Elizabeth was biting her nails for the third ti in less than five minutes, pacing back and forth as if the movent would sohow relieve the pressure that seed to grow inside her with each passing second. Her steps were uneven, too quick to be considered simple restlessness, and her eyes didn’t stay fixed anywhere long enough to suggest focus. There was tension in every part of her body, not just emotional, but physical, as if she were constantly prepared to react to sothing that hadn’t yet happened.
"He’s taking too long," she said suddenly, without looking at anyone in particular, but clearly expecting a response. The sentence ca out loaded, not as a neutral observation, but as an accusation directed at ti itself, as if that were proof enough that sothing was wrong.
Irelia, who was sitting a few ters away, leaning comfortably against the back of a chair, raised her gaze just enough to register Elizabeth’s state before returning to her previous posture.
There was no urgency in her movent, nor any visible concern.
She observed the young woman for a second longer, assessing her behavior more than her words, and then responded with a calmness that contrasted completely with the atmosphere Elizabeth had created.
"Sit down," she said, in a simple tone, without harshness, but also without room for discussion.
"He won’t die, nor will he disappear along the way." There was a small pause before continuing, not to build suspense, but because she clearly saw no need to elaborate. "And his mother will be found. Sooner or later."
Alia, seated beside a small table, held a teacup in both hands, as if the constant warmth were more relevant than anything happening around her.
She didn’t imdiately look at Elizabeth when Irelia spoke, remaining focused on the surface of the liquid for a mont before bringing the cup to her lips and taking a slow, unhurried sip. Only then did she raise her gaze, directing it at Elizabeth with the sa neutrality that seed to define everything about her.
"He always thinks so," she comnted, in a low, almost casual tone, as if she were talking about sothing as predictable as the sunrise. There was no enthusiasm in the sentence, no attempt to console. It was simply an observation.
Elizabeth stopped walking for a mont, looking from one to the other as if trying to understand if this was so kind of provocation. Her eyes narrowed slightly, not from directed anger, but from growing frustration at the complete absence of emotional reaction from the two.
"How can you two stay so calm?" she asked, now turning her body completely towards them, her arms falling to her sides before clenching into light fists.
"Seriously, how? You’re acting like nothing’s happening!" Her voice rose a little more than necessary, not intentionally, but because she could no longer maintain the sa control as before. "I’m freaking out here, and you two are... drinking tea and telling to sit down?"
Alia and Irelia exchanged a brief glance. It wasn’t a look laden with profound aning or complex silent communication. It was just enough to confirm that they were both perceiving exactly the sa thing. Then Alia looked back at Elizabeth first, tilting her head slightly, as if considering the best way to respond, though she didn’t seem particularly concerned with getting the emotional tone of her reply right.
"You’ll only understand when you et Kael," she said, keeping her voice at the sa calm level as before, without any attempt to soften the impact of the sentence.
Elizabeth blinked, clearly not satisfied with that.
"What do you an ’et Kael’?" she retorted imdiately, taking a step forward, as if physical proximity could force a more concrete explanation.
"I already know him! He left here recently, went after my mother, is facing a bunch of crazy vampires, and you’re saying that’s normal?" There was disbelief in her voice, mixed with an irritation that was beginning to take on a more defined form. "That doesn’t make sense!"
Irelia was the next to speak, resting her elbow on the arm of the chair and tilting her face slightly onto her hand, without taking her eyes off Elizabeth.
"No, you don’t know," she replied, without raising her voice, but also without softening her statent.
"You saw him. That’s different." There was a short pause before she continued, enough to make it clear that this distinction was not trivial.
"That kind of thing you’re feeling now... that anxiety, that need to know exactly what’s happening every second... it disappears."
Elizabeth frowned imdiately. "Disappears? What do you an, disappears?" she asked, now clearly more confused than irritated. "Are you saying I’ll stop caring?"
Alia let out a small sigh through her nose, not out of impatience, but like soone recognizing a common and mistaken interpretation.
"No," she replied, twirling the cup slightly between her fingers before placing it back on the table.
"You still care. It just ceases to be... relevant on the sa level." She paused briefly, searching for her words precisely, not out of difficulty, but out of preference. "You stop considering the possibility that sothing might go wrong." Elizabeth remained silent for a mont, absorbing it, but clearly not accepting it.
"This isn’t normal," she said, more to herself than to them, shaking her head slightly.
"No one simply stops considering that sothing could go wrong, even less so in a situation like this."
Irelia shrugged, a slight, almost disinterested movent.
"With him, you stop," she stated, with the sa tranquility as before. "Not because you decide. Because it doesn’t make sense to keep thinking about it."
Elizabeth opened her mouth to reply, but stopped before speaking, as if trying to organize sothing that didn’t fit. Her eyes moved between the two, searching for so sign of irony, of exaggeration, anything that indicated that this wasn’t literal. She found nothing.
"This sounds like brainwashing," she said finally, crossing her arms, now more defensive than before.
Alia let out a light laugh, short, without real humor, but also without contempt.
"It’s not," she replied.
"It’s experience." She leaned slightly forward, resting her elbows on the table.
"You spend enough ti watching him solve things that shouldn’t need solving, situations that shouldn’t have a solution, problems that have gone beyond the point of no return... and at so point, you stop treating it as an exception."
Irelia nodded slightly. "You start treating it as the norm," she added, completing the idea without needing to look directly at Alia. "And when it becos the norm, anxiety ceases to serve a purpose."
Elizabeth slowly uncrossed her arms, but not out of relaxation. It was more like soone who no longer knew exactly what stance to take in the face of sothing she couldn’t fully accept or refute. "But that’s dangerous," she insisted, now with less intensity, but still firm. "What if one day he can’t? What if sothing really goes wrong?"
This ti, neither of them answered imdiately. Alia simply picked up her cup again, while Irelia kept her gaze fixed on Elizabeth, without any visible change in expression. The silence lasted a few seconds, not for lack of response, but because the question, though logical, didn’t seem relevant to them.
Irelia answered first.
"When that happens," she said, her voice steady, without any hesitation, "then we’ll worry."
Elizabeth stared at her, clearly expecting sothing more, so addition that would soften or explain it better. Nothing ca. Alia simply took another sip of tea, completely oblivious to the need to expand on the answer.
The silence that followed wasn’t comfortable for Elizabeth, but it wasn’t broken imdiately either. She stood there, looking at the two of them, trying to reconcile her own anxiety with the absolute calm that dominated the atmosphere.
And she couldn’t.
"I don’t understand you," she said finally, quieter than before, but still laden with frustration.
Alia carefully placed her cup back on the table, the soft sound contrasting with the weight of the conversation. "You don’t need to understand now," she replied, looking up again. "You just need to wait." Irelia finished, without changing her tone.
"Because, anyway..." she paused briefly. "He’s already taken care of it."
The silence that settled after Irelia’s last reply wasn’t comfortable for Elizabeth, but it wasn’t imdiately broken either. She remained still, her arms now loose at her sides, as if she no longer knew what posture to adopt. Her thoughts were still racing too fast to keep up, but at the sa ti, sothing was beginning to slow down, not out of acceptance, but out of exhaustion. Alia brought the cup to her lips again, maintaining the sa tranquil rhythm as before, while Irelia simply remained where she was, motionless, as if ti mattered less to her than to anyone else in the room.
Then the space changed.
There was no warning, no rising sound, no dramatic vibration announcing what was about to happen. Yet, they all noticed it instantly. The air in the center of the room underwent a sudden alteration, not as a shift in wind or pressure, but as a silent reorganization, as if sothing were being adjusted directly in the structure of the space.
Elizabeth was the first to react physically.
Her eyes imdiately turned to the center of the room, her body tensing automatically, as if ready to run or attack, without yet knowing which of the two options would be necessary. Her heart raced again, negating any previous attempt to calm down, while her mind tried to keep up with what her senses had already perceived.
A magic circle appeared.
It wasn’t gradual. It simply appeared, perfectly ford, occupying the central space of the floor as if it had always been there, invisible until that mont. The lines that composed it were precise, stable, without any tremor or imperfection, drawing complex patterns that neither expanded nor pulsed. It didn’t radiate energy chaotically, nor did it draw attention with its brightness. Its presence was... functional. Definitive.
Alia didn’t stand up.
She simply looked away from the cup and observed the circle with the sa calm as before, as if it were just the natural continuation of the conversation that was still happening. There was no surprise in her expression, nor any attempt at preparation.
Irelia didn’t move imdiately either.
Her eyes were already fixed on the center of the room even before the circle was complete, as if she had perceived the beginning of the formation before the others. She only slightly adjusted her posture, uncrossing her legs and placing her feet on the ground, not out of concern, but out of readiness.
Elizabeth, on the other hand, couldn’t contain her reaction.
"This is—" she began, but didn’t finish.
Because the circle activated.
The light traveled along its lines for a brief instant, not in explosion, but in confirmation. And then—
They were there.
Kael appeared first.
There was no visible transition, no displacent that could be followed. In one instant, the space was empty. In the next, he occupied the center of the circle, as if he had been placed there directly, without traversing the distance between one point and another.
He was standing.
Completely stable.
And in his arms—
The Queen.
Her body was exactly as it had been found, without any significant alteration. Extrely pale, almost weightless, supported by him firmly, but without unnecessary rigidity. There was no movent from her, no clear sign of consciousness or reaction. Only the permanence of sothing that still existed by a limit that was not natural.
Behind him, Exelia appeared at the sa instant.
One step back.
Aligned.
Her posture still firm, her expression neutral, but her eyes imdiately scanning the room, assessing the space, the positions, the presences. Not out of distrust, but out of habit. Nothing about her indicated urgency. Only continuity.
The magic circle disappeared.
It didn’t dissolve.
It didn’t collapse.
It simply ceased to exist, as if its function had been completed the exact mont the three were positioned.
Silence filled the room.
But this ti, it wasn’t the sa silence as before.
Elizabeth couldn’t move for a single second.
Her eyes were fixed on the body in Kael’s arms, and everything she had been trying to hold onto, control, or rationalize simply... collapsed in that instant. There hadn’t been enough emotional preparation for this. There hadn’t been ti.
She took a step forward.
Hesitant at first.
Then faster.
"Mom...?" the word ca out low, almost failing midway, as if she still wasn’t sure if she could say it aloud.
Kael didn’t respond imdiately.
He rely glanced at her for a brief mont, assessing her reaction, not with judgnt, but with precision. Then he looked back ahead and took a few steps out of the spot where he had appeared, leaving the center of the room like soone who saw no need to remain there.
"We found her," he said simply.
No emotional tone.
No build-up.
Just the information.
Exelia remained where she was for a second longer before following him, stopping beside him but maintaining enough distance not to interfere with what was about to happen.
Elizabeth stopped a few steps from them.
Her eyes scanned the Queen’s body from head to toe, absorbing every detail, every sign of damage, every absence that shouldn’t be there. Her breathing was now irregular, not from physical exertion, but because her body didn’t know how to react to it.
"She...," she began, but couldn’t finish.
Alia stood up for the first ti since the beginning of the scene. Without haste.
Without hesitation.
She walked until she was close enough to observe better, her gaze analyzing the Queen’s condition with the sa objectivity she demonstrated in everything. There was no shock, but there was also no indifference. It was recognition.
Irelia ca soon after, stopping beside Elizabeth, not to console her, but to be present at that specific mont.
Kael slightly adjusted his body position in his arms, not out of imdiate need, but to avoid any instability.
"She’s alive," he said.
The sentence fell into the air with enough weight to interrupt any other imdiate reaction.
Elizabeth looked up at him instantly.
"Alive?" she repeated, as if needing to confirm she had heard correctly.
Kael nodded slightly. "By a hair’s breadth."
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