Aureum wasn't in pain anymore. In fact, she felt fine!
Well, she felt odd, but odd was a great improvement to the feeling of her soul being burned from her.
Ping.
But the ominous sound of cracking took her attention.
Ping.
Aureum focused her eyes to see her sister's horrified face. Felixia's eyelashes fluttered with rapid horror as her hands covered her mouth.
Wow. Did she always look so young? How did she even come here?
Ping. Ping. Ping.
Why is it a familiar sound?
Looking around, her surroundings were the familiar park near her home, on the hillside she'd favored. As kids, Aureum and Felixia had rolled down it. As young adults, they would walk there till they dug out their own paths.
I'm home?
CRaCK.
At that point, the growing pain in her forehead could no longer be ignored.
BANG.
She felt the moment her pearl completely shattered for the second time in her day. Obviously, it was a different day for everyone else.
Her sister couldn't be at Nix's castle. If that wasn't impossible enough, it was more incredible she was standing in the park. Either Spesavia's concoction had worked, these were her last delusional moments, or there were serious holes in her memories.
Was she standing? It felt like she was falling.
"Aureum! AUREUM!"
Felixia's hand grabbed her arm. Aureum opened her eyes to her face over her. She looked so worried. Aureum appreciated that this headache felt like a Nivis to the Caducus headache she had before.
And she got to see her sister's face again.
Then it's all good.
It was getting hard to think.
"Aureum, don't you DARE faint on me—
Aureum's eyes rolled to the back of her head as she went limp.
————————————————————
She slept like a baby. Which means fitfully, but oddly satisfied. Even with the migraine that came upon her drifting in and out of consciousness, she still had only joy. The softest bed. The smoothest sheets. The plumpest pillows. Most importantly, they were all hers.
Her body also felt great. She wasn't weak with hunger, her wrists had no sores, and every breath didn't come with an ache. Although, the pounding head was new. There was much that seemed new.
She had gone back, she knew that much. How far back and what the ultimate consequences on her body were remained in question. There were no easy answers to these things. Especially when it was hard to think.
She shifted herself a little to appreciate the ceiling. It was gorgeous. Even better, she was clean. The nightgown she wore was perfect. Silk that glided across the skin. She was comfortable and safe, so she slept. It felt like this went on for days.
As impossible as it is to stay awake forever, so do dreams come to an end.
"Is she all right?"
A deep voice murmured in concern.
Dad?
It was the first idea that felt solid and didn't twist aside when she looked at it for too long.
"Despite the shock any sorcerer has of losing their pearl, she seems to be doing well. I suppose it is because there wasn't much mana inside it in the first place. Another minor blessing of Malum."
"Yes thank you for insulting her, but can you tell us why?"
Somehow less soft, but higher and far more feminine.
Mom!
The eyelids like stones slowly pried open, but the group of concerned murmurers didn't notice.
Huh, they look good. At least they're still older than me. That's reassuring.
Even if she had gray hair, she was still only a fresh thirty-five. If her life hadn't become so rough, or unsatisfying, or disdainful, she might have looked only a skip away from her parents.
A healthy plump body! Natural bronze skin! The luscious dark hair!
Well, her mother had dirty blond hair so only her father counted for that. Her mother had a pinker skin tone too. Her father still had his own shining pearl upon his brow. The white shine of it contrasted with his dark expression.
Even this admiration satisfied. It wasn't like the past had seen them collapse with sickness, but everything felt like a miracle.
"It is impossible to explain why her pearl exploded."
This man must be the doctor. Formally attired, and nondescript other than a serious demeanor. He stood opposing the loving couple.
"Impossible?" Her mother's sharp voice asked. "Impossible? What kind of quack are you? The 'impossible' you speak of happened! And you can't explain why?"
"Dear."
"Mrs. Zizan!"
Ah, Mom, why are you throwing hands at the doctor?
"E-even an educated man can't know everything! Moreover, I wasn't even there at the time it occurred. Even with what your other daughter told me, she lacks professional insight. She hasn't given me enough information from when it occurred for me to tell what caused it."
"Trying to shift the blame?!"
"Simila."
Calces, Aureum's father, calming voice again went unnoticed by her mother as he spoke her name.
"I am not! I am only a doctor. Still, how can it make sense that someone's pearl exploded for no reason? So there must be something we're all missing. Does that make sense? Do you see sense in that?"
Although he tried to maintain a professional tone, his words expressed his own loss with the situation. Even her mother was suppressed with his words this time. It didn't make sense, right.
If somebody's pearl went around exploding all the time, would the people of Aeternitus even be able to live?
"If she was using a costly spell or incantation," the doctor continued, "perhaps an imperfection or flaw in it might have been taxed." He had to raise his hands to stop her parents from objecting again. "I know your daughter said that wasn't happening. Consider my perspective, that she could have lied to protect her sister. But even those cases result at worst in a crack or two. An imperfect pearl can only make so much force after all. A complete explosion? That's without sense? Really, the best I can say is to wait for her answers when she wakes up. Maybe then some details will arise that point to the real cause."
"She will wake up then?"
The doctor shook his head.
"Although nothing is certain, and the trauma of a pearl breaking is known and dreaded with due cause, she's lucky. The complete and immediate destruction of it helped. As I said.
There were only minor scrapes and bruises, mostly from falling and the explosion, and none of the shards lodged themselves into her head. The flow of mana didn't go backward, it just evaporated.
I cannot see any reason she would not wake up. But her case is an unusual one, I admit it. Nothing is sure."
Calces locked his jaw, and Simila narrowed her eyes.
"Call me if anything changes."
And he made moves towards the door. Fleeing the situation before the confrontation with the Zizans' grew worse.
Doctor, your awakened patient is right here!
Aureum didn't blame him though. It was awfully comfortable to lay there, with a slight ache in her head. Furthermore, she was at a loss about the many questions she might have to answer. She closed her eyes.
It was all Spesavia's potion? I come from the future? Yeah, that's a nice story.
"Thank you, Dr. Nummus."
Her father saw him out, as her mother came closer to coo on her.
"My Treasure! What did she ever do to deserve this? I hoped never to see like this!"
Am I a child? Well, I am still her child.
I can probably just pretend I've fainted again if the questions get too rough right? Or just say I don't know? I mean, what else can I do?
She couldn't sleep forever.
"Mom. I'm up."
A soft voice, as if she was afraid to be loud. Her mother let out an almost silent gasp and tightened her grip around her daughter's hand.
"Aureum," she said softly, "are you feeling better?"
"Alright."
"Did you hear?" Simila said, her mouth becoming a line of concern after she finished speaking.
"About my pearl? Yeah."
I don't care though, it's a small price to pay.
"I'm so sorry."
She couldn't remember seeing her mother's eyes get so shiny before. A tear leaked through. Aureum felt her vision blurring too, but a smile broke out on her face.
"It's all right."
"Oh, Treasure," her mother said. "You don't have to hold it in."
She felt true, ugly sobs began to wrack her now, but she wanted to tell her it was still all right. This was sending the wrong message.
"My treasure!"
"Urrrgggh!"
A sob that sounded like half a growl ripped out of Aureum. Trying to hold it in just made it worse. Truly, ugly sobs broke through. Or maybe it was trying to hold it in for her mother when just seeing her gave her such joy and such pain all at the same time. It was like her heart was breaking. Either way, she was done.
I'm just trying to say I'm fine!
Her mother held her like she was ten, cradling her, as Aureum cried what felt like a decade's worth of tears in an afternoon.
————————————————————
The first week was like milk and honey to the soul. Not only her young and clear face, with the only blemish being the red scab left behind from the pearl, but her childhood room, her old haunts, and her family's presence did much to lift the heart. Forget lifting, it was soaring.
I escaped those flea-bitten mongrels! I won!
With such good results too. Not only had she turned back the past, but she'd gone far enough back to have never touched a toe inside that damnable house. It was beyond what she had dared to hope for.
It seemed all that was left was to reacquaint herself with home.
The Zizan Clan was neither major nor minor. To put it more specifically, for its wealth, it was an odd family in the city of Nix. It had no representative sorcerer, so it was not a true bloodline. Yet the money the family made from selling valuable herbs and exotic plants made it difficult to be ignored in the lands of Nix, where winters were harsh.
Neither did the family put on the airs of being a recognized bloodline. There were no servants in the Zizan's house. Calces Zizan, the current head and Aureum's father, was a frugal man who grew up as less than a servant himself. He focused his wealth back into his business. The house that he lived in had his family in it alone.
This might be ill-advised had Calces decided to live on the outskirts or in the lower districts, but he had moved his family to the guarded Pearl district of Nix. Where his small manor was one among many, much larger homes. Their neighbors, the higher priority targets, never deigned to visit. It was a pleasant arrangement for Aureum's mother.
Such a silly thing, that clans were originally how the families of sorcerers distinguished themselves. But then other families raised themselves into clans. So the families of ascended sorcerers separated the term for their clans as bloodlines. A family is a family, a clan is a family, and a bloodline is a family. Yet, most families didn't have the luxury to care for bloodlines.
This is what Aeternitus had agreed to accept as law across the land when so many other things were up to debate from city-state to city-state. Sorcerers, those who formed a pearl in pursuit of the flight of a dragon, were what was valued above all. So, was the price of Aureum losing her pearl too great?
"Hahahaha!"
She laughed every day. That's how little that price was to her. The faces of her family stiffened whenever they saw this.
"Mom, will she be all right?"
"She's just going through a difficult time, my dear Luck."
"All right."
The soft and worried voice belonged to Felixia.
"Don't worry, we've already sent a letter for him to come. Maybe he will help her heart."
"Really? I don't know."
"Well. He gets to try."
Aureum was in far too much wonder of her own life to sweat such minor murmurings.
She figured the visitor might be the doctor, or a doctor of some kind, and decided she would tell a limited version of the truth. A very limited version of the truth. Honestly, it would probably consist of three words over and over.
I don't know.
Which about summed it up. Even though she understood that the potion was the reason and that a lot of mana was involved, being back felt like a fever dream she'd wake from. The true questions for her weren't about the past, but the new future.
I just don't know.
With so large a change, how could her emotions be stable? All she needed was time to acclimatize.
She figured there would be enough understanding for a few months. Even if the cause was not what they thought. Given time, she never doubted she would adapt back to her old life.
People are very adaptable.
The past, or the future, the future-past was only a dream now. It had never happened. It would never happen. It simply didn't matter.
Despite her ignoring the news, her visitor came the next day. She was in her mother's garden, feeling the idle breeze and soaking in the fresh smell of new growth. A pleasant smile spread across her face.
"Aureum!"
When she heard his voice her smile froze.
No.
She turned around, the smile fading as she did so. Emotionless eyes were all that she displayed.
"Aureum," Nivis said again, as he grabbed her hand to kiss it.
But she jerked it away.
He looked up, his hand empty, with a bit of shock. Then he smiled with understanding.
"Yes, this might not be the time for this."
He stepped closer to her, and she stepped back. He stopped.
"I heard you've been having a tough time."
His voice conveyed confusion.
"As you can see."
It was still a scab on her forehead. Everyone could see. Of course, Nivis was not everyone. He was beneath them. It wasn't impossible he needed it explained to him.
Dog-cheating, father-loving dung.
His face hesitated. She had once thought that face was beautiful. It's not like she could look at this younger version of his face fondly in her memories, but that was the past. He hadn't done anything today.
Father-loving piece of filth.
Aureum tried to calm herself, as her jaw began to clench.
The younger version was innocent! Is innocent!
The emotions she felt now were greater than at the party.
"Did I do something wrong?" Nivis said.
"No."
Aureum spoke without missing a moment.
The problem is that you did nothing at all.
What bitter thoughts was this banal puppy making her have. It had been a pleasant day just a few moments ago. She rubbed her temple.
Why the hell was she trying to act like a lady?
"I came as soon as I knew, Aureum. It may have felt long. I'm certain for you it was a long and troublesome time. But I won't abandon our engagement over just this. Don't worry."
He took another step and reached out to touch her.
"You are still beautiful—
Smack!
The loathsome hand that was nearly touching was slapped away. For a second she froze, but then she realized.
She would no longer face the same retaliation as before.
"Why—
Smack!
Another slap rang out. This one left a red mark on his cheek. He looked at her with real shock. Her expressionless eyes absorbed the sight.
Smack! Smack! Smack Smack!
She kept going. It would have been harder to stop.
"Wait—
Smack!
"Aureum!"
Smack!
Only after seven slaps did the bastard fully back up, holding his cheek. The other five to the face had only been glancing blows. He hadn't just stood there and let her slap him. She kept her hand raised.
This expressionless woman, with a back straight enough for a queen, and a strong sense of being wronged. No one seeing her would imagine her as a young woman of twenty, newly engaged. No matter how frilly or frivolous her spring dress looked.
And she wasn't.
"Get out."
Aureum spoke with perfect diction, a measured voice. Her hand was still raised.
"Have you completely lost your mind?" Nivis said. "No, that came out wrong. But I need you to talk to me!"
"Get."
"Out."
She took a step forward at the second word. He nodded.
"It seems my timing was bad. My bad. I'll go back first."
How dare you keep your composure.
After everything I went through following your sweet lies!
"You being of a normal clan won't affect our relationship."
Nonsense!
"It will just be a few minor adjustments, like speaking differently."
Criminal understatement!
"My father will accept you, the woman I chose."
That Cyclops would only accept a puppet!
"We'll figure this out together, Aureum!"
…
"Your wife has once again transgressed against the sense of decency and decorum, Nivis."
"She wasn't raised like we were."
"I said before that this would be the last time. If you refuse to manage her, I will. For now, let her be retained."
"Nivis?"
Aureum's voice had been pathetically quiet.
"Yes. Father."
What love. What love?! To roll over like a poodle and hand over your toys to your daddy dearest!
Aureum lowered her shaking hand. Nivis was already gone. The memories that hadn't bothered her in the midst of the house of Nix came upon her like freshly cut wounds. It must have been that fresh face of his.
So different from how she remembered seeing it before. Open towards her, and kind.
Her teeth clenched till her jaw ached.
Or was it the over familiar attitude? When all that they could have been was already cut off.
She shook her head.
Maybe it was just the unpleasant surprise. She had felt extremely lax these past few days. Too careless.
It hadn't even occurred to her that she was engaged to Nivis. The face she saw in the mirror looked too young for engagement. Besides, her ring hadn't been on her finger.
A piece of worthless gold and diamond that should just be left in the first passing muck. Where could it have gone? The doctor must have removed it, and she hadn't gone looking for it. If it wasn't on her finger, she figured she was free.
Too thoughtless. It was too much to expect a perfect miracle.
Although, another train of thought arose in her head.
If I still have it...
I should sell it.
Gold is best when it's your own, after all.
Good riddance!