Finding a small hole that barely fit, Vincent and Serena, who rushed to investigate their friends delayed return and save, were able to enter the cave from another side after coming against the blocked entrance.
"I was afraid of this; these three have been trapped here. We must hurry!"
"It has to be because of the fleet's cannons. I hope Howard will be able to stop them, at least for a while..."
But the girl's hopes weren't answered; the cannonballs didn't stop and continued to rush one after each other.
"It seems all what they care about is the annihilation of the Wilshire..."
Vincent said this while grasping Serena's hand to help her run over the rough path and which was made even more difficult to cross by the royal fleet cannons. The deeper they went in, the wetter and muddier the earth beneath their feet became. Clouds of mist and fog began to obscure their vision.
"It seems they have succeeded in securing the spring, if only we could rely this information to the stupid fleet!"
Serena remarked, facing the anger of being drowned alive for the third time. She gulped at the idea of this painful death... was it her destiny to die engulfed by water? Vincent's reassuring tone plucked her out of her dark thoughts.
"I hope they are still safe after that."
"You think they were able to go past the guards?"
"I doubt the place is guarded."
Vincent immediately replied, as if stating a fact. Serena found this hard to believe. Was this not the most strategic and important advantageous place for the Wilshire?
"Why do you say so?"
The girl asked, raising her voice to be heard through the distant sound of gushing water and the close one of hailing fire. Vincent shrugged his shoulders as he quickened his pace:
"Because it is her will."
Serena could not tell whom he was talking about, or from where this certainty came from. But there was no time for further discussions, she could ask later. Now they had to survive and rescue their friends. Serena wanted to focus at the task at hand, but she could not drift her eyes away from the two embracing hands, hers in Vincent's. There was warmth flowing through her veins reaching the heart she'd closed safe to one thing. The love she had locked in her heart was no longer painful. She could feel tenderness without finding herself looked upon with pity. She knew she wanted to keep on feeling this way yet realizing this made her instantly pull her hand away. The young butterfly didn't want to leave the cocoon she was surrounding herself with; she wanted to stay in it forever until the sun she desires penetrates it. Why suffer more? Vincent did not mind the sudden pull thinking he was tiring her with his dragging. The two of them stood catching their breaths. Vincent looked around making sure they weren't being followed. The sound of streaming water reached their ears, and the scent of dewy soil revived with pure water refreshed their souls. Vincent remarked:
" It seems we are approaching from the spring. They should be someplace around here!"
They both called their friends' as loud as they could but heard no answer. Vincent began to walk again signaling at the girl to follow him closely.
Serena followed him quietly thinking hard enough before thought enough before asking him:
"Sir Vincent, why are you doing this?"
"Why are you helping us? I've to say, you've been of great help to us throughout the entire journey."
Vincent answered her question with another. A brief light visited her eyes at being acknowledged, yet once again, by the wrong person. The proposed question had an answer that had been lying in the deserted heart for long enough waiting the raindrops it was never blessed with.
"I seek the heart of a certain person... I want him to notice me, to know that I exist as I am, not as a mere shadow of the past. "
The light in her eyes faded as she looked at the second officer. Vincent remained silent, but there was no pity in his eyes to her relief. After another few steps, she repeated her question for him, and to her surprise, the man was not in a very different situation than hers.
"Perhaps, because I merely want to see this thing to its end. I'm here to support someone see it to its end even if it's from the shadows."
"Would he know you're here?"
Vincent shrugged his shoulders again telling he'd no idea and that is was not important. Serena wanted to go on, to know who that person was. She could guess Alex as well but the matter seemed more complicated and they had a mission to complete. The water seemed closer, the more they went through that cave, the more the sound was coming stronger, stronger in a frightening way.
"Do you think the place is going to collapse from the pressure of water?"
Serena asked uncaring about hiding her fear and looking tough. Vincent said that this is what will likely happen and that's why they must hurry and stay together because if they got separated it would be difficult to find each other in this mountainous maze. At this possibility, Serena held to his hand again as they ran down screaming for their friends to hear them. Their hands would have remained jointed if it were not for a cannonball that shook the entire place followed by another collapsing the part of the cave they were in. Vincent coughed out dirt before he managed to get up all covered in dust and gravels. Serena raised her hand waving it and telling him she was fine. She was only thrown some meters away. As she got up grasping to everything she could find, Vincent looked at her glad she was unharmed but there was someone standing in her place.
"Vincent..."
There was a woman with blue diamond eyes in a beautiful pink dress that suited her eyes pure color. She was giving him her hand, a peaceful smile adorning her dreamy face.
"Claudine!"
Serena stood to go to Vincent but he was right there for her, pushing her with all his strength some other meters behind. She got up surprised asking what had occurred to him, then she understood everything, she understood when she saw him buried under the falling rubble.
Her knees buckled beneath her at the scene of the entrapped man, his blood seeping slowly coloring the rock in a bright red. She crept to him, reaching with her hands to hold his.
"Vincent... Sir Vincent?"
Her voice hoarsely left her trembling lips. Her hands shaking in contrast with the still hand she embraced, her tears washing off the trickling blood. With one last boat of sudden strength brought about by her rage and frustration she let go of the hand and started removing the collapsed stones and rocks frantically, uncaring about her safety till it was her nails bleeding as well. She managed to pull the heavy body, partially its upper part and lay the man's head on her lap. The veil of dust that floated the space did not affect her blue eyes as their sight was cleared by the ceaseless tears, flowing down her cheeks as if furbishing her blue spheres with more pain and sorrow.
"Why, you idiot? Why? You fool... you didn't even die for the one you wanted to save... you only died for a worthless shadow of her, just because I look like her! She wants to torture me even after her death... why?"
Serena bowed her head until her forehead was touching the dead man's. She traced her fingers through his hair, crying harder and harder as if she was trying to restore his previous handsome visage.
"Even after she's gone she insists on making me carry her sins and burdens... carry her remains... pay the price of her former existence..."
Serena sighed through the tears, words slowly fading sobs as the man engulfed in the shadow of death was also engulfed by the arms of the shadow of a woman who had lost the key of her existence. She was a mere shadow of a dead woman in the others' eyes, shadow reflected by a long setting sun that would not rise again, only in the longing imagination of those who had loved her.