Land of the Blades

51. For your sake.

Day after day, I was just waiting for you to wake up. I stood at your side, doing not much more than sleep and meditate. Sometimes I would get flashes of my life before meeting you, when I was human, and when I lived on the moon, but I couldn't remember them for long enough.

I heard a gentle knock on the door, barely audible. The number of visitors had increased recently, the most diligent ones would come to give you their daily report, and others would just come to see if there had been any change in your state. Bort usually just peaked from the door, nodded towards me, and moved on. But due to the gentleness of the knocking, I had a good idea of who was at the other side of the door already.

—Come in —I said—, Ghost.

She opened the door just enough to let herself in, and immediately closed it behind her. I thanked her consideration, as even the dim light of the sunset through the thick clouds was enough to hurt my eyes. Once the door was closed, the room was almost pitch black, illuminated only by a couple of jellyfishes who were so kind to lower their bio-luminescent for my sake.

—Good evening, Shirou —she gently said, as she changed the dried flowers of that room for fresh ones. She did that every day.

—How did things went today?

—It was pretty calm, I think. Bort and Zircon fought against that snake lady shadow servant again, and Goshe and Morga had an encounter with a new one that looked like a clown, but it threw bombs.

—I'm sure Alexi has been really busy trying to catalogue all the new ones that have appeared.

Ghost sat next to me and poured me a cup of tea from a thermos I had carved some time ago. She poured another cup for herself, though she only liked to smell it. Finally, she poured a third cup and left it on the table. The drink was nothing more than hot water with some leaves of a plant Caster had recently found, but it was tolerable replacement. Caster had been really excited about her finding, so much that she was already talking about making an entire greenhouse.

—How are your eyes? —she asked.

—I still can't stand direct light —I told her —but I managed to stand in the hallway early with my eyes closed. I think I could go outside if I cover them, but I would need to learn how to fight blindfolded. It would be easier if I had Livy on my shoulder telling me where to aim...

—Don't push yourself too much —she said, a bit sternly —we almost lost you because of that.

I couldn't avoid chuckling a bit. In retrospective, I had been a big idiot for trying to fight like that, moreover without telling anyone about it. Ghost had saved me, and was still the only one who knew what was really happening to me. The others had suspicious, but only Caster had been so intrusive to ask until she got some answer. Still, I told her not to worry about it, the least I wanted to do was to give her more chores.

I noticed Ghost's posture and expression changed, as her other personality took over her body.

—Has... has he...? —he attempted to say.

I shook my head. You were still sleeping on the bed next to me. It has been almost a month since they grafted Lapis Lazuli's head to your body.

—I... I shouldn't have voted —"Ghost", or Cairgorn as I would come to know him later, said—. Cinnabar and the others choose to not vote, but I had to go out of my way to give my opinion.

The most sensible thing would be to comfort him, to tell him that it hadn't been his fault, but I'll be lying if I said I didn't agree with him just a bit. He acted out of his best intentions, but it was still his vote the one that broke the draw.