Chapter Text
The doctor who had called his name looked exhausted. It was as if he had been from hell and back the past few hours
The doctor approached quickly with one hand clutching a clipboard against his chest, he looked at Jecht apprehensively.
“Mr. Jecht, I need you to come with me.”
The words struck him as oddly rehearsed.
As if the man had repeated them a dozen times in his head before walking over.
As soon as he had said that, he turned and walked back into the delivery suites, motioning to Jecht to follow along.
Fear surged through Jecht so violently, he nearly staggered as he started to follow the doctor closely behind.
The doctor kept on glancing toward him briefly before looking away again. Each single movement that was made, Jecht could see the doctor was looking at him pitifully.
That action alone made Jecht more anxious than ever.
Because people only avoided eye contact when they were carrying something too heavy to say.
Alarms continued to shriek somewhere in the distance. Nurses hurried past. Phones rang from unseen stations. The entire hospital remained alive around him but Jecht felt strangely detached from it all.
Like a man trapped underwater.
Every sound reached him, muffled with distortion.
The doctor increased his pace hurriedly and soon Jecht found himself almost running trying to keep up.
Questions fired from him in rapid speed.
How was Aurelia? Has she been stabilised?
Where was his baby? Was he safe?
What exactly happened during the delivery?
The doctor’s shoulders only grew taut as he pushed through the swinging doors ahead.
Jecht’s pulse hammered harder.
The continued silence from the doctor only fed the growing anxiety inside him.
Moments earlier, he had been terrified of the unknown.
Terrified of the uncertainties of the call, the old woman.
Now those fears were beginning to shrink beneath something far more immediate, more human.
A memory of Aurelia flashed before his eyes, of her leaning against their kitchen counter, laughing so hard she had to wipe tears from the corners of her eyes.
Her fingers absentmindedly tracing circles across his arm while they cuddles and watched the children play makeshift princess and the knight.
The memories just kept on coming and they were threatening to vanish.
Never being repeated.
His chest tightened painfully.
No…Not Aurelia.
The very idea of Aurelia leaving him struck him so sharply he nearly stumbled.
As the doctor led him through deeper in a set of secured doors and into a quieter wing of the delivery suites, Jecht could feel that the change was immediate.
The frantic energy of the emergency department faded behind them, replaced by a suffocating hush broken only by the distant beep of monitors and the faint squeak of rubber soles on polished floors.
Even the air smelled different.
However, the biting sting of antiseptic still hung in the air, threaded with the coppery scent of blood and something sterile and cold that turned Jecht’s stomach.
A nurse stood outside one of the rooms ahead.
She looked up as they approached and for a brief moment, her eyes met Jecht’s.
Compassion flashed across her face before she quickly looked away.
Jecht’s stomach dropped.
The doctor stopped in front of the doors.
Room 314.
The number was printed neatly beside the door.
Jecht stared at it.
The door, that was only several inches thick, was the only thing that was separating him from being with Aurelia now.
Yet suddenly he found himself unable to move and his breathing came in short, shallow pulls that scraped at his throat.
The doctor finally spoke, trying to sound as calm as possible.
“Mr. Jecht, I need you to understand that your wife suffered extensive complications during the delivery.”
The words struck him like physical blows.
Complications.
Such a small word but it cuts him deep.
“Will she survive?”
The question emerged raw.
Fragile.
The doctor closed his eyes briefly.
Only for a second.
He then opened his mouth before closing it again, searching for words that were most appropriate for the situation.
The silence stretched.
Long enough for the faint hum of the overhead lights to become deafening.
Long enough for hope to begin dying.
The doctor lowered his head and his actions clearly showed the answer.
Jecht felt his entire being shattered.
It broke the way ice breaks across a frozen lake and the ripple continued spreading endlessly beneath the surface.
The corridor blurred.
He became vaguely aware of someone saying his name.
The nurse? The doctor?
Perhaps both.
He couldn’t tell anymore because all he could think about was the impossible absurdity of it.
Aurelia wasn’t supposed to die.
People like Aurelia don’t die.
She was always the strong one.
The woman who remembered the birthdays, packed lunches, kissed scraped knees, and somehow kept their chaotic family stitched together through sheer force of will.
She was supposed to come home.
Tired and exhausted. Complaining about how this was going to be the last time she’ll get pregnant. Demanding various special treatments from Jecht for making her go through all these crazy hormonal stress.
Alive.
Instead, here he was, standing outside a hospital room while strangers struggled to find gentle ways to destroy his world.
The doctor’s hand settled carefully on his shoulder, warm and solid through the thin fabric of his shirt.
“Aurelia is still with us.”
Jecht froze.
“…What?”
The doctor took a slow breath.
“She’s alive.”
Hope surged through Jecht so violently and he broke into a relieved, silly smile. However, as he look over and saw the expression on the doctor’s face, he understood what lies beneath that information.
His smile faltered again.
Alive but not safe.
Not recovering. Not improving.
Just alive.
The doctor’s gaze drifted toward the closed door.
His voice lowered further.
“As much as I wish otherwise Mr. Jecht, I don’t think she’ll last the night.”
The corridor vanished and everything disappeared.
His love that he had promised to grow old was dying, was still waiting for him to to see her..
..Before she could finally let go.
Jecht has lost track of how many times his heart shattered that night
For several seconds, Jecht simply stood there with his hands hovered inches from the handle.
He was unable to make that first step, unable to breathe.
The entire world seemed to narrow until nothing existed beyond that door.
Only the end awaits him on the other side
He knew it. The doctors knew it. The nurses knew it.
Aurelia had been a survivor.
She had endured fears he never fully understood, left behind the only life she had ever known, and built a new family from nothing.
For an idea that she could simply… stop existing felt wrong.
His fingers shook so badly he had to curl them into a fist.
A pressure built behind his eyes, hot and relentless.
Slowly, he reached for the handle, hesitated for a brief moment, before taking a deep breath and pushed the door open.
The room was quiet.
The lights had been dimmed, casting everything in soft shades of gold and shadow.
A heart monitor stood beside the bed, only its rhythmic beeping sounds broke the stillness of the room. The machine showed a steady pulse but strangely felt fragile.
Several intravenous lines disappeared beneath the white hospital blankets. Blood can be seen dripping slowly through the transparent tubing.
A ventilator stood nearby, though thankfully unused. Its silent presence felt less reassuring than ominous.
A reminder of how close things had come.
Jecht’s eyes went over to the bed and his world stopped, the air sucked out of his lungs.
In that first few looks, he genuinely couldn’t recognise what he was seeing.
The version of Aurelia that laid there looked impossibly fragile and small.
She had always been larger than life.
Capable of filling any room she entered.
Capable of making a house feel like home simply by existing within it.
Now, she seemed to be swallowed by the hospital bed.
Her skin had lost much of its color.
The healthy warmth he knew so well was replaced by a frightening pallor complexion beneath the dim lights.
Dark shadows lingered beneath her eyes.
Her lips were dry and no longer were they plump.
Aurelia’s breathing visibly difficult with each breath rose and fell unevenly beneath the blanket.
Jecht felt something tear inside his chest as sharp, crushing pain spread through him so suddenly he had to grip the side railings of the bed to stay upright. The frame creaked under his pressure.
Aurelia turned her head slightly until her hazy brown eyes found him.
And despite everything—
Despite the exhaustion.
Despite the pain.
Despite being on deaths’ door—
Aurelia smiled that same gentle curve that had greeted her husband every morning for years.
Jecht’s knees gave way as he crumbled next to her side.
Finally, he let the tears flowed as he gripped her hands dearly
“Hey you…” she whispered, her voice was thin and ragged, barely more than breath.
Jecht only continued to hold onto her hands and wept silently, terrified by how cold her hands felt when he intertwined their fingers together.
Every fear.
Every nightmare.
Every terrible possibility.
None of them had prepared him for this.
For several moments, neither of them spoke.
Jecht knelt beside the bed with both hands wrapped around hers as though sheer force of will could anchor her to the world. His fingers traced the ridges of her knuckles.
Aurelia’s hands had always carried traces of whatever the day required—flour dusted across her palms, the scent of soap, a child’s ribbon caught around her wrist.
He remembered those hands tugging blankets higher over sleeping children.
Finding his in crowded streets without looking.
Now he rubbed his thumb across her skin again and again, chasing a warmth that lingered only in memory.
He lowered his head, pressing her knuckles against his forehead while fragments of old scenes surfaced without invitation.
Their first apartment, cramped and shabby, smoke curling from another ruined dinner while they stood laughing beside the stove.
Aurelia in the doorway with Lenne, bundled against her chest as she rocked Shuyin in his rocker.
Aurelia giving out a small giggle when Jecht couldn’t get up from the couch because the twins were sprawled asleep across his body
As quickly as the memories came, it faded just as fast.
Aurelia watched him quietly.
A crease formed between her brows.
With tremendous effort, she lifted one trembling hand from the blanket.
Jecht caught onto it and immediately leaned forward to help her.
Aurelia managed a faint smile as she reached out for Jecht’s face.
Aurelia’s thumb brushed beneath his eye, catching the moisture there with a touch so familiar it seemed that all that has happened was nothing but a nightmare.
“I’ve missed you..,” she whispered softly.
Jecht let out a short, uneven laugh and bowed his head.
“You can’t leave me Aurelia, you promised..”
The words left him before he could stop them.
Aurelia’s smile faltered and tears slipped free.
She turned her gaze toward the window, watching the pale light gathered there while she could only uttered a soft apology.
The silence lingered between them once again.
The kind of silence that exists only between two people who have spent years learning one another by heart.
Outside the room, the hospital continued its endless rhythm.
While life continued to moved forward on the outside, inside the room, time felt that it had been halted.
For a while, all that existed was the warmth of their joined hands and the unspoken hopes that miracles could happen and grant them happiness once again.
But Aurelia knew…she just knew something was going happened and she had to prepare Jecht for what’s about to come. She squeezed his fingers weakly, and her voice came out rough.
“..She called, didn’t she?”
Jecht’s whole body jolted up as if he was struck by lightning. His eyes widened.
“How did you—!”
Before Jecht could even finished confirming it, he saw the reaction that was instantaneous.
Aurelia’s face drained of whatever little colour that it had left. The pulse beneath her wrist fluttered wildly against his thumb. For a fleeting moment she looked less like the woman he knew and more like someone much younger—someone trapped once again in a terror she had never truly escaped.
The fear in her eyes spoke volumes.
The kind that comes from hearing the name of a monster you prayed would never find you again.
A chill settled over Jecht.
Aurelia closed her eyes and released a shaky breath. The antiseptic scent of the hospital seemed to fade, replaced by the phantom memory of incense and candle smoke. When she opened her eyes again, tears shimmered along her lashes, and she let out a tired, humourless laugh.
“She found us...”
The words landed like a blow.
Not me.
Us.
The children.
The baby.
All of them.
Jecht’s chest constricted.
“I-I don’t understand…Who is she? Why did she call? How did she knew about our baby? What was she talking about the Temples expecting him?!”
Jecht couldn’t help himself. As the questions grew, so did his confusion. The anxiousness was deafening and he felt like screaming
When she finally answered, her voice sounded hollow.
“She’s the Matriarch of the Temple of Yevon, Lady Yunalesca…my Mother.”
The revelation landed between them like a stone.
Jecht had an inkling and had actually suspected the fact from the moment the caller had referred to Aurelia as ‘my poor child’, but hearing it made something inside him recoil.
No daughter should sound that afraid of her mother.
Aurelia swallowed and let out a small, broken laugh.
The sound carried no humour. Only disbelief that the name still had the power to make her feel small.
Then her gaze drifted toward the darkened window as memories began to surface.
“Did you know? I never once thought that anything was wrong…”
With her voice softened, Aurelia brought a past that she has tried to bury for years. Back to when she was an innocent 10-years old.
The Temple had been a beautiful place filled with children.
There had been gardens. Rows of pure white flowers swaying in the wind. The scent of the damp earth lingering after the morning watering. Pryeflies swished through the orange skies as the day came to dusk.
Children ran along stone paths until their sandals slipped loose against their heels. Their laughter echoed through the grounds until the bells summoned them back to lessons.
She even remembered sneaking out of classes to sit beneath fig trees weaving flower crowns for her dear friends.
Small fingers clumsy with stems.
It was serenity at best.
“The temples’ priestesses were alway close by, watching us, guiding us...,” she continued.
They were the ones that had taught the children everything there was to know, and more.
They taught them how to read. They taught them how to write. They had helped bandaged scraped knees and soothed fears during storms. When nightmares woke the younger children in the middle of the night, someone always came and sat beside their beds until they fell asleep again.
There were always within sight.
The Temple had taught its children not to dwell on mundane things. Things like families and the outside world, they were told, was temporary.
The Temple was forever.
If someone cried for their parents or cried to be allowed a small taste of the outside, they were reminded that the Temple was enough.
They are all that they ever needed.
Again and again, they were told they belonged.
How they were chosen.
How they were special.
How they were blessed.
How they were loved.
Aurelia could still hear the chorus of young voices reciting lessons in perfect unison. She could still feel the approving touch on her shoulder whenever she answered correctly. She could still remember the pride that bloomed inside her whenever the adults smiled.
How desperately she had chased it—to be seen, to be acknowledged.
To be loved.
Tears filled her eyes, and her voice cracked.
“Because when you’re just a child, you would always believe what the adults said and…I was genuinely happy.”
Jecht felt his heart sink.
As Aurelia continued with her memories, every scene changed shape and Jecht had saw through it all.
The lessons were no longer simply lessons.
Every gentle hand, every warm smile, every word of praise twisted into something unbearable.
Children taught not to question.
Taught that obedience was love.
That surrender was virtue.
That the people controlling them were the only people who would ever care for them.
It was made to be drilled into them.
Aurelia had not been raised; she had been conditioned.
The room fell silent for a while and Jecht dared not interrupt.
The monitor continued its steady pulse.
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
As Jecht’s thumb moved against the back of her hand, Aurelia smiled faintly as another fleeting memory flashed by.
The memory seemed to catch something inside her, and her expression softened.
Aurelia whispered, in a voice that carried an unexpected tenderness.
“Mother…she used to love braiding my hair.”
Jecht blinked. The admission caught Jecht off guard as he did not expect that softness coming from Aurelia.
The warmth behind it.
For the first time since they entered the conversation, Aurelia did not sound afraid
She sounded more like a daughter, reminiscing the fond memories of her mother. She smiled slightly as she continued on.
“I hated sitting still and I’d squirm every time.”
“Mother would pretend to be annoyed.”
The hospital room faded.
A little girl sat upon a wooden stool beneath the morning sun.
Dark hair spilling halfway down her back and behind her stood a woman.
Elegant and ethereal.
Her long beautiful ash grey locks with blue steaks fluttered slowly in the afternoon wind, bringing in scents of wildflowers over them. A soft smile can be seen on her face as she carefully weaved strands of hair between her fingers, playfully tapping her forehead whenever Aurelia squirmed again, reminding her that beautiful braids had to be earned.
Aurelia’s gaze drifted toward the window, eyes held that faraway look, seeing past scenes only she could see.
“All of us loved Mother…”
Kind and compassionate was Lady Yunalesca.
There was nobody who showed more devotion to the temple than her.
Nobody sang the Song of the Hymn more beautifully than her.
And though she never had any children of her own, nobody showed more love towards the kids than Lady Yunalesca.
Whether it was a scraped a knee, nightmares that woke them in the dark or, when someone cried, she was always the one the children sought out first.
One winter’s evening, a storm had swept through the valley. The wind battered the windows so fiercely that many of the younger children had begun to cry. When the powers failed, plunging everything into darkness, Lady Yunalesca instructed the elders and priestesses to gathered everyone into the assembly hall.
Candles filled the room with soft golden light.
The shadows had danced strangely across the walls, stretching and twisting whenever the candlelight flickered.
And through it all, Mother remained with them all night.
She sat among the frightened children and told stories.
Stories of old.
Stories about courage.
Stories about faith.
Aurelia paused and lowered her gaze.
“…and truly, I had loved her the most.”
The words hung between them.
Simple.
Honest.
Heartbreaking.
The innocent and true love of a daughter.
Jecht felt his throat tighten.
A dull ache settled behind his ribs. He had believed every word that Aurelia had said.
A little girl had loved and trusted her mother completely.
Believed that the affection had been real.
The warmth, the comfort, they had all been believed to be real.
“Eventually, I started noticing things that doesn’t make sense….”
Over the years, Aurelia would notice a peculiar pattern.
Every now and then, she noticed that some of the other children would suddenly, went missing from the Temple.
There hadn’t been any farewells nor luggages.
No tearful hugs or promises to write.
They simply vanished without a trace.
Then the following day, the priestesses would introduce new children into the Temple.
Curiously, Aurelia had once approached one of the priestesses, asking her what had happened to her friends.
The priestess that was serving dinner gave a smiled that Aurelia felt didn’t quite reached her eyes.
“She has been chosen by the Temple dear, and those who have been chosen must fulfil their destined roles for those who believed.”
That was it—
The days continued on as per normal.
The elders and priestesses, continued on as if there was nothing wrong. That there was nothing more to the explanation.
Nobody had showed concerns as to why those “chosen” children never once returned.
It was as if, it was expected of them not to.
Ever since then, Aurelia had always felt unease. The same unease that would continue to linger at the edges of her thoughts, sharpening into something darker.
Dread.
Aurelia could never sleep well ever since.
Jecht sat motionless beside her bed, keeping his hands tight on Aurelia’s. As Aurelia looked directly at Jecht, fear stood plainly in her eyes, now stripped of all disguises.
Jecht was finally beginning to understand.
Aurelia swallowed, as her breath became slightly more haggard.
“During those times, Mother had been my only place of solace…”
She had been one of Lady Yunalesca’s favourites and as a child, Aurelia preened at that fact.
She always remembered to stand a little straighter than the other children, answered questions before anyone else could and recited hymns flawlessly.
All for better to receive praises from her.
Every smile from the elders mattered, but none mattered as much as Mother’s.
Mother constantly called her special, and she had meant it.
Aurelia remembered the evenings after lessons when the others had long since gone to bed. Candles would burn low over ancient books while Lady Yunalesca sat beside her, patient and attentive, guiding her through teachings reserved for no one else.
She was told she learned faster, understood more deeply, possessed gifts the others lacked.
Lady Yunalesca would often stroke her hair lovingly and whispered,
“You are my perfect daughter, Aurelia.”
Those moments felt precious.
Looking back, Aurelia could see the strain hidden beneath them. The affection she received never felt secure. It always seemed tied to performance, to meeting expectations, to giving the right answers.
The first crack appeared when she was 13.
During the weekly mass hymn recital, she had accidentally sang it out of tune and tempo.
It had seemed insignificant to her. Children tend to made mistakes no matter what. She glanced over to Mother, expecting reassurance and perhaps, even a laugh.
Instead, she was met with an icy stare.
Mother never to do anything as her silence carried its own weight, leaving Aurelia cold with worry. For the rest of that day, Lady Yunalesca ignored Aurelia completely and it shattered Aurelia.
That night she stayed awake staring into the darkness, rehearsing every single word again and again until her throat felt raw. By morning, her nails had left crescents in her palms.
Day after day she had thrown herself into proving she deserved forgiveness. She had memorised extra hymns, finished assignments before anyone else, and skipped lunch to spend more time studying.
Every effort had been fuelled by the same desperate hope—if she worked hard enough, Mother would looked at her again.
And when she finally did, her eyes returned back to be as kind as ever,
“I am very proud of you, my dear Aurelia. You really are, the perfect daughter that I could ever asked for.”
A single moment of warmth had felt like salvation, and Aurelia had carried that feeling with her for years.
She tried to always be extra cautious, extra studious, extra obedient. Just to be in Mother’s good graces.
Until that fateful day…
For years, Aurelia had religiously chased after that endless pursuit for love.
She had truly believed her Mother was helping her become the best version of herself. She had believed that was what love looked like.
She had believed that Lady Yunalesca truly loved her
As the morning dawn’s light slowly crept into the room, a new memory unfolded. The tears that have gathered in Aurelia’s eyes finally fell, leaving a glistening trail in the pale hospital light as her breath quickened.
Fear rolling out from her in waves.
The fear of remembering.
Jecht felt it immediately, a chill crawling up his spine as he watched her.
“I should never have followed her…”
Coldness washed over her as she remembered that night when she just turned 16.
The lower levels of the Temple had been forbidden to the children.
The walls were bare.
The hymns, barely there, echoed through the stones in a very solemn tune. Not the ones that they were usually sung at.
No candles flickered in alcoves.
No flowers had been left as offerings.
Empty.
Aurelia had secretly follow Lady Yunalesca one night, eager to share with her the new things that she had learnt that day. Looking back now, she wished that she hadn’t.
The deeper she went, the heavier the air became and Aurelia found herself struggling to breathe.
At the end of the corridor stood a big, massive and ancient looking door.
Older than anything else within the Temple.
Slowly, Lady Yunalesca pushed it opened and that was when Aurelia saw it—
What seemed like hundreds and hundreds of stone figures filled the chamber walls. Rows upon rows of pale forms stretched into darkness, silent and unmoving.
Aurelia inched closer to the doorway and studied the stones, hidden from a safe distance.
At first, she had thought that they just were statues.
Beautiful statues, carved with such amazing detail.
Their colours vivid to her eyes.
It was as though they were alive.
As she gazed through each one of them, her eyes came across a particular one with familiarity…
It can’t be…
Aurelia’s hands flew up to her mouth as she let out a gasped
The realisation struck her like a blade through her already fragile heart. One face became another, and then another.
Everywhere she looked, it was somebody she had once recognised.
Friends.
Classmates.
The young children that she had once chased through sunlit courtyards and laughed with until her sides hurt.
Her stomach churned as her vision became nauseous.
They were not just statues.
They were the missing children.
Human beings.
Frozen forever within silent stone.
The truth did not arrive gently. It tore through every innocent belief she possessed.
The Temple had lied.
The elders and priestesses had lied.
Mother had lied.
In that terrible instant, she understood what it truly meant to be chosen.
Aurelia’s fingers trembled violently in Jecht’s grasp as the memory closed around her like a vice. Jecht’s stomach dropped. His grip tightened around her hand and before he could stop himself, horror and helplessness crashing through him at once.
Aurelia wheezed.
“…I couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe. I was so scared that I wished that it was only a nightmare. That someone would just wake me up.”
A wishful thinking was what that was.
The horrifying truth did not end just there.
The memory rose again, no longer distant but immediate.
Aurelia stood motionlessly beside the enormous doorway as cold air drifting from the depths of the chamber and brushing against her skin.
She looked on into the chamber that stretched endlessly before her. Dust hung motionless in the stale air as she finally noticed all the elders and priestesses that were kneeling on the floor, praying fervently. Dark robes draped from their narrow shoulders. Ancient faces hovered in the hoods.
Then somewhere at the far end, up high on an imposing flight of stairs, stood a lady-like figure.
That said figure exuded out the feeling of ultimate power, control and command.
Ominous. Dangerous.
That was when Aurelia realised that the lady she once called Mother never really existed.
Up there, stood Lady Yunalesca, the Matriach of the Temple.
Finally, able to broke out of her stupor, Aurelia started to stepped backwards with the full intentions of escaping.
That’s was when she heard it—her name.
With a low, ancient voice Yunalesca addressed the masses.
“Aurelia…she has continued to be our most promising candidate yet,” said Yunalesca, with a voice akin to someone who’s presenting a prized possession.
Voices of agreement can be heard coming from the others. It echoed the entire chamber making the scenario even more unsettling than it already was.
It was as if they had not been talking about her as a person. They had sounded like people evaluating a project. One elder remarked that she was progressing ahead of schedule. Another noted that her aptitude exceeded expectations. Their approval had been unmistakable.
However, there were still a handful of doubtful murmurs.
“Forgive me, your excellency. But for the past few years, it feels as though she’s starting to second guessing the things that were taught. She’s showing reluctance.”
Yunalesca’s eyes narrowed and crossed her arms neatly.
“Nothing but a temporary concern. You will do well to ensure that will be addressed soon. Ensure that she is ready.”
The elder shivered and bowed his head in submission.
No others dared to questioned any further.
Lady Yunalesca gave out a sinister chuckle and raised her arms wide.
“My Aurelia, will become the most perfect sacrifice to be a Fayth there ever was!”
In that instant, her whole world collapsed and shudders passed through her. Aurelia’s cold ran cold at the sound of that cackle.
Evil.
That was the only thought that ran through her minds.
Pure evil.
Everything had been planned from the beginning.
Planned for whatever sick plot that had been conjured up by that woman.
And that realisation still hurt more than anything else.
All these years…
The extra lessons.
The approving nods.
The careful attention.
They all had been fake…
Every kindness—
Every smile—
Every word of encouragement.
None of it had been love…
It had been preparation.
She had never been cherished.
Only moulded.
She had not been raised for a future.
She had been raised for the altar.
As silently as she came, Aurelia ran out of the Chambers and never looked back.
With only the clothes on her back, she ran, disappearing into the moonless night without a sight.
Writer’s notes
Hello friends!
Wow…this has got to be the longest chapter thus far..
It was so incredibly heavy trying to write this chapter. The revelations of Aurelia’s past and the origins of her fears was one of the more difficult things that I was trying to convey.
But I hoped that I had achieved that with the emotions and pacing that I have written.
Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!
Comments are appreciated ><
(I have added this in FanFiction.net too)
Love always with gratitude,
HaleyReynolds <3