Chapter 572: A meal with someone you love is always more enjoyable.
Kael remained embraced with Sylphie for a long time, without trying to let go, without saying anything that might interrupt that moment. The house was silent around them, illuminated by a warm light coming from small lamps hanging on the walls and by a low fireplace near the kitchen. Outside, the Central Kingdom of Yggdrasil continued to exist in all its impossible immensity, but inside everything seemed smaller, simpler, almost human. The smell of wood, cooked herbs, and freshly baked bread filled the air, creating a sense of home that Kael hadn’t experienced in far too long.
Sylphie still trembled slightly against him. Not like before, not with that initial desperation of someone who feared he would disappear if she let go for a second, but with the last echoes of a wait that had been far too long. Kael kept one hand in her white hair, slowly running his fingers through the long strands while the other remained firmly on her back. He felt her breath gradually calming against his chest, and that, somehow, helped calm his own as well.
After a while, Kael pulled back just enough to look at her face. Sylphie lifted her moist eyes, still clinging to his clothes, as if that small distance was already uncomfortable. There were tear marks on her cheeks, but there was also relief. A relief so great it felt almost painful.
"How are you?" he asked softly.
Sylphie gave a small, fragile laugh, the kind that comes when you don’t know whether to smile or cry again. She wiped her face with her fingertips, but didn’t move away from him completely.
"Better now," she replied. "But I don’t think that’s a very fair answer."
Kael watched her intently.
"Then give me a fair answer."
She took a deep breath, looking inside the house for a few seconds before gently pulling him by the hand.
"Come. I was cooking."
Kael let himself be guided without resistance. Only then did he take a closer look at the interior of the small house. It was simple, but very well cared for. There was a wooden table in the center, two chairs, low cabinets full of herb jars, baskets with strange fruits, and a small kitchen where pots steamed over a soft green flame. Vines grew from the ceiling beams, but not wildly. They were there as part of the house, forming small natural curves where white and yellow flowers sprouted silently.
Sylphie led Kael to the table, but didn’t yet make him sit down. First, she looked him up and down, noticing his torn clothes, the partially closed cuts, the strange mana pulsing under his skin, and the accumulated weariness on his shoulders. Her face hardened for a moment.
"You’re hurt."
"I’ve been worse."
"Kael."
"I’m here."
She pressed her lips together, clearly dissatisfied with the response, but didn’t argue at that moment. Perhaps because she knew there would be time for that later. Perhaps because, for now, the fact that he was standing before her was more important than any scolding.
She made him sit at the table and returned to the kitchen, but didn’t linger far enough to seem distant. While stirring a pot, she kept glancing at him over her shoulder, as if needing to repeatedly confirm that he wasn’t a memory produced by exhaustion.
"The years here have been strange," she began, her voice lower. "At first, I thought I was going to go crazy. Everything was too big. Too old. Yggdrasil taught me, but she doesn’t teach like a normal person. She doesn’t explain one thing at a time. She throws an entire forest inside your head and expects you to learn to breathe in there."
Kael rested his arms on the table, listening silently.
"I learned to feel roots before I understood my own body again," Sylphie continued. "I learned to listen to plants that hadn’t even sprouted yet. I learned to differentiate the energy of a healthy leaf from the energy of a leaf about to die. I learned that an entire forest can be afraid. That a tree can hold a grudge. That seeds can remind people of places they’ve never been."
She stirred her food a few more times, but her voice had become distant, as if part of her was still trapped in that routine that lasted too long.
"At first I hated it. Not because the power was bad, but because everything reminded me that I was far from you. I would wake up, train, meditate, absorb primordial mana, listen to Yggdrasil speak of cycles, duties, and roots, and then return to this house alone."
Kael lightly closed his hand on the table.
Sylphie noticed the gesture and softened her voice.
"After a while, it got easier. Not because I missed you less, but because I began to understand better what was happening to me. My body changed. My mana changed. The forest began to respond even before I asked. I could make flowers bloom just by breathing near the earth. I could hear underground rivers. I could feel creatures walking miles away."
She turned her face to him with a small, tired smile.
"Yggdrasil said I absorbed enough primordial mana to ascend as she wanted. So now..." She paused, as if the word still sounded strange coming from her mouth. "Now I am a goddess."
Kael stared at her for a few seconds.
Then he smiled.
"I realized."
Sylphie raised an eyebrow.
"Realized?"
"You’re much stronger than me."
She seemed surprised by the naturalness of the sentence.
"You say that smiling?"
"Of course."
"Why?"
Kael tilted his head slightly, the smile still discreet on his lips.
"Because I missed you."
Her expression changed immediately. All attempts at a calm demeanor crumbled into something more vulnerable. Sylphie quickly turned her face to the pan, as if she needed to pretend she was busy before her eyes filled with tears again.
"That was unfair," she murmured. "It was true."
"Still unfair."
Kael let out a low laugh, and the sound seemed to fill an empty space inside the house. Sylphie took a deep breath, stirred her food once more, and then spoke in a lower tone, almost embarrassed, but too honest to completely hide.
"You have no idea how much I want to jump on you right now."
Kael blinked slowly.
Sylphie looked at him over her shoulder, her face slightly flushed, but without looking away.
"I miss everything," she said. "Talking. Sleeping together. Touching you. Hearing your voice close to my ear. Waking up and seeing you still there. Everything."
Kael laughed, not mockingly, but at her absolute honesty. There was something so Sylphie in that sentence that his chest tightened again.
"It’s true," he replied. "I miss everything too."
Sylphie smiled back, small and warm, and turned her attention to the food. For a few minutes, the sound of the pot, the low flame, and the utensils filled the silence between them. Kael watched her every movement as if he were relearning an image he feared to forget. The way her white hair fell down her back. The way she tilted her face as she tasted the seasoning. The silent care with which she prepared something simple, even while carrying an entire divinity within her.
Shortly after, Sylphie finished. She served a generous plate, placed a small bowl beside it, and brought everything to the table. The food was simple, but it smelled absurdly good. There were vegetables cooked in herbs, light rice, golden mushrooms, and pieces of warm bread. Kael realized at that moment that he was hungry. A real, human hunger, almost forgotten after so many hours traversing dimensions and battles.
Sylphie placed the plate before him.
"Let’s eat."
Kael pulled out the chair beside her with the obvious intention of having her sit down, but Sylphie completely ignored the gesture. Instead, she walked around the table and sat directly on his lap, settling in naturally, as if that were the only possible place. Kael stood still for a second, looking at her.
"You have a chair."
"I do."
"It’s empty."
"I know."
Sylphie picked up the fork, cut a piece of food, and brought it to his mouth with absolute calm. Kael stared at her for another moment, then accepted. The taste was warm, smooth, and familiar in a way that was hard to explain. It wasn’t just food. It was care. It was presence. It was the end of a distance.
Sylphie watched his reaction attentively.
"Is it good?"
Kael swallowed slowly.
"It is."
"Really?"
"Really."
She seemed satisfied, then prepared another portion on her fork.
Kael looked at her with a slight smile.
"Are you going to feed me all the time?"
"Today, yes."
"Why?"
Sylphie brought the fork closer again, her green eyes fixed on his.
"Because I’ve waited over a hundred years to do this."
Kael couldn’t find an answer to that.
Then he simply opened his mouth and accepted the food.
Sylphie smiled, leaning closer to him as she continued to feed him in small, patient gestures. One of her hands remained resting on his shoulder, as if she still needed constant contact. Kael put an arm around her waist, holding her carefully, and for a while they stayed like that, unhurried, without the outside world, without Yggdrasil, without trials and without war.
Just a small house.
A warm meal.
And the reunion they had both waited for too long.
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