The lotus spring bath was located west of the main house. Alana followed Mena as the path merged on to a canopy of peach blossoms trees. Their petals blanketed the whole path in a beautiful pinkish glow, it felt magical.

Mena guided her out of the canopy until they reached a dead end space that was filled with only grass and shrubbery. From this point, Mena took out what looked like a shiny pearl. Alana watched as Mena whispered something under her lips before throwing the pearl at the dead end.

Two events happened; the first was the pearl hitting what looked like a forcefield wall. The impact caused the second event, the rippling of the forcefield wall. This effect was similar to a drop rippling the surface of water. The ripple-effect caused a shift around them and Mena quickly grabbed Alana's hand before guiding her inside the rippling forcefield.

Alana was astonished once she saw what was on the other side. The skies were in a different colour, not blue but dark green. It seemed as if blue and green were inverted since the trees around were a blue colour instead of green. These trees were very oddly placed; some were suspended in mid-air, while others where rooted on the ground.

However, what most fascinated Alana was the meadow-like garden of ponds they were standing in. These ponds were filled with lily flower pods. Finally, at the end of this garden, sat the long lotus spring pool-like bath. The edge of the pool was a cliff looking down into an infinite abyss of the dark green sky.

"This is the place that is going to heal you, Miss Alana...Master Lylas's lotus spring bath that is famous for healing any possible disease." Mena informed her.

A layer of fog condensed the lotus shaped spring and Alana couldn't exactly tell the colour of the water.

"We got here in time, the sun peak is about to be at its highest. It will change the foundations of the spring."

Just as Mena finished speaking the sun above hit a spot on the spring that resulted in a phenomenal chain reaction. The condensed fog cleared, revealing murky greenish waters. Around them, a forcefield reconstructed itself until it became a see-through shimmering dome. The shimmering made the outside look brighter and and more colour.

Alana's felt her hands itching for a paintbrush, the urge to paint this scenery overruling everything else.

"The dome makes the spring private, you can see outside, but cannot see inside. It's mirrored, reflecting only the outside world for both ways. So you won't have to worry about privacy."

Alana eyes bulged. She nodded at Mena as if she understood.

Would there ever be one day were she would understand the magic behind how everything worked? The probability of this was very slight.

"Now that it has cleared, the spring needs to know whose body it's healing. You will need to dip your foot."

Alana proceeded into removing her blocked heals and dipping her toes on the edge of the spring. She felt a stinging pinch on her toe, as if someone pricked her with a needle. On reflex, she quickly removed her feet away.

"It's okay," Mena reassured her. "See, it just needs your blood so it knows exactly how your body works and where to heal you."

Alana watched as the trail of her blood on the water disappeared deep down, Then all of a sudden the surface of water rippled in small vibrations, before finally settling down to a clear green.

"It's ready." Mena told her. "I will give you your privacy now. You just need to soak for thirty minutes at most."

Mena then left Alana on her own. Alana didn't see exactly where she had exited from, it was as if she had just disappeared in thin air.

Shrugging, she proceeded once again into stripping her clothes. She didn't worry about her hair since it was already shoulder length. She immersed herself into the bath.

The waters were magical. The minute she entered, the soothing ailment made her go into a lucid state of relaxation. It smelled of lotuses and the waves felt as if they were massaging her whole body.

Alana enjoyed this spar-like relaxation for a long time. She couldn't tell exactly how long she had been there for. However, she awoke abruptly when she felt cold sipping into her.

It was as if the waters were telling her, "you can leave now, I've done my job."

Alana was yet again fascinated at how the minute she exited the spring bath, she was dry instantly. She needed not to worry about wetting her clothes. She was as dry as a bone.

After dressing, Alana contemplated on how to depart from this forcefield dome. Just as she was contemplating, the whole dome shifted—as if it had sensed her weariness—and began disassembling itself.

Alana walked down the stony steps and saw Mena two feet away, sitting down with her legs dipped onto one of the ponds.

Alana took her time to study woman in front of her. The auburn eyes and hair were very peculiar, bright and yet elagant. Despite the faraway look on her, Mena had an aura that was different from Zenos.

Did that mean she's not a demon?

"Mena..." Alana called for her.

Mena snapped from her thoughts as she looked at Alana in a startled motion. It was as if somehow she'd forgotten that Alana had been in the spring bath the whole time.

"You're finished?"

Alana nodded, still approaching her.

"That's good, I can sense it's working, two more weeks of this and the foul energy will be completely erased. Very good, very good indeed." Mena nodded to herself.

As they walked back, Alana contemplated once again how she could ask Mena what type of species she was. Would she consider it rude?

"Um..." Alana cleared her throat. "Mena...are you also like Zenos?"

"Ah no, not at all Miss Alana, I'm not a demon. I'm from the fairie realm." Mena answered her.

"Then how come you don't live in the fairie realm?" Alana asked curiously.

A bitter expression soured Mena's face, surprising Alana. She watched as Mena's jaw ticked while saying, "I severed ties with the fairie realm fifteen thousand years ago. I'm never ever returning. "

The firmness of her tone spoke volumes of abhorrence. It made Alana wonder what exactly the fairie realm did to her to make her despise it so severely.

Mena quickly discarded that emotion of detest by shaking her head. Alana was captivated as she watched the dimness in her eyes brighten into a sunset colour once again.

"All is in the past, Miss Alana." She affirmed more to herself than Alana. "I've got Master Lylas now and we both share an unforgettable loss that can't ever be alleviated."

Mena then looked to the distance, the faraway look on her face as if she were looking through an old memory and reliving a life Alana would never know.

This made Alana curious to know what that loss could possible be.

"You said loss?" Alana decided if she had to understand, she had to be tenacious.

Mena looked back at Alana, making Alana startle with slight fright at seeing tears brimming in her eyes.

"I used to think the fairie realm was faultless, especially the royal fairie family..." She sighed. "...That was until they wronged my mistress. So I'd rather drink poison and die than return to the fairie realm."

"What happened to your mistress?" Alana was gripped by the loyalty on Mena's tone.

Mena sighed but this sigh was body weaning, as if the exhale contained all her sadness in it. "Come, Miss Alana. It's almost lunch. Although I did mention thirty minutes of soaking in the lotus spring, I figured letting you soak in more would be better. Time flies fast here and it's almost lunch time."

The change of subject perturbed Alana. However, she didn't press the issue anymore. She figured the topic was too much for Mena to handle. Alana wondered about this "mistress" Mena was so loyal to.

In her mind she imagined this: Mena and her mistress were probably servants of the royal family in the fairie realm. But after years of abuse and mistreatment they decided to flee, risking it all. Somehow along the journey her mistress got badly wounded. While on the quest to search for medicine, they heard about Lylas lotus spring bath and made the journey to get here. Unfortunately before they could make the cross, her mistress died. Lost and with nowhere else to go, Mena then crossed to Lylas realm and sought refuge.

Alana saw it all in her virtual imagination. Although she was a sucker for such adventurous stories, Alana would have to contend with this until finally she knew Mena's true backstory.

She walked faster to catch up with Mena, looking at the woman with a new admiration stemmed from the courageous and strong woman in her imagination.

***

"So what about Gigi and Fifi?" Alana asked Mena that afternoon in the humongous kitchen. Mena was in the process of making herbal tea and the process was so intriguing to Alana, she sat on the stool and watched with attention to detail while Mena worked.

The faerie sprites in question were also helping Mena with the tea-making-process. They smiled at Alana as often as they had the chance to.

"Gigi and Fifi aren't from the faerie realm as you'd think." Mena explained.

"Oh?" Alana quirked with curiosity.

"My mistress created them before she passed on, back then they were just lunar flower pods, unfortunately mistress never had chance to watch them emerge. I took them with me and Master Lylas helped give life unto them. They're slow but they're on the road to immortality, so there's hope."

"Your mistress could create flower fairies?"

"Mistress was born a silver faerie immortal, her father, the previous faerie king, gave her the responsibility to balance all plant life in the faerie realm."

Alana's imaginative backstory for Mena went into shambles. Her mistress had been the princess of the fairie realm. There was now so many possibilities and scenarios of what could have lead to her death and eventually leading to Mena being here in Lylas realm.

Alana was defeated. She would have to know the full story before she could make up another one. This was definitely something to think about before she slept.

This world was fascinating to her, there was definitely more to it than what meets the eye. Digging deeper into the surface, there was an unspoken sadness in their demeanours that troubled Alana.

Alana felt as if this whole ordeal was an ongoing dream that would never end.

Did she want it to end?

***

Night in Lylas' realm was peculiar and yet breathtaking.

Breathtaking, because of the infinite multicoloured stars that blanketed sky, the constellations were very different from the world she was born in.

Peculiar, because of the four apparent and yet different moons bathing the darkness into a luminous dark purplish blue night sky. The were three moons of the same size and always paralleling no matter what time of night it was.

Mena, Zenos, Gigi and Fifi were by her side as they watched the nightlife of Lylas realm. They explained to her that only in Lylas realm were all three moons visible together.

"Master built his realm outside the border of the earths main three realms, that's why you see the blue moon of the faerie realm, the crimson moon of the demon realm and the your mortal's silver-grey moon."

The fourth moon was called Dessim which translated to "missed" in mortal language. This moon was bound to Lylas realm and was created sorely by him in remembrance of the one he missed deep in his heart.

"You could say Dessim is the heart of the realm, what's keeping Master's realm running. Master uses Dessim to change the foundations and atmosphere every so often to meet the needs of everyone that habitats and takes refuge here."

His words were filled with a slight mournful sentimentality. Alana felt it the air around there. The solemnity of their expressions. She wondered exactly what they mourned so devastatingly in their hearts.

They were sitting on the rooftop of the main house—the "secretive top" as Zenos called it. He told Alana that he often came up here to drink and watch the stars whenever he felt like reminiscing the good old days where he used to be young, naive and carefree.

Mena and Zenos drank from sophisticated looking porcelain goblets. The clear liquid Zenos kept pouring from the jug contained five hundred years old peach blossom wine that the chef heartfletly brewed.

Alana was prohibited from consuming the wine. Since her sole purpose of being in this realm in the first place was to remove the foul energy that had seeped into her. Consuming alcohol will disturb her healing process.

This reminder of why she was there, left a bitter taste in her mouth. With an addition of watching them as they drunk jug after jug so deliciously, Alana felt an envy she had never felt before.

She felt depraved. She had to keep reminding herself that this was not her home, she didn't belong with them. She was just passerby, a visitor they would eventually forget after her measly life passed on from old age. They would continue to live on through their immortality long after she was gone.

These trail of thoughts depressed her and that's why she had gazed upon the skies to distracted herself.

Suddenly, a flicker of light caught the corner of her eye. The flicker came from deep east of the main palace house, beyond the kitchen house. It looked as if someone was throwing a born-fire and didn't invite them.

Zenos was already in his cloud going to investigate and Alana rode with Mena to catch up.

"J-juta....w-what's the meaning of this?" Zenos stumbled slightly as he dismounted his cloud. He then tottered drunkenly toward a man dressed in black from head to toe.

What was most startling about this man—apart from his stark built—was the hilt of a sword poking from the swordcase around his waist.

This was the first time Alana seen someone in this realm brazenly carrying a weapon. She guessed he must he one of Lylas's soldiers.

"Just the usual cremation." Juta acknowledged Zenos casually before continuing into picking up what looked like a framed canvas. He then threw this canvas into the embers of blue flames that quickly swallowed whatever painting had been in that canvas.

Alana felt as if her heart was breaking watching the scene. How cruelly could one be, destroying such precious art.

"Ah, so Master finally collected them all?" Zeno asked.

"This is the last batch, yes. Although I was told this artist was unaware exactly what they painted, Master is taking no risks again as he leaned his lesson from a century ago." Juta then picked up another piece of art to destroy.

Alana turned to Mena for explanation to what was going on.

Mena then explained, "Throughout time, some of your mortals always managed to cross the boundary between the realms. Usually it's through through their dreams or through an epiphany. Anyway, most who manage would not think anything of it at first. They would go on living their lives thinking they have a peculiar imagination." Mena whispered to Alana.

"However, some who have talent in storytelling whether through art or entertainment, always manage to reveal what should not be revealed to mortals. The idea that they're not alone in this world... " she continued.

"It happened before one hundred years ago, there was an extraordinary artist in the mortal realm that managed to depict an exact replica of a place in the demon realm. By the time Master learned what happened the damage had been done. The mess he had to clean up from the cause of the ghouls and demons who infected the mortal realm because of a mere painting had been far too great—bear in mind that Master Lylas helps the mortal realm out of his own good will. And also partly because it's heavens punishment for him to do so, since he almost destroyed the world fifteen thousand years ago."

Fifteen thousand years ago... This was the second time hearing this timeline. Mena had mentioned in the morning that she severed ties with the fairie realms and now she was hearing that Lylas almost destroyed the world fifteen thousand years ago...it couldn't be a coincidence.

What exactly happened fifteen thousand years ago?

"Master Lylas isn't like any normal immortal. If he wills something it isn't impossible for him to achieve. So if he decided not to take this punishment there was nothing heaven would do to stop him. He's that powerful."

Alana tried to think back to history class the major event that occurred on earth a century ago to cause an epidemic. All she could think of was the Spanish influenza.

Could it be? Her mind whirred and yet she couldn't find the correlation between the supposed mess Lylas cleaned up a hundred years ago from demon and ghoul infestation, with the Spanish influenza.

Could it be that Spanish influenza was caused by the foul aura left behind by demon infestation then?

Just as she was wondering this, Juta took out another painting and there was something familiar about it that caught Alana's eyes.

Alana's eyes widened as she realised where she recognised the painting from. It was one of her pieces from the "other worldly beings" collections. Her jaw dropped as she realised that the next painting he picked was yet another painting of hers. Her precious collection were all turning to ashes by his hand.

"What surprises me most from this artist, is the fact that they even knew what the fairies from the fairie realm look like. No one has ever gotten as close as this person has. The resemblance is uncanny." Juta continued his soliloquy.

Juta picked up another painting and startled, "Crickey Mena, this maiden almost seems like you!"

Mena struggled to see and so she tottered closer to Juta to confirm. Alana watched as Mena's body stopped moving, freezing in a trance as she studied the painting in more detail. Her painting. The painting she did when she first got into the Royal College of Arts.

It was her first painting of a fairie. Alana couldn't remember exactly what lead her to paint it, she'd painted so many she'd long stopped trying to place a face to a name. Back then she had imagined these were creatures form her imagination, nonexistent people stemmed from fairytales and never ceasing to exist in reality.

Oh how wrong she was.

Alana moved closer to try and see this painting too. She was startled as well at eerie resemblance the subject in the piece had to Mena. As if it could be her long lost twin sister.

"Wow. I'm third parts wanting to keep it, two parts wanting to know who painted it and one part resenting you Juta for destroying the other paintings. Have you no eye for talent. This person clearly has."

"U-um..."Alana tried to speak.

However, Juta was now arguing with Mena. He reminded her of the rules. That it was his job to see that every piece is destroyed per Lylas orders.

Alana felt her heart shrivelling as she watched them argue.

She finally came to a realisation of why Lylas was at the gallery the first time she met him. He was there to scout the last pierce of her "otherworld beings" collection to add to his already growing list to destroy.

All of my paintings are now just a pile of ashes!