I ran down the stairs in this house I had just met.
This house where everything spun around me—where nothing made sense anymore.
What happened?! Why!? Did I do something?
'Tjer breathe in. Try to sense Edward and Katherine, you don't know where they are. Calm down...'
'How can I calm down!'
"Huff... huff..." I felt my chest tighten—forgetting to breathe in as I ran through the hallways, looking into every room that I had just visited.
Even passing through the central yard, knowing they weren't there.
They were nowhere to be found.
Where are they...?
'Tjer please... listen to me—involve me!'
'Help me...'
'Use your essence to search for them!'
'Okay... yeah... you are right...'
"Huff...." I tried to slow my breathing down, I couldn't even see beyond my own nose.
They are around the other building...
Seeing that they were not inside yet, I rushed over to them—forgetting about Edward's words from earlier.
As I closed in, there was no one else around.
Just Edward and Katherine holding each other while staring out at the pond that spread in their backyard.
"Edward, Katherine—please... help... M-Mim has collapsed... please do something!" I cried out as I ran over to them, forgetting everything as I disturbed their single moment together.
"Collapsed... where!" Katherine already stood next to me as soon as she heard my voice, with Edward following close behind her.
"In her room—" As soon as I said that I was grabbed by my collar, and thrown onto her shoulder as she rushed over to the room.
We had already reached the house—something that took me a few minutes to do, she did in a few seconds.
"What happened!?" She asked, gripping me tightly enough for her fingers to burn through my clothes.
"Albert told us about sleeping separately... and then... she just snapped..." After hearing me she exchanged glances with Edward and nodded to one another—and Edward left the house.
"Albert! Did something else happen to her?!"
"No, she has just been asleep since." Both of their eyes were cast down, Katherine's lower lip bled while Albert's arms trembled.
None of us knew what to do.
"We need to wait for Edward, he will get a craftsman and a healer."
I looked at Katherine,
"But shouldn't we stay hidden?"
"We know them well, so we can trust them." She put her hand on my shoulder.
"Where are you going to even find them this quickly?"
"They are part of the royal knights division stationed next door."
"Royal knights—"
As I said that Edward broke through the door along with two others.
The craftsman was a bald bearded man, one not much taller than me—clad in an outfit too big for him.
Next to him stood a clean shaved man, wearing a white gown covered in symbols, reaching all the way to his knees.
"Is that the girl?" The craftsman stepped forward.
"Yes, you see that bracelet?" Edward grabbed her arm, showing it to the man.
"It has engravings, but we couldn't understand them—but you surely can, Dowsley."
His eyes narrowed in disbelief as they passed over Katherine and Edward.
"Let me see..." He turned the bracelet around, and started reading it.
Silence took over the room as everybody was turned toward Dowsley, while watching each and every one of his steps.
"Hmm..."
The first sounds had come out of his mouth.
"What's wrong?" Edward asked him.
"It's strange... this artifact is foreign to me..." He said, narrowing his eyes as his hand started to tremble with her small arm in it.
"Foreign—you haven't seen anything like this before?" Edward asked him, his right arm trembling enough to shake the air around him.
"Exactly... these engravings are impossible..." He had turned to Edward.
Even Edward's eyes widened seeing the denying expression Dowsley held.
"Why...?"
"First of all—they are able to stop different ailments... making her even invulnerable to extreme heat and cold—even illnesses... but that is not all..."
"Is that not already enough..." It was the first time I saw such a tensed expression on Edward's face, having held a relaxed face even against the Roc.
"There are things that I have not seen before, it can create barriers against monsters..."
"But we have such artifacts as well right?"
"This one is different. Instead of repelling them, it absorbs them... simply said this bracelet protects her against all types of pain." As Dowsley said it, Edward and Katherine both turned to me.
They turned back to Dowsley as he started talking again,
"But the strangest effect of all—it's eating her essence. Ryan can you check something?"
As Ryan stepped forward and kneeled down next to him, Dowsley said,
"Look at her essence—is it fragmented...?"
He raised his hands above her head, and three green circles materialized in the air—stacked one above the other, each larger than the last, their surfaces etched with the strange, unreadable language.
"Yes... you are right, parts of her essence are being eaten away... it's strange, it's not randomly chosen parts, it's specified—aimed at certain parts."
"Indeed, I thought so as well," Dowsley said.
"But the essence it eats is still spreading out, it keeps worsening...." Ryan added.
"So if we take it off, she should be fine...?" Katherine asked them.
"No, it should have been done at the start, it has already fused with her essence—it's impossible to take it off..."
My heart was knocking in my throat, hurting more with each word they said—everything was pointed at me.
No thought passed through my mind, or rather they were unable to, the only thing passing through was the sight of my own sister being eaten away.
It's my fault...
Until I was snapped out of it, two hands holding my shoulder, with both sides being different sized.
Mom... Dad...
I turned around, knowing it was just a passing hope, the picture of my parents was replaced by that of Edward and Katherine smiling at me as if nothing was going on.
Is it all going to be fine...
"What are you able to do for now?" Edward asked.
"I can heal her essence for now, but the wound needs to be fundamentally dealt with—before the essence that is taken away becomes too much..."
"W-why is essence taken away so bad—when I fight don't I lose it as well..." I asked Ryan.
"That is different, essence is connected to the self. When you fight you separate them—outputting only your essence—your self is not used."
"But now her source—the gathering of her self and essence—is being taken apart." He looked over at me, and nodded.
"So simply said she will lose her self, and become just a body—one lacking a soul."
I wasn't able to say anything to it.
I'm going to lose her... I won't be able to keep my promises...