Listening to everything that has been happening with Lyanna, Naomi finally decided to tell Azrael everything she knew. She too had found Lyanna’s sudden change concerning. She was also not convinced by her conversation with Lyanna about this situation.
She found Azrael in the training yard, practicing with a sword. But it looked less like practice and more like he was trying to exhaust himself.
"Your Majesty." Naomi said. "May I speak with you privately?"
Azrael lowered his sword.
"What is it?"
"Not here." Naomi said, glancing at the guards. "Your study?"
They walked to his study together.
"Your Majesty, I want to tell you sothing about the day we were attacked. I should have told you this earlier but I wasn’t sure... I didn’t want to believe..."
"What are you talking about?" Azrael asked.
"That night, when you were dying and the healers said there was no hope, I told Queen Lyanna about soone who might be able to help. I told her about Elder Mara, an ancient vampire who lives in the forest near where we were staying. She supposedly knows blood magic."
"Blood magic?"
"I told her because she was very desperate. She left imdiately and returned hours later. When she ca back she looked exhausted and different."
"And then I started recovering." Azrael said, beginning to understand the situation.
"Miraculously." Naomi replied. "The healers said it was impossible. But you started healing."
"You think Lyanna used blood magic to save ?"
"Yes." Naomi replied. "Blood magic requires sacrifice. To save a life, sothing of equal value must be given up. And Queen Lyanna changed right after your recovery. She lost her empathy, compassion, and emotional warmth. What if that isn’t because of trauma? What if that was the sacrifice?"
Azrael sank into a chair in shock.
"She sacrificed her humanity... to save ?"
"I’m not sure. I spoke to her the other day about Elder Mara, but she said she didn’t et her. Though, I don’t believe her."
"Where is this Elder Mara?" Azrael asked.
Naomi gave him the directions imdiately.
"Your Majesty, be careful. Mara doesn’t like visitors and if she did perform blood magic, she might not be willing to discuss it."
"She’ll have to discuss it, one way or another."
Azrael rode to the forest imdiately, following Naomi’s directions. He found Mara’s cottage exactly where Naomi had ntioned.
He didn’t bother knocking. He kicked the door open. Mara looked up from a book, unsurprised.
"The king. I wondered when you’d co." She said.
"Did my wife visit you?" Azrael asked. "When I was dying, did she co here?"
"She did."
"And you perford blood magic to save ?"
"I did."
"What did she sacrifice?" Azrael asked in shaking voice. "What did you take from her?"
"I didn’t take anything from her. She herself chose what to give. That’s how the magic works."
"What did she choose?"
"Her humanity." Mara replied. "The human part of her soul. She gave away her humanity to fuel the magic that healed you."
Azrael felt like he had been stabbed.
"She gave up her humanity for ?" He asked in disbelief.
"Yes." Mara replied.
"Why didn’t she tell ?"
"Because the magic forbids it. Blood magic requires that sacrifice be borne alone. If she tells anyone what she gave up, the magic fails and you die."
Azreal hands began to tremble.
"She has to carry this burden alone, knowing it’s destroying her relationships, knowing everyone thinks she has beco a monster, unable to defend herself or explain." Mara explained.
"She’s suffering. Our marriage is falling apart. People are calling for her trial and she can’t even tell anyone why she changed." Azrael whispered.
"She knew the consequences. She decided saving your life was worth losing her humanity, her relationships, and her reputation."
"How can I fix this?" Azrael asked desperately. "How do I give her back her humanity?"
"You can’t." Mara said. "Blood magic is permanent. This is who she is now."
"There must be sothing..."
"There isn’t." Mara cut him off. "The only thing you can do is to decide how to respond to her sacrifice. Will you honour it by loving the person she has beco or make her sacrifice aningless by abandoning her because she changed?"
"I’m not abandoning her." Azrael said imdiately.
"You’re sleeping in separate rooms." Mara said. "You’re pulling away from her and standing with the people horrified by her coldness. From her perspective, she sacrificed her humanity to save you, and you’re repaying her by treating her like a monster."
"Because I didn’t know!" Azrael shouted.
"And you still can’t tell her you know." Mara said. "If you reveal that you’ve learned her secret, the magic will interpret it as her revealing the secret and you will die."
"So what am I supposed to do?" Azrael asked. "Pretend I don’t know? Watch her suffer alone? Let people call for her trial without defending her?"
"You can support her without revealing you know the truth. You can love her despite the changes. You can honour her sacrifice by not making her regret it."
Azrael rode back to Thornfield in a daze. He still couldn’t believe Lyanna had sacrificed her humanity to save his life. She had been suffering alone for weeks, and he had only made things more difficult for her instead of standing beside her.
When he entered their chambers, he saw her sitting on her desk, reviewing docunts for the upcoming trial. She looked up when he entered.
"Azrael. I didn’t expect to see you."
"We need to talk."
"About what?"
Azrael wanted to scream the truth. He wanted to tell her he knew about her sacrifice but he couldn’t.
"About us, about how I’ve been handling your changes."
"You’ve been handling them poorly." Lyanna replied. "But that’s understandable. I’m different now. It makes sense that you would need so to get used to this version of mine."
"I don’t need ti." Azrael said. "I want you to know that no matter what changes...nothing will ever change how I feel about you."
Lyanna looked at him in surprise.
"I love you, Lyanna and I always will."
"Even though I’m not who I was?"
"Even then. You’ve beco colder and more ruthless but you’re still you. You’re still the woman I love."
"I can’t change back." Lyanna said.
"I don’t care. I still love you."
Lyanna stood up and walked towards him.
"Do you really an it? Can you really love this ruthless version of ?"
"I can and I do." Azrael replied, holding her hands.
For the first ti in weeks, Lyanna’s expression softened slightly.
"Thank you for trying to understand and for not giving up on ."
"Never."
Azrael pulled her into his arms and held her tightly despite knowing she couldn’t feel the warmth and comfort the way she used to.
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