"Tomorrow?" Edric swallowed once he heard the news from Eris, his mind already spiralling with thoughts of Miranda despite not wanting that one bit. He'd been preparing himself for this moment for seven years and yet all he could think about was when Miranda's lips met his.

Edric didn't speak for a moment and let that information consume him. He was going home. No, he wasn't going home. He was going to take back his home.

He was going to retake Elysia, to retake the throne, to declare himself as the true ruler of Elysia.

He was going to the Elisora Palace. He was going to avenge his parents, his brothers and his unborn sibling. He was going to put a sword in the usurper's heart. He was going to take it all back. And he was going to see Miranda.

Miranda.

"Miranda," the name rolled out of his tongue incautiously, just like how he was whenever he was with her -- incautious, guards down, and fragile. Edric's eyebrows rose when he realised that was the first time he'd taken her name in seven years. 

He hated how her name still sounded like slow flutters of cuckoos' wings in a quiet meadow in his ears, he hated how it reminded him of when she first said her name and he almost didn't hear it because he was too entranced by her eyes, he hated how he took her name in thin air just because he realised he was going to see her again and he hated how he couldn't hate her at all. He hated it all. 

"I have heard you say that name quite a lot in your sleep," Eris brought him out of his thoughts, her voice low, the crickets being louder than her. "Your past lover, I assume?" Each word she spoke were like an arrow that she aimed towards her own self and prayed to the watching-gods to show mercy and make Edric say no.

"As always, your assumptions are quick like your sword," Edric let out a small laugh and took a seat by the pond that rested a few yards away from their cottage. It was late at night, the advisor sleeping in the guest quarters that Jeril had by his cottage, Jeril waiting for his student and daughter to get back home while they both sat under the half moon, moonlight watching over them like an audience, the stars also joining in.

"You're not denying, are you?" Eris let her head fall behind, her eyes locking with the stars above her as she realised she had never seen them so bright in her entire life. Maybe they were also giving Edric a farewell, or rejoicing that he was finally doing something that he wanted to do. "Will you visit us? When you settle there? The palace is pretty far away from this area, takes about half a day if I'm not mistaken and even more sometimes depending on your transportation,"

"I will," Edric said, his voice firm. "Will you write me letters?"

Eris chuckled. "You know I hate writing," but she knew she would. She would write letters. Lots of letters.

He laughed again, looking over his shoulder and glancing at her. "I will write to you, then. You can just read,"

"I will write to you now and then. I can do that much," she shrugged, grinning.

"Not sure if I can decipher your handwriting, though. It's pretty hard to read it,"

Eris smacked Edric's arms, almost throwing him over the pond when he shrieked and regained balance to sit again. "You know I don't know how to swim!"

"And that is exactly why I wanted you to fall," Eris remarked, now smacking him lightly.

"Try to do something about that temper of yours once I'm gone," he sighed, shaking his head.

"The right person will handle it," Eris dipped her toes in the cold water, the coldness travelling across her feet as she shook them against the waters, gesturing Edric to do the same as well.

Edric was hesitant at first but soon he joined in, the water rippling because of their feet splashing the water, Eris giggling when she splashed water into Edric's face. He widened his eyes, not believing how Eris just blatantly threw her feet across the pond to splatter water into his face.

"You-" he pulled out his feet and dipped them again in the pond, this time with more force and expecting the water to fly into Eris' face, but Eris' quick reflex had her instantly rising to her feet and sprinting towards the other way from the pond. The result of Edric's trick backfired him and he only ended up soaking his whole face now, including his clothes as well. "Eris!"

He also got up and rushed to her, water droplets descending from the tips of his hair, his white shirt sticking to his chest and revealing it with the moonlight. He wiped his face using his arms, grumbling when he realised that was soaked as well.

He gave her a long look.

Eris shrugged. "You brought this upon yourself. I was just playing around," she held her laugh.

"You know I can very much throw you over the pond using one of my renèi Possessions but I'm leaving tomorrow so I'm sparing you," he rolled his eyes and began walking away, his feet dragging him to the route of where their home was.

Eris' smile dropped almost immediately as the reminder of his departure and her unspoken expressions came once again to her, begging her to free them from her mind. She could do it now. It was now or never. If they returned home now, Edric would be busy with Jeril and she could not tell him until tomorrow, right before he left and she wasn't even sure if she'd even find him alone.

She could do it now.

Eris didn't realise when her feet stopped working and she was simply standing there, the moon shining down at her, almost urging her to call him and let him hear what her heart had been wanting to say for the past seven years.

She stood there, thinking off all the ways this could go wrong -- how he would look at her gently and that'd break her even more because she knew, better than anyone, that Edric would never say no to her face. He would listen to her, again and again and then using the most beautiful words, he would tell her to let him go. Or he could just simply tell her the feelings weren't mutual and she'd hear her own heart shattering despite knowing how it'd end. Or he could say nothing and leave just like that.

There were so many possibilities but one thing was for sure: he would never return her feelings.

And so, while standing there, her heart not being able to tolerate this torture anymore, she called him -- with the lowest point of her voice, hoping he didn't hear her so she could later tell herself that she tried but he didn't listen -- Except, that didn't happen.

Edric turned around, his head craned, watching her questioningly, slightly understanding something wasn't right here and Eris wasn't being herself right now.

"Well?" Edric fully turned around, walking towards her. "Did you see a ghost or something? What's wrong?"

For a second Eris only heard her own heart beating louder than anything present in the world and then when Edric placed his hand on her arms, shaking her lightly, she was back to her consciousness. She licked her lips, observing Edric and noticing how the moon was giving all its attention to him only, his brown eyes like the stars, his black locks curled because of the water, and his thin lips forming some words that she wasn't quite able to hear.

"Resrei," Eris began, biting her lips, still unsure of everything that was happening. "I have to tell you something,"

Edric raised an eyebrow. "Can it wait? Master must be worried for us. It's late and I'm sure the advisor already told him I'm leaving tomorrow. He must be waiting for me—"

"No, no," she swallowed, shaking her head vigorously. "I have to say it now."

"Alright. We can do that while we walk," Edric paid her no mind and already began walking, giving Eris no chance to talk over and simply oblige.

The night only continued to grow darker as they walked side by side, the crickets' buzzing and the owls' howls only seemed to fill in the silence. "It's been a while and you still have not told me what you wanted to say, Eris," the wind grew chillier while Eris wrapped herhands around herself, trying to warm herself.

"It's a rhetorical question, I know. . . But have you ever fallen in love, Resrei?"

Edric continued walking, flashes of Miranda coming once again as he tried to push them away. "I suppose I have,"

"And I suppose you are still in love with her," Eris mumbled, smiling, albeit there was no reason to. "What was your first impression of me?"

"You were kind. Like a family," was Edric's immediate answer, his steps steady.

"But you have always meant more than family to me," Eris finally said.

Edric's footsteps came to an end as he stopped walking, and so did Eris. The world seemed more quiet now, Eris' straight confession hanging in the air and being eaten by the insects' buzzes and the trees' howls. Edric turned, facing Eris who was looking straight at his eyes and for a moment, she forgot she'd just done something completely unpredictable because of how the moon reflected upon his eyes. It seemed the moon was looking at him instead of her and she wondered how someone could always be nature's favourite, like he was.

Edric's eyes softened, his head tilted and he opened his mouth to say something but closed it. "Meridia," he uttered slowly as Eris' breath hitched against her throat, her heart thumping loudly. She didn't want him to say anything anymore, just saying her name that he had never uttered was enough -- it was enough for her to know his answer but she still did. She still waited for him to speak the words that her heart needed to hear so it could finally stop wanting him.

"How. . . For how long?" Edric said, his voice quiet.

"Since the first day," Eris let out the breath she was holding, wanting this to end, wanting for him to forget it all and just turn around and walk away.

"For seven years?" he asked but it seemed more like a statement. "And you never told me,"

"It was obvious you were in love with someone else,"

Edric looked at her longingly, bringing forth his hands and taking her hands in his. "Eris," he said, making her look at him. "You are my home. You are the reason why I am alive. If you hadn't found me that night, under the rubble, I would have starved to death,"

"I'm here, standing before you because you and master took me in and treated me as your own family. I will never forget that and I can never repay you for that," he took a breath, his warmth travelling across Eris' hands as she waited for him to say what he was going to say next. "But Eris,"

"This . . ." he licked his lips. "I'm afraid I can never feel the same way as you do about me. And I will be forever—"

"No, it's alright—" she freed her hands from his, brushing them against her clothes, trying to brush away the remnants of his warmth as well but it still remained when she played with her fingers. "I already knew that. I just wanted to let you know, so I don't have any regrets and all," she tried to laugh but that only evidenced how she was trying to not break into tears.

"Eris—"

"Let's. . . Let's go back, Resrei," she said, smiling at him. "It's quite late, no?"

"Eris, I'm not Resrei," Edric said, his eyes now sharp and calculated, the moon no longer reflecting in his eyes.

Eris scrunched her eyebrows. "What?" She almost laughed. "Is this your way of—"

"No, Eris, it's true," he said, his thick eyebrows raised. "When you will know the truth about me, you will wish you hadn't fallen in love with someone like me. You will wish why you had wasted seven years torturing your heart when it could have had someone that actually deserved it. Someone who had not lied to you,"

"Resrei, what are you saying?" Eris gave him a side look, eyeing him cautiously, no longing thinking this was all a joke to lift up her spirit. Edric's voice had risen, something he'd never done or had been seen doing and his voice shook as he spoke.

Edric's eyes softened, swallowing as he spoke another confession in this moonlit surrounding. "I'm not Resrei, Eris."