The princes, the princesses, King Raynold, Zussorender, Hawk, lord Emmanuel, and Esther were all seated on chairs inside the palace hall. King Raynold, lord Emmanuel, Zussorender, Hawk, the princes, and the princesses were all seated opposite Esther staring weirdly at Esther who wasn’t looking at any one of them because she was perplexed about her situation wondering what was going on.

King Raynold, Zussorender, lord Emmanuel, the princes, the princesses, and Hawk wondered what was going on with Esther because ever since she had been captured by the guards and brought to them she hadn’t uttered a word, and that has made them worried. The princes, the princesses, Hawk, King Raynold, lord Emmanuel, and Zussorender also do not know whether it is the future Esther they were looking at or the present Esther which is their Esther.

After staring at her for a while but she seemed not to be bothered by their presence, King Raynold said to Esther “Esther, are you alright?”, but there was no response from Esther nor did she look at anyone.

Seeing there was no response from Esther, lord Emmanuel said to King Raynold and Zussorender “We need to do something. We can’t just continue staring at her and leave her like this”.

Just then Camelia said out loud to Esther “would you please talk so we can know what is going on with you or better still, know if you are the present Esther or the future Esther”.

Hearing that, Esther looked at every one of them and said angrily to them “I can hear some of your thoughts saying that I am crazy so would you believe anything I say right now?”.

“I thought you said no reading of our minds” said Kinsley to Esther.

“Then find a way to shut your minds and stop thinking I am mad. It wasn’t also me that promised you that” said Esther with annoyance.

“Calm down, Esther. Do not mind whatever it is you are hearing their minds saying. We just want to know which Esther it is that we are talking to right now” said lord Emmanuel to Esther.

“It is obviously the future Esther according to her” said Mike.

“Is that true?” Lord Emmanuel asked Esther.

“Yes. Something is going on that I don’t know of yet. Something is wrong. I don’t know why I can’t return to the present and why I am back in the past” said Esther anxiously.

“Nothing is going on than you still living in the dream world when you are back in reality. This is your present not your past. You have to accept that and stop thinking you are from the future” said Noah bluntly to Esther.

Hearing that, King Raynold said to the princes and princesses “none of you will speak again till we are done here”.

“Yes, your royal majesty” said the princes and princesses in a union.

King Raynold looked at Esther and said to her “focus on Esther, not them. Don’t also try to read their minds, it can be insulting”.

“I don’t know why they don’t believe me. I certainly can not be lying” said Esther.

“I believe you if they don’t. I have always believed you” said Redrick with a smile to Esther.

Hearing that, Esther looked at Redrick while King Raynold said angrily to Redrick “how dare you speak when I ordered you not to. Get up……”.

King Raynold was cut short of words as Esther cut in saying to King Raynold “leave him. He saved my life”, while she was still looking at Redrick.

Everyone wondered what Esther meant by that but Redrick apologized to King Raynold and lord Emmanuel asked Esther “but you told us that you can return to the present. How come you weren’t able to?”.

“I still don’t know why. Everything is confusing right now. I am not supposed to be here in the first place and now I can’t even return. Something is truly holding me here and I need to find out and quickly return” said Esther.

“How many days can it take you to return to the present?” Hawk asked Esther.

“Not days but minutes. All I need is minutes and my powers and I will be back in the present” said Esther.

“And do you know that you have been unconscious for the past 4 days ever since the day we let you return before you wake up today?” said Hawk to Esther.

Esther finds that hard to be true or believed so she says “no, that can’t be possible. Immediately after I closed my eyes and went unconscious, I opened my eyes and regained consciousness back in a strange place even though it wasn’t in the present. It couldn’t have taken me 4 days to open my eyes and regain consciousness. That is not how my powers or going to the future or past works”.

“We are telling the truth, Esther. Ever since that day you told us you were returning to your present, you had been unconscious and we have been waiting for our present Esther to return but didn’t, not until you woke up today, and it has been 4 days ago” said lord Emmanuel to Esther.

Esther couldn’t find what she heard to be true and mouth to herself “4 days?”, wondering what was going on and perplexed since she couldn’t find out what was going on.

“4 days, it is. And during those days we were monitoring you and all we see you do is deeply sleeping” said Hawk to Esther.

Hearing Hawk, Esther stood up thinking of what might be happening and the cause of what might be happening even though everything looked bewildering.

“I think you need to start thinking if you are the one telling the truth or us. You not being able to return to the future you said you came from just made us believe you might not be from the future and that you are our present Esther” said Zussorender to Esther.

“If I am not from the future there is no way I can be this present Esther. I can also not be a past if you are all present here. Then what the hell I am?” said Esther confused.

“You are our present Esther, not the future or past. We believe that. At this point, I think we all believe you think you are from the future because you might have mistakenly gone to the future and lived as a present while you were unconscious in the first place” said lord Emmanuel to Esther.

Hearing that, Esther was now pacing from the right to the left as she could not believe what she heard because that would only make her believe a lie. There was no way that Marcelos, her experiences, destruction of many things, and loss of many lives were just a visit to the future and might be a dream. Esther said “No, no, no. That is not possible. That can not be possible. Everything that had happened is too good to be just a visit to the future or a dream. I know all that happened and all that I saw. This place can be nothing but the past”.

“How far from the future are you then?” Hawk asked Esther.

“Very far. Judging by this past, it seemed nothing has happened yet” said Esther.

“Look around you, Esther. You are the only one believing you are from the future. We all believe you are our Esther regardless of wherever you think you are from” said King Raynold to Esther.

Hearing that, Esther looked at every one of them and even read the minds of those who she could and realized they all believed her to be their present Esther and only thinks she is acting like this because of a dream that she took seriously to be real or a future she went to that seemed present to her. They all think Esther's mind and heart were affected both ways.

Esther couldn’t believe them because she knew where she was from and all that had happened so accepting to be their Esther would only mean she is accepting to live a life of lies with them who are the past to forget the future. Even though Esther has no idea of what is going on with her and how she came to the past she is not familiar with, Esther has a strong belief that Marcelos and his armies are real and there is nothing that can change her mind about that. Esther also thinks she needs to find a way to return to the present so she can save the others and continue their journey before it is too late.

While Esther was in her thoughts pacing left and right, Hawk asked her “why don’t you tell us what happened in this your dream or future so we might be able to understand you better?”.

Hearing that, Esther stopped pacing and said “I understand why you might all be thinking am the Esther of the past but if you all give me time and chances I can prove to you that all I am saying is true”.

“I think you should also give us the chance to help you. Let us also prove to you that you are our Esther, not the future Esther” said Zussorender to Esther.

“And how are you gonna do that? You sure don’t want to tell us about the future” King Raynold asked Esther.

“Apart from you knowing the future which can affect the future, the future is more disastrous than you all could ever think of. Let's put the future aside and let me prove that I am from the future. I can prove that” said Esther, with a convincing face.

Hearing and seeing Esther's expression, lord Emmanuel, Zussorender, and King Raynold looked at each other with their facial expressions asking each other if they should accept Esther's requests and they agreed.

King Raynold said to Esther “we will be allowing you to do this because you are a Sa’er which means all that you said might be true and you might just be having difficulties returning to the present you are from. You have only 14 to return to your present or prove to us that you are from the future and failure to do so means you are ours and you will let us help you. Also, during those days, you are not allowed to step foot outside the palace so if you need anything you can ask the princes and princesses”, and Esther agreed.

The princes and princesses were not happy with the great King's decision to give Esther 14 days to prove she was from the future. After all, they all thought Esther's mind, heart, and brain were just affected by a dream or her travel to the future which means all they needed to do was take care of her and help her instead of wasting more days except Redrick who would believe everything from Esther because he is in love with her. The princes and princesses couldn't do anything or say anything so as not to disobey the great King's order except for Redrick who is ready to help Esther do anything.

Now that they have allowed her to prove that she is from the future, Esther thinks she has to do everything in her power to make sure she returns to the present before 14 days.

For the past 12 days, Esther has tried everything she could to return to her present but she can’t and always meets herself in the same place all over again; standing on the frozen sea, the hands banging the ice from beneath the ice, and Redrick always appearing out of nowhere to tell her to wake up.

Esther wondered why she always met herself in the same place whenever she tried to return to the present but couldn’t find out why. Esther also tried to find out what that place was and why Redrick always appeared to tell her to wake up every time she opened her eyes there but couldn’t find out. Esther even invited Redrick to find out through him why she always appeared to tell her to wake up but couldn’t find out anything even with her powers.

Redrick became someone who was always close to Esther during her time to find a way to return to her present and he made it known to her that he believed her. Redrick helps Esther get things Esther told that she needed to return to her present like spell books, herbs, and some other things but none were able to return Esther to her present which made Esther wonder if something was wrong with her powers if spells and herbs can’t also help her get to her present.

Seeing everything she was doing was not working, Esther visited the future and past maybe she could find out what was wrong and what was going on but all the futures she always visit are futures she was unfamiliar with because it was futures where Marcelos and his armies remained history and never did Marcelos return with his armies. Esther even visited the far future and still, she only saw a perfect world with no Marcelos and his armies but all the pasts she visited were familiar pasts she had lived and seen many times.

Seeing the future and past made Esther believe that nothing was wrong with her powers and she began to believe that the present she was looking for might be a dream which is why she couldn’t return there but not sure. Esther even visited the library to see if everything she had known from the Axrax library corresponded and it did which was getting her confused because everything seemed to be right except for the new future where Marcelos and his armies never return and the fact that Marcelos and his armies might be a dream.

Esther said to herself that the return of Marcelos and his armies could never be a dream, it was too real and physical to be a dream, and that made her do spells and use her powers to find out if everything she was seeing was just an illusion created by someone to blind her but they all came out to be real.

14 days eventually went by and Esther was never able to prove that she was from the future or return to the present she came from. There was also nothing that proved to Esther that she was from the future except the fact that she knew she was from the future. Esther was devastated, bewildered, and nearly went crazy because everything was bewildering, and where she was seemed to be present.