After defeating Irif, everyone assumes that the hardest part is over, and that they can finally relax for a moment. But while flying back to Enoria, Kaleth and the others are attacked by an ancient enemy, who they thought was long dead. And he has a...
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Kaleth sighed as he stared down at the city around him. He was leaning on the thick, golden railing that surrounded the large balcony he was standing on. Even after two decades of dealing with politicians—particularly some politicians—he still needed time to calm down afterward, otherwise he risked a pointless, childish fight, which the other side would no doubt love to engage in.
Of course, the main sources of annoyance were the two Iritharian generals, but Kaleth decided to just group the two together. They managed to give him a headache with the same level of expertise.
They had apparently taken the stance of blaming Kaleth for the recent political turmoil, which he supposed was fair. What wasn't fair was also blaming him for causing this newest conflict. If this truly was only about him—which it wasn't—he would have dragged it away to a desolate island in the Abyssal sea.
Unfortunately, he wasn't enticing enough of a bait to manage that—because this wasn't about him, he was just an added bonus. And ultimately, this was Hidarion's choice as well, no matter what Kaleth or anyone else said. Even though Kaleth seemed to have more of an influence than anyone else, he hadn't managed to convince Hidarion to strike first, despite the call from Teran.
Kaleth realized that it was silly to focus on personal relationships right now, but he did find it a bit unsettling that Hidarion and Teran...communicated. Thankfully neither of them knew that they shared something, besides important political positions, so this was awkward only to Kaleth. And as bad as he felt about it, he was glad Hidarion was too busy to try and talk to him right now. There were only so many longing stares Kaleth could take. Though, to be fair to Hidarion, it had been mostly worried looks instead these past couple of hours. But those weren't that much better.
Not to mention that even though Mel hadn't said anything, their mental bond let Kaleth know just how miserable this was making him. Once this was dealt with, Kaleth really needed to tell Hidarion to let it go.
Not that he would.... He'd had five years to get over his crush. Or was it six now? Time was so hard to keep track of, especially now that he couldn't die of old age. Walking through the palace felt uncomfortably familiar for the most part.
Kaleth frowned. Actually, thinking about it now, he was pretty sure he and Hidarion had gotten drunk on this balcony at some point. But then again, they had gotten drunk a lot, even if usually within the realms of responsibility. Or Kaleth had gotten drunk, anyway—he had had an impressive tolerance, even then, but Iritharian liquor was on a completely different level.
Kaleth swallowed thickly as guilt slowly began to flood his heart. He knew this whole thing was his fault, but at the time, he'd had no idea that he'd been basically leading Hidarion on. In fact, he'd stayed oblivious to the man's advances for weeks. Until...the incident.
Kaleth shut his eyes, gripping the railing so hard it bent ever so slightly. He really didn't like how most memories he fought so hard to forget always came back to haunt him.
