Chapter 19: Forever and Always

(Eve Solaris)

“Eve!” I heard Amelia call out from behind me.

“Eve, you gotta try these.”

I turned around to the sight of Amelia holding a brown bag in one hand and the other stuffing her face with some sort of sweet bread coated in a thin red candied topping.

A deep pang threatened to wring my heart dry, but I pushed it back down as far as I possibly could.

“Eve?” She asked in between bites.

“Huh- oh, yeah, sorry. Got lost in thought. What are these called?” I asked, grabbing one from the bag.

“To be honest, I’m not too sure. I think she said they were called… Velkies? I don’t know, I just know they’re good.”

Mentally sighing, I took a bite from the pastry.

I could feel as Amelia’s eyes bore holes in my head waiting for a response.

“Well? How are they?” She asked, her eyes sparkling with anticipation.

“I guess they’re pretty go-”

“Right?” She said, cutting me off before grabbing another from the bag.

‘She’s a lot like you, y’know?’ I thought, sending another pang through my heart.

“Where else did you want to go?” I asked, trying to distract myself.

“Mmmm… I haven’t thought that far.”

“...”

“What?”

“So you’re telling me that you dragged me from my room this early in the morning to go and get… sweets?”

“Yep!”

“You’re lucky we're in public right now or I’d pummel you.”

She looked at me and stuck her red-stained tongue out before taking another bite from her sweet.

“Well, since we’re already out, we might as well do some exploring. Actually, that reminds me, how do you feel about exploring outside the capital for a little while?” She asked.

“Outside the capital? I mean, not that I’m against it, but what exactly are we going to find out there?” I asked, tilting my head slightly.

“That’s what we gotta find out. C’mon, it’ll be fun!” She said, grabbing my arm before I could protest and taking off towards the direction of the east gate.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By the time we got anywhere that was remotely “fun” in Amelia's eyes, it was already nearing mid-day. And where exactly was that? Right in the middle of a relatively secluded pond in the middle of a forest. Typical.

I made my way towards the edge and tried to stare into the bottom of it. Then a thought occurred to me and a smile painted my face.

“Hey, Amelia, come look at this!”

“What is it?” She said, making her way towards me. The ever unsuspecting prey.

I heard her get closer and closer until eventually standing right next to me.

“What is it E- Eve, what are you do-!?!”

Before she could finish, I swiftly moved behind her and pushed her into the water.

“Eve!”

I watched as she splashed into the water, failing to stifle the rising laughter within me. Laughter overtook my body making my legs weak.

“Haha, W-wait!”

Before I could stop laughing, I felt Amelia’s wet hand grab my leg as she dragged me in with her.

I fell face first into the water, surprised at how deep the pond actually was.

I surfaced from the water, looking around for any sight of Amelia.

“Amelia?” I said, rubbing my eyes a bit more to clear the water from them.

Before I could keep looking, I felt a surge of mana coalesce behind me.

“Oh no you d-.”

My attempts to prevent what was inevitably coming were futile and a wave of water slammed into me, pushing me back under.

I could hear as Amelia’s muffled laughter resounded above me. Little did she know what was coming for her.

I continued to hold my breath before swimming under her. I began channeling mana towards my hands, creating a ball of wind in them underwater. The combined water with my wind magic sped towards her from below, sending a burst of water at her.

I resurfaced and looked at Amelia, her hair completely disheveled and water dripping down her face.

I let my laughter take hold of me once again, not caring to hold it in.

“E-Eve! That was a dirty move and you know it!”

“No it wasn’t, it was funny and you know it.” I said in between fits of laughter.

My laughter, however, was abruptly put on hold as she splashed more water in my face.

“Pfft, haha, hahaha, you should see your face right no-”

She was barely able to finish her sentence before I splashed water in her direction as well.

“...Oh it’s on now!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Time flew faster than I realized, the sun slowly but surely being a cruel reminder of that. It had felt like a long time since I was truly able to let loose like this. Amelia was still more or less a mystery to me, but one thing was certain: no matter who she was or what she did in the past, she would always be Amelia to me.

We sat around a makeshift campfire attempting to dry off and warm up, the early winter weather kicking in just as hard as it usually did.

“You know, I could just use mana to dry us off?”

“Hmmmm… tempting, but all my hard work would go to waste if we did that.”

Amelia rolled her eyes, her hair still dripping water onto the ground.

“Speaking off, what is your mana affinity anyways?”

“Oh? You think I’d just give away my secrets to someone I might be facing in the tournaments?”

“Well, considering I already know you have an affinity for water, and you know I have an affinity for gale, I don’t really think it’s much of a big deal.”

“I suppose… I was mostly just kidding anyways. Since you wanna know so badly, I have a near full mastery over water and a decent mastery over nature. I’m also working on the ascendant form of water, but I haven’t gotten too far. It’s proving to be a bit harder than I anticipated.”

“Ascendant form?” I asked quizzically.

“Yeah, you know, like ice magic?” She said, almost as if it was common knowledge.

“...”

“Don’t tell me- you didn’t know about ascendant forms?”

“Would it be a bad thing if I didn’t…?”

“N-no, it’s just surprising and- what exactly do you know? I mean, not in a rude way, but I find there to be more and more that you seemingly don’t know about that is almost no secret to most.”

“Well, to be honest, I only recently awakened with mana and even less recently created a mana heart. It’s been a little over a month or so since then.”

“Wait, what?”

“Yeah, I’ve had a… complicated upbringing if you can even call it that.”

“What do you mean?”

I sat there in silence for a bit, pondering over my options. I knew this moment wasn’t inevitable; to realize the truth and my past, to accept it, and to move on. The exam, if it even was one, helped in realizing that what happened can’t be changed, but to move on… was I really capable of that?

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to ta-”

“No.” I said cutting her off before continuing. “This is just the first time I told my full story to anyone, not even Kalan and Ryla.”

I breathed in and slowly released it, my body visibly shuddering as the air left my lungs. I looked up at her and noticed just how focused she seemed. Something about her gaze soothed me rather than pressured me.

“I don’t really know how to start this, so I’ll start with what I know happened.” I said, shifting my gaze to a life no longer mine.

“I had a family like any other typical girl. A mom and dad, a group of friends, a best friend… someone I loved… It was my eighteenth birthday and with it, the traditional rite of passage that our village held.”

“Since I was going to become a hunter, I was to spend about a week in the forest on my own. I was to gather materials, food, water, and shelter on my own and return at sunrise on the eighth day. This hardly went as planned, however.”

“You see, during my first day, I was testing out my new bow; a gift from my father. It was the bow he used back when he was an adventure.”

The thought of him once again sent an involuntary shiver down my spine.

“I wounded a deer and followed it into some cave. It wasn’t on any of our maps of the forest, at least to my knowledge, which was absurd. I traversed that forest plenty of times before and many before me did the same. Despite this, I still followed the trail of blood deep within the cave.”

“I found the deer… but I also found a fruit.”

“A fruit?” She asked, still heavily entranced in my story.

“Yes. It was… powerful; radiant, even, in some kind of tremendous power. It seemed to call to me; beckoning me to eat it. As if that wasn’t warning enough, I took it from its resting place and ate it. Little did I know what would come next.”

The thought of having to experience that feeling- that pain was still all too familiar to me still. I could still feel the impact of every bone in my body breaking and reforming. The feeling of something seemingly ripping me apart and putting me back together was something I never wanted to experience ever again.

“It was… unimaginable pain. I don’t even want to think about it anymore… it still feels all too real, even now.”

“I eventually passed out from the pain, thankfully. Anymore and I fear I wouldn’t have been able to wake back up.”

“When I awoke, I was still in the cave. My torch was still beside me. I lit it once more and checked my body for any markings, but to my surprise, I was completely unscathed. I actually felt… more alive- stronger, even. How exactly was that possible? I don’t even know where to begin.”

“I made my way out of the cave until I suddenly felt an intense feeling of power swell deep within my core, one that eventually brought me to my knees. ‘Mana’ was all I could think of. The one thing I had always wished for and I finally had it. Not long after, it began to burst, coursing throughout my body and filling me with a new sense of life.”

“After a couple of seconds, I made my way back up to my feet, the only thought I had was that I had to get out of the cave. So I did. What I was met with outside, however, struck me with a deep sense of fear and regret. The smell of smoke. The smell of smoke deep within the thick forest I was in.”

“I dreaded my senses, but I couldn’t ignore it as much as I wanted to, so I swiftly followed the scent. Eventually I came to the realization that the fire wasn’t in the forest, but somewhere outside. The thoughts started to stir and my instincts kicked in, my legs moving as fast as they could until I finally reached the treeline.”

“It was then that I saw it: down the hill and back to my village, a blazing torrent of flames ravaged my home and everything in it. Something primal overtook me as I seamlessly channeled my newfound mana into my legs and sped up my pace. Eventually the smell of Menimas reached my nose and my heart churned in agony.”

“When I reached the village I…” Whatever was left inside was broken and the flood gates were lifted as the tears began to steadily pour down from my face.

“E-Eve?!?” I heard her ask, startled.

“T-they, they were all dead. Gone just like that and I- my power, I lost control of it and I just couldn’t stop it. I erased them, Amelia! I erased anything left of them! The flowers, the bones, the ashes- their entire existence, like they were never there!!”

Anything left within me was gone and all I could do was cry. Tears failed to cease and the guilt and vertigo swiftly washed over me once more.

Then I felt it. It was the warmth I thought was lost. The feeling of my mothers arms around me.

I opened my eyes, but what I saw was not my mother but Amelia. She took me in her arms and didn’t let go. I didn’t want her to.

Some time passed and she pulled away as I wiped the last bit of tears from my eyes. What felt like eternity was probably only a couple of minutes, but her presence left a deep feeling of safety within me.

Much like I did with her, she seemed to find a way to reciprocate that feeling.

When I looked at her, it was as if I was finally seeing her for the first time, at least this time fully. Her emerald green eyes that pierced right through me, her auburn red hair that traced her frame perfectly, her subtle build that fit her perfectly.

Then I saw it. Her face, it almost looked just like…

“Gabi…”

“Gabi?”

“She was… my best friend and probably one of the only people who I could truly ever fully rely on. She always knew what to say and she always knew what I was thinking, even when I didn't. But most importantly, she cared about me, even more than I care about myself. And I… Erased anything left of her…”

“Hey hey, no, that isn’t true. Listen, I can’t say I relate or that I know what you’re going through, hell, I doubt anyone can, but what I can say is that now isn’t the time to blame yourself.”

“What happened to your home- what happened to them, none of it was your fault and none of it was something you could change. You need to understand that. Understand that and understand that you’re not alone.”

She grabbed my hand and squeezed it within both of hers.

“If nothing else, you have me, I promise you that, ok? I can’t let you go at it alone, just how you didn’t let me quit. You have me and nothing else matters, forever and always, I mean it.

I was speechless.

‘Would you approve of her, mom? Dad? Gabi?’

“Forever and always…”

I looked into her eyes once more, her intention showing in her eyes. Her emotions flowing into me.

A loose tear fell from my eye once more.

“Forever and always… I hope you mean it.”