Chapter 109 - The Last Ember of Life

  I jolted out of bed, startled. My shirt was drenched i, and somethi strange inside me. I could feel my mana cirg through my body, but somehow it was hot.

  I pced my hand over my stomad felt the familiar warmth of my Gem. When I touched my face, the same warmth was there.

  “A Gem… these Celestial Eyes… that’s what they are. It’s the Mana Gem… from that creature…” I murmured, not fully uanding how I acquired that knowledge.

  The warmth in my face began to fade, and somehow, I khat the Celestial Eyes had gone dormant. Knowledge lingered in my mind, as if it had been instinctively imphere.

  My mana began to flow normally again through my body. I finally uood the purpose of the cup training; I could now differentiate between the mana geed by my Gem and the one geed by my eyes.

  I closed my eyes and forced the mana from my eyes again, but something was different. The mana geed was cold, and somehow, my braihat this was the mana of my Special Eyes.

  What madness…

  I tried to jure magic again, but my els were in chaos. There were flig dires within them, as if they were fused and unsure how to circute through my body.

  I focused, trying to mimic the cup training, but the heat from the Celestial Eyes returned with force, and my entire body felt the pain of their awakening.

  WHAT!?

  The pain came batensely, and somehow, my body uood it was a side effect. Those eyes still o feed on my mana to plete the healing process. My soul had been wounded by receiving that Gem, and it o adapt to it.

  It was the same pain as the infernal s!

  The Celestial Eyes went dormant again, leaving only my Special Eyes active, but I didn’t want to risk finding out what they could do. I was hesitant to circute my mana again, afraid that I might awaken that painful power once more.

  Then, I felt something heavy on my leg.

  “Where is Sisika?” I asked out loud, to myself.

  I looked around the , but I didn’t see her.

  The sound of thunder crashing in the sky and the loud noise of rain echoed outside.

  Something on my leg moved. I pulled off the b, and what I saw surprised me.

  “Who? Who are you!?” I stood up, startled, jumping out of bed.

  A red-haired girl, a little youhan me, was sleeping there. She stretched and yawned.

  “You woke me up…” she pined before falling back asleep.

  The girl must have been around 10 years old. She was dressed in boy’s clothes and snored as she slept.

  “Who is this girl?”

  I looked around the , searg for the mysterious red-haired woman, but there was no sign of her. The small table still blocked the door, so she hadn’t left. Still, I pushed the table aside and opehe door to look outside.

  It was raining heavily, and the storm, with its strong winds, shook the trees. In the darkness of the night, there was no sign of Sisika. The thunder echoed, and lightning lit up the sky every now and then. I khe truth: Sisika had never left this . The red-haired woman was still here, with me.

  I closed the door and looked toward where the girl was still sleeping. She had short red hair and was hugging a pillow, practically crushing it in her sleep.

  Could this girl really be Sisika?

  I went over to the fire, which was nearly out. I grabbed some dry leaves and threw them onto the fmes, rekindling the fire. On the small table, I noticed a pot covered by a cloth. Ihere was what seemed to be soup, probably left ready by Sisika. I pced the pot on the fire to heat the food and sat down, waiting for my kidnapper or friend to wake up.

  A part of me still didn’t fully uand what she was, but for some reason, being near her calmed me.

  “Hmm… smells good,” I heard a voice.

  I snapped out of my thoughts and saw the red-haired girl sitting on the bed, looking sleepy.

  “Who are you?” I asked, standing up.

  “My name is Sisika. Are you lost too?” she replied, looking at me with curiosity.

  What!? It’s really her.

  The girl stretched, got up, and walked over to where the soup was warming. “Did you make this? It smells delicious,” she said, sitting in front of the fire.

  “Y-you’re Sisika?” I asked, perplexed.

  “That’s my name. What’s yours?”

  The situation was getting even stranger.

  “My name is Nathan…”

  “Oh! So you’re my beloved! I’ve always been alone here, you know?” she said with a sad smile. “I waited for you for so long... through all the nights… through all the years... I always hoped someone would e and not leave me alone anymore.”

  The girl rested her face between her knees, staring at the fire with a mencholic look. “It’s really hard being alone in the world…” she murmured.

  “But I know you have to leave. You already know the way out of here. Don’t worry about me, beloved. I’ll stay here until my time es…”

  Is this the real Sisika speaking? Or just the little girl?

  “You have important people waiting for you. You don’t o stay here to see what happens to me. I lived here and chose to spend my final moments in this pce,” the girl said.

  I looked at her, still gazing at the fire.

  You told me you’d be taken away bit by bit. Is this what you meant? Are you going to disappear like this, slowly?

  “ I sit o you?” I asked.

  “It’s better if you don’t, beloved. I’d rather you leave soon…”

  “Then why are your eyes tearing up?”

  As soon as I asked, she hid her face. “It’s nothing… just an eyesh in my eye,” she said.

  I ignored her words and sat down beside her.

  “I want to stay with you, until the end. I?” I asked.

  “I-I don’t want to be a burden, beloved. You have important people waiting for you.”

  I sighed deeply. “They’ll uand if I’m a little te. I stay with you, Sisika?”

  “I’d love that…”

  I sat o her, and together we watched the fire dance.

  I looked at the red-haired girl and took a deep breath. “ I do something to help you? you tell me why this is happening to you?”

  “There’s no way to stop nature from following its course. That’s the beauty and the sadness of life. It stantly reminds us that everyone has their time and that nothing sts forever. If things sted forever, we wouldn’t reize the beauty in the simplicity of small things.”

  The little girl rested her head on my shoulder.

  “Even so, I o try. How I help you? Is there something you want?” I asked.

  “Just stay by my side until my st ember fades. Will you talk to me?”

  I nodded.

  “Who are you?” she asked, fused, staring at me.

  Upon hearing that, I uood better what was happening. Sisika was losing her lucidity. Her mind and body were... fading away.

  "Are you my beloved?" she asked.

  "I am... I am your beloved," I replied.

  "Will you stay with me? I... I don’t feel well."

  I looked at her. "Of course. If you're tired, you rest your head on my shoulder."

  She smiled and nodded. "You're a bit warm, my beloved," she said.

  "I think you're warm too. Even in this cold, just being near you makes me feel warmer."

  She rested her head against me.

  We sat in silearing at the fire. I had so many questions I wao ask Sisika, but none of them would e out. She had that same look of sorrow and despair I'd seen before—the look of someone who knows they're going to die.

  "I'm back here again..." she murmured. "I'm in this pce again... alone."

  "Are you alright?"

  "Who... who are you?"

  I took her hand and ed my arm around her shoulder. "I'm your beloved. I'm here to stay with you."

  "I waited for you, you know? I waited for so long..." her voice slowed.

  "But I'm here now. I was just a little te."

  She held me tighter. "It's getting dark... why is it getting dark?" I looked down and realized the one holding me was no longer a 10-year-old girl but a small child, about 5 years old.

  "Is it dark?" I asked.

  "Yes... everything's dark."

  I g the fire burning in front of us, then back at the little girl who was trembling as she g to me. "Are you still there?" she asked. "I'm scared... I don't want to be alone."

  "I'm right here, I'm with you," I said, holding her close.

  She gripped my hand tightly. Her fingers were so small, her hand tiny. At that moment, she seemed like a 3-year-old child.

  "I don't like rainy nights. They scare me so much..." she whispered, hugging me.

  "You don't o be scared at all, I'm here to protect you."

  She hugged me even tighter. " you hold me, my beloved? I... I'm in pain. I 't see anything, it's all so dark. Are you still there?"

  I held her tight and kissed her forehead. "I'm here... I'm with you, and I always will be."

  Sisika kept holding onto me, squeezing with her little strength. "It's getting darker... but the pain is going away... are you still there?"

  "I'm here, everything's fine," I replied.

  "Don't leave me alone... please... I'm scared..."

  "I told you, I'll always be with you."

  I looked down at the trembling girl, whled to smile. Even as she looked at me, she couldn't see me anymore. The life in her eyes was fading.

  " you call me by my name o time? It's such a beautiful name..."

  "I think your name is beautiful too, Sisika," I said, tears streaming down my face.

  She smiled wider. "I'm not talking about that name. I'm talking about the name you gave me..."

  The girl's presence was growing weaker. The warmth she radiated was fading away.

  "I didn't give you a name..."

  She looked at me o time.

  "Yes, you did. You called me Cyl," the little girl said, and then she disappeared, turning into embers that flickered in the air one final time, leaving me alone in that .