He, who made you a princess

Chapter XXXIV

~ the prices to pay is the beginning of the end ~

     It was a spring night in Obelia, with the night breeze chilly and the lush grass covered in fog, usually, Athanasia would wear Lucas' cloak over her shoulders and dance in the terrace. Under the moonlight and above the stars reflected on the misty fog.

It would be nights like this when she would think about just how much of a miracle it was, to be the one this wizard loves.

Nights when she would embrace herself, wrapped in the fabric that was always on him. Doused in his scent, in his warmth, Athanasia would take it all in for herself. All while he wasn't looking.

But even though tonight would have been the perfect night to do so, all Athanasia could do was turn her head to gaze out the vast, glass door.

But it was all right.

Because she didn't need his cloak, or his shawl, or his jacket, or his shirt. He was right there beside her, laying on the same bed as her. She turned to him and watched his sleeping face.

She thought of how he must have been so exhausted. Because he's done nothing but tend to her for so many nights in a row. Without a wink of sleep, Lucas stayed and did everything he could to help her be comfortable.

And because he did his very best that she's able to have the energy right now. Athanasia has had to battle her curse in a dream of herself, reliving a life of misery, over and over.

She yelled and she yelled. She screamed and wailed, pleaded, chased. She wanted to tell herself in those dreams, that none of it was real.

That whatever her dad did in the past, he never did any of it in their present. That the past didn't matter, because both of them are living a new present, with a new future. She wanted to tell that Athanasia who was much younger than herself...

To be strong, because Claude was definitely not that Claude who only watched her walk to her death, with nothing a gaze that was indifferent.

But she couldn't.

No matter how much Athanasia tried to help herself in those dreams she had to watch, her voice couldn't be heard. And she was stuck having to watch herself suffer, over and over.

It broke her heart.

Because she knew what this little Athanasia was feeling. But it wasn't true. She wanted to tell her, just how loved she was.

Because Athanasia knows.

And she wanted this little Athanasia to know as well. But she couldn't tell her, nor comfort her. She could only watch.

It was this that was the final blow of her curse.

Because when her eyes closes again tonight, surely, she would have to continue watching, until both their hearts shatter completely. And she had a feeling, just maybe, maybe she wouldn't wake up anymore...

*knock*

Athanasia's eyes moved to the glass door. There stood a tall silhouette of a man from behind the fogged up glass. It was strange to Athanasia. It was a stranger outside their terrace, yet there was no panic in her heart, nor any sort of feeling of danger.

Instead, she looked over to her husband briefly and cast a magic of silence and sleep over him, with the little mana she could muster up. So that he would stay asleep and unbothered.

Athanasia stood up and walked to the door.

Once she was by the door, she placed her hand on the glass, and a bigger hand did the same, right across where her palm was.