In the Depths

Reaching the Death Lake, Lloyd and Raymond dashed towards the lake's shore as fast as they could. Raymond was panicking because it had already been more than half an hour since they had left the Shuzar estate. He could not suppress the uncertain anxiety bottling up inside him.

Now, having reached the place in question, they saw Nova sitting there with Julia in his lap. Lloyd rushed over there and immediately snatched her away from Nova. Looking bitterly at him, Lloyd yelled, "What the hell did you do now?!?"

Nova got up slowly as Lloyd carried Julia properly in his arms. But something was strange about her. She wasn't moving at all. Her eyes were blank like a dead person and her face dead white. Horrified, Lloyd checked her pulse. It was still there.

"She went into a state of shock because she overused her telekinesis ability," Nova said as he glanced at Lloyd and then at Raymond, who was anxiously loitering around the lake brink, leaning over it as if finding something.

"What did you do, Nova?" Lloyd said in a threatening voice.

Nova scoffed and said with a bitter smile, "How decent of you to just assume that I did all of it. But this shouldn't be your priority right now. That boy has been in there for an hour now. Though I doubt any life would've been left in him, but at least pretend you came here to save him and get his body out."

Raymond glared at Nova from behind Lloyd and said, "Why is he drowning in the first place?!? How could you do that to a child?"

"I didn't do it, first of all. To clear your misunderstanding, I did nothing to that kid. HE was the one to attack me first, mumbling grey this and grey that," Nova defended himself as he saw Lloyd lay Julia safely on his coat which he had spread on the ground. "I might be a sorcerer but even I don't touch children. On the top of it, he was a special kid."

"What special? He is just a normal child of ten," Raymond snapped at Nova. "How could he have attacked you? You are a sorcerer and he is just a child!! At least make them reasonable if you're going to make excuses."

"We can always ask Julia about it later, Raymond," Lloyd said as he removed his shirt and shoes. "Now, it's more important to save Frank."

Looking at Nova, before he jumped into the lake, Lloyd said, "And I would like to hear more about how he's a special child when I come back with him."

"Rather than special, the word 'strange' describes him better," Nova scoffed looking back at Lloyd. "And isn't it useless now anyway. That kid is as good as dead. And if the Cerates got him, I doubt you'd even find a body."

"Don't you dare say such things!!!" Raymond yelled at Nova.

Lloyd simply ignored Nova's words and jumped in the icy lake.

Nova went near Julia and started patting her head. Raymond kept standing there near the lake's edge.

"Julia didn't become like this because she exhausted her mana using telekinesis," Nova said.

Raymond looked at him with a questioning face. He asked, "What do you mean? You clearly told the Lord that…"

"That was so he could focus on finding that kid first," Nova said taking Julia again in his lap. "Knowing him, Lloyd would have returned with Lia first if he had known what actually happened to her."

"What… the Lady…. What happened to her?" Raymond asked while going over to Nova.

"Telekinesis and Foresight, these are Lia's powers," Nova started speaking. "In Telekinesis, one can achieve three stages. First, unity with surroundings. Second, unity with their own souls and third, unity with someone else's soul. Lia reached the third stage with that kid, Frank as you called him."

"So what? Why are you telling me this?" Raymond asked dumfounded.

"Unity with someone else's soul gives the user access to all that person's sensations, thoughts and feelings. The third stage is where intimacy surpasses any other relation, in other words, they become one," Nova said while patting Julia's head. "Due to this unity with that kid, Lia experienced something horrible."

"What do you mean?" Raymond asked with a trembling voice. He found it weird when Nova was emphasizing Frank being dead again and again. And he couldn't help but think that if it was Nova, he would have a valid reason to say that.

"She experienced Frank's death along with him," Nova said at which Raymond just collapsed down there. "He was in terrible burning pain before his death. It was like he wasn't drowned but burned. Maybe it had something to do with his two mana cores. But it's all pointless now, he's dead. Lia went into a shock as soon as that kid's heart stopped working. It seems they had just recently reached the third unity as she couldn't cut it off before his death and went into that state."

"You… you knew he was dead all along," Raymond said in a muffled voice as tears rolled down his cheeks from his eyes. "Why did you ask the Lord to find his body then?"

"Lia wished for this before losing consciousness," Nova said looking down at her in his lap. "She said she doesn't want Frank to be in pain anymore."

Raymond just silently sobbed after that, wishing that the lord would never find a body. Just the possibility that he wasn't dead because his body wasn't found could give Raymond enough hope for his entire life.