"If Pierre had been here, he would have smacked you!" Cora scolded Dmitri. "You are behaving like a spoilt little brat!"

Ed was stunned when he heard the name "Pierre"? He stared at her as though she had grown two horns on her head. His brain had started producing sparks, desperately trying to connect the dots. However, all that was happening was mini short circuits. He was looking like pop-eyed toy that you see in the claw machines in the fun fair. He was speechless. His brain stuttered for sometime as he thought he would ask her how she knew Pierre. Obviously that must have been her husband with the way she spoke about him. Ed's mind couldn't take more information and every part of his body went into a pause mode.

​​

"I am leaving now," said Cora as she got up. Then she looked at Ed and said, "Is it okay if you sleep here in the palace along with us?"

Even though Ed had been invited by Howard to stay with them, Ed nodded without uttering a word. Feeling satisfied Cora walked away.

Ed's eyes and mouth were frozen wide open in an expression of stunned surprise and although she he was staring at Cora, she didn't really appear to notice her. It was as though he was in a different world. And surely he was. His mind had traveled into past when he and Pierre used to have a great time together. After Pierre's disappearance, his wife had stayed with him for a year along with their seven-year son to hide from the rebellion but during that time Ed had hardly visited his own house. He had been running around like a vagabond.

He had visited only once and that too for such a short time that he hardly remembered her face or the child's. He thought of talking to her about it or enquiring about Pierre, but he stopped himself thinking that it might more confusion with Adrianna focusing hard on her competition. He pursed his lips. Adrianna looked at her grandfather and said, "Grandfather, yes you have to stay here. You won't go anywhere until my competition is over!" But he wasn't listening to her. He stared at her and Dmitri and his eyes became misty thinking about the possibility.

Adrianna came to him and she shook his shoulders when she saw that he wasn't responding to her. "Grandfather, are you okay? What happened?"

Ed came out of his reverie. He looked at Adrianna and then shook his head. "Nothing- nothing dear!" Then he stood and walked out of the main hall.

Both Adrianna and Dmitri were left totally astonished at their parents' behavior. Dmitri went to Adrianna and held her waist. He buried his face into her neck and said, "What is this happening? I am going to sleep in the same room as you!"

Adrianna patted his shoulders and replied, "I guess I have to use my spells on both of them."

Dmitri immediately sprang up and looked at Adrianna with a glint of mischief in his eyes. He nodded heavily with a huge grin. Adrianna chuckled and said, "Shush." They both went to their room where Adrianna discussed more about her competition. Dmitri listened to her with attention and together they charted out the future strategy.

"Adri, since you can already see what they are going to do, it must be easy for you to counterattack their spells," he asked.

"Yes, it surely helps but making a fast decision is something which is difficult. With George it was very easy because I could find the list of spells he had in his mind for me. However, it may not be the same for others."

"Okay, don't worry, let's continue."

After dinner, Cora called Adrianna to her bedroom where Cora talked to her about some strategies that she could go with. She discussed the types of people and how to deal with them. It was important to know the opponent. More than that it was important to know the temperament of the opponent. She told her that sometimes in order to defeat a rival it was necessary to provoke them. By provoking them, they were bound to make a mistake, which could be exploited. After that Cora went on to talk to her about more strategies. Adrianna became so engrossed in her talk that she forgot about Dmitri completely. As a matter of fact Cora was far better as a strategist as compared to Dmitri and Adrianna admired her with starry eyes. She sure was a hidden talent.

It was late in the night at about 11PM when there was a soft knock on the door, which neither of them gave attention to. Their conversation was disrupted when Dmitri opened the door and entered. He was expecting fireworks soon but when nothing happened for such a long time, he became eager to know as to what was going on between the two. Not able to resist himself, he just barged in the room when none of them answered and found himself staring at the two of them. The way they looked at him it was as if they were extremely disturbed by his presence.

"Adri, you should sleep now," he said with an authority as a husband.

She stared at him and so did Cora. "I will sleep when we finish our conversation."

Dmitri appeared extremely angry. He gritted his teeth and said, "No, enough of it. You have to sleep now because you have to wake up early tomorrow morning. Who knows for how long you have to stay in the segment?" Saying that he went to her and held her hand. "I see that you won't be able to sleep with mother. You better come with me."

Adrianna was sitting on Cora's bed. She had a pillow tucked in her hands. Dmitri pulled the pillow out of her lap, threw it on Cora's bed and pulled Adrianna out of the room.

"Dmitri!" Adrianna shouted at him. "What are you doing?"

"I am taking you back to the room to sleep and from now onwards no more discussion at the night. You will sleep with me only. With mother I can see that you are going to get tired!"