Just as the thought of sleep was dawning on Luke, the company sat next to him cleared her throat rather loudly.
"Just so you know, I'm aware of what transpired between you and Lily, and I wanted to say, I hope you aren't taking advantage of her.." Estel almost sounded panicked.
"No! No, I promise!" Luke shouted, alarmed at her words.
She shifted in her seat and breathed a sigh of relief.
"That's good. Do you know why she was very physical with you?"
Luke racked his brains for an answer. In truth, he didn't know what overcame Lily in that moment, but she kissed HIM. Surely if she made the first move, he didn't take advantage, right?
"I don't."
"I see. When she left the forest, she was taken in and forced to marry a man named Amaris. You know this, of course. From what we can get out of her, she was abused and tormented by this man."
Luke bowed his head, knowing this all too well after having witnessed it firsthand.
"Anyway, he used to get very violent with her, physically. That led to her not wearing clothes, as he wouldn't leave marks on her if it was too visible. After that, he got jealous of her spending time with any other guy. If she even so much as spoke to one, he would have his way with her to show her she was his property. We believe she has contracted a form of Stockholm syndrome from all of this. The reason she made her move on you, was because you complimented your sister, correct?"
"I-...yeah." Luke was stunned.
"Exactly," Estel nodded. "I think she was doing what Amaris would do to her, because she started seeing it as acceptable. She probably didn't mean anything romantical, she just can't discern the difference between right and wrong. Thank you for returning her, we can start to help her recover now."
Luke didn't realise his eyes were wet with tears. He hadn't known the full extent of Lily's mental state or her trauma, but to hear this from Estel who would never joke or mock her little sister like this, it felt so much more real now.
"I'm...I'm so sorry we couldn't save her sooner.."
Estel shook her head and smiled through her own new tears.
"Without you and your friends, I would never even have got my sister back in the first place. Thank you, thank you!!" She leaned over and hugged him, burying her face in his neck.
Luke hugged her back after a moment of hesitation. No lewd or sexual thoughts came to his mind, regardless of how attractive he found Estel. He simply felt happy he had helped the Stark family. He finally knew what he wanted his end goal to be...
He wanted to save people. And, in the process, he wanted to save the world by securing the elements.
==================================
While Luke and Estel both enjoyed the light show created by the spirits and comforted each other, Ruby was sat in the bathroom of the Stark house, crying silently and trying to not let her makeup get smudged in the mirror.
The seduction incident that occurred at dinner involving Damaeir had made the poor girl an emotional mess. Not because she was angry that he only made a move on her when seduced by her power. The real reason for her state was she could never see a future in which she could be happy with someone. After all, how would someone ever TRULY love her when her power refused to butt out of her personal affairs?
Shockingly, her makeup had been largely unaffected by her tears. She did put an awful lot of emphasis on her makeup, she felt like it was part of her. Maybe she was just a massive emo and loved a dark and grungy aesthetic, therefore wanting her face to be covered in those colours too.
YOU ARE READING
Breakthrough
Macera*UNDER MAINTENANCE* (The earlier chapters are being re-written and edited to make them more clear and easy to read.) After encountering a small artifact of unknown origin than seemingly fell from the sky, one Luke Wilson becomes the host of an other...
