Are you sure? I can accompany you."
"No, it is alright. I need some fresh air. Watch over the fish. Valen might hog it all for himself."
Arthur nodded and moved toward where Valen stood, still cradling the pearly fish like a cherished pet. Lucid looked back once, taking in the warm light of the carriage, the absurdity of the situation, the quiet concern on Arthur's face.
Then he stepped out.
The night air hit him like a living thing. Cool. Salt-tinged. Carrying the distant sound of waves against stone. He jumped down from the carriage onto the beach, his bare feet sinking lightly into the sand. He had torn his boots earlier from that confrontation with mercyros, in fact most of his clothes. Lucid mostly walked bare foot now.
It was dark. Darker than he expected. The usual silver glow of the moons was muted, replaced by something else. A faint red tinge hung in the ambient air, staining the edges of the world like old blood diluted in water.
He walked with his hands in his pockets, following the coastline along the still water. The waves were gentle tonight, lapping at the shore with a rhythm that felt almost sleepy. The sand shifted beneath his feet, soft and unstable, forcing him to pay attention to each step.
It was dark, but the way the red moon shone on the water was kind of mesmerizing. The light did not glitter or sparkle. It soaked into the surface, turning the dark sea into something that looked like polished garnet. He had not felt like this for quite a while. Appreciating this foreign world's nature. The beauty of a place that had tried to kill him several times and would probably try again.
'When did I start noticing things like this?' he wondered. 'When did I stop just surviving and start looking?'
His thoughts drifted to Ayame. He tried to find her in his mind, to remember the places she frequented, the spots she would avoid, the places she would want to be. She did not have many. She was not the kind of person who collected favorite locations or cherished memories of specific views or even someone who held on to materialistic desires. She existed in spaces without claiming them.
But he had noticed, over the weeks, where she went when she needed to be alone. She had started to bleed a little more. One time she had outright even refused his chain.
The red light followed him, staining the sand, the rocks, his own hands. He looked up at the moon. Morwen. The smaller one. The one that was chipped along its edge, red dust still drifting from the wound like blood from a cut that would not close. He remembered the Red Mountains.
'Brings back memories. I bet that red bastard wolf is still out there. Back when I was carrying Ayame by my side, and I was not in a good condition either, I only had the Chains of Envy at my disposal and I had to flee. But now that I know I cannot die, and that I have a brand new spear added to my collection, I will have my revenge soon. Oh, I will even shove the Pierced Spine up its rear end when I am done with it.'
He thought this while groping the side of his face, smiling gleefully.
Then he remembered something. It was starting to affect him as well.
'Arthur said it affects people differently. The influence. What does it do? Drive them mad? Make them see things? Or something worse?'
He climbed over the boulders, his boots finding purchase on the weathered stone. The red light made the shadows deeper, sharpening the contrast until the world looked like it had been carved from raw meat and bone.
The cove was empty.
He stood at the edge of it, looking down at the dark water, the red reflections, the smooth stones that lined the shore. No sign of her. No footprints in the sand. No discarded outer robe. Nothing.
He turned and headed north.
The walk took longer than he expected. The coastline curved and twisted, forcing him to climb over rocks, wade through shallow pools, duck under low hanging ledges. The red light did not make it easier. If anything, it made the shadows play tricks on his eyes, made him think he saw movement where there was none, made him question whether the shapes in the distance were boulders or people or something else entirely.
Luckily he had his Chain of Heart. One of its attributes was perception. Now with the rank increase, he could probably see even better.
He activated it.
The world became much clearer, sharper. The dark edges were gone, replaced by the usual colors that would normally be there.
Then suddenly his nose started to bleed.
He did not care. He willed it to helm the white light flared up inside his nostrils and he carried on.
The outcropping was empty too.
He stood at the edge of the cliff, looking down at the sea far below. The waves crashed against the base of the rock, sending up spray that caught the red light and turned it into mist the color of rust.
'Where is she?'
The clearing was empty.
He stood in the center of it, surrounded by moss. The red light barely reached here, the world was mostly darkness.
"Ayame."
He said her name out loud. It echoed off the trees, soft and swallowed, like the forest did not want to let the sound escape.
No answer.
He turned in a slow circle, scanning the shadows, the trees, the spaces between. Nothing.
He left the clearing and headed back toward the beach.
The red light greeted him like an old wound reopening.
He walked along the shore, his feet heavy, his thoughts heavier. He had checked everywhere. All the places she might go. All the places she had gone before. Nothing.
'Unless she does not want to be found.'
The thought settled into his chest, maybe she does not want to be found.
Ayame was good at hiding. Good at disappearing. She had been trained by an organization that specialized in making people vanish, in leaving no trace, in becoming a ghost when it suited her and.
If she did not want to be found, he would not find her.
He stopped walking.
The waves lapped at the shore. The red moon watched him from above and the world was silent as ever.
***
He sighed and turned away from the water. The waves lapped at his feet, barely touching his boots, retreating, returning, retreating again like they could not make up their minds. He watched the foam dissipate into the dark sand and thought about how pointless this was. Who was he to look after her? She was free. She was not something he should be watching over. He had his own matters to attend to. His own body was falling apart. His own clock was ticking down to an unknown zero.
Even so, after that heartfelt moment of truce and confession they had shared in Vex, after she had knelt before him and asked to be his blade, he could not help but think that maybe they were going to share their path toward their own respective goals. Maybe this time he would not have to walk alone.
'Cannot be helped,' he thought.
His hands slid into his pockets and he started walking toward the Starlight Carriage.
Something caught the edge of his vision.
That was unusual. Lucid, with his Chain of Heart trait, was much more perceptive and aware of his surroundings than most people. He noticed shifts in air pressure, changes in temperature, the subtle sounds of footsteps on stone. But perhaps it was the red moon, or perhaps his mind was occupied with thoughts of her whether he liked it or not, but he had missed something.
As he looked, he saw a figure sitting at the edge of a small hill on the shore. The figure was drenched in blood, but he could still see pale skin that was radiant through the red tinged glow. A horn protruded from the figure's head. A single horn, curved and elegant, rising from the forehead like a question.
That was all the confirmation he needed.
He rushed toward her.
"Ayame!" he yelled out.
He climbed up the hill with an ease that surprised him, jumping through the cracks in the stone, digging his boots into the soft earth, pulling himself up just to meet her.
She was sitting there, pristine and unblemished despite the blood. Her dark, abyssal eyes seemed to look past him toward the waves, the red tinged waves that reflected nothing. It was as if the water sucked in the very crimson ambience, swallowing the red light whole, which was quite refreshing after staring at nothing but red for so long.