***
Days had passed on this train and Lizzy only got quieter, Helen had gotten to know more about Kheal. The lady always rushed up to Helen to hear more stories about them and told Helen the wildest stories about the Light realm. After interacting with this girl for a while, she had learnt they were in the middle realms. Helen could not wrap her head around how far from home she was, and how much farther her husband could be. Something in her wished she could just turn back and find her way to Juhntt. But thinking about how her husband was going to marry this Khalsan of Sorventii, anger filled her.
"Helen?" Kheal called and Helen looked up at her from across the table.
"Yes?"
"Are you okay? You look pale," Kheal said and Helen forced herself to relax. She could not say that she was plagued by nightmares. Every night, she dreamt of her husband taking another wife.
"Yes," Helen smiled at her. Something about Kheal made her comfortable.
"I always wanted to ask," Kheal bent forward and whispered, "that girl you are always with, who is she?" she nodded to Lizzy walking away in the distance.
"She is my maid, Lizzy," Helen answered.
"Are you sure?" Kheal asked and Helen frowned.
"I mean, there is something about her. She does not feel like a maid at all," Kheal said and Helen paused. She looked back across the gold dining hall at Lizzy who had paused by the buffet table and started to put food on her plate. Kheal was right; something about Lizzy was off. Helen immediately shook the thought out of her head and looked back at Kheal whose eyes were trained at Lizzy's every move.
"While I was held somewhere else she was taken into the Nether halls. Something must have happened inside," Helen said and Kheal nodded.
"That must be it. I hear they break people in there," Kheal said to Helen and looked up at Lizzy with slight pity in her eyes. Lizzy had turned and was facing them, and for some reason, she felt as though Lizzy was looking right at her.
"I told you of my kidnap and separation from my husband. You have not told me anything about yourself. Is this how you treat a sister?" Helen asked Kheal who chuckled in response.
"I have been on a quest since I was seven," Kheal said and Helen raised a brow.
"Where I come from, I am heir. But I must be given the blood seal before I can be legitimized. I was sent on my quest when I was five. for two years, my mother led the way. When I turned seven, it became my job to go on it alone," Kheal said; a nonchalant tone in her voice.
"Seven?" Helen found it odd. Who leaves their child to travel alone that young?
"You never protested this?" she asked.
"I was too young to. I only remember my mother crying as she put me on that boat,"
"Then, how do they know you are not dead?" Helen asked incredulously. At her tone, Kheal laughed.
"I have a life seal on me. They will know when I die," Kheal said solemnly, then returned to eating without care.
Lizzy soon returned with two plates of food. She placed one before Helen, before sitting down to eat. She could not truly concentrate on her meal. Her dreams were getting much more real. Every time she returned, she was right where she stopped, standing before the Nether Lord. The cold man would only glance at her through her mask and continue with his task. She would feel as though she had returned to the Nether halls where she was always serving the Nether Lord in silence. She had not dared to speak a word.
Even worse, something odd has been happening; she no longer saw these scenes only when in sleep. Sometimes she found herself there when she was sure she was wide awake.
As she sat on the table listening to her lady and Kheal chat, the world greyed, causing her to cuss inside. It was happening again.