That morning, Eva woke up from an unusual dream of the riverside spirit, an ear piercing cry from a blue glowing humanoid form now more defined in features. She wasn’t sure if it was a good sign or a bad sign but it seemed to be calling out to her for help. Ugh, did it know she was in Orchidia now? It was strange that just as she was in Orchidia, the eerie spirit came to her in dreams and just when she was thinking of investigating it again.

With a great unrest, Eva threw the blankets away from her, immediately sitting up and crawling over to the other side of the bed. She placed a leg on the floor, looking around her in slight dizziness before standing up, her legs automatically taking her to the bathroom where she quickly took her shower and got ready. Throwing on a pair of jeans and a simple blue shirt, Eva was out of the door in her white converse shoes without even telling Hanase about the whole event. She wanted to drag as little people as possible into the whole incident seeing as she wasn’t entirely sure what this spirit even wanted. Last time, it had shown her images of her dead ‘mother’ and other things that she wasn’t even sure of. It seemed to be a powerful entity and she wanted to keep Hanase, a worrywart, far away from it.

However, just as she went outside, Eva came face to face with someone that looked like an inspector. She raised an eyebrow as the man noticed her and approached her with surety. “You are Evangeline?” he asked as if he had known her for a long time and pushing her doubt back, Eva nodded with her usual polite gestures. From there, they suddenly engaged in a deep conversation about the riverside spirit. Apparently, inspector Nilan has heard of the whole event from Dacol, the person who was with her the last time she went to the spirit, and he was now the one assigned to the job, a man whose family died in some accident. Eva wasn’t sure if she liked having someone interfere in her own business but she guessed that there was no other choice and as a Rune Knight, Eva had to co-operate with whatever investigation as long as it had a just cause. And that’s what she did.

Eva told him whatever she knew of the spirit so far and how it had, in her sleep, gotten to her asking for some sort of help. The last two visits were also full of incidents that Eva quickly recounted, the mystery of it never leaving her mind even as she was in Era except for the day that she was too busy remembering nothing but her past. Otherwise, Eva had wanted to get to the bottom of the whole incident and even asked Dacol to stay quiet about it but it seemed that he had truly gone to the police after all and now detective Nilan was going to come with her.

514/2000

With the whole incident out in front now, Eva and Nilan started discussing how they plan to further approach this spirit as they made their way down to the riverside. When she asked if he wanted to take some sort of caravan or taxi, he stopped her saying he had developed a fear for them ever since what happened with his wife and children. Out of respect and probably some pity as well, Eva complied, walking along with him down to the more abandoned parts of the riverside so that no one will see anything. The sky was sort of dark too, indicating the arrival of a storm and Eva regretted it, wondering if it was going to rain now.

However, surprisingly enough, the inspector next to her seemed to be not at all worried about the weather’s doing as he walked on, still talking to her about how he would like to solve this case as quickly as possible so that this spirit may not harm anyone else. Eva agreed. Who knows what would happen if this spirit was left alone to its devices. So far it had appeared harmless but what was the guarantee that it might not turn out for the worst case scenario instead? Eva wasn’t taking chances either much like Nilan who seemed to be determined to get to the bottom of the whole ordeal as well.

With sure and assured steps, Eva made it to the riverside, jumping over the low cut wires that were now falling apart. Nilan seems to have taken note of it, however, as he quickly took a look at it and wrote something down on a notepad, most likely some memo about getting it fixed afterwards. Once they passed that and walked closer to the river, Eva’s eyes squinted to adjust to the dark lighting and the whirl of blue light that surrounded the spirit. It was now sitting in fetal position, shaking almost as if it was crying. As she took a step into the water, the spirit immediately looked up. Although she couldn’t truly make out the eyes of the humanoid spirit, she felt that it was sad. Inside her, a sound resonated laden with sorrow and fear as it told her to look up.

Eva slowly moved her eyes up to form a startled gasp. “What?” Nilan’s surprised voice came from behind her but Eva’s eyes and ears were fully trained on the spirit that was pitch black in form and almost identical to the spirit on the river. Instead of blue glow, dark eerie wisps of shadow was emitted from all over its body and Eva shuddered at the cold wind that it blew towards her. It looked nothing like a sane spirit, instead filled with grudge and what could be an immense hatred towards humankind. It looked at her with dark blue eyes, twisting its head around as its lips formed a scary grin, something that truly spooked Eva out of her wits. She wasn’t all that familiar with ghosts but this one was starting to worry her a little.

1030/2000

It slid over to her as Eva’s eyes widened and she immediately took a defensive stance. As it lashed its hands at her, Eva tried to move out of the way, realizing too late that it was faster than her. However, Nilan was right there to block the attack with his arm and she turned to thank him but stopped when she realized that the spirit was again coming for her. With great annoyance, Eva started running towards the river, slowly moving up to her full speed. But the tainted spirit caught up to her again, once more lashing its hands out to hit her. This time, however, Eva had sparkly white specks all around her and just as the spirit had reached a certain range around her, the light all gathered into one massive explosion against it that sent it flying a meter back.

It had dealt enough damage to the spirit to have it take some time to gather its wits again. Using that as an opportunity, Eva moved swiftly towards, a light saber emerging out of her fits as she pierced the spirit with it. For a moment, the spirit seemed to have stopped and it seemed to have vanished. But at the last moment, it glowed a bright black light as the wisps of black left it and now, in the place of the tained spirit was a human with blonde hair and green eyes. It stared at Eva for a long time till finally, succumbing to the powerlessness of it to fall back on the river next to the blue glowing spirit.

She wasn’t sure what was going on anymore but the spirit seemed as happy as a little button as it crouched over its friend, its feathery hands trying to touch the human but failing. Although it was sad, the spirit was just too happy that its friend had returned to normal and it turned to Eva with a silent feathery whisper in her ears. ‘Thank you’ it had said and Eva smiled, nodding. She wasn’t sure what had truly happened but it seemed that whatever she did had helped the spirit as well as this human that now laid next to it.

Nilan approached them behind and the blue spirit seemed to take notice of him as well as it turned to him with a happy smile which Nilan returned much to Eva’s surprise. It seemed that the inspector had more guts than what Eva gave him credits for which was something considering the fact that Eva was spooked out of the spirit but he wasn’t. As if to give them something, the blue glowing spirit stood up suddenly, smiling gently as it placed its hands forward, almost asking Eva and Nilan to give it their hands as well. ‘It’s a thank you gift,’ the spirit had whispered in her ears again and she relayed the message to Nilan, telling him that he may take the spirit’s hand with no fear. With a smile, he did.

1533/2000

As Nilan gave it his hand, Eva watched him for a second, seeing his expression turn from neutral to one that of absolute joy. She raised an eyebrow wondering what the inspector was seeing, only to get nudged in her head by the spirit’s words for her to take its hands as well. And Eva did, with a growing suspicion and curiosity, the seated knight took the spirit’s hand, immediately getting plunged into a sort of darkness she wasn’t familiar with. Inside that darkness, the spirit told her that it will show her something that seemed to be puzzling her for a long time now. It told her that it can show her the answer to what Eva was now seeking and she frowned. What was it that she was seeking? Was it the person from the contract? Was it her real parents? Eva wondered and just as the thought crossed her head, Eva found herself standing in the center of some mansion. What was strange was that she knew this mansion. In fact, she was pretty sure, after a while of remembering, that she was standing at the same manor she had searched the deed for. The Crowe manor or well the Sokolov manor now since Alice’s lover bought it.

At the far end of a corner, Eva noticed a couple. One of them had bright orange hair while the other had blonde. It was Alice and Konstantin, she immediately guessed but was left puzzled as to why she was seeing them. The two of them seemed to have been surrounding something and as Eva took steps closer and closer towards it, she felt a strange pull. She stood between the two giggling couple now, watching them before looking down at where they were pointing, only to have her eyes widen in surprise and for some hand to pull her out of the whole memory.

She gasped terribly as the implications of that vision suddenly dawned on her. What was that all about? What was that?! She felt frustrated enough to pull at her hair but the spirit’s gently voice came to her telling her that it was better that she knew rather than not knowing at all. That it was sure that Eva won’t be accepting it any time soon but that it was the truth and that the spirit could never show her illusions but only true memories that she had forgotten.

Beside her, Nilan was still ecstatic as he discussed with her on how the report for this whole incident should go. Pushing her insecurities aside, she talked with the man, answering everything she possibly could before putting a closed mark on the investigation. She looked over to the spirit, it’s gentle smile still playing on the lips. She wondered if it was really the truth, that if she had truly seen her parents. But it also made sense. Anemoi had told her that the breaking point of the contract was coming in contact with someone and if she wasn’t wrong, her magic had started waning ever since she met Alice and Kon. It made sense but it made Eva want to forget it all, still.

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