Mikleo 3

7

“Murder splits the soul.”

Chapter 7 ~ Guilt-Trip

In her dreams, Nayla can hear her mother calling out to her. But this time, instead of having the voice stayed in her head, it follows her even as she returns back to consciousness. At first she thinks that she is still dreaming, but then Nayla pinches herself and winces a little bit from the pain.

“It is real,” she groans in slight pain. “Wait, mum? Is that you?”

The girl hops out of her bed and begins to follow that shadowy figure.

She must be delirious, but it looks so real. Nayla can not help but wanting to investigate. Still feeling slightly drowsy from having just woken up, the young girl tries to find the balance in her footing while her eyesight search warily for the figure. She can see strands of her progenitor’s raven black hair dancing in the night wind as she follows the path the ghost of her mother has taken. She is afraid to blink, because if the brunette does one wrong move, she fears that she might lose her again. This is really happening, is it not? The longer Nayla follows her, the more she is convinced that this is really her beloved mother's ghost.

“Wait for me!” she shouts out, gasping heavily, trying to catch her breath.

Her mother’s ghost does not seem to hear her however, heading pass through the palace’s darken hallways ever so uninterruptedly, going through ever turns and corners just at the nick of time every time Nayla seems to almost be catching up to her. Just when the girl is near, the ghost of her mother distances herself again. And so begins this game of chase. Nayla follows the shadowy figure until her mother leads her to one of the palace’s garden, though it is not the part that she is familiar with.

It is difficult to navigate in the darkness, yet Nayla somehow manages to keep up with the shadowy figure. She leads her into a maze, which the girl ducks in without a second thought. They eventually stop when they get to the center of the garden.

Her mother looks positively dazzling, her body gives off a soft glow, the night breeze blowing though the skirt of her white dress, her long raven black hair twisting behind her back. Her jade eyes look like to precious orbs, staring far into the starry night sky, her skin looks as healthy as back when she was alive. A thin smile is plastered on her lips peacefully, and the calm expression reminds the girl so much of her younger days. This makes Nayla suspects if this is just one of her mother’s memory again; Nayla can barely tell sometimes.

“Mom?” she tries again softly, careful not to stark her, afraid that she might go away again. Nayla barely able to get in contact with her mother lately — at least the one that is stuck in the circlet’s memories. And when she does, it is usually because her mother needs to show her another new set of memories. Though somehow, this time feels rather different though. It is unusual for her mother to string her along like this. Nayla wonders what kind of memory her mother will reveal to her this time.

Instead of showing her something else however, her mother turns to Nayla, and this time really look at her daughter.

“Nayla, it’s so good to finally see you again. My, how fast have you grown.” Jade speaks as if she had not been contacting her daughter through her mind for numerous times before.

“Mom, are you okay?” They are in one of those dreams again, aren’t they?

Jade reaches out to extend one of her arms, capturing the side of her daughter’s small face. Her eyes asses her with so much love and longing, and her green eyes sparkle with a tad bit of sadness to it.

“Oh darling, I am so sorry for doing this do you. I should never have left you. I would have stayed if I could, but I was dying, and there was barely anything I could do to sustain myself. And in the end, I ended up becoming like this: a ghost, not alive, not yet gone.”

“Mom, what are you saying? You are talking in riddles. I don’t understand—”

Her mind must be acting up again. Nayla has been missing her so bad that she is dreaming about her, this time out of her own violation. She should know better than naively thinking that all of her misery will just evaporate like that. Even if the brunette had killed her mother’s murderer, that does not mean that she will not still long for what she had missed: growing up with her mother’s love. They have been together, even if it was just briefly, but Nayla will always wonder about how things would have turned out if her mother were still alive. She would not have grown up to be a murderer, that is for sure.

“Hush darling, it’s okay. What matters is that we are here now. I can’t tell you much; there is not enough time. I am only allowed to contact you during midnight, and it’s already so close to daybreak.”

“Please don’t go, Mom. I miss you.” Nayla can not help but to allow tears to run down her face, her sight getting blurry from all of that silent tears flowing out. 

“I’m sorry. I wish I can stay longer, but our time is limited. Please, just hear me out, darling. You need to be careful. The power of an omniseraph is like a double-edge sword. I was able to handle it, only barely, but that was because I was born as a seraph. It was different for you though; although I gave birth to you, your body is still human. The power is too strong, and I’m afraid it will only hurt you in the end.”

Nayla nods, though she is barely listening. She wants to remember their time together like this.

“Where will you possible go, mother? You can stay right here, in my dreams, forever. And I promise that I will never forget about you.”

“I wish I can, darling, but I can not. The forces will not let me be away for too long; it will pull me right back when the time arrives. But please hear me out. You need to be careful when you use your power. Don’t overdo it. I know that you have a mission to fulfill, and I can not stop you from doing what is right. The world needs you, but I also can not help but be selfish and wanting you to be save. I want my only child to live a long and healthy life, be happy for a change. You’ve been so sad all this time, and I am disappointed that I couldn’t do anything to help before. I was so weak that I barely had any self consciousness left within my spirit.”

“I don’t understand. Why can’t you stay? You’ve been with me all this time, surely we can spend some time here?” Even if this is just a dream. Even if this version of her mother is just a fragment of a memory. This time, it feels different though. Her mother is more aware of her. Nayla does not appear in her child form this time.

“There should not be anyone near to disturb us here.” Jade stares intensely into a duplicate pair of her own emerald eyes, before pulling the brunette into a warm embrace, letting her daughter knows how much she loves the girl.

Nayla succumbs to her mother’s touch. Her body is so warm and soft, and the girl feels like as if she were small again. It is as if not a day has passed for her mother; she still feels just like when she was alive. She misses her; she misses her mother so much. She had missed so much, and Nayla cries for the things that she never had and never will have. Their time together were robbed from their hands, and the girl weeps for the invisible things that have passed.

Jade would have sacrificed everything in her power to be together with her daughter again. But nonetheless, she is now dead, a wandering spirit that is almost forgotten, not crossing over to the other side yet, too bound by the life she left behind on earth. She needed to do something, but the time spins like a spinning wheel that can not be stopped. Jade wishes she can not something to help her daughter, but the girl is still grieving for her even after so long has passed. Her daughter needs to move on, she knows, but there is something else she must handle first — something much more vital.

As the first light of morning peeks from the horizon, Jade smiles upon her daughter one last time. Her form is disintegrating in Nayla’s eyes, getting fainter and fainter until she can barely see her mother anymore.

“Remember,” her last word is barely an echoing whisper, before Nayla cries herself back to darkness.

. . . . .

With the help of Lailah, Edna and Zaveid, Nayla is able to awaken the rest of the elements within her. Nayla discovers that learning the wind is much easier when it comes to the body movement. She can follow instructions just equally well on all of the elements, but for some reasons, some elements are easier to be used than the others. The girl is diligent, and she works harder to make up for the other elements that she can not catch up with. It is just the elements fire and earth comes even harder for her to master. Perhaps it has got something to do with the opposite forces?

Getting stronger is not the only development she makes. The more power she earns, the easier it is for her stamina to get drained. They tried everything — from eating much heavier meals to sustain her now energy draining lifestyle, down to energy replenishment or transfer from other seraphs — but it seems like the omniseraph’s body just simply can not catch up.

They have their own theories, of course. One of it might be because Nayla is only half seraph. Her powers may be that of an omniseraph level, but her body is still mortal. She is prone to any danger that a human can get, including energy exhaustion. Thus, they limit the amount of training they put on the girl in order to avoid draining her out of her stamina too much.

Whatever attempts they are doing to prevent the inevitable, it only seems to worsen Nayla’s condition though. The girl insists that they keep on training, fearing that she might not have enough time to learn everything, trying to cramp every single knowledge she can absorb. But while her mind is brilliant, her body can not keep up. Nayla exhausts herself to the point that she falls in bedridden for not just a handful of times. This keeps going on until it reaches a very concerning level. Her friends try to stop the girl, but her hard-headedness is beyond stubborn. She pushes herself to the point that Mikleo sometimes become irked by her persistence.

He cares for her deeply, and as time goes by, he can not allow himself to watch her force herself to drain like this. The others are also worried. They can not allow this to keep going on. If she over exhausted herself, she might even put her life at risk. Learning the elements require plenty of energy, especially when she is learning all four at once. But they are all torn between making sure that they prepare the girl thoroughly and making sure she really gets enough rest. As more days pass by however, the lesser has her strength becomes.

The seraphs try to figure out a way to prevent the half seraph from growing weaker, going all out by traveling to their origin villages and trying to console with the village elders while the girl is training herself toughly back in the central district. So far though, there are no assuring results. Omniseraphs are extremely rare, and not many elders share the knowledge about them. In fact, there does not seem to be any related context about half seraphs before. That is where they start finding dead ends.

As time goes by, Nayla’s condition only grow worsen, to the point that she can no longer train. The girl is disappointed with herself, for not being able to learn more and perform better. But her friends are much more concerned about her well being rather than her progress. Mikleo shows the most concern the most, always staying by her side whenever she is bedridden about she over exhaust herself. He hates her being like this, but he hates it more that he does not know anything about making her feel better. The least he can do is to ease her pain by transferring some of his life energy to his girlfriend, but even that is only a temporary solution. Soon enough, even this method might not work anymore.

They then decide to go to Nayla’s father, in hope that he might be able to save his daughter. They arrange a trip for all five of them to go. Rose has her merchant guild to manage, and Dezel is never far from the rosette haired girl, so they can not go. Alisha is drowned on more paperwork — she would go if she could, but someone has to stay and manage her duties around the castle. Meanwhile, Sorey is required to help out within the city, so he is unable to go with them until a much later date. And thus gather the five of them; Nayla supported by Mikleo, followed by Lailah, Edna and Zaveid.

To others, it might seem like the girl is traveling alone, since they can not see the four other seraphs who accompany her. Some travelers offer their help, some with questions that most she can not answer. 

This journey would have been depression, if it were not for Edna aiming her couple teasing, this time aiming at Lailah and Zaveid. The wind seraph remains unaffected, being the overly confident narcissist as he is, but sparks of fire start going off here and there whenever Lailah feels irked by the constant teasing.

At the same time, Mikleo has been rather attentive with the brunette, which is so unlike him to be acting like this towards her. Though it can be rather refreshing to see him treat her so kindly like this. This chivalrous act of his becomes so amusing that Nayla can not help but chuckle at him at times, even though she should not be laughing about this matter at all. The others stare at him when Mikleo does something way too nice, though the boy tries to ignore the amused looks that Zaveid has been throwing at his direction the entire time.

It takes a while for them to reach the nameless village that is Nayla’s origin, but they finally arrive. Her father is on his way back from chopping the woods from the high mountain’s direction, a huge axe resting on his broad shoulder when he spots Nayla sitting on the porch, waiting for his return. The man welcomes her with a warm embrace, which Nayla welcomes gleefully, sweat, smells and all that.

“Nayla, my daughter! Look at you. My, did you grow taller? How have you been? Oh, I miss you so much!” her father says with wide grin plastered on his face. Her arrival should not be a complete surprise to him however, since she has been writing to him about her intention to visit.

“Dad! I’m glad that you’re doing fine as well. There are so many things that I want to talk about with you.”

“Sure, then we should head inside. Not another word before you tell me all about what had happened while you were away. We have a lot of things to catch up to. You didn’t write much in your last letter.”

“Dad, I know,” she starts out, causing her father to pause with his back towards her. “About mom, about who she actually is and her powers.”

“So you remember,” that is not a question. He must have taken her silence for confirmation, because then he says, “Then there is no need to keep it off from you anymore then, I assume. Have you got the visions?”

“Yes. How do you know about that?”

“There is no secret between a man and his wife, Nayla,” he simply answers.

“Then, you must about know my powers then? How can I overcome them?”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve been practicing using the power I inherit from my mother, but it drains my energy as the cost. We are hoping that you might know a solution to this, as no one else seems to know.”

“Wait, go back for a second. We?”

Her father can not see them, but Nayla does not come home alone. His daughter tries her best to explain the situation, despite him being unable to see her friends. Just because he can not see them, does not mean that he is not aware of their existence. As suspected, Nayla’s dad does know about seraphs, even more than he should.

“I know this day would come,” the man says, taking a deep reluctant breath.

“What do you know about it? Can you help her?” Mikleo asks in reflex, unable to fight the urge to ask despite the mortal man not being able to hear him. So Nayla speaks for the male seraph instead.

“Yes, I think I might have a clue. Mikleo, is it? Listen, I guess I should start with how Jade and I first met.”

And as her father tells them the story, Nayla can see a replica of memory from that event playing out in front of her eyes as well, as if she is recalling one of her own. She is fully aware that it is her mother’s though. A tingle of spark from her circlet, though not as brilliantly blinding as it was before, announces the presence of an external energy being used.

. . . . .

It was a chance meeting that Ace met the woman who he would call a wife in the future. He was chopping some woods in the forest, the same thing that he did was a young man as he did in the present day. He was less muscular back then, and there were no tired lines that would show in his later years from his facial features just yet.

The raven haired girl was alone, looking so out of place standing in the middle of that wild forest. He decided to approach without a second thought, planning to offering some help to get her back to her home, unaware that the girl was ordinary girl.

Her presence there was no coincidental at all. She had admitted that it was not the first time that they had met, that she had seen him a couple of times before in her earlier life, even though he was never aware of her presence. Ace was not so suspicious when she told him about that, thinking that it was simply because he was just not paying enough attention to his surrounding all that times, too focused on his work.

The young Ace, already in his late teen years, was planning to save up some money and was in the middle of the progress of building his own shed, which he wanted to use when he finally got married. He was in an eligible age back then, though he had not really have any girl in mind yet back then. He had a few of the village girls flirting with him, much because he was a looker, but he never really reciprocate on anyone. If he was going to marry someone, he was going to do it out of love. The young lad Ace had not taken a particular interest in anyone yet though. Until she came along.

Jade was cheerful and kind, and being with her made him happy. Eventually, Ace felt that he wanted to spend the rest of his time along with her.

The girl returned his feelings, yet, there were complications. One day, she finally came clean to him, telling him that she was not human, but a seraph. He had heard tales about their kind, and thought that her people were just myths, since no one really able to see the seraphs. It was then revealed that Jade had consumed a very rare type of flower which only bloomed in the red full moon. It was the plant that allowed a seraph like her to be seen by mortal eyes.

The two fell in love, and they eventually got married. Then, a few years later, they had Nayla. Their daughter shared both of their features; her eyes and his hair shade. They were happy for a time, until Jade’s duties came calling back for her. There were still secrets that she had kept away from her mortal husband, and it was that she was no ordinary seraph, but an omniseraph.

Jade was a rare kind of breed. Not many knew about her existence, only some select few. No humans were even aware of her existence, let alone the majority of the seraph folks.

Being an omniseraph has a large responsibility, and occasionally, Jade would disappear for weeks to come to fulfill her life missions. She would always come back though, and for a time, that was all that mattered. At this time, Nayla was too young to remember anything about this little detail.

Jade’s real identity had to be kept as a secret, of course, but being secretive made her became suspicious in the eyes of the villagers that they distanced themselves from the unknown mysterious girl who seemed to have just popped out of nowhere. It made her felt kind of lonely at times, but at least she still had her family. Besides, it was better that way. Jade did not have to explain some of the things that she could not explain if she were ever to slip up in front of the mass.

Some time passed, and then the little family of tree began to discover that Jade was not the only one with the four elements at her disposal. Their daughter, Nayla, was also one just like her. Or at least in terms of her powers, as the little toddler was definitely human through and through. This should not come as a surprise to Jade, as she was also born a seraph, unlike the usual occurrence. Her parents were normal seraphs though, so she had hoped that her daughter would at least turned out to be normal. So much for having her hopes up though.

Not wanting to risk her young daughter’s life in danger, Jade decided to take Nayla back to her seraph village for the time being in order to ask the elders to help her with a ritual to seal off Nayla’s powers. Jade had used her circlet as a mean to unlock the girl’s powers, in case her daughter would be in need of it in the future. Though for the mean time, since the family lives amongst humans, they have to seal off the powers until Nayla was able to control it.

Jade had planned to teach her daughter herself when the child was old enough. But who would have thought that a tragedy would strike her, just before she had the chance 

As it turned out, consuming the flower had also some side effects. She still had her youth, but Jade was no longer immortal, but at least she got her dreams came true. Too bad it had to be cut short when her enemies learned of her new condition and decided to take advantage and struck her when she was unguarded.

When Jade died, her child and husband was at lost. They grieved for her death. It all happened so suddenly that they had no words to describe the pain that they were feeling. Nayla was still so young back then, but there was one thing that she had understood, and it was that she had just lost her mother, and things would never be the same again. Their happy days were gone.

Ace wanted to keep Nayla save, but he did not know of the path towards Elysia. The seraphs are too afraid to step out of their hidden village, because of the threats of danger that might befall them if they did. So Ace ended up raising Nayla as best as he could. Thankfully, none of his late wife’s foes came for their daughter, and the girl was save for the time being.

. . . . .

Tears stream down Nayla’s face when her father ended the story. Her father had never talked so much about her mother like this before, and hearing him about her now makes her feel so sad. Now she understands why her father can be so bitter at times, especially in regard to his late wife.

The omniseraph blinks her sight back to reality. It is such a tender matter to them, and she can feel her mother’s energy signature humming within her as the familiar story was retold. Yet sensing the presence from a part of her mother only makes her recalls their might or might not be encountered back in Ladylake.

Nayla has not told anyone yet about what had happened in the garden. She had woken up in the exact same spot in the middle of the maze, just like when she last remembered encountering her mother in her dream. What if she was not really dreaming? What if she was just sleep-walking? The girl has been quite stressed lately, especially thanks to all of those hours dedicated to her training, thus that might factor in on the sudden allocation.

But the warmth— She remembers the warmth of her mother’s embrace, the feeling engrave to her mind, and for some reasons she is not willing to cross out the possibility just yet.

“Nayla, are you alright?” Lailah asks, concerned by how quiet the girl has been.

“Yes, I’m quite alright, Lailah. Just have a lot in my mind, is all.”

“Wait, does that mean we still have a chance together?” comes an exclamation from Mikleo, which cause the others to grin knowingly.

“Hey, one thing at a time,” Zaveid places a hand on the water seraph’s shoulder, calming him down. He seems way to curious about how things will turn out to let the lover boy muck this one up. He needs to hear the rest.

The girls chuckle lightly, before turning their attention to Nayla’s father as well. Nayla echoes Mikleo's inquiry.

“I don’t know much about that. If you plan to consume the same flower that your mother had consumed, there is a chance that it might help you. But I never heard about a human eating that plant, so I don’t know whether it will work or not. Not sure if it will work at all, or if it’s even safe to begin with. If you are looking for someone to ask, you better go to Elysia. That’s the name of the village Jade came from.”

“No way. So you guys were fated after all,” Edna says in astonishment, before winking at the two. Nayla and Mikleo blush in return. “It seems like you can’t escape fate, no matter where you go. If Jade were still alive, you guys would have met sooner.”

“Actually, we did meet. It was such a long time ago though, he barely remembered anything about me at all,” the brunette explains to the earth seraph.

“So that mystical flower is the key to all of this?” Lailah asks, trying to return them to focus at the matter at hand.

“It’s worth the shot, but where are we going to find it?” Edna questions.

“I heard that it was somewhere high up at the cold mountains, but I don’t know which mountains it is, only that it is supposed to be very far away. Jade told me that she faced a lot of obstacles trying to find it, and I don’t think she only means the harsh weathers. She mentioned fleetingly about fighting off monsters and other dark creatures when she was on her journey. It was supposed to be part of her test to earn the prize and become mortal, she guessed.”

The five of them share a look, before deciding to call it a day. Lailah and Zaveid are in charge of cooking this time, and Ace can not help to frown at the flying pans and fresh ingredients in his kitchen. It is rather refreshing to see her father like this though, and the mood turns back lighter when she begins laughing at her expression. Her father frowns at her reaction, before the older man joins in. Soon, all of them are laughing together, and for a moment the warmth is returned to that once loving house.

They will need to seek the mystical flower if they want to help Nayla recovers from her condition. And along the way, she and Mikleo might also be able to solve the question that they have been asking themselves since the start of their relationship: how are they going to live together, when one of them is ageless?

The group restarts their journey in search for the cure several days later. After catching up a lot with her father, Nayla is finally ready to take her leave again. But in order to gather more information, they first need to make a spit stop at Elysia. The village elder might have a clue to what they are looking for, as Mikleo believes that the man is very knowledgeable on things.

Ace is rather reluctant to let his daughter go so soon, especially when she has just returned, but he knows the importance of procuring her cure, so he watches with concern as she leaves. Not without handing her over some good amount of food though.

Elysia is several towns away. They need to travel deep into the edge, far away from any human civilization and into forests and caves if they want to reach their destination. It is a good thing that they have a very reliable guide coming with them, or else things would have been difficult. While the five of them area heading to Elysia by carriage, Sorey is also heading to his hometown, having received news of their movement by letter. They are supposed to meet at Elysia. The boy is traveling alone straight from the capital district, so he should be able to catch up on them real quick.

Despite her condition, Nayla is not so easy to give up. She still practices in secret whenever the situation allows her to, making the seraphs nag on her whenever she is caught. It is a good thing that Nayla does not practice any heavy leveled spells, or else she will be experiencing some heavy backlashes.

Yet even though she knows the danger of practicing the elements even despite the fact on how it takes a toll on her whenever she uses her powers, Nayla can not seem to stop. It is because practicing has been the only thing that helps the brunette girl distracts herself from the unwelcome reality.

This is a karma, there is no doubt of it. She has committed a sin, and now she is paying the price for her wrong doing.

They say that murder splits the soul. Perhaps there is some true to that, because she can feel herself weakening each day since.

Maybe it is because of the side effect from the power usage. Maybe it is because her soul knows that it has been damaged when she committed her sin, and thus reflecting in the way her body’s health grows worse as time goes by.

Her friends try to straighten her out by explaining that this is all happening because her mortal body can not bare the power of a seraph. Nayla wants to believe them so badly, but the girl knows that her guilt is playing a huge part on all of this as well.

No matter how one look at it, murder is a sin. But she was possessed by the power of the omniseraph, she tries to defend herself. Yet her body pays the price of succumbing to the power control. Perhaps it is because she did have every intention of killing that hellion, after all?

But he is evil, and he had killed a lot of people, not just her mother. She had been doing everything a great favor. Yet the universe is punishing her through this.

She is dying, Nayla can feel it happening inside her body. It also does not help the situation that it happens every time she uses the same power that was utilized to committed the despicable deed.