Despite Daphne having braced herself for the look of Nereus’s bare face once more, she still sucked in a cold gasp of air when Sirona peeled the leather covering off. He had been covering it up for so long with an eyepatch that she had nearly forgotten just how bad it was.
It was by no ans a gory sight, however, the socket was missing an eye. After the surgical procedure, Sirona and Prince Nathaniel stitched it up, allowing the skin to grow over the empty hole. Now, what was left behind was an eerie blank slate.
The look of it sent shivers down Daphne’s spine, as well as a painful throb in her heart.
Even Sirona, one of the main perpetrators of this sche, and the direct cause of Nereus’s loss of eye, visibly grimaced. She was a skilled doctor who knew better how wounds would look, so this was more than just the sight of it.
"I am sorry," Sirona muttered under her breath, inaudible to everyone else in the room other than Nereus.
He said nothing, but with the way he stared at her with his remaining eye, Sirona knew that even if he didn’t forgive her for her transgressions, he at least understood why she did it. For Nereus — a kelpie who had suffered at the hands of humans who had abused their magic for centuries — it was an understandable cause.
If they had approached him peacefully, he might’ve even agreed to help. However, what’s done was done, and there was no way to turn back ti and return his original eye. Having the chance to gain a new one was good enough for now.
"This might hurt," Sirona said in a voice that was louder this ti. Carefully using a pair of tweezers, she picked up the pearl with a gloved hand.
Everyone watched with bated breaths as she hovered over Nereus’s empty socket. Once the pearl got close enough, it felt as though there was a magnetic pull that drew the pearl toward his skin, lting into his flesh before disappearing with a flash of light.
Sirona, being the closest to Nereus, instantly shielded her eyes from the brilliance. She took a step back, daring to peep through her fingers just in ti to see sothing that made her throat clog up in surprise.
The pearl lted entirely into the skin, and slowly, the streaky shine of blue began to bleed like roots of a tree spreading through the dirt. Nereus’s pained groan erupted quickly, his hands digging into the mattress while Sirona lurched forward to hold him down.
"I need so help!" she cried out, and instantly, Jonah rushed forward. Atticus lifted his hand, about to use magic, but was quickly stopped by Sirona’s frantic cry. "No magic! It might interfere with the procedure."
Atticus clicked his tongue, but still walked forward quickly to clamp down on Nereus’s flailing legs. Daphne, on the other hand, was utterly horrified.
"Are you sure this is normal?" she asked, looking back and forth between Nereus’s borderline-screaming self and Prince Nathaniel’s projection.
"You’re essentially carving through his flesh and reconnecting nerve endings that have been lost and severed," Prince Nathaniel explained. "There is no way to numb the pain for it, so yes, it will hurt."
Frankly, Daphne had no clue what Prince Nathaniel was blabbering about, only that Nereus was in a world of hurt. She wasn’t skilled in the human body, much less that of a kelpie, and only understood the bare minimum. Yet, she had no choice but to have blind faith in these healers. Hopefully, their dical expertise wouldn’t cause Nereus to suffer a second ti in vain.
"Daphne..." Zephyr called out, quickly gaining Daphne’s attention. She turned to look at him, just in ti to see terror written across the griffin’s eyes. He bit his bottom lip, every breath shaky as he gestured to Nereus’s body. "Will Nereus be alright?"
Daphne could not answer for she didn’t know the answer to that question as well. She could only purse her lips and stare ahead, watching helplessly from the sidelines.
As Nereus’s screams tore through the palace grounds, beads of perspiration were already spreading across the foreheads of Jonah, Atticus, and Sirona. Their arms were getting sore, and for everyone, including Atticus, it felt harder and harder to constrain Nereus with their asly human strength.
Without the aid of magic, Atticus could only turn to his flesh and bone to hold Nereus down. However, that was nothing when compared to the brute force of a kelpie with one eye, much less one who was gaining a second eye at a rapid speed.
Ultimately, even the three of them were not enough to hold down Nereus. With a mighty roar, Nereus broke free of their hold, sending Sirona flying back into Daphne’s open arms, and Atticus and Jonah knocking into the furniture and walls behind them.
As soon as they left his side, a blast of water was shot right from Nereus’s body and towards the ceiling, demolishing the structure in an instant as debris showered down upon them.
Through the dust and gri, Daphne could spot two brilliant colors― the telltale oceanic blue whenever Nereus called upon his water magic, and a soft pinkish-beige that oddly resembled the most common color of pearls. She didn’t get to look for long, for Zephyr quickly ca over and wrapped her in his wings, using his body to shield her when a chunk of the ceiling crashed down on them.
Silence followed as the aftermath.
Small pebbles continued to fall, tumbling down along the broken walls and the caved roof of this portion of the palace until eventually, Daphne heard nothing at all.
"Zephyr?" she called out, turning back to see Zephyr’s scrunched-up expression. She wasn’t sure if she could use her magic, and in the dark, there was nothing much she could see other than his grimace.
"I’m... f-fine," Zephyr wheezed out, breathing heavily.
That wasn’t reassuring, but without light, Daphne couldn’t be sure whether or not Zephyr was speaking the truth or lying to prevent her from worrying. At the very least, she didn’t sll blood, so it shouldn’t be a bad injury even if he had one. Griffin wings were tougher than they seed, and with him having both his wings back, he shouldn’t be injured too badly.
At least, that was what she hoped.
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