When Things Slow Down to a Stop

Elizzel’s memories were scattered all around. She couldn’t remember any of the previous Visitors that had come before Frein, but anyone, anything, and anywhere else throughout her entire existence in Brymeia she could remember pristinely. Of course, most details had eroded over the years, despite her not growing old. The passage of time simply had that effect. But the memories that she treasured the most remained crystal clear.

One of which, of course, was the High Palace.

The faunel knew her way like it was the back of her hand. Evanclad’s decree had indicated that the palace’s design was to remain the same for as long as Zerax’thum’s skull existed. Of course, repairs were allowed, additions as well, but the very foundations of the structure were to be left the way they had been made. The same was true for the crown. The Crown of the First Monarch. At first, she had no idea why that was the case, but knowing more about Destiny revealed that there might be some sort of importance for maintaining such a thing for so long.

Elizzel made a turn into a corner, waiting for a patrolling group to pass by. At the same time, she realized something. Destiny. She knew some things about it, but not all. It was odd, given that she had never once died throughout her years in Brymeia. Meaning, she was never replaced. Even from before the Divine Severing, she had been there, along with Alphazzel and some others.

So why? Elizzel could only conclude that she had given up that memory as well. As soon as the guards passed, she leisurely took her way up towards their room.

Although she had long, pink hair, her petite build made her small enough to slip through anyone’s sights at the slightest bit of distraction. She expected a lot of stationed knights here and there, and while they were a nuisance, her expertise of years hiding from attention gave just enough ways for her to reach her destination without detection. It wasn’t their fault; she was just that at home with the place.

Elizzel had her own key. Or rather, her Tether with Frein had developed enough that she had gained access to his Spatiera. A simple tug indicated to her that he had somewhat recovered enough to Draw. The Blood-Ribbon Tassel allowed for Frein to Draw the Art remotely, using her as the medium instead of his body. She retrieved it from within the spatial Art and entered the room, returning the key right after so Frein knew when to erase his Art.

It was an extremely convenient discovery for them. And she knew right away how excited the Visitor was to apply it in other ways.

The high-class guest rooms in the High Palace were enough to house an entire family. A bungalow style with a stupidly high ceiling that made Elizzel wonder why the architects of old had chosen not to build a second floor.

Maybe they housed giants before? It didn’t make sense, since those creatures were way, way larger. Besides, none of her memories indicated as such.

Everything they needed was there; bathrooms, beds, a kitchen, a living room, a dining room, a balcony—which had a literal garden—and more things and rooms than they really needed.

The faunel went to the bedroom to find no one there. The bed was left a mess, and like always, she found evidence that Katherine had had a little fun before climbing out of it. Assuming that the Lady of the Void had just woken up, Elizzel headed for the washroom.

On her way, however, she saw her sitting on the circular windowsill. Katherine was staring outside. Elizzel made quick work through her memories and figured out that this room coincidentally looked over the courtyard behind the High Palace. The Lady was looking at Frein and Scuti’s sparring session.

Elizzel approached, intent on dragging Katherine to her feet in order to help stop the Visitor’s madness. But before she took a single step, a soft sob escaped the woman in front of her.

“Kat?”

Katherine froze and relaxed almost immediately. She didn’t turn, but her hand tapped the other side of the platform, inviting Elizzel over. The faunel didn’t miss her using her other hand to reach for something on her face, however.

“I thought you’re with Frein,” the Lady said, still not turning.

“I was…” Elizzel sat beside Katherine. She could see the red in her eyes, and when she stopped, the Lady simply shook her head.

“Don’t mind me.”

“You can talk to me, you know?” Elizzel urged, inching closer. “I know you’re the strongest person out there, but you’re not immune to everything.”

Katherine turned to her, her lips pressed hard and eyebrows contorted. A single tear fell down her cheeks. When she realized, she desperately wiped it again.

“I hate stopping,” she said. “If I stop, I can’t help but think of the future. I think of what I should do when he’s gone. And I can’t… I just can’t think of anything.”

Katherine struggled between control and surrender. She kept shaking her head, her brown hair making messy waves. All the while, Elizzel couldn’t find the right words to comfort her.

They both knew the truth. They didn’t want to talk about it.

Elizzel’s heart ached for her. She gently held the Lady’s hands. They were trembling and wet with tears. At this point, she had forgotten her objective, only caring for this crying woman in front of her. Frein’s instincts kicked in from within her very core, her existence; she disregarded that. This was as much of her own volition as his. They both cared for Katherine.

“You should spend some time alone and tell him about it,” Elizzel advised. “I know how you two do that thing where you understand each other without saying a single word, but you can’t really rely on that for everything. If you don’t tell him, if you don’t make him sit down, then you can’t talk about it.”

“What’s there to talk about?” Katherine forced a smile, trying to act strong. She failed immediately, dejectedly looking down. “We all know how it ends. He doesn’t have any intentions to go against it. He just wants to make sure this world can survive after he’s gone. It’s…”

Her voice trailed off with nothing but pain on her face. She pulled the faunel’s hands closer, trying to cover her sobs.

“It’s stupid,” Elizzel finished for her, letting Katherine do whatever she wanted with her hands.

“Yeah.”

“Crazy. Idiotic. Unreasonable. Selfish. Egoistic.”

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Katherine nodded to each one of them.

“But you still love him.”

“I do,” the Lady of the Void whispered, gripping Elizzel’s hands. The faunel held them tighter.

“Say it, Kat.” Elizzel pulled back, revealing Katherine’s face. It was messed up by her tears, not to mention how vulnerable she looked right now. She couldn’t help but cry as well.

“I…”

They stared at each other’s eyes for a long time. Silence embracing them. Tears falling from their eyes. Elizzel urged Katherine once more. She tried again.

“I don’t want him to die.”

The words lingered for a long while as both of them tried to calm each other down. They never let their hands go.

“Tell him that,” Elizzel said finally, smiling. When Katherine didn’t say anything, she continued. “Tell him, that if he won’t look for a way, we’ll do it on our own. There has to be a way.”

The faunel pulled Katherine out of her seat, leading her out of the room. But the Lady held back.

“Wait,” she said.

“I’ll be there with you, Kat. You don’t have to fear anything.”

“I know. Thank you, but it’s not like that,” Katherine said, smiling. It was a genuine relief. “I need to wash my face. You should, too. He’ll figure out we’ve been crying, but we shouldn’t make it easy for him.”

“Alright.” With a smile, Elizzel led her to the washroom instead.

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The sparring session had devolved from a competition to a lecture. After a while, Frein had convinced Princess Scuti that she was completely outclassed—though she visibly loathed to admit it.

With some choice words, however, he successfully turned her tantrum into something productive. “What I can do, you can do as well.”

“Make me your student!” Just like that, Scuti was begging to learn from him.

The next few minutes became a dance between giving the Second Princess some tips and tricks while he navigated away from formally accepting her as a student. Frein could’ve just as easily said yes to stop her incessant pestering, and then just escaped stealthily later, but he recognized her age pretty well.

Despite the weird length of time being almost irrelevant to how quickly people of Brymeia matured, the personality profile Frein had for Scuti was typical for someone her age, sixteen. And so, he knew she would be taking every bit of his word seriously. Hence, his persistent avoidance.

“I turned sixteen two months ago,” she clarified. “What of it?”

“Your people age differently from mine,” Frein said, moving the topic away to something he could freely talk about. “But in most cases that I’ve observed, maturity factors are pretty much the same thing for both. Your external circumstances have great influence on how quickly or slowly you mature in life.”

“You’re saying I’m not mature enough?” Scuti said, making a rather huge swing at him. He slipped out of the way while twisting her wrist, forcing her to let go of her weapon. The sword dispersed into motes of meiyal. “Ow!”

“I’d say you’re mature enough for your age,” Frein explained as if nothing significant happened. “You’ve lived a comfortable life, albeit somewhat more eventful compared to others. But at the same time, you’re fortunate enough to have strict discipline enforced in you. As a result, you’re honest enough not to skip on your punishments when you clearly deserve them.

“Most people would just lie and say they did their time. Often, it comes back to bite them when it matters most. But you, as long as you stay true to your self-discipline, I’m pretty sure your genius would show.”

“What are you talking about?” Scuti said as she re-Drew her sword Art. “I’m not a genius.”

“There are two kinds of geniuses, in my personal, not-so-humble opinion,” Frein began while finessing his way out of Scuti’s attacks. His Art fatigue had dwindled down a long while ago, but he was having too much fun to actually Draw Siffera.

“First, there are lazy geniuses. People who rely solely on their innate talent alone. Take Frill and your sister for example. They’re both gifted in their own ways, but until someone like me showed up, they thought they were at the height of their current potential. Now they’re wishing they’d stayed diligently on their training.

“Second, there are hard-working geniuses. People who are either gifted or not. Regardless, for them, their innate skills don’t matter. As long as they find something in their life worth pursuing, and know that they have the potential to be great at it, they’ll do everything in their power to reach the height of their capabilities. And those people, Scuti, they find out that there’s always a higher mountain to climb. A higher goal. Something better than the best.”

Frein’s words had put a stop to the Second Princess’s attacks as realization hit her. He crossed his hands for emphasis. “I see, in you, Scuti Irista, that drive. The hard-working genius. I think, if you seriously apply yourself, you’ll outclass your sister in no time at all.”

Scuti’s hands trembled, but she quickly held her excitement back. “You’re just saying that ‘cause you know I’m easy to please!”

“I’m surprised you’re self-aware!” Frein said, laughing slightly. “While part of it is true, I’m not exactly lying. Just take your Meiyal Art for example.”

“Eternera,” Scuti said.

“Cool name.”

“Thank you.”

“I’ve never heard of anyone else using that Art,” he pointed out.

“Me neither,” Scuti nodded. “I was just training one day, and the pattern and the name just suddenly clicked in my head. I tried it out and I was surprised it worked. That was about five or six years ago.”

“And now, you’ve honed it to something personal to you. With some proper training, you can really go toe-to-toe with anyone, and even surpass them.”

“Does that mean, you’ll take me as your student?” Scuti’s eyes sparkled with anticipation.

“And I thought, you two were sparring,” Katherine said, appearing within the hedges of the garden. Elizzel was beside her.

“You know how it is,” Frein shrugged.

“How’s your Art fatigue?” Katherine leaned in for a kiss, performing meiyal resuscitation. She didn’t wait for Scuti to turn away. Both of them heard the Princess’s gasp, but they didn’t care.

“Why are your eyes red?” he asked as soon as they parted lips. He turned to Elizzel for an answer and was surprised to see the same. “Why do you both have red eyes? Were you two crying?”

“I told you, he’d notice it anyway,” Elizzel said.

“Can’t exactly wash it away,” Katherine admitted. “Couldn’t get a hold of it this time, Frein. Sorry.”

“No, that was… no…” In slight panic, Frein left Scuti to train on her own, pulling Katherine and Elizzel somewhere behind the garden. Conveniently enough, they found a table with some chairs in a hidden corner, nestled neatly between the hedges.

“Was it about me?” he asked.

“It’s always about you,” they said at the same time.

Frein scratched his head. “Umm… sorry.”

“This…” Elizzel sighed. “This isn’t how I thought this conversation’s supposed to go.”

“No, I mean.” Frein stuttered again. “It’s not like I don’t understand. And honestly, I was putting it off until we can actually find some time to rest before we seriously talk about this, but—”

“No, that’s fair,” Katherine said, forcing a smile. “It’s enough for me to know that you’ve given it some thought. If that’s the case, I can wait until after the Nightmare Incursion, before we have a serious talk.”

Frein got confused. “Wait. Just to be sure, we’re talking about me proposing to you, right?”

Katherine’s jaw slacked. Elizzel pressed a palm on her forehead.

“No?”

“We’re talking about your death!” Katherine almost yelled. She shot up from her chair, but Frein quickly stopped her before she could storm out of the conversation.

“I know, I know. I’m seriously thinking of that, too, Kat. Sorry. We’ll have that talk, too, okay?”

Katherine’s eyes contorted in pain, breaking back down to her chair and sobbing. She was hyperventilating. And as much as she tried to muffle it, she couldn’t.

“I’m sorry,” Frein said, enveloping her within his arms. She weakly thumped on his chest. “I’m sorry. That was my bad.”

Leaves ruffled behind them, and Frein quickly turned to see Scuti. She gradually came out of her Nature’s Favor.

“Sorry, I got a little curious,” she said. “Is Lady Katherine okay?”

Frein realized that the Second Princess’s desire to console Katherine had forced her Blessing to dissolve. That barely mattered for now.

“She’ll be fine,” he said.

“I’ll be fine, Princess,” Katherine said, quickly recovering now that they’d been discovered.

“It doesn’t sound like it.”

“Don’t worry, Scuti,” the Lady insisted, wiping away her tears. She beckoned the Princess over with a smile. “We’ll find a way to make it work. That’ll take some time, though. How about we introduce you to Elizzel instead?”

Frein gave a smile, trying to subtly convince Scuti to agree. She got the message. While they were busy pointing out the faunel’s mesmerizing, heterochromatic eyes, he began to think internally instead.

In truth, Frein hadn’t really given it any thought. He knew it would just end with his death. The Visitor, and all that. He was making the most of his year, his remaining time. Before, that was all that had mattered, really. That and Katherine. But looking at Scuti had made him realize something. He thought of Kristel, of Frill, of Xiv. Elizzel, Norazzel. All the other people he had met and befriended.

Frein began to smile, along with the tinge of regret surfacing within his chest.

Maybe I belong here…

Just then, a noise came from the front of the High Palace.