Ever since the day the carriage bearing the Prisce crest faded behind the treeline, time in our small house seems to have thickened.
There are no more frantic knocks on the door early in the morning. No more bright laughter or noisy teasing. The atmosphere, already quiet, grows even emptier. Thomas, Emily, and I are forced to fall back into our old rhythm of daily life.
Three weeks after Eliana's departure, the first letter from the capital finally reaches my hands.
I carefully peel open the wax seal. The scent of expensive ink and fragrant paper drifts into my nose.
Eliana's handwriting is soft yet full of energy, filling both sides of the paper. She writes about the imposing castles in the capital, about the giant libraries that Emily would surely adore. About lavish tea parties and new noble friends she met at the academy. Everything in the letter is brilliant and dazzling.
'A completely different world' I think to myself, my fingers lightly tracing the rough edge of the paper.
I am genuinely happy that she is enjoying a good life. But trailing right behind it is an indescribable feeling of emptiness. An invisible distance is slowly stretching between the two of us.
I pull out a chair, sit at the desk, and get out paper and pen. Dipping the nib into the inkpot, I carefully select each word. I write about my tedious daily activities, reassuring her that everything at home remains fine. And finally, I write how much I miss her.
I fold the letter, setting it neatly at the corner of the desk to take to the post office tomorrow morning. I assume everything will continue to drift by peacefully like this.
Yet a few days later, that tranquility is brutally shattered.
My sleep is cut short by a heavy thud. The mattress beside me shakes violently.
I snap my eyes open. Emily is convulsing, her hands frantically clawing at the bedsheet, her face contorted in pain.
"Emily!" I bolt upright, calling her name in panic.
My shout wakes Thomas in the bed across the room. Realizing something is wrong, he immediately rushes over.
Emily lies curled up, her back arched. Thomas presses a hand to her forehead, only to recoil in shock. Emily's body radiates a scorching heat, her skin flushed red from a terrifyingly high fever.
Yet that is not the worst of it.
Pitch-black veins begin to bulge violently. Starting from below her chest, they web intricate branches all the way up her neck, looking just like poisonous roots strangling her airway. Suffocating and horrific.
Emily rambles incoherently in delirium. Her breath comes in broken, heart-wrenching gasps.
"Water! Cassius, get warm water quickly!" Thomas's hands tremble uncontrollably. He clumsily grabs a clean cloth nearby.
My legs carry me in a frantic dash for water. When I return, Thomas hastily dips the cloth, wrings it out, and repeatedly wipes the sweat from Emily's forehead and neck.
Looking into the utter panic in Thomas's eyes, I realize a cruel truth. That terrible illness has relapsed again. But these are no ordinary pains.
This is the worst outbreak. The most severe one yet.
Watching Emily writhe on the bed, I grit my teeth and turn to Thomas. "I'm going to find Lord Leopold."
Waiting for his nod, I charge straight out into the dark night.
Heavy-hearted, I run headlong toward the Prisce estate. I do not expect the Marquess to know how to cure this illness. No ordinary physician could ever manage that. I only hope he has something, anything that might ease Emily's pain right now.
Leopold acts swiftly. Only a short while later, the Prisce family's finest physicians arrive at our house in a desperate rush, carrying dozens of medicine chests.
The small room is instantly thick with the bitter smell of herbs.
"In the past, she just grits her teeth and endures it... until the pain recedes on its own" Thomas explains tensely, his hands wringing his crumpled coat hem. "But this time the severity of the pain is beyond endurance. Please, help her."
The physicians sweat profusely. They employ all kinds of expensive painkillers, and a few even begin channeling mana to soothe her spasming muscles.
It takes effect, but only minimally. Emily's moans grow slightly softer, her body loosens up, yet those hideous black veins on her neck refuse to disappear. They remain right there, stubborn and malicious.
After several agonizing hours, the chief physician sighs, shakes his head, and steps back.
They cannot cure the root cause. Emily's condition is unlike any normal illness or physical injury. Leaving behind a pile of sedative vials, they pack up their equipment and leave in helplessness.
Thomas is utterly exhausted. He sits slumped on the kitchen doorstep, dry coughing fits occasionally echoing out.
I slip off my shoes, climb onto the bed, and wrap my arms entirely around Emily's trembling frame. Body heat transfers from me to her—fragile, but it is all I can offer to warm those freezing feet.
I reach over to grab the knight novel Eliana once gave me.
"In a forest..." My voice grows hoarse, cracking at every word.
I try to read loudly and slowly, clinging to the hope that these dreamy tales might distract her from the physical agony tearing through her.
Emily keeps her eyes shut tight, sweat drenching her forehead, weakly burying her head into my chest.
'I'm completely useless'
I bite the inside of my lip hard enough to draw blood. I can use mana. I bear a surname that could strike terror into the nobility. Yet in the end, I am still just a helpless kid, watching with wide eyes as my loved one suffers torment. Guilt and frustration claw at my chest.
Night deepens into late hours.
Exhaustion mixed with extreme mental pressure finally breaks me. My head droops against the edge of the pillow as I drift off, yet my fingers remain tightly intertwined with Emily's frail ones.
A long while later. From the dark corner of the room, a black shadow detaches itself.
Rimi leaps softly onto the bed. Without a sound. The silent steps of a predator glide lightly over the thick quilt.
The plump black cat stops at the foot of the bed. In the dark, its yellow eyes flash with a sharp, profound intelligence far surpassing the comprehension of a ordinary creature.
Rimi stares at Emily's battered body, gazing at those horrific black veins suffocating her life away. Then it slowly turns its head, casting a glance at Cassius's exhausted, sleeping face.
It knows precisely what is happening. It knows why the fragile body of this mortal girl keeps collapsing so miserably.
Rimi lets out a soft sigh through its nose. Its black tail swishes lightly through the air. Silently turning around, it leaps off the edge of the bed and strolls out of the room through the window, melting into the quiet night.