Hey everyone! In this chapter, I will heavily reference to Full Metal Alchemist. Of course FMA does not belong to me!

Nevertheless, enjoy this chapter!

Reine opened her eyes and Neil was there, facing away from her. They were still where she remembered them to be, but of course in a different position.

"Neil," she called and he turned. "Did… did that happen again?"

"That?"

Reine took a deep breath. She couldn't think of any less awkward way to say it. "You know… I never remember a thing after we kissed."

He looked at her, his expression betraying none of his emotion. "We talked and you fell asleep."

"Really?" she asked. "What did we talk about?"

"Nothing much," he said curtly as he stood up. "The sun's setting soon. I'll walk you back."

Of course she could tell that he was upset: was it because of her dozing off during their conversation? How could such thing happened anyway; she was sure as hell she wasn't even sleepy when they walked here. Why she couldn't remember even a bit of their conversation? Was she going senile… in this young age? An early onset of Alzheimer's? (spending most of your time in the hospital let you know about one thing or two)

Pushing her thoughts aside for a moment, Reine followed Neil. He shoved his hands deep into his coat pocket and said nothing as they walked back into town. If anything, he seemed to be in an even worse mood than when he went.

"Neil… look, I'm really sorry." She sighed. "I don't remember what we talked about and I just dozed off like that… even for me, it's unacceptable. Would you mind… refreshing my memory?"

"No, it's okay," he replied. "It's not your fault. It's mine."

"Hm?"

"Never mind, Reine… I'm saying it's okay, okay?"

They finally reached her place. Reine turned to face him and she looked into his eyes. Was it anger that she saw… or sadness? She stood there, not moving, trying to find the answer.

"Reine," he finally said. "I…"

She waited, fearing that if she said something, his words would never surface. He averted his gaze, avoiding her eyes, and looked down. Finally, he sighed.

"Never mind."

He couldn't even tell her how he felt, fearing that it would cause even more of his power to leave her. Only now he could sense that he was getting stronger—literally so—for each second that passed being with her. How couldn't he realize it sooner? How could he be so foo—well, he was never a smartass back in the Academy, anyway.

Nevertheless, now he knew where he should go.

He knocked on the door of the house he had in mind with urgency. The door slid open; Hana looked understandably confused. "Is there anything you need, Neil?"

"Actually, there is," he replied, his voice filled with conviction. "Show me your tapestry."

Hana looked puzzled, but allowed the young man to come in. She walked towards the cupboard and pulled out the tapestry. Neil leaned over. "Which string is mine?"

"This one," Hana replied while pointing at a particular string.

"And… Reine's?"

"This one," she pointed at another string woven to his; a scarlet string.

"If these two are separated… that means we are too, right?"

"Yes, but—"

Not listening to the rest of the sentence, Neil immediately reached for the two strings and pulled them apart. His fingers burned and moving the strings felt more like moving a fully loaded wagon.

"Neil!" Hana cried out, desperately trying to pull him away. However, her old body was not a match for Neil who just had regained a considerable portion of his power. "Don't do that! What had been joined cannot be parted—you should know better!"

What therefore God had joined, let no one separate.

He had gone against his God once and he had no qualms for doing that again—besides, Hana wasn't exactly his goddess; they're from different 'school of faith', so to speak. Slowly, he could feel a space growing between their strings. His aim was to separate the two until the end of the shorter string, whichever it would be.

Suddenly, there was a beam of an even stronger light came and Neil was thrown away to the wall. Neil watched in awe as he saw three old women came from the light: one with a distaff and a spindle, one with a measuring rod and another one with a pair of jet black—with a hint of red on their blades—shears. They spoke in unison, so were their voices, giving rise to their eeriness as their voices reverberated in the room like a choir.

"Those who defies Fates shall pay the price! You shall wish for Death you shall never have!"

Neil tried to get up, but found that he was pinned to the wall with unseen forces. He struggled, but it was no use: he had used up most, if not all, of his strength in separating his and Reine's threads.

The three sisters slowly walked towards him, but Hana went in between them. "Sisters!" she cried out. "You have forgotten the oath we agreed upon the sacred river!"

The trio stopped and Hana, seeing the chance, went on: "Spare him, I beg of you!"

After what felt like an eternity, the sister who held the distaff and spindle nodded. This time, she spoke alone: "But he shall receive a punishment still, for altering fates."

She pointed the sharp end of her spindle towards Neil. "The arm which stretched out to be her sword and the leg which stood tall to be her shield… we shall take them away."

The moment her sentence was finished, Neil felt a burning pain from his right shoulder and left knee. The pain was so unbearable that he couldn't hold back his scream. He fell to his side, clutching to his right shoulder. Much to his horror, instead of his arm, he felt a hole opened out at the end of his shoulder with blood streaming out from it. He glanced down to find that the lower half of his left leg was missing as well; pools of blood began to form at both ends of his body.

"Neil!" Hana cried out.

Her voice came as if she spoke from a great distance as his vision started to blur. He didn't even have enough energy to breathe properly. Neil glanced up at the laid out tapestry to see whether he had managed to separate them long enough. Five years was all he needed.

Five years… how long could that be when put into a tapestry?

He could feel Hana's hand on his non-existent right arm and that was when keeping his eyes open was too much.

He thought of her, of them, of how things were and would be.

"Amare… salvare… vivere…"

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