Chapter 262: The Memory Someone Tried To Bury
[Music recommendation: Kiwii216 - amnesia piano & cello cover]
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Eve’s wide blue eyes began to fill with tears once more at Ivan’s words, which touched something deep within her heart, something she had not felt in a very long time. Yearning...and hope. Hope for a parent’s love.
It took less than a second for her tears to spill over, rolling freely down her cheeks. Ivan brushed them away gently with his thumb before pressing soft kisses to her damp eyelids. Eve trembled quietly, and before she realised it, she threw her arms around his neck and buried her face deep against his neck, crying in silence.
Ivan simply wrapped his arms around her, holding her close and offering quiet comfort.
"T-thank you, Ivan," she whispered between silent sobs, tightening her hold around his neck. He continued to stroke her hair and back soothingly before pressing a gentle kiss to the top of her head, breathing in her familiar scent.
Then he heard her muffled voice against his neck, "I love you."
It was only the second time she had said it out loud, and Ivan felt his chest shudder at her confession. A tender smile curved his lips as he whispered back, "I love you more."
They stayed like that until Eve finally calmed down.
Pulling away, she wiped her tears and joked lightly, "Ah....sorry for all the waterworks."
"Hm....you can cry as much as you want in front of me, baby," he said gently, wiping away the remaining tears. Then he added shamelessly, "Although I would prefer it if you only did that while shattering in my arms."
Eve’s eyes widened at the utterly shameless man sitting before her. Her cheeks flushed deeply before she burst into soft, beautiful laughter, and Ivan could not hold himself back from joining her.
"You’re impossible," she said, shaking her head.
Ivan’s smile widened as he leaned in and pecked her lips in response.
Then, as his thoughts drifted back to his earlier mention of his father, he remembered something he had wanted to ask her before he had fallen asleep.
"Eve?"
"Yes?" she replied, looking at him with wide, doe-like eyes.
"There’s something I wanted to ask you yesterday, but you were already fast asleep by then."
"What is it?" she asked, searching his molten red eyes.
"Are you aware of the prophecy regarding our birth?" Ivan asked.
"Oh... you know?" Eve replied.
Ivan gave her a small nod. "My father revealed it to me in Dartmouth."
"I see," she said softly, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "Just like you, I became aware of something like that in Dartmouth as well. But the difference is that no one told me. The Vault of Ages showed it to me."
Ivan’s curiosity stirred at her words. "The Vault of Ages showed it to you?" he asked. "Come to think of it, I never really asked what happened inside the Vault... or what it was like for you."
"It was nothing like I ever expected. There were no books or records. It was just a vast space bathed in white and gold, with a massive golden tree standing at its centre," Eve recalled. "I remember being desperate to find answers to save you, so I reached out and touched it. That was when it showed me a series of events from my life in reverse, all the way back to the day I was born."
Her voice softened as she continued. "That was when I saw King Solan, my mother, and Septimus together in a room. Septimus had just received the prophecy from the Goddess and revealed it to them. I saw how it was King Solan who ordered that the prophecy never be shared with anyone beyond the three of them present... and that my powers be sealed with that amber locket, claiming it was to protect me from the evil beyond."
She let out a quiet sigh and looked at Ivan, who now wore a grave expression.
Reaching out, she touched his cheek gently with her delicate hand and asked softly, "Why do you ask?"
"Do you ever recall a memory where someone asked you to forget something?" Ivan asked, his keen gaze fixed on her.
Eve’s brows knit together at the unusual question. "No," she replied, shaking her head. "Why do you ask, Ivan?"
Ivan let out a quiet breath, "Do you remember when we were in that memory potion class together and I volunteered to test the potion on myself?"
"I remember," she said thoughtfully. "You told me it took you back to when you were five years old, didn’t you?"
"Yes, that’s right." He paused, then continued in a lower voice, "I didn’t tell you this back then because even I was confused by what I saw. The memory wasn’t completely clear to begin with. But since our powers awakened, more and more fragments have been returning to me. Things that don’t quite make sense....yet they keep resurfacing."
Eve’s curiosity deepened, "What did you see?"
"I saw someone wearing a robe that concealed most of their face, but somehow I knew it was a woman," Ivan said quietly. "She was standing beside my bed in my chambers at Dracoria Palace, late at night, and she..."
The crease deepened on Eve’s forehead at the mention of another woman by his bedside when he was a child, and she did not like it one bit.
Her voice turned colder as she asked, "She what? What did she do?"
"She whispered to me," Ivan continued. "She asked me to forget....to forget about you. I saw her using magic on me as she kept repeating it."
Silence settled heavily between them. Eve found herself utterly tongue-tied by what he had just revealed, her mind struggling to comprehend why anyone would do such a thing, especially to Ivan when he was so young.
"But....we didn’t-" she murmured, then stopped short as she recalled what King Iskara had told them at dinner. "Wait, we did meet when we were children....then why? Why would anyone do this? Is that why we don’t remember meeting in the past?" Eve asked, one question tumbling after another as she tried to piece the puzzle together.
"We did meet in the past," Ivan said calmly. "My father confirmed it, and I also remembered a faint memory of us meeting....yesterday."
"You did?" Eve asked in disbelief. "What did you see?"
Ivan’s lips twitched before a small smile broke free. "Do you really want to know?" he teased. "The promise you made to me back then?"
"I promised you something? Can you not get me so curious and then be all mysterious about it?" she said impatiently.
A throaty chuckle escaped Ivan’s lips, leaning down he kissed the corner of her lips, "Why are you adorable?"
Colour rushed to her cheeks as she pressed lightly against his chest, demanding, "Don’t try to distract me. Tell me, please....what did you see?"
Ivan’s eyes softened at the memory of their tender ages and the innocent promises they had once made to each other, but he did not want to reveal it to her just yet. He wanted to do it properly....not like this.
"Just that we were kids," Ivan replied, giving away only half the dream. "I was five, and you must have been three, in the garden of the Palace of Light in Luminear."
"So you really saw us," she said, curiosity spilling from her deep blue eyes. "Is that all?"
"Hm....and you accepted a flower I gave you in return for a promise," Ivan added, revealing a little more.
"Oh?" Her eyes lit up. "And what was this promise?" she asked, utterly fascinated.
"That," Ivan drawled, taking in her adorable reaction, "I don’t remember."
"What? Lies!" She narrowed her eyes at him. "I know you definitely remember more. Why aren’t you telling me?"
Ivan chuckled softly, "I truly don’t remember, baby." He brushed the back of his fingers along her jaw. "Otherwise, I would have told you."
Eve tried to read him, but she also knew he did not give things away easily when he chose to hide them. She was just about to threaten him with using her powers to make him confess when she heard him say, "But it doesn’t change the fact that someone tampered with both of our memories, and the evidence is clearly there in this particular memory of mine that has resurfaced."
"This....doesn’t make any sense," she murmured, lowering her gaze as she tried to think it through. "I mean, we were just kids. And from what your father said, we must have met only once, which is already difficult enough for someone that young to remember clearly. But to go as far as to erase it completely means someone couldn’t even stand the possibility of us remembering that one meeting."
She looked back at Ivan and said, "Knowing you, I’m sure you must have reached some sort of conclusion."
"It’s only a theory, or more of an educated guess," Ivan replied, "but I think whoever did this knew about our involvement in the prophecy."
