Chapter 45: Chapter 45

It was difficult enough to face Langrion, but it was equally difficult to say the words that had loomed all along at the back of Shia’s mind.

“You can’t get hurt by someone you don’t love, right? And I agree...” she began to say.

The prince blinked back at her. Perhaps he remembered that he was the one who spoke these words to her at the halls of the Rubiyah Manor. At any rate, Shia did not want to hear him speak. She began to fill in the silence for the two of them.

“I saw you and Lady Edelfina at the dressing room. You looked good together. It looked as if she still had some feelings for you. It seems like you still like her a lot too. I’m sure you’d make a great couple, if you choose each other now.”

She began to turn her back away from him, but Langrion held on her shoulders fast. He was still unable to speak. His silence felt like hot steel rubbing against her bare skin. Shia couldn’t bear to look back at his eyes lest she starts to cry.

“Don’t worry. I’m not angry. I knew even back at the cave that there was someone in your heart. I saw her letter to you. She had spoken to me as well at the Littman Manor a few days ago. She made it clear you are his.”

Langrey began to hug her again, “No, Shia, listen. In the dressing room - it was a mistake! I didn’t mean to kiss her like that.”

“That’s alright, your highness. We mean nothing to each other. You are free to love anyone you want, and I am free to love anyone else I choose too. There’s no need to explain anything. Nothing was lost...”

He did not want to let her go, but she pulled away from him, and she started to pull out the signet ring he had returned to her on the day he kissed her.

“I don’t think you should give this ring to me. I am not the owner of your heart. I knew you had probably meant well when you put this on me. I thank you for your protection the very first day we’ve met. However, marriage must not be given to someone as a mere protection...”

She sighed and forced herself to look up at his face. “You are a wonderful person, Langrion Zephiry Romualdi. You are much more than the title ‘Imperial Prince.’ Someday, you’d find the person you are meant to be with, and you would want to give her this ring. Whether that person is Lady Edelfina or someone else, you should keep this with you until then...”

Shia began to take Langrion’s cold hand and place his mother’s ring on his palm.

“I will make sure that you’ll come to see that day. I think I know of a way that I could defeat the Ancient Evil. Until then, I shall pretend to be your betrothed so that no one would suspect we are both cursed, but I can do nothing more than this for you... I’m afraid that is my limit...”

Shia’s chest felt empty. The moment that she handled back his ring, all her emotions had also been taken along with it. The hollowness inside of her hurt a lot, but she knew she had to do this.

Sirion showed her effectively at the dance floor that the more she lingered beside the prince and his twin, the more she would probably evoke him to possess them. As much as she would have liked to stay beside Langrion, she won’t be able to do so. She must leave him eventually if she wanted to save him and all the cursed ones from the destinies that loomed before them.

“I’ll give you time to think about what I said. Please do consider all of these things. Let’s part for now. I’ll look for the rogue this way,” Shia finally said, breaking away from his embrace, and trudging at the path she had chosen earlier.

Once she had been out of his line of sight, Shia broke into a run. She didn’t look back. She continued running and running, until she found herself facing a dead end.

Thankfully, that dead end involved a giant tree. She touched the tree trunk with her hand until the tree branches extended itself towards her. She climbed it, and perched herself at the helm of its highest branch. She made herself invisible from sight by covering herself with leaves as thickly as possible.

As she had predicted, Langrion came shortly after her. She could hear the out of breath sounds of his chest and could see the sweat that poured down from his forehead and from his lovely face. She could see how bewildered his only visible eye looked at as he tried to look from left and right, searching where she had gone.

He called her name once, twice, three times, four times. He called his name several dozen times, but she had stopped counting as she covered her ears and shut her eyes, so she wouldn’t be tempted to come towards him.

Finally, he propped himself against the tree trunk, just directly down below where Shia was perched. He covered his eyes and wept.

‘Freya...’ Shia said inside her head, calling softly to the entity who was the cause of all their pain, ‘Goddess Freya, am I doing the right thing? Will I be able to possibly save him like this?...’

Of course, there was no answer; there was only the deadening sound of her own heart that wanted to go down and comfort her beloved Langrion.

It was during her slow, nerve-wracking dance with Sirion that she came to realize that Freya was not residing inside her at all. It was only her - Shia – who was inside this mortal shell. The goddess whom Sirion and Galahad both loved had long died within her. Freya had chosen to let her live her own life as a mortal; she had voluntarily given up on her task of going back to the arms of the Ancient Evil who thought of her as a mere possession and coming back to Teotroly as a goddess. This was her final gift to all the mortal bodies she had resided in and who had all fallen back time and again into the arms of Sirion de Luca. It was her final choice; she is breaking her cycle of loving and hating by breaking away from her own mortal body.

This means that Shia is free to choose now whatever she wants. The Head God Heedra, who can see the future, had predicted as much – there won’t be a good ending for everyone else so long as Freya lives; Now that Freya had let go of the reins on her mortal soul, there was still a chance she could save everyone else from the Ancient Evil’s grand schemes.

Therefore, it is up to Shia now to device a way for everything to end. She must choose the path she needed to take. For now, she must choose to break Langrey’s heart in order to pacify Sirion.

“Sirion, you won’t win this time... I will save the ones that I love, and they do not include you...” Shia muttered.

With this thought in mind, Shia snuggled at the arms of the tree trunk and fell into an uneasy slumber. When she came around, it was already morning time. She peeked underneath and saw that Langrey was already gone.

She gracefully instructed the tree to let her down, and she walked calmly back towards the pavilion.

Before she could reach the pavilion, however, a frantic-looking Baroness Alessa, together with some of the servants from the Littman Manor had come towards her, crying wildly.

“Shia,” the baroness said, clutching her passionately by the arms. “Lady Shia, we looked everywhere for you! Where have you been?”

“I was -” she did not get to finish her answer as Baroness Alessa spoke in horror.

“Come quickly! Your grandmother – the duchess – she is dead!”

******************

Shia handled him back the signet ring he had retrieved for her when he kissed her at the manor. She said something about staying with him until his curse was broken, but he was not paying attention to any of it. Everything went blank the moment he heard her say that she saw her and Edelfina kiss at the dressing room.

How stupid of him not to have suspected that at all! He knew that Shia had been acting funny after she had excused herself to go to the powder room that evening. He should have known that something in her had changed when she did not return to him at all. He should have known she will see what he had done! She had probably changed partners because she did not know what to say to him. Now, she had already made up her mind to break their engagement. He knew he could not say anything at all that would change her mind. He screwed up, and he knew it.

Once again, he let her leave just like that. He watched her turn her back from him and walk away.

‘What a coward you are,’ he said to himself. ‘You did not deserve even a morsel of her! You are just one big, foolish coward...’

He reached out to the place where his chest was. Something seemed to hurt inside of it. What is it now? Why is his heart aching?

‘Fool! Are you really going to let her leave like that? Can you honestly let her walk away feeling hurt? After all that you been through yet again, can you simply watch her get away? Can you undo what your heart is screaming down at you to do?’

Suddenly, he realized that his inner self was right. He had watched Edelfina walk away from him because he was a coward. He had loved her, but he did not fight for her at all. He had learned to outgrow that love painfully, but this time, he was not willing to do that with Shia; he was not willing to let her go at all.

He started to run towards her. He ran to the direction that she took and called her name: “Shia!”

He screamed wildly once, twice, a dozen times. He screamed for her. He did not want to let her go.

He reached the end of the maze where a large tree stood. He looked upwards, but he cannot see a thing. Somehow, he knew Shia was there, perhaps hidden in plain sight, just like how he had cunningly tried to hide away what he had felt for her all this time.

He collapsed down underneath the tree. Langrion was tired. He needed to get away from there quickly and to get his thoughts straight. He needed to find a way to get Shia back again.

He started to get up and walk back to the pavilion. If he stayed there all curled up in grief, he would never find Shia. It is only if he tried that he could see her again and explain what had really happened between him and Edelfina.

Suddenly, Langrion heard a quick ‘swoosh’ sound from somewhere. He felt an insect bite at the back of his neck. He tried to feel the part where the insect had bitten him with his hand, but he started to sprawl down towards the ground instead.

Before he could close his eyes and lose consciousness completely, he saw at least a pair of men’s boots coming closer to him, and he heard a familiar voice speak. “Finally, A-grade... We meet again...”