It was still nighttime when they arrived, and the group of four stood in a small circle facing each other.
Alaric watched from afar, not welcomed into the coalition and certainly not permitted the honor of standing beside Cauron Thorn, who watched from the deck of his Ghostship.
"Well, this is goodbye for now. It's been a pleasure to meet y'all here."
Ezra smiled, fist-bumping Aaron before shaking hands with Akari and finally Raphael.
Without the Hunters' Exam, his blond-haired acquaintance never would've come to Corvassa, therefore leaving his sister's fate in the hands of that awful man, depending only on Ezra to rescue her.
Aaron's intervention saved him in his darkest hour, a true friend different from the monsters of his past who manipulated him for their own benefit.
With his sister safely residing within Chrone Castle during the exam, his worries had been suppressed, and his life was finally his own.
Not only was the blond boy a factor in his new life, but also Akari Ayaka and Raphael von Steinfeste, who never showed him even the slightest bit of hostility over his dark past.
They had conversed a few times in the arena's seating booths as the tournament matches were played out with their usual topics relating to Aaron or the combatants trading blows on the stage, never about his history.
Therefore, as Ezra prepared to depart on his own vessel that he had chartered the moment they had landed back on Blackport Ridge, he sighed.
"Let's meet again after the New Year! A party in the Sea of Wishes would do… But only if they got free food!"
Nodding his head like it was a done deal, he waved, walking away towards the small black sloop that awaited his command.
Raphael was next, his expression serious without a hint of the joy that Ezra had.
"Thank you, Aaron, for saving my life during the first mission, regardless of how I acted when we first met. Not only that, but on the Bay of Thorn…"
His voice broke, the traumatic memories swelling up like a knot within his chest, threatening to rip apart the resolve he so painfully pieced together.
"Don't mention it. Enjoy the beaches in the Holy Capital, alright? I heard they have plenty of special beaches."
A swift kick to his shin cut his speech short, the boy's face contorting in pain, and his remarks were stopped as he held his thumb up in an awkward attempt to make up for his foul implication.
Akari, who had kicked him, sighed and said her own thank yous to the white-haired boy before shaking his hand like she had done to Ezra earlier.
With a friendly smile, Raphael half-turned to walk away, his eyes falling down on the blond boy's crippled leg, then meeting his gaze once more.
"I'll listen to that advice. Perhaps we could go togeth—"
Before he could be whacked by the pink-haired girl as well, he bolted away like a flash of bright light.
"He's lucky to escape…"
Aaron grumbled as he rubbed his still throbbing limb, his eyes turning towards the last of the challengers whom he actually cared to speak with.
"Well then…"
He stared into her sapphire eyes, his own reflection glimmering back within them, an image of his past self overlapping with the current one.
She was his oldest friend, somebody that he should've known far more than he did; however, he wasn't that boy from Strava anymore.
"I plan on returning to Strava before the New Year to wrap up my business and then…"
He stopped himself, realizing in one horrifying moment that he hadn't told the girl about his condition.
Should I tell her? Wouldn't that be cruel?
His throat tightened, his mouth going dry like the desert surrounding the city.
"Akari… I'm—"
Thump!
Before he could even think of speaking again, her arms wrapped around his body in a hug, her face buried within his chest.
"You don't need to say it… Because… Because you'll tell me at that party Ezra mentioned… Right…?"
Her words stung in places that the boy couldn't quite understand, emotions that were his own, but also that weren't bubbled into his heart, a feeling of longing and pain working against him.
He wanted to tell her, to reveal the truth of his withering health; however, he couldn't, not after what she said.
Closing his eyes and exhaling hard, he removed himself from the hug, turning his back to the girl.
"Goodbye, Akari."
And with those words, regardless of the memories that he did or did not have, he knew that this would be the last time he would ever speak to her again—perhaps until the next life, when the person she once knew would be truly gone.
…
As the Sea King and the boy entered the hallway leading to the private study, which served as the place of rest for his wife, a conversation began in a quiet tone.
"I once studied human emotion and found that the feelings we build our personalities with forge the bodies we incarnate. Therefore, I'll ask you this one time only."
He paused, biting his lip slightly.
"Do you truly intend to leave the emotions of the old you unanswered?"
The Mark of Sphinx was ineffective against the boy blessed by a Ghostship; however, clear as day, the elder could see the distress wrought across his face.
He didn't dare say what he thought was the motivation for the boy's emotions, for it would be inconsiderate to tell a person, much less a mere child, their own feelings.
Fundamentally, the Aaron Grimstall that he knew was a completely different one from the boy before the memory loss.
They lived two separate lives with stakes far removed from one another, friends, allies, and goals impossible to compare.
Therefore, even if he could see what the body truly wished to say to Akari in the last moments they would likely share together in this lifetime, the words would never come from his own lips.
"There are no emotions that I have anymore. They have been taken from me and restrained."
Aaron's voice was cold and bitter; long devoid of any warmth that he might've had for the deity attached to his mind like a parasite—the very manifestation of the cruel fate wedged between the two friends from birth.
Cauron sighed at his words as they approached the doorway to his bedroom-turned-laboratory, his own hurdles weighing heavily upon him.
Without the boy, he never would've remembered the man who had raised him, an entity now lost to history.
Mr. L had cared for him far more than he had realized and even sacrificed himself to cease the destruction of the last tomes of Nautilus.
Those very same books now rested behind lock and key within a mana-resistant vault at the spire of the castle.
Copies had also been printed and distributed to twenty other locations worldwide to prevent a similar tragedy from occurring again.
Click!
The sound of the door opening echoed through the now repaired, but still empty, bedroom, an eerie stillness ringing through Aaron's bones.
"Hold my hand, there's nothing to fear..."
A broken, desolate voice, vaguely beautiful, emerged from the cage hovering within the air, the orange-haired man instantly freezing.
His gaze turned down trodden, his expression glum.
"Lord Thorn… What does she mean?"
There was a pause, not too long or short, but still enough for another whisper to escape the zombie's mouth.
"The sea is wide, the night is long…"
Cauron parted his lips, not daring to look up at the woman who was once his wife.
"It's a lullaby… The very same one that she sang when we first met all those decades ago."
Aaron's breath slowed, his mind realizing the sadness behind the man's words without even trying.
"Then, how soon can we begin the treatment?"
For a brief second, he wondered if the Sea King was even listening, yet soon after, he responded quietly.
"One minute."
He walked up to a small latch hooked onto the wall, his one working hand pushing down.
Creeeeeeeeak!
Chains loosened, and the massive cage slowly descended to the ground, where its door opened automatically.
The blond boy could see the creature inside turn to face the exit, her sea-colored eyes jerking around, and her matted white hair, surprisingly clean, blowing gently in the air disturbed by the prison's mechanism.
As it made contact with the floor, she stood, slowly approaching the edge of the cell she had been restrained in for so long.
Aaron was obviously taken aback by this, his eyes shooting a glance towards the Sea King, who simply shook his head.
"She is harmless. Years ago, I cast a spell over her mind that prevents her from harming humans. Instead, she'll simply try to pinch and pull at you. Nothing painful, of course, only irritating…"
He watched as his wife made her way towards the turquoise-eyed boy who stood near the chamber's entrance.
She walked as if she were in a trance, something that Cauron hadn't seen from her even when the elderly maid came to clean.
The boy tried to back up; however, she was fast, her rotten hand reaching out and grabbing his right wrist.
Slowly, her gaze turned towards the sapphire ring resting on his index finger, the object attracting every ounce of her attention.
"Aurora…?"
Thorn's voice was confused and worried, speaking the woman's name involuntarily.
The word left a strangely strong impression in the boy's mind as he watched her reach out to touch the jewel.
Click!
There was a tiny flicker of light as she tapped it once, a miniature crab the size of a fingernail jumping out and landing on her head.
The Sea King seemed to notice this creature as well, his expression instantly turning into deep shock.
But before he could even question the situation, the crustacean vanished, leaving the zombie staring blankly at the ring.
Slowly, she removed her fingers from the boy's hand, walking towards the center of the room and then lying down like someone who came out to stargaze.
Both men watched with bated breath, completely unsure of what to do in such an odd and unfamiliar situation.
There was no time for them to react at all as she raised her hand and then dove it straight into her chest, ripping out her core and clutching it firmly within her delicate hand.
Cauron gasped, leaping over to try to remedy the problem; however, Aaron held up his palm, a feeling working its way through his soul.
"She wants this Lord Thorn…"
It was half a guess on the boy's part, but not one without basis.
The idea that his ring could temporarily influence reality wasn't something new to the boy—the impossible sights he had seen while wearing it made him stand on his toes whenever the mysterious artifact showed any sort of change.
It couldn't have been a coincidence that Mr. Crab appeared at that very moment, and that the woman did what she did afterward.
"She is helping us."
With hesitant steps, he arrived at where she lay, her sea-colored eyes glistening lightly as the child reached out, allowing his fingers to graze the corrupted orb she held above her like an offering.
Kneeling down, he watched as the energy within his body condensed into particles of turquoise light, then shot out together, absorbing the sphere carefully.
Each second burned, his nerves on fire and his eyes dripping with bloody tears, the Sea King left to only speak in murmurs.
"The core is the most important part of the body…"
The boy's hand did not waver on the woman's own as her corrupted core began to glow, the mana seeping into his form.
"For the wielder of a Ghostship, it is even rumored that if the core of their Ghostship were to be destroyed, their own core would falter as well…"
Beyond the voice of Cauron Thorn, Aaron could hear the voice of that plague, the one that had doomed this woman to her fate.
"But this… to surgically consume a core…"
Past that filth that the boy could feel within the corruption, he sensed another presence, one buried deep beneath layer after layer of murk and mud.
"It is… Unheard of."
The mouth of the orange-haired man closed shut, not to reopen until after the boy had finished.
Yet deep within that child's mind, he had already slipped over the precipice, the only thing he could see now being the lone spirit within the core of the woman before him.
Aurora Thorn, humming the melody of her youth with a smile upon her face.