Chapter 79: 79-One hundred candles
Sseraphis, dressed in pure white robes, knelt in the middle of the courtyard. In his hand, he held a lit candle.
The flame flickered with the passing breeze, but it didn’t let out. Sseraphis stared blankly at the light, his heart completely numb.
He set the candle down to the ground, and it became an addition to the ninety-nine lit candles on the ground, bringing the number to a hundred. They burnt with a violet-black flame that mirrored the colour of his eyes.
When the flame reflected in his rotating pupils. It gave the illusion of his eyes lighting up like distant stars in the vast skies if the stars drowned in eternal violent pools.
He remained kneeling long after putting the candle down. His numb heart felt like it was in mourning. The world was closing in, and only chaos remained in the wake that was his story.
The loneliness of being abandoned ached in his bones. It broke him to be stuck in an unkoving moment thay echoed of complete emptiness.
"Who am I even lighting these candles for?" He asked. He received no response as he was the only beast in the compound.
He just knew that his heart longed for a beast. It was missing a connection that he himself couldn’t place. His mind was blank, and every time he tried to remember anything meaningful, he’d end up in that lonely childhood home with his mother and father abandoning him.
"Am I lighting them for my mother?"
No, he understood immediately that it wasn’t her his heart was yearning for. It tore him apart to mourn a beast he didn’t even know, but he felt as though not lighting a candle for that beast was betraying him.
"But who is him?" He inquired, his voice becoming frantic.
He breathed out heavily and raised his head to stare at the skies. The empty feeling inside him was only growing stronger, and it gave him chills, more than normal.
’Is it possible that a beast in this cold and harsh world loves me...chose me and never left?’ It was highly unlikely, but his heart didn’t lie, and it told him that such a beast existed. It was only that his mind had somehow suppressed his memory of them.
He lowered his eyes, not finding answers in the empty skies. His eyes landed on the oak tree ahead. Hadrian had insisted that they were familiar with each other and that the oak tree was a special part of their past and only by learning the special technique that Hadrian taught him can he regain his memories of their past.
However, his heart didn’t fully trust the scarlet-eyed beast in spirit form. Every word Hadrian spoke went in through one ear, settling in his brain for a few second before his factory setting discarded them through the other ear.
In his vulnerable state, where he couldn’t put together the suppressed memories in his head or figure out why they were suppressed, he navigated his life by following his gut.
When it told him he needed to lit a dedication candle for a beast that holds a special place in his heart, He followed without question. And when it doubted Hadrian’s words, he didn’t practise the technique or go near the oak tree.
He spent his day kneeling in the courtyard, feeding that voice in his head that mourned the loss of those he had forgotten.
Sseraphis brushed his hair off his shoulder. The cool breeze brushed against his skin and felt rather pleasing. The chilly brushes were like tiny butterfly kisses that caressed his skin. ’Since when do I romanticise about the breeze?’ He wondered.
"Unbelievable!" Hadrian’s annoyed voice echoed before scarlet lightning howled in the skies and threatened to rain hell down on the courtyard. "You’re still kneeling in thar same exact spot. Do you truly think that I won’t hurt you because you are my mate?" He roared.
Sseraphis breathed in and out. Tuning out the annoyance and focusing on the amazing feeling of the wind on his skin.
Regardless of what Hadrian said about him being a submissive lover who gave himself to no ends for him, he didn’t trust it because not a single nerve in his body wanted to fulfil Hadrian’s wishes.
In fact, the beasts voice irritated him and plus, after his mother left him, he made it a point to become the strongest beast in the abyss so he never has to fall to his feet and beg anyone ever again.
With power, he swore to have everyone bow to him instead, so it made no sense that something as stupid as love would change that about him.
’Scream as loud as you want, I am not moving an inch!’ He set his foot down.
"Sseraphis! Get up and start practising the technique I showed you!" Hadrian slammed his hand onto the wall, and the stone wall shattered and fell apart, but Sseraphis didn’t move an inch.
"Why don’t you use the mate bond to make me or trigger the love you claim I have for you so that I comply," he responded lazily.
Hadrian clenched his fists, fuming mad. He felt like the universe putting his black energy on Sseraphis and trying him to the snake was punishment.
Despite a piece of him still in Sseraphis, he could neither command Sseraphis or manipulate him since he got overwhelmed back at the underground palace and his mind broke.
The snake was making his comeback impossible. As his essence was stuck on Sseraphis, only the snake could break the seals on the oak tree and dig out his real body buried under the ancient oak tree.
But Sseraphis spent every waking hour lighting candles and looking pitiful in the courtyard. He absolutely refused to comply with him and get started on the technique to release him.
Hadrian knew he was pressed for time because with his return, he knew Zarathia’s soul that was bound to his would also awakened.
Before, Zarathia had yet to discover how to permanently kill him during their battle, it was during the last minute of the battle that the fairy realized how to end his existsnce permanently but at the time, it was impossible for her to put it to action so he managed to get away.
Now, the fairy not only knew how to kill him but unlike him, who was incomplete, Zarathia had had a thousand years to perfect her craft. He knew that if a confrontation broke out with Zarathia, he was in for a deadly fight that could end his existence.
Thinking this, he realized it was in best interest to get the nine-headed snake to cooperate. He calmed down and floated over and levitated above Sseraphis’ body.
"Don’t you wish for us to reunite sooner, dear?" He asked in a sweetened tone.
Sseraphis shivered. Getting the wrong kind of goosebumps from hearing Hadrian speak in a honey-coated tone that lovers use.
He cringed outwardly and snapped sharp eyes and the spirit beast. "Hearing your voice in this form already makes me want to damage my ears and go deaf. Could you do me a favour and not speak," he scolded.
Hadrian’s heart burnt with rage. As a former king of chaos in the beastworld a thousand years back, he felt insulted by Sseraphis’ attitude, but he swallowed it in.
"How about this... I promise to leave you alone forever if you do as I say," he tried going the opposite direction.
Sseraphis scratched his chin, deep in thought. He opened his mouth and answered, "No."
