Chapter 55

𝕾𝖔𝖓𝖌 𝖙𝖔 𝖑𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖊𝖓 𝖙𝖔: 𝕿𝖗𝖊𝖆𝖈𝖍𝖊𝖗𝖔𝖚𝖘 𝖇𝖞 𝕿𝖆𝖞𝖑𝖔𝖗 𝕾𝖜𝖎𝖋𝖙

***

Like the soft caresses of the only orb within the cloaked sky adorned with many jewels, bathing in silver mists, the once darkened room, lit.

The dark hue of the almost broken racks, tables made from our forest's finest trees, and the fragile shining crystals reflecting the mystic hues of my creation, everything made clear up to this point, the same thing with the lists that Lexus managed to bring.

When my hands went up in the air, I could see the white fabric falling on both sides, as my fingers nearly touched the naked rays of the silver sun, my mind wandered to the endless loops of time, and a scenario played within my thoughts, of the possibilities if I had taken a different approach.

When the mighty breeze swayed my hair, and almost flushed my night clothes away, a chill passed my spine, but the iciness was replaced by the nostalgic warmth of the people that once held my hands.

"Vestia, you shouldn't come in such a dark place," Claudius would naturally say, soft chuckles escaped my mouth. But my vision continued to get blurry.

"That's because you're always leading her to places that made you curious, Claudius," Henry would argue.

"Yeah? Don't act as if you've never brought her to someplace before, Henry..." Claudius would rebut and then, I would be left off, as the two would continue to bicker.

I would then look beside me and see Anna's worried face. She would put both of her hands to her mouth and look at me with her eyebrows creasing. Then I would chuckle and tug the hem of her clothes and leave the two who would still argue.

I would hold Anna's hand as we would come to the garden, talk about a lot of things, and enjoy the sunny weather.

On other days, I would sneak out from Sir Feldin's teachings and go see Claudius' training, I would also see how Henry wouldn't stop teasing him until Sir Francis would be the one to come in between the two.

I would chuckle when Sir Francis managed to hit them in their heads. The two will naturally apologize to each other but my vision wouldn't avoid how their teeth were gritted by uttering those words.

"Here you go again, Vestia... sneaking around that's why I thought there was a lost cat in this household," Cain would say with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Lady Vestia, what are you doing in here?" Celna would come popping out of Cain's back to come and hold both of my hands and continue to lean in closer to me.

"Remember, you are nothing to me..." but the dreamy thoughts that I once had, got shattered and were replaced by the looming withering abyss of the past, as if a broken glass invaded every inch of my body bringing my sight to an endless, reverie of my past nightmare.

I looked around, and my vision was clearer as a day as if the things that happened with my current life were just fragments of my imagination.

When my sight gazed back to where I was, my hands continued to grip the cold, rotten cylindrical metal and my eyes wavered, the night clothes that I had previously been wearing were replaced by my old dirty ones, the garment I used during my execution day.

My mouth shivered when I tried to open and seek solace from somewhere, I heard this rattling, and yet poisonous laughter coming from a viper, but my vision negated my thoughts earlier.

It wasn't a viper that was in front of me, but a very familiar person that had once captured my heart to the endless sides of the world, a person that blinded my everything only to cause me all of it.

His blazing fiery hair that shone through the sunny skies, covered with damped and cold cotton, his skin that soothed my once fair complexion, his eyes that would look down every time he would gaze at me, and his lips that would always stay on flat, everything about the young man made my icy heart warm again.

It started its wheel and beat faster than before, and when I thought that I had set my sight away from that blazing light, it once had mine again, as if my head couldn't turn away, as if my breath was held back, and as if everything that I've been through was a lapse of dreamlike past I wished to have.

"I see, you're still in that reverie of what ifs, huh?" his voice that would always hit my skin hard and yet make this drum beat faster, became a terrifying nostalgia.

"W-What-----" I heard my voice as if the tone wasn't refined, it was like a whisper and yet, what came after was crimsonness that my hands managed to cover and yet they got tainted, when I tried to gulp them inside, I gained that metallic taste.

"Since you'll die later on in that arena, then I guess I should tell you something," he paused but he didn't fail to lean in towards the rusts.

His hands were inches away from touching it, but I could see that they halted when my eyes looked at his face, I could see that he was looking straight into my eyes, the only difference was the way his lips continued to curl up in a wider size.

".....remember that filthy being..." his words became vague, so I tried to resonate the way his lips were moving, but the only words I could understand were his last before my vision darkened once more.

"Milady? Milady? Milad-----" vague words came penetrating my ears, the vision that succumbed completely within the darkness, finds its way to the dimmed and yet blurred light.

As a silhouette appeared right in front of me, my mouth tried to open, my hands tried to lift their way and sought to hold a warmth that I'd felt before, and when I did, my vision got clearer and my eyes widened.

"W-Where am I? Am I not in-----" my hoarse voice reverberated within my ears but before I could even finish my words, the familiar silhouette of a man began pulling me closer until I got caged in his penetrating warmth.

"Milady, I thought you were going to die. I thought you're not breathing anymore and I thought----"

"You thought that I would fall into the abyss again?" I put my pointing finger in between his lips as I pull myself together and look this young man in the eyes, the same chocolate brown eyes I've seen before, a face that had creased eyebrows and shining yet wavering eyes.

The same vision I had with him when I first helped him in the past. So, that sudden thought coming to my mind like reality, was just fragments of the past and this is now my reality.

I sighed as I shook my head while closing my eyes for a moment.

"Again?" I heard him ask but instead of facing him, I put my entire attention on the window of my room. I don't know why I was even here in the first place when I was in the room that Doctor Brian created.

But then, the explanation for that event was already the young man still holding my being.

"Lexus, have you ever felt as if something from within your grasp suddenly slipped away but then, when you opened your eyes, you're still holding them?"

I heard him sigh as I removed myself from him and sat on the bed.

I tried looking at that silver sun once again, but my mind rested elsewhere when I felt his warmth covering my hands.

"I may never know what it feels like to be in your position Milady but---"

"Before you continue, you should always call me by my name, Lexus. It's already your third warning and I wouldn't tolerate it any other time"

I heard him sigh again but this time, he wasn't looking at me, his gaze lingered at our hands.

"Vestia, I once thought that my hands wouldn't be able to hold yours because I thought mine were dirtier compared to any other people, but you taught me that we all have different circumstances in life..." he paused and started caressing his warmth to my hands.

"But even if I don't know what you've gone through, I will always be here with you. No matter what, even if you don't say anything at all, I would never leave your side," I gazed back at those familiar eyes and my eyes started to blur again.

Just when I tried to hold on to the soft fabric of my clothes, they held someone's warmth instead.

If I had never met Lexus now, I wouldn't be able to know him better than the past self we have ourselves together.

"I believe you Lexus, and I will always believe in the promise you made with me. Just never die, because I forbid you to die not when I couldn't lose any more than what I have right now..."

That night marked a new beginning with the same shattering glasses of the past reminiscence. As if my soul had been reborn, the moment I was able to capture the golden rays in my sight.

"Milady, letters from noble households came early in the morning..." Rita said, pushing her tray forward and I could see the stockpiles of envelopes with different seals on them.

So Caliere wasn't lying when he said those words to me back then.

Thinking about his name, my drum should beat faster now, but it didn't. when my hand went to touch the middle of my chest, a shiver passed through my hand and it began to shake if Rita wasn't able to ask me again.

"It's okay Rita, you can leave those on the table as usual," I said dismissing her, but after a few seconds, she remained. I could see how her hands shook while holding the trays and her lips began to shiver until she bit them down.

"Rita, is everything all right?" Now, it's been my turn to ask her but she only looked at the ground. I stood from my bed and walked to her, I put both of my hands on her cheeks and softly lifted them.

Her eyes wavered and I could see how cold sweats started to bead from her forehead.

"Rita, is there something I should know?"

"Milady, I think you should know about this dark envelope..."