Lupri, Reception Tower:

Nulara looked around her in open interest and awe. She, her personal maid Simlith, the queen and the other followers had just arrived at the Reception Tower in Lupri.

Nulara never got many chances to leave the castle in her life, so even with the true nature of this visit and what it meant for her and her deep worries about what the future held, she couldn't stop the excitement she felt from this new experience from affecting her.

As expected of the biggest Reception Tower in Lupri, and one used exclusively by royal families and their representatives, it was flawlessly and expertly decorated.

Nulara didn't get the chance to give the big, runic glyphs covered hall a closer look before Amathira started moving.

What met them when they left the hall was a small crowd, seeing the group of people made Nulara move subtly to the side, hiding behind the one before her, she also tried keeping her eyes on the ground, trying not to stand out, her not wearing her veil didn't help too.

"Your highness, I welcome you and those with you to Lupri," Nulara heard a gentle, welcoming voice sound out from the crowd in front of them.

Lifting her head a bit, she saw an old man with long white hair, the man wasn't a phas, she recognised him as an omega from the big red gem on his forehead, and also what appeared to be transparent crystals on both sides of his neck.

That old man wasn't the only omega there, the crowd was particularly split into two groups, one mostly made of phas, and another made of omega mostly, even though both groups had members of other races too.

"Thank you Eilif for giving a bit of your time to receiving us," Amathira nodded gently.

After some greetings from the second group, and some exchanges of pleasantries between Eilif, Amathira and her group, Eilif excused himself and left with most of his followers to prepare for the arrival of the other important guests, while the others of his group remained with Amathira and those with her.

Then, while Nulara was still looking at the departing group and trying her best to ignore the shocked expressions of those who noticed her, she heard the familiar voice of Amathira saying:

"Are the others here yet?"

"No, your highness," a gentle male voice answered, it belonged to a phas of the group that came to welcome Amathira, "your highness is the first here."

Amathira nodded lightly before ordering:

"Alright, let's move out then."

The others followed behind her without objections and headed to the exit, there their carriages were already waiting for them, the one next to the door was the biggest and the most decorated.

Reaching the carriage, all the knights waiting there bowed as Amathira nodded their way before moving to enter it.

Only after the queen entered did the knights lift their heads again, Nulara felt the eyes of many of them fall on her, but she didn't care about them, she cared more about what was standing next to them.

Nulara recognised them instantly, it wasn't the first time she saw them after all, they were Purple Horses, a type of tamed beasts.

They were similar to normal horses, but, as was obvious from their names, they had purple fur, and were much bigger, the biggest of them was twice the size of a normal horse while the smallest would be as big as the biggest normal horse.

Purple Horses were faster, stronger and had higher endurance than normal horses, and the prices of the purebred of them were something commoners had no way to understand.

Nulara soon removed her eyes from them and went in behind the queen. 

Inside the carriage, there was only the queen, Nulara and Tana, the phas' youngest princess, but even though she was the youngest, she was still in her twenties and had the best magical talent among her three sisters.

Her personal maid and those of the queen were in another carriage behind them.

Nulara sat by the window and kept her eyes on the outside, her fingers dug into her palms as her knuckles turned white, thinking of what was coming. 

She didn't know what the future had in store for her, all she knew was that in a very short time, her whole life was going to change, and nothing was going to be as was before.

So, not wanting to think about all the uncertainties and possibilities, she decided to keep herself busy by looking outside.

Not long after, the carriage accelerated as the scenery outside moved backwards, followed by a fleet of carriages and knights.

Just like she wanted, Nulara soon found herself forgetting her anxiety and worry as the carriage passed the gates of the Reception Tower and her eyes fell on the outside world, she couldn't stop herself from being amazed at the scenery she saw.

The gates opened on what seemed to be a garden of some kind, it was full of strolling, or just sitting people, they all seemed carefree and happy as they went with their day, making her feel a weird sense of jealousy.

The garden itself rivalled her home's great gardens, with rare plants and flowers in ever-bloom, great fountains with high and mighty life-like statues of people from different races in each junction.

Just as she was still in her world while looking at these different sights, she felt a gaze lock into her. 

Turning around instinctively, she saw a middle-aged man looking her way, from his unique features, she recognised him as an omega.

She didn't get much of a chance to look at him though, the queen soon waved her hand and the window was closed by a green brilliance.

Amathira didn't say anything at all, yet Nulara knew that she disapproved of what she did, maybe she wanted her kept as a secret, or maybe she just saw that that kind of behaviour was unacceptable.

The three of them spent the rest of the journey in silence, fortunately, the carriage was fast enough and it didn't take them long to reach the First's Castle.

"Welcome, your highness Amathira, you and your followers, it's our pleasure to have you join us today," as soon as Amathira set foot from the carriage, a man stepped forward and greeted them

Nulara soon noticed that he wasn't Hagar Gudrun, the Alpha's old butler, as she expected him to be, but someone she didn't know. Though it only took Nulara a glance to realise that he was a hybrid too, she wasn't able to determine what races his parents were, though she suspected that one of them was a livitus from some of his bodily features.

"My name is Mosi, and I'm this castle's new butler, if you need anything while you're here, just tell me, I'll do my best to help," he continued.

Nulara saw that not everyone there showed surprise at what he said, she didn't know if that was because they already knew that it was going to be another person greeting them, or they were just that good at hiding their true feelings.

Mosi was somehow tall, around 1.9 meters, with grey silvery hair, silver eyes and a body on the muscular side. 

Nulara noticed that he kept his eyes on her longer than he did with those in her group, that was to be expected, but then she noticed that his eyes soon changed from the usual shock and surprise people had when they saw her to confusion, it must be that he hadn't expected to see a hybrid among them, but the same thing could be said about her, she didn't expect to see a hybrid acting as a butler to the new king, even with all the queen's reassuring words that he was quite accepting of them.

Amathira replied to Mosi's greeting in kind as she nodded lightly.

"Your highness is the first here, so if you can follow me to the waiting hall, please."

The pleasantries out of the way, Mosi led them to a big hall Nulara already knew about in the lessons she had before the journey there, five people went in with Amathira, not including her while the others remained outside.

Nulara only knew two of them, the first was Tana of course, while the other was the queen's personal guard, her name was Taloora and her age wasn't known, the other two were some personal guards too, but she didn't know them.

Usually, the Alpha would be already waiting for them at the waiting hall when they enter, and after some greetings and necessary formalities, he would make someone lead them to the meeting room and repeat that again and again with all the other guests till the last of them, and after that, he would join them at last.

But this time, things were different, when Mosi led them to the waiting hall, no one was there except some servants and guards.

"I'll be leaving for now, we are going to wait for the others to come before heading to the meeting room, you can get the servants here to help you if you need anything at all, that's it for me, if you can excuse me," Mosi said before bowing and leaving the waiting hall from whence he came.

The hall was properly prepared and nothing was missing or unfit for receiving people of their status, but even so, Nulara still saw a small frown appear on Amathira's face before she controlled her expression as she returned to her usual front, yet Tana, the youngest princess showed her displeasure further with her frown and the annoyed glances she kept on throwing the guards and servants standing around them.

Nulara herself didn't care about this difference in treatment, all she did was try and remain as close as possible to Amathira.

Not long after, the door they entered through opened up again, yet, this time, Mosi had someone walking behind him.

Wearing a dirty old robe covering his whole body, a crooked and clearly hunched back and slow footsteps that made him appear as if a light breeze would send him flying away, all those and more made Nulara question for a second if there was something wrong with making such a person come and meet them, but that soon passed and she remembered who that person was.

He was Bristlecone, the ajahit's representative, a member of the Pact of Ten. Even among all the representatives of the other races, Bristlecone held a special and unique position, he was the ajahit's only representative during the full period of them being a part of the Pact of Ten, he was impossibly ancient, and considered to be one of the oldest beings in Tellor.

The ajahit themselves held a unique position among all the different races in Tellor, and that was for many reasons, from their sought after and requested skills, the state they found themselves in, and why they were like that from the beginning, many individuals in Tellor had a deep appreciation for the ajahit.

"Elder Bristlecone," Amathira stood up to greet him politely, "I haven't seen you in a long time, how are you doing."

"Ah, little Amathira," Bristlecone turned his face that was covered under the hood of his cloak slowly before answering. His voice was slow, weird and had a special quality as if different branches were scratching each other to release that extraordinary sound, "you have grown a lot, I remember when your mother brought you here for the first time, how time passes..."

Only after Bristlecone said all of that did he come back to the question that Amathira asked:

"I'm as usual, there are limits to what a person can reach due to the effects of time, and I've reached them a long time ago," There was a hint of laughter in his weird voice, making it clear that he was joking.

Even as he spoke, Bristlecone continued moving towards them, when he was four meters away, Nulara smelt something she never thought that she would smell there. It was the smell of trees, dirt and refreshing breeze. All those smells made her feel comfortable and calmed her heart and worry that continued to rise the more time moved forward.

Amathira smiled at him before asking:

"What do you think about all of this?" Nulara didn't know if she meant the meeting, the disappearance of the Alpha or the thing with the Luminous Rivers. Maybe it was all of those as much as she knew.

Bristlecone remained silent for a long time before saying in a grave tone of voice:

"A big change, wars, chaos, destruction and death... Or nothing, who am I to say," He ended his sentence as if all that he said was nothing but a joke.