The day of Maruq's visit to Jauna's home had come. He felt nervous. It had been more than a century since they last saw each other.
Jauna stood outside, while Lzith remained hidden nearby, not too far away.
She prepared the portal for his arrival. Moments later, a man appeared. He was tall and broad, strikingly handsome, yet carried an unsettling aura.
"Jauna. Is that you?" he asked calmly.
Her chest tightened little by little until she finally broke into tears.
"It took you so long to show yourself. What happened to you?"
Maruq then glanced at the child standing beside Jauna.
"She's beautiful." He knelt in front of Lzith and looked at her. "She looks so much like you, Jauna."
"Mom, who is he?" Lzith asked.
Jauna could not answer right away. Who was Maruq to her now?
"Let's go inside first."
"Jauna. I'm sorry. It's a long story. I'm sorry I couldn't return sooner. I'm sorry my strength wasn't enough to defeat the enemy. I'm sorry for everything." Tears began to fall from Maruq's eyes, which he had been holding back. "Let's start again."
"Maruq, this is not a simple situation. Just last year, I started my own family. A century. I waited for you for more than a century."
"I'm sorry, Jauna. My memories only returned recently."
Maruq told her everything that had happened to him since becoming a servant of Ordo Vireth.
"I see," Jauna replied briefly after his long explanation.
"Do you still love me, Jauna? As for me… I still love you. I have never replaced you, even until now. If you tell me to find someone else, it would be like everything we shared since childhood meant nothing to you. I matter more than the man in your life now."
"I will talk to him first, Maruq. This is not something I can decide immediately. I will let you know once there is a result. But I need to tell you that we have a three-year agreement. For those three years, we will stay together. After that, I can decide whether to leave him or continue our life together."
"How many years have passed?"
"Only one."
"I will wait. Two years is short compared to the century we lost."
"Thank you for understanding." Jauna had been holding herself back from embracing the man who had filled her thoughts for so long. She stood up, walked behind him, and gently wrapped her arms around his strong frame, resting her head on his shoulder.
Maruq held her hand and kissed it.
"By the way, what is her name?" Maruq asked.
"Lzith."
"Hmm. I look forward to having one of our own."
Jauna turned her face toward his. Their eyes met for a moment, and in an instant, their lips touched.
"Despite the passing of time, it is still you, Maruq, who lives deep within my heart."
"Let me make up for all my shortcomings. I will wait for you, Jauna. This time, I will not let you slip away again. I will not lose myself again and make you wait for so long. A century apart is more than enough."
"Mom, why did you put your lips on his? I thought that was only allowed with Dad?"
They both laughed at Lzith's question.
"Your husband must love you too, Jauna."
"At first, he did not. But in the past few months, the way he treats me has changed. It does not matter to me whether he loves me or not, since there is a time limit anyway."
"The night is getting deeper. Time moves quickly here. I should head back for now."
"Stay here tonight," Jauna urged.
"Isn't he coming home tonight?"
"No. When he leaves for work, he does not return for several days."
Just then, Faram arrived. As he entered, he saw Jauna speaking with Maruq.
"Oh? Who is this, Jauna? I have never seen him before."
"It's a long story, Faram. How was your day?"
"It was good. All the medicine has been used up, but I bought containers. We also have a new place to supply our products. I bought bread, food for the cats, rice, and vegetables."
"You're always reliable, Faram. There's food in the kitchen. Help yourself."
"Alright, thank you."
"By the way, Faram. His name is Maruq."
"Nice to meet you," Faram said, offering his hand. Maruq shook it.
"Maruq, this is Faram, my aide here. I took him in when he was still young, from a place that had fallen into conflict."
Maruq briefly thought Faram was Dayesh, but he was mistaken. The thought amused him. He had forgotten that Dayesh would not be home.
After getting food, Faram sat not far from Maruq.
"Let me ask, what is your relationship with Jauna? I have never seen you in my entire life," he said while chewing.
"Would you believe me if I said I am Jauna's lover?"
Faram frowned. "Jauna, you really are not much of a storyteller."
"Sorry, Faram."
"It's nothing. I'm just joking." He continued eating, then remembered something. "If you are her lover, then what about Dayesh?"
"I will handle it. I will talk to him when he returns."
"Well, he did give you a time limit, right? Three years, if I remember correctly."
Jauna nodded.
When Jauna finally put Lzith to sleep, she and Maruq stayed in the living room and talked. They revisited the memories they had shared a century ago.
"It is a good thing you returned to normal and did not lose your memories completely."
Maruq held her hand. "Since we were children, I have often held this hand." He placed her palm against his cheek. She gazed into his eyes.
"I am glad to see you again, Maruq. I thought I would die without ever seeing you again. Even now, it feels like I am still dreaming."
"Our reunion is a blessing from our Creator."
Meanwhile, Dayesh had been busy completing the quests he had taken.
Two days before accepting the quest...
"Are you sure you can handle that?"
"I can."
"There's something about your aura I can't quite understand, Dayesh. Do you have a problem? If it's not work-related, then i will not pry."
Dayesh chose the quest called Crystal Lake Cleansing. It required someone capable of nullifying the negative energy affecting the water and causing pollution. The source of the black substance mixing into the river had to be located.
"Even after reading it again, I still think you can't handle this."
"Rana. I have money to pay the penalty."
"Oh right. Sorry about that."
Even so, Dayesh remained a mystery to everyone. The only difference was that Rana was the one he spoke to most often regarding guild tasks.
Dayesh tried to focus on the mission, but his conversation with Jauna kept slipping into his mind.
What could he do to keep her from leaving him?
He had no idea she had loved someone before.
He did not even truly know his wife.
Only two years remained in the agreement. Jauna now had a reason to leave him.
He had thought it would only be a simple arranged marriage.
He arrived at the location where he needed to find the source of the substance.
He noticed the water was dark. He opened his item box and released the owl.
"Can you trace the source from here?"
"Give me a moment." The owl focused for several minutes before responding. It possessed a long-range sixth sense capable of detecting foreign objects within its night vision. "At the bottom, I see a glowing stone. That is likely the source of the substance disrupting the river."
Dayesh removed his clothes and entered the water. He could see nothing but murky liquid, nearly black in color, though it had no unusual smell.
When he realized he could not sink to the bottom, he tried diving deeper, but kept floating back to the surface.
"I can't go down!" he shouted to the owl.
He searched for a heavy stone and tied it to his waist to help weigh himself down.
"This river is strange," he thought.
He tried again, but nothing changed.
"What is going on with this river?" he wondered.
He threw a small stone into the water. After a few minutes, it did not float.
"Why is the stone tied to me floating along with me?" He quickly formed an answer. "Ah, maybe because I'm floating, the weight of the stone isn't enough."
"Dayesh, I think the reason is your emotional state. What are you feeling right now?"
He hesitated to tell the owl what he felt, but if he wanted to understand its theory, he had to be honest. He admitted that he felt heavy because he was thinking about Jauna, about what would happen when the man she was meant to marry appeared, and that he was worried for Lzith.
"Try not to dwell on those thoughts for now. Think of memories that do not feel heavy. Ones that do not make you sad."
"That's difficult." Dayesh could not recall a happy memory that did not involve Jauna. So instead, he imagined their peaceful life together in their small home. He entered the water again.
This time, he sank.
The owl's suggestion worked.
He reached the very bottom and retrieved the glowing stone, about the size of a fist.
When he surfaced, the river slowly returned to its natural color.
One of the owl's abilities was to capture images at will. It scanned the surroundings, recording the now-clear river as proof that Dayesh had successfully completed the quest.
Dayesh then transformed into a wolf and shook himself dry.
"My suspicion about this place was correct," said the owl.
"Your mind operates on a very high level. I did not think your theory was possible," Dayesh praised.