It was as if she had a prolonged dream, a dream full of bizarre light and shadows. Faye found herself transformed into a tiny insect, wandering in a city filled with steel, glass, and deathly stillness.
This was a very strange city, with no shops or citizens, only insect-like creatures shambling about like zombies, and continuous tombstones, which were much larger than the insects.
Beyond that, some insects retained their senses, but they merely stared up at the steel firmament above, futilely calling the name of their master.
Who could their master be? It seemed the city had long been devoid of people. Could those tombstones be their masters?
If that were the case, then their cries were doomed to be meaningless.
Moreover, Faye didn’t even know the name of this city; she only noticed that its sky was always raining... even though it was an underground world. Why was there rain? And the raindrops falling on Faye’s body felt warm, as if even the cracks in her soul were being healed.
It was a truly curious city, truly a mesmerizing city.
This wonderful adventure seemed endless. Faye strolled across the plaza, stood under the Bell Tower, drifted along the river, and sat under trees eating fruit. Those insects didn’t understand the value of life at all.
Though the dream was lengthy, it was still a dream and had to end. As she took the elevator, wishing to go to the very top to take a look, Malin’s call brought an end to everything. The voice of her lover dragged Faye out of her dreamscape. "I had a very long dream." Lying on the soft bed and wrapped in a blanket, the girl opened her eyes to her beloved, smiling genuinely.
She felt her illness had passed. The sickness had come bizarrely, and Faye knew something was amiss. Now that she was awake and the world seemed normal, with birds chirping outside the window, and the sounds of people talking and horses neighing.
Ah, life had returned, just as before—an exotic prince, Malin, had once again saved the little princess of the Mowish family.
With that thought, a delighted Faye reached out and lightly tapped Malin’s face: "How did I come from the train to here?"
If it was a princess carry, that would make her very happy, even though she had no sensation of it, but of course, a princess deserved to have a princess carry.
"It started the morning before last," said Malin, now dressed in his regular clothes, a trace of melancholy on his face.
It was an expression Faye had never seen on Malin’s face before. He was always like that, never showing his bad mood, whether to friends or foes, always presenting a smile.
So much so that sometimes Faye wondered if her lover was face paralyzed because it seemed he had no other expressions apart from smiling.
That’s the end of it, she thought, and with a smile, she said, playing her role as a lover and as a comic foil, Faye tried to do her best: "I’m listening."
Malin then sat by the bed, reaching out to grasp Faye’s hand that lay outside the blanket, and told her a story so absurd that even Faye felt its incredulity.
Really, it was incredibly absurd: Insectoids, bio-armor from the First Epoch, it sounded like something out of a recently popular sci-fi novel, but Faye knew, combining her own dreams, that it was all too real an experience.
Malin had saved everyone once more.
"So the insect city in my dream was real." Faye sighed, both fearing the potential future of almost becoming an Insectoid weapon and marveling at the city’s beauty and uniqueness: "Malin, what did you trade with Mira?"
At this point, Faye sat up, still feeling a bit cold from the morning temperature, but she knew that Malin must be in trouble.
"I made a pact with Mira. In exchange for her ending her life to ensure your safety and letting all the irreversibly infected Insectoids in the city die, she made me promise to avenge her original master," Malin spoke, his face finally showing a tinge of bitterness. "I’m sorry, Faye. I wanted to save you all and didn’t want all the infected Apprentices on the train to die, whether I knew them or not. I feel that life shouldn’t be lost so easily, whether it’s yours, theirs, and Mira’s and Wasp’s... Everyone innocent deserves to live."
"Thank you, Malin." Faye stretched out her arms and embraced the young man before her—this was the lover she chose, a man who faced peril time and again for his sisters. "Don’t worry, Malin, go ahead boldly. Since you’ve made the decision, then kill him, no matter who he is, even if it’s my brother or my younger sibling. If they stand in your way, then kill them. Betraying such an innocent Insectoid, even if it’s just the bio-armor you mentioned, they will be punished. A warrior who does not cherish his blade and armor is destined to die; that’s a teaching from the Mowish family."
"It’s Sayer Kayte, not your brother or sibling," Malin replied a bit awkwardly. "If it had been them, I wouldn’t have agreed."
"Don’t mind me, Malin. You’re a boy meant for great things, and I will always be loyal to you." Whispering in Malin’s ear, Faye felt her heart swell with joy.