If I remember correctly, I told you before last chapter how much I hate the cold. Well, there's more of it in this chapter. Woohoo!
A big 'Thank you'goes to Jetstream Girge for giving me the general idea that turned into this chapter. Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 10: The Image of a Loved One

It was cold. Temperatures had reached a new record low. Lake Noahs had completely frozen over. A thick layer of ice covered it completely. Rena had been looking forward to going ice skating but alas, it had gotten so cold that day that going outside simply wasn't an option. Especially not for Rena due to the situation regarding her health.

Rena sat in the living room. The villa's heating had broken down so she sat in front of the burning fireplace wrapped in a blanket. She was bored out of her mind. Aisha couldn't come over because of the cold and Raven was busy trying to repair the broken heating. How he was able to work with these temperatures Rena didn't understand but she was grateful for it. Rena also couldn't work on her paintings since it was incredibly cold in the atelier. As it was everywhere else in the villa except for the living room because of the fireplace.

Rena shivered. Despite her best efforts to keep warm, she was still cold.
"It could've been a lot worse I suppose." She sighed, closing her eyes to focus on the warmth radiating from the fire in the fireplace. "I hope Raven can fix the heating soon. I don't want to turn into an ice elf." Focussing on the fireplace's warmth seemed to help as Rena stopped shivering. Suddenly the door to the hallway opened, allowing cold air from the hallway to flow into the living room, causing Rena to start shivering again. It was Raven whom entered the room.

"A-ah, R-Raven." Rena greeted while shivering.
"Miss Rena. Um," Raven scratched the back of his head as if thinking about how to say what he was about to say. "I have good news. And I have bad news." He said.
"G-good news f-f-first please!" Rena said.
"The good news is that I've managed to repair part of the heating. The bad news is that I've only repaired part of the heating."
"W-which p-part did you f-fix?" Rena asked, wanting to know what Raven meant.
"Since the manager's house has a partially separated system I could get the heating to work there again. But the main villa's system is too badly damaged due to the pipes freezing. Which means that for now, the manager's house is the only place with heating." Raven explained. "To fix the main villa's heating we need to replace those pipes. Which means I need to go to Elder to buy some. If I go now I could easily get everything fixed tomorrow."
"I see." Rena said. "I guess we'll have to have a sleepover then." Rena laughed.
"It seems that way." Raven laughed as well. "In any case. It should be nice and warm in my room soon. You can go there if you like. I'll be going now to Elder."
"Alright Raven. Take care."
"As always."

It had gotten nice and warm in Raven's room. Rena was lying on the worn-out couch that was in Raven's room. Despite the state the couch was in, it was a comfortable couch. Rena had grabbed a book from the recreation room before she'd come here and she was reading it. After she'd finished the first two chapters she put the book away and looked around. Raven's room was quite boring. No pictures or anything. Only the most minimal necessities. The only thing one could argue was superfluous was the couch.

"Raven, don't you have anything that holds any memories for you?" Rena thought out loud. "There's got to be something, somewhere in this room. Something precious or important. There has to be, right?" Rena suddenly got very curious and decided that if there was something, she would find it.

The first place Rena started looking was the closet. It hung full of men's clothing, all neatly stored and ready to wear. Beneath the clothing stood a number of shoeboxes but most of them were empty. The ones that weren't contained shoes, as was to be expected. On the shelf above the clothes there seemed to be nothing but on closer inspection there appeared to be another shoebox tucked away in the back. Rena reached as far as she could and managed to just grab the shoebox.

Rena felt very nervous for some reason as she held the shoebox. She slowly opened it and took a peek inside.
"A key?" Rena thought out loud again as she took a small, well-crafted brass key from the shoebox. Wondering what it was the key to, she continued looking through Raven's room. Next was the nightstand next to Raven's bed.

It was a small nightstand made from a very light, almost sand-coloured wood. It wasn't overly fancy in decoration but it did look old and valuable. The modern-looking alarm-clock that stood on top of it looked quite out of place. Rena opened the drawer on the front of the nightstand. Inside, she found a small, dark wooden box with a brass lock on it. "Is this what the key is for?" Rena wondered as she took the key and brought it up to the lock on the wooden box. Rena stuck the key in the lock and turned it. The lock made a 'clunk'-sound as it unlocked. Rena felt like her heart was beating in her throat as she sat there holding the now unlocked wooden box. Was it okay if she opened it? It was something Raven probably kept locked away for a reason after all. It wasn't her place to just rummage through his stuff. Curiosity got the best of her however and she slowly opened the box's lid. The hinge creaked as the lid opened.

The inside of the box was decorated with blue satin to keep the contents from being damaged. As for the contents themselves, the box contained a small golden heart-shaped locked. On the front of the heart the initials 'R' and 'S' were engraved. "That 'R' has to stand for 'Raven'." Rena thought. "But who does the 'S' stand for?" Rena took the locket from the box and looked at it. The locket looked brilliant. Like it was polished every single day. Rena opened the locket and was shocked by what was inside.

The locket contained two pictures. On the left side was a picture of Raven. Judging by how the shoulders on the picture looked, it was taken before Raven had gained his mechanical arm. Raven's hair looked shorter and didn't have the streak of red running through it. The scars on his face were exactly the same though. Raven had a soft, smiling expression on his face in the picture.

The other picture was what had shocked Rena. It was a picture of a woman with long, blonde hair. Green eyes and a gentle expression. "Who? How?" Rena was panicking slightly. "She looks just like me!" Rena was right. The woman in the picture looked almost exactly like her. The only difference was the fact that the woman in the picture was human and not an elf. As such the most notable difference between the woman in the picture and Rena were their ears.

Suddenly Rena heard the door slam behind her. She turned around and faced Raven.
"I am back miss-" Raven stopped talking as soon as he saw what Rena was holding in her hands. He quickly lunged forward and snatched the locket from Rena's hands. He held the locket in his normal hand and clenched it tightly. His facial expression made it clear he was furious. His eyes looked like they had become red instead of being their normal golden-yellow colour. Raven was breathing heavily, looking like an angry bull that was about to attack its target. Quickly putting the locket into his pocket Raven started shouting.
"What is the meaning of this!?" He yelled as he stared Rena in the eyes. Rena cowered in fear. She'd never seen this side of Raven. Afraid Raven might attack her she apologised profusely. Tears started running down her face. Realizing he was making Rena cry, Raven calmed down a little.
"Please excuse me." Raven said, sounding more stern than apologetic. He turned towards the door and left the room. Rena was still crying.

Rena was lying on Raven's couch again. She was curled up into a ball and felt horrible. How could she? How could she have done such a thing to Raven? Going through his personal belongings and probably touching upon some painful memories. She had stopped crying but her face still showed clear signs of tears. She aimed her gaze at Raven's alarm-clock. It was dinnertime but Rena wasn't hungry. She sighed. "How can I possibly make it up to Raven?" Was her main concern. She hated having fights with people. Especially people she saw every day. She hated the awkwardness of it. The fear of the other person becoming angry again whenever she would say something. Rena started to feel hungry now. Hungry and tired, she fell asleep.

In her dreams, Rena was walking through an endless black tunnel. At the end she saw a light with Raven standing in front of it, facing away from her. She tried to reach Raven but no matter how hard she ran, she didn't get closer.

Rena woke up violently. As if she awoke from a horrible nightmare.
"Did you have a bad dream?" She heard a familiar male voice ask. Rena nervously turned to Raven. She didn't dare speak. Raven awkwardly sat on the side of his bed, twiddling his thumbs. It was quiet for only a few minutes. But it felt like hours to Rena.

"Her name was Seris." Raven spoke out of nowhere. Rena looked at Raven with curiosity in her eyes. "She was my fiancée. I believe I told you before I started working here I was a mercenary." Rena nodded slowly. "Seris was the love of my life. She was friendly, kind, gentle, funny, strong, smart and beautiful. In short, she was perfect. She stood by my side as I was leading my crew of mercenaries from battle to battle. One day, during a certain mission she…" Raven paused. He had a pained look on his face. "She saved my life. And, in doing so, she lost her own. I watched her get vaporized before my eyes." Tears had started rolling down Raven's face. Rena felt tears welling up as well. "That day, everyone I cared for died. My comrades, Seris, everyone." Raven clenched his mechanical fist as he said 'everyone'. "I was the only one to survive. I was found by the staff of a hospital somewhere. I still don't know how I got to that hospital. I believe someone saved me. I have no idea who. Anyway, I had lost my left arm and had several other severe injuries. I was hospitalized for a full year. It was in the hospital that I got my new arm and once I was released from the hospital I came to work here."

Rena was crying now. She had gotten up from the couch and was hugging Raven tightly.
"I am so sorry." She cried. The two of them sat there until Rena calmed down. Rena looked at Raven with sad eyes. Raven smiled gently.
"I have never told anyone this before." He said. "Thank you for listening." Rena nodded.
"Now, let's go eat something. It's late and we haven't had dinner." Raven smiled. "The heating still doesn't work so we'll have to eat in here."
"Yes, I understand." Rena said quietly, almost whispering.

The next day Rena locked herself in the atelier despite the cold. While Raven was working on repairing the heating for the whole day, Rena was working feverishly in the atelier. As it ran towards dinnertime Raven finished up the heating for the villa. Rena had prepared dinner. During dinner Raven told Rena of the fact he had repaired the villa's heating. Rena was happy to hear it. When dinner was finished, Rena asked Raven to come with her. She led him to the door to his room.

"Are you prepared?" Rena asked Raven with a smile on her face.
"Whatever for?" Raven asked with a curious look on his face.
"This!" Rena said as she swung the door open. She almost squealed when she saw the look of surprise on Raven's face. Above Raven's bed hung a painting of a blonde, green-eyed human female. Raven stared at Rena in disbelief. Rena blushed a little.

"I felt really bad for what I had done. And I still owed you a painting for when you helped me with the atelier." She said softly as her blush intensified. Raven walked up to the painting and stared at it.
"Seris…" He whispered before he turned to Rena.

"Thank you, Rena."

And now I will once again reply to some reviews. I don't do this often but I got a whole four reviews for the last chapter so I thought it'd only be appropriate.

jayjayplaya987: Every day I go to college I have to take a bus to get to the train station and then a train to get to college. Then I have to do the same in reverse order to go home. So on every day that I go to college I take two buses and two trains.

Jetstream Girge: Glad you like the story Sam, thanks again for the idea. I hope this chapter did not disappoint.

Icebella: Thanks for pointing out that mistake, I don't know how I let that one get past me. Also, believe it or not but your ideas got me thinking and helped me think up something I could do for a future chapter. So keep an eye out for that.

frederickoliver: I know, I've been neglecting Eve a bit these past few chapters. I'll have to fix that since she's very important to the story. She's referenced in the story title for crying out loud. Next chapter will have more Eve. I promise.

If you have any ideas, suggestions, corrections, criticism or anything else, feel free to share it with me through a review. If you wish to remain anonymous you can of course always send me a PM instead.

May we meet again, fare thee well.