Chapter 397: Still Holding On

Songs for this Chapter: Make You Feel My Love by Adele, To Build A Home by Patrick Watson & The Cinematic Orchestra, Say Something by A Great Big World & Christina AguileraAvaren;

"I need you." I cry as my grip on her tightens.

I sound pathetic, but I do not care.

What can I do without her? I... She’s all I have. I have no one else. Nothing else. No light, no joy, no peace... She’s the only thing that’s been keeping me afloat. She can’t just leave me.

It... It’s not something I can accept!! How... How do you talk to someone one moment, and a few hours later, they’re just gone???

"I can’t do this without you." I breathe.

Her scent still lingers in her hair beneath the blood... Benath the grief... It’s still there. Familiar, warm... Home.

"You can’t die," I whisper again, "Not after everything. There’s so much we’ve yet to do." I cry bitterly as my body shivers.

The room gives me nothing back, and I shut my eyes tighter. I press my forehead against hers desperately.

"You can’t leave me." I plead as dread takes full grip on me. The mana around the room begins cracking uncontrollably now.

The floor splits, the ceiling trembles, and outside, alarms begin ringing throughout the covenstead.

I cannot stop crying or shaking. This cannot be real.

Not her.

It can be anyone else. Anyone at all. But not her.

My mind rushes back to that night when we lost all we knew. The night when I... when I lost all that made me the boy I was.

I remember the image of my mother burning alive as she used the last bit of her magic to keep me hidden.

I remember how our home burnt and crumbled into ash right before my eyes.

I remember the years I searched, the blood I spilt just to find her and get the strength to save her.

I remember the peace that finally found me when she walked back into my life. And now... Now, she wants to leave me???

No! No, she can’t! I’d– I’d die!!

"I already lost too much," I whisper weakly as fresh tears fall from my eyes.

"Calisí, please... I beg you, don’t do this to me..."

More memories start surfacing violently through my mind.

Calisí’s laughter while stealing fruit from market stalls, her mocking my serious expression... The way she holds my hand while teaching me how to dance by listening to nature instead of music.

The way she cried the night she learned that I sacrificed my eyes for her.

I remember her croaking: "You idiot... why would you do something like that?"

Because it was you, Calisí! I did it because it was you.

It has always been you...

My chest feels like it’s being clawed apart from the inside.

I shake her again. Desperate... Begging.

"Please, my love... Look at me... Please."

"I’ll give you anything." I crumble with the words tumbling out brokenly.

"Anything," I add. My tears soak into her hair as I cling to her body harder.

"Take my magic. My life. Anything. Just don’t leave me." I plead, and suddenly— something touches my shoulder.

I freeze instantly, and the room goes silent.

Everything stills. The trembling mana, the cracking walls... the alarms outside...

Everything disappears. Slowly...

I turn around, and air abandons my lungs.

I find Calisí standing behind me with the brightest smile I could ever imagine.

She’s alive— No. This... isn’t that... This is something else.

My head tilts as I try to understand what is going on.

She’s wearing white. A long flowing white dress that looks like it was made with moonlight and streaked delicately at the hems with red like sunset bleeding through silk.

For a moment, I stare, and then it hits me like a boulder.

I–I’m seeing!!

For the first time in what seems like ages... I can see. I can actually see her. My

My heart stops completely as my eyes take her in. Every bit of her perfect beauty that I have longed to see ‌all these years.

...Her flawlessly dark skin that turns golden under the sun as she moves... Those twinkling violet eyes that speak more life than any source I’ve ever known... Straight violet hair that falls over her shoulders... and the perfect harmony of it all.

Her lips curve into a smile, and my eyes drop to them. The soft curve of her lips, the shape of her face... The beauty of her.

Light... She’s so beautiful. Beautiful enough to make sight truly feel like a blessing.

Fresh tears immediately flood my eyes, and my lips whisper her name like a prayer.

She smiles gently at me, and that smile nearly destroys what little remains of my sanity.

She holds out her hands to me, and I stare at them. The small hands that have always held mine... and guided me through the darkness of life.

"Will you dance with me one more time?" She whispers, and as my eyes crawl back to her face, my body shivers furiously.

Because somewhere deep inside myself... I already know what this is.

My heart knows, and at the same time, I still can not bring my heart to accept it.

Goodbyes always feel gentle right before they become deathly unbearable.

Still... I take her hand. Cause I would never be the man to turn away from the chance to spend one more moment with her. As damning and fickle as it may be... I will always take it.

The second our fingers touch, darkness melts away around us. The Covenstead disappears, the blood vanishes, and the grief... the grief melts away.

Suddenly, we’re home. Not the Covenstead, not Nagari or anywhere else... but home.

Our valley....

The old treehouse stands in the distance exactly the way it did when we were children.

The river nearby flows softly beneath the setting sun, and the wind rustles through the grass.