Chapter 93
Isaac lay on the bed in the annex, the scent of Arietta fading from the air. His ordinary sense of smell, unable to capture the subtlest traces of her fragrance, made the dissipation feel even faster. Now, it seemed, the space was truly his. Surrounded by beautiful things he didn’t understand, Isaac stared at the patterns on the ceiling, the same patterns Arietta had gazed at blankly the day before she left.
‘You owe me your current state. I made you, Izzy. What makes that man think he can just take you?’
Isaac scowled. Even at the tender age of eight, he hadn’t been that naive and reckless. He’d possessed a rebellious streak, yes, but he hadn’t been foolish. Had she run off with some low-life charmer, all honeyed words and empty promises?
The thought that he’d lost her to such a man stung with a sharp sense of humiliation. A bubbling cauldron of emotions rose within him, but Isaac pushed them all aside, focusing solely on the indignity. He came to a swift decision.
‘This insult alone is enough to make me act.’
He had to bring Arietta back. It wasn’t a matter of lingering affection. No, it was simply that enduring such an affront wasn’t befitting a Downstream Big Cat.
Isaac turned onto his side in the darkness, blinking slowly as he considered his next move. Arietta had mentioned the man’s promises of a future together. Could she be thinking of marriage? Marriage. One of the Sky City’s frivolous games. He’d heard tell of the ritual: the woman in white, veiled, the man lifting the veil, the kiss. Then they became ‘husband’ and ‘wife,’ treated as ‘one.’ How could two separate people become one? He and Arietta had spent twenty years together, and yet…
“Damn it.”
His thoughts, once again, converged on those past twenty years with Arietta. Isaac bit his lip, sharp canines drawing blood.
‘You think you can just throw that away?’
The thought, a frequent visitor, returned once more. This was an insult. It had to be. Isaac couldn’t tolerate being insulted. He had to bring Arietta back. Her place was here, her only purpose to endure the agonizing passage of time in his embrace, waiting for death.
Yes, try to kill yourself. Go ahead. I’ll endure it. I’ll bear it. But you will not leave my side. That is unacceptable. Going to Sky City? Don’t make me laugh…
‘A daughter should return to her homeland.’
Why did Seia’s words come to mind now? Arietta’s homeland wasn’t Sky City. She was born and raised in Downstream. Downstream people died in Downstream. That was the rule, established by those damned Sky City dwellers.
“She has nowhere to return to.”
There should be no exceptions to the rule.
Benjamin’s few virtues included a remarkable ability to follow Arietta’s instructions. As instructed, he spoke to Commander Soluten, the leader of the search party, about the possibility of the creature being in the swamp. The suggestion to search the swamp floor, a stark contrast to their previous land-focused efforts, was met with surprise. Yet, it was undeniably the most likely scenario.
Commander Soluten sighed, as if wondering why they hadn’t thought of it sooner. “Yes, it’s quite possible it fell in and drowned on the way down.” They admitted, almost unconsciously, that they had been operating under the assumption that the escaped animal would have wandered somewhere on the Downstream surface before dying. “It’s a dangerous path down, even though it leads to the surface. A fall is certainly plausible.”
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