The warmth hasn't reached the window yet...
Sera was still tangled in sleep when she felt a gentle shrug. She ignored it, but it persisted softly and insistently. Her eyes cracked open to the dim light of early dawn. The clock on the wall blinked 5:00 a.m. In her eyes, it's a quiet betrayal.
Sunday...
She decided to sleep for the day. She planned no drills. Her sleep is her only duty. And she had set off all alarms.
She groaned softly and turned her face into the pillow, but Callum's voice came low and steady.
"Mrs. Virell, get up."
Sera peeked at him through a curtain of her hair. He was already dressed, his shirt tucked in, his expression unreadable but oddly hopeful.
"I wanted to sleep more," she murmured.
He smiled and continued shrugging her gently. "The earlier we go, the more things we can do."
She sat up slowly while rubbing her eyes. "Where are we going?"
"To attend a mass," he said simply.
Her brows lifted. "Morning mass?"
He nodded.
Sera blinked again, more awake now. Callum had never invited her to morning mass before. She always went alone, usually in the evening, when the pews were half-empty and the silence felt like a balm.
But this time, it was different. The change made her feel agony, as if she had missed many beautiful things.
She smiled, brushing her hair back. Her complaints left her.
---
The chapel was quiet as if it were holding its breath. Later, Sera watched children disturb the silence, yet she wasn't annoyed. It made her smile instead.
Callum watched the joy in her face as she watched the children play, and unconsciously, he asked, "Shall we start making children?"
Sera is not deaf, but she acted as if she were at that time. Whatever is holding her tongue in, nobody knows.
"Okay, I was just kidding."
Then the bell rang, the mass will be starting soon.
Sera sat beside Callum, her hands folded, her gaze drifting to the altar, but minutes later, she shifted to the man beside her.
He looked different here, not in how he dressed, but in how he carried himself. His head bowed slightly during prayer, and though his lips barely moved, she could see the tension leave his shoulders.
He looked calm and healed. This time, she noticed the dimple on his face. His eyes were closed, his heart beat in silent prayer, and the way he bowed his head made her chest ache a little.
There was sincerity in him. She knows that it's not for show nor a ritual compliance.
She watched him longer than she meant to.
---
Outside, beneath the stone archway, she asked the question that had been pressing against her ribs.
"What did you pray for?"
Callum looked at her, then away. "My prayers are my deepest secret."
She nodded, accepting the answer even though it left her curious. However, her mind cannot stop wondering if she was included in his deepest secret or if it was all about Dahlia.
---
Almost all people had already left, but Callum touched her arm lightly. "Let's wait a little longer."
There were only ten of them left in the church when Callum asked Sera to follow him.
She followed him past the altar and down a side aisle where Sister Laura stood by the candle-lighting area, watching the last few candles flicker and fade. She was also checking candles whose flames flickered. Her posture was quiet and kind, embodying the essence of years of listening more than speaking.
"Sister Laura," Callum greeted her with a slight bow of respect.
"This is Seraphine Elion Virell."
The nun's eyes brightened. "Oh," she said, smiling as if she'd found a long-lost thread. "So you're the wife. The one he made the six sachets for."
Sera blinked. "But, I only received one, sister."
Callum chuckled. He scratched the back of his neck, eyes darting to the floor. "The other twenty-nine had… ugly embroidery."
Sister Laura laughed gently. "They may have been flawed in stitches, and the beauty you desired cannot be traced, but they held the truth of your longing for her safety. They carry the memory of the days you chose devotion instead of surrendering to sorrow and emotions."
Listening to sister Laura's words, Sera wanted to cry and hug the man beside her. But her guilt and her hidden emotions stiffened her. She had chosen to rejoice and be grateful in silence like the Seraphine on the battlefield.
Then, sister Laura from one of the yellow candles grabbed the sachets and said, "I had kept them in the sanctuary of prayers, and it's time you keep them."
Sera nodded and reverently took the sachets from her. She looked at Callum, and the only words she could openly say were, "Thank you."
---
Outside the church, the sun's rays are oddly warm, but the air smells like wet stone and fallen leaves. They walked side by side along the church path until the conversation turned—unexpectedly—into a tug-of-war.
"Let's visit my father," Callum said.
"No," Sera replied. "My father's expecting me. And we haven't seen him in weeks."
Callum raised a brow. "We?"
Sera scoffed. "I know you have seen him recently, but I don't want to go there alone, you must accompany me as he misses you more."
They went back and forth for a few minutes before realizing neither of them would budge, and each of them had proper reasons.
"I have a better idea," Callum said at last. "Let's settle this with a game."
Sera folded her arms. "What kind of game?"
Callum's eyes gleamed. "Since both of us are smart." Then, he smirked. "Let's play Mind Maze."
She raised a brow. "A year had made you overconfident. Is that your own game?"
Callum nodded.
"Then, explain."
"Each of us takes turns describing a memory, but only using gesture or indirect clues. The memory should be the one both of us are aware of. The other has to guess. First to three wins."
Sera smirked. "You're on."
They sat on the bench just a kilometer from the church.
Callum raised her hand and gestured, looking very excited. He fixed his hair. Then, he acted like wiping dust from his clothes.
Callum described the moment as " a day way back in your 18th year."
Sera asked him to redo his actions three times. However, she had many days like that in her young days. And in her memory, she never had a day when she remembers Callum was there. Callum counted.
Thus, she guessed, "first day of summer."
He shook his head.
"Wrong."
"Then what is it?"
Callum smiled, "It was the day you had your first relief from military training. And in front of Mrs. Celia's bookshop, you stood waiting excitedly while you kept fixing your hair and dress. And that's the first time I saw Lior."
Sera went silent, realizing the memory had returned. It took her seconds before she asked, "I don't remember you being there?"
"Marcus and I were there inside the bookshop reading novels when Marcus saw you approaching the shop when he was about to go out to smoke. So we hid and peeked in the glass wall."
Sera took a deep breath and answered, "young and love-brain."
Callum added, "But is jolly."
She cleared her throat and started to describe one as "a night when the stars were full and the silence was too loud while someone watched."
Callum paused, then smiled. "The night Marcus and I almost slept outside your house as we drank your father's newly auctioned liquor."
Sera laughed at that moment and said, "Correct, you two look like beggars at the time, and you even tried to escape to go to Midnight Lace to try some pretty ladies, but Riven hit your heads to make you sleep."
"Your brother is fierce, yet it was because we saw him visiting it twice, that we wanted to try too."
Sera's eyes widened with disbelief. "My brother Riven went there?"
Callum nodded and grinned, "Bachelor but not innocent."
They went back and forth, teasing, remembering, and guessing.
The game went on, full of inside jokes and subtle jabs. They laughed more than they scored. In the end, Callum won by correctly guessing all the memories.
But he turned to her and said, "Let's visit your father first."
She stared at him. "You won."
"I know," he said. "But you were gone for long, so I let you win this time."
"Then let's first go to the shop to buy some liquor."
Sera nodded and braced herself with the seatbelt.
The drive was quiet. Sera, who usually stays awake during drives, fell asleep, the light stretching across the road like a calm promise.