Lord Shadow

Usually in the six years she was inside this house, there would be maids and the Palace keeper that would arrange for her place to be cleaned and maintained. 

She did not spend all her time inside the house since she too went into seclusion and hunting beast when she felt it was necessary.

Unlike some people who could seclude themselves into ice mountains, or drill into the Earth core to understand their path, she need constant fighting to improve herself and find her path,

The bow must be used, the arrow must be let loose

Her path is different, so her method is also different. Some could stand still and some must walk.

She must be like her arrows. 

It needs to be straight and unbending but moist time she did not always become straight or unbending. Instead there are time when she falters and there are times when she bends.

And almost all of those times, it is related to the man she loves the most. She is Azief biggest weakness. And Azief is her biggest weakness

‘You could go now’ hearing this Azief frowned a bit.

‘Do you not like my company?’

Sofia sighed as she put the clean plate on the rack. Then she turns around and look at Azief. Her eyes look at his eyes, their gaze clash.

‘I hate seeing your eyes’

‘What do you mean?’ Azief ask

‘It is full of sorrow. And pity. And guilt. And I hate seeing it’

Azief jaw hardened and he shakes his head and then he wanted to say something to explain. But nothing comes out of his mouth. He was speechless. 

He did not know what to say and then Sofia said with a bitter smile on the corner of her mouth

‘These four days you accompanied me from morning to night. I am happy. I was happy. And I thought that now you returned, we would have the life we dreamed off’ And then she scoffs and she said with a low voice, her face looking down

‘I guess it is the life I dreamed of and not the life we dreamed of’

She then looks back at him and said

‘The reason why I didn’t ask you anything is because I know the moment I ask, we could not be smiling and laughing anymore. So, I delay it. Because I think like you, I want to delay the inevitable. Why is it that we must always part like some kind of star cross lovers? What kind of relationship is this? What kind of love is only filled with yearning but never come to fulfillment’? 

She sighed and she look at Azief, probably expecting an answer

Azief know the one thing he should not say is that he does not know. 

That kind of answer doesn’t necessarily inspire confidence. 

But most of his life, he doesn’t know where he is going. 

He does have plans and he does have his objectives. And while many of his objectives sometimes failed, there are time when the goal he put for himself could be achieved.

After the Fall, nothing he ever put his mind to did not turn into success

But for some reason with him and Sofia, nothing ever goes according to plan. If they solve one problem, two more popped out.

Since he knows answering it would not gain anything, he looks at her and remain silent. She did not seem disappointed. Probably because she too knows the answer

She shakes her head and said 

‘I do not ask you about it and in turn you would not tell it to me. I guess we know too much of each other. I want to enjoy it even if would not last. I was happy. And I was sad. I was happy because you are here again. Beside me. Holding my hand, kissing my lips. For a while I dream of us having a normal life. It was like a dream come true.’

‘Then why are you sad?’ He asks

And then she answer 

‘Because it felt like…’ and she stops.

Her eyes are welling up with tears and Azief wanted to come to her. He took one step toward her and she shakes her head

Seeing her like that, Azief felt like his heart is being ripped apart.

She is hurt. And she is hurt because of him. He gritted his teeth. But like there is an invisible barrier between them two, he could not even take one step forward.

She then said

‘These past four days, it felt like you are preparing for a farewell meeting. You look at me and you cherished every moment. You heard my story and you listen to it like you wanted to engrave it in your mind You laugh so brightly almost like you wanted to laugh and smile as much as you can, as much as you want. That when I knew. That is when I felt it. Each moment is so precious to you because you treated it like we would never meet again. You were always like that. A bit of selfishness disguised as some kind of kindness. But I don’t hate it before. But I hate it now. And that is sad. Because I know my future is with you and I know I have thousands of days more to pass with you. And when that thousands of days’ passes, I know I would still be there, to pass thousands of more days with you.’

‘I….’ And he could not say anything. Because just by looking at her, his heart ache.

There is once again silence between them but Sofia smiles

‘So, go’ she said

‘Go and solve whatever troubling you. If this is the last time, at least let part with a smile. Because even if you believe it to be so, I won’t’

Azief could not move forward. But he does not know whether it is right to go back. He doesn’t know what to do.

Go to Will and od what you must do.’ This time hearing Will name coming out from Sofia mouth, Azief could not hide his shock. Even this, she knows? He thought to himself.

He fears Sofia would know all about what he had try to hide. And the reason why he could not take a step forward toward her.

The vision of betrayal, all of this prevent him from taking that step forward. Everyone in this world could betray him and he would not be surprised. But Sofia must not.

Because out of everyone, he gave his heart to her just like she gave her heart to him. As such, if she really did betray him, he doesn’t know what to do.

A step separated them with each other, a step that felt like the distance between the heaven and Earth.

‘How do you know?’ he asks. Sofia nonchalantly said

‘Why would you meet Will if there isn’t something you wanted to do with him?’ Azief then understand Sofia probably had long wanted to say all these thing to him

And she waited until today to spoke all of this

But he could not tell why he is doing this. He could only nod and said

‘I’ll try my best’ Then Azief walk away from the kitchen. Sofia just look at his back and she did not say anything anymore. The past four days felt like a happy dream. And the thing with dreams is, is that it ends.

She did not know why he had to leave again and she does not want to guess. But she knew trying to stop him would be pointless. It is not that she wants him to go.

But because she too has a plan of her own. And so she let him go. Azief walk through the living room until he went to the door.

Smiling bitterly, he took a long last look at Sofia inside the kitchen

Sofia is still there on the kitchen, leaning her back on the counter top, her hand is on the counter and her eyes is turning red and then she averts her face, so that he could only see her back.

And this time, he felt sad. Why is it when they meet each other, one of them would have their tears fall.

And why would it fall endlessly?

Why would their heart ache seeing each other? They made each other smile ad they made each other laugh. Yet, they are also the one that made each other cry and in pain.

It is weird that now, when he is about to leave this house, the only feeling in his heart is only pain and sadness.

He smiles bitterly but the tears did not fall. 

He went out of the house and then disappeared almost instantly, probably appearing inside the residence of the Immortal Couple. 

And the moment she did not sense him, Sofia breaks down inside the kitchen. 

She did not howl. And she did not scream. 

She just sits there on the tile floor, her back leaning on the counter, tears falling like a river. 

She then got up and then wipes the tears on her face. On the window of the kitchen sink there is a raven. The raven eyes are green and all around the raven there is green aura.

She looks intently at the raven and sighing she ask

‘Where should we meet?’ The raven screams at her and then the raven speak

‘You ready to do this?’ The raven asks.

She waves her hand and she was transformed to the Divine Archer Sofia, her warrior outfit fits perfectly on her body. 

The bow on her back seems to glisten with golden colors.

‘You were not joking before, right? Loki.’ The raven nodded.

‘I know what Azief is going to do. And if you do not help me, I know that he would be attacked by all sides. And this time, he might not come out of it unscathed’

Sofia eyes flashed and nodded.

‘Fine. If what you said is true, then tomorrow Azief would leave. I just need to be in the Island of Peace right?’ the raven nodded again.

Sofia nodded and the raven squawk.

‘See you tomorrow’ the raven said, before it flies off to the clouds. 

And Sofia walk around the house, preparing her weapons and bringing out some of her hidden weapons that she had accumulated over the years.

Loki and Azief always had this tendency to hide something from her. 

And this time even when Loki ask her for help, she felt like Loki still held up some of the information. 

Since they do not want her to know, she would try to find it out

Her eyes flashed again and she knows she had to make some calls to prepare for whatever is happening tomorrow.

She need to fetch more arrows. That is what she thought of at that moment

Overhead, dark clouds are rising

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