"Good morning, I see you woke up as well. Are you feeling alright?" The elf asked with a bright smile on her face.

"Morning.", his voice cracked as he was still half asleep. "I'm starting to get used to waking up on your lap pillow, is it an elven custom?"

"Hihihi", she giggled with her hand covering the mouth. "No I can't remember any traditions like that but I have nothing against an intriguing company like yours."

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure go ahead."

"How did you know?"

"What?"

"That I would be able to come and get you?"

"I didn't."

"But..."

"What did I say about the word 'but' in my presence?" The maiden interrupted him.

"Right."- he paused - "Did you get yourself infected with eternal slumber on purpose in order to try to heal the kid, knowing that I would be able to save you?"

"It would have been impossible to save him if I didn't take some risks, so I did what I deemed necessary to save the child's life." The soft voice turned into a serious tone.

"Bu..." -he corrected himself- "You completely disregarded the consequences of your actions! All of your servants were worried sick from seeing you in that state, I'm sure some of them would have even followed you on your fate. If you already knew what was going to happen you could've at least given some more hints and inform everyone about it! And what if I failed to save you?"

"I simply believed that you would be able to do it."

"You believed in me huh. Believe... believe in... I heard that before..." The hissing sound of him breathing in air through his teeth echoed through the room. "Since when did they know?"

"Sorry?"

"I asked since when did the servants know what you were about to do?"

"Why would I lie to you? I never did such a thing since they would have only tried to persuade me from what I was going to do."

"You ask why?" He stood up indignantly. "Probably because that was your plan from the beginning to... to get me involved in all of this... this mess. You planned it from the moment you knew that I am a player didn't you?" Bao stuttered.

"Interesting theory, I'll leave you with that." Despite his aggressive tone, her's remained calm.

Disappointed by the elf's response he clicked with his tongue.

"Can I at least know what kind of place that was?"

"To tell you the truth even I don't know that. I already started analyzing eternal slumber, since long ago and all I could find out at the time was that the souls of the victims were somehow sucked out of their bodies..."

"The flames..."

"Exactly. I don't know where or what it is but that dark place is where every stolen soul gets stored."

"But what has eternal slumber to do with the players, besides that they both appeared at the same time?"

"That too is a question I'm not able to answer you, much to my and your disappointment." The elf overlooked the first word of his sentence for once.

"So we only know that the souls of the cursed or sick people are taken to this unknown place and currently only I am the only one who is able to save them."

"Not precisely, you won't be able to save them all, as you did with my soul and that of the king's son since..."

"Why?"

"If you would let me finish my sentence you would know", the holy maiden gasped. " First of all, I was an exception since I followed the boy's soul on my own volition without being dragged there forcefully. Second, it would completely drain your mental endurance with unknown consequences to your health, and last but not least, most of those souls are already there for who knows how long. Their original bodies could have already become fertilizer for our food or be lost in ruins of some abandoned village, meaning that we can't save them this way."

"You said not this way is there another meth..."

"Excuse me miss, your formal clothing is prepared." A maid appeared in the doorway and interrupted his sentence.

"Formal clothing?"

"Oh, didn't I mention we are going to pay a visit to the king and his son."

"WE?"