Chapter 9: Truths and Lies

Aldia watches Liora closely.

She has listened. She has let the words sink into her ribs, coil around her thoughts like vines creeping into old stone. The Veil is breaking. Something older than the Primals is guiding its collapse.

But the more Liora speaks, the more Aldia notices what she isn't saying.

She had let Liora talk. Now it was her turn.

"And you?" Aldia asks, her voice steady and quiet, suspicious.

Liora pauses mid-motion, fingers still trailing through the dust on the table. For the first time, she hesitates.

"What about me?" She asks as if she does not understand or realize the questions hanging between them, the real questions that Aldia yet had to ask.

Aldia watches her closely, her reactions subtle but noticeable, "Who are you?"

Liora's smirk does not waver, but her fingers tighten slightly around the edge of the table.

"Who do you think I am?" Liora tilts her head, studying Aldia in return.

"Someone with too many answers and not enough explanations." Aldia shrugs her shoulders, the pain from the wound now distant as she is focused on something else.

Liora chuckles, a soft, knowing sound. "That's fair."

Aldia feels she has a habit of saying that.

"And where are you from?" Aldia presses further, throwing more questions towards her.

As if considering whether or not to answer, Liora hums. And then she opens up. "Eidolon." Casual, too casual for Aldia to understand why would someone leave a place like that. She narrows her eyes. "That's a lie."

"Is it?" Liora grins, her tone sharp and amused.

Aldia doesn't flinch.

"People don't just leave Eidolon. Not unless something wants them to."

Liora's smile fades just slightly as she watches Aldia and then..."Maybe something did."

Aldia exhales through her nose, long and steady.

She has heard stories of those who crossed the Veil, but none of them ended well.

There were ways to pass through. Some involved ancient rites, blood offerings, or debts that could never be repaid. Some were less structured, more brutal; someone thrown out, exiled, rejected by the realm itself.

"Let's say it's true," Aldia carefully stated, now considering the possibilities, "Crossing the Veil isn't easy."

"No. It isn't." Liora answered, her expressions unreadable, her voice soft as she stares into nothingness.

"It requires something in return." Aldia proceeds, "The Veil is not forgiving, nor it shows mercy."

Liora meets her gaze.

And for the first time, something flickers behind her expression.

"What did you pay?" Aldia raises a brow.

A pause.

A beat too long, lingering.

Then, Liora exhales, shaking her head slightly.

"Maybe I didn't pay anything." She dismisses, a thought or an image that Aldia feels but does not understand. But she does not believe her. Not for another second.

"Then someone else did."

Liora's smile vanishes entirely, her face darkens. For a moment Aldia notices something pressing, too heavy on her chest. Aldia knows that feeling.

"Something like that." Liora looks down, her eyes on the dirty, brolen floor. Aldia, for the first time, feels a sadness across her face. Too much to handle.

But the questions are not yet answered, not all of them. She give Liora a break,let the feelings linger a little longer and then asks.

"You've told me why you're here. But why does it matter to you?"

A slow, careful smile curves across Liora's lips, again.

"You ask like you think you'll get an honest answer." Liora says, composing herself.

Aldia sighs, "I ask because I don't trust anyone who volunteers information without a cost." Her tone is dry, unimpressed.

Liora exhales a quiet laugh, shifting her weight. "Smart."

A beat, a minute, and then she speaks.

"Let's say I have… unfinished business."

Aldia does not look away as she points, calmly, "Vague."

Liora leans back slightly, fingers tapping against the wood, a slow, deliberate rhythm.

"Fine. Let's say it's personal."

Aldia raises a brow. "That's not better, not a better answer."

Liora's smirk sharpens, a gleam of something unreadable flickering in her gaze.

"Then let's say I don't particularly care whether it's better or not."

Aldia exhales, slow and measured.

"And let's say I don't particularly care to work with someone who won't answer a simple question."

Liora studies her for a long moment. And then, just as Aldia is ready to push further, Liora gives her something.

"I lost someone." Liora says softly.

Aldia stills.

Liora's expression does not shift, but something in her posture is too careful, too calculated. A truth buried in a lie, a lie wrapped in truth. She is revealing just enough to satisfy, but not enough to be known.

"The Veil took them." Aldia tests her words

"Or something inside it did", Liora stands up, moving around as if studying the already know walls.

Aldia watches her as she waits for more. Not asking anything else, giving Liora space to open up.

Liora only meets her gaze, waiting back.

And in the silence, Aldia understands something about her.

Liora is not afraid of the Veil.

She is angry at it.

"Who?" Aldia does not want to ask, but something in her did, maybe to get more information from Liora, more cracks in her half truths.

Liora tilts her head slightly, as if considering how much more she should offer. "Does it matter?"

Aldia exhales, her breath slow and measured. "It does if I'm supposed to believe you."

Liora shrugs, her voice lowering, curling around the words like smoke.

"Believe me or not. It changes nothing."

"It changes whether I keep listening." Aldia pressed further.

A flicker of something crosses Liora's expression. Something dark, something quick.

And then when is about to say, about to give a name Aldia interrupts, "Alright, lets skip this part." She teases.

Liora gives her a deadly stare.

To avoid Liora's eating gaze, Aldia looked down,scraping on the ground. A grin playing on her lips. For the first time in the whole conversation. She feels Liora lighten down.

"So you are looking for this person?" She asks lightly.

Liora does not answer immediately. She takes a breath, a moment. And then she exhales, "Something like that."

And Aldia knows she is still lying. Or, at the very least, she is not telling the whole truth.

"So you don't care about the Veil breaking."

Liora smiles faintly, "I didn't say that."

"You care about what's inside it." As if Aldia ignored her last statement.

"I care about what happens next." Liora sits back on the table.

Aldia watches her closely.

Liora speaks with certainty, with the confidence of someone who has already decided their path—but not someone who is being entirely honest about it.

"What do you think happens next?" She asks.

"Probably, nothing good." Liora stops swaying her legs, the amusement fading again.

The words settle into the air like something inevitable. Like a storm already on the horizon. Aldia exhales, pressing her palm against the wound at her side.

The pain is still there, dull and constant, a reminder that she has already lost too much time.

A soft sound breaks the silence.

A slow, deliberate yawn.

Nyxie, curled atop a worn wooden shelf, lazily flicks its tail. Its silver eyes gleam in the dim light, its expression unreadable—much like Liora's.

"You two talk too much." Nyxie says, drawling, unbothered.

Aldia was too much immersed in differentiating truths from lies that she did not realize Nyxie disappearing. She doesn't look away from Liora, but she feels a flicker of amusement at the creature's perfectly timed irritation.

"I don't recall inviting an audience." Liora raises a brow at Nyxie.

"I go where I please." Nyxie stretches, a smug on its face.

Aldia finally leans back, exhaling slowly.

"Nyxie has a point."

Nyxie preens, looking entirely too pleased with itself. "I always do."

"So the ghost keeps a shadow creature. Fitting." Liora smirks faintly. Liora has seen Nyxie when Aldia was unconscious but it did not strike a conversation and Liora thought it might be a creature of the place, not Aldia's pet.

Aldia shoots her a glance.

Nyxie lets out a slow hum, watching Liora with mild amusement.

"She's lying, you know."

Aldia and Liora both turn to stare at the creature.

Nyxie grins, if something without a real mouth can grin.

"Not entirely. Just enough." It says idly, licking a paw.

Liora chuckles softly, shaking her head. "I like this thing." She says amusingly.

"That's unfortunate." Aldia sighs.

Nyxie flicks its tail again, then stretches, leaping gracefully onto Aldia's shoulder.

"She knows more than she's telling." Nyxie says softly to Aldia.

She knows.

But she does not push further. She let it go for the moment.

She meets Liora's gaze and simply nods.

"We'll see."

Liora tilts her head, considering her.

Then she smiles. And Aldia doesn't trust it at all.

She exhales, dragging a hand through her hair.

Her ribs ache. Her head throbs.

And this conversation is only giving her more questions than answers.

"I need sleep." she mutters more to herself than Liora.

"Then you're in the wrong city." Liora mocks, sympathetically.

Aldia huffs a quiet laugh despite herself.