Hewn City / Lunar's Bridge
Hewn City
Elain left the book at her bed, then walked towards the main living, finding Lucien in the way.
“What is happening?” she whispered to herself, as she got closer to the living room, she could hear Feyre discussing with Rhysand.
“Something about Rhysand not respecting the General’s wailing and giving orders to your older sister.” Lucien whispered back, slightly lowering to her side.
oOo
“I told you it once in the past, and I am going to tell you it again. Don’t use your power on my sister.” Feyre said in a voice louder than the usual.
“You would understand my reasons if you had left the bond open at this past weeks.” Rhysand crossed his arms.
Elain walked in at the living room, “Where is her?” she got the couple's attention.
Rhysand's eyes found Lucien stood beside Elain, “Why is the foxy boy –” he didn’t finish his sentence as Feyre slapped his upper arm, his only reaction was a incredulous face, followed by a breath that escaped from his mouth, “My apologies, Lucien.”
The red haired male lifted his brow in surprise.
“Have you banned her from the Palace?” Elain asked to the violet eyed male, while walking close to Feyre, the both sisters had the exactly same furious face.
“No!” His arms loose at his sides, he dragged a hand through his hair, opened his mouth, but for their surprise Nesta arrived, Cassian right behind her.
Nesta's facial expression was unreadable, but her eyes… Flames on them. While Cassian had a mask of calm.
Rhysand took a step ahead, “Sorry, for earlier.” He looked at Nesta, then Cassian, pressed his lips in a thin line before saying: “Sorry.”
Nesta's gaze found his face, she ignored him as her eyes ran to Feyre, “I need to talk with you.”
“What happened?” Feyre grabbed her older sister's wrist, trying to comfort her, “Do you need to –” she got cut.
“Have you been downstairs? In the city?” she asked low, icily calm.
“Why?” the younger came closer to her sister
“There is a children’s cemetery in there.”
“Well, the disease –” Feyre got cut.
“The number of graves is several times bigger than in the other places.” She released her wrist from Feyre, which was followed by a few seconds of silence.
“Who sent the potions here?” Cassian asked.
“Kaillu.” Rhysand answered.
“Who gave him the number? Distributed, organized..?” Cassian's eyes narrowed.
Rhysand only shook his head, Feyre's stare became vacant. They both didn’t know. Rhysand had left the Illyrian territory with Danika, Lunar's Bridge and territories around with Amren, the Hewn City with Kaillu and the rest of the Court with Mor. He and Feyre took care of Velaris and the territories around.
“Have you at least received a report?” the General crossed his arms.
“Not from Kaillu” Rhysand answered. He had received from the others, but not from his son, he even knew that Danika had a small legion of Illyrians helping her to take the numbers of kids and to distribute the potion, while he didn’t received a single word from his son.
Nesta's gaze was on Feyre, with the silence of the younger sister, she only shook her head in disapproval, walking out of the living room, towards the hall, Cassian followed her.
Soon Amren emerged from the hall that leaded to the Library, “What happened?” she asked.
oOoOo
Lunar's Bridge
It was evening when Azriel got out the dungeons, he failed to extract more information from the enemy's soldiers.
Everything he got was: the ones in the Night Court were Continental Soldiers, they planned to occupy all of Prythian territory.
The only additional information he got, was collected a few minutes before Amren's arrival, and it was still something pitiful as he failed to extract the details: the size of their army was several times bigger than theirs.
Az glanced at the window with no glass, the dusted breeze of the beginning of the night coming to his face made his nose scratch, he always felt like he is going to sneeze every time he had to come to this place at that hour.
He stared at the impossible big moon, then at the bridge's ruins close to it, debating on his mind if he should hurry up and go to the Hewn City's Palace now, or if he should wait for awhile. The spymaster didn’t want to face Elain so soon after a interrogation.
Elain… he knew she would feel uncomfortable being close to him after this. She always did, and she has good reasons to, he understood that. Had understood even more in the day Mor was a few days before her marriage, the blond female told him why she waited so long to reveal her wife, she was afraid of him, his reaction of being rejected by her, the fact that Elain was with him made her to feel able to reveal it. As he heard that, he couldn’t say anything but apologize, for making her feel it, he knew his job at the Court, knew the impact it could cause on people around him, especially if they knew it too, he could only be glad that his niece didn’t know about the part of interrogating.
After this day he talked with Elain, explained her that he would never hurt her or anyone she loves, then asked if she was with him for fear, if she really wanted him. She had said yes, she wanted him, and had no fear, but his “job” wasn’t something she could easy take, or easily ignore as the most of the members of the Inner Circle does, so every time he worked on interrogation, she would need to take time, a few days. For that reason they still had separate rooms.
Az dragged a hand through his hair, still thinking about Elain, how every time she talked with Lucien her eyes seemed to become brighter, Azriel wouldn’t lie, he felt slightly jealous, but at the same time he was glad she felt happy, glad she had someone else to talk and smile, to enjoy spending time, since she hadn’t feel that way too often since their niece depart to the South Continent.
That was one of the reasons he debated if he should wait a little more, he didn’t want her to feel uncomfortable with his presence when she could be enjoying time.
Another reason was: since the enemies were able to successfully occupy part of their territory; the armies, including the Illyrian army, had to step back, part of them went to the Hewn City, part to Lunar's Bridge, and their leaders, Camp Lords, which included his father, and by consequence his older half brothers. His wife? She entered in a ship.
Azriel hated this male, for the awful things he did to his mother, for locking him in a cell with no light, for allowing his older sons to torture him, which left several scars on his body, he hated this male and would have to face him for the first time in years, the last time Az saw him, was when he got left in Devlon's camp. Since then, they never saw each other again, only his brothers, who got the legs shattered by Rhysand.
The spymaster let escape a low breath as he slowly stepped away from the window, he surveyed the empty place before winnowing through the shadows.