His low whisper sent a tremor across her chest. It felt like forever had passed since his deep, mellow voice tickled the chords of her heart. The pressure mounted upon her shoulders eased as if there was never a boulder. As she moved to touch him, her fingers passed through his face, her brows crinkling at that. Zerath felt nothing but an illusion.
"Teehee~ This is the astral realm."
Vivia blinked, the lilybell's voice echoing in her mind with mischief.
"I've only brought your spirits here temporarily. Your physical bodies are still in your respective realms. You can talk but not touch~"
A notion that disappointed Vivia gravely. She was ready to lunge into Zerath's embrace and hug him tightly until the last drop of her strength. Mere watching him wasn't enough to douse the overwhelm of her joy.
"I can take your spirit back if you have any complaints~"
Her brow twitched, and she swallowed back her grievances. Something was better than nothing, after all.
Her gaze drifted towards Zerath - his handsome face shimmering with peace and relief as it rested in her palm. Tired circles surrounded his eyes, making her frown heavily.
"You've not been sleeping well," she scolded.
Zerath met her gaze. "I don't know for how long this dream will last, but even your scolding feels so peaceful."
"This is not a dream."
"One could only hope," he said with a tinge of melancholy.
Vivia was left speechless.
Does Zerath really think I'm not real?
She slapped his cheeks to prove her point and existence, but they simply passed through him like a hopeless mirage.
Damn it!
"Zerath, I'm really Vivia! Wake up! This is not a dream! I mean...yes this certainly looks like a dream, but we're really meeting face-to-face. Right now! The lilybell brought us here!"
Zerath blinked twice, still visibly hesitant to believe the claims.
"It's true! You remember the lilybell flower Sir Doloros gave me as the parting gift? It brought us here to this astral realm for us to meet."
"...Really?"
Zerath was tempted to believe her, but it felt all too incredulous. How was it possible, after all? He had been escaping the cave for his life, the scent of death looming so very close above him. Then out of nowhere, he was transported to a realm he had never seen before. Zerath was sure some heavy piece of rock had hit his head, and he died on the spot. He could only think of this experience as a dream, especially when his gaze caught Vivia smiling at him at a distance.
Where else would he have seen Vivia but in his dreams?
As Zerath's hand lifted, the realization made his chest swell with joy and disbelief.
"Vi…via…"
Only Vivia knew how her heart soared with utter joy. She didn't dislike being called Clairette for she was grateful to be able to live through her.
But only here…only between the two of them was where Vivia truly felt she was real. Alive. That Vivia Mariel existed.
"Yes…" she whispered back, her eyes aching. "I missed you too, Zerath. I missed you a lot."
His other hand lifted, gently pressing on top of hers that held his cheek. He wished he could interlock them between his fingers and kiss her knuckles. But even the very sight of the woman he loved standing before him was enough to flood his empty heart.
"How did the lilybell bring us here though?"
"It took quite some attempts, but I managed to entertain it enough for that high and mighty flower to make us meet here. Which reminds me of my grievances," she pursed her lips. "Why didn't you try so that we could meet in this realm? Rudaheim's palace has a garden of lilybells."
The more he listened to her, the more confusion gripped him. "Forgive me, but nobody in the Demon Realm has ever witnessed a lilybell doing something like this…It's just a flower."
That took her aback. "You didn't know?"
"Nobody knows. We're aware that lilybells seek amusement, and they do have some medicinal properties, but not that they're magical. This ability…" he gazed around the space between them which resembled a lot like the Realm of Harmony, "is beyond anyone's knowledge."
Had he known that lilybells held such a power to make spirits travel through an astral realm, he wouldn't have dwindled in depression from a lack of Vivia all this time.
"Wait, what is that injury?" Vivia gasped as her eyes finally caught a swelling on his left arm.
"It's just the outfit," he quickly said.
Her eyes narrowed. "Is that a lie I smell?"
"Will I ever lie to you?"
"Have you been sleeping well?"
"Of course."
"Lie! How will you explain the lines under your eyes then?"
"I missed you too much."
She glared. "Hold back your glib tongue and tell me the truth. Something happened to you, didn't it? How did you get injured?"
Zerath sighed. "Well, you caught me. The training regimen got-"
"Lies again! You're fortunate I cannot touch you, or I would've beaten you up black and blue for all the lies you've been spouting!"
He blinked twice. A mischievous smile curled his lips. "And then?"
"Then?" Her brows furrowed.
"Would you only stop till beating this body black and blue? A body which belongs to you where you can do anything with it? Anything."
Her imagination took her to all sorts of 'punishments' at length - all that ended up creating censored images in her mind. She swallowed a gulp, heat spreading through her cheeks all down till her neck.
"Shameless!" Her face flushed crimson.
Zerath bent closer, his lips whispering into her ear as if speaking a secret. "I'd have loved to see everything that you imagined just now."
Despite the fact that their bodies were in their own realms physically, strangely enough, warmth gushed forth as if a dam was broken somewhere.
Only if I could touch him…
Disappointment hung on her face, but she moved past it. She cleared her throat. "Don't try to divert the subject and come clean. What's the real matter?"
His tongue clicked silently.
"I got stabbed by a rocky cone in a hidden underground cave that was built centuries ago."
She tilted her head, puzzled.
"The place where Eurus's mother was kept at one point in time."