The Demon’s Bride

The carriage shook as it moved to an uneven path as the snow piled. The lantern hanged outside the carriage also trembled as the horses. Ian looked at Elise's face and her eyes that glittered when she spoke. 

Elise wasn't sure of it but somewhere she could feel she had combusted a person into ash like she did to the Relic hours before. 

"Why do you say that?" Ian questioned, he could tell Karen had spoken something that had made Elise to think that she had killed someone.

Elise pursed her lips, "When I turned the Relic to ash earlier, I felt like that was not my first time to use my power. I think I used in the past too, but my memories are gone. There are some of my memories that I think I couldn't remember."

Ian knew that he could sense that Elise forgot a few things, "Did you remembered anything new?" and when he saw she nodded, he asked, "What was it?"

"It was about Elena, Karen's daughter. I remembered the last time I played with her, I promised to meet her in the lake," they were passing by a forest when the scenery motioned to show a large lake that had froze, creating a glaze that glimmered if light hits but now the Sun had turned to moon, "I think that is the lake."

Ian turned his face, watching the lake he didn't see anything different to it, "Then what happened? Did Karen's daughter died in the river?" Because it seemed the woman hated Elise and it could be because the woman blamed her for her daughter's death, guessed Ian.

"I thought she did," answered Elise with her brows furrowed, "That day I couldn't come because my aunt locked me in the shed, but then Karen told me the villager found me at the foothill, and my dress was soaked with blood. But I don't remember what happened, I didn't know that I came back home with blood either or the reason. Elena was then later found dead with a hole on her chest."

Ian, who had been silent to here her words then looked at her, "And you think you killed her?"

"I don't think I killed Elena," she answered, "There was blood on me, and my dress, but I don't think my power is to kill, if I did killed Elena she would have turned to ash."

For a point that was right, however, Ian couldn't agree for sure. Elise's power was still stored in her and they don't know to what extent her power was. Somewhere Ian could tell that turning people to ash wasn't her only power.

"But I somewhat remembered that I went to the Lake," whispered Elise as she frowned, trying to pull her memory a strong pain hit her head and she curled her fingers in pain. The pain ache on her head. It was the same pain that would always strike her when she try to remember a blank part of her memory.

Seeing how Elise back bent forward as her hand touched her head, Ian took her head, placing his hand there, "What's wrong, does your head hurt again when you try to remember the memories?" she slowly nodded her head and he cooed her, "You don't have to remember it if you couldn't. If you force it you will be the one to receive the pain," he was also curious of what happened but Elise come first to him before a memory.

Elise did what he said because the pain when she tried to remember her lost memory wasn't easy to handle. It felt to her as if her brain had been twist and needled. Even as she stopped trying to force her memory, the pain lingered on her head, tingling in pain.

"But I think it is a very important memory, I don't know why I forgot it," she whispered. All this time, Elise didn't know she was living with some part of her memory was lost. It was like wearing a dress she wore almost everyday but then there was a hole and she didn't realized the tear on the fabric. 

"There are two possible reasons," Ian responded, brushing his hand on her head gently, "I have heard cases when children are too scared of what they have seen in their earlier childhood, a part of their mind would try to push the memory away from the person's head, so they wouldn't feel trauma of their past."

"I heard about that before," it was on one of the book she read in the past, "What about the second reason?"

"Magic," Ian wondered why Elise had to feel pain when remembering her past. It worry him a lot as internal pain or injury wasn't something he could heal. Although for external injuries he could use his magic to heal, it wouldn't help to ease the pain Elise felt. He was worried about her, not wanting her to feel pain, and if magic was the reason she forgot her past, he would find the person who had casted the magic and give the person a good beating.

Elise was surprised, "There is a magic that could erase a person's memory?" She knew magic could control a lot of things but those were called elements, she had never heard a magic that could tinker with other's mind much less erasing the memories.

"There is," Ian confirmed her, "I have seen a person's memory erased before, and I have seen them having symptoms like you did, feeling their head attacked by sudden pain when trying to remember the memories. The pain come from the after effect of the magic. It is to prevent the person from trying to remember the memory. As the person would unable to bear with it, they eventually retreat from remembering the memory."

"It is what I am experiencing now, that means someone had erased my memories using magic," whispered Elise, but when? At the time she was in the lake? 

"It's very possible that if your memory was erased, the culprit would be the one who met you and your friend on the lake," Ian told her, filling another puzzle to their question.

That was possible, thought Elise, "But I don't understand, if the person who erased my memory is the same person who had killed Elena, why didn't they kill me too instead of using magic?" That would be the most logical think to do then when the person was ready enough to kill Elena.

"Because I suspect that person couldn't," he answered and Elise turned her gaze from the lantern she looked for a moment to think toward him. She could find from Ian's expression that he had found an answer to her question. "Memory erasing magic is not a magic everyone could do. It's a magic that only Angels or Demon could use. And only a higher level of Demon who could perform the magic."

Elise furrowed her brows, to mull over the pieces of informations she found. That would mean that day, Elena was killed and her had witness what happened, the blood could possibly be Elena's. "But that would mean the person who had killed Elena was a Demon."

"Or an Angel," Ian chimed, adding to her words, "Don't think Angels are kind, Elise. For their mission, at some point they would even kill humans, or a child."