THE FAREWELL

After almost a week of her visits, she finally asked him the question she failed to ask when they first met. On that same spot where she found him, she brought him the change of clothes he promised to bring him the other day. And giving it to him, she asked, "By the way, sir, I still don't know your name."

Kyrian hesitated to tell her his name. To him, she is human and by the concepts of their tradition, she is a mortal enemy but he could never look at her in such a way. She has so much warmth and kindness in her that it is impossible to see her as a foe. She melted his cold heart and he even found it strange to himself to have made friends with her.

"Is this why my mother chose to love your race as her own?," he whispered suddenly.

"What is that sir?" Hana asked after hearing his inaudible and faint whisper.

"Oh nothing. I was just lost in my thoughts," Kyrian said smiling.

"Did you know that my father named me after seeing a flower bloom brightly before the day of my birth? He was so smitten by the blue bellflowers that he literally named me flower," Hana said chuckling in between the words.

Kyrian laughed with her. And after seeing her smile, he brought down every barrier in his heart to let her warmth in.

"Kyrian," he said.

"That's my name."

"Sir Kyrian, huh? I've never heard such a name before. It sounds foreign but still, it does sound beautiful. It suits you sir."

"Why? How does it suit me?"

"When I first saw you, you were strange looking. You were unlike any people I have seen before. I have never seen anyone with such beautiful silver hair as yours. And your eyes! Yes! Your eyes! They are so blue! No one in my village have blue eyes like you do.," she said excitingly.

"You were so cold and even dangerous at first. But the more I get to know you, the more I see that you are so warm and so kind," she smilingly said.

"So it's just like your name, sir. It does sound foreign at first, even peculiar at times but the more I think about it, it's actually a beautiful name just like you are."

This made Kyrian smile. No one has ever told him that. From where he comes from, his name is either spoken with disgust or with fear. He is either looked down upon or seen as an enemy. Even his family treated him differently and his own people alienated him from society.

"Why do you always look so sad?," Hana asked.

"Sad? Me?", Kyrian asked to himself. No one has ever asked him that question before. "And how can she tell that I am sad?," he thought. He trained himself to portray a stoic face that shows no emotion. It is for that reason that he gained the nickname, "Ice prince". It is because of that stiff, impassive and unfeeling face that his people says that he has no heart at all. Yet this girl he just met a few days ago saw the real unhappiness behind his façade, behind the mask he so desperately tried to wear at all times.

"I am not sad," he answered her.

"Yet why do you look as if you had been enduring so much pain?," she said.

Kyrian was never more surprised in his life. For hundreds of years of his existence, no one has ever tried to ask how he was feeling or why he is the way he is. No one but her. To him, this is the first time, someone would ever truly care for him. Surrounded by this thoughts, he suddenly burst out in tears.

He couldn't stop it. It was as if the pent up pain deep inside him finally gushed out in an overwhelming current of tears which he buried deep inside for many years. He cried because of the pain, the sadness, the loss, the grief, the betrayal, and all the regrets. He plunged from his seat and burrowed his face in his arms, feeling the sense of being vulnerable. He hated himself for feeling this kind of weakness but he couldn't stop it. He couldn't stop crying.

Then, he felt it. A warm touch and a sudden embrace. His whimpers slowly subsided when he opened his eyes to see Hana taking him in her embrace. Her warmth and her smell made him feel safe, secured from all vulnerability and sheltered in the arms of someone who cared for him.

Hana patted him in the head as she said, "Sir, it's alright. You can cry all you want. You can take it all out. I'm here. I won't leave you."

The moment she said this, he hugged her more as he let all the tears out, loudly and freely as Hana continued patting him and embracing him tightly like a child in her arms.

"I feel so weak," Kyrian whispered in a broken voice as he cried.

"You are not weak. I know you are strong deep inside. Crying is not weakness, sir Kyrian. It is strength. Weakness is not having the courage to acknowledge your pain. But now, you just did it. You have acknowledged your pain and now you are freeing yourself from the shackles of your past. So feel free to cry all you want. I'll be here for you," she said, assuring him.

For hours, they stayed in that position as Kyrian tired himself from too much crying. Slowly, he drifted in Hana's arms as for the first time, he peacefully slept knowing that he is safe and sound.

When he opened his eyes, it was already sunset as the orange red color painted the skies and the beautiful light shone from the west. Waking up, he saw someone in his arms and it was Hana who kept her promise of not leaving him. She drifted to sleep beside him and looking at the arm where Hana slept in, he noticed something unbelievable. His injuries are now fully healed!

To his surprise, he thought of how this could be? That arm was where he was struck by his own sword, Dansleif whose inflicted wounds would never heal but here he is, fully recovered with not even a scar or a taint of his past wound. He looked at the girl sleeping peacefully beside him and at the sight of her tranquil face, all his raging questions calmed down like a tamed storm. He forgot of his questions of how his wounds were healed. He just knew they were. He forgot his surprise to his sudden recovery but he just told himself, he is now alright.

Her presence made all his doubts disperse into the air, her gentle face, her pitch black hair, her scent; all of this made him forget what he was supposed to ask himself and he burrowed all his uncertainties in the back of his thoughts.

But he knew that now that he is already alright, he must return back to Occiden, to where Aisling was. He couldn't sense Ezio's presence anymore so he concluded that he must have died when he transported both of them. The sudden thought of returning back to reality made him, for a moment downhearted. But he now rests in an assurance that someone is there for him, someone cares for him and now, he has someone who is concerned for him. That assurance made the misery before him small as compared to the care and trust he had with Hana.

"I'm sorry but I have to leave you, for now," he whispered to her.

"I'll see you again. I promise," he said. As he expressed his final farewell, he planted a kiss on her forehead, with a wish to see her again soon.

"Hana! Hana!," the voice said.

"Where are you, my dear?," it shouted.

Hana was awoken by the loud sound and when she opened her eyes, all she saw are the moon and stars above the skies staring at her. "Sir Kyrian!," she said looking around her but there was no more of the silver haired man under the tree. Beside her are the change of clothes she asked him to wear which he did not have the chance to, given the moment he opened up to her in tears. There was no remnant of him left behind aside from those clothes he only got to touch.

Soon, the voices that called for her only got louder. "Hana! Hana!," they say. Recognizing her parent's voice, she shouted back, "I'm here!" and soon enough her whole family came running towards her direction, together with her younger sister who was crying, "Sister! Where have you been? We were so worried!"

"Oh Hana! We were so worried," her father told her.

"Why were you were? What did you do?," her mother asked, soon after her father spoke.

"Hehe. I feel asleep. I seem to have not noticed the time," she said with a nervous laughter.

"Oh my dear. That is dangerous!," her mother told her as she knelt to hug her.

"I'm so sorry, mother, father," she said.

"You are to be the future priestess of this village," her father said. "You have to be careful."

At the mention of the word "priestess", Hana's smile faded slowly as she contemplated a future which her parents chose for her. But she still closed her eyes as she embraced her whole family, happy that she still blessed with them.

Far, far away, two blue eyes watched over them as the full moon's light revealed a tall, silver haired man. Before he left that village to return to his own kingdom, he had to make sure Hana was safe. Knowing that she is now in the hands of her family, Kyrian can now safely leave her as he made way for Occiden.

He used his remaining mana to summon a transportation spell. "Lacus!," he said as he vanished into the air, back to a kingdom where he awaits another turn of events.

Hana, walking back home with her family, suddenly lifted her gaze far away in the west as she sensed something from afar. It was a strange feeling that is both unclear and familiar. It was a presence which she felt before but couldn't remember. It was as if someone was bidding her goodbye. Though she didn't know what it was, it felt comforting to her and she smiled in that direction as she continued her walk back home.