Regius (2 page)

Galax pulled away from the
wall, beginning to pace and trying to remember the breathing
techniques Flux had taught him when he was but a child to tone down
the rage that came with the blue blood.

"All I know is that I am
not going to sit and wait. Dead or alive, I will find her and I
will bring her back to me." Galax directed his fear filled gaze to
Isa. "If she is dead, I need to know."

The pirate's eyebrows shot
away into his hairline. "She is your light?" Isa was more
resourceful than Galax had believed him to be.

Galax halted in his
pacing, giving the pirate a careful nod. "She is. And if she is
dead, it means that I will follow." He paused. "Are you willing to
carry some of the responsibility that may or may not be the death
of the Regius heir? If it comes to that, you will be tried for
treason not only by the Regius, but also the Palliums
and
the
Altors."

"Dead or alive," Isa placed
a hand on Galax's shoulder, squeezing it. "I will help you find
her."

* * * *

"Keep talking to him,
Dandi."

Ivy? Opening my eyes, I
hissed and quickly closed them again when all I could take in was a
blinding light. I was about to panic, but then I felt soft hands
pushing the hair out of my face and gently stroking my
cheek.

"Dandelion." I breathed in
relief.

"That's right, sweetheart.
I'm right here. Everything is okay." Contrary to her words, her
voice was concerned and triggered a shot of fear to rush through
me. "No!" She pushed me back onto what I assumed was a bed when I
tried to sit up. I opened my eyes again, this time prepared for the
light. My vision was slightly blurry and everything was grey. But I
could make out Dandelion and Ivy's figures looming over me and on
the opposite end of the room I could make out Ilex and
Iris.

"What happened?" I croaked
out, sitting up again, only slowly this time as Dandelion allowed
it. "I-" Remembering some, I touched my neck and winced as I could
feel the thin cut Rhamnus had made beneath my fingertips. "Did you
use that stuff to force me to sleep again?" I asked, guessing this
is why I felt so groggy. Despite that, I felt intensely healthy and
well rested. Although the cut was sensitive, the rest of me had
never felt this great before.

"Rhamnus triggered you,
believing your Seer side would put you to sleep and make it easier
for him to kidnap you." I blinked in surprise at the new voice, a
voice that I hadn't expected to appear here in the Altor
Coliseum.

Nudging Dandelion aside, I
looked around until my eyes landed on the grey figure of a man.
"Aram?" I hadn't seen him since that day he'd left me with Acacia
and Lupinus in the boarding house. What was he doing
here?

"I'll talk to him." He said
to the other Altors present in the room, implying they should leave
me and the Elder on our own. Ilex offered a reassuring smile before
he closed the door. Feeling a tad concerned, I managed to sit up
properly and offer Aram the attention he apparently needed out of
me. He walked over to the window, closing the thin curtain so the
sunlight streaming through wouldn't be so harsh.

"Thank you." I murmured,
nodding at him when he mutely asked if it was alright he sit on the
edge of the bed.

"After the attack, Ilex had
everyone move to the Coliseum due to the influx of raids by the
Regius." Aram grunted. "Stop blinking, it won't turn it off. You
need to relax for your vision to return to normal."

"But I am relaxed." I
answered stubbornly, trying not to blink at all anymore.

The Elder rolled his eyes.
"You may feel that way because the trigger balanced out your inner
system, making you feel as strong as you've ever felt before, but
recent events still need to catch up with your brain. Your memory
is battling to remember what exactly happened." He paused. "What do
you remember?" I opened my mouth to speak, but fell silent when I
realized I could not answer that question without putting some
effort into it. "Take your time." Aram said. Nodding my head
uncertainly, I tried to slow down my breathing and focus on what
had happened before Rhamnus had nicked my skin.

"I was sick." I murmured
and when the Elder nodded, I allowed myself to dig deeper. "Ilex
and Datura said I was delirious and stated I was part
Seer."

"Yet..." Aram trailed off,
beckoning me to find the rest of that memory.

I gulped. "Yet I became
aggressive during the trigger, which is normal for an Altor
soldier, but not for one that is part Seer." Thinking that over, I
saw flashes of myself trying to fight Rhamnus. But before that
Datura was trying to hide me, or have me escape. "Rhamnus burst
into the training room before I could leave through the underground
tunnel." Looking around the room, I noticed that everything was
made out of pale, large stones. It was cold. There was no heating
system or fireplace to bring warmth, but someone had covered me
with numerous blankets to prevent me from shivering or feeling
uncomfortable.

"You are in the Coliseum."
Aram assured. "Juglan has been forced to use the liquid that puts
one to sleep time after time over the past week."

I frowned deeply.
"Why?"

"Because every time you
woke, one of them was forced to give you an answer about what
happened to Datura."

No matter how many blankets
there was, it couldn't stop the cold now. "Where is
Datura?"

"In the Valley of Death."
He answered, leaving me confused as I didn't understand why they'd
need to put me to sleep after having heard that. He was the Keeper
of the Dead, it made sense that he was there. "He was dying slowly,
and every time someone informed you of this, you turned aggressive
once more." Aram explained.

"But he's okay now, right?"
I pressed, deciding that I couldn't sit here and have people tell
me he was alright when I could simply walk out of here and find out
for myself.

"He should have died,
Calycanthus." I ignored Aram's tone of discomfort
entirely.

"But he didn't." I
remembered everything now. The sickness, the delirium, Datura
trying to keep me safe, how I'd almost kissed him...

"I have to go to him."
Jumping out of the bed, I laughed when color returned to my vision
and not even the memory of Rhamnus' face could kill my mood now.
While my origin was still unclear, it was a sure thing that I was
more Altor than Seer. And no matter what they said, it couldn't
trump the fact that I was having no visions of the past or future.
Close contact with people didn't threaten my health like it did
Vervaine. Rhamnus may have cut me, but it wasn't much worse than a
paper cut and it is that very cut that had ended my ill state. I
felt better than ever, more so because Datura was alive and kicking
and around another day to confuse the ever living sanity out of me
with the mutual and inexplicably intense attraction we had towards
one another. The only thing that could make my happy mood rocket
even higher would be if Solenum were to walk into the Coliseum
right now.

"Clearly you aren't willing
to delve into the mystery of his miraculous recovery." Aram said
dully, standing and tossing a pair of pants my way when I couldn't
find them myself. "You may have to wait on his return for a long
while. The Palliums were under attack the last couple of days and
Datura has to clean up the deadly mess caused by it in the
Valley."

I shrugged all the while
pulling a shirt over my head. "I can wait."

"You are not interested in
hearing that you carry the blue blood cell and that now you have
been triggered you are expected to train to become a soldier?" Aram
opened the door for me.

I stopped in my tracks to
spare him a glance. "Don't you have better things to do than
lecture me? Like spending time with your daughter?"

"Who told you?" He
asked.

"Nobody. Vervaine may have
her mother's golden eyes, but otherwise she's all you." I patted
the Elder on the arm and then rushed out of there before he could
change his mind and stop me from delaying my duties towards the
Altors.

* * * *

"Why can't you just wait
for Datura at the Coliseum?" Dandelion asked again, rolling over on
her sleeping mat for the hundredth time, clearly not happy she was
forced to sleep outside. I'd told her I didn't mind waiting by the
crack in the earth that led inside the Valley on my own. But with
all the attacks that had occurred, everyone was being extra
cautious. The fact remained that even if I was now a triggered
Altor harboring more strength than a Civilian, I was untrained.
They took turns watching me and bringing me food, all of them
asking why I was so hard pressed to wait right here for Datura
instead of at the Coliseum, yet none of them forced me to go
back.

"If you and Jatrop were in
the same situation, wouldn't you wait for him right here instead of
at the Coliseum?" I murmured as I stared up at the stars in the
dark blue sky. I understood her discomfort; it was indeed not the
best to sleep outside on a mat, but it was worth it.

She grunted, turning again,
but this time she pointed her gaze at me. "Well, sure, but you and
Datura aren't married." She paused. "Or in love." She paused again.
"Right?" I smirked at her attempt to subtly nudge answers out of
me. She'd been trying this all day.

"I'm very impressed with
your behavior, Dandelion." I started laughing when she smacked
me.

"You are one tough nut to
crack, Cali!" She chuckled with me. "Please, to make guarding you
less annoying, give me something." When I remained silent, she
groaned. "Look, I knew something was going on between you two. Him
trying to kiss you, you punching him, the obvious sexual
tension."

"Hey." I frowned. "There
isn't
that
much
tension." Just because I'd accepted the attraction I felt towards
Datura and was more than willing to give into it, didn't mean
Dandelion could be so... crude.

"Prude." Now I smacked
her. "Okay, fine. I'm just saying that while I knew there was
something, I didn't know you felt
that
strongly about him." She meant
my driven need to stay right here.

"It was always there,
Dandi." I murmured. "I just didn't want to admit it."

"And now you do." She said.
"I feel surprised, but I know I shouldn't. The moment Datura saw
you in the house, something changed in him."

"Really?" I whispered
shyly, looking into her blue eyes.

She smiled. "Yeah. He
started living again. Like, he finally figured out that he is a
living soul himself, not just a tool to guide the dead." The sigh
that escaped her was one of contentment. "You are the puzzle piece
that makes Datura complete."

Clearing my throat
uncomfortably, I looked back up at the sky. "Is Aram
gone?"

"Sure, change the subject."
Dandelion snickered. "Yes, the Elder has left the Coliseum. But
you, Jatrop, Datura, Ilex, Caltha and myself will be staying there
for a while longer. The Regius have been particularly active these
last couple of weeks, and with the interest they seem to have in
you, it's better if we all stick together and stand
strong."

I nodded in understanding.
"What about the Palliums? Are they recovering from the
attack?"

"The Pallium Leader
reported that the Regius didn't manage to breach security and
attain the tech room or the Regius heir." I nodded absently at her
words, my eyes drawn back to the crack in the earth, checking again
to see if there was any change. There wasn't.

"Who is guarding me
tomorrow?" I yawned, moving around to settle myself comfortably for
sleep.

"Ilex." Dandelion answered.
"Hey, before you fall asleep. Will you at least tell me why you are
so open about your feelings for Datura now?"

I sighed, but instead of
ignoring her, I decided to answer. "It was never about you or the
others, Dandelion. My feelings for Datura were in no way halted
because I was afraid of admitting to the public that I am attracted
to men. I got over that fear before Ilex brought me here." I smiled
as I remembered Sol looking at me in a way that had made more than
clear she wasn't about to let that stop me from falling in love.
"When something scares or bothers me, I need to think. It's what I
do and it's how I function. Solenum knows me through and through;
she waited until I was ready to talk about it because she knew that
pushing me to speak would only slow down my processing things." The
entire idea that is Datura was so overwhelming; I had needed time
to absorb it all. But then the process had been slowed down because
he had made one wrong move by trying to kiss me too early and the
others had kept pushing me to explain what I was
feeling.

"What
were
you afraid of?"

"Loving someone other than
Solenum. Admitting that I need more than just her in my life and
that she and I may not want the same things for our futures.
Realizing that we are, in fact, not joined at the hip." I gulped.
Lupinus and Acacia's faces flashed through my mind. "Admitting that
our guardians were right. And of course, feeling as though this
place, the Altors, you, Datura-" I breathed out shakily. "It feels
like Ilex brought me home. Everything makes sense here, whereas in
Lithium Village, the only thing that made sense to me was
Solenum."