Chapter 823: Enough Ti (Ch.824)
Verothrax looked as pale as one dead. Laid on the altar like a sacrifice that was yet to be concluded.
His skin was cold to touch and his muscles stiff.
He hadn’t shown any signs of waking up in hours now and Estelle could not help the unsettling thought that he never would.
From the expression on her face, and how she repeatedly glanced over at him, Dante could read her dismaying thoughts.
Ida sat by Verothrax on the other side. She had said nothing since she ca, just sat quietly by his side, stroking his hair.
Dante found it hard to reconcile the depth of this sudden concern and the fact that while he and Estelle could hardly dream of sleeping, she had.
The ever present mask on her face was jarring. Estelle had asked about it once and her response had been, her face was terribly scarred from an event she couldn’t rember and so she never took it off.
The tone of her voice... Dante still couldn’t shake off the chills it stirred in him. Was he just overthinking it because of the circumstances?
Xenon had warned him, to keep an eye on the woman of questionable identity. Sothing wasn’t right about her. He felt it too.
But Verothrax was enamored by her and if Xenon couldn’t dissuade him, Dante didn’t stand much of a chance.
"Do you think...he might never wake up?" Estelle asked in a tone audible to them alone.
Dante t her gaze. It was the first ti she would look directly at him or speak to him since Lady lissa said those words.
He could tell she was bothered by it. But she withheld her thoughts. She had been doing a lot of that lately since their fight in Scabbard.
Dante wished she wouldn’t. There was nothing he looked forward to more than hearing her speak to him. Her voice soothed him, eased the hollowness that just wouldn’t fade.
"He will." Dante replied with certainty.
Estelle’s gaze fell away from his, and that hollowness felt suddenly larger. More distinct.
Lady lissa was not entirely wrong, he realized. The severing...it was not the kind of pain that could be fully overco.
Surviving the split was one thing... living with the numbing feeling that followed, it was another thing entirely.
Two hours later, the warmth began returning to Verothrax’s tone, and he stirred awake.
His gaze quickly scanned his surroundings, lingering on Ida and then Dante before he sat up. His expression was as flat as always and he didn’t speak, just ran a hand through his hair and grunted lowly in displeasure.
When he stepped down from the altar and strode past them, not bothering to grab his robes or boots, Dante let him.
They looked the sa age because Verothrax had gone into slumber in his youth. But Verothrax had seen the uprising, fought in it... and Dante hadn’t.
They were of different generations, and dragon lords who had lived through the uprising commanded an unspoken respect. As pioneers of the new world.
"Where is he going?" Estelle asked. She looked uncertain as Ida hurried after Verothrax.
"To the void." Dante replied. "To know if it worked."
Estelle hesitated for a mont. "And if it didn’t?"
"Perhaps he might still be able to banish it." Dante murmured, "Perhaps not, and it grows beyond his control, breaking the world a second ti."
Dante stood up first and offered Estelle a hand. Together, they made their way out of the hall. Just in ti to see a small crowd of nymphs gathered.
They all stared at the sky, where Verothrax’s ashen scales glead in the moonlight.
He flew straight for the void and the shadowy abyss swallowed him up. Verothrax wasn’t seen in the skies and Dante knew the unease Estelle had long been feeling for a mont.
But then, he erged soti later. And the sky had returned to its normal state. The tear in the sky was gone in such silence and stillness, it did not seem like the danger had ever existed.
Estelle exhaled audibly. "He did it. He actually did it."
Verothrax shifted mid air, landing so distance from the crowd of awed nymphs who stared at the barefooted dragon lord like they had never seen one before.
Maybe they hadn’t. There was no other dragon lord quite like Verothrax. The closest would be the Dragon King himself.
Verothrax didn’t seem to notice the stares as he walked over to Dante. "We’re leaving for the Dunes in an hour."
He said it so simply, like he hadn’t been the sa reason for over a week of delay here in Forest Tajmaé.
Dante pursed his lips, but nodded once.
Verothrax brushed past, heading back into Lady lissa’s hall.
"I’ll say my goodbyes and be with you shortly." Estelle said.
---
Forest Tajmaé was sowhat familiar to Estelle now, and it didn’t take her too long to find Lady lissa. She sat on a rock by a shallow pool and the mont Estelle stepped into the clearing, she turned, like she expected her to co.
"The Lady Starron." She said, a mirthless smile on her lips.
Estelle hesitated for a mont. "We will be leaving soon."
Lady lissa nodded. "I can see he made it through."
"He did. And it’s thanks to your efforts. I ca to say that."
A beat of silence passed between them.
"I also want you to know, I’m sorry. I know what it feels like to be deceived and while you were not in the right either, I see now that you genuinely care for Dante."
Lady lissa shrugged casually. "It’s not everyday my guards abduct a dragon lord."
Estelle smiled despite herself. "It doesn’t matter..."
Lady lissa raised a brow in question.
"If Dante never cos to love
as I do him, I an."
"I’m happy enough, for each day he gets to live when fate has tried to snatch him."
"A lifeti...is enough ti." She grinned. "A lot can happen in that ti. And if it never does, I will have no regrets."
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