Leaved Sebolonum behind, the convoy continued northward, along with their progress was the changing of scenery, most significantly was in the architecture style of the towns they passed by. The influence of Rumunus empire on Bricatia ended with the Narrow wall, the rectangular brick and stone style buildings now became rarer the farer north they went, they were less prominent in the rural area, only could be seen in large city area and, and replaced by the old thatched roof and round house type of the Bricatians. Most noticeable change was in the dress style of the people which had less element from Rumunus fashion and the men were more prone to grow a beard compared to the clean shave look of the majority of men in southern Bricatia.

On and northward they went, eventually, the view of a green river came to their sight, seemingly dug its way out of the base of a mountain, and bore a straight line through many hills before joined stream with another river and then winded its way toward a large city nearby, where boats shuttling up and down nonstop on its stream. When the road they were on lead them near the river's bank, through the riverside vegetation many freight ships with square mat and wide deck, carrying crates upon crates came to the Aulacian convoy's view, and Samuel's eyes were wide open when he saw who were manning those ships. This was the first time Samuel ever saw the people he once heard about when he still stayed at Kranwolf's family. Ran up and down those ship's deck and buzzing around on their little short legs like a busy bee were and bunches of small people, each of them no taller than a ten or twelve-year-old kid, probably around 1.5 lias and sprouted a magnificent beard on their face.

"First time seeing them?" –An Aulacian Royal Guard rode near Samuel commented, to which Samuel returned with a nod.

"Those are the Dwarf; they probably came from there" – the guard pointed at the mountain where the straight river came from- "there must be a trading outpost of them under that mountain, they live all around Varlaurea's mountainous areas, strange folk isn't it, I had the same face like you when I first saw a trading envoy of them back in Aulacia, and that seemingly straight river from the mountain, that probably an artificial river dug by them." –the guard smiled.

"They... dug that?" –Samuel was surprised.

"Yeah, incredible builders, those tiny folk are," the guard replied.

Not long after, the skyline of Dunharling rose up behind its golden wheat fields, with many of its tall stone towers piercing the blue heaven, the city was the centre trading hub of the region where merchants gathered to do business with the neighbouring Dwarf's settlements. After the initial welcome, the Dunharling's lord seemed surprised and glad to see Emma with the Aulacian's convoy. It seemed some good news had finally come to lift the Celgealian princess's spirit, as the Dunharling's lord told Emma that her uncle Lord Marquis Fulberth and his daughter, Emma's cousin, lady Axelle were alive and well with what left of the Celgealia's convoy. They had passed through Dunharling a week prior to Emma's arrival to Dunharling with the Aulacian convoy, after their stay for the rest stop, they had continued their way to the Eternal Forest.

Learned of the wellbeing of her relatives, Emma was beaming and the idea of visiting the market immediately came up, thus not long after they were already on their way to the central market of the city. Yet even there was still quite a distance from the market, their ears could already hear them, echoed from the street ahead were the sounds of batter, of wagons on the cobble road, of livestock being move as they mooing and clucking, of the workers went about their day and the merchant's voice advertising their good, came soon after the sound of the lively place was its smell, a quite peculiar smell, a mixture of many smell, somewhat harsh to the nose but not too unpleasant, it was the smell of spices, of fresh and dried food, of rolls of fabric newly weaved and the metallic smell of many ores and many, many other smell, pleasant aromas and unpleasant odours all mixed together to create an unique smell that could only found in a big market. When their carriage came to a stop waiting for a wagon train carrying ore to pass, Samuel's eyes caught a group of Dwarfs passing through their carriage, the Dwarfs seemed to be in a heated discussion. One of them, the one that donned with an expansive looking fur coat was practically shouting at his companions, his big fur hat, was wobbling with every of his snappy head's movements, and fanning motions of the hands, make it seemingly like the animal who fur had turned into that hat was still alive, on the while every single part of skin on the Dwarf's face which didn't cover under his magnificent thick and long grey beard had turned a bright red hue. The language which the Dwarf was speaking in sounded kind of resembling Russian to Samuel's ear, and obviously, Samuel had no idea what the Dwarf was yelling about.

"Looks like someone just took quite a loss to his business and is looking for the employee who is responsible for the bad deal" – Elesil smiled, relaying the meaning of the Dwarf's word after they'd passed.

After that, they started to push their way through the crowded market, stall next stall and store next to store, all packed tight together like sardines in a can, displaying all kinds of goods from expensive luxury items to the everyday life general goods. The market goers shuffled through the lively madness on the market street, browsing for their purchase amidst the callings and advertisements of the sellers while the porters with their heavy load on their shoulder hasted their feet to drop their load to the waiting wagons. On one corner of the market was the food court, stalls and wagons of food, where freshly baked pie, skews of meat and other mouth-watering kind of foods, speared their alluring aroma to the surrounding air, like an invisible seductress it sneaked its way into the nostrils of anyone passed by and charmed their stomach.

Even with the city guard help they were hardly making any progress through the market. As news of the princesses visiting the market, curious onlookers and the merchants too, of course won't miss such opportunity to make an introduction and to establish and business relationship. With every step they took, small merchants and representative of big businesses kept fawning over the ladies, and advertising for their business. After an hour or so, finally the merchants had left them alone and the ladies finally could enjoy their trip to the market, while Samuel had built up quite a collection. Whenever a merchant came up to the princesses, they would handle them a parchment or a small wooden card as a kind of business card or brochure of sort, to introduce their establishment, and since this world had yet to developed mass printing technology so every single of those things was handmade and had very interested design, the bigger the business were, the more elaborated and beautifully made they were, a few of them even were gilded.

After shifting through a few shops, a musical instrument shop caught Samuel's eye. After a few tests. Samuel brought himself a flute and proceeded to play a cheerful tune to the ladies's impression of which Samuel explained he used to be a flute player in a military marching band when he was still with the army. The information piqued Princess Hi's curiosity about the man.

"So, you were once a man of service, Challenger?" –Princess Hi turned to Samuel while they strode out of the instrument shop- "So under which house did you serve or maybe... from my knowledge of Upper's culture, perhaps you a knight, I wonder?"

Silent was the only immediate answer Samuel could give the Aulacian princess when the question was brought up, their eyes met awkwardly as Samuel's brain went into overdrive to produce a believable answer for her question.

"Er... well... er... it's... it's a ... territory in northwest Bricatia... called... the British Isles" –After seconds of awkward staring, Samuel finally could spin something to satisfy the princess's curiosity "I... was in the foot guard serving er... Her-Lordship lady Elizabeth II"

"A woman lord? Interesting" -Hi's eyes gleamed with curiosity and gleeful smile on her lips- "Can you indulge my curiosity about your home, master Challenger?"

"Well... er... what could I say?" –Samuel scratched his head with an awkward smile- "It a... very remote place... not much happening there, aside from the constant gloomy weather."

"Gloomy weather?" Hi asked

"Eh... yeah, if it isn't raining then it's foggy, sunny days are a blessing, hah, hah," Samuel awkwardly answered the Aulacian princess and was hoping she would drop the subject, until Samuel suddenly found his surroundings became cloudy in an instance.

From somewhere in the buzzling market crowd, clouds of smoke burst out of thin air and quickly sent people in the market into confusion, soon came with the sieging of smoke an odd odour came to Samuel nostrils. It was not the smell of the market, but an incredible harsh and offended smell, that the best Samuel could describe it was like a weird mixture of burned iron, the kind of smell one could smell when cutting metal with powered tool, and in it was also the smell of cheap alcohol and... perhaps burned plastic and wood. Samuel couldn't stand the odour and had to cover his mouth and nose to prevent as much as possible those offended smell's molecules from violating his olfactory. Unfortunately, his effort was only in vain for that smell still able to find a way to get inside his nose and pounded his brain with a slight migraine, and washed over him with a slight dizziness, with every breath he took, Samuel could feel his mind became duller and duller, his thought bogged down in the thick gooey mud of his brain cells and to focus was a significant effort. Energy seemed drained from his body by some invisible force, Samuel's body felt tired and more inclined to curl up inside a comfy bed rather than stand in the middle of a crowded place.

Yet, the most confusing thing was everyone around Samuel seemed unaware of what was torturing his nose, from the princesses to the Aulacian and Dunharling guards, everyone although alert by the suddenly appeared of the smoke but seemed completely unaffected and unfazed by the smoke's smell or rather they were oblivious to its present. Everyone but one person, the Elvas, Elesil seemed to notice what was bothering Samuel, or rather he too was suffering the same fate as Samuel.

The smoke grew thicker and thicker amidst the increasing confusion of the crowd, and before Samuel and Elesil could exchange word of what was happening. In the corner of Samuel's eyes, shadows were moving, was the smoke played trick to his eyes or that just the confused crowd? Samuel couldn't be sure.

BANG!

A loud explosion resounded from somewhere in the screen of smoke, and just like that the market crowd was hurled into a state of panic, people started to yelling, and fleeing away from the smoke and the startle loud noise. The chaos only increased exponentially by the second after another loud bang ringed everyone's eardrums and turned the panicking crowd into a stampede, shoving and pushing the crowd stomped over each other in order to escape the market. The accompanying guards tried their best to shield the ladies from the chaos but ultimately succumbed to the sheer number of the crowd, their line faltered as the wave of panicking people rushed to find their way out of the market.

Yet another loud bang resounded and under the concealment of the smoke cloud and the panicking crowd, hooded shadows quickly passed through the faltering line of the guards. Through the confused guards they rushed in, a hand from one of the shadows shoved Samuel aside to make their way toward the princesses. Confused by the situation and by the influence of the smoke, Samuel couldn't react in time, when he realized there was an attempt being made to the princesses, one of those hooded shadows had stuffed a piece of cloth into Emma's mouth, another thrown a burlap sack on top of Emma and another had swooped her off her feet in a blink of the eyes, then quickly the three assailants with the Celgealia princess on their shoulder fled back to the concealment of the smoke screen.

It took a few seconds for Samuel to finally make sense of what he saw. Yelled an alert, Samuel started to pursue, shoved and pushed through the panicking crowd, Samuel tried to keep those shadows in his view. Leapt and stormed over the chaotic crowd, he tried to keep up with those kidnapers. When they finally cleared off of the smoke and the crowd had thinned, Samuel was glad he was not alone in the pursuit as right behind him was Elesil and a few of the Aulacian Royal Guards.

Their distance grew shorter and shorter by the second, with the Celgealian princess on their shoulder the assailants' progress was quite slow and thus gave Samuel and companies an advantage in the pursuit. Just a few more lias and Samuel would catch up to them and rescue his friend. The assailants clearly aware of their situation, the one who carried the thrashing Celgealian princess on their shoulder barked some order and one of the kidnappers turned toward Samuel with a dagger in hand.

A sheen of steel flashed as the dagger thrust toward Samuel's chest. Skilfully, Samuel evaded the blade in a narrow second and his left hand clutched on the kidnapper's wrist whilst his right hand got hold on the attacker's shirt collar, thus with just a twist of his waist, Samuel slammed his attacker to the ground and continued with his pursuit, there was no time for Samuel to apprehend his opponent, with each second, he wasted in a struggle, the other kidnapers would disappear in the street of Dunharling.

Thus, with great urgency Samuel kept strode forth, stubbornly he tailed the remaining kidnappers with Elesil and the Aulacian guards closely. Through twists and turns of the market street, the kidnappers had led them to what seemed to be a warehouse area and after a turn of a corner into an alley. Samuel and companies found themselves looking at an empty dead-end with a large warehouse on the left, their targets otherwise were nowhere to be found. Wasted not a second, Samuel quickly checked the warehouse's door.

The heavy doors swung open with ease for a few liacens and stopped dead. A thick chain on the other side had tied the doors to each other and prevented them from open any further. With what amount light could reach inside the warehouse, Samuel could see shadows moving inside the warehouse. Tried as he might, there was no way Samuel could kick the doors open as long as that chain was still there, so he concentrated his mind to try something else. Yet seconds later, nothing happened, the magical power he just obtained not long ago, somehow disappeared in the time he needed the most.

"Elesil, could you use your magic to blast these damn doors open?" -Samuel turned to his arriving Elvas companion.

"I cannot" -Elesil shook his head- "those smoke from earlier had magic hindering drug, our power is unusable, at least for the immediate now"

"Bloody great!" -Samuel cursed, and darted his eyes over the warehouse- "There! Help me get up there" -Samuel pointed toward a left opened window above the door.

With a boost from Elesil, Samuel quickly grabbed hold at the open window's frame and pulled himself up, his gaze scanned the dim interior of the warehouse for threat then quickly made his way to the door thanks to the stack of crates near the window. After the chain was removed, they pressed inside, welcome them was only silent, there was no footstep or sound of any kind of moment, with adrenaline flooded their system, the men cautiously made their way through the rows and rows of burlap bag and crate, with their eyes and ears wide open, yet even they'd well inside the warehouse they only found silent, no sight or sound of the kidnapped princess and her kidnappers.

Where had these kidnappers went? The alley way was a dead end, the warehouse they were in right at this moment was the only one in the alley and the chain locking the doors moments ago was deliberately placed there. This warehouse was the only option for the kidnappers. Perhaps, the kidnappers knew they were trapped and chose to hide and ambush their pursuers? Each step taken with caution and weapon in hand, the group pushed further inside the warehouse, suddenly a clinking sound could be heard when Samuel turned at a tall row of crater. He just accidently kicked something, something small, felt around his feet, Samuel's hand found a tiny ceramic jar, the kind used for medicine containing purpose and seemingly insignificant, Samuel carefully placed the jar back on the floor to avoid creating more noise.

Continued cautiously after the noise he had created and a loud sound of something slamming just came from the other end of the warehouse, every fibre of nerve inside Samuel was bracing for a shadow to jump on him. Yet, Samuel was able to make his way to the other side of the warehouse without any difficulty. There, he found daylight reached inside the warehouse and at the source of that light was another door, wide open from the inside and led to a buzzling street outside where a small crowd was gathering. Hasted his foot outside of the warehouse, Samuel was dreaded for the worst-case scenario of the kidnappers having escaped with the Celgealian princess, until voices from the nearby gathering crowd took his attention. Even the accent of Bricatian northerners was quite hard for Samuel to understand but he still could make out some of the words the crowd were speaking. They were talking about something, something about a young lady and were asking if she was alright.

"Let me through, let me through" –spoke in Bricatish, Samuel pushed his way through the crowd until a red-haired maiden in the embrace of a middle-aged Bricatian woman came to his view.

"Emma!" –Samuel exclaimed a sigh of relief, came to Emma's side, Samuel quickly realized something was wrong about the Celgealian princess. Held her in his arms, Samuel found her body was warmer than normal, colour was slowly drained from her face by the second and she was sweating profusely.

"What'd happened" Samuel asked the onlooker crowd and the middle-aged woman earlier replied that, some moment ago they found two hooded men busted out of the warehouse Samuel just came from and charged down the street like they were chase by ghost.

"And seconds after those men, we saw this lady stumbled out of the warehouse, she made a few strides out to the street then felt unconscious. Asked as I might she just didn't respond" the middle-aged woman retold what happened.

"Thank you all" -gave the kind-hearted onlookers a word of gratitude, Samuel gently shook the red hair maiden hoping for her to come back to consciousness.

"Challenger!" Elesil called whilst making his wade through the crowd.

"Elesil! I found her, but something was wrong" –Samuel called out- "She sweating a lot and unrespo..."

"Samuel?" –A soft and weak voice interrupted Samuel- "is that you?"

"Emma! Are you alright? What happened" –with great relief Samuel spoke to Emma, who just came back to consciousness.

"Sa... Samuel..." –Emma spoke with great effort through her short breaths- "they... they put something... forced something in my mouth" –and with that the princess fell into unconsciousness once again.

"Emma! Emma!" Samuel kept calling yet in vain and receive no further word from the Celgealian princess.

"I am afraid she had been poisoned" –Elesil came to their side and peeled Emma's eyelids to check on her.

"Poisoned?" Samuel replied.

"Yes, Bright Hand" –an Aulacian guard held up the tiny ceramic jar Samuel found earlier, partly wrapped in burlap cloth- "Master Elesil said this is the poison jar."

"Damn those bloody wankers" –Samuel cursed- "she did regain some consciousness a moment ago and tried to tell me they forced something in her mouth, what do we do now?"

"Wrap your hands in this, and refrain from touching anything" –Elesil handed Samuel a burlap bag- "You had touched the jar earlier, your hands might have contaminated with the poison"

After that, they made haste back to the Dunharling lord's castle. Upon arrival with Elesil instructions, the castle's maid tended to Emma and kept her body cool, on the while Elesil borrowed the laboratory of Dunharling lord's assistance mage to find out what kind of poison Emma had ingested.

To and fro with fire under his soles, Samuel paced his feet back and forth outside of Emma's sickroom worrying for his friend's fate. The waiting was most dreadful; how many minutes had passed? Samuel kept wondering to himself, what took Elesil so long? And if Emma would be alright.

Back and forth, Samuel paced.

Tick and tack, time raced.

Yet till no word from the Elvas and Samuel's patience waned.

"Challenger!" –voice called his name, but it was not his Elvas friend.

Princess Hi hasted her stride through the hall, followed closely behind her were her confidants and someone else. A man in restrain, a brown hair and blue eyes Upper man with hands tied behind his back and held tightly by two Aulacian guards, he kicked and thrashed, tried in vain to break free, mouth hurling insults at his arrestees nonstop in a language Samuel had heard before, Emma's mother-tongue, Cegealish.

"How is lady Blanchardlette?" Princess Hi asked.

"The maids still caring for her" –Samuel sighed in frustration- "I can't do shite right now" –Held up his cloth wrapped hands- "hands might get contaminated with the pois..."

The sound of the door swung open interrupted Samuel; two men strode through the door frame in argument.

"That's ridiculous, that stuff is just myth, I told you it definitely..." –the Dunharling mage voiced his disagreement as he walked through the door with Elesil, but the Elvas turned to him and removed his hood, revealed his pointed ears to the mage's surprise filled 'whoah'

"With all respect, master mage, I think I know more about this subject than you" –Spoke Elesil, then turned back toward his friends.

"Well?" Samuel asked.

"I am afraid..." -Elesil sighed, rubbed his nose- "She had been poisoned with 'Inner Fire'."

"The legendary poison?" –Princess Hi voiced her disbelief with a great frown of both surprise and doubt.

Samuel swept his 'deer in the headlight' gaze across everyone begging for an explanation for the meaning of "Inner Fire" and "legendary poison" until the Dunharling's mage caught his gaze and gave him a response.

"Eh... if it's me then I'll say it was just myth... but..." –the mage shrugged with a face full of uncertainty.

"Antidote" –Samuel frustratingly raised his voice in urgency- "Is there an antidote?"

"There's none..." –Princess Hi responded with uncertainty- "Well... at least according to rumour... 'Inner Fire' is a death sentence, but... the poison itself was supposed to be the stuff of myth and legend as well, but...."

"I will try to do something for her" –Elesil sighed- "Well... at the very least it will help buying more time for her, but most importantly we must get her to the Eternal Forest as soon as possible, there, my people will be able to help her."

"What? There's a cure for 'Inner F..." –the Dunharling's mage blurted out in surprise but quickly was cut off by Elesil.

"There is no time to explain, master mage" –Elesil turned to princess Hi, his chest slightly puffed and in a solemn tone he asked- "Lady Truk Hi. On behalf of my people, I ask you to grant my request of using your diplomatic right in order to help lady Blanchardlette."

"What do you want to do with it?" –Princess Hi wondered- "There're, at the very least, five to six days of nonstop travel on velelis and with full gallop speed to get from here to the Eternal Forest, how can we get there in a short time and how does my diplomatic right might able to help in this?" –Princess Hi perplexed for a few seconds, then her eyes widened and caught onto Elesil's idea- "You want to demand the Dwarf for usages of their highway, perchance?"

"Indeed, Your Grace" –Elesil nodded- "It would cut the travel time to two or three days, in the mean while I'll send word to my people and request them to meet us haft way, with that, the travel time would reduce to approximately one day or a little more than one day" –put his right hand on his chest Elesil bowed his head- "I beg your consideration, Your Highness, Lady Emma might from a rival kingdom but help a fellow human in the time of need is the right thing to do."

The Aulacian princess gave no immediate answer, her eyes darted around her sockets, indeed helping a fellow human in time of need was a right thing to do, yet something was clearly being calculated behind that slender phoenix eye of her. Should princess Hi left Emma for dead? This might be a devastating blow to Celgealia's king, Luis III, perhaps it would distraught the man and help Aulacia in the dispute? Or should she help? and call in this favour afterward as a bargain chip and help with their dispute.

"Eh... please Your Highness" –Samuel joined in- "Please, considerate."

"Alright then, I'll use my right to help her, you have my word" after sometime, Princess Hi agreed with a mysterious smirk.

"Thank you for your consideration" –Elesil bowed, he turned back toward the Dunharling mage's laboratory and signalled Samuel to follow him- "Come Challenger, I will help wash your hand, just to be sure" – then reached into his pocket, Elesil retrieved a small silvery rectangle box no bigger than the width of Samuel's threes finger, with bluish script carved all over the box's surface and a tiny diamond embedded on one side. After Elesil mumbled some spell, the bluish script on the box gave off a faint glow, and thus Elesil proceeded to speak something into the box in a language Samuel never heard before.

"Whoah, Elvas' speech" –the Dunharling's mage blurted out in fascination of what he was hearing.

"Whoah, what's that?" –the Dunharling's mage curiously asked.

"It is not of your concern, master mage" -Elesil replied- "Now, would you kindly help my friend decontaminate his hand, and after that I need your assistance in helping the Celgealian princess"

After having his hand washed, Samuel made his way to the castle's dungeon, where the Aulacians held the Celgealian man they'd captured at the market.

"Princess Hi, had he talked?" Samuel asked the Aulacian princess.

"Not yet, surprisingly stubborn he is" -the Aulacian princess replied, watching the Celgealian prisoner tied to a chair and was having a beating of a lifetime serving to him by an Aulacian guard- "But don't worry, he'll crack eventually"

Sounds of knuckler collide with face echo from wall to wall, after a minute of beating their prisoner still had yet to cooperate even after all that beating and his face now bloody and swollen.

"All this will end in no time you know" -Samuel came near to reason with the prisoner- "Why're you trying to kidnap and poison your own princess? Who do you work for?"

The prisoner raised his battered face to look at Samuel and left out a word in Celgealish, of what meaning Samuel couldn't be sure but he assumed it probably was an insult of sorts. Turned to the Aulacian guard standing nearby, Samuel asked him to handle Samuel the metal rod from a nearby brazier. A howling scream of pain and suffering echoed the entire dungeon as the tip of the burning hot iron rod touched the Celgealian's thigh together with Samuel's entire body's weight pressing down on the rod.

"Now let's try this again, shall we?" -Samuel lifted the iron rod and fanned away the smell and smoke of burned flesh and cloth.

"You know we'll find out who's behind you, eventually, do you" -Princess Hi nonchalantly strode around the prisoner- "The fact that you'd and your accomplices had deployed magic inhibited drug before kidnaping Lady Blanchardlette, meaning you already knew who is with us" -locked her slender eyes on the Celgealian face, Princess Hi continued- "But those drug won't lasted long, so I suggest you just tell us what you know before we had to use a "difference method" of interrogation, you know what am I talking about" -Princess Hi smiled- "And I'm sure that method would be even worse than a burning rod."

"How about I try this part" -Samuel pointed the red-hot rod toward the prisoner's groin- "Tell us everything you know and we'll let you walk, or I'll serve you some roasted nut."

The prisoner's eyes darted up and down from the red-hot rod to the man holding it, having a burning iron placed next to his groin seemingly had waved the Celgealian's conviction, Samuel slowly held the rod toward his groin to make him reconsider his situation further.

"Wait! Wait!" –The Celgealian yelled with a heavy accented common-speech when the rod started to searing his pants- "Stop! Stop! I'll talk, I'll talk"

"Very wise!" Samuel smiled, lifted the rod.

"I... I eh..." -the Celgealian hesitated a little bit tried to think of some story, but his thought quickly interrupted by the red hot on Samuel pressed on to his upper thigh near his groin to remind him not to try and spin up any funny narrative.

"I ONLY FOLLOW ORDER!" –the Celgealian yelled out in pain.

"That's better" –Samuel lifted the rod back up- "Of who?"

"Huh... huh... it... it was..." –After a few huffs the Celgealian gave his answered but was interrupted, this time, it wasn't by Samuel iron rod but something else. A faint blue glow suddenly appeared from inside his tunic and slowly increasing in intensity

"Wha... what is it?" –The Celgealian panicked, Samuel quickly pulled down his tunic collard to check and found the source of that blue light was from a silver amulet that the Celgealian was wearing, Samuel's hand quickly recoiled the moment his skin came in contact of the amulet. Then a slender feminine hand grabbed Samuel tunic from behind and pulled him away from the Celgealian prisoner.

"WHAT'S IT! IT'S HOT! IT'S HOT! ARGH!!!TAKE IT OFF!" –Pleas of help escape the Celgealian's mouth amid his howling of pain- "ARHHHH! IT'S HOT! TAKE IT OFF PLEASE! TAKE IT..."

ARGH!!!

That Celgealia's begging and screaming quickly being cut short by a fireball suddenly burst out of the amulet on his neck and swallow his entire upper body in intensive heat. The fireball lingered on its victim body for a whole minute, churning and swirling like a mini sun, and kept outgassing the terrible smell of charred flesh, choking anyone stand nearby. When everything was over the upper part of the Celgealian's body had turned completed into charcoal.

"What the bloody hell was that?" -Samuel pushed open the nearby door to let the choking burned flesh smell disperse.

"It a magical device, I have seen something similar before, it probably triggered by his thought of giving up the name of the one behind him" -Princess Hi fanned her robe's sleeve to kept the horrible smell away from her nose- "Whoever's the one behind all of this, they're very careful."

Looked on to the harrowing remain of their prisoner and their only lead of this crime, Samuel sighed in frustration. Soon afterward, Elesil had prepared Emma for transport, place submerged in chest high water, inside a large water tank to regulate her body temperature, Samuel was shock when he saw some strands of steam slowly escape from the Celgealian princess's watery seat, and the condition of Emma inside the water tank rendered Samuel speechless and made him understood why "Inner Fire" was considerate a myth by most mage.