I' m a bit distressed, so forgive me if I' m not too accurate... I only wanted to update soon because I don' t know when I' ll update the next time... bye!

36. Age of Loneliness.

The Fifth House was dark and cold.

The Sun couldn' t warm it.

Looking towards Sirio, shining star high in sky, Aiolia breathed.

' So you have encountered him and remembered the real past...'

His eyes fell down, for the first time.

' Only of this... I was afraid only of this... so the Lion had lost his crown... and without any battle...' he murmured, flattered.

Loneliness approached him, as it happened when Aiolos died. When his- their- parents died. When every dream he had ever had died.

'So this too... so this... was worth an illusion? Every night spent together, was only an illusion?'

An importune tear appeared, shiner than Sirio which stared silent and indifferent in the twilight.

' I can' t be happy with you, but neither you can be happy with him...'

He spoke loud voice to himself, to convince his broken ego about that impossible sodalice.

And a doubt arose cruelty.

And if they would have been happy together?

Rage mixed to jealousy took the most noble part of his soul.

' I can' t let things go fucking in this way... I must fight...'

' Fight what...?'

A gentle step behind him. Not Shaina' s.

' Marin.', he said, ' Why have you come here?'

' Because I know. I know.'

' Don' t guess.'

' No?'

She approached him, who was still giving her his back. She embraced his waist, and posed her head on his shoulder.

' For all the long years of your loneliness I' ve been here to rescue you from your pain. Why haven' t you got faith in me anymore? What have I done to deserve this?'

Aiolia closed his eyes.

' Nothing. Nothing, you are a good friend. I' m so sorry not to have talked clearly to you.'

' We are in time.'

' No, I don' t think.'

He trembled, and this was unusual.

Was it pain? Was it rage?

' You know she will leave with Seiya. Maybe tomorrow, with the first plane for New Luxor. He has come to rescue her.'

' No.'

Aiolia turned, his green eyes in fire.

' I won' t permit this.'

' They' ll quit. She will quit you. I warn you... she can' t make you happy.'

He looked at Marin, her calm voice. Slowly, she took off her mask.

He silently laughed in his throat.

' That' s nonsense. I have just seen her and she has her promise done in front of me.'

' How naif. I' ll be sure she will forget the promise when she is on the plane.'

' Marin, go home.'

' I wanna stay.'

He looked at the sky.

' Even if she quit...' he began, a certain sadness in his tone, ' I' ll go and rescue her. At every cost, I' ll force her to follow me.'

' But why...? Why you' ve got such obsession in a woman who doesn' t want you? Why?'

The Lion pondered the question, then a flow of rememberings overwhelmed him. When she kissed him. When he felt himself weak as a kitten in her arms. Her glittering cat' s eyes.

' Because she owns my passion... all, entirely... my blood... sings only when I see her...'

Silence grows, while Marin began to cry.