Miraric

18| Where Lies Laid.

"I don't like how you always keep risking yourself to help me," Edric told Eris once they were out of the tavern, walking by side as the stars shone down upon them.

"Look at the moon, Rei," Eris stopped in her tracks, sighing as she watched the bright circle in the sky, always ever lasting, always there whenever she needed to confirm that she was never truly alone and even if there were no one to stay by her side, the moon will always be a guide for her. "It's pretty, isn't it?"

Edric no longer looked at the moon. He never looked at it after that night.

It reminded him too much of Miranda and he was scared he'd forgive her if he stared at it again.

Edric's hand instinctively reached his throat, his fingers grazing the locket, his heart shattering once again as he thought of the woman who betrayed him six years ago. "Maybe," Edric said, his eyes fixed on the front while Eris' ones remained on the painted canvas.

He watched her as she smiled at the sky, her loose hair flowing in the air as she tucked a strand of hair behind her pierced ears and pulled the coat — which was given by Edric once they came out of the tavern — closer and then looked over her shoulder, making Edric see her minute freckles that were dancing in the moonlight carved in her cheeks. "Just look at it, will you?"

Edric looked away, beginning to walk. "Let's go, your father must be worried. It's quite late,"

Eris rolled her eyes, starting to walk beside him. "Why don't you like it? The stars, the moon?"

Edric couldn't find any answer to that -- he only remembered some words by Miranda. "Why do you love it? The moon, the sky and the stars?"

So, he voiced out one of her memories, as if saying them out loud would make them vanish into thin air and would free him. "Why do you love it? The moon, the sky and the stars?"

Eris glanced at Edric, surprised by his sudden change of behaviour. This wasn't like him. She smiled, dimples forming into her cheeks which was being kissed by moonlight. Because they all remind me of you, she wanted to say but she didn't. "They make me realise the world isn't so ugly, after all," she grinned at him, her eyes taking the shape of crescent.

Edric chuckled lightly. Just a light chuckle and it was all it took for Eris to calm her palpitating heart and the sudden irrational movements that the insides of her stomach made. Eris shook her head, trying to shake away her feelings towards him as well. Should I tell him? Should I tell him that my world was never ugly to even begin with ever since he came into my life?

She didn't. Instead, her mind only decided to take a stroll in the memories where she first met him.

Her father and her had just returned home after Elysia had finally calmed down after the Great Massacre. They were living in a neighbouring kingdom as refugees, afraid the Ezèrian would hurt them as they were renèi Possessors but after contemplation night after night, they decided they'd fight back instead. Upon returning home, they founded it completely burned down to shreds and debris of their home was flowing in the air like golden specks.

Her father had fallen to the ground, regretting his decision of leaving his home in the first place as he sobbed, howled and wailed like a child while sixteen-year-old Eris watched, silently crying. While her father continued expressing his feelings and cursing at the gods, Eris had decided to take a look at her once-home and see it from all sides.