Chapter 344: Battle of Wits
"Lady! I do not think I can do this. I will prove myself in another way. Please give
another chance."
Roarke knew that he had fucked up.
The mont he had felt bad for Ivy Cassia was the mont he had lost everything. All that big talk about climbing sand hills. About walking the desert forever. About doing whatever it took to return to Arkai’s side and beco his son’s father—Ha.
Apparently, after all these years, after everything he had done and everything he had failed to do, he was still soft.
And in his softness, he had betrayed both of them.
He had betrayed Ivy Cassia’s trust, treating him as one of her people rather than a tool to be used and discarded. And he had betrayed Lady Sees by exposing her. By calling her out. By demanding that she reveal herself, when her entire purpose for being here was to remain unseen.
Now neither of them would ever trust him again.
"Please." He said. "Wherever you are watching from, co out. I will... I will take responsibility."
But even as he said it, he knew it was a risk worth taking.
Because Ivy Cassia was kind, she might understand. She might listen. Because Lady Sees was Arkai Dawnoro’s beloved Luna. And Arkai Dawnoro would not choose arbitrarily.
Ivy’s eyes widened.
And seeing that shock, Roarke understood. She had never expected anything like this to happen. Not from him, perhaps. She had trusted him, and the possibility of betrayal had not even occurred to her.
And he had ruined it.
But it was nothing compared to seeing the Dragon’s Physician manifested right beside him.
Roarke flinched hard. His full-body stumbled, almost falling, staggering backward, his boots skidding on the frost-crusted riverbank.
He was a wolf.
He, like Arkai Dawnoro, could transform into a near-perfect humanoid form. His senses were sharper than any human’s, sharper than most beasts’.
He could hear heartbeats from across a room. He could track a scent through rain and snow and the accumulated filth of a city’s streets. He could sense the presence of living things the way ordinary people sensed temperature, instinctively, constantly, without conscious thought.
And exactly because he could sense so much, his reaction was bigger than Ivy Cassia’s, who had her entire body rigid in shock.
"Hehehehehe."
Lady Sees stood there, materialized, as though she had been standing in that exact spot the entire ti and had simply... blipped into existence.
"What an interesting conversation you had there~"
"You—" Ivy Cassia’s eyes finally faltered. The shell shock that had gripped her features cracked, and sothing else slid into place beneath it. Attempted composure. "Luna Sees."
"Princess." Sees inclined her head, the black veil rippling with the motion.
"Ha—" Ivy Cassia breathed. Not quite a laugh and not quite a sigh. Her smile, when it ca, was sharper. The edges of it glinted like cut glass. "What is the Dragon Physician doing in the middle of nowhere?"
Her question was too casual, sounding exactly like a greeting.
"I am following my newly acquired asset." Sees said gently, apologetic, even, as if she was explaining a minor inconvenience that could not be helped. "Who knows he would suddenly receive a call from his ’dark’ past."
"But I suppose this is not that dark of a past. With all due respect, Your Highness."
"It is due indeed." Ivy said, her voice cooled by several degrees. The sharp smile remained, but her eyes had gone flinty. She imdiately built a wall, "My Lady, you understand that I do not owe you any explanation. Correct?"
"Nor do I." Sees nodded, completely unbothered. The wall might as well have been a chalk line drawn by a child, for all the concern it caused her. "Thank you for killing the Emperor for our sake, Your Highness. It is an honor for the world to have soone like you."
Ivy blinked.
Gratitude?
"Why, thank you!" The words ca out bright, reflexive, a confused automatic response which also sounded like an improvised counter attack. What was happening?!
"But unfortunately." Sees said warmly, her voice thick with regret, "The steps you are planning to take next will jeopardize what has already been set in place."
Her beautiful, red lipped smile was as beautiful as fla, and Ivy felt it burned her eyes.
"The next steps?" Ivy’s brow furrowed, then cleared. "Ah. All this business between myself and Master Roarke?"
Roarke, who had been standing at full panicked attention throughout this entire exchange imdiately bowed his head.
"Princess." He said, voice scraped raw by the weight of everything he was throwing away. "Please forgive ."
"Oh?" Ivy turned to him. Her eyes swept over his bowed head, then she turned back to Sees. "I did not think he had completely taken your side, my Lady."
"I see." Sees said thoughtfully instead. "So your history together made you certain you had him on your side?"
Roarke’s heart felt like it was going to explode.
Not taphorically. Literally.
He could feel it pounding against his ribs like a caged animal throwing itself at the bars, could feel the rush of blood in his ears.
These two dangerous won and their battle of wits, their elegant, razor-edged conversation that sounded like small talk and cut like surgery, was killing him.
His intestine had lted. Then frozen. Then lted again. He was fairly certain his liver had simply given up and left his body entirely, seeking better employnt elsewhere.
But if anything happened—
If this turned into a skirmish. If the words stopped and the blades ca out. If Lady Sees decided that Ivy Cassia was a threat that needed to be managed—
He would take Arkai Dawnoro’s Luna’s side.
Not because he wanted to. Not because Ivy deserved it. But because Lady Sees held the key to everything he wanted, and Roarke had already proven, today, that he was willing to betray people he cared about to keep that key in his grasp.
But if Lady Sees wanted Ivy taken care of, Roarke would attempt to do it himself. He would insist. Because if he was the one holding the blade, he could control how it fell. He could make sure Ivy survived.
It was the only thing he could offer her, after everything he had already taken.
"Princess." He raised his head, just enough to et Ivy’s eyes. "Please keep an open mind. The Lady is not a bad person."
"How did you know?" The question ca from Sees. She had turned to him, facing him directly for the first ti since she had materialized beside them, and Roarke flinched.
"Even if she is not a bad person," Ivy added, shaking her head slowly, her blonde hair catching the grey winter light, "she might not be a good person, right?"
Her gaze shifted back to Sees, and her expression hardened.
"My Lady, you have been such an enigma from the first ti we t."
Silence.
The river murmured its cold, indifferent song. A crow, braver than the rest, landed on a skeletal branch overhead and regarded the three figures below with a single glossy eye, as though waiting to see if any of them would beco carrion.
Cecilia, once again, cursed Damon.
What a stupid man. Such a waste of a force not to bring to their side from the start.
"Your Highness." She began. "Other than killing Ruby Vaiva, I am in agreent with your plan. While I act accordingly."
She smiled.
"But know that ’accordingly’ ans I do what I want."
And from behind her, spreading wide and white against the grey winter sky, a pair of pure dragon wings unfurled.
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