A/N: YES. I SHALL UPDATE 4 CHAPTERS AT ONCE. YES. 4. As compensation for being gone for so long ^^;;
Anyway, this chapter, we'll be seeing some development with Adisa and Heinrich! And learn a little more about Adisa, too. Otherwise, this is just a filler XD
Hope you all enjoy, and again, so sorry for the long ass hiatus TnT
Warning & Disclaimer... *drags you to the 1st chapter*
Enjoy~
Chronicles of the Drowned City
C.28: A Brother's Letter
Morning came, and the sea exploration group had returned to Armoroad, only to see the now battered looking group from the labyrinth.
"Oh, it's you," a familiar voice called. Rudollf turned towards the girl, who happened to be the clerk's sister, looking more tired than ever.
She huffed, looking at the equally bad shape the sea group is in.
"C'mon, we'll patch you up." Rudollf merely nodded, leading the rest of the group into the infarmary.
Heinrich had to chuckle a bit at the sight of the guild right now.
All battered up and maybe broken.
Eh, at least each of them achieved their own victories despite the wounds. Makes things seem more... positive, no?
Guad and Chitose came in just then, stopping momentarily at the sight of the other members of their guild.
"My... all of you look horrible," said the Ninja.
"Ya didn't have t'be so blunt..." The Buccaneer winced just then, as a wound on his body is dabbed on with medicine.
"A-Anyway...," Guad turned back, heaving a large sack with him,"I'll just... go sell these." Everyone else present there nodded, letting the Farmer walk off to the market.
"We should get some hefty cash with what we both got." Adisa blinked a bit at the statement.
"Huh? What did you guys get?" Chitose shrugged.
"Nothing much, really. Just some herbs and animal parts, but Guad did manage to find a lot of rare stuff in there."
"Whoa- wait, hold up there!" Cia winced as she moved, putting her weight on the left part of her body.
"You said... animal parts?" Chitose nodded.
"Holy..."
"I'm surprised too, and she's done this twice," said Rudollf. Cia slowly nodded.
"Well, uh... you seem to have changed a bit..."
"You were uncomfortable with my hobbies, so I guess I'll hold back a bit. You should be happy." Adisa nodded, smiling a bit, rather proud of the girl for having been able to hold back.
This also means more income for their broke guild. Yay!
Night soon came, and the group had been fully tended to. They now lay in their bunk, resting. Choosing not to chat, the whole guild fell asleep at around the same time, tired from their ordeals.
Adisa though, did not sleep. Instead, she went to the post office.
A few minutes later, she came back, with a sealed letter. Taking her seat on a nearby chair, she tore the wax seal and opened the envelope.
She sighed. Another letter from her brother.
She unfolded the small paper, grimacing at what's etched inside. No, not the handwriting.
"Bro..." Adisa slowly closed the letter, sitting there for a while, trying to calm her shock. Confused, she chose to walk outside to calm herself, tears now brimming in her eyes, unknowingly still carrying the letter with her.
She went to the nearest place she could go to, that place being the port. There's a small cliff outside of the building, barred with wood, enough to get a nice view of the beach, the dark seas and the now moonlit skies, glittered with stars.
She held back as best as she could, but the sight of the letter persistently made itself known in her mind, she couldn't keep herself together and before long, she broke down into small, almost inaudible sobs.
She cupped her face, now working on stopping herself, clutching the letter so tightly to the point where she might as well have crumpled it.
No, she can't appear weak like this! She has to be strong, or she might worry others.
Especially her sickly older brother.
She opened the letter once more, taking care not to let any of her tears spill onto the parchment. She felt grief claw it's way into her heart the more she looked at the letter, the increasingly shaky handwriting and the rather large droplets of blood blotting some parts of the page.
Still though, despite the obvious pain he's in, he insisted on writing to her, asking how she and her whole guild are doing, how her explorations are coming along, not even once regarding himself, giving her as much support as he could from afar.
"Hm? What are you doing out here, miss?" Adisa jumped, snapping her attention towards the voice, finding it to be the captain of the Inver Port.
"Uh... um... I was just out here for a walk." The captain gave her a look.
"Doesn't seem like it. Looks more like your out here to calm down." The captain chuckled just then. "You were cryin' out here! Anybody would've noticed that." Adisa sighed, nodding at the captain. She looked out towards the sea again, the waters seemingly darker in her eyes, as if grieving along with her.
The captain walked towards the cliff, leaning on the wooden bar, silent. Adisa finally managed to stifle her tears, wiping her eyes clean of any trace of them, albeit still hiccuping ever so slightly.
"What's that paper your holding there?"
"A letter," the Princess answered. The captain nodded, noticing the faint traces of red on parts of the paper.
"Who sent it to you?" he decided to ask again, trying to coax the girl to open up, hopefully helping her to loosen up a bit.
"My... bro...," again, the Princess answered, still using that affectionate nickname she gave to Johan.
The captain nodded once more, sighing and staring out to the sea, the moon casting a circular shape on the sea's waters, distorting it with it's waves.
"Say... your a princess from Aeaea, right?" Adisa merely nodded, not the slightest bit surprised that the captain caught on to that.
Said man suddenly got up, patting the girl's shoulders in silent comfort. He purposely let something drop down onto the floor as he patted the girl, and before Adisa could return it, the man was gone.
She decided to inspect the object on the floor, now clutched in her hand.
Uncurling her fingers, a locket is revealed, silver with crusts of gold on he edges, and heavily ornamented, yet still leaving a flat space right in the middle of the locket. On it's side, a lock is placed.
She simply clicked the lock, revealing an old picture inside.
One of a young Adisa and Johan, looking brighter than he did now.
Delicately, without questioning where the captain got this locket from, the Princess stroked the picture with a finger. Her tears spilled out again, but despite that, she smiled her best, through pain clouded eyes.
At the same time, she began to question her choice of coming with Heinrich.
'Just a little longer bro,' she thought, desperately,'just hang on a little longer, please...!'
Morning soon came, and Heinrich was the first to wake up. Immediately, he noticed that Adisa is missing.
Worried, he got up, and headed down towards the inn's main room. As he entered, he noticed a familiar girl sitting on one of the chairs, blonde hair and all.
"Adisa?"
"Oh!" the girl turned towards the source of the voice, all traces of sadness and pain seemingly gone from last night.
"Heinrich! Your up early."
"I should be telling you that," the man said,"anyway, why are you out here so early?"
"Can't sleep," said Adisa. She sighed, looking into the next room, eyes, though bright and wide awake, showing signs of sleepiness and fatigue. Heinrich sat next to her, following her gaze towards the next room.
This is odd, he thought, as he observed the girl. She's not normally like this, so quiet and subdued.
Try as she might to hide it, Heinrich will read her like an open book.
"Alright, out with it. What's wrong? Your not usually like this."
"Hm?"
"For one thing," the Hoplite remarked,"nothing can take away your sleep." Adisa chuckled a bit.
"Hehe, c'mon, even I can be weird at times, right?" Heinrich gave her a look, seeing right through her disguise.
"I'm not buying it." Adisa sighed just then, letting the full effect of last night's little event present itself.
"I got another letter..." After that, she merely handed the bloody letter over to Heinrich, letting that damned piece of paper explain everything.
Heinrich's expression darkened at the sight of the letter, though he still kept his composure.
"Johan, he's..."
"He's..." The girl couldn't so much as choke out those words. They're mere letters, yet the fear she felt at the thought of those 'mere letters' reigned true terror on her mind.
Heinrich sighed. In the shape she's in, she won't be able to go to the Labyrinth. She's too distraught. He got up, neatly folding the letter, patting Adisa on the shoulder.
"You should stay here for now. We'll go and handle things in the Labyrinth for today." Adisa didn't reply, instead looking towards the door leading to the other room, where the infirmary is, with Ribu resting inside.
"The doctor said that Ribu should be ok by tomorrow." Heinrich nodded at the unexpected remark, walking towards the room, opting to leave Adisa for now.
She sat there, sighing, trying to hold back more tears from coming out. Closing her eyes, she tried to picture the good memories, treasured memories of her and her brother. Hopefully this will help her recover.
'I can't be in denial forever...,' she thought,'People die in the end... we're no different...' She took a deep breath, finally managing to calm herself down. She stood up, hand reaching towards the doorknob.
'For now, all I can do is hang on and find our way back there...' She twists the doorknob open, revealing the infirmary, the room everyone's now so familiar with. She looks about.
No one's in here besides her and a sleeping Ribu.
She walked up to the bed, looking at the peacefully sleeping Wildling with tired eyes. Her gaze darted towards the girl's wound, now healed and cleaned, though still bandaged up.
She rubbed her eyes, feeling that sense of sleepiness and fatigue taking over completely. Her eyes became droopy, in severe need of some rest, along with her whole body.
'Maybe Heinrich's right... I should really get some sleep.'
Sleep. That sounds good. Maybe that should help her with her problems.
For the first time since last night, Adisa managed a genuine smile, despite still being in denial.
"What? Why can't Adisa come?"
"She's... not feeling too well today," Heinrich explained simply, not wanting to reveal Adisa's internal conflict at the moment. Cia's eyes went downcast.
"Well... I could check up on her, if you'd like. She has been coughing a lot since a few days ago." Heinrich shook his head.
"No need for that. It's more... mental fatigue than anything." Cia nodded. The Labyrinth can have it's toll on people's minds.
"So, guess that leaves us, eh?" asked the Arbalist as she walked up to them. Heinrich nodded.
Yuki sighed.
'I knew that was more than just some cough...'
After all, there's a reason why they call the Aeaean bloodline 'cursed'.
Why excatly, though?
-TBC-
A/N: Really short chapter, sorry, but hey, I did say it's just a filler XD. At least we know more about Adisa now...
Anyway, I did say this was going to be 4 updates at once, right?
And with that, I shall write the next chapter *sneaks to new document*
