Mytri sat looking at the moon, staring silently as a slow chuckle escaped him—so slow it made the corner of his mouth twitch up and down.
Then, as suddenly as it began, he placed his palms over his face. Tears began to flow, slipping through the cracks of his fingers and falling to the ground. A silent weeping echoed from his mouth as he hunched forward.
"Why… Why wasn't I strict enough?"
He dug his fingernails into his skin. "I will never let Luna suffer like him… Lue, I'm sorry. I am pathetic."
Mytri sat on his brown leather sofa, silently weeping, regretting his choices.
***
Inside Luna's room, she lay in bed with Theia asleep on her chest. Luna stretched a hand upward toward the ceiling, manifesting a cloud of small snowflakes. She extended it slowly across the ceiling, panting softly with the effort.
After a few seconds, she achieved her goal—the cloud stretched from wall to wall—and then dispelled it all. She grinned in happiness and kissed Theia's forehead, who groaned in response. Luna chuckled and let her hand rest on Luna's back.
In the meantime, a sharp, burning pain had been repeating itself for hours. Luna thought it was from the training, so she ignored it, assuming her muscles were growing.
She gripped Theia tightly, chuckled awkwardly, and fell asleep in exhaustion.
***
And so another day of dedicated training began, from sunrise to sundown. Luna swung her sword horizontally as Mytri watched her train intensely from under the shade of a tree, sitting beneath Theia, who slept on a branch in the crown above.
At times like this, Luna enjoyed the attention. Though many people watched her intently in Lockheart Palace, to her, the gaze of these people felt special.
With a smile on her face, she swung her wooden sword as sweat poured down her body like spring rain.
***
Luna walked back to her room, Theia already asleep. She chuckled at the sight of her. "What sent you to bed so early? Hehe…"
Anyway, I have this gem, she thought, the portal gem to that place…
Luna grabbed the diamond-shaped gem, cracks running from each corner. She took the right top and left bottom sides and stretched it far and wide, until it matched her height.
With a confident smile, she jumped through the semi-transparent membrane that formed in the space stretched open from within the gem.
As soon as Luna passed through, she arrived in the middle of the island, in the arbor that resided inside the tree that bent to the right. Its greenish leaves glided on the wind.
Roots wrapped around it, forming a perfect shelter beneath the trunk, so she rushed toward it, running over the small arched bridge that separated the outer ground from the inner island, where a river circled around it.
She sat by the table made of roots and saw the porcelain teacup. Before, she hadn't looked inside, but now her curiosity ate at her. Peering in, she saw a handful of crushed leaves.
Luna picked up the cup—and as soon as she did, a sensation of mana leaving her body overtook her. Before she realized what was happening, the cup filled with hot water, becoming a perfect, sweet tea.
Luna was shocked, to say the least, and immediately took a sip.
"Amazing! It tastes even better than the scrambled eggs Master cooks! How?"
She drank it in one go, gasping for air afterward.
But as soon as she finished, she realized the crumbled tea leaves were still inside—she hadn't swallowed them at all.
Looking once more into the cup, she saw the same leaves as before, and the teacup immediately filled with tea again.
Luna was pleasantly surprised and wanted to know more, but tiredness washed over her. She looked around towards the underground gate as the green meadows reflected golden light under the ever-present sun.
Mesmerized by the view, she chuckled. "I'm so tired… Yawn."
The yawn was just the beginning. She grabbed the portal gem, opened the exit, and stepped through, saying, "I'll come back here next time… with Theia."
Walking up to the bed, she found Theia stretched sideways across it, leaving no room. But it didn't bother Luna at all. "Really? I guess… I'll just lie in your arms, then…"
Luna settled into Theia's embrace and pulled the white duvet over themselves. Closing her eyes, she nestled her cheek against Theia's chest as a smile grew on her face—followed by an immediate, exhausted descent into sleep.
***
This had been my routine every day, but… why had things come to be like this?
Luna looked towards the garden, but the visibility was very poor as the sounds of the wailing rainstorm rushed in like thunder. It was not a joke to Luna; she had wanted to train today, but this stopped her.
Well, if that was how it was to be, why not spend some time inside that place with Theia? Luna thought as she grinned in excitement, looking forward to going there.