𝕯𝖎𝖆𝖇𝖔𝖑𝖎𝖐 𝕷𝖔𝖛𝖊𝖗𝖘: 𝕯𝖆𝖗𝖐 𝕱𝖆𝖙𝖊

Chapter 33

***

Yui forced herself to get up, the bedsprings creaking with the absence of her weight. Darkness engulfed her; the only thing visible from her point of view was a skylight way beyond her reach. She stumbled across the room, bumping into familiar objects. The bookshelf on her right, the dresser at the edge of the wall, the scattered rosary beads beneath her feet. This was the room on the third floor. Where she had been kept for her first few months during her stay with the Sakamakis. Before Cordelia attempted to take over her body with the help of Richter. Yui pushed open a door in front of her, her vision now flooded with a blinding light.

Yui brought her hands towards her face, shielding her from the sharp rays. What was this? Was she falling into a multi-layered dream? How many times did she have to wake up in order to actually wake up? Smoke gathered around her, shadowing her from the bright light, drowning her into a peaceful dull light. Yui fell to the ground, her knees worn out and her body trembling with pain.

The dull light was interrupted with the shadow of a titanic form. Yui lifted her gaze, and was met with a pair of brilliant golden eyes.

Her skin felt raw and exposed, prickling up at the thought of witnessing him first hand. Her eyes assessed his tall frame, his hair that hung beyond his feet, the huge red cloak shadowing his form, a staff in his hand knocking gently over her knees.

"I didn't know what to expect this time," Karlheinz said. His voice was a soft baritone against her ears. Yui extended a hand towards the man, and saw a smile emerge upon his lips. "Eve," he greeted. Yui was pulled up with a tug from his long hands. Her legs still trembled in the sheer energy Karlheinz emanated from his immortal body. She squared up her shoulders, her gaze shifting from him towards the ground.

"I know you have a multitude of questions for me," he started, his hand wrapping around her gentle wrist. "But you need to see something first."

He took the lead as they walked out of the rom. Yui was very familiar with this place. A dome encircled a huge tree in mid-air. The floor shined like mirror, ripples travelling in every direction wherever Yui stepped. She gathered her tulle skirt in a bunch inside her fist, trudging forward as Karlheinz pulled her towards the tree.

The tree of life, it was called. There were two more trees similar to this inside the castle of Eden, the lair of the vampire king. The tree of knowledge, and the tree of the world. Yui halted beside the huge tree. Beside Karlheinz, Yui felt overshadowed by the tree, its golden leaves falling to the ground, piling up around Yui's feet.

"What happened to the tree?" Yui heard the faint ticks of a clock blending into the background. The vampire king turned his head towards her, cocking his head in a familiar fashion that evoked a certain pain in her heart. She sucked in a quick breath to suppress her surprise at the similarity of the vampire standing in front of her and that person.

"The tree signifies the circle of life," Karlheinz explained, his golden eyes glowing in the rapidly dimming light. "It sheds its leaves and regains them the same way seasons might change. This stage," he placed a gloved hand over the shimmering bark of the tree, "signifies death and destruction. Somebody is going to die, my dear Eve, and nothing will change it."

Yui looked at the leafless branches of the tree, running her hands along the gilded cracks on its trunk. How much did a life matter to an entity like him anyway? Dying was common among people like her. She'd been accustomed to death, witnessing funerals and burials in her father's church every other week, even in the small town she lived in. Death was a disease, gripping mortals from the day they were born, to leave them only after the warmth in their lungs was gone. Immortals, on the other hand, knew not the death that accompanied them, but the one they would meet in the form of a loved one, or an enemy. The sins of Eve were borne by her children, and the ones who evaded the fate were considered heathens themselves.