Kingdom Fall (Ethereal #1)

- Chapter 34 -

 Feelings Unresolved

Earic

Earic looked down at the box in his lands as Tashara peeked out from the veils that covered the inside of the carriage from peering eyes outside. The girl was nonchalant as always. Seeing her calm and collected eased some worry in Earic's heart, but he could not help but feel that he was walking into a trap as he dragged Gen and Tashara into it. For some reason, he didn't feel that it was safe to leave both of them back at Aryan, no matter how safe it seemed. Even if he did decide to leave alone, Gen would never stay behind and Earic was not going to leave Tashara behind either. The feeling of dread gnawed inside his mind like a thorn. He knew it was futile to live in the feeling, but his feelings proved true otherwise.

The problem was, Earic was a very logical person and intuition did not fall under the category. He also could not help but think back at the latest massage delivered by Sapphire. He had suspicions of what might lie below the desert earth, but they were only suspicions. Even though he had mentioned that they should not try to find out more on the matter, he wished they did. But considering Tyler's stubbornness, maybe they were on their way to find out the queen's plan.

The thought of meeting the queen again brought more dread to the boy's heart. Even thinking of the pressure the queen exerted made him feel sick. Out of all the descendants of the ancient beings that hailed their land centuries ago, he felt the most useless. He knew he was of no use if they encounter a fight.

'Attend the Shokrean Queen's coronation in my place,' Earic remembered the king say as he sat on his office chair, still ashen in face and sickly thin. The king seemed to be fighting a mental battle, a battle that exhausted him most. Earic never argued with the king before, and he did not do so even when he knew the dangers he would face. He simply smuggled Tashara into the carriage. The soldiers who were his escorts turned a blind eye to whatever he did. Even if he didn't have much of a connection with the soldiers of the palace, they respected him well enough to let him be and not question what he did.

'You worry too much,' said Tashara.

Earic jumped. He always felt as if he were caught off guard whenever the girl spoke. Yet, the said didn't even look straight at him in the face as she spoke.

'Your anxiousness is suffocating.'

'Sorry,' Earic replied. The two didn't say a word for a while. But Earic couldn't swallow his worry. A bit of conversation might help.

'You speak Althean well for a Tolleron.'

The girl hummed, 'I grew up listening to Althean.'

'So, you were a noble's daughter? Maybe a king's?'

Tashara shook her head, 'I was... a trophy to one; something to muse upon until he sold me.'

'Oh. Why?'

'He realized my powers had more dangers than amusement.'

Earic didn't want to dig deeper into the girl's past. If there is one thing he was bad at, he was talking about things that were sensitive, because he had no idea how to reply.

'You do not need to say anything.'

'You can hear my thoughts?'

'I can feel what you feel,' replied the girl.

'I see. How do you differentiate your emotions from someone else's?'

'I keep one state of emotion and remind myself that it is mine,' the girl said, finally turning to the boy with a blank face.