3. Blooddebt | ✓

5. The Only Way

"Mother!" The child beside her rushed to grab her arm and there were noises of shuffling from within the residence when the rest rushed out. 

"Eli?!" Thunder was the first to tend to her and he asked frantically, "What the hell happened?" 

"Thunder," Arell sobbed. "We w-were in the town square and we a-appeared here all of a sudden. Why i-is Mother h-hurting?" 

Elianna's hands bunched into the soft sand on the ground, feeling lightheaded and weak all over. But knowing that she had crossed the limit this time didn't save her from Thunder's reprimands. 

"Do you wish to die?" Thunder scolded, pulling on her arm to steady her. "Do you know how much magic you have exhausted in order to travel that distance by yourself while carrying someone else?" 

"Let's get her in first, hurry," Kiran suggested and Thunder lifted her body off the ground, walking right into the residence while Jana quickly held onto Arell's hand and got the crying child into the house together. 

While being brought into the house, Elianna could only think about the encounter at the town square. At that moment in time, she was seized by fear and panic that she didn't know what to do. It was without a doubt that she recognised that voice as Rowan. It was definitely him but she hadn't known what to do except to run. 

The way he approached her was as though he knew her, but she didn't understand how that was possible. Because everything that happened five years ago was a clean-cut between them and there's just no way he could've remembered her. 

To meet again after such a long time, she could only wonder if fates were really playing their strings on them. 

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Rivia: Meissa Palace, Dining Hall.

• Rowan •

"Ro, did something happen in town today?" Ilias asked, concerned. 

Everyone else that had settled around the dining table looked at him for a good moment until he realised that he hadn't touched his food since the meal started. He was simply tossing his food around with the fork with no intention of eating them while being deep in his thoughts. 

"Do I happen to have a son that I do not know of?" Rowan asked and Kaylon choked hard on his drink, coughing endlessly after which. The rest of the knights could only stare at him with a questioning look and with expressions on their face resembling apprehension and confusion. He tried to explain, "Or is it possible that there's someone out there who happened to have dark hair and blue eyes like mine?"

"Those traits are unique to the children of the Gauthier family," Ilias responded. "Why did you ask?" 

Rowan also thought of the impossibility since the shade of blue that he saw in that child's eyes today was unmistakable and his hair was in a colour that's as dark as his. Other than his mother and Lyra, there was no one else he had known to also share those traits. 

He's sure that the child had definitely recognised him too, in order to address him as his father. He didn't dislike it. Rather, he liked it tremendously. It was a weird feeling that surfaced and coursed through him. Even when it was only their first meeting, he thought that it would be a pleasant delight if that child was really his. 

He had also wanted to know more about her. 

After returning from town, their encounter kept replaying itself in his mind as he couldn't forget the way those beautiful ringlets of brown curled and danced freely against her back the moment her headscarf was caught in the winds. 

There was so much warmth radiating from her very being and everything about her was so lovely that it pained him to not be able to hold her. That girl had a kind of understated quiet beauty, perhaps it was because she was so disarmingly unaware of her ability to captivate onlookers. Brown hair, gold eyes and the pale of her skin. Definitely, there was a special kind of magic in her exuberant soul that thawed the already frozen heart which lay lifeless within his chest and caused him to feel all alive once again. 

Even if she may not appear again, he was determined to return to their place of meeting the next day. It doesn't matter how arduous it would be to obtain the explanations to all the mysteries but he believed that if they were meant to be, fates would lead him to her eventually. 

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Rivia: Ajayib, Town of Central Rivia, Elianna's Residence

• Arell •

"Tell me, Eli. What happened in town today?" Thunder asked. 

Arell stood outside Mother's quarter, eavesdropping into the conversation from the door that was left ajar when Thunder entered through it a moment ago. The child knew that he shouldn't be doing this, but he had really wanted to know if his guess was right. 

"Is Arell around?" Mother asked and it startled him. He quickly held onto his breath and hopped aside, in case Thunder caught him peeking from the gap of the door. 

"No, he isn't around," Thunder responded. 

A moment of silence fell from within and Arell stood almost impatiently on the other side of the door with his head lowered, staring at his own feet with nervousness thumping within his chest. When his mother finally broke the silence, he heard an answer that he had hoped for since the moment they crossed-path with the man in town today. His mother said, "He found us, Thunder." 

"Eli." 

"Isn't it funny, Thunder?" A troubled sigh sounded from Mother and he recognised the surfacing cry when her voice faltered as she spoke, "I had imagined a thousand of scenarios that I may meet him again, and I thought of everything that I had wanted to say. But when I finally met him, all the words failed me and I did nothing except to run away." 

At her sadness, Arell stepped away from the door and went back into his quarter. The child climbed up his bed and pondered about everything that his mother said. 

The night hadn't been so kind to him on this very day because he had tossed and turned, with trouble falling asleep. Thoughts filled his mind and one of them struck him the most. 

There's only one way to find out. 

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our boy has a plan.

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