Chapter 338: The Obvious Solution
Kai's eyes were open and he honestly wasn't sure if he'd ever closed them. He didn't feel exhausted - he was burning with nervous energy. Despite the terrible night spent thinking, his feelings were still a tangled mess. After talking nonsense about being a real man and making a decision, he had no idea what he was going to say.
But he was out of time. The night sky was beginning to crack outside his window, so the altar would be charged soon. And despite the emotional aspect, he thought they did have to use it. They were likely still being hunted and their opponents were too dangerous for them to ignore an obvious advantage.
During the night he hadn't come up with any real solutions, but he did reflect on all the things he knew about Cloudspire and sexual magic, and as a result he thought he understood Zae Zin Nim better. She had long been terrified that her womanhood and virginity would be taken and harvested according to the methods of dual cultivation that still seemed strange to him. Her rush toward the Kama Altar had been her escape from all those fears, and a display of trust in him.
And he could understand Omilaena. Always supporting them even as she watched their clumsy relationship growing closer, expecting them to drift away from her. She'd been direct about what she wanted, but she'd remained distant, as if she never expected him to choose her. The fatalism he'd seen in her eyes the previous night cut deep.
Kai slowly got to his feet and walked across the altar chambers, more like approaching an execution than an event that was supposed to be happy.
No one was in the room Zae Zin Nim had chosen. He blinked a few times, his mind not fully engaged, then he turned to find Omilaena's room. When he reached the door and pulled aside the curtain, he just stared for a while.
Zae Zin Nim and Omilaena were sitting together on the stone bed, kissing.
He knew he must be staring and forced himself to back away. Of all the scenarios he'd imagined during the long night, that had never been one of them. But now that he considered it, wasn't that just ignorant of him? The two of them had been traveling together nearly as long, and after their angry initial encounters, they'd become increasingly intimate. Omilaena could talk to Zae Zin Nim about these things and understand in a way that he never could.
Maybe this was even for the best. Kai decided to walk away and not think about it for-