JEWELED : A TALE OF SAPPHIRES AND RUBIES ( SHORT HIATUS)

21. Arius' wish

The world tree.

"I see! So you contacted Lucas!" Athanasia exclaimed as they had a small tea party of their own under the shade of the world tree. (Aoi: wow..imagine sitting under the tree who could also be termed as the most powerful existence to the point that it was legendary leisurely enjoying tea-)

"Yes. This is the case for not only this life but almost all of your lives." Arius smiled as he continued,

"I had to contact this guy since he was the one tied to you by those damn red strings." His smile became a little crooked but he went on nevertheless,

"But even so, most of the lives, either one of you died first or you never crossed paths with each other." He finished his sentence.

"I...see.." Athanasia weakly responded.

"But now that I'm here, you won't need him, sister! Even if you don't meet him, I can always be with you in every life of yours, at least telepathically" Arius continued brightly.

"Shut up, you block of wood. What do you mean she doesn't need me anymore?! You're just jealous you didn't get to meet her all these lives." Lucas retorted in his mind.

"Well, thanks to you, I met her~" Arius replied back.

This brat-

"But didn't he take me here to find you...?" Athanasia asked innocently.

"Uh...." Arius was left speechless while Lucas could be seen smirking as smugly as ever.

(Aoi: you should have known that writer-nim is a lucathy shipper. The moment you try to separate them, you'll face my wrath, hmph.)

(Aoi: okay that was a joke, hes Athy's brother so I won't do anything but I don't want you to do that next time!)

"But don't worry, You are my brother! We can always talk anytime you want!" She told her brother brightly.

"I know! Why don't you just come back to Obelia?"

Arius' eyes dimmed as he shook his head.

"Not yet. I still cannot separate myself from this tree. Only a part of my consiousness can wander away. Something like a mind connection. Nothing more. I'm sorry."

Athanasia looked at him and said,

"There must be a way. Do you remember what the gods said when you were cursed?"

"They said, the reason for my curse shall be the reason for my freedom. I don't think I get the meaning behind it. The reason was your death. How could the same reason break me free from this curse?"

"...." Athanasia kept quiet. What he said was true. Then, why did the gods and goddesses say something like that?

"Remove 'death'. The reason was Athanasia. Then the one who will break it is also athanasia. This makes more sense." Lucas mused out loud.

Arius and Athanasia looked at Lucas.

Blink

Blink

"That actually makes sense!" Both shouted out loud.

"So...what do we do?"

Athanasia paused and shook her head,

"I'm sorry, I don't have a single clue."

Arius bitterly sighed.

Humans really were greedy creatures. Even though he didn't consider himself as 'human' anymore, his thoughts proved him wrong. Humans, just like him, were greedy. All he wanted before was to be able to watch over his sister. Just a glimpse of her every so often was fine.

Then suddenly he felt that he could contact her fated one albeit it was a bit irregular and distorted sort of a connection. He was excited. He thought of the possibility that he could meet her through him. His wish grew. He now wanted to meet her. Even if it was just once, he wanted to meet his sister again. Even if she did not remember him, it didn't matter.

Finally after few more of their lives, he could finally, finally contact her fated properly and the next few years, which should have been equal to a moment passing by, seemed painfully longer than the goddamn years he spent alone as the world tree. His wait though, didn't seem to go to waste, as the years passed and he actually, finally, could meet his only family again. He was happy, truly happy. But then, he didn't expect that his sister would actually get her memories back. She remembered him!

His wish grew bigger again, he wanted to go back with her. He didn't want to be alone again. In this dull lonely place.

If others were to hear this, they'd say that who wouldn't want to spend the rest of their lives in such a beautiful place under the tree that literally contains the mana of a world. But Arius was long tired of this place. Spending millenials, that translated into a hundred or more of human lives, here in solitude was a huge deal after all.

All he could see now, was an overly beautiful and utterly lonely place.

He sighed.

These goddamn gods...

Athanasia looked at her brother who seemed to be very sad.

She didn't want to see that. For some reason, she just wanted to go and smack the gods on the back of their heads.

(Aoi: Lmao Cale why are you influencing athy?)

She sighed too. She'll figure it out later when they go back to Obelia.

"Uh, Athanasia, that emperor might be looking for you, it's been months already you know?" Lucas was the one who interjected into the depressed atmosphere that surrounded the two siblings.

"How much time is left till my debutante?" Athanasia asked.

"About a month." Lucas replied. It really didn't seem that a year had passed in the few moments the siblings caught up.

"You should go. Well, I'll be with you too." Arius said with a smile. Atleast he could communicate with them.

"Yes, brother. We'll come to visit you a few days later. Don't worry, you'll be with us all the time right?" Athanasia returned the smile with warm eyes. She stepped forward and hugged her brother again.

"We will definitely get you out of this tree." She said these words as they started to teleport away.

"Damn- there's only a week left now. Your father is going to be anxious." Lucas commented as he took her back to their world in a hurry.

The last thing he wanted was for her debutante to be imperfect.

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(993 words)

Firstly, IM SO SO SORRY!!!!

I didn't update this story for like- 3 months!! Or maybe more but meh...

So, as it was stated in the description, I still am stuck on how to progress this story.

Ahem...I actually had a cut out outline on how to neatly end this story but....adding Arius to the mix was totally on impulse and now, I'm stuck-

I don't regret it though. Athanasia can't only open up to luc. And I definitely won't let her completely open up to Claude any time soon.(he should regret more!)

Back to the point, I'm still stuck. Help mehhhhh.

By the way, don't forget to vote and comment~

See ya~ (maybe-)