Omega's Rebirth-Chapter 840: It Will Come, As It Should ()

A chilling cold draft wafted through the hallway of the highest level. It bounced off the frozen walls, leaving behind a haunting echo.

There was a distant crackling sound. The layer of ice that already covered the walls spread further and further down. Sharp and unforgiving icicles blossoming out of thin air.

At this moment, the highest level had become less of a place of residence and more of an icy death zone.

Cassian shivered visibly. He was about to knock but hesitated, glancing over at Imagor.

Finally, he knocked.

There was no response and he didn’t expect one either. Turning the knob, Cassian led the way into the frozen disaster that was Jian’s study.

There were more parts of the room with an extra layer of frost, than there were habitable parts.

Of course, the cold would go unnoticed by Jian. He was barely fazed by it, whereas everyone else was not so lucky.

The study was deserted. The desk Jian usually sat at was empty and the files on the table were untouched by the ice and lay in a neat pile.

Imagor headed over to the table, browsing through the top files. "They’ve all been attended to." He said to Cassian, grabbing the pile.

"Rodrick must have found it too unbearable to come up and fetch them." His gaze shifted from the desk to the space beside it.

There was also a heap of scrolls by the desk, and a thick layer of frost lined the top most scrolls. They lay forgotten and Cassian didn’t have to investigate to know what they were.

Since the unified council, petitions arrived in the thousands from the tributary races.

And dozens of representatives still flocked the Keep, seeking an audience with Jian.

Their attempts had proven futile.

Jian had made it clear he would grant no further audience following the unified council and remained adamant in his decision.

He equally paid no attention to the petitions, tossing them into the ever growing pile by the side of his desk where they would remain untouched and forgotten.

Cassian averted his gaze, exhaling slowly. His breath frosted in his line of sight and it made the moment all the more depressing.

Another cold draft had both King’s guards shivering yet again. Cassian could have sworn, he didn’t understand what it meant to feel the cold until recently.

The blood in a dragon’s veins was kissed by fire. Since when were they bothered by temperature changes?

Only now did he realize dragons were not impervious to the cold temperatures. Rather, they just hadn’t been subjected to the kind of chill that overwhelmed fire and froze up the blood.

Cassian’s thoughts drifted to the back of his mind as his eyes found the partially open door leading into the washroom.

He had wondered where Jian had disappeared to. And had assumed he must have flown out to Mount Edar.

But the presence he had failed to sense earlier finally nudged his senses. His brows furrowed slightly and he headed for the door.

Inside, was Jian. He had sunk to the bottom of his bath pool and the surface of the water was frozen solid, trapping him underneath.

He lay deathly still. Unmoving.

The panic and horror hit instantly.

"My Liege!" Cassian dove for the pool. Sliding to his knees, he slammed his fist into the ice, cracking the surface.

He hammered into the crack continuously till the frozen surface caved.

Imagor aided him, and they both reached into the water to pull Jian out.

The water was freezing to touch. Cassian gritted his teeth against the chill as they lifted Jian out of the bath pool, laying him by the side.

"My Liege?! Jian?!"

Jian’s eyes fluttered open. He stared blankly at Cassian, and then to Imagor. From their expressions, it wasn’t difficult to read their thoughts. "What is this ruckus?"

Relief coursed through Cassian’s veins, alongside a spark of rage "Ruckus?! You froze the water while in it!"

"What were you going to do?!" Imagor was not pleased either. "Dividing the stronghold doesn’t mean you stop being the Dragon King! If our King dies, what becomes of us?!"

"You have to get yourself together!"

Jian’s expression didn’t change. His tone was blank as he replied, "Everything I touch freezes up these days. You should know better than to assume I would take my own life."

"It is dishonorable for a dragon to do such and I have no intentions to dishonor my bloodline by abandoning my kin."

"And I won’t need to..." He trailed off. "Death will come, as it should. As it did before."

He said it like it was just another thing in passing. Like he was not speaking about his own death but something to look forward to instead.

Cassian exhaled a shaky breath. "If you choose to give up, what happens to Xenon? Menarx?"

"Xenon is barely getting by. And Menarx, last Kirgan reported has lost his human form to the severing. Stuck in his predator side for Creator knows how long..."

"Everything is falling apart and you’re the only one who can hold things together. Why can’t you see that?" His tone was thick with despair.

Jian’s eyes went closed, a gesture of dismissal. Imagor sighed but said nothing.

Cassian didn’t relent. Even if Jian would rather not, Cassian knew he was listening. "I know this is... Hard on you. Everyone else gets to succumb to the severing, but as King...you do not even have that luxury."

"You have to hold together a broken world while you are breaking, yourself..." He paused, sucking in a sharp breath. "But can you not see this from a positive outlook? The fact that the severing hasn’t hit yet might be a sign that Neveah is out there somewhere..."

Jian’s eyes opened again. His brows were furrowed but he didn’t interrupt Cassian.

"A body was never found. Even Kaideon insists she has to be alive... and if truly, by some chance, she’s out there somewhere, would you not be damning her by dying first?"

Jian pursed his lips. "If she’s alive somewhere...why won’t she come home?" His voice was hoarse, eyes glistening with unshed tears.

"Why won’t she come to me? Even in my dreams?" He asked.

Cassian winced visibly. He didn’t have an answer to that. He didn’t have the answers to anything anymore.

But the only thing he knew was that the stronghold could not afford to lose Jian. And he couldn’t either.

__________

Jian sat at his desk, leaning back against the chair whilst Cassian read through the abandoned pile of reports.

"This is from Aloria." Cassian said.

Jian zoned out. Each of the reports said pretty much the same thing. The representatives still could not accept Jian’s decision and somehow believed they could reason him out of it.

He found it ridiculous that they were more concerned with sending him dozens of petitions, rather than figuring out how to safeguard their own territories now that they could no longer rely on the twelve squadrons for protection.

The forlorn still emerged at random entry points all around the stronghold and many settlements had reported attacks in the past three days since the unified council.

Why they still found the leisure to report to him, he couldn’t tell.

On the other hand, Jian also knew the dragon lords were uneasy and as well as they hid it, he could tell that this adjustment was equally as difficult for them.

Turning a blind eye was not in their nature. Sitting out of danger and watching the stronghold take whatever course fate determined fit was something they had never had to do in centuries.

He did understand it. He knew exactly what their duty as protectors meant to each and everyone of them. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

And he didn’t wish to deny them of it. Or to take it away from them.

But the stronghold had reached a point where changes needed to be made. Alliances needed to be renewed and each race needed to understand their own path independent of Dragon Dynasty.

If this was the last thing he did as King, he would make sure that what became of the stronghold on the other end of this trying time, was a truly unified people.

Or there would be no unified stronghold at all.

"This is from..." Cassian trailed off. "Dante."

Jian sat up. Dante and Estelle led the search team through the dark lands, alongside Kaideon.

In the past month, they had not relented in their search for Neveah. And Dante had consistently sent in reports on their findings.

All of which had so far been disappointing.

After a few weeks, Jian had begun to dread Dante’s reports. Each failed search solidified a reality that he did not want to accept.

Each time the search party returned empty handed, the hollowness in his heart spread even farther.

Still, he read through each and every one of them with the same anticipation as the first. Because hope was a cruel thing.

Jian waited as Cassian glanced through the scroll and then looked up at him.

"He says...they found something..."