Draconia Offline vol. 1

32.1. Acknowledged - Part 1

We lock ourselves in the conference room. To be honest, I'd have preferred to do it in our apartment but that might be too suspicious. Here, we can pretend that we're communicating with the security department and planning things. Miruel and Vermiel stand guard in front of the door, making sure no one interrupts us.

"Don't overdo it, Ryuu," Erik warns me. "You're still recuperating."

"I'll do whatever is necessary to get them," I say resolutely. "But just in case I faint, don't call Julia and just let me rest. I should be fine."

My boyfriend sighs and looks at the gang. Only Liana is missing, sleeping in her bedroom. It's for the best, she deserves rest more than anybody and I should finally prove to her that she can count on me. If I have to become the Celestial Emperor, I should start acting like one. And being reliable is part of the job.

"Will you be able to tell us right away when you find something?" Fefnir asks and is clutching his phone.

"It's long-distance telepathy, not astral projection, Fefnir," I roll my eyes. "I'll be perfectly aware of everything around me so don't distract me."

"Like that, Aefener?" Ingri puts several pillows and a blanket she took from the lounge on the floor.

"Perfect, thanks," I nod. "Much better than a chair," I eye the seats in the conference room. Definitely not made for Celestials.

"You look like you're about to meditate," Erik chuckles to relieve the tension and helps me sit down on the cushions while putting the blanket under my knees.

"That's actually exactly what I'm going to do," I say. "We've been training it with Julia, remember?"

I envelop myself into my wings, cross my legs and naturally straighten my back. Perfect, most comfortable. I take a deep breath and close my eyes. I used my ability like this before in Liana's mansion, of course, but I didn't control it that well. But now I feel that I am in control. Is it thanks to my training? Or because I don't struggle with my Celestial nature?

"Erik, stop it, please," I say without opening my eyes. "I love it but I feel you too strongly when you're touching me."

"Sorry," he lets go of my wings he started caressing. He's been doing it almost automatically lately. Whenever there's an opportunity, his hands find my feathers. A lovely new quirk. But not now.

I breathe in deeply once again and try to calm down my frantic thinking. I count ten breaths until it works and I become a bit more detached from my own thoughts. The emotions I perceive all around me sharpen and I can sense perfectly well what my friends are feeling right now. Anxiety. Fear. Distress. Uncertainly about our future.

But I don't go for their feelings, I need to find people who aren't supposed to be here— the intruders who stole my feather. I filter all Draconians but I'm still left with a few dozen humans. I'm searching for emotions like hatred that are always strongest and easiest to spot but all I get is just slight disgust coming from several sources which is probably normal.

"I... I didn't get anything," I open my eyes and chew my lip.

"You couldn't do it?" Erik clutches my hand in comfort. "That's okay, Ryuu, you're still training it after all."

"No, I could do it," I shake my head because I feel my friends are really confused by the outcome. "I perceived everyone in the skyscraper but there's no one who would want to hurt us."

"So they either fled already," Fefnir narrows his eyes, "or they don't want to sabotage us."

"Do you mean to tell me they were satisfied with just taking Aefener's feather?" Emi stays sceptical and impatiently thumbs her right foot (o rather a paw?) against the floor.