CHAPTER 59
The wind had calmed after the earlier chaos, but the air inside the manor remained charged-quiet, tense, like a thread pulled taut.
Lady Marella sat now on a cushioned chaise, the lines of weariness on her face more visible in the lamplight. Caldrin, curled beside her, clutched the healing book he'd bought like it was his lifeline. The boy glanced up as Sorayael approached, curiosity glinting in his soft eyes.
Sorayael crouched to meet his gaze. "I couldn't walk away knowing someone was in danger. That wouldn't sit well with me." She paused, then leaned in slightly with a conspiratorial whisper, "Besides, I'm fending off the evil."
Caldrin blinked. “Evil?”
She nodded solemnly, though a playful smile tugged at her lips. “That's why I keep my identity secret. Dangerous forces are easier to fight when no one sees you coming.”
The boy's eyes widened, the kind of innocent awe only children could muster. “So... you're like a secret knight?”
Something flickered in Sorayael's golden eyes. “Something like that.”
He nodded hard. “I'll study this healing book, then. So I can help my aunt.” He looked at Marella. “She's been sick for a long time. But she always tells me not to worry.”
That gentle declaration caught Sorayael's full attention. She stood and turned to Lady Marella with calm poise. “If I may,” she said, voice refined yet soft, the product of years of learning proper etiquette. “Might I ask what symptoms you've experienced, my lady?”
Marella exchanged a glance with Reinhold, then to the Duke who remained quietly posted by the doorway. After a moment, she sighed. “I trust Reinhold. And I trust his judgment. If he says you're safe, then I have no reason to doubt.”
She sat straighter. “It started years ago-extreme fatigue, shortness of breath, sometimes convulsions when I exert myself. Fevers that rise without cause. My memory lapses as well, only for a few seconds at a time. But no one has found the root.”
Sorayael's gaze sharpened. Her mind suddenly bloomed with foreign knowledge-words and fragments she had never read but instinctively understood. Her fingers twitched slightly, and something deep within her stirred. Velthira.
She stepped closer. “Those symptoms... the disorientation, the fevers, the bone fatigue... it's not an ordinary illness.”
Lady Marella tensed. “No one has been able to name it.”
Lady Marella gave a gentle, almost pitying smile. “With all due respect, young lady.. there is no known cure.”
She stepped closer, then turned to look at Marella with her usual elegance, yet her tone was absolute. "May I?"
There was a long silence. Then-finally-Marella whispered, "It wouldn't harm to hope. At least... one last time."
Caldrin sat straighter, his hands gripping the armrest.
Sorayael took a slow breath. The magic gathered to her core, coiling like a sleeping serpent finally rising. Her eyes softened, the glow in them shifting faintly.
Then she whispered a word-ancient, foreign, and full of weight:
A hum answered her. A soft, resonating tone that made the very air shimmer. Light coalesced from her palms in thin lines, tracing over Lady Marella's chest, shoulders, and forehead like intricate starlight tattoos.
The illness responded violently at first-a pulse of shadow twitched beneath the surface of Marella's skin-but Sorayael held steady. Her feet rooted. Her voice repeated the spell, gentler, stronger.
Lady Marella arched back slightly, a gasp escaping her lips. Then-like ink dissolving in water-the darkness scattered. Her skin flushed with warmth. Her breath returned. And for the first time in years, her body felt still.
She exhaled.
When it was done, Sorayael lowered her hand, her breath a bit shallow, but her expression was composed.
Lady Marella blinked in disbelief. “The fever... it's gone. The ache in my spine-”
Reinhold stepped forward, stunned. "You did it..."
Even Duke Azellion, silent as ever, watched her with a new kind of intensity-no longer passive observation, but something closer to unease, or wonder.
Caldrin leapt up with a grin, grabbing Sorayael's wrist. "You really are a secret knight!"
She smiled faintly. "Something like that."
And then, silence settled again, until Lady Marella spoke in a whisper-almost reverent.
Caldrin beamed. "You're better, Auntie!"
He threw his arms around her waist, squeezing her tightly. Marella blinked fast to hold back tears, and for a moment, she simply embraced the boy, burying her face in his hair.
Then she turned her eyes to Sorayael.
Sorayael dipped her head respectfully. "There is no debt, my lady. I merely did what was necessary."
Caldrin ran to Sorayael's side, tugging gently at her sleeve. "If you're really fighting evil... I'll keep your secret, okay?"
Sorayael crouched slightly to his level, brushing a silver lock behind her ear with an elegant grace. "Then I'm trusting you with something very important, Caldrin. Secrets like these are heavy, but I think you're strong enough to carry them."
He grinned, puffing out his chest. "I'll be the best secret-keeper ever!"
Sorayael genuinely smiled at him, 'It would be better if he can be friends with my baby Krios..'
Behind them, the Duke's voice cut clean through the warm moment.
Lady Marella hesitated, then gave Sorayael a nod before gently ushering Caldrin to a quieter room down the hall.
The door clicked softly shut.
The room they remained in was quiet. The distant howl of the wind outside the manor's stone walls was the only sound as Sorayael rose to her full height-poised, collected, with a hint of iron in her eyes now.
She turned toward Reinhold, arms loosely folded. "So.. you knew about the attack."
Reinhold exhaled, jaw tightening.
Vladir moved to the hearth, resting one gloved hand atop the mantel, his back to them both.
Reinhold didn't flinch. He met her eyes with the same steady calm he always carried-but this time, there was something under it. A flicker of guilt. And something heavier.
Sorayael blinked, her expression faltering for a moment. "What?"
He stepped forward, slowly, as if peeling off a layer of the weight he'd been carrying.
Vladir, who had been silent, finally turned toward him with a sidelong glance. "You never told me you distrusted him that deeply."
Sorayael let out a quiet breath.
There was silence after that. Not empty-but heavy, like the calm that comes before something breaks.
Sorayael studied him. The man who had once stood at her mother's side. Who had now crossed a dozen unspoken lines to stand at hers again.
She nodded once. "I believe you."
Relief passed through Reinhold's shoulders, subtle but real.
Reinhold bowed his head. "Always."
Vladir straightened, hands behind his back now. "I answer to no crown. Not the Emperor's. Not the court's. I swore my loyalty only to the Western Reach, and to those I choose to protect."
'So, Rein didn't reveal his origins? I see..'
Sorayael let the words settle.
Her voice was cold steel laced with restraint. "So, I was a job."
'Losing everything my ass, I nearly lost my patience that can cause you to lose me, idiot.'
Vladir, watching it all, finally gave a small sound-half amusement, half warning. "You're still a child, technically."
The Duke's eyes narrowed thoughtfully, studying her more closely than before.
She inclined her head slightly. “Then don't try.”
The fire crackled behind them again, quiet and constant.
Finally, Vladir stepped away from the hearth and spoke with quiet resolve. "Then I'll offer this. You have my protection, for as long as I believe your purpose is worth protecting."
Sorayael met his gaze without blinking. "Then watch me. And judge for yourself."
And just like that, the game shifted again.
·__________________________________________·