I was able to breathe easier once I stepped out of the suffocating hall. I looked around for Aris and saw him standing near the corridor outside, fidgeting his feet nervously. I smirked.  "Well...that could have gone better."

Aris bit his lip. "I can't stay here. Let's just leave."

"You aren't going to tell him?" I asked, gesturing towards the door.

Aris shook his head. "No. He'll stop me. He'll ask me to stay." He sighed, "I can't."

I stared at him for a while, my head reeling from the sudden information I had received. "Does he actually want you to marry?"

Aris sighed. "It's the easiest way to improve his standings in the business world. Fraternizing with powerful business empires." His eyes clouded over. "He's...an authoritarian."

"He seemed like the really cuddly, bakes-you-cookies kinda guy though," I said, relieved when Aris almost smiled.

He practically ran down the staircase and to his car. I accompanied him hastily. The moment we were inside the car, he revved up the engine and we were off.

We rode in silence for a long while. "That was a fucking disaster," Aris said, biting his lower lip and shaking his head. "I can't believe he wants me to marry Felicity. At fucking sixteen. I fucking swear if legal age was fourteen, he'd have me married then."

I remained quiet, gazing at him. I remembered the breathtaking woman who had held him in her arms in the photo frames and without thinking, blurted out, "You look like your mother."

He looked taken aback, his eyes widening before he glanced sideways at me. "Okay."

Somehow, his clueless reaction was hilarious to me. We rode again in silence before I asked, "So...what are you going to do? This voyage to...Terra- something."

"Terramour," Aris said. "They've been one of the strongest allies to Evimeria ever since the Dark War. My father has wanted to expand his business since forever and, of course-" a shadow passed over his face. "If only he had more children so he could sprout up a new business in every country of Obscura."

"The...Zenithium festival," I mused aloud, the strange word sitting uncomfortably on my tongue. "I have never heard about it."

Aris didn't seem to hear at first but then spoke up. "It's the celebration of all the allies. Terramour, Evimeria, Prospera, Fienneza ...." he sighed. "A way to show the enemies...namely, Polemoutheoss, that we stand strong and undivided. Occurs once every half-decade, and as you can imagine, it is an exhausting event."

He bit his lip, his anxiety radiating off him and having a similar effect to me. I wondered if just like he was able to make me feel calm, would he be able to cause a turmoil as well?

"So...have you ever been to it? What happens in it?" I asked, hoping to distract him.

Aris shook his head. "No. I was six when we had the opportunity and well...my parents had their own issues to sort out than go to a festival," he continued. "Terramour allows free cross border travelling for the duration of the festival. Traders from all countries congregate to sell their wares. Elrins, Froz, Medir- currencies from all the allied countries are accepted across the entire festival."

Silence fell again as we drove up to Asteria and walked back towards the dorm. I had a million questions in my head, but somehow, couldn't imagine them being appropriate.

"You didn't ask me...why the dark scares me so," Aris asked softly when we stood in the elevator.

I shrugged, my heart beating faster and slightly uneasily. I wasn't sure why I was unafraid of this stranger whom I barely knew anything about. It confused me in an ironically comforting way. "You didn't ask me why I am scared of heights." I glanced at him. "I figured if you wanted to tell me, you would."

"There is something else...I need to tell you." Aris bit his lip. "And I think it's better that you hear it from me than any other source."

I remained quiet, waiting or him to continue at his own pace.

Aris took a deep breath as if steeling himself. When he spoke, his cheeks turned pink, his eyes glassy. Almost as if he was ashamed.

"My dad was an abusive husband. It is why she left."

The words left his mouth quickly. My heart wrenched in tangible pain. My assumption had been correct. The idea of Aris being a victim of his vile father's abuse made me want to break something and I wondered if I should downright ask him.

"It happened when I was already asleep," Aris continued, his eyes overbright. He shivered slightly and I wondered if I should comfort him, hold him somehow. "I would be in my room and then-'' he took a sharp, ragged breath, closing his eyes momentarily as he struggled to continue. "At night. They would fight." He bit his lower lip to keep it from trembling as well. "I could hear the noises. The screaming. The abuses."

I stared in shock as his eyes seemed to well up. Maybe it was his fear, perhaps it was being back at the place that he so clearly hated, or maybe he was simply overwhelmed. Anyhow, it was clear that he was struggling to maintain composure. "I couldn't believe-" his words shook, disgust etched into his features. "How two people could treat each other that way. They fought like animals."

His shoulders shook as a struggled to get a grip on his emotions. My heart felt heavy, a dark concave in my chest, dreading each second as he continued, "I started associating the dark with all the noises. The shattering glass. The breaking sculptures. The abuses. The fighting. Hitting."

He crossed his arms around his chest, as if hugging himself and shook his head, trying to regain composure. "Even now..." he whispered. "I always keep a lamp on in my room. Aahan doesn't know why. He never asked. I never told him," he gazed at me with his eyes open. Honest. Vulnerable. "I still hear it, Zeke. I still fucking hear it."

His words ended in a scandalized whisper. He closed his eyes and took deep shuddering breaths.

I hated how scared he looked. I hated how small his voice sounded. I hated how easily his facade broke in front of his father. His father didn't deserve his vulnerability.

I decided I needed to know. The idea was torturous to me, but there was no way I would be able to breathe unless I knew.

"Did he...hurt you? Physically?" I asked, my stomach filling with lead in anticipation of the answer.

He wiped his nose with his sleeve and shook his head, his eyes finally drying. "No. He didn't. I suppose...that's the one thing I am grateful for. Although-" he sighed, "I often wished it wasn't her. That it was..."

I felt a lump rising in my throat. I had spent my childhood yielding to Geoffrey hoping he wouldn't hurt my mother. We reached his floor and the doors slid open with a metallic ding. He placed a finger on the button to keep the doors open before he spoke, "Did...yours?"

The air rushed out of my lungs. His voice was low, gentle, caring. I wondered if perhaps telling him wouldn't be the worst thing. In a way, I was pathetically longing for his sympathy. His affection. Perhaps simply because I knew it would be so easy to gain from him.

And yet, I felt tongue-tied just like I did every time anyone talked about my childhood. I didn't answer, deciding to close the conversation for now. "Goodnight."

His eyes darkened momentarily and for once, he didn't look like a hurt puppy that I had shut off. On the contrary, he seemed understanding. His eyes gazed into my very soul as if seeing me naked in more ways than one. He gulped and shut his eyes for a second. When he opened them, they had the same nauseating kindness in them that I was such a stranger to.

And somehow I knew, that whether I answered him or not, he understood anyway.

"Goodnight," he said as he nodded solemnly. And even though I knew he would have a hint of what I was hiding under the excessive layers of clothes, I couldn't find it in myself to be conscious about it for once. A strange unfamiliar feeling, one that I found myself yearning for even more.