IMPERMANENCE

chapter sixteen - the lord of vorini

Dagger carefully turned his head to the right. Alessia was sitting next to his bed on a smaller chair. She was wearing her armor from the Commander's Circle. The moon was buried under a thick layer of dark clouds. Only the flickering flames of numerous candles scattered about the chamber lit the room. Her attention was directed at his right arm that rested by his side, but her focus snapped up towards him in an instant.

"Sleep well?" she asked. The same question she had asked him when he was thrown into the dungeons. Except only this time, there was no snark in her voice, no ulterior motive to be found underneath her tone.

"You passed out into Thea's arms at the front gates. You were badly injured. The scar tissue beneath your eye was reopened, and you had some internal head damage as well. It's been a week since then."

A week?

Alessia reached her arm out towards Dagger's forehead with caution. Dagger had expected to jerk away, even Alessia had anticipated the movement by stopping just before her palm made contact with his skin.

But Dagger remained, and not because of lack of energy. Alessia's palm then pressed against the top of his head, and her mouth parted taking note of the heat rising from beneath his flesh. Dagger's eyes remained on her the entire time.

"Good. Your fever has finally gone down," she said, then promptly released her hand. The cold hit his exposed skin as soon as she broke contact. He shivered underneath the sheets.

"I healed as much as I could. The scar below your eye was already there, so I couldn't fix it," he heard her say.

"That's alright," Dagger croaked out, his throat was as dry as sand. He knew he had a scar on his face, though he'd never seen it since that day with Zedo in the dungeons. He occasionally found himself brushing the risen skin with his fingers. "It was from the War, I never expected it to go away."

"Right," Alessia nodded.

I healed as much as I could.

"What do you mean you healed—"

The chamber doors burst open suddenly, exposing foreign air and torch light from the hallways.

"I'm sorry—" Thea said through panting breaths as she stumbled in. "You need to come out here now," Thea gasped breathlessly. Alessia was instantly on her feet charging for the chamber doors. Dagger found himself out of his bed trailing behind her.

Alessia whipped her head around and held her hand out. "No," she ordered. "You need to stay and rest—"

"It's urgent," Thea pleaded frantically.

Seeing Thea stray from anything but her normally calm and reserved nature made Dagger all the more curious. Alessia gave up on her pursuit to restrict Dagger to his chambers. All three of them stormed out of the chamber and were heading towards the castle's front entry.

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The second they turned the corner, they were met with Zane and Lennox's backsides.

Beyond the two tense guards now was what appeared to be a young nobleman trailed by twelve guards of his own, all dressed in deep red. The nobleman had a nasty frown smeared across his tanned face. His warm colored hair was slicked back and wet looking, his clothing was selected solely for the purpose of looking expensive and untouchable.

But he was dangerous, dangerous enough that he frightened someone as carefree as Thea.

"I must have forgotten to announce my arrival," the nobleman smiled, the sarcasm in his voice was almost too extreme.