In Hopes to See Him

What we once saw in euphonic saturation and lasting calmness of the windy meadows and the village that peacefully slept in them has now become the city of mourning. Shedding rivers of tears was unavoidable for the last couple of days.

Voices of sorrow and quiet speech quickly cracking into misery could be heard from a mile away. After all, the village did morph into a state of yearning for its loved ones.

The ceremony had officially started.

Two days ago, the military of Hythwin district raided the village under the Lord's definite command. This left the public in severe shock and great question — the village located in the meadows contained more than ninety percent of elders in it, meaning that most of the people in it had over fifty years of age.

A large percentage of the village was brought to the camps that are now officially down and was slaughtered mercilessly. No question, no hesitation. This was always the true face of the bribed military.

The wooden front porch wasn't cleaned in a long while therefore the yellow flowers were left up the stand of the sturdy fence of the porch covered in a dark shade that the roof of the house laid to rest. Once the porch had been cleaned, the flowers would have been transported down to where they originally would have stood and bloomed.

It seems like the yellow flowers will stay right where they are.

One of the unlucky villagers queued for execution was none other than Mosel, Eivör's stepfather. It was reported that he had died a quick death in one of the camps just a little below two days ago. Now the flowery house will remain unoccupied until further notice.

The entire village remains in mourning, therefore a whole week of ceremonial funerals were taking place. Loved ones would visit the deceased, honor their passed lives and cuss at the God and Lord for betraying them once again.

She never cussed at God, albeit most people around her would never hesitate to do so. They would scratch the surfaces of extremes in terms of cussing and verbally spitting the unknown in the clouds.

It was so simple. She never believed in God, therefore no reason for her was created to humiliate something that she thought that wasn't even real. She hated churches and holy places, all of them. Deceitful things as such shouldn't be allowed to manipulate her mind and conscience.

With all this in mind, this day offered a slight change and an unusual trait.

Eivör stood as a stone with tears in her eyes escaping and rushing down the lower eyelids, rolling through her soft cheeks. As we mentioned before and still remain to, her despair did not seem to cease to grow and invade her weakened heart full of dizzy emotions.

Her self-assigned task was to tidy and bring the wooden house to its brightest glory this one last time. The task would include moving things around, putting the yellow flowers to the sun's warm light where they originally should have bloomed and to settle the living area down, followed by parting and by the abandonment of this residential object.

But she couldn't bring herself to do so, she just couldn't.

Instead, she continued to curse herself and even the thing up in the white clouds, which she would never do.

An itchy thought of a curse popped up. With all things taken into consideration, the possibility existed. However, we will say for sure that it was no curse, just someone who was left with no more motivation to live on.

You see, when a series of unfortunate circumstances and events seem to grab you by the leg and follow you everywhere you make a step, you isolate yourself from any positive emotion. How could you even grasp it? The shadows are too dark for you to notice light in such a state.

So she just stood like that, imitating a lifeless statue.

Then she started moving her beautifully dazed pupils around and blinking faster than usual. She noticed a silver ring sitting on a damaged table in the corner of her vision.

That tiny little shining silver ring belonged to her mother whom she loved more than anything in this pitiful world, Eva Stitch. It was always in the possession of Mosel since Eivör seemed to be away from home quite often. Feel free to bet, it was his treasure for sure. He kept it safer than the eyes in his head.

Questions and horrible statements started attacking her mind, all presented by the endless reverie and the long nights. They truly were long to the point where she thought their duration couldn't grow, but from this moment on, it only seemed like they would be even longer.

Even yesterday, while sleeping with eyes wide open, she would feel the breathing of the deceased tingling against her cheeks as she would hopelessly stare at their dead black eyes. She kept staring face to face with parts of her dead family, dead comrades and dead friends. It felt so translucent and so lonely.

She finally made a flimsy gesture and started moving, but not towards where she was supposed to go. It seemed like that old table really caught her interest.

Trembling, she picked up the silver ring. She stared bluntly into the white noise of the wall and squeezed the ring she held in the vastness of her palms.

Teamed up, regret and despair would start stabbing her.

The shadows are too dark for you to notice light in such a state. But it's there.

In this sorrowful moment she recalled one of her reveries. Light green grass, fresh morning air, thousands of friendly bees and "him". They were happily rolling on the grass. In one moment, he was on top of her, spreading her hands like a star and safely holding them.

They were only staring at each other, but he started getting close. Her face began going red like a luscious cherry, but nonetheless, she felt peace.

This was the second time she was this close to him, or per say, he was close to her. But she never noticed the spark in his emerald green eyes up until now.

She wanted him.

Most definitely, he wanted her too.

Thoughts like these allowed her body and muscles to relax and make the dark duo of regret and despair fade away, at least for a while.

The silver ring fell down to the shrieking floor and rolled to the other end of the room. Her hands fell down lifelessly. She took a heavy inhale and started wiping the tears off of her face.

When she turned around to pick the silver ring up, it wasn't there. Its place exchanged some legs covered in big black-red boots.

It was Abel, the Python.

"Dropped this?"

"M-Mh."

"Everything is set up. We should get going, hun."

"—"

Eivör didn't seem to respond.

Unfortunately, Abel knew how Eivör felt more than anyone. She gave her silver ring back, put it in her pocket and looked at her calmly. She could very well notice the pain flowing through her.

Abel turned the other way, glanced around the lonely house and put one hand on her soft cheek while the other was reaching out towards Eivör to catch.

"I suppose we can clean this place up first, huh? Need a helping hand?"

Eivör released a gentle smile and nodded her head in shy silence. Together, they cleaned the house and prepared it for its sleep. In the end, the flowers were moved to bloom after all.

Upon finishing her part, Eivör proceeded to check on Abel. She sure was picky about cleaning, no doubt about it. An old rag and a bunch of rubbing was all that it took, surprisingly. Abel's efforts in bending over, climbing the not so sturdy chairs to reach certain items and hard rubbing paid off in the end.

Shortly after, they left all the possessions in the house as a part of a memorial and shut the doors closed for once and for all. Eivör didn't expect this day to come so early.

Later, they took a walk around the ceremonials.

Mosel's gravestone was just like anyone else's — a lousy gravestone made out of cobblestone with no additions or characteristics, in other words, as bland as it could be. In this unfair world, no one deserved to be considered special. Respect was nonexistent. The only people that would get larger gravestones were the people in the capital and most likely the Lord himself, if he ever managed to kick the bucket, that is.

Eivör did not hesitate, not at all.

At first, with heavy, burden like slow paced steps, she went to the garden that was home to dozens of succulents and colorful flowers. She picked a couple and split them from the ground.

She collected all of the prettiest flowers and herbs she could find and came back with bees surrounding her in secret due to the presence of the numbers of people around her (compromising the fact that she was one of the seven was obviously not an option).

She placed the flowers she had picked on top of Mosel's grave. The bees then started aligning one by one, giving an oath to guard the grave from ever being messed up or even slightly damaged.

In the middle of this process, Abel spoke up.

"We still have a few more graves to visit, don't we?"

"—"

Without a single spoken word, Eivör stood up from her knees and started walking away. After only a few seconds, she was already gone. It was clear that she was under the spells of unbalanced moods.

Abel was well aware of Eivör's downed state and of its inevitability, therefore she was much more cautious than usual, even if she appeared most sentimental out of all seven. With drowsy movement casted by Eivör and cautious observing by Abel, they both moved onto the next spot. Eivör was in lead and Abel followed shortly after.

The scene that Eivör walked into made her heart shatter into a couple of more pieces. She thought that that was not possible and that it couldn't get any worse, but there she had it. All of their names were written on their tombstones, but the graves had no bodies in them. She started reading the names that were engraved in the cold stone, until she read the one that struck her the most.

Masuda Honnin. A name that is now of no use, and will remain defunct ever since.

They were truly gravestones with no remains in them, with the cause of death not fully determined. To Eivör, these were the complete awful and disregardful opposites of a true memorial. Her saddening self tried justifying the imagery, but it didn't take her long until she led the way for a couple of more tears to roll down her soft cheeks once again.

Once calming down, she stared silently and accepted to do the same procedure as she did with her stepfather's grave. Flowers, various colors and guardian bees did the trick.

But it left a permanent emptiness nonetheless.

The ceremonies had finally started calming down and people would slowly start heading towards their quiet homes, at least for the day. The morning was surely fading as the sun was climbing its way up the partially cloudy sky.

With the late morning breeze gently carrying their hair, Eivör and Abel made silence where they sat. The now occupied rock near Eivör's empty residence told a story through sniffs and exhales about how home was not the same anymore, and most likely never will be.

Through tweaking her bottom and adjusting the way she sat, Abel finally managed to find a comfortable position on the hard rock. Eivör, on the other hand, didn't mind the displeasure of discomfort. It was more than obvious that she was down and Abel couldn't bare it no more, so she started comforting her poor nature.

"We've exceeded the given time already, hun. Since it's you, I'll overlook it."

"What's the point?"

"Was there ever one?"

"…"

Eivör was speechless.

"Look hun, I know you've lost a lot of people. You'll keep losing them too. We've all been there, I know you know it. These are the requirements and the sacrifices for a better tomorrow."

"A better tomorrow? Who promised such a foolish thing? I never" —

"No one."

"—?"

"No one promised a better tomorrow. That's why we need to continue believing in it ourselves, because if we don't, no one will."

"That's a highly irrational thing to do, now that I think about it. We are the only fools in the world then."

"We just might be, who knows."

Both of them went silent yet once again. Only this time, it didn't last long. Eivör looked down until she mustered some will to ask a question and raised her head afterwards.

"How… How do you feel about Rö, now that he left us?"

"About Rö? That's an unusual question, hun. I don't really care that much. He can be his own stubborn self and wander around all he wants, as long as he's safe."

"Doesn't it… Hurt?"

"Hurt? What makes you think so?"

"I don't know… I would say because you love him, but then again I don't understand love all that much myself."

"Love him? Heh. I suppose I do."

"Then… Doesn't it hurt knowing that he's far away from you and that you might never see him again?"

"Beats me… I guess that that's what life does to you, hun. It takes away the people closest to you through distance, illness or death. Then again, it's not like I can't live without that hard-headed fool! As long as I'm occupied with something is all that matters. That's why I decided to take care of you today."

"So I'm your "feel-better" pawn…?"

[Talk about using me.]

"You might be. Say, why do you ask such a strange question? That's not much like you."

With hands set against the hard rock, Abel started fluttering her legs in an act of inquisitive repetition. You could definitely notice that she was curious in a woman-to-woman manner.

Eivör didn't move much. It seemed like she didn't want to continue the topic.

"I left him and his cat safely back there, if that's on your mind."

Straight and loud like a firework. Abel didn't hesitate, not at all. She never did.

"What?! Why do you think I care?"

"I didn't, but seeing your flustered reaction right now made me believe otherwise."

"A-Are we really going to talk about this now?! Comrades and family have died, I don't think that this is important right now!"

Forget the cherry, Eivör was redder than red. Truth be told, Abel never saw her this way, but it was clear that she wasn't handling her emotions very well.

In the end, no one was to blame for that.

"Let me try and help you."

"I don't need it, thanks."

"You're burning up, hun! I'd say you do. I'm just trying to fix the mood here."

"Well you can stop momentarily, I'm not feeling it" —

"So who was he? How did you two meet? From what I saw, even though he was wounded, he was pretty cute sleeping like that, right?"

"Abel, are you out of your" —

"You think about him sometimes, don't you?"

They both stopped. The atmosphere slightly changed.

"Sometimes… I wish that it was only sometimes."

Abel smiled. She felt as he hit the right spot. Eivör continued what she desperately didn't want to say in the first place.

"I think about the people that have left me… I see their hollow shadows. The burdens keep dragging me down and I get myself to think that it was all my fault… Then I see him and I don't know why, but for some reason, I can bear the loneliness a bit more."

"I see. He must've been there for you."

"T-They were so different… And I don't know why. I met him and his cat by coincidence and even though we didn't stick around for too much…"

"…You wish that you could spend more time with him."

Abel stopped fluttering her legs. Eivör finally disregarded her previous sitting position and looked towards the longing Python dead in her eyes. Abel committed to the conversation.

"I do love Rö, but sometimes there is no place for love between certain people. That's why you learn to live with it as much as you can. There are always false pleasures, but nothing can complete you more than the person you really want to spend all your days with.

It's up to you to decide if there is a place for you and him, hun."

"I… I can't focus on things like that. People that I care about keep disappearing, others want war. And with the whole concern about the surprise attack… I've known Masuda for almost all my life and now he's gone."

"Maybe that's the sole reason you should focus on things like that, before he disappears as well."

Eivör gasped in this moment.

She wanted to believe that Abel wasn't right, but deep down she knew that those were the words of reason. Then again, who follows reason in such a broken world?

She took the silver ring from her pocket and stared at the reflection it left behind. She was all that was in it, alone and confused.

"I hope you're done mourning because we should head back to Azura now. There's crucial information about the attack that we should know and we might be missing it."

"Abel."

"Hm?"

"You might be right, but if it wasn't for the attack…"

Eivör suddenly stopped. It was her intention to finish her sentence as it lied on the edge of her silky lips, but in the end, it fell off of the opposite end.

"To whoever attacked us and killed Masuda and the crew… They will pay."

Abel stared at Eivör.

"They will, hun."

Together they stood up from the lonely rock and abandoned it shortly after.