July 18, 2021, 12:43
The moonfolks Hideout
Its an ethereal place.
While the sky castle was full of clouds, moons and stars, this world is full of jiggling bushes and ringing flower bells.
Walls of soil and grass with little homes carved into them. The tall grass of the ground is dancing with the wind, while the tree branches clicks against each other a melody so mind soothing and talking to them, welcoming them and telling them they're grateful for that they've arrived safely. Evdokia missed this. She missed the leaves and rocks and water talking to her.
She misses being wild and free.
Evdokia's eyes catch a glimpse of five moonfolk kids running after a kite, flying high above in the sky.
The sky?
"How-" she goes to ask.
"We don't know, it's a miracle. A miracle we desperately needed and we slipped and fell into." Cilia answers, walking with his hands clasped behind his lower back, and Evdokia follows him. "after the moonfolk's kingdom fell to the ground, forty three of us survived the fall. We lead ourselves to the Atlantic empire, where they took us in and hospitalised us like we're their own people, all thanks to Artem's efforts and connections he has done with king Dima. We stayed low, even when Ivar took his army to take over the Atlantic empire, he never knew we where there. Later, Dima told me about this haven, he said this is the safest place he could possibly provide us until the war was over and done for. We were declared to be under the Atlantic empire's protection. "
"That makes sense, if he wanted you I think he would have chose negotiation over a fight, he knew he didn't stand a chance." Evdokia supplies.
Cilia licks his dry lips, eye gaze racing their footsteps. Evdokia notices they're heading down a darker path, and she wonders where is Cilia leading her to now.
"after you." Cilia stops and steps to the side, allowing Evdokia a view of a dark door, painted with an aldr tree.
Evdokia looks at her uncle confusingly but walks up to the door anyways. She twists the knob and it clicks open in her hand. The inside of the house is dark, but there's enough light for her eyes to adapt to it after a while. She inspects the room in curiosity, and she's surprised when she sees someone sleeping on a bed, IV drops attached to their body.
Evdokia steps closer to the bed, and there she sees a very familiar gentle face. A face that have kept her father safe and sound for all his years. Her father, Artem Yún's guardian, Percy.
She notices there is no pulse on his neck, and her heart constricts.
"He took his last breathes last night. His last wish was seeing you, it's a shame you were so close." Cilia stands behind her, his hand on her shoulder.
Evdokia turns around and hugs her uncle, like a little kid that is lost and desperate for a sense of home and security.
"He left us peacefully. Everything here goes on peacefully. " Cilia mutters under his breath.
Evdokia hums, the noise muffled with her face stuffed with Cilia chest
"stay here, Evdokia. Don't go back again." He whispers so quietly that she almost misses it, hands petting the crown of her head.
Evdokia lets go of him, eyes roaming over the room. Evdokia sees Percy has picked up a hobby of mixing elements of nature to create potions, looking at his pantry.
"It's too dangerous out there, Eve." he carries on.
"I just need to find Edgar and kill him, that's not that dangerous. " Evdokia says, staring at a particular jar filled with dried gardenia flowers. She thinks she can smell it from where she's standing.
Cilia inhales sharply, and he shakes his head, eyes closed as he recalls a memory.
"I've tried. God knows, I've tried avenging my brother's blood. But it only caused more damage than good. But after all those years, only recently that I've seen the truth, it was never Ivar, Evdokia. It was never the vampires or onis "
Evdokia looks at her uncle confusingly, a little 'huh' leaving her throat, before Cilia's hands wrap around her wrists and leads her into a darker area into the house. Evdokia could see there's someone smoking in the living room, but she had squint her eyes painfully narrow for her vision to catch the sight and the features of the person on the coach.
And to her surprise, it's none other than Ivar Edgar.
*
He's steering the petals into his tea cup, painfully slow. Ivar pulls the spoon out of the liquid and clicks it against the edge of The cup. Cilia is sitting between the two, hands on his sword, prepared for any sudden move on Evdokia's behalf. Honestly, Evdokia is kind of offended but whatever.
Evdokia is still in disbelief of what her ears have heard. It all makes sense yet it doesn't at all.
"So, do you believe me?" Ivar asks after silence settles between them for what seemed to be more than hours.
Evdokia's eyes flicker between his face and her hands, those hands that committed the unforgivable. But they might have not, maybe it was someone else's fault. Or maybe she wants to believe it to finally shift the blame to someone other than her, to finally forgive herself and move on.
She inhales deeply, eyes closed. She wishes she had Valodya with her.
"I don't know. There's a lot to think through." She settles on that, eventually.
Ivar hums, sipping on his jasmine infused tea.
"He's not lying, or at least I believe so." Cilia states, eyes sharp and honest, "I imagine if it wasn't the truth I wouldn't be here speaking to you right now." He offers Evdokia a gentle smile.
Ivar bows his head in a silent gratefulness, and it shifts Evdokia's world apart. It reminds her of the Ivar she knew when she was just a little kid. A kind soul with the eyes of a demon, quite the combination. She has had pent up hate for Ivar all over those years it never even crossed her mind that LiQin had anything to do with it.
She doesn't know what to believe at this point, because even if her heart is leaning towards LiQin, her mind is screaming at her that he's the culprit. LiQin was nothing less than family to her, to them. He would never. Why would he? They gave him everything. What could have possibly caused LiQin to commit such horrendous crimes against the people that opened their arms to him and accepted him as a part of the family, for decades.
Something must have happened.
"I need to talk to him." Evdokia stands up sharply as she makes her mind up right there and then.
Cilia stands up after her and holds her by the shoulder.
"it's too dangerous. After all you've just heard, do you still trust him?" Cilia's voice is pained and fragile, fear laced to it as well.
"I-" she thinks for a second, and she remembers Ivar kneeling before LiQin after he sliced the neck of YuNing, and LiQin's lack of reaction. Was this a mere moment of weakness or did he truly change.
She sees it, in his eyes when he looks at YuNing. She sees warmth and love she thought was always there in those brown orbs yet she was proven wrong when she saw the real thing.
Evdokia thinks LiQin changed, but is it enough to heal the countless wounds he has butchered and left uncovered.
"I don't know if I do. What I know though is that he wouldn't dare hurt me, not under Dima's palace's roof." She says.
Cilia's eyes are as concerned as ever, but he doesn't stop her when she spins on her heels and leaves the house, leaving behind her heart were it belong among her people.
*
July 18, 2021, 17:05
The Atlantic empire
The Aqua castle
LiQin hears a knock on his and YuNing's room door when he was just out of the bathroom, fresh out of a shower.
He already knows who it is from the beat of the knock.
"Come in, little angel. "
She opens the door, and her face is dark and constricted with anger. It doesn't suit her, LiQin thinks.
"Did you need anything? " he asks as he ruffles his hair in front of a mirror with a towel.
"We need to talk." Her voice is heavy when she speaks.
"Sure. What's up?" LiQin lowers the towel and puts it around his neck, the fabric absorbing the little water droplets at the very edge of the thin hair strokes.
"Did you cast a spell onto the sky castle and made it fall?" she asks bluntly, and LiQin stops in the middle of his steps around the room. He slowly spins his head around to face her. She's gripping a gun in hr hand, he notices.
"I did." He answers her.
"Why? Why would you- why would you ever do that?" Evdokia feels like a drowning man that is trying to grasp onto something to keep him floating, but whatever dhe touches seems to be a mirage.
"I was a salve to the moonfolk kingdom. " LiQin chuckles darkly.
"No you fucking weren't! and you know it. You were family! You were father's best friend!" Evdokia screams at him, he voice cracking. "Why would you ever do- why would you ever commit such a thing against our people?!"
"Evdokia, I'm not the same person anymore. You have to believe me. I've changed for the better, please little angel-"
"No! You don't get to fucking talk to me like that? Was anything you've ever said the truth?! You even used Amara as an excuse for your escape when Rebal was the one who got you the fuck out!"
"Can you listen to me! Just shut up and listen to me!" he shouts back at her, "I did what I had to do back then to protect myself! Yeah, yeah I fucking brought the sky castle down, yeah I used Amara as an excuse to escape the prison and to get things more heated between your kingdom and your clans, but I was a fucking spiteful person and that's the fucking truth and I can't do shit about it anymore!" he's breathing heavily and he's losing his mind, slowly, "can you blame me? Can you blame me for all that I've gone through in life beforehand? It was all I knew, and all I had was my fucking self-"
"no, no you fucking didn't. You had us. You had the entire moonfolk's kingdom's back. Even after Ivar told my dad about your experiments on us with dark banned magic, my father still had your back and he was the reason for them to back off the execution decision."
LiQin doesn't say anything to that, and he lets his eyes roam over the floor shamelessly, and then he speaks again, voice a lot calmer, "I wasn't lying, having AiLin and YuNing in my life changed me."
"Stay the fuck away from me." She spits at him, venom on the tip of her tongue.
Evdokia goes to walk out of the room, only to find Ira, Valodya, Jean and Dima by the door. Their voices must have called them in.
"Evdokia.." Jean calls out as she storms out of the room, and he holds her hand and walks away with her.
"Evdokia, is it true?" he says, trying to catch up to her pace.
"As our moons." She bites.
*
That night, when Evdokia's head meets the cold pillows along with jeans, as she tries crying herself to sleep, they hear a scream from a room near them, and Evdokia hears it like it was in her own head.
YuNing.
They both run out of the room and up to LiQin and YuNing's. They find YuNing on the floor, hands on his mouth muffling his screams. Evdokia feels like she already knows what's coming, but she doesn't stop herself from walking into the room, only to be met by LiQin's hanging body off the ceiling.
*