[A lifetime was hard to get through.]
In the deepest reaches of the Sea of Loss, boundless darkness and silence surrounded you on every side. He sat cross-legged in that darkness, his eyes closed, as though he had been falling like this for years.
In his arms, he held the girl covered in whip marks. She slept, her brows only occasionally knitting in sorrow, as though she had fallen into an eternal dream.
He had no idea how long he had spent here.
Time seemed to have lost all meaning.
Perhaps only a fleeting instant had passed in reality, but he had spent years in this darkness.
Points of light revolved around him like sparks in the dark. Each was a dream he had once woven, one round after another, adjusting and shaping the dream called "happiness" through repeated attempts.
Every point of light.
Held years of his time, sometimes even a decade.
But most had shattered.
Again and again, she could sense the gulf between herself and those happy days. Throughout his countless attempts, as time passed, she would always wake within those nightmares, unable to fall asleep again. Those real experiences haunted her like nightmares. As she grew, they became lingering ghosts, forever trying to drag her back into that dark past.
All he could do was try his best to keep her from remembering.
Perhaps it was meaningless.
Perhaps it was still destined to be nothing but an illusion.
But at least, in this dream I wove for you, you have me.
The door creaked open.
When Lynn opened his eyes in bed, snow was still drifting outside the window.
In the faint nighttime light occasionally reflected through the snow outside, you could make out a tiny figure standing at your bedside. She held her cloth