Ceaseless Devotion || Garroth Ro'meave x OC

12: (I still see your shadows in my room)

Cecelia's eyes fluttered open, wincing as the morning light shone through the overhanging branches. The sun had only just recently risen, lighting up the treehouse to be uncomfortably bright.

'Too early...' Cecelia thought with a grumble. With only a few hours of sleep after the tiring day beforehand, she hoped she would at least be able to get a little more rest before waking up, but unfortunately, that was not the case.

Rolling onto her back, she placed both hands over her face to shield herself from the light, while also wiping the sleep from her eyes. When she lowered her hands and her vision cleared, she flinched at the sight of Laurance standing nearby.

"Oh, you're awake," His voice rang out as he somehow appeared just a few meters from Cecelia's bedside despite her not hearing any footsteps approaching.

"Barely," Cecelia yawned.

"Do you have a moment to talk?" Laurance asked politely, his voice calm. Cecelia wondered momentarily if she was still asleep and this oddly nice version of Laurance was just a dream.

"I suppose. What's on your mind?" Cecelia warily answered. Surely he must be wanting something other than her time, right?

"I wanted to come and speak to you about what happened last night." Laurance continued, taking a seat on the bed beside Cecelia's own.

"Oh..." Cecelia felt her heart drop as the memories of the night before flooded her. How she cried, what she said... Oh Irene, she hoped it wasn't about what she was fearing he would mention.

"It's nothing about that, so don't worry. I just wanted to apologise." Laurance reassured, to which Cecelia felt the sudden stress melt away almost immediately. It also took her a second longer to realise what Laurance said afterwards.

"Apologise?" Cecelia spoke with heavy confusion. First of all, never in her life would Cecelia have expected Laurance to take the time to apologise to her, but also, what for? Laurance didn't do anything the night before that would warrant an apology unless Cecelia was misremembering.

"Yes... After you left last night, I got to thinking about everything that happened before Zane happened..." Laurance began, "Even though you admitted your intentions from day one, I never believed you. So much happened to Phoenix Drop and it was very difficult for me to trust anyone else from O'khasis, you know?"

Ah, now Cecelia understood what this apology was all about.

"It didn't help that things kept happening that could've easily been blamed on you. It was all very unfortunately timed. Regardless, I misjudged you, and I wanted to apologise for that." Laurance finished, giving Cecelia a genuine look of repentance that she could for once believe.

"I– uh... Thank you, Laurance. That really does mean a lot...–" she stumbled over her words, not being quite awake enough to know how to respond to something as sudden as this. Cecelia was soon cut off as another voice, one she didn't recognise, spoke from nearby.

"–Laurance, there you are! Oh... Am I interrupting something?" Cecelia turned to face the voice, nearly jumping from her bed with excitement at the sight of who she desperately wanted to believe was Garroth, but instead, she was met with the aching realisation that it was the now Lord of Phoenix Drop, Levin.

It was uncanny how similar the two looked, so much so that Cecelia found herself diverting her eyes from his direction. She heard from word of mouth how much they looked alike, but Cecelia was wildly unprepared for meeting him in such a way.

"No, it's alright Levin, I was just about to leave. Was there something you needed?" Laurance asked, standing to greet him.

"I was just going to let you know that Malachi and the others will be docking soon if you were interested," Levin explained with a smiley tone to his voice.