She knows this feeling.

She knows it very well.

As long as Tomoe can remember, she has always liked to watch the birds in the morning, the seagulls that fly around the bay plaza during the morning after the high tides, the ones that fly alongside the piers, beyond the citadel. The one thing that most amuses her was how, sometimes, seagulls would just stay in one spot, the wings extended, without moving forward or backward. She knows that very well, even if she doesn’t have proper wings, she knows how it feels to be suspended in the air, without moving forward or backward… just like she is, right now, floating over a precipice, with Amelia floating by her side as Tomoe holds her hand.

Looking up, Tomoe sees the Grand Castle, the great window from which Alexander just threw them. Looking down, the precipice goes further down, passing the smooth walls that surround and maintain the Grand Castle at the top of the citadel. At the end below her, she can see the Starlight Forest.

Sweat droplets form in her forehead. Tomoe tries to enchant them but to no avail. She already knew that she would fail at this, but it has been so long since she was only with Gravity Taming, that Water Taming is what is more familiar to her.

Holding tight to Amelia’s hand, she curls herself into a ball, as she starts to tilt to her right.

Tomoe suddenly feels movement from her hand. Looking towards Amelia, she sees how Amelia proceeds to take deep breaths. Opening her eyes, both sights meet.

“Cotton… you…” Amelia starts saying, as she starts looking around “I knew it.”

“The bastard took my Water Taming away.”

“Yes, I saw. This is why you are able to make me float, but I wouldn’t have thought that you still remembered how to float.”

Tomoe snorts “I did too many times when I was little. It is impossible to forget.”

“Cotton, you just made me float about two times and I can’t forget it either.”

“Granted, it is quite unusual.”

Amelia smiles, then, raising her hands, she points towards her ears “Cotton, your ears…”

“Uh?” Tomoe raises her left hand and touches them, but instead the usual ears, she feels the ears longer and with a pointed end.

“Didn’t know that you needed both Ruby earrings for them to conceal your ears.”

Tomoe chuckles “What else could go wrong… what other secrets could I lose?”

“Well… I could lose one too.” Amelia starts saying “Cotton, hear me-”

“You’re dying, right?”

Amelia’s eyebrows rose with surprise “… how did you notice?”

“You aren’t even moving the same way you’re used to.”

“Wow, Cotton, just how much have you observed me before?”

“Closer than you could ever imagine” says Tomoe, a tear escaping her eyes as the momentum of their tilt has them headfirst to the ground and feet skyward.

“Oh, come on… don’t cry.” Amelia says as she starts to sniffle a little bit.

“What are you talking about? I’m just remembering all the pain you have put me through while training.”

Amelia chuckles “Well, you can cry a little, but not now.”

Tomoe snorts “How long until you’re gone?”

“The curse of the Hydra is going wild right now inside me.” Amelia says, putting her free hand on her chest “At this pace, I don’t think I’ll be able to reach tomorrow’s dawn.” A wry smile is drawn on her face as the sun lights up her hair.

At this very moment, at the mouth of the precipice, Tomoe gazed at the abyss. This time though, she felt how the sun rays reached the very depths of the darkness, only to uncover at the bottom, a little girl, curled up, unable to move and all drenched up.

As the sound of rain starts to fade away, Tomoe meets eye to eye with this little girl, which had raised her eyes and met with hers. Tomoe, stretching her arms, touch that little girl, as the little girl starts to get dry.

The little girl resists, but Tomoe takes her with both of her hands, and embraces her, strongly. The little girl resists even more, but little by little she starts to lose strength, and when the little girl stops fighting altogether, Tomoe can hear her whine, and the girl saying “Ah… the endless rain, finally going away.”

Looking again at Amelia, Tomoe says “Your hair… looks golden. Really pretty.”

“Says the one with natural golden hair.” Amelia answers.

Tomoe starts giggling, and while she is at it, Amelia says “While it has been truly a while since I have seen you truly giggle, we can’t stay here. Can’t you get us all the way up there?” looking at the Grand Castle, from where Alexander just threw them out.

“Sorry, it is true.” Looking at the Grand Castle, Tomoe answers “Wish I could. If it is floating right here, like this, I have no problems. I could make us float forever, but, if it is movement, my Aura would be depleted even before covering ten meters. According to my Mother and Daisy, only a Lord of the Diamond Lord Tree could move large distances while floating with minimum Aura usage.”

“Well, we can’t just stay like this, can we? Can’t you come closer at least?” Amelia says.

“Closer?… Oh, I see, you want to try and call for help.”

Amelia nods.

As both float in the air, they start moving upwards towards the great window, at a slow pace. Then, as they get closer, Tomoe stops once again. Amelia, taking advantage of the situation, pulls herself towards Tomoe, and standing over her body, she lets go and starts screaming into the window “Bran! Lorelei! We are here! Throw us something so we can get up!”

“Hope they are both ok” Tomoe says.

“They are. I saw them moments before we being thrown through the window. They surely have the intelligence of not engaging such a monster after they saw what he did to us.”

“A White Aura uh?”

Amelia suddenly stops yelling and drops her arms “Yes. A White Aura. How could I not see that coming?”

“Don’t blame yourself for that, Lia.”

“But I’m too a white Aura Cotton… I just couldn’t use it ever since the Hydra cursed me that night many years ago, not after all the effort that everyone went into saving me…”

“Lia…”

“Please, forgive me. If I had known sooner, surely we could’ve taken that into account and saved many more lives…”

“Lia…”

“Uh?”

“Would you help me save my mother and bring down Alexander?”

A smug is drawn on Amelia’s face “Will be my pleasure, Cotton.”

“Hey!” A voice reaches Tomoe and Amelia. Looking up, Tomoe can see Lorelei waving from the hole opened at the window. Both Tomoe and Amelia wave back. Giving signs into the throne room, one of the giant curtains is thrown out the window.

“What do you say, Cotton, can you reach it?”

“With so little Aura left, I would like to prevent losing even more, so, I have another idea in mind…” Tomoe says as she makes a mischievous smile towards Amelia.

“Another idea?… Oh, no, wa-” Amelia starts saying while looking down and grabbing to Tomoe’s shoulders, but it is interrupted by Tomoe suddenly shifting the gravity towards the castle, full speed, and then turning the shift off, as she grabs Amelia’s right hand and both fall towards the curtain.

Taking out her sword, Amelia sticks it in the curtain, while Tomoe grabs the curtain with a strengthened arm, with the curtain starting to being torn apart and both coming to a full stop almost when they run out of the curtain.

Turning to Tomoe, a trembling Amelia says “and now I remember why you have only made me float twice since we have met… You… play really rough.”

Tomoe laughs, as she lets Amelia’s hand go, and pulls the curtain to signal that they are holding up. Then, the curtain starts to being brought up.