Chapter 12: What Were We
Jaden turned towards Selina with a raised eyebrow.
"Miss Selina..."
Selina stood there with her hands clasped together, a small forced smile tugging at her lips; her violet eyes appeared warm, but something was hidden beneath them.
"Can I stay?" she requested. She tried her best to sound composed, but the doubt of losing something dear to oneself can never be hidden behind the illusion of mere words and forced smiles.
Jaden felt a sharp pain in his heart. Seeing her like that hurt him, too, but he didn’t know why he felt like that.
Even if he didn’t know, he couldn’t get himself to deny her request.
He forced himself to give his usual smile as he answered playfully.
"Well, of course. Who would deny the company of a lady like yourself?"
Selina’s lips stretched further as her smile finally turned a bit natural.
He turned towards Shelly, who was standing there with her usual cold and indifferent expression and spoke.
"Shelly, can you please get a room ready for her?"
Shelly nodded at him and left.
He looked at Selina and questioned in a mischievous tone.
"So... Do you want us to go to my room or do you have somewhere else in mind?"
"The balcony." She added while chuckling at him.
The duo ascended the stairs and soon stood on the balcony. They stood beside each other while staring at the moon with their emotion-filled eyes.
Jaden was the first to break the silence as he questioned.
"Who am I to you?"
Selina’s eyes trembled for a moment before she forced them to still. She only spoke after a few moments’ pause.
"What... do you mean?"
He continued to look at the moon, not because he found tonight’s moon pretty. No, he just couldn’t look at her.
"The others look at me as a friend... which makes sense considering that we have known each other for about a year now. You, on the other hand, look at me as something more, and for some reason, I find it pretty normal," he took a pause and continued. "Why is that?"
Her face turned dark as tears welled up in her eyes, but she didn’t run away from the question.
"We are lovers... or we used to be... I don’t know anymore."
Jaden bent a little and grabbed the railings to compose himself and continued with his questions.
"Why do you look at me with guilt then?"
Selina froze upon hearing that question as she clenched her fists tight enough to bleed.
’Not this, please...’ she prayed in her mind, but the gods were already dead.
Both of them fell into silence for a few moments until Jaden turned to look at her and spoke with an earnest expression.
"I need to know the reason, Selina... I must know this."
Selina turned and looked at him with her quivering eyes. Seeing her like that pained him, but he couldn’t do anything about it. He needed answers even if it hurt him.
She opened her lips to answer, but no words came out.
She took a deep breath, her shoulders trembled as she asked a question of her own. "Don’t you find it strange that we have been in this city for a year?"
Jaden’s expression turned puzzled at her strange questions.
"What’s wrong with that-"
’Wait... one awakens their grimoire at the age of eighteen, and if we are in this city for about a year, doesn’t that mean we entered at seventeen?’
Seeing his eyes widen like that, Selina nodded and continued in a remorseful tone.
"To enter the ’dream’ realm, we need to wait for our ’call’; we feel a slight pull towards something when the ’dream’ realm calls us and sleeping during the call allows us to enter the ’dream’ realm. But... we or I didn’t want to wait for the call... once someone enters the ’dream’ realm, they can use mana after all... But we accidentally fell into a dream gate - a portal leading to the ’dream’ realm - However, it was no accident; I made sure that we fell into one."
Jaden was shocked out of his wits, but he finally had a lead, so he pushed all thoughts back into his mind for now.
"Where did we end up in the ’dream’ realm then?"
Selina, who had thought that he would get mad or just leave, blinked a few times and answered.
"We ended up in the wide grassland."
"I see..."
Jaden’s eyes shone with an unusual glint. He looked at Selina and asked seriously.
"So, how do we leave? There should be a way, yes?"
She lowered her head and shook it as she replied.
"We haven’t found any way to leave..."
Hearing her reply, Jaden frowned and spoke in a heavy tone.
"What?"
She trembled under his sharp gaze but didn’t say anything.
"How can it be that one of us must have woken up right after we entered the city and not know the way?" he questioned with a deep frown.
’It doesn’t even make sense.’
Selina hurriedly shook her head and answered in a dark tone.
"It’s not that we don’t know the way to leave. It’s just that we can’t use it."
"Tell me more about it."
"The eastern, western and northern exits lead to the plain grassland, which is also part of the city and has stronger hex - It makes us come back to the city, no matter what we do."
Jaden nodded at her words and raised an eyebrow.
"What about the southern exit?"
"We thought of it before... but it leads to a forest full of star beasts, and at the end of it exist initiate nightmares. We need the strength of an Expert to cross that forest."
’An Expert...’
He nodded solemnly and inquired.
"Is there no other way?"
Selina shook her head in reply. "None that I could think of..."
He placed a hand on his chin as a thoughtful look appeared on his face.
"Have you checked the maps of the city’s drainage system?"
She tilted her head and questioned in puzzlement.
"Hmm? Why would we do that?"
"..."