First thing she felt in the void, was her heartbeat.

Ever since that day, she haven't felt it like this.

Second was that she wasn't hugging her brother and was laying on ground. But she couldn't open her eyes yet, she heard a familiar voice calling her name.

"Velvet! Please wake up. Velvet! You're scaring me!" the familiar voice of her little brother couldn't answer to him, but tried to move her body to tell him she was fine. Then she felt healing arte on her and slowly opened her eyes.

In front of her, was her brother looking just like before the Scarlet Night that took him away from her. She couldn't really tell if this was an illusion or real, but her brother was looking at her too, with his smile on his face. The honest smile she recognize from those days, she knew this wasn't illusion.

"You finally woke! I was getting worried you wouldn't open your eyes..." She let out short laugh.

"You were thinking I would be dead?" she asks. Laphicet gives small nod as answer.

"I'm sorry for worrying you. But you know I won't be dying just like that." she assures, giving him hug which he returns.

"I know you are strong... But after all that happened, I now regret all my actions back then. If I would have known what Innominat was going to make you through..."

"Say no more. No one knew. It just had to happen. That brings me to this... I remember sealing us for all eternity."

"I thought it too. Then, who is that and why he won't wake up? I tried but he won't respond." Laphicet points at the small figure bit away from Velvet.

As she looks to the direction he points, she freezes from shock. The white garb, black collar with the bell, and the single-lock of hair she knew whom they belong to.

"Phi!?" she exclaims in shock.

"Phi?"

"Sorry. He has same name as you."

"Oh... He has few similarities thought..."

"He is reincarnation of Arthur's and Celica's child."

"Really!?"

"He was 'born' at the Opening and is part of Innominat, as you may know already."

As she tells her brother what she knows about the boy, she moves next to the sleeping boy.

"I wonder why he is not waking up."

"We might want to know more where we are too... This place looks nothing like Midgand Empire." Laphicet tells.

Velvet looks around, confirming the statement. "You are right. After all that travel around the continents, I never saw place like this."

"We might want to camp here. I see the night is close by." Laphicet states. The sky has taken few shades darker with the different colors of sunset.

"You will be okay? Is the fever gone? I don't mind camping outside, but I don't want you to risk your health."

"I am completely fine. It seems that after being sacrificed, my illness vanished. Now I can finally travel around the world with you Velvet!"

"That's good to hear. But make sure you keep warm. We are not sure how the weather can get here."

"I know I know... I will watch over Phi and you know look for something to eat and firewood? I don't know if I can fight at all..."

"Sure. Keep an eye on him in case he wakes up."

"Of course! Take care sis!"

Velvet takes her short leave to scout their surroundings. Looks like they were in the mountaintops of an hill. As she descents down the mountain she sees few small forests and large field. She quickly scans over the area and finds some animals to hunt. A rabbit had to do for now. Until they know where they are and where the closest city is, they had to rely on hunting. But would they really need food? Velvet was a therion, she couldn't taste a thing, Phi was a malak and Laphi... He might be the only one that could eat normally. He didn't have that hunger of malevolence that still resided inside her. He isn't Innominat now, isn't he?

She stops her train of thoughts and starts to collect wood she would take to their campsite.

After collecting enough wood and taking the rabbit, she decided to return to the camp.

The sight of the camp was same when she left. At least Laphi managed to move Phi closer to the area for the fire. She starts working on the fire. Laphicet comes back to the camp. He seemed like he was deep in his thoughts as he didn't immediately notice her as he jumped in surprise "Velvet! You are back already." He hid something behind his back but because of his small frame, Velvet was able to get a short view of it, but couldn't tell what it was.
Velvet eyes him with worry. "Yes. I already got the fire started. I don't have any recipes so you have to go with simple way." She decided not to pry on it. At least she could give him time to adjust to life again.
"Me? You don't mean you are not going to be eating with me?" Laphi asked while he moves next to Velvet to warm of the campfire. He places a fabric bag on the ground next to him.
"I wouldn't dare. I might not even taste it... So you can't be picky now, got it." Velvet tells him with her neutral tone.
"It's... because you are therion, right?" Laphi looks away from her. He felt the bang of guilt in his chest, creeping its way to all over his body.
"I don't blame you anymore. We all made mistakes. It's part of life."
"Yeah... If you say so..." he says quietly. Then a loud sound of grumble was heard. Laphicet looked down with bright blush on his face. Velvet gave him a look and started laughing. "At least you are hungry." Laphicet lets out small laugh as respond and words to agree with her words, glad to not feel that hunger for malevolence anymore.
They sat at the warm campfire while the rabbit was being cooked. Velvet gave few glances at Laphi and Phi, former avoiding her gaze and later still in deep sleep. For how long, they couldn't tell. She could only hope it won't take too long.
As the food was ready, Velvet looked as her brother ate the meat, and promised to take few bites of it too. As she did so, she was shocked.
"Velvet. What's wrong?" Laphi gave her worried look.
"I can taste it. Only barely but I can taste it." she exclaims in her state of shock.
"Really!? That's awesome." Laphicet cheers. He was really relief that his sister could taste food again. But then...
"But... If you can taste food, are you still a deamon, or are you human again?"
Velvet thinks about her answer. "I haven't actually thought about that." she tells, looking at her bandaged arm. She started to untie the bandages to see if her arm still had the form of red and black scars. To her disappointment and familiarity, her eyes met the sight of the horribly scarred hand, confirming her still being deamon. Laphicet was sad about the reveal, including the sight of her arm making him feel more quilt. Velvet puts the bandages back on and continues eating. She glances at Laphi, thinking if she could ask that they would sleep next to each other. Laphi ate his share of food, now feeling tired.

"We should call it a day. Let's sleep close to the campfire." Velvet tells, taking the blankets out of her bag. She gives one to Laphi, covers Phi with one, and takes the last one with her and sits in her usual position. She leaned onto her right leg hugging with her left being stretched forward. Laphi gave her questioning look, then took his position next to Velvet, curling up in the blanket. "I got used to sleeping in this position so don't worry." she pats his head and listens as he slowly fell asleep. The two silent sounds of the breaths of the two boys calmed Velvet as she too, fell asleep.

Okay I actually updated.
As you can see, Laphi isn't awake. Explanation to that in next chapter, I promise.
Next time: Maotelus, the Empyrean