Noel was stunned!
She turned from the box and faced the mirror again. The medallion in response went all dark, just as it was at the beginning, with no glow!
" How?" she wondered.
Then a thought came to her. It could be that the medallion emits light when it faces the box and goes off when it is not facing it. She decided to try out her theory. She slowly turned to the box and sure enough the medallion began shining! She turned to the wall on the far side and the medallion went off.
"Indeed! You two are somehow connected!" she concluded! A flood of happiness suddenly overwhelmed her that she jumped up in joy!
"You are magical after All!" she said, her earlier disappointment now totally gone. Then an idea came to her again.
"I wonder what will happen when I keep the medallion focussed on the box for a long time while it glows!" she thought.
As cheeky as she was, curiosity getting the better of her, she turned to the box. The medallion responded immediately, maybe even faster than at the beginning. She took some steps backward but maintaining the trajectory of the light. The beam started flowing outwards toward the box as she watched in amazement.
It was like a river of light.
She wondered what would happen when the beam reached the box. She did not wait for long to find out. The light reached the box and started collecting into it like water gathering in a pool. Then with a whoosh sound the light suddenly stopped flowing from her chain but filled the box.
The whole box now was flooded with an ambience of light! Its radience filling the entire room. Noel felt her whole body turning warm as a warmth flooded her from the head downwards. She instinctively raised her hand to touch the chain on her neck.
The chain was not there! It had disappeared. Shocked! Noel almost screamed out in panic. She was so stunned that she started looking for the chain frantically all over her body and on the floor. Then she thought that maybe it had melted into the light she was seeing in the Box!
"But why is my body so warm?"
Before she could answer herself the light surrounding the box suddenly lifted up and with it a certain figure started forming so fast that Noel could only stare in amazement. As fast as it had started suddenly a figure of a man emerged from the light!
Scream!
This time she didn't suppress the scream. It had automatically come. How can a fully grown man emerge from a small suitcase Box? She couldn't hold her scream any longer and sooner than she had realized she screamed out loud.
Ben in his room heard the daughter scream once. He raised his head from the pillow and listened again. He waited for several minutes but he heard nothing more. He shook his head and went back to sleep.
Noel on the other hand stopped screaming almost as suddenly as she had began. This was because of the looks of the man who had suddenly appeared in her room.
The guy was so strikingly handsome and had a perfect smile on his face as he looked at her. His eyes still glowed as though all the light from the jade had entered them. He looked rather harmless yet so strong and enchanting. Noel had never seen such a cute looking guy before. She stared at him awkwardly.
"Thanks for opening the gates, Princess!" The man said.
"What did he just call me?" Noel wondered. His voice was so soft and clear and captivating such that she climbed to every word he said. But the handsome man had actually called her Princess!
"He appreciates my beauty!" she thought to herself and a secret smile formed in her lips but she suppressed it. She didn't want to give him the upper hand.
"Who are you stranger?" she gathered enough courage to ask.
"That is no nice way to welcome a guest, your highness! But anyway, my time is so limited I need to hurry!" The gentleman said as he looked for a place to sit. There was a chair near the dressing mirror where Noel sits as she does her make up! He sat there.
Noel could not even stop him. Her heart and mind were racing with the manner in which the man was addressing her. Did he just call me again 'your highness!'
"Permission to sit down my lady! The journey to this planet has been so long and rough! Besides, it took you so long to open the gate!" he said as he sunk on the chair.
Noel just looked at him, completely lost. The man looked at her with his pierce eyes digging every inch of her. She could feel them lingering on her neck! She remembered the golden chain and looked down.
"You have the medallion , don't you?" he asked.
"Could this guy see through me?" Noel wondered.
But the chain had disappeared suddenly and she didn't know where it was at the moment. She planned to drag it out even the so with the man.
After all, if it was a worthy item that made a man come from wherever it was then she was not going to give it up that easily.
"How do you know?" she countered but immediately felt awkward. Of course he would know. He has also come from the Box just like the golden chain!
The man's lips twitched a little bit and she could tell it was a mockery though he tried to smile through it.
"Simple, the medallion is the only object that could open the gates between various realms!" the man simply said.
"What?" Noel was even more shocked.
"Do you mean like, dimensions? Is this medallion a key to different dimensions? Are you from another time?" she blurted out her surprise.
"But I didn't do a thing!" she added.
"Your highness, I could not be here if you had not used it to open the realm gates between this world and ours!" the man answered calmly.
Noel tried to think about what he said and even more questions erupted in her mind. But she did not want to say she was having the medallion, at least not at that moment.
"Wait, anybody could have used the medallion to open the gates and you found yourself here. So why bother asking me?" she persisted in her defence.
"Not anybody. It is only you who has the power to use it to open the gates. Furthermore, it uses this special bag to pinpoint the location. The two must be aligned and in the same proximity for the initial opening to work. Once the jade comes in contact with you and is facing the box it will signal the gates to be opened." The man tried to offer good explanation to Noel but she could only grasp some bits of the theory.
"Why just me? And why was the gate needed to be opened? Where are you coming from?" she blurted out more burning questions.