The sun rays peek through the thick piles of branches and leaves of trees, the grass rustles and dried fragile twigs crunch beneath Catherin's foot as she skips her way home. She was once again her jolly self at the thoughts of having her new first friend. They parted the path to Catherine's home halfway while Ezio heads the other way. When she's finally out of the trees, the sun rays hit her pale skin. It's not as hot as the rays by the time of lunch because the temperature drops in the evening duration. Catherine can see her father standing in front of their home's door, glancing at the other side of the forest's thick trees. He must be looking for her.
"Papa!" she calls out, then Bastian turns to her direction. He heaved a sigh of relief before greeting her back.
"Catherine, I'm so glad you're fine." He crouches down and hug her. Worry paints his face. "Lucas... is not here anymore to guard you. You should be careful."
"I know. But the flowers can always guide me home." She beams a smile at him. The sight of her lessen his worry slightly, and he knows that she's speaking the truth since he already observed the magic she unconsciously had from the frames of their windows. He smiles back before standing up, holding her right hand on his left.
"Now, how about we go inside." He pushes the door using his right hand while he guides her inside by the hand. Catherine walks inside, entirely unaware of the surprise her father prepared. When they reached the kitchen, a smile spreads on Catherine's face when she saw her favourite foods lined up on the table. They sat and enjoyed the meal, laughed at stories while celebrating her 10th birthday. The time has passed by unnoticed, and they took their nap with their bellies full. There are more leftovers, so Bastian decided to separate some for friends, and the unwanted ones go to their compost.
~~
Their next day, Catherine is travelling once again to the nearest village, but this time, with her father. They're walking hand in hand in the streets of the market to buy more fertilizers for their plants. Bastian is wearing his backpack behind his back, where the dishes he will give his friend are in.
The streets crowded with people, and there is a chance for his little one to get lost, so he decided to leave his daughter in the library 'till he gets the things he needed. Catherine was standing in front of the library door when she saw her father off. Once he is already out of sight, she turns around to face the door which carved in beautiful old patterns. This Library is said one of the oldest ones in the Land of Day.
She turns the door's knob with a click. The door creaked as she pushes it open, and Catherine is welcomed by the smell of the old pages of the books. The stern-looking librarian just took an uninterested glance at her before turning back at the sheets she's reading. Catherine stepped inside, the extreme silence of the place is giving her unease. The crowd's noise outside on the streets died due to the Library wall's soundproof. Her shoes clack loudly at every step, and it made her consciously make her pace more light as she heads towards the bookshelves. Any random book would entertain her, so she simply grabs a random one then head towards an empty table. She sits there and put down the volume on the table.
σε διασταση the title page says, engraved in golden fonts. It shines in the Library lights, and its beauty took Catherine's breath away. As if she's drawn to it, she traced its letters with her little fingers, then glides her fingers between the sheets and opened the book. She then reads.
This world isn't what it was before. It's turmoil and mess mixed, a portrait of failure and dreadful spectacle. It was then the creator made three Deities for these predicaments. And, that story was told by the gods, taled by who heard and passed down to generations.
εσείς που έχετε την ικανότητα, προχωράτε
Her eyes narrow as she saw those foreign letters. The texts next to it were also the same, so she can no longer read the book. Her shoulders drop then disappointedly sigh. Just when she was about to close the book, she hears a voice from behind. She turns her head slightly and glances from her side. It was an older adult. She's whispering to herself, people who see her might think of her as crazy. The old lady has this messy curly hair with strands of it going everywhere. She has her back on Catherine, so it's hard to get a glimpse of her face. The old lady's hand are all wrinkly, and veins are visible on it. Her harsh flips of pages were loud in the hushed library, and other more old books scattered around her desk.
"Shall not be devoured by greed, even if you're in the midst of death. You shall not eat the seed, or your soul must be bid. Because they'll rise from beneath— the Deities will be freed," the old lady was muttering to herself. She was disturbed about something, and Catherine's getting more confused. "Ohh... Their souls must be near; it seems." The old lady glanced around. Catherine can see she's taking hasty deep breaths from her shoulders rising and going low. "Run, they'll hunt you for your sins!" You can hear from her voice that she's terrified but from somewhat unknown.
"Deities...?" Catherine asks to herself. Making sure that her voice was low that only she could hear.
"I remember! There's a book that nature has written herself. About histories and secrets, to seal them back might help." The old lady started to rummage through the books she collected once again. Catherine shudders when she heard about sealing. For some reason, the old lady is giving her creeps.
Though the old lady's words caught Catherine's interest like a child hungry for information, a child curious for knowledge, Catherine's still glancing sideways at the lady when she hears a gentle tap of someone on the book on her table. She turned back on her table and saw a lad who looks slightly older than her. His red straight hair is neatly combed back, with some of it falling down his forehead. He has tanned skin that compliments the colour of his blood-red eyes, which now stares at her nature green and hazel. He has his index finger in the book by the fonts of the unknown letters engraved on the pages.
"Eseís you échete tin ikanótita, prochoráte." He traces the letters as he reads them. Catherine hasn't met him yet somewhere before, but somehow, he looks familiar. "Thou who hast aptitude, hereby proceed," he states. The boy took a glance at the old lady before sitting in front of the young girl. "Don't mind her. There are lots of rumours about her. She's crazy." He even moves his index finger around in the air beside his head.
"Like?" a question unintentionally slips from her head through her lips out of curiosity.
"She's a sorceress from since the Deities were living. Though she lost herself from hundreds of years ago after the Deities died," he explains, but Catherine frowns at him. His words were too fictional to believe. The lad noticed her reaction, so he just shrugged at her with a chuckle.
"Who are you, anyway?" Catherine questioned. The lad carefreely leans forward and sat his left elbow on the table, then put his chin on the back of his hand. There was silence before he spoke, and you can still hear the whispers of the said old sorceress from the background. He smiles, then introduced himself.
"My name is Solaris Villin. Nice to meet you, Catherine Asher."
"How did you know my name?" the little girl asks the lad who just approaches her out of nowhere.
"Your father always talks about you when he comes and visits our house sometimes. Haven't Mr Asher talked about me before?" he asks and pretends to look sad, but Catherine isn't buying any of his acts.
Catherine shook her head. "No. He told me Mrs Villin had two sons, but he can only see the younger one."
"Right. I was always in my room," Solaris said, then scratches the nape of his neck with a chuckle.
"So, what are you here for?" Catherine asks while she closes the book to return and get something else to read.
Solaris became quiet and thought for an answer. He doesn't know either why he approached her himself. It made him rub the back of his neck as he started to feel bashful. "N-nothing. Just here to say hi." He smiled awkwardly.
With those words, Catherine plastered a friendly smile at him. "Hi, Nice to meet you." Solaris got taken aback. He thought she would get angry for disturbing her. Seeing her smile at him, his chest lightens from worry that weighed on seconds ago. "So, can you read these?" Catherine rotated the book to face him and pushed it towards him.
He read the title then turned back towards her. "Yea. It says 'Separated'. Why?" Catherine was amazed and excited; it made her smile from ear to ear.
"Really? You can read these letters? Will you read them for me?" the little girl requests and stares at him with pleading eyes. It made Solaris uncomfortable, so he averts his gaze.
"Nothing is amusing about it. I just learned it somewhere." A slight shade of pink spread on his cheeks, so he turns his face away. "H-here, let me read it." He bashfully took the book and opens it. He raised the book to his face, so Catherine is not able to get a peek at his look. She slants her head to the side as she is confused about his behaviour. Catherine leans forward, utterly interested in what information the foreign letters say. He was about to read it out to her when he felt a tap on his left shoulder. The two children turned to look at the person and saw that it was Mrs Villin with her youngest son holding her hand. The boy stood there, and he appears to be smaller than Catherine. Bastian was behind the two who arrives with them, and Catherine was about to call out to her father in joy, but she remembers they were in the Library, so she just happily stood up from her seat and walks up to him for a hug. Solaris greets his mother with a kiss on the cheeks. After their quiet greetings, they left the Library so they can talk to each other without disturbing the Library's readers.
When Catherine glances back at their table's direction, the old lady was still there, reading and muttering. Then, the lady slowly turnes to look at her. Catherine's eyes widen, and the old lady's gape gave her shivers down her spine. The lady's stare was as if she was staring right through Catherine's soul. She felt fright and de javu as their eyes met. Before Bastian can totally shut the Library door, Catherine caught a glimpse of the sorceress' wicked smile. She clenches her fist and closes her eyes to try and forget about the old lady's image. She steadies her breathing to calm herself down.
"Catherine, are you okay?" Bastian asks as he notices her strange behaviour. He knelt down to face her, so Catherine pretends to act alright and smiled.
"Yep! I'm fine!" She tries her best to act optimistic like usual. Solaris, who was observing everything, knew the reason for her behaviour.
"Mr Asher, Catherine must be disappointed that she can't hear what's inside the book." He smiles as he told an excuse. Trying to bait him to believe the lie. Catherine looked at him, bewildered on how quickly he made up a story. Bastian seems to bite his untruths, so he stood up and messes Catherine's hair like he usually does.
"We can come back here next time," Bastian assures, then as a group, they start to walk together towards the same street. "So, this is Solaris?" he asks as he looks at the boy who was as if he didn't hear what the man said and continues to have his head forward.
"Yes," Mrs Villin answeres. "Oh, also. I see you have already been friends with Bastian's daughter." She turns towards her son and asks him.
Solaris gave her a side glance and took seconds before he replied, "... Yes. We met at the Library just earlier.
"Catherine, this is Nico. Nico, this is Catherine," Bastian introduced the kids to each other. Nico waved at her sheepishly. The little boy does not look similar to Solaris. In fact, they don't even look alike. While Solaris has his blood-red eyes, Nico has his unique golden ones. Catherine looks back and forth between the two siblings. Mrs Villin noticed her actions, so she chuckles.
"They don't look alike, don't they?" Mrs Villin asks the concern Catherine has in mind. "Their father came from Night Land. Solaris' eye colour comes with a long story," she continues. Catherine replies with an 'oooh,' then her eyes twinkle with excitement.
"A werewolf? A vampire?" the little girl asked, and she leaned over with interest. "What do they look like? Do they appear as what the book says?" More questions came out of her lips, and it made Bastia and Mrs Villin let out a laugh at how enthusiastic she is.
"Now that's enough, Catherine. We should be going now," Bastian said then ruffles his daughter's hair. She can only groan and do nothing but pout though still dissatisfied that she can't get the new knowledge she wants to hear. "Well then, boys, Melody." He gestured a nod, telling them that they'll be on their way.
"Bye, Mr Asher," Solaris bid his farewell while his little brother, Nico, just waved at them. Catherine waved back with a smile, but before they can get far from the three, the little girl's eyes lit up when she spotted a familiar face. He's not that hard to spot since his hair colour always stands out in the bright day. Catherine's smile spread from ear to ear, then calls out to her friend.
"Ezio!" She raises her right hand up so Ezio could notice her, but it wasn't necessary since he already did; thus, she likewise was easy to locate in the crowd. Ezio smiled when their eyes met, and he jogs up 'till he was in front of her.
Solaris glances at them, then his eyes focused on Ezio. The sky blue hexagon patterns on his ocean eyes were clearly visible. Solaris' eyes narrows when he realized who he was. "What's wrong, Solaris? Let's go," Mrs Villin said, but she was ignored by her son, who was still eyeing the boy named Ezio.
"And so you too have resuscitated," he mutters, loud enough for Catherine and Ezio to hear. The two turn towards Solaris. Catherine was perplexed, but Ezio was fully aware of what he mean. Ezio's smile fades, and it was changed to a blank stare. They glare at one another, and there was as if sparks of lightning between the two.
The look on Ezio's eyes changes in a snap, and it was as if he was not the friend that Catherine knew. "Sure I am," he replies.