A KINGDOM OF DEAD HEARTS [COMPLETED]

CHAPTER 17: AT THE BANK OF THE ELEGARII

She did not mind Xander and Lyanna here in her world, in her apartment. For some strange reason, she had grown used to them. But this feeling of beginning familiarity shattered when Xander did that magic trick on her mind. She was reminded that he was not, nor would he ever be, just a normal guy. What did she expect if he were a normal guy anyway?

Xander could do tricks with people's mind. Sorcery. On her mind. That sentence ran in her mind like a breaking news broadcast on tv that just kept repeating in a loop.

The day crawled with excruciating slowness. She could not focus in her teaching that day, and for some reason the kids seemed to be particularly difficult today. Even the calmest kid in class was throwing a tornado of a tantrum today over a slightly-chipped tip of her new red crayon. She had raised her voice a couple notches, something she so rarely, if ever, did. Not only to the kids, but also to her class assistant.

Airin chugged along through the whole day, taking many deep breaths that became more and more useless to calm her down, to help her battle the tiredness that she felt.

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That night, she slumped on the couch after dinner. They all had fastfood dinner, and after that Xander took Lyanna outside, to look at the metro trains passed by on the rail right above her head. That seemed to be a calming activity for Lyanna for the past few days. She loved her time in the classroom still, but she also grew noticeably sadder and quieter. She would whisper to Airin that she missed her father, she missed Nydda, she missed her own home.

Airin would hug her and let her just settle in the crest of her arms. Sometimes the little girl ended up crying in soft gasp, and Airin felt like crying with her.

How heavy it must have been for a young child to be uprooted, just like that, from her home, from all that she knew and familiar with. The thought alone made Airin realize that she would try her best to help Lyanna face her time here, in her universe. If that meant she would try to also get along with Xander, she would do it. If that meant she could help create a peaceful home situation for Lyanna, then she would look past the sorcery of Xander.

When Xander and Lyanna got back, Lyanna had fallen asleep on Xander's arms, and he put her to bed.

He then sat on the other end of couch. Quiet. Pensive.

After some minutes ...

"I am sorry," Xander took a deep breath as he said it, and he turned to look at Airin. "That is what I want to say. I should not have done the ... sorcery ... on you. There is no other excuse."

Airin was caught off guard with the honesty in the apology. The suddenness of it too. She ran out of words to say. Am I still angry? She asked herself quietly. She was not sure, but she felt the pressure, the knot in her chest that seemed to want to go and explode had disappeared.

"Like I told you, Airin. I have a gift. But something happened in my life long ago, and since then, I can't use the gift. I was broken. Until I get here. In your universe. With you."

"I hope you also understand that human like me, human who lives in this universe, without magic elegarii, without the gods of Olympus meddling in our lives ... I am scared of what you did. I don't like magical things like that ... done ... to me."

Xander nodded. "I will not do that anymore. I am sorry."

She did still find it hard to find more words to say. Only a sigh, and a barely there nod. That was it. Even though she did get more and more curious about Xander and his life in Halgard. What had happened to him there?

But Xander had retreated back to his own mind, his quiet world. He sat stiffbacked for a moment, before reaching to the table and grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil. He also took a box with color pencils that Airin had also let him borrow. He started drawing.