I was chasing a butterfly in the fields near home, the morning breeze made me feel quite relaxed and in a playful mood… Suddenly though, I heard a weird voice say, “Come here.” I looked towards it but there was nothing in that direction... Then a boy came running from behind and collided with me, knocking both of us down. He got annoyed and started swearing, telling me to watch where I was going and… I got angry and burned his face down. He then ran away like the coward he is.

“Over here, come over here,” the voice resounded again… Just what is this?

Before I could think on it, mom started scolding me over how I shouldn’t burn people down just because I knew magic, because it was dangerous and I could hurt someone seriously if I wasn’t careful… But why should I deal with people’s angry outbursts when I can do something about it? I don’t get it and I got sick of her scolding, so I ran from home.

“This way.” The voice said, I followed it, not sure why, maybe because I didn’t have a better place to go to… I started seeing a bright red light illuminating the night’s sky… It was scary, I turned around and ran back.

Near home, I saw Mom was talking to a man in armor. I couldn’t hear what they said, but he gave her a piece of parchment and some shiny silver coins, isn’t that the thing that has words written in it? Like, those things that made ideas appear in your head just by looking at it!? Isn’t it super magical and expensive?! How come mom is getting one of those!?

She saw my gaze and looked away, is she mad because I ran? The man got closer, his hand covered my vision and we were now in a carriage, with home getting further and further away… It felt lonely.

“You shouldn’t be running away.” The voice said, I looked to the other side of the window and saw the scary light again… I don’t want to go there! Get away!

I closed my eyes and covered my ears, I didn’t want to hear what it had to say anymore, “You know it’s better over here.” It said.

“Shut up!” I shouted.

My shout was loud, loud enough to wake me up even… It seems I even got up as I awakened.

Sitting in my bed, I looked to the side and saw Iris. She was startled, she looked at me with clear confusion in her face… I got scared, scared of what would be her reaction to this. I looked downwards and spoke quietly, “Sorry…” And braced myself for impact.

Iris did not seem angry though, rather, she seemed worried… She flew right next to my face and gently touched her forehead with mine, “Another nightmare?” I was washed over with relief… I don’t know what I’d do if I got Iris angry…

“Uhum…” I wonder why I dreamt of those things after so long…? Must have been the time spent in that stupid geezer’s head, it made me think of stuff I don’t need. “I’m okay now though, I have you with me…”

Iris kissed my forehead and then sat on my shoulder, “You know, Aria… You don’t need to pretend to be strong when you’re with me.” She then laid her head against my neck, “Not when you’re with me…”

“Sorry… And thanks… I really do love you… I’m really glad to have you here with me.” And I’m glad you don’t ask… That you don’t force me to remember… Some memories are better off forgotten.

I could not see her right now, but Iris seemed troubled, she moved away from my neck and sat back on my shoulder, then sighed. Just what did I say to trigger this reaction? I’m worried, and scared of what she was about to say…

I looked at her eyes, Iris was serious, but she wasn’t talking, she was thinking… Choosing her words maybe? I gulped and waited, I did not want to hear it, I felt like escaping… But I would never escape, not from her, I wanted to forever remain with Iris.

She seemed to have decided on her words, so she opened her mouth and started speaking, “Aria… You’re a good girl, and I care a lot for you… But you should give up already… It won’t happen.” I felt a pang in my heart, yet she continued, “Once you’re done with this job and have a more stable financial situation, you really should try finding someone else to be with you… I just don’t cut it, you know that.”

I started crying, it hurt… I could barely articulate my thoughts… “I don’t wanna… I wanna stay with you… I wanna love you and nobody else… Why can’t I…?”

Iris spoke calmly, though her words were harsh, “Because… I don’t want to see you suffering like this… Nor do I want you to keep getting depressed each time I go back home…” I started sobbing, “See? I just mentioned it and you already got like that… Don’t doom yourself to a life of suffering because of one love, Aria… I’m sure you can find someone else for you if you search, I’m not the only one you can love.”

“Stop…” I begged her.

“Aria…” Iris was about to continue.

“Please…” I asked again.

She let out a heavy sigh, “Alright… But promise me you’ll at least try thinking about all this, okay? I want you to be happy, and this… This is not happiness.” I couldn’t understand it, Iris did not look happy right now, she looked sad, it felt like it hurt her to say this… Yet she is pushing me like that? Why? Just… Why?

I wanted to answer, but the words got stuck in my throat… I didn’t want to speak, I didn’t want to say anything… But I had to… I had to answer her… Iris is so unfair… She didn’t give me a choice in this at all… “Okay… I’ll try…”

She flew to the top of my head and gently caressed my hair, “At least you’re not pretending to be strong anymore… I really do want nothing but the best for you, I swear to all gods above.” I was sobbing, I couldn’t muster the strength to give her any reply… How could she want the best for me if she wants me to give up on the best thing that ever happened to me…? I don’t get it…

Iris waited until I stopped crying, she stayed with me the whole time, comforting me even though she knew she was the very reason I was hurt in the first place… Yet I never considered pushing her away… I love her so much, why can’t she understand that?

I wish I was born a fairy… This way I could always be with her, no matter what happened nor how much time passed… I wonder how many times I wished for that already… Why did the gods make me a catgirl instead?

No… I shouldn’t be thinking about that, wondering about the plans of the gods will take me nowhere, I should focus on something I can actually handle, something I can actually change and work towards… Work? Yeah, I got to work, working will distract me. I took a deep breath and then said, “We ought to go to work, don’t we?” My voice came out more tired than I expected, I was planning on sounding cheerful, but… I guess I couldn’t fake it right now… Perhaps it’s best that I didn’t though.

“We certainly do.” Iris replied, yet she made no effort to move, she just stayed on top of my head while caressing my hair… I love when she spoils me like this.

I made the effort to get up though, while I would definitely prefer to laze around all day with her, I do need to get this job done. And right now, it was hard to stay put, her words won’t leave my head if I don’t start moving… Therefore, I started getting ready to leave.

After dressing up, eating and bathing, I took the gem from the cupboard and left towards the castle, hopefully today ends up being more productive than yesterday.

When we got there, I showed the gem to the mages and explained that we did try analyzing what it did yesterday, but had no success. They also told us that the counselor had seemingly gone mad and was still struggling within his locked room that basically functioned as a jail for him. Can’t say I’m unhappy with his fate.

Though I don’t think I’ll be able to dive into his dreams again when he is like that, which might be troublesome, he was our main lead after all… For now, we tried analyzing the shard I brought back from the dream world, with everyone else being overly cautious about touching or getting too close to it… It is somewhat annoying that they sent me off yesterday while holding this gem and spending a whole night next to it, yet they don’t dare getting too close even.

It was mostly unsuccessful though, which was especially bothersome as this was our only lead at this moment… While pondering on what to do next for a while, I came to an idea that was either really dumb, or really amazing.

“Why don’t we give the gem to the mad counselor?” I asked them, the mages were… Speechless, possibly thinking I had gone mad.

As they were about to reply, a voice came from behind. “Do it.” I turned around to see who talked and it was… The noble I first talked to when I got to this room? Oh yeah, there was a guy supervising this whole process and that seemed completely clueless about what was going on, I had forgotten he existed. I wonder where he went yesterday when the other counselor tried to kill me…

His decision didn’t seem to be liked by the mages though, as they looked as if like they really wanted to complain, so he continued, “You have my permission and you need to do that to get the job done, right? Stop fussing over the details and get this done with.” Oh my, he was surprisingly competent at ordering people around, leaving no room for discussion even… Makes me wonder why he didn’t order them to just go into the mad counselor’s dreams in the first place then... Maybe he wasn’t aware it was a possibility.

In any case, we now had not only his permission, but his order to do it, so the mages complied and showed me the way to the room with the jerk that I took this gem from… And then told me to go ahead inside… They’re seriously telling me to do all the work by myself? There’s a crazy man in that room, alright? He tried choking me to death just yesterday, couldn’t they be a bit more considerate?

Iris seemed to be bursting with anger at their attitude, though she said nothing about it… She was so cute!

… Though I don’t get why she can feel like that when people treat me as disposable, but can’t accept my love for her… Are those things really that different? She cares for me, why can’t she let me love her…? Why can’t she love me…? I don’t get it… I don’t get it at all…

“Aria, are you alright?” Iris asked, her worrisome expression was also lovely.

I nodded, she didn’t need to know about my internal struggle… Not right now at least, maybe later, when we’re alone together… And then she’ll just tell me the same things she already did… Forget it. “I’m fine, let’s get this over with.”

I told them I was ready, so they unlocked the door and opened it. The man inside was looking really haggard and gave the feeling of a wild beast, it’s quite surprising to compare this to his sleeping figure that I saw just yesterday… Not that surprising when compared to his face while he shouted at me though.

The counselor noticed me and instantly lunged forward while screaming ‘Give it back’ again…

I shouted back, “Catch!” and threw the gem to his face. It hit his forehead cleanly and he fell on his back… Oops, did I mess up? Well, he deserves anything that he gets… Though he doesn’t seem to be bleeding, so I guess he is fine…

However, the jerk wasn’t moving… I moved a bit closer to see what happened better… “He is… Sleeping?” I asked to nobody in particular.

“It seems so…” One of the mages answered, I turned around and saw that they actually entered the room now, how courageous! Did they wait until the guy was knocked unconscious to do so? Of course they did, bunch of cowards.

I was trying to come up with a better insult for them when Iris shouted, “Aria, look!” I turned around and saw that she was pointing to something, I followed her line of sight to see the relic’s shard that fell on the ground after hitting the idiot’s forehead. And it was… Disappearing? What in the gods’ name!?

I rushed to the gem and grabbed it, trying to pull it away from the sleeping counselor, hoping it would turn off whatever was making it fade… However, I felt weak, dizzy… My vision started darkening… I vaguely heard Iris scream my name, then things started turning sideways, and then my vision went dark.