Eight Intertwined

63 - Mirror

Tressa had taken to pacing in the room that she and Ophilia were sharing for the night, unable to calm herself no matter how hard she tried. Ophilia had been watching the Ember as it flickered in the Lanthorn, something she had taken to doing when she felt particularly contemplative. That day had brought out something deep and raw in all of them, and she hadn't spoken a word in ages. Tressa had already taken care of getting new weapons for everyone in the group, and while she would have been more than content to go shopping to help the rest of the day bleed by a little bit faster, she couldn't find the energy given what had happened that afternoon.

Vanessa's actions were still hanging heavily on Tressa's mind. She had always wanted to be a merchant, and while part of her dreamed of finding a nice mansion somewhere to settle down in one day with the people she cared about most, she was fine with disposing of that ideal if it meant doing honest work only. Tressa wanted to make people happy, and she wanted to do what she could to help them too. That had been her desire for as long as she could remember, and Tressa doubted that it was going to ever change. She would never dream of hurting others in the name of her own wishes, and Vanessa... Tressa wished that she had gotten all of her rage out when the woman was still conscious, to say the least.

Ophilia being uncharacteristically quiet wasn't exactly helping Tressa's mood much. Ophilia was staring silently at the Lanthorn, a frown on her face. It didn't take a genius to see that there was something else plaguing the cleric, not that she would ever admit it openly. Tressa had no idea how she was going to get the truth out of Ophilia, but she knew that she had to try. Her pacing wasn't helping her to think at all, but it did something to get rid of her excess energy, she supposed.

Tressa eventually got sick of measuring her words, and she forced herself to stop before turning to Ophilia. "Are you okay?" Tressa asked, already knowing what the answer was going to be.

Ophilia looked as if she had been pinned against a wall with the distress that suddenly bloomed in her eyes at Tressa's words. She blinked for a moment before swallowing and nodding. "Yeah... Everything is fine," she assured Tressa. "You don't need to worry about me." Ophilia's smile was so painfully fake that it made Tressa want to pull her own hair out. Between Alfyn, Vanessa, and now Ophilia, Tressa was getting tired of people pretending to be something they so obviously were not.

"Don't lie to me," Tressa snapped back, though her words were laced with concern the whole way through. She sat beside Ophilia a moment later, and the cleric watched her with wide eyes. "I don't want to make you upset or anything, but... I can tell that there's something else on your mind. You're having a hard time, aren't you? What happened with Vanessa... It's bothering you. I can see it. Just... Talk to me about it. Please? I don't want you to leave yourself with this for too long, and if it means I have to push you a bit, then... I'll do it. I just don't want to see you get hurt."

Ophilia was stunned into silence by Tressa's words, and it seemed like all of her will to fight melted away in the blink of an eye. She looked back down to the Lanthorn, and the Ember cast her face in a strange silvery glow that did little to hide the grief spreading across Ophilia's features. "My father... He's sick back home," she murmured. "I wasn't even supposed to go on the Kindling in the first place. It should have been Lianna, my sister. Instead, I'm the one doing it because our father is sick. Lianna wanted to stay with him, and I couldn't force her to go out and do this. Seeing Vanessa hurt so many people... She made those people sicker than ever before for the sake of her own profits. I don't know how anyone can be so cruel as to hurt people like that. It's... It's..."

"Monstrous," Tressa finished for her, and Ophilia nodded her agreement. Tressa sighed before looking down at her hands. "I wish I could say that you're wrong, but... You're right. I don't know how Vanessa can live with herself after everything that she's done, but... I guess we can't really do anything to yell at her now. She's in the dungeon, and I doubt she's going to be let out any time soon given everything that she did here."