Draconia Offline vol. 1

73.1. On the Brink of War - Part 1

"Oh, Ryuu, you're finally awake!"

"My love!"

I barely manage to open my eyes and I'm being kissed all over. Not a bad way to wake up, if only I wasn't feeling like I've just run a marathon. I'm not in pain, but I can hardly lift a finger. When my eyes focus, I realise that I'm in the infirmary. Erik and Gotrid are hugging me while Julia and Noage are looking at me with relieved expressions.

"Send for the Viceroy, His Majesty is awake," Julia says to someone behind the hospital curtain.

"How long was I...?" I ask weakly.

"Five hours in a coma, twelve hours in regular sleep after that," Gotrid recounts. "You scared us, honey."

"I'm hungry," I murmur because my stomach rumbles painfully.

"Can we move him to our apartment now?" Erik asks the doctors. "You said we can if he wakes up and feels okay."

"One last check," Noage insists and connects to my right arm. I notice that the skin on my forearm is sore in several places, he must have been connected to me all this time while feeding me. I'm glad that I wasn't conscious during that.

"The shield!" I exclaim when everything comes back to me all of a sudden. "It's not connected to me anymore, did it dissolve? What if we're still in danger?!"

"Calm down, love, our research team came up with a solution of powering up the shield with quartz crystals," Gotrid explains quickly.

"And it's holding like that?" I still worry. We never tested crystals before in the real world.

"It is," he assures me and pets my feathers to comfort me. "You wouldn't wake up if it didn't work. Okay, let's go."

"Hey, not fair, you carried him already," Erik purses his lips at Gotrid who, surprisingly, backs off without complaints. I guess they don't want to argue over nonsense in front of me.

I let Erik hold me under my thighs and wings and I grab him around his neck for better stability. I don't like the feeling of being weakened like that (way too often in my opinion), but I think I did my best in this case and deserve some rest, so I don't protest and just enjoy the ride.

"Don't, not now," Erik shakes his head because he feels I'm trying to browse his mind to learn what happened while I was unconscious. "When we're in our apartment, okay?"

I don't push it then, but I can't block my empathy even if I wanted. I can tell from his overall emotional state that whatever happened isn't good. I snuggle to him looking for comfort because all Draconians in the skyscraper are bewildered and it's making me a bit nauseous. Emotions of others don't hurt me nearly as much as before, but strong negative feelings coming from hundreds of people still have a toll on me.

"Don't worry, Your Majesty, we vacated the halls," Miruel assures me when we step out of the infirmary.

She acts collected, but her voice is cold and she's barely suppressing her Celestial wrath. The same goes for all Celestials in the building—that attack must have really frightened them. Was it another monster? Something we have never encountered before? And why couldn't the others feel it?

We get to our apartment and I'm looking forward to the calming cosiness of our home, but no such luck. The floor is full of Royal Guards and every single one of them is staring at me with fanatical admiration and anxious anticipation. It gets better when we reach our bedroom, but Miruel posted guards inside as well and my partners aren't complaining about it for some reason.

"Aefener," Liana is waiting for me and her expression is tired and gloomy.

I don't understand. Sure, being attacked like that is a shock for everyone, but I prevented a catastrophe, right? My shield saved us and it's still holding. We're safe from monsters, at least for the time being. As for the future, we simply need to strengthen our defences.