"I know, Miss, but I need to ensure you..."
"I’m no longer the Turand Family’s eldest daughter... On the Snow Mountain, I married him in a ceremony witnessed by those Trolls. I... I’m his wife, and I need to know my husband’s whereabouts!"
Heidlin couldn’t find a way around it, so she sighed, closed her eyes, and said,
"After Fisher left the Healing Corruption Church, the Sli that was supposed to transfer him to Nali went searching for his traces. But... they only found that there seed to be a conflict with an organization called the Witch Research Association, after which he disappeared..."
"Disappeared? What does that an?"
"... He was in terrible shape, very weak, facing the Witch Research Association’s dozens or even hundreds of people alone... The Slis don’t hold much hope for him still being alive. They eventually found a pool of Fisher’s blood and the clothes he left behind. He killed all the mbers of the Witch Research Association, but he was seriously injured, and it was a bitterly cold Northern Realm night with nowhere to stay. We are more inclined to believe that he..."
"Enough! Heidlin! You..."
Valentina suddenly began to cry, the tear-like crystals sliding continuously down her face, causing frost to form throughout the room, startling Ilois.
She looked at the very emotional Valentina and quickly cald her down,
"Calm down, Valentina... But later the Slis searched nearby areas and still found no sign of Mr. Fisher’s... body. It’s possible he’s still alive, only now we don’t know where he is."
Heidlin looked at Ilois, who still wanted to comfort Valentina, and after a mont of silence, she also resigned herself, saying,
"Miss, while you were asleep, both the Slis and Trolls gave it their all to search for Fisher’s whereabouts... You know the Slis have the Boundary, a global intelligence network to gather certain information. But there was not a single trace of him, and he didn’t even manage to go back to Nali!"
"After that, Nali also sent people to search for him, but found nothing. Given his condition, where could he possibly go? He couldn’t possibly survive in the Northern Realm’s night, gravely injured! For four and a half years, all over the world, he seems to have vanished, he..."
Heidlin opened her eyes and had no choice but to tell Valentina the whole truth.
She might have wanted to delay it, but given Valentina’s relationship with Fisher, she was bound to ask anyway. One couldn’t just keep telling her they didn’t know where Fisher was, letting her search the world with hope for so long only to eventually tell her that her husband had already died?
Which way is more cruel?
Ilois didn’t know either, but Heidlin thought the latter was crueler, so she had agreed with Ilois in advance that Miss Valentina should be inford of the truth upon awakening, allowing her to decide for herself what to do.
Yet, as Ilois nervously anticipated an even more horrible frost storm after saying all this, the room fell into a deathly silence, leaving only Heidlin and Ilois’s breath.
Valentina just stared blankly at the two before her, watching them avoid her gaze, avoid the emotions she might have after learning the truth...
She stared dumbly down at her hands and those perfectly intact legs hidden below the bedding, suddenly lapsing into silence.
She turned her head away, the long white hair of four and a half years falling down, masking all her expressions, leaving only her trembling wings behind and the drooping, fur-covered ears to hint at her current emotions.
"Miss Valentina..."
"Miss..."
But Valentina just bowed her head, speaking softly,
"You should leave now, I want to be alone."
Heidlin raised a hand as if wanting to approach Valentina, but in the end, it fell weakly.
She silently glanced at the equally saddened Ilois beside her, then said softly,
"We’re leaving, Miss. We’ll co by later to bring you so food... you... take a good rest."
"..."
Valentina kept her head down, not responding at all.
"Click."
Until the sound of the door closing ca, and the breath of Heidlin and Ilois retreated little by little, only then did the clear and distinct ice crystals fall from between Valentina’s drooping white hair.
The place where the ice crystals landed coincided with where she had been staring all along, right on her empty right-hand ring finger.
Turns out she had been looking there all the while.
The delicate icy teardrop seed to carry imasurable power; since its fall, Valentina’s entire body had trembled because of it.
Her head drooped lower and lower, and with a trembling voice, she faintly said,
"Liar..."
"You promised... to give a ring..."
"You promised... to go see the Colorful Winged Whale with ..."
But as she spoke these words of reproach, there was no resentnt or anger, only despair and sorrow from so unknown source.
Her legs were already healed, she could not only run but was gifted wings, allowing her to fly far and wide...
These were all the things she had long dread of, yet for reasons unknown, she felt empty inside despite having attained them.
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