Letting Go

"That's a tragic legend," Aileene commented after Lucian finished narrating his story. Turning away from the river she glances back at him, trying to gauge his reaction. She was definitely glad she was able to learn the legend, but she didn't know that it was going to be so heartfelt. And it made her feel a bit incompetent, afterall she couldn't hope to be as giving as the Goddess and she admired the woman greatly just from listening to the story.

"People are tragic, aren't they? They don't realize what's good for them until that very thing is lost." Lucian answered turning back to Aileene, meeting her crystal blue eyes, as they both stood in a comfortable silence. Though soon the moment was interrupted by the chime of the city's clock, indicating that it was now midnight.

"You should let that candle go," Lucian said softly, watching Aileene nod in agreement, before kneeling down by the water. Though she paused her movements for a moment, closing her eyes in contemplation. She tried to form all of her unwanted emotions from the back of her mind into the candle, before resuming her actions, letting the candle go.

Pushing herself off the ground, Aileene steps back to stand alongside Lucian, watching more and more candles flow downstream, glowing lightly like moving stars in the sky. A relieve sigh escapes her lips, as she pulls her coat closer to her, a way to comfort herself.

"Our parents should be expecting us back by now," Aileene spoke up, breaking the fragile silence. A moment of silence lingers before she turned away from the glowing river. Starting in the direction that she came from, Lucian didn't object and simply followed alongside her.

❅

Aileene felt more and more perplexed by her interactions with the Kinlar prince as time passed, even when she had returned to her family. Which had smartly ignored her disappearance, all questions, and curiosity thrown aside. She couldn't shake her feeling of confusion and amazement. They weren't even purposed to meet yet and from her recollections of the otome story and events. This wasn't supposed to happen and if it did, it was never mentioned when the game started. Since the two characters rarely interacted in the game and never acknowledged knowing one another.

She could guess that it was unique to her very world, but why would it be? It wouldn't affect the outcome of the game, would it? If it did affect things, then what would the game become?

Her panic thoughts remained swirling in her mind, uncomfortable and unnerving. Aileene didn't hate her chance encounter with the Prince, it was rather nice and they became friends, even through their short interactions. The unfortunate part for her was the outcome of Vain itself, would this event change the game in the future? She had no clue, and she had no way to help fix the problem. All she could do was sit and pray, but it was still all based on chance.

Which she hated, she hated feeling helpless, hated that she wasn't in control of the situation. Sighing, Aileene dropped herself onto her bed the minute she got into her room. Her legs hanging over the side of the bed, while her left hand covered her closed eyes, as she tried to breathe and calm herself down.

Was she overreacting? Was she being too dramatic? This wasn't going to be anything big, would it?

"𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦?" 𝘓𝘶𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘴𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘭𝘺. 𝘏𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘥𝘪𝘥𝘯'𝘵 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘪𝘳𝘭 𝘸𝘢𝘴, 𝘯𝘰𝘳 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥. 𝘚𝘰 𝘪𝘧 𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘵 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘨𝘰𝘵 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦, 𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘪𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘨𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘩𝘪𝘮𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧. 𝘈𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘪𝘳𝘭 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘳𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘴𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘻𝘷𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘣𝘶𝘥𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦.

"𝘈𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘦𝘯𝘦." 𝘚𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘺, 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴. 𝘚𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴.

Why was she such an idiot? She told him her name. Gave him a lead on her. At that moment, Aileene felt the whole world frowning in shame at her actions. When was she ever this unaware of her surroundings? Did she just lose her mind because of some boy?

Aileene sat up from her slump and grabbed one of her pillow, burying her face in it. She let out an exasperated yell. She had never felt so childish in life. And the feeling wasn't very becoming of her.

A few knocks sounded at her door, which nearly cause her to jump from her own skin. Slowly taking her head out of her pillow, she turned to the door, which had been left open because of her unmindful state earlier. At the door was a single smirking cousin, already planning to take advantage of her disheveled state to tease her.

"If you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say it," Aileene answered her cousin's smirking victory. Placing her pillow down on the bed and fixing her messy hair. Trying to appear as though all priors events didn't happen.

"Don't be so assuming, I didn't even get to say anything yet," Alastair said with a pout, he rarely gets any chance to win against his cousin. He seemed to always be the one always following her whims and wants. And though he wasn't resentful towards her. It was still humiliating that he was the older one of the two. "And, anyway, don't you have something to report to me?"

"Fine, fine. I'll tell you about my adventures." Aileene sighed dramatically, a playful smile finding it's way on her face. As she patted the spot next to her for her cousin to sit while she retells her Light Festival rendezvous, mentioning everything, but the little troublesome Prince.