Alisson couldn’t bear it. He needed time alone. He left Marenix behind, and left the city, escaping to the all too familiar surrounding woodland.

As if to haunt him, Celis had managed to follow him all the way out to the clearing he now found himself in. He stepped toward her, and laid his hands on her shoulders, staring into her eyes.

“…Are you there, Celis? Can you hear me?”

“I’m right in front of you, Alisson.”

Alisson’s eyes silvered, and he buried his head in the nook of her neck. “I’m sorry...!” He sputtered, sobbing into her collar. “You’re there, right? You can hear me? Please…just tell me you’re there…”

Here, away from any prying eyes, he could finally release the pent up emotions that had welled inside him. The sun had set, and the moon shone above them.

“I don’t know what you mean, Alisson.”

He shook his head, and continued to sob. He rested his body heavily over hers, and she crumpled to her knees, legs splayed. He sat with her, breathing heavily. Only now, his mind settled back into some sense of rationality.

The most immediate question at hand was this: What happened to Celis? Was she gone forever? Was the Celis that he knew now erased and replaced with some automaton of Sidonia’s making? Or was, deeper in this shell that was Celis’s body, locked away, the real Celis?

He had left Celis behind. He entrusted everything to her. It was his fault this happened to her. It was such a naïve thing to entrust to her. She had stayed behind with the sole task of trying to steal Enhérejär back into Alisson’s possession, to further increase his fighting strength – Not to simply conduct a heist, but to make preparations for its removal from the Sidonian armory without anyone’s notice.

Evidently, Celis and Ashlynde had done something and had been caught. He would find answers. He leaned back, and stared at Celis’s moonlit face. A sudden fire caught within his stomach, that seemed to burn away the fear.

Answers weren’t enough.

He started to growl and breath deeply, adrenaline flowing into his veins.

He needed blood. Sidonia would pay for this. He would kill her himself.

He clenched his hands with a certain, pure rage. Did Sidonia think that this would scare him? Force him back into submission?

“I’ll kill her…I’ll kill them all!”

That’s right. This only served to stoke his resolve. There was no way that-

“Kill who?”

A sudden voice whispered into his ear, and his mind froze, a shiver rolling down his back. He knew that voice. He felt her behind him, crouching low.

“W-w-wha-” Alisson could barely speak when he was cut off,

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“Shh. Don’t say anything…”

The voice was deeply feminine, mature like’s Sidonia’s. He stared at Celis with wide eyes, daring not to turn around. Celis stared back at him with a blank expression.

“I know you’re a bit on the slow side, so I decided to come and make sure you understand exactly what Sidonia said back there…Dearest brother.”

She laid her black gloved hands on his shoulders, and began to massage them gently. Alisson shook with fear.

The one behind him, was none other than Apophria Vi Nuam, or by her alias, Serendipity.

“How long has it been since I’ve last seen you, Alis? You were such a good dog when you were my apprentice…You’ve really fallen far, haven’t you? Just how much weaker have you become?” She leaned in, moving her hands over his stomach. She was much larger than he was physically. “You’re shivering. Pathetic.” She grabbed his stomach and he immediately assumed she was going to rip him open and spill his entrails, but she didn’t. “Take a good long look…”

Her words were slow and syrupy. She moved his chin up to look at Celis.

“That right there. That’s what you get for an honored service record, or so Sidonia says…That means that if it were anyone else, the blue haired brat would’ve been on those gallows just like her apprentice.”

Alisson cringed his eyes, trying to stop his teeth from chattering.

“Instead, she spared your little hunting dog…You know why, right, brother?”

He didn’t speak back to her.

“That’s right…She’s sending you a message. This is your first and only warning. The lady’s is going to dangle the sanity of this brat right in front of your little traitorous eyes. And hey, who knows, if you prove yourself to ole’ Siddy, then you might just get your girlfriend back in one piece. You understand?”

She gently rubbed his stomach.

Alisson consciously understood what Sidonia had intended from the beginning. Apophria probably knew that he did, but came anyway. He knew she was just here to scare him further. But knowing that didn’t stop it from working. He spoke without thinking, seeking some amount of mercy from her presence,

“I, I know-!”

She got up in a blur and kicked in his side. He went rolling across the ground and slammed into a tree. Blood exploded from his mouth and he gasped out. Before he could even settle on the ground he felt himself get grabbed by the scruff of the neck and pinned against the tree.

“I told you not to speak. You still remember how to apologize, right? Go ahead. Do it.”

Without thinking Alisson activated his Opensen, whimpering, “Yes, Appy…”

He said on wobbly words. She cupped one of his feline ears. “Very nice…” She then grabbed his two tails with a single fist, and then, letting go of his neck, swung his entire body over her head and into the ground. She planted a boot on his head and ground his face into the dirt. “Good boy…”

She smirked, squatting over his head. “I wonder if you’ve grown at all where it matters…” She sounded like a predator contemplating if the meat before her was worth eating or not. Apparently deciding against doing anything, she gave a little sigh of content.

“Well, that’s enough fun for now…” She grabbed Alisson’s hair and brought his head up to face Celis, still sitting down a ways away. Apophria leaned in, “Don’t forget. Do what you’re told, and the brat lives. This goes without saying, but that means no little rebellions or conspiracy or plots…” She swayed Alisson’s head back and forth as she listed off things. “You felt rage before. Anger.” She tightened her grip on his hair. “Those are great things to feel. Just don’t point them at Sidonia. Point them at your enemies. Got that? Let it flow through you…Let the small amount of testosterone you do have burn like a wildfire. Maybe then you’ll start acting like a real man.”

She let go of his head then, and stood up.

“You can thank me later for the advice. Well, I’ll be seeing you…Crybaby.”

With that, she was suddenly gone. Like she had never existed.

Alisson never even saw her face. He looked up, and stared at Celis, illuminated by the moonlight. Her face was so empty, so blank. Which is why when Alisson caught a sliver of liquid at her eyes, he couldn’t help but start to sob again.

“I’m sorry…I’m sorry…”

He had his confirmation from the single tear on Celis’s face; and Serendipity’s words. Celis was still in there. Deep inside. This is what he got for trying to rebel. He had lost the one thing that mattered to him.

***