A Court of Shadows and Darkness || Azriel [PAUSED]

1. The girl

Purple eyes.
Darkness.
Smell of sea.
Shadows.
A sweet voice singing:
"As the clouds pass by,
by hundreds years I lie
in these shadows
of the shallows,
in Hybern.

Land of the new king,
the one king,
the ice king..."

The voice kept singing. The lyrics, a vague whisper, camouflaged by the crashing waves of the sea. The blue and wide and deep sea.

Azriel woke up. He had been dreaming this for a long time, he didn't remember dreaming about anything else. He got dressed and went to Elain's gardens.

As he stepped outside he saw Elain watering a beautiful flower, next to her she had a pack of seeds. He listened to his shadows but he wasn't needed in any place, so he walked towards her.

—Good morning —he said, as she turned with a smile on her face.

—Beautiful morning, isn't it? —she said with her sweet and soft voice. Azriel stayed next to her, planting the seeds in the pack. It was already midday when his shadows started singing louder than usual.

'Come here. Save her'

He thought it wasn't important, as they didn't say any name so he kept helping Elain. But the shadows sang louder every second.

'She needs you. Come'

They were singing so loud he had to cover his ears with his hands. Elain looked at him confused and said something, but he could only listen to the screaming shadows 'Come for her. Help her'. It was louder and louder until he started to panic and started mumbling 'Stop it. Stop it. Stop it'. Elain got up and went to find help. She ran through the corridors searching for someone. When Rhys came down, what he saw broke him: his brother, sat in the mud, knees bent and his head on them, hands covering his ears, he was screaming 'Stop it. Save her'. Rhys sat next to Azriel and tried talking to him, but nothing would work. He called Cassian and he appeared immediately.

—Here. Help me take him to Madja —Rhys told Cassian, without giving him any moment to think what happened to their brother.

They did as Rhys said and Madja told them to lay him down on the bed. She tried to see what was wrong but she couldn't find any explanation. Suddenly, Azriel stopped screaming. He got up from the bed and was going to exit the room when Cassian stopped him.

—Aren't you going to tell us what happened?

But he just said, with a cold and impatient tone:

—I have to get her save.

And with that he got out of the room and out of the House of Wind.

Azriel flew in the night, guided by his shadows. He flew over a large, blue, deep, sea, which reflected the crescent moon. When he finally stopped, he was above a great rock with some holes were water entered. He went through one of those holes, the biggest one so his wings could fit. He went through the tunnel and arrived to a space dark and full of shadows, where his shadows turned away from him and went to a corner. Azriel followed them and there, in a dark, humid, corner of the cave, he saw a sleeping body pressed against the rock, as if getting away from something. The shadows sang 'Take her somewhere safe'. He guessed 'she' was that girl of the corner. He turned her to take her in his arms and he saw her face full of semi-healed wounds and bruises. He took her in his arms and got away from that dark, humid and inhospitable cave. They flew through the sea all the way to the Night Court again, with the full moon beaming above them as they approached Velaris.

When he entered the House of Wind everyone kept looking at him while he went for Madja to heal the girl he had in his arms. When she was in a bed, being healed by Madja, Azriel observed her features, he couldn't see them very well due to her injures.