The Sun's Awakening

Chapter Three

Upon leaving the dungeons, having gathered no intel yet an abundance of insight, the first person she happened upon was the queen. Wylda stared her down from the other side of the corridor and her lip twitched, revealing the point of a fang. The initial instinct of the overprotective mother could not be contained...

Suddenly, she was in front of the intrusive girl who dared interrupt her son's sentence on the council. She was the very reason he was in this mess. The rush of air felt like a slap in the face; it swept Ele's hair back over her shoulders and she had to blink to wet her eyes.

"Why did you have to come here? Why you? So impish and only a child... Yet the catalyst in our lives that offset our harmonious rhythm. We were fine before you, much better off. How dare you come back only to distract my son?" 

Ele raised her hands and began to back up, not wanting a fight or to give into the queen's antics. They had been down this road many times. 

Yet Wylda, not ready to back down, approached the girl with more cruel words.

"You'd knowingly resort your children to a fate as a dhampir? A halfling with corrupted blood?"

That jab hit Ele too close to the heart. Many days in the cabin left her wondering why her mate never returned. One of things she mused was that she never became pregnant after their first time. Now her head hung, ashamed. 

"Mm, that's what I thought. Stupid girl. You should leave now, before that meeting lets out. Go back to the cabin." Without even looking in the watery eyes of the girl, the queen walked past her and paused when they were shoulder to shoulder. "If he loves you, he'll know where to fetch you."

Then it was only Eledorah left in the hallway. Speechless due to her condition and immobile from the pain. Everything fell silent. No servants chanced to go in the same direction of the queen, especially these days. With vampires around, it meant someone was always listening... 

"I heard the whole thing, are you alright?" Roman chose then to emerge from around the bend where he had been silently observing. If he sensed that the queen meant to harm Ele, he would have intervened. 

The faenix looked at him but there was nothing in her eyes except for regret. Unable to convey everything or anything to him, she only nodded. 

He saw her in a new light after their last goodbye... A memory he recounted too often. It was that moment that propelled him to take action so that, if they ever met again, he could communicate with her.

His hands raised and he slowly spoke as he signed, "I'm... sorry." 

Ele visibly lit up when she saw his hands move in a familiar way. His movements were slow. Unpracticed. But it meant progress... Another person she could freely speak to. Except her heart sunk when she realized what this meant.

He never forgot her.

'You learned, for me?' She kept the signs simple and exaggerated, mouthing the words as she made the motion of it. 

"Um..." Now he rubbed the back of his neck, trying to act like it was nothing. But then his hands came down and he spoke while signing, "I tried. A little. Some basics."

All his effort made her smile. And then that smile faltered when she remembered the queen's words. Ele recalled the danger she nearly put herself in today by going to the dungeons. The danger she put her mate in by returning to the castle. 

'What's wrong with me?' She rushed out and he had to study her hands carefully to catch on.

"What do you mean, Ele?" He voiced his concern instead of attempting to sign it.