Lewis stayed in bed for the next three days. Not only because he needed to recover, but for the depression that came with being all alone without a loving family members by his side—it was just as Aefia had told him.
He has heard about what had happened when Aefia was being escorted to the underground prisons. He wasn't shocked she had done that, and he definitely wasn't shocked she had suddenly grown so powerful. What bothered her is that she took the empress, George and Henry along with her.
Somewhere at the edge of shore—as his closest knight had told him about that last locations—they were boarding a boat to flee the empire and out of their betraying brother's sight. If he was able to, he would have gone after them to probably stop them, but he was too injured to move along the roads that they had taken to get away.
Greed.
The definition of greed in dictionaries is; a very strong wish to continually get more of something, especially food or money.
But truly, it has many different ways to interpret this.
A strong will or desire to get something; one way. An uncontrollable feeling that can drive a person mad for something; two ways. The third way—in history where the throne was something that could every rational person into irrational, making their actions seem greedy.
Lewis just wanted revenge, but his actions were seen as greedy. He only realized his doings after being drugged; meaning he was completely put out of his mind by greed when he was confronting Aefia at the entrance downstairs.
His eyes darted to the side where the butterfly brooch stared at him as if saying, 'you are a failed brother'. He reluctantly took it between his fingers, his skin tingling as soon as it touched the cold red stones. He kept getting reminded of that look on Aefia's eyes.
It was that moment when she threw the brooch to his feet, looking at the thing with a kind of disgust that was never on her face back then. He always thought what she would do when he ever stepped off the line and gave her a moment to view him with only despise. But now that he knew, he wanted to take it back.
Because it hurt quite a lot when someone you used to charish, hates you back without them needing to say it.
He threw the brooch towards the otherside of the room, watching it as it crashed into the wall and broke into several pieces. He felt like it was suddenly ugly. And since it would only look beautiful on her, he didn't want to hold it again—given how she wasn't likely to want it back either.
However, it still pained him. He curled into a tight ball on the bed while staring at her shattered gems. A scream breaking out of his throat as he clenched his hair and cried out of despair. His world had shrunk massively—the joy and excitement that he usually received from his family gone. It felt as if he was walking on withered grass that was actually as stuff and sharp as a blade.
He wondered for a moment, what it felt like to jump off the bridge in Aefia's perspective.
What kind of courage and lose did it take to go there? Would he feel the same? Given Aefia was much stronger than him, he felt like he would suffer—not be released.
He spend the next hour curled up like that, his emotions having gone numb. Apparently— based on the knights guarding around him—he was already the Emperor and needed to get back to work. But he was too emotionally struck to move around.
However, he still dragged his bare foot towards Aefia's room in wonder—Remembering how she had told him to go see the memories she had left in her room. So he did.
As he shut the door, he looked towards the invisible hair around the room. With a flick of his wrist, a bit of the old air hanging out at the corner of her room turned into small water droplets. He tapped one of them, immediately reappearing into a time when the room was lively and Aefia was living there.
Within a few scenes, he immediately pulled himself back to real-time. Clenching his head while falling to his knees until his forehead stayed pressed against the floorboards. He took deep breathes, already traumatized with what he had just suffered.
His magic had a capability unlike others. He could see the memory, and experience it too. Including the emotions she felt during that time and the thoughts she had. It was as if he was in a fever dream. For Aefia's memories, he chose to experience it. And it was painful.
Starting with those times she had to deal with her overdoses, then her own bruises she needed to cover up, how painfully she was beaten up. Also when she woke up earlier than her brothers to try and seem like a normal percent in front of them—although that meant suffering through sleep-deprivation. She would put a painful smile while acting as if she wasn't afraid of the sun going down.
Not only that, he went through everyone else's memories too.
For once, he truly understood what she went through. His hands clenched into right fist as he stood up and dashed down the hallway to grab his cloak and head out. He needed to find his family even if it was too late already. The throne dismantled whatever good family bond they all had for each other, leaving him behind to suffer his choices.
He left the palace vacant. Walked out without a care to the empire and headed towards the port. Even if it was already three days since then, he had to try and at least apologize to them for doing whatever the had done. He was afraid how they would react, but every hardwork gets paid-off with a huge reward.
***
Three days ago.
Her steps grew louder the more exited the dungoens. She had Henry grabbing her hand already, using his magic to melt any obstacles in front of them.
Her injury made her stumble sometimes, but she couldn't show her vulnerablity to her little brother. Instead, she carried Henry at her back. The empress and George ran along with her. Until finally, they reached the port where Aefia had managed to get Nada to book for them. It was almost completely fully booked.
They climbed onto the ship with their tickets as Aefia handed Henry onto it first, then the empress. She wanted to go last. Before George could board, he looked back at Aefia who wobbled precariously.
"Are you alright?" He asked while offering her a hand.
"Nah I am fine. Hurry up and get on, I can survive of Lewis finds out."
Only here is the thing, she didn't get a seat at the ship. The last calls rang out as she stepped back, watching her family looked down at her from the ships deck.
"Aefia! When will we meet you again?!" Henry shouted with a teary face.
Aefia let out a smile, while looking up. "One day... If God wills."
The empress stepped forward as soon as the ship's horn went out, signalling departure.
"Aefia! Take care of yourself!" She shouted over the railing. But before she could reply to that, her body trembled again. She managed to see them through her blurry eyes and let out a wave.
"Yes... I will." She muttered. But suddenly, she collapsed sideways and into the water right beside her. No one was able to stop her since within seconds, she was completely submerged, as if she didn't exist at all. Like she was merely an illusion.
Her family had managed to successfully flee, and her body had given up. What a nice way to end a part of her life. It seemed like an ending, that eventually happened. The empress watched with shock as a bubble of air popped out of the water surface, she turned more and more alarm the more they drifted away.
However, things don't always have an ending unless the main character dies—like actually dies.
Let's recap... Aefia was from Earth in another planet. She had a devil who would save her body of she was on the verge of dying. And she always had someone around her who noticed she was about to let go of her consciousness.
So... She wasn't dead.
***
"Hah!" She shot her head out of water as soon as she realized the situation she was in. Her lungs immediately started to expand as soon as she managed to gasp some air into her lungs.
The sight of shore caught her eyes and she immediately swum to it. Something went into her eye that caused her to tear up and her vision to blur. Not only that, she could tell her body had already gotten accustomed to the opioid she had taken. The situation was already dire enough, but she was not able to stop it from accelerating.
As soon as she climbed onto land, she dried herself up. Somewhere along the route, she lost her hair band. Her hair swayed behind her as she clenched her throbbing side and walked towards the forest regardless.
"Ma'am? Where are you heading?"
Oh shit.
She looked up to see a group of knights with spears. Due to the distance, they couldn't see her features properly. Despite the nausea, she faked her voice.
"Home..." She spoke softly while crossing her legs to bite back the feeling of bile rising up her throat.
"Sorry?"
"Home."
"Ma'am please speak louder!"
"Hom—" She immediately moved to the side while throwing up a bit of blood onto the floor, her loosely tucked silver edges spilled behind her to shield her face. But her hair was iconic for its natural colours... So it didn't take them time to calculate the rest.
"Arrest her! She is a drug addict so we can bring her by framing that issue!" The commander shouted while sending two behind her.
"Oh god!" She immediately ran towards right while ignoring her pain completely. The turn left her to the marketplace where she run through food vendors, throwing their carts away as distraction while tossing money as apologies. In midway, she could only steal a bottle of wine to crash onto the floor and slow them down—they were still fast.
"Who trained them?! Dungoen monsters?!" She heaved while jumping over a fench. She used her hand to spin her entire body in the air and hoist her up. Before long, she lost them.
However, her mind was covered in dizziness along with the pain—making her seem like she was a drunk walking around as she stumbled. Luckily she was in an empty alleyway, so no one saw. Otherwise authories would catch her and imprison her this way or that.
Then again, many were hunting her down. So she had to continue the chase even into sunset. The streetlights flashed, but the sky was darkening enough. Her head was hurting, her eyes a problem, she had a half-healed injury and she was being chased by so many guards at once. What could go worse?
That's right... Many other things!
Stray dogs too... They won't leave her alone. At least she managed to dodge them—not the flying jaws though. Bites trailed her arms as she kicked one to move away faster.
However, her pain grew worse and worse the more she fled. By the time the sky was coated with a redish-orange colour, she managed to get to another state. Coincidentally, she managed to get through during the blind-spot—when the guards weren't rotating. As soon as the gates of the territory was slamming shut, she bent low and lunged towards the small gap that was shutting down.
Her nose grazed the wood of the door, but she somehow managed to appear at the otherside without extra damage. By then, the imperial guards were being questioned by the northern duke's guards.
Aefia let out a sigh of relief as she lifted her body off the dirt and looked towards the bridge that head towards the massive stone palace. However, she wasn't here for that reason.
Her steps took her towards the edge of the bridge as she looked down. The cool breeze of winter moved the hair out of her face as she stared down at the figure down there. Without a single moment of hesitation—as the imperial guards threathened to slit throats if necessary—she shifted her weight on her toes.
"Lio—!" She shouted as a cough interrupted hee.
He immediately looked up at where she was, his eyes narrowed into slits as he glanced at her bleeding arms. "What the—"
Before he could finish the sentence, she jumped down to where he was. He planted his feet and extended his arms to reach for her.
Thump!
He fell backwards due to the momentum and settled into a sitting position, leaning back with his palms flat on the grass as he stared with shocked eyes.
"Aefia?" He asked while lifting his gaze at her face. She sat right in front of him on her knees, while grabbing onto his neck in a fierce embrace as she buried her face into his shirt. Her fingers curling into fist behind him as she panted from the exhaustion of escaping the guards and surviving assault from the dogs.
Her entire body trembled as she refused to look anywhere else. And then, she realized she was crying out. However, she didn't fight it back while burying her face deeper into his shirt. The memory of seeing her family leave in safety while she was the last one being chased, caused her vision to cloud with blurryness.
Her hair cascaded down his arm in a waterfall for all he could think for a while. Then he lifted his hand up to support her weigh agianst him as he checked the wounds at her side. Not only that, he could tell she was on drugs.
"Aefia, if you keep breaking the rules I can't do anything else then you betray you."
"Then do so! But do it in another day! I have survived enough for all that I can think of!" She sobbed while tightening her grip on him.
"Do you all really just have to show up all in one day and suddenly leave me to crumble while I am already at my lowest?!"