Chapter 52 – The First Emmisary of Light

Chapter 52 – The First Emmisary of Light

As soon as I stepped into the darkness, I was taken into Ovia’s domain. The room slowly came into view as I was embraced by the familiar coolness.

My immediate instinct was to look for Ovia. Looking around the room, I saw that it had been rearranged slightly, with three seats set out instead of the usual two that were meant for Ovia and me.

“Ovia?” I called out.

...

No response.

“Where are you?” I called out again, taking a few steps forward.

...

Again, no response.

Did Beni send me here too early?

But I saw that black orb...

Isn’t that the cue for me to come here?

...

Then, without warning, as I was lost in thought, two arms shot out from behind me and wrapped themselves tightly around my body.

“W-welcome back Kierra!” Ovia had sneaked up behind me.

“Mhm,” I responded, awkwardly twisting myself around in her arms to face her.

There was a brief silence as I looked into Ovia’s abyss-like eyes, letting myself get lost in the seemingly endless space inside of them.

“D-did you not like my surprise?” She let go of me, her hands shaking a little.

No!

I came in close and hugged her, not letting her get away, “I was just... a little worried...”

I wanted to tell her that it was fine, but I just couldn’t bring myself to lie to her, even if it was something as small as that.

“Should I leave you two alone then? I can just come back later if you want.”

I immediately whipped my head back, searching for where the voice came from, although it didn’t take long to see who was there. It was Aria. She was sitting on one of the three seats that had been set out, playing with the panel floating in front of her.

“I don’t want to interrupt anything after all,” She teased.

“No! Just... W-wait a second,” Ovia stuttered as she scooped me up in her arms, “U-um, I... I saw that you liked Beni’s stories. I w-wanted to tell you one too, but... I couldn’t think of a story you w-would enjoy...”

A story from Ovia?

Why wouldn’t I enjoy it?

“But I-”

“But! E-Ellaria knows a lot of stories,” Ovia interrupted me, “I asked her t-to come here so you could listen to one.”

I would enjoy any of your stories... I know it...

I just... want to know more about you....

“Sister?” Aria called out, “I thought I told you not to call me that?”

“A-Aria...” Ovia sheepishly muttered after a few seconds.

“That’s better. Now, come and sit down. The story I’ve picked out for you two is a little long.”

Ovia quickly carried me over, setting me down on my stomach on top of one of the cushion-like seats. As soon as she was done checking that I was comfortable, she dragged the other free seat right next to mine and laid down on top of it in the same way.

“Comfortable?” Ellaria asked.

“Mhm,” Both Ovia and I replied in unison.

Ellaria chuckled a bit before continuing, “Now, the story I have picked out for you two is one of my oldest. It involves a lot of my firsts, my first Emissary, the first time I gave someone a title and even the moment I became the Goddess of Titles-”

“I love this one!” Ovia suddenly shouted, interrupting Aria before covering her mouth and blushing slightly.

Her tails were waving all over the place, occasionally rubbing against my own. Her eyes were wide with wonder as she looked up at Aria.

Have I... ever made you that happy?

...

That can’t be it...

“Well, that small fortress slowly grew into a village, then a town, as more new people continued moving in. That town was eventually named Casgolau, ‘Castle of Light’. The castle that once stood in that fortress had already been torn down, but that didn’t matter to the residents. That wasn’t why they gave the town that name.”

The panel quickly changed to showing Aria’s temple, or what probably became Aria’s temple.

“They built a temple for me, which I decided to give my blessing on the condition that they built one for my sister as well. They happily did as I asked, so both my sister and I gave the two temples our blessing on the same day.” Aria’s eyes moved down to Ovia, “Now that I think about it... Was that the last time you left the Divine Realm?”

Left the divine realm?...

It’s possible for them to leave?

“U-um...” Panic spread across Ovia’s face, “N-no!”

“Really? I can’t see you getting permission for that,” Aria sat and thought for a moment, “Then did you just sneak out? I’m surprised no one noticed... Not even me...”

Ovia just blushed in response.

“Well, anyway, that’s enough about that. Let’s get back to the story.”

The panel shifted again, this time showing Eirian kneeling down in front of Aria inside her domain. The Aria in the panel placed her hand on top of Eirian’s forehead, and when he opened his eyes, his once green eyes had turned gold with a distinctive white inner ring inside, just like both Celica’s and Aria’s.

“I decided to make him my first Emissary of Light and gave him my token, a copy of my own golden eyes, so that everyone knew that he had been chosen. I still don’t think I could have made a better choice. Even though he was my Emissary, he didn’t change at all; he would still go to the fields just to give the farmers a break, and he would still go and give the soldiers some personal training every so often. However-” Aria stopped talking as if the words had gotten stuck in her throat.

Ovia was extremely excited as her tails started swaying back and forth again.

“Well... One of the effects of becoming an Emissary is living longer... a lot longer... It’s not quite immortality, but for anyone close to them, it might as well be.” Aria once again paused for a moment, “Because of that... Eirian ultimately decided to pass down his position as my Emissary to one of his pupils.”

What? Why?

Isn’t being an Emissary a good thing?

Wouldn’t you want to live for a long time?

“Eirian served as my Emissary for many years, but one day, he met someone he just couldn’t forget. The woman who would one day become his wife.”

Ovia suddenly wrapped her tails around me and brought me in close, hugging me against her side.

“He truly was a simple man at heart. He just wanted to live out the rest of his life with his wife. If he remained my Emissary, he would easily outlive her... He wasn’t just worried about missing her, but also about eventually... forgetting her... How could I say no to him? I knew it would be hard to find another person like him... but maybe that was why... I didn’t put up any resistance. I took my token from him and gave it to the pupil he had chosen as my way of respecting everything he had done... And that’s... the end of this story, my version at least.”

...

Forgetting...

I couldn’t bring myself to say anything after hearing the end of the story. However, I didn’t need to, as Ovia abruptly jumped to her feet and took me with her.

Aria chuckled, “Sister, you seem to have abducted a little fox at some point during the story.”

“I-I’m sorry,” Ovia immediately set me down, blushing furiously, “You were just so c-close and... fluffy...”

But I’m not as fluffy as you...

As soon as my feet touched the ground, I hugged her back, trying to reassure her, “I didn’t mind... I liked it.”

“Now, I would like to tell you that it’s time for me to leave you two alone, but unfortunately, it seems that my story dragged on a little longer than expected,” Aria got out of her seat.

Oh...

I knew what she was trying to tell me. It was already time for me to go back. I had gotten so absorbed in the story that I had completely forgotten that this was the one day this week I was allowed to see Ovia.

Ovia knelt down and hugged me tightly as if reading my mind, “It’s okay, t-there’s always next time!”

“Mhm,” I buried my face in her shoulder, the tip of my ear brushing against her cheek, “But... I want to go back like this.”

“Yes! O-of course!” She responded, the surrounding darkness immediately closing in around me as Ovia squeezed one more time.

“I’ll be back next time,” I said just as I felt Ovia’s presence disappear.

...

As I felt the air around me warm up, the expressions I saw when Ovia was listening to Aria’s story remained stuck in my mind, playing back on a loop.

I... want to tell her stories like that...

...

I just... want to see her smile like that again...

...

“Did you have fun Kierra?” Raynelle called out, pulling me out of my thoughts.

“Mhm...” I walked over to her, where she quickly wrapped a cloak around me, “I did.”