"So, you see Seraph, the sooner you realize it isn't about you, the more space you have left to take in everything", I'm sure she was going on about something that I'd been the culprit of starting.

"Ah...yeah. What was this about again?", I was a little on the verge of dozing off.

"Oi, oi! You weren't even listening, were you? God, you'll never be as good as Chopper!", she snapped.

"What? Lady, so you're just using me to replace Chopper, are you?"

"Oh, so you're awake enough for this? Well, of course! That idiot's up and gone missing again. For so long! This time I'll really-"

"Lady", I suddenly remembered something, "Lady, Lady! I heard you've got some really valuable treasure on you. Is that really true?"

"Treasure? Like the one that everyone has?"

"Hmm, well, I don't know. But it's something...err, what was it?", I pondered for a minute.

While it looked like we were drunk, in all honesty, we weren't....says every drunk ever.

"Ah...that little box you got on your table. That jewelry box", I finally remembered.

"Jewelry box?"

"Yeah, the one on your table."

"Ah!", she got lost for a while, "Oh, it does look like a jewelry box, doesn't it?"

"Yeah."

"It might actually be one. Or not. No, actually, it isn't one. Hmm, for sure", she was still half lost in thought.

"Then, what is it?", I asked carelessly.

"The treasure?"

"What?", I was completely lost now.

"What?", and it would appear, so was she.

Then we fell into a very long silence, with an occasional sigh from either of us. It was just the kind of weather that gets you sighing a lot. I don't remember particularly what it was, but probably just a sighing weather.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

"Well, Lubbock told me, see, that you built Valhalla because there's a treasure you needed to protect."

"Ah, that treasure! So you thought it was the jewelry box?", she asked.

"Is it not? Ah, I don't mean the box itself, but whatever's inside it."

"Oh, no, no. You are on the right track about the box."

"Uh-huh. Sight told me not to ask you about it."

"Is that right? I suppose they are more afraid of me than I imagined."

"Afraid isn't quite the word", I opined, casually.

"So about this treasure, what did you want to ask?", she asked.

"Hmm, well nothing in particular, but whatever you'll tell me. For example, is it a gemstone or some secret map?"

"Which do you think is more likely?", she smirked.

"Neither."

"Right?", she chuckled. I smiled coyly.

"Well, is it as valuable as that?"

"Hmm, I've no way to be sure. But the truth about that box is pretty mundane really. You see, its empty. What was inside it already got stolen a long time ago."

"Huh? But you keep it locked."

"Hmm, that's because I don't want to look inside and confirm the situation. That would be a bit...bleak."

"But you sound sure that it got stolen."

"Mm hmm, I am."

"...", I stared at her, perplexed.

"I am but...you could say the box itself is the treasure now. Even if what was inside isn't there anymore."

"Its empty inside", soon as those words left my mouth, I felt the box wasn't that different from her. It was, in a sense, a perfect twin of her.

"But see Seraph, as long it stays locked, it hasn't lost its intrinsic value at all. It is still the same treasure box as it was when it wasn't empty. Something that doesn't exist holds the same value as something that does. I find that intriguing. But that isn't the sole fact that adds to the value of that box."

I knew that, of course.

"So, what will you do with that treasure box, Lady?", I asked after a pause.

"Nothing in particular. When I die, that box will still be here but since I'm the only one that knows what used to be inside it, it won't be able to stay locked. So if someone opens it when I'm dead, they'll know of the emptiness and it will lose all value. They'll probably toss it away. You could say, the life of that treasure box will come to an end with the end of my own life."

And thus my belief was solidified that the box was her perfect twin. Actually, she was the box and the box was her. But the more I thought of it that way, the more insignificant her life began to seem to me. So I decided to shake off that analogy.

And so I did. That's when I realized that Lady didn't build Valhalla to protect that box. The treasure Lubbock was talking about wasn't that jewelry box on Lady's table.

Lady owned nothing more than that. The jewelry box, the cigarette pack with a single smoke inside, waiting to be lit, and the lighter which wasn't even hers but Chopper's. That was all she owned.

I once chanced upon her chamber while wandering through the perpetual labyrinth that is Valhalla's inner chambers. It was empty. Like a freshly dug grave. In one corner, her fur coat lay sprawled and in the other, she was sitting motionless against the wall. And I'd thought she wasn't alive. If not for the moonlight throwing itself on her dull golden hair through the sole window in that chamber, I wouldn't have known that she was awake.

I barely caught a glimpse of her eyes. They were open, vacant but open. She was emptily staring out of the window towards the moon that was kind enough to shine even on her soul. It took quite a while before she noticed me. But her look wasn't welcoming, as if she didn't recognize me. I swiftly closed the door and walked away, telling myself I hadn't seen anything.