A soft whisper caressed her sleeping brain, urging her to abandon the clutches of sleep and hearken to its anguished call.

'Ares..'

Having been accustomed to these nightmarish dreams, she didn't need to hear anymore to recognize the owner of the voice. All these hellish nightmares started out the same way, following a definite pattern with Ares calling out desperately to her, accusing her of leaving him and then ended up with loud painful cries of agony, leaving her petrified to the core. Worst thing being, she could feel everything. Every bit of sentiment he felt while calling out to her, she could feel it as well as if instead of him, she were the one who'd fostered these emotions.

Small distant whispers had developed into thunderous roars of torment by now.

His calls were tugging at her heart mercilessly, prompting her to soothe his distressed pleas immediately, yet she made no move to speak.

By now, she had become painfully aware of the fact that no matter how hard she tried seeing, moving or speaking in these scenarios, she simply couldn't. She felt correspondent to a drowning person who had already succumbed themself to the unforgiving waves of a deep dark ocean. She was powerless, caughy inside an unending web of waves, only allowed to hear the sounds coming from the shore, unable to respond, unable to resurface, forced to go with the flow begrudgingly.

Once again, his rumbling voice resonated through her skull. He sounded like a man who was getting his heart ripped out of his chest.

'This isn't what I usually dream of.'

'Child? What child? What's he talking about?'

Hearing him deviate from the usual conversation had completely baffled her.

Out of the blue, a sharp excruciating pain hit her insides, jarring the strings inside her head loose. A sudden need to clutch her head into a deathly grip washed over her, fueling her already wrecked senses with an uninvited addition of extreme frustration.

'Hurts.. It hurts..'

She had felt this suffocating pain before on multiples occasions through these nightmares yet it didn't even come close to the thing she was experiencing at that moment. It felt like she was getting punched in the gut again and again, rendering her unable to gulp, even just once, enough amount of air inside her lungs.

Her head felt underwater, barely able to keep herself afloat whilst Ares' undeniably mortifying voice seemed to grow more and more distant with time.

He was drifting apart from her.

'No, don't leave me alone in this pain. Don't go.'

It was of no use. His cries kept getting farther and farther away from her.

'Don't go! Don't go!'

All of a sudden an eerie silence fell over her shadowy surroundings almost as if a switch had gone off. Regardless of however hard she tried, she couldn't hear anything anymore, not even the sounds of her own chaotic breathing.

Nothing familiar remained to comfort her in this abyss of inescapable darkness. His voice had withered away in air like a wind blown dandelion leaving nothing in its trail except scattered seeds of pain, planted deep within her aching heart.

"Ares?"

Through her disorganized state of mind, she had finally managed to speak a single word yet it was of no use.

He was already gone.

"No, Don't go!"

Jolting awake, her body almost tumbled out of the bed before a vice like grip snaked around her waist, breaking her fall by bringing her closer to an unnaturally hard chest. The movement made her burning red cheeks laden with countless dried splotches of hot tears come into contact with a firm cold skin instantly loosening all her pent up agony in mere seconds.

"I had informed you last night that I would not leave you and I did not yet you wake up drenched in sweat, crying and begging me not to go."

His gentle reprimanding tone was nowhere near as cold as the one she remembered from her memories. It wasn't the Ares who had turned his emotions off to the whole word refusing to allow anyone inside his frozen heart. It wasn't the voice that resembled broken shards of ice piercing every nerve inside her body unleashing unbearable pain upon her.

This voice, it sounded like a gentle breeze of fast approaching spring, the kind that gently tickles your earlobes, plays with the lose strands of your hair before carrying a honey sweet fragrance of freshly bloomed flowers to your nostrils.

"Lord Ares.."

Contrary to the last time her nightmares had landed her into his strong arms, her voice didn't hold any tinge of disappointment rather it was filled with a satisfaction that caused her to slump more inside his secure hold, rubbing her nose lightly against the length of his long pale neck.

"You sound awfully comfortable for someone who had been screaming just a moment ago."

Apparently her more than usual relaxed demeanour hadn't gone unnoticed by him.

"It was nothing."

"You seem to have these episodes quite often."

Long slim fingers carefully combed their way out of her ink black locks, over and over again, touching the skin behind her neck ever so slightly in their trail. The tingling sensation produced by his feather light touch slowly worked its way up her body, making her suddenly aware of the strong uneven surface she had been resting upon.

'Uneven?'

Peering her eyes open, she placed her hands on his shoulders, putting a considerable distance between their bodies to observe her surroundings. As usual, the room was covered with a thick black curtain of darkness barely affected by a set of three to four scarcely lit candles, resting in a candelabrum resting by the side of their bed, breathing their last as their small yellowish orange flame flickered ever so often, ready to blow out any moment.

'Wait a minute. Why is the bed in front of me instead of under me?'

Realisation dawned upon her half asleep mind making her widened eyes slowly travel down towards her own legs which were currently curled upon a bigger pair of legs resting on a chair.

'He stayed the whole night in this chair?'

"You were going to fall out of the bed so I pulled you here to calm you down. I apologize if I made you uncomfortable."

Seeing him avert his gleaming emeralds away from her clenched her heart in an indescribable way, instantly clearing any haze that had clouded her murky mind.

'Did I do something last night? We kissed. We kissed multiple times after that he himself compelled me to sleep then why is he behaving as if I've wronged him? Is he still upset at me for mentioning his future self or is it something else?'

Her mind was getting swarmed with countless questions yet somehow a corner of her brain still felt bare almost as if she had forgotten something important, something that she immediately needed to remember yet every time she tried racking her brain, she came back empty handed. More or less, it was as if her brain was itching to recover a lost memory—an itch she couldn't scratch.

"I shall prepare a meal to be sent to your room. You should get ready as well. We have somewhere to be."

His low voice was accompanied by his large hands moving down her body to grip her waist only to place her back at the corner of the bed.

"Somwhere to be?"

His sudden announcement had made her forget all about her previous worries.

"The villagers that attacked you and Henry, their bodies were found by.. Gabriel. He held their funeral the immediate day labelling their deaths as a result of an animal attack,"

She hadn't missed how his lips had hesitated momentarily while uttering Gabriel's name.

"I, being the town's lord, had been unable to attend the service. According to the abbot's words, he is holding another small service so that we are able ensure the people's trust in us. I do not believe his words one bit. The man is too cunning for his own good but for now, what he is saying is indeed the only way we have to observe the public rage following so many mysterious deaths. We have to go through this. Are you willing to oblige?

She could see him gritting his teeth hard making his jaw tick with anger, leading her to realise that he clearly didn't want to interact with the said man, but he had no choice in the matter whatsoever. It was for his people.

The people who, he was fully aware, were going to burn him alive.

'I don't want to face those crazy people again but I don't want him to go through this alone either. He got involved in this mess in the first place because of me.'

She fisted the soft silk gathered under palms for a mere moment, contemplating her next move before swiftly leaping forward to wrap her hands around his broad shoulders, burying his face in the space between her collar bones, just below her neck.

At first, he made no move, probably surprised at her unusual behaviour but as a brief, silent moment passed between their joined bodies, she felt his rigid frame relax before a pair of strong arms came around her waist, tugging her closer to his chair. Standing between his stretched out legs, she was almost leaning over his slumped built to keep hugging him.

"My lord."

"Yes, love?"

Resisting the urge to shiver due to his icy breath stroking the skin above her breasts every time he spoke, she repeated the words he had said to her on their wedding,

"I'm here, every step of the way."

"Geez, the place looks like it hasn't been cleaned in years."

Trudging past the termites ridden book shelf, her finger gingerly traced the folded corners of a book peeking out of its row. Scanning it for a second or two, she pressed a finger along the spine of the book, trying to push it back in its original place. It took a bit more force than necessary, startling her as the book abruptly hit the back of the shelf, causing dust to fly around everywhere. Stepping back, she retreated her hand to look at the dirt engraven in the small circular lines of the tip of her finger before clicking her tongue whilst gently wiping her hand with the side of her dress.

"Gabriel asked me to meet him here but where did he disappear himself?"

The service had been a long tortuous experience for her. The anxiety of being in close vicinity to numerous unknown people along with the guilt of killing two of the villagers from the day of attack was eating her inside out. Although Ares had reassured her again and again of them being local thugs with no families, it didn't soothe the worry bubbling inside her head like a volcano, ready to break out of her any moment. It was the exact reason why she barely held herself off from throwing her hands in the air when Gabriel asked her to wait for him in the library associated with the room she had stayed in the last time. Apparently he had something important to talk to her. Not willing to afford this chance of escape, she had hurriedly informed Ares of the situation and all but ran out of the main hall.

"He said he had something important to ask yet he hasn't shown his face for almost half an hour."

Huffing out a frustrated sigh, she whirled around, roughly pulling a chair out of under the table, disturbing the defening silence of the room by the unpleasant sound of wood scraping against marble.

"Even this chair has layers of dust accumulating way before the birth of that old priest." She couldn't help voicing her sarcastic thought out loud.

"Father is a b-busy man."

Following the sudden statement, a small head peeked out from under the table scaring the living daylights out of her.

"Ah!"

A loud squeal abruptly tore out of her mouth as she hurriedly moved back to put as much distance as possible between the table and herself. In the process, she failed to pay attention to the flaring trail of her long dress, unknowingly stepping on the corner of her skirt, causing her to topple over and fall back on the hard marble like a log.

"Ow!"

A muffled hiss escaped past her tightly pressed lips as her right elbow and the corresponding side of her hipbone took most of the impact of her injury, saving her head from colliding harshly against the cold floor.

"Stupid dress. Stupid Gabriel. Stupid..."

Gripping the side of her waist with the help of her right hand, she grasped the injured elbow with her left one, continuing to mutter incoherently under her breath until her eyes found a small figure huddled near her feet.

"... kid?"

A small child of four to five years of age was hovering over her sprawled physqiue, head hung low so that shoulder length raven hair cast a murky shadow in front of an undeniably pale face, hiding it from her scrutinizing gaze.

'Has this kid ever seen sunlight?'

She could tell it was a girl by the way she was dressed in a knee length dull brown tunic that hung down her body in a slightly loose manner, accompanied by a pair of pitch black stockings peeping out of the space where her arms were wrapped around her legs.

"Lady is hurt?"

The child's meek voice caused Faith's eyes to stop scanning her small built and travel up to find a pair of eyes already fixated on her, trying to sneak a peek from behind the jet black curtain of hair hanging down in front her small heart shaped face.

'Her eyes..'

A small gasp broke out of her rosy lips as she found herself staring into a pair of greyish blue irises with little azure dots dancing in them—a pair of eyes that resembled her own caged storms to the extent it was almost frightening.

Gripping her side to stop the pain somehow, she placed her uninjured hand on the floor to push herself up from the floor.

"... Gabriel's daughter?"

"Father told lady?"

Just as she finished dragging her body towards the shelf to lean back and slouch against it for support, the child crawled further towards her, bending her little knees to sit in the space between Faith's outstretched legs. Evidently, her knowing Gabriel's secret had made the kid lower her guard down.

"Lady has p-pwetty eyes."

Tilting her chin down to look at the child goggling at her with a wonderstruck expression made her own lips twist into a lopsided smile.

"Your eyes are prettier, dear."

"What is lady called?"

Blinking back her long sooty lashes, the kid seemed overly eager to know more about the unnamed lady breathing in the same space as her.

"Uh, My name's F-"

Stopping herself in time from revealing her true name, she quickly corrected her mistake with a smile,

"Credința."

"C-Credin-saw..."

Observing the kid's cute attempt at pronouncing her foreign name, a laugh suddenly broke out of her own lips.

"If it's too hard, you can call me Eva, that's short for Evangeline—my middle name."

"We share names!"

"What?"

Carefully scooting closer to her face, the child cupped her own lips with her hands as if she was about to tell Faith a secret,

"My name is Eve. Lady's name is Eva. We share names!"

"Well, that's a very beautiful name you've got there, Eve."

Raising her little hand to play with the scarf tied around Faith's neck, the child excitedly whispered-screamed in her face,

"I have no friends. Will lady be my friend?"

'Does Gabriel keeps her caged in here 24/7?'

Not helping the situation, her heart clenched looking at the child excitedly awaiting her reply,

"Why, yes, little Eve."

Just as she was raising her hand to pinch the child's nose lovingly, the child jumped at Faith, accidentally hitting her bruised side in the process of wrapping her little arms around her freshly bitten neck.

'Damn, the clumsiness runs in the family.'

She couldn't help but think as she bit her tongue to stop herself fron moaning out loud with pain.

"Eve, why are you wandering outside in broad daylight? Go back to your room."

A loud creak in the background allowed a gust of wind to enter the old room, carrying a gruff voice along with it which caused both pairs of identical orbs to whip around and find another similar pair filled with cobalt specs whirling in a melted pool of silvery hue.

"Gabriel."

"Yes, father."

Speaking at the same time as her, Eve hurriedly removed her hands from around Faith's neck, giving her a desolate look before scrambling out of the room wordlessly.

'What an obedient child..'

Her eyes remained trained at the little kid's back as it kept getting smaller and smaller before disappearing altogether from her site, making her clench her hands at her sides.

"You don't need to be that hard on her. She's a child."

"An abbot's child. You already know how delusion can drive people to do unspeakable things. You've faced these villager's cruelty head on. You know better, Credința."

His emotionless gaze was staring sqaure into her own eyes, waiting for her to counter his answer with another question.

"Don't punish her for crimes she didn't commit. It's unfair to her."

"Earth seldom treats its inhabitants fairly. Every person is living, one way or another, a life they did not wish for. Man is never contented with what he has, because he keeps staring at what he does not have. Know that the more repulsed you become of your surroundings, the harder you'd try to hold off breathing in it—injuring your own self in the end,"

Pausing for a small moment, the man stepped inside the room, raising his hands to motion towards the room they currently occupied,

"This, is our reality. If we refuse to face it and act impulsively just in the spur of the moment to obtain a life identical to others, we may be, unknowingly, trading a bit of happiness for tears spanning centuries,"

He had started approaching her with slow careful steps as he continued speaking to her in a low grave voice,

"Gambling away several gold coins has no impact on the life of a wealthy person while at the same time losing only a bronze one can cause an impoverished family to die by starvation. On a similarly unfair note, a nobel may never be able to taste a wine that tastes sweeter than the first drop of water which slides down a nomadin's parched throat after days of wandering aimlessly in the scorching desert. No matter how much a man adorns his bed, he simply cannot buy the sleep that'd be finding or escaping him in it. In certain matters, accepting destiny becomes inevitable,"