Chapter 37: You destroyed the world
Azriel
"Was it a white lotus?" Thamiel suddenly interrupted, and before Anomas could even formulate an answer, the entire bedroom violently lightened up in a brilliant, blinding blue light. The glow was suffocating at first, then slowly went dimmer, allowing us to watch as a spectral white lotus emerged directly from Seraphel’s stomach, hovering for a split second before it sank back inside of him. Immediately after, bright blue light began to pulse like glowing veins all over his body, spreading rapidly under his skin.
"Exceptional," Thamiel exclaimed, his eyes wide.
I frowned deeply, wondering what the hell he was talking about, and then I slowly approached the bed until I was standing right in front of him, wanting to know what he had seen that made him exclaim with that much shock. "What exactly are you trying to say, Thamiel?" I questioned him, my voice tight. ’’Just say it and let us know.’’
"He possesses the raw power of the white lotus."
"I know that already," I snapped impatiently.
Thamiel shook his head firmly. "No, this is entirely different. No ordinary human should ever possess this absolute level of pureness from the lotus. Are you entirely sure that he is only a regular omega human, and has absolutely no secret connection to Elysium?"
I shook my head, my mind racing. "I had felt his powers last night, and as incredibly pure as it is, I didn’t feel any sense of familiarity with it. So how is it that you feel it’s connected to Elysium? There is absolutely no way."
"You think so?" Thamiel asked cryptically, and then gently placed Seraphel’s hand back onto his chest as he finished checking his vitals.
Seraphel had completely stopped trembling and grunting by now, and even the lost, pale color on his face was already returning to normal, looking as if he had never been under a fatal attack just a few minutes ago.
"Aside from the Letiti circulating in his body, something else entirely was also introduced into his system, and it should have been completely harmful to the child. It is Mortis-Vinea, a forced-induced labor medicine that is used in forbidden dark magic—a practice that was outlawed thousands of years ago to stop the birth of powerful bloodlines."
"That is completely impossible, Thamiel. Elysium made absolutely sure that specific forbidden magic was thoroughly destroyed, so how could it possibly be here in Katula?! Nothing can bypass my defensive wards without me knowing!"
Anomas suddenly stood up from his chair, shutting his feather fan with a sharp, echoing snap that echoed through the room. "But did Ionia ever actually stop practicing the forbidden magic?" he asked pointedly.
I rubbed a hand over my forehead, a dark grimace forming on my face because he was entirely right about that. Ionia still practiced dark magic in the shadows until this very day, even when their king had been locked away in chains for thousands of years.
"So he was poisoned with Mortis-Vinea alongside the tea," I muttered.
Thamiel nodded firmly. "But the poison is completely gone now. The white lotus completely purified it, and I am entirely certain that it was the very same lotus that purified his body the night you took him during his heat. That is exactly why his fragile human body was able to survive you, and I also think it is the sole reason why he is physically capable of carrying the child of prophecy."
I stared intently down at Seraphel’s lying figure, and I couldn’t help but wonder what the hell was actually going on with him. I had wondered who he truly was and suspected a few minor details, but I had absolutely no idea that his origins could be related to such a massive secret identity. "So he could be much more than a simple human?"
Thamiel nodded in agreement. "The white lotus did significantly more than my own healing ability ever could have, and now he is completely out of danger."
"But the danger itself has not ended," Anomas added grimly. "In my vision, right after seeing Seraphel on that bed, the next thing I witnessed was him entirely covered in blood. And you know very well, Azriel, that for thousands of years, my visions have never once been wrong. This means that the influence of Elysium is already physically here in Katula."
"That can’t be," I responded quickly, my pride bristling. "There is absolutely no way in hell that they are here. I had personally placed the strongest spatial wards around the entire kingdom."
Anomas shook his head, looking directly into my eyes. "Elysium would stop at absolutely nothing to end this prophecy, which means they already planted a spy here in Katula before we even began to suspect it, and that specific someone successfully helped them infiltrate this kingdom."
I said absolutely nothing, just staring silently down at Seraphel’s peaceful face yet again, my mind filled with so many conflicting thoughts and unusual worries.
Worries? I had always been the type of creature to never worry about a single thing ever in my life aside from the weight of my own curse, but now I suddenly had both him and the unborn baby to worry for.
A weakness. How could I possibly be worried about a mere human? I shouldn’t be, but the exact second I saw Seraphel cough out that heavy spray of blood, the mate bond had reacted immediately, forcing me to feel all of his agony, and that absolute lack of control dreaded me so much.
"What actually made everything significantly worse in that vision was you, Azriel."
Anomas’s sudden words made me snap my head toward him, giving him a sharp, questioning look. "What the hell do you mean by that?" I demanded, my tone dropping into a dangerous register.
"I saw you, Azriel. You were kneeling on the ground and holding Seraphel’s lifeless body while the entire world burned to ashes around you. Azriel... you completely destroyed the world."
