Chapter Text
"Tsk. I knew it."
A voice echoed in the vastness.
A colorful immensity that remedied everything, that healed the very notion of space.
If that was the sky, or the beyond, the view was great.
It was impossible to tell if they were clouds or auroras painting the firmament. It wasn't even possible to say if it was dark or even light. It was as if day and night existed at the same time, an eternal twilight of purple, gold, and sky-blue.
Such an easy and simple distinction, and yet, look. She couldn't distinguish it.
"————"
Emilia's body wouldn't move. She couldn't do anything.
But there was no panic.
Maybe it was just exhaustion, finally collecting its debt. Maybe it was just her body itself, exhausted, asking for a break. No matter how insignificant.
Because, even though she couldn't move, the feeling of powerlessness wasn't frightening. On the contrary, it only made her want to be even more at peace. Without wanting to think about anything. No pain. No fear. Just... floating. A feather on a gentle wind.
"I knew you were amazing, Lia!"
The voice continued, closer now. It was warm, familiar, an anchor in that ocean of colors.
"I mean, I always knew... but this...! This is a phenomenon!"
Emilia furrowed her brows slightly, a tiny movement in a still body. Her chest, which she thought had stopped, began to rise and fall lightly, a slow and steady rhythm.
The voice continued, full of a contagious energy that seemed immune to the quietness of the place.
"How can I admire you if all the words in my vocabulary have already been used? Like, I can't think of anything else! Magnificent? Divine? Overwhelmingly beautiful? I've used them all! I need a new dictionary just for you!"
"————"
The sound of his laughter echoed, not in her ears, but in her soul.
"Lia, my dear..."
His voice lowered, the playful tone dissolving, becoming something more tender, more profound. The kind of voice he used late at night, when the world was asleep and it was just the two of them.
"I wasn't wrong to say you were an angel."
The word hit her. Angel.
She felt something move. An eyelid. A finger. The memory of a touch, of a warmth. The memory of a duty.
She needed to go back.
With an effort that felt like moving mountains, she forced the air out of her lungs, forced her vocal cords to obey, to form a name that was, at the same time, a question, a prayer, and a safe harbor.
"——Subaru?"
She opened her eyes abruptly.
The vast colorfulness disappeared, replaced by the blurred vision of a dark wooden ceiling. A few tears, remnants of the dream or the trauma, circled her immaculate face, tracing cold paths on her skin.
The air entered her lungs with the force of a punch.
Instinctively, her hands flew to her body.
She held her chest, feeling the fabric of her dress and, underneath, the frantic beat of her heart. Her neck, searching for the ghost of a blade. Her abdomen, where the memory of a wet warmth and a piercing pain still screamed.
Her entire body.
She patted herself down, her fingers trembling, checking if everything was in place, if she was feeling it normally, firmly. There was no pain. There was no wound. Only the phantom memory.
And then, after taking a deep breath one, two, three times, managing to pull in the air with more dexterity, she sat up.
The movement was fast, almost violent. She held her head in her hands, her elbows resting on her knees.
Her slender fingers pressed against her forehead, which before, during the battle, had been taken over by the nausea of mana overload. Now, it was much better. No pain, no crushing burden.
But there was something...
An absence. A silence where a voice had been.
"Subaru...?"
The name escaped her lips, a weak and confused whisper, directed at the empty room.
"Lia!"
The answer came, not from the voice she was looking for, but from one that was equally familiar.
At last, the feline spirit appeared before her, materializing out of thin air in a small burst of light. He was worried, his large green eyes wide, his whiskers trembling.
He came very close to the silver-haired girl, hovering at her face level, his small paw almost touching her cheek.
"Puck..." she murmured, her voice still lost, as if part of her were still adrift in that vast colorfulness.
"You're awake."
The feline came closer, and she felt the familiar touch of his paw on her cheek. The soft fur gently brushed against the dry tear tracks, a gesture of care that anchored her further in reality.
"What happened?" he asked, his voice soft, but laden with a concern he couldn't hide.
Emilia didn't answer at first. She just shook her head lightly, closing her eyes for a moment, trying to force her mind back to normal, to find the clarity that eluded her. The dream... the voice... they still echoed somewhere in the distance.
"Just a dream, I think," she finally said, the sentence sounding more like an attempt to convince herself than an answer for him.
"————"
The spirit furrowed his brow slightly. The word 'dream', which he already disliked, now made his furry whisker twitch in a spasm of restrained irritation. Dream. That word again. What was she seeing in these "dreams" that left her so broken?
Still, he pushed his curiosity into the deepest den of his mind. There was no need to press her now. He had time.
Even though his own anxiety, a growing paranoia about the boy and the change in his Lia, was driving him to the brink.
"Where are we?" Emilia raised her eyes, finally taking in the room at her disposal.
It was a simple room, with a clean smell of dry wood and washed linens. The bed she was sitting on wasn't luxurious, but it was clearly comfortable, covered with a heavy gray blanket.
Apparently, it was daytime. The sunlight hit the only window in the room, searing the plank floor near it with a golden, healthy light. A new day had begun.
"An inn," Puck replied, flying above her and landing gently on top of her head, a familiar gesture of comfort. "The pink-haired maid found a place for us to spend the day until dawn. Or, in this case, until the next one."
He continued, his small paw gently fluffing her silver hair.
"Are you feeling better?" the feline went on, the worry evident in his voice. "I didn't get the whole story. When I arrived, you were passed out, but... I also didn't see any wounds on you, Lia... but, still..."
He didn't finish the sentence. He didn't need to. The panic he felt upon seeing her collapsed, unresponsive, was still fresh in his mind.
"I am."
She waved her hand in a reassuring gesture, letting out a small sigh that seemed to carry the weight of the previous night.
"Much better than before, at least."
Bringing a hand to her head, she mentally gave thanks. The migraine, the throbbing pain that had tormented her throughout the battle, had finally given her relief. It was as if an iron band squeezing her skull had been removed.
A few more minutes passed in a comfortable silence, filled only by the small caresses from her father and the soft sound of footsteps outside the room.
Then, she stood up.
The movement was decided, but there was a restrained anxiety in her posture. She felt the wooden floor touch her bare feet, the real and solid texture grounding her.
"I cleaned your clothes," Puck said, pointing with his paw to her boots, neatly aligned at the foot of the bed. "They were in a terrible state. Blood, dirt... a horror."
"Thank you..."
She walked over, with each step feeling the strength return to her limbs. She sat on the edge of the bed and began to put on her boots, feeling the now clean and warm material on her legs.
As she tied the laces, she furrowed her brow slightly as she looked at her clothes. The white dress, now immaculate, brought a feeling to her. A small discontent curved her face, a flash of her old vanity, which vanished seconds later, replaced by a much more urgent concern...
She still hadn't seen him.
The silence in the room stretched, and Puck felt the change in the atmosphere. The calm had vanished, replaced by a tension that emanated from her in waves.
Finally, she turned, her amethyst eyes fixed on the small spirit, the question that had been on her mind since the moment she woke up finally taking shape on her lips.
"Puck, where is Subaru?"
"I haven't seen him for a while."
Puck, on the other hand, just let out a small sigh, his voice tinged with a weariness that mirrored Emilia's. He floated closer, his whiskers twitching slightly.
"He was arguing with the pink-haired maid. Or, at least, it seemed like it. An exchange of insults, from the maid's side specifically."
The instant she heard his name, Emilia stood up.
The movement was fast, almost abrupt.
Her long legs took her to the door in a few steps. She opened it seconds later, without hesitation.
What greeted her was a small, all-wood hallway, with the smell of wax and dust. The floor creaked under her feet. There were a few rooms here and there, the doors closed, but the whole place had an air of silence and emptiness. It wasn't a bustling capital inn; it was a functional resting place, a stop in the middle of a long road.
She stepped out, her face composed, but her eyes scanned the hallway, looking for any sign of movement.
"Lia?"
Puck's voice, coming from behind her, made her stop.
"Yes, Puck?" She turned, raising an eyebrow as she was called, the question implicit in her expression.
"————"
Puck observed her for a light moment, his green eyes scrutinizing her face, as if looking for something out of place, something strange. Then, he simply ignored whatever he was thinking, flew to her, and nuzzled his head against her silver hair, a gesture of pure comfort.
"It's nothing."
Somewhat confused by his strange hesitation, she decided to forget it. There was something more important on her mind.
She continued on her way down the silent hallway, towards the stairs that would lead to the lower floor. Each step echoed the urgency that was growing in her chest.
× × ×
As Emilia descended the stairs, the sound of voices grew clearer. They weren't the voices of other guests, but a duet of irritation and provocation that was unmistakable.
"You know, I still don't get the reason for so much hatred. I didn't do anything!"
"Ram knows the type of man who crosses her path before he even crosses it. You are no different, Barusu."
Ram's voice was cold, sharp, and laden with a disdain that could freeze fire. She stood in the small lobby of the inn, arms crossed, her nose turned up with an arrogance worthy of a queen.
"Someone who held a woman so improperly in his hands, with clearly lecherous intentions—"
"I already said I had no intention of that!" Subaru protested, his face starting to turn red. "I mean... her skin was soft and... and I was just being a gentleman!"
"Hah!" Ram let out a short, humorless laugh. "How quickly a depraved man digs his own grave in front of the jury. Not even the Witch herself would pity you. Trying to justify your lust with chivalry. Pathetic."
"Blah, blah, blah! What's with all this pride? And what's with that name? Barusu?! It's SU-BA-RU! S-U-B-A-R-U! Can't you hear, or is your brain too small to process three syllables?" the boy grumbled, gesturing as if he were spelling it out for a child.
"Besides being blind, perverted, stupid, and crazy, you're also deaf," Ram recited, her voice monotone, as if reading from a shopping list. "Don't you understand that the words Ram used are perfectly correct? Ram is never wrong. It's a law of nature. What a foolish boy."
"I'm not listening! Lalalalala! I can't hear the sound of arrogance!" Subaru covered his ears with his hands, shaking his head.
"Throwing a tantrum like a child. No wonder you dress like a fairground clown. Perhaps if Ram treats you like the baby you are, you'll understand—"
"I. AM. NOT. LISTENING!" Subaru shouted, his voice an octave higher, squeezing his eyes shut.
The noise continued, both figures casting budding glares at each other. One of frustrated disbelief from Subaru, and the other of complete and utter disgust from Ram. It was a battle of an immovable force against an unstoppable object of idiocy.
Approaching closer, descending the last step of the wooden staircase, Emilia began to think.
Ram.
The name floated in her mind. One of Roswaal's maids. Her sponsor.
Emilia couldn't find many clear memories of her. It was even difficult to speculate what she, Emilia, was doing in the capital. Wandering aimlessly? It had to be. It was the most obvious explanation.
She observed the two for a moment, standing at the base of the stairs. Subaru, gesturing wildly, arguing with a woman who, in her very vague memories, she swore was much quieter. The proud type who only opens her mouth mainly to correct, point out mistakes, and show off with a subtle superiority. Seeing her so engaged in a childish argument was... unexpected.
Emilia just let out a resigned sigh. That was the Subaru effect.
And, as if sensing her presence, they both stopped mid-taunt and turned their faces in her direction.
And their eyes widened.
"Emilia!"
Subaru's voice was the first to break the silence, his face breaking into a grand, relieved smile. He jumped up from his wooden chair, nearly knocking it over in the process.
"Are you better?" he asked, the genuine concern in his voice completely replacing the irritation from moments before.
"Emilia-sama."
Ram's voice, in contrast, was a formal murmur. She bowed in a perfect curtsy, her head lowered, her posture impeccable.
"My apologies for you having to wake up and be greeted, on your new morning, by the words of a weirdo."
The jab was subtle, professional, but undeniably aimed at Subaru.
"————"
Subaru just gritted his teeth, but restrained himself from retorting in front of Emilia, which resulted in a grimace of contained frustration that was almost as funny as the previous argument.
× × ×
Sitting in the wooden chair Subaru had offered her, Emilia relaxed her back against the rest. The movement was slow, deliberate. She felt the gentle aroma of the tea on the table reach her nostrils, a simple herbal scent that promised a moment of peace.
Relaxing her shoulders as well, she picked up the warm cup and took a sip.
It was simple, but very good nonetheless. A relief in the midst of so much chaos. A small point of normalcy in a world that had been turned upside down.
On the other side of the small table sat Subaru, who also took a sip of his own tea. The expression on his face, however, was one of almost exaggerated indifference, as if he were trying to prove that the tea was the most uninteresting thing in the world, probably to annoy the maid who had served him.
And at the center of the scene, not sitting, but standing between them, beside the table, was Ram. The pink-haired maid, with her impeccable posture and a stone face that revealed absolutely nothing.
Subaru looked at the two ladies before him. Both women, in their beauty and presence, seemed to belong to a completely different world than his.
One of a silent and melancholic dignity, the other of a cold and sharp arrogance. He had met someone before, a merchant, who had a more jovial and clumsy air. That, somehow, helped him see that this world wasn't just composed of meek and intimidating people.
"Continuing the explanation, Emilia-sama."
Ram's voice broke the silence, formal and precise.
"Ram arrived at the location upon seeing a strong glow coming from the lower directions of the capital. A mana disturbance too large to be ignored. Luckily, Ram was already nearby, looking for you."
"————"
Emilia just listened, her eyes fixed on the surface of the tea, the steam rising in slow spirals.
"When Ram arrived, from what I could gather, the worst of the situation had already been resolved. The Sword Saint was there."
With an expertise that bordered on art, Ram poured more tea into Emilia's cup without making a single sound, her attention divided between her service and her report. She paid close attention to Emilia's every reaction, and listened to everything around her, as she told her side of the story.
"Ram is not certain what led you to that place. But the woman you fought against was Elsa Granhiert, the Bowel Hunter."
The name sent a shiver down Emilia's spine, a phantom memory of the blade and the smile.
"————"
"And so, with my guidance and that of the Sword Saint, we are heading back to the Mathers mansion. Emilia-sama does not appear to have suffered a deep cut, and even so, it is properly healed now. Without any trace of a curse or residual infection."
When the maid finished her report, she turned her head to the side. Her pink eyes narrowed, fixing on the boy in the tracksuit with ill-disguised contempt. The message was clear: Your turn, trash.
"Ehh... well..." Subaru scratched his cheek, looking a bit lost under the weight of that gaze.
Emilia's gaze also focused on him now. And just look, he could no longer face her directly, his face turning to the side, half-ashamed.
"When I ran," he began, his voice a bit rushed, "I managed to bump into this guy. Reinhard. He was super nice, asked me what was happening."
Emilia nodded, a small gesture of encouragement, just as she had with Ram.
"I didn't have to explain much, actually. He just looked in your direction and went like a bullet, literally, to where you were. It was insane."
She heard him let out a small sigh, the memory of Reinhard's speed still impressing him.
"That assassin who was there... I think she vaporized with that guy's blade." He broke into a smile now, admiration overcoming his shame. "Seriously, like, she couldn't even touch him. I wasn't paying much attention at the time, I was more worried about you, but I saw she was turning into just rags in seconds."
Returning to a lighter mood, the boy nodded to himself, as if confirming the greatness of what he had seen.
"Reinhard, right... besides the name, besides the charm, the guy is still cool." He remembered, with a silly pride, the high-five he managed to get from the legend after it was all over. "When he defeated her, you had already passed out..."
He paused, his expression growing more serious.
"Everything that happened after was a series of explanations. Not that I knew much. About this stolen insignia, the thief, and all that."
Upon hearing the word "insignia," Emilia felt her lips tighten.
Ram, beside her, did the same.
"After he examined you," Subaru continued, "he said you had no more wounds. Just needed some comfort and rest."
"I see..." Emilia murmured, her brow furrowing slightly. "Anything else?"
Subaru scratched his chin, his mind searching through the confusing events of the previous night.
"Oh, yeah. Something surreal. When I told him about the thief who had robbed you, and about the insignia glowing in her hand... he got weird. Seriously. His face changed."
Subaru leaned forward, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial tone.
"He just said, 'Understood. I need to check something,' and then... he vanished. Just vanished. Like a ghost."
"————"
Emilia's silence was the only answer, but within it, a new and complicated piece of the puzzle had just fallen into place.
"I guess... it was good for now."
Emilia finally replied, her voice a low murmur. She looked at the teacup in her hands, seeing how everything ended well. A little too well. The arrival of Reinhard, the defeat of Elsa, Subaru's safety... it was too clean a resolution for such a bloody problem.
She allowed herself another sigh, raising the cup to her lips.
"However, Emilia-sama. There is this pest here."
Ram's voice, cold and precise, cut through the calm. The maid gestured discreetly with her chin, glancing at the boy beside her.
"Who did not stop bothering Ram for a single second while following your trail."
"I barely even talked to you... you talk about me, but you lie shamelessly—"
"We're taking him to the mansion, Ram."
Emilia cut Subaru off, not in a cold or mean way, but with the efficiency of someone defusing a bomb. Just something to not prolong the chat between those two, which promised to stretch on for the whole morning.
"————"
Ram's eyes widened. Just for an instant, the maid's mask of indifference cracked, revealing genuine surprise. She remained silent, but the question was clear in her expression.
Lia... you're going to bring him?
Puck's voice sounded in her mind, laden with a confusion and something else she didn't recognize.
She didn't answer verbally. She just nodded to herself, an almost imperceptible movement, a silent confirmation for her companion.
Then, she spoke, her voice calm and firm, for all to hear.
"Subaru helped me through all of this. Please, understand. He deserves a reward for it."
Emilia said the words without any frills, as if they were an unquestionable fact.
And Ram, who before was just surprised, almost let her brow furrow. She didn't exactly find a major clause to object to. Emilia's word seemed premature, but she couldn't question it.
"My apologies, then, Emilia-sama," she said, her voice a thread of formality, without deigning to look at the black-haired boy's face.
"Thank you..."
I said I would explain, Puck. Just let the time come.
"————"
At her father's silence, Emilia soon looked at Subaru again. And what she found wasn't exactly what she wanted.
There was a time, a whole lifetime, when Emilia would laugh at her own naivety. Laugh at how she looked at every person without considering something improbable, without suspecting second intentions. Laugh at how she herself looked at the pink sky of Japan and saw it only as beautiful, without thinking about the pollution that might cause it.
Murders, kidnappings, deaths, rape, homicide, genocide.
It was hard to believe how the world carried on in a place that she, for so long, didn't even truly know. A place where she lived in a bubble of domestic peace, protected by the normality of a society that had, for the most part, overcome the barbarity of day-to-day life.
Wars, bombs, firearms.
Emilia never believed she had seen it all, nor did she believe she would one day have the chance to know the seas that ruled those frozen mountains of her home world. She had accepted her new life.
However... how does a person grow, right?
It's not just the body that ages. It's the mind that expands.
History books, which she read to help her children with their homework, told the truth of articles that, to her, seemed mystical, only real. Philosophies that challenged her worldview. Beliefs and customs that showed the infinite complexity of the human soul.
For a moment, when she first heard it, she swore the term "Nazism" was just a horror story to urge children to come home before dark. 'Hitler', even more so. It sounded like the name of a fantasy villain, not a real man who committed real atrocities.
How can wisdom, how can the simple coexistence with a different world, how can simple common sense lead someone to see the world in its true colors? To realize that darkness is not just the absence of light, but an active force, present in history, in society, in the hearts of men?
It was as magical as it was frightening. It was like gaining a new sense, one that allowed her to see the ghosts of history and the cracks in the foundation of the present.
Subaru...
Emilia spoke mentally, almost letting a murmur escape her lips.
Subaru, who was on the other side of the table, did not have a happy face.
Anyone in his place, she knew, would be happy with the promise of a 'reward'. A roof, food, maybe even some money. But he... sometimes, Emilia just wanted to groan in frustration. Because the man she loved was, certainly, a very difficult person, and at the same time, painfully easy to read.
Subaru was sad.
A slight, sad frown marked his face. His eyes didn't shine with the prospect of a prize. They were dull, looking at the teacup as if it held all the answers he couldn't find.
He looked like someone who didn't believe in, nor wanted, to receive something in return for doing the right thing. As if the idea of being "rewarded" for an act of kindness was, in itself, an insult.
The exponent light of the sun illuminated everything. The lifelong yellow of the morning filled the gaps and open cracks of the carriage window, creating a warm and truly elegant sea that danced to the rhythm of the gentle creaking of the wheels.
The Lifaus Plains.
A flat place, vast with green grass that stretched as far as the eye could see. The landscape undulated gently, palpating the sun above with a simple and honest glamour. It was beautiful and perfect in its empty immensity.
A breeze, more than just relaxing, entered through the window, bringing with it the smell of earth and green, a clean perfume that seemed to wash the soul.
From the carriage window, he saw everything.
Subaru had his face practically outside the carriage, his eyes wide, looking at every corner as if each blade of grass were a new discovery. Even though, objectively, there was only grass and more flat ground everywhere, for him, it was a whole world.
Emilia, sitting on the opposite bench, watched him.
She let a small smile grace her lips. Not a big one, not a smile that showed her teeth, but a gentle and almost imperceptible curve of her mouth. All the same, it was encompassing, a feeling that warmed her own chest.
"Uohhh..." he murmured, his breath mixing with the wind that hit his face. His eyes were full of a brightness she hadn't seen since her own children were small and saw the ocean for the first time. He observed everything with a childish air, a pure admiration that was contagious. "So this is the Lifaus Plains... wow... so beautiful."
He continued to look, his head moving back and forth, trying to absorb the vastness, as if he feared losing some crucial detail in the repetitive landscape.
"Exactly."
Emilia nodded, her voice soft, letting him continue to nod to himself, lost in his own world of wonders.
She leaned back on the velvet seat, feeling the gentle sway of the carriage. It was a calming rhythm, a world away from the violence and cold of the previous night. The contrast was so great it seemed to belong to another life.
She looked at Subaru again. He was still mesmerized. For him, that wasn't just grass. It was proof. The tangible proof that he was in another world. A fantasy world, with open skies, no skyscrapers to block them, no constant hum of traffic, no pressure from a society he had left behind. It was freedom in its purest and greenest form.
And seeing him like this, so genuinely happy with something so simple, awakened in her a complex mix of feelings.
There was tenderness, the same she felt when watching her children discover the world. There was a pang of envy, the envy of someone who could see that world with new eyes, without the weight of history, without the curse of an appearance, without the pain of a lost life.
And there was, above all, an overwhelming protective instinct.
That brightness in his eyes. That childish admiration. She would do anything to protect them. She would do anything to ensure that the harshness of this world did not extinguish them.
She looked away, focusing on the passing landscape.
The promise she had made to herself at the inn echoed in her mind. Extreme care and extreme cunning.
She needed to be the wall between his innocence and the cruelty of this place.
It was a burden. But, looking at the silly smile that now formed on his face as he saw a strange bird flying in the distance, she thought it was a burden she would gladly bear.
"WHAT????! Is that a tree?? UOHHHH!!"
Subaru's shout echoed inside the carriage, so loud and full of disbelief that it made the entire vehicle seem to vibrate.
He had his face and hands out the window, his eyes wide, observing the road ahead.
There, on the distant horizon, breaking the perfect line of the plains, was it. A colossal silhouette that rose towards the heavens, so large it defied any sense of scale.
He was witnessing the biggest thing he had ever seen in two worlds.
And in that moment, Emilia couldn't take it anymore.
The composure she had fought so hard to maintain began to crack.
"Subaru..." she began, her hand rising to her stomach, as if to physically contain the emotion bubbling inside her. She continued, her voice trembling, desperately trying not to let the laugh out. "It's the Flugel Tree—"
"A giant tree!!!? It's bigger than a building! Bigger than all of Tokyo! How is that possible?!"
At that moment, up front, in the coachman's seat, Ram huffed. The sound was a snap of pure irritation, an audible "tsk!" from someone who couldn't stand another second of the boy's exaggerated drama.
And that was the last straw.
Emilia just couldn't take it anymore.
The laughter exploded from her.
It wasn't a smile, it wasn't a restrained chuckle. It was a laugh. A loud, clear, and genuine laugh, full of a joy she hadn't felt in so long she had almost forgotten what it was like.
"Geheheh! Subaru! Hahahaha...!"
She bent forward, her shoulders shaking, tears now forming in her eyes not from sadness, but from pure, uncontrollable amusement. The sound of her laughter filled the carriage, a melody so unexpected and so beautiful that even the creaking of the wheels seemed to stop to listen.
It was the laugh of the girl she once was, mixed with the tenderness of the woman she had become. It was the laugh of someone who, for a brief and precious moment, forgot all the weight, all the pain, all the loss.
"W-what?"
Subaru turned, his admiration for the tree completely forgotten, replaced by an even greater shock. He stared at her, his mouth slightly open, his eyes wide.
He had never heard her laugh like that.
He had seen her smile, he had seen her worried, he had seen her sad, he had seen her cry. But that laugh... it was like seeing the sun rise for the first time.
And seeing her there, laughing until she was breathless, her face illuminated by the golden light, tears of joy shining in her amethyst eyes...
He didn't understand why. He didn't understand what was so funny.
But, looking at her, a silly, contagious smile began to spread across his own face.
In that moment, on the road to the Mathers mansion, under the distant shadow of an impossible tree, something changed.
The wall of ice between them, for an instant, melted.