He could hear the loud clicking of heels down the intricately marbled tiles of his floor followed by the sound of wooden doors breaking and glasses shattering. In the range of just a split second and a full two, he predicted to hear the voice of a woman from the amazon piercing more violently than his own lightning spear. That bitch.
"Edahn!"
The head of the Khun Family didn't even bother planting his face on his palm, as the terrified looks of his servants put the classical paintings hung on his living quarters' walls to shame. They just never get used to it.
"I hope you came alone this time, Yu-"
"Hurry the fuck up, Bloodmadder, you turtle!" The pretty lady with sharp features called out to her friend still making his way from the outside before she turned to the Khun Family workers inside the room she and her other chum were in. "Ever heard of privacy, you blue supremacist shits?!"
Edahn signaled for them to go.
"No wonder my family hates yours."
"Shut up, acting like a family man," Ha Yurin snarled mockingly at her old companion. "They never learn. Fire them."
The bluenette could only sigh at this.
"Okay, I'll reconsider that," he saved a mental note in his head.
An explosion of confetti and celebratory noises then rung their way into the host's ears. Yurin, who just blew her party popper was now grinning from ear to ear, with Hendo Lok Bloodmadder's entrance a grand one, coming with a heap of footmen pushing a selection of fine wine. Now, he was talking!
"Happy Birthday!" He cheerfully greeted, and obnoxiously so.
"Happy Birthday!" His voice laced with electricity mimicked the taller warrior's regards. "Bloodmadder, you should've come alone," the Spear Bearer humored the Defender as he side-eyed their Scout, who was shooting daggers at him with her eyes like it was second nature. He of all peope, though, knew better than to assume it was merely in the form of a simile.
Making themselves feel at home without the need for consent, Yurin and Bloodmadder settled at the extravagant long table in front of Edahn's throne.
"Get down here, Edahn," Bloodmadder invited, which his comrade adhered to.
"You really are Bloody's mad bitch."
"Excuse me?"
"You are excused. Now, shut the fuck up."
The sound of wine pouring and glasses clattering filled the large room, as the three went on with Yurin and Edahn's yearly routine.
"Should I bring Jahad next year?"
"You should bring yourself to hell."
Bloodmadder almost choked on his own drink at the joke, stifling a laugh from escaping.
He scanned Edahn's place, but it didn't really change much from the last time he was there, which was a mere five or six months ago. Paintings which their owner never looked at still adorned the light blue walls, a huge chandelier hanging at the center of the ceiling, never really giving light to him, and many insignificant decors here and there that were only displayed out of a need to consume some money.
Legendary rich stud problems.
His friend truly was living an empty life, and he was more than guilty, because somehow, unbeknownst to any of the others except Jahad, he was contributing to that suffering. Since they first met, the Khun leader had always been like that—an icon in his own ways, a genius who looked like an idiot; or a cheating womanizer, a kid just trying to get some fun out of life. Yep, there's this and that, and various other things, too. But, he was happy. Right now, though, he was just... Khun Edahn High Ranker #6, greatest active Spear Bearer in the Tower, head of the feared Khun Family, you name it. However, he wasn't Khun Edahn as he knew himself. Although they all collectively lost a lot of things in their great journey to gain what they decided genuinely mattered at the top of the Tower, the Hendo Lok Family Head felt otherwise. And watching his pal as he is made him realize just how much more pathetic he himself turned.
The room was still blue as Edahn had always been, but to Bloodmadder, it only seemed like a faded shade forced to be washed over, not by time, but by the pain.
"Jahad loved her, too, Ed. Maybe more than even you did," Yurin seriously stated, a bit dazed out from the nostalgia.
"The only one that yellow eyesore loved was Arlen," the blue-eyed man responded without any emotion or significant change in movement.
"Now, you know that isn't true," Bloodmadder interjected ahead of the silence that took over the atmosphere for a good three minutes.
It was broken by Edahn, who put his stalk of grapes down to his plate, an essential in his safe space.
"Maybe it'd be better not to do this anymore, Yurin. As I've already told you centuries ago, I don't remember her anymore."
"You can avoid talking to your kids and keep lying to your wives, but you can't do that to us, you manwhore." The uncharacteristically serene reply from Yurin was something usual for them, despite her still harsh words.
"I'm not trying to."
"Then stop lying."
"I'm not-"
"You couldn't blame Jahad for what happened, but you also understood it too much to the point where you couldn't even hate yourself for it. So now, all you do is whimp around, be a sissy, and convince yourself Blake never existed in the first place. Grow some balls, Edahn. This is why Enryu beat you as a Spear Bearer and Urek Mazino outranked you in the top 5."
Bloodmadder only spectated. Edahn wasn't being provoked at all. He was only circling his wine glass by his right wrist, getting lost in the torrent of the alcohol. What he was plotting, he shouldn't tell them yet.
"You seem like you forgot about it along with how to be a man, so I'll remind you right now! Blake always said, 'Whatever you may have lost, someday, for sure, it'll come back into your hands.' When all of those things that slipped you by return, how are you going to take responsibility if you keep trying to change yourself into something you're not just 'cause you're a motherfucking loser? When the time comes around when you see Blake again, how will you face her, hold her when you can't even get a grasp of your own crappy self?" The heavy chair she sat on grazing the dark blue floor as she abruptly stood up to yell her heart out.
Yurin's rage fit brought upon a visible surprise on Bloodmadder's expression. Nonetheless, seeing Edahn's atypical reaction to the subject, the aggressive woman calmly breathed her next words.
"But she'll love you, anyway. Yeah, just like she always did."
Going back to her prior position and taking a sip from her glass, the girl controlled her breathing and wanderings. It was Blake's birthday, after all. She didn't want to accidentally perform homicide on the love of her best friend's life, and one of the most precious people she herself has kept in her heart so unchangingly since day one, first and foremost. And also because, she was the one, who for millennia, had been acting so selfishly towards him.
"But she's not coming back."
Yurin and Bloodmadder looked up from their noses in slight shock at Edahn's declaration.
"She lied, okay? I lied, too, just now. She's not coming back."
