18 CHAPTER 18
"Take care, everyone." Deyonne waved her wrinkled and plumped hand as she stood by the wooden door.
After Yuna and Dale managed to find all that was written on their list, it's time to say goodbye. The three waved back at her before they entered the exquisite and sweet-smelling flower tunnel.
Deyonne's blind gaze was locked on the dark soul she recently encountered, Yuna, to be specific. A grain of hope fluttered inside her, hoping that just like how the dawning sun's splintering glow, the darkness inside her would not stay like that forever. This was the third time she encountered such an entity, and she knew well enough what caused every soul to lose its beautiful color.
Her hand felt the rough surface of the door and slowly closed it.
If darkness certainly represents evil, she would have not loved him at all. No, she still loves him. Time now's moving so fast for her, it's making her oblivious. She might not clearly remember what he looked like, but she could still remember the obscurity of his soul. She stood by his side the longest and she did everything for him, everything for his master. She then found herself wishing upon the Fates living by the stars. She wanted it to happen, but she could not...
--- To paint that emptiness away with even just a smudge of color.
She missed him that it's killing her inside. She wanted to see him again that it's making her yearn for death but, "Zyair would get sad," She mumbled to herself as her face wrinkled after forming a smile. Thankfully, she knew Zyair's not that lonely anymore. That's good to know.
"My," She muttered with surprise when another black glow caught her eyes, the second dark soul. It did not take her a minute to realize she just stood in front of a mirror, reflecting her soul.
Centuries of loneliness make the mind insane. It would make you crave for warmth or nothing at all.
-
"Will she be okay? I mean, she is alone." Yuna halted for a while and glanced back to the medieval-like cottage before the towering shrubs of flowers would cover it. She couldn't wait to go back there and explore more because she found some interesting stuff like brass, sulfur, stainless steel, and more that she was accustomed to before, a rock resembling a meteorite.
"Yeah, she'll be fine," Zyair replied as he waited for her to continue walking. His perspective about her changed after hearing his grandma's statement. His mind wondered about why her soul was that empty regardless of everything good that he noticed from her. It was kind of weird for him, actually.
Things were becoming questionable ever since she met her.
They continued with their journey until they arrived at the tower. Yuna and Dale continued the remaining works that are yet to be done while Zyair, he was just there by the shelves, silently watching them with his sad gaze. How could he even explain it to his comrades, or should he let them know about it or not?
As much as he wanted to stop thinking for a while, his wonderer-nature obliged him to do so. Because to him, he couldn't just leave any simple or abstract possibility, that darkness is [considered] evil. Nevertheless, if Omri completely changed her soul's color, then it was worth a try, is it not?
He frantically moved towards the door unnoticed, planning to meet Omri and his newly arrived comrades in the course of a meeting. Such a gathering was never something he likes to be in, not even once. If truth be told, he hated how they treated him as someone who deserved such kind of treatment where in reality, it's not but for Omri's sake, he should probably go.
"Fates, huh," His soft expression faded as he whispered those words to himself.
'It's such a bother that they are not real.'
He then silently closed the wooden door without blundering a sound behind.
--
By the Round Table of Old, under the majestic flaming sconce, there stood the eight valiant personas of the White Zephyr. Fierce were the eyes that ajar, clashing with each other's distinct gazes. A cacophony of diminishing flairs swathed each of them, for a minor dispute corroded their bond.
"The Southern Kingdom is indeed overflowing with Di'em [elixir]; how come the Council never told us about that?"
"They must have had a reason for it, we must trust them."
"No, they must let this truth be known to all the kingdoms, but they did not."
"They had been greedy on something they never own. If they did not confidentially keep such trove in the first place, then many were saved and still living after that bloody war!"
"The Council betrayed us!!!"
That last shriek aroused more commotion. None fathomed or even listened for their long journey to the bleak upshot unspoken truth. Worse, an unacceptable one.
Fretful he was, Omri couldn't do a thing. He's been aware of the situation but could not keep everyone in control; it was shocking news. It has been an hour ever since the ruckus started, robbing the chance for him to apprise Yuna's revival.
No, the fruit wasn't ripe yet.
"Everyone, please, settle down." His cry reached no ear. How he wished Zyair was here right now, they trusted Zyair more than their own Leader who was once a renowned traitor back on Doomsday.
Then amidst their raucous interjections, a faint knock, familiar and symphonic that to some extent, it fabricated peace. Solemn were they as their eyes darted to the gaping door, revealing the meekest of the meek, Zyair, and beside him were Manasseh and Hayden.
"Shall we start," Zyair spoke up with his wintry tone as the others gave him their humblest bow.
Omri, who was standing still in his same location, spurred a hint of amazement, for he watched how the whole opaque aura unerringly changed just by Zyair showing up. He smiled at the fact that he expected this scene to happen, he already lost his comrade's trust long ago, that he's starting to hope if he could just be like the guy who was mildly standing by the door.
Odd, is it not?
His identity as the Light Pillar would never define who he was but his past did, where his merely wrong conclusion started it all, that wrath.
In fact, that was how he lost her.
--
The sun was still shining, but they did a lot of stuffs. A wobbling tiny wooden nut floating in the sedated air has found its way atop a matching wooden bolt. Countless failed attempts of her manipulating an object sophisticatedly kept her going, trying to learn so-called magic herself. Sluggishly might it be, but her hard work won't be fruitless.
The nut then slithered into the bolt and started twirling around until it locked itself to place.
"Kyah!!! You did it, Teacher!!" Dale hoorayed with his hands up waving in the air after witnessing his teacher's trivial success. Never did she thought, she could be able to do such or never thought she would do so. Fascinated by her first success, she wondered what more could this power even do. Could she be able to explain such phenomena with science?
But such a hypothesis, not now. She carefully grabbed the moderate old-fashioned telescope with her soft and slender hands, stood up, and undusted herself up on her back. Dale stood next to her and followed Yuna sauntering on the stone floor towards the spyglass stand by the balcony, attempting to determine what she could unearth at the sky of this non-Earth world.
