Chapter 359: Nedra
Nedra awoke in her cottage after making the cage for Zagan in his castle room. She didn’t know how much longer she could keep doing things like this for him.
What Zagan didn’t realize or didn’t care to realize was that this portal world she had created for him was something that continually sapped her energy. It was not like all of the other things she did—creating cuffs for the alyko, creating the containment facility with its unique wings that reflect nature’s elements, creating the cage in that room—that were relatively minor. With those smaller tasks, she could make them, leave them to exist in the way that they were intended, and they did not continue to draw energy from her.
The portal, on the other hand—this massive island that was a new creation in space with its own strange natural laws that she had tried to bend to be as similar to what the alyko were used to as possible—it continually wore on her, continually requiring her energy to keep going. And she was tired. She was so tired.
Even making something like the cage for him became a major task when she was already so exhausted. She barely made it to another bed in the castle before she lost consciousness this time. It was beginning to be too much, and that fact alone terrified her.
What would Zagan do if he realized that she was becoming weak and less useful? What would he do if she was not able to complete a job for him that he required?
Perhaps she should not worry about it, because it was likely that at that time she would be close to the end of her days anyway. But there were people she was leaving behind that were at his mercy. Seth was one of them.
Her gut twisted with that familiar helpless ache when she thought of him or her children that she had to abandon to live in the world without her. Selah was so strong and capable, just like her father. She was really the perfect combination of both of them, which is why Nedra trusted her to take care of Sage from the time he was an infant.
It was not fair to Selah to have been given such a massive responsibility. Nedra knew that to be true, but she also did not have another choice. She couldn’t abandon all of the alyko here, and she couldn’t leave Seth to die at the hands of that vampire, which is what Zagan threatened to do.
She groaned reliving all of this in her mind once again. Zagan had gotten lucky to have the most powerful alyko in his grasp who also happened to have a weakness—love for his second in command. How had that happened? She should have never let Seth get close to her. She should have never developed those attachments, but if there were something like a mate bond for alyko, this was the closest to it.
Nedra had pushed Seth away since Zagan found out about their secret feelings for one another, trying to keep Seth at a distance. And she mostly succeeded. He rarely came around anymore. He was kept busy with his work for Zagan anyway, but occasionally she had been weak and sought him out or let him in when he came to visit. And that was how Selah and Sage came to be. She couldn’t let that happen again.
It was the most fraught time having Selah here as a pup. Thankfully Nedra knew the island’s properties so well as its creator that she was able to make little invisible pockets in the woods behind her cottage that kept Selah hidden, safe from being discovered by anyone else on the island.
Nedra was constantly terrified during that time that someone would find the most precious thing she had ever made, more precious than the creations that Zagan cherished—her daughter. But it was also the most joyous time of her life. She never knew love like what she felt for her children, and watching Selah play and explore—growing into a unique little being that resembled Nedra with her jet black hair and green eyes but had Seth’s courage and goofy personality and clear lycan qualities—was easily the best time of her life.
She cherished those memories with Selah more than anything else. It almost made all of this madness that had become her life worth it if it weren’t for the alyko who she had to keep seeing come in, taken as permanent prisoners of the immortal monster.
Zagan was a bastard. Early on, she was constantly torn—should she keep doing things like this for him? It was an impossible situation to be in. But she saw the condition his alyko were in prior to her creating this place for them. They were kept separated and in the dark. They were left without any hope, without any joy, and they were dying.
Nedra may be fulfilling these requests for Zagan to keep Seth alive, but she was also doing it because it was much better for the alyko. They were happier. It was not perfect, of course. Not even close. It would be much better if they could all be set free to live the lives they wanted, but Zagan could not be stopped anyway. She had failed to kill him, which meant he would continue gathering the alyko, continue collecting them and keeping them somewhere—and at least she could make that somewhere a better place.
That is what she told herself. That is what allowed her to sleep a little at night.
Hopefully her exhaustion was not affecting the integrity of the island or its containment facilities. She should probably make a visit to the facility to ensure that everything was as it should be. If there was going to be a problem, it would best if she knew about it before Zagan did so she could try to remedy it quickly. The alyko were depending on her to keep them safe and relatively happy.
