Chapter 762: She Reached Him
"You were frustrated," Mabel said.
Liam’s gaze did not move.
"You still are," Mabel continued. "Not as much as before, perhaps, but it is still there. And before you decide that I am accusing you of weakness, I am not. You have every right to feel frustrated."
That made Liam’s eyes narrow slightly, not in anger, but in attention.
Mabel took one quiet breath before continuing.
"You were dragged into matters far above you before the war against Sylvathar. Then that war led to you falling into a slumber for six months, and during that time, you were forced to endure memories that were not your own. Your parents’ memories. Aesmirius’s memories, the memories of someone who is closer to a god than any living person should have to understand."
Liam’s fingers tightened slightly around the towel.
Mabel noticed, but she did not stop.
"Then you woke," she said, "and instead of being allowed to adjust properly, you were thrown back into challenge after challenge. Your existence as a dark mage became a political problem. Crescent’s hatred did not disappear. You had to deal with Princess Sheila, Prince Percy, the academy’s attention, your peers watching you, fearing you, hating you, or expecting things from you, and higher authorities studying what you might become."
Her voice remained even, but each word carried weight because none of them were exaggerated.
"That is enough to make many people break," she said. "Not stumble. Break. Yet you kept it under control, at least to some extent. You continued moving. You continued training. You continued thinking. But in doing so, you also forced yourself to overlook what was building inside you because you did not have a proper way to deal with it."
Liam remained silent, but the look in his eyes had changed.