The carriage slowed several houses away from the holiday home.
Kiyotaka did not immediately tell the driver to continue as through the window, he could already see the black destrier standing on the lawn.
Dismounting the carriage, he walked — or rather, limped — his way towards it. When he arrived and entered the lawn through the small door, there was someone beside the black stead.
Even from this distance, he recognized the grey hair. Beside it were Freya and Daisy and it seemed like neither of them had noticed the carriage.
Daisy was sitting on the grass, clutching Liv's sleeve with both hands while Freya was kneeling behind her. Her arms were wrapped around her younger sister's waist, preventing her from reaching any farther.
Kiyotaka stared at them for several seconds as Astrid suddenly leaned slightly forward from the side. Her face had been cleaned of the blood, but the rest of her body was still caked with it.
"What happened?" She asked.
Kiyotaka did not answer and the destrier lowered its head, remaining completely still.
"Their mother is dead." Astrid's expression changed slightly and she blinked a few times.
She was unfamiliar with the two girls but could put two and two together.
"Go inside. The window to my bedroom is open. Use it."
"...Right."
She did not make one of her usual remarks and made a strange symbol on her chest, praying something before walking away.
Kiyotaka stepped down the lawn and began walking towards them while Astrid disappeared around the side of the house. Neither Freya nor Daisy noticed him approaching.
"Mom..." Daisy was still tugging at Liv's sleeve, repeating the same words over and over again. "Please wake up."
Freya tightened her arms around her. "Daisy."
"She'll wake up."
"Daisy—"
"She always wakes up!"
Daisy's meek voice broke and Freya closed her eyes, pressing her face against Daisy's hair as she stifled a choked sob.
Only then did she hear footsteps over the grass. Her head snapped upwards and Kiyotaka stopped several steps away.
Freya's face was wet, although most of the tears had already dried against her cheeks. Her eyes were red and swollen, but unlike Daisy, she was no longer crying. "Sir... Mom... She..."
Kiyotaka looked towards Liv. Her face was partly obscured by her hair. One arm was hanging loosely beside the horse while the other remained trapped in Daisy's grasp.
There was no movement in her chest.
Kiyotaka looked at Liv for a few moments before lowering towards the two girls. "What happened?"
Freya opened her mouth but no words came out. Then, she swallowed. "We don't know."
Her voice sounded considerably steadier than her face looked. "The horse came back and Mother was..."
Daisy suddenly twisted inside her arms. "Sir!"
Freya lost her grip on him and Daisy stumbled to her feet, running towards him. Kiyotaka barely had enough time to lower himself before the girl crashed against his chest. The little girl's arms wrapped around his neck as she broke down. "Mom won't wake up!"
Kiyotaka remained motionless while Daisy buried her face against his shoulder. "Tell her to wake up!"
For a moment, he was a little lost at what to do. His mental state was not the best, and little things irritated him.
Regardless, suppressing his irritated desires, his hand hovered awkwardly beside Daisy's back and for several seconds, it remained there. Then he placed it between her shoulders and hugged her back.
Daisy's breathing immediately collapsed into violent sobs. "Please..."
Kiyotaka said nothing.
There was nothing he could say that would change the situation or bring Liv back to life. In a way, he knew this was going to happen. He had sent her, after all.
His tired blue eyes moved towards Freya who was still kneeling beside the horse.
Kiyotaka slowly stood while carrying Daisy with him. The girl's legs barely supported her anymore, so he kept one arm around her while walking towards Freya.
Freya looked down. "I am alright, Sir."
"I did not ask." Kiyotaka stopped in front of her.
Freya's lips trembled as he reached reached forward. The moment his hand touched her shoulder, Freya recoiled.
It was small gesture, causing his hand to stop. He stared at her while carrying Daisy who was still sobbing and drenching his shirt in her tears.
For several seconds neither moved as they stared at each other.
"...Sorry."
Then, without waiting, she leaned forward and her forehead touched his chest while her hands remained by her sides.
Kiyotaka placed his free arm around her shoulders.
That was when Daisy spoke again between sobs. "Freya... Sir..."
Freya shut her eyes and placed both hands on her ears.
"Make Mom wake up."
Freya buried her face deeper into Kiyotaka's chest and a broken and wet sound escaped her throat while her shoulders began to shake violently. Kiyotaka stood there without a word, his arms around both of them.
Having nothing useful to do or say, Kiyotaka just stood there, embracing them, despite his body feeling as if he had broken all of the bones in his body.
*****
Far away from Backlund, an infinite mountain range stretched across an infinitely dark horizon.
There were no settlements here and no roads cut through the valleys below.
A figure stood near the edge of one such mountain. His simple white robe moved lightly with the wind while his clear blue eyes remained fixed somewhere beyond the range.
There was something there... A patch of darkness hung above one of the distant mountains.
The surrounding sunlight seemed to naturally avoid it, leaving that portion of the sky darker than everything around it. Even when the clouds moved, the darkness remained exactly where it was.
The man watched it quietly. Beside him, resting over a flat piece of stone, was a thin book.
It did not look particularly important. The cover was brown, the pages were yellowed and there were no mystical symbols engraved anywhere.
The book was open.
Several lines had been written across the page in neat handwriting.
[Subject 001]
[Disturbance within the River of Fate have been confirmed. Replacement of a weak psyche was detected. Residual influence of the original personality remains primarily physiological rather than psychological.]
A few lines below it was another entry.
[Subject possesses an abnormally developed instinct for self-preservation. This quality exceeds initial projections. Highly unfavorable.]
[Continued avoidance of situations without sufficient preparation will considerably reduce opportunities for meaningful change. External circumstances should encourage greater tolerance toward uncertainty and personal risk.]
The man picked the diary up and turned the page. A strong wind blew across the mountain, but not a single sheet moved.
[Subject responds poorly to circumstances where intelligence cannot compensate for insufficient power. Result: irritation, dissatisfaction and a measurable increase in desire for control. Promising prospect.]
His gaze moved farther down.
[Accumulation of external tools will temporarily compensate for deficiencies in Sequence. Excessive reliance has introduced psychological contamination and instability. No correction required at present.]
The man read it with a smile and then shifted to another section.
[Political contact established earlier than expected. Establishment has progressed beyond commercial significance. Contact with █████ has resulted in preliminary involvement with the █████, █████ and █████. The subject currently interprets these relationships primarily through economic and strategic value. Continued exposure to institutional authority may produce a broader interest in political structures, law and the ownership of order.]
The corners of the man's lips seemed to rise slightly.
[Formation of emotional dependencies remains slow. █████, █████ and █████ continue to be the primary exploitable anchors for the future.]
A thin line was drawn through the third name.
[Subject continues to categorize attachment through responsibility, utility and obligation. Behavioral evidence increasingly contradicts this interpretation. No intervention necessary, as of yet.]
There was considerable empty space beneath this pair of words.
[Deviation observed during the ██████████. A change in the expected sequence of events produced secondary movement within the Aurora Order. Soothsayer Marie has noticed the resulting irregularity.]
The man finally looked away from the book. His eyes returned to the darkness above the distant mountain. After several seconds, he lowered his gaze again and continued writing.
[Her involvement was not originally required. Correction is unnecessary. Her arrival in the designated region should alter the surrounding environment sufficiently to attract the attention of the Angel of Concealment. The resulting interaction may prove useful to subject 001.]
As he finished writing, the man simply picked up the thin book and held it underneath one arm before tossing it into the horizon below before letting it disappear into a ravine. The darkness above the mountain shifted and for the first time since he had arrived, something within it seemed to move.
The man watched it for several seconds before turning away.
"Self-preservation is useful. But only until survival becomes more important than becoming something greater. This was indeed, a reasonable development."
The mountain was empty again with no sign of anyone.