Chapter 64
The Magic Tower was strangely peaceful at dusk.
Sunlight poured through the tall arched windows, illuminating polished white stone that looked expensive enough to make me nervous.
Mages in deep blue robes walked quietly between archives, carrying scrolls, floating crystals, and enough leather-bound tomes to collapse a bookshelf.
I was resting in my healing room, savoring the soup Martha had brought me, when I heard a knock at the door. I looked up to see Rhaevan.
For a second, I simply sat there, taking him in.
"...You look terrible," I said bluntly.
His eyebrows lifted slightly. "I've been told I usually look slightly better than terrible."
"Were you kidnapped too?"
A faint, tired chuckle escaped him. "No."
"Ambushed?"
"...Several times."
"I knew it," I said. "That explains the hair."
Instinctively, his hand went up, running dark fingers through the unruly strands before he gave up halfway. "I hadn't noticed."
"I did."
Silence settled between us. Not an awkward silence-just... quiet.
He looked exhausted. Not ordinary tired, but the kind that settled deep into a person's bones after far too many sleepless nights. Dark shadows rested beneath his eyes, and despite standing perfectly straight as always, there was a heavy, sagging weight to his shoulders that I hadn't noticed before.
"...How are you feeling? I came here when I got to know you woke up," he asked softly.
"Like I lost a fistfight with gravity."
"I'm relieved to hear your sense of humor survived."
"It was hanging by a thread."
The corner of his mouth twitched into the ghost of a smile.
I hesitated, looking down at my shoes, before forcing the words past my throat. "...Thank you."
The faint smile vanished. He blinked, looking at me as though he hadn't processed the sound. "For what?"
"For finding us," I said, glancing toward the arched window. "And... for saving Lucien. For saving me."
For a long moment, he said nothing. Then, he shook his head. "No thanks are necessary."
"They are."
"I only did what anyone should have done," he replied quietly.
I found myself smiling faintly, though something unreadable flickered across his dark eyes-a flash of pain so quick I almost missed it.
"You should rest," he said, his voice dropping low. Before I could offer a reply, he inclined his head politely and turned, walking away down the quiet corridor.
I sat on my bed watching his back until he disappeared.
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Sleep, as it turned out, had filed an official grievance against me.
After spending nearly an hour staring uselessly at the ceiling of my bedchamber, I finally admitted defeat and pulled on a light cloak.
The corridors were nearly empty now. Most of the Tower had settled into the quiet rhythm of the late hours. I wandered toward one of the open stone balconies overlooking the inner courtyard.
Someone was already standing there.
Archmage Theodore Alric Veylan rested both hands lightly on the carved stone rail, watching the activity below.
Without turning around, his calm voice drifted back to me. "I was wondering how long it would take before you escaped your room."
"I wasn't escaping," I said, stepping up beside him. "I was... strategically relocating."
"Of course."
"You didn't visit me in the infirmary," I added.
"I did."
I frowned. "No, you didn't."
"You were unconscious," Theo noted mildly. "I spoke to you. I received no reply. You possessed the conversational ability of a loaf of bread."
"...Harsh. Accurate, but harsh."
I leaned against the stone railing, resting my chin on my forearms.
Below us, the Tower courtyard remained unexpectedly busy despite the midnight hour. Healers crossed between buildings carrying glowing satchels of potions. Courier mages hurried past with sealed scrolls, while several heavily armed battle mages stood gathered near the grand archway.
At the center of it all... was Rhaevan.
He stood with his back partly toward us, issuing calm, methodical instructions while three mages hurriedly scribbled notes on parchment.
Someone handed him a fresh report; he scanned it instantly, made a sharp directive, and handed it back.
Another mage approached. Another brief discussion. Another order.
He moved like a man running out of sand in an hourglass.
Almost as if sensing the weight of eyes upon him, Rhaevan paused and looked directly up toward the high balcony.
Our eyes met across the vast, moonlit courtyard.
For one brief, suspended second... neither of us moved.
Then, Rhaevan gave the smallest, quietest inclination of his head-respectful, distant-before turning straight back to his work. I kept my eyes on him until he moved under the shadows of the lower pillars.
"He hasn't slept," Theo said softly beside me. "Not since you and Prince Lucien went missing."
I kept my gaze fixed on the empty archway below.
"He managed the entire search effort. He reviewed every single scout report himself," Theo continued. "When the royal soldiers returned empty-handed... he went out looking for you alone."
A strange, suffocating feeling settled somewhere in my chest. Not quite guilt, not quite relief, but something uncomfortably close to both.
Theo glanced at me sideways. "I know that expression."
"What expression?"
"The one that says your thoughts are picking a fight with each other."
"...They're very opinionated," I muttered.
"I can tell."
A quiet stretch of night passed over us. The breeze carried the crisp scent of pine from the surrounding mountains.
Finally, Theo spoke, his voice entirely devoid of judgment. "You still believe Rhaevan was the one who sold your location to the royal court."
My fingers tightened around the cool stone railing. "...Wasn't he? He found me at Miss Ann's inn, and a few days later, royal guards showed up. He even told Princess Lysenne he would 'handle' me. What else was I supposed to think?"
Theo didn't answer immediately. Instead, he looked out across the quiet courtyard.
"The royal court had been searching for traces of ancient, forbidden magic for decades," Theo said slowly.
"I know that."
He shook his head gently. "You know fragments of it, Cassiane. The first time our scrying crystals caught the signature of your magic... we didn't know it belonged to you. We only knew that somewhere within the kingdom's borders, an ancient bloodline had flared. We searched. We found nothing.
The trace vanished, only to flare up again."
I turned my head to stare at him. "So... they were hunting for me before Rhaevan ever found me?"
"Yes."
A cold, heavy knot formed in my stomach.
"When Rhaevan finally realized who that magical signature belonged to," Theo said, "he didn't report it to the King. He came straight to my private chambers."
I let out a short, bitter laugh. "So he did tell someone."
"He came to me because he knew precisely what would happen if the information reached the High Council," Theo corrected, his tone sharpening slightly.
"You carry a bloodline that the current laws of Eryndor deem a threat to the crown. Rhaevan asked for my help-not to capture you, but to protect you."
I felt my breath catch in my throat.
"He insisted that every report concerning your magical signature be rerouted through my office," Theo continued.
"He altered patrol routes. He volunteered for dangerous border investigations simply so he could lead the King's trackers in the wrong direction. He delayed official documents until they expired. He ensured your name never appeared on a single page of royal record."
I stared at the Archmage, completely speechless.
"He even argued with me," Theo added, a faint, fond smile touching his lips. "Quite loudly, in fact. He demanded I erase the ancient registry files entirely. I refused."
"...Because that was illegal?" I whispered.
"Because it was impossible. Even for an Archmage."
My eyes drifted back toward the dark courtyard. "He never... he never said a word to me. Why?"
"Because he knew you wouldn't believe him," Theo answered simply. "And he knew something far more critical: if he asked you to trust him, you would have asked why. And he could not explain the threat without revealing the very lineage you had spent your life trying to forget."
Silence fell over the balcony once more, thick and suffocating.
"Then how?" I asked, my voice cracking slightly. "If he hid everything so carefully... how did the palace guards show up at the inn?"
Theo exhaled a long, heavy breath, leaning his elbows onto the railing. "That... is the part he has never forgiven himself for."
I looked at him, confusion mingling with rising dread.
"The royal intelligence office didn't find you," Theo explained quietly.
"They began watching him. They noticed his pattern-the repeated unassigned trips to the same remote province, the same small village. They didn't know what Rhaevan was hiding. They only knew that the King's most trusted operative was keeping a secret."
My heart sank straight into my boots.
"They never heard your name from his lips," Theo said softly. "They simply followed his shadow."
I closed my eyes as the memory hit me-the look in Rhaevan's eyes when the soldiers had surrounded Miss Ann's inn. The heavy, crushing guilt on his face when I had looked at him like he was a monster.
I had mistaken it for the guilt of a traitor.
It hadn't been. It had been the agonizing weight of a protector who realized his own shadow had brought the wolves straight to my door.
"I blamed him," I whispered, the words barely audible over the night wind. "I hated him for it."
"You had every reason to draw that conclusion," Theo said, placing a warm, reassuring hand on my shoulder. "No one gave you the truth."
I let out a hollow, breathy laugh, rubbing both hands over my face. "...He's an idiot."
Theo's lips curved into a sad, quiet smile. "I won't argue with that."
"He could have explained it! Why does he do this?!"
Theo looked down into the shadowy courtyard, where Rhaevan was still standing beneath the archway, speaking quietly with another group of mages.
"Because somewhere along the way," Theo said gently, "that boy convinced himself that keeping people safe was far more important than letting them understand him."
The Archmage paused, his voice heavy with a deep, quiet regret.
"It has made him an exceptional guardian, Cassiane. And an exceptionally lonely young man."
I stood at the railing long after Theo turned and walked back inside, watching Rhaevan's solitary figure disappear beneath the stone arches.
For the first time since I'd met him... I wondered how many silent wars he had been fighting alone while I stood in the dark, calling him my enemy.