Astral Odyssey: Dying Ember

World 5.13: Eva

The entire ride to Austin's mansion was silent. There was only the clip clopping of horse hooves, the rickety sound of the moving bandwagon, and the chirping of crickets. The atmosphere felt incredibly heavy.

Most of the men hopped off their bandwagons along the way back to Austin's mansion. In a bandwagon of their own, Eva was seated beside Austin. Opposite them were more men who were in charge of keeping watch over her parents, while her parents laid unconscious on the floor of the bandwagon.

The sky was already dark by the time they reached back. 

While the drivers returned the bandwagons to the person who supplied them, the 4 people in charge of Eva's parents brought them to the basement of the west wing that had been prepared to hold them. Austin continued to hold Eva by her elbow and brought her to the second level of the central wing and into a room on the right of the staircase. Nobody, including his dumbfounded butler, understood Austin's intentions or the meaning behind his actions but nobody dared to question him.

Austin took no more than a few steps into the room with Eva before leaving the room and shutting the door behind him without a word. 2 men automatically went to guard the door to Eva's room after seeing Austin enter another room down the end of the same corridor. Those men had voluntarily stayed on thinking that they should guard Eva just as just as her parents were guarded.

Just beyond the closed doors, Eva and Austin stood silently in their individual rooms. Eva with an empty expression on her face, while Austin's cold exterior began to break once again.

Austin stormed towards the wall and started recklessly tearing off all the notes and paper pinned to the wall, cutting his hands in the process of doing so. The shredded pieces of paper floated down to the floor, but Austin felt that it was not enough to quell his rage. His chest was heaving and tears threatened to spill over. All these years... All this years!! They were just there!

He slammed his palms in the wall. If I had been more thorough, if I had been unbiased, I would have caught them so much sooner! All the signs! It should have been so clear! I'm so stupid!

He shouted out in frustration and agony as he roughly swiped at all the daggers that were still embedded in the wall. All of them got dislodged and scattered onto the floor noisily.

He hammered the wall once with his fists then slowly went down to the floor onto his knees. Thin smears of blood from the cuts on his arms and hands were left on the wall. Tears finally left his eyes that were shut tight. The last time he cried was the night when his parents died. Every single time he felt like crying, he would berate himself for it and forbid himself from being weak. The moment he found out about Eva's identity was no different. However, it now felt like a dam broke within him and he could no longer hold his tears back.

His jaws were clenched and he rammed his head into the wall repeatedly. Why? Why? This is the worst... ... ...Why must I feel something for the daughter of my parents' killers...? Why?!

BaoBao could see everything that was going on but felt entirely helpless and lost.

He could not understand Austin's ambiguous behaviour. Matters like the dilemma Austin was facing now were still too complicated for BaoBao to understand.

He also did not what he could say to comfort Eva. He already tried saying things like he was still here for her, and how nothing was her fault, and how she already tried her best. However, there was completely no response from her. Her mind was a complete blank. It was as if she completely shut down and stopped functioning.

Nothing's working! He hated feeling so helpless. This familiar sounding thought rang a bell and led him to a revelation. Is this how Eva felt all the time...? BaoBao started to tear up. Eva...