Embers of Sun and Flame: Before We Have It (Fuegoleon x OC)

Chapter 9 So much and nothing at all

"Did you have a good day?" Solara asked while entering into their room in the evening. She had been trying to study, find something useful that might take her closer to understanding her mana better again. Though theories and thoughts of other people weren't necessarily the best way to learn about one's own magic.

But every now and then, there was a statement that just made all the pieces click into place. Sadly, those moment were far too scarce, and most often didn't happen when one would need them to happen.

"It was... informational," he replied, sounding as if he was talking more to himself than to her, and it made her gaze travel onto him, seated in his chair.

There was a glass in his hand, his fingers clutching onto the top of it, making it seem as if he was dangling the item, rather than holding it. But given how close he held his hand to his mouth, there was an impression of gravity simply pulling the container away from his lips, and as his mind was tangled into something else than the room, the world around him, the forces of nature were winning the war for the glass, over his mind. It was, as if, if he stepped a little further into the sea of his own thoughts, gravity would snatch the glass away, and it'd tumble onto the floor, right where his gaze was directed without seeing anything.

"What happened?" Her brows furrowed as she took steps closer to the chair. The words were faint and delicate while leaving her lips, laced with sorrow, the precise cause of which she did not know.

"I-..." he breathed in, waking from the trance and gazed to the ceiling. "Julius... He-, um... Is called to have an audience back in Thea. Today, I think. And he stated that if there is a reason to apologize, then he will."

She sat into her own chair, but at the very edge of it, and leaned closer to him. "That sounds like... good news?" She placed her hand onto his knee and looked at him, trying to find his gaze.

"It's... I suppose so," he agreed. "I thought about how... Arguing against the alliance would require a strong emotion against it from Queen Anima; that she'd be more inclined to speak for it, but now I'm... not too sure."

"What made you think so?" She asked, tilting her head and still trying to find his eyes.

"Your father came to visit," he replied, finally lifting his gaze from the floor, to which it had fallen again.

"My father?" She frowned.

He nodded. "Yes... He-, had something he wanted to talk to me about something. And brought a 'peace offering', as he called it," he lifted his glass, swirling the liquid slightly.

"Did he-, um..." the frown stayed imprinted on her face, but this times it was as if she had felt a sting of a rigid pebble in her shoe. Because she didn't know what she should prepare herself for.

"He wanted to talk to me about The Law of Impartialness."

Her head lifted, and lowered, creating a slow nod, as if to agree, and to assess. "Because it's... questionable if we're..."

"If you'd be protecting something while taking part in an 'active' military operation, that isn't even on the soil of your allies."

A few seconds ticked away as she thought about it, trying to piece the statement together. "That... is a sound concern... I didn't... think about it. Because it's devils. And that it'd be seen as defence, no matter how you go about it..." There it was again, that gnawing, burning sensation that wanted to consume her from the inside out. I should've been smarter... Thought it through...

"That's what your father presumed to be the reason why no one has pressed it. They see it similarly as you do, but he thinks that it's a valid concern to think about what those parties, who already are aligned with you, will think about it. And he has apparently brought it up to your mother, but received no reply."