"You won't be able to handle all the gates on your own, Imogen. Even when it was both of us, we could barely make it," Ian feels reluctant to leave Imogen to face all the future events alone.
"You don't have to give me your answer right now," Imogen stops when the hostess brought the food.
"Are you two leaving?" Laurel turns to face Imogen. Suddenly, she feels heaviness in her chest.
"I am," Imogen replies while looking at Laurel, "But you can come with me."
Laurel tries to hide her smile, but Imogen warns, "It is not to play though, Laurel. You could die without even knowing."
Laurel takes Imogen's serious expressions and nods carefully.
The true events that turn the world upside down are going to happen. The events that Kyrie has read about and has been anxiously waiting to occur will soon come to pass, sweeping till the ends of every corner of this world.
Ian's eyes show concern over Imogen's decision, "Imogen… But Laurel…"
"Ian," Laurel interrupts, "I can make my own decisions, but thank you for worrying."
"You might not know what you are signing up for," Ian knits his eyebrows.
"Ian, I will tell her," Imogen puts some food on Laurel's plate, and she looks into Laurel's eyes, "I will tell you slowly. There is still some time, and when the time comes, you will make your decision to either follow me or stay behind."
Once they finish eating the meal, they walk out of the tavern and plan to head back to the Rowan mansion. All three are quietly walking side by side, all in their own thoughts.
Although Laurel is happy that she was asked to join Imogen, she knows the limits of her own strength. If the journey is as difficult as the tragedy in Bristol, she does not know if she would be of use. She would just be a piece of baggage to Imogen, and she is not okay with that.
But, does anything that needs the saintess to deal with any easier than the case in Bristol? None of the people around her are normal: not Imogen, Ian, or Kyrie.
Imogen puts a hand on Laurel's hair, and her thumb caresses Laurel's temple.
"Don't think about it too much, Laurel."
Those words manage to so weirdly calm Laurel as if Imogen has known her all her life. Those words make Laurel's heart race to the point she feels a weird sense of unfairness that Imogen is doing to her. That touch has so personal that Laurel feels that everything Imogen does has some kind of hidden meaning. When could she make Imogen's heart beat like this for her? The familiarity and the strangeness of Imogen's actions confuse her. Have they ever met before this?
In the carriage, Laurel cannot stop but glances secretly at Imogen's lips, which reminded her of the couple centimeters more she missed touching Imogen's lips completely. Is she the only one yearning to cross the line? She takes a breath and diverts her eyes to the outside because she might drown in the weight of her secret wishes.
Imogen stares back once she feels that Laurel's eyes are off her.
Suddenly, the carriage moves side by side as if it will tilt, and a deafening blast rings their ears. They stop the carriage and peek to see what happened, and in the distance, a column of light shoots to the sky, coming from the Rowan mansion.
Ian looks at the column of light that has penetrated where Kyrie's room is located. His pace starts to quicken as he draws his sword and detaches the horse off the carriage. He hits the horse, and as the horse begins to gallop, he uses the momentum to jump onto the horse, racing towards the mansion.
'Kyrie… Kyrie!' Ian's heart races to his throat, and a chill runs continuously over his skin.
Once he arrives, Ian encounters Marquis and Marchioness Rowan at the entrance.
"Ian!" Marchioness Rowan rushes to him with tears flowing out.
"What happened?" Ian tries to catch his breath.
"Someone is in Kyrie's room, but we cannot go in! There is a barrier that we couldn't break," Her voice cracks, "Is she going to take Kyrie away? She looks like some heavenly being. Is my child leaving?"
"Marchioness, please stay here… I will go check on Kyrie!" He quickly hands Marchioness Rowan to the Marquis, so that he could take care of her. They exchange a serious stare before Ian turns to leave.
Ian quickly runs up the stairs. As he runs through the dark halls, he begins to sense an intense influx of essence in the air. The only light brightening the halls is through the single open door that is supposed to be from Kyrie's room.
He suddenly stops just a couple of steps before he arrives at the room. His breathing is erratic even though he is trying to breathe deeply. He walks, and as he looks into the room, he squints his eyes when encountering light.
He touches the barrier, and the barrier easily lets him into the room. He walks in as the intense essence that surrounds the room starts to die down. The heavy gold curtains from the dense essence in the air lift, showing a young lady in her teens, with long flowy dark hair, with a loose mid-length long dress, sitting beside Kyrie on the bed.
Yue smiles at Ian as she sees him enter the room.
"Ian!"
Ian immediately recognizes the voice, "Yue?"
Different than the little porcupine and little girl on the subway train that Ian has seen, in front of him stands a more grown-up version of that little girl.
Yue nods and smiles at one of the humans she missed deeply.
Before, Ian does not know exactly what Yue was, but after witnessing Kyrie's memories, he is aware that Yue is a goddess, the one responsible for bringing Kyrie into this world.
Yue watches Ian start to tense because he finally understands that he is in the presence of a goddess.
"You don't have to be so alert, Ian. I am here to wake Kyrie up. Vita has sent me here."
"I see… About Kyrie's memories…"
Yue looks over to Kyrie and puts her hand on Kyrie's forehead. Her palm lights up, and for a while, Yue stays motionless. She squints her eyes in confusion and takes her handoff.
"Kyrie's memories most probably will come back with time since his memories still live within," Yue guessed, but she is not sure anymore even though that is the most probable scenario. She cannot look into Kyrie's memories as if something within him is blocking her from doing so.
'What could it be that I cannot go inside his mind?'
Yue also notices that within Kyrie, there is a large amount of essence. It could have been from the piece of soul Kyrie detached from himself to use that essence, but the purity is confusing her.
'Just who are you, Kyrie? Why is my master so interested in you?'
Imogen and Laurel finally catch up and enter the room. Once Imogen enters the room, her eyes first land on Yue who is sitting next to Kyrie on the bed. Her eyes shake. Although Imogen has seen Yue in Kyrie's memories, it feels different seeing the goddess in person.
Yue stands up from Kyrie's bed and turns towards Imogen's direction.
"It has been a while, hasn't it, Imogen."