Delphine Frostblade's POV

I clenched my fist as I looked around. My entire space was surrounded by darkness… for a second, it felt like I was standing inside a strong black mist where nothing but darkness existed, but then slowly the darkness parted… revealing dark walls as if I was standing in a confined space.

My head turned left and right to find what was going on here… just then, the darkness before me parted, revealing… figures emerging from the darkness… or more like those dark mists turned into figures.

Their shapes pulsed in and out of existence, as if they were being sculpted by shadows struggling to hold a physical form.

One figure crawled on the ground as the figure struggled to move… as if it was deeply wounded, while another figure stepped before it. The crawling one dragged itself with trembling arms, leaving streaks along the unseen surface, each movement slow and tortured.

Step.. Step…

Walking slowly as if it was enjoying the crawling figure that was trying to escape from it. Every step echoed unnaturally, too loud for a space this small, as if the sound passed through my body rather than my ears.

I gulped.

I didn't know why, but… I felt something from that walking figure… something dreadful… something entirely wrong!! Something in its presence threaded into my veins, chilling my body from the inside like ice slowly replacing blood.

I subconsciously stepped back as I watched the crawling figure trying to move back as it looked at the walking figure… I couldn't see their faces… everything shrouded in darkness.

Their silhouettes flickered like dying black flames, unstable and yet impossibly solid.

'What's going on?' I thought with a gulp.

"How long do you believe... The dark will protect you from me?"

The voice… neither woman nor man… just pure hoarse and dreadful, which made my skin crawl in fear.

The crawling figure trembled. Still, it moved back as if trying to escape from that figure, but it caught its head and lifted the crawling figure. The motion was almost effortless, cruelly gentle, as if it lifted something already meant to break.

It tried to see them, but I couldn't see it… If they were a man or a woman… just figures shrouded in darkness.

What's going on?

Why am I seeing this?

What's the meaning of this?

I was so confused.

Just then,

"Your path ends here… crushed beneath the same hands that shaped your first breath."

The voice dropped lower.

Chucckk!

In the next second, a flesh-cutting sound echoed.

I flinched in shock as I watched the crawling figure's head get cut off in a second, not even a whip of a weapon, just pure cut.

The severing felt too clean, too absolute, as if reality itself sliced rather than a blade.

And,

Thuck!

The head landed before me… I could feel my pulse running faster and faster. I carefully looked down…

!!!

I flinched as if I knew who it was unconsciously when I noticed that white hair, so silky that only one person could have this… I gulped.

Something told me not to pick it up, but my… my hands trembled as I crouched and slowly tried to reach it… when my fingers reached the head… the darkness parted from it, peeling away like smoke afraid of the truth beneath.

And…

My pulse stopped when I saw… the face of Aether, who was marred with wounds. I couldn't utter a word, everything stuck in my throat when I saw that… his lifeless face… the faint trace of pain frozen across his expression, as if his final breath had been stolen mid-plea.

My lips parted as I screamed.

"ARRH—"

Thud!

"Ouch!"

I groaned as I nudged my nose… I fell from the bed again?

I scratched my head with an annoyed expression before sitting up and looking at the mirror before me… I saw my face drenched in sweat and… fear in my eyes.

"Not this dream again…" I muttered, my voice barely steady.

I had been having this dream ever since the barrier had erupted around the Empire. Not sure why, it just started to come out of nowhere whenever I fell asleep.

It didn't matter how exhausted I was—the moment my eyelids shut, something dragged me back into that same darkness.

It was initially just a blurred dream, kind of mist and darkness initially, but as time passed, everything started to reveal inside the darkness.

Slowly, I started to see this… dream of Aether being killed.

The clarity sharpened each night, as if the vision demanded I witness everything.

Initially, I thought it was just a dream… my hate for him? Maybe?

I wondered, but then… it was impossible to have the same dream again and again, and slowly the darkness revealed it as if it was some kind of grand thing… so I thought it would be my visions showing up.

But still, this was my first time seeing the same visions again and again.

It never happened before… or even revealed itself slowly.

My visions usually slammed into me all at once, merciless and bright, not this drawn-out unravelling that felt too deliberate.

It was new and… I felt something dreadful in it as I looked at my hand… they were still trembling as if I could still feel his head on my finger.

The phantom weight lingered like his final moment had been pressed into my skin.

I gulped, shaking my head… "I need to inform him… this is getting out of hand," I muttered before glancing at the window… the sky had turned bright… looks like I slept through the entire morning.

I sighed, "I hope Principal didn't get annoyed," I muttered as I readied myself for the academy.

While I was taking a bath, I couldn't help but think… about the vision.

What if it came true?

Who was that person?

Why did they want to kill him?

I tried to recall their words… I knew, and I heard words of something, but whenever I woke up, I forgot the words… as if it was nothing but a dream.

The harder I tried to grasp it, the faster it slipped, like smoke pushed through my fingers.

Dream… or vision?

I don't get it.

"I should warn him… just in case," I muttered. Even if it was just a dream… I cannot leave it as it was.

I… I could have him die.

I watched the water ripple as I stared…

"Hah… we fucked here too," I muttered with a painful smile.

The memory ached, not because it was shameful, but because it reminded me how close I had been to him… and how far I felt now.

I love him… I really do…. Seeing his head every time, dead and lost… I-I hate it!

"I really hate it!" I clenched as the water shed my tears from my eyes.

Should I talk to him?

I think I had enough time… I mean… I did have, but… I never thought of what to do.

I just… I just wanted to prolong it as long as possible… fearing my choice was going to hurt me and him.

Fear that my choice would cloud my thoughts.

Fear… I… I would lose him.

Fear that maybe I was never enough to stand beside him in the first place.

"I… I am fucking lost… Principal… I'm really lost… I don't know what to choose… I am old enough to take a decision yet…" as I clenched my fist, "Why? Why is it hard to say… NO!!"

He had many wonderful women… who accepted who he was… and here I am complaining.

Would he still love me?

After all this time?

"Hah… would he even remember me?" I chuckled, yet my eyes trembled. The laughter tasted bitter, like I was laughing at my own stupidity.

I rubbed my eyes. This was why I didn't want to think about him… every time I think, I feel like I get lost in a river that I could never get out of.

A river that drags me under, no matter how hard I try to breathe.

It is pathetic… yet it is me.

"He has many women by his side… Selene, young and understanding; Aqualina, princess and dangerous; Aria, teacher and takes care of him; Liora, fierce and direct; Sandra, cunning and cold… and many more… I don't know… I.." As I chuckled, just naming them was hard, and how in the world he loves them all?

How does someone like me even fit among them… or matter to him at all?

And compare to them… I… I am nothing!

I… I mean, what else do I have?

Teaching?

Aria was better than me!

Understanding?

Selene was better than me!

Helping?

Aqualina and Sandra were better than me!!

And I… where am I?

Do I even fit somewhere… other than being a pervert?

My eyes trembled… I… I nothing could make him notice me… I… I am nothing!

I couldn't even compete with any woman… they were better… they were flawless… I… I, on the other hand… I am nothing but a flaw.

Nothing but pain for him.

The kind of burden no one wants but no one says out loud.

While others understand his pain and suffering and accept him for who he was… here I couldn't!

That's the difference… I… he may not care if I disappear now!

After all, I am just one among them… not even worthy to be remembered!

Someone he sees only when everyone else is gone.

Someone who waits but never gets chosen.

What am I?

What am I great?… Nothing but a woman who could see random futures.

I didn't see any use here other than pain and suffering… Haha.

Talk about nothing.

Even my laugh felt empty, like a cracked glass barely holding together.

Even when others helped him when the empires were suffering and facing Master Snape… he didn't even need my help… I… I was, in the end, really nothing to him.

"Yeah, I didn't deserve him…"

The words stung, but they felt honest in a cruel way.

Soon, I left the house and slowly walked back to the academy… as I walked, I saw families walking together happily, I saw the children's happy faces and the parents' tired faces as if they were dealing with a headache, yet they had small smiles… enjoying their life.

Their warmth made something inside me ache, like everyone else was moving forward while I stayed stuck in the same spot, afraid to breathe wrong.

"Maybe… we never meant together," I muttered to myself weakly, "I mean… this was obvious, right? He only told me the truth at last person… like I am the least interested…"

The memory of that moment still burned!!

The way he looked at everyone else first, the way his tone softened for them before turning to me.

I frowned, clenching my fist,

"I hate that fucking asshole…He didn't d-deserve me!! No-NO way!!

But my voice cracked again, betraying me.

Because even as I said it, even as I tried to sound confident… it felt like a weak shield against the truth eating me inside.

I stopped for a second, staring down at my trembling hands, whispering to myself under my breath, barely audible,

"If he didn't deserve me… why does it hurt this much?"

He cheated, and he lied, and he manipulated my innocent heart and even… telling me as if he was the fucking victim! How the fuck does he do that!

"He cheated, and he lied, and he manipulated my innocent heart and even… telling me as if he was the fucking victim! How the fuck does he do that! Fuck you, asshole!!!" I shouted furiously in the middle of the road,

"You know how many men out there would be ready to love me and spend the rest of their lives with me alone? And you have the nerve to cheat on me, you fucking asshole!!" I kept shouting… louder, harsher… until people stopped, stared, and the murmurs hit my ears.

I flinched before blushing heavily and running away… "I am sorry!!"

That was... awkward!

Soon, I reached the academy. As I walked through the corridor toward the Principal's office, I muttered, "I should talk to her… I'm confused… maybe she could give me the path I need." Putting my trust in the Principal who guided me this whole time… maybe she could give me the final answer I couldn't find for myself.

I knew it was wrong to ask for her opinion, but at this rate… I wasn't going to reach any end. I was only wandering, hurting myself and everyone around me.

Taking a deep breath, "Today I will find the answer," I whispered as I knocked on the Principal's office door.

Knock, knock…

There was no response… I knocked again. Still nothing.

I frowned. "Maybe she isn't here," I muttered, turning away—when the door suddenly creaked open on its own.

I blinked in surprise and slowly peeked inside. "Principal? Are you there?"

No response, and the desk was empty.

I frowned deeper, pushed the door open, and stepped inside… only to see Aether sleeping on the couch.

I froze, breath caught. He looked pale—drained—as if something had pulled the life right out of him. His stillness twisted my stomach.

My voice broke into a whisper, "N-No…" I rushed toward him, fear climbing fast.

What if something had happened?

What if my visions came true?

Did I waste all my time?

"No, please… I haven't told my answer, God—"

"Arrh!"

I flinched as a groan escaped him. His body shifted slightly. Only then did my lungs finally work again. Relief washed over me so fast my vision blurred, tears rising... tears I quickly wiped away before he fully woke.

I forced a mask on my face. When his eyes opened and saw me, he whispered,

"Dora…?"

My lips twitched violently. What? You forget my face, too? Asshole.

A vein pulsed on my forehead.

"Delphine…" I corrected coldly, arms crossed, expression dead flat.

He snapped awake instantly as I continued, unwavering,

"Shall we talk, Aether?"

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