The Kingfisher

XXVII : Ela

And then it reached her head.

It all came at once, like a locked door was shoved open in her brain. The night of her capture. The illusion manipulator. An ally of her brother, yet a traitor, too. Her fingers rolled into fists as the figure approached her with an inquisitive glance. He wore a dark blue coat adorned with little chains of gold holding its edges around his torso. The bird of Seyal on its side did not escape Ela.

Zhao, she summoned, and the puzzle was finally complete.

"Everything alright, miss?" he asked. His tone was truly curious, yet the slight jerk of his brow gave it all away. He remembered her, and her expression was enough to imply the recollection was mutual.

No, she wanted to scream in his face. Nothing is okay. And it's your fault. Ela was reluctant to admit it but had Zhao not helped Arden, none of this would have happened. She didn't regret standing up to Kage, but without outsiders' involvement, it would have been much smoother.

The girl slowly turned her head to the side, glancing at Stephano. "Could you leave us alone for a moment?"

The guard sighed, the pucker of his lips way more apologetic than his tone. "I'm afraid not, your Grace. I have been ordered to always keep watch over you."

"Perhaps a distant watch would work?" Zhao offered, looping his arm around Ela's crossed one. She resisted the urge to coil in disgust. "I don't imagine you want to be intrusive."

Stephano's eyes stayed on Zhao for a moment. He didn't look like the type who gossiped a lot, yet even knowing that himself, his jaw was set in a proud height. "No. I don't."

"Great," Zhao chirped, prompting Ela forward with a tug of her arm. She was truly tempted to leave a few burns on it, but her curiosity didn't allow her to harm the man.

The silence between the two only lasted until there was enough distance between them and the guard. Ela wanted to speak first, to shoot questions at him she knew he had no answer to, to call him a coward and a traitor and everything else that came to mind. Yet when she had the chance to do so, no insult flew out of her mouth.

She swallowed down the last of her assumptions and freed her arm from the man's loose grip. "Why?" she managed after some contemplation. That was a question she had asked him before, and his reply wasn't quite satisfying. Many things had changed since then, however. And she supposed his answers had, too.

Zhao stole a glance behind him before turning to the girl with a bitter smile. "I do not like repeating myself, Elara."

"Has nothing changed?"

"Of course not," he laughed, his gaze wandering to the beautifully decorated walls. "I hate them all just the same."

Ela frowned, tilting her face to glance at him. She knew he disagreed with Kage's ways and there were multiple reasons to loathe him, but why include the team in that resentment? "Hate who? And why?"

At those questions Zhao's head snapped to her, the look of genuine shock painted on his features. His brows twitched and his lips cracked open, as if ready to exhale his confusion. Instead, his lips curved to a caustic grin. "Oh, you poor soul. He really hasn't told you yet?"

"What are you talking about?"

The man's features relaxed as he turned to look ahead, yet his eyes were clouded, blurred in what seemed to be hurt and anger fused in one. "I knew Arden Vera before this whole ordeal. He attended the same school as my sister."

"So?" prodded Ela, her patience ticking away. She never asked to hear Zhao's life story. She just wanted to know what caused him to betray them.

Zhao inhaled a deep breath, his lids fluttering shut for a second. His chest rose and fell sharply as the silence stretched between them. Ela's mind couldn't help but saunter away toward possibilities. What was it that Arden could have done? And how bad could it have been to evoke such a reaction from Zhao? The girl had thought the man beside her was the most collected person she had ever met; even in times like these, he seemed happy and charming and as careless as possible.