Lum and Aube, from where they were, could almost observe the entire solar system.
"Big sister, what do you think about all this?" Lum asked.
"I...I have no words" Aube replied. "Honestly, I don't know what to think about it"
"Yeah, I understand. To be honest, I learned to use Imagination to fly here in less than a day"
"Really? How?"
"Hmm… let's not talk about it.
Aube looked surprised:
"Why?" she asked.
"You really want to know?" Lum replied.
"Come on, tell me, I'm your sister!"
"Okay, so actually I learned how to do this by trying to kill the guy who destroyed our story, I tried to throw him into the sun"
"Ah… yes, I see why you didn't want to tell me, little sister. And in the end, you managed to throw it in there?"
"Yes, but he survived, and he destroyed the story we were in"
"Oh…"
"Yes, I know I have become depressing! Sorry about that, big sister"
There was a short moment of silence, at the end of which Aube laughed weakly:
"Haha... little sister... I feel like this discussion is meaningless, she said.
"Me too" Lum replied. "But no matter how absurd this discussion is, I'm happy to be able to discuss all this with you, it really feels good to be listened to"
"Yes... tell me, little sister, even without leaving our story, are there things beyond our solar system?"
There was something strange in Aube's voice, but Lum didn't realize it and answered her normally:
"It depends on the stories, she explained. Sometimes there is nothing beyond, sometimes there isn't even an entire planet, but most of the time our solar system is just one of many in the galaxy, and the Galaxy is just one of many in the universe. Sometimes there are even several universes for a single story, it's easy to get lost"
"Yes… enough to get lost…"
At this moment, Aube suddenly let go of Lum's hand and dashed in the direction away from the sun, flying at full speed.
"Aube! STOP!"
Lum wanted to rush to help her, but it was too late: Aube was too far from her, she was no longer within the radius of the protection Imagined by Lum.
"AAAAUUUUBE!" the latter screamed, knowing that she could do nothing now.
"I want... to see the outside..." Aube managed to say.
Immediately afterwards, the vacuum of space got the better of her and she began to drift in space, lifeless. Before Lum's tearful eyes, his body changed into flower petals, the sign of the death of a fairy. These petals drifted unrestricted through space, in a sense achieving the freedom Aube wanted.
"Don't… don't… don't…"
Lum, devastated, didn't even have the opportunity to cry as long as she wanted, as she was nearing her limits and struggling to maintain her protection to survive in space.
So, she returned to earth, then to the fairy forest, where she met her.
Her.
Not just any fairy.
Her.
Aube.
"Why are you looking at me like that, little sister, do I have something in my hair?" Aube asked, taken aback by the stunned look Lum gave her.
Lum didn't respond, just staring at her.
"Little sister? What's the matter? Answer me please, you're scaring me now"
Again, Lum didn't respond. Aube observed him more closely:
"Wait…did you cry? What happened to you?"
She then began to ask Lum questions about his condition, in a panicked tone. The latter clearly saw her sister's lips move but heard nothing of what she said. Only one question echoed in her head: Aube had faded into space, so how was she in front of her?
She then heard a voice echo in her head, a voice that she knew very well:
'Normally, you would have had to wait until the next Fate to see her again. But since I'm being nice, I decided to resurrect her early in the state she was in a day before, just so you don't get bored of her. Who do we say thank you?'
This voice was obviously that of-
'Yes, it's my voice, I thought it was pretty obvious' Noir in Lum's head. 'But you're right, it's funnier to leave you to think about it on your own, bye'
Thus, Noir's voice disappeared from Lum's head as it had appeared there.
And once again, Lum passes out, in an even more miserable state than when he returned in his story. Exactly the same way as that time, she woke up several hours later in her bed, her sister at her bedside.
"Little sister? Oh my god, you're finally awake!" Aube exclaimed.
She had unknowingly repeated word for word what she had said the first time.
"No" Lum said, not hearing anything his sister was saying.
"No? What do you mean, little sister?" Aube asked, taken aback.
"No no no no! That… that's not fair…"
All this time, Fate had kept Lum from becoming friends with the characters in the many stories she had visited, because she couldn't bring herself to get close to people who would inevitably end up being reset and forgetting about her completely. At the same time, she had always hoped to be able to return to this forest, to find her sister and the other fairies and forget all her problems.
Only, now, she found herself confronted with the cruel reality: her story, her world was in no way different from others. It would all start again and everyone would forget, over and over again. And now, because of Noir's blockade preventing her from leaving, she too would be cleansed of all her experiences in the Platonic Sea, and would be stuck in a hellish cycle without even realizing it until the end of time .
"Little sister? Why do not you answer me?" Aube asked. "What do you have?
Lum gave her a blank look.
"I… I don't know anymore…"
"Little sister, tell me what's going on" Aube said. "Please"
With these words, she hugged Lum. In the latter's mind, a thought that she had unconsciously repressed all this time came to her: is a cycle really hellish if we don't realize that we are trapped in it?
It was true: when Fate came, all of Lum's problems would disappear and she could be happy like before. Living happily for eternity without knowing that she was just a puppet whose strings were held by an existence that was beyond her.
Lum hugged her sister back:
"Sorry, big sis, I must have exhausted myself on my walk. Haha, it's true that I went pretty far this time…"
"Please don't ever do that to me again" Aube said. "You have no idea how sad I would be if anything happened to you"
Lum smiled at her. On the contrary, she knew more than anyone what her sister would feel, quite simply because she had experienced it herself.
"Don't worry, Aube. This time, I intend to stay with you" she said."
She had finally made her decision: during the first year after her return, she had tried every means possible to leave but had not even succeeded in finding a breach in the blockade put in place by Noir.
So, during the second year, she had given up on the idea of going on her own and placed her hopes in Frey and Mike.
But for the third year, the last before Fate, she wouldn't even make the effort to think about it, and would just live her life quietly. And so time passed.
Playing ball was fun. Walking around in a group while flying was fun. Having my hair straightened was nice. Talking with Aube was entertaining. Lum repeated days where she did just that, immersed in euphoria and not caring about anything else, even managing to push her thoughts about Mike and Frey to the back of her mind. Even doing nothing and just relaxing against a tree felt good to her, as her body was warmed by a ray of sunlight that snaked through the branches above her.
It was just as she was doing it that a bird landed on her knee, waking her from her semi-asleep state. Lum's gaze fell on him, slightly intrigued by his blue and pink plumage which looked nothing like that of the other sparrows she had observed in the forest before. She assumed he had strayed from a group passing by.
"Oh, hey, did you get lost, little guy?" she asked.
"No, I am exactly where I wanted to be" the bird replied. "More precisely, I found exactly the person I was looking for"
"Oh? I don't remember there being any talking animals in my story, or even any animals other than birds"
"I guess I'm not taking a big risk assuming you came here from another story in the Platonic Sea?"
"You are almost right" the bird. "Well, to be exact, I was born in the Prime World, but I have been unable to return there for a long time"
These last words surprised Lum more than hearing the bird speak:
"Are you from the Primary World?! But who are you?" she asked.
"Who am I? I am the one around whom all good relationships revolve, the one who advocates retribution for every good deed. Even after my departure, I still exert my influence over almost all humans in the Prime World. I am Gratitude"