"Stop the carriage. Immediately!" Asterion shouted as the coachman instantly stopped, making the carriage jump, jerking to a stop.
Ether was almost about to fall from the sudden jerk when she felt herself being embraced in a slightly familiar warmth.
But before she could even react to the sudden halt, she heard a loud 'CRASH!!' making her flinch from shock while tightly shutting her eyes as her heart beat raised.
Asterion was quick enough to wrap her in a tight hug, noticing how scared she was. He subconsciously started rubbing her head while all his attention was outside, alert about the sudden noise.
"It's alright, I am here." He said carefully, still hugging her tight and not letting go.
Ether took in a deep breath, while feeling the energy Asterion was passing into her. And somehow it helped her calm down a little.
"Are you alright, Milady?" Asterion asked again, feeling Ether's breathing normalise while still trying to look out of the carriage.
Ether nodded her head before finally opening her eyes, creating some gap between her and Asterion.
"Will you wait here for sometime? I will go and check what exactly happened." Asterion asked politely, as if talking to some little girl.
"I will wait, your highness." Ether replied, as her cheeks started flushing red after realising how close Asterion and she was.
"Don't come outside at any cost. I will be back soon." Asterion said, unknown to the whirlwind of emotions he had initiated within Ether.
Ether just lowered her head and nodded, afraid that Asterion would see her flustered state.
With that, Asterion climbed out of the carriage while Ether was once again lost in her short lived fairytale moment.
Meanwhile outside, Asterion was astonished by the scenario that was seen by him.
An almost hundred year old tree was lying right in front of his carriage, blocking their path completely, one sided path to be more precise as the path had a mountain on one side while a deep, never ending valley on the other.
But the problem was not with the tree, nor the path but the energies Asterion had felt moments ago. He was sure that at least two people were present at the same sight moments ago.
If it was anyone else, then it would have been slightly difficult for them to feel those energies, but Asterion, being a level six water cultivator didn't have any problem with that.
He suspiciously went near the tree, hoping to find some clue when he was once again shocked.
The tree had not fallen naturally but someone had purposefully done that. In fact Asterion had already felt that the falling of such an old tree suddenly was somehow mysterious.
And now the cut marks only confirmed his suspicion that someone had cut this tree purposefully.
"Guards!" He called out.
And instantly ten men, some leading the carriage while others following it, came ahead, kneeling in front of Asterion.
"Half of you will stay here with Princess Ether and the rest of you will follow me." Asterion said while climbing one of the guard's horses, followed by five more guards.
"Let me accompany you, Crown Prince." Hades, the captain of guards said.
"No. You stay here with the princess. I will feel relieved having you guard her in my absence." Asterion replied.
"But Prince, Her Majesty Lady Krystal had ordered me to not leave your side even once." Hades replied while lowering his head.
"Take it as my order Hades. You will stay here and protect Ether. Is that clear?" Asterion asked, his voice becoming a little stern.
"Yes, Crown Prince." Hades said in a low voice, even when he was unwilling to do so.
Asterion's heart didn't want to leave Ether alone but he had no way out. The energies he had felt were at least that of level five cultivators, though he was unable to find the elements behind them.
There were a total of four elements namely - Fire, Water, Earth and Wind. All human races were divided into four races depending on the element powers they had.
To inspect someone's element powers, one needed to be a level seven cultivator. Below level seven, people could only feel the level of cultivation, that too only if it was below them.
And unfortunately Asterion was a level six, not being able to detect the elements behind them, giving him no way to trace those people.
He first went near the carriage, intending to inform Princess Ether about the situation before leaving.
"Princess." He called out, making Ether come out of her dream.
She shifted towards the window, slightly raising the silky red curtains, curious to know why Asterion had called her out.
"I will be leaving you for a moment with the guards. Apologies for doing so, but this is for your safety. So allow me to go." Asterion said politely.
And Ether, though feeling a sudden emptiness just nodded her head, thankful that Asterion was at least informing or more appropriately asking for her opinion before leaving.
"I will be back soon. Please do not step out of the carriage." Asterion said before turning his horse around, looking one last time at Ether's slightly saddened face before leaving with five more men.
Ether who had hardly spent a few hours with Asterion was already longing for him. She had never felt this connected to someone, not so early, after barely talking with them.
But with Asterion, she felt entirely different. Though short, her experience with Asterion confirmed one thing that he made her feel important. He may not love her, but at least he was caring towards her, something not expected from a person who was supposed to get married to her younger sister a day ago.
The sun was about to set with the sky painted in shades of orange and pink, looking beautiful yet solitary like the bride sitting inside the carriage.
It had been quite some time but there was no news from Asterion. All this while, Ether kept thinking about random things including what traps her sudden wedding held.
"Excuse me." Suddenly Ether, who had been sitting inside the carriage for almost an hour, called out for the guards.
"Yes, Crown Princess." All of them instantly climbed down their horses, kneeling in front of their queen to be.
"No.. no need to bow down. Could you go and bring some water for me? I would have gone by myself, but majesty had ordered me to not leave the carriage." Ether said, slightly flustered from all the respect she was getting.
Afterall though being the first princess, having no powers made even the servants look down at her. The only respect she earned was due to her polite nature and image she had painstakingly developed over the years. Hence all this respect only flustered her.
"I will go." Hades replied, who didn't want to stay with Ether another minute.
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- Kizy