Ink: Living Life as Serena Gleis

XXXVII: The Tears of Cerce

It's been two days since the incident with tax collectors happened, Az barely talked to me. The winter was getting worse every minute. Thick snow covered the entirety of Clye. I always imagined snow as a sign of holidays, a fun time, the season of love and giving but in reality, the snow in Clye means certain death. 

I can't help but worry and think about the old couple, the children and everyone in Clye. The thought of them freezing with empty stomach made my heart break. Sure, my life is shit but their lives are shittier. The fact that they can't do anything about it and just accept their fate is depressing.

Fate really is an asshole.

“A penny for your thoughts?” Maurice spoke as he sat on the empty chair infront of me. He looked at the window and shook his head. “Too bad you had return on the worst season of the year.” He deeply sighed.

“I want to help Clye.” I whispered, just loud enough for him to hear. “But I don't know how to.” I felt the frustration engulfing me. I hate how helpless and clueless I am. There's literally people dying as we speak.

“You are just like her.” He gave me soft smile, his eyes on the otherhand showed sadness as he reminisced my late mother. My conscience has been bothering me every now and then, Lena was Serena's mother not mine. It is just sad that Serena never knew the truth about her mother.

“But this is the fate of the people in Clye. To be born in the snow and to die with it.” Maurice has stayed on this place for more than a decade, this might be the normalcy to him but I know deep inside that it still bothers him.

We heard the front door opened, it must be Azrael who's going in and out lately. He just passed Maurice and I without speaking a word. I let out a deep sigh, not knowing what to do. It bothers me how Maurice thought highly of me when he had no idea that I am nowhere near the real Serena.

“I'll just go for a walk.” I said, standing up. Maurice looked at me as if I lost my mind. “In this kind of weather?” He asked.

“I'll be fine, don't worry.” Maurice just nodded. I got my coat and walked through the main door, successfully going out of the dim manor.  It was hard walking through the deep snow, thank goodness that Maurice lend me boots to at least fend of the cold.

This walk isn't a good idea, I'll never know what was waiting for me out here but I need it. I need some time to think about everything. There's a lot of events that happened and they happened to fast. I was just a miserable daughter of a cruel duke and now I am a dead person. Everything felt like yesterday.

The wind blew violently, sending shivers to my spine. The coat made of bear fur isn't enough to keep me warm. Winter in Clye really is different from the winter in Gleis.

I looked back, the manor kept getting farther and farther. The snow was also getting deeper and every step. I stopped walking for a while, thinking about where to go as all I can see now was a sea of snow and identical looking trees. 

After a while, I made a decision of going to a nearby tree just to rest for a while. It isn't a smart decision but that's the only place where I can take shelter from this non-stopping snow that kept on accumulating on the top of my head. I walked towards the tree. The trees in Clye were the darkest of the color I have seen, they are large, dull and lifeless. According to Maurice they are highly fire-resistant. No matter how long they try to burn the wood coming from this tree, it wouldn't burn at all. The trees were called Cerce, a tree that only grows on the land of Clye and the only tree that can strive here.

The Cerce trees were nothing of value. They are hard as concrete making it impossible to tear down or even scratch. They can't be used as firewood as they are highly resistant and their fruit is poisonous.