The Archduke's Songbird-Chapter 103: Failed Negotiation

"What?" Jerrick was shocked beyond belief. "Then why don’t you rest in peace? Why are you still here?"

Joar floated down. There seemed to be an invisible barrier around his tomb. He couldn’t cross it and was tethered to his tomb. When Jerrick looked closely, he noticed the chain bound around his ankles and bound to the headstone.

Hector is tethered to the land of the living. But who would do that?

"There is only one who can do this to me, Jerrick..." Joar smirked.

"The seer? Did you meet her?" Jerrick asked. His heart filled with panic for the seer seemed to be chasing everyone related to Jessamyn. He couldn’t imagine the danger Jessamyn was in.

"Seer? What seer?" Joar asked.

"You don’t know the seer?" Jerrick asked furrowing his brows. As he thought about it, his face relaxed.

Jerrick realized that it was not Hector unwilling to leave. He had settled everything before he died, for the sake of Jessamyn’s comfortable life. He was never planning on guarding over her after his death.

He didn’t come across the seer either. That leaves only one.

"Jessamyn!" Jerrick said and Joar nodded.

"She is under the assumption that I am all that she has... She is unwilling to let me go. She... she loves me more than I deserve..."

Jerrick’s chest hurt. He could only imagine how much Jessamyn would have loved Joar to hold on to him for years. She suffered alone, probably waiting for the day she would be reunited with the love of her life.

Love of her life—It hacked Jerrick’s heart to think that Jessamyn had someone else holding that position in her heart. It should have been him; it could have been him and yet...

She is alive. That’s all that matters!

Jerrick composed himself. It was not about him and his feelings. It was about Jessamyn’s. He needed to find a way for her to attain happiness. That’s what Joar wants too.

"I’ll find a way to break the tether," Jerrick said, his eyes shimmering with resolve.

With that, Joar’s expression turned to exasperation. "You are going to find a way?"

"What else do you suggest? Tell her that she needed to cut the tether?"

Joar shrugged. "That would be the way."

Jerrick got irritated. "How do I tell her that the very thing she did out of love is causing you pain? That, it’s keeping you from finding peace? She will hurt herself if she learns that."

"You’re underestimating her. The truth will hurt. But she needs the truth to move on..."

"No, you’re wrong. I thought you were on my side and that you wanted her happiness. But you’re... selfish..."

Joar scoffed in exasperation. "You have to make her understand, Jerrick. Show her that she isn’t alone, that she has you and others who care for her deeply. She needs to let go of the past to find her own happiness."

"Once I sever the tether, she will know you’re not here anymore and move on," Jerrick said.

Joar went silent as he observed Jerrick. He might have stuck forever at 23, and the man in front of him might have aged to 30, but what he saw in Jerrick’s heart was fear and insecurity—a boy, probably the boy who she fell in love with a decade earlier.

The smartest men could get dumb at certain things when emotions were involved.

"And she won’t be sad in that case?" Joar asked, trying to reason with the child in front of him.

"She will be. But it won’t be her fault and she will...move on," Jerrick’s voice trailed away. Even he understood that he planned on controlling her life even if he did it out of care.

But he stood by his decision. He would not add to her sufferings.

"You..." Joar leaned to Jerrick’s face. His piercing eyes made Jerrick take a step back. "You two are very alike... You think you’re being protective, by keeping secrets; hurtful secrets which are best left hidden, as you may think... But in reality, you’re only causing more harm and fostering mistrust and misunderstanding in the long run." 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

Jerrick pressed his lips and folded his arms over his chest in defiance. He was not willing to listen to the dead guy. "I’ll be back." Jerrick hoped they would agree on something, his plan preferably.

"I am not leaving my Jasmine with you," Joar said and his form started to dissolve into smokiness.

"Wait!" Jerrick shouted out of panic. "Do you think I can’t~"

"Do what you can!" Joar’s voice boomed in the silence.

"Did you lie? I am offering you peace in your afterlife and you refuse to give in..." Jerrick tried to negotiate.

"Bring her to me..." Joar’s voice was heard as his form had already disappeared into the chilly wind. "Only she breaks this bond. Until she does, I’ll be trapped here, unable to move on..."

Jerrick could feel the voice, hovering just beside him, filling his ear with a chilling, intimate murmur that seeped into his very bones.

"She too... will be stuck, tethered to the past... Make your choice, Jerrick... Follow through your chivalry. Do the right thing..."

"I am not bringing her here! Ever!" Jerrick shouted.

"Do not waste your lifeline on spells like these..." A gust of wind wiped the spell away. Jerrick was left shocked to see that. "I don’t answer to imbeciles..." Joar’s voice trailed away.

Silence.

After that, there was silence all around for a few moments—a pin-drop silence, before the rustles of the wind and the chirps of the insects returned.

Jerrick was stunned as he looked around. Since Joar’s soul was uncorrupted, he had gained some powers. Dead souls cannot control the flow of the wind but Joar wiped off the spell.

Or is there something more to it? Is someone else involved?

Jerrick pressed his lips wondering if the one-eyed seer had anything to do with this.

He waited around to see if Joar would change his mind but he didn’t. Reaching a decision, he walked away.

On his way, he saw the small grave beside Joar’s grave. He stopped and let out a sigh.

Boyd—so, that’s what she named her stillborn child.

As he recalled, Boyd meant "son of the yellow-haired one". He was not surprised she named her boy after her husband. Jerrick sighed once again.

Jerrick collected some flowers from the garden and placed them on the baby’s grave. He felt pity for the little soul. Fate was cruel to him. He had a chance to grow in the womb of the most precious woman and to be raised by the best mother anyone could get.

"You withered too soon, precious..." he muttered gently caressing the tomb.

His heart felt heavy looking at the tiny grave as he remembered his precious son.