The warmth came first. A nice comfortable heat that was accompanied by a gentle crackling. A fireplace? Leyla opened her eyes, blinking in confusion at what looked like the sky. Except the colours looked a little off... a little lifeless? Her stomach growled in hunger. She brought her hands up, intent on rubbing her eyes, when her memories kicked in. Sucking in a sharp breath Leyla rolled off what she now saw was a couch and shot up to her feet. Her hands grasped for her weapons and came up empty. Damn it.

"Don't be afraid."

The voice drew her eyes across the luxurious white couches to the slim brunette standing behind them. She looked to be in her early forties, wore silver stitched white robes and a silver band on her head that held a green gem between her eyes. The drop-shaped green stones that hung from her ears caught the light from the fireplace. From the way she carried herself, she seemed like a noble. Her slim frame suggested she wasn't a fighter, but after Gues's sneak attack Leyla would not underestimate her ability to do harm.

"I am the Book Keeper of the Land of Light." The woman spoke again in perfect Warrior dialect. "I am unarmed and I mean you no harm. I swear it."

"I see." Leyla kept her voice neutral as she looked around the room for anything she could use as a weapon. Her eyes landed on the poker beside the fireplace.

"You can take that, if it will make you feel more at ease." The Book Keeper came forward now and sat on the sofa opposite to the one Leyla had been lying on.

Leyla considered her surroundings once more, noting the windows to her left and right as possible escape routes before taking a seat.

"You don't want it?" The woman asked, surprised.

"This is the Land of Light, isn't it?"

"Yes." Her green stones dangled with her nod.

"So I've been asleep for four days?"

"Sixteen hours," the woman corrected. At Leyla's look of surprise, she smiled. "There are short cuts between our kingdoms."

Sixteen hours. It had been over a day then, since her last meal. No wonder she was ravenous.

"Why didn't you take the weapon?" The Book Keeper asked again.

"You shouldn't hold a weapon unless you intend to use it. If I use a weapon inside this castle, I might kill a few guards but I'll eventually end up dead. I won't take a life unless it is for survival." Leyla looked around again, noting the spots on the walls that that were lighter in colour. "I'm not staying long, am I?"

The Book Keeper blinked. "You've deduced that from the missing portraits?" Then a relieved smile spread across her face, "I understand now why he was so certain you would succeed."

Leyla frowned. She had been pushing down fear, since the moment Gues pointed his boney finger at her in the main hall of the Warrior Kingdom, but now she no longer needed to. Fear for her life was surpassed by a frustration that made her fingers curl. "I don't want to keep asking the obvious questions, but who are you talking about and succeed at what?"

"Leader said you were the only one who could save my son," the woman response was so straightforward, Leyla was taken aback.

"You're son? He is in danger?"

"He is in grave danger."

Leyla spun at the sound of the newcomer's voice, her gaze taking in his tall frame, night black hair and blue eyes. Unlike the Book Keeper, this man was in a military uniform. White coat, white trousers and dark blue pair of boots, he had a thin sword at his hip and had a strange triangular symbol on his breast. Like the woman, he wore a silver band on his head, but his gem shone a dark blue as he came around the back of the chair and sat next to the woman, pulling her hand into his. It didn't take much to deduce that he was the father of the lost boy.

"Hector," the woman's voice was admonishing. "Please, don't shock her."

"There is no time, Book Keeper." Hector leaned forward, his gaze direct. "Though you are young, you are an officer, so you must be trained to deal with difficult circumstances."

Leyla nodded in the affirmative, trying to imagine what kind of trouble their son could have gotten himself into for them to need a Warrior's help.

"You must have been trained to push past disbelief and deal with the situation at hand?" Hector asked.

"Yes." Leyla agreed, "So please, stop beating around the bush and tell me what this actually about. The clearer, the better."

Hector nodded. "You are aware that the we at the Land of Light possess technology that you can not fathom."

"Our keeps walls are covered in your ice glass, our barren land is about to grow fruit trees and your carriage covered a four-day journey in 16 hours. I am aware I can not contemplate what else you are capable of."

"Good. Then I will not mince words. There are portals in Gaia that lead to another dimension; a place where a different world exists which we have no information about. For years our scientists have been trying to travel between dimensions. We have managed to get through the portal, but none have managed to travel back." Hector looked at his wife and squeezed her hand. "We believe you can do what our scientists can not."

Leyla kept her expression neutral, wondering what in Gaia these two were trying to do. Other dimensions, worlds...it was impossible of course, but she would set that aside for now. "What in Gaia makes you think I can cross one of those portals and come back?"

"Because one of our scouts saw you do it!" The Book Keeper spoke up again, her eyes alight with hope. "You even pulled a Hayvan's leg out from the other side!"

"I wha - " Leyla hesitated, her mind turning back to the moment several days ago when she had faced a Hayvan. The black goo on the floor. The strange shifting of the branches after she had freed the animal...It couldn't be. "That black substance, that's the portal?"

"One of several," Hector acknowledged, ignoring the obvious skepticism in her voice. "From what we have observed, the portals appear, remain for a few days, then disappear for one moon cycle before appearing once more in the same location. This happens three to four times before the portal disappears entirely. "

"Right, and what does any of this have to do with your son?" Leyla asked, still not believing a word.

"Normally all portals are under constant watch..." Hector gave his wife's hand a squeeze. "However, seven days ago, one of the guards fell asleep on duty and Michael used the opportunity to satisfy his curiosity..."

"He fell in," Leyla said the words the man was finding difficult to say. She studied the couple. Their anxiety, their fear, it was obviously not fake. Then the most likely conclusion was that they were both somehow deranged. She knew so little about Light People, it could well be that they were all a bit crazy. "So your son, Michael, fell into another world and you want me to go and retrieve him?"

"You believe us?" the Book Keeper asked, her tone hopeful.

"No." Leaning back in her seat, Leyla looked up at the painting of the clear sky on the ceiling. Just a few days ago she was minding her own business and progressing slowly up the army ranks. Ever since she decided to interfere in Captain Leo's business everything had gone so very, very wrong... "Is this why no-one who has passed through the gates of the Land of Light ever comes out? Do you tell all your captives to jump into black goop and drown?"

Hector's eyes flared, "Do you think anyone has the time to play such tricks? If we wanted to kill you, we would have done it while you were knocked out!"

"Hector!" The Book Keeper held up her hand, then she turned steady eyes Leyla's way. "The Lieutenant is trying to excite our emotions so we reveal information we'd rather keep secret. It's natural that she does not believe us, and to ask someone who has just been traded away by her own Kingdom to trust is a little much." She stood from the couch setting her earrings dangling once more. "Why don't we talk about options, Lieutenant?"

"Do I have them?" Leyla asked, watching the older woman's every move.

"Yes," the Book Keeper said simply. "If you attempt the crossing, but it doesn't work, we will let you leave. As you can tell by the furniture of this room, we removed anything that would compromise the security of our Kingdom. Since you know nothing, and everything we said about dimension crossing will have been proven to be false, you will pose no threat to us and be free to leave."

So far so good, but Leyla waited for the next option before saying as much.

"If you attempt the crossing and manage to bring Michael back to us," the Book Keeper continued, "We will be forever in your debt. Not only will you be free to go home, you can do so as a wealthy woman. "

Leyla did not have any interest in wealth, but that was neither here nor there since she wouldn't be dimension travelling any time soon. "And what if I refuse to attempt the crossing?"

It was Hector who cut his wife off this time. With a look that willed her to believe every word, he spoke: "Then I will make that story about our wanting to drown you, a reality."

"Time is of an essence," the Book Keeper said, giving Hector an angry look. She turned to Leyla once more: "Will you try?"

"Alright," Leyla stood. She certainly did not believe in the madness about other worlds, but she did believe Hector's threat. If she tried what they were asking, there was a chance she might drown, but if she didn't try she was definitely going to. "Take me to the portal."