SPELLBOUND

As the dragon slowly descended, they saw the ruins of the once beautiful and snow-white place. Evie's heart clenched in agony at the sight that welcomed her. Dacria was unrecognizable – a far cry from the once stunning view she remembered it once to be in her mind. It was all but ruins now. She fought for calm and held back her tears as the dragon slowly circled and finally landed at where the castle was once standing magnificently.

The moment they landed; Evie realized that it was the very place where she last saw Gavriel. The memories came flooding back into her mind at that moment when Gavriel had hugged and kissed her before pushing her away into the dungeon.

Evie bit her lower lips so hard right then that she had to force herself to swallow the tears that were threatening to spill over at any moment. This was not the time for her to cry.

After the men had searched the inside of the dungeon and reported that there was no one there, Evie and the men gathered once again for their next plan. The vampires were not here, nor Gavriel. Now the problem was where they should start looking for Gavriel and the surviving Dacrian women and children's whereabouts.

"We should target Kirzan." Zolan said. "Kirzan is the closest dukedom from here so they must have information or even rumors that we could use as a lead on the whereabouts of the prince. I believe we could also find information about the Duchess and the other Dacrians there."

Evie nodded. Knowing that it was best if it was Zolan who would think of their best move for now. They really need a lead desperately and he was right, even if it was a rumour, that would be enough for them to get started on. Because as of now, they had nothing to work on to search for these missing people.

Since they could no longer take Silver with them, because of Zolan's plan to infiltrate the state as quietly as they could, Evie sent Silver back to the Middle Land after stroking its snout. She communicated her thanks to him and told him silently that she would call upon him again whenever the need arises.

Then that same day itself, the group left Dacria and they travelled by foot towards Kirzan. On their way there, Zolan had revealed some things to Evie about the infamous state of Kirzan. Kirzan was the third largest state in the empire. It was much bigger and more populous than Dacria. Just like the empire's capital, Kirzan was famous because of their rampant slavery on humans. The Duke of Kirzan was said to be obsessed with young humans and he had a harem of young human ladies in his castle.

Kirzan was still farther than Evie had initially thought. Because when they had finally arrived at the walls of the city, it was already night.

The group settled at the nearby forest overlooking the lively city. The city lights were bright and lively, and a stark contrast to the darkness of the forest that surrounded them.

"Luc and I will go scout things out over there," Zolan had said while they were eating dinner. "We will just go and investigate for now. If there is no threat, we will look for an inn where we could stay for the night."

"Please be careful," Evie told them while the men were preparing their disguises. Zolan smiled at her as he was putting on red tint on his lips. The man had decided to disguise himself as a female because of his blond hair and pretty man appearance was just too famous and that made him immediately recognisable by many others. Zolan was actually the most famous one among the members of Gavriel's men because of his position in the empire before he chose to follow Gavriel as one of his loyal knights.

"Don't worry, Princess. I'm an expert in disguise. You might not believe it, but Prince Gavriel was the only person so far that my disguise was not able to fool." He laughed out loud and unashamedly, and Evie smiled as well. Zanya on the other hand was gaping at Zolan because of his transformation. He had put on large dangly earrings and bright attention drawing jewelleries such as necklaces and bangles. And he was now looking very beautiful that Zanya could not quite believe her eyes that it was not a female that was before her, but a male.

He had made himself up so well that even when Zanya observed him carefully, it was hard to tell that Zolan was a male. He had tied up the upper half of his hair while leaving the lower half free and gently fluttering in the night breeze. His naturally clear complexion was now slightly reddened with the help of some rouge rubbed into his high cheekbones. And the red tint he had applied on his lips just further enhanced the whole get up. The only thing that was a little off was that one would think this 'lady' was a really tall one. But even so, with 'her' exceptionally good looks and elegant bearing, many men would swoon and salivate over Zolan's captivating eyes and attractive smile.

"He's beautiful…" the light fae uttered before flushing red in embarrassment, realising that she had just called a male as 'beautiful'.

"He is…" Evie agreed, nodding vigorously with a big grin on her face. Zolan always had the soft look, the perfect definition of a pretty man. But now that he had disguised himself and wore things meant for women, he had become totally unrecognizable. If they did not know him, or if they did not see him transform before their very eyes, they would never think of him as a man.

The men were not as impressed as Evie and Zanya though. It was as if Zolan's appearance was already something normal to them.

"You both should rest while waiting for us. We will be back in two hours." Zolan said in a mellow and throaty voice – his lady voice – and then the duo headed towards the city.

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A/N: If we stay rank 1 in golden ranking until an hour before weekly reset, i will give bunos chapters. So don't forget to cast your Golden Tickets for our Evie and Gav. ^^

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