Chapter Text
“All you need to do now is rest! I’ll inform you immediately when our Mr. assistant is back!” Tataru pushes her into a guest room and shuts the door immediately. She sighs. Physically, she’s not tired, as a hero, she’s always ready to fight. But mentally, she is so exhausted. Everything happened in the First still haunts her. Maybe she really should sleep now. She needs a dream to help her relax, there still many things waiting for her.
Just as she lies down and closes her eyes, a voice comes from nowhere, “Well well, I must admit this is out of my expectation.” She jumps off bed. A tall figure stands around the corner, familiar poor posture, familiar grin, familiar gold eyes—Emet-Selch. All same as before, except the big hole impaled by her is nowhere to be seen.
“But how…?” she suddenly loses all her words, there are so many things she wants to ask, but she doesn’t know where to start, So she just stands still, mouth opened, eyes filled with unbelief. “I assure you, hero. This is not my little trick. I’m as confused as you. If you keep looking at me with that expression, you face will get stunned.” “Alright…then why don’t you just leave? Don’t tell me that you want to stay by my side.” She sits back on the bed. “Oh, believe me, I do want to leave. It’s merely…I couldn’t.” He shrugs, with that sneering smile on his face. “Couldn’t? Is there such a thing even a Sorcerer of Eld couldn’t do?” She mocks back, somehow she suddenly gets annoyed, all her grieves… “I suggest that you watch the clever tongue of yours, dear hero.” Though it doesn’t sound like that he is offended. “Watch, and feel.” He throws these strange words and begin to walk away.
Then she sees, as he stays away from her, aether starts to blink around him, which looks exactly the same as the day he “died”. But there’s something more than this-something is pulling her towards him, or pulling him towards her. An invisible tether links them together.
"This is ridiculous." She doesn’t know how she can still keep calm.
"Truly, I couldn’t agree with you more on this."
"Are you…a ghost now?" She asks cautiously.
He laughs, somehow that sounds much less sarcastic than he always does. "Ghost? You mean your ghost friend in the First? Oh don’t be surprised like that, I always know his existence. But it would lose so much fun if I disclosed your precious friendship. I wouldn’t choose that word ghost. One thing I can assure you is, I’m very much more alive than him. At least others can see and hear me too. I believe you don’t want to try this, do you?"
"Of course not! By the twelve, can’t you just go back to the darkness?! I’m so damn tired and you are the last thing I want to deal with now." She yells.
Suddenly he is inches close, and one finger presses on her lips."Shhh…hero. You truly want everyone outside to know that the mighty warrior of light secretly hide some man in her room?"
She blushes, no one ever did this to her before. "I, I’m not hiding you! It’s…"
"I know, I know. You are just so happy to see me again that you lose control of yourself." He teases her.
He really is the drama queen. She wants to contradict again. But suddenly she feels extremely sleepy that she couldn’t even keep her eyes open. The last thing she knows before falling into darkness is someone gently pulls the blanket over her and whispers by her ears, "Sleep now, my dear. More talks can be scheduled for another time."
Someone is calling her…
It’s not her name. Yet she know that voice is calling her.
Who is it?
She can’t recognize the voice, she can’t even tell it is from a man or woman.
She opens her eyes, finding herself standing in the rye. A warm breeze blows over her cheeks. Not so far away stands a luxuriant tree…a pomegranate tree. Someone leans against the tree, waving at her. But she can’t see their face, all she can see is just the black robe they wear.
She runs towards the tree. All of a sudden, everything begins vanishing around her. No, no, no… just a bit more close…she reaches for the figure…
"Hades !" She calls out.
Then she wakes.
The pillow is soaked by her tears. Why is she crying? Where is that place? Why did she call out that name? Is the person in her dream… him? How could that possible?
She looks around the room, there is no one but herself. He must be hiding in the darkness now. It seems she didn’t really shout his name out. She sighs with relief-that would be too embarrassing if he heard.
Until then is she aware of the knocks on the door. She glimpses at the clock on the wall-several hour has passed. It must be Tataru. She wipes her face hurriedly, jumping off bed and rushing to the door.