Last Chance [Extra #2]

Part 8

Days passed, and then weeks, and eventually Elena was able to move on her own. She worked really hard during her physical therapy, and Edgar was with her every step of the way. When she learned how to walk by using two railings that were parallel with each other, he held her up so she wouldn't fall over; when she put a strange bar in the garden and tried to pull herself up on it, he stood by her side to catch her if she couldn't hold herself up anymore. Each time she tried something new, he was with her, both surprised by her ingenuity, and concerned about her safety. He didn't understand her ideas at first, like putting two railings together and using it to learn to walk, but soon he realized that Elena knew exactly what she was doing.

He was absolutely shocked to see that his sister change in such an unpredictable way. He knew she didn't learn those things during the time she was missing, but he didn't ask her about it yet. He wanted to make sure his gut feeling was right.

Edgar's questions were answered when he accidentally caught his sister mutter something in a language he'd never heard before. It wasn't a language known anywhere on the continent, he could tell as much, so it only reinforced his conviction that his sister was no longer who he thought she was.

Elena didn't notice that her brother realized the truth and continued to act like nothing happened. She saw that Edgar would always try to be with her, but didn't think much of it.

One day, Edgar asked his sister to join him on a walk, saying he wanted to show her something. Although it was still difficult for Elena to walk farther than the garden behind the mansion without getting tired, she agreed readily, feeling that Edgar was a little on edge. He had been very quiet recently, and it wasn't hard to realize it was because of her.

The siblings walked for a while, having to take a few breaks on their way, but they eventually reached the hill behind the forest, from where they could see the whole town, lit with hundreds of lanterns as the local community celebrated the return of the Grand Duke from war. The Heroux family was not taking part in the celebration, having only moved to the North very recently, but that didn't stop Edgar, who admired the Grand Duke greatly, from showing his sister the colorful and happy town they now lived in. He silently hoped to see the man in question as well, but unfortunately, the Grand Duke did not show up.

Elena and Edgar sat on the hill, staring silently at the lively town that now resembled the starry sky above them, both lost in their thoughts as they wondered how to start a conversation.

Edgar, being the impatient one, simply blurted out, "I know you're not real Elena."

His sister didn't react the way he expected her to. She simply sighed quietly, not even trying to deny it. It only confirmed his suspicions even more.

Elena, or rather Celosia, gave him an apologetic look, "I'm sorry for lying to you and your family."

"Can you tell me what happened to Elena?"

"She... died. Soon after she went missing. That's why I could even enter her body."

"She died? You entered her body? What does that mean?" Edgar asked, baffled by the news. He didn't yet dare to ask the most important question about who she was, but he soon would. He had to know who was the impostor who pretended to be his sister.

Celosia considered telling Edgar the truth. It would be much easier to adapt to this new world she lived in if she had someone on her side, someone who knew the truth about her. "My real name is Celosia," she began.

"Celosia... it means 'burning flame' in the ancient language of the east. Are you from there?"

"No. At least I don't think I am. In my first life, I couldn't really learn much about the world around me, so I know very little about it. I do know what my name means, though. It was thoroughly explained to me when I was young. But that's beside the point. I'm sure you'd rather hear about your sister,"

"Well, yes... What happened to her?"

"She drowned. I, uh, I possess all her memories, her death included, so I know exactly what she felt when she died. The river where she, well, I, was found a year ago is the same river she drowned in."

'Was there... someone involved in her death?" Edgar gulped nervously, fearing the answer.

'He's asking if Elena was killed,' Celosia thought, then shook her head at him. "No. It was an accident. She slipped down the riverbank because she was spooked by an animal nearby. That's all."

Edgar openly sighed with relief. He would be beside himself if his sister was killed. It was sad that she was dead, and he knew he would grieve the loss forever, but he realized that he didn't feel as heartbroken as he expected. Perhaps he had already made peace with the fact that his sister was gone. Maybe it even happened when Elena first disappeared.

"You said you entered Elena's body after she died... How did you...?"

Celosia once again sighed quietly. It was a difficult topic for her. "I'm cursed," she revealed. "Every time I die, I enter a new body."

"Every time?" Edgar asked in bewilderment. "How many times has it happened?"

"Too many," Celosia's look became dark as memories of her past lives passed through her mind.

Edgar, as astonished as he was, didn't like the way she phrased it. It sounded like she wanted to die, and that didn't sit well with him. He had only gotten his sister back, and he was about to lose her again, even though she was a completely different person.

She really must have lived many lives to be so downcast.

"Celosia, may I call you Ellie?"

"Call me what you want, I've long stopped paying attention to such things."

"I only thought it would be less suspicious if I called you something that fits both Celosia and Elena," Edgar felt the need to explain himself, starting to feel intimidated by the woman beside him. She wasn't his innocent little sister who knew little of the world; she was someone who had lived many lives and learned more than he could ever understand. He felt inadequate next to her. Her knowledge was incomparable to his, and her life experience exceeded his so overwhelmingly that he felt like a child. He almost called her 'ma'am', but refrained from doing so before he could embarrass himself.

"I told you, I pay no mind to such things," Celosia gave Edgar a small smile, slightly amused by the change in his attitude. Just until a few hours ago, he was an overbearing brother that wanted to carry her all the way to the hill so she would overexert herself, but now he looked like a sulking child that was scared of getting scolded.

"I'm sorry to ask you this, but what happened during that year you were missing? I mean, why didn't you come back to us sooner?" Edgar asked curiously.

Celosia curled up on the grass, hugging her knees to her chest with little care about the dress she was wearing. "Drowning is one of the worst ways to die, at least for me, because it damages the brain. When I entered this body, Elena had already been in the water for a week. Her brain suffered considerable damage, especially since she hit her head against a big rock when she fell in the river. After I reincarnated, it took me a long time to recover Elena's memories and heal the brain. For a while, I wandered aimlessly around the forest I woke up in..." Celosia didn't finish, unwilling to share the pain with the man who'd just learned that his sister was dead.

She didn't want him and his family to be involved in her war against the Temple.

Because she would get revenge for what the Cardinal did to her, that was for sure.

She would destroy that whole organization if she needed to.