"Explain." One word.
Simple. Lethal.
Madeleina swallowed hard, willing her hands not to shake. "It... it was during the final retreat, Your Grace," she began, keeping her voice steady, though the edges frayed beneath the strain. "The vortexes had already claid much of the fleet. The last survivors were being brought to safety. Lady Aeliana was... she was observing from the secured platform, as per your orders."
She hesitated, but she knew better than to falter.
Thaddeus' eyes burned into her, his expression unreadable-but his presence spoke for him. Cold. Suffocating.
She continued. "The vortexes had begun to dissipate, but then-" she exhaled sharply, as if forcing the words from her throat "--another ford. Right beneath her."
Her hands clenched into fists at her sides.
"We tried. We all tried. The mages, the knights-we attempted everything. The teleportation sigils failed. The binding spells broke. The ship that was closest was pulled into the tide before it could reach her. And before we could react..."
She closed her eyes.
"...She was gone."
The words cut deeper than a blade.
The air cracked again. The weight of the Duke's mana surged, pushing outward.
A nearby bookshelf trembled, the neatly stacked docunts fluttering as if caught in an unseen storm.
No one spoke. No one moved.
No one dared.
Madeleina had expected many things. A raised voice. A cold, lethal whisper. Even the clatter of an object thrown across the room.
But the silence was worse.
Because she could feel it.
The wrath.
It coiled around the Duke like a tidal wave held back by the thinnest barrier. A dam that, at any mont, could break.
Then a voice.
Not loud. Not trembling.
But low. Deadly.
"...And you?" The Duke's eyes narrowed, cold and rciless as steel. "Where were you?" Madeleina felt the words strike.
Madeleina kept her head bowed, her breathing controlled but asured, the weight of the Duke's words pressing into her like a blade poised at her throat.
"It happened too suddenly, Your Grace," she said, her voice steady but tinged with sothing raw beneath the surface. "There was no warning-no signs. One mont, she was safe. The next, the vortex had claid her."
The chamber was deathly silent, but the Duke's rage was palpable. The oppressive weight of his mana pressed against every soul in the room, thick and suffocating.
"I have never betrayed Lady Aeliana," Madeleina continued, her fingers curling into the fabric of her cloak. "Not once, not ever. I have served her faithfully, protected her with everything I had. And at that mont, I did all that I could."
Her voice did not waver. She did not plead for understanding, nor did she ask for forgiveness -because there was none to ask for.
Thaddeus' expression remained unreadable, but his body was rigid with fury, the sheer force of it warping the air around him. He did not believe her to be a traitor-but that did not make him forgive her.
He had lost Aeliana.
And soone had to bear that weight.
His fingers curled at his side, his breaths slow, controlled-forced into control.
Madeleina, still kneeling, shut her eyes.
She had served the Duke for years. She had stood beside him through wars, through conspiracies, through the shifting tides of power. She had seen the ruthlessness in him, the
cold precision with which he dismantled his enemies.
And now... she would bear the brunt of his fury.
The Duke exhaled.
And then, he raised his hand.
A hush fell over the chamber, thick with the crackling energy of his mana. The weight of it swelled, thickened, until the very air trembled beneath its force.
The knights instinctively stiffened, their grips tightening on their weapons, but none dared move. None dared interfere.
The pressure built.
The air warped.
The very walls seed to groan beneath the force of it.
Then-
His hand moved.
Fast.
Faster than thought.
The killing intent that erupted from him was suffocating, dark and final, filling the entire
room with the weight of an execution.
His palm cut through the air, streaking toward Madeleina's face.
And just before it struck-
He stopped.
His fingers hovered re inches from her skin.
The force of the strike, the sheer velocity of it, sent a sharp gust through the room, making
her hair whip back from her face.
The silence was deafening.
Madeleina did not flinch. Did not move.
The Duke's hand remained still, but his presence lood over her like an inescapable shadow.
Then-
"Madeleina."
His voice was quiet, but it carried through the room like a command from the gods
themselves.
She swallowed, her chest rising and falling with deliberate control.
"Raise your head."
Slowly, she did.
Her gaze, steady despite the lingering weight of his fury, rose to et his.
Thaddeus' expression was unreadable, his face cold as steel, but his eyes-
His eyes.
They burned with sothing deeper.
Sothing sharp. Unforgiving.
"Look into my eyes," he ordered.
And she did.
And she did.
For the first ti since she had spoken those damning words, she t his gaze without
hesitation.
And in that mont, the storm within the Duke's heart raged silently between them.
The chamber was thick with silence, the kind that seeped into the walls and settled in the lungs of those who dared breathe. The flickering lamplight cast shifting shadows over the room, but none of them wavered as much as the weight in the air.
Madeleina did not blink.
She did not lower her gaze.
Even as the Duke's piercing eyes bore into hers, even as the suffocating force of his mana
pressed against her skin like an unseen tide threatening to pull her under-she endured.
Thaddeus studied her, searching, asuring.
He was not just looking at her.
He was reading her.
For a sign of weakness. For deception. For the smallest crack in the composure she dared
maintain beneath the weight of his fury.
But Madeleina gave him nothing.
She t his gaze with the sa unwavering steel she had carried throughout the years she had
served him.
She did not beg.
She did not plead.
She rely stood.
The silence stretched, taut and unbroken.
No one in the chamber dared to breathe too deeply. The knights remained frozen, their bodies
locked in rigid discipline, but the tension in the air was suffocating. The very walls seed to
tremble under the force of the Duke's restrained wrath.
And still-Madeleina did not waver.
Seconds passed.
Then more.
The weight of his gaze was unbearable to most. But she held it.
It was not defiance.
It was duty.
And finally-
Thaddeus exhaled.
A slow, asured breath.
Not in surrender.
But in control.
The storm inside him did not subside, but he allowed the mont to end.
His eyes, still like burning embers, narrowed slightly.
And then, his voice cut through the silence.
"Don't appear in front of my eyes."
The words were final.
A dismissal. A command. A sentence.
Then-force.
A raw, unseen pulse of his mana surged forward, and before she could react, Madeleina was
pushed backward.
The invisible pressure slamd into her, sending her stumbling-not violently, not with the
intent to injure, but with a force that was ant to push her away.
To remove her.
She caught herself before she could fall, her heels skidding slightly against the polished
marble floor.
And then, without another word, without another glance, Thaddeus turned away.
Madeleina did not move for a mont.
Then, she straightened herself.
She bowed. Low. And without a sound, without protest-
She left.
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