Drakkon

Chapter Twenty-Five

In the middle of the night, I awoke to the sound of loud men. I sat upright, clutching onto my night dress and whipping my head to my right, my eyes straining in the dark to catch sight of Vita. My heart was pounding chaotically and my chest was rising and falling quickly, a cold sweat forming on my brow as that night a few months ago came to my mind.

"Vita," I called out, panicked.

"Empress," she said, sitting upright. She lit a candle and brought it near me. Her eyes showed fatigue and she was blinking rapidly, as if to dispel the sleepiness. "What is it?"

"What's that noise?" I asked her, pressing a hand to my chest to calm my breathing.

She tilted her head to the side to hear and frowned, placing the candle by the nightstand before trekking over to the door. She cracked it open and stuck her head out. After a few moments, she returned. "Master Drakkon and the soldiers have returned."

"Really?" It had been almost two weeks since the war was over. "I'm sorry, did I wake you?"

"No, the noise woke me up."

I hastily tied the silk dress together and slid out of bed, plodding towards my door and cracking it open. Soldiers and men were bustling about, excited glimmers in some of their eyes while others looked sleepy.

"Lady Daiyu, what are you doing?" Vita asked as I stepped into the hallway. Vita, who was a head taller than me, looked down at me in confusion.

"I want to see if Atreus, Yat-sen, and Nikator are alright," I said as I walked along the hallway, Vita trailing after me. "There's also the matter with the other Peccata, Fang, Bohai, and Meilin."

"Dressed like that?" she asked me when we were going down a flight of stairs.

I hesitated and glanced down at my dress. It didn't show off skin, other than my neck and collar bones, and although my waist-length hair was loosely hanging over my shoulders, I didn't think that I was dressed immodestly. "Yes, I'll go dressed like this," I told her as I quickened my steps. "I wouldn't be able to go back to sleep without seeing how everyone is doing."

When we had been walking for a while, I grabbed onto a random soldier and asked him where Meilin was at. After he told me he was in the main hall, Vita and I both headed towards it. It didn't take long for us to enter. Once inside the main hall, I was shocked to a dozen or two soldiers dallying around and laughing loudly. Meilin was lazily sitting on the throne and was drinking his wine, a smile on his face as Fang and Bohai were next to him, the both of them laughing at something.

I faltered in my steps.

"Lady Daiyu?" Nikator called out when he saw me.

Nikator and Atreus were sitting near the throne on a couple of chairs that were randomly strewn in the room. Three other foreigners were sitting with them and I immediately took note of the youngest one who must've been Remus. With silver hair and white horns on the sides of his head, it was shocking to see someone like him.

When I drew near the group, I saw that the whites of Remus's eyes were black while his irises were a deep red color.

He definitely was a demon.

"Lady Daiyu." Nikator beamed at me. I noted that he wasn't injured, and neither were the rest of the Peccata. "I didn't expect to see you so early."

"I woke up from the sound," I said as I glanced at the other people sitting around. Remus was staring up at the ceiling right now, his face expressionless and his hands clasped together on his lap.