It is difficult to explain the feeling I had when I jumped through that portal.
My legs felt loose, as if I was floating in the air, but at the same time I felt the ground under my feet. My body vibrated at a strange rhythm, every part of my body trembled. And in the blink of an eye, in a thousandth of a second, there I was.
I was in the old Crescendo.
As I opened my eyes, and before I looked around, I noticed that my hand was holding tightly to Russell's. He, contrary to what I thought, did not let go of it even after passing by.
My gaze slowly incorporated each image presented to me.
Even though it was night, it was impossible not to see it.
A castle, tall and imposing, completely in ruins, was displayed before my eyes. Even though the plants had eaten away inside the ruins, I could feel the splendor of what once was that place, like a sleeping memory, which was transmitted to me without having witnessed it.
And then, a thought wounded me, struck me directly in the heart.
"This would have been my home." If the invasion had never happened, if no one had found Crescendo, if none of that had taken place, that would have been my home. I would have been born a princess of a wonderful kingdom. I would have had a loving family, two parents who were willing to give their lives to save me.
Would I have met Russell in the same way? Would we have been friends? Anything else? Were we destined to meet, or was it just a fluke in a sea of possibilities?
None of that mattered. I shouldn't have thought about it.
Nothing could turn back time.
'Are we all okay?' Galaga asked.
Seeing them all safe and sound, I felt as if my soul were returning to my body. Each one of them had become an important part of my life, and I couldn't imagine anything bad happening to them.
'You had to push me? I stained my pants with these ashes.' Rayn complained, dusting himself off.
I hadn't noticed the ashes until he said it. They were everywhere. They were scattered on the ground like a second layer of land.
'You're too slow,' replied Galaga, starting to walk towards the castle.
Finally, I let go of Russell's hand and followed her. I noticed how his brothers were joining him. The four of them followed me as if they were my personal guard. Did they really have that much loyalty to me?
'Are you all right?' Tryx asked me. I guess she was the only one who noticed the heaviness in my heart.
'I have to be,' I answered honestly.
We walked stealthily, watching every step we took.
No one could be seen around us, but that did not mean we were not in danger. We shouldn't take any chances.
We reached the front of the castle.
The wooden door was broken in half. I was able to get in by contorting my body a little. Everyone followed me without saying anything else.
If I thought that the plants had taken possession of the castle from the outside, I did not know what was waiting for me inside. Twenty years was just a number, until it was reflected in an image.
The time that the castle had been abandoned was the same time that I had not been who I was supposed to be. But now we were both waking up, both living again.
'We'd better wait until it's daylight, if we try to walk around this place now we don't know how we'll end up.' Rayn proposed to the group.
'Although it is hard for me to admit it... the pirate is right, none of us have been here before, we don't know where to look.' Galaga said it with some disgust.
'We should look for it now and get out of here as soon as possible,' replied Fred.
'Fred is right, if we wait any longer, we may be discovered,' Aaron came to his brother's defense.
'I think it's up to Her Majesty to tell us,' Tryx pointed out.
I had two options. Both had a little truth in them.
Intuition. Many say it doesn't exist, that it's something you imagine. However, I had heard what my intuition had told me...
And I ignored it.
'We can find a place inside the castle that is more secure, wait there for a few hours until the sky clears, and then search more easily.'
The brothers lowered their heads. They were not going to contradict me, even if they disagreed with me. It was the advantage of being royalty.
I didn't want to see Rayn's expression. I didn't want him to think for a second that I was giving more importance to what he thought than to what the brothers were saying.
He was not worthy of my trust.
We toured the castle a little, being careful of the branches sticking out of the ground. I did not recognize anything of what I had seen in the cave, surely that place was in another level of the castle, it was impossible to recognize something in the darkness in which we were. We found another door, which was kept closed.
'I can't open it,' Galaga said, straining against the wood.
'Let me try,' I said and put one hand on it.
Open up, open up, open up.
The sound was shocking. The hinges screamed after many years of standing still. The lock opened, just as I asked. Apparently, it had remained closed all that time. Behind the door, we found what had been kept safe.
'It's the dining room,' said Tryx.
I noticed that the windows were boarded up with wood. It was the perfect place to stay hidden. We advanced into the dining room. Aaron and Rich closed the door behind us.
'Now what?' Tryx asked me.
'Hide here, hope they haven't seen us.'
The truth was I had no idea how to make the portal again, I didn't know if I could do it again. I needed time to think of another way to get out of there, plus we still had to find the sign.
Everyone looked for a place in the darkness and sat down and waited for the night to pass.
Soon, most fell asleep.
I thought only I would stay awake, but I was wrong.
'Odd, isn't it?' Russell's voice came out before he appeared.
'Odd?' I asked, blushing at the realization of how close he had sat.
'Being here, this was going to be your home, you must feel...'
I just sighed without answering, but that was enough for Russell to take my hand.
'Come with me.'
I could have said a thousand things, asked a thousand more, but I kept silent and followed him into the darkness.
He led me to the back of the dining room and moved a cloth, just enough for us to pass by on the other side. He moved the cloth once we were on the other side.
That's when I dared to ask.
'Where are we?'
'I don't know much about this castle, but I remember my mother used to say that the ballroom was next to the dining room because the kings wanted their guests to eat and dance all night. They invited the whole Kingdom to those dances, they were amazing...'.
He took a small piece of wood from his jacket and lit it somehow.
We were able to see the memory of what the ballroom was, hidden behind the plants.
'Your Majesty,' he said almost in a whisper.
'You don't have to call me that...'
'Your Majesty,' he insisted, 'may I have this dance?'
'It would be my pleasure,' I said smiling.
We had no music, and we were in the dark, but somehow it felt right.
How I wished there was music.
I'm sure my parents always had a great orchestra at their dances. I could hear it in my mind. 'Do you hear that?' Russell asked me. 'I could swear I hear music.'
Our dancing got better by having a rhythm to follow.
I didn't know how he could hear what I imagined, but I didn't question it. Instead, I wanted to see how far I could go.
I thought about how splendid the place would look. I imagined every corner of the ballroom.
'Milaia... what's going on?'
One by one the old candlesticks were lit. But they didn't reflect the ballroom full of plants we had seen minutes before, it looked sparkling. The floor reflected our image. The walls seemed to be made of gold.
And if we were dancing, we had to be well dressed. Russell would wear a soldier's outfit, with badges on his chest. And I, being Princess of Crescendo, would have a beautiful purple dress.
In the blink of an eye, we were dressed the way I had imagined. My dress spread out on the floor, shining like it was made of lightning.
We continued to dance, more and more intensely.
Everything seemed like a dream, an image of the life I could have had. A realistic illusion.
'You look beautiful,' he told me.
Now I could see his grey eyes glowing brightly in the beautiful place.
'You are beautiful,' he said.
We both stopped for a moment and stared at each other in silence. I don't think it's possible to put into words the feelings we exchanged at that moment. I only know that I noticed how gently he held my face and I controlled my breath before he came close to my lips.
The contact was everything I had imagined, and even more. It was as if a star exploded between us and left its brilliance around us.
I thought I had felt the sensation of coming home at Crescendo, but I was wrong. It was at that very moment that I felt I was back home. Russell was the home I had always wanted.
Russell was my home.
He broke away from me and touched his chest.
'What's wrong?' I asked worriedly.
'Please don't think it was your fault, it's just that I felt...'
'What are you doing, you idiots?' Rayn yelled at us, running to put out the candlesticks.
The dream faded away.
Everyone was standing there looking at us and the place I had just created directly from my imagination to reality.
'Milaia, please turn it off,' Russell came up to my ear to ask.
The candlesticks went out instantly. Everything was gone. My dress, his suit. Our moment, along with it all.
'I'm sorry,' I told everyone, 'I don't know what happened, sometimes I can't control it.'
'Fantastic, not only did you just give us away basically, but you also have no idea what you're doing. If I survive, I'm going to kill Caelus for sending me to die with the stupidest girl in the world.'
'What did you say?' Russell stepped forward towards him, but Aaron held him up.
'Easy brother, it's not worth it.'
'Shut your mouth or the next thing you' ll see is your teeth falling out of your mouth,' Russell accepted his brother' s restraint.
Although Rayn had insulted me, at a certain point I knew he was right.
I thought only we could see what was going on, but it wasn't like that.
And now I had put us all in danger.
And I still had no idea how we were going to get out of there.