Forest" –Princess Hi reminded Samuel- "But before that why don't you accompany me in my quarter for some tea and chatting then?" –the Aulacian princess's lips curved up into a smile.

"Green Jade?" –Samuel's voice replied with hopefulness.

"Of course," –the Aulacian tilted her head with the smile still present on her lips.

Not long after, Princess Hi's attendants brought to the table a beautifully carved wooden box the size of a standard briefcase and unpacked it into a travelling tea set then took their leave off of the room. Samuel marvelled at tea set with a fascinating filled eye, a palm-size tea pot and five tiny cups covered in blue landscape paintings fit snuggly into cut-out holes in the case, there were also tea box and even a small build-in terracotta stove and kettle. And not for long, the reddish-brown terracotta kettle started to spilling puffs of steam out of its spout.

"Ey... just sit still" -the Aulacian princess reached to the terracotta kettle before Samuel could touch it, then proceeded to brew and serve the tea herself- "You're my guess today."

"Well, thank you, Your Highness," Samuel gave thank.

Like the shuttle of a weave, the kettle guided by Princess Hi's skilled hand dashed around the tea set, hot water from the kettle cast down upon the small teapot, Princess Hi rinsed it thoroughly in and outside to warm it up before the tea leaves were added into the pot. With skilled swift hand the princess quick pour a small portion of hot water into the pot and before the tea leaves could release their content to the water, it was drained out and used to rinsed the small cups. Finally, the pot was filled and as the tea was brewing, the Aulacian lady kept rinsing the pot with hot water to keep the temperature steady.

After a while, the clear jade-green liquid slowly sipped through Samuel's lips as him enjoying the way that beverage's soothing aroma excited the olfactory inside his noses and savoured the pleasant after taste linger on his taste buds and the back of his throat.

"Hoo! This is the best tea I ever had since I got here" -let out a breath of satisfaction, Samuel gave a complement- "This stuff might give some of the brands back in my home the run for their money."

"If you interested then I can give you a box of Green Jade tea" -amused at the satisfaction look on Samuel's face, the Aulacian Princess offered.

"Really? Well, thanks you for your generosity, Your Highness" Samuel gladly accepted.

"So... Challenger, we haven't had much opportunity to speak much since our first met" -Princess Hi took a sip of her tea- "And you seemed to avoiding me when I tried to make your acquaintance at Lord Tudir's banquet, to be honest I felt kind of offended over that," –gave off a sighed and dramatically glanced her gaze off to the view outside the nearby window.

"Can you imagine? Me, a lady of royalty, and I can confidently considerate myself is a lady of quite good beauty" –with sadness in her eyes, the Aulacian princess continued- "Just tried to made some acquaintance and perhaps a friend, and get avoided like I'm some kind of plague by a man..." –a melancholy sigh broke up her sentence- "Do you have any idea how lonely it is to be a person of my standing? It's rarely I could get out of Aulacia's royal palace let along my kingdom's boundary"

"Uh... sorry princess, I mean..." –An unmeasurable awkwardness coursed through Samuel's spine- "I... I mean no offend, it's just I really don't how to talk with royalty... you know... er..."

Then, sound of laughter burst out of the parted lips of the Aulacian princess as she could not hold back her amusement from the awkwardness on Samuel's face.

"I got you good didn't I" –covered her mouth with her robe's sleeves out of courtesy while a long string of giggle was escaping her mouth.

"Oh! So that how it is, huh." –Samuel deflated; his awkwardness turned into amusement after realized he just got prank by the Aulacian lady.

"Ah..." –A big sigh of relief escaped the Aulacian Princess- "It'd been a while that I'd been able to laugh like that."

"Seem... being a princess is not that all rainbow and sunshine, huh?" Samuel said.

"Oh, by the gods! no" –shook her head, Princess Hi chuckled- "if you want to become something more important or doing things that actually matter than just being some highborn airhead, then no."

"So, I heard..." –sip another cup of tea, Samuel spoke- "You and your sister had become quite a 'someone' back in your home."

"Huh, that's quite informed of your, I'm surprise" -Princess Hi lips curled up into a charming smile, after a sip of tea she continued- "So, why don't you tell me more about yourself, you're quite an interesting man, if I dare say so myself, any family? Wife? Children?"

"Nah, I'm still single, how about you?" Samuel sipped his tea

"Likewise," -the Aulacian princess smiled, tilted her head- "Care to fancy me?"

"Oh, I wouldn't dare," Samuel chuckled.

"Ooh! You're a shy one, aren't you? How cute!" Princess Hi teased, then her slender hands clapped and a maid came into the room with an ornate wooden tray.

From the tray two small dishes of what Samuel assumed to be some sort of desert were served on the table, neatly sat in the middle of the porcelain dish were six cubed of gelatine looking layer cake, each cube was the size of the thumb, with green and somewhat yellowish layers stack upon each other.

"Come, tried it" -Princess Hi smiled after said something to the maid- "I think you'll like it, it's my favoured desert."

"Thank you, Your Highness" –quickly grabbed one of the cubes with the chopsticks came along with the dish, Samuel savoured the sweetness and tender chewiness of the cake

"Wow! it's great, I like it" –A enjoyment smile curled up Samuel's lip and with a skilful use of the chopsticks, Samuel proceeded to throw two more cubes into his mouth - "What's this called? Highness?" Samuel curious, "Must be some fine royalty cuisine, I assume."

"It's called Khã Mùn cake... uhm... it's mean... 'pig skin' cake in common-speech, I think," Princess Hi said

"Pig... skin?" Samuel surprised.

"It's just sort of look like a piece of pork belly, hence the name" –Princess Hi explained- "It's nothing fancy actually, just a common folk's desert finely made by the hand of a royal cook."

"Huh, I'm surprise that a lady of royalty took a liking to a common-man's food," Samuel said.

"It's just reminded me of some memories," Princess Hi smiled, "Anyway, pardon me, but if I might ask, have you ever visited anywhere around Southern Varlaurea?"

"No, I haven't, this is the furthest from... eh... my village that had ever been," Samuel shrugged, grabbed another piece of Khã Mùn cake with the chopsticks.

"I see... well, would you like to come and visit Aulacia after the White Ring Council is done? I'll show you around," Princess Hi said.

"That would be great but I got some business I had attend to, once I get to the Eternal Forest," Samuel answered, threw the final piece of cake inside his mouth.

"Hum... business in the Eternal Forest?" –a glare of intrigue appeared in the Aulacian princess's eyes- "I'm surprised, that's the first time I heard of that, what sort of business you have in the Eternal Forest, may I ask?"

Tingling sensation rushed through Samuel's body, awkward silent once again reigned, the very air inside the room stood till as Samuel realized he just let his mouth slip.

"Well..." –Washed the piece of cake down his throat with a sip of tea, Samuel signed- "It's... ah... my sister."

"Your sister? In the Eternal Forest?" –from across the table the Aulacian princess' face drawn close to Samuel- "Let's me get this clear, you, a random Upper-man, who, people are not very friendly with the Elvas to begin with, and yet, for some reason befriended and travelling with an Elvas, and a princess of Celgealia too, and now you have some business relate to your sister in the Eternal Forest, the Elvas' stronghold, who happened to possess a strange kind of magic" –with an eyebrow raise and her gaze locked on Samuel, Hi sat back to her seat- "My, my, an interesting man, you indeed are."

Looked at the expression on the Aulacian princess, Samuel sighed, the Downer lady's face bore an expression of clear intention, that she would not leave without Samuel's answer. A funny through came across his mind, a thought that... Perhaps, all of what just happened was her plan? the hospitality, the tea, the cake, the flirting, all were just to make him felt comfortable and loose his lips.

"Oh well, I guess my behaviour since we met is... quite strange isn't?" -Samuel scratched his head.

"Well, that's quite an understatement" -Princess Hi smiled

"Yeah, yeah" -Samuel chuckled- "Emma had the same reaction when I first met her."

"Is she?" Hi said, "So let we start over again, shall we? Who are you mister Samuel Challenger?"

"Oh well... you help my friend so I guess at the least I owed you that much" -with another sigh, Samuel proceeded to told the Aulacian princess his true nature.

Surprisingly, there was no laugher or an annoyance look came from the Aulacian princess when Samuel's story came to an end. The Aulacian lady sat back into her chair, her face bore a deep-in-thought expression, minute passed and the air in the room was still. Only the muffled footstep of the Dwarf servants outside of the room that broke the silence in the room.

"That... is quite a story, master Challenger" -Princess Hi finally broke her silent- "But if you excuse me, I'm afraid that all the time we have for now, it's a pleasure taking to you," thus, after bade the Aulacian princess farewell and received his gift Samuel returned to his chamber.

In the day after, they continued on their way, this time with a more relaxing pace, their ship departed from Kienov and not long after leaved the settlement, altered its course toward a, what seem to be an outpost of sort, and stopped in front of a stone gate inside the outpost. After some clacks and clanks, the stone gate ahead of the ship split open, led them into a smaller brand of the great canal where the water current led their vessel gently downslope in a straight line and a few gentle curves, unlike the main canal, this smaller waterway was not very much well-lit and only a few lanterns dotted it length every few dozens of lias to designate how far of the length of the tunnel they'd travelled, to navigate, their ship had to rely on its onboard light source.

Thus so, the way ahead of them was lit up as the giant spotlight-like device on the prow of the ship was casting its bluish light into the waterway, the thing had a box-shape, with lines and lines of ancient language script carved onto the box's shining silvery surfaces, of which were growing a faint bluish light due to the Quasium stone embedded into the script carvings. With marvel Samuel gazed upon the device, sensed his curiosity, Elesil sated Samuel's mind.

As his explanation, such device was very much similar to the magic device that Elesil had used to message his people, a kind of magical device that the Elvas had shared to the Dwarf the knowledge of how to craft them from long, long ago when they were allied in a deathly struggled called "the Hundred Years War".

After an hour or so, the ship stopped accelerating and splashed water to the tunnel walls when it reached a levelled plain, with the momentum it had picked up when descending the mountain, their ship speeded forth until artificial tunnel turned into nature carven and the faint glow of daylight soon await them not far ahead.

Parted away a thick veil of vegetation that concealed a cave entrance, the ship's bow pushed forth and emerged out of the mountain's foot. Samuel's eyes squinted when the first ray of the sun reached his retina and its celestial warm enveloped his body. Finally, returned to the surface world, his intercostal muscles stretched his ribcage to its most limit and let the fresh air inflated every singles alveolus inside his lungs. As fantastic as the settlement of the Dwarf maybe, Samuel still most prefers the sight of the blue sky and green hill. His eyes slowly swept the landscape beyond the riverbank, the sense of the vegetation carried in the wind pleased his noses and the sound of leaves rattling in the breeze brough a blissful calmness to Samuel's mind. Such feeling brought back memory, especially, the memory of the first time he went camping with his father put an amused smirk to his lips. Somehow, he felt like it just happened yesterday, that feeling of resentment he had because his father dragged him away from his NES machine, just to go on some stupid trip into some stupid wood, to watch some stupid tree. And the annoyance he had when the stupid rucksack weight down on his shoulder and the miserableness he had when he dragged his child legs through the dirt trail. But when he reached the top of the hill, the sight and sense had overwhelmed his child's mind and replaced all of his displeases with a euphoria-like calmness that completely alien and new to his child's mind.

"Ah, we are near" -Elesil came to Samuel's side- "Can you see?" -Samuel's gaze quickly followed the direction of the Elvas' finger pointed at.

At that direction, over the bumpy hills and sights of inhabitant, beyond many swaying bushes and blooming meadows, there lie an impenetrable wall of trees, that stretched the entire length of the visible horizon, and like a carpet of greenery, their foliage blanketed a vast distain stretched toward the horizon of jagged snowy peaks afar.

"That is the Eternal Forest," Elesil said and continued after a sigh of longing, "Ah... How my heart ache from the fact that my feet are yet to stride on its ground and my hand yet to feel the tree bark there."

"Nowhere like home, Am I right?" -Samuel agreed with Elesil's sentiment.

By the time their ship reached the nearest settlement to re-joined the waiting Aulacia's convoy, according to prior arrangement, the sun was setting behind horizon of hill and woodland. Long streaks of shadow stretch across the land and the landscape before their eyes, now seemingly on fire as the twilight sun painted its scarlet hue upon all beings on the good earth. When the sun peeked from behind the Dragon Back Sierra at the eastern sky, the Aulacian convoy continued their journey. From where they were, it would take around two days to reached the end of their journey. Along the way, the Aulacian princess had took quite an interest in Samuel, as he and together with Elesil was frequently being asked to accompany her in her carriage to exchange small talk, of which mostly involve Samuel's otherworldly origin. Through their conversations, Samuel might had started to realize the significant meaning of his ability, as he learned about the religious faith that share among the Varlaurea continent's inhabitants, most importantly was a belief about a supreme deity in the pantheon of six gods who share the same name with the constellation that shone in the heaven in the past few weeks, the god Quelas'Airuth. Although, he did hear of this deity a few times but Samuel didn't pay much of interest to this world religious faith and doctrine due to he being an atheist almost all his life.

As they set camp for the night, the cold night breeze of northern Bricatia swept thought the campsite and rattle the sea of grass that their camp sat upon. With each swept of the wind, the Aulacian royal guards, who only accustom to the warmer climate of their homeland, shrivel and tucked themselves further into their coat. But to Samuel the cold breezes only remind him of his home, with the hot cup of tea in hand, Samuel sat outside his tent enjoying the cold air swirl around his body and watch the heavenly light of the supernova illuminate the thin strips of fog that started to gather around the nearby stream where the tiny flash of green of the fireflies could be seen dancing amidst the veil of fog.

"Uhm... Bright Hand," an Aulacian maid approached Samuel with a blanket on her hand, "It getting cold, so please, have this blanket or you'll have a cold"

"Oh, thanks you, lady" -Samuel received the blanket from the maid- "But... what did you just called me?"

"Was I wrong? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend" -the maid bowed in apology.

"No, no, please, don't misunderstood, I just... why are you calling me that?" Samuel smiled

"Well, obviously, after what you did in Ceicirton, everyone in the convoy started to called you that, some even think you had been mandate by Quelas'Airuth," The maid spoke with earnest in her eyes.

Surprised by her answer Samuel didn't know how to react, just thanked her again and watched her shadow disappeared behind a tent. Draft the blanket over his shoulders and savoured the taste of the Green Jade tea in his hand, Samuel gave of a sigh of satisfaction, and his eyes drifted upward to the supernova above with mind full of thought and wonderment. Thought about what the maid just said and wonder about what Princess Hi had expressed in their conversations earlier; The supernova, his ability, were they really a sight? was he truly had been mandate by some divine will? Samuel's lips curled and chuckled as the thought of he being some sort of movie cliché "chosen one". But, then again, he couldn't help but wonder, for what had happened to him so far was not exactly ordinary.