Grace’s question hung in the air between the two of them while Rune remained silent. A moment later, he let out a sigh and finally spoke, "Do you remember that I told you that I inherited this jade ring from my master?"
In response, she slowly nodded her head, recalling their previous conversation where he did tell her that his jade ring came from his master.
"Before his death, my master told me about the jade bracelet that was made out of the same jade as this ring. He told me that it was his lover who carried the jade bracelet and I could find her here in the Mortal Realm. When I came here, I found out that my master’s lover was your grandmother and that now you are the one who carries this jade bracelet."
Grace struggled to wrap her brain around all that he had revealed. There were way too many questions that she wanted to ask him, way too many confusions about his story. "How did you... even find me and the bracelet?"
She felt like she didn’t make her question clear enough, but it appeared that he understood exactly what she was trying to ask. "That’s right. The Mortal Realm is huge and there are billions of people living here. It’s absolutely impossible to locate a jade bracelet with the little information I had about it. What really helped me is the connection between the two jades."
"Connection?" She asked, curious to know what he was talking about.
To answer her question, he took hold of her left hand, the one with the jade bracelet. He held her hand and the two of them sat there in silence. Confused, she was about to ask what he was doing when she felt it.
It was a light feeling of warmth, almost unnoticeable, but she felt it almost immediately. She stared at their joined hands and watched as the feeling started growing, and with that, the two jades started glowing as well. Softer at first, but stronger with each passing second.
Before she could have completely grasped the situation, he let go of her hand and she felt a sudden dizziness hitting her. She shook her head, trying to get rid of lightness that she felt descending over her.
"Are you alright? I did try my best to hold back my powers." Rune’s voice was filled with worry as he caught her shoulders and looked at her with cincern-filled eyes.
The dizziness went away just as quickly as came, leaving behind a confused Grace. She looked up at Rune and asked, "What was that? It happened before too." She recalled the familiar feeling she felt when their jades came closer last time.
"Since these two are made from the same piece of jade, and are crafted by a pair of lovers, they are attached with each other. They react whenever they are close, and seek exchange of powers of their bearers. But since you have no powers, my jade tries to seek your mortal energy, resulting in the dizziness you feel."
Rune explained as simply as he could. "The warmth you feel, it’s my powers. You would have been able to sense them better if not for the dizziness that takes over you."
It was way too much, and barely made much sense. But after all that Grace had been through, she knew better than to think that Rune was lying. After all, she possessed a magical bracelet and had already seen him performing magic.
"So, it was your jade that helped you in finding me and my bracelet?" She asked to confirm.
In response, Rune nodded his head in affirmation. "It wasn’t easy to find exactly who was my master’s lover because I didn’t know more about her than just her name. After an entire year of search, I was only able to find out that she came to Starship Country. But I lost all the clues after that. It wasn’t until we brush past each other on the International airport of Mapleton City three months ago that I finally found you and the bracelet."
Grace was stunned by the new revelation. Who would have thought that just by walking through an airport, she ended up getting herself involved in something like this.
"You are saying that I was wearing this jade bracelet three months ago?" She asked and Rune once again nodded his head.
In the previous timeline, she never knew about the jade bracelet. While in this timeline, she found the jade bracelet when she got reborn. Yet, according to Rune, she had been wearing it all this time. It would make sense considering it was a family heirloom and her mother never auctioned it in this timeline.
"What happened after that?" She asked curious to know more about what he did after he located her and the jade bracelet.
This time, Rune let out a deep sigh and pointed his accusing gaze on her. "You should know better than anyone just how hard it is to approach you. I followed you to the capital city and spent all my time in finding out about you after that chance encounter. It took me months but I finally had all the information on you that I needed. After that, I planned the accident and the rest."
If it had been some other situation and some other person, Grace knew that she might have already killed that person. But since it was a special situation and the person confessing in front of her was Rune, she found herself completely devoid of any such thought.
Did she want to throw him out of the window for what he had done? Yes. Did she want to kill him? The answer was a clear no, and this realization left her surprised.
Neither of them spoke for a while. He was waiting for her response while she was struggling to decide what to say after learning so much. Finally, she asked, "Why do you need to locate the jade bracelet?"