❛WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU MAKE THE TEN MOST POWERFUL GODS ALIVE PLAY A GAME OF MUSICAL CHAIRS WITH ONE SEAT?❜
They fight - to the death.
They fight over three crowns and a throne with steel spiked maces. They despair a little more everyday keeping thei...
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[TRIGGER WARNING: READERS MAY HAVE EMOTIONALLY DISTRESSING REACTIONS TO THE CHAPTER, BEAR WITH ME. LET'S HOPE THESE ARE TEARS OF JOY FOR ONCE.]
ARCTON FORTRESS, RIMEBAY, VERTGATE.
EDWINA
"ALL RIGHT," ROSALVA GAVE ME a last once over, gently pressing down on my side. I winced slightly, for the flesh was still tender. She had been trying to wean me off the morphine, but it wasn't easy - not when I had copious amounts of it in my system for more than a week. It had been an ordeal to bathe and dress, even with help from the attendants; for my movements were still clumsy and my senses still disoriented.
"Keep away from any sort of... physical exertion for the next couple of days. You still have a limp," Vivian warned, clicking his tongue.
"I'm not limping," I argued hotly as Rosalva encouragingly nudged a gilded cane to me, its head topped with obsidian. "And I don't need a stick to help me walk."
"You will take that stick to help you walk, else I will keep you here for another week," he let out a low growl of anger loosed with annoyance. "I spent seven days and seven nights to piece you back together, Edwina. I will not let you ruin that work by tripping from that limp and breaking your bones again. Take the stick," Vivian gritted out.
That was that, then.
This man had sewn me back together when I was little more than a pile of bones and bleeding flesh. After all that power he had used up to heal me... well, he knew what was best.
"Give me the damned thing," I sullenly muttered, holding out a hand for it. The walking cane felt foreign and strange under my fingers. Yet as I put my weight on it and braced myself, I realized that it helped.
"Are you going to tell him?" his voice made me turn around.
"Tell who what, exactly?"
"You love him, don't you?" Rosalva said softly. I became stiller than the wind.
"It's none of your business."
"That man had a nervous breakdown while you lay here, blazing with fever. He never left your side, not even once. I see it in his eyes. How long will you torture him like this, Edwina?" Vivian asked quietly.
I could not answer, not for the life of me. I said nothing for a moment, only clutched the object in my hand - the object I'd asked Ava to retrieve from my desk at home.
