To Love, Once Again

Chapter 27

The air is so thick, Sera is unable to breathe, her throat swelled shut with the terrible madness that looms over her in human form, the cloying dust in the room whirling in a deathly miasma. Sera can hear the hiccups of the girl behind her, crying quietly in despair. She's already resigned to her fate.

But Sera's not. She won't give up.

She'd aim for to vital points, the one thing she remembered for her self-defense class Pa'd dragged her to. Eyes, windpipe, groin. They were all vulnerable. She'd lost the element of surprise, but she would make it work. She had to make it work.

Dorne's thick fingers grabs a fistful of her prized long brown hair, and pulls, dragging her across the floor. His handsome face contorted in anger, while the scratch marks under his eye bleeds red, bright crimson drops that fall on her cheek and neck.

Before she can blink, a dark blur drops down between them, a force that blows Dorne backwards away from her.

Light glances off the long dagger pointed at Dorne. Sera only sees the back of a man dressed completely in black.

The man in black waves his hand, motioning for Dorne to step away. His lazy posture belies his battle experience. He never speaks, but his whole attitude serving as a warning to Dorne.

Dorne unexpectedly relents. He shrugs his shoulders, and gives a relaxed smile. Sera shivers at the face that morphs into complacency just like that.

The lock in the thick library opens with an audible click. Crying loudly, the girl runs out of the room as the door opens.

Dorne nonchalantly struts out, patting the dust off his shoulders. Tracing the marks on his face, he turns to Sera. "I'll remember these."

He grins, and disappears down the hall.

Sera turns back to the man in black. He's gone too.

She checks herself. Her back, head, her whole body's aching. She's probably earned some more bruises to her collection. Luckily, from her head, only a few thin strands were pulled out. Not to be vain, but her hair was very precious to her. The luxurious honey-brown color, just like her Ma, was one of the things Lucien liked to compliment her on. He'd taken a lock of her hair with him into battle, for a good luck charm, he'd say.

Who saved her just now was a mystery. But she was glad for the help. There was no telling what kind of horrible end result might have happened without the intervention, and she wanted to thank him one day.

Putting one hand against the wall to steady herself, she leaves the library. The Elder would be so sad to know that a crime almost happened here. The library was a venerable place, not a place to hide in.

Sera hopes the scratches under Dorne's eye gets infected. It was petty of her, she knew. But this man was a menace. He should not be in the castle. Who knows how many other girls he's tried this with.....how many times, he'd been successful. Sera can feel the tears welling up in sorrow.

2 more days, and he would be gone. 2 more days until the challenge.

"SERA!!!"

Lucien bellows, running towards her, his feet pounding into the stone floor. He stops right in front of her, frantic eyes constantly scanning her up and down..

Sera blinks. There seemed to be a faint black shadow behind Lucien for a moment.

"I'm ok" she gives him a fragile smile.

She shouldn't look to badly. Her hair was mussed and the beautiful blue of her dress marred with dust, but no rips or tears in her clothing.

"B-Blood!?" His hand shakes, rubbing at the crimson droplets on her cheek. It streaks out into a big smudge that contrasts with her unusually pale, colorless face. He keeps rubbing, looking for a wound. Sera'd never seen him like this before. He should be used to blood. Lucien was the Red King. He'd bathed in the blood of enemies and friends as he'd cut down his foes, and his men were cut down around him, all in the course of the fight..

"More than that, did you see a young girl before you got here? Her clothes were torn-"Sera gives him a basic description of the girl. She really hoped she was safe. If Dorne found her again......

She tries to take his hands that kept rubbing at her face and skimming over her body, checking for wounds. The blood was smearing everywhere, probably making her look like she'd just crawled out of a grave.

He doesn't seem to be hearing her. Behind him, she can see Icaros running up to them, out of breath. From the way they were both dressed in light, fitted clothing, it looked like they'd come from a training exercise.

"Icaros! I need you to check on someone!!" she begs. He gives her a once-over, just like his master, but salutes her once she gives him the description. Good, she can trust Icaros to take care of this. Lucien is checking every inch of her the whole time. He even lifts up her hair to check her neck for bruises.

Lucien feels pain when he sees her. This wasn't what he wanted. He prayed under his breath, for the second time in his life. For her to be okay. He'd only prayed once before. When the magicians wouldn't listen, it was all he had. He'd asked for any power out there, to bring Sera back.

He scoops her up into a princess carry and starts running again.

"Tell me if anything hurts.."

Tapping his chest, she tells him "I'm ok, I can walk"

"No, let me do this for you" He readjusts his hold.

"I-"

His big palm lightly pushes her head down to rest on his wide shoulder.

It's sturdiness is more than enough to be a comfortable pillow.

"Don't speak for now, I'll take you to the healer"

Sera goes silent. There was no arguing with Lucien when he was like this. He wouldn't put her down even if she begged.

Lucien holds her like a baby, solid arms securely wrapped around her. Sera knows he'll never drop her. She utterly trusts him, and the motion of his running gait soon rocks Sera to sleep.

As she sinks deeper and deeper into the land of blank dreams, Sera can vaguely hear the rumbling of people talking.

A comforting, gravelly voice speaks. "Child, we have to stop meeting like this."