41: Coming back to a world without him

Coming back to a world without him

Her eyes jolted up ending the ultra-realistic dream she was having. Her heart thumped fast and loud with the aftershocks of the transition her awareness made, but the rest of her body felt disjointed.2

Home...

She recognized the golden chandelier in the middle of the high off-white ceiling of her room, her eyes slowly found the window on her left in an attempt to tell the time. It was dark outside, but determining the hour was non-viable.

Observing the color of the sky was a mistake that made her face crumple.

The dam behind which her agonizing memories hid burst without delay. She had not forgotten her falcon's flightless final hour, running away from it into meaningless dreams was very childish of her.

Nothing would revive that piece of her soul anymore…

"Welcome back, Adelaide,"

"Father?"

She cleared her dry throat, her head turned abruptly to the other side to confirm the identity of the speaker, she jolted upright upon seeing his face, but the hand he placed on her shoulder slowly pushed her down again.

"Take it easy on yourself, you have been out of it for two whole days,"

The purple circles under his blue eyes made it look as if he had not slept for the same amount of time. She was at a loss for what to say to him. How much did her family know anyhow?

Moroseness came over her again, and the Archduke who closely watched her every reaction inhaled deeply.

"I considered that falcon a member of my family too, Adelaide…" he hesitated, "Watching him guarding our skies and seeing how delighted you were around him, those were some of life's sparse pleasures,"

The words were thorns that pricked beneath her skin, and she struggled to contain her pain upon hearing them.

"That man…" Kaiser growled imagining his enemy's face, "He comes here carrying a grudge, a list of debts to collect! Kannen was the first to pay the price, but killing one of us shall not suffice the void inside of Egon von Conradie,"

A small voice inside of her tried to speak up. Egon's purpose was not Kannen's life but Adela's dignity. Quiet. She could not afford to side with Egon right now.

"Adelaide, say the word, I can have his head if you so wish," 

Astonished, she tried to sit up once more and explain the situation properly, but what the Archduke proposed with a straight face rendered her speechless.

Her father read the answer that appeared on her face.

"I thought so… It was why I stopped Arkin from slaughtering them," his eyes drifted to her bandaged hand, "…An intervention I might just live to regret,"

The days Adela spent wallowing in sorrow proved costly, things progressed to an extent where they became out of control.

One of them must see reason!

"Father...A part of me died in that manor with Kannen," she swallowed the thickness in her throat, "Much like a part of him had died back in that forest... If we allow blood to demand further blood, when would the cycle end?"

His eyes darted between her pale face and the closed door. 

"...Now that you are up, both of us must go somewhere," he eyed the soup next to her, "Not before you finish this, of course…"

Her empty stomach churned at the thought of getting anything inside, and the watchful eyes of the Archduke misinterpreted the following gloomy look on her face.

"It is selfish of me to ask you to ride having just opened your eyes, but my eyes…They cannot part with you for now, won't you comply with the irrational wishes of this old man for a while longer?"

She gave him a tired smile, "Where are we to go?"

An unpleasant task. She thought to herself when her father grimaced, but Adela could not have seen his answer coming.

"To the source of the contamination,"

***

She rode on pins and needles inside the comfort of her father's carriage that afternoon, crossing the vast lands of Lanark that struck her as oddly narrow and unkempt. She found herself envious of the pine trees on the road, refusing to drop their needles for the whimsical winter that came and went on its own accord.

The sky was once more, taunting to look at as it lacked Kannen's excited screeches and the majestic imagery he drew when he followed Adela around.

His absence was all her eyes could ever see around her.

"We are here," the Archduke announced needlessly, Adela saw the three cottages that looked as good as any other modern house now passing a while ago.

"Make way!"

The door flew open on the outside where Arkin stood, panting, his eyes taking in Adela's every detail.

"I will meet you by the river,"

"Yes, father,"

Adela's eyes eagerly followed Kaiser as he moved forward, she placed her hand in her knight's hand as she descended, but he never let go of it, even after her feet had touched the ground.

"My Lady,"

Arkin left her hand only to bow before her, bringing the edge of her grey coat closer to his lips and kissing it with a shaking hand.

Her chest ached.

"You too had moments with him growing up... My condolences..."

Arkin looked up at her with bloodshot, apologizing eyes.

She pressed her palm against his cheek in response, an indication that his well-intended betrayal was forgiven. The two of them were never able to stay apart for long no matter how bad things were between them anyhow, and now more than ever, she needed him by her side. 

"Rise, I need somebody to guide my way,"

"Stay the hell away from her!"

Panicked, her head snapped in the direction of Kaiser's gruff shout.

Right where the land she bought back with her falcon's life ended and Egon's land began, there stood her father and the two von Conradie merchants in their brown hunting gear.

A noticeable shift in Egon's face demanded her attention.

When his dark eyes stirred her way, she could have sworn they momentarily flashed with a ruby color before going back to their usual one as they focused on her.

It was not the abnormality of the scene, but her father's spoken words of slaughtering, they echoed in her ears, frightening her.

Snatching her hand away from her knight's grasp, she all but ran to her father's side. The solid determination in her eyes took a shade sharper, repelling any objections that might come her way. 

"I need a word with Egon von Conradie,"

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