"Eva... your alive." The woman across the throne room held her chin high as she eyed Tzu. "I am," she reassured as her steps began, echoing through the silence engulfing all around them. They watched her move without motion, as a sheep would a wolf. "Would you believe that all back home had already thought you dead and gone, that I alone still believed, and clung to the idea of you breathing as any among us?" The woman's steps calmed before the wyvern. Now both eye to eye, he could truly see how hardened she had become.

Her hand raised, finding the side of his cheek. Her thumb brushing up and down his skin as before. The wyvern's eyes closed. Even now, her touch sent a addictive tremble through him. One he had nearly forgotten. "Twenty-seven years," she said softly, causing his silver eyes to open again. "Enough time for an elf to sleep through, a good joke. But when your focus is shifted..." Tzu felt her soft grip begin to tighten. "When you await for news that will never come, when you are scouring the ends of the world, time does not fly like a dream." Tzu shuddered, still keeping eye contact. Even as the nail of her thumb slid through his cheek, where she had brushed so carefully. Exposing the red blood many believed the dragon was unable to spill. The red formed a slim line downward, over Eva's hand before dripping to the identical shade of carpet.

"It is a nightmare. Crawling in a slow, stagnant motion." Her old friend swallowed. "I'm sorry."

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"Two decades late."

Ahead of the woman's unforgiving glare, the sound of the pale king clearing his throat rung through the soundless room. "I was not aware that you were acquainted with him, Lady Nel. I assume our arrangement will still-"

"It will." Eva let her hand fall, still holding Tzu's eyes as she raise the other, which unlike the first was cloaked by a dark gauntlet decorated by gold gems. She aimed the open palm forward, no more then a space away from his chest. "Today is the day the wyvern will be bound by cage."

Somehow, the throne room's silence deepened after her words. The same words he never expected to hear from her of all people. His eyes fell to her palm, then returned to her glare.

"Is that so?"

Her eyes feigned nothing. Nothing. "There is a reason why I did not come alone." Tzu lowered his stare, curving it's target until he simply eyed blankly near the scarlet carpet, and in time, a burst of laughter took hold of him. Uncontrollably even as cautious eyes watched grimly, and so much so that he wiped his tears with a wide smile deep inside the unnatural silence. "Ah, yes, I see. I see," he said with a a different chord of voice as he raised both his hands, and almost as if by will, the elves in gold took a step backward near the entrance. Their step was made soundly within the room, all aside from Eva. His sight now found her again. Though hers had also curved, even if by inches.

"The monster will lend you this victory," he said while still holding the wide smile. Eva, hesitantly, lowered her hand with an uncertain brow.

"I do hope you enjoy it."