Chapter 61: Control
Yue-Senn POV
I closed the distance in a fraction of a second, my boots skidding as I caught Ry’s limp body just inches before her head collided with the blood-stained earth.
"Ry! Ry, look at me!"
I called out to her, my hands trembling as I cradled her upper body, gently shaking her shoulders. There was absolutely no response. Her head fell back against my arm, her eyes completely closed, the dark trails of blood drying on her pale cheeks.
A sudden, suffocating panic gripped my chest. I quickly leaned my ear down close to her mouth, my heart hammering against my ribs until I finally caught the faint, rhythmic puff of air against my skin.
She was still breathing. A heavy, sigh of pure relief tore out of my throat, my shoulders sagging as I pulled her tighter against my chest.
"Mother, please... I am begging you to save her. Please!"
A broken, desperate cry shattered the quiet. I snapped my head over to see Riegthar kneeling in the ruins, completely shattered as he held Ari’s bleeding, mutilated body in his arms. His eyes were wide with a frantic, terror.
Hearing her son beg, Lady Vhaelor looked up, her gaze meeting King Vhaelor’s. The King gave her a single, solemn nod. Slowly, the Queen stood from her husband’s lap, wiping a smear of blood from her own torn clothes, and walked over to where Riegthar knelt. She didn’t say a word. She simply reached out, placing both of her palms directly over the massive, gaping wound in Ari’s stomach.
Instantly, a ethereal blue light erupted from her hands. Intricate, glowing magical symbolisms began to spin through the air, casting a haunting glow over the courtyard as the Queen began to recite an incantation a fluid, ancient language that I had never heard and couldn’t even begin to understand.
What happened next defied the laws of nature. The rivers of blood that had pooled across the ground began to liquefy and move, defying gravity as the droplets seeped backward, drawing back into Ari’s skin.
Beneath the Queen’s glowing palms, the shredded muscle, torn organs, and pierced flesh began to visibly knit themselves back together, closing up until the skin was completely unmarred.
She really is an amazing healer, I thought to myself, a grim respect reluctantly settling into my chest. Her combat magic was terrifying, but this was absolute mastery over life and death.
"Thank you... thank you," Riegthar wept, the tears spilling freely down his face as he carefully gathered Ari’s healed, sleeping body securely up into his arms. I turned my attention back to my own wife, lifting Ry up effortlessly into my embrace.
Even completely unconscious, her lips parted slightly, her voice nothing more than a fragile, barely audible wheeze as she kept whispering over and over again: "...Ari... Ari..."
"Even in a time like this, you care entirely about others and not yourself," I muttered out loud, my heart aching as I looked down at her fragile features.
The warmth of my relief was instantly swallowed by a cold, murderous rage. I turned my head, as I locked my gaze directly onto her parents.
"After all this shit is cleared up," I hissed, my voice dropping into a low tone that vibrated with pure malice, "someone is going to explain to me what the fuck just happened here. Or I will personally kill each and every one of you."
Lady Vhaelor didn’t even flinch at the threat. She stood straight, her disheveled hair blowing in the wind. "You couldn’t. Even if you tried."
"But he would damn well die trying for Ry," King Vhaelor interjected smoothly. He walked over, his torn clothes shifting as he placed a heavy, protective hand flat on his wife’s shoulder, their unified front completely unyielding.
I stared them down, my jaw clenching. "I would. I would gladly give my entire life for her. Just as the two of you would give your lives for each other, no matter who the threat might be."
Before the tension could explode into another war, Riegthar pulled a teleporting crystal from his vest and crushed it ruthlessly in his fist. A swirling, shimmering vortex of portal magic tore open in the middle of the ruined courtyard.
"Help me, and I will help you," Riegthar said to me, his voice dead and hollow as he stepped toward the rift. He didn’t wait for an answer before he walked straight into the glowing portal with Ari.
I paused, casting one final, look over my shoulder at the rulers of this ruined kingdom.
"We are still having a meeting the exact second this shit is cleared up," I reminded King Vhaelor and Lady Vhaelor.
Holding Ry securely against my bare chest, I turned and walked directly into the portal.
The moment we exited the other side, the frantic atmosphere of our own palace courts hit us. Dozens of guards and panicked maids were gathered in the grand hall, whispering and pacing in a total state of panic.
"Move aside!" Riegthar’s commanding voice barked from the front as he made his way inside, the crowd immediately parting in terror at the sight of the blood-stained prince.
Ki-ri materialized from the shadows near the doorway, his eyes instantly scanning Ry’s unconscious form. "Master! I will call a physician immediately—"
"There is no need!" Riegthar called out from further inside the corridor, his footsteps echoing rapidly toward the private royal wing.
I hurried past the crowd, keeping my focus locked on the woman in my arms. As I passed Ki-ri, I threw a sharp look over my shoulder.
"Ensure the palace is heavily guarded tonight, Ki-ri. Triple the perimeter watch, and send immediate aid to the West Kingdom."
"Understood, Master," he replied, bowing instantly before rushing off to execute the orders. I turned back and strode quickly down the hall, entering the royal chambers. Just as I stepped into the room, Ry stirred slightly against me, her fingers weakly clutching at my chest.
"Help me... Yue-Senn..." she whispered, her voice a broken, desperate plea.
"I’ve got you. I’m right here," I murmured, holding her tighter against my body as I made my way into our master bedroom.
The heavy double doors were already flung wide open. Riegthar had already arrived, Ari was laying quietly on the center of our massive bed, her breathing steady but deep.
"Put Ry next to her," Riegthar instructed, his voice strained as he stood at the foot of the mattress. I walked over and laid her down gently right next to Ari’s sleeping form. Riegthar reached over, pulling the heavy, fur-lined blanket up and covering both of them to their chins. He let out a long, exhausted sigh, rubbing his face with his hands.
"They just need to feel each other," he said, his voice dropping into a quiet, protective tone.
"They need to know that each other is okay. They will wake up soon."
Riegthar turned away from the bed, his shoulders slumping as he went and sat heavily in the wooden chair by the desk, his head resting against his knuckles.
I didn’t move away. I sat down heavily on the very edge of the mattress, right next to Ry’s hip, my hand reaching out to smooth the tangled, messy hair away from her face. My expression went entirely cold, the silence in the room turning suffocatingly heavy.
I looked across the dimly lit room, my eyes locking onto my brother-in-law.
"Start talking," I said to him, my voice dangerously flat as the last of my patience ran entirely thin.
Riegthar sighed again, the sound heavy and hollow in the quiet of the bedchamber. He stared blankly at the floor before looking up at me.
"Ry’s powers are intrinsically connected to her emotions. The stronger the emotion she feels, the more powerful she becomes. And to be honest... I am certain she wasn’t even at half of her true strength out there today. I guess her losing her memory might play into it."
I froze, a genuine shock rippling through my chest. I looked from him down to Ry’s peaceful face.
"If that wasn’t even half... what the hell can she do with her full strength?"
"She can do exactly what she did years ago," Riegthar replied, his voice laced with a grim reverence.
"I knew she was powerful, but not this powerful," I muttered, my mind racing as I replayed the sheer, explosive of the courtyard brawl in my head.
"I saw her use water and ice magic."
"Yes. Ry can wield elemental magic. Fire is by far her strongest, but she can also use blood magic and high-level healing magic."
A dark, incredibly proud smirk tugged at the corner of my lips. "Wow. I really hit the jackpot with her."
Riegthar’s eyes narrowed slightly. "Hey. That’s my sister you’re talking about."
"And she is my wife," I shot back smoothly, not backing down for a second. "But tell me why was she never taught how to properly control a power like that?"
"We tried," Riegthar admitted, rubbing the back of his neck in frustration.
"But Ry has not yet hit dragon puberty just yet. That’s why she is the smallest in our family. Her physical body is still not yet able to handle all the raw power that she possesses, especially not in a world that she wasn’t even born in."
I looked down at Ry, my expression softening entirely. I leaned over and pressed a gentle, lingering kiss against the crown of her head.
"So explain to me... why after so long did she go on such a horrific rampage today?"
"Ry has lost control before on many occasions, just never to this extreme extent," Riegthar explained, tilting his head toward the other sleeping woman on the mattress.
"Ari here has always been the one to keep her in control. Ari is a specialized blood mage. She uses multiple, distinct magic spells stacked perfectly on top of each other to create a solid blade formed out of both her own blood and Ry’s.
She pierces it directly inside Ry’s chest it stops her heart for just a few seconds, completely sealing off her magic, and then Ry passes out and comes back to herself."
My eyebrows shot up in pure disbelief. "I have never heard of a blood mage using magic like that. I didn’t even know that was mechanically possible."
"Ari is special. However... she is technically one of the weakest blood mage classes there is."
"You’ve got to be joking," I scoffed, crossing my arms over my chest.
"She is incredibly strong. There is no other blood mage in this realm that does what she does."
"Trust me, I know," Riegthar said, a deep, sorrowful shadow crossing his face.
"But Ari compared to all the other blood mages in our house? She is considered weak."
"Well, she is in the North now," I responded firmly.
"And here, she is strong." We locked eyes for a few tense, silent seconds, the mutual respect between two powerful men hanging heavily in the air. Finally, Riegthar looked down, staring intensely at his own hands.
"Ari and I are in love," he confessed, his voice barely above a whisper.
"We have been for years. We had a secret relationship behind my parents’ backs."
I let out a low, mocking chuckle, lighting up the weight in the room.
"Look at you. The great Prince Riegthar, in a forbidden relation with a palace maid. I bet your parents were going absolutely crazy."
"They were when they finally found out," he muttered, his jaw clenching tightly. "But I couldn’t stop. I wanted her, and only her. Ari became pregnant... and my mother killed our child."
The amusement died instantly in my throat. A cold, dangerous stillness settled into my bones.
"I knew the Queen was ruthless... but I never knew she was to this horrific extent."
"Ry overheard the entire conversation today," Riegthar choked out, his eyes turning glossy with fresh tears.
"And she lost her mind. She completely lost control."
"I don’t blame her," I said, my voice dropping into a dark, understanding rumble.
"If she is close to you, and it seems she is close to this maid as well, then she had every right to be furious."
"Everything is a whole, catastrophic mess," Riegthar sighed, dropping his head into his hands.
"And my family is the absolute center of it all."
"Don’t be so arrogant," I countered, standing up smoothly from the edge of the bed. I flattened the remaining fabric of my trousers.
"Your family is just a single piece of the puzzle to a much bigger picture."
I turned my head toward the heavy balcony doors.
"Take the first watch over the girls," I commanded Riegthar, my voice dropping into a whisper.
"I will be right back. I can sense an unwanted guest."