ATPnovel Chapter 421: The Message
Chapter 421: The Message
Wilhelm;The corridor outside the observatory is quiet.
Aside from our footsteps, the fluttering of the curtains, and the hooting of distant howls...Everything else is rather calm.
I steal a glance at Elian, who’s walking beside me. A gentle smile touches my lips when I see his hand subconsciously caressing his stomach. He may not know it, but I think he has needed this child for much longer than he realises.
I’m glad he has her. I remember how lonely I felt when I first arrived here. Having someone who...belongs to you makes things much easier. The goddess is indeed very kind to him.
He looks up at me, and I look away. Thankfully, he says nothing. For the first time in what feels like forever...The silence between us isn’t uncomfortable.
It isn’t charged or filled with tension. I can tell. From how relaxed his shoulders are, and how easy his steps are.
My eyes move to my feet. The lanterns lining the corridor cast long shadows beneath our feet. Shadows which stretch across polished stone before disappearing into darkness.
My mind slowly returns to the predicaments at hand, and I let out a quiet breath. How do I protect my family from the claws of danger closing in?
We are halfway down the corridor when I feel something suddenly snap inside my chest. Like old scars ripping viciously open.
My steps fumble as my breath catches violently in my throat. The pain is so sharp, it causes me to stumble onto the wall beside me.
"...King Wilhelm?" Elian’s worried voice calls, but I can not answer.
All I feel is pain. Pain so raw, it causes my knees to buckle.
My hands fly to my heart. My chest hurts. Like acid suddenly burst open in it and is eating at everything inside me.
My heart, my bones...my mind.
I exhale desperately as my vision blurs.
"...King Wilhelm!" Elian screams in panic. He reaches me just before I completely lose my balance.
His hand grips my arm, holding me up. From where did he get such strength??
"What happened?" He asks in worry, but I feel tears fall from my eyes as my mouth opens.
I try to answer, but I can’t. I...It feels like something left me. It...it feels wrong. My body feels lighter. Not in a good way. Light in the way one’s body will feel after losing a limb. Light...and wrong.
What’s... what’s happening?
"Ugh!" I groan as the pain only worsens. It feels like someone reached inside my chest and is squeezing my heart with both hands.
Am I having a heart attack? No...No, this is...something else.
My breathing turns shallow, and I look up at Elian in worry.
There’s so much fear in those crimson eyes as he struggles to hold me up.
He looks around, panicked as he screams for help.
"Guards!! Zerana!!" He yells, and I groan.
I hate to make him worry this much in the state he’s in, but I can’t even pretend to be fine. The pain is too much. It spreads through every part of me until it becomes impossible to tell where it began and where it ends.
"Zerana!! Queen Selthia!!" He screams again, and I shut my eyes.
I don’t...I don’t think this is something a physician can explain.
The pain isn’t in my body. It’s...Deeper.
A gasp escapes me as a terrible dread begins swallowing every rational thought I have. I know this feeling. I know it all too well; I’ve felt it before. It—It can’t—No...
A bond just snapped! And I recognise this bond far too well. I formed it when I marked her, but it grew stronger through years shared beside her. Through arguments, through forgiveness, through raising our son...Through surviving one another.
"No..." The word leaves me the same time my legs lose all their strength.
Elián grunts, unable to keep me up. He quickly kneels beside me.
"What is it?" He whispers as he grabs my shoulders.
I stare ahead and find that I’m unable to see the corridor. I can not see the palace, or anything else.
My grip against my chest tightens as I feel a tear roll down my eyes.
"...Liandria." Her name barely escapes my lips. However, the moment it does...My heart sinks.
Like my body—like my heart knows something my mind doesn’t.
I—I don’t understand. Our bond can’t break. For that to happen, for it to feel this...wrong, we both need to reject each other...or she has to be dead.
That’s not possible. She’s at Gravemaw. She’s with Cassia. She’s been helping the people of Gravemaw, and seems to have changed for the better. How then can she—
"Guards!!!" Elian screams again, and just then, I hear footsteps. Metallic. Rushed...almost even panicked.
I look up and find Selthia running over to us, with a handful of guards behind her.
The moment she sees me, she lifts a hand. Stopping the guards from coming closer. Stopping them from seeing me in this state.
She walks closer—her heels clicking softly against the stone floor. There are tears in her eyes. Why are there tears in her eyes?
"Queen Selthia? Wh—what’s going on?" Elian questions, but Selthia looks at me. She holds my gaze—Her eyes carrying a message I’m suddenly certain I do not want her lips to convey.
"...Wilhelm." She whispers, and I swallow.
My fingers curl into fists as I watch her.
"...What—What is it?" I croak, and her gaze drops to her lap.
"My scouts just sent word from Gravemaw." She speaks...So low, it sounds like a whisper.
I know about her scouts. I asked her to place them there alongside mine, so we’d know if the warlocks ever lurked around Gravemaw again. But what report could she have gotten to have her looking like this?
She looks up at me again, and I hold my breath.
"Out with it, Selthia!" I snap, and she shuts her eyes.
"They witnessed an attack." She speaks, and my pulse pounds inside my ears.
"Queen Cassia..." Elian’s worried voice interrupts, and Selthia shakes her head in negation.
"Cassia is alive." She whispers, and for one fragile heartbeat, I breathe again.
"There was an attempt on her life." She adds, and air leaves my lungs. Because I know something is coming. Something I hope with everything inside me is wrong.
" A prisoner named Bram. He intended to assassinate Queen Cassia." She informs me as she looks back at me, and beside me, I feel Elián go still, as his hands fall off me.
"Cassia is alive because Liandria intervened." She pauses. "She shielded Cassia from the attack." She adds, and everything tilts all at once.
My chest burns, and my ears start ringing as I listen. Selthia closes her eyes like what she’s about to say is heavier than her lips can carry. I almost stop her. But I need to hear this. I—I need to know if I’m wrong or not.
"When the attack struck..."She swallows. "...it inflicted catastrophic injuries."
I shake my head, refusing to accept where this is going.
"She managed to kill the warlock responsible for empowering Bram. However..." Her voice softens.
Her golden eyes open. Staring at me with so much grief and pity as she whispers the next words.
"...She couldn’t survive the injuries. Liandria is dead, Wilhelm."
Silence follows her words. Utter silence.
The words echo through my head, refusing to leave. Refusing to make sense. Refusing to be accepted. They simply...loop themselves. Over. And over again.
Liandria...Dead? No. Impossible.
Not too long ago, she wrote me a letter. Apologising for being a horrible wife. Explaining to me that her love never gave her the right to torture me. Telling me how she would give everything she has to make things right. Even if it meant giving her life to make up for the things she’s done.
We were supposed to speak when she returned to Howleroot. And now...?
My vision blurs afresh.
I lower my head, with one hand covering my eyes, and the other sinking into my hair.
I cannot bear the image suddenly forcing itself into my mind.
Liandria...Alone...Dying. Without me...Nor Rhydian.
I wasn’t there. I whisper her name as the weight—the reality of things settles upon me.
Her name leaves my lips gently. Like a wish...Like a prayer that she isn’t truly dead. She...she can’t be.
For a long moment, I hear nothing except my breathing. All I can feel is the crushing reality that the woman who spent decades begging for my love...Died before I could hold her...and make her understand that I have always loved her.
...This means she will never stand beside me again...A thousand memories arrive at once.
Liandria smiling deeply for the first time after Rhydian was born. Liandria storming into my study because I’d cancelled another dinner for a hunting expedition with other kings. Her, refusing to speak to me for three days because I’d sided with Cassia during one of their endless arguments...Liandria standing beside me beneath the Moon Goddess altar as we renewed our vows after I rejected our bond out of anger.
She wasn’t perfect. Was never easy. She was stubborn. Infuriating...Proud beyond reason. But she was mine. My proud, stubborn, infuriating wife. A little wolf who cried every way she knew, for my attention. Even when she cried the wrong way.
"...Wilhelm."
Selthia’s voice reaches me from somewhere far away, and I force myself to breathe. My fingers curl against the cold stone floor before I slowly push myself upright.
The movement feels unnatural. Heavy. The last time I felt this heavy was when I lost...Serenia.
Time...
How arrogant we’ve become around it. Always believing there will be more. When in truth...It can end for anyone anytime.
"There is..." Selthia begins carefully. "...something else."
I lift my eyes to hers as she stands as well.
"The scouts reported that...Liandria’s final moments were peaceful."
My throat tightens painfully as I battle to hold back tears.
"They said Queen Cassia never left her side." She informs me, and I nod as I wipe the tear son my face, but more tears just fall in their place.
Of course Cassia didn’t leave her side. Cassia wouldn’t.
Unlike me, Cassia never abandons anyone.
"...Did she suffer?" The question slips past my lips before I can stop it.
Selthia stays silent for a long while. Then...
"She remained conscious." She whispers, and I grit my teeth.
Light.
She knew. She knew she was dying.
Did she know that I loved her? The thought claws viciously at my heart.
Did she know? Or did she leave this world believing that all we had become were two rulers sharing a throne?
No... She must have known. She had to know. She—
I should stop this. There is no comfort in wandering through questions that would never be answered.
Silence settles over the corridor once more. Then... Something pulls at my attention.
Not a sound, but an absence.
I turn and find Elián standing exactly where he was earlier. He’s motionless, with his face unreadable.
His crimson eyes remain fixed on the floor between us. He hasn’t spoken since Selthia delivered the news.
Not once. I frown.
"Elián."
I get no response from him. For a moment, I wonder if he heard any of it. But then, Selthia’s earlier words return to me.
There was an attempt on Cassia’s life.
My eyes widen a bit as I study him more carefully.
He’s breathing. Slowly...Evenly. Almost even too evenly.
There’s something in his eyes. Something that scares me.
"Elián," I call again, and this time, he lifts his head. Our eyes meet.
There are tears in his eyes. Unshed, and balanced carefully along his lower lashes.
Those tears aren’t for Liandria. I know that boy well enough now to see the difference.
His gaze isn’t distant. It’s focused. As though his mind has settled upon a single thought and refuses to move beyond it.
He speaks at last, and his voice is almost frighteningly calm for how panicked he was just minutes ago.
"...Queen Cassia." Selthia nods in response.
"She’s alive." She informs, and Elian turns to her.
"The attack was meant for her?" He questions, and she nods again.
"So, if Alpha Liandria hadn’t intercepted it...The one dead would be...Queen Cassia." He states, and once again, Selthia nods.
He says nothing more. His expression doesn’t change; his breathing doesn’t change. He simply lowers his eyes again.
The silence stretches. Something about it unsettles me. I cannot explain why.
Perhaps because silence has many faces.
There is the silence of grief, the silence of disbelief, the silence of exhaustion... and so much more.
But this...This is none of them.
This is controlled silence. Deliberate silence. As though every emotion inside him has suddenly been locked behind a door.
"Elián," Selthia calls this time, and once again, he doesn’t answer.
Instead, he turns to me.
"We should head to Gravemaw. They need you." He says, and I blink at him.
He then turns to Selthia and gives her a gentle smile.
"Please open a portal for us. I must see my Mother. Now." He says softly, and Selthia looks at me.
She doesn’t wait for me to speak. She simply nods.
"I came prepared." She says as she raises one hand.
Ancient runes come to life beneath her fingertips. Silver light spills across the stone floor, swirling into an intricate circle that hums with magic.
A portal.
Its surface shimmers like moonlight on still water, and she turns back to us.
"It will take you directly to Gravemaw." She informs, yet I just stare at it.
Gravemaw.
Liandria is there. Cassia is there. I need to go...Immediately. But I’m not sure I’m ready.
I step forward. Then stop. However, Elián is already walking. Not quickly, or hurriedly. He’s simply...walking. Straight toward the portal.
"Elián." I try to caution him as an ill feeling coats my tongue and mind.
He doesn’t stop.
My voice grows firmer. "Elián."
I get nothing. Not even a glance over his shoulder.
He reaches the edge of the shimmering light. For one brief second...The silver glow reflects in his crimson eyes. They are empty. Not vacant. Not broken. Simply...Cold.
With no words, he steps through.
The portal ripples once, and he is gone.
I remain standing where I am, as something deep inside me twists. Not because I fear where he’s gone, but because I cannot shake the feeling...That somehow...The boy who walked into that portal... Will not be the same one who returns.
I draw one slow, shaking breath before following him into the light.
What is he up to?