Forget Vivian

Eve smiled softly, and the soft curve of her lips reminded her companions of spring skies; of gentle warm breeze that drifted across a cloudless sky. All the while, her long silver hair swayed gently from side to side like a curtain that moved with the speed of the train.

Estella lifted her body up and supported herself by leaning on Eve’s thigh. Her cherry blossom colored eyes that resembled that of Eve’s, glistened slightly. With eyes wide open, she started to jump off of her seat and proceeded to press her face against the cool glass of the train’s windows to look at the picturesque view.

Seeing this, Arianne let out a small chuckle as she watched Estella enjoying the scenery and rolled her blanket up then leaned her head against the walls more comfortably.

“Mom, it’s my first time seeing that! The stars are falling! Look at this, look at this!” Estella excitedly said as she stretched out her maple-leaf palms and held on to her windowsill. She then jumped up and down excitedly on the seat.

Although Estella was born on the feast day of the goddess, she had never seen a shooting star because she was always asleep when the stars begin to fall. But tonight, just as she has turned six years old, she was finally seeing it for the first time.

Eve stared fondly at her daughter and marveled at how her chubby cheeks were flushed red while her pink eyes were unable to mask her excitement. Truly she shined like a shooting star herself. She reached out and stroked Estella’s cheek gently and asked, “Isn’t it pretty?”

“Yeah! It’s nice to see a shooting star.”

Eve leaned forward and kissed her daughter’s cheek, “Estella is pretty too.”

Every time Eve sees Estella, especially when the latter was happy, she forgets her sleeplessness. She suddenly doesn’t feel tired or if she did, she was much more overwhelmed with the feeling that the moments she spends with her child was worth more than anything in the world.

Eve couldn’t help herself, she stretched out her arms and hugged Estella tightly. As soon as her daughter was in her arms, she instinctively breathed in her scent. She smelled sweet like a baby. She whispered tenderly to her, “Thank you for coming to Mom, Estella.”

Estella grabbed Eve tightly with her little hands and answered back, “Thank you too. Because mom became my mother.”

Eve had said this before, but if it wasn’t for her beautiful daughter, she wouldn’t have come to the Islands. She wouldn’t have left Vibraze where she gave birth and raised her daughter and gone to the capital city.

Eve lost her memories while she was pregnant with Estella and it was Arianne who took them in. Her pitiful self would have been so lost in the unfamiliar place of Vibraze, if it wasn’t for Arianne. Especially because she had no recollection of who she was, where she came from, what she was doing, nor did she even recall her name.

Eve remembers that back then, Arianne had told her that she lost her memory in some accident and would just leave it at that. She would say nothing more about it. So Eve doesn’t know anything about her past life, only her current one. The only thing Arianne told her was that her name was Eve Aetherion and that she was with child.

When she asked who the father of her child was, Arianne only told her that he lived in the capital.

Eve found it strange at first and suggested going to the capital and staying with the child’s father instead, but Arianne would cut her off and tell her not to talk about it anymore. When Eve had pressed her more about the issue, Arianne finally relented and told her off, “You left him, Eve. I think he is just a bad person.”

Because of those words, Eve decided not to ask anymore and ever since then, she had stayed and raised her child in Vibraze peacefully.

But recently, she wanted to uncover the memories she buried long ago. Right now, she was forced to go to the Islands despite the opposition of Arianne and the people of Vibraze.

They did not want her to go because they knew that Eve’s body was weak, and every day, she grew weaker. That was why everyone around her was so protective. They truly did not want her to leave due to the fear of her condition worsening. But when Arianne saw Eve coughing and spitting out blood, the former had a change of mind.

They hurriedly packed their bags and left the Islands.

The older woman and everyone around her finally relented because they were scared that she did not have much time left.

Even a famous doctor living in Vibraze couldn’t diagnose Eve’s disease. Therefore, everyone simply concluded that due to her weakening body, Eve didn’t have much time left in this world and let her do what she wanted.

That’s why she made a decision to find the father of her daughter, because when she is gone, Estella will be all alone.

‘Estella’s dad might not accept my child so easily, but it’s worth a try, isn’t it?’ Eve thought to herself as she shifted her eyes to her daughter and helped the latter go down from the chair. Staring at her beautiful and kind child she couldn’t help but wish that she wouldn’t become an orphan.

Even though Arianne has not revealed to her yet who the father of her child was, Eve still couldn’t help but feel hopeful that regardless of who he is, he will grow to love Estella. After all, her daughter was such a lovely and wonderful kid.

Her daughter was now lying her head back on her lap, and when Eve confirmed that the former had finally fallen back to sleep, she finally relaxed on her seat, leaned her head against the train’s window and allowed sleep to carry her off to dreamland.

* * *

After the trio arrived in the Islands, Eve, Estella and Arianne dismounted from the trains and boarded a hired carriage.

Since the train station was situated at the center of the Island, the building they rented for their trip was located at the outskirts of the archipelago known as Rembrandt Street; it was also the farthest location from the Imperial Palace.

The one who made their arrangements for board and lodging was Arianne. She was the one who rented the building and had painstakingly prepared for three months so that they could move from Vibraze to the Islands. Eve remembers how Arianne often travelled alone from Vibraze just so she could make a contract on the building and finish remodeling its interior to make it suitable for living and for their business.

Arianne woke Eve and Estella up. She then greeted them with a bright smile, “Eve, we have finally arrived here.”

As their new home came into view, Eve couldn’t help but mentally praise the older woman for a job well done.

It had been a long fifteen-hour journey, and so Eve and Estella were completely exhausted. The former yawned and ruffled her matted hair then commented, “It’s really far. To think that I left the Islands to go to Vibraze…I must have truly hated this place.”

Stretching her sore limbs, Eve climbed down the carriage and held her arms out towards her daughter, “Come here, Estella.”

Estella rubbed her round face on both sides and turned away from her. She then twitched on her hips and stretched her small legs out, “Uh, Estella can get off by herself. Mom.”

Although she seemed to struggle a bit on getting off the carriage, she did manage to put her feet down all by herself.

Meanwhile, Arianne and Eve watched the scene with proud expressions on their faces and embraced each other as they watched her triumphantly hurdle that challenge.

“Yeah you’re grown up, all grown up!” Arianne gently wiped away her tears and praised the young girl.

“Wait, Uhh.”

Estella was so embarrassed that she wasn’t able to do it as flawlessly as she hoped, still with her dirty hands she tried to grab Eve’s skirt and said, “Hehe, Mom. Now let’s go in.”

However, before Estella could lead her mom to their new home, Arianne snatched her and held her up, “Wash your hands first. Estella, what did I tell you about dirty hands?”

Estella looked into Arianne’s eyes and shrugged her shoulders, “You say I shouldn’t touch mommy with dirty hands because she’s sick. Estella was wrong.”

Eve sighed, ‘Uh-huh.’

“But I think Arianne is too overprotective.” Eve added.

“Your body is too weak right now, so you better be careful about everything.” Arianne reminded her, “… Little one, go in first and wash your hands.”

Arianne opened the door to the shop and dropped Estella down on the ground so the latter could go in and clean up.

Estella, who answered ‘yes’ bravely, ran into the shop, while Arianne paid the driver’s wages.

“How can I help you?” The coachman smiled and looked at Arianne and Eve in turn. He couldn’t help but notice that both women had clear faces. Such bright complexions weren’t common for folks who lived at the capital so he surmised they must have come from a faraway country.

At the driver’s curious gaze, Arianne decided to tell him a piece of her mind, “That will be enough, sir. Please go back, we can manage on our own.”

“I was only trying to help…” The coachmen lamented before he turned on his heels and boarded his carriage.

Arianne gritted her teeth as she watched the carriage disappear into view. Thereafter, she started putting her luggage down and unpacking. As she worked she couldn’t help but think that incidents like this were quite common especially for two women living together, and alone. Somehow, all the men seem to think the same way.

Arianne lifted five large suitcases with both of her hands easily. After all, when Arianne said she didn’t need anyone’s help she wasn’t lying because she was used to doing stuff on her own. As Arianne continued to bring more things in, Eve approached her and tried to help with the load, but the former hastily pushed her out of the way.

“Only Arianne is always in the trouble of carrying things.” Eve whined to the older woman.

“No. You should just go in and take things slowly.”

Eve nodded her head in defeat and stepped inside the building.

To be honest, she had wanted to see the new store Arianne had prepared for them. They were fortunate that they were able to raise enough money to build the building on the Islands especially because Eve and Arianne had run a successful restaurant back in Vibraze.

Eve ran her eyes around and spotted a pale pink sign that read; “Stars and White Birds”. The sign was fashioned with two symbols that were reminiscent of Estella and Eve.

Eve bit the insides of her cheeks then let out a laugh, “Oh my god. It’s really pretty!”

Eve stomped her feet happily and looked at the window in front of her. She slowly stepped closer and took a peek at the glass and saw that the inside was quite spacious. The interior was also decorated in pale pinks and ivory colors that Eve and Estella liked, and most importantly, the bar area was neat.

‘I’ll go to the market early in the morning tomorrow and fill the container with herbs for now.’ Eve thought to herself.

The restaurant run by Arianne and Eve is famous for the multiple herbs that go into every dish that they serve.

The figure of Eve smiling with her eyes closed was as cute and lovely as a small white bird.

Arianne watched Eve with delight.

Now with clean hands, Estella tugged at Eve’s skirts and said, “Mom, I think it looks good.”

“Yes! I like it too, Estella.”

Arianne grabbed Estella and commented, “Our little girl is so lovely.”

Estella loves to mimic whatever her mom does, and Arianne always found it quite amusing. While Eve was preoccupied with admiring the exterior of the building, strong winds suddenly greeted them and caused the bonnet she was wearing to slightly quiver. Just then she felt a rustling beneath her feet. She looked down and saw a leaflet tucked under her shoe, “Huh?”

Rustle-

Eve tilted her head and picked up the leaflet, “What is this?”

She read the text and realized it was announcing the search for a person. But Eve found it peculiar that they were looking for a person but left out the most important part, “Why are they looking for someone without posting a picture?”

The piece of paper wasn’t accompanied with a portrait, it was just long lines of text.

“Vivian Endless Rubentas? Isn’t Rubentas the royal family?” Eve wondered to herself as she continued to stare at the piece of paper. Weren’t they looking for the Crown Princess? If so, how can such an important person just disappear?

Eve sighed to herself “What a sad story.”

To be honest, she did not know much about the lost Crown Princess, but she suddenly felt sorry for the Emperor who was looking for her and made the leaflets. She could even sense his desperation by the amount of bounty he was willing to offer to anyone who could find her. The amount could easily surpass ten years’ worth of money a gentry class would earn.

“If I found her, I won’t worry about money until Estella is grown up.” Eve mumbled herself as she slowly looked through the leaflet for more information.

Eve’s eyes widened as she read more details about the missing princess. She resembled someone rather familiar to her…

Eve let out a small laugh at the leaflet and exclaimed, “White hair and pink eyes? This person looks just like me!”

She fondly thought to herself how crazy it would be if she was the Crown Princess. If only she had stayed in the Imperial Palace she would have been an Empress by now.

“It’s an honor to meet you, Vivian.” Eve thought to herself and her mood instantly brightened.

-To be continued.