Lamai was drowning beneath the weight of a betrayal so powerful it threatened to tear her apart. But dawn was nearing, and outside, the rain had finally begun to ease.
No matter how much she tried, Lamai simply couldn't bring herself to accept what she had seen and heard the previous night. Her eyes had witnessed it, her ears had heard it....yet her heart refused to believe that her father could be the man behind such a truth.
Wee held her close, whispering comfort, trying to steady her. But then....
Suddenly, Lamai spoke, her voice trembling yet resolute:
"I need to go home. Right now. No matter what."
Wee's eyes widened, shock flooding through her. For a moment, she was utterly speechless. Lamai wanted to run....run from this institute, from this dreamlike city, from everything they had worked toward.
Before Wee could form a reply, Lamai's voice broke the silence again, weak and faltering:
"Mother … she'll be all alone. And you know… she already had a heart attack."
Her words quivered as though the very fear of losing her mother had taken root deep inside her chest.
But Lamai had no idea what kind of storm she had just stirred.
The instant those words.....heart attack....escaped her lips, Wee's entire body recoiled with a familiar, stabbing pain. It was the same pain she had once felt in Yim's arms as she lay dying. Her breath quickened, ragged and shallow.
Flashes of Yim's face filled her vision, her cries echoing in her ears, calling out that one name...Talotkan!
And in that moment, Wee's heart shattered anew. It felt as if she was losing Yim all over again.
Just then, the first golden ray of morning broke through the storm, falling upon the branches of the fateful tree. The light shimmered gently, as if declaring that even the fiercest storm must one day fade, that the sun always returns to gather the pieces left behind.....like the closing of one journey before another begins.
"W...Wee?" Lamai's voice cracked in panic.
Wee had slipped from her grasp and collapsed onto the cold floor. Lamai's eyes widened in horror. What had just happened? She rushed forward, cradling Wee's head in her lap, shaking her gently, desperate to wake her.
But Wee… Wee was lost in her own storm.
As Lamai bent over her, her face blurred, transforming before Wee's half-conscious gaze.
In Lamai's features, she saw Yim.
Not a resemblance, not a flicker....but Yim herself, complete and undeniable, as if fate had brought her face to face with the one she had lost.
Wee's lips parted, a faint whisper escaping her… and then her body went limp.
She had fallen into unconsciousness.
But life never moves in one rhythm. Where the sea lies calm, the rivers surge in fury.
Elsewhere, before Teanguan could even voice his next question, his eyes fell upon Kai.
She stood silently by a table, her gaze fixed upon what lay there.....dry, barren soil, and upon it, the withered remnants of Morwyn Noxflora flowers.