Through the Violet Sky [NOEL]

Noel snaps her eyes open.

She is sweating heavily. She has tears falling down her cheeks.

She sees her maid with a worried expression.

“Young Lady Noel, You’re finally awake. You wouldn’t open your eyes at all. I called you multiple times. I tried waking you up. It was very concerning.”

Noel with a quiet shaky voice, “Please, let me be alone for a moment. I just had a terrible nightmare”

The maid faltered, then silently poured the morning tea and placed it on the table. With a bow, she exited the room.

Noel is lost in thought.

“Leon…”

She remembered Everything.

The spear… piercing them both. His broken voice, trying to smile through the pain. His hand in hers. The promises. The unfinished words. His warmth. His presence.

She bursts into tears. She clearly remembers Leon being killed along with her. She thinks about how strong their bond had become, about how much pain she felt seeing her loved one dying before her eyes.

Something comes up in Noel’s mind. Now, what would happen tonight? After she returns to the other world, will she see Leon again? Will Leon be there as usual welcoming her?

Thoughts lingered in her mind. She was wishing. She was anticipating. She wanted to return. She wanted to meet Leon. There were things he had not explained but that didn’t matter for now. At the moment, her only desire was to reunite with Leon.

Just like that, her day went on with haze and night came.

She lay on her bed. She wished to return.

“Let me see him again… please…”

She slowly closes her eyes. She went to sleep.

…

…

…

Noel opens her eyes to a familiar surrounding.

But…

It was not the other world. It was the same bed she slept on. Her breath came out uneven. She is shaken.

She hadn’t left.

She hadn’t traversed.

She just woke up as normal. Just like before the time she would traverse to the other world.

And just like that, the fragile dam inside her cracked.

“No…”

The first tear fell. Then another. And then they came all at once. Relentlessly flooding her cheeks her entire body shook. She gripped the sheets and twisted them in her fists.

“No… No…!”

She screamed his name.

“Leon!!”

It was a broken, anguished cry. The cry of a girl who had lost more than she could bear.

The door burst open.

The maid rushed in, “Lady Noel?!”

She froze at the sight.

Noel collapsed on her knees beside the bed, sobbing uncontrollably. Her hair fell like a silver curtain around her face, tangled and damp from sweat and tears. Her voice was hoarse, choked by the grief she couldn’t contain.

The maid dropped to her knees. She wrapped her arms around Noel, cradling her gently.

Eventually, her sobs softened into trembling silence. Her limbs were heavy, her spirit battered. She no longer knew whether she had the strength to stand.

She sat still with her empty and distant eyes.

Until something clicked.

The red-eyed shadow.

Its spear and those wings.

It was definitely connected to Levedin.

She quickly makes her way to the temple of Levedin.

She enters and hurries towards the pillar with the spear-wielding celestial warrior engraved.

She observes the picture for a while.

“This is it…This is the one. The red-eyed shadow…I’m sure this is the one”

She didn’t have a reason. She just wanted someone to blame and the warrior was the one who was befitting. It was a baseless suspicion and accusation Anger sprung into her face as she frowned her brows.

Priestess appears and greets Noel. She notices Noel’s distress and tries consulting her.

To her surprise, Noel meets her eyes with fury. “How can I meet him?”

She points towards the engraving. “Where can I find him?”

Priestess is a bit taken back “Lady Noel, What are you talking about-”

“You’re all fanatics,” Noel snapped. Her voice cracked. “You worship a monster. A murderer.”

The priestess gasped. “Lady Noel! Please, you may insult me if you must, but I must ask you not to blaspheme the divines!”

Noel’s eyes ignited.

Anger. Grief. Loss. They roared inside her, threatening to drown everything else.

Her voice lowered, trembling like ice on the edge of a storm.

“Then perish with your gods.”

She raised her hand.

A glint of cold blue light sparked at her fingertips.

With a furious chant, she summoned a jagged icicle, long and sharp as a spear. It glistened with her rage. Her pain.

“Lady Noel!! What are you doing?!”

Noel aimed.

As she tries to fire off her magic, suddenly…

Something happens…

Bzzt…

A glitch…

Yet again…Another distortion…

Then…Noel was seen observing the engraved warrior in the pillar.

The priestess comes and accompanies her.

What had happened? Where did the scene from before go? There was no magic and no fury on Noel’s face.

Noel thinks about why she was here in the first place. She exits and goes back to her mansion.

Did she forget everything? Where did her emotions go?

Noel lies down on her bed thinking about the other world. She remembers traversing to the other world. She remembers new exotic experiences. She remembers Leon. She remembers him saying that he would return. She remembers that she had to welcome him. Yet, was that everything…

Noel didn’t know…

After she stopped traversing to the other world, her days continued in a mundane manner.

A few months later, a tragedy fell upon the Redlaw family.

Aciel passed away.

Noel’s mother passed due to her disease worsening. The entire family grieved. No one could control their emotions.

Amidst the funeral, Noel suddenly hears a whisper. A whisper in the form of her mother’s voice.

“Do not forget…”

Noel widens her eyes and looks around. She realizes it to be just a hallucination of her late mother’s voice.

Months pass after that.

Then, one morning Noel sets off somewhere.

Minutes away from her town, she reaches a certain place. An open space.

Golden trees under the violet sky.

She touches one of the trees.

Suddenly, at the center, something happens.

Something appears out of nowhere.

Rather than something, it was someone…

One moment there was nothing another moment there is.

Noel’s eyes widen. A single tear rolled down Noel’s face.

She moves forward with a smile.

“Are you lost?” she asks.

It is Leon…