"Is there something we can do?" Edward asked.
"Yes... but I am unable to support you there—I am sorry."
"You need to find the problems with her soul, that is the only way to help her."
"But for now there is one thing I can do."
As he said that, a light green shine appeared inside the room, slowly descending down on us.
With it focused around Mim.
He moved his hand down those circles, steadily merging them with one another, until it became one, settling it into her.
As a light shone from her for an instant, he said,
"That should do it for a while."
"...thank you..." I said, my knees hurt, holding myself back from collapsing onto the wooden flooring.
Looking back at Edward and Katherine as I heard Edward talk,
"Thank you Ryan and Dowsley... I am in your debt..."
It was a gentle smile he showed.
One that missed something.
His eyes were showing a different shine from what it normally did.
I looked next to him at Katherine, who silently stood there, looking into nothingness—not at me, nor at Mim—with her chin trembling, a slight lift in her lips as singular tears flowed down her face, each one shattering apart on the floor.
"Please, it was nothing... you have done more than enough for me already." Ryan said.
"The same for me, you have always helped me—this was far from enough to clear my debts to you." Dowsley followed up.
"But please she needs help—I am unsure whether this would work more than once." Ryan lowered his head to us.
"And sorry, but the reason her essence is being eaten is because the bracelet is helping her."
"This bracelet has no bad enchantment on it—eating is a last resort to save her."
"Save her?" Edward asked.
"It's just as he said. Something had her broken apart, this enchantment is helping her heal from it," Dowsley said.
Ryan added,
"But because nothing it tried worked, it took away the broken parts and healed her—leaving her incomplete."
Broken apart... incomplete...
No it can't be...
"But tell me, how can we help her?" Edward asked.
"It's something only she can do—she is the only one who can save herself."
I can't even help her... I felt a piercing pain that spread through my body.
"Thank you once again." Edward reached his hand out towards them.
They shook his hand in turn, and left the room.
"I will lead you out," Albert said, passing from behind them.
"We can find it o—" Edward, and Dowsley turned back, seeing everything they left behind them in that room.
"Thank you very much." They continued after Albert.
Just Katherine, Edward, Mim and I were left, the emergency had settled, but we couldn't rest yet.
Who knows how long she has left...
"Okay Tjer... we did not want to force you, believing that it will come with time, sorry—time is the one thing we don't have."
"Don't hold back, and tell us everything." Edward looked me unwavering in my trembling eyes, giving me no chance to look away.
"...you are right..."
Whatever is happening to her has to do with that day, it was something I had denied all along—it was simply nature doing its work.
She was just tired...
I continued living with that lie, knowing the truth deep within me.
Our parents' death—that is where it all started.
"Let me tell you about the death of my parents, the start of it all," I matched my gaze with Edward's and Katherine's, my eyes unwavering.
I told them everything, from the moment we woke up, the attack on the street, the food we ate.
I didn't leave anything out.
The feeling that something was happening that I was unaware of as we walked back home.
The smell as we got home, welcomed by corpses spread out in front of us—corpses clad in red.
And the sight as we entered our home.
They had been listening attentively, not interrupting at all, as I described it.
The sight of my parents lying there both with a hole in their bodies, the sight of my mom who had already passed, and my dad who breathed out his final breath in front of us—I was reliving it all.
But even then my speech did not cloud, nor my sight. Everything was clear with each word I said.
I could see their lips open, and close in the same instant each time I described something.
I continued on with everything, not giving them time to chime in.
Not even giving them the chance to look me in the face, and vice versa.
The floor had been the only sight in front of me.
I continued about Arih, the way he joked around, without even using essence—it was all a joke to him.
The way I left Mim in that room as I rampaged outside, leaving her in danger with the rotting corpse of her parents alongside her.
The tears she shed as I appeared in front of her—tears of fear, not ones of care.
When I snapped back into reality, a feeling lingered that I had never felt before and never wanted to feel again.
I had finally looked up, met by clenched faces, both their eyes slit.
Unknowing what expression I was holding as I looked away again.
I told them about how I managed to stab Arih, and his strange form that followed after, even the strange way he was pronouncing my name, a foreign one.
As I told them about his form, I could see them turn to each other, their mouths slightly opened as they turned back.
I knew that there was one thing that I should keep to myself at all times.
The existence of T.
I ended it with the strange speaking light that healed me as it took Arih away and the final state I found Mim in, unable to speak—one lacking life.
And I fell down onto her, and woke up outside—the plains west of Kage.
Where Mim had still been in that state.
"This is where the two stories intertwine."
Silence.
They didn't say anything.
They just looked at me for a second, and looked away again.
They tried to look at me once again, unable to meet my eyes.
Until the silence was broken.
It was Katherine.
She didn't use words.
I could feel her tears drop down my collar, past my neck and shoulders.
It was not broken with words, it was a single movement.
She had lowered onto her knees and pulled me into her embrace.
It was a tight embrace, but one that didn't hurt.
I couldn't feel anything, only her warmth, and the tears she shed for me.
"It's my fault..." That's all I managed to say, before my strength left me. Unable to keep my body up as I dropped onto my knees.
My head dropped down, only for it to be held up by her chest.
Words were replaced by a single thing, screams—my own screams.
Followed by my own tears.
The beautiful dress she wore was getting tainted by the tears that fell with no end.
But she never moved away.
She just sat there, pulling me closer—taking it all on her.
"Let it all out..."