One Week Later
The morning sun filtered through the stained glass windows of the Arkwright manor's library, casting colorful patterns across the worn wooden floor. Ray sat cross-legged on a cushion, pretending to read a book about regional flora while actually watching Kira from the corner of his eye. The fox-eared girl had been living with them for a week now, and while she was physically recovering well, the emotional scars ran deep.
She sat at the far end of the room, her fox tail curled protectively around her small frame as she carefully pressed flowers between the pages of an old journal. Her movements were precise, almost ritualistic, as if the repetitive task helped calm her mind. The twin sisters, Lila and Mira, had tried to include her in their games earlier, but Kira had politely declined, retreating to this quiet corner.
Ray closed his book with a soft thud, causing Kira's fox ears to twitch in his direction. She didn't look up, but he could tell she was aware of his every movement.
"You know," Ray said casually, setting the book aside, "I used to do that too."
Kira's hands paused in their careful arrangement of a small violet. "Do what?"
"Press flowers. Well, not exactly flowers." Ray stretched his arms above his head, feigning nonchalance. "I used to collect things. Bottle caps, interesting rocks, scraps of paper with weird writing on them. Anything that caught my eye."
This was mostly true. In his previous life, Ray had indeed collected random objects, though it was more out of boredom and loneliness than any real interest in preservation. Still, he could see Kira's ears perk up slightly at the admission.
"Why?" she asked quietly, finally looking up at him with those golden eyes that seemed far too old for her young face.
Ray shrugged. "Made me feel like I had something permanent, I guess. Like even if everything else changed or got taken away, those little things would still be mine." He paused, watching her reaction. "Plus, it gave me something to focus on when my mind got too noisy."
Kira's tail twitched, and she looked back down at her flowers. "The voices in your head were loud too?"
The question caught Ray off guard. He'd been thinking more about general anxiety and intrusive thoughts, but Kira's phrasing suggested something more literal. "What kind of voices?"
For a long moment, she didn't answer. Then, so quietly he almost missed it: "The ones that remember, the more I listen to them the more my memories come back from when my mind was suppressed and not just mine I see others as well, memories of other people but it's too much most of the time."
Ray felt a chill run down his spine. He remembered the system's warning about Kira being a cursed princess whose memories were returning. "Bad memories?"
"Not all bad," Kira said, pressing another flower with more force than necessary. "Some are... beautiful. My mother singing to me. Playing with my siblings in the royal gardens. Learning to shift between forms. There's also memories of other people learning magic, aura and many other things." Her voice grew smaller. "But then there are the other ones. The day everything changed. The feeling of my body changing against my will, trapped in a fox's form while my mind..."
She trailed off, her hands trembling slightly. Ray wanted to move closer, to offer some kind of comfort, but he'd learned that sudden movements made her flinch.
"I'm sorry," he said simply. "That sounds terrifying."
Kira looked up at him sharply, as if surprised by the lack of platitudes or false reassurances. "You don't tell me it will get better? That I should focus on the present?"
"Would that help?"
"No." The word came out bitter and sharp.
Ray nodded slowly thinking to himself. 'In his old life, he had this neighbor. Old guy, lived alone. Sometimes Ray would hear him talking to people who weren't there—his dead wife, his kids who never visited. Other people called him crazy, but...' Ray thought 'he was just trying to keep the good parts alive. The voices in his head weren't all bad,'
Kira's asked. "You don't think I'm going mad?"
"I think you're trying to figure out how to carry two different lifetimes worth of memories in one head," Ray said honestly. "That's not mad. That's just... really, really hard."
For the first time since arriving, Kira's guarded expression softened. She set down her flower and really looked at him. "You speak like someone who understands carrying burdens."
Ray felt an uncomfortable twist in his chest. She was more perceptive than he'd given her credit for. "Maybe I do."
"Will you tell me about your burdens sometime?"
The question was asked with such earnest curiosity that Ray found himself nodding before he could think better of it. "Maybe. If you want to hear about them."
Kira smiled then—a small, tentative thing, but genuine. "I would like that."
They sat in comfortable silence for a while, Kira returning to her flower pressing while Ray picked up his book again. The peaceful moment was interrupted by Renna bursting through the library doors, her dark hair wild from running.
"Ray! Father wants to see you in his study. Now." She paused, noticing Kira. "Oh, hi Kira. Are you making another flower book?"
"Yes," Kira replied, holding up a pressed daisy. "Would you like to see?"
As Renna moved to examine Kira's work, Ray felt a familiar blue glow at the edge of his vision. The system window appeared, visible only to him:
💠 [URGENT QUEST AVAILABLE]
💠Hunt the Shadow Stalker Objective: Eliminate the intelligent shadow beast threatening the territory Conditions: Must be undertaken alone
💠[Reward] 250 Virtue Points, Rare Skill: Shadow Resistance
💠 [Failure Penalty] The beast will target your family directly Time Limit: 24 hours Accept? Y/N
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