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Saffire looked down at the coffee sitting on the table before her, she hadn't touched it since it had been placed there. It was cold now. No one had said a single word since Rhys insisted on sitting at the dining room table for more comfort than his cramped office. Saffire didn't attempt to explain herself, she knew that her efforts would be futile as everyone was silently processing everything.
The gaze fixated on her cup lifted the smallest amount to scan the faces of the people she used to call family– with three new faces thrown in. Two-hundred years had seemed to be all it had taken for Saffire to forget specific details about her family. There was a small scar slicing through Cassian's eyebrow that Saffire wasn't sure whether he had it when she was still around or not. That glimmer in Rhys's eyes that seemed to suggest a certain love that Saffire did not recognise. The specific features of Mor's face that she loved to put makeup on when they were younger. Saffire even forgot how much she towered over Amren– somehow she remembered her to be a similar height. Seeing her now made Saffire realise how much she had really forgotten over the past two centuries.
Then there was the matter of Azriel. Despite the rest of her former family and the small details she had forgotten about them– Saffire hadn't forgotten anything about Azriel. From the colour of his dark hair that seemed brown in direct sunlight to the unique blend of colours in his eyes that made up his hazel. He hadn't spoken yet but Saffire could still hear his voice clearly in her mind, soft spoken yet still had a small edge to it. Saffire hadn't forgotten anything about him.
"So," Rhys spoke up after a long and painful silence. "This is certainly a surprise."
Saffire nodded. "I am here on official business."
"I gathered that," Rhys replied. "Your Queen had been corresponding with me for several months."
"She is aiming to build alliances," Saffire replied. "Vassuryn is a very small kingdom and not very well known. It is vulnerable to attack so Queen Selvina has been gathering allies from all over the continent. This is the first time she has reached out beyond."
Cassian finally raised his gaze to meet Saffire's, his eyebrows drawn down in a frown. "I don't give a shit about alliances. What I want to know is why you left two-hundred years ago."
"Cass–" Rhys tried to intervene.
"No," Cassian shook his head. "It's been two hundred years, Rhys! Surely now it is time for an explanation as to why she has been gone." Cassian's burning gaze fixated on Saffire. "You left in the middle of the night with no word, no note, nothing. We searched for you for years. Azriel searched even longer."
Saffire glanced Azriel's way but he was staring at the table in front of him, as if he were fascinated by the woodwork.
The female next to Cassian reached out and touched his arm and he instantly began to calm. The furious expression that had gradually melted onto his features disappeared within an instant– only to be replaced by sadness.
