CHAPTER 19

He looked at her and saw tears blurring in her eyes. He wiped her tears away using his thumbs. He cupped her cheeks and slowly he lowered his face to hers and let his lips grazed hers in a soft kiss.
He had never kissed anyone before besides her. He lived in a flower house and yet he never allowed any woman to touch her, it felt wrong that he couldn’t do it.
“I am a very difficult person,” she said as their lips separated.
“I can live with that. I will do whatever you want me to do,” he said and he meant it.
“Then when will you be returning?” she asked him.
“I’m here to stay. My home is here with you. I will never leave you again,” he promised her.
He had never seen her being so fragile before, she laid her head on his shoulder and he wrapped his arm around her.
“If you go back on your promise then I will…”
“I know what you are going to say. If I ever hurt you then I will personally stand in front of you and let you hurt me in any way you want,” he said.
“I will skin you alive and dip you in the holy pond,” she said looking up at him and he smiled.
“If that will make you happy then I will even cut out my heart for you,” he said and gave her another peck on her forehead.
She smiled at him and he smiled at her too. He was really happy to be back home, home with her and he was going to stay with her for a very long time.
“How have you been?” he asked her.
“Not so good. I have been missing you too,” she said as he brushed her hair with his fingers.
“That’s a great honor to have the great Saintess miss someone like me,” he said.
“You are a special kid Xavier, I guess I have always known it ever since I found you back then,” she said.
“Thank you for everything you have done for me. Because of you I got to see my parents again and learnt the truth about everything,” he said.
“I did what I have to do,” she said.
“But why would you leave me there? I wanted to come back with you,” he asked her.
“I needed you to have another shot with your family again. I never really had a good time with my parents and I thought it would be the best if you have the chance that I lost with mine,” she told him.
“I didn’t know you were being considerate of me. Thank you for giving me a chance with that. Thanks to you I made a decision for myself and that’s you. I want to be with you and I hope you will continue to let me stay with you,” he said.
“You will leave me with time and I will remain here alone,” she said as she sat by herself.
“I will not leave you even in death. If you are cursed then I will get myself cursed too. I will live for eternity with you,” he told her as he held her hands.
He knew that she was immortal considering everything that happened ever since he met her and before that. It wasn’t normal for a mortal being to not age an inch and to have such incredible abilities and powers like Valery had.
“Something is wrong with you!” Valery suddenly said after looking at him.
“What do you mean?” he asked her not sure what was happening.
Valery stood up and he saw the gown she was wearing. He had designed that one some time ago.
“We have to go to the holy pond now,” she said as she put on her shoes.
He stood up and took a robe and put it on for her.
“I wouldn’t want you to catch a cold by wearing less,” he said even though that wasn’t what he was afraid of. He didn’t want anyone seeing her in fewer clothes.
She smiled at him as if she knew exactly what was in his head.
“I know,” she said and began to walk out of the room. He followed her out of her room and together they walked out of the palace towards the holy pond.
The holy pond was the pond that had the golden lotus, Valery’s legend. He wondered why they were going there. When they arrived, Valery stretched out her hand and waved it at the lotus. The lotus bloomed and opened at that moment.
He had never seen it that way before. The lotus had always been closed like a bud. She raised her hand and something came out of the flower which she directed to where they were both standing. She let the item he couldn’t discern what it was land on her hand. She looked at it for a while before she turned to him.
“What is it?” he asked her.
She stretched out her hand and urged him to take it. When he took it he looked very closely and realized that it was a seed.
“Why are you giving me a seed?2 he asked her.
“Take it in,” she said.
Because he trusted her, he just swallowed the seed without even knowing why. She smiled at him after he swallowed it and he knew he just did the right thing. It didn’t take long for the effects to kick in.
“What’s happening to me?” he asked.
“You will be fine,” she said and he felt himself as light as a feather.
Valery lifted both of her hands and he felt himself being lifted up. He couldn’t fight it and just looked at her as he got lifted into the holy pond. He landed inside the golden lotus. It was huge, as if it was home. As he was busy looking around, the lotus began to close up on him.
“Valery, wait. What is happening?”
“You will be fine after this, I promise you,” she said and he suddenly dosed off as the lotus finally closed in on him.