Fallen One (Book three of Alfireán age)

- Epilogue -

Consciousness slowly returned to Drakovian, and he rolled onto his back, stretching his arms and yawning. The white sheets rustled as he moved, and he breathed deeply of the fresh air pouring in through the open windows.

After the king had left, Yarrow had handed him a special tea and told him, 'Be it God, magic, or not, you still need some sleep before you collapse from exhaustion and do further damage to yourself.' The prince hadn't liked the idea, especially with the chance that Vackzilian could retaliate any moment, but he didn't have much choice. The healer was correct; Drake had reached his limit, and his body was going to fall asleep with or without the tea, so he had reluctantly taken the sleeping potion.

Opening his eyes, the prince gazed up at the ceiling as the rest of his body awoke from the herb assisted sleep. He blinked in surprise. The patterns on the roof had changed. The strange layers of sediment now formed a mural reminiscent of an evening sky with pink hues and white fluffy clouds formed from some type of marble.

"Yes, I noticed that too," a bell-like voice said from off to the side. "It seems like most of the walls and ceilings in this place change according to the time of day. It's quite an impressive form of earth magic."

Drake turned to see Silver sitting beside him, and suddenly, he remembered they had left the maids behind when they had fled from The Fallen One. Images of the tidal wave that had washed over the island—and its subsequent destruction—rose in Drake's mind, and worry for the maids' safety filled Drakovian.

Silver smiled at him. "My sisters and I are fine," the head maid reassured him, patting his hand. "You, on the other hand..." the woman trailed off, her brow wrinkled in concern. "Zaphaniea tells me you died."

Drakovian nodded, still trying to wrap his mind around what had happened. "Yes I-"

"You're finally awake," the grand champion exclaimed, rushing up to his bedside and interrupting him. "You were out for hours!"

"I was?" the prince asked glancing towards the window. Pink and purple light flooded the sky as an orange sun sank beneath the horizon, and soft shadows stretched over the garden terrace. "Oh," he muttered, realizing he must've slept for at least ten hours. "Did anything happen while I was asleep?" he asked, amending his first question.

"It sure did," Zaphaniea said with a voracious smile, and lowering her voice and opening her eyes wide for special effect, she whispered dramatically, "Vackzilian attacked with a handful of blood oaths."

Drake shot up out of bed and frantically looked around, hoping no one else was injured. "How bad was the attack? How many got hurt, and did Vackzilian get into the caves underneath the city?" he asked, his lungs constricting at the thought of his friends having to fight so soon again.

"Naw, we're all okay," the grand champion replied with a toss of her long, fiery hair, apparently reading his mind and answering his real concern. "Well, except for the king. His arm is a bit messed up." She rolled her eyes. "He tried to take them all by himself. But you should've have seen it," Zaphaniea explained as she used her spheres to grab a bag next to the entrance of the infirmary. Her eyes lit up as she recalled the fight. "He turned the entire castle into this giant cat-like creature and used it to smash blood oaths left and right. It was amazing! Well, it was until Vackzilian's hologram started to cut giant chunks off of him with wind magic, but I dealt with that," she said boastfully, her words belying the weariness in her voice. "I sent old sparkly face's hologram off into the sea over and over again while the others finished off the rest of the blood oaths."

Drakovian blinked, hardly believing he had slept through something like that. One would think having the building you were sleeping in turn into a moving weapon would wake you out of the deepest of slumbers. Then again, he had just died.