There is this law, a law that my grandfather heard from someone in his past, a law that states that everything that can go wrong will go wrong. It’s a despairing statement that I honestly never once want to believe.

But the more I live, the more time has pass in Lumenter, the more also I saw… everything.

From the wombs of their mothers, to the fields where they play and grew, and the bed that comforted their weak and dying body…

I have seen it all, seen everything life has offered, the beauty and its ugliness.

None of It is fair, but it’s also not arbitrary either. The world has a pattern and Athar can break that, it can be cruel or even downright malevolent, but sometimes it can be sweet, it can be… hopeful…

I do not know what is in the minds of the gods of my land, whether Betitari, Luhi, Ofvér, Mother Niviane, nor even Athar himself… but I do know one thing, it is not only them nor only us that create this despair, everyone contributes to it.

So, if they can make and spread that despair, I wholeheartedly believe they can make and spread hope too.

And I know deep down, Arthur… the boy that came into my life, can find that light again after the traumatic darkness.

* * *

It was a misty noon, rain was about to pour and from the looks of it, the feel of it too… it’s going to be a week long rain.

“It’s going to rain for a whole week isn’t it?” The peasant, Téodor, said out of a sudden to me.

“Yes… how could you tell?” I asked curiously.

“Cause of this thing over here.” He pointed at the staff, The Aosí Staff that is near his desk. “It’s kinda of funny, I expected that this staff will communicate to me prophetically and riddlingly, like before in my dreams, but… no, it just keep yapping on and on and on and o-” The staff suddenly fell towards Téodor head. “OWW WTF?!!!”

It’s always an interesting sight to see an unwilling legacy bearer and the legacy itself, it reminds me of father with Cranscoltoir, of how as much as he hates, he loathes, he wants to be far away from that legacy, he’ll be the only true one to carry that legacy to its potential and beyond.

But in this case with Téodor, it’s kind of funny actually! A dynamic that I haven’t seen for a long time, a very… long time…

I wonder if uncle will forgive mother, I wonder… if mother can stop him… and I wonder, no, hope, I want to hope that they can go back being the Rinceoir Siblings again.

“Okay fine, fine… you don’t yap that much, just turn off the damn volume in my head.” Téodor made peace with some terms with the Aosí Staff. “And yeah, her last name is de Caisoleán… her what? Epithet? How the hell should I-” Téodor rolled an eye before looking at me. “Hey I was wondering about your-”

“it’s le Rath, Téodor, means the Victorious.” I answered him straightforwardly.

“You heard her… you want to… what? The fuck is that even is? Tuathic? No? Fayic? How the hell…” He stopped for a moment, looking a bit troubled. “A na ré…altaí? réaltaí! Ar do shon og? Oug? Ohh, Óg! A na réaltaí ar do shon óg!”

“By Athar, your Fayic is atrocious…” It was like hearing a Sutan speaking Fayic.

“Give me a break, It’s my first time.” And… I’ll give him that.

“A na réaltaí ar do shon óg… To the stars for you… young one…” I remembered those words… I remembered who said it… “Wait… Gydon the Twister was the one who stayed for years at my father’s court?!”

I was shocked as it was something… that I never could’ve imagined. The man himself… the halfling… the twister… was the one who taught me everything I need to know about magic and swordsmanship…. By the Athar, quite the small world you made.

“It’s… so wonderful to meet you again!” My eyes was star-filled to the staff that was by my side when I was still a young brat.

“It’s nice to meet you too again young one!” Téodor… suddenly spoke in a different voice, but his eyes was looking at his own mouth. “Don’t be too alarmed young one, I’ve already asked permission to use this troublesome successor’s voice and mouth, for us to communicate much more easier than the unnecessary back and forth we made previously. So be at ease!”

“Yes! Yes… wow…” I was still processing this news. “I have a lot of questions! So much questions… and I don’t know where to start!”

“Hahaha…” The Aosí Staff chuckled. “Well, I’m all ears young one!”

“Okay… well… for a start, did Gydon secretly done half of my chores?”

“Ha!” It laughed. “Indeed he did, as he felt he overstayed his welcome.”

“But he was there to heal!”

“Precisely, he and I were people in need at that time! And your parents were kind strangers, now a huge privilege to call them friends, that didn’t ask anything of us. But Gydon is not a slacker, unlike this one.” Téodor suddenly gave a piercing look towards his own mouth. “And he is a man that doesn’t take things for granted, which this boy surprisingly is!” And his eyes suddenly went tender from the compliment.

“Haha…” I could only chuckle and be very thankful for the late morning wake-ups Gydon gifted me back then.

“By the way, how’s your parent?”

“They’re fine! Father is still begging the Crown Prince of Rosor to take Cranscoltoir off his hands, mother is still searching for uncle, and Faolán still manages the estates as usual, though he is getting married next season!”

“Faolán’s getting married? That can’t work! He’s already married to his work! Hahaha…”

‘You and me both! Hahaha…”

“Well, tis good to hear a friend be with their other half.” With a proud and glad tone, the Aosí Staff said. “Speaking of one’s half, how about you? It has been three decades now in the mainland right?”

“Yes… it’s been that long and I do have someone in mind.”

“Arthur?” It wasn’t the Aosí Staff that answered correctly, it was Téodor, looking straight at me with his eyes and mouth towards me.

“Yes…” I blushingly said.

“The first wielder’s nephew?” And the Aosí Staff returned, as Téodor looked a bit shocked when his mouth suddenly moved on its own and sounded differently. “What do you see in him?”

“At first… pure attraction to his personality, he’s funny, he’s out of the box, he’s musical, he’s a lot of things when I first met him.” I smiled at the wonderful things I got to know from him in that banquet. “Now… I saw me.”

I saw me… yes! I saw the perfectness that I could achieved just like him, the potential that could be unlocked if he wants to.

Arthur has something that makes me want to push him, to make him go beyond his boundaries, to be his perfect form. I felt the drive I’ve always had, much more stronger with him, much more fiery with him.

I want to see his best, I want to help him towards his best.

* * *

My last class was just done for the day and I was walking through the halls of the académie, making my way to the library to re-learn and understand more what I’ve been taught for today.

But along the way, I was pitted to a corner by the same women that has been harassing me before Arthur stopped them.

“All alone de Caisoleán? Has Lord Svard finally see how much of a nuisance you are?” That girl, the leader of her little uppity gossip group, Clara d’Plino, tried to get arise out of me.

“d’Plino… I came here to study, not to play dirty-mouthed politics like the women of the robe in banquets.” I tried to oust her out of my eyes.

“This bitch…” One of her lackies was agitated by my comment.

“No! you’re right, for a boorish woman like you, studying is the only activity here!”

“I’m not boorish.” I snapped back at her, as that’s the one word I don’t want to be used against me.

“Really? If you weren’t, why is Lord Svard not around you? For quite the time even!” She’s getting a rise out of me, and… it’s working.

“Because… he has a problem he needs to take care off.”

“Excuses, just admit you fell out of his favour, you, boorish, bumpkin.”

And as I heard every word that ticks me off, I couldn’t contain the rage anymore and let loose of my arm towards her face.

But thankfully… someone catched my fist.

“Now that action is not very lady like, de Caisoleán.” It was Juliana d’Brueucol who stopped my hand. “And that’s very original d’Plino, as… provoke all you want, you’re already in Arthur’s shitlist and it’s impossible to get out of it.”

“It’s Lord Svard for the likes of you, Norbionac, show some respect d'Brueucol!!” d’Plino… was speaking out of her ass.

“You’re not wrong, show Arthur some respect d’Plino, then you might be reconsidered taken out of his shitlist!”

“YOU UNCIVILIZED NORTHERNER!!!” And now d’Plino was about to do what I just did.

“Really?” And like before too… she catches her hand quite fast… too fast… “Why do I always have to catch stupid bitches’ flying hands…” she then threw away both of our way and made the gap between me and d’Plino and her cronies. “Now go, catching hands isn’t the only thing I can do d’Plino.”

As we were distanced quite far away, gapped by d’Brueucol herself, she gave a threatening statement towards d’Plino. Where from the tone… felt like someone that doesn’t play around when it comes to what they promise.

So, as they heard this, with a scoffed look and a shuddered spine, they left.

“I didn’t ask for your help.”

“No, you didn’t. But I love helping people Arthur have a crush on.” She… was being honest. “Where is he by the way?”

“In Castle Krone, doing nothing because he doesn’t see the point of going to the Académie, now knowing it’s not his views on my world that affects him.”

“Really, ‘My’ world?” She took offense to that statement I made.

“Yes… it’s-”

“Our world de Caisoleán.” She cut me off. “I know I’m a reincarnee, but that life back in Arthur’s, Eleanna’s, Miss Marie’s, Martyn’s… world is but the past now. Lumenter is my present and future.”

“…” Silence of understanding I could only give, as… I never did saw it that way for her. “So, then what? You want to drag Arthur back again here? Even though it’s most possibly his inner self that he is in conflict with.”

“No, it’s not going to be me that drags Arthur, it’s you!” She pointed at me. “But I’ll give you one advice towards Arthur. Your… perfectionism, isn’t going to cut it.”

“Since when am I a perfectionist?” Her statement baffled me.

“You are one, even if you disguised it as a drive, as a will to see the best version of someone. And that part I don’t like about you whenever you are near Arthur, because he has driven himself to his potential, then limit, the edge. What he needs is not someone to push him, but someone to say he is-”

“Fine as he is?!” I was… quite disgusted at that statement. “There is no such thing as, fine as it is! There’s only the peak, a place, a state of who they truly are!!”

“Even if it means their true self is a form they will hate so easily?”

“Why would they hate their truest self?!”

“Because their true self is never going to be their true self. They will see the flaw in their ‘truest’ self and then tried to shed them of it, where it’ll continue all over again, until they are not who they are anymore.” She… was speaking from experience.

“But… even then, to stay at where you are? To stay at the underpowered, at the meek and half-ass form that you are, is not something you should be living with.”

“No, you’re right, you can’t live knowing you are in your lowest form, but you can’t also live with a will that wants to change over and over again. There’s an end, de Caisoleán.”

“…” Silence again, I could give, but… slowly my mouth spoke to say. “No.”

“Huh…” d’Brueucol took out a huge breath. “No wonder they call you the Iron Bitch. Well either way, go to him, drag Arthur’s ass back here and help him find what he is missing to become a worthy successor to his uncle and the legacy that is Aronlight.”

“You don’t have to say that twice.”

“Of course, but I do have to say this one twice, Arthur needs someone to be comforted that he is fine as he is right now.”