Chapter 614: The Things Returning to the Surface
The dical facility had grown quieter, but not calr.
Quiet was not peace here.
It was only the mont right before sothing broke.
The warm scent of herbs still hung in the air, curling through the corridors in slow, invisible threads. Lantern light flickered against stone walls, casting long, wavering shadows that seed to breathe with the building itself.
Outside, the world remained distant—snow, wind, life moving on.
Inside, ti had stopped around one bed.
Sophia’s.
---
Orion remained sitting where he was. His gaze focused on Lysander, who still had that frown on his face.
There was a slight tension in his shoulders, and the way his gaze did not settle properly on anything. The faint crease between his brows did not belong there unless sothing had gone wrong.
Orion finally broke the silence.
"Why are you frowning?"
"I’m confused," Lysander said.
Orion’s eyes narrowed slightly. "Confused?"
Lysander nodded once.
"It’s... the sa pattern," he continued. "The sa inconsistency."
He glanced toward Orion then, as if checking whether the comparison would land.
"And it reminds of what happened to you just yesterday."
Orion did not move—but sothing in him tightened.
Lysander continued, voice steady but quieter now.
"When you collapsed, the healers found nothing wrong. No internal injury. No visible cause. Nothing that explained your condition at all. You had a temperature spike, but nothing to tell us why it was happening."
He paused.
"And now it’s happening again. With her."
His gaze drifted back to Sophia.
"She has no injuries that explain this state. The head wound is healing cleanly. No complications. No infection. Nothing that should keep her unconscious."
He paused again.
"But she isn’t waking up."
Silence followed his words.
Even the lanterns seed to burn quieter.
Lysander’s voice lowered slightly.
"She should be awake."
"You are the best healer we have here, brother. Surely there must be sothing to explain—"
Lysander shook his head, cutting Ronan off. "But there’s nothing. She has a fever, but that’s all. It’s the sa situation with Orion all over again."
Orion was quiet for a while, and then he spoke up.
"Can I see her?" he asked softly.
Lysander didn’t hesitate. He nodded and then led Orion down the corridor to the room where Sophia was currently placed.
Orion walked forward. He took a seat on the chair next to her and took her hand in his.
For a mont, he didn’t speak.
He just looked at her.
Her lashes rested against her cheeks. Her hair was slightly damp at the edges, as though soone had tried to cool her fever not long ago. The faint flush across her skin suggested heat beneath the surface.
And then he noticed the soft movent of her lips. It was very faint, and he would have missed it if he wasn’t paying attention.
His head tilted slightly.
Then he turned sharply toward Lysander.
Lysander had already noticed.
And he was shaking his head.
"She wasn’t speaking when I left," he said imdiately, the frown back on his face.
Orion’s gaze snapped back to Sophia.
And then he heard it. It was a whisper, but the words were unmistakable.
"I’m sorry..."
Orion froze.
The words were broken, barely ford, but they carried sothing sharp enough to cut through silence.
"I’m sorry... I’m sorry..."
His expression shifted. Sothing cracked into recognition. He had heard this before. He was very certain of that. And he should have known when Lysander said she was in the sa condition he was yesterday.
A chill crawled up his spine. He had not expected it to happen so soon. It should not have happened so soon.
Noctis stirred within him.
*Orion...*
Orion didn’t respond at first.
His eyes remained locked on Sophia.
The apology continued in uneven waves, like sothing being dragged up from a place it wasn’t ready to leave.
*It’s happening,* Noctis said.
Orion’s jaw tightened. He knew that.
*You may need to speak with your friends. It’s ti,* Noctis told him.
Orion turned to Lysander.
"Brother, do you rember the last ti sothing like this happened with her?" he asked.
Lysander’s eyes widened then. He rembered. Sophia had recovered a part of her mories, but he was certain that the reason she had recovered them was because she had been in similar situations that triggered them.
Like the ti she had a fever and it was linked to a mory from the past.
But then Lysander’s senses tangled—there was sothing else.
He turned to Orion. "How were you able to pinpoint it so easily?" he asked. "What happened when you collapsed yesterday?"
Orion gave him a soft smile. "I found out Sophia wasn’t the only one who had amnesia, though mine was different in a way... at least I think so. I only forgot about one event."
Lysander frowned at that.
"What you rembered?" Ronan asked as he stepped further into the room. "Does it have to do with my sister-in-law?"
Orion sighed and then nodded. "I have sothing to ask of you guys... privately too," he said softly.
His friends exchanged glances. Whatever Orion was about to ask them, it seed serious, especially given how he was speaking to them.
"We can use your ho... or Lysander and Brynhild’s so we would not need to move Raina and make her uncomfortable," Ronan suggested.
Lysander nodded.
"Orion... what is going on?" Brynhild asked him.
"I’ll let you know soon," he told her.
*Do you think they’ll take this information in a good way?* Noctis asked him.
"I have no idea," Orion replied. "But like I said, I’m willing to beg them to help her."
Outside, snow fell softly and breathed through the pack compound. In the shrine where Sophia had once begged the goddess to answer her, moonlight shone upon the altar so bright one would think it was a sunbeam.
The writings on the altar were highlighted by the light. And on the altar, there was the silhouette of a woman, as if sitting on the altar—but she wasn’t really there. She was one with the light, and she had a sad smile on her face.
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