Perspective: Eve
Location: Southern Cliffside Overlook — River Basin
Time: 6:50 PM — January 29, 2018
Breathe, Eve. Just breathe. 4 seconds in... 4 seconds out... 1, 2, 3, 4... hold it... and out...
The freezing evening wind ripped across the high granite bluff, whipping my pastel-pink hair against my cheeks and tugging at the delicate lace on my yellow collar.
Down below, at least 300 feet down, the wide southern river churned through the jagged gorge like churning black glass, roaring against the dark boulders under the cold, distant stars. Up here on the overlook, there were barely any trees—just wide, windswept rock, patches of frosted grass crunching under my boots, and a long dirt wagon trail that wound back toward the warm, lantern-lit gates of Sylvaris.
I arrived at 6:50 PM.
Exactly 10 minutes early.
Well... actually, that was a complete lie. I left my lodge at 4:00 PM because I was so terrified of being late and making him stand out in the dark all alone... But then I took the wrong wagon path near the timber mills, got completely turned around in the pine groves, asked 3 confused sheep farmers for directions—the 3rd 1 was holding a muddy rake and looked at me like I was an escaped circus performer—and I almost panicked into tears right in the dirt before I finally found the trail marker for the cliff.
I walked back and forth along this flat rock 14 times already.
What if my nose is all red!?
I pulled out my small pocket mirror, squinting into the glass under the dim moonlight. My cheeks were flushed pink from the wind, my hair was a bit windblown, and my 2 white hair ribbons were fluttering wildly. I frantically patted down my curls, smoothing the lace on my cuffs and checking my reflection in the shiny brass cork of the tea thermos.
Rehearse it again, Eve. Just greet him normally. Don't be weird!
Option 1: 'Good evening, Kai! Did you have a productive day?' No, no, way too formal! Sounds like a guild clerk handing over work!
Option 2: 'Hey, Kai! Look what I got!' No, too loud!
Option 3: 'I brought you warm buns because I was worried you didn't eat!' Aahh, no! What if he thinks I'm calling him helpless?!
My hands, tucked deep into the fleece-lined pockets of my woolen coat, hugged the lacquered wooden tiffin box pressed tight against my ribs.
Inside the box were 4 warm cinnamon buns I bought from the bakery near the central square, wrapped in 2 thick layers of clean parchment so they wouldn't lose their heat, along with a small metal thermos flask filled with hot jasmine tea. I checked the brass cork 6 times just to ensure it didn't leak.
What if he didn't eat lunch?
What if he spent the entire day running around the province, overworking himself until his hands turned cold and those dark purple bruises under his eyes got even worse!?
He always forgets his own health. He drinks cheap tap water and eats free because he thinks food is just energy. But sweet cinnamon buns have brown sugar and butter! Butter gives you energy too!
And if 4 buns aren't enough, I have 12 copper coins left in my pouch. I can take him down to that cozy basement tavern near the central fountain and buy him hot beef stew with extra potatoes...
My heart thumped against my ribs like a trapped sparrow.
With trembling fingers, I reached into my inner coat pocket and pulled out the small, rectangular card.
The Asura Academy photograph.
Under the pale moonlight, I looked down at the silhouette of the pink-haired girl standing beside Kaiser. Elfie. She had that radiant, effortless confidence in her stance, smiling right into the camera like the entire world belonged to her. And beside her, Kaiser had that rare, genuine curve on his lips—a smile so open, so unburdened, that looking at it made a quiet ache bloom inside my throat.
Can I ever make him smile like that?
Even just once? Just a small, crinkly-eyed smile where he isn't worried about anything?
Footsteps crunched against the frosted gravel behind me.
My breath stopped. My spine snapped straight.
He's here! He's really here! Look natural! Don't trip over your own skirts!
I turned around, clutching the wooden tiffin box to my stomach.
Emerging from the dark pine trees onto the granite bluff was Kaiser. His long black overcoat fluttered in the freezing wind, both hands tucked casually into his deep pockets, his messy black hair blowing across those sharp, tired, dark blue eyes.
A faint, lazy smirk touched the corner of his lips as he spotted me standing near the edge.
"You're early," Kaiser said, his calm, familiar tenor cutting through the rush of the river below.
"I—I'm here!" I called out, my voice squeaking slightly before I caught myself, waving both hands with a frantic, happy flutter.
"H-Here, Kai! Over here!"
Kaiser strolled across the flat stone, his heavy boots making rhythmic thuds against the granite, until he stopped 3 paces in front of me.
"How are you holding up?" he asked, looking down at my windblown face with that quiet, piercing gaze that always made my stomach do tiny flips.
"I'm doing really, really well!" I chirped, rocking slightly on my heels and clutching the tiffin box tight against my apron.
"The quest with Ren went smoothly... w-well, mostly smoothly! The pest lizards were a bit jumpy, but we caught all of them! And... and thank you for the note this morning! Thank you so much for reminding me to eat breakfast!"
A dry, amused glint flickered in his dark blue eyes.
"Don't tell me you snuck into a pastry shop and bought strawberry cake again."
"I—I didn't! I swear on the Goddess I didn't!" I gasped, shaking my head so fast my ponytail whipped around, heat surging into my ears.
"I was good! I went to the foreign street stalls near the south gate and bought these hot, crispy potato patties called Aloo Tikki! They were golden and spiced and had this amazing tangy green chutney dipped all over them! It was so delicious! But... but I only ate 2 plates! Just 2! Because... because if I ate 4 or 5, I'd get chubby, and my cheeks would look round, and then you'd—ah!"
I slammed both hands over my mouth, my face burning so hot in the mountain frost as if steam was going to shoot out of my ears.
EVE! Why do you say whatever pops into your head?! Round?! Why would you compare your own face to being chubby in front of him?!
Kaiser let out a low, dry chuckle through his nose, his shoulders relaxing by half an inch.
"You don't need to starve yourself, Eve. Eat as much as you want. You're light as a feather anyway."
My chest felt so warm the freezing wind seemed to vanish completely.
He remembered...
He remembered carrying me in the Lower District...
He really is the kindest person in the world, even when he acts all aloof...
"Did you bring the photo?" Kaiser asked, extending his gloved right hand toward me.
"Ah! Y-Yes!"
I reached into my inner pocket, pulled out the Asura photograph, and looked down at Elfie's face 1 last time before placing the card gently into his open palm.
"Here. I kept it safe inside my coat the whole afternoon so the corners wouldn't bend."
Kaiser looked down at the photograph in silence.
For 3 seconds, the howling wind seemed to fade away. A distant, quiet stillness settled over his sharp jaw—a look so heavy and full of unsaid grief that my fingers instinctively twitched, wanting to reach out and touch his sleeve. Then, with a smooth motion, he slipped the photograph straight into the breast pocket of his coat, right over his heart.
Now, Eve. Ask him now.
My throat went dry. I lifted the wooden tiffin box with both hands, holding it out toward him like an offering.
"U-Um... Kai? Are you... are you hungry right now?" I asked timidly, peering up at him through my eyelashes.
Kaiser looked at the lacquered box, then back at my face.
"Maybe a little. I planned to get something after this."
"I—I brought something!" I babbled, stepping half a pace closer, my words tumbling over each other in a sweet, nervous rush. "I bought 4 warm cinnamon buns from the square, and I brewed hot jasmine tea in this thermos! In case... in case you didn't eat all day! If your hands are cold from the wind, I could... I could even feed you if that's okay! Or—or you can sit on that flat boulder and—"
Kaiser tilted his head slightly.
"Why would you do that?"
"B-Because I was worried!" I blurted out, pulling the box back and hugging it tightly against my chest as if protecting the warmth from the gale.
"You vanished for an entire day! You always skip meals, you never sleep enough, and you never take care of your own health! What if your fever comes back?! What if you collapse in the dark and nobody is there to help you?! I just... I wanted to make sure you had something warm in your stomach, okay?"
Kaiser didn't reach for the box. He didn't smile.
His dark blue eyes leveled into flat disinterest.
"That's unnecessary, Eve. I don't need to eat right now. We have bigger matters to settle."
My smile faltered.
A tiny, icy needle prickled against the back of my neck.
Bigger matters...?
I lowered the wooden box against my waist, my fingers nervously picking at the brass latch.
"K-Kai... can I ask you a question?"
"What is it?"
I took a shaky breath, summoning every drop of courage I had in my ribs.
"Can you... can you tell me the truth about Elfie? The girl in the photo?"
Kaiser's expression went entirely still.
"She's been on my mind all day long," I stammered, my voice trembling against the wind. "I met someone who knew you at Asura Academy... and I just... I really want to know who she was to you. Maybe... maybe if I understand her, I can understand you better, too. And... and maybe find out something about myself."
Kaiser shook his head once. His tone was as dry as parchment.
"There's nothing to know about Elfie. She's gone. Bringing up the past doesn't change anything."
A sharp twinge pinched my chest. He shut the door so quickly, so cleanly, like a lock snapping shut in an iron gate.
I took a small step forward, the wind tugging hard at my yellow coat.
"T-Then... why were you so kind to me, Kai?" I asked, looking straight into his eyes. "When we met in that dark alley in the Lower District... when you carried me away from those men and called me your princess... when you swept my floorboards at sunrise and cooked for me too... why did you do all of that?"
"I had my reasons," Kaiser replied, his voice dropping into that cool, detached cadence.
"None of which concern you."
"B-But they do concern me!" I protested, stepping closer until only 2 paces separated us. "I care about you, Kai! I want to know why you care about me, too! If you tell me, maybe... maybe we don't have to keep secrets from each other!"
"It would be a waste of breath to answer those questions, Eve. Drop it."
"T-Then just answer this 1 thing!" I pleaded, my voice rising over the roaring gorge, clutching the wooden tiffin box so tight the edges dug into my palms.
"Why do you always insist on being alone?! When I woke up that morning after your fever broke, you were just gone! Not a hello, not even a single word! Do you have any idea how terrified I was?! I spent hours wondering if you collapsed in an alley, or if enemies ambushed you, and I was too far away to do anything!"
Kaiser's jaw set firm.
"It was never your responsibility to look after me, Eve."
"I—I want it to be my responsibility!" I cried, hot tears finally welling in the corners of my eyes, burning against the freezing air. "If I'm not there, who's going to patch your wounds when you get hurt?! What happens to you if nobody is watching?!"
Kaiser let out a slow, heavy exhale through his nose.
His blue eyes turned into frozen glass.
"Look at me, Eve," he said. "That's enough."
My breath caught. A sudden, violent cold washed over my skin, far worse than the mountain gale.
"Let's end this today," Kaiser stated, each syllable measured, clinical, and absolute.
"I would rather keep you as a complete stranger from now on."
The world stopped spinning.
My heart felt like it plummeted 300 feet off the cliff straight into the black river below.
A... a stranger?
Wait... what did he just say?
No... no, no, no... did my ears hear that wrong? The wind is too loud... it's just the wind...
A sickening, hollow ache tore through my ribs, squeezing my lungs until I couldn't pull in a single breath of air.
"H-Huh...?" I stammered, my voice cracking into a tiny, pathetic squeak. "A-A stranger...? K-Kai, what... what do you mean? D-Did I say something wrong just now?! Was it because I asked about Elfie?! I-I'm sorry! I'm so, so sorry! I won't ask again! I promise I'll never say her name again—I'll be good, I swear!"
Kaiser didn't flinch. His hands remained deep inside his dark coat pockets.
"We've been wasting each other's time for far too long," he continued.
"It's high time we cut ties and walk separate paths. As strangers."
Panic detonated behind my eyes. Terrified tears blurred my vision, but I furiously blinked them back, shaking my head in desperate, frantic denial.
"W-What did I do wrong?!" My words tumbled out in a messy, broken spiral, my teeth chattering from sheer shock.
"P-Please, Kai! Tell me what I did! I—I'm sorry! Whatever it is, I can fix it! If I was too loud, I-I'll whisper! If you don't like the buns, I'll t-throw them over the cliff right now! Just... p-please don't say that! Don't look at me like that... please!"
Kaiser took 1 deliberate pace closer, looking down at my trembling face with complete, horrifying detachment.
"I just realized you aren't Elfie." Kaiser said cleanly.
"That's why I stopped caring about you."
The words hit me like an iron sledgehammer straight to the chest.
My knees gave a sickening wobble.
I'm... not Elfie?
That's why... he stopped caring?
"I-I'm not... Elfie...?" I choked out, shivering violently from head to toe, my voice fracturing into jagged pieces. "B-But why...? W-What does that... what does that m-mean, Kai...?"
"You're making this far more difficult than it needs to be," Kaiser replied, his voice devoid of even a sliver of pity. "The explanation is simple: I don't care about you. That's why I'm severing our connection."
My head was spinning wildly. The ground felt like it was tilting beneath my boots.
"N-No..." I whimpered, clutching the tiffin box against my stomach like a shield. "Why... why are you being so cruel to me...? Y-You're lying..."
"And you don't care about me either, Eve. You only care about the actions I performed."
He tilted his chin slightly, his dark blue eyes dissecting me like a specimen on an operating table.
"The way I protected you from those men in the Lower District. The way I held your wrist. The way I called your name. You've lived your entire life without anyone stepping in to protect you, so the moment someone did, you confused relief for devotion. You enjoyed the security I provided at that moment. Don't confuse your own desperate gratitude for affection."
No... no, no, no!
That's not why! I didn't care because he was strong! I cared because his eyes looked so empty when he stared at the rain! I cared because his hands were freezing cold when he had that fever!
"T-That's not true!" I cried out, hot tears spilling over my eyelashes and streaming down my freezing cheeks. "I—I really do care about you! I think about you every single day! I am—"
"Everything I did for you was all a game of pretend." Kaiser cut me off ruthlessly.
The words echoed off the cold granite stones.
A game of pretend.
Fake.
All of it.
"Every single thing you saw and felt was fake," Kaiser continued. "After I woke up from those 7 days of ash, I only cooked for you, cleaned your home, and accompanied you on quests to repay you for taking care of me during the care. I owed you a debt for that night. That's all it was. I'm meeting you here tonight to inform you that I only owe you 1 final favor. Don't confuse basic reciprocity for affection."
I shook so violently that the wooden tiffin box rattled against my coat buttons. I raised 1 trembling, linen-wrapped sleeve to furiously scrub the wetness from my eyes, desperately trying not to cry, trying not to look so fragile, trying to prove I wasn't weak.
"B-But... you... you c-cared about me...!" I pleaded, looking up into his stone face through blurred vision.
"You were so g-gentle and kind... that can't be true! You held my hand when I was scared! You... you k-kissed my forehead when I fell asleep! Nobody fakes that! You can't fake being that gentle! You're l-lying to me! Tell me you're lying, Kai!"
Kaiser remained entirely unmoved.
"You simply aren't Elfie." He said, his voice quiet, cold, and devastating.
"You were never her. And you never could be."
The comparison slammed into my ribs like a sharpened blade.
"Did you really believe I talked to you because I saw something in you?" Kaiser asked, his tone stripping away every single memory we had ever shared.
"I simply liked looking at you because you looked like her. That's all. Every time you smiled, I was seeing Elfie. Every time you said my name, I heard her voice saying it. You are nothing but a poor imitation of someone I actually loved."
My breath caught in a jagged, strangled gasp.
"And the only reason I was even talking to you," Kaiser pressed on,
"was to clear out any suspicion that you could be her. You see, I was using you from the start. I used your kind, gentle affection to get close to you just so I could get a good look at that ring—the Sea of the Heart—1 more time."
Sophia's warning roared in my ears like a deafening church bell:
He's looking at your face and using you as a mirror for a ghost... In the end, he will use you, and leave you standing alone in the cold...
Sophia wasn't lying.
She knew.
She tried to warn me, and I was foolish enough to believe I could make him smile...
"You served your purpose, Eve." Kaiser concluded, looking down at me with empty, hollow eyes.
"You helped me twice, and I'm very grateful for it. I've returned your favor once, and you owe me only 1 favor left. After that, we are equals, and I don't have to look at your face again."
A broken, ragged sob tore out of my throat.
I couldn't stop them. The tears gushed over my cheeks in hot, scalding rivers, dripping from my chin onto my coat collar. I stood there in the howling mountain gale, scrubbing my eyes furiously with both palms, fighting with every shred of my soul to stop crying in front of him.
Don't cry, Eve.
Please don't cry.
He'll think you're pathetic...
"T-Tell me you're lying..." I choked out through my fingers, my voice breaking into jagged sobs. "P-Please... p-please, Kai... I..."
"I'm not," Kaiser answered coldly.
"I wouldn't waste lies on someone like you."
My eyes snapped wide, staring up at him through a soaked curtain of pink hair.
"You're nothing but a burden," Kaiser said, delivering each word with razor-sharp, surgical cruelty. "You're needy, desperate, and clingy. You wrap yourself around anyone who gives you a little bit of affection, and you've been suffocating me since the day I met you."
I flinched as if he had struck me across the face.
"K-Kai... p-please..."
"You're nothing but a weak, shallow girl," he said, his blue eyes unblinking. "You've always been weak, and you need reassurance every 5 minutes. You can't even eat breakfast without me reminding you. You can't cook. You burst into tears over normal things. And I've just gotten fed up with you."
He tilted his head down, looking at me with cold disgust.
"I should have understood from your behavior alone that you were never like Elfie. Elfie would never be a girl like you. She wouldn't be fumbling her words, crying from normal hardships, and constantly needing someone to hold her hand. She was brilliant, capable, and proud. She was everything you're trying so desperately to be, and you aren't even close."
My fingers lost all strength.
My grip gave out completely.
The lacquered wooden tiffin box slipped from my hands, tumbling through the freezing air and crashing against the jagged rocks.
CRACK.
The wooden lid splintered open. The 4 warm cinnamon buns rolled into the black dirt and gravel. The metal thermos popped its cork, spilling steaming jasmine tea across the frozen stones, the sweet fragrance of cinnamon and flowers rising into the bitter air before evaporating into nothing.
Ruined.
All of it, ruined in the dirt.
Kaiser didn't even look down at the spilled food.
"I don't even know why I stayed this long with you." Kaiser continued, his voice dropping into quiet finality.
"I should have realized sooner. Instead of wishing you were her, I should have noticed you weren't her. I did the tests. I matched your mana signatures with Elfie's in the hopes that you were some distant magic she had used. But I was wrong. Even after the tests, you have completely different affinities, which can't be possible if you shared her magic."
He shook his head slowly.
"You aren't her."
My whole body shook as I looked at the broken buns on the ground, then back up at his stone face.
"Y-You're... you're t-trying to push me away...!" I cried out, my voice cracking in raw, agonizing despair as I took a trembling step forward.
"Y-You're lying and hurting me on purpose! This isn't l-like you, Kai! This isn't who you are!"
"This is exactly who I am." Kaiser answered flatly.
"The other side you saw was just me getting close to you so I could find out whether you were Elfie or not. And now that I know you aren't, I have zero interest in you."
He took 2 steps backward, putting distance between us.
"I can't give you what you need, Eve. You need someone who can stay loyal to you and give you the endless reassurance you crave. Someone open-minded and emotionally mature who can babysit you through every trivial panic. I'm not that type of person, and I don't have it in me. And I'm tired of treating you that way, pretending I might change. So stop assuming I might change for you."
His voice carried a heavy, crushing finality.
"You deserve better. Perhaps you can find someone to love you the way you need to be loved. But that person will never be me, and it never will be. We were nothing but strangers to begin with."
My legs gave out completely.
I collapsed onto the freezing rock, my knees slamming into the gravel right beside the spilled buns and soaking tea.
Why...?
Why, why, why...?
What did I do to make him hate me so much...?
Kaiser paused at the edge of the path, looking down at me 1 final time.
"Don't contact me again." Kaiser said, his voice hollow, quiet, and dead.
"Don't talk to me again. You never existed in my life, Eve. You're just an imitation of the girl I loved. I'm going to walk away from this cliff, and I'm going to forget you. I'm going to forget your face, your voice, and your name. As far as I'm concerned, you never happened. Don't follow me. Don't talk to me, and don't ask about me. You're dead to me, Eve. You always were the moment I found out you weren't Elfie."
"She's the only girl I love."
He turned his back.
His boots crunched rhythmically against the frozen gravel as he walked down the mountain path into the dark woods.
He didn't look back. Not once.
*
The freezing wind howled across the empty bluff.
I stayed on my knees in the dirt, the cold seeping through the fabric of my dress, soaking into my stockings and numbing my bones.
Hot, heavy tears poured down my cheeks, splashing onto the shattered wood of the tiffin box. The sweet cinnamon buns lay ruined in the gravel, covered in black dirt.
Sophia was right.
The memory of Sophia's sad, warning eyes on the boulder echoed in the dark:
The single most dangerous mistake you can ever make is falling in love with Kaiser Everhart. In the end, the only reason he will ever reach out to you is to use you. And when he's done, you will be left standing alone in the cold.
He left me.
He threw me away in the cold.
I curled my arms around my knees, burying my face into my skirts, sobbing until my throat burned raw.
Why was I so stupid?!
Why did I believe him?!
I was so happy when he left that note this morning... I was so happy eating those potato patties... believing that if I brought him warm buns, he would smile at me...
And all he saw was a ghost.
A cheap imitation.
A burden.
I wept until my chest had no more air left to give.
When the sobs finally turned into shallow, ragged hiccups, I slowly forced my trembling body to stand.
My knees wobbled. My boots dragged through the gravel.
I didn't pick up the broken tiffin box. I left it there in the dirt.
Step by step, I began the long, freezing walk down the mountain path back toward Sylvaris.
The night was pitch-black. The wind cut through my coat like freezing needles, but the cold outside was nothing compared to the hollow, gaping void inside my ribs.
With every painful step, memories rushed into my head like an unstoppable flood.
The memory of January 1st, 11:40 PM, outside The Black Ledger in the Lower District.
When thugs had cornered me and Gunnar raised his bloody axe, and Kaiser swooped down, scooping me onto his rock-hard shoulder like a sack of flour.
I remembered whining into his shirt: Wahhh! You're kidnapping me! You didn't even ask if I wanted to be kidnapped!
And his dry, rumbling chuckle: Finally talking again, are we? I was starting to think I'd kidnapped an obedient princess.
I remembered when Asher asked who I was to him, and Kaiser tightened his grip on my wrist, standing in front of 4 deadly rankers with only a kitchen knife in his hand, saying those impossible words:
She is my princess. I own her. And I'll keep her.
I remembered when he carried me bridal-style through the dark to the Upper District gates, whispering softly against my ear: I'd never touch you like that, Eve... You're light like a feather.
I remembered offering him my mana with wide, earnest eyes: I can use magic for you! I'll give you all of mine! Then you won't be sad anymore!
And when he had that terrible fever... when he was unconscious for 7 days in my lodge, shivering so hard his teeth clicked... and I stayed awake every single night changing the damp cloths on his forehead, cooking warm broth, holding his freezing hands, praying to every deity I knew just to let him wake up...
And when he finally opened his eyes, the 1st thing he did was hug me.
He pulled me against his chest so tightly, his arms trembling as if he was terrified I would vanish.
D-Did he really... did he really fake all of that?
I stumbled over a sharp rock on the dark path, my knees giving out, barely catching myself against a rough wooden fence post. My breath came in ragged, wheezing gasps.
"W-Why...?"
My own voice cracked into the freezing wind, tiny and shivering, swallowed up by the roaring river down in the gorge.
"I... I o-only wanted to... to feed you..."
C-Could someone really fake that kind of gentleness?
Could someone really carry a girl through the dark, protect her life, and hold her so tightly... j-just to inspect a ring?!
Was I really nothing to him? Just... just a mirror? A shadow with pink hair?
I raised my left hand to my tear-streaked face.
On my finger, the Sea of the Heart ring sat cold against my skin.
The gemstone was completely dark.
The vibrant cobalt and blush-pink mana that usually swirled inside it had vanished, leaving behind a dull, lifeless stone as black as the midnight river below.
I stared at the dark ring through my blurred vision, my chest heaving with ugly, uneven hiccups.
And then, through the fog of my heartbreak, that memory flickered to life again.
The memory of Kaiser sitting in the freezing rain in Levinton, his clothes soaked through, his coat dripping with icy water, his hollow blue eyes staring at that Asura photograph with grief so deep it looked like a bottomless grave.
His heart was broken for Elfie.
He has been carrying that agony all alone for years.
B-But... why did he have to say all those horrible things to me tonight?
Why did he call me needy?Why did he call me an exhausting burden? Why did he say I was suffocating him... that I was dead to him?!
I... I didn't want anything from him!
I didn't ask him to buy me pretty things or fight my battles... I just wanted to take care of him!
I bought 4 cinnamon buns because I was terrified he hadn't eaten all day! I wrapped them in 2 layers of clean parchment so they stayed warm! I spent my copper coins because I wanted him to taste something sweet and smile!
Is it really so wrong to care about someone who looks so lonely?!
Did he really have to stomp on my heart and shatter it into dust... just because I wanted to make sure he was safe?!
Fresh tears spilled over my eyelashes in hot, burning tracks, soaking into the fabric of my woolen collar.
W-Was he really telling the truth?
Does he really hate me that much?
Or... or is there something else... something he refused to say?
Why did his eyes look so empty when he said those cruel words?Why did he look like he was standing in the freezing rain all over again?
He's a liar...
My fingers clenched tightly around the cold band of the ring.
He is an absolute, stubborn, cowardly, infuriating, foolish, arrogant liar!
He thinks he can say a bunch of cruel words and make me turn my back on him! He thinks he can insult me, call me shallow, and make me run away crying into the dark!
The way he hugged me wasn't fake...
The way he called me his princess wasn't fake...
I refuse to believe that!
I wiped my face furiously with both sleeves, dragging my boots through the dirt as the distant lights of Sylvaris came into view.
You broke my heart tonight, Kai.
You hurt me more than anyone has ever hurt me in my entire life.
My chest aches so badly I can barely breathe, and I'm crying like a foolish little girl in the middle of a freezing road.
B-But I'm not going to run away.
I'm not going to just disappear and let you throw me aside like a stranger.
I'm going to find out why you did this.
I'm going to find the truth.
And I'm going to make you face me...