Chapter 8

Right on cue, Viviana clutched her head and cried out in agony, "Ahh, my head... It hurts so much. It feels like it's splitting apart..."

The monk immediately raised his voice in a chant and brought the whip down on the small pile of bones with a sharp crack.

White fragments flew into the air.

"No!" Giselle let out a grief-stricken wail that tore through the night.

Strength surged from somewhere deep within her, and she wrenched herself free of the guards' grip. She threw herself over the bones and shielded them with her own body against the next strike.

The whip lashed across her back, searing her flesh, but the pain was nothing compared to the agony that already tore at her heart.

"Continue! The cleansing must be thorough!" the monk shouted, gesturing for the guards to drag her away.

Giselle clutched the broken bones to her chest, her nails digging into the dirt. Agony wracked her body, but she refused to yield an inch.

"My lord! Young lord! This malevolent spirit harbors too much resentment. The whip alone will not suffice. We must burn the bones to ash to purify it completely!" the monk declared.

"No! No!" Giselle screamed. "No one touches my child!"

The sight of her anguish stirred something deep in Lythas' chest, and he hesitated.

But then Viviana suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood and went limp.

"Vivi!" Lythas rushed to catch her, his face contorted with shock.

Leoric was equally terrified and cried out for Viviana.

"Quickly! Burn the bones to ash! The mistress cannot hold on much longer!" the monk urged.

The guards rushed forward and pried Giselle's hands open, wrenching the bones from her grasp. They dumped them into a bronze basin that had already been prepared, doused them with oil, and set them alight.

Flames roared to life, engulfing the small white bones with a furious crackle.

"No..." Giselle collapsed to the ground. She watched the flames leap and dance as the last traces of her child vanished into ash and smoke.

She no longer cried out or struggled. She simply stared at the fire, her gaze fixed and vacant. Then her eyes drifted to Lythas and Viviana, who stood in each other's arms beside the flames, and finally to Leoric's tear-streaked face.

Suddenly, she coughed up a large mouthful of blood. Bright red splattered across the stone pavement in a horrifying display.

"Gigi!" Alarm seized Lythas, and he instinctively stepped toward her.

"Mother!" Leoric stopped crying at once, his grief overwhelmed by fear.

Giselle merely wiped the blood from her lips with the back of her hand. Slowly, she raised her head and looked at them. "I'm leaving. I'm leaving both of you."

At those familiar words, Lythas' alarm immediately gave way to irritation. "Leaving? Giselle, you have no parents and no family left anywhere. Where exactly do you think you can go?"

His fury twisted into a bitter laugh. "Are you going to tell me again that you came from another world? When will you stop this nonsense? If you could really go back, why haven't you managed it once in all these years?"

Leoric recovered from his shock as well, his voice cracking with tears and resentment. "Mother! You're always threatening to leave! If you really can, then do it! Go right now!"

Giselle looked at them both, and a faint, almost imperceptible smile touched her lips.

Without another glance at either of them, she struggled to her feet. Her body swayed unsteadily as she turned and stumbled deeper into the keep, toward the long-abandoned well at its far end.

"My lord! Young lord! Hurry, go after her!" Viviana called weakly, though a cold gleam of satisfaction lurked in her eyes.

'Go on, chase after her. Let's see what other tricks she has up her sleeve. This time, I'll make sure she never recovers.'

Lythas watched Giselle retreat, her every step filled with an unsettling sense of finality. A strange unease stirred in his chest, but his irritation and impatience at her defiance quickly overwhelmed it.

He pulled Viviana closer and said coldly, "Why should I chase after her? She won't get far. This is just another one of her tricks to manipulate me.

"How many times has she hurt you now? I haven't even settled those scores with her, and you expect me to go running after her? That would only encourage her to think she can do whatever she pleases."

He lowered his head and spoke gently to Viviana. "Come. Let me take you home so you can have your medicine."

With that, he turned and walked away with her, without so much as a backward glance at Giselle.

Leoric felt a flicker of unease too, accompanied by a faint sense of fear. But when he saw Viviana's pale face and heard his father's dismissive words, he forced those feelings aside.

'Father is right, isn't he? Where can Mother possibly go? She will surely come back on her own in a few days, just as she has always done.'

With that thought, he hurried after Lythas and Viviana.

Meanwhile, Giselle had already reached the well.

The water lay perfectly still, reflecting the brilliant river of stars overhead. High above, seven stars moved slowly along their mysterious paths, drawing ever closer to a single straight line.

The alignment of the seven stars was happening now.

She took one last look at this world. For seven years, it had been her home. It had given her love and a family, only to cast her into the depths of despair with its own hands.

There was nothing left to keep her here. Not a single thing.

Giselle closed her eyes, stepped forward, and threw herself into the well.

The icy water closed over her, its cold piercing straight to the bone.

She sank deeper and deeper. Through the haze of her fading consciousness, she thought she glimpsed a brilliant white light. Within it were towering buildings, streets bustling with cars, familiar roads, and familiar crowds.

Never again would she see Lythas.

Never again would she see Leoric.

Never again would she return to this absurd, ridiculous dream of a life.

The light of the seven stars slowly faded into the night sky. The old well returned to stillness, its dark, quiet waters reflecting a fractured sliver of moonlight as though nothing had happened at all.