Chapter 95: Chapter 95

Shia wanted to touch their sleeping figures, but she could see a thick film of grayish light hovering around them, and she knew it spelled something bad. She wanted to curse Sirion.

“What are you doing to them? Remove that barrier!”

“Dearest, sorry to disappoint you like this, but you aren’t the commander here,” he said softly towards her.

Side by side with Khailis was another woman whom Shia had never seen before. She was dressed in a tunic similar to those worn at the temple, so she knew she was someone from Teotroly too.

As soon as the woman heard her cries against Sirion, she stirred and immediately cursed when her eyes fell on them.

“Sirion, what the -!”

“Glad to see you too, Eily. I see your tongue is still as sharp as ever.”

Shia gasped. Eily was the Goddess of Childbirth. Why did he bring her here too?

Eily looked around her, and when she saw Khailis lying next to her, her eyes widened. “Damn you, this lady is with child! Why did you take her too? What are you planning to do?”

“I think you already have an idea, Eily. Do I really need to tell you that?”

The silver-haired maiden’s eyes widened in recognition, and her body shook like a leaf. “You... wouldn’t. You can’t do this!”

“May I remind you that you are not in a position to determine what I can or can’t do. I’m not the same puny god back then,” he bitterly said to her.

Shia couldn’t understand them at all. She could only watch as they bicker, trying to sense what Sirion wanted to do. At the same time, she was calling Langrey in her head.

She swallowed the lump of anxiety rising at her throat and spoke in her head. ‘Langrey, do you hear me?’

Earlier, Shia remembered seeing Langrion fall down the edge of the island into the dark ocean below it. She prayed with all her heart that he survived it. If she could just hear his voice once more, she could die in peace.

Sweat began to pour all around her body. The time she spent waiting for his response was the most agonizing minutes of her life.

‘Shia! Are you well? Where are you?’

She wanted to scream in happiness when she finally heard his voice in her head. He was alive! She tried to compose herself, for Sirion was still holding her in his arms at the moment.

‘I’m fine. Khailis is here with me, and so is Goddess Eily... Khailis doesn’t look too good...’

‘It’s alright. Ease your heart and don’t worry. We’ll come and find you. Where are you?’

‘In Gascone. We’ve returned to the palace.’

The moment that Shia answered Langrion in her head, Sirion looked down on her, and their eyes met. Taken aback, she suddenly looked away from him and gasped.

As if he was able to read her thoughts, he carried her over to a nearby sofa and aggressively removed the blankets she was wrapped in away from her.

Panick-striken, she struggled to free herself from him. “W-What are you doing?”

As soon as the cloths covering her arms fell away, Sirion’s eyes fell on her ring, which was faintly glowing.

“Ah, got it!” He clasped both her struggling wrists with a one of his hands and tore her wedding ring away from her finger.

As soon as he had taken it away, Sirion put the ring in his own pinky finger, and it glowed. Shia bit her lips.

“So the damn bastard is still alive! How wonderful!”

“Why are you doing this? Isn’t it enough that you have succeeded to get the throne? You’ve driven Langrion out of his own kingdom. You’ve succeeded, Sirion! Why else would you want him dead?”

He leaned down towards her face and whispered. “Of course it’s because I want you - you and the whole of Teotroly! The human realm is mine, and so is the realm of the gods! I told you we will rule it someday.”

She yanked her arm away from him. “I don’t want it, and I certainly don’t want you!”

“That’s alright. It’s enough that I want you, and everything I have ever wanted, I get it.”

As she struggled to get her ring from him again, Sirion skilfully caught her arms and raised it above her head. It felt like the bones in her arms would break as she struggled.

“No, let me go!”

“What is so great about that human prince, Freya? You are mine! Mine! Do you hear me? No matter how much you struggle back to him, I’ll make sure he’ll never get you! You are mine alone!”

“I am not yours. I was never yours, Sirion! I may have loved you before, but that doesn’t give you the right to own me, and no matter what you do, you can never own me! If you like lording over the human race so much, then fine, do it, but you don’t get to own me, not even my heart now.” She yanked violently away from his grip that her nails left a scratch in his neck, just a little below his ears.

Enraged, he pushed her down hard on the sofa, gripping her shoulder so hard that his hands felt like it had sunk into her skin.

“Your powers are mine, and your soul is mine! If I want you, I could always get you easily. I shall make sure that man you wedded dies in his own brother’s hands and within this soil he calls home! It’s the price he pays for usurping you!”

“You – you’re sick! Let me go, and let Langrion go! Whatever happened to us, it’s all your damn fault! If you hadn’t cursed us, our lives would have been different. If it wasn’t for you, we would never have crossed paths, and now you are making us suffer just because you can’t stand it? Well, I can’t stand you too, but I never got in your way, didn’t I? If you want to take Gascone and the whole world under your feet, then just do it, but leave me and Langrion alone!”

Shia’s emotion was aflame, but she had actually meant every word she said. She was tired of a life filled with curses and running away, and at the very heart of that life was the Ancient Evil – Sirion de Luca. If she could have just one wish, she would like to live a life of peace with Langrion, away from the crazy nobles or the palace.

“If you wish to drag the world in chaos, then do so, but leave me and my husband alone,” she repeated her words.

Sirion looked at her with angry but utterly surprised eyes. For a minute, they stopped fighting each other, and just looked at each other. It was a surpise when Sirion started to laugh.

“Are you sure you are Freya? I can’t believe that such an outrageous thing is coming out of your own mouth!”

The name of the goddess she was calling enraged Shia even further. “I am not Freya.”

She finally breathed it out – the secret she was keeping from all of them.

What now? How will he react to this? Even though they keep saying she’s Freya, she hasn’t the slightest inkling that she was a goddess.

He laughed again, more displeased than before. “Right you are, dearest.”

He finally let go of her and stood away from the sofa.

“You must still be tired, deary. I’ll leave you here to see your friends. You need to take some rest too if you wish to walk sooner.”

He turned to a corner of the room. “Gilyan, stand guard.”

Shia was only slightly surprised to see the same boy who could possess bodies emerge from the shadows of the bedroom. She could remember how Khailis acted after being possessed by him on the day of her supposed wedding with the king. Sirion had indeed acquired a jewel by making this boy his ally.

Shia wondered, would it be possible to turn this minion against him? Well, it wouldn’t hurt to try, right?

Once Sirion had exited the room, Shia straightened her clothes. She still couldn’t lift her legs, but at least some of the sensations in them were returning now. Maybe getting angry with Sirion had kept her blood flowing fiercely down at them.

She stared at the bed where Khailis was still lying unconscious and at the woman beside her, who had began to check Khailis’ pulse.

“Is... Is Lady Khailis alright?”

It was the first time Shia had spoken to Eily. Even when she stayed in the temple, she didn’t go out and meet anyone for fear of seeing the worshippers and townspeople and letting them down since she wasn’t a real goddess. Another thing she feared the most was meeting the other gods and goddesses at the temple. She was embarrassed enough that Freya was part of the reason why Teotroly had to rise from the ground. Now, she was more embarrassed in front of her after admitting she wasn’t Freya.

“She’s alright for now,” the silver-haired goddess that was next to Khailis said.

“That’s a relief... But why wouldn’t she wake up,” Shia asked quietly.

It was the boy named Gilyan who spoke to answer Shia. “I had coaxed her to sleep... It’ll be less painful for her in this state.”

Eily shouted, “Less painful? Do you mean to say -?”

“Extracting energy,” he began, “is a painful process. She might be able to live after it if we do it in a state of sleep.”