CHAPTER 30: “YOU ARE...”

Ai felt the tip of the trident pushing further against the flesh of his neck. He closed his eyes, preparing himself for what was to come. Just a few more inches and he would fade away back to wherever he would spawn if he died.

Before the trident managed to puncture his neck, the weapon suddenly retreated, leaving nothing but the phantom pressure where it once was. Ai opened his eyes little by little to see the priestess staring at the guard behind him with an incredulous look on her face. Her eyes were narrow as her eyes bore down on the guard. The guard next to Naela also froze, not expecting his fellow guard to disobey Oceana’s orders.

Oceana lifted her hand towards the other guard to stop him from going over and questioning his friend by himself. With a stone cold smile she asked, “And why are you not listening to my orders?”

The guard stood silently for a brief moment before they approached their mistress and kneeled in front of her, their head bowed deeply.

“My lady, I implore you to not be hasty in your judgement.” The guard said. It was a soft denial of the orders given to him, yet his voice remained solid. “It would not be a good look towards outsiders if we killed an envoy. The elves would not like that.”

Oceana’s hand was curled into a fist as she disdainfully scoffed. “Just obey my orders and -”

“You must kill the harpy instead.”

A moment of pause. Oceana stared at her guard, now with eyes wide as saucers and her lips partly open. Her whole body froze as she slowly processed the suggestion that the guard had given her.

The guard, slightly bolder now that he’d managed to shock Oceana in place, continued with his reasoning. “My lady, there is no reason to keep the harpy alive. If the public finds out you are keeping a harpy prisoner alive, unrest will grow. Rumors will start to surface.”

“She is but a prisoner, there should be no reason why -”

“Yet we’ve never kept one alive this long. We’ve always executed them almost immediately yet this one has been a prisoner for weeks now. You see why this is a most unusual behavior that will be questioned?”

Oceana’s eyes wavered. Doubt and uncertainty flashed in her eyes, giving her an almost pitiful lost look that Ai thought he would never see in the siren’s face, given that she was a prideful and almost arrogant individual. The priestess’s lips opened and closed as she tried to come up with an answer, yet no words escaped. 

Slowly, the guard stood from kneeling and gripped the handle of his trident. With sure steps, he approached Naela with determination. The other guard even released the harpy and took a few steps back on impulse.

Ai didn’t have time to react as the guard swung his trident at the harpy’s neck. Naela barely managed to dodge or block as the force of the weapon sent her back down to the floor, her head slamming against the floor. Taking advantage of her momentary lapse of confusion and pain, the guard pointed the trident at Naela’s face. The sharp points merely inches away from her face.

The guard didn’t go for the killing blow just yet, they looked back at Oceana’s stricken and stiff face. “It’s for the best, my lady. You can punish me as you see fit.”

With that, the trident rose high above the guard’s head and fast as lighting made its way down to kill the harpy.

“Stop!”

Oceana’s voice rang out loudly right before the trident touched Naela. This time though, it sounded nothing like the priestess. Oceana’s voice was always calm and maybe sometimes firm, but it never quite displayed any form of exaggerated emotions. This time however, Ai could identify the emotions in them quite easily. 

Fear, anxiety, panic. All made her voice tremble and caused her breathing to go heavy.

The guard slowly let down his weapon and stepped away from the Naela’s quivering form. The harpy’s lips were pale, almost blue, and her eyes were wide with fear. Slowly, she raised to a sitting position. She clutched her chest and inhaled big breaths of air.

Ai wanted to reach over and pat her back, but his eyes locked on Oceana and watched her movements. The siren didn’t move or speak, her head was bowed, keeping her eyes from meeting the Naela’s or Ai’s. Her hands, fist on her sides, were clenched so hard that Ai could almost see the veins from where he was on the floor.

The other guard that had been holding Naela carefully approached his mistress, worry etched into his face.

“Leave us.”

The guard glanced nervously yet suspiciously at all of them. The priestess, the other guard and the two outsiders. Leaving the priestess alone with three extremely suspicious individuals wasn’t exactly a thing that the loyal guard wanted to do but under the priestess’s orders he couldn’t disobey. Hesitantly, he took a few steps backwards and then turned around to leave.

Ai watched closely as the guard left while looking back at them a couple of times. He made a mental note not to dawdle in the room for too long. The guard was calling someone. It wouldn’t be good for them to get caught now when their plan seemed like it was succeeding. 

“Nebule…?” Naela muttered, her wide eyes locking onto the siren’s frozen form. “Can you…?”

Suddenly, Oceana clutched the sides of her head tightly. She let out a broken and pained scream and she curled into a ball. The tips of her webbed hands dug into her hair and scratched her scalp so bad that strands of her blue hair fell to the floor.

“Nebule!”

Naela got up to her feet, her fear and shock of almost being killed quickly forgotten, and rushed towards Oceana. Carefully, Naela put her wings around her lover with great care and affection. Oceana continued to let out gasps and painful yelping, but Ai saw one of her trembling hands slowly gripping the back of Naela’s clothing.

“Na...Naela.” Oceana, no Nebule, gasped. “You...didn’t I tell you to go back home! You can’t be here!”

Naela didn’t even flinch as Nebule’s voice slowly went from quite painful gasps to increasingly sharp and worried. When the siren looked up, Ai was slightly taken aback by the change. Her features were much more gentler than when she was Oceana, her eyes were soft and her expression wasn’t so taut anymore. Her eyes especially, had turned into a completely different color. The previous color had been a mix of greys and blues that made her eyes look like the ocean. After awakening, her eyes had turned back to what Ai assumed was her original eye color. 

Pale light blue. Still the color of the ocean, yet infinitely simpler and clearer. 

Nebule continued to let out her grievances with how she didn’t want Naela anywhere near her or Oceanus, but Naela looked like she wasn’t listening. Her eyes stared at her lover, much brighter than when Ai first met her and her lips were curled into an even brighter smile.

Her broken wing reached up and the feathers brushed against Nebule’s cheek. At the touch, she ended her rant and simply touched the wing against her cheek. When she closed her eyes, tears fell and ran down her blue face. Sobs escaped her lips as she cried and cried endlessly. Naela wasn’t crying but her eyes were glassy.

“You came back to me.” Naela muttered. Her eyes not once leaving Nebule’s crying face. “You’re here. you’re here.”

Once again the couple hugged, tighter than before, each one of them too afraid to let go.

As the two reunited, Ai looked away from them and at the guard from before. They were no longer holding their trident, the weapon had been placed on the floor. along with the armor set that the person had been wearing. Still though, even with the armor gone, Ai didn’t know what they looked like.

After taking off the heavy armor, Nameless and her ever present cloak took back the trident from the floor. She gave Ai a glance then simply said, “Nice weapon.”

Ai really didn’t know how to respond. He got up from the floor and tried not to look at the weapon. He could still feel the cold triple points of it against the back of his neck.

“Looks like our plans have succeeded so far.” Nameless said, kicking away the armor. Ai simply nodded.

Nebule looked up from Naela’s embrace and finally noticed the other two people in the room. At Ai, she gave a warm gaze that told him how thankful she was. To Nameless, her gaze became confused. Her blue eyes scanned the hooded figure with an indescribable look.

Slowly, she stood and untangled herself from the harpy’s hold. With curious eyes, she approached Nameless, holding out her hand to reach towards the NPC’s hood.

“You...I know you.” Nebule said, her voice trembling. “You...you’re…”

Then, the unexpected.

Nameless slowly reached up herself. Her slender hands gripped the edge of her hood then pushed it down her back.

At that moment, Nebule gasped and Ai took a few steps back and rubbed his eyes to make sure that he wasn’t dreaming.

The nameless NPC had a face. Not only that, he’d seen that face before. It was the exact same. The NPC had the exact same face as Nebule.