Broken Souls and Promises Part 2/2

The day he was born, his mother had died.

She was a military officer and at the time, even when she knew the risks, she joined the Frost war that was taking place, owing to her patriotism and devotion for Ifuru, her nation.

And that devotion martyred her in the war. At the news of her death, his father, quite literally, lost a fragment of his soul.

All humans can lose fragments of their soul, big or small, at tragic points in their lives. This can have disastrous to no consequences for their health and wellbeing. And the fragment could never be put back or joined with the soul again because it was lost forever. This process is never visible to the naked eye, but only to a microscope, or perhaps one with supervision cast upon themselves with powerful magic.

And in his father's case, he got bedridden and was chased by multiple chronic and deadly illnesses, including pain, grief and sadness. But more than everything, he knew he had lost a soul fragment because he always felt...empty.

But before his mother had left for war, she had kept a gift behind for her husband. A time machine, with one chance to go to the past or the future. And Fiyarel had a plan.

Rumia and him were in his room: grey walls, marble flooring, a bookshelf with uncountable books, all read, a wooden study coupled with an office chair, a chest of drawers, cupboards and a one person bed with clean white bed sheets.

The fluorescent lights in his bedroom were far more brighter and welcoming than the ones in the hospital. He was holding the time machine in his hand.

It was a gold-rimmed clock that had ten hands and 20 dots surrounding it. He had no clue what they meant but decided not to think about it. In the back side of the clock, dates and years were arranged in a rectangular slot. He grasped the knob on the left side of the palm-sized machine and rolled it backward- to go to the past- and the more he rolled, the more the numbers went backwards.

"I'll be quick. When I come back, my dad will be healed and healthy."

"Are you sure this is safe?" Rumia stood up from her position on the bed, an almost frown on her face.

"Perfectly. Don't be so worried, Peekaroo," He smiled at her. "Just don't tell dad till I come back." She nodded.

He stopped rolling the knob when the numbers reached 24th August 2029, his birthday. He gazed at the piece of string attached to the right side of the clock. All that was left to do was pull and he'd be gone.

She stood next to him, watching the device and then looked at him, only centimetres shorter than her.

"Good luck. And promise you'll come back."

He had just a curve on the sides of his lips when he found her hand and took it in his. He lifted it, watched it hesitantly before pressing his lips lightly on her knuckles. Her eyes enlarged as a red creeped into her freckled cheeks. He had a slight blush too when he gave back her hand and looked into her eyes saying, "Promise."

"Goodbye," He pulled the string and disappeared.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Time machines were of many kinds. The one Fiyarel used was palm-sized and indicated that, unlike other, larger time machines that permitted the user to be in the time period they wished while being made of flesh and blood, this one allowed him to be in ghost form and additionally, have supervision to see the see-able and unsee-able. This was perfect for his plan.

At the moment, it was 24th August 2029 and Fiyarel was in his father's room which, in contrast to his own, had beige walls, a work table and chair, paintings hung around the room, a chandelier in all its magnificence and a TV blaring loudly in front of a wine red sofa. But his father was on the carpeted floor, head in his hands, tears flooding from his eyes as the TV displayed the same face over and over again.

This is where Fiyarel saw his mother for the first time. The photograph of her with the words "Rania Bolt decapitated in the Frost War," were repeated amongst other names and faces.

She had the same sharp nose and ashy blonde hair of Fiyarel's tied in a ponytail. Her eyes were orange and her lips plump as she smiled bright, but frozen in her photograph.

"I have my mom's hair and my dad's eyes," He thought ecstatically. But it was quickly replaced by pain at the tears of his father. He couldn't see his father's face but his body was more fit and his skin undamaged and his hair was a dark green that Fiyarel never saw after his childhood.

Soon enough, a coin-like fragment fell from his apple-sized soul. Fiyarel's heart sank when he saw the fragment.

"It's bigger than I expected...no wonder he fell sick. No wonder he always felt empty."

The plan was to insert the fallen fragment back into his father's chest where the soul resided and go back to the present where he'd be healed. Souls couldn't normally be joined together again, but with this particular time machine, it was wholly possible. But he had time. His pulse throbbed in his ears when he remembered what would happen next. He would finally see the circumstance of his birth. He watched the tears, waiting for a body to somehow magically develop.

It didn't happen.

Instead, a bright orb of light circled the fallen fragment, beginning to form a vague sphere with limbs materializing on the ground. Watching it made him feel like his intestines were twisted with a fork because he realized.

He'd have to break his promise.

If he put the soul fragment back inside his father, then he would be free of any disease that was caused by it. But if Fiyarel himself was born from the fragment and not the tears, wouldn't he die if it was put back in? And if he would never be born, would his father lose all memories of him? Would Rumia forget him?

Oh, how powerful the soul was! Just a fragment of it had the power to give birth to an entity of flesh and blood. And the loss of just a fragment had the power to endanger his father.

And oh, how powerful love was too. His love for Rumia changed his life and made him happier. His love for his father made him go back in time to keep him alive for a longer while. But that same love for his mother made his father lose a part of his soul. That same love for her nation killed her in the war. And now, he had two choices. To accept Fate's plan and lose his father while pursuing his love for Rumia. Or to sacrifice himself to give back the life that was stolen from his father.

And he made a decision.

He understood how the power of love and how the power of soul would always be interconnected.

And how he was born from soul and would die because of love.

He stepped forward and bent down to his father's level. He was oblivious to the happenings around him, sucked in his own world of grief. Fiyarel picked up the fragment and looked at his father's chest where the broken soul lay, next to the heart.

The fragment didn't weigh even half of the emotions in Fiyarel's heart. He closed his stinging eyes, tears pricking at its edges. He would never see his father healthy or happy after this. He would never live a life with Rumia.

"Goodbye dad. Goodbye Rumia."

He fit the fragment along the lines of the soul and it joined perfectly like it was a missing jigsaw puzzle.

And the last thing he saw was the soul intact and radiating from his father's chest.

Rumia stared at the spot where Fiyarel had disappeared.

She had been staring for hours.

She had visited the hospital in between to find out that his father's health was soaring and the news that he'd survive after all.

So she waited for him, to congratulate him, to embrace him, to show him that his father was going to be okay and see the smile that would cover his face. But she had a feeling he'd never come back.

He had always made her smile. He had always made her happy. Now what? Who else did she have?

Not her parents who died long ago in a car crash. No friends because everyone envied her or despised her. And now? No Fiyarel.

Tears fell down her cheeks, her body shook with sobs.

She'd never tell him she loved him back.

And at that moment, a fragment fell from her soul.