Swords of Gilded Crimson

Chapter 57 | Fierce Reunions and Fiercer Run- In's |

I tore through the remaining space faster than I had in any of my charges across the battlefield. So fast, that it all became an obscured blur streaking past me... past me, and the pounding of my heart; so thunderous that it sounded as if it would blast right there in my chest.

Countless questions sprung to mind, but that wasn't what the least of my focus was on... It'd been months since I'd truly remembered him, and centuries since I'd truly known him.

Kymil's eyes were quite literally, a mirroring of my own. The menace of tears tinged their soft, brown hues, while his lips parted to voice something more. He didn't get the chance for either by the time I reached; near enough crushing him in a fierce hug.

Though it'd taken him less than seconds to already rush forwards to wrap his arms around me, equally as tight. Like all the times I'd hugged him before, I still came up to just under his chin, and so, nestling my head against his chest came purely by impulse.

He kissed the top of my head a great number of times. As he did, I struggled more and more, to keep my sobs from running into him.

I supposed I'd already wet him appreciably, when I'd chosen to bestow a hug of these soaked clothes over his Spymaster's uniform.

But the note of his uniform was where another more, invasive idea transpired. I hadn't let go of Kymil, but whispered despairingly, 'If this is one of Odeir's fucked training protocols, I won't be able to recenter- not again. Tell me it's real.'

I remembered the many times envisioning this same scene while in the mental phase of the younglings' training. And each time, he'd turned out to be merely another illusion; a mechanism to numb myself to such things as sentiment... To think, that after all of those torments, I'd been let out only to choose myself to breeze past him indifferently in the training grounds, the Senate's quarters, the central emporium, the healer's apothecaries...

Kymil squeezed me all the more tighter against himself, stating in a low solace, 'It's real. It's all real. If it isn't, I'll be killing Odeir, myself...' He sucked in a sharp breath, and for the first time in centuries, I heard a slight tremor break through his voice, 'Kalena... I'm sorry.'

'Why would you be sorry? I'm the one who-'

He cut in fervidly. 'I made you a promise. I'd told you, I would come back.'

That one line of his alone, was evocative enough to jerk back the wretched image of the two, armed officials blockading the door to our home in the blacksmith's corner. Where they'd arrived to take him away, to the younglings' training.

I'd clung to him then, almost as earnestly as I did now.

'And you have.' It was a terse, but gentle three words in defiance of the needless accountability he'd seemed to take upon himself.

His voice grew to a scarce, pain-ridden whisper. 'I've missed you.'

I finally stepped back to face him, and the tears spilled over without the wisp of a warning. 'I've missed you, too.'

He was about to say more, but his gaze shot to something behind me. When his eyes suddenly hardened, my stomach fell with the recalling that it wasn't so much of something, as it was someone.

I glanced back uneasily at Nikolai- only to find a band of obsidian enclosing around his neck, being delved in further by the moment. Kymil pushed past me, in a charge aimed directly for the Luxandrian General.

Grasping for his hand, I ran up behind him. 'Kymil, wait. He's with me.' It was a frantic clamour that I urged to stop him with.

He only paused to reflect after striking Nikolai's jaw with a brute fist, where he staggered while coughing violently with the pressure. Especially since the obsidian band was still rigidly enclosing around his neck... but I knew my next moves had to be carefully drawn.