Vairon sat by the fire with a blank expression. His eyes flashed with disdain as he watched the ravenous beast in front of him tear through a glistening drumstick like a starved ghost.
The "beast" in question, the so-called supreme beauty, was Kaelira Aenwyn. Though it could easily be argued that with her voracious appetite, she looked more like a starved ghoul than a celestial beauty.
Feeling the judgmental gaze on her, Kaelira lifted her head and met the impassive eyes of the green-haired youth before her. Shooting him a death glare, she promptly returned to devouring the small feast in front of her.
"Woman, no one is going to fight you for the food…"
"I (munchmunch) don't care. Your cooking is (swallow) too good to leave exposed to potential threats!"
Feeling the familiar twitch above his brow, Vairon decided to ignore her boorish behavior and focus on eating his own fill—in a refined, educated manner, of course. After all, not everyone in the room had been raised by beasts.
But seeing all the food he prepared disappearing at a rapid pace, Vairon began to eat slightly faster. After all, no one cared about manners when starvation was on the table.
"Ahhhhh, that hit the spot! As always, your food is delicious, stone-face. You should really consider my offer to become my personal servant. Your mistress won't mistreat you~"
With a slight roll of his eyes, Vairon packed his cooking ingredients and supplies back into his spatial pouch and sat by the fire, cross-legged in meditation. Feeling a disturbance in the surrounding qi, Kaelira lifted her head lazily from her sprawled position and tried to locate the source over her bloated stomach.
Seeing Vairon in his calm state, she rested her head back down and basked in the warm fire and full belly like a household cat settling into its favorite spot.
Meanwhile, Vairon began to inspect his body—and was instantly irritated by what he found. His body was, in a word… ruined. His bones, though healed, were brittle and weak. Any more stress on them would result in grievous injury.
His organs were much the same. The dense bandages covering his body did nothing to represent the devastation beneath. He was truly at the end of his rope. Sighing inwardly, he suddenly noticed a strange occurrence.
His soul plane within his sea of consciousness was surprisingly much more robust—almost as if it had solidified. Startled, Vairon took a closer look and quickly found the source. His incarnate had evolved slightly, taking him a step closer to controlling his incarnate weapon.
Thinking back to his interaction with his alter ego, he felt he was on the cusp of understanding something from Ardamesh's words—though he did not yet know what. The final piece of the puzzle still eluded him.
As frustration began to simmer, he exited his meditative state—only to be met with the sight of a lazy cat curled near his lap, belly full and utterly content.
The "cat" in question purred softly as the warmth of the fire and the gentle breeze flowing from the man behind her wrapped her in a cocoon of comfort. Vairon reached out to wake her, but his hand froze as he realized she hadn't had a true rest in quite some time.
They had been fighting and running nonstop for weeks. If they continued like this, they would collapse in spirit long before their bodies gave out. His gaze was complicated as he looked at her.
She had carried him for days after the serpent battle, braving the unknown dangers of the forest with no idea what lurked around them. Every step could have led to their deaths. Yet she hid her fears with jokes and reckless bravado.
She had suffered—for them, for him. She deserved this rest more than anyone.
Thinking this far, Vairon's piercing verdant eyes softened at the delicate woman reflected within them.
'You know… she's actually pretty cute when sh—'
"Vai…ron… you must… fight me… I promise I won't go for… your manhood again…"
"…"
Feeling a shift around her, Kaelira's sleep-laden eyes fluttered open. Turning around, she immediately noticed the absence of a certain stone-faced scholar. Panic seized her heart, jolting her fully awake.
"…Vairon?"
Hearing no reply but the faint whisper of wind slipping through the window, her face fell.
'D-Did he leave me?'
Shaking off the creeping suspicion, Kaelira sprang to her feet. Seeing the room empty but the door slightly ajar, she rushed out, calling his name with mounting anxiety.
"Vairon? VAIRON!?"
Her calls devolved into desperate shouts as she ran through the building—until she reached the main hall. There, she finally caught sight of Vairon's figure, his back facing her. Panic and despair bled from her body in trembling relief.
As her heart calmed, fury began to burn in her stomach.
'T-That bastard! Scaring me like that? And ignoring me!? How dare he make me worry!'
Taking heavy steps toward him, a pitch-black murderous aura swirled around her like a storm—before abruptly fading. Perhaps because of her earlier panic, she finally took note of her surroundings.
This "building" was, in fact, a mansion of colossal proportions. The ceilings and corridors were wide and tall, as if designed for giants. She hadn't noticed it while running earlier, but now she realized she had covered an absurd distance just to reach the main hall. Yet from the outside, the house hadn't looked nearly so large when she explored their surroundings.
The luxurious purple silk curtains and tapestries lining the walls alluded to noble origins. As she tried to make sense of the inconsistencies, she finally arrived beside Vairon.
Gazing at the wall he was studying, she noticed the mural depicted on it.
"Had enough running and screaming? I didn't know the peerless beauty of the North could panic like that, haha—"
As Vairon turned slightly toward her, his laughter died instantly when he saw what she was holding.
Gulp.
"I-Is that necessary? There are no enemies here…"
Kaelira tore her eyes from the mural, confused, before looking at her hand. A look of realization dawned on her—sometime during her panic, she had drawn her halberd from her spatial ring.
Flashing Vairon a smile that didn't reach her eyes, a dark aura pooled around her once again as she gripped the weapon tightly.
"I don't know~ There could still be some nearby. We have to be extra careful in case of betrayal… don't we~?"
He didn't know why, but every fiber of his being screamed at him not to argue. Hurriedly nodding, cold sweat dripped down his back. When he looked at her again, he was greeted by an icy stare.
Nodding in satisfaction at his "agreement", (or fear, who knows?), she returned the weapon to her ring. Together, they turned their attention back to the mural.
The mural was… odd.
There was something deeply unsettling about it and the pictures depicted on it. The longer they stared, the stronger and sharper the sense of unease grew.
"…What is this?"
Vairon remained silent for a moment, thoughts churning, until his gaze slowly cleared.
"I think… this is the key to our answers."