Farewell
Frill’s frantic search bore no fruit. Liona’s M.O.B.I.L.E. was unresponsive, piling on to layers of worries and uncertainty. The Aria in Red had spent the last couple of hours scouring the battlefield, paying no mind to any wounded soldier or lying corpse.
Even when the Jaws Lurking in the Forest approached from the South Valley, she only spared it a glance with a slight concern before resuming her search with doubled efforts.
All that mattered now was finding her sister.
It was just a feeling, an intuition, or maybe it was simply pure coincidence that Frill found herself near the eastern mountains of the Rindea Mountain Range. She made a quick decision and ventured into the forest. Every second she hesitated was a second wasted not looking for Liona.
Lesser marks of war, evidences of skirmishes won by the Princess, scattered everywhere she searched. The destruction and death here was more methodical, isolated and surgically executed. But with no other direction guiding her way, the Aria followed these echoes of war and headed further east.
She tried to call out with an echo Meiyal Art, but her voice had gone coarse from screaming. She had healed it repeatedly with Samesia, but this wasn’t her forte. Whenever she Drew it, the art tanked her meiyal reserves considerably and Gathering and Milling would only take away precious minutes.
Not to mention Art fatigue was creeping close.
Another hour had passed and the further she had gone, the lesser there was to follow, but still no evidence of her sister.
Frantic, she decided to give Liona’s M.O.B.I.L.E. another call. No response. The frustration and fatigue caught up to her and she threw her own device in a fit of rage.
Her Siffera lapsed and smoke started to trail from her body. Immediately strength left her and she ran out of breath.
Frill tried to calm herself down. Letting her emotions control her actions was another weakness Katherine had pointed out numerous times.
The thought immediately straightened her senses and she allowed logic to ease her nerves from a wreck to a somewhat fragile control. It had to be enough.
The Aria shook her head and Drew her Meiyal Art once again. Siffera stabilized after another significant cost of meiyal. She approached her M.O.B.I.L.E. that imbedded itself quite deep into the ground of a nearby tree. Thankfully, the device was sturdy.
As she reached to retrieve the device, a peculiar object caught her attention. Wedged underneath the root of the tree, just beside the hole, was a piece of folded paper. Curiously, she picked it up while absentmindedly storing her device. Within were two sentences she never thought she would see.
> She’s further ahead.
>
> I’m sorry.
Without thought, without question, Frill dashed through the forest. She passed by another remnant of a skirmish, but didn’t find her sister there. She continued on for another half hour until the path opened to a small clearing.
Trees had fallen away as though a great force pushed and uprooted them within a small radius. Upon the edge of that small circle, on a tree indistinguishable from the rest of the forest, she found Liona.
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Kneeling. Covered in blood. Unmoving.
Frill stepped ever so delicately towards her little sister, hands shaking and legs giving way. Her sister leaned helplessly against the tree. The once lively and bouncing royal retainer knelt in an awkward position, head drooped and arms fell at her sides as though life no longer lingered within her. Her raven hair swayed gently with the slight breeze.
An axe, Vyndivalian, stuck itself deep from Liona’s left shoulder, running down through the middle. There was no denying it. Her heart was part of the fatal wound.
Frill fell to her knees, hands hesitant to touch her sister’s face. She feared that such a gesture would mean acceptance of her sister’s identity and death. With a jerk, Liona sprung to action instead, gripping Frill’s hand with uncontrolled strength.
“Take it,” she said with great effort.
It only meant one thing. Liona wanted Frill to take away her meiyal system.
After a quick and panicked investigation, Frill realized the axe was made of Vynore, imbuing it with meiyal-breaking properties. It made slicing through a Siffera-empowered body an easier task. And the wound would stay, making it more difficult for a Meiyal Art like Samesia from healing it.
Frill refused to believe that there was no saving Liona.
“Just...take it.” Liona’s shallow breathing were accompanied with tears. “Please.” She gripped her sister’s hand with all the strength she had left. She coughed up blood and started to hyperventilate.
All color had drained from Liona’s face and everything that was supposed to bleed out had long since left her body. How she was still alive was a mystery to Frill, but maybe that was something she could cling on to.
Desperation and denial.
“No!” Frill forced her hands and Drew Samesia despite the truth in her sister’s condition. Her vision blurred as tears started to form. “There must be something I can do.” She knew she had to pull the axe to complete the healing but she focused on the outer wound first.
Even that proved to be impossible.
“Sis,” Liona pleaded, her strength starting to diminish. “Before it’s too late.”
No one would survive without a meiyal system. Even Vyndivalians had their own, adapted to a different form, but a meiyal system nevertheless. What Liona asked of Frill was essentially salvaging a functional tool and throwing away the shell.
Frill couldn’t throw away Liona.
The Aria’s purple eyes glinted with sorrow. Any attempts to heal were unsuccessful. She was left with no choice but to grant her sister’s final wish. It was the least she could do…before it was too late.
She activated all nine of her meiyal marks and revealed the rest of the hundred. The shine they made were like tears going out of control.
Taking a meiyal system was an act similar to the fusion technique with permanency as the sole difference. Frill began the ritual by holding her sister’s hands.
Their intentions responded with the meiyal around them, surging and coalescing with enough density to bring about a mixture of vibrant colors.
“Do you, Liona Veli, offer your life…” Frill couldn’t control her voice. Every word, every syllable felt heavy and sharper than the axe imbedded into her sister. Liona’s grip urged her to continue, “offer your life to mine?”
“With all...” a deep breath, “my heart and soul. I offer you, Frill Veli…everything I am.”
Light burst from Liona’s right foot where her meiyal core resided. The light moved slowly, travelling across her body and merging into a singular point. It moved towards their connected hands and eventually found its way onto Frill’s meiyal core, striking shapes of lightning on each respective mark.
“Protect the Princess,” Liona showed a weak smile. “I’m sorry, sis. Even in the end...I wasn’t much help.”
The final lightning streak formed on Frill’s meiyal mark and the ritual ended, dispersing the light into little glitters of meiyal residue.
“I love you very much.”
Liona’s head fell lifelessly, leaving her to die on her knees. Her hands lost their strength and the final breath escaped her.
Then there was nothing.
“No…please.”
Frill delicately held Liona’s face. Even such a careful action nudged her sister’s body sideways, threatening to fall.
Panic.
“Liona!”
Frill stumbled, losing her balance as she desperately tried to catch her sister. She held Liona tightly, trying to nudge her out of her sleep. Tears no longer able to stop. As if to add insult, the axe slipped itself out of her sister’s mortal wound.
Pain, loss, anger, sorrow.
A storm of emotions where none seemed to take over. Meiyal mark after meiyal mark, each of them steadily manifested, forming sparks from her gleaming eyes.
Frill wished it was her instead. Take her sister’s place so that she would be spared the pain and endure less suffering. She wished Liona knew what she was feeling right now, balled up and torn apart in an unending torture. She wished to know her sister’s killer. She wanted to know why. Why her? She wanted vengeance, a form of closure.
Her screams and cries for justice were masked under the absurdity of the awakening.
Trees fell, the earth quaked, the sky rattled, the winds roared. Auroras filled the skies with shimmering colors while strikes of lightning wound the ground. Geysers erupted and twisters formed. Space itself was torn apart.
Darkness and light collided.
And still nothing.
Nothing would bring back the dead.
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