It's back at the Curti Center for Ena. She wasn't one to miss out on festivities, even though she didn't quite understand what the whole fuss was about, and she was off work for the better part of the week anyway.

Winter was rough, though - since without the instinct to constantly check the clock that was hammered into humans from a young age, she largely depended on the natural rhythm of the sun and the moon to sleep and rise. And with so many festivities in winter taking place long after the sun had set, she was finding her natural rhythm all out of sorts.

So when she couldn't bear to stay awake anymore, she politely bowed out of the nice party, taking one last gingerbread cookie for the road, and headed back to the empty house she was staying in for the visit. As she walked away from the venue, the air around her grew quieter and colder, and she took in the moments of quiet to ready herself for sleep.

She's almost halfway to her destination when she senses someone trailing her. She paid no mind to it at first, knowing that she wasn't the only one at the Center during this time. She doesn't even bother to glance behind her.

"...Ena?"

That voice.

It was like an icicle to her heart. Everything stopped, and the cold around her felt much more pronounced than it was just a moment ago. She stood, frozen, scared to turn around.

No, it couldn't be.

She was hallucinating - she had to be. It had to be someone else, perhaps someone with a similar voice? She was up so late, maybe someone with a similar timbre was making her tired mind jump to familiar conclusions.

Slowly, she turns around.

And there he is, standing there, just as she remembered him. Though of a ghastly hue he was, she could clearly see the colors in her mind's eye--his jet black hair, tied up in that neat ponytail, a few unruly strands having gotten loose to frame his angular face. His blue-and-silver ceremonial armor, deep navy cloak hanging loosely off his shoulder, his hand resting on his sheathed greatsword at his hip--all as she remembered him.

"Aden--" is all she's barely able to choke out before it all comes rushing back to her. She'd done so much to get over her guilt, to accept his death, to find a way to lead herself in life, but here he was, standing right in front of her, undoing it all. She clamps her hand over her mouth, silencing whatever wail of pain she might've produced, but it wasn't enough to prevent the outpouring of tears from her eyes.

"Hey," he says in a low, calming voice as he takes a step forward. It's only as he moves that Ena first notices the gaggle of creatures following behind him, but that barely registers. What's more important--

"Listen," he says softly again, reaching out to her face. She reaches up to put her hand on his, but she goes right through him, and she lands gently on her own cheek. She looks up in confusion, and a small smile of amusement crosses his face. In turn, she can't help her own smile. It's like she's a little girl all over again.

"I can't stay long," he says. "I can only say this once before I have to go. You promise you'll listen carefully?" Ena nods, and Aden continues. "I was a Hero of Light once, just like you."

"...You were?" The idea is funny to her, that she was just simply following in her elder brother's footsteps. She almost remarks how she never remembered him ever being a Hero of Light, and that she never saw him arrive here in Vaikuntha with her, but it dawns on her--the only way he could have ever been one between then and now was in death. And the realization of what that meant for her stabs her in the stomach, and she feels her face pale.

"It's all right," he reassures her. He seems like he's about to say something else, but he closes his eyes, putting himself back on track. "But see these?" He motions to the strange creatures behind him. When he does, they crowd closer to him. "When I was a Hero of Light myself, I ignored all the sad children during the Starlight celebrations. You know how it is--we don't have this festival at home. It's meaningless to us." Ena nods. "What makes a sad child in winter any different from a sad child during the rest of the year? I didn't care.

But then things...happened." He sounds oddly hesitant, a side Ena was never used to him showing, and she tilted her head in curiosity. "I was cursed. And now, these things are going to follow me around for the rest of eternity. I'll never be rid of them. But the same thing doesn't have to happen to you." He points at her nose; if he were corporeal, he would've lightly tapped her there. "There are going to be ghosts coming to visit you, and you need to listen to them. And you need to do what they say."

He finally steps back. There's an oddly bitter smile on his that sapped all the momentary warmth she felt from his presence.

"But what--"

"I need to go now." There's finality in his words, and the thought that this might be the last time she sees him brings a fresh wave of tears to her eyes.

"Aden, I'm--"

"It's all right," he says again, reassuring her. "It's all right."

And he's gone, even before the echo of his voice finishes reverberating through the empty Curti Center.

"--sorry," she whispers behind muffled sobs.

GENTLE SNOW
Ena knew this place well. She was standing in the wide courtyard, which felt spacious despite the towering castle walls around it. But in contrast to the familiar sight, there was something about it that she rarely ever saw - the whole courtyard was covered in a fresh blanket of snow. The full moon in the clear sky lit the space, the white of the snow illuminating the courtyard in a soft glow.

"I don't remember this much snow," Ena says, frowning, and the PuPu just chuckles.

"Wait for it."

A few moments later, a quiet creaking of a door opening echoes throughout the empty space. A head pokes out from a servant's door at the far end of the castle. "The coast is clear!" comes the loud whisper of a young man, and he opens the door fully, pushing the snow that sat against it to the side. It's Aden--much younger than he was when he visited her, looking barely 20 (in human years). He bounds forward in the snow, kicking plumes of it upward and chuckling in delight when it hits himself in the face.

A younger Ena--impossibly older than ten (in human years)--appears shortly after him, closing the door gently behind her as she enters the courtyard. A thick, silvery velvet cloak hangs on her shoulders, the hood on her head just barely hiding her light pink, bobbed hair. She regards the snow quietly and cautiously at first, before pouncing right into a nearby mound. She takes a handful in her gloved hands and throws it up into the air, letting it all fall on and around her.

Present-Ena gingerly presses her hand to her lips. This was so long ago, she almost forgot about it...


REGRET
The cool of winter is suddenly interrupted by the searing heat of the Rivieran summer when PuPu whisks Ena off to the less desirable memory...not that she knows that yet, though.

She blinks, and they're on top of a mountain. They're standing perched above a magnificent-looking stone-gray door, a flat space leveling out the rest of the mountain top like a platform, a plaza, a stage. Intricate carvings--not of elven make--create a strange but beautiful flower-like pattern.

But how nice the dais looks isn't exactly the point here. What's more important are the people. There are the four people she most recently considered her companions, standing battle-ready by a charred corpse, standing off against her one and only brother, with herself floating just behind him, casting a spell.

Present-Ena brings her hand to her mouth again, but this time with force. She can feel the clench in her chest and the drop in her stomach. Of all things, this was the thing she wanted to see the least, the thing she regretted the most, and her greatest failure in life. And to see it play out again in front of her like this was the thing she wanted the least.