A storm hit suddenly that the port town became silent. There were only rain and the sounds of droplets hitting the stone road. The brick tiles making placid sounds as the water flow from the roof down to the ground. He was staring outside the window. A lamp was placed on the round table behind him. His hands were on his pockets, and he had the look of melancholy on that reflect face in the glass.

There was peace in the way he stood with loosened shoulders. He was holding on to a cigar. Taking a few puffs he rested his eyes on the outside world where even the rain couldn’t stop the clear water from turning muddy. The crystal seas stayed the same. The sea beasts that live near the port town was visible seen as their towering figures would block the light coming from the sun that has hidden behind the clouds.

Taking his frock coat, he only had a vest on. He continued smoking while his thoughts drifted to the scene where he saw Ashia give her students a stern warning. Nolan had known her for years that it was rare to make her angry. However, her voice when doing so awhile ago was filled with frustration. Nolan understood why she was like that. No, if he didn’t understand then he was a coward who didn’t want to see it.

“She has her family here,” he thought. “There’s no point in barging in their time. They’ve been separated for a while and I guess it only means that I have to stay away.”

Nolan couldn’t interfere with her life. When at her side he could not help but stand silently with a few words. Their relationship has always been about him serving as her attendant. He had allowed himself to be her attendant out of devotion that even he is surprised that would last for a million years. Still, the thought of the current Ashia, possessing the souls of the women he loved dearly made him confuse. His thoughts are constantly drifting and he was anxious at this lasting peace.

“No way that this would last forever,” he thought paranoid. “It’s always like this. I get a rest in an oasis and some shit starts pulling me back to chaos. It has happened again and again. I don’t get rest. I keep on fighting back with a disappointed heart.”

Peace was like a trap to Nolan Salvatore. It was a false hope that he couldn’t trust. There was something about the peace that made him think of it as a powder keg with a fuse slowly closing into the keg. Nolan Salvatore couldn’t help but think that a place where the danger was real was better than something like this. The peace that they had sown here was too grand, that it was like a fairy tale. A happy world where a monster like him shouldn’t be in. He couldn’t sit still knowing that his presence will bring some chaos to this world.

“And here I thought that I left it behind,” he said.

Nolan squeezed the cigar on his palm. He took the lamp on the table and went to the door. Before he could reach the door it was opened from the outside, a woman in a shawl carrying a lamp with her entered the room. Wearing her glasses, Ashia lifted her face and saw Nolan. He saw that she was carrying a basket of wine bottles on her left arm.

“Where are you going?”

“I wanted to go out.”

“In this rain?”

“Yes,” he told her. “I just want to breathe some fresh air.”

Ashia raised a brow. She then closed the door behind him. “You know that your anxious face is easy to read. Come on, sit down, I brought some wine.”

Nolan eyed the wine. “You sure have. Hah, do you think we can even get drunk?”

“Doesn’t hurt to try,” Ashia placed the wine on the round table. She sat on the bed with hands on her lap. She gazed at him. “Come, sit down with me.”

Nolan complied without insisting. He sat next to her and took one of the bottles, pulling the cork. “I thought you’d be chatting with them.”

“I was done with my lectures,” she said to him. “They are adults now, clingy, spoiled, but still they are adults. I was infuriated with their behavior that I have to tell them. I couldn’t allow them to make the same mistake as I did back then. I’ve already lost too much that I will not compromise on it.”

“I see.”

She cast a look that seems to dig into Nolan’s mind. “What?”

“Do you want to go back to war? Fight battles again?”

“What?”

“You are anxious. You were smiling before I revealed my secrets.”

Nolan’s face darkened. “Yes, I am afraid. I wanted peace but yet this is terrifying. As if it is criminal for a monster to live in a world like this. I don’t belong here, Ciara. I fought so hard that I have forgotten what it was, and reuniting again doubled that fear.”

She stayed silent with a downtrodden look. She drank on the wine, passed it on Nolan and took her shawl, placed it on the table, and turned to Nolan with glassy eyes. She traveled her fingers on his chest, pulled on his neck and rested her head on his chest.

“I know you are afraid. I do,” she continued, “we were raised in a world of constant war that it couldn’t be helped. To be suddenly put into a world of peace must be horrifying. I made my peace with this world, and I can only help you find it as well. You are not alone, hell, you got a three in one here. You don’t have to worry, dear. It will be alright this time.”

Nolan hooked his arm around her waist and pulled her closer. He took the wine from the table and drank it. The storm continued. Their whispers and groans muffled by the sound of the rain. Clothes were strewn on the cold ground and the creaking of wood.