𝕾𝖔𝖓𝖌 𝖙𝖔 𝖑𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖊𝖓 𝖙𝖔: 𝕮𝖗𝖚𝖊𝖑 𝕾𝖚𝖒𝖒𝖊𝖗 𝖇𝖞 𝕿𝖆𝖞𝖑𝖔𝖗 𝕾𝖜𝖎𝖋𝖙
***
When my gaze descended on the sweet aroma of the air that I'd never set foot in, until a young man I'd met, introduced the place, made the view seem like it was an old cavern where secrets were held, and outside of it, was just like a fine market diner.
People that I've never encountered in the past, seemed to linger their souls on mine, as I felt that my coat had been darted with holes from different areas.
But then, a calm and soothing voice went to caress my ears, enough to give warmth from one of my shoulders where his silhouette had me covered.
"Don't mind them," simple words, deep husky and yet whispery voice that became one with the ashes of wind came to be pinned within the ambers of my chest.
That's when my head went to look at the figure and there, I saw that shining appearance, a trait that I'd never met but felt familiar with, a smile that made me envision a person that reminded me of royalty.
But then, I couldn't even blurt out the words that I wanted to, not when I would be making the same mistakes again.
The gap between his lips, and the warmth of his minty breath, everything reminded me of a specific person who defined the longing and yet pain I felt when he left me at that moment to join the forces of the Beflore East, a friend that I once had in the past, until we lost connection.
Now that we've been reunited, I have learned some of his secrets that I never thought to have found in my previous life.
Was it such a coincidence or was it because I've never known more than what I know now in the past? Perhaps, because of that crimsonness as if it served my blood, a red light that I should have known was a warning, but it indeed caged me to be captivated, instead.
With the swaying of his brown hair that was different from his, the eyes that shone from the brightest light I've ever seen in my entire life, was a light brown that was never like him and yet, why do I feel like every time I see him, I would compare him to Verfeil?
Shaking my head with my thoughts still intact in my mind, I felt the tight grip of his long and thin fingers surrounding my hand, as if reforming them to be intertwined together.
I felt a different warmth from the people who tried to envelop their hands to mine, it was indeed making me feel as if I was floating in a distant sky, where I couldn't see anything but clouds.
From the soft whispers that turned like burnt ice in the penetrating wind of coldness, I felt my eyes shift from Crane to where our current feet halted. I found we were walking on a wooden floor, with some wooden walls, and in front of me, I could see a very familiar man.
He had his arms put together on top of his wide and yet old-looking table full of papers on the right side with pens and ink on the other. I could even see the wrinkles from his hands and some tints of black ink with his sleeves being crumpled and yet that sinister lips that couldn't be put down remained.
When I roamed around like usual, he had his men surrounding him, they were all wearing this dark cloak as if becoming one with the darkness of his room, but the edges of his seat were enough to call the lining of the rays descending on my soul.
As I felt Crane's fingers almost crumpling my skin, I looked at him not having his gaze on me but at the old man, he managed to save in the past. I could see his eyes narrowed with him almost biting his lower lips if I didn't give him the same intensity of his grip, he wouldn't have averted his attention to me at the moment.
"Are you all right, Crane?" I managed to ask and I saw how his eyes widened for a moment before the gap between his lips formed a curled-up smile, and his face softened like that of a very familiar face.
"Silly, I could never be more than all right when you're with me, though I am puzzled why you would only seek me out in the market..." his voice became softer as words went by and I felt like I was becoming more engrossed to his light, a reverberating light that once captivated me.
His hands, soft like a cloud that I couldn't touch enough, descended on my hair and messed it up a little, then drew the edges of my hair as if trying to curl what was already curled in it making it bounced when his warmth was no longer in mine.
"Well, it's the only way I could see you, and you know, you're always mysterious about your household when you said you're a noble. Still, you wouldn't tell me which..." I almost rolled my eyes when all I could think of was that moment when he said those words.
But then, I could only hear his sweet chuckles reverberating within the place, and as I was about to open my mouth again, I heard some coughs in front of us and Crane's hand went to where mine was and tried to envelop what was already left as frozen.
"Young master crane seemed to be interested, oh, I guess interested is not the right word, since you two were friends. Wait, let me look at what it was..." the old man said with his eyes narrowing but it was descending on different places.
His inked hand that was intertwined earlier was now under his chin while his eyebrows couldn't stop themselves from knitting. His lips which were curled up like a devil's grin, became crumpled as if he was searching for something and yet he wasn't sure if he had found it or not.
I tried to look at Crane but his eyes continued to narrow and I could only sigh secretly while shaking my head.
The air within the room was becoming cold and yet no one seemed to make a move. The silhouettes of grayish edges remained intact on the sides even though the linings from the old man's seat continued to move.
"Oh, I knew now, I guess it's about that word you can call unrequited----" but then, before the old man could finish his words, I heard someone snap, but I couldn't know where it was, and at that moment, with a blink of an eye, the old man's mouth was closed and yet he might be saying something within his throat.
And another snap came echoing but this time, the next sound was enough to make me look in front of the man with both of his hands on his desk. The table even vibrated with some papers dancing to the ground some ink splashed on the paper, and the veins within his hands appeared while gripping the edges of his table.
His mouth was opened wide, with his breathing was like a heartbeat in a run, with his chest doing the same beating of a drum.
But the next thing I knew, I could only gulp because the edges of the old man's men's swords were already pointed at our throat.
I don't know who was it that made or even cast a spell on the old man, but it felt like the men who were cornering us for a moment were being pushed by an unknown force and when I tried to look at Crane, he had already narrowed his eyes.
Just like Oratio had taught us, when I put my aura in my eyes, I couldn't help but almost gasped.
Crane was a magic user but then how and why?
I tried to talk to him, but it felt as if my throat was dry, that the only thing that's been keeping me alive within this room was him all along.
"Stop, all of you!" the old man managed to speak and the men had already gone back to their previous position while the man earlier was already holding his throat while trying to sit in a normal way.
He loosened his suit untied some of his buttons and shook his head before finally exuding some built-up air within his body then after some seconds, he finally looked at me with narrowed eyes, but the edges of his lips changed.
It's now flattened, and yet I managed to bring back the same intensity of his stares.
"I guess I have to apologize for my misjudgment, earlier, Young Master Crane, but it seemed that your friend was just something else," still his eyes darted to mine before closing his and sighing once more.
Accompanied by his breath coming out from his mouth, his hand moved to his drawers enough to open one and pulled a very dark envelope with a seal.
"Hercius, come here," he said and a man with a mask different from the others appeared like a black smoke. He knelt in front of the table with both hands in open palm.
"Did you bring the seal?"
"Yes, My Lord, I managed to bring it..." said the masked man named Hercius, his voice was dark as if enough to cover the sky with its cloak.
Then he pulled something from his pockets enough to make the old man nod.
"Give them to the lady beside the young master," when he said those words, I saw those eyes, as if black like the abyss where I've been, it came swirling through my mind and the only way to keep me alive was the warmth I've been feeling from Crane.
"Don't worry, you have me, Lady Festin..." With that mouth uttering a false name, I still held on to them as tight as my grip from his warmth.
The man knelt in front of me and before I touched the paper, a light shone, and the light carried the things to my hands.
"I guess my instincts were right all along, but given that you're young master Crane's friend, I wouldn't expose your secrets now... so go on, have that information from the war, in exchange, give me the tradition that the Monsiore family had..."