Dawn of a Thousand Suns, Book I: Arch De Angels

Chapter XVI

"Lucius!" he heard a voice from far away. "Wake up!" someone was shaking him. Lucius opened his eyes. It was dark around.

"You must lack so much sleep," he recognized Uriel's ironic voice. "Where would you be, you are leaning onto my bed and, as I see, still sleeping?"

"What bed, what is happening?" he tried to rise, but banging his head against the bed, he had to sit down again.

"What's wrong with you? Did you see a bad dream?", Uriel tried to calm him down, but how could he calm down after everything he had seen.

"Where am I?" he asked once again and looked around. His eyes got used to the darkness and he could see the surroundings better.

It was the same room in the palace where his wounded friends were staying. Laili was tight asleep next to him. Others were also in their beds, except for Uriel. However, there was another person in the room, the officer who had taken him to the commander.

"Lord Felix wants to see you," the officer said politely.

Lucius was staring at him in bewilderment. He could not understand why people around him were behaving as if nothing had happened.

Uriel poked him, however, he could not understand why, because he had to follow the officer or his friend just wanted to wake him up. He got up, took Uriel's jacket, and followed the officer.

"Did I dream about all that?" Lucius asked himself for the hundredth time. He could not believe he had such a vivid dream.

He remembered when the officer took him from the room; it was still broad daylight; when he woke up, he looked around, because the sun was peeping into the room through the window. Did all that he had seen happen in reality? He woke up at different times in that case, but why would the officer and Uriel behave that way then? They behaved so normally.

The officer talked to him as if he saw him for the first time. This meant that either Lucius had a nightmare, or he was the only one who remembered what had happened.

When they were going down the stairs, he heard the moans of the soldiers, but as it seemed to him, they were not as intense as previously they were much more reserved and soft.

They went through the hall, walked up to the wooden door that looked distinctly familiar and this feeling doubled the suspicion. If everything was a dream, why did the door look so familiar? He had never been in that hall before. Or how did he know that Lord Felix was a commander?

They opened the door and stepped into the study: the commander was relaxing in his armchair, there was a marble bust in the corner and a wolf's head attached to the wall, as well as a stuffed wild bird. Everything looked familiar to Lucius.

"Oh, is that you?" Lord Felix opened his eyes and looked at Lucius. He looked more tired than strict than he showed the last time they had met.

"It gets dark pretty early, doesn't it?" the commander did not wait for an answer, pointed at the armchair in front of the desk so that Lucious would sit.

This time, Lucius give in quickly and sat in the armchair.

The yellow lights from the candles and torches were dancing on the smooth surface of the desk.

"I want to talk to you about Lord Marcus!" the commander started after a while and Lucius guessed once again he knew something he shouldn't.

"What do you want to know, My Lord?" asked Lucius, pretending to be confident and calm.

"What did he tell you this morning when he was with you in the room?" the commander asked without beating around the bush.

'First, he asked about my friends' health and when we dared to ask him what we could expect in the future, he told us it would take the help ten days to arrive."