8 Lumi

Alicia stood outside the door just waiting for the right moment to enter. She was preparing her heart which was full of disarray after what happened. She woke up in her room with all her wounds healed. The first thing she did was getting up and ran to her brothers' room. She saw him lying in his bed sleeping soundly so she was finally able to calm her heart.

He seemed fine so Alicia walked slowly towards his bed. She did not notice the atmosphere as she was so focused on her little brother. She did not notice the worried look of the people around Max. Her Mother was also crying when he held Max's hand. Alicia halted her steps when she saw this, something was wrong and she felt everything was her fault. Her father's face looks as if he was full of disappointment. She could not utter a word as she bolted out the room.

"It was my fault."

"If I was not too hasty going out without anyone knowing then things would not have ended up this way."

"It should have been me instead of my baby brother."

"I promised him that I'll protect him and yet I failed at the one thing that I told him I'll do." These thoughts kept repeating inside her head like a broken record drowning her in sorrow.

She then locked herself in her room not listening to the people calling and saying everything will be alright because deep down inside she knows it was her fault.

Back to the present time

"What should we do about Alicia, Robert? She hasn't shown her face for 3 days and she is blaming herself for what happened with Max." Anna said.

"It's not her fault. We all know something is wrong with this whole situation. After Max was born a lot of the other nobles have been creating troubles for us. However, once I found out who is responsible, they should make sure that I don't find them or else." Robert said full of killing intent.

"Mother said she will be coming to check on Max's situation." Anna was full of hope when Robert said this. "Don't worry, mother has her ways, we just need to believe in her. If it wasn't because the Crimson Kingdom has been attacking our southern domain then she would have arrived sooner. Father can't leave the enemy front lines but mother rode a Peregrine Falcon so we just have to wait patiently." Robert said to her wife while he held her hands.

While I was staying inside my consciousness unaware of what was happening outside I tried experimenting. I focused my mind on myself, I did try to reach for them with my non-existing arms but that was a failure on my first try however when I focus my mind I was able to form a shadow body here in my consciousness. I call it a shadow as it only has a shape of a "body" as it still felt immaterial and hazy. I could not make the body look like me. I wondered if it was because I could not decide if I should make my current body as my past life or the one which I reincarnated with.

Since I was able to make a shadow body in my consciousness, I decided to experiment with the stars all around me. First I tried to summon all the stars around me like the last time where they all came and surround me before they all went up to the sky. However, that did not work and it put a huge toll on my mind. This time I'm trying to use all my concentration on one of the stars. I was beginning to give up as it was hurting my head, but before I was about to give up there was a sudden change that happened.

I beckoned that one twinkling star and it suddenly came near me like a meteor, as it got close it became as small as a firefly dancing on top of my palm. As it swirled and rotated like a fairy, I looked at it intently trying to figure out what exactly it was.

"This is amazing, how mysterious and marvelous." I couldn't help myself as I exclaimed. I wondered what this little firefly light could do. It was warm to the touch and the feeling of light enveloping me was calming and relaxing. I tried asking it to move from one hand to the other and it followed my requests as if it understood me.

I tried talking with the firefly-like light however it does not respond with words. It does, however, move and rotate as if trying to answer my questions. Time was spent like this as I was fascinated with the little light around me. I did not feel like I was alone in this place.

Since I was bored and had nothing else to do, I decided to name the firefly-like light. As it was "light" I decided to call it "Lumi" short for luminescence. When I asked it if it liked the name the response was a buzzing light that kept rotating around my head. I believe that it liked its new name Lumi.

I felt like I started to form a connection with Lumi when I named her. I do not know if it was my imagination but there was a feeling of closeness. I am now considering her gender as female since if I was to be stuck in a world or realm, I would prefer my companion to be a beautiful fairylike woman. Fairies in my memories are very beautiful and elegant creatures. They look like the miniature version of an elf.

Though I just keep these thoughts in my head because I am starting to understand that Lumi can understand my words, if she is not really a female then I am sorry if I wronged her. I had plenty of time to think so my thoughts have been going about even the most unnecessary things.

This time I looked at the horizon with the tinge of blue and try to focus on that place.