5 Meeting Luke

An hour later

Neinhart experienced a heavy downpour. The wind shook the trees while the fires throughout the kingdom were being put out and smoke filled the air.

A young man with short white hair and catlike ears sticking out from the sides of his head was staring at the sky. Even though it was raining, not a single part of the man's body was wet.

"It looks like Melvin lost" the man murmured while clenching his fists. Suddenly, he inhaled a familiar scent and his eyes shot open. A pair of mystical purple eyes came into view and resembled a vast cosmos. "Over there" he murmured before he began to sprint in a certain direction.

Purple flames surrounded him and as they disappeared, he took the form of a giant white wolf. He continued sprinting until he reached a crystal like lake. He looked up a bit and noticed a mountain which seemed to pierce the skies and had numerous waterfalls.

'It's the same place as earlier this morning' he thought before looking at the lake ahead 'In there'

He instantly jumped into the lake and came face to face with Lucia who was still tightly holding onto the white longsword. She looked really beaten up but, even he could tell it was still her.

'They look alike' he thought as he reached her and grabbed her by her neckline. Just then, he noticed the necklace around her neck lit up 'This thing...is keeping her alive when she should have drowned. And the sword, that's Pamela's...' he ignored it and swam with her towards shore. He gently dropped her on the ground as soon as he was out and shook his body until he was dry.

As the light coming from the necklace began to fade, Lucia started to cough out water and clench the sword in her hand. She slowly opened her eyes and tried to stand up but the burning pain she felt from her abdomen stopped her as she clenched it tightly

"You shouldn't force things, Lucia" it wasn't until she heard the voice, did she notice that there was a giant white wolf sitting next to her

'What...is going on?' Lucia wondered 'I thought I died and dad....' her thoughts faded as the memory of what had happened to her began to flood her head. Her arms became weak and her body was back on the ground as she turned over and pulled the white sword to her chest and began to cry "Dad...dad..." she sobbed

"Your father and mother...entrusted me with protecting you" it said and Lucia clenched the sword

"Where are we?"

"The center of the kingdom" it answered "Your father brought you here this morning"

"You..."

It's body was set ablaze in purple flames and when it faded, the wolf had taken on a human form. He looked like usual with his short white hair and catlike ears sticking out from the side of his head, along with his mystical purple eyes that resembled the vast cosmos. He was tall and had a muscular build which fitted well with his navy blue dressing.

"Pamela... your mother...was my younger sister" He said "I'm your uncle, Luke"

Lucia's eyes were fixated on Luke's catlike ears before saying "My mother is your sister? But she doesn't have animal ears sticking out from the sides of her head"

"I'm a spirit...I have the heaven wolf spirit" Luke explained "Your mother was the eight heart of this kingdom. The two of us were children of a heart and my mother died after giving birth to Pamela just like Pamela died immediately after giving birth to you" he looked around before turning into his spirit form and placing her on his back "I'll explain later. Right now, escaping Neinhart is very important. Hold on" immediately after he said that, he was on the run at full speed with Lucia on his back

Lucia held onto Luke's soft fur as she watched the scenery go by. Most of the forest was burnt and all the wildlife was gone from the area.

'This is horrible' Lucia thought as she saw a burnt down village from afar 'Annabel... how could you do something so horrible? Aren't we meant to be a family?'

Luke stopped at a cave and she slowly got down while still holding on to his body for support. There was a nice warm fire at the center of the cave which she rushed towards and began to warm up.

Luke stared at her for a while before laying down opposite her and carefully observing her.

"Come closer" Luke said

"Huh?" Lucia let out

"Rest your forehead on mine" he said

"Okay" Lucia said as she moved closer and rested her forehead on his and she was instantly covered with multicoloured light.

The light started to take on a different shape on her body before disappearing. All of Lucia's injuries had been healed and she had even been given a change of clothes.

She was dressed in a floral empire tea dress with her hair pulled back and braided with a ribbon, and white espadrilles. The necklace Jane had given her was still on her neck.

However, along with these, came a memory of Luke's. Pamela was still pregnant with Lucia and she had a sharp voice as she spoke to Luke while Luke ignored her. She then murmured something and Luke raised an eyebrow before shaking his head and leaving.

At that moment, Lucia opened her eyes and moved her head away from his

"Was that my mother?" Lucia murmured and she touched her forehead "She looks even more beautiful than that painting in the great room..." her voice trailed as she noticed the sleeve of the dress she was wearing before looking down. There was even a belt that kept the white longsword in a scabbard.

"As you've seen, I really am Pamela's older brother" Luke said as he went back to resting his head "The two of us can use various types of magic except bloodline magic. Anything that I'm about to tell you is the truth. The truth that your parents tried to keep you away from"

"I'm a heart?" Lucia asked

"Hm. Your responsibility is to act as a medium for beings in your kingdom to be able to use magic. Sometimes, you hearts' emotions can influence the weather and they create the barriers that exist between and around the kingdoms in Hyacinth, called magia regiones"

"Hyacinth...that's this continent, right?"

"Hm. The magia regiones become stronger or weaker depending on the state of the heart. Hearts are mostly females as far as I'm concerned and I've never heard of a male heart nor have I seen one" Luke explained "This is where spirits like myself come from. Although spirits and hearts are both spawns of hearts, there's a difference. A heart can give birth to a spirit but a spirit can't give birth to a heart, nor can they become hearts. Spirits equal other spirits, even females but as far as there is no female child among hearts, they can continually give birth to many spirits. However, hearts and spirits are almost practically the same because, spirits can use just as much magic spells and incantations as hearts. But unlike hearts, spirits aren't tied down by any rules"

"Wait. Wait. Wait" Lucia instantly interrupted "Rules? Was it because of the rules my mother died? Did she break any one?"

"Pamela abided every single rule of the hearts and that's why...she never smiled. Their rules were just that bad" Luke said "Now, comes the important part. The rules. Breaking any single one can cause unfavorable outcomes for a heart"