Chapter 579: A convenient skill
Night had slowly settled over the small wooden house, though it was hard to say whether it was truly night or merely another courtesy of the Central Realm trying to imitate the outside world. The luminous flowers on the walls glowed softly, casting golden reflections over the room, while the vines near the window swayed without wind. The air carried the recent warmth of low laughter, lingering kisses, and an intimacy both of them had waited far too long for.
Kael lay on his back on the bed, partially covered by the pale sheets. Sylphie rested over his body, naked beneath the thin fabric that barely covered them both, her head resting on his chest and her long white hair spread across his skin like strands of moonlight. She looked satisfied in a deep, almost serene way, as if part of the restlessness accumulated over a century had finally found a place to rest.
Kael kept one hand in her hair, slowly stroking the strands. His fingers moved down to the nape of her neck, returned to the top of her head, and repeated the motion with a patience that did not seem to match someone who, only hours earlier, had threatened the World Tree herself. Sylphie, however, knew that side of him. She knew the strength, the violence, the stubbornness, and also that silent tenderness he reserved only for a few.
She slowly opened her eyes and drew small circles on his chest with her fingertips.
"What do you want to do now?"
Kael looked up at the ceiling covered in vines, thinking for a few seconds.
"I do not have much to do."
Sylphie raised her face, resting her chin on him.
"That is new."
"It is." He smiled faintly. "I am free for a good while now."
"You saying that sounds dangerous."
"Why?"
"Because whenever you are free, something absurd happens."
Kael let out a low laugh.
"That is an unfair accusation."
"It is a historical observation."
"History written by dramatic people."
"I lived a hundred years with a primordial tree. I know drama when I see it."
Kael slid his hand through her hair again, and Sylphie closed her eyes for an instant, pleased by the touch. Then, as if remembering something, she opened them again and tilted her head.
"I heard a few things about you."
Kael raised an eyebrow.
"What kind of things?"
"That you became the King of Witches."
He went silent for a second.
"That is a simplification."
"I also heard you interfered in something involving the vampires."
"That is also a simplification."
Sylphie smiled.
"So both things happened."
Kael sighed, looking at the ceiling.
"In a way."
"I stay away for a few years and you managed to become king, irritate vampires, and invade Yggdrasil’s Central Realm."
"When you put it like that, it sounds like a lot."
"Because it is a lot."
He looked at her with a suspicious expression.
"How did you hear something like that?"
Sylphie rested her face on one hand, still lying over him, and her smile gained a hint of amusement.
"I am a nature goddess now. And also the next World Tree, at least in theory. I have a few very convenient abilities."
Kael stared at her for a few seconds.
"What do you mean?"
Sylphie did not answer immediately. Instead, she raised one hand and touched the center of his chest with two fingers. A soft green light appeared beneath his skin, spreading in small luminous branches through the mana lines of his body. Kael felt a strange vibration, though not an unpleasant one. It was as if invisible leaves were opening inside his hearing.
"Sylphie."
"Relax," she said, bringing her lips close to his ear. "Listen for yourself."
At first, Kael heard nothing beyond the quiet sound of the house. Sylphie’s breathing. The rustle of the vines. The distant crackle of the fireplace. Then, beneath all of that, something else emerged. Voices. Many voices, distant and distorted, as if coming through roots, leaves, and branches spread across different worlds.
The first voice to become clear was Yggdrasil’s.
"I am not drunk. I am the World Tree. Trees do not get drunk."
Nidhogg’s voice answered right after, far too patient for her own reputation.
"You tried to hug a lamppost and called it cousin."
"It had arboreal energy."
"It was metal."
"Metal comes from the earth."
"That does not make it your relative."
Kael went still.
Sylphie bit her lip to keep from laughing.
Then came Elion’s voice, clearly irritated.
"Someone take that cup away from her before she starts photosynthesizing with mead."
"I heard that," Yggdrasil complained, her voice dragging. "You are cruel, Elion. You always were. You entered my realm, blew up a region with forbidden magic, created an absurdly stubborn son, and now he corrupted my little successor."
"My son corrupted no one."
"He walked through the door and she turned into emotional jelly."
"She loves him."
"She sat on his lap. I had to listen to them having sex."
"That is also part of love."
"I did not want to know that."
Eleonor’s voice appeared next, elegant, but carrying dangerous amusement.
"Yggdrasil, perhaps it would be better to breathe before accusing my grandson of destroying someone’s divine composure."
"He destroyed it."
Exelia entered the conversation with the tone of someone trying to prevent a social disaster from becoming a diplomatic incident.
"Your Majesty, should I record this as an emotional crisis of a primordial entity, an informal meeting, or an occurrence related to the Scarlet family?"
"Record it as dinner," Eleonor answered.
"That does not seem correct."
"Nothing at this table seems correct."
Nidhogg made a sound that seemed like a muffled laugh.
"I think she needs to eat something else."
"I do not want to eat," Yggdrasil said. "I want to complain. I have the right to complain. It was a hundred years. A hundred years teaching posture, divinity, self-control, and responsibility. A hundred years, only for her to look at Kael for three seconds and forget everything."
Elion slammed something onto a distant table.
"She did not forget everything."
"Yes, she did. She made food for him."
"That is affection."
"She fed him on her lap."
"That is also affection."
"Then they went to the bedroom."
There was a distant silence.
Then Eleonor cleared her throat.
"That part may not require public analysis."
"I agree," Exelia said quickly.
"I disagree," Yggdrasil murmured, clearly dramatic. "I am the owner of the realm. My suffering deserves recognition."
Nidhogg seemed to move closer to her.
"Drink water."
"I do not want water."
"You are a tree."
"I am not only a tree."
"Exactly. You are a drunk tree."
"You eat my roots."
"Yes, and at this moment I am the most supportive person here."
"That is humiliating."
"A little."
Sylphie could not hold back her laughter and hid her face against Kael’s chest. Her body trembled against his, trying to muffle the sound. Kael was still staring at the ceiling, eyes wide, processing the fact that he was listening to the World Tree drunkenly complain about their love life somewhere far away.
Then Yggdrasil spoke again, even more indignant.
"And Kael too. That man enters my Central Realm as if he were invading a closed tavern, threatens to kill me, threatens to burn my tree, passes through the illusion, and still looks at me as if I am being inconvenient."
Elion answered immediately.
"You were being inconvenient."
"I was protecting Sylphie."
"You locked her in a realm for a hundred years."
"She accepted."
"With incomplete information, probably."
"Do not use good arguments while I am vulnerable."
Eleonor laughed softly in the background.
"I must admit I like her drunk."
"I do not," Exelia said.
"You never like anything fun."
"I like order."
"Exactly."
Yggdrasil seemed to slam her cup on the table.
"And Nidhogg. You too. My mortal enemy. My ancestral predator. My personal botanical shame."
"Botanical shame is new," Nidhogg commented.
"You live beneath my roots and eat parts of me as a snack."
"And yet here I am, holding your hair while you have an emotional collapse."
"That is true," Yggdrasil murmured, suddenly tearful. "You are a horrible enemy, but a surprisingly comfortable friend."
There was another silence.
Nidhogg cleared her throat.
"We are not repeating that when you are sober."
"Of course we are," Elion said.
"We are not."
"We definitely are."
"Elion."
"I am going to repeat it forever."
Kael lost the fight against himself.
First came a low sound caught in his throat. Then another. Then he began to truly laugh. Sylphie lifted her face, her eyes bright with amusement, and seeing his expression completely come undone only made her own laughter grow as well. Kael tried to cover his face with one hand, but it was useless. The laughter came strong, uncontrolled, tearing out of him all the accumulated weight of battles, threats, and impossible arguments.
Sylphie smiled above him, happy in a simple and profound way.
"I thought you would like to hear it."
Kael kept laughing, barely able to speak.
"She is drunk on mead."
"She is."
"Yggdrasil."
"Yes."
"The World Tree."
"The one and only."
Kael took a deep breath, tried to regain his composure, and failed immediately when Yggdrasil’s distant voice complained again.
"I still think no one is properly valuing my trauma."
Nidhogg answered with absolute calm.
"Your trauma is that two adults in love reunited."
"Do not simplify my pain."
Kael turned his face into the pillow and laughed even harder.
Sylphie lay back down on his chest, laughing with him, her white hair spread over both of them while the magic remained open for a few more moments. For the first time since he had entered that realm, the sound filling the house was not crying, a threat, or a painful explanation.
It was laughter.
And, to Sylphie, that too felt like a form of healing.
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