Omega's Rebirth-Chapter 785: Run Out ()

The sanctum of Infernal castle had once been a study hall, or so she’d heard. For mages visiting to practice the arts with the mana pool.

Now its grand bookshelves were bare, pushed aside to make room for bedrolls, straw pallets, and crates of supplies, all for the refugees driven from their homes by the lava.

Refugees... the word was bitter on her tongue.

The stained glass windows had been boarded from the outside to filter the noxious fumes, as much as was possible given the circumstances.

Hence, hardly any sunlight seeped in, not that there was any to speak of with the smoke clouds covering the skies. Artificial lighting dotted the walls, the dim glow of the gems struggling against the gloom.

It was warmer here. Crowded. Dreary.

The scent was a blend of cooked barley, healing salves, sweat, and ash.

Always ash.

The sight reminded her of the eerie isolation district back in Fort Scabbard, in the wake of the plague outbreak.

At least, this was not as bad. Though Neveah was not certain she liked that assurance.

Whether a plague or a volcano, dark magic or arcane, Sorcerer or Fae, there was one common result. The innocent citizens would face the brunt of it.

For a feud they neither knew the origin of nor had played a part in. It was a disturbing reality.

She stepped through the entrance, her boots hushed against stone. No one noticed her at first. It was time for the morning meal and castle attendants went about serving steaming bowls to the refugees.

A cluster of children huddled near the hearth at the center of the room, some clinging to threadbare blankets, others drawing in the soot with fingers too small and pale.

Their eyes were rimmed red, and not all from crying.

Neveah’s eyes narrowed at the blanket, making a mental note to allocate more supplies. These people had barely gotten the chance to carry with them anything more than a few valuables, their needs were now the responsibility of the Fort.

Resources would stretch thin, Neveah knew it. She had watched it happen with Fort Scabbard. But if there was one thing that kept the stronghold alive and thriving, it was the unity amongst dragon kin.

Letters had been arriving constantly from the different fortresses, inquiring about resources Inferno needed to be sent in, even before they thought to request anything.

Jian had built a tight knit clan, and she was proud to see it.

She knelt beside a little girl with wild hair and smudged cheeks who was coughing into her hands.

The child could not have been above seven summers in human years.

"You’re up early," Neveah said softly, brushing the ash from the girl’s sleeves.

The child blinked up at her, lips chapped. "We don’t sleep much," she said. "The air scratches inside."

Neveah nodded. That, she could relate to. She reached into the satchel at her hip and pulled out a small tin of honey salve, something the healers used for chest tightness.

"Open your mouth, little one."

The girl obeyed, tongue out like a wary kitten. Neveah scooped a little and let it melt there. The child sighed at the taste, like it was a rare delight.

"It helps. For only a while." she whined.

"I know," Neveah said. "And I’ll bring more. I’ll have the healers work on the formula too...make it more potent."

Across the room, a boy was tossing, muttering about dragons in his sleep. Elderly men and women sat in a line by the far wall, some cradling swollen ankles, others dabbing at skin red from exposure to the acidic fogs that came with each ashfall.

As always, after the evacuation, there were still a good number of citizens that had been stuck in danger zones, or too stubborn to leave their homes, and it had taken the Infernal dragons another day to round them up.

There were a good few injured, but so far, there was yet to be a death count. Neveah hoped it stayed that way.

Neveah walked to the nearest elder and knelt, taking the cloth from her shaking hand and dipping it in fresh water. The woman said nothing, only looked at Neveah with eyes grateful yet hollow.

"You shouldn’t be here without a guard, Your Grace." a voice called gently behind her.

Neveah turned to see Healer Yural, a broad-shouldered man with half a dozen vials tucked into his belt. He looked tired, but not surprised to see her.

He was a familiar face, Neveah knew him as far back as her early months in Dragon Keep, when she had first been assigned to Xenon as an attendant.

He would seldom visit the healers hall, and was trained by Everon a long time ago.

He was not one of those who had been unkind to her, neither had he been nice. He was one of the ones Neveah had been most grateful for then, those that were not concerned about her existence altogether.

"You’re a queen, even if they don’t all know it," he said. "You should be with the Lord Dragons. This isn’t your duty."

"Isn’t it?" Neveah asked quietly, wringing out the cloth again. "I know the healers hall has it under control. That is why I summoned you, and I’m glad I did it when I did. I can’t heal them with magic like you all do... I can at least soothe them with my hands."

Yural studied her, then gave a slow nod. "Then take this. Hand them out." He handed her a second satchel, full of feverwort and ash balm. "They trust you."

Neveah spent the next hour moving from bedroll to bedroll, soothing, talking, sometimes just listening.

She handed out dried fruits to the children, whispered jokes that made their cracked lips twitch upward. She rubbed aching backs and offered reassurance she wasn’t sure she believed in.

And for a while, she forgot about Demevirld. About magic. About the Arcane aching in her bones like a waiting storm. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Reminding her of the grace it had shown... and how quickly it would run out.