"Vivia!"
Zerath gasped, a wave of breathlessness stifling across his chest. He didn't know why but a sense of dread obscured his focus - as though Vivia needed him. He had been on edge ever since her departure, more so with the culprits behind Clairette's death still at large.
Vivia…
What if there's another attempt on her life? How is the royal family treating her?
Why does everything feels so gloomy today…
He stepped away from the bookshelf and crossed to a small table at the far side of his office. He retrieved something from inside and carried it back to his desk. Placing the object on the desk, he cleared his throat.
"I heard that…you can help someone meet a person far away, in their dreams."
He waited and waited but when no response came, crimson flushed to his face.
Thank God it's just me in here, or if I'd have killed myself had anyone seen me talking to a lilybell flower…
Zerath sighed. His last meeting with Vivia had only carried him this far, and now his energy and motivation were beginning to run thin. Yes, the Festival of First Light would come where they could officially meet for that one celebration - but that was still far too many days away.
I'll lose my mind if I'll have to wait for that long…
"Hee hee hee~"
Zerath's eyes flew open.
"...You spoke."
"Technically I laughed, hee hee hee~" The lilybell was swaying its petals cheerfully from side to side.
He slid the pot towards him swiftly. "You've never spoken before."
And there's a garden of lilybells here…
"We have, hee hee hee~"
"When? Nobody knows that you're…I mean I knew you were sentient, but not that you could be spoken to."
"We speak when we want tooooo~ Like with that old, grizzly man."
"Huh? Old, grizzly man?"
Sir Doloros? No, no he isn't grizzly, he coughed.
"The one you call your father~"
"..."
Zerath stared blankly.
"Okay first of all, Father is getting older, but he's not grizzly. Secondly - you talked to him?"
"Hee hee hee~"
"About what?"
"Hee hee hee~"
"When?"
"Hee hee hee~"
His brow twitched. The lilybell very clearly was enjoying his curiosity without feeding it any answers.
"But Father never told me you could speak."
"That's because we told him to keep it a secret, a secret~"
And he listened…to a flower?
"Yes, the King listened to us," the lilybell responded merrily as though reading his mind. "We can be very mischievous and vengeful. We curse if we're disrespected, yes curse~"
Zerath's brow arched. "What kind of a curse?"
The lilybell stopped its merry swaying.
"What happened?" He blinked.
Though lilybell didn't have a face to decipher its expressions from, Zerath could still feel the weight of something somber in its deflated movements.
"Hmmmmm, just remember to never disrespect us. It's a heavy price to pay. Heavy price to pay~
Zerath pondered. "I see. Not that I ever thought of disrespecting you in the first place."
"So, so~ I see you want to meet the love of your life?"
"Ssshhh!!" Zerath placed his palm over the flower as though covering a mouth - but one that didn't exist.
"Hee hee hee~"
He had already dismissed the guarding knights but chose to stay alert. The subject of his love was a human, after all.
"Yes," he whispered, "Your friend helped Vivia last time. Would you be so kind as to arrange a meeting?"
"Noooo~~" it chirped.
"Why?" His heart sank.
"Firstly, I can only bring the astral realm during eclipses. Our solar and lunar eclipse have passed, have passed three months ago~ The next eclipse is three more months away~"
Zerath remembered that was roughly around the same time he met Vivia in the astral realm.
"Vivia said her lilybell could invoke its powers during a full moon. I wonder why we couldn't meet during the last one?
"That's the other reason. She must've failed to entertain it~ yes, yes failed!"
"Entertain?" His head tilted slightly.
"Yes~ Entertain, entertain! You've to entertain me too and earn the right to use my powers hee hee hee~"
"How do you want me to entertain you?"
"Hmmmmmmm??" The lilybell flapped its petals back and forth in a deliberate, contemplative manner.
"I know, I know! Kiss a man!"
"..."
"...Excuse me?"
"Yay! Yay! Kiss a man! Kiss a man!"
"Ssshhh!! Quietly!"
It drooped as if sulking. "You don't let me say anything. Bad! Bad!"
"Well because you're asking something outrageous!" He coughed. "Ho-How could I kiss a…"
"Outrageous is fun! Outrageous is fun! Outrageous is fun! Kiss a man! Kiss a man!"
The flower seemed to have made up its mind, repeating the same phrase over and over again.
"I really can't…"
"Then you don't meet her~"
His forehead dropped against the table.
Aahhhhh, how can I…Who would I even…?
"You've time till the eclipse~"
"You promise you'll help me if I…do what you want?"
"We always fulfill our promises~"
Zerath sighed, feeling a headache coming.
"Hee hee hee~"
He then placed his chin on his knuckles, resting his palms upon the table and staring at the lilybell with genuine curiosity.
"Apart from the astral phenomenon, what else can you do?"
The lilybell chimed. "Hmmmm, we've a good memory, good memory. We remember lots of things~ We also guide people~ We also curse, curse!"
"Guide? Guide for what?"
"Lots of things. Also to stop the world from ending~"
He blinked. "End?"
"Yes, balance, balance! Humans and demons are two sides of the same coin~ But when the balance is disturbed, disaster falls, falls~"
Master told me something similar in the past. Balance must never be disturbed. But what does it mean when balance breaks?
"You say you guide people so the world doesn't end."
"Yes, yes!"
"Isn't world destruction too…extreme? It's not going to happen. Why do you speak of it that way?"
"Hee hee hee~ the world had already come to the brink of destruction once, yes, yes~ Someone brave stopped it. Now it's happening again, again~"
"What do you mean? When did the world come close to destruction?"
"Far in the past, hee hee hee~ It's happening again. Like the past, like the past~"
"I don't understand."
"Hee hee hee~ I won't say anymore but know that your present troubles and the past are the same. It's not separate, it's one, it's not separate it's one!"
The lilybell's cryptic manner of speaking was getting him nowhere.
"Rise for the Crown Prince, Zerath!"
He heard a knight's salute from outside. "Come in."
The knight stepped in and dutifully bowed. "My Lord, His Majesty and Her Majesty have left the…"
The somberness returned to his gaze, and he let out a silent breath. "I'm coming."
—
The wind brushed past Zerath in a gentle breeze, swaying his dark hair strands with it. He entered the Royal Cemetery, carrying a bouquet of delicate, white flowers. Nefarion often came by for visiting to honor his ancestors.
Today was one of those days. But not for an ancestor.
Zerath knelt before a tombstone, comparatively smaller than the rest. He gently set the flowers down, where they joined the offerings Nefarion and Veloria. Resting his palms on his thighs, he bowed before the unnamed tombstone - unnamed because the life in question had departed even before a name could have been bestowed upon him.
Zerath stared at his brother's tombstone with a quiet, desolate gaze. He was Nefarion and Veloria's son, who though born, could never take a single breath. This was the very day that had shattered them and also changed Veloria forever.
Zerath settled onto the grass, folding his legs. He smiled as the wind drifted past.
"How are you, Brother? Is Heaven treating you well? Don't ask me how I'm doing. It's all a mess around me. I…fell in love. I'm in love with the most beautiful and kind woman in this world and I miss her…I miss a lot," a flicker passed through his gaze.
"You know, she can dance too? Just like me, but a hundred times better than me," he chuckled. "You must've seen her dance at Nethermoor. It was mesmerizing, wasn't it? She reminded me of my master. Ah, I miss her too…I don't know where she's wandering now, but I'm a little frustrated at her. Could she not make at least some time to meet her disciple?"
He shook his head. "I thought the lilybell could help me meet Vivia, but its astral powers only work during eclipses. It feels so hard waiting. What am I supposed to do now?"
He exhaled quietly. "On one side are my people and on the other side is Vivia. I love Rudaheim and Vivia equally. I cannot give up on either one of them, but I'm afraid what the future holds for us, Brother. I've promised Vivia to make her my bride. Will I be able to keep my promise to her?"
Silence stretched for a while. Then Zerath's voice softened further.
"Say, Brother…How do you think I'm doing as the Crown Prince? Am I making the right decisions? Do you think I'll make a good King someday? The responsibility is so heavy that…I don't know if I could stand tall to everyone's expectations as you would have."
To his surprise, a small white petal from the bouquet came to perch on the tip of his nose. He blinked and held it between his fingers, chuckling a moment later.
"Is that Brother's way of saying yes?"
He watched the petal lift away on the breeze, his gaze growing soft.
"You…what are you doing here?"