Travisten returned the next day to the house of her parents. She saw her mother standing by he doorway. Slowly, Ochxeze walked towards her, arms outstretched, intending to embrace her. "I'm sorry that we engaged you to the King without your notice." Travisten let herself be drawn into her mother's arms. "But it cannot be undone... you will meet him later... your wedding will be tomorrow." Then she brought her inside.

Travisten kept quiet as her handmaidens dressed her. One of them spoke, sensing that she was distraught. "My lady?" Travisten stared at her glumly. "Shouldn't you be happy? Your going to meet your new groom! Or are you just nervous perhaps?" Travisten looked down again. The other maid, misreading the gesture, suddenly spoke up. "Yes! That must be it! We know that you HARDLY know anything in matters of matrimony! Well that's easy!" All you have to do is gather people at the temple doors. The High Priest will tell you to hold, and then he will bless you. He'll do a couple of other rituals and then announce you married! Simple, no? That's why it's known as the 'Promising of Hands'! It is quite--"

But at that moment Boch came in. He smiled at Travisten joyfully. She was clad in a silver blue robe, and silver ropes were woven into her thick black tresses. "You look beautiful daughter! Well, are you ready? I'm going to get the servants to bring you to the King now. He lives a bit far from here, at least six hours of riding."

Boch loaded her onto a chariot drawn by two Huxes, a slender, flightless bird with deep purple feathers. Her parents kissed her goodbye and told her that they will see her tomorrow. At Boch's signal the charioteer and Travisten rode off into the forest. Travisten never thought that she'll ever feel foreboding of the forest. She watched the sandy road curve ahead of her, deeper and deeper into the woodland.

Her driver, Jorke, kept silent for the entire trip. Travisten kept looking nervously at her watch, the little orb with the sun and moon in it, to determine how near they were. One sunset... Two sunsets...

After five sunsets and one circling of the moon, the road has turned smooth and white, and surely enough, a great marble domicile appeared between the dark trees.

The driver stopped and helped her off the chariot. "I will come for you tomorrow my lady." Travisten turned around, shocked. "You're not going to stay with me?" The charioteer nodded. "I am your driver, not your handmaiden." He chuckled and ruffled his brown beard with his rough, callous bedecked hand. "Your father had ordered me to bring back the Huxes... He still would need them. Goodbye Lady Travisten!" He climbed back into the chariot and left, leaving her looking miserable.

Travisten stood there looking after the chariot, when suddenly she hard a voice behind her, beckoning her to into the domicile. She called out again before gathering her will to enter the large white building. She started the long walk across its grounds. Here and there she caught glimpses of small stooped figures running between the bushes. But once she got close enough to see them more closely, they disappeared quickly from sight. "They must be the servants of the king." She thought to herself as she spied yet another creature.

The grounds were more beautiful than that of Travisten's, and the domicile was three times larger than her already luxurious house.. Hundreds of different flowers were artfully patterned across the evenly grown grass. Everywhere she looked, there was a multitude of colors to be seen, and the air was hung with a thick curtain of fragrances, all emitting from the buds around her. The domicile was of beautiful white marble, whose gleaming walls were streaked with golden threads, similar to those on her bow. But there was nothing but thick forest to be seen beyond the gardens. The white domicile with its vast grounds, indeed stood on a very large clearing and Travisten believes there must have been hundreds of trees once standing in it.

Travisten stopped in front of the great white door. It opened. Again, a voice beckoned her inside. She entered slowly, and paid no attention to the magnificence of the great hall. She has seen this kind of art before. They were Oechtean patterns.

Once she has entered, the door shut again. "Come in..." Travisten entered a small chamber to her right, the place where the voice seems to come from.

Inside she saw what was calling her: a short, stooped figure, dressed in fine yellow gossamer. The figure turned around, and Travisten saw that its face as covered with some sort of veil.

"You must be King Ringach." After a short pause, she spoke again. "You're already wearing your wedding veil." Travisten eyed the King coldly. "Yes, I am. And you should be wearing yours too. Our wedding is already tomorrow... Please, sit down." Travisten made no move, and stood stock still, continuing to stare at the King coldly.

"Very well, if you insist on standing up, you may." King Ringach was hardly four feet tall, and barely reached Travisten's shoulder. He stares awhile at her, then spoke again. "You look beautiful in blue.." He stared at her, and she stared back. Her flowing silver-blue gown glowed against her brown skin, and her neck glittered with white jewels. But again she kept quiet as the king complimented her.

"Why do you keep so hushed?" Still she looked at him silently. "Do not bother yourself with too many formalities. This will soon become your home! come to my arms my lovely wife!" At these words Travisten spoke up. "I am not your wife."

The King suddenly laughed. His voice changed from the gruff calm to a raucous snicker. "I knew that would be your reaction! Such a strong headed individual you are... But you are my wife! Your parents promised you to me! And best of all, they promised under the unbreakable Oath!" He chuckled derisively. Travisten's voice rose with anger. Her eyes flashed malevolently. "My parents made the Oath, not I! I will not marry you!"

Again, the King chuckled. "When you refuse, your parent's Oaths will be broken. You don't want the same thing to happen to them as to what happened to me do you?!" He pulled away the veil that covered his face. Travisten was shocked by the very sight of his appearance.