Underneath her robes, Amira had a look of apprehension on her face.
It wasn't that she was unwilling to tell Draco about her father, it was just that she simply felt uncomfortable speaking about him.
When she spoke of him aloud, she felt as if he could hear her every word she said, and would suddenly appear behind her.
Knowing who her father was, she didn't doubt that he could. However, she also knew in her heart that she was overreacting, so after a while she looked at Draco.
"My father, King Zain Khalid, is an incredibly powerful man." she said, a strange combination of awe and fear flashing through her eyes.
"I say man, but I can't say for sure that he is one. Perhaps only my eldest brother and sister would know the answer."
She continued, "Father is centuries old by now, and he is responsible for bringing prosperity to Saudi Arabia following the death of his own father.", she paused to collect her thoughts for a moment.
Draco was listening to her tale with bated breath, for this enigmatic figure seemed to be like a character straight from a fairy tale.
"Father's achievements are numerous. Did you know that he was personally responsible for ending World War 2? He even discovered the method to mass produce pro-serum." Amira said, feeling pride well up in her chest.
"E-Ending World War 2? I have too many questions." Draco said, a little more than surprised.
Amira looked outside the window, "Well, we have a little bit of time left until we arrive at our destination, the palace grounds are quite large after all. So, ask away."
Draco asked the first thing that came to his mind, "So, exactly how strong is King Zain?"
Amira shook her head and said solemnly, "Few know the true extent of father's powers, unfortunately, I am not one of them."
She turned to look at Draco, "However, I once heard that China, The United States, and most of Europe have all signed a treaty which stipulates that in the case of father going on a rampage, they must all pool their forces together against him."
Draco looked towards the palace in front of him in amazement, and after a while said, "That's incredible… It means that Saudi Arabia is secretly a global superpower."
He seemed to have realized something, and looked towards Amira.
"Wait, if a Progenitor like King Zain has so much global clout, how does practically no one know about Progenitors?"
Hearing this, Amira said, "The only reason people don't know about Progenitors is simply because it is in their best interests not to be known. In fact, some Progenitors even have powers that specialize in memory manipulation."
She sighed, "I suspect that at least half of the world's population is under the effect of memory manipulation to some degree."
Draco struggled to understand the scale of such a power, but he still nodded his head shakily.
Looking back out of the window, he noticed that the SUV they were in was now slowing down.
When the car stopped, Draco saw that they were inside of another courtyard, and this one looked much the same as the last.
The only notable difference was the massive pond that was in front of the mansion where the previous courtyard had only pavement.
Surrounding the pond were numerous ethereal looking trees. The trees had bright, golden leaves, and Draco thought that they seemed to glow under the sunlight.
"Well, time's up!" Amira said as the car's door was opened.
Getting out of the car, Amira started walking towards the residence.
Draco swiftly got out of the car and followed behind Amira, checking out the beautiful courtyard as they passed through it.
While Draco and Amira walked towards the front of the mansion, they were silently followed by ten white robed Ḥāmin.
As they reached the mansion and entered it, Draco wasn't even surprised to see that it was as spectacular as everything else belonging to the Khalid Dynasty.
Immediately upon entering the residence you would find yourself in a vast, spacious room.
To the front of the entrance was a long, massive staircase that led to an upper floor.
The room itself was furnished with a large, golden carpet that extended all the way up the stairs.
Looking up, Draco saw that there was a huge crystal chandelier that was adorned with diamonds.
The chandelier seemed to shimmer with a powerful energy that reminded Draco of Old Bear's chain.
After walking into the residence, Amira ordered her guards to disperse and do whatever they pleased.
"Ḥāmin, now that we're within the palace I don't need you all to follow me around like lost little ducklings. Off you go now, you can go guard a hallway or something ." she said as she made a shooing motion towards the Ḥāmin.
She then pointed towards Draco and the only Ḥāmin who hadn't walked away. Draco noticed that the man was holding a familiar looking metal box.
"You two, come with me." she said as she began to walk up the staircase.
Curious about where Amira was going, and hoping to figure out what was inside the metal box, Draco followed quietly behind her.
After reaching the second floor, they turned a corner and soon arrived in front of a large, steel door.
On the wall next to the door was some sort of control panel. Draco didn't know what it did, but it looked quite high-tech.
Amira walked up to the control panel and typed something into its interface, then pressed several buttons.
Suddenly, the massive metal door started to slide open with an ear-grating screech.
Amira and the single Ḥāmin walked into the room, and a wide-eyed Draco followed closely behind her.
Draco didn't know what he was expecting the room to look like, but what he saw was certainly far from anything he could have ever come up with.
The room itself looked to be completely covered in white padding, and it reminded Draco of one of those rooms used in insane asylums.
While Draco was wondering what you could possibly use a room like this for, Amira had taken the box from the Ḥāmin and addressed him.
"Draco, do you know what's in this box?"
Draco shook his head, and Amira could tell from the look in his eyes that he was dying to know.
She chuckled lightly, and then opened the box.
Immediately, a large cloud of vapor escaped from the box and filled up the room, instantly chilling the room by several degrees.
Draco sucked in a breath as he saw the words written on the inside lid of the box.
"𝘚𝘛-𝘌 𝘚𝘦𝘳𝘶𝘮" the top line read. Continuing down, Draco read, "𝘚𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘵𝘩 𝘌𝘯𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘚𝘦𝘳𝘶𝘮. 𝘚𝘺𝘯𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘻𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘊𝘩𝘪𝘳𝘰𝘯, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘶𝘳 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘰𝘳."
After reading this, Draco looked down and saw a vial of glowing, bright red liquid. The vial was suspended in the center of the box, and Draco's eyes became glued to it.
The liquid seemed to be moving inside of the vial, as if it had a life of its own, and Draco was mesmerized for a long moment as he looked at it.
Looking up from the vial, Draco looked at Amira with shock written all over his features.
"A-Amira, is this what I think it is?" he said after he had recovered a bit, but his heart was still beating rapidly.
Amira nodded her head, "It is indeed."
"Is this for me?", Draco asked, afraid that he was dreaming.
"It is. I thought long and hard about it during the flight, and I figured that if you were going to be able to serve me properly, this is the least you needed to have."
Amira chuckled and continued, "After all, I can't have you collapsing from the pressure every time one of my siblings releases their aura." she finished casually, as if the box she was holding didn't actually contain a national treasure.
Looking at the box again, Draco felt like he actually was dreaming. To test his theory, he slapped himself on the side of the face.
*PAH*
"F*ck, ow!" Draco shouted.
"What in the world are you doing, Draco?" Amira asked, amused.
"I was seeing if I was still dreaming. I'm not." He said, his excitement increasing the more he looked at the vial of pro-serum in front of him.
After he said that, he walked towards the box with slow, trembling footsteps.
Standing in front of the box, Draco reached towards the vial with shaky hands.
However, just when his hands were right above the box, Amira slammed the lid closed.
Draco's face went pale when he saw this, and he quickly looked up to see that Amira was looking at him with an inexplicable emotion in her eyes.
"I'm willing to give this to you, but not before you prove yourself to me." She turned and began to walk out of the room.
Draco began to follow her, but quickly noticed he was rooted in place by his arm, which he turned his head to see was being held by the lone Ḥāmin in the room.
Amira stood in the doorway and said, "If you wish to have this pro-serum, then you only have to do one thing."
She looked over at the Ḥāmin, "If you can land a single punch on Samir, then I will consider this pro-serum yours."
After she said that, the large metal door began to screech closed. Once the door had closed with a loud clang, Draco turned to look at 'Samir' with a dumbfounded expression on his face.
'Land a single punch on a member of the Ḥāmin? The f*ck? Does Amira think that I'm secretly John Mick?' Draco thought in dismay as he looked at the white robed guard in front of him.
As he was thinking this, a familiar voice could be heard over speakers hidden throughout the room.
"Oh yes, I forgot to mention. Samir is allowed to fight back." Amira chuckled over the intercoms, and Draco could swear that she was enjoying this.
"Don't worry though, the room is equipped with a high-grade bio-matter regeneration artifact. That means you can go all out and not have to worry about losing any teeth!" she finished.
Draco heard the sound of the intercom disconnecting, and he secretly cursed Amira in his heart.
'Damn you, Amira! You vixen! I hope you choke on a potato chip!' he shouted inwardly, lamenting over both his 'betrayal' and the unfairness of the world.
However, when Draco looked back towards the center of the room, he noticed that Samir was gone.
Draco quickly looked around to find him, but the next thing he saw was a flash of white light.
After that, he saw darkness.