Chapter 91: Chapter 91

Stabbed in the neck – did she hear Khailis correctly? Langrion had been stabbed in the neck?

Could it be?... Could it be that she had ended up stabbing him for real?

“Let me see him...” Shia couldn’t stop the tears that fell down from her eyes like rainwater. “I need to see him, Khailis... Please...”

“Sure, sure... I’ll arrange for that, but not now. You must rest. Your body is still too weak...” The worried look on Khailis’ face worsened when she saw her cry.

“No, I must see him now... I need to see him, please...”

Khailis bit her lips. She seemed to understand her struggle perfectly, but then again, she could see how Shia couldn’t even manage to sit herself straight. How would see react if she saw Langrey’s condition?

“Alright, wait here... I’m calling them. Wait for me here.”

Khailis got up from her side and exited the room. Shia slumped back into bed, her breathing far too laborious.

How can Langrion suffer a wound in the void? She was sure that he stabbed him – the killer of his family, but why did the wound reflected on him here?

An unspeakable thought was forming in her mind. Her head started to throb so hard. Compared to how her heart was aching though, the pain was nothing.

Khailis went back to into the room, and with her came Gavil and Templar.

Templar’s eyebrow curled in anxiety. “Sister, you’ve recovered, but you’re still unfit to get up. Try to rest some more...”

“No, I... I need to see my husband...”

Their gazes were both unapproving. Templar brushed away a few wisp of her hair.

“Your husband isn’t in the best shape right now too... If you could rest up a bit, I’m sure you’ll see him in much better shape soon.”

She squeezed Templar’s hand as hard as she could, but she couldn’t quite put the strength in it.

“Something.... Something has happened to us in the passages...”

“Something? What was it?”

Shia didn’t know if she was doing the right thing by telling them first, but she figured that she’ll need all the help she could get. She didn’t trust Galahad at this point, and he was supposed to be the most knowledgeable out of all of them about the nature of the time passages. With Langrion injured like this, she needed to let someone know what she and Langrey had been through.

“Sirion – we didn’t find him in hell... I think he has escaped.”

Khailis gasped, and Gavil and Templar’s faces went darker.

“Sister, what do you mean?... Are you sure you’ve really reached the underworld?”

Shia nodded. “Yes... I saw someone in there, but I can’t remember who that person is. A curse was keeping him at bay, so he wasn’t able to tell me much, but I know for sure he’s not Sirion... Or at least not the Sirion I know...”

“If that is the case, then, we’re in serious trouble, aren’t we,” Gavil trailed off.

“I suppose... He helped me and Langrion to get back, but at the final time passage, Langrion travelled with me, and I... I ended up stabbing him... I didn’t know it was him...”

Templar held her in his arms as she cried.

“Please let me see Langrey... I just want to know if he’s alright,” Shia said quietly.

It took a long time of talking to coax her, but she wouldn’t budge. After seeing her unwilling to give up, they finally conceded.

“We’ll let you see him just this once. After that, you must come back here and rest,” Khailis finally sighed.

Gavil lifted her up in his arms and carried her through the hallway and into the room where they were keeping Langrion.

Shia could barely lift her head, but after they had opened the door to the other room, she was able to get a glimpse of Langrion’s body lying prostrated in bed. A light violet glow seemed to emanate from his sleeping form. Sitting right next to him was none other than Galahad.

Gavil gently placed Shia on Langrion’s bed. She was far too weak to sit up straight, so she struggled for a bit and rolled over to face him.

Langrion’s face looked even paler the last time she saw it. She fingered the bandage around his neck, the exact place where Shia had stabbed her family’s killer in the time passage.

It wasn’t too long ago when they had come to Teotroly, and even then, he had been looking worse. Now, he was in his worst shape. Her trip to the underworld was supposed to cure him, and yet, how did this happen? How did she end up making him sicker and weaker?

“How... How can this be,” Shia breathed towards him.

“The blow he suffered in the time passage was huge. I am trying to preserve the spirit in his body, so it’s far too early to say what will happen to him,” Galahad said. He looked over at her pallid face, and cupped it in his hand. “You are not well yet, Freya. Why did you come here?”

“I wanted to see Langrion...”

He gritted his teeth. “Must you come here like this? You should place your health first before someone else’s, or did you lose your mind too when you went to hell?”

“You don’t understand...” Shia wanted to tell him that she had caused Langrey to be in this state. She was the reason why there was a large and gaping wound at his neck...

“You’re right... I don’t understand it at all,” Galahad said, returning back to his seat on the other side of the bed. “Did you succeed in eliciting a wish from Sirion?”

She lifted her eyes to him, and almost immediately, she felt dizzy. She looked at his face and remembered something.

Wasn’t it Galahad who suggested that she take a wedding wish from Sirion in hell? Wasn’t he the only one who knew how to go through the time passages? Was it possible that he knew about the prisoner in hell, the one who had been cursed there? Somewhat, the suspicion in Shia’s heart against Galahad was increasing.

“I... Yes... We were able to get to Sirion, but he couldn’t fulfil my wish,” she lied.

“I see... That’s odd though. I wonder why he won’t give you your wish...”

She looked back quietly at him to study his reaction, but nothing was out of the ordinary. He didn’t look like someone who could plot something against them, but then Shia decided to trust her instinct for now by decided to keep quiet about everything. She shifted her focus back to Langrion.

‘Langrey,’ she began calling his name in her head. ‘Langrey, can you hear me?...’

There was no response, but Shia didn’t want to give up. She remembered how she had heard Langrey call him in the time passages through the rings. It‘s not impossible for him to hear her too, right?

‘Langrey, I’m sorry,’ Shia said in her head. ‘I’m sorry I stabbed you... I didn’t know...’

The truth was that she had a lot of questions in her head.

Why did she end up stabbing Langrey? She was sure he was trying to take him away from there in the sand dunes, right? They wrestled together so hard, so how did he end up taking over the body of his killer? Was that time passage a reflection of her reality?

She struggled with that last bit of thought... If that reality was really a direct reflection of what happened in her own world, wouldn’t that mean that Langrey had lied to her? Was he really her family’s killer after all?

She wanted to ask him that, but her heart had no strength left in them at the moment. She wanted to ask someone about the time passages, but who can she ask? She didn’t know anyone who would be knowledgeable about them other than Galahad... Or maybe there was....

Her train of thoughts were broken by a whisper in her head. It was a faint sound at first that grew louder, as if it was really coming just behind her ears.

‘Shia...’

It was her name, and the voice was none other than her husband’s.

‘Shia, where are you?...’

Shia’s heart stilled. Is it possible that Langrey couldn’t remember what have happened? She responded to him in her head. ‘You need to wake up, Langrey... You must wake up. I am speaking to you through the ring, but you need to wake up now...’

He didn’t speak again. Shia called to him in her head desperately.

‘You must wake up, Langrey... I’m waiting for you... Please wake up...’

Tears started to flow down her cheek, and she started to sob uncontrollably.

“You should save your strength. He isn’t going anywhere, and at this rate, you would just exhaust yourself. Come back again when your body had recovered.” Galahad stood up and walked to the side of the bed where she was perched. He started to slide his arms underneath her body to pick her up away from Langrey.

“Galahad... Would he wake up? Do you think Langrey would wake up,” she asked him weakly.

“I don’t know. Only time could tell.”

“That wound... I had given him that... I stabbed him when we were in the time passage...” she had finally confessed.

Galahad did not say anything. He continued to slip his arms beneath her until he was finally able to lift her frame up and began walking away from the chamber.

“His wounds have nothing to do with his inability to wake up... His body simply needs to recover. If he is determined to wake up, he’ll wake up soon.”

Galahad’s words were comforting enough, but there was an “if” to his statement. Does it mean that if Langrey didn’t want to, he may not wake up at all?

They had finally reached her room, and Galahad laid her in bed as gently as she could.

“Hush now and sleep, Freya... All would soon be well...”

She could have sworn that if she wasn’t looking at Galahad’s face at that moment, she would have thought that those words were coming from Sirion...

Perhaps it was only the exhaustion that was playing a trick in her mind. She closed her eyes and drifted back into an uneasy sleep where she dreamed of a million time passages and getting lost in hell, and ultimately falling into the hands of Sirion.