Because I Love You✔️

Chapter 155: Until We Meet Again

Chapter One Hundred and Five: Until We Met Again

The entire morning was spent preparing for departure.

Everyone was on edge.

None more than Xaphile, however: Adariel hadn't left his side since he'd been brought back into the room. The kid had started clinging to his arm, looking at his face occasionally in an anxious manner. His panic attack had obviously scared his little brother badly.

He felt extremely guilty about it.

He knew, in the back of his head, that he couldn't show how he was really feeling since his little brother needed him to be strong. That knowledge was the only thing keeping him steady enough to stay on track, since it gave him strength he didn't even know he had.

Amelia had gone shopping with Sinmir to find ingredients for another potion, and they had then spent a good fifteen minutes behind the stables creating a spell that would allow them to safely teleport their horses to Adanac with them.

Vordt, being the antisocial person he was, had embraced both him and Adariel with a muttered promise that he would meet them in Chisago and to take care of each other until then. And, without hesitation, he had left their group and presumably departed on his wild buck.

Xaphile hadn't been able to think right since his departure.

It was like, with the knowledge that his friends were going to be heading separate ways, the stability he'd grown accustomed to had begun to fall apart. And he was worried.

His friends had come up to him a few times after the incident trying to talk, though it hadn't really turned into anything of value. It wasn't until everyone went downstairs to order their lunch while the horses were geared up for traveling that Ella actually stopped him.

Adariel, sitting in the crook of his arm, glanced back and forth between them.

"Sinmir gave me his signet ring to present to Vrael's mother, and Vrael gave me a letter," she said quietly, peering around him and watching as their friends continued down the hall. "At the very least, when we make it back to the Syl mountains, she won't be too angry."

"She'll want an explanation," Xaphile said softly, looking at his brother. "Still... I'm actually kind of excited to see the Daael family again. I've been wondering how Bruno's doing, and I'm sure Vrael's little brothers will be super excited to hear about the cool stuff we've been doing."

Ella looked at him more closely.

"I'm hoping to enlist Vrael's mother into my services once Sinmir has formally pardoned her bounty and declared her innocent," she said softly. "The Crimson Dragon... she's a soldier at heart, and a damn good general. If things take a turn, she's definitely an ally that we need."

"Something tells me we should be prepared for the worst with regards to this king of yours," he noted vacantly. He was ruthlessly worried. Ella slowed her pace a bit, but then she took his hand and twirled him around so that they could talk some more. He had no idea what she thought he'd want to talk to her about, but she seemed pretty adamant on doing it.

"Xaphile, I'm so sorry."

"You're sorry," he repeated in a monotone. He could feel himself already shutting down for whatever conversation she was about to have with him. He didn't want to hear it. He didn't want to hear her talk about the only thing she had to be sorry for.

He didn't want to hear about them.

But Ella seemed to want none of it and nodded, her eyes showing the pain that his dead voice had done to her.