Chapter 54: You Should Stay
Serian sat there on the ground for a long time, the alley was quiet now, and the bodies were gone. They had just vanished into little golden specks of light, so it was like they were never even there. Her ankle was hurting a lot, a steady throbbing pain that made her feel a little sick.
Her mind was clear now, and the conversation with that being, Auraelia, replayed over and over.
’I will stay by Nox’s side. To be his ally.’ She remembered making that promise. It had felt so right in that moment, when she was about to die. She understood now, she really did.
Auraelia’s words about Nox being alone, about his pain, it all clicked with what she had seen in him. That coldness he had wasn’t just him being a jerk, it was something else, something deeper.
’He’s just... broken,’ she thought, ’and that thing, that Mana, it’s just him using his own hurt to fight back.’ The thought made sense, but it didn’t make her feel any better. Allying herself with a human, it went against everything she had ever been taught. Her people had suffered because of humans.
But then she thought about him again. He had fought for her. He hadn’t run away from Lola, even when he was clearly outmatched. And he had been... decent to her. He hadn’t treated her like a princess, he’d just treated her like a person.
’But why does a powerful being like Auraelia care so much about him?’ she wondered, pushing herself up with a grunt of pain. Her ankle screamed at her, and she had to lean against the wall for support. ’What’s so special about that human boy?’
She didn’t have any answers, just a new promise she had to keep.
She took a limping step out of the alley. The city was still busy, people walking by without a clue what had just happened a few feet away. She needed to find him. ’He said he was going to meet his friends. His... girls.’ She remembered the word he had used and she did not like how it sounded.