“Oh Eris, sweetheart…” the old lady hugged her. “Did he say anything to you the last time you saw him?”
“He said he’d definitely return, and I promised him I’d show him my face once he comes back. But…” Eris began to tear up. “It’s been a month since the queen has returned from the war in the vampire kingdom. He’s supposed to have returned with her, but he has yet to appear. I heard that no one saw him returning with the queen too. And the queen says she didn’t know where he is. Grandma… I feel like he’ll never return to me again. I feel like I will never see him again.” she wept pitifully in her Grandma’s embrace and Iryz could only stand there watching as her own heart broke as she listened.
Until Eris and her grandmother slowly disappeared from her sight.
As a tear fell from Iryz’s eyes, the room she was in also began to dissolve and fade from her vision. And she started to hear someone calling out her name. But she could barely make it out until the world spun around and the reddish haze swallowed her once again.
“Iryz! Iryz! Are you alright?” Zeres voice was getting louder as he gently shook Iryz. She could hear from the tone that he was concerned for her. She wondered how long she had disappeared and separated from him after she went adventuring on her own.
He did not know what had happened, but they were already sent out of the magic spell abruptly. They were now by the wall and the frame of the painting was back in Iryz’s hand.
“Iryz?! Can you hear me?” he called out again, knowing that Iryz was still in daze. Her eyes were still not quite focussed even though her eyes were looking at him. He knew something must have happened to her while he was busy checking on the books at the other side of the shelf.
Thankfully, she finally snapped out of her daze and the confusion had left her eyes.
“Z-zeres?” she asked as she blinked.
“Yes, I’m here. What happened? You found the book, right? That must be why we’re already out of the spell.” Zeres got excited as he asked her about the book.
Iryz blinked and then she looked around. He was right, they were back in the library inside her house. Her mind and heart were still processing what she had just seen and heard from that past memory of her supposed past self.
“Iryz? Wait, come here.” Zeres supported her and led her to a chair and made her sit. “Sit here, I’ll go get you a glass of water.”
He dashed off and Iryz took that opportunity to process everything that had just happened. Eris was her, right? And that was… her past life, right? It must be as everything seemed to line up so perfectly. Even Eris’s face looked identical to hers.
Zeres did not even take long before he had returned with a glass of water. He squatted before her and handed her the glass.
Once Iryz drunk the water and calmed down, she finally looked up at Zeres. This man… he still looked exactly the same compared to the Zeres that she had seen in that memory.
“Is everything alright?” he asked. She could see his eyes brimming with questions, but he seemed to be controlling himself.
“Zeres… can I ask you one thing?” she was hesitant as she fiddled with her fingers nervously.
“Of course, Iryz. You can ask me anything.”
She opened her mouth, but she closed it again. Hesitation and doubt and fear was obviously stopping her.
His features gentled. “What is it? Don’t be afraid. You can ask me anything, Iryz. I promise I’ll try to give you an answer.”
Iryz took a deep breath and stared into his unusual silvery eyes.
“Uhm… when you find the book, would you still… come back here?” Iryz asked him.
Her question made him still for a moment. Then his brows knotted slightly before he gave her a reassuring smile.
“I’m not sure why you’re asking this kind of question but… I will definitely come back. We have made a deal, right? I don’t go back on my words. You still have to draw me naked, remember?” he even smirked a little as he said that last line.
But Iryz did not smile nor laugh at that line. The words ‘I will definitely come back’ were the only words that seemed to reach her ears and she felt like this was the exact same words he had said to Eris back then in the past. And her heart hurts so bad that she bit on her tongue a little. Because she had already felt that back then, Zeres never returned to Eris and this time, he would not be returning too. That was what her sixth sense was telling her.
Somehow, she thought that it was a given because with this, he would be able to bring his beloved back from the dead and he would of course be together with her from then on.
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She wanted to weep so badly right now. But she somehow held back and did not know how she even managed to do that. She did not know she could be such an accomplished actress until now because she smiled at him instead.
“I’ve finally found it, Zeres.” She said, showing him the frame. The content of the frame had changed from the first time she took it off the wall. And it did not just contain a random page from an old dictionary anymore. The details of the spell were now written clearly on it.
She watched his expression as he looked at the paper inside the frame. He looked so relieved and elated at the same time, as if a knife had been finally pulled out from his heart.
