Chapter 32: Realisations
These new feelings clashed violently with her long-standing loyalty to Jerald, more like the absence of it. This was supposed to be the very man she had followed all her life, fought for, and quietly loved. The conflict tore at her, but beneath it all, there was something else—a strange, liberating sensation, like heavy chains she had carried for years had suddenly been cut. It truly felt strange.
She couldn’t explain it. She didn’t fully understand it.
Sasha eventually sat up and began dressing in her black tactical suit, a different one from the one she wore the day before. Apparently, she had a few of those in her wardrobe. Edward watched her carefully.
"We need to talk about what happens next," he said calmly, trying to reason with her. "You know you can’t just leave me here, or even worse, hand me back to your boss."
Sasha zipped up her suit and looked at him with complicated eyes. "Put on your clothes," she ordered quietly.
Edward obeyed, not quite able to read her. While he knew what his ability was, curtsy of the system and that pill he swallowed days ago, this was the first time he was truly testing its limits per se—and as it was, it didn’t appear to be working so great.
Still not knowing the full limits of her power or how strong she was physically, he chose caution and complied. Once he was dressed, Sasha really surprised him now.
"Stay here in my room," she said. "Don’t try to leave. I need time to figure out what to do with you."
Edward nodded slowly, clearly taken aback by her words. Regardless, seeing how the situation had turned, he chose patience. For now, he would play along. Escape was still too risky without more information and assurance.
Sasha gave him one last conflicted look before leaving the room, locking the door behind her.
Seeing her leave finally, Edward couldn’t help but curse under his breath. ’What kind of shitty power is this? Gain love without control, what is that??’ Edward almost shed pained tears.
"Why can’t it just be like those web novels??"
...
At this time, it was around 9 a.m. when Sasha arrived at Jerald’s office after leaving Edward alone in her room. She would have taken him to the cell, but for some reason she couldn’t explain, he felt extremely reluctant to do so. Even feeling as though it wouldn’t be comfortable for him. The sense of caring for another person like that was truly irking when she thought of it.
On arrival, the purple-haired woman, Violet, stood beside Jerald, reviewing documents spread across his desk. Jerald didn’t even look up when Sasha entered.
"You’re quite late today," he remarked in a neutral tone, still focused on the papers. "That’s unlike you."
Sasha gave a small bow. "Apologies, I had something doing." She said.
Sasha couldn’t help but notice how much she didn’t care for Violet being so close to Jerald. Normally, the sight would annoy her, and she would even feel like walking up and pulling her by the hair away from him—but now, not even the slightest feeling remained.
She was starting to get seriously worried.
Her conversation with Jerald remained brief and professional, purely master and servant. Jerald gave orders and Sasha acknowledged them, nothing really more than that. That was how it had always been. She’d get some praise when she did a task or in such times, and get treated coldly all other times.
For the first time, Sasha saw the dynamic with painful clarity.
Had it always been this one-sided? Had she really spent years serving someone who barely saw her as a person?
She couldn’t quite wrap her head around it.
Her eyes drifted to the back of the room, where Maya floated unconscious inside one of the large liquid-filled tubes. The sight hit her harder than expected, and just then, for some reason, a memory surfaced in her mind as Maya’s voice from years ago rang in her thoughts.
"Can’t you see? Open your fucking eyes. Jerald doesn’t care about us, Sasha. We’re just tools to him."
The words echoed in her mind, shaking her more than she wanted to admit. The strange new feelings Edward had awakened in her only amplified the doubt, now stronger, from both sides.
She stared at them for a while, then regained composure. "I... need a moment," she said suddenly, her voice slightly strained. "Excuse me."
She turned and left the office without waiting for permission.
Jerald finally looked up, watching her retreating figure with a plain expression. He sensed as though something was off about her behavior just then. However, with more pressing matters on his desk—particularly Maya’s enhancement procedure—he brushed it off for the time being.
Sasha walked out of the office and down the corridor, her mind a storm of conflicting thoughts. She intended to return to her private quarters to think in peace, but the memory of Edward waiting inside made her rethink that.
Without breaking stride, she stepped towards a shadowed alcove and walked into it as she simultaneously activated her power. Darkness swirled around her like living ink, forming a circular portal on the wall. She sank into it smoothly and vanished from the facility in under seconds.
A moment later, she emerged on the rocky peak of a remote mountain, far away from civilization. Cold wind whipped at her ponytail and tactical suit as she walked out of the shade. This was her sanctuary of the sort, a place she had visited in the past, and would always return to whenever she needed space to herself.
Sasha walked slowly along the jagged ridge, arms wrapped around herself against the biting cold. While she could see snow at the top parts of the surrounding mountains, this one didn’t have any, and yet the cold didn’t dwindle.
For nearly an hour, she let her mind wander through the years.
She remembered the dirty streets where she and Jerald had fought to survive in as children, the underground fights she endured so they could eat. The nights she spent covered in blood and bruises while Jerald stitched her up, all these before Maya entered their lives. All the way up to when Maya arrived, the pitiful girl they had taken in.
She remembered the way Jerald’s attention had slowly shifted away from her, and how she had quietly accepted her role as the third wheel, while hoping for more in her heart.
Now, standing alone on the mountain, processing everything, the truth hit her like an avalanche... ’She was right all along.’
