Chapter 72: Odomos
Azriel
"What do you mean you don’t know what to do?" I yelled, pointing a sharp, accusatory finger directly at Anomas.
My chest heaved with an irritation that had been burning inside me for days, fueled entirely by his complete failure to come up with a single solution for Seraphel’s sudden, unbreakable sleep.
"I am saying that this is entirely beyond my sight, Azriel," Anomas replied, his voice heavy with frustration. "I have exhausted every thread of my foresight. I have tried everything to look into his condition, but I cannot seem to understand why he remains like this."
I rubbed a hand over my face, dragging my palms over my skin again and again as I paced the length of the chamber.
My mind was completely consumed by a single question: where the hell did it all go wrong? I should have protected him when it mattered most. Instead, my own negligence had pushed him right into the path of the hidden forces lurking in this palace. Now he was suffering, slipping deeper into the dark because I hadn’t been paying close enough attention.
"It has been three entire days, Anomas," I growled, stopping in my tracks. "Why hasn’t he woken up? He fell into this state the exact day after the marriage announcement was made."
Anomas let out a deep sigh, his gaze shifting from me toward Luceriel, who sat quietly at the grand table.
My brothers had all arrived at the capital the morning after the coronation was decreed, their timing turning what should have been a royal celebration into a gathering of sheer panic.
Luceriel, the Sin of Pride, had been the first to cross the gates, his presence as unyielding as ever. Right behind him came Sariel, the Sin of Envy, watching the palace with calculating, bitter eyes. Raziel, the Sin of Greed, had made the most ridiculous entrance, appearing with a thunderous parade of drums and flashy carriages overflowing with chests of solid gold meant as wedding gifts—only to find out the bride was in a deep coma. Taizel, the Sin of Gluttony, arrived shortly after, looking for a feast that didn’t exist. Uriel, the Sin of Sloth, had literally been brought in by his own head servant; he had been asleep for over a week with no sign of waking, forced to travel across the borders while entirely unconscious until his servant managed to guide his mind back to Katula through the dream paths.
Finally, Lumiel, the Sin of Wrath, had ridden straight in from the borders the very next day, smelling of iron and dust.
And yet, despite all the primordial power gathered in this single room, not a single one of my brothers had been able to figure out what was tearing Seraphel away from us.
"If there were even a single trace of residual magic left in his quarters, I would have unraveled it by now," Anomas explained further, pressing his hands flat against the dark wood of the meeting table. "But there is absolutely nothing. No aura, no lingering spells. There is no trace of magic around his body at all."
I let out another sharp groan, my fingers digging into my hair as the absolute helplessness of the situation began to claw at my throat.
"I have even taken it upon myself to read through the ancient texts of the high archives," Luceriel spoke up, his tone dripping with his usual pompous, unbothered arrogance as he adjusted the cuffs of his heavy robes. "Books containing knowledge that simpler minds could never hope to comprehend. Yet, even my intellect found nothing regarding that human’s specific state. A minor setback, naturally, but tedious nonetheless."
"Do you think it is dark magic?" Lumiel asked, his voice low, rough, and vibrating with a latent malice that always hovered near the surface. He locked his harsh glare onto me.
"Personally, I wouldn’t care if the creature rotted, considering you slaughtered my own mate years ago. But this human is the one destined to break the core curse binding our bloodlines. We cannot allow the vessel to die when he still has a purpose to fulfill. I will personally summon an entity heavily versed in the forbidden dark arts. They will find the root of this and we will be able to get him out of there.’’
Sariel let out a sharp, mocking sigh from across the table. "I believe Elysium simply walked right into your kingdom undetected, Azriel. You were careless, too wrapped up in your own indulgence, and now your precious mate is going to pay the price for your lack of vigilance."
"What the hell are you trying to say, Sariel?" I snapped, stepping toward him as the temperature in the room spiked with my rising intent. "I did everything to ensure his quarters were secure. I took my eyes off him for only a few hours to handle the council, and then this happened."
"Yes, which is exactly why I believe you are entirely unfit to carry the child of prophecy," Sariel pointed out, folding his arms tightly over his chest as he turned his face away from me in disgust. "You cannot even protect the one carrying your own blood. That is pathetic of you Azriel.’’
I scoffed, the retort dying in my throat as a heavy weight settled in my chest. As much as I hated his venomous words, the bitter truth remained: he was right. This was my failure. I hadn’t been careful enough.
"So what do we actually do now?" Taizel belched loudly, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand before taking another heavy swig from the golden goblet in his grasp. "If we can just locate where the energy is coming from, I would gladly swallow the entire curse down my throat to clear the path for you. But right now, there is nothing for me to consume."
"The vision I had regarding your child three days ago... I am certain my mother witnessed the exact same thread," Anomas continued after a long, tense silence settled over the room.
"Seeing how that child is destined to inherit an unprecedented amount of raw divinity, the Emperor of Elysium would never allow it to exist outside his control. He wanted that power for his own court. Elysium is undoubtedly behind this, but how they managed to bypass my wards and enter the palace remains a mystery. The magic they used must be an ancient, high-tier art specifically designed to evade my sight."
Raziel cleared his throat, standing up as the gold rings on his fingers clinked against one another. "I believe we should proceed with Lumiel’s suggestion. We can only solve this by introducing an outside force—a master of the black arts who can look beyond standard tracking. When I inspected the omega’s soul structure earlier, the anchor was entirely missing. His spirit has wandered completely off, and—"
The heavy oak doors of the meeting room burst open before Raziel could finish his thought.
Uriel stood in the threshold, yawning heavily as he dragged his feet across the stone floor. He was dressed in loose, flowing white robes embroidered with shimmering star-like symbols, looking as if he had just been pulled from his bed seconds ago.
Every eye in the room turned toward him as he silently drifted over to the table and sank into an empty chair.
"How kind of you to finally join the living, Uriel," Sariel remarked, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "I assure you, absolutely no one missed your presence."
Uriel blinked slowly at him, completely unaffected, before letting out another massive yawn. "I saw him. I saw that human inside the dream paths. His spirit has wandered much further away than any of you could ever imagine."
My eyes widened.
I lunged forward, slamming my hands onto the table as I leaned directly into Uriel’s space. "What the hell do you mean his spirit wandered off? Where is Seraphel?"
Uriel looked up, his sleepy eyes suddenly growing entirely cold and distant. "In the one place where nightmares are created. Odomos."