Jonas Agallon was walking through the Paelsian lands for reasons unknown to himself. It took awhile to recognize his location but when he realized where he was...
Jonas's breath hitched.
And he almost toppled to the ground when he saw it in the distance.
No, not it, a human, a figure of a girl, her.
He gradually neared her, but she, seemingly impatient, sprinted right to him to embrace him in her arms.
Jonas was embarrassed to feel the hot tears slipping down his face in front of her. Lysandra looked at the tears and kissed them away.
"L...Lys...?"
"Hey idiot! Miss me?"
She was crying as well when Jonas engulfed her in an even tighter hug.
"Are you real? Please tell me this is real?"
"Yes, my love, I'm real. And I am so proud of you for everything that you did."
"You...Lys...I..." Jonas was speechless. Pain and regret and guilt was shooting down his spine. Memories of that fateful day flashing back like daggers mutating his body. Stabbing and stabbing and stabbing and stabbing...
It was then when she leaned down to kiss him. Her intoxicity lingering as she broke it off.
"I'm here Jonas."
Jonas was still speechless. He looked into intense gaze. The fire within them was something only that Lysandra could ever possess.
Even to the very moment before that one, Jonas always flinched when Lys was mentioned at all. Other than Lucia, it caused him great pain to hear it, in or out of friendly conversation. This girl, her death destroyed him, and he hasn't been able to pick up the scattered pieces of his heart.
"I love you Lys. I missed you so much I thought I was going to die from it." He told her. It was true. He had experienced moments of grief so torturous that he nearly ended his own life multiple times in the past two years.
"I know, but I came back when I finally could."
"You sacrificed yourself for me.'
"And I don't regret that decision."
"I..." His breath hitched. A thousand regrets about her spilled out on his face. Jonas didn't give a damn about the small group of people that had gathered around them like they're watching an entertaining show.
He almost chuckled out loud at the thought. Surely, if Lys was Cleo and he was Magnus...Well, Magnus would definitely despise the spectators.
But that's not the point. The point is that Lysandra was alive and well, and she was back in his arms again.
"I'm going to make it up to you," he told her. "All the time we lost, I'm going to make it up to you."
"No Jonas, you're not."
Jonas stiffened. "Lys?"
"You're not because it's time for you to move on from me. I'm gone Jonas, you need to accept that."
His eyes widened. "No! Lys!"
"I love you. I love you. I love you. I can say it forever and it will always be true, but I'm also dead. And I can't see you killing yourself for it all this time!"
"Lys...Lys..." Jonas was panicking. What did she mean? She's...she's...
"You know, I wanted to come here and kick you in the arse and tell you to pull yourself together so many times. Cleo gave up the chance to see Magnus so I can come to you this once. She also wants you to tell Magnus that she loves him and is very concerned about how he is faring. She says she's sorry that she cannot see him like this, but she hopes that another chance will arise soon. I don't have much time, but I needed to pass on her message. I also needed you to see me again. I miss you too, but I also want you to live a long and fulfilling life. Don't let me pull you down. Do you hear me, Jonas Agallon?"
"I hear you."
She smiled and pulled him down to meet his lips again and kissed him with all the passion in the world.
"I love you Jonas."
"I love you Lysandra."
And he wrapped his arms around the air where she stood only moments ago, the world around him dissolving away to nothingness.
Jonas woke with a pounding heart and cold sweat dripping down his spine.
He dreamt of Lys before. Much too many times in the past. But the dreams were never this vivid, never this real. In fact, Jonas was convinced that Lysandra somehow summoned him to her location of death, or maybe even...
Jonas considered the possibility. It wasn't even just that she felt real. She felt real in his dreamscape every time she appeared. No, it was how he was reminded of details that he had forgotten about her over the years. How her deep brown eyes glinted with a burning passion when she looked at him. How her thick chestnut hair flowed like ocean waves down her back. How her face was dusted by a constellation of practically invisible freckles. How she moved like a frightening predator about to strike down her prey, even when content with the world.
Indeed, if anything, Jonas was reminded of the dreams that Timotheus brought him in from the Sanctuary before its ultimate destruction. He froze in place as the idea settled in his head.
Not only was the scene unnervingly realistic, but Lys also mentioned Cleo.
A chill shot down his spine at the thought that the soul of Lysandra Barbas very well could have visited his dreams. He quickly dressed and dashed out of the room.
The hopeful look on Magnus's face as Jonas explained his dream and suspicions about the afterlife pained him deeply because it also meant having to pass on Cleo's message.
Indeed, Magnus's face held great sorrow and disappointment when he revealed the hard truth. Cleo will not be visiting very soon, perhaps years will pass before she could.
Magnus smiled sadly as he blinked away tears.
"I wish that she can see Luka. She would've been so proud."
It was a thing that the two of them had in common that brought them into a seemingly impossible friendship in the past. Pain from lost loves.
For both of them, it pulsed through their entire body every moment of the day.