DEAREST

PART 6: SECRET HEART, Ch. 3

3

When I wake up, I feel a wet dog smell near me, and even if I still don't open my eyes, I know Luciana is nearby.

"Odette!" she calls.

How happy I am to be alive! The thought explodes in my mind, and, likewise, I open my eyes suddenly.

Her face composes all my vision. She looks at me with enormous relief, and I can't help but reach out to caress her face, my fingers barely touching the skin of her cheek.

"Are you okay?" she asks me.

She's not expecting a monosyllabic response.

"I know everything," I say in a calm voice.

For a moment, Luciana looks at me confused, but then she looks around her with a frown and stands up. I'm lying on what could be called the "beach" of the Waters of Oblivion: a stretch of cold, wet, and hard ground. I think it'll be dangerous to get used a little more to the crystalline hardness of this place, and to have to get up again and again from a surface as such.

I see that Luciana moves away towards a rock, and from there she takes her cape. What I see confuses me for a moment, but then I think that a pair of leafy wings was just what her angel identity needed. Throughout her armor there are water droplets sprinkled, and her hair is darkened due to moisture, taking on this translucent golden hue of wet blond hair.

She approaches me, cloak in hand, but then I raise my torso and kneel in front of her.

"Hey, it's not necessary."

In any case, she doesn't obey me, and I have my cloak on my shoulders. She buckles it over my shoulders in silence, bringing my damp hair out from under the cloak, and I'm surprised to discover that the obvious shyness due to the intimacy that overcame her every time we were too close to each other has completely disappeared. It seems that there is no need to fill that space with anything.

"I hope you haven't forgotten anything."

I'm surprised that she knows the function of these waters. Well, due to its name, it's not very hard to guess, but, anyway...

"I was guided back," I say. "By Adelheid. Did you know that Adelheid was my past identity?"

For a moment she stares at me, her eyes wide open at what she has just heard, but then the idea seems to make sense in her head, and then she smiles.

"Then everything makes sense. But, why did the Lightning Scepter disappear?"

"After the war against the Dark Force, Rosier took the opal because, apparently, it helped her control her perverse impulses."

"Oh."

I release a small giggle. I think we're both thinking the same thing.

"Although I don't believe that you have adopted that characteristic."

"The astrologer is not wrong, not at all, then."

"I believe he's part of a past much more ancient than the creation of the Crystalline Dimension. He doesn't seem genuinely interested in the Lightning Scepter."

"If the real purpose of the Lightning Scepter was to prevent Rosier from committing evil, that means..."

"Exactly." Our eyes are fixed for a moment. "It doesn't fulfill any desire. We just assumed it because of Juna's diary."

Luciana lowers her head, looking dejected.

"What's going on?"

"You can't ask for your wish, then, Odette."

Even though she looks sad and disappointed, I can't help but smile at that display of loyalty. I pass my fingers through the strands of hair stuck to her forehead, and gently move them backwards, tidying them up. Upon feeling my touch, she rests her cheek against my hand to sink deeper into my caress.

"My wish was to destroy the Lightning Scepter, and incidentally, the Crystalline Dimension. I know, it's an extreme wish, and my parents would not have forgiven me. But I suppose, after assembling itself back together, there is no more purpose for this weapon."

Then I sighed heavily. Luciana may be disappointed in my intentions, but I don't care anymore. All I know at this moment is that I must reveal everything I think.

But, Luciana continues to watch me closely.

"However, I also wanted to ask for something else. I wanted to wish for you to be happy, after the war. In whatever you would like to do next."

"I don't have a plan. And you?"

I shake my head slowly.

"Just... going for a walk in the garden with you would be lovely. I guess we will come up with something by then."

"I would like that."

"I'm happy you came for me," I confess. "Maybe, a few hours ago," I hesitate before saying this, since I don't know how much time has actually elapsed, "I would've told you not to, but," the corner of her lips curves up, "now I appreciate it."

Although I'm in this place, safe, and I can see Luciana in front of me, alive, the images of what I experienced recently don't stop repeating intermittently, like small whispers of a message that I can't immediately grasp. I stay still, trying to understand.

"Odette?"

"If everything ends well," I say, looking up at her, "then, would you like to hear a story?"

For a moment, she seems to have no words, and her voice trembles a little:

"Yeah, sure."

I don't want to tell her beautiful things in an ugly place. But, at this moment, I'm dying to hold her, and then I move a little closer and pass my arms around her neck. I'm grateful that this girl always has the sense to do the right thing. Shielding herself behind my magic circle during a battle... hiding the stone from my parents... coming for me... even removing the cape so that it doesn't get wet, without anyone telling her. I bring my nose to her cheek and sniff it, but I let out a chuckle at the idea that has just crossed my mind.

"I'll tell you everything," I promise. "And you will tell me everything. But we have to get out of here."

The wind that rises due to the waters is freezing, and my limbs become numb little by little. Luciana takes me in her arms and then we fly back to the Crystal Castle.