"Aefia's body... Was traded to a devil for a contract... To a master."
Lewis muttered under his breathe while chewing on the pen tip as he scribbled onto a piece of paper. "But I want to know who that master is... I only know they are her enemy and still has some grudge for her. Just why are people so cruel?!"
He suddenly slammed his pen down and stood up while clenching his forehead. "Why am I even worried over a dead person?" He spoke to himself with a frown on his face.
"The last time we had a proper conversation... Was the day she just happened to take her life... I just thought she had suddenly thought about reconciling with me..."
He shut his eyes and walked towards the fireplace with the pieces of paper he had been writing on without a stop. He watched as the pieces of papers burned up and ended up in the form of ashes.
"Just what sort of a brother was I...?"
He flew back into deep thoughts about the fact that a devil was currently using his sister's body right now. Given how Aefia has always been a good actor, he had his suspicions. But most of the time, Aefia was more like a devil herself.
Putting away that deceptive thought alone, and focussing on the time that he had caught her quietly dozing herself with toxin to practically take her own life, he had remembered one phrase in particular.
"Why are all trying to brainwash me?! What did I ever do for this family to deserve any of these?!"
"Ha! Then the person who brainwashed her into thinking we brainwashed her was Countess Elanor!" He laughed to himself out of rage. Then, a sudden realization hit him that caused his whole body to straighten. "Countess Elanor... I heard that she had been to this island not so long ago... And immediately left without doing anything."
He started to unknowingly pace the room while tapping his chin. "Could it be that she was just on a vacation for that short? And then had to leave immediately due to work? Or was she here because of the body? Is that why Aefia took her life at this Island itself?"
The air in the room tensed up almost instantly as he stared out of his window, and watched as the first rays of the afternoon sun shone down on the Island. "I feel like this Countess Elanor is the master of this devil... However... I don't have enough evidence to suspect her. I know she has a grudge... But if I confront her just because of this, then the Imperial family would face backlash.
"Added to this... How do I know that she is specifically the one who stole the body? It could have been a much bigger enemy who would attempt such a work. And of course. They would need a cover to keep away from showing their crimes..."
"Ugh!" He suddenly slammed his fist down on the table and scruntched his face up. "What would Aefia have done if she was faced with this sort of a problem?! Why am I someone who still hasn't come to understand her fully?! Despite having lived in the same house and her being my little sister?!"
He then relaxed his expression. "I don't know why... Up until the day I had found those sleeping pills, I thought I knew a lot about her. However, she seemed to have too many secrets to unveil."
A moment of silence took over and he settled back on his chair. A light breeze flashed into the room as it lifted so many paper to walk across the floor and throw themselves into the incinerator. Mostly was just a few papers that Aefia had written before she died.
It wasn't a journal, but it just worked out the way she had been solving all her problems up until she died. It had an example. A mindmap, a bunch of questions, suspicions and who knows what else. The papers were filled with scribbles of possiblities about this and that. He found himself frowning as the pages burned away like her life did to his eyes.
Then, the realization hit him and he scrambled towards the floor. These were the few things that contained Aefia's soul to his eyes and they were like souvenirs to him. He couldn't believe himself for letting them burn up in flames. The ones that were burned were impossible to save, but the ones that were half burned, were rescued and blowed on.
Finally, after having managed to keep at least a few precious pieces of paper, he sat cross-legged on the floor.
"What was I even doing?" He asked himself with furrowed brows.
He chose to carry these around with him because it would at least keep him sane during the time he recided here. But it turns out that he had brought them just to let them get destroyed. He hugged the pieces of papers and zoned out completely.
"But what I am truly upset about... Is that although she seems alive... Her soul just isn't there."
"I thought, once I came to know about the way she was being treated—that maybe this sister that mom had adopted would become the only person who truly understood me in some terms. However... I pushed her away before she even tried to approach me.
"I think I deserve losing her...
"I thought in the short amount of my life left, maybe I could live to witness a moment of my life that I wished I could have when I was a kid. I felt betrayed when I came to realize that the precious sibling was trying to kill herself slowly. What terrified me even more... Was that she would die faster than me.
"I wanted to stop that from happening... That all changed when mom stood with a misunderstanding—beside her collapsed body on a chair as she bled out another short time of her life. I wanted to properly help heal her, increase her life span. She still lost more of it in about a week in total."
After some time of mindless blabbering, he came to a stop and stared up to the ceiling with the few pieces of papers at his hands. "I still have those information of how to heal her inside my mind—memorized. But they just stayed memorized. I couldn't ever interpret the information to her in any possible ways. She ended up taking her life this way or that.
"Just what are you doing right now Aefia? Now that you are dead?"
His eyes stayed narrowed for a long time as if he were about to drop a tear. But it wasn't long until he widened them and looked straight up as if he had noticed something.
In his eyes, he saw Aefia's faceless shadow, staring down at him. This was nothing of her doing.
It was his imagination. Maybe a hallucination from his grieve.
Regardless, he sprawled to his knees and reached out. As if she were a speck of dust, her shadow dissipated instantly.
"Aefia!"
***
And suddenly... I felt like someone was shouting my name from miles away.
Given I sent a ghost to supervise him—I thought the voice in that ghost's mind is synced to my brain. So I sent an illusion like I had promised.
I had reached the capital about two days later. Lewis has been looking pretty down himself, but I don't have the time to deal with such things since I had been leaving my life with invisibility skills which were running low. And it was a good thing since I really needed to use it up. Although I had managed to get through and into the palace, I still struggle not to make any sounds especially since the atmosphere felt too familiar.
I knew that I had an option to use my skills to get here, however... Pandora was sick and I couldn't give her more work load or use her skills in her behave like I used to. I was now a Guardian, and unless I ask for it from her, it would be an offense to wield other people's magic like that.
All these time that I had managed to escape, Spectrum had been mendling with my memories and reminding me of so many things that I felt like it would be best if I fought off that nightmare. And it was those ones that I couldn't really keep my focus right on. Those worst ones that even a devil won't like to be reminded.
And that is how I ended up here, right next to the duchess in the middle of the night when she was supposed to be sleeping. I just wanted to see her face and then walk away, knowing how she was alright. That was my reason for standing next to her.
Spectrum kept telling me I was too weak to come standing back in this palace, but it was entirely wrong. So I ended up leaving my ego to decide about it. If I get caught and framed for trying to kill the empress out of revenge... It would be thanks to Spectrum provoking me.
Finally, I let out a sigh and looked down at the sleeping lady. She had her face scruntched up and I wanted to fix the few wrinkles at the corner of her eyes out of my desire for perfection.
(I had developed unconfirmed OCD from the forest... When I hated seeing ghost faces sticking their tongues out at me after I had killed them.)
So my fingers moved with the intrusive thoughts to caress her face and fix it back to a relaxed position. However, I completely disregarded the fact that she was still a living creature. How did I do that? I still don't know, so don't ask.
But just as I was about to pull her hands back, the woman woke up and stared at my face with complete disbelieve.
"Aefia..."
She sat up almost immediately as I yanked my hands out of her grasp and stepped many steps back. I didn't have the time to count since I had finally been caught. I didn't have my disguise properly on. My red eyes weren't there. However, my long hair was still a factor of difference.
But why does she still remember me like this.
The next second, she was walking towards me in a way that defied the describtion I had heard from Helio. So was she really sick and in pain?
Nevertheless, I switched to my expressionless face and looked up at her. In return, she stared at me. Her hands came up to cup my face and her eyes came teary with it.
Her mouth opened and shut at least three or four times until she finally came to hug me.
"Aefia, my darling child... Why did you... Do that?" She muttered against my ears. It sounded toxic to me, given what I had faced because to her.
"I did what I wanted..." I had to make it a resolve to make it seem like it was just a hallucination. "But what is it about me that you truly care about to quesiton me about why I did that?"
She seemed shocked and straightened while placing her hands on my shoulders. Even I was shocked that I was alive, so at least believe that.
"Aefia... Do you still hate me?"
"You are talking as if I am alive."
"Are you not? You are standing right in front of me." She muttered while placing her hands back at the sides of my face. "Aefia... Have you been crying? Your eyes are swollen."
The question caused me to flinch a bit. Of course I had cried out of frustruation and broken memories due to Spectrum, but I didn't cry recently. Since I had learnt to cry silently back when I was younger, I was able to keep my stealth that way. Most importantly, I stayed in my room of this palace, where it was least visited.
She started to slowly press down on the areas underneath my eyes as if trying to soothe the swelling. It was comforting at one point, that I was not even in my right mind when I started to lean onto her hands. That was until her eyes widened that I realized my actions and shoved her hands away from my face.
"..."
A long moment of silence flowed between us as I stared at her with a bit of disgust. Not to mention, there was a time in my life when I wanted a caring parent like that who would have done the thing she had done to me five seconds ago.
"Aefia... Is there... Something wrong?"
"..."
I am pretty sure she wanted some sort of a speech from me when I had suddenly leaned onto her hands and then shoved then away the next second. I continued to look at her with utter disgust, the same way I would secretly give to my uncle who was my biological father.
"Aefia..."
"Please stop saying my name so frequently."
"..."
"I beg of you."
I never thought there was ever going to be a time when I spoke back to her like this. But it can't be changed that I had some expections from her when I first saw her and heard she wanted to take me in.
"I am sorry... If I had done a mistake."
"A mistake?" I scoffed while changing my expression completely. "Do you know that when I first came to this palace, I had some expections from you that you would have at least been slightly better then how my own parents had treated me. Do you know how frustrated I was when I realized you were no different?" I smirked at her although I felt a pang of sadness break my voice.
It was true... That once in a lifetime, I had expected her to be a bit more caring then my mom or dad from Earth. I had a sliver of hope that maybe she would change the way I viewed the world around me... However...
"I never thought... About that..."
"Of course you didn't! None of you did! None of you ever gave a care to whether I wanted to live or die at any point of my life!" I shouted while looking down at the ground.
"All of you are the same! Just because I can withstand harsh environments and have a strong mentality, doesn't mean I never desired the love of a true parent!"