The Beloved One!

Chapter 13

With special gloves on her hands and a mask on her face for extra safety, Ellen examined and analyzed the ceramic incense burner that Tazanna Morley had tried to give to her as a gift. It was true that before the death of her family, she had dutifully collected ceramic incense burners of all types. It was her hobby. She loved them.

But she had been somewhat mistaken about the incense burner from the beginning. This burner was not common, but an extremely rare and highly expensive magical item. A magical item that could have functioned properly even on the island of Kouen. She could not fathom how powerful the creator of this magical item was or had been.

This jade burner even without one utilizing it would activate on it's own accord and release colourless and scentless highly toxic fumes that would grant one an agonizing but instant death. The seal talisman was on the burner to prevent it from doing so. And just like Ellen had concluded, the floral scented perfume pouch that Tazanna had on her person was likely to contain a warding off mechanism to prevent herself from getting poisoned.

"If you like it so much, we could get a special glass box containment for it." Anzor said, walking into the common room area of the suite.

Ellen's amethyst eyes did not move one inch off the magical device as she proceeded to scrutinize it. 'There is no we.' She thought, not bothering to speak to him.

Seeing that she had no reaction to his words, Anzor sighed. Then an idea settled in his head. "Oh, good morning, Ashnah." He greeted. "Was the bed comfortable for you? Did you have sweet dreams?"

Ellen's line of perception quickly changed from the magical item, turning in the direction of the room she had left her daughter sleeping in. "Morning As-" Noticing that know no one was coming from out of the door, the brunette stopped in mid-sentence. She glowered in Anzor's direction, but her eyes quickly grew in magnitude.

It looked as if the Archduke had just stepped out from a bath. His disheveled silky silver hair was still wet, water droplets dripping from his hair and sliding down his neck onto his tight pectoral muscles that was revealed because of his loosely tied white bathroom robe. She could even see his abdominal muscles.

BA-THUMP!!!!

Her heart almost jumped into her throat. Heat quickly rose to Ellen's cheeks. This man was clearly trying to seduce her while he was a married man. To the woman he had plotted against and family he had killed. This vexed her. She lowly growled, bellowing. "Annzzoorrr put some clothes on!!! You are a married man!!!"

And that shout "you're a married man!" had woken Ashnah up from her sleep really early. That was not to her liking. She was anything but a morning person.

After everyone had gotten ready and had breakfast, they had headed for their first site, the one that was closest to Queen Milcah - Lake Ariel.

Ashnah's gasped as she saw the body of water.

The lake lustrous from the sunlight was of a light purple hue with numerous of dark red ice shaped flowers floating on it's surface.

Ellen glanced around, noticing something off.

"In the past, Lake Ariel was known as the most famous place in the world for seeing mermaids and mermen in human lands." Anzor divulged. "It is said that the reason for that is because there is an under water portal that connects this place to land of the magical beasts, which the merfolk used. People have tried to find that portal but they never have. This is why some think there is no portal. And there are some who believe otherwise and still search til this day. The last time someone had saw a mermaid in this lake was over five hundred and fifty years ago."

'..... A portal that could connect to the land of the magical beasts.' Ashnah thought. She had to inquire about that. It piqued her interest.

Ellen added. "It is the deepest lake within the entire Emphraim Kingdom, with a depth of twenty five hundred meters." She held her daughter's hand as they got closer to where Lake Ariel met land.

Anzor was an awkward distance away from them, due to the twenty-three year old.

Using her free hand, Ellen pointed to the mystical purple lake. "If you could view it from under water, would you?"

"Yes." The child answered with a nod of her head.

She released her daughter's hand. "Follow behind me then, Ash." The brunette then smiled. With alluring movements of her arms and hands, the purplish water started to form around them as they began to walk under the water.

Ashnah saw exotic looking fishes. There were flower buds of white ice and ice flowers in the different stages of blooming as they transition from a white hue slowly to a hue of dark red.

"They are white as buds but slowly turn dark red as they start to grow and bloom. Once they have completely bloomed, that is when they surface." Anzor said.

Gazing deeply into the depths of the waters that was when Ashnah saw it. From far off it looked like a large fish, but as it got closer to them, the child saw that it was actually a mermaid.

She glanced at her parents, wondering if they saw her too. But Ellen was continuing to move forward, paying no mind. The same was for the Archduke.

'They can't see her.' What Ashnah did not notice was her eyes had turned red with slit-like pupils.

Then the mermaid was finally in front of them, peering straight at her. She had thick long wavy hair of teal hue with small little seashells scattered about it in and navy blue eyes with a green scaly tail behind her. Her beauty was memorizing.

The mermaid smiled at Ashnah. And the child heard her speak in a melodious voice. ["......Princess."]