Yuki was happy to arrive at the hospital and see Selytha, with a healthy glow on her face, playing with other children. She gazed at her daughter for long minutes before approaching.
Selytha ran and jumped into her arms.
"Mom. I think I'm cured now. Can we go?"
"I'd love to, my child, but it's only been a few days since you got here and the doctor will still need to do some procedures before we can go back to Michigan..."
"No, Mom. Uncle Tykar told me that I can't leave this country anymore. I'll get sick again if I leave Mahagah."
Yuki froze.
"What did you say?"
"That I won't get sick again while we're in Mahagah."
"No. Before... You said that Uncle Tykar..."
"I didn't say that, Mom. I don't know anyone by that name." The girl said and stuck her finger in her mouth.
Yuki was furious. Selytha always did that when she didn't want to talk. But she didn't have time to fight with her daughter. And she was afraid that Tykar would find out that her daughter was there.
She looked around suspiciously. What if the doctor told her that the treatment for her daughter was there, just to have a justification for taking her daughter out of Michigan?
Yuki said goodbye to her daughter, apologizing for not being able to sleep with her that night, and went back to the palace thinking about how she would find out if Tykar was behind her trip to that country, when she bumped into him in the palace lobby.
Tykar glared at her.
"Watch where you're going, snowflake!"
"It was you who..." Yuki shut up. There was the opportunity she needed to find out the truth. "I don't feel very well. Could you keep me company while I have a glass of wine?"
Tykar looked at her sternly.
"Wine is not medicine."
"But it's a good reason to get to know each other better." She said and blushed violently. That sentence sounded rather... seductive.
Tykar looked past her in doubt.
Yuki followed the direction of his gaze and saw, intrigued, a couple of men with shining swords, in a fight that looked fatal. She arched her eyebrows. That was a bizarre scene. It looked as if the soldiers were fighting each other and she could see that they often seemed to... Float. They wore different clothes. Some wore silver capes on their armor of the same color, while their rivals, who attacked violently and mercilessly, wore white armor with gold capes. On their white clothes, there was a lot of blood and when their swords met, they released sparks of fire and snow.
"You're right." Tykar's anxious voice caught her attention and she turned to him. "Wine. Come!" He said and Yuki pointed at the men fighting.
"Aren't you going to do anything? Are you going to let those.... Barbarians kill each other here?"
"What barbarians, snowflake?"
Yuki looked back and there was nothing but a few soldiers in blue clothes circling around in silence. She frowned. It was just another hallucination. She'd been having these perpetual visions ever since... Ever since Durin first touched her! But she didn't want to be paranoid, or they'd have her committed as insane and decided, she followed Tykar into a smaller room, more comfortable and cozy than any of the other rooms in that place and she sat down on the comfortable sofa, relieved, as he pushed a glass of wine into her hands.
"I have the impression that I already knew you from somewhere else..." Yuki lied to try to find out anything about him. "At the hospital, maybe."
He looked at her indifferently.
"If you want to know something about me, just ask, snowflake."
Yuki felt his face burn.
"No... I..." She began to stutter.
"I'm a doctor, Yuki. I know Selytha and I was the one who recommended that she come here for treatment."
Yuki put her hand to her chest, completely agonized.
"Don't worry, I won't go against my ethics. I'll never talk about my patients with anyone. I talked about the girl with you because you're responsible for her."
"I ask you to keep this from your brother."
"Because you don't want him to know?"
Although the expression of eternal fury didn't leave Tykar's eyes, his face became that of a friend and Yuki felt comfortable talking about Selytha's father and his fears.
"I suspect that Selytha's father is someone close to Durin."
Tykar was intrigued.
"You don't know your daughter's father?"
Yuki wasn't ashamed of that story.
"No. I know that he's a wealthy businessman and that he does business in the building where Durin keeps his offices. When Selytha fell ill..."
"Her father's blood is rare." Tykan said, understanding that part of Yuki's story. "Selytha needed her father's blood to have a transfusion and save her life, so you sought employment with Durin."
"Yes. To try and find her father and I liked the job and stayed there for all those years."
"And I take it you didn't manage to find Selytha's father?"
"No. But... It wasn't necessary. After a few months, a stranger donated his own blood to her. It didn't cure her, but it gave her more time to live."
Tykar looked quickly at his own arm, thoughtful. He had donated his blood to the girl. That could only mean one thing. He turned to Yuki.
"Had you been drinking a lot of wine when you lay with Selytha's father?"
Yuki's face turned red.
"No. I was just... selected to take part in my people's Sacred Rite. I couldn't disobey my parents, and after... I fled the island. I still didn't know that I was carrying a reminder of the ritual inside my womb."
Tykar stood up and approached her with a livid face.
"Ritual? From which island?"
"Ice Island."
Tykar took a frightened step back. Hadn't the woman in front of him realized the obvious? She had taken part in the Sacred Ritual of the Pharaohs! Selytha could only be Durin's daughter or... his.