Even being an old toddler, Yacob thinks his father isn't going to survive by the end of wintertime. The doctor of the tribe has diagnosed the man with a sickness that can not be cured unless brought to the Moniyan Empire.
Along with the rest of the young members of the tribe, Yacob was not allowed to see his father until the man was cured, if being cured was even possible with his father practically lying in his death bed all day long.
"Is my father really going to be all right, Benedetta?" Yacob has repeatedly asked his only friend this question.
"Yes, he will be all right, so stop asking me the same question, Yacob!" The little girl complained. She was sitting at the dining table cutting up apples for them to eat.
Benedetta was currently assigned to take care of Yacob while his mother was nursing his father in the farthest hut from their home. She was to be by his side until the sun sets, when his mother would return.
But even so Benedetta would still stay beyond her due to help the fatigued woman prepare dinner and get little Yacob to sleep.
"I think my Mama is getting Papa's sickness, though," Benedetta hears him mumbling. " Yesterday before bedtime, she even told me I should learn to cook by myself, in case if she and him wouldn't be around anymore."
Benedetta stops her work, thinking he wasn't being sarcastic. The boy was too good for his age. "Did she really?"
"Yes. I'm scared, Benedetta! What if they'll leave me, one by one? There won't be anyone to comfort me anymore when I get nightmares every night, and I'm scared of the dark!" The boy begins crying truly that his face had turned red.
Comfortingly Benedetta pats his head. "Now, now, you cub. Don't act like me and the whole tribe will leave you too. So what if your parents are going to leave you? It's not like you're not going to see them again." She says softly, picking him up and sitting him down her lap on a nearby stool.
"W-When will I see them again then?" The boy whispered nervously.
"Someday and somewhere, where they're not going to be taken away from you anymore, where there shall be no demons."
"What are you talking about, Benedetta? What is that place? I want to go to that place now!"
"Yacob, Natura can only make that kind of decision. But for now, we eat apples, and hope that your Mama will soon come home with your Papa, hmm?"
The boy half-smiles. "Apples are delicious, Benedetta."
---
Before the servant could open the carriage door fully, a blur of fiery red hair flashed bypass him, having him fall to the ground on his behind, painfully in which the toughness in his scowl loosened into a pitiful frown.
"Oh, dear! I am truthfully sorry, Sir." Guinevere said wholeheartedly as she pulled him back into his footing in one motion.
"Miss Baroque," a formally dressed young woman Guinevere's age comes out of the school's entrance, causing Guinevere to gasp at the end of her heavy panting.
The woman, who seems to be a Professor, smiled apologetically to hide her quiet laugh.
"W-Where's Gwyneth?!" Guinevere paid no mind to ask her name, her voice almost echoing throughout the snowstorm. "Is she safe? Is she okay? Is she hurt-"
"Now, now, my Lady," the woman chuckled nervously. "All your answers will be answered soon enough. For now, follow me if you please."
Guinevere stares at the woman's too wide smile. Seeing the woman was uncomfortable with her stare, Guinevere tramps forward and shows herself inside, having once also a student, and an unforgettable one at that, of the Aurelia Magic Academy.
---
Gwyneth lies fast unconscious on the metal bed, alone in the female ward of the infirmary.
Distraught, Guinevere bit her lip seeing how high was the bed adjusted and the rails weren't being pulled up.
What if she rolls over?! Guinevere thought. And what if she falls...
The nameless woman beside the shaking redhead had stepped back from the Lady, dreadfully squinting at the sight of the redhead's clenching fists.
"Miss Baroque, a-are you o-okay? The Headmaster is already on his way-"
Guinevere exhaled heavily, turning to her with a fresh smile. "Miss, do you know what happened before she fainted?" Guinevere asked.
"The witnesses said she seemed to be hallucinating, and that her eyes were glowing purple."
Violet, Guinevere chose not to say but it did irked her very much. Blinking back to reality, Guinevere examined her daughter on the bed.
How Gwyneth has changed ghastly. Her complexion was paler and the bags under her eyes were barely visible.
"My poor baby," Guinevere murmured as she flicked her daughter's chestnut brown hair out of her face. "You look so awful, so, so..."
Having mustered enough courage, the woman walks over to place a supportive hand on the young mother's shoulder. Guinevere bursts into tears in the shelter of her palms. All she could think of was her daughter, and the reaction her husband would have when he sees their daughter's awful appearance.
The door creaked open and a short little boy with adorable blonde locks of hair runs inside. "Dorian, you shouldn't be here!" The other woman of the room told him sternly.
"Gwyneth dropped this!" The boy said, revealing a necklace in his tiny gloved hand. It was not a doubt it was Gwyneth's amulet.
Before he could be shooed away, Guinevere snatches the necklace from his hands, and it's as if she has been slapped by realization.
Speechless, Guinevere carefully lifting her head as she puts the amulet around Gwyneth's neck. Once the lock had been set, the pendant illuminated brightly yet the boy stared at it as if it were a star, making the woman cover his eyes.
The light begins to die down. Guinevere's heart had seem to stopped for a second when she hears Gwyneth choke as if she has been salvaged from a suffocating nightmare.