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When I realized she was showing me her past, rather than telling me about it – I came at it with a very broad and a very accepting mindset – already at the ready to expect the unexpected.

Or so I thought.

Then the harshness, the visceral nature of it all hits you square in the senses, and you realize you haven’t the faintest clue what the hell you’re actually readying yourself for.

My ears were still ringing with whatever the hell I just heard, the words, the emotions… emotions?

Anger, agitation, aggression… Adalia. Yeah, I heard it. I heard her.

I could still feel her touch, the gentle press of her palm a numbing cold against mine.

The real Adalia was leaving me in suspense, taking up an almost resolute silence that only heightened the tension. I wished she’d say something, breathe a word about what had just unfolded then – if I had the full picture, maybe all of this wouldn’t feel so jarring.

.....

Yet her gaze remained glossed and distant, blankly staring away as the darkness diffused again, unraveling into shapes, forming the clear skies, a row of homes, and like before, the quiet all around exploded into sound.

We were in a different scene, a different day, one echoing with the bustle of townsfolk. Rattling carriages in passing creaking whispers. From somewhere, the battering clang of metal.

Daylight was overhead, bright and early, and I could hear the buzz of conversation rife and everywhere, yet no matter how close, how loud they seemed to echo, I couldn’t make out a single word. Much like the thin, wispy shadows constantly weaving in and out of existence in the corner of my eyes, they didn’t seem to be the focus here.

Once again, a deeper, darker silhouette was the focal point of the commotion all around. Even if just as a lesser, murkier outline of her, I recognized her in an instant. How can I not? I had the perfect reference point right here just beside me.

Unlike the scene from before, this Adalia here was a far cry improvement from the last. For one, she seemed more robust; unfazed even when directly beneath the harsh glare of the sun. Another loud clang of metal reverberated across the vicinity, one shrill enough to ring in my ears, yet she didn’t even flinch a muscle.

I suspected it already, and seeing that there just served to reaffirm what was brazenly obvious.

Adalia, or at least, the one in this memory, was as normal, as human as can be.

Incredulous and too in awe to pay focus to anything else, I just watched her as she leisurely took a stroll across the town, keeping much to herself, a lone, dark shadow ambling past thinner, fainter wisps.

More carriages came rumbling from nearby and nowhere, with the clop of hooves thundering past, and as always, the explosive clangor of steel drowned out all within the vicinity.

Then there was a voice, and for once, after a long while of my hearing muddled and subdued, I could finally understand what was being said.

And I knew right away this memory’s purpose – that this was the focus.

“Out for a walk, Adalia?”

Another shadow was approaching her, one that was just as dark, just as prominent as she was. But what set this particular silhouette apart from the others was the way it moved.

Hobbling forward with an obvious limp, a flimsy cane keeping a precarious balance with an empty sleeve fluttering in the wind where a left arm should have been. A cordial air wafted about this mysterious figure, one that seemed to clash with Adalia’s more solemn shade.

“It’s pretty rare that I find you among the early morning bustle,” The shadow spoke again, a male’s voice, one too obviously delighted to have spotted her. “Tell me, is there an occasion worth celebrating today?”

Adalia didn’t respond, keeping to a brash silence, as she spurred forward again and briskly moved past him on her way over to… somewhere, I suppose. Something about her wandering pace had me thinking that even she didn’t know exactly where she was going.

“Do you have it yet?” The shadow slowly, painstakingly, turned in her direction once more. “I… sympathize with your current situation. Genuinely, you have my heart in earnest. But I’m afraid our Duke oversees and operates far too much to be as sympathetic. My excuses for your lateness are running desperately thin here.”

“So why do you bother?” Adalia stopped again, glancing slightly back. “Why even make the effort? If you’re going to evict me, why don’t you just do it already?”

“I’ve a heart, m’lady,” He responded candidly. “And as brief as your time here with us has been, I fully consider you a member of our committee, of our village. Besides, aside from Astra itself, where else are you safer from Terestra’s wrath than right here? Don’t tell me you’d rather take your chances elsewhere.”

“I did not ask for your consideration, nor do I want it,” Adalia curtly said. “You only have your own kindness to blame for the predicament you are in.”

When she had finished speaking, a moment of silence fell – and while I was busy struggling to process the fact that Adalia could speak without any breaks between words, the shadow merely chuckled, seemingly more amused than anything else.

“Yes, I suppose you might be right about that.”

For less than a second, they both just gazed at each other, warmth and cold fiercely at odds, ’till it broke. Another explosion, the loudest clangor yet rippling through, and finally it looked as if Adalia had had enough.

“Divines…” a low, dangerous snarl. “...what is that sound?!”

“Have you not heard?” The shadow cocked his head, before snorting in amusement again. “Oh that’s right, you’re a persistent recluse, how could you have?”

“Heard what?”

“Terestra has broken through the Divines’ blessings. Astra is no longer out of her influence,” He explained in a grimmer tone. “As such, all provinces and regions across the land are being called to arms to help Leonardo repel back the looming threat… and our village in particular, well it’s what most of us are born and bred for, isn’t it?”

“Is it?” Adalia said, tone dripping with derision that he apparently didn’t catch.

“The finest, fiercest warriors in all the land. Like I said, nowhere else is as safe,” and as he spoke, another tumultuous bang rang out. “In a few days, Leonardo himself will be here to personally recruit any one of us into his prestigious fold. Whether that be all or just one, we must aid him in any way we can. The men, all of us must be present on that day. Ah, well not all of us actually, to be precise…”

There was a trace of longing in his voice, and I wasn’t the only one to hear it. Even here, Adalia already had her acute sense of astuteness.

“I suppose you would rather die meaninglessly out there than loiter here, useless as you are.”

The wind blew harder, the inky stream that was of the shadow’s empty sleeve rippling freely along with it.

“We are born to relish in the battlefield. For as long as I can remember, that is what we’ve all been told,” The shadow muttered. “But me, the way I am, just what exactly am I born to do?”

Adalia turned a little more, her glance shifting to a little more, peering at the man in all his feebleness, weakness, and with another’s second pass, quickly turned away in scorn.

“You ask for my opinion?” She responded coldly. “Then I believe you’d be better not having been born at all.”

Once again, the shadow did not hear the cruelty in her words, or if he did, chose simply to ignore it. In silence, in calmness, he just accepted it.

“The undeniable truth of the matter,” He glumly nodded. “Out there, I can’t help anyone like this, can I?” then he raised his head, and deep in the void of his pitch-black expression, I think I might have seen him smile. “But here, I can help you at the very least.”

Adalia fumed, heaving heavily, glancing back at him in clear bafflement. “No, you can’t.”

“I already am,” He snorted again, turning away slowly, lifting his cane up and forward with a more apparent quiver. “Your sister is coming to visit soon, right? Your caretaker.”

“And what of it?”

“I believe I may still have a few more excuses up my sleeve until her arrival,” then glancing back briefly, I think I saw that smile once more. “Pay what you owe, Adalia.”

She didn’t respond, and the frail shadow began lumbering away once again.

“If you have it any earlier, be sure to look for me, ask for my whereabouts,” He called out. “You remember my name, right?”

“I didn’t care for it.”

He just laughed her off again.

“Liamel,” The shadow said. “Try not to forget it, alright? That’s all I ask.”

Quickly, the darkness emerged from itself, pouring into the scene, the silhouettes, the sounds, and just like before, in a blink of an eye everything had gone.