Chapter Text
The days crept forward, but the ache remained...like a song everyone knew the melody of but couldn’t remember the lyrics to.
Diasomnia was bustling as usual, yet beneath the surface, it felt... wrong. There were no signs of a lingering curse or remnants of blot energy
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but something deeper had shifted, leaving behind a strange emptiness.
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Lilia Vanrouge stood in the common room again, his arms folded, but his usual lighthearted demeanor was absent but rather he was lost in thoughts.
His crimson gaze drifted to the students training outside. Sebek was barking commands, sharp and earnest as ever.
Yet every time Lilia looked at Sebek, he felt as if there was a missing voice...a presence that should have tempered the boy’s fervor.
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It was like..the
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Silent as the wind yet
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gentle us the moon...
He did not know what happened.....from all his life as a general. He was cautious and know the tricks and sleeves of people much less the actors..
His fingers drummed against his arm as he tried to put a name to that emptiness. Strange... He never felt this empty..after they died....
Maybe...someone with... silver hair?..
Silver...?
A flicker of a memory brushed against Lilia’s mind, then vanished, leaving only a painful throb behind. He winced, clutching his chest as if struck by a phantom wound.
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It was hurting him....
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He did not know why?
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He never felt this pain before..
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Much less experience it again...
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So why?
“Why does it hurt...?” Lilia whispered, more to himself than anyone else. “Why does it feel like someone special is gone?”
He did not know what is the cause yet he is afraid what is the cause. He may love mystery but this is another experience. It was like being back in that time again.
The thought made his head spin making Lilia violently shook his head. He had been unusual lately...
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Maybe....
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He just need some rest...
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Malleus stood on Diasomnia's balcony, the cold breeze stirring his dark hair. His golden eyes scanned the horizon, yet even the night sky ..the place he always found comfort.......offered no solace.
The moonlight felt dimmer, as if it were missing something, but Malleus could not understand what.
It had been always like this...
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After the overblot...
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His overblot incident...
He pressed a hand to his chest, an unfamiliar tightness settling there.
He could sense the unease in those closest to him...Lilia, Sebek, even the child of man.
Everyone was trying to move forward, but the weight of an absence they couldn't name dragged them down.
They couldn't figure it out..Why?
When Lilia entered the common room once again, pacing as he often did lately,
Malleus turned toward him. "You’ve been restless," he remarked softly, watching the elder fae carefully.
Lilia gave a sharp exhale, his frustration barely concealed.
“It’s this feeling. Like... there was someone. Someone important to me... But I can’t remember.” His voice dropped into something more vulnerable, a rare glimpse beneath his playful mask
“And it’s... painful.” He added.
Malleus regarded him quietly. This was unlike Lilia, and that only deepened the sense of wrongness.
His brow furrowed as he tried to reach for some memory that seemed just out of reach.
Auroral eyes flashed in his mind for an instant...soft, familiar, filled with quiet warmth.
A sudden sharp ache pierced through his head, making Malleus wince. It's happening again..
Lilia’s gaze snapped toward him, concern darkening his expression. "Malleus, are you all right?"
The young prince shook his head slowly, pressing two fingers to his temple. "It’s nothing," he muttered, though his voice lacked conviction.
Lilia's worried gaze lingered a moment longer, but he nodded and left the room. Malleus watched him go, unease twisting in his chest.
Whatever it was that haunted Lilia was haunting him too. And yet no matter how hard he tried to grasp the threads of the memory, it unraveled before he could make sense of it.
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He did not what it is...
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But something is telling him...
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He need to figure it out fast...
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In the heart of Night Raven College, other students struggled with the same inexplicable weight.
Conversations grew shorter, strained by a shared discomfort that no one could name.
And yet, in fleeting moments, they acted as though they were waiting for someone who never arrived.
During flight class, Jack Howl had a strange habit of glancing toward the tree-lined edges of the field, as if expecting someone to join.
When asked, he shrugged off the question, irritated but unable to explain why. In alchemy, Vil found himself setting aside an extra vial of potion before realizing there was no need.
Even Leona, despite pretending otherwise, kept waking from naps with the distinct feeling that he was supposed to be meeting someone much less have someone join him in his naps
At lunch one day, Ace, Deuce, Epel, Jack, Sebek and Yuu along with Grim sat together under the warm afternoon sun, their usual banter absent.
Cater lounged nearby, fiddling with his phone, though he wasn’t posting anything for once which was unusual while Trey was busy baking tart for an upcoming unbirthday party with Riddle and could not accompany him.
“Do you ever feel like... we’re missing something?” Kalim asked suddenly, his wide, innocent eyes flicking between the others.
Ace groaned, ruffling his hair. “All the time, but I can’t figure out what. It’s like...” He trailed off, searching for the right words but finding none.
"Like I forgot someone’s name or something really important."
“Same,” Epel murmured, resting his chin in his hand. “It’s frustrating. I keep getting the weirdest dreams too, but every time I wake up, I can’t remember them.”
“Yeah,” Deuce agreed, his expression unusually serious. "It's... like there's someone we should be looking for."
They all fell into silence, lost in their own thoughts. The feeling was maddening..like a name lingering on the tip of their tongues, or a memory slipping away just before they could grasp it.
Even the air around them felt heavier, as though something...or someone..was missing from their lives.
Cater suddenly straightened up, tapping his phone screen in frustration.
"Even Floyd’s been acting weird. Keeps calling people ‘jellyfish,’ and he’s squeezing folks left and right like it’ll make the feeling go away."
“Maybe he’s just being Floyd,” Jamil muttered, though his usual sharpness lacked bite. He tapped his pencil absently against the table.
“But... it’s not just him, is it?”
The others exchanged uncertain glances. Even Riddle’s temper had grown sharper lately and became irritable after he came back from the equestrian club.
They then looked at the green haired man who should be loud now and praise his waka-sama.
Now was silent as he keep looking at his silver spoon for some reason and occasionally take a bite of his food.
Even Sebek..while as loud as even seemed quieter in strange moments, as if expecting someone to cut in with a soft-spoken word.
Jack then sighed watching the scene infront of him, he even noticed some of the animals in the forest has getting restless while he was out for his morning and night jog as they often cry in sadness and mourning for something or
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someone they just lost.
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As the sun dipped below the horizon, casting the campus in twilight, Lilia stood alone near the edge of the forest.
He stared at the sky, lost in thought, the sound of wind rustling the leaves soothing but incomplete.
It felt as though a presence was meant to be beside him....a constant, quiet support. Someone who had always been there, though he couldn’t recall their face.
He closed his eyes, inhaling deeply. His heart ached with the weight of the absence, though he had no name to give the sorrow.
His sorrow always intensified when everytime he looked at the forest much less saw an acorn, which is ridiculous.
When he tried to remember it again, all that greeted him was silence and a dull, persistent pain.
"Who..." Lilia whispered, his voice barely audible, "was it...?"
The question lingered, unanswered, swallowed by the evening air. And as the stars began to dot the sky, the world carried on, unaware to what had been lost
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But somewhere, in the depths of their hearts, they all knew someone is missing. They just couldn't remember.
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Not yet.
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And perhaps... they never would.