From the moment he tasted the air, Giovanni could only describe his new body as… intense.
Blood flowed uncontrollably, as vivid and wild as its own entity, nourishing his renewed skin while alien organs filled him with explosive, almost bestial strength.
His sharpened senses were a particularly tangible addition. Sounds and scents previously imperceptible became almost obvious, while the dark chamber turned as clear as day.
Pulling himself out of the spring with the only arm he had, the first thing he saw was Sofia crawling away from the water, frightened, and Aguiar not far behind, excitement in his eyes.
Why was she running?
Standing up, the rest of his body—still incomplete—regenerated as if by magic. The painless feeling of having a whole arm missing was convenient, but a little eerie.
That's when he noticed his appearance.
With rosy skin, bluish hair, and eyes, the boy had become a perfect copy of the former mermaid.
'This is awkward…' Giovanni had never imagined he would one day end up in a female body, but look at how things had turned out. He felt he should be uncomfortable, find the sensation strange, but it was simply natural.
His mind felt odd, as if reprogrammed to accommodate new needs, desires, and instincts.
Impulses from Ophelia had become inseparable parts of his ego.
Vanity, the drive of passion.
But he still preferred his real face.
'Why… are you looking at me like that… Sofi?' The moment the connection between them was restored, Giovanni laughed, wanting to calm the young girl before she lashed out.
'Gigi?...' she replied timidly, a knot in her heart.
His desire to return to his original body triggered a unique transformation, like distorted waves rippling across his skin. Unlike his other abilities, there was no technical or refined control over this one.
It was like breathing.
"I… I'm back," he murmured, fearing the punishment he might receive.
Instead of screams, Sofia, hurried along by Aguiar, ran into his arms and leaped onto him. Her arms wrapped around his neck while Giovanni carefully prevented them from toppling over, gripping her waist.
Had she always been this light?
Embarrassed by the closeness, he felt his face burn from the effort of stopping himself from thinking he shouldn't.
"Gigi!" Her shout was accompanied by an emotional explosion. Instead of being stunned as usual, his mind and body assimilated her stimuli without difficulty.
Anger, relief, happiness, love, resentment.
She was on the verge of tears while also wanting to strangle him, which, to be fair, was deserved.
Though he should have been on his knees apologizing, the only thought he could form upon seeing that crooked smile again was…
'I really love her.' Even maneuvering as carefully as he could around the topic since reflecting on his first crush in the cabin, it was impossible to hide forever.
Sofia seemed to take a moment to process the thought, and when she did, she froze.
'W-W-What?!' A high-pitched scream echoed in her head.
He witnessed in real time the girl first believing it was a platonic statement, then realizing the romantic intent, and then utter chaos.
Her thoughts swung between panic to formulate a response, hyper-awareness of Giovanni's fingers on her waist, and their physical proximity.
Also, the embarrassment that he was hearing all of it.
He forced a sheepish smile before being sent flying.
***
After the initial shock, neither of them knew how to proceed. Usually, declarations of love are a scheduled event, when both sides are ready—or at least expecting to discuss it.
Not an instinctive reflection.
Sofia forced the connection to close, ejecting the meddling boy from her boiling thoughts, and flung him away with Hydra heads, creating a wonderful scene for Aguiar, who watched from the best seat in the house.
The merman slowly moved his face, following Giovanni through the air until he disappeared into the darkness.
"You're full of surprises, Sofia. I've seen the technique of hitting and caressing before… but the reverse is new!" He laughed, unconcerned with his friend.
After seeing his arm grow faster than a hair could, a few little hits shouldn't be the end of the world.
"Shut up! Shut up! lalala!" The girl covered her ears, ignoring Aguiar's mischievous hissing, who just wanted to make things worse.
He loves me? Me?
During secret movie nights, Sofia had her share of moments where she found herself tapping her feet on the mattress, excited for the moment the boy would confess to his beloved, and many times wished she were in her place.
But not like this!
On the ground, Giovanni took a while to get up, not appearing hurt. On the contrary, the boy seemed healthier than ever.
Without the many scars accumulated from battles in the Dream Realm, there were no signs of the exhausted boy who had entered the chamber.
But more important than that… he was ridiculously attractive!
Not just pretty like the sleepyheads who had their bodies enhanced after the first nightmare.
It was the kind of beauty that would make girls faint, and boys fan themselves wherever he went.
She felt like a mutt in comparison.
'Who comes out looking like a model from a mud pool…' That had to be the most unfair part of the entire situation.
"N-No, I didn't mean it! I intended to save this for another moment, I mean, a more… private one." The boy apologized, stumbling over his words, thinking his partner was upset.
She was a little, but her heart was beating for a different reason.
It was the concerned look in his eyes, the way he held her so carefully, and the unfiltered passion conveyed when those words resonated in her mind.
Sofia couldn't deny that the feeling was mutual.
'Where do I even put my face…' She had barely begun to come to terms with her new reality.
And now she had to deal with a first crush, too?
Intrigued, Aguiar seemed quite confused with the situation escalating so quickly. A very important part of the context had been lost on him, as he couldn't hear thoughts.
"At the mansion, got it?! We'll talk. about this. later." Unable to offer a concrete response, Sofia needed time; besides, a more urgent problem awaited them upstairs.
To avoid spending even one more second in that conversation draining her life away, she turned and marched out of the chamber like a robot, so tense.
Giovanni remained in place, his expression desolate. A few seconds later, his muscular companion approached and wrapped an arm around his neck, offering comfort.
"Don't worry, I've got the perfect idea to fix this… but tell me, what did you do, scoundrel?" he asked, curious.
"Uh… a long story." The delicate boy spoke with his head down, defeated.
***
While the descent to the bottom of the cave had been sped up by Aguiar's dramatic technique, the climb was destined to be a long process—not difficult, just monotonous.
The purpose of their visit had been to find a solution for the music, so the reaction of the two upon hearing that he still didn't know… was tense.
Thus, Giovanni seized the opportunity to study his new condition more thoroughly and find a way to heal his companions with it.
With a simple mental command, his runes were invoked, revealing the new stats after the transformation.
True Name: Light Seeker
Rank: Dreamer
Soul Core: Dormant
Class: Beast
Soul Fragments: [249/1000]
Memories: [Vermin Head], [Grafter's Tunic], [Master Key], [Dusty Diary], [Membranous Glider], [Maiden's Handkerchief], [Lost Princess's Jubilation], [Ophelia's Seal]
Echoes: —
Attributes: [Guided by the Light], [Acolyte], [Miracle Bearer], [Daughter of the Sea]
Aspect: [Golden Prince]
Aspect Rank: Sacred
Aspect Description: [You are the promised successor of a kingdom long forgotten. As a prince, your power originates from your loyal followers and the lands you control. However, the laurel crown is lost, and without it, your title is hollow and diminished. You seek your divine inheritance.]
Innate Ability: [Royal Right]
Ability Description: [Find trustworthy people and make them swear loyalty. Once under your command, your vassals share in the blessings and equipment in your possession. It is improper for a noble not to offer an abundant reward.]
Vassals: — Sofia.
Aspect Abilities: [Earth Domain], [Transmutation]
Flaw: [Sinless Spirit]
Flaw Description: [You cannot hurt others.]
His expression broke on the first line he read. The surprise was so great that Giovanni lost his balance and fell face-first down the stairs, eliciting an exaggerated laugh from Aguiar ahead.
Sofia looked over her shoulder, showing concern for a moment before returning to a pout.
Was he seeing things?
A loud buzzing in his head drowned out other sounds as his vision narrowed, focusing on that single line of text. Unaware, he was almost hyperventilating.
In a hurried gesture, he mentally reviewed everything he knew about himself, trying to notice any difference in how he felt.
Familiar faces, places he had lived or spent long periods of time, anything relevant to his identity.
All to make sure he was still the same person.
That shouldn't have been there.
A completely new category had appeared, indicating his "class."
'What is this nonsense?!' It shouldn't make sense, at least. Only nightmare creatures have classes.
Beasts, monsters, demons. The list is long, but the point is no human should have anything like this in their runes.
Moreover, the implications were equally unprecedented.
The possibility of growth.
'What am I thinking?! This is terrible! N-No way… don't tell me I have Soul Shards…' Before he could consider the benefits, his mind was invaded by genuine fears.
If he could be classified as a creature, what would stop people from treating him like one? If, after surviving all that, Giovanni returned to the land only to start being hunted as a precious experiment, everything would have been in vain.
'This secret dies with me!' A wise man knows when to keep his trap shut. Meanwhile, it would be necessary to experiment thoroughly to understand exactly what he was.
And what he could become.
Dragging the existential terror to the back of his mind, he focused on the second thing he received.
It was a peculiar memory: the first fragment of the key to open the castle gate.
In theory, it should have been some piece of metal, but Giovanni would have bet his own hand that the gates were not sealed with a simple lock.
A powerful, ancestral memory awaited him.
Memory: [Ophelia's Seal]
Memory Rank: Ascended
Memory Type: Charm
Memory Description: [In a gesture of boundless passion, all the paramours of the Eternal Symphony did assemble to fashion a secret gift in the silent watches of the night, whilst the lady lay in slumber.
Wrought from the very ore that did form the walls of her dwelling, they did hope that the work would echo with the song of their beloved.
When the inevitable end did fall upon the whispering caverns, that small treasure was consigned to the deepest waters of the chamber wherein they had shared so many nights, for even unto death, none should filch it.]
As he read the melancholic words left by the spell, he invoked the memory with a strange smile on his face.
His chest ached with a touch of nostalgia for something that had never been his.
'Wow… It's a bit tight.' That was his conclusion upon feeling the accessory materialize around his neck.
Taking the form of a choker forged from a material similar to the bismuth in the cave walls, the charm was not the type of item he would normally wear.
On the front of the smooth, colored surface, the mermaid crest—the same as engraved on the gates they entered through—was displayed in a silver piece.
The second part consisted of multiple chains connected to the choker, descending across the shoulders and chest, some made of metal rings, shells, fabric, and other materials, each representing a different person, without a doubt.
"Hm?" The description made it obvious that the functionality of the memory was related to his voice, so he tested it immediately.
Sofia and Aguiar covered their ears in the next instant, caught off guard by the thunderous sound. Giovanni hadn't expected the amplification to be so violent either.
The echo of his voice reverberated deep within the cave, fading after a few seconds.
"What an interesting toy you found down there… would look great on me too," Aguiar said, removing his hands from his ears and staring at the source of the noise.
Giovanni was about to respond, but remembered to return the memory to his Soul Sea. He didn't want to leave his friends deaf by accident.
"Over my dead body." The merman was loud enough by nature. If it got any louder, he would become a national threat.
Clicking his tongue in dissatisfaction, Aguiar let out a chuckle and resumed climbing, this time approaching Sofia to bother her with something different.
Only one last detail remained in his runes: The new attribute.
[Daughter of the Sea] Attribute Description: "You are a creature of the realm of storms, born of water and salt; your flesh is mutable like the waves, incapable of fading into oblivion. Endowed with enchanting beauty, your voice resounds like a force of nature."
Ophelia's gift defied common sense. He couldn't understand how the mermaid had been able to leave an inheritance preserved for so many years beyond the grave, but in his chest, there was only gratitude.
For her, and for his other attribute.
Without the aid of the light, he would never have dared to cross the crater willingly and venture into the depths of a sealed waterfall.
'Regeneration and transformation are pretty obvious.' He thought, extending his arm.
His regenerative factor was by far the most terrifying thing.
Unlike people with healing aspects, his body simply refused to die, requiring no conscious action.
Limbs reformed in seconds and wounds closed while the blade still cut his flesh.
This should have been a guarantee of survival, but the fate of the previous bearer of that sound was a clear message.
His mind and soul remained fragile targets, and he wasn't sure if he could survive a clean decapitation.
If he became complacent, he could end up as the next abandoned body in the depths of some ruin.
The thought chilled his heart.
'Focus… the song is what matters.' The musical echoes left by Ophelia could nullify the abyssal song; it was the same power, after all. Nothing prevented him from doing something similar.
Around him, the whispers of the caverns seemed different from when he first entered.
The content hadn't changed, but there was a new layer, previously imperceptible to his senses.
Notes flowed in his mind like sheet music, loaded with distinct functions that, when combined, created mystical marvels.
His body also felt them uniquely, like sweet vibrations in his bones and constant pressure in his ears.
If it weren't for months of experience with the seismic sense, it would have been enough to overload his consciousness. Though it took time to get used to, Beako's training had been far worse.
'I wonder what she's doing now.' They had never spent time together outside of class, so he knew nothing about her personal life.
But if he were to guess, she might have already involved some other promising sleeper to enhance her résumé.
Unaware, he let out a bitter smile.
Had his mentor ever visited his sleeping body in the capsule?
Snapping out of his musings, he realized that being able to observe the notes did not translate into the ability to reproduce them.
He was musically illiterate; composing a song normally would already be a challenge, using it to create wonders would be even harder.
"Uuh…" Giovanni let out a contained sound and focused on his own voice. The simple notes revealed themselves, allowing him to shape them at will.
He tried to rebuild the sound, make it pleasant to the ear, but the atrocious vibration made him question whether he had any talent for singing to begin with.
'I… I'll figure it out when the time comes!' There was no other option.
In his hands was already everything needed to save the other allies.
It was time for them to wake up once and for all.
***
The walk back to Aguiar's cabin was silent, with Giovanni focused on familiarizing himself with his new ability and the rest too tense to make small talk.
This was the moment of truth.
Taking the lead, the delicate boy opened the door and headed toward where the sleeping pair had been left resting. Before receiving Ophelia's gift, those affected by the abyssal song had only appeared to be in a deep sleep.
But his newly acquired sensitivity and capability revealed a far more worrying scene. Dark, distorted notes hovered around Shelly and Eric's heads, repeating in spiral patterns.
The sound penetrated ears, mouths, and nostrils like a parasite, slowly growing as it fed on the minds of its hosts. Only a few hours had passed, but the sinister flow was already suffocating to behold.
"Can you do something?" Sofia had calmed enough to set aside their personal conflict, for now.
She had opposed Giovanni taking the risk, but now that they were there, she wanted the recovery of both just as much as anyone.
"Use the collar, darling, they'll hear you better, no doubt," Aguiar added with his typical teasing, though with genuine intent.
Giovanni pulled [Ophelia's Seal] from his Soul Sea and signaled for the two to step back for safety. Sofia had glimpsed the memory's capabilities on the way to understand its properties.
Besides being an amplifier capable of projecting his voice tens of times farther than normal, it also served as a tailor-made tool for the mermaid's musical witchcraft.'
It did not grant new abilities, only facilitated and refined the handling of notes, which Giovanni urgently needed.
'Let's go step by step…' The first thing he tried was interacting with the corrupted notes. His fingers touched the dark purple cloud, attempting to extract the sounds from the force, but it was literally like trying to grab air.
His mental effort yielded no results; the symphony was entirely indifferent to his authority.
This couldn't be the answer.
The abyss, as it invaded his mind and soul, was like a worm sinking its teeth into flesh, determined to resist removal.
Even forcibly removing the force from someone's head could be dangerous.
What if Giovanni left irreparable damage attempting to forcibly extract the notes? Or worse, Eric's consciousness might be entirely removed, leaving him in a vegetative state.
It was a foolish hope to believe a child could directly compete against it in a confrontation.
'Then a different method.' This time, whispering lightly, Giovanni took control of the notes and tried to insert them into the profane sheets, wanting to break the cadence.
The effect was negligible… but to his surprise, something happened. The perfect melody pulsed erratically when an off-key note disrupted the rhythm, creating a flaw that was immediately erased.
'That's it… That's it!' His excitement was conveyed to Sofia, who looked at him with eyes full of anticipation.
Since Giovanni couldn't speak aloud without blowing the cabin apart, she served as the spokesperson for Aguiar. Waving one arm, she shook the young, muscular man.
"He found a solution!" Her cheerful voice seemed tinged with guilt for some reason. With her thoughts still forcibly blocked, the dark-haired man had no idea what had happened during his dive, but it seemed he had hurt the girl.
"Hah! I always knew, young lady. A little hurry, please? A bed awaits me!" He tossed his hair back and leaned against the wall behind him, waiting for the spectacle. Had the two placed a bet or something?
'I apologize in advance, Eric, hope you don't wake up deaf!' Giovanni thought, terrified of what the giant might do if he awoke impaired.
There is a piece of wisdom that applies to everything in life:
Destruction is always easier than construction.
The complexity behind the abyssal symphony was mind-bending. Designed to bring ruin to an entire ecosystem, it could infiltrate the most diverse minds and bypass their defenses perfectly, a marvel even to amateur eyes.
But it still relied on a well-structured, organized sequence to fulfill its purpose.
"Eric… you have a duty to fulfill, remember?" The sound of his voice spread across the room, trying to disperse, but Giovanni took control first.
The thunderous notes were scrambled like a child playing with clay, turning a coherent phrase into a deafening cacophony.
With a simple gesture, Giovanni's echoes collided with the abyssal symphony, generating a sonic distortion that plunged the music into chaos. Aguiar and Sofia, lacking the gift, could still feel the violent vibration of something violently unraveling.
And right below, the giant's hand…
Moved.
***
He dreamed of the corridors of a luxury residence.
Through them, a violet-eyed boy who had just turned ten walked without haste, a book tucked under his arm. Having recently finished his final lesson with the private tutor hired by his father, he planned to make good use of his brief moment of rest.
Dressed in an all-black jumpsuit with a fine, minimalist finish, beads of sweat trickled down his forehead, yet his rigid expression refused to betray any fatigue.
The Starfall Clan estate was as pompous as humanly possible, built of polished basalt tinged with touches of purple.
The furniture was crafted from a unique wood, harvested from a dead titan that had once warred against the Valor Clan itself. The scent lingering in the air was particularly heavy.
On the way to his room, paintings hanging on the walls depicted the family's figures of importance.
One in particular showed an austere man, his wife, and three children who had barely reached puberty. All followed their father's example, except one smiling girl who stood out among her peers.
Eric passed straight by, uninterested in the same sights he observed every day. Only when he saw the door to his room did he allow himself a sigh of relief.
'For a workout, that old man has a heavy hand.' His silent complaint followed him into the cooled interior of the room.
His quarters were devoid of any trace of personality, resembling those intended for guests. All he desired was to lie his back down and never get up again.
Unfortunately, staining the freshly cleaned bed with sweat and dust would cost him hours of listening to his father's endless lecturing, so he settled for sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall.
Twenty minutes.
It was the only break he would have from then until bedtime, so he intended to spend it wisely.
Pulling the book from under his arm, the boy slid his finger across the fragile cover.
The drawing of a boy standing atop a small planet looking at the stars, solitary, had caught his attention at first sight.
The Little Prince.
Leafing through carefully so as not to tear the pages, he reached the point where he had stopped. At the top of the page, it read: Chapter VIII.
The rose was a creature that confused Eric.
Extremely vain, while still inside her seed, the tiny creature chose her colors with the greatest care and adjusted her petals one by one.
All because she refused to emerge rumpled.
The little prince was kind and helpful, but even he was tormented by the flower's constant needs and her small lies.
"I don't like her…" was the feeling that permeated his chest.
He disliked her because the rose was insincere, contradictory, and consequently, she confused him.
Despite receiving so much affection and care from the star-dweller, her attitude was less than adequate. Still, Eric found himself rereading the same lines over and over, intrigued by her mysterious origin—the thing that made her so unique.
Why would a flower speak? Why would a plant be vain? Why would a rose lie?
Minutes spent like sand in an hourglass; a waste of time, in the literal sense of the word.
Because no matter how many times he read, there was never a concrete answer, and it frustrated him deeply.
When he realized five minutes had been lost, he hurried to continue reading, though his mind remained troubled.
It was a passage spoken by the prince himself that made him stop in his tracks a second time.
"The fact is that I did not know how to understand anything! I ought to have judged by deeds and not by words. She cast her fragrance and her radiance over me. I ought never to have run away from her... I ought to have guessed all the affection that lay behind her poor little stratagems. Flowers are so inconsistent! But I was too young to know how to love her..."
Affection? What affection was there in that thorny thing? All the rose knew how to do was demand and deceive, so how could the little prince have reached that conclusion? The last line irritated him on a personal level.
"I can understand things perfectly, you idiot." Raised and trained to be the best among the best, the notion that he could be compared to that ignorant boy—who lived alone on a round piece of earth—was absurd.
The fact that he had been fooled by the rose was proof enough of that.
His gaze rose from the pages toward the door.
"But if it were true… would they be roses too?" Eric thought of his uncles, always serious and indifferent, perfect copies of the man his grandfather once was. Their mean words and cold attitudes, the way they treated her.
Sometimes it seemed they felt nothing at all.
If behind that shell there was affection… it wouldn't be so bad.
When he checked the time a second time, Eric realized ten minutes had already been lost to his musings. Damn it!
Knock, Knock, Knock!
Preventing the continuation of his reading session, an unwanted guest knocked rapidly on his bedroom door.
It was a mere courtesy, for the person entered before hearing an answer.
"Where… is… my… baby!~" Those words gave him the chills.
Leaning against the entrance, a tall woman with a muscular build looked at him intensely. Her dark skin, long hair braided down to her waist, and vibrant violet eyes were a reflection of the somber boy.
"I didn't say you could come in," he grumbled, hiding the book behind him.
"If you really wanted to be alone, you would have locked it, silly." Entering without further ado, she walked to the nearest desk and set down an intimidating black helmet she had been carrying under her arm.
Free from the last thing restraining her, the lioness lunged at her prey, pulling her child into an involuntary hug. Eric struggled, but it was a futile effort against his mother's insatiable desire to embarrass him.
"Uaaah! Do you know how horrible it was walking on that land of glass? I was melting, Eric, melting! All I wanted was to come home and see this cute little face!"
The boy shoved his hand in her face, blocking the kisses while looking at the door, fearing a public spectacle.
"Stop… with… that!" He managed to recite his revolt, even while robbed of breath, before finally being released.
"How horrible! Do you already think you're too old for a few kisses? I still remember the first time—" Eric trotted straight past the adult and slammed the door with disproportionate force.
"Just say what you want, Mom." The little rest time he had was slipping through his fingers, and he grew more impatient by the second.
"I wanted to see my treasure after being stuck in a box for hours. Why the bad mood? Where's the excitement?" She pulled a communicator from her clothes, searching for something.
"Because I'm trying to enjoy my break! What reason would I have to be excited?" His mask began to crack bit by bit. His mother had a talent for testing his patience.
"What do you mean? Didn't they tell you about the ball tomorrow? There will be a dozen different clans, food in heaps, music blasting, drinks to drown half a city, and the best part… potential girlfriends for you!~" She hit play on some atrocious music that sounded like a sonic attack disguised as a melody.
As if she hadn't a care in the world, her hand danced as she approached. Any legacy of respect would struggle to understand how she had become... that way.
"First, I am well-informed; I just don't see a reason to celebrate. Second, music won't be 'blasting,' and third, they are not 'potential girlfriends!'"
Unfortunately, she was deaf to the child's tedious, rehearsed common sense. It was enough to have his brothers and father speaking like machines.
"Of course they are; any young lady loves a good dancer. Have you been paying attention in your lessons with Judith?"
It was obvious he had. Even if he found it completely expendable, it would be a disgrace to disregard his duty. That didn't make his opinion or taste for the activity any less negative.
"Yes, ma'am…" he agreed, his tone angry.
"Then show me! Come on, come on! I want to see the fruits of my money. Your instructor has many interested parties, for your information." The wide grin on her face showed that, perhaps, it would have been better to lie in this case.
"I refuse," his answer was decisive.
"And I refuse your refusal. Now, get ready!" Hers was more so.
Pausing that offense to his ears, she ran to leave the communicator next to the helmet, quickly searching for the right song.
As her finger slid through several options, her eyes sparkled when they found what they wanted.
"This is one of my favorites… a timeless classic." Hitting play, the melody was strangely… pleasant to hear.
"Put your head on my shoulder.
Hold me in your arms, baby…"
Hurrying back to the front of Eric, she crossed her arms, waiting for the invitation.
'This has to be a joke…'
With his eyebrow twitching, he offered a hand, forcing himself to utter the words. "Would you… Give me the honor of a dance?"
"Owwwn… just this once, because you asked properly." Taking Eric's hand, she pulled him close, resting her other hand on the boy's shoulder. In response, he rested his remaining hand on her back, assuming the correct frame.
Together, the two circled the room in a circular path, making good use of the free space left by the room's owner. Eric executed steps with surgical precision, though sometimes with difficulty due to the height difference.
His mother, on the other hand, liked to flow with a certain sloppiness—not for lack of skill, but because of a tendency to invent maneuvers in the middle of the choreography that left the child lost in the rhythm.
Though irritated at first, it was hard to deny that the music had won his favor. His thoughts lost focus, unable to fixate on just one thing. 'Who is the singer? Sounds old…'
"Words I want to hear, tell me.
Tell me that you love me too…"
During the dance, the affectionate woman pulled Eric closer, letting her son's head rest on her shoulder. For a few minutes, time seemed to stretch… instead of passing when he least noticed.
When the last verses echoed through the room, she flashed a less caricatured smile, her eyes lit with a feeling he didn't quite recognize.
"By the spell, your shoulders are so tense; it feels like I danced with a refrigerator." Holding the boy's face gently, she continued. "You really are just like your father."
"...Strong?" His question was bathed in skepticism. As for appearance, he had taken much more after her.
"Terrible sense of humor… and as malleable as rocks." The memory of their first meeting drew a faint giggle from her.
Looking over the boy, the lady's violet eyes stared at his portrait, isolated above the nightstand.
"I am very proud of you, my dear, so don't listen to those stooges. It's okay to relax a little… and smile sometimes, you hear?" With her fingers, she pulled the corners of Eric's mouth, drawing a sweet little smile on his face.
He fell silent for a few seconds, shifting his gaze to the corner of the room where an old book with yellowed pages had been dropped before looking her in the eyes.
"I understand… Mom." His response was finally spoken, accompanied by a timid smile.
What he saw, however, was the woman's face melting… everything was melting, dripping like black ink on a colorful painting.
Even when his mother had been reduced to a blur of colors, he could still hear a familiar female voice echoing from a black helmet in the distance.
But he kept smiling.
In the cold of the darkness.