Even though it was night and dark, I cut some palm trees and used their leaves to make something fro Mia to lay down on. The Mercury Adept herself sat down on the sand, breathing heavily and looking sick. She probably was. She must have gotten tons of seawater in her. For a moment I was angry on my brother for doing this to her just to test me, but at the same time, I was very grateful. While the past couldn't be changed, I had prevented myself for doing the same horrible mistake twice.
"There." I said "That should allow you to lay a bit more comfortable. I'm sorry, but this is all there is on the island."
She shook her head, slowly. "No… It's fine…" She looked so tired, her eyes were half closed. It took her some effort to lay down on the leaves. While she was resting, I gather the wood from the palm trees to relit the fire, even though the wood was still fresh and a bit wet. But I also used some dry materials for it. The night was not that warm, and Mia's clothes were still wet, so I had to make the fire as big as possible, but also make it so there would be no danger for her to lay close to it and warm herself up. I mean, if there were some blankets she could have used those to cover her while letting her clothes dry. But now she had to keep them on. I hoped she wouldn't get any sicker of it. A few moments passed, Mia's breathing returned to normal. Her expression was peaceful. I touched her arm, her clothes had already dried a bit.
"Sephiroth…" She whispered, coughing painfully.
"Calm down Mia, you should rest." I felt on her forehead, she was very warm to touch. I feared she had a very bad fever.
"I'm feeling so cold…" she groaned, tugging my arm.
"It's because your clothes are wet, I think…" I replied unsure.
"It's not healthy to keep them on…" She coughed "And I can know, I'm a healer." She shook her head. "Sephiroth, please, remove my dress, it would prevent me from getting sick…"
Ashamed I looked away. "Mia, I can't do that…" I stammered.
"This is no time to think about such things…" She coughed again. She really was sick. "Just my dress, nothing else…" She looked at me, and I could see the pain in her eyes. "Please…"
I nodded. My mind set on nothing I unbuttoned her dress, took it away and laid it next to the fire. Then I took of my sleeved cape and laid it over her.
"Thank you…" She sighed. I caressed her arm. "No problem."
I patted her arm one last time, then sat down on the other side of the fire on a cut-down tree trunk. I gazed in the flames again. I had decided to stay awake for the rest of the night, guarding Mia. Regularly I glanced at her to see if she was alright. When she noticed, she would smile. She needed to sleep and yet she stayed awake. I wondered why.
"Mia, you should get some sleep." A sigh escaped her lips. She shook her head.
"I can't."
"Why?"
"Because…" She seemed to hesitate. My curiosity grew. "Because I want to know, Sephiroth… I want to know who you protected tonight, what mistake you set up straight. Because it wasn't me you were protecting, it was this her, right?" She gave me a nervous look. Now it was my turn to sigh. "You don't want to know."
"But I do!" she insisted. Against better knowing, she tried to sit up. "I want to understand you! I want to relieve you from some of your burdens… You should tell me…" Silence. "You can trust me."
"I know, or at least, I hope."
"Then tell me." She tried to get up. She really shouldn't. But I didn't say anything of it, I just couldn't. My mind heart had become heavy. Shaking all over, she sat down next to me, wrapping my cape tightly around her. She laid her head on my shoulder again. "Is it that horrible…?" I nodded. Her hand touched my arm. I didn't stir. Wave after wave, memory after memory, came back. I vaguely heard her speak my name. "Sephiroth…" I glanced at her, my eyes met her. "What happened…?" She asked, as silent as she could. I hung my head. A tear formed and ran down my cheek, followed by many others. "It's okay… Take your time. But you have to tell somebody. It's eating you, I can see it. I don't need to read minds to know."
"She was murdered…"
She didn't understand. Patiently, she asked: "Who? What happened?"
I swept the tears away. "Okay then…" I sighed yet again. "This is a tale I want to forget so badly, but ever haunts my dreams and nightmares…"
"In my world." I began with shaking voice. "I told you there is no such force as psynergy or magic as we call it in our fairytales, in my world. It's a kids tale. Good for children."
"But, that's not true, is it?" She was clever, indeed.
"Well… Not entirely. Magic does exist. But, I think maybe 10 or less of the 6 000 000 000 people in my world posses it. And they are all women. Sorceresses."
"Why no males?"
"I do not know. The history of Sorceresses goes back since the beginning of the human race. A sorceresses gives her power to a young successor when she dies. Generation after generation. It doesn't even have to be family of the sorceress. They pick successors that have a natural talent for it. This is known as the Succession of Witches."
"Witch sounds… negative." Mia commented.
"It is. In the middle ages Sorceresses were hunted down and burned alive. Now, in the time period I'm from, they're frowned upon. People fear what they can't understand."
"And this her. She was… a sorceress, right?" I nodded approvingly.
"Yes…" I felt tears. I could see her again… "Her name was…" My throat hurt. "Her name was… Selena. My dear Selena." Silence. "She had received powers from a sorceress when she was very young. I'm two years older than her and I was seven then." I had to think about how to continue for a while. "Every Sorceress has a knight, so to say. 'Knights' are the men who help the Sorceress, protect her, but also make sure she'll never abuse her powers for the wrong. Until I was twelve, Selena's father did that. But he died from illness, and I was the only closest thing she still had to family. I was her childhood friend and had always been a friend of the family. So, the task of Knight went over to me. I felt proud…" I chuckled sobbingly. "Yeah, I was proud… I could help her now, understand her more. The burden she had to bear. It would be partly my burden now, too. I never left her side from that day on. I would always accompany her. Most of the time however, she would forget the fact that she was a sorceress. She barely used her powers. The only time she was remembered to it was when she saw the glances the radicals gave her."
"The radicals?"
"Sorceress haters. Believing magic is a filth that needs to disappear. Even wondered why there aren't many Sorceresses?"
Mia gulped loudly. "You don't mean?"
"I mean exactly what you think I mean." I replied harshly. "When you want to kill a sorceress, it's easy: Do something that doesn't seem natural and hurts or kills normal people and instantly there's reason enough to do away with the local Sorceress." I regretted my harsh words, it made this tale even more painful. Especially… What happened one year ago.
"Selena had heard those tales. And she was frightened. She swore never to use her magical abilities in public. She wanted to see as normal as possible. Well, that was already hard for her without her magical powers."
"How come?"
"Selena was born with an incurable illness. Something wrong in her that causes the colour pigments in her hair and eyes to be colourless. Resulting her in having snow white hair and white eyes. It's a very odd and rare illness. It didn't make her any more popular. In fact, when she accepted the Sorceress' powers, people blamed her illness on the fact that she had always had magical abilities in her."
"How unfair…" Mia exclaimed. "Was there at least something pleasant in her life?" I shook my head and Mia looked horrified. I gave her a look of: I warned you! I sighed deeply and continued.
"Her life wasn't the easiest. But I still remember her saying…" I swallowed hard and tears streamed down my cheeks and poured on the sand. "I still remember her saying 'At least I still have you, Sephiroth.'" Now, I couldn't hold it back anymore. I started to cry. Something that I didn't do for more than a year. Mia put her arm around me, trying to comfort me.
"It was when she said that." I sobbed. "That I… That I realized how much I had loved her ever since I had met her." Tear after tear… "But, it's not easy for me to tell such things. I wanted to tell her so badly, but I didn't know how. I just didn't know…" I took a deep breath. My cheeks felt warm and undoubtedly were glowing red. "On that night of the full moon, her favourite night, I was standing at the lakeside. Her favourite time of the month. I had finally decided that I would tell her. How, I didn't know. But I would tell her. She was at home back then, I needed this time alone. I had to prepare for this. I know, it sounds childish. And, how I wished I hadn't done that…" Mia was still trying to comfort me while listening to the story. She could understand how I felt. I knew that. And I let myself be comforted by her tender hands on my shoulders. Another tear fell on the ground.
"It had started raining when I started going back. I wanted to take her to the lakeside, in the rain and under the full moon. She would have loved it. She enjoyed rain and the moon. I was slowly getting back, still unsure about how I should say it, when I heard that one sound that would haunt me forever…" I stared in Mai's eyes. "It was her screaming." Mia didn't say a thing, her face pale, she listened. I gazed in the flames again. The memories were very fresh again. Every detail, I could remember.
"I didn't waste another moment and ran. I just ran and ran. And I cursed myself a million times for leaving her alone." I closed my eyes. "I ran through the forest, rain pouring down from the sky. It started to thunder. The light of the full moon blocked by storm clouds. I was soaked again, like on the ship. I ran and ran, my heart beating faster then ever." I remembered everything. Even how the lighting looked. That's how deep this night is burned in my memories. "And when I just emerged from the forest and could see the house in the distant, I heard the gunshots." It becomes dark in front of my eyes. Gunshots… One, two, three, four, five, six. Six of them. Mia is so taken back, she doesn't even ask what a gun is. "That's when my mind was shattered like a mirror is when you throw a heavy stone at it. Time seemed to stop. Than I heard my mind scream 'No! She's alive!' And I ran again. But when I arrived, the house was a mess and empty. The door to the roof was open. I couldn't think when I climbed the ladder and crawled on the roof." I hung my head. "There she laid, curled up against the chimney. I fell on my knees next to her dead body. I lifted her head up, hoping I could see those eyes, that smile, just one more time. My gaze went down her body and stopped on her chest. I saw the wounds. I couldn't stop myself. I had to count the bullets in her chest. It was so horrifying, and yet I couldn't stop counting."
I felt my body become weak and fell flat on my face in the sand. I coughed, gasped for breath. Sand was stuck on my wet cheeks.
"I couldn't stop looking at her. The most innocent being I ever knew. Dead. Shot dead like an animal. Her white dress soaked with rain and blood. As I screamed until I was certain my lungs were burning, I laid her down and fell forward on her chest, crying. Then the sky was lit by a flash of lightning and the moon fell through the clouds, its light straight on the spot she was laying…"
Next morning Mia awoke when the sun fell through the leaves on her face. She quickly placed her hand in front of her eyes and then she realized she was fully awake.
"Morning there." She sat up and looked at me, throwing some more wood on the fire so it was large enough to roast some fish on. I felt her gaze, but I avoided it. We sat in silence for a while, eating the fish and I continuously felt her staring worried at me.
"Mia." I sighed, getting tired of it. "What's done, is done. I can't change what has happened, nor will I ever be able to forget or straighten this mistake. But, I have to press onwards, it's my only choice."
"But I'm worried about the past eating you away…" She replied silently.
"It's inescapable that it will, but until it does, I rather enjoy this adventure with you guys." I thought for a moment. "It was you who I saved last night. Not her. I prevented myself for making the same mistake twice. I proved to myself to still be able to protect people I hold dear. But the burden of her death has not been lessened. Nothing will ever be able to do that."
"And what if you were able to revive her?" The question was full of hesitation, but my heart sprang to life.
"Anything…" I whispered. "I would do anything to be able to do that! To see her smile again, to feel her again… To ask her to forgive me… … …"
In her heart, Mia regretted asking, but I didn't notice that. Anything… Everything for that possibility… Then I laughed with myself. Fool, I am.
"She's dead!" I reminded myself. "Life is too short and desires eternalness, death already is eternal. I only have her memory, and that should be enough. I do not deserve more, anyway."
And silence once again reigned.
I walked to the edge of the cliff. It had been a long climb, but I needed somewhere where I could be alone. Mia was resting at the fire, so this was the perfect opportunity. Eight metres below me, the waves were crashing against the cliff. Above me, and above the waves, seagulls and other life. The sun burned in my neck. It was a hot day, not a single cloud in the sky.
"Brother." I whispered. I felt a cool breeze. "I think I understand now. I think I've learned what you wanted me to learn here. I think… I think I'm ready." I gazed up to the sky, hoping for an answer. And I waited. Maybe for hours, I stood there. Minute after minute, hour after hour, passed by. Was I wrong? Wasn't I done here, yet? Or didn't my brother hear me? No, I had to be patient. Maybe something would happen if I was patient enough…
"Sephiroth!"
I stared down to the beach. Mia was walking a bit in the cool seawater, but she was pointing to something far out into sea. A dot on the horizon. I narrowed my eyes. Could it be? After a while, the dot became larger. It was a ship! When it came even closer, I recognized the dragonhead, the ancient look. It was our Lemurian ship! Isaac had found us!
Sure enough, about fifteen minutes later the ship was docked only few metres away from the beach. Isaac jumped overboard with almost too much enthusiasm and waded through the water until he felt sand under his boots. Mia ran up to him and flew in his arms, almost knocking him over.
"I am so happy to see you again." He whispered to her. "For a moment, I really thought you had drowned."
She shook her tears away. "It was alright, Spehiroth saved me." She let go of him and looked to the top of the cliff. I gave the sky one last look. "Thank you, brother." Before heading down to meet the others.
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Okay, one more chapter I think, and then we'll hurry up things a bit to the events on Jupiter Lighthouse. next chapter, they'll visit the edge of the world, and Sephiroth gets another mysterious gift. Read and enjoy. Maybe drop a reply, too?