Pulling out a chair and sitting down, he stopped for a second, almost to collect his thoughts before speaking.
"Hisako… I…" he said, stopping again. He couldn't force himself to say these words. "I don't even know how to say what I'm about to…"
Hisako was just blankly staring at Aldegar, expecting the worst of news. But, no matter how much she prepared, she wasn't prepared enough.
"Last night, an incident occurred in Dawnvale. Lukas was investigating another officer, and found that he has ties to the Cult of Nyra. He was planning on destroying us from the inside, and so, Lukas confronted him to stop the plan from going into effect." Aldegar now took Hisako's hand, gently holding it.
"Aldegar, don't tell me Lukas is…?" She said, no louder than a whisper.
"I'm afraid so. They two began fighting and Lukas was arguably winning, but, Agostinho played it risky. He purposefully took a hit from Electropulse to leave Lukas open, and…" Aldegar now slammed his head against the desk, laying there, at the verge of tears. "Hisako, I'm sorry. If I only had been informed of their fight earlier, I would've arrived to stop them."
The words hung in the air, heavy and final. For a moment, Hisako sat perfectly still, as if by not moving, she could keep the truth at bay. Then, with a heart-wrenching cry, she fell forward, her body in pain.
"Lukas was a hero, Hisako…" Aldegar was trying his best to comfort her, despite knowing that's impossible. "Without him, the Oracle would've been nothing but ash and dust by now."
"A hero, huh?" Hisako repeated Aldegar's words with a bitter undertone. "What good does that do our child?"
"I know, Hisako. And I know nothing I say can make things right. That's why, we're ready to aid you in raising the child whenever needed." Aldegar prepared to reach for his wallet, and hand Hisako a check, but she grabbed his arm with all her strength.
"I don't want anything from your Oracle, Aldegar." She looked up at him with her bloodshot eyes, trying her best to speak without sobbing once more. "I want my husband back. I want my child to have a father. Can your Oracle give me that?"
Aldegar understood that Hisako's words came from a mix of anger and sadness, but, they struck him like a slug to the chest. Unable to meet her piercing gaze, Aldegar looked down. "No." he whispered. "We can't."
And as the room was engulfed in a standstill, it felt like even the flies buzzing around the room until a minute ago stopped, the sadness catching them too. The eerie quiet tensed Aldegar, and knowing he couldn't do anything else, he stood and got ready to leave.
"I'll leave you to your grief, Hisako." he said as he was putting his coat back on. "If you ever need anything, please, disregard your hatred towards us and reach out. We're always there."
As he turned to leave, Hisako's voice stopped him. "Aldegar, if nothing, please tell me Lukas died happy."
Aldegar froze in place, before turning to face Hisako. He weighed his choices carefully, because he wanted to soften this blow at least a little bit. And so, he lied. "He did. He gave us the key to his office locker, where we found all the evidence. We notified the Medical Corps staff to keep Agostinho in place, and he will be jailed as soon as he recovers enough."
Hisako nodded slowly, as a new stream of tears broke through her eyes. "I'm glad. At least, his death wasn't in vain."
A new wave of guilt now struck Aldegar. He promised Lukas to tell Hisako, but, does lying to her mean he broke his promise? Alas, there was no going back now.
The quaint village of Sylvanwood, its serenity now broken by the cries of a distressed widow… and an unborn child, left to pick up the pieces.
The following months were a blur of grief and pain for Hisako. After delivering her baby, she named her Midori, and Midori was a breathing testament to Lukas. Her eyes, green just like his were. But, the glow of the baby's eyes angered Hisako more than it did soothe her pains. Each day, Midori was a reminder of what could've been, what was taken from her. The Oracle's aid, although well-intentioned, felt hollow and empty. She felt as they were helping her only because they had to, not because they actually felt sorry for her situation.
Hisako struggled in silence, the demands of motherhood taking a toll on her now thin sanity. She found herself unable to love her child, each cry of the young girl stinging her in the heart, yet, she was unable to stop them.
The walls of their humble abode now felt like those of a prison cell, one Hisako was trapped in without a means of escape. And, the walls were closing in. The locals offered help too, Lukas was a key part of this community. But, Hisako felt as if their offers were knives in her back, and that they were trying to ridicule her for being unable to raise her child.
And after a few months of this hell she was in, she made a grave decision. She'd put Midori up for adoption. She couldn't do it.
It was a rainy autumn morning, and the dark clouds engulfed the sky completely. A fierce wind spread through the empty streets of Emberfell. Hisako made her way to an adoption center, but, her heart still beat with doubt. Was this the right decision? Should she be doing this?
The taxi dropped them off in front of the adoption center, and Hisako stepped out, the young Midori resting in her arms. The rain distressed her, and so she hid her head in Hisako's chest. Looking down at her daughter, she was already at the verge of breaking. She knew nothing of what was about to happen and, yet, almost intuitively, she was crying. Was it the storm around them that distressed her, or, was it the storm raging in her mother's heart? However much Hisako was hurting from having to let go of the last fragment of Lukas she had, this was the only choice. She was trying to calm herself, ignoring Midori's sadness, knowing paying attention to her would just make her mental worse.
Walking in through the door, she tried pretending as if everything is okay. She walked up to the front desk, behind which sat an elderly woman.
"Good day, miss. How can I help you?" she said as she stood up from the desk.
"Yes. I- I wanted to put my child up for adoption. My husband died recently, and, I just can't do it alone." Hisako's head was bowed all the way down, her eyes pointed to the floor. She couldn't get enough strength to look anyone in the eyes, doing something so shameful.
"I understand. Please, place the child in the cradle in the waiting room, and fill out this paperwork. I know that doing something like this hurts, so, we try to make this as quick as possible." The woman handed Hisako a clipboard and a pen.
She placed Midori in the cradle, and as she put her down, he extended her little arm out to try and stop Hisako from leaving her. "Why are you making this so difficult for the both of us?" Hisako pondered in her mind. She couldn't get herself to love this baby but… it was still her baby. It was the last thing Lukas gave to her before he died.
Filling in the paperwork as fast as humanly possible, she handed the clipboard to the woman, and ran out the door. As soon as she stepped outside, she broke into a stream of tears. That's it. Lukas was gone, Midori was gone. It was just her, alone. She sat on the steps of the adoption center, the raging rain soaking her entirely. She sat there for over an hour, just crying and screaming. She couldn't help herself.
Inside the adoption center, a nurse who was called by the elderly woman took a look at the clipboard before she took Midori upstairs to the bedrooms.
— — — — — — —
Name of child: Midori Hilten
Medical condition: Healthy
Age: Three months
Date of Birth: 01/07/791
Father: Lukas Hilten
Status: Deceased
Mother: Hisako Hilten
Status: Widow
Signature:
Hisako Hilten
Date and time:
17/10/791, 18:43
— — — — — — —
"A widow, huh?" She looked down at the little Midori resting in a carrier, seemingly confused by her surroundings. "It's okay, little one. We'll get you a nice and safe home as soon as possible."
Hisako would return to Sylvanwood, and only after entering her now empty home, did she finally understand what she'd done. As if Lukas' death didn't hurt her enough, she now got rid of the only other thing capable of giving her love. Her child.
Hisako tried as hard as she possibly could to undo what she did, but was impossible. Midori got adopted not even a few days after being left at the center, and her legal guardian was constantly changing, meaning she was almost impossible to track down.
What Hisako didn't know is that Midori was adopted by a Synnove cultist, and was going to be raised to be a Vessel for Synnove. The constant changing of custodians was supposed to not only distance Hisako from reclaiming Midori, but to avoid any links to the Cult itself.
Now alone, Hisako began coping. She firstly found temporary peace in food, but that didn't last long. The comfort of a full stomach soon gave way to shame and self-loathing, driving her to seek solace elsewhere. She turned to alcohol, and what began as a glass of wine a day soon turned into bottles of whiskey and spirits, all bought from the Oracle money she received monthly. And so, Hisako coped while trying to return Midori in her care, and after multiple months of attempting a return, she gave up. She even hired a private investigator to find her, losing an entire months worth of money, which turned into an insufferable month of withdrawals.
The night when she gave up on Midori, she drank so much, she went unconscious, and woke up almost twelve hours later with a splitting headache. Her addictions were now at an all time high, where she wasn't able to even go a day without drinking heavily. She almost turned to drugs, but was unable to find any, thanks to heavy Ardenian laws. The monthly checks from the Oracle, once a source of resentment, became her lifeline to the numbing embrace of alcohol.
And so, one fateful night, as she was downing her third glass of whiskey and crying, something she had done for countless nights already, Hisako felt a sharp, stinging pain in her chest. The glass slipped from her trembling fingers, shattering on the floor as she clutched at her chest. She was having a heart attack. She tried to rush over and call for an ambulance, but she was breathless, and soon collapsed on the floor. And so, Hisako Hilten died too.
After spending a short time in Purgatio for destroying her own health, she went to the Afterlife, where she was reunited with Lukas. Sadly, since those in the Afterlife can't see what happens in the real world, neither of them knew of Midori's fate, until she had already given her life to Synnove…