They had only just slipped away from Sylia’s home. When Vierna returned with Robert and the groceries, Sylia was already awake. She had rushed to her brother—collapsed, trembling, fumbling for the scraps of medicine she still kept. Panic had consumed her, leaving no room for questions.
Amid that confusion, Vierna and Lina had left quietly. They had set the groceries down by the door, and Vierna had paused only once, whispering, I’m sorry, as if those two words could absolve her of driving Robert to poison himself.
“Vierna… are you okay?” Lina asked.
The streets were already bursting with life. Merchants hauled crates to their stalls, women haggled over baskets of fish, and the sharp ring of a blacksmith’s hammer carried above the chatter. Wheels clattered over cobblestones, chickens scattered at passing carts, and the air was thick with the smell of bread fresh from the ovens.
But to Lina, all of it felt hollow. The noise blurred into silence, the colors into a dull haze. No laughter, no rhythm, no pulse—only emptiness. She could feel Vierna’s guilt pressing down so heavily that it drowned the world itself. Even in the middle of a crowd, it was as if they walked alone, and the weight of that silence settled deep into Lina’s chest.
“Ah… yes, Lina, I’m okay. How was your sleep?” Vierna replied.
But Lina noticed the way Vierna walked, shoulders caved, eyes flicking down as though an invisible weight dragged at her feet. Her hands curled and uncurled at her sides, the only sign of the storm she tried to bury. Vierna’s voice had stayed calm, her steps steady, but guilt clung to her like a shadow she couldn’t shake.
Lina saw through it. She had spent nearly every waking hour with Vierna, day and night, until every twitch of her brow, every tremor in her voice had become familiar. She knew when Vierna was holding herself together by threads.
“I’m sorry, Vierna…” Lina said softly, her voice breaking the thin mask her friend wore.
“Why, Lin?” Vierna smiled and yet everything about it seems wrong, “You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“That’s exactly it…” she said with exasperation. Lina had told Vierna to use her, but Vierna was too kind, always shouldering the burden alone while she simply reaped the results. It felt as though she kept taking advantage of Vierna—just like most people in her life. The thought churned her stomach, her spirit rose in rebellion. She had to be better. She had to pull herself together.
“We’re in this mission together, and here I am sleeping while you forced yourself to go through all of that. And now I’m bothering you with my concern instead of actually doing something.” Lina continued.
For Vierna, it was fine, this was her desire. She wants Lina to stay pure while she sank deeper into the muck of her own sin, bearing the weight so Lina could keep her innocence. It was fine for her. Fitting, even, after all she had done back when she was Alice.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“It’s okay, Lina. As long as you stay innocent, I am fin—”
“It’s not okay!” Lina shouted.
“But why, Lina?!” Vierna looked at her, tearful. “It doesn’t make sense. Why are you sticking with someone like me?”
Her voice trembled like a leaf clinging to a branch in a typhoon. “Just look at me. I poisoned people who welcomed me. I manipulated a boy so his sister would get fired. Then I lied some more to hide my deeds, even after they gave us the best room in their house!"
Even when you encouraged me, even when I told myself a hundred times to stay strong, I can’t. I just drift back and forth like the stupid girl I am. I can’t even do what I’m supposed to do without breaking down and crying like this.”
Lina said nothing; she watched Vierna spill all the feelings she had been holding back.
“I’m rotten and useless, Lina. My mother was right to hate me. I’m a serpent, spewing lies and venom; wherever I go people get hurt because of my deceit and my incompetence. Who knows what happened to Henry? Is he dead because I triggered his allergy? Or is Robert going to be paralyzed for life? All because of me. Me. A selfish bastard who just can’t accept that I’m destined to be a guinea pig and nothing more.”
Lina looked at Vierna’s eyes. it gleamed like an abyssal night. Wrath and despair coalesce into a painted hollowness.
“I hate myself, Lina. I should just kill my-.”
She covered Vierna’s mouth with one hand and seized her other hand with the other.
“Vierna, I don’t care about innocence. If you really are a serpent, I will gladly bathe in your venom and lies.”
She gripped tighter. “If you are sinful, then I want to be sinful. If you are depraved, then I want to be depraved too. If you are in hell—bathed in fire and smoked by brimstone—I want to be there as well.
I love you. I love you even if you are inherently evil. I don’t want to be innocent or even entered heaven if you weren’t there.”
Vierna’s voice broke. “But… Why?”
“Does love need a reason, Vierna?”
Vierna couldn’t believe what she had just heard from Lina. A kind of love she had thought impossible to find had been right in front of her this whole time. She had always known Lina was more than a friend, yet she had never imagined it was something this intimate, something she had never experienced before. It felt like rain after years of drought, an oasis at the edge of the desert, the one thing she had always needed finally within reach. A love without reason, even when she had just done something that would have changed anyone else’s perspective of her.
Lina didn’t love her because she was innocent, or pure, or useful. She loved her because she was her. And that kind of love, the kind Vierna had believed she could never have, now stood before her, so bright she could hardly believe she was worthy to stand in its light.
She moved closer. “Lina…” Her hand rose to cup Lina’s cheek. Her heart ached, because even now this was not Lina’s real face. She realized then that friend had never been the right word to describe how she felt for Lina, nor sister or anything else. She now knew for certain that she loved her the kind of love that she never felt before.
“Vierna…” Lina whispered back, her own hand brushing against Vierna’s face.
Both of them closed their eyes, breath mingling, silence stretched taut between them. Their foreheads touched first, a small anchor against the weight of the world. Vierna felt Lina’s trembling, the warmth of her skin, the unspoken vow hidden in that closeness.
Around them, the noise of the town—the vendors calling, carts rolling, footsteps on cobblestone—thinned into nothing. What had been a crowded street faded to obscurity, like a painting blurred at the edges, until only the two of them remained.
And then their lips met, soft and lingering, almost shy. An innocent kiss on the lips. And in that moment, amidst the uncertainty of their future, one simple truth remained: they belonged only to each other.
And I maybe need to clarify. While yes this mark the beginning of romance in Of Moon and Magic, i don't plan to make the novel entirely about romance. That is why i just keep it as Sub-plot. the future of Of Moon and Magic was planned on ruling class, war and dystopia, and i dont intend to deviate from there. Sure there would be some events that was driven by Vierna's new found love for Lina but i will keep it consistent to the theme of the story
Yuri?!
