"I'd be honored to travel alongside you," Arlia replied without so much as a pause for thought, almost as if she was voicing the first thing that came to her mind. Her face took on a rosy hue and her strange symptoms returned with vengeance. Her mind was a maelstrom of thoughts and emotions, but all of them were centered on the man sitting beside her now. Unable to contain the raging storm any longer, she turned to look at Nigel and, summoning all the courage she had, asked, "Nigel, forgive me if I have threaded into a forbidden territory, but do you believe in love?"